The final confrontation – council of spiders, session eight
As the battle with the traitorous drow priestesses and the assassins came to an end, a party of new drow descend from street level into the cavern.
“Return to your pens, slaves! The glory of this victory is worthy only of drow!”, shouts the lead priestess, pointing to the goblins and dwarf, who are binding each other’s wounds. They rise to leave, and Imogen follows, resigned to bide her time until a better oppportunity presents itself.
She feels a hand grip her upper arm. “Not you, human. We may have need of your skills. You’ve proven useful beyond your unfortunate station.” She turns toward the voice, to see Illarien, a Bregan D’aerthe mercenary archer with whom she’s travelled before. He looks to the priestess. “This one stays.”
The priestess of Melarn nods, indifferent, and proceeds deeper into the cavern. The party, also including Illarien, Cholo, a warrior, also of Bregan D’aerthe; Hireaux, a warlock, and Aureilio, a war wizard both of Xorlariin, follows.
The group descends, finding themselves in a chamber of much older construction than the levels above. The walls are rough-hewn stone, pocked irregularly with alcoves filled with moldering drow bones, and columns of web, crawling with tiny spiders. At the bottom of the narrow staircase is an altar, topped with a monstrous stone gargoyle, and swirling with otherworldly smoke.
The smoke speaks.
“How Do You Serve Lolth?”, it asks.
The priestess answers “By seeking to create the demon weave in her honor.” The smoke utters a satisfied sigh, and disappates. The party is overcome with a feeling of health and well-being. The priestess orders Chollow to proceed further down the narrow corridor. He sees a fleeting movement in the shadows ahead, and quickly ducks, avoiding a blast of dark energy coming toward him. The group is set upon by several armed drow, led by a drow wizard who cast the bolt.
Combat proceeds quickly – Illarien quickly fires arrows into the lead line of armed drow adversaries, while Imogen and Aureilio cast bursts of arcane force and fire, damaging the enemies and creating a zone of magickal energy on the stairs ahead, creating a barrier of flame and false footing that enemies cannot pass without further injury.
The wizard levitates, casting further bolts of poison at the warlock and priestess, while a second wizard joins him at the bottom of the stairs ahead. The second wizard strikes down the priestess with a gout of fire. While Cholo and Hireaux engage the locked down enemy warriors, Areilio casts a spell of lightning that arcs from foe to foe, weakening several.
Imogen remains in the rear, and with ranged support from Illarien, uses her mage hand to administer a healing draught to the fallen priestess, who rises, and heals herself and the seriously wounded Cholo, who has by now dispatched enemy warriors. They still remain a threat, however, as giant spiders emerge from their fallen bodies to press the attack.
The spiders are quickly felled by a burst of fire from the war wizard, and Imogen’s armed allies surge forward to strike at the wizards, the leader still hovering twenty feet above the floor.
After Cholo strikes down the grounded wizard, and Aurelio’s magick missle knocks the leader to the ground, the leader raises his hands as if to seek a truce. He begs for his life, offering to cease all of his hostile activities and renounce his allegiance to the assassins if the party will only let him live. Imogen’s keen insight reveals that the wizard, who she now recognizes as Valen, a renegade wizard allied against Lolth’s forces, is genuine in his offer.
However, being drow and largely without mercy, the rest of the party quickly kills him and strips his body. Amongst his possessions is an ornate bracelet, which Imogen identifies as a Spellfire Manacle, an artefact that will allow the wearer to control and stabilize the Demon Weave.
She tells the party of the item’s nature; it is exactly the sort of artefact that will allow the allied houses to consolidate Lolth’s power. Of course, each of the party members wishes to consolidate that power for his or her individual house. As the priestess of Melarn siezes the bracelet for herself, the alliance between the mercenaries, Melarn, and Xorlariin, at least amongst the party, quickly dissolves. Threats and challenges are made, weapons are drawn, and spells are readied.
As the drow begin to fight amongst themselves, Imogen begins backing away slowly, mentally encouraging the rest of the party to concentrate on each other, not noticing the human wizard slink off into the shadows. The civil war between the great houses may yet be averted, but another fight within the groups allied with Lolth is just beginning.
With luck, the priestesses of Melarn, the Warriors of Bregan D’aerthe, and the Mages of Xorlariin will be too busy fighting amongst themselves over the power of the Demon Weave and the fate of Menzoberranzan to notice a single human slave fading away in search of a path to the surface.
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January 1st, 2013 at 5:14 PM