Session 06

General Summary

Dash and Shinobi lurked in the shadow of the crates and signalled their colleagues to join them from upstairs. Mika led the way though unfortunately made a lot of noise in the process, alerting the inhabitants of the basement that someone was interrupting their clandestine meeting. Dash and Shinobi instantly directed missile fire at the Scorpion leader before ducking back into cover. Argus led the charge from upstairs, followed by Valun and Riya, forming a bulkhead just beyond the crates.   It could now be seen that the Scorpions were meeting with drow of House Xaniqos, as various sinister-looking dark elves emerged from shadows and moved to engage the intruders. Scorpions also entered the fray, except one assigned to guard the glass prison in the far corner. A sprawling melee formed, centred on Argus. One Xaniqos hurled blasts of fiery acid into the tightly-filled space, seemingly uncaring of hurting his Scorpion allies. Another Xaniqos carved Mika in twain with a wicked assassin knife.   As the battle continued to rage, there was a sudden noise from the glass prison. Shinobi was shocked to see Tara drop to the floor, seemingly having succumbed to the poison gas. This gave a sudden urgency to proceedings. With startling athleticism, Shinobi shot across the room, nimbly dodging foes as he went. As he began fumbling with the mechanism to undo the prison, a Scorpion charged in. But nothing could distract the monk and with a practised flick he disabled the lock device. There was a hiss as pressure released and the poison gas dissipated harmlessly. The Scorpion gladiators were safe for the time being, though so weakened by their ordeal that they could offer no assistance in the fight.   The focus switched back to Argus. The Scorpions and Xaniqos were inflicting terrible wounds on the gladiators, with one drow assassin proving particularly deadly. Time and again Valun and Riya�s restorative magic pulled colleagues back from the brink of death. Suddenly everything clicked as Nex Pervenio began to focus fire on a single foe at a time. One by one they dropped, unable to withstand the concentrated firepower. The Scorpion leader and the Xaniqos leader were merely subdued not killed.   Before long only one Xaniqos remained. He used dark magic to become ghost-like and vanished into the wall. He didn�t emerge to launch a fresh attack but will no doubt bear a grudge when he next meets the gladiators.   With the battle won, Shinobi dashed to fully release the Scorpion gladiators from the prison. He was relived to see Tara still breathing, it seemed he had saved her in the nick of time. There followed a discussion on what to do with the prisoners. It was agreed that the Scorpion gladiators would take charge of them and deliver them back to their Shogun for interrogation. They wouldn�t depart immediately, needing a few days to convalesce. This would hopefully mean they could travel to the surface together with Nex Pervenio, and possibly some dwarfs, for a safer journey through the Underdark.   After that, everyone quietly left the warehouse and headed back to the inn. The ogres were left unconscious on the floor, though Valun insisted on sacrificing one to Asmodeus (he had wanted to sacrifice the Scorpion and Xaniqos leaders but was over-ruled).   The next day, Nex Pervenio descended to the lowest tier of Maelbrathyr. Everywhere was even more derelict and ruined than the rest of the city and the ground shook periodically with tremors. There was an air of foreboding about the place. Soon enough they found what they sought, a tomb dedicated to a dwarven paladin of Asmodeus. The entranceway was clogged with debris and the corridor ahead covered in rubble. Fresh footprints suggested humanoids had been entering and leaving recently.   As usual, Dash and Shinobi sneaked ahead. They peered round a corner into what had once been a richly-decorated tomb, but the finely-carved marble was all cracked and mounds of rubble covered the floor. There were also some piles of crates and barrels, behind which a duergar could be seen sorting out his supplies. Poking out from beneath the rubble were the corpses of several other duergar, victims of a cave-in after a particularly violent tremor. Shinobi crept much closer and spotted a couple more duergar in a doorway, fiddling with a lock. The doorway looked like it had recently been dugout from under loads of debris. A couple more duergar lurked nearby, all wearing symbols of Asmodeus.   With Shinobi and Dash in position, the others slowly moved up. Once again the stealthy approach was ruined, this time by Valun. As the duergar jumped with surprise at the sound of approach, Dash unleashed a volley of arrows, almost killing one of the duergar before he�d even moved. His comrades flooded forward, meeting the duergar in the centre of the room and a fierce fight began. However, the duergar were tired and injured after dealing with the recent cave-in and provided little resistance to Nex Pervenio who swiftly eliminated their opposition. The leader was subdued rather than killed, so he could be questioned before Valun hoped to offer a particularly significant sacrifice to Asmodeus�   Shinobi took the leader of the drow assassins aside and questioned him. The drow told Shinobi that his house had been contacted by someone on the surface to make a hit. The contact was from the lands of Honshu but his clan affiliation, if any, wasn�t obvious. The target for the hit was the daimyo of the Scorpion clan. A hefty fee was paid and a date for the hit was agreed.   On the night of the hit the drow assassin lead a strike team up to the surface and into a castle. As promised the guards of the castle were either missing or looked the other way. The drow assumed they were either bribed or not true guards of the target. A few guards got in the way, whether because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or because they were true guards. These were quickly dealt with.   The drow strike team entered the sleeping chambers of the target but it went wrong. The target, the daimyo was not in his chambers as he should have been. Instead his wife was present, and awake. She tried to raise the alarm and was cut down to stop her doing so, but she made enough noise to wake the daimyo who was next door. He entered the room, with a full detachment of guards at the ready. The drow strike leader called the abort and the drow used their magic to escape. None of them were killed or captured so as far as he knew their attack could not be traced to the drow and their house. They returned to the Underdark to plan another attempt.   The Honshu contact returned yesterday, demanding they finish what they had been paid for. They were in discussion as to how they could complete their mission when Nex Pervenio barged in and broke up the party.   Now, Shinobi knew that the daimyo had his best healers try to save his wife. They were unable to do so but could tell him that there was poison in the wound which killed her. This poison was rare but it was said to be favoured by some drow assassins. With that as the only lead he had the daimyo sent his samurai and ninja off to every place his informers knew that had any connection to the drow. Tara and her team were sent to the Temple of Erathis to investigate rumours they were tied to the drow, and Shinobi was sent to find out what had happened to them when they hadn�t reported back.   The Scorpion traitor they had captured was the patron of the drow assassins and Shinobi recognised him as a moderately high ranking samurai in the Scorpion clan, based in the same castle as the daimyo himself. When he was questioned, Shinobi tried to find out why he had wanted the daimyo killed and who, if anyone, he was working for. But this samurai would not break. So it was decided that Tara and her team would escort him back to the Scorpion lands where their experts would break him. Then they might find out who wanted the Scorpion daimyo dead, if not why.   They were at least one step closer to unravelling the mystery and one step closer to justice. Nex Pervenio brought the duergar round for questioning. He (and his companions) are from the city of Gar Morra in the deep Underdark, a name heard recently in Forgehome. The city is home to both dwarfs and duergar along with various devils, Asmodeus is the primary religion. The dwarf paladin interred in this tomb supposedly had prophetic visions from Asmodeus, so they hoped to learn about these and recover any other historical knowledge. They had no evil plans, their boss sent them here for some religious/historical research. Mounds of rubble had stopped them getting further into the tomb, from a recent collapse caused by the tremors and instability (that crushed a few of their party). They were then struggling to pick the lock.
Report Date
11 Apr 2024
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