Session 12
General Summary
Having pumped their captives for information, they were ruthlessly disposed of. Feeling pretty
beaten up but intrigued by mention of a scorpion herder, Shinobi and Dash crept off through the
dark tunnels to see if they could find him. They found a cave, lit by firelight, bisected by an
underground stream. A gnoll shaman sat cross legged on a bridge over the stream, surrounded by
scorpions. It didn�t look like a hard fight and the scorpions would look good in the arena� The
rest of the group, bolstered by Rutu, were summoned and everyone charged in, jolting the shaman
from his reverie. He called on the spirits to assist him and suddenly there were ghostly scorpions
swarming over the gladiators. Apart from sheer numbers the spirits were not much of a danger and
easily killed. It was noticed that destroying a spirit weakened the shaman. Soon all the spirits were
gone, the scorpions were subdued and the shaman was surrounded and overwhelmed.
The gnoll cave seemed a safe and cosy place to spend the night. Valun used a magical ritual to
make the place more homely. Dawn on 13th January saw a strange sight on the road from the
Badlands to Londinium. Four inert scorpions, one of them especially huge, carried like sacks of
wheat. Late on January 16th, slowed by their arachnid burden, Nex Pervenio finally returned to
the city. The scorpions were taken immediately to the arena beastmasters, to be prepared for the
forthcoming tournament. Rutu told all and sundry how his life had been saved, otherwise he�d
have been scorpion fodder. Then it was time to report to Sister Valerius. Rutu did most of the
talking, explaining what had befallen his comrades and of the drow ambush. Sister Valerius
mentioned how rare drow were in Rodinia though she didn�t seem too startled by their mention.
It seemed insignificant at the time but she wasn�t wearing a holy symbol.
Next was a quick visit to the library. The topic was drow. Turned out that drow were seemingly as
rare in the literature as in Rodinia. Very little information other than a few simple facts � drow
being dark elves who dwell deep underground and worship Lolth. But then a curious entry was
discovered, describing the last time drow had been observed in Rodinia in any numbers. It referred
to the time of Hadrian and the Elemental Evil cultists. Apparently a strong drow force interceded
in the fighting, killing many cultists and providing significant help in securing victory. There
would probably have been a large frieze in Hadrian�s tomb depicting this in some chamber left
unvisited. There was speculation of some political deal with the drow although it was mainly
supposed that the drow opposed the cult on religious grounds, connected to ongoing deific
struggles between Lolth and Tharizdun.
All this talk of drow triggered a memory in Shinobi. The wife of the Scorpion Daimyo in Honshu
was assassinated a couple of years ago. It remains an unsolved mystery to this day. There were
rumours at the time that the drow were somehow involved or implicated.
Shinobi went to speak to Oki and tell her all about the drow. She confided in him that her mission
to Rodinia was to investigate the existence of drow here, relating back to the Shogun�s
assassinated wife. In turn Shinobi admitted that his mission was to return Oki and her comrades
home to Honshu. Hence Shinobi investigating the drow would hopefully assist Oki�s mission
and hence advance Shinobi�s own goal too. Oki was honoured that Nex Pervenio had gone to
such lengths to procure several specimens of her clan symbol for her forthcoming exhibition
match.
January 17th and 18th were spent travelling north again. On the morning of the 19th the ambush
site was located, Rutu having provided precise directions. They were stood in the base of a narrow
steep-sided canyon. A few scraps of vegetation provided some cover and a couple of gulleys
provided ways up to higher ground. Ahead was the scene of a bloody battle. In the midst of it all
was a carrion crawler, attracted by the carnage and feeding noisily. The gladiators advanced,
Argus and Shinobi getting up close and personal while the others stayed at range. The crawler�s
tentacles had a horrible slimy poison on them but soon enough the beast was defeated. Yet again
the killing blow was averted and another monster was destined for the arena.
The area was thoroughly searched for clues. There was little left of the bandits, maybe looted by
the drow or other passersby and now chewed on by a carrion crawler. They climbed up to higher
ground to check out the area where the drow had lurked. Two objects were discovered, not in
plain sight but seemingly misplaced by their owners. The first was a slim black leather quiver.
Inside were five bolts. An astringent smell hit the nostrils and their tips glistened � poison? The
second item was more puzzling, a holy symbol of Erathis. It was untarnished so had not been here
long. A couple of small, light footprints were spotted but no actual trails.
With no other leads, Nex Pervenio returned once more to Londinium, arriving late on 20th
January. Again they headed immediately for the menagerie with a monstrous burden. They then
went in search of Rutu who was drowning his sorrows in the Moribundus Minotaur, bemoaning
the loss of his teammates. He described again the events of the ambush as best he could recall. He
examined the arrows and agreed they were most likely of drow origin. From what he saw in the
ambush, the drow had used debilitating poisons as part of their attacks. Dash took the arrows for
use in future battles. Rutu also confirmed that none of the Primitives had been followers of
Erathis. He was baffled by the finding of the holy symbol out in the badlands.
Maybe the best idea was to report everything to Sister Valerius. As they entered the room, eagleeyed Mika spotted something odd and he immediately took charge of the conversation, something
the reticent druid very rarely did which alerted his comrades that something was afoot. Mika
reported everything they had discovered with the sole exception of the holy symbol.
After they left, Mika explained that Sister Valerius wasn�t wearing her holy symbol, which was
of similar appearance and design to the one they�d found. What did this mean? There was much
speculation. Had the drow planted the holy symbol to hide their presence and blame the bandit
ambush on temple forces? Was Sister Valerius in league with the drow? Did the common foe of
Elemental Evil have anything to do with this? There were many unanswered questions but for now
Nex Pervenio decided to keep their theories and observations to themselves while they figured out
how best to turn things to their advantage and figure things out a bit more.
There was the small matter of preparing for a gladiator tournament the day after next for a start!
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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