Extraction from Wolf Quarter
Operation Parameters
| Date | 1493 DR, 9 Hammer (01/03/2023) |
| Soldiers | Xion, his lute, at least half his wits |
| Status | |
| Casualties | None! |
Objective
Return stablemaster Byron's daughter to the FortObservations
* City conditions continue to improve* Wolf Quarter rebuilding underway, but still seedy, disreputable, and generally unsafe
Follow up
Settling Coraline into camp and perhaps introducing her to Druella?Preparation Details
Morning vocal exercisesOperation Details
After waking and running through a few scales, I headed out to the fire to work on the bridge portion of the rollicking ballad *Your Spider has a Hickey* (quite popular in Drow & Svirfneblin circles). Before I could get to work, I found Zorky staring at a hole in the ground which apparently had appeared overnight. It was wholly unexpected. He informed me that there was a mission requiring something less than a full war party, and that I might be able to assist a camp member with a difficult situation.Leading me to the stable, Zorky formally introduced me to Stablemaster Byron, then returned to pondering the hole. Stablemaster Byron indicated that due to the complications of the war, his younger daughter Coraline had wound up in Wolf Quarter, and may be engaged in some kind of unsavory business. He beseeched my aid in recovering her, requested that anyone responsible should be taught a suitable lesson, and he lent me his magically-enhanced club Jezebel with which to deliver said message. I immediately agreed, and set forth post-haste to reunite the daughter with her father.
On my way to the teleport, I noticed that Zorky had managed to fall into the hole. Which might be expanding… I attempted to assist him, but feats are strength are, frankly, not my strong suite. I ended up in the hole with him. With his assistance, I was able to acrobat my way out but a wayward foot may have left Zorky gently snoozing at the bottom of the hole. As he looked like he needed the rest, I left the whole ignominious display behind me and hot-footed it to the teleport circle.
My arrival to Taylor’s house and my trip to the Capitol was uneventful. I entered the gates without much trouble, saw some folks arriving on a stagecoach, mingled with them a bit and tried to make my way towards Wolf Quarter, getting a bit turned around in the process. Luckily I was being tailed by a couple of guards, whom I accosted and asked directions. They put me on the right path, and for the sum of a few gold pieces, I arranged for them to escort me from behind, thinking it might add to my own credibility as a ne’er-do-well looking for a place to lie low. (They did warn me against Wolf Quarter, so it’s regarded as dangerous even by the city guards…)
Before too long, we reached my target, the Crook & The Crone (“to each his own” I telepathically dismissed my escort and in the tumult slipped into the tavern. I ran into the builder dwarf who had caused a riot I had to quell, Bob Tibbins, who was too inebriated to recognize me. I ordered an ale and meal, and--half-expecting a house of ill-repute—was pleasantly surprised by the sounds of an illicit fighting ring from the next room. I paid the 20 gp entry fee, passed the Goliath guard Grimshear, and prepared to place a bet with the Salt-and-pepper-haired Leader, but learned the initial stake was 100 gp, a bit more than I had. While I thought about giving a song or a favor in place of the stake, I opted to fight instead. I did carefully inquire as to the rules of the game: No killing, no edged weapons. Fighters must remain inside the bounds or forfeit. (I carefully noted no constraints on the arcane arts…) I sought a place to eat the remainder of my stew, and approached a young woman sitting by herself at a table whom suspected might be the young lady I hoped to find. She rebuffed me, and—not on to force myself on an unwilling companion—I sat nearby with some jovial fellows. One thought drow could melt people with their eyes; I quickly disabused him of that notion, averring that we prefer to eat brains instead.
After a couple of fights, I was called into the fighting pit and labeled with the sobriquet “Reaper of the Underworld” which I found ironically apropos given my task. My opponent was announced as the current reigning champion, a savage beast of a fighter, and something in there gave me the sense that they would literally transform into a bear to mess me up. And it was no surprise to me at all, when this fearsome opponent was revealed to be—none other than the young lady who had refused me a seat.
Needless to say, this put me in a bit of a quandary. How to defeat the young lady, persuade her to accompany me, extract her from this situation with a maximum of humiliation to the establishment, and stay on the good side of her father? As the man loudly called for bets above (giving 15 to 1 odds on me), I engaged my opponent and offered her a bet: If I won, I would take her on an appropriate outing with me—no funny business; if she won, I would give her some gems that I had. I knew right off that my best chance was to strike immediately, preferably before the young lady had a chance to act at all!
As the bell rang to start the fight, I drew upon my eldritch gifts to hurl two spells almost simultaneously, a Mind Sliver to jolt her senses and a Dissonant Whispers which would cause some modicum of pain, yes, but—more importantly—would compel her to flee… Both spells landed and the girl fled away from me, up the ladder, and out of the pit. According to the rules, I had just won.
Predictably, though, the crowd was unhappy with the unbloody display. As I left the pit several displeased patrons rose to accost me. I chided their inability to follow their own rules, and magically painted a large warning on the wall to any other strangers that they did not honor their word. Coraline in tow, because my former opponent was indeed the lady I sought, we departed. Several patrons made no moves against me, and I suspect some of them had just won quite a lot of money off those 15:1 odds! A liberal amount of Mind Whipping (and a psychic comment to my former table-mate that now was the time I would consume his brains) enabled us to leave mostly unscathed. I did render one patron, Clint, unconscious as we sauntered from the tavern, flipping a gold to the cowering bartender as we went.
I confessed to Coraline my true motives as we headed out of Wolf Quarter; she was predictable unthrilled about returning to the Fort and her father, offering me 35 gold to return without her. I told her that if she came to the fort and still wanted to leave after a week, I’d give her 35 gold to go! We had a heart-to-heart about parents and children, including my own story of running away with a travelling troupe and now not knowing if my parents were alive or dead in the ruins of Undermountain. She did agree to accompany me, but said she absolutely refused to work in the stables. I suggested that with her presumed druidic gifts she might make a fine helper to the camp druid, and promised to arrange an introduction.
We stopped by Aceso’s temple on the way out of town; I encountered a rabbit who seemed to signal that Aceso was out at the moment, so I conjured a cloudy sigil of the three deities in the sky to mark our visit and headed back to the fort. The rest of the journey passed uneventfully.
Upon returning to the fort, I reunited Byron and his daughter. I refused the money he tried to give me, reminding him that this is the kind of service comrades provide for one another, and informed him of his daughter’s successes in the capitol, suggesting that he might need to appreciate her growing gifts and enable her to choose her own path in life.
My final hope was to find Coraline some companions in camp more suitable than me, and to introduce her to the druid…