This could have been a fight and if so, the party would have had to deal with a medusa. However, it worked out that there was some conversation and then some good rolls and questions and back and forth so it was here that I gave the exposition as to what the background of the Ispan's castle was and how Corfad figured into it all. Overall, it was a long post but I think it went very well towards explaining the adventure and some of what's waiting for them upstairs.
Follows:
TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN
(I/C)
As they walked down the long hall towards the Jail, they could hear a rattling sound ahead and the sound of a heavy door opening. A female voice called out in a strange language and Arik the gargoyle responded in kind. Letting the group know that earlier when they had listened up here, it was these two talking and their voice and language they were speaking.
After a moment the female responded again in Common, “So sorry. Arik and I just often talk in my own language as it is easier. Please, come in. Dingar, go place them near number 6, would you be a dear?” The Ape grunted once and trudged in, Brendon and Lyra in his grasp. The rest of the party followed or was carried and we had a chance to see the last person in question.
And it was a medusa.
She had a grey gauze bandage wrapped around her head covering her eyes, giving Lannis and Wyn the vague impression of her eyeballs beneath it , but saving them from her debilitating gaze. She was just under 6’ in height and had a head of weaving snakes for hair, coiling and hissing, tongues flashing as they tasted the air of the group’s passing. She was wearing a purple and ivory dress and shift that was both billowy and showed her ample charms beneath. Her skin had a greenish cast to it and she appeared to be muscular and fit. She had a set of legs and not a snake’s tail, but her legs were scaled in a diamond emerald green and red pattern. Her lips were red and her teeth white and she genuinely seemed very pleased to see the group. And sure enough, she had a Stylized “L” just over her left breast with the number 10 beneath it. “Lolth’s Blinded Ninth Eye,” she swore. “As I live and breathe. An elf!”
“The Goddesses have certainly made us wait long enough, Moira.”
“Indeed.” She looked at the two of them and said, “Please. Come. You are safe here for a short while and we can wait for your friends to recover.”
Lannis stammered and swallowed, nodding rapidly. “Ah, yea, thank you for the invite. Nice jail you have here...are you going to kill us? If I get a vote I'd rather you didn't.”
She laughed and it sounded like tinkling glass, her deep voice was filled with mirth. “I’ll take your vote under advisement, Magister.” She waved for him to relax. “But we are not looking to kill you.”
"Merci beaucoup for yer help, Arik en Dingar, and Mademoiselle Moira. En tank ye all yer hospitality. After our negotiations broke down wit Monsieur Jailer, tings got a bit.... complicated.”
The medusa smiled, “Negotiations with Seth are typically fairly easy once you learn that he says what he means and expects the same from those dealing with him.”
“Moira, he’s dead.” Arik dropped the Troglodyte to the floor with a wet thud.
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Well, then I assume the complication has been solved then.”
The gargoyle shrugged. “He had become more inflexible as of late, Moira.”
“Something we had warned him was going to come and bite him on the ass at some point.” She took a deep breath, making her dress rise and fall enticingly, and then smiled again. “Seth had certainly supported the Goddess Lolth and defended her charges, So I am sure he is whisking on his way to his reward.”
Wyn nodded. “Speakin’ of the Monster Goddess, iffin doze orcses had shown up we'd not be in any shape ta deal wit dem. Lolth has dealt us quite de interesting hand today..."
“Very true, Sun Child. But the strong survive and the weak get devoured. Since Arik found you and the dragon’s hunters did not means that you might still have a part to play.”
"I cen't speak on behalf of all of mes amis, er um, my friends... but iffin dee be someting I cen do for you please let me know. I cen't promise I'd be able to do it, as I just be a single elf, but I'd be will in' to listen en see iffin my help cen be given where applicable."
“Amicable and appreciated,” she replied.
"I tink my friends be like dis fer anodder 25 minutes..." he looked over, catching Kovid's eye roll in his peripheral vision, "Hm... maybe 30 minutes or so. Maybe we talk more den, oui?"
“As it stands, Sun Child, that is fine,” Arik replied, the Gargoyle entering one of the many cells in the area and coming out a moment later with a fat black spider. “We have time.” He bent low and forced the Troglodyte’s mouth open, then he placed the spider within and closed the jaw carefully trapping it inside.
Wyn swallowed and stepped closer. "Would you mind if I look over de Jailer, er um, Seth? He might have sometin’ useful my friends en I cen use."
The Gargoyle shrugged and stepped back, wings unfurling and furling again. “You are welcome to, but I can tell you that he carried very little as it was often fouled by with body’s secretions. Most items of value we stored here for him. Safely out of the way and no one would dare to enter.”
“I kin unnerstand dat.” Wyn looked over the Jailer anyway hoping to find anything of interest but had to concede that Arik seemed to be right and was trying to figure out how to ask to see the Jailer’s items here without looking like a terrible guest to these three stronger and deadlier figures. “I’ll shelve dat for now,” he muttered.
As for the area, there were 10 cells in the jail area, each one about 10x10’ and each with a door that was numbered 1 through 10. However the cells were not locked and the contents were clean, bedding was padded and sheets, and there was little sign of decay, rot, or misery. Small pots of fungus were laid out decoratively and in the far cell at the end was a half dozen statues of hobgoblins and goblins frozen in terror. Lannis gave it a brief glance and stepped away. On the far west wall though was a hole in the wall where a stout rope snaked out and was connected to a bell mounted in place. “Where is that bearded drunk’s map,” he muttered, looking through Kovid’s belongings until he could see the map and guessed that the alarm rope at the entrance room most likely lined up here. “Hey, Medu…Moira?” he asked. “What’s this rope and bell for?”
The medusa stepped closer and Lannis stepped back until his back hit the wall and he had to stop, glancing at her toes, her chest, her feet, the wall, and finally a place about two feet to the right of her right shoulder. “That is an alarm bell. Typically Mirabellis, the dragon’s sorceress, will summon me to meet her there to help prevent any problems that are looking to enter the Ispan’s Castle.”
“Ah…I assumed so.”
As time passed and there was some general chit chatting back and forth (Cha Check: <Wyn Orange 6 (beat by 5 – perceived friendly), <Moira Green 2 (beat by 7 – perceived as very nice and super friendly), and <Arik White 7 (beat by 3 - good feeling) ) the group all got more comfortable with one another as there was a surface level sharing of thoughts and stories, no side interested in telling too much but not willing to either be first to give up too much information or commit to taking the first step.
As the paralysis was starting to wear off and the rest of the group was making noises and easing themselves out of their awkward positions, there was fresh round of reintroductions (not entirely needed on the paralyzed four as they could hear all that had transpired but not communicate) until everyone had a chance to break for lunch and talk amongst one another, Wyn sort of driving the conversation.
The Gargoyle gravitated to the dwarf, settling near him with a bowl full of loose gravel and popping them in his mouth one at a time to crunch down hard and chew on them. “Want one?” he asked in passing.
“Ha. Too tough for my tastes,” he took out a strip of rations and proceeded to chew it. “You have my thanks Arik Lolthschild, I was as stiff as Thor’s man hammer.”
“You did seem a bit sedentary,” the gargoyle replied with a smile.
“It was a tense situation we had been in.”
“But you stayed solid when it counted.”
“Don’t want to be accused of being inflexible.”
“I won’t think of you as being pliant, Master Dwarf.” The two of them chuckled as they talked.
“A Rik,” Brendon said with a grin, “I appreciate your help in moving us to safety. I hope I can return the favor.”
“You never know, Master Human,” the Gargoyle replied. “I hope so. For a little while.”
“Why is dat?” Wyn asked.
Arik flexed his wings. “Well, with Seth killed and the ward coming down, I have no reason to stay here anymore. As Lolthschild, my first duty is to the Ispan Halgafar and since he is gone, I will have to look for the next possible in succession.”
“I wanted to ask dat,” the elf went on. “’Ow long ‘ave you been ‘ere? Were you frozen in place when the barrier went up?”
“Well,” Arik tilted his head back. “Me? I’ve been here for just over 3 centuries as ward of the Ispan, Sun Child. Typically Lolth would gift the people of Acreage with another blessed guardian in times of strife and trouble.” He pointed to Dingar. “My friend over there was the second, has to be close to a century and a half.”
“I didn’t know apes live that long,” Lannis asked.
“Not typically, no. But Dingar had been touched by Theystra after his birthing and his aging has been slowed accordingly.”
“I myself didn’t come along until right after my sister and maybe 2 years before the forces from Jector attacked.” Moira had her legs folded under her butt and her dress smoothed out in front of her, casually splitting a large rat down its back and delicately stripping off pieces of its flesh and eating them raw one at a time.
“You sister, she was a medusa like you or a sister in the sense there was another female who was the daughter of Lolth?”
“No, she was a medusa, like me.” She smiled at Wyn. “Hot headed and opposite of me in temperament as all good sisters are prone to being.”
The elf sighed, “We…er…we found de remains of your sister, marked with de “L10” and a priestess of Theystra.”
Moira stopped and Arik did as well, staring. “You did? Here, in the castle?” she frowned deeply, digging her nails into the palms of her hands.
“Oui. Did someting happen to cause a falling out between some of Lolth's children and the elves that used to live here?”
The Medusa’s snakes were writhing about, testament to her state of mind and anguish she was feeling. “He just lies, you know that Arik?”
“I know he does, my friend. I told you not to get your hopes up.”
“That…that…that WORM.” Her hand clenched and she burst the giant rat with a wet pop, spraying gore about her. Absently she licked her hand clean and sighed. “I am..I am sorry for my outburst. But it seems the dragon has lied to us again.”
“So I take it you didn’t know your sister was dead?”
“Nope, neither did I know that she was still here in the castle.”
It was quiet, broken only by the sound of Lannis giving a brief cough, and Dingar the Albino Ape eating a large tomato happily, chewing it and letting the juices run down his chin.
“Moira?” Arik asked.
“Yes, my friend. I’ll go with you.”
The gargoyle smiled. “Fantastic. It is for the best. We have a sacred duty to defend the Ispan and his castle, charged by the Goddess herself…”
She laughed again, “I know, I know. You don’t have to preach to me. I know what drives me.” She looked over the party. “To answer your question, Sun Child, yes, there was a perceived falling out which also ties into the situation now.”
“How would that be?”
The Medusa stood up and paced slowly, hands folded behind her back as she walked, getting into her tale. “Before I was birthed and before my sister was as well, the Ispan’s forces had entered into a mutual trade and protection treaty with a Dragon, Myrian, from the Southern Reaches. She was an older and wily dragon with a younger dragon child she was rearing.”
She turned and strode back down the hall the other way, he group watching her and listening. “She had some tomes in her hoard that she had brought to the Halgafar’s sages, tomes that she had gathered from some raiders earlier on. The pages were humanoid flesh and they were penned in elvish. The sages read them and informed the Ispan that they were tomes from a deviant offshoot of the elven people that had turned their gaze from the Sun and dwelt in darkness below.”
“Through it all, Myrian was watching and listening, adding in small bits of details about the raiders, doling them out like bread to a starving man.” Moira frowned. “She wove a fanciful tale about deceit and lies, fell magics and elves with skin blasted black, and on top of it all, the twisted society embraced evil and decay. And Lloth was their principle Goddess.”
“Lolth?” Wyn asked with a frown.
“Lloth.” She replied, emphasizing the slightly different pronunciation. “The Dawnlands was established centuries earlier by the Ispan and his people on the balance of the four primary Elven Goddesses and their aspects: The Princess Morrigaan and her bountiful harvests, The Goddess Theystra and her sway over all lights, The Queen Lolth and her defending children, and the Mother Ishtari and her all encompassing magics. Each one is a pillar to support and strengthen all elves that live here.”
“What Myrian did though, was she did what dragons always do. She meddled. Meddling creatures, they are always looking to weaken and devour through guile and trickery at first, then fire and force later. Myrian did NOT want to be in an even pact with the Dawnlands and the Ispan. She wanted it be as she perceived it, with her the superior force and the elves the weaken supplicants.”
“So she did it by introducing enough doubt that the Ispan discussed with his people and council the fact that Lolth might not be the beneficial Queen that they had always thought. But instead a deceiver waiting to destroy them.”
“So they reduced her power and removed her presence from the Grotto and relegated her to stand alone until the matter could be resolved.”
The group was quiet, riveted as they listened. “What happened next?” Lannis asked.
Arik shrugged. “Elves don’t make snap decisions, so it was a decade of thought and discussion before they removed her from the Grotto. This…upset all of us. As Lolth’s Children, we have a love for the Ispan and his charges and we could not connect the duality of wanting to defend the elven lord and the people and the possibility that our Mother was false and untrue.”
“My sister took it poorly,” Moira continued. “She somehow over time turned her love of the Ispan to hatred for those who spoke out against Lolth. The high priestess of Theystra was the most outspoken as with Lolth’s diminishing, the Theystran contingent saw an uprise in power and prestige. Very often, the words were heated and tempers were…raw.”
“Then what?” Lyra prompted.
“Then? About 2 weeks before the forces of Jector dared to attack the Ispan had gotten word of their buildup of armies at the border of the Dawnlands. But they were coming up from the Southern Reaches, Myrian’s domain. It seemed the Dragon had made a deal with their leaders to provide a cover for them to attack through her realm and bypass the elven defenders and keeps on the eastern domain. In short? She betrayed the Ispan.”
“That bitch,” Lyra growled.
“Indeed.” Moira sighed. “The Ispan’s Archmage, Rowena, took a group of her most promising Adepts and teleported to Myrian’s cave where they did terrible battle with the Dragon and eventually smote her, killing her right in front of her child.”
“Corfard?” Wyn guessed.
“The same.” She frowned. “He had been rendered weakened during the battle and unable to help and was forced to watch as Rowena had his mother killed. They then took her heart from Myrian’s chest and the few wizards and magisters still standing teleported back to the Ispan’s Castle and presented it to him.”
“Then what?”
“Then? Then it was the slow grind as the goblinoid forces marched across the Dawnlands and ravaged the countryside, ending up right outside Acreage when the Ispan and what forces, priests, and mages he still had left tried to enact the Rainbow Ward. But without the support and full might of all the followers of the four Goddesses, the spell went awry and blighted the land as well as killed the goblins attacking.”
Arik took a deep breath. “It took a decade to decide that the Lolth was not to be fully trusted and her priests and priestesses had been left out and shunned. It was going to take another decade to reintroduce them and take care of whatever reparations they might have wanted or needed. A decade the Ispan did not have. Much to the countryside’s detriment.”
“Corfard has been biding his time. Waiting for Jector’s forces to grow once again. Waiting for those in power to fade out and other goblinoids to take over. Those who don’t remember the brief treaty they had with his mother Myrian and how it ended up being to their doom as well. And then using what hoard he had to spread the idea of an expedition back to here. To expand the borders of Jector. To maybe find some elven treasures and bring it home. And the leaders of Jector? It cost them nothing to find volunteers or those they don’t want and send them west to here to either help the dragon on his quest or fail. They get paid either way. He succeeds and they all get rich. He fails and it’s ok, they got paid anyway.”
“And his lie to you?”
“He had indicated that his auguries indicated that my sister had escaped the Rainbow Ward and was out there somewhere. And if I just stayed on for another few months he would make sure I was outfitted and paid well and could go and find her.”
“But?”
“But, she is dead,” Moira sighed deeply, wiping the bottom of her gauze covered eyes as they grew moist. “And he lied.”
Arik stood up. “I had been staying here to support Seth. He had an understanding of us and defied Corfard. Our presence gave him weight and control. With him gone, I will go out and find the next in line for the Ispan’s throne, guided by Lolth’s will. It may take months or years, but Lolth will find a way.”
The Ape, Dingar stood up and grunted. “I won’t go without you, my old friend,” the gargoyle smiled.
“And I too shall go. Corfard lied, and Mirabellis can deter possible intruders on her own.”
“So…”
Moira smiled. “The dragon and his minions will learn in due time what has happened to Seth. They will come here in time and then learn that we have gone. This will happen. But not for some hours, so you have some time on your side.”
“Use it well,” Arik suggested. “It isn’t much, but here is a crude representation of the second floor.”
“I assume you are looking for the Vault and the Crown?” Moira asked.
“Our mission is only to retrieve someting from the castle and leave,” Wyn suggested.
The Medusa smiled. “So like a Sun Child, saying but not saying. I‘ve missed talking to you and your kind,” she caressed his cheek, her fingers rubbing just under his chin. “Whatever you look for, I would suggest you go to the Throne Room. The lock is stout and the doors are thick. But the Eye of Ishtari is there. And that is what is powering the Rainbow Ward.”
“Why hasn’t Corflarg removed it himself?” Abraxas asked.
“You need either the Ispan to remove it, or a representative from the four Goddesses to do so.” She looked over the party, “To remove it from the throne without blowing yourselves up, I see the Rod of Ishtari, the Scythe of Morrigaan, the Flail of Lolth, and the Hammer of Theystra. Can’t find a better representation of the four Goddesses than those who wield their weapons.”
She smiled broadly. “Anything else we might answer for you? Now that I am no longer bound here, I have little desire to stay. I too can feel a calling. A call as if Lolth is guiding my steps.”
Time now is Day 6, 12:56 PM
(OOC)
And there you have it. How this adventure all came together!
I owe you xp:
Explore XP: Jail 30 xp each
Monster xp: Jailer/Seth – 350 xp divided
Colossal Centipede – 250 xp divided
Goo/Carrion Crawler – 375 xp divided
Hoots/Owlbear – 210 xp (half normal – Goo did the work) divided
Arik/Gargoyle – 420 xp divided
Moira/Medusa – 1,000 xp divided
Lannis, Lyra, Abraxas, and Kovid – add 474
Brendon add 484
Wyn add 495
Questions – you will not get more than 3 more questions answered – if you need them. So make them count. After getting answers, what is the plan on where to go next?
