Phaedra rounds up her siblings. “I just returned from the Matron Mother. She wants us to free our Captain of the Guard immediately.” Alvra hurriedly searches for Leargath and finds him in a downstairs room. The half-demon looks up. “I hear you can use my services? Call me intrigued.” He takes his scythe. “And this, this needs to taste blood. Just make sure you stay out of my way.”
The five Xaniqos warriors make their way towards the warehouse, which is situated up against the great wall of Erelhei-Cinlu. Everyone gives them a wide berth because of the draegloth. He is very intimidating. According to their plan, the half-demon, Lilith, and Alvra will enter the warehouse through the front door, while Phaedra and Jharrath sneak inside.
When they arrive at the end of the street, they see that the warehouse has two wooden doors that open to the outside, but no windows. The cleric calls upon her deity to give them divine protection, extra strength for the fighter and herself and fortifies Alvra’s weapon. “Try to keep it quiet for now, or at least until we are inside.” The draegloth bares his teeth in a ferocious smile.
Cleric and fighter examine the entrance together. There seem to be no traps, but there is a wooden beam on the inside, barring the door. First Leargath tries to lift the bar through the slot of the door, but when that doesn’t work, the males decide to kick in the door. Their cooperation isn’t that successful though, so the half-demon tries on his own. He takes a couple of steps back and charges. The doors rattle but won’t budge. A second try only hurts his shoulder, so drow and half-demon go for it together once more. What they don’t know is that Jharrath casts one of his spells on the lock at the exact time they make contact. The doors fly open and Alvra and Leargath tumble inside.
Two drow guards – clearly not expecting this sudden entrance – attack Leargath. Seems like the wish of his scythe will be fulfilled. One of the guards tries a fire spell on the draegloth, but to no avail. Leargath now is getting in the mood, blood spraying his white mane. The screams are getting worse, only to end abruptly when the draegloth beheads his victim. One more left to play with.
When Alvra checks out the warehouse, he sees a room in the corner, several crates, barrels, and a drow mage. He charges him and swings his sword. The weapon doesn’t meet with resistance though, and the image of the mage is gone. The fighter quickly looks around and sees the same man standing in the room, laughing, a multicolored aura around him. Suddenly an illithid materializes in front of the Xaniqos fighter! The creature walks towards Alvra, but the drow’s faith does not waver and he sees through the illusion. The illithid is gone, and so is the mage’s smirk.
Lilith calls down a flamestrike, engulfing the shield guardian construct in roaring fire, and prepares another spell. The golem is badly wounded but still tries to grapple Alvra. The fighter immediately counterattacks and manages to free himself. Waiting for the right moment, the Xaniqos cleric releases a darkbolt from her hand, and the jet-black flames bring the construct to the brink of destruction. Alvra’s sword finishes him off.
Phaedra, who has checked out the exterior of the warehouse, locates a hole in the wall and sees a stairway leading down. She reasons that that might be the place House Despana keeps their prisoners and calls out to Jharrath. No sense in keeping quiet with all the ruckus that is going on inside. The wizard casts a communication spell, including both his sisters. Getting her bearings, Phaedra walks back towards the entrance. She tumbles past the golem and ends at the top of the stairs.
The mage, heavily frustrated, casts protection on himself and, surrounded by a light blue globe, walks past Alvra and Phaedra unchallenged. His will is too strong for them to overcome and the Xaniqos cannot attack him directly. Seething with frustration, the siblings watch the Despana drow. The scout whispers ‘Going downstairs, can’t hit the mage,’ and both Jharrath and Lilith hear her words through the wizard’s spell.
The scout walks into the basement and passes a portcullis. Masses of pointed chains hang from the ceiling, blocking her view. She activates a special ability that, when triggered, will dazzle the mage, so she will no longer be visible to him. Phaedra walks to the end of the corridor and hears how the chains start to move. A humanoid appears, more chains wrapped around him. It seems like the chains respond to the creature, and suddenly four chains seem to grow longer and attack and hurt Phaedra.
Alvra glances into the mage’s room and sees a desk and a bookcase. If he can’t attack the mage directly, he will try to intimidate the Despana brigand. He jumps behind him and roars “I’ll feed your balls to the rats!” As a result of this unconventional approach, the mage staggers on the stairs. The cleric, in pursuit of her sister, walks towards him. She is not impressed by the mage’s sanctuary spell and attacks him with her flail. The mage hastily retreats into the basement. Alvra searches the mage’s room. Apart from a desk and a bookcase, he discovers a big chest.
Jharrath uses his wand of magic missiles and hits the remaining arcane guard in the back, but soon realizes that the guard is no match for the half-demon. It won’t take long now. The wizard decides to go after the Despana mage. Alvra checks outside, but all seems quiet for now. “I’m going downstairs too, Leargath!”. A death gurgle announces the end of the second arcane guard.
Meanwhile, Phaedra is in combat with the kyton chain devil. She hits the creature again and again with her spiked chain, but the damage is less than expected. Then her own chain turns against her, clearly being controlled by the strange power of the chain devil, and wraps itself around her. The hooks of the chain bite into her flesh. Trying to free herself, she looks around and sees a torture device in an alcove.
The Xaniqos wizard walks through the chained corridor, peeks around the corner and recognizes the chain devil. He knows these creatures regenerate and have a high resistance to spells, so he summons a large earth elemental to fight for him instead. The elemental immediately attacks and hits the chain devil. With renewed energy, Phaedra manages to unwrap her chain, lashes out at the kyton devil and moves past their summoned ally.
Lilith and Alvra arrive downstairs too and run towards the corner to see what is happening. The fighter takes one of his javelins and aims at the chain devil. He throws so hard that the creature is impaled upon the wall. For a moment it hangs on but then it disappears back to the nine hells whence it came from.
Having lost his ally, the Despana mage wants to flee down the corridor, but Phaedra blocks his way. Jharrath quickly strips him of his protection spells and items, so the earth elemental can attack. In two mighty blows, the mage is dead.
Dungeon DuTchess 