Tag Archives: House Shiquos

The Black Chalice

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Dressed in nondescript outsider cloaks, the Xaniqos set out on their separate routes towards The Black Chalice.

Phaedra glides through the ghettos in her green cloak. She is treated with contempt by the nobles and has to move aside for every drow. Exposed to the whims of the passers-by, she keeps to the walls whenever she can and blends in. Her brother Alvra, bigger and more muscular than the scout  – the Wizard in his wake – isn’t bothered by the public. Orcs and kobolds leave them alone, figuring they are not worth the trouble. Face averted, Lilith tries to make her way to the establishment without giving away her identity. Act like an outsider! She has to remind herself almost every step. When the Cleric is almost run over by a merchant car, his rude

Get out of the way!

making her jump aside just in time, she comes extremely close to losing her temper. Especially House Vae merchants are very annoying – a fact which Lilith stores away safely in her memory. For later use. Finally all siblings arrive at the Black Chalice.

Silk Curtain

Inside the clientele is mixed:  drow, both males and females, undead and other creatures. There are no priestesses of Lolth, though. The food is of dubious composition. Strange snacks, narcotics and goblets of blood are distributed around. When the Draegloth passes Phaedra’s table, she greets him in a soft voice. He snarls.

What do you want?

Only after she reveals her face, the half demon-half drow relaxes. A soft chuckle, then:

What are you doing here?

Intrigued, he sits down at the drow’s table.

Well, as they are good sources of information, I go to all kind of inns regularly,

The Draegloth replies that, though he thinks all is foul in the city, he likes the Black Chalice because there is very little drow interference.

Do you know anything about foreigners – non-drow – living underneath the city? It seems House Eilservs has lost control over this ghetto.

Phaedra leans slightly forward after her question.

Have you seen a large tower, made of bones? It is owned by a male lich Morius. Rumors are that he is not content with living in the tower anymore. A lot of foreigners have disappeared – also drow, perhaps to be used for experiments. To make more undead. The Eilservs do nothing indeed, so be careful.

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From the corner of her eye, the Scout sees her sister enter the inn, a cloud of pent-up anger and frustration almost tangible around the Cleric. Lilith stomps towards the bar and orders a glass of wine. Suspicious of its contents, she first smells before taking a sip. In her rage, drinking and grinding her teeth is all she’s able to do, apart from strangling a by-stander to cool her anger. At another table many high-ranking people are socializing. There is much food, but only a few eat. A woman – a vampire – looks like she might be the inn’s owner, Nytha’ela. Phaedra turns her attention back to the half-demon.

Has Thangarth left already?

Yes, but I’m staying for a while, I have some business still.

Can I be of assistance?

No, but thank you for the offer. Until next time.

Then the powerful Draegloth grabs his scythe and walks out. Phaedra throws back her hood, moves towards the noble table and says in Drow:

Greetings!

Can I help you?

Would you mind if I joined you?

Yes I would!

the vampire indignantly says. When Phaedra doesn’t move, she hisses,

Are you dimwitted?

I’m so sorry, I meant no disrespect. I only have a quick question: if I wanted information, who would be the best person to ask?

An icily “Me” is the answer.

Rumors have it that undead giants are in the ghetto. Is that even possible?

You’re talking about the Principles?

Yes, have they set up a place here in the ghetto?

Yes.

Truth is I’m surprised House Eilservs allows this to happen. I have some business with these Principles.

Instantly the mood turns and becomes threatening.

You want to do business with them? What kind of business? Do sit down, ‘please’.

The vampire hisses and shows her teeth – Phaedra sits and says

I just want to know where they are. Do they work for you?

No, they arrived not long ago, though they act as if the city belongs to them!

And if I say my ‘business’ would not be positive?

That does make a difference, yes. I would like to see them destroyed.

Phaedra smiles, while Nytha’ela continues.

They entered here, didn’t pay homage to me at all and now break all the rules. They are backed up by House Shi’quos. A lot has changed lately.

What if I would take care of them?

Continuing her story, the vampire nods.

They have taken residence underneath the Sarcoma Keep, a mansion that has been empty for over a hundred years. It has been used several times by necromancers and undead, and is overgrown by vegetation. The keep is enormous, but ruinous.

The Xaniqos Scout thanks the lady for the information.

If I can be of assistance in the future…?

You may.

May I take my leave now?

You may.

With that the vampire turns back to her party.

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Against all odds

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Meanwhile the Scout takes out her spiked chain and lashes out in the shadows, but there’s no impact. She takes a second to focus and spots Jhael’min, who is sneaking up behind her, rapier in hand. The weapon pierces her leg and Phaedra reacts by swinging her chain towards him. A full hit this time. Jhael’min’s many attempts at disarming her don’t have the required effect and when Phaedra hits him a second time, he gets weary from the fight and pulls back. Phaedra listens carefully and follows him, casting a spell. A bright light erupts and under cover of the light, she disappears.

Lilith spots a second Drow male, having left his hideout at the top of the stalactites, who is cautiously coming nearer, carrying a spiked chain. Another approaches her brother.The Cleric takes a step back and conjures a horizontal ring of swirling metal blades around her, that moves with her as she moves. The two quaggoths are not too pleased with this painful barrier. Their claws slash through Lilith’s defenses and wound her badly. On top of that three magic missiles slam into her, and she retreats to a safe distance to heal herself. A bit. Seems like the Shi’quos Drow combines melee fight with magic attacks! An opponent to reckon with.ringofblades When Alvra is hit from behind, the bat insignia shows him that these are also Drow of House Shi’quos.  Quick as lighting he turns around and slices clean through the Drow’s chain shirt. In reply the Drow’s hands spread a cone of pure fire, and only the Xaniqos brothers’ spell resistance saves them from disaster. Furiously Alvra whips his sword towards his attacker and scores two hits. The male Drow still manages to get a spell off and disappears from sight. Then the quaggoths also attack, but both miss. The Xaniqos Fighter doesn’t miss though, and soon a quaggoth lies at his feet, while the other is severely wounded. Lilith, feeling somewhat better, steps up to the beast and shreds him to pieces with her ring of blades. Then Alvra’s attacker appears from out of nowhere and whips his spiked chain around the Fighter. Alvra drops to the ground, unconscious as well. The Cleric goes after the Shi’quos male and again her blades draw blood. He attacks her with another cone of fire, but the female easily shrugs off the effects. With her blades and her flail she beats him to death. 131205quaggothMeanwhile the fight between the Scout and the Shi’quos male continues as Jhael’min manages to retreat to safety and drinks a healing potion. Phaedra, who was waiting for the Drow to make a move, is quicker and throws a bag of goo at him. It splatters all over him, thus entangling him. The male feels humiliated and snarls at the Scout. He attacks with his rapier, but is sluggish and misses. Phaedra’s spiked chain wraps around his leg and she trips him. He’s prone!

You prove to be superior, I surrender.

he says. But the Scout, knowing they can leave no witnesses, finishes him off with two hits of her chain. She checks the Drow’s outfit and takes the magic rapier, the ditto chain shirt and a silver ring – it has a secret compartment with two doses of sleep poison left – which she offers to her sister. Then she moves on to check out the quaggoths and the Drow males. Two spell books, magic spiked chains, mithral shirts and two masterwork hand crossbows and spider kits are the loot. She keeps one of the crossbows, dons one of the extremely light mithral shirts and hands a masterwork dagger to Lilith. The Cleric dispels her blades and checks on her brothers. Alvra seems to be heavily wounded, so she pours two strong healing potions down his throat. She then drags the Shi’quos Drow towards the side path and hides the corpses between the stalagmites. Finally coming to his senses, Jharrath feels groggy and sick, but he’s able to help carry the stuff back to Erelhei-Cinlu. Mission accomplished.

About an unconscious Drow and fighting quaggoths

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As both Drow try to fight off the effects of the bolts’ substance, Phaedra hears breaking noises on either side of them. She grabs an object and throws it towards the sounds on her right. The stone – for that was it – instantly radiates a purple light that blinds everything in a ten feet area. In the glow the Scout sees a male Drow in a spider kit hanging near the top of a stalagmite. Growling fills the air. Something else is bothered by the light. Lilith fights off the effect of the poison and manages to focus again: the beasts are quaggoths! Savage warlike monstrous humanoids who will berserk at the slightest provocation. And three of them! The Cleric gathers her breath and emits a mournful wail, sending out a pulse of magic imbued with sorrow and sadness. Of the three, one seems to be blinded by the aftereffects of the purple light as he stumbles straight into the stalagmite, another is affected by the wave of grief and simply stands there. The last one charges full at Alvra, while Jharrath slowly topples to the ground, surrendering to a deep darkness.

Quaggoth

The quaggoth’s claws miss the Fighter, and Alvra returns the favor by hitting the beast with his sword. Jhael’min moves to the other side of the road to get a better view of the fight. He seems to be content observing rather than participating. For now. More crossbow bolts come flying from the darkness. Lilith collects another dose of the Drow knockout poison, but again manages to shake off the effect. She knows that this poison works very fast and very effective. Her sister is hit as well and takes a potion. The cleric attacks the humanoid and lays her hands on the creature. Instantly its fur crackles and blisters, the beast seriously wounded. A slash of the fighter’s sword ends its life. The other quaggoths try to come to the aid of their comrade and claws rake deep into Lilith’s armor. She notices that the skin of the creature is white, apparently the fur is painted. The other is still blinded and its attacks are uncontrolled.

Suddenly the area where the scout was turns pitch black. And not a moment too soon. Phaedra hears footsteps coming her way and sees a dagger hurtling towards her. Though perfectly aimed, it misses because of the darkness. Well, it doesn’t miss entirely, according to the growls of one of the remaining quaggoths. Lilith sees how a beautiful dagger embeds itself in the creature’s body. No complaint on her side, she takes advantage of all the help she can get, even if given by their opponent. She tries to strike fear in the heart of the quaggoth, but in its frenzied state it is not affected at all. The humanoid tries to reach and bite her, but somehow overreaches and misses. Lilith immediately strikes with her flail and hits. The other quaggoth joins in the fight, but – still blinded – is not of much use. Neither is the wizard, who sleeps through it all.

Ambush

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Alvra carries the strongbox back down to the corridor, and does the same with his dead mount’s saddle and bridle. Phaedra points out it would be suspicious if a dead riding lizard was found in this cave. Combined with the missing Cloak of the Consort, it might lead straight to House Xaniqos. They decide to burn it all: the crates, bedding, araneas and the riding lizard. An incendiary slime spell in combination with a fire ball does the trick. An enormous explosion rocks the stone, and when the Wizard climbs back up to check out the area, all is scorched black. A mass of organic and inorganic stuff remains, reasonably unrecognizable. Satisfied, the Drow follow the corridor, the younger sister scouting ahead. She finds herself in a cave with ladders and ropes, leading up to a platform with a small pool of pure drink water. This might come in handy for future travels. They fill up their water bottles. Since it is a dead end, they retrace their steps and take the long and arduous route back. A lot of climbing and hoisting needs to be done and it takes them at least two hours to reach the spider carcasses again.

At the bottom of the slope that leads down from the cave entrance, the scene is unaltered. Or is it? When Lilith takes a closer look, she sees that one of the hobgoblin bodies has been turned over: someone has been here. Fresh bear tracks lead back the way they came from, but all seems quiet for now. After about an hour the siblings come upon a crossroads. The bear imprints lead to the right, but their city is straight on. The Cleric sees no point in following the tracks any further and takes the road towards Erelhei-Cinlu. To their right and left are paths filled with stalagmites, while high cliffs frame the way forward. Then the Scout spots a male Drow standing on a small rock at the side of the road. He’s seems to be nonchalantly waiting for them, his hands at a safe distance from his expensive looking rapier and dagger. The male is wearing a costly outfit and his whole demeanor radiates supreme confidence.

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Greetings, I want you to lay down your weapons and hand over the cloak that you stole.

The adventurers immediately stand still, assessing the situation.

Please lay down your weapons, I will not ask again.

When Lilith asks for his name, he responds with

My name is Jhael’min Shi’quos.

Of course that does ring a bell. House Shi’quos, the Fourth house of Erelhei-Cinlu. And member of the House of the captive Drow whose throat Phaedra slit. The Scout, in a high state of alertness, hears a soft snort to the right. They might have caught up with the owners of the bear tracks. The male Drow, seeing the family crest on Lilith piwafwi, exclaims:

You are of House Xaniqos? That cloak belongs to our family!

Such a devious Matron Mother, the Cleric muses, she indeed never said anything about our House owning it or being entitled to it! Lilith keeps on talking, since the Drow seems genuine in wanting to let them pass, and throws her diplomacy skills in the game.

We know we took something that most likely doesn’t belong to us, but you must understand that we can not go back to our Matron Mother without it.

I’m sorry you feel that way,

Jhael’min says, whereupon both the Wizard and the Cleric feel the impact of a crossbow bolt. Slowly the world fades…