Suspiciously eyeing the pentagram, Lilith tries to erase part of the circle. After a few moments she succeeds, thus severing it. She takes some time to heal herself and be ready for the challenges ahead.
The room of Thra’esue is bare, apart from a small stone table with parchments. Phaedra takes a chart of a graveyard with her. On the map directions have been indicated with arrows. Lots of humanoid skulls litter the floor. At the back is a locked door. Jharrath summons an earth elemental and orders it to demolish the door. With several power attacks, it splinters the wood. Inside is a sarcophagus, which – the lid pushed aside by the summoned elemental – reveals the resting body of the ogre. The cleric takes a vial of holy water and pours half of the contents in the giant’s mouth. His eyes snap open, and with a horrible scream, he pulverizes. No mist, no nothing; the beast is gone. In his sarcophagus lie a pouch with three potions, a key and a magical chain shirt. The potions inflict moderate wounds when used.
The drow now move towards the room of Mephisolis, the upper Principle. The corners of his room are decorated with big urns. Something clicks when the scout passes the threshold and she gets hit by an arrow full of acid. With Thra’Esue’s key she tries to open the door to the inner sanctuary, but it doesn’t fit. Jharrath gets the same treatment, when he tries to open the lock with a scorching ray. One of his Melphs acid arrow takes care of the problem: the door is gone. The inner room is lit by four ever burning candles. A huge jump brings Alvra almost to the sanctuary… almost. Another acid arrow finds its target.
Now the method to destroy the Principles is clear, the cleric decides to leave it up to her siblings to take care of the vampire ogre. Elegantly she throws the still half full vial of holy water towards her brother, almost into his waiting hands… almost. Fumbling Alvra fails to catch the little bottle and it crashes to the stone floor. Quickly he wets a piece of his robe with the remnants of the holy water, while Lilith scowls at him. He walks towards the second sarcophagus – lined in red silk – and pushes the lid off. It takes quite some strength and the help of the wizard to accomplish, but finally they succeed. The wet cloth is not enough to finish the ogre, so they cut off his head and set the corpse on fire. Principle number two is gone from this world.
In the coffin another key, a beautiful magic chain shirt and a ditto great sword stay behind. Phaedra decides to keep the chain shirt for herself, though she will have to resize it. There are also two pouches and two shiny flasks, containing a silvery liquid. Alvra recognizes it as silver sheen. With a mighty jump, the fighter manages to reach the safety of the central room. His brother isn’t that fortunate, his clothing damaged by the acid that’s still eating its way through the fabric. The fighter hands the pouches to Lilith, and she finds gold pieces and two blue sapphires, worth 3.500 gold pieces.
Checking out the Principles’ third room, Lilith commands her shield to transform into a spider and sends the arachnid to investigate. When nothing happens, she walks in to and tries out the keys she has found. They won’t fit. Out of holy water, Alvra and Lilith coat their weapons in silver sheen and hammer down the door. A closed coffin awaits them, which proves to be empty though. Where is the third Principle?
The Xaniqos gather in the central space, where the cleric casts a mass shield of faith. She warns her siblings to let their guard down before releasing the spell. Then they continue towards the last door: the library. The key fits the lock smoothly, and inside there are several shelves with lots of books and scrolls. Two are especially beautiful, but when Phaedra tries to read them, she gets nauseated. The wizard takes her place and soon finds out these are magic scrolls about necromancy. He takes them with him.
In the room of the ghouls, Alvra discovers a pouch with a black opal. Hurriedly he leaves the filthy nest. The cleric once again checks out the central room and the pulpits, but there is nothing there. All siblings search for hidden doors and other hiding places, but there’s absolutely nothing. The bats have found a quiet corner and witness the search.
The drow decide to go back to the first room. The corpses of the two ogres are still there, but the body of the mage ogre has disappeared! Could he be the missing Principle? It must be. A trail of blood leads upwards, but when they enter the upper floor again, an occasional drop and boot prints in the dust are all that is left of the trail. Though they search the mansion, even the upper parts and outside, there’s no trace of the mage ogre. He must have regenerated. Perhaps he ran off to House Shi’quos, they simply don’t know. The Matron Mother can be content: the leader of the Principles is dead and the rest has been slaughtered.
When Alvra, Jharrath, Phaedra and Lilith report to the City Gate of Erelhei-Cinlu the next day, several groups from different Houses are already assembled there. A cleric of Lolth walks towards them, big mace and adamantine shield in place. She introduces herself as Narcella, Priestess of House Despana, and group leader of the patrol team.
The deceased has a whipdagger in her hand and a diadem on her skull. With a quick prayer to Lolth, she slowly takes the tiara from the corpses’ head and examines it carefully. At the front of the diadem there are two spiders holding a gem. Trusting in the Spider Queen, she slowly puts the spider tiara on her own head and immediately feels blessed by her deity. The whip dagger seems like a good weapon, so she decides to take it with her too. Her brother Alvra quickly offers his hand to help her climb out of the pit.
Then the younger sister feels something slithering up her leg and gets bitten in her arm. She suddenly feels very weak, but lashes out wildly upon hearing something, or someone, move. A dead kobold topples off the ledge. Meanwhile Lilith swings her flail blindly, and then hits something solid. Seems kobold flesh is not made to resist ferocious attacks. In the centre of the cave, Alvra kills the dire weasel.
The Xaniqos warriors walk back to Erelhei-Cinlu, where priestess Narcella is waiting for them. More groups are returning, some of which have had encounters with undead. The four report to the priestess and then go home. To healing and rest. The armoury is happy to receive the whipdagger and other weapons, and hundred gold pieces find their way to the treasury. The ring turns out to be a ring of protection, which the cleric gives to her sister. They all have performed well today.
The Xaniqos drow deem it better to enter in the least conspicuous way. Phaedra spots two dark shapes exit a service door in a side alley and moves in to have a closer look. The door is ajar and when she enters, she finds herself in a bar. Four people are playing cards, while others are slumped against the wall. There is a door at each end of the room.
To make matters worse, two bugbears come running up the stairs. Daggers whoosh with astonishing accuracy and speed through the air. Alvra buries a javelin in the bugbear’s stomach. It goes down and doesn’t move again. Phaedra manages to kill the orc, while Lilith whacks the drow to the ground, but not before one of his daggers hurts the scout. The cleric is also wounded. Meanwhile Jharrath summons two earth elementals, who throw themselves into the fight. The fighter busies himself with the second bugbear, and the three drow and the elementals attack Vorn with spells and in melee. Finally Vorn goes down. His features and form change and what remains is a Doppelganger!
Lilith searches the desk and finds a couple of letters plus the key to a big chest in the corner. Another treasure awaits them there: two hundred gold pieces, five malachites and three pearls. The letters, addressed to Vorn, clearly indicate that House Xaniqos has a cure for the pox.
When they arrive home, Solaufein is already waiting and directs them towards the temple. He then alerts the Matron Mother, who listens attentively to their story. When she hears there’s an ogre on the loose, she immediately sends investigators to clear up this loose end. Thandysha is pleased with the news of Vorn’s death, the letters and the gold and gems. Phaedra and Lilith remove their armour and are examined by their mother. A spell removes the disease from the cleric, while a vial, handed over by a minotaur, cures the scout. The Matron Mother confirms Lilith’s question: House Xaniqos really does have the cure for the pox!
Dungeon DuTchess 