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The four branching spires of the host tower cast lengthy shadows across the market, reminding traders and shoppers alike who ruled the city of Luskan. In the umbra of one of these, a glass eye'd crone called to passers by in a croaking voice, "a potion to bring you luck sire?... can I interest you in a charm, the wearer is sure to become wealthy?... hey there young man I have a potion that will bring all the women you could ever want?... Gout troubling you, this cure is sure to remove your affliction and grow back lost hair as well..." Most passed the crone and her racks of vials and cheap necklaces by, but one young peasant-woman very eagerly approached her. The crone smiled a toothless grin, "Ah child, afraid men don't see you're beauty, well I happen to have a jewel that when worn will make ye appear as Sune herself."
"Ah, thank you miss, but actually," she paused as she dug in her pack and removed a scroll, "I was just wondering if I could post this on your shopfront." She began to unroll the paper, but before she could, the old crone slapped it from her hands.
"If ye aren't gonna buy anything, be gone whicha."
The woman fumbled on the ground for the scroll and carefully brushed off the mud it'd collected, "Please mam you don't understand, my brother has gone missing, I just want to post a reward for his safe return."
"Missing you say," said the old crone suddenly interested.
"Yes mam, he went into the ruins of Illusk, along with some of his friends. Gods only knows why. None of them returned."
"Well my child, you are in luck today," the crone held up a tarnished bronze chain, "this may look like a cheap trinket but in fact it has the power to lead the wearer to whatever they may seek. I could part with it for as little as five gold pieces, now surely your brother's life is worth that much, hmmm? |
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SunhotJoin Date: 2010-05-10
Post Count: 17148 |
Nice story.. |
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You wanna post or contrubuite, feel free!
The long inhale split the silence of the deep sending bat flocks flying from their refuge amidst the crags above. They knew that sound, so did the blind white rats who skittered back into their dens. It was the sound of a creature that needed no eyes to hunt, a predator perfectly adapted for the dark.
Another long sniff came at the heels of foot steps resounding through the lonely cave. Slowly, the squat hunter materialized in the light of a patch of glowing fungus. It took another deep rasping breath through its mutilated nose, more a gash of exposed sinus than anything. The scent pleased the hunter, or so its smile of over-numerous pointed teeth suggested. Nothing else remained in its face to judge its emotions, the thing's eyes having been long ago replaced by sunken walls of flesh.
They were called the duergar. Once they had been dwarves, or so the stories said, but that was eons ago. Life in the deep dark had changed them as had the experiments and forced breeding imposed by their old Illithid masters. Some still served the mind flayers but most used their skills as trackers and killers to earn a more profitable and enjoyable living.
The duergar drug its fingers through the sandy soil at its feet, sniffing the grains. Then he reached into his vest and pulled out the strip of clothing the matriarch had given him. Its scent confirmed the creature's suspician. The drow it hunted had come this way. And it was not alone. Good, the creature thought, my rations were getting low.
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4.2 miles above within the Ruins of Illusk
"Don't you think we should go back now?"
"Denneth, I'm not leaving empty handed, I have to think about my sister. She's my responsibility now."
"But Evan, your sister is probably frightened to death for you." The boy who spoke looked fairly frightened himself. As the two of them made their way through the crumbling passage he waved his torch at every shifting shadow. His other hand hovered, trembling, over the pommel of his sword.
"If you want to go, you can go, no one's stopping you," Evan responded, brave for a boy in a rusted ringmail.
"Evan, you know I ca.... Did you hear that?" Denneth lifted up his light exposing a narrow arch they'd almost passed up. A voice filtered out of the dark, it was not the common tongue, but still it sounded familiar.
"It sounds like Illuskan, but I can only make out some of the words."
"Well whatever he's saying it doesn't sound friendly. Lets find a less scary passage to explore."
"Ssshh," Evan chided his companion. He unsheathed his tarnished short sword and ducked under the arch, "this could be the opportunity we've been looking for."
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Shadows played across the walls of the low passage, swallowed briefly by a larger shadow that passed as quickly and quietly as a falcon's in the world above.
The dark elf that cast the shadow disliked moving through the opening, lit dimly by the bioluminescent fungus common to that area of the Underdark. He knew many predators – most, in fact – needed no light in order to hunt, but he had no intention of giving another advantage to those that did.
The low passage – fully a foot shorter than his own frame – also didn't help matters. He had to crouch and hustle through quickly, taking all care not to accidentally scrape the quiver and unstrung bow at his back or the rapier at his side against the stone wall and betray his presence through sound.
This was life in the Underdark for Razelus Telarai, last survivor of House Telaera'Shinnai, fallen fifteenth house of Menzoberranzan, former slave to an acolyte of the vicious spider goddess Lolth. The archer had thought he had quit himself of his betrayal, but the duergar mercenary in the underground city of Ched Nasad had shown him otherwise.
It had been the first time in three years he had ever come into civilization for more than a single day to trade goods or sell his bow in the performance of either lawlessness or (more frequently) as a defender of an outgoing caravan whose merchants would not recognize him or his cursed name.
Razelus had been eating a freshly prepared rothe cutlet at an inn – the first meal another had prepared for him in months – when his innate sense of danger kicked in and he saw a duergar looking at him from across the bar.
Of course they didn't really look, did they, Razelus thought with a rueful smile as he came out at the other end of the lichened tunnel and found himself in a glittering cavern of iridescent stalactites, dangling down from the ceiling and shimmering like glass. The water dripping down from the ceiling for untold millennia must have been tinged with a special mineral to have such a dazzling effect.
The duergar hadn't been looking, Razelus remembered, but he had been smelling, and the bit of blue cloth liberated from Razelus' hood was visible in its fist. Razelus had calmly finished his meal, certain the mercenary wouldn't strike right in the middle of a crowded cafe filled with drow all too eager for an excuse to crush one of a lesser race, and then the archer had stood, paid his bill, and headed not out the front door, but into the back alley.
The duergar had been working alone, and apparently had little of the penchant for strategy often attributed to his hardy race. When he entered the alley, sword at the ready, the gray dwarf took a poisoned arrow in the chest. It wasn't difficult to dispose of the body.
So he was on the lam once again. He had heard the sound of another pursuer – or pursuers? - behind him, and moved with purpose. The pathway was leading toward the surface, he knew. It had been rising subtly the entire way. Razelus had no idea where this branch of the Underdark lead, only that it seemed to lead upward, and any branches along it he had thus far taken ended in dead ends or simply rejoined the main stalk of cavern farther up.
He felt, with increasing desperation, that the hired servants of Lolth were pushing him inexorably up against the ultimate wall: The world of light, where no dark elf could ever hide.
"And so we make our hollow hallowed stand / resolved to die with honor, to a man," he rattled off to himself, sorry he hadn't the time to write it down.
Here was as good a place as any, if there were more than one. He took cover, crouching behind a stalagmite jutting about four feet off the ground at its crown, and strung the Bow of Vhaeraun. He nocked an arrow, his eyes focused on the lichen-lit tunnel he'd come out of rather than the bow's magic imbuing the arrow with the essence of the caustic drow poison that would usher his enemies to sleep and, if they could not resist it, death.
A smile of wild abandon on his face, he drew and waited, and waited...
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From beside the fabric of a crone's tent, a halfling emerged and observed the conversation between the crone and a young woman. Her right hand was poised over the mace that hung at her side, and her gray eyes darted between the two as she watched the discussion. As the crone attempted to coerce the girl to buy a bauble again, Amaryllis Millstone took a step further and cleared her throat.
"Surely, you'll understand that the girl's not in a buying mood, mum." Although her voice was cheery and lightly-toned, it was firm and had an underlying edge to it. "She's got enough on her mind what with her brother missing, I'm sure you'll just wish her good luck and let her be on her merry way." Deftly moving between the two, she placed a hand on the girl's back and guided her gently away from the crone.
As soon as they were far enough from the market's back alleys, Ama turned to the girl with a pleasant smile. "Now, I know you're only trying to do the best by your brother, but in that part of the market all you'll get is divested of your coins."
As she spoke, she reached into her pouch and removed several bythana flower stems and petals and began working them in her hand, without taking her eyes off the girl or stopping her speech. "Now, tell me what you know about your brother's disappearance and I'll see if I can't help you in your plight. It so happens that I'm looking for some..." Her voice hitched, but almost imperceptibly, and she carried on. "...Lost goods, of my own, and it may be that I can help to search for your brother as I conduct my own quest."
She continued to work the flower petals in her hand and looked at the girl expectantly, her eyes narrowed in concentration. |
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"...What the man didn't know was that I'd added twenty copper pieces to the price of the firegrass so when he paid me his due I walked away with a profit much higher than that I woulda started with... Heh Heh Heh. Just goes to show ya what a little finagling will do for ya when you have the mind for finagling Heh Heh Hoo. What you must remember about firegrass is rare along the Sword Coast but it grows freely south of Longsaddle so you can turn a profit if'n you ..."
The old man had been babbling on like this for hours. Elric had saved him three days earlier from a group of bandits and had offered to guard the man and his wagon of belongings for 30 silver pieces upon arrival in Luskan. The old coot had kept his tongue waggling nonstop over the past three days and Elric was gad he was going to be rid of the man within the next hour.
"...and while it tis true that the scrappings of hogsroot looks similar to that of firegrass if'n you put the two in front of a practiced eye there ain't no way it'd be fooled Heh Heh Heh. In fact hogsroot will have discolored..."
"It seems I've gotten you to the gate," Elric stated.
the old coot looked to the city gate before him and hopped out onto the ground. "It'd seem that you have my boy follow me around the back of the wagon and I'll be gettin' ye your reward Heh Heh.."
Elric stepped around the back of the wagon to find the coot holding his wand. "Sorry boy but it's best to seal a deal with magic when dealing with strange old wizards," Said the old man. Before Elric could do anything the man had flicked his wand and he, along with his wagon, had disappeared.
The city guard watched as Elric stared with disbelief at were the wagon had been. "The gate'll be closing soon son why don't ye come inside."
Elric just looked at the man for a moment and started into the city. It would seem no one can be trusted; even a man who owes you his life thought Elric. With that he headed into the city. Perhaps honest work can be found within these walls... |
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(Hey, pplz, feel free to post any part of the story you wish. You can make your own character, and just ask if you don't know what the UnderDark is.) |
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