The Dark Fellowship
A Crucial Vulnerability
Chapter One
The noon sun shone down on the small fortress once called Steelward Tower, then labeled Stoneruin, now known, at least by the four beings who presently inhabited, it as Kezreck's Keep. Path-Chak, the six-foot tall insect walking on two of his six limbs carried bags of feed into the stables. The three animals awaiting him were not horses but croltorm- tall reptilian beasts with claws on the forelegs and curved beaks on their snouts; once could forgivably be surprised to see them munch on the oats offered without complaint.
In the fort proper, the wizard Shoutanei sat on a cushion in the keep's library. A dark-skinned elf in a dark, thick robe, at his side lay his staff, made from the large femur of a beast whose identity was unknown even to him. In the days since he and his companions had consolidated their claim on the structure after driving out the last of the many monsters lairing with over time the dark elf had taken it upon himself to restore this room to its original purpose; after the group effort of clearing out the ruined books and converting the warped shelves that held them into cheap lumber he saw to it that a few intact, legible volumes of various lore now rested on newer shelves.
However, at the moment Shoutanei's attention was focused, as it frequently was, on the mural that took up an entire wall. In it high castles stood on islands of rock floating in a storm wracked sky, an image so vivid it seemed as though one was looking through a window instead of at a painted image.
"Hey," Shoutanei turned to see standing in the doorway a tall muscular figure with outstretched ears and a bearlike nose- Kezreck, his companion and the official 'owner' of the keep. The goblinoid looked at the mural then back to the dark elf, "Still wondering how that hasn't been ruined by now?"
"Among other things, yes," more than once Shoutanei had wondered out loud how, given all the creatures that had infested this structure over the years until the four had slain or ejected the last of them, the mural had somehow escaped any vandalism. The wizard had come to think the mural was more than a mere illustration.
"Have I ever told you of the Burning Shadows of Ki-Lin?" Shoutanei asked.
Kezreck's brow rose at the question, "Uh- no."
"My instructor in the Academy had a depiction of that place in his chambers," Shoutanei started, "An image of it on the floor, formed from various sands with different colors. But when the pools of magma outside the institute rose, it would cease to be a mere picture, but become a portal one could walk through to the dimension itself."
"Somehow that doesn't sound like the kind of place a smart person would go to- at least not voluntarily," Kezreck stated.
"Perhaps not," Shoutanei mused, "Yet it makes me wonder, if under certain conditions," the drow gestured to the mural, "That leads to somewhere as well."
"Even if it does, it doesn't look exactly hospitable either," Kezreck pointed out. Before Shoutanei could respond Path-Chak came to tell them Garadon had returned.
Being the only one of the four who could pass for someone not of the 'monster races', the doppelganger Garadon usually took it upon itself to acquire supplies from the nearby villages, wearing the form of a male human while doing so. At the moment 'he' unhooked his croltorm mount from a cart while the others gathered what they requested. Shoutanei took among other things, bundles of imported papyrus, books of blank pages and ink to write in them with; Path-Chak unloaded foodstuffs they were unable to grow or gather themselves, and Kezreck took the liquor.
As the bugbear studied the labels on the barrels of drink he looked disappointed, and turned to Garadon, "Weren't you going to look for wheat beer?"
"I did look for it," Garadon started, "They told me that years back Alsadar I passed some law saying wheat couldn't be used for beer- something about how it stops bakers from competing with brewers for the grain and helps keep the price of bread down."
Kezreck shook his head, grumbling in annoyance. After Garadon led his mount to the stables and fed it he joined them, "For what it's worth, I also overheard a pack of drifters asking about a crypt a few miles north of here- supposedly some very successful adventurers were buried in it- and likely some spoils of their quests with them."
The other three looked at him with interest, as they had yet to find a crypt they didn't like- to rob, at any rate.
About an hour after the sun set that night the four rode off, following the road due north. Eventually a small cemetery, and the tomb they sought came into view; heading off the road they tethered their animals to a tree in the bush and approached the crypt in a roundabout way.
It was when they came close to the crypt that they saw someone had beaten them to it. The entrance had been forced open, and multiple pairs of fresh footprints lead inside.
"Your drifters, perhaps," Shoutanei marked to Garadon, "Yet their tracks led in, but not back out- you know what that means?"
"It means whatever loot these guys were buried with should still be there," Kezreck said as he pushed forward, holding his spiked mace high.
Garadon looked at the other two, "That's what I like about him- always sees the tankard as half full." At that they followed the bugbear inside and down the steps.
The four found the crypt rather crowded. Five figures stood with their backs turned to the party, the weapons they once wielded lay abandoned on the ground. Another four stood facing their way, tools in hand, open sarcophagi behind them. These looked up with smiles on their shrivelled faces, red eyes aglow. The tomb-robbers that preceded the party turned to regard them with empty stares, stretching their arms out they shambled forwards.
Path-Chak raised with his lower arm a carved symbol of his insectoid deity and telepathically invoked a prayer to turn the walking dead. The zombies combusted, what little of their smoking husks dropped to the floor. The wights that commanded them looked on enraged; three charged with weapons drawn while the last raised a hand to cast a spell. Shoutanei reacted more quickly, sending M'Harl's Acid Arrow into the wight wizard's chest. Howling in rage, the undead magus duelled with the dark elf from opposite sides of the battle.
The blades of the would be plunderers before them, being mundane steel, were of little use against wights; unfortunately for the corpse warriors Kezreck, Garadon and Path-Chak had- in preparation for a past conflict with werewolves- had their weapons silver plated, which gave them a distinct advantage. Seeing its comrades struck down the wight wizard snarled, casting a spell it vanished in a flash of light.
Expecting a hostile presence at his back, Shoutanei wrapped both hands around his staff and swung it behind him with all his strength. The ball end of the staff collided squarely with the wight's face; its skull caved in by the enchanted weapon the undead wizard collapsed onto the tile beneath it, never to get back up.
Having disposed of their adversaries, the other three looked to see if Shoutanei was in danger. "I'm all right now," the dark elf assured them, "See what there is to appropriate, I shall do the same here."
After bludgeoning the wight's skull a few more times for good measure Shoutanei ruffled through the corpse's robes. He found a spellbook, though still legible its owner had, with the paranoia common among magi, written its contents in a cypher of his own invention that would take time to decode. A few spell scrolls that were also on its person were understandable enough though, one seemed that it might be particularly useful.
The other three however were disappointed with what they found, or the lack thereof, "Bloody hells," Kezreck grumbled, "If these bums were buried with anything good, somebody else showed up and stole it a long time ago."
"They didn't come through the front door," Garadon pointed out, "Its seal wasn't broken before tonight."
Noticing one sarcophagus spaced farther from the others, Path-Chak looked down to see drag marks on the floor leading to it. Getting the others' attention, he and Kezreck pulled the sarcophagus away from the wall to reveal an opening carved through it.
The opening led to a winding tunnel typical of the many passages in the Underdark; they followed it to a small cavity underground, finding the passage beyond blocked by a cave-in. From under the rubble stuck out a skeletal hand, though the flesh was gone the long, delicate bones indicated it was a drow hand.
"Look, over there," Kezreck pointed to his right. In the far end of the cavity lay a body; the body of a dwarf, judging from its height and width. The four approached it carefully, and had gotten within four feet when they saw the fallen dwarf, laying on his back held in his hands a crown crafted of iron with gemstones set within.
Path-Chak extended his polearm toward the crown, catching it in his blade and lifting it up when an apparition resembling a grey dwarf appeared.
"Flee, you fools!" the phantom screamed, "Even in death the dwarves guard what is theirs!" At this moment four spectral forms in the shape of dark elves emerged lunging in the direction of the party.
Shoutanei was the quickest, launching a volley of magic missiles that caught the lead spectre, causing damage and inflicting pain but not destroying it. Kezreck, overconfident by how he and the others had so easily slain the wights earlier, charged ahead before anyone could stop him.
But while his silver plated mace was lethal to the wights he found it passed through these new enemies harmlessly; two of them set upon the bugbear, their mere touch starting to drain the life from him as a third advanced cackling toward Garadon.
As he did with the wight-spawned zombies from the crypt Path-Chak invoked his god in an attempt to banish these phantoms. The one harmed by Shoutanei's spell screamed as it faded into oblivion, and the other's retreated. Path-Chak rushed toward Kezreck and began to heal him.
"That won't hold them off for long," Shoutanei stated as he pulled forth his recently acquired spell scroll, "Hold up your sword," he bade Garadon. As the thief did so Shoutanei read the spell out loud, as the scroll crumbled he touched the doppelganger's blade, which started to glow.
Unsure about this but trusting the drow in the past, Garadon stepped forward; sure enough, the three remaining spectres rushed upon him.
Garadon brought his sword down on the first in a vertical slash, it dispersed with a final shriek. The others froze long enough for him to destroy the next with a cut across its chest; it too vanished, as did the last when he stabbed through where its heart would've been, were it a creature of flesh and blood. When no more appeared he backed up and returned to his friends. Shoutanei ceased his concentration on Garadon's blade; as its glow faded they looked to Kezreck, both sighing in relief to see him restored by the thri-kreen's curative magic.
Shoutanei turned back to the dwarf body; picking up the crown, when the dwarf ghost reappeared he addressed it, "Who are you, and what is this crown?"
"I am- I was, the duergar Darrak," the ghost began, "And I considered myself a thief of great skill. Some time ago, I no longer know when, I broke my way into a crypt built for surface dwellers- and recognized the crown of the dwarf baron Baelmisar interred with one of them. I fled with the crown and a few other baubles to find the tunnel I came through collapsed- and the baron's ghostly warriors emerging from the rubble. They set upon and slew me as I cowered where my body now lays, as penance for my theft."
"Dwarves?" Shoutanei snarled, "Did those look like dwarves to you? More likely they were the spectres of drow who perished when your tunnel caved in by accident!"
Darrak's ghost suddenly looked embarrassed, "Oh- well it matters not," he looked down at his empty husk, "Please help me atone for my greed and see the crown returns to where it belongs." Seeing Shoutanei nod to humor him, the phantom vanished.
Getting to his feet Kezreck frowned as he asked, "We're not really going to do something as lame as take that back to its rightful owner, are we?"
Shoutanei glared at the bugbear, who had come so close to sharing Darrak's fate, "Let's just concentrate on returning home," the dark elf said, "I think we've had enough adventure for one night."