7. Chains

As we made our way along the corridor on the second level of Undermountain, a goblin ran out from the shadows and fell dead at my feet with an arrow sticking out from his back. I looked up and saw two drow warriors. Daelan and I rushed forward to intercept them, and Enserric got his first taste of drow blood.

"Boss, Deekin finds this yellow chain on the dead goblin. You thinks it's important?"

"Sure, Deekin. Just keep hold of it for now," I said, barely paying him any attention. Instead, I was pondering the drow situation. It seemed logical to me that the further down inside Undermountain we went, there more drow we would encounter. And I wondered if one of them might know where my gear was. I was sorely missing my bags of holding, my custom armour... not to mention my own clean shirts.

The reason for the chains soon became obvious; two drow warriors were beating futilely at a locked door across a small wooden bridge. From what I could tell, four of these chains were the locking mechanism for the door. And I was willing to bet that these fellows had at least one other chain.

One short fight later, I discovered that neither of the drow had a chain. As you might imagine, this made me quite unhappy, because it meant somebody else had the chains, and they probably wouldn't be willing to give them up easily.

There was a door set in the wall opposite the bridge, so we decided to head that way. There was still no sign that Tomi or Linu had even been down this way. I hoped that they weren't still on the first level, and I said as much to my friends.

"Well, Tomi is a thief," said Daelan. "If he's sneaking around, it stands to reason that we'd see no sign of him. He wouldn't be a very good thief if he left tracks. As for Linu... all we can hope is that we'll come across some sign of her, or that she'll find our tracks and follow us."

I couldn't argue with Daelan's logic. I only wished I had thought of it myself.

The rooms beyond the door were infested with drow and duergar. I was quickly coming to despise dealing with them, and it brought me immense satisfaction to end the lives of so many. Normally, I am not a violent person. But some folk just bring out the worst in me.

As soon as we entered a large room with several treasure chests in it, Daelan let out a gasp of surprise.

"Sinisalo! It's Tomi!" he said, running to the still body of the halfling. I hurried after him, drawing the rod from my pack as I crouched down beside the pair.

"I hope it hasn't been too long," I said, running my thumb over the rune to activate the rod. Tomi's body was enveloped in a white light, and he flailed for a moment before taking a deep, gasping breath.

"Bloody hell!" he swore as he sat up and looked around at us. "Either I just got transferred to the heavens or you lot brought me back!"

"A monster-infested dungeon might be your idea of heaven, but it's not mine," I scoffed. Tomi would be alright.

"Tomi, where is Linu?" asked Daelan.

"Dunno. We got away from the drow that was chasing us, aye? Then we found some human slaves a short ways from here. I didn't like the looks of them, but Linu's poor little heart started bleeding all over the place. Of course, she had to help 'em. They told us about some djinni in a bottle that the drow had, this djinni can allegedly open up some portal of Halaster's which goes to the surface. So I came here to try to steal it. Then some drow fellow whacked me with some hefty magic and everything went dark."

"That would be my hefty magic that made everything go dark. I'm sure it can do the same again," said a drow man, stepping out of the shadows. Daelan growled, and stood protectively in front of Tomi as the short man tried to stand and get to the nearest patch of shadows. I drew Enserric into my right hand and my dagger into my left, and launched myself at the drow.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Enserric shouted loudly at me. Too late, I realised why. Around the mage a green shield spring up, like a column around him. I tried to twist in mid-air, and my body collided with his. As I passed through the shield, a layer of acid coated my clothes and my skin, which immediately responded by becoming more scaly in an attempt to protect my vital organs from the acidic liquid.

"Aaargh!" I inelegantly cried, closing my eyes before acid could run into them. "Use ranged weapons!" I shouted, just in case the others had missed the effects of the wizard's barrier on me.

I tried to remain still as the others fought. I could feel the acid eating away at my skin, burning the scales which lay just beneath. In my hand, Enserric screamed profanities at what the acid was doing to his blade, but I ignored him as waves of pain washed over me.

"It's over, Sin," said Daelan beside me. I felt like I'd been waiting forever.

"Don't touch me!" I said. "Waterskins, quick!" I waited patiently as Daelan opened his canteen and poured the contents over my head. I almost screamed. The water seemed to soothe and burn at the same time, but I felt the blessed liquid washing the acid from my skin.

"Do me, do me!" said Enserric.

"Patience, sword. Flesh burns faster than metal," said Daelan.

"A talking sword, eh?" came Tomi's voice from somewhere near my waist.

"Talking and eroding," said Enserric sarcastically.

"Boss! Deekin gots you some more water!" said Deekin. He must have passed his canteen to Daelan, because more water was poured over my head, and it ran down my neck and my hands, washing over Enserric who sighed in relief.

At last I felt clean. I shook my head and opened my eyes, glad that I hadn't been blinded. The others were looking at me worriedly.

"You looks bad, boss," said Deekin.

I looked down at my hands; the skin was raw and peeling, and I was covered in my own blood. I remember seeing the floor moving, and wondering why it was rushing towards me. Then I passed out.

o - o - o - o - o

When I woke up, I was no longer in pain. In fact, I was resting quite comfortably on a raised, make-shift bed of crates and my blanket. There was a small fire burning on the floor in front of me, and my three companions were whispering on the other side of it with their heads down. I looked at my hands; my skin was healed, not even scarred in the slightest.

"What happened?" I asked aloud.

"Boss, you'se okay!" Deekin grinned. He flung himself onto my blanket and rested his scaly head on my shoulder.

"You went into shock," said Daelan, passing me a canteen of water. I drank from it gratefully, the cool water soothing my parched throat. I hadn't realised how thirsty I was, and I drank the entire contents.

"I'd have fainted too in the same situation," said Tomi.

"We had to force several healing potions into you," Daelan added. "Your skin was raw and peeling off." I winced at his description.

"Well, I'm fine now, thanks to the three of you," I said.

"If you'd have consulted me before rushing bodily at a high level drow wizard, we needn't have gone through all that pain," said Enserric. The sword was lying beside my 'bed'. I picked him up and lay him across my knees.

"I know. And next time, I'll listen to you. How are you now, Enserric? Are you damaged?"

"Hmph. Luckily your minions washed the acid from me before it could do permanent harm to my metal. Death by acid is hardly a fitting end for Enserric the Grey!"

I ran my hand along the hilt of the sword, and felt Enserric almost shiver at my touch. He seemed reluctant to issue any further complaints.

"So," I said, gently removing Deekin from my shoulder. "Where to next?"

"That's what we've just been discussing," said Tomi, glancing slyly at Daelan. "Old misery guts here wants to go back to the inn and stock up on healing potions and whatnot, since you're almost out. I, on the other hand, think we should press on and find Linu. The elven lass is a bloody giant walking healing potion on her own!"

"And what do you want to do, Deekin?" I asked.

"Deekin just wants to write, boss."

"Very well. We'll press on and find Linu. But first, I want to have words with this djinni."

o - o - o - o - o

Tomi picked the lock of the chest on the table, and handed me a small purple flask that had been nestled inside. It didn't look like a djinni bottle. In fact, it looked more like an ink-well. Perhaps this was all some sort of practical joke. I rubbed the bottle anyway. To my surprise, a man appeared before me in a puff of smoke.

"Damnable drow!" he cursed. His body, I noticed, was not fully solid, as if he wasn't entirely here. "Why must you keep... oh. I see you aren't one of those dark elves after all. Well, this could change a few things. I never liked the drow. Too demanding, very difficult to do business with. Mortal, I am in your debt for freeing me from the clutches of those vile, underground elves."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Volkarion Arsetis, a powerful djinni of royal blood."

"Does that mean you'll grant me a wish?" I asked hopfully.

"You mortals have some strange preconceptions about us. Every time I cross paths with one of your kind, you seem to think I'm obligated to give you a wish. Unfortunately for you, it doesn't work that way. But I am grateful for my release. I do have something I can give you as a reward; a trinket Halaster recently gave to me for safekeeping. I suspect he didn't want the drow to get it, but I'm sure he won't mind if I give it to you. This is an activation stone for a magic portal that will allow you to move between Undermountain and Waterdeep. I seem to remember Halaster saying it was in the eastern section of Undermountain's second level."

"Thank you," I said as he handed me a large, round stone. I put it safely in the main area of my pack, nestled safely between my semi-clean shirts.

"I like you, mortal. There's something different about you, something unique. And business has been a bit slow for me since Halaster disappeared. I'm going to do you a favour, mortal. I'm going to allow you to have access to my shop, a store virtually overflowing with magical merchandise."

"Your shop?" I asked, looking around. There was no shop here. I like to think I would have noticed something like that.

"I'm a merchant dealing in rare and powerful magical items. I wander the planes collecting wondrous artifacts, then I sell them to a few very select clients. Halaster himself was one of my best customers. That's why I agreed to let him create this summoning bottle. Whenever he needed to see my shop, I was only a quick rub away. Of course, ever since the drow got their ashen fingers on the bottle I'm being summoned twenty times a day. I would never have agreed to this if I knew Halaster was going to be so careless."

"Why didn't you just destroy the drow?" Daelan asked.

"Or stop answering the summons?" added Tomil.

"The power of the bottle compels me to respond to each summons, and keeps me from taking any hostile action against the owner. But it doesn't mean I have to do business with them. The dark elves are beneath me. I won't do business with them. I keep my list of customers very exclusive. Since you've liberated my bottle from the drow, I'm going to add you to that list."

"Do you know where Halaster is?" I asked Volkarion.

"I can only speculate, mortal. Halaster always kept the summoning bottle on his person, so I would surmise the drow had somehow obtained the bottle directly from the wizard. But I doubt Halaster would have willingly turned the summoning bottle over to them. The mage has the same dislike for the dark elves as I do. I suspect the bottle was forcibly taken from him, which means Halaster must now be a prisoner of the drow... if he's still alive."

"Do you know why the drow have come here in such numbers?"

"The reasons behind the actions of you mortals are almost always the same; greed, the hunger for power, the desire to conquer. I imagine the drow are bent on personal gain at the expense of everyone else. However, I don't know any specific details. Why the drow specifically chose this time and place, and what they have done or intend to do with Halaster are as much a mystery to me as to you."

"Can I see the contents of your shop?"

"Of course!" The djinn snapped his fingers, and a row of ethereal tables sprang into view, holding equally ethereal goods.

"Why do they look so... transparent?" I asked.

"Technically they're physically in my home plane. This is an image of them. You can look all you like, each item comes with a description so you know what it is and what it does, but you can't touch the merchandise until it's paid for. And my prices are non-negotiable."

I spent some time perusing the goods on the tables, examining the labels and descriptions. Volkarion seemed to have quite a large collection, though there wasn't anything that stood out and screamed "buy me!".

"And so the boss looked carefully at all the shiny extra-planar goods that Vol-car-eon Ar... Ars... Arse... that the djinni conjured forth. The boss didn't seem interested in anything much, but the faithful kobold companion noticed a very nice cloak that the boss could have had to replace her old dirty one that made her look like a homeless person. The djinni glared at the faithful kobold companion, and so he did not see when Tomi Undergallows tried to slip one of the ephemeral items into his pocket. Sadly for Tomi, the item could not be touched, and remained where it was on the table."

I grinned to myself at Deekin's commentary as he scribbled in his notebook. Though he didn't realise it, Deekin's observations where genuinely funny, mainly because of his naïveté.

I told Volkarion that there wasn't anything I was interested in from his shop right now, and he disappeared back into the flask, thanking me again for freeing him from the drow.

"Well, lead us to Linu," I said to Tomi. He gave me one of his trademark cheeky grins, and set off eastward along the corridor.