Author note: The end of the De'Arnise quest is different from the in-game one, I hope you'll like it. I admit I had toyed with the idea of having an Umber-Hulk eat lady Delcia for breakfast, but then I realized it would have been a fate too cruel...For the Umber-Hulk ;-)
oxoxoxoxoxo
Once the drawbridge was lowered, the keep guards took care of the remaining Trolls on the base floor, leaving the adventurers free to reach the first floor. In a side room, they found a man wearing the uniform of the Keep guards, but there was something wrong with him: he just stood in the middle of the room, doing nothing but staring into space, his sword kept limply in one hand.
When Meg approached him, though, his head suddenly whipped around and his eyes fixed on her with a madman's gaze. "For the glory of my new master, whose wizardry showed me the way, you will die!", he shouted, his sword slashing the air a mere hair's breadth from her face. "Rats!", she jumped backwards and blocked the next hit with her staff.
Nalia was shocked at recognizing him, "Oh, no, Glaicas! He's one of my father's bodyguards...He must have been charmed somehow". "Then use a counterspell on him!", the Painbearer said as she barely managed to dodge another blow, "It should free him from the charm!".
Thankfully, the plan worked and Glaicas immediately dropped his sword, cradling his head in his hands, "What...What happened?", he asked, swaying to and fro and Minsc readily helped him to sit on the couch. "Is the good guard all right now?", the Rashemi asked, worried, while Boo scurried down his arm to sniff the soldier and make sure he wasn't a threat anymore.
Glaicas nodded, looking like he had just woken up from a nightmare, "I...Yes, I feel better now, thank you. Oh, miss Nalia! What...". Nalia sat down next to him and patted his arm, "It's all right, you were under a Charm spell". "Yes, I remember now.
Thank you for freeing me", the guard smiled, but suddenly his eyes grew wide, "Oh, you must find the Troll leader! His name's TorGal, if he falls, all his underlings will flee. I don't know where he is...I don't know where lord De'Arnise is either. I'm sorry, miss Nalia, I tried to protect him, but...". "I know, Glaicas. It wasn't your fault".
He took a strange object from a pocket, it was a green spiked piece of steel, "Here, this can help you. Lord De'Arnise was gathering the pieces of his Flail, this is one of the heads. I wish I knew where he kept the other two".
"We've already found them", Anomen reassured him, showing him the Flail partially assembled with the ice head and the fire head. "Then you can complete it with this. I...I would join you, but...". "You are too injured and weak to be of any help", the druidess stated, direct as always, as she handed him a healing potion, "If you really want to do something useful, go downstairs and help the people who survived the attack".
Glaicas nodded and did as he was told, while they walked back to the forge and recomposed the Flail of the Ages. To reach the so-called cellars, they needed to open a secret passage located inside the bedroom of Nalia's aunt, lady Delcia Caan and as soon as the room to the door opened, a lad of no more than sixteen wearing the guard uniform came out of it.
"Who are you? How…Miss Nalia! Is that you?". Before she could answer, a haughty-looking woman, well into her sixties and with a heavy make-up, pushed him roughly aside and gave the party a disdainful look.
"Oh, this is a nightmare! More hooligans marching in these halls, dirtying the floor and polluting the air with their stench! We will have to leave for a tenday and have this place sterilized!", she spat, turning her nose up with disgust.
"Auntie, please! We're here to save you!", her niece protested, but it sounded half-hearted, as if she was a bit scared of the older woman. "Nalia? Oh, dear, what have you brought home with you this time? How many times have I told you not to lower yourself mixing with these...These creatures? You will end up like your mother, dear".
Despite his better judgement, Anomen couldn't hold his tongue, furious because of the venom dripping from the older noblewoman's words, "Don't you address us like we were wretches, dear lady: I am Anomen Delryn, son of lord Cor and I won't be treated like dirt by the woman I came to save!".
Lady Delcia barely spared him a glance, "But your chosen companions show a dubious breeding. You should know the dictates of rank, or maybe you like playing with peasants, like so many others? No matter, I have no time to waste discussing what you want or not. Lord De'Arnise is held in the cellars, are you here to save him? It's your duty, I believe".
Meg nodded, posing herself between the angry Helmite and the insufferable crone, "Yes, milady, that's our goal. You can go downstairs, the base floor is safe now", she added, hiding her own irritation behind a kind smile.
Once lady Delcia and her bodyguard were gone, the younger noblewoman relaxed a little and gave the Human priestess a grateful smile, "An admirable display of restraint and I appreciate it. She's pretty decent, but she's very set in her ways and she can be...Difficult to deal with".
"Oh, I'm used to being treated like that: Ulraunt, the Keeper of the Tomes back in Candlekeep, was just like her". "Ah", she frowned, unsure of how to take that statement, but the party leader didn't give her time to ponder upon it. "Is the passage here?". "Yes, it should be in that wall".
Thanks to Yoshimo's keen eyes and ability, they found the secret passage and reached the cellars, or rather, the dungeons: there were, in fact, shackles hanging from the walls and Nalia blushed, when she noticed that her companions' attention was fixed on them.
"These...These used to be the dungeons, it's true, but our family hasn't used them in years...", she muttered apologetically. "Good to know", Jaheira grumbled, a shiver passing through her at the memory of the time in Irenicus' dungeon, the image of Khalid's desecrated corpse making her feel a stab of pain, hate and sadness.
That room was thankfully empty, but in the next one, they found five Trolls and after a tough fight, they sat on the floor to catch their breath. They had taken a nice amount of beating and Meg insisted to be the only one to take care of the healing, even if that would mean using all of her spells, since she wanted Anomen and Aerie to save their own healing powers for the final fight.
"Yoshimo, you're the only one of us who can walk silently. Would you drink a Potion of Invisibility and take a look in the next rooms, please?", the Painbearer asked him. "At once, lovely friend", he drank the potion and slipped soundlessly past the door, coming back after a handful of minutes, his handsome face clouded with worry, "There are six Umber-Hulks in the next room and in the following one, I saw three Giant Trolls.
One of them was beating a man, I think he's the lord of this Keep". "My father?!", Nalia half-shrieked, "We…". Margaret Dawn readily closed her mouth with her hand, "Calm down. We'll save your father, but you must follow my instructions closely, okay?". The red-head nodded reluctantly and the other girl let her go. "Good. Aerie, do you have anything to knock those Umber-Hulks out?".
The Avariel nodded with a smile, "Y-yes, I have a sleeping spell ready". "Then cast it in the room. Jaheira, once the monsters are asleep, you'll cast a counterspell to allow us to pass and you'll kill them with your spear. Anomen, once we reach the room with the Trolls, I want you to go straight to lord De'Arnise and heal his wounds. Don't worry about the Trolls, we'll keep them off of your back. Let's finish this".
The captive was, in fact, lord De'Arnise himself: he was weak, half-starved and badly wounded, but he was still alive and conscious enough to watch the fight between the monsters that had invaded his home and a party of strangers, one of whom rushed to his side and murmured some arcane words, soothing blue magic flowing from his hands into the lord's body to restore at least partially his health.
The three Trolls were killed after a hard fight: one was beheaded by Yoshimo's Fire Sword, the second was slashed by Minsc's halberd and TorGal, the invaders' leader, was first repeatedly bashed on the head by Jaheira's spiked club and then finished by Aerie with an arrow of acid.
Nalia kneeled next to her father, eyes filled with tears of relief, "Father? Father, you're alive…". Lord De'Arnise smiled weakly up at his daughter, "Nalia…The Keep…Is it safe?". "Yes, it's safe now, thanks to these good friends".
He turned to his unknown healer, "I…I thank you. I'm in debt to you…". Anomen shook his head, "There is no debt, my lord", he said, gently taking the older man up and turning to the lord's daughter, "He needs to eat and to rest, but he will be fine soon". "Come, I'll lead you to his room".
oxoxoxoxoxo
Gratitude wasn't one of lady Delcia Caan's most prominent qualities, it seemed: as soon as the Keep was officially declared safe again, she ordered the guards to 'remove those peasants' from her noble home. The peasants were, of course, the very same adventurers who'd just saved her home and her own skin.
Nalia tried to reason with her, asking her to, at least, allow them to stay at the Keep for the night...But to no avail: the adventurers found themselves out in the open, at late night, under a heavy rain and with nothing but the Flail of the Ages as a reward for their services.
And in the depths of Meg's soul, the Slayer felt her anger and her resentment towards the ungrateful old crone and smiled: another link in his chain had just been broken. Soon, little Goddess. Soon.