The Lord's Sanctuary & The Goddess Plot
Shadimir and Iris continued to walk down Waterdeep Way, but not before Shadimir drank a potion to heal himself up, before they left to find the place Iris called the Lord's Sanctuary.
Except for the undead hunter, the woman who had just saved his life, and the members of the city's watch who had the unlucky task of cleaning up the demon's body, no one else could be seen walking through the streets in the Castle Ward of Waterdeep.
As they walked, Iris was making light conversation with Shadimir. Besides the laugh that made his spine shiver, Shadimir found Iris to be an interesting woman.
She was a part of the Grey Hands, Waterdeep's elite fighting force. The hunter remembered hearing about the Grey Hands from some passing nobles. They were known to be a last resort, not because they couldn't handle powerful enemies (they could handle the most powerful of foes), but when they were called, their results produced a great deal of collateral damage.
For a moment, Iris stared at him. Shadimir wondered it was because of his silver hair, which used to produce a faint glow before he cut much of it off. Yet, as they passed by a small building, where two young male elves walked outside, both of them having long beautiful silver hair.
Iris laughed after telling a joke Shadimir hadn't paid attention to, which irritated her. She balled up her heavily gloved fist and hit him in the shoulder.
A small sense of pain shot through Shadimir. He stopped walking and looked down at Iris, who wore an innocent grin on her face. "We're here," she said softly, pointing ahead to the building a few feet in front of them.
Though the building was small, it housed two stories. Its outside appeared to be made of thick wood. There was a small window next to the doorway. What caught Shadimir's eye was a small wooden sign in front of the building that had the word ABANDONED in big black letters on it.
"Are we suppose to be here?" Shadimir asked, looking over at Iris. Ignoring Shadimir's question, Iris walked over to the sign and spoke the word "Maethiira". The word ABANDONED that was painted on the sign slowly faded away, then new letters reappeared on it. They read WELCOME TO THE LORD'S SANCTUARY.
After taking a quick bath, and setting his equipment upstairs, Shadimir sat quietly at his table in the corner of the almost empty lobby. Besides himself, and two of the inn's employees, there was no one else present in the lobby. The Lord's Sanctuary wasn't as big as the Inn of the Dripping Dagger, but it was a lot quieter.
There were seven tables scattered through the lobby, a bar opposite of the doorway, and a stairway leading up, to the left of the door. Next to the bar, there was a small doorway leading into another room. A purple curtain acted as the seal to whatever was back there. Before she had gone up the stairs, Iris specifically told Shadimir no one was to go to the back room. .
One of the Sanctuary's employees, a tall handsome dark skinned, bald headed, hazel eyed man wearing leather breeches and a brown shirt with small buttons going down the middle, walked over to Shadimir's table. He had a thick black unibrow, big circles for eyes, and a small pointed nose that resembled a beak, This reminded Shadimir of an owl.
"Hello, I am Theodore Owlrey," the big man said in a slow deep voice," Iris will be out here shortly. She is usually late this time of week."
"She obviously has made a career of saving young men," Shadimir commented, looking up at Theodore, as the man stood over the table.
The bald headed man gave a hearty laugh, which didn't send shivers down the hunter's neck. "Aye, we end up saving some people every once in a while," he said laughing, then he brought his loud voice down and leaned his head towards Shadimir. "The few of us who work in this place are all members of the Grey Hands." Theodore paused for a moment, making sure no one else was looking, then brought his voice to a whisper, and continued," But Iris, she is a very busy woman. She's got three sons attending New Olamns Bard College, she works as a Grey Hand Enforcer during supper time, and then comes here till the wee hours of the morning. She goes through a lot to keep her boys in school, and to keep this open. As you can see, its not what you could say 'very pampered'. Fox and I sometimes wonder how she sleeps at night. To think, she has been doing this for a couple of months now. I tell you, it's not be easy being a single mother with three growing kids."
"Aye, its not," nodded Shadimir, thinking about his daughter back home, and how easy they had it living in Silverymoon. Over the years, Shadimir's mother and father had accumulated a massive amount of wealth during their years of adventuring. The hunter never really had to work during his life, and most of the treasures he had gotten during his travels, filled his coin purse.
"And its gotten worse too," yelled a loud raspy voice from behind the bar.
Shadimir noticed a slender looking man with elvish features wearing a blue linen shirt and cloth pants. The half elf had white blond hair and dark blue eyes.
"Fox, you don't know what you're talking about," Theodore snapped back at the half elf. The bald man sighed as Fox gracefully walked over to Shadimir's table, ignoring Theodore.
"What do you mean, its gotten worse?" Shadimir asked the half elf curiously.
"Well, do you know why they call this the Lord's Sanctuary?" After Shadimir shook his head, Fox continued," You see, sometimes some of the more important folk in Waterdeep, like the Lords of Waterdeep for example, need to hold last minute secret meetings with different guilds, mercenaries, or nobles. They come here and use that back room to hold their meetings. No one outside the lords, guild masters, and noble families know about this place, so it's really hard to generate a steady income. We don't have the most rashiving furnishings..."
Afraid that Fox would continue to ramble on forever about the Sanctuary's problems, Theodore held up his large hand to silence the half elf. He leaned close to Shadimir and whispered," "See, the problem is, the owner of the Lords Sanctuary, a greedy man by the name of Clover Silvercloak fled the city about three months ago. Since he hasn't been here, there's no one to pay the rent off of this place. Iris, Fox, and myself try to put part of our Grey Hand Enforcer salaries together, but its just not enough, and since we really can't pay off the rent of this place, some nobles or guilds could buy it off of Mirt."
"Yep, I've already heard House Thann has placed an offer on this place," Fox interjected," probably Danilo needs a place to practice his singing."
"But can't the Lords of Waterdeep, or the guilds pay for using this place for their meetings?" asked Shadimir. He was slowly becoming angry, and his high opinion of Mirt the Moneylender, a man who he had never met, was dropping slowly, then he thought of a small idea. "What about making this place known to the public.
Theodore Owlrey shrugged and let out a sigh. "Some people do know of this inn," he said with a tone of sadness in his deep voice," but they would rather spend their money on lavish establishments like The House of Purple Silks, or the Inn of the Dripping Dagger."
Guilt started to creep up on the back of Shadimir's neck. "So, say if House Thann, bought The Sanctuary from Mirt, what would that mean exactly?" Shadimir asked, looking at Fox and Theodore.
"It means we would all be out of jobs," Iris responded loudly, walking down the steps. Shadimir saw that she had changed out of her red scale mail and put her leather gloves away, and was now dressed in deep purple colored barmaid's outfit. She slowly walked over to the table, and gave both Theodore and Fox a cold stare. "And shame on you both, for overflowing him with our problems," she yelled, putting her hands on her hips. Seeing the look of trouble on the hunter's face, she softened her voice," We'll find more work. Theodore, your wife works at the House of Purple Silks, and Fox I'm sure they'll let you work back in Blackstaff Tower. I'm sure Khelben has forgotten about the time you set the cockatrice on fire."
Iris began to laugh, which caused all three men to shudder lightly. Though her laugh had brought chills down his spine, Shadimir admired the woman's courage and optimism. He had been traveling Waterdeep for the last three days, blowing his gold on trinkets, expensive robes, and sword pommels, and looking for property to buy. Yet here was this woman, using her own money to put her sons through school and trying to keep this place open for business.
He didn't want Iris to lose the inn, especially to some nobles who would probably just tear it down. What if he had managed to buy this inn from Mirt and was the reason these people had lost their jobs. What if he had bought this place?
"Don't dwell on our problems Shadimir," Iris said softly, taking a seat next to him, and then she looked into his eyes. "So tell us about yourself."
The City of the Dead, a graveyard that was about as big as one of the Waterdeep's wards. Members of Waterdeep's city watch patrolled these grounds, looking out for any walking undead, or any grave robbers. The men on patrol would walk through the grounds, going though every inch to try and spot any trespassers, but it seemed tonight the guards on patrol had forgotten to look at a small tomb located in the middle of the graveyard.
It was a beautiful night, thought the finely dressed vampire Soulviss as he sat up against the cold stone wall outside a small grey tomb. His fine leather shoes lightly sunk into the cool wet grass as he looked up at the night sky.
Have you found the door yet?" screeched a voice from below the vampire. The vampire's cold grey skinned hands lifted the middle of his silk jet black robes, and he bowed his head, looking down at the round black orb at his feet.
"Kiaransalee, my goddess. I have found the tomb, but I have not found the trigger to open the door," the vampire whimpered as he slowly bowed to the orb.
The black orb began to shake violently. Quit groveling, what if the guards see you like this, they will haul you to the prisons, the orb shouted back at him. Now find that trigger Soulviss.
Through the black orb, Kiaransalee watched the vampire slowly rise to his feet. The goddess of undeath and revenge wanted to slap her servant, but she was far away in her home that resided in the Demonweb Pits of the Abyss. Yes, she could use her divine powers to thrash the vampire, but she didn't feel like wasting the energy.
Being a goddess to the drow, Kiaransalee was a reluctant ally of Lolth, but lately the Spider Queen had been acting quite odd. However, the Lady of the Dead had no love, nor any concern for the Spider Queen. She had her own agenda.
Several days ago, the drow clerics of Kiaransalee had uncovered a legend about Myrkul; Lord of Bones and the former god of the dead. It was said when Myrkul attacked Waterdeep during the Time of Troubles, agents of the Lord of Bones had hidden a small force of Myrkul's undead in the City of the Dead, away from prying eyes. If any necromancer powerful enough, or any adventurer stupid enough was to find a small fragment from the Crown of Horns; an artifact of Myrkul, they could use that small piece to raise the army of undead Myrkul and attack the city of Waterdeep.
Luckily for the Lady of the Dead, she had found someone stupid enough to try and bring back the Reaper's army. At first, Kiaransalee wasn't sure why out of all her devoted worshippers, she had a sniveling vampire do this important task for her. She missed the confidence (or rather arrogance) her drow worshippers presented when she gave them a challenge. Maybe it was because Soulviss was expendable. She remembered hearing that the same drow priestesses, who learned of the rumor of Myrkul's army, had found Soulviss, wounded and almost dead in the outskirts of the Underdark, the only thing on his person was his tattered clothes and the small black shard in his hands, that spoke of death and hatred for the goddess Mystra.
Kiaransalee gave her clerics the black orb, to give to Soulviss, and through them directed the vampire to Waterdeep. Though she had not appeared in any physical form to him, the Lady of the Dead helped Soulviss make it past the guards and even continued to keep him hidden safely.
Soulviss scanned the tomb's outer wall. The vampire's search led to a small switch at the bottom of the wall. He lightly pressed the trigger with his left food, and heard what he thought was a door sliding open on the ground next to him.
The open door led to a stone staircase that descended deeper into the ground. The black orb rolled over to Soulviss' feet, eyeing the staircase.
"My goddess, may I ask you something?" Soulviss softly asked the small orb at his feet.
What is it the goddess answered in frustration, expecting an irritating question the vampire was about to ask her. Being a goddess, she was hardly ever wrong.
"What if the Lords of Waterdeep, or the Magister get wind of our...I mean your plan? What if they are on their way at this moment?"
If Soulviss could look into the black orb, he would see Kiaransalee rolling her eyes. Once again, the Lady of the Dead was missing the confidence of her drow clerics. If the goddess had an order, they would follow it without questioning the goddess or her methods. They wouldn't be worried about any lords coming after them. They would descend into the ground and into the tomb with no objection.
But the goddess of undeath had to work with what she had. She couldn't appear into avatar and push the vampire into the tomb, for that would raise the suspicions of the other drow gods (not that they didn't suspect each other of anything and everything already) in the abyss.
The black orb rolled a quick circle around the vampire, then stopped at his feet. If you just stop your worrying, go on into the tomb, and raise the army of Myrkul, we won't need to worry about any Lords of Waterdeep. Soulviss nodded his head. Good, now lets go forth and unleash the army of Myrkul back into Waterdeep.
Deep in the Demonweb Pitts, Kiaransalee smiled as she watched Soulviss descend into the ground.