The Xanathar Guild Hideout
Jhelnae slipped through the opening, abyssal blade raised and ready. The door being unlocked was surprising, finding an empty corridor beyond, more so. There wasn't even the sound of running footsteps. For a secret hidden lair, this place was easily found and poorly guarded.
This brought a disconcerting thought. The group who had kidnapped Floon was either very careless or expected their reputation alone to protect them. If it was the latter, what sort of potential enemy had she and her friends just made?
No time to wonder about it now. She moved forward, giving space to the others to follow her through. Once they all passed inside, Kuhl pushed the door closed. Stone ground against stone until the heavy portal clunked into place.
"No way to lock it without a key," the half-elf said, looking at the locking mechanism.
Which meant they couldn't even do the minimum to keep themselves from being caught between two sets of enemy forces. You'd think, considering the source of the half-drow's magic, she would be able to web the door closed. But this was not among the powers Lolth had granted to her.
"If Aravae were here, she could magically seal it," Aleina said. "I meant to have her show me how, but we never got around to it."
The aasimar gave Jhelnae a guilty look, probably because the half-drow knew 'never got around to it' meant they relaxed in hot springs instead. Jhelnae shrugged and gave her a quick reassuring smile. She herself felt no regrets over time spent in long soaks at the Temple of the Restful Lily. By all that dances! After their time down here in the sewer, she actually wanted a bath in the fey spring right now. Of course, Cyrena, the naiad who lived in the bath of that temple to Sune, would likely not appreciate her washing off the filth of the sewers into the waters that comprised her home.
"If we move forward quickly, we can hopefully deal with opposition ahead of us before any can catch up from behind," Kuhl said.
Nods were exchanged and it was decided. Unfortunately, some of them decided a little faster than expected.
"Sky!" the half-elf yelled. "Wait!
He sprinted after the tabaxi who already led the way down the corridor, armed with only a single throwing knife. Aleina and Jhelnae ran to catch up.
Sky actually slowed quickly, tail lashing as she eyed another vertical slit in the stone wall at a turn to the left. This time, however, as they approached, no voice called out in challenge nor were any crossbow bolts loosed. After the turn, another door faced them, this one of iron banded wood rather than stone. Sky knelt to examine it, then stood, turned the handle and pushed it open, knife held ready to throw.
A room waited for them on the other side. Rusty weapons and threadbare clothing littered the floor. A corridor to the right opened into another room. Seeing no one, they followed the corridor.
It led to the area on the other side of the vertical slits they'd encountered. One opening was positioned to watch the corridor just inside the stone door while the other the circular area in the sewer outside the hideout. A pair of goblins slept on the floor, victims of Jhelnae's earlier spell.
"How long will they sleep?" Sky asked.
She sheathed her borrowed knife in her belt loop and scooped up one of the crossbows the goblins had dropped when they fell asleep.
"A little on the small side," she said, sighting down the weapon. "But it will work."
The tabaxi started gathering bolts
"Not long," Jhelnae said. "We should at least tie them up."
The half-drow dropped her sword and it misted away to nothingness as she dismissed it. Again, she wished for some sort of webbing spell, like the one Ilvara had used to try to keep them from escaping through the magic portal from the Underdark to the surface. But the Demon Queen of Spiders apparently felt no sudden inspiration to grant her a magical boon.
Sighing, the half-drow knelt to bind the goblins the mundane way. Looking at the sleeping figure, she was surprised at how small he was. Tying him up felt like bullying a child. She cut his rope-like belt in two with her small utility knife. Half for the wrists and half for the ankles. Following her lead, Aleina tied up the other in a similar fashion.
"We should ask them if Floon is here," Kuhl said. "But should also keep moving. Can you wake them?"
Jhelnae shook her head. "Kind of the point of the spell that they stay asleep. But it should wear off soon."
The half-elf cast a nervous glance back the way they had come.
"I think speed is our friend. The goblins on the other side, the ones you didn't put asleep, are sure to be raising the alarm."
He headed for the downward stairs opposite the way they had come in, taking the lead position.
"Fine, Kuhl," the tabaxi whispered as they descended. "But keep a watch out for that orb creature and, if it shows up, try not to let it shoot you with those eye stalk rays like last time. Unless you are trying to trick another massage from the others. Then, by all means, just stand there and let it hit you again."
Down two flights, a turn to the right, and then they were at the beginning of a long corridor.
"That, by the way, is not happening," Jhelnae whispered as they crept forward. "That trick isn't working on me a second time."
"First of all," the half-elf said, voice low. "I didn't just stand there and let it hit me. I thought it might be friendly like the flumph and was trying to introduce us. And second, I really was dazed."
"Whatever," Aleina whispered. "You owe us some pay back. And I don't know about Jhelnae, but I deserve it. Almost throwing my arm out of my socket at the Dragon. Climbing down ladders. Crawling through tunnels."
"Sounds fair," the half-drow said. "I've gathered a few aches myself, crawling through the same tunnels and delivering drinks at the Dragon."
She was mostly teasing, but if she and Aleina could guilt him into later, why not? He wouldn't have the dextrous fingers of Sky, who could even soothe Ilvara ill temper back in Velkynvelve, but a free shoulder rub was a free shoulder rub.
"Crawling through tunnels?" Kuhl whispered back. "What are you two even talking about? We haven't crawled at all…"
He trailed off, halting their advance. Up ahead, signs of habitation by other than goblinkin with dark vision. Firelight flickered in the chamber down the corridor.
"How about you summon your sword again," the half-elf said.
Jhelnae stretched out her hand and called her sword. It coalesced in her grasp, and she gave the others a nod to indicate her readiness to continue. Together, they moved into the next room.
Torches held by brackets in the wall cast light on six tattered, straw-stuffed mattresses and little else. Jhelnae reflected that, in the hideout, with the stone door closed, the stench of the sewer had receded, replaced by the smell of the burning torches. Some sort of ventilation must bring in air from the surface. The place might be bearable if the occupants fixed the place up. Instead, they had mattresses with the straw falling out of them laying haphazardly on the stone floor. It reminded the half-drow of the tower at the Restful Lily when the hags lived there. Seeing this squalor made her also remember the time and effort she'd spent cleaning out that place. And that irritated her.
"A bunch of empty beds," Aleina said. "But where are all the people who would sleep in them? It's the middle of the night. And, as you said, Kuhl, the alarm should be raised. We shouldn't just be walking room to room with no resistance."
"I think I know what is going on," Sky said, lowering her crossbow now that they knew the room was empty of inhabitants. "Remember all the bodies? In the street? In the warehouse? Two groups had been fighting. Some of those killed could have come from here."
"Sky's explanation fits," Kuhl said.
Raised voices through the wooden door in the far wall made them all go silent. Someone was beyond it, multiple someones. The conversation of the companions had been hushed, but whoever was in the other room sounded angry or frightened. As a group, they moved towards the door. Jhelnae spared a glance back, making sure no one crept up behind them while they focused ahead. As they got closer, they could make out the voices.
"That won't work!" someone growled. "We need to get Grum'shar to help us deal with that thing!"
"You want to interrupt the interrogation?" a gruff voice asked. "While he is watching? You saw what he did to those kenku."
Silence came in answer.
"Then get stacking!" the gruff voice spoke again. "Maybe we can at least delay it until he leaves."
"Interrogation?" Aleina whispered. "Floon?"
"Probably," Kuhl said. "And once they realize they don't have Renaer…we better hurry."
The half-elf pushed the door open. Six more tattered straw mattresses lay on the floor in this room, but here at least there was other furniture. Strangely, however, it was mostly piled in front of one of the two wooden doors on the opposite wall. As the companions watched, a rough looking human with his bald head tattooed with eyes and a dwarf with ash grey colored skin, overturned a table onto their growing barricade. Both looked surprised to find they had an audience as they turned to find more furniture.
"Who in the Nine Hells are they?" the duergar asked, white beard bristling.
The dwarf, like all the duergar males they'd seen in the Underdark, was as bald as his companion, but bore no tattoos. The bare scalps of the heads of both perspired with sweat from their efforts with the barricade.
"No one I know," the human said.
But even as he spoke, a spark of recognition glinted in his eyes. An aasimar, a tabaxi, and a drow made for a very memorable group. As memorable as someone with a bunch of eyes tattooed on his shaved head. Jhelnae recognized the human as well. He'd been drinking with a rowdy group in the Yawning Portal. It was hard to believe she'd seen him there earlier this very same evening. A lot had happened in between.
"Then they are dead," the duergar growled, grabbing up a warmattock leaning against their barricade.
The tattooed man likewise picked up a scimitar and cast aside the sheath.
Kuhl ignited Dawnbringer in response. Her sunlight radiance brightening the room far more than the flickering torchlight, The duergar held up a hand to shield his eyes. Then he grew. His growth had only started as he charged across the room and he kept increasing in size as he ran, raised warmattock growing along with him until he held a massive weapon.
Jhelnae had witnessed the duergar power of enlargement before. But those grey dwarves actually fought alongside them as they all tried to control a rampaging two headed giant down in Gracklstugh. Having one double in size as he bore down on you was different. Terrifying.
"Spread out!" the half-elf yelled.
The order was unnecessary as they already scattered away from the door. Kuhl advanced to meet the enlarged dwarf, raising Dawnbringer as if to block the descending weapon. But, at the last instant, he side-stepped instead. The warmattock cracked against the stone floor, leaving a missing chunk where it struck. The half-elf started to counterattack, then dodged back. Quicker than expected, the duergar had lifted his weapon from the floor and spun, swinging it in a deadly arc.
A twang sounded, and the dwarf bellowed in pain, a crossbow bolt sprouting from his back shoulder. Sky had found her target. His cry of pain turned into a roar of rage and his grey, ashen face flushed dark in anger as he hefted his warmattock for another attack, then he winked out of sight.
"He's gone invisible!" Kuhl yelled out.
Time seemed to slow as Jhelnae listened. She heard shuffling steps followed by the scrape of boots as someone unseen shifted his weight. Then the enlarged duergar appeared again, a little to the right from where he'd disappeared. Bones cracked as the hammer-like head of his weapon crunched into the half-elf's side and sent him sprawling to the stone floor. Jhelnae was forced to push all concern and worry for him aside, however, as the human with the scimitar closed on her.
The ferocity of the duergar charge and the heightened danger caused by his power of invisibility had drawn all her attention. During that time, she'd lost the opportunity to blast the tattooed man at range as he made his slower, more cautious approach. Now he was within sword range and swung his weapon. She parried and felt the hesitancy in his blade, recognized the fear in his eyes. Mist smoked off her abyssal sword and the reputation of the dreaded drow likely wreaked havoc in his mind.
Good! Let him be afraid!
They crossed swords again and Jhelnae heard Aleina unleash fiery fury and the duergar cry out in pain and despair. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kuhl scrambling up, grimacing in pain, but with a healing hand on his side. Too late their opponents were learning their few tricks would not be enough against her companions.
She guided the blade of her opponent to the side, then let his strike through her guard. As she anticipated, her misdirection was enough for her warding armor to flare and deflect the attack the rest of the way. His eyes widened in surprise then widened further in pain as the point of her own sword sank into his chest.
He stumbled off her blade, clutching at his wound. A look around the room made him drop his scimitar and sprint towards the unbarricaded door in full flight. Jhelnae took in her surroundings and saw the reason why. The duergar had shrunk to a normal dwarf sized corpse, scorch marks on his body still smoldering and another crossbow bolt sticking out of him.
Jhelnae lifted her sword and aimed it at the retreating figure. The cold power of the Demonweb coursed through her veins as she summoned its power, preparing to release it in a blast of eldritch energy. Some part of her hesitated. She knew she shouldn't let him run to warn others about them. Not only would it put the rest of the hideout on guard against them, but they were here to rescue someone. He might be killed if she let the fleeing man escape. Before she decided, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.
An oily black puddle oozed under the barricaded door, bypassing all obstacles. This was what the duergar and the tattooed man had been trying to keep out and likely contributed to the latters decision to flee. Their method of containment was less than effective. Where the puddle touched, wood dissolved, and the heap of piled furniture started to collapse in on itself.
Jhelnae might have been a petrified statue for most of the Battle of Blingdenstone, but she'd been present in the final fight against the Pudding King and so recognized what she saw at once.
"Black Pudding!" she yelled.
"No need to fight it!" Aleina yelled back. "We can outrun it and it's about to have a bonfire on top of it."
Bolts of flame flew from the aasimar's orb and into the barricade, setting the wood ablaze.
The half-drow turned back towards the fleeing tattooed man and found he'd already reached the door. He threw it open and was through it in an instant. His panicked footsteps receded down the corridor beyond, and he gave a wheezing cry for help with a name.
"Grum'shar!"
Kuhl ran towards the door in pursuit and Jhelnae started running as well. They squeezed through the opening together, almost tripping each other up, then regained their footing and accelerated to a sprint again.
"Sorry," she breathed. "I hesitated. Let him get away."
He shook his head. "It's alright. But we shouldn't let him get away. And he might lead us to Floon. Or whoever has him."
Jhelnae caught sight of drops of blood as they pursued and heard their quarry as they ran.
"Grum'shar!"
The cry came every half a dozen paces.
Wounded as he was, they gained on him, and for a moment she had a clear view of him long enough she contemplated directing a blast of energy after him. Then he stumbled up a flight of steps and was lost from sight again.
Sky passed them as they headed up the stairs. She wasn't even using her magic boots, just using the speed nature had graced her with. Whatever she saw at the top, brought her skidding to a halt.
Chest burning from effort, Jhelnae ran with Kuhl up the last couple of steps to join her, Aleina following closely behind.
Threadbare curtains hung along one wall of a long hall. In the middle of the space, a muscular half-orc in dingy robes stood with his foot on the chest of a male human with wavy red-blond hair. Fire burned around the orc's clenched fist, and his victim cried and squirmed helplessly beneath him.
Floon Blagmaar, Jhelnae presumed, and still alive.
But it was the nightmarish figure on the raised platform further down the hall that drew her attention. Clad in black robes, it had large white eyes and rubbery purple skin, with four tentacles encircling its inhuman mouth. The half-drow had met one before.
A mind flayer.
The strewn corpses of three kenku, skulls split open, and brain matter sucked out, however, showed this one was no iounitarian. More horrifying still, the creature cradled and gently caressed what looks like a disembodied brain with four bestial clawed legs.
"This isn't the one we sought," the mind flayer sent out telepathically, looking at the half-orc and gesturing to the cowering figure beneath him. "And these are the ones I saw in the memories of the kenku. Deal with them."
It set down the brain-thing and headed towards a set of double doors in the wall opposite the one with the tattered curtains, pace unhurried.
"Of course," the half-orc said, the obsequiousness of his voice didn't match his large size or brutish features.
He lifted his flame filled fist but looked down at his captive rather than the companions. This time Jhelnae did not hesitate. She hadn't spent all this night chasing down the missing Floon Blagmaar to lose him now.
Icy power flowed through her, and she sent it out in a crackling burst through her sword. It struck the half-orc wizard and sent him reeling and the bolt of fire intended for his prisoner flared into the stone floor instead. A follow up blast from her and the half-orc collapsed, the remaining flames around his hand sputtering and dying out.
"Keep that thing away from me!" The wounded tattooed man screamed.
At first Jhelnae thought he meant the mind flayer, but then she saw he pointed to the brain-creature bearing down on them.
And he was the closest to it.
Despite its bestial appearance, there was no feral growl or hunting howl. And it was all the more eerie and frightening because of its silence.
Rays of bright light flared from Aleina's orb at the oncoming creature, but the thing was fast, and her beams only scorched the stone behind her target as it ran. Sky's crossbow sounded and her bolt hissed its passage before skittered across the floor.
"No! the tattooed man yelled, as he backpedaled. "No! Don't leave us. We did as you ordered."
His pleading scream was directed at the mind flayer, but it spared him not even a glance as it opened one of the double doors and slipped through.
Meanwhile, the brain-creature had reached the backpedaling man. It leapt towards him, claws rending the air as it neared. He screamed and clutched his tattooed skull even though he hadn't even been touched. After a moment, he suddenly calmed and stood in an apparent stupor.
Then Kuhl was there, slashing down with Dawnbringer. The blazing blade of light cut deep into the brain creature. The half-elf tore his sword free and slashed down again. Psychic yelps ripped through Jhelnae's mind as the beastial things writhed on the floor. Gradually, it's thrashing weakened, then it lay still.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae yelled. "What, by the Dark Maiden, was that thing?"
No one answered. Aleina already moved to help the prisoner and Kuhl moved to the double doors. Sky loaded and cocked her crossbow as she went to join the half-elf. Together they nudged the door open further and peered past.
"Did you see that?" Kuhl asked.
"The dark doorway hanging in midair that just disappeared?" the tabaxi asked
The half-elf nodded. "Good. I thought I might be seeing things."
"No, I saw it too," Sky said, tail lashing. "Of course, your other clue that it was actually there was that a mind flayer just walked in this room and now is gone."
"It's gone?" Jhelnae asked.
She forced herself to not run to the double doors to see. They were at the heart of a hideout of some sort of gang. So far, it was pretty empty, probably due to recent deaths in a gang war, a mind flayer of all things had just left. But that didn't mean other threats didn't remain. Besides the stairs they'd ascended and the double doors, another corridor led into this hall. The hanging curtains might also conceal other passageways. Because of this, someone needed to keep watch while her companions were busy.
The brain-creature and half-orc remained still, likely dead, and the tattooed man still stood there, staring but apparently not seeing. Jhelnae approached him cautiously, keeping her eyes watching the rest of the area, and snapped her fingers in front of the man. No response. Not even a glance towards her.
A patter caught her attention and she glanced down to a pool of blood, then followed the drips up the wound she herself had inflicted. Blood welled through his clutching fingers to then fall in drops, but he seemed to feel no pain, or even realize his life was draining away.
"Aleina," the half-drow called out. "He needs some healing."
The aasimar had her hands full with the man they rescued. Or rather he had her hands full of her, well more his arms. The red-blond haired man had her in a tight embrace, his eyes closed, tears running down his cheeks. His hair was disheveled and matted, his clothes rumpled, dirty, and sweat stained. Aleina wore an expression of desperation and clearly wanted rescuing.
"Oh, it looks like my friend needs me over there," she said. "Be right back. No, no, stay here, I'm sure she'll really appreciate a hug of thanks, but not right now. Yes, once we are out of here."
The aasimar extricated herself from the enthusiastic embrace and hurried over to Jhelnae.
"It is Floon and he is really thankful for us rescuing him," Aleina whispered as she approached. "And you owe me. He wanted to express his thanks to you right now. Like he did with me."
"Did you let him know drow females sacrifice a male for far less than a presumptuous hug?" Jhelnae asked.
"Oh, I see how it is," the aasimar said. "You get to either be an Eilistraeen or Lolthite, whichever is convenient for you at that time? While I always have to play the role of angelic healer? Not fair."
The half-drow shrugged and winked. "Whatever is convenient, depending on my whim, and in this case whether the one wanting to give me a hug desperately needs a bath and a change of clothes."
Aleina didn't reply, focusing instead on applying her healing magic to the dazed tattooed man. When she had finished, the bleeding stopped, but the man still stared ahead in a stupor. Like the half-drow, Aleina snapped her fingers in front of his eyes, but also got no response.
"This isn't a physical wound," she said. "Something else is wrong with him."
Kuhl and Sky walked up, one of his hands on her elbow, guiding her. The half-drow only caught the end part of what they discussed.
"I wasn't going to approach that pillar, Kuhl," the tabaxi said. "One of us really should be watching it to make sure the mind flayer doesn't come back with reinforcements."
"What is probably an enchanted pillar," the half-elf said. "That opens some sort of magical doorway. And you would have just watched it and not gotten any closer while I talked to the others?"
"Yes," Sky said, tail lashing.
Kuhl shook his head. "You know, I just don't believe you.
He glanced up at the tattooed man. "What is wrong with him?"
Aleina gave an exasperated sigh. "How should I know? That brain creature did something to him. I don't even know what that was? Do any of you?"
No one did.
"Well, we should leave," the half-elf said. "That mind flayer could be back at any moment with others, and I think we have who we came for?"
The aasimar nodded. "Yes. He's Floon."
"Poor kenku," Sky said, looking at the feathered bodies on the raised platform. "Why did the mind flayer kill them? Because they ran away from us?"
"Maybe," Kuhl said. "But I think it was more because it wanted information and that was the fastest way to get it. It recognized us the moment we came into the hall. That was the reason I didn't want it to get away. Whoever these Xanathar are, they now know we interfered with their plans and even assaulted one of their hideouts. And they know our faces."
Jhelnae gave a short bitter laugh. "By all that dances! Remember when we worried we were taking advantage of Volo? Now we have a mind flayer and some sort of underground criminal organization mad at us. All I can say is he better have that gold and we might be wise to use it to get as far away from Waterdeep as possible."
Hopefully this works. Again I'm encountering the issue of having 5th level players tackle something designed for Levels 1 and 2. I think it still works narratively, even though they are walking through things. Let me know if otherwise. After this we get into the more free form stuff in the city that I really was interested in.
I actually had a whole section that I really liked that I then just cut. The goblins woke up in another version and they had a conversation with the party. Aleina complimented one on his dyed hair and they had this whole thing about where they got in done (in the Goblin Market in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage). Sky was making fun of Jhelnae because she used her spell even though Sky actually suspected the proper pass phrase and was going to say it (the Xanathar sends his regards), but she didn't get to try because someone was too trigger happy with their spell.
The problem was, however, it totally messed with the pacing. This was supposed to be a snatch and grab. So lets talk about where you got your hair done during all that just didn't work. So I cut it...and was very very sad. ;)