When Meg woke up a couple of hours later, she immediately lunged at the soup and steak, then she freshened up and went to join the clerics for the brainstorming. At dinner, poor Cespenar had to call in fifty other imps from Gehenna to help him with cooking enough food for both the party and Lothar's army and he acted as the chief chef in the kitchen, surprising everyone with his leading skills and cooking knowledge. The food turned out to be delicious and some of the mercenaries even joked that, if the meals in the Abyss were like that, they wouldn't mind ending up in Hell after their death.
The next two days went on in a similar fashion, with the morning and afternoon dedicated to training and the evening spent relaxing and restoring their strength. The morning of the third day, they gathered in the common room and Meg stood in front of them all, he face schooled in a calm, determined look. "Today is the day. We will march against Sendai and her army of Drow, to put an end to her threat once and for all. If any of you has second thoughts about this, better say so now, because in a couple of minutes it will be too late", she said and waited for anyone to raise their hand. When nobody did, she went on.
"Good. You all have been instructed about the Drow and their abilities, plus some of you already have first-hand knowledge of their fighting style, so you won't go into battle unprepared. The strategy we devised will hold unless the circumstances change and in that case, I trust you to react accordingly: you are all capable people and I know you won't disappoint me. Should any of you get wounded or die, do not fret: as you know, we have Resurrection Spells at our disposal, not to mention a Wand of Resurrection and the lapislazuli discs in the first challenge room, so we'll be able to bring you back. And now, if you're ready, let's go and show that Drow bitch who's the boss!", she concluded in a shout and the mercenaries all shouted their approval.
oxoxoxoxoxo
The glade was nearly empty, save for a small cabin that looked abandoned and yet, a man came out of it as soon as they approached. "Hello", the stranger smiled friendly, "What brings you to these woods? It's not often that I see so many people around here", he said. He was tall and burly, with tanned skin and green eyes, he wore a checkered red flannel shirt over a white undershirt and black pants. All in all, he looked just like a normal guy living in the woods, yet even if he spoke Common, his accent instantly set the party and Lothar on edge: they had already heard that peculiar, harsh way of pronouncing consonants and it had been in the Underdark.
"We're just passing through to reach our destination. Did you happen to see anyone else in the area? Maybe some soldiers?", Lothar asked. "Soldiers? No, you're the first I see in a long time. I live here alone, since the death of my children a year ago", the stranger sighed sadly, "I buried them not far from here…They loved these woods, they really did". "My condolences", Meg said, not believing a single word, "Where are their graves? I'm a priestess, I could bless them if you want me to".
The woodsman's eyes glinted dangerously as he smiled, "It would mean much to me if you did, kind lady. They are down this path", he pointed to his left. She nodded, "Good. Sarry, Anomen, Jae, Gromnir, you come with me. The rest of you, stay here", she instructed, moving down the path. As soon as she reached the 'graves', she noticed that they were freshly dug and her left hand clenched around the hilt of her mace, getting ready for a fight. And a moment later, she felt a shift in reality, the graves vanished and the harmless hares and squirrels around them turned back into their true form: that of deadly Drow warriors who attacked the five without a second thought.
There were twelve of them, but Sarevok's sword had enough reach to cleave the head of three of them in one go as he swung it in a wide arc, while Meg cast her spell Blast of Pain and a thick grey fog surrounded the enemies, corrupting their nervous system to the point that two of them fell lifeless to the ground. Gromnir, Anomen and Jaheira made short work of the rest and when the last Drow died, the small group hurried back to their companions, only to find them covered in blood and surrounded by corpses.
"Meg!", Imoen called, running to her sister, "They were all Drow, even those cute bunnies in the bushes! I was about to pet one and it turned into a Drow and tried to stick his spear in my guts!", she whined, utterly discouraged because if you can't even trust cute little bunnies anymore, who can you trust? "I'm sorry, Immy. Is anyone wounded?", she then asked to everyone and they all shook their heads. "No, we're all fine, sekai no hikari", Yoshimo answered and she sighed with relief. "Good. Let's search for the entrance to her lair, it must be nearby. Rangers, split and scan the ground; mages and thieves, follow them and be ready to dispel any magic and disarm any trap there could be", she ordered, "And someone loot the cabin, there may be something useful in there".
It took them a couple of hours, but finally Imoen returned from the cabin with five strong healing potions and Minsc found the secret entrance, hidden by an illusionary spell that was promptly removed by Aerie. Then one of Lothar's men, a young thief named Arsene, disarmed the deadly trap that lay right on the threshold and after the mages shrouded each and every man (and woman, chicken, Xvart and Kobold) in Protection against Poison and in invisibility, they all descended into the darkness.
They found themselves in an impressively huge cave, with a narrow bridge over a seemingly bottomless chasm that connected the platform they stood on to another wider platform. Built on that one there were four buildings on each side and a bigger one at the right end of it, while at the left end there were two locked doors. A few Drow, Umber Hulks and even giant spiders were walking around, the dark elves looking nervous yet at the same time oddly bored, their weapons held with not much care in their hands: they had been waiting to move against Abazigail for months now, but Sendai kept on postponing the date of the attack and by now, they were starting to think the day would never come and their fighting spirit was slowly being dulled by boredom.
Jaheira observed the bridge and leaned closer to Meg, "We could use the same tactic than in the catacombs under Athkatla: the bridge is so narrow that it can only allow three people at a time to walk on it", she suggested. "Why not place some explosive traps on it too?", one of Lothar's men proposed with an eager and dangerous grin: he was one of the youngest in the army, an attractive young man in his early twenties, his long golden hair was tied in a high ponytail and his eyes were a beautiful ocean blue, "That would reduce their numbers before we engage them in battle".
Meg smiled back at him, "That's a very good idea! You and Immy will…". "No", Imoen cut her off, shuddering, "I can't use those traps again, Meg, I…I can't", she choked as her mind was flooded with images of the Fire Giants stepping on her trap in the Marching Mountains and…The Ilmatari blinked, then her gaze softened as she understood, "It's okay, pixie. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that of you", she said in a soothing tone, then turned back to the blond male, "Can you do it on your own?". His grin widened as he nodded, "Of course: explosions are my family's specialty! Prepare to admire my art!", he exclaimed proudly as he walked forward with silent steps.
He moved until he was halfway between the two platforms, then he rummaged in his black and red Bag of Holding, fished out a large, flat muddy brown disc with grey runes engraved in it that covered nearly the entire width of the bridge and when he placed it down, the disc seemed to become one with the ground. He placed four more of them at a strategic distance from each other, so that the explosion of one would not set off the others, then he looked at his work one final time and with a satisfied nod to himself, he rejoined the group, "All done!". "Good job, lad. Your father will be so proud of you when he knows of it. And so am I", Lothar praised him, patting his back with a smile and Anomen couldn't help feeling a twinge of jealousy mixed with sadness at that sight.
The Helmite let out a bitter sigh, then turned to Margaret Dawn, "Now we need to lure the enemy to us, my love". "Oh, that's not a problem", she smirked, "Edwin, could you announce our presence to them, please?". The Thayan beamed and nodded eagerly, "With pleasure", he said and cast a huge Fireball that landed close to one of the buildings, incinerating three Drow warriors in one go. "Rivvin!", a Drow shouted and his tone was actually happy: finally they could fight!
Aerie dissolved the invisibility that covered the army and they all marched forward, but kept themselves just a couple of feet from the bridge, waiting for the prey to fall into the trap. "Come on, one more step…", the blonde bomber muttered under his breath and cheered when his first explosive trap blew up, "Yeah! That's true art!". The explosion took down not only the unfortunate warrior who stepped on the trap, but also the two companions behind him that were a bit too close, scattering blood and pieces of burnt flesh everywhere.
At that gruesome sight, some of the Drow paused, uncertain, but those behind them pushed them forward, intending to use their companions as stepping stones to get safely to the enemy. Four blasts later, twelve more warriors were dead and the rest moved forward, but many were taken down by the arrows raining down on them courtesy of Lothar's rangers. Still, the two armies clashed at last and it was a bloody fight, full of struggle and pain and blood spilt by both parties involved. Eleven of Lothar's men were killed and even Aerie fell when a Drow managed to get close enough to impale her on his spear.
Imoen gasped in horror and let out a loud wail, Minsc's eyes widened with shock and rage, but Meg's voice cut through the air like the cracking of a whip, sharp and cold. "Don't lose your focus! We'll bring them all back later, now just kill these bastards and stop whining!", she shouted, her mace swinging down on the head of her opponent with enough force to shatter his skull as her eyes glowed golden. Her companions were a bit scared by her attitude, yet they did as they were told, fighting with renewed determination: the sooner the battle ended, the sooner they could return to the Pocket Plane and bring back their dear Avariel friend.
oxoxoxoxoxo
Rivvin = humans (Drow). It's the plural of 'rivvil'
Author note: the blond bomber in this chapter is not Deidara, but his son Daichi. I have this project for a Naruto AU where Deidara lives, but it's still in the embryonic stage, so it's not gonna be posted in the near future. But who knows, maybe one day…