Mantol-Derith

Jhelnae took a deep breath and let it out in an impatient sigh. The air was cool, heavy with earthy dampness and laced with the tang of mineral and rock - smells so prevalent in the Underdark she'd grown accustomed to them after more than a month down here. She would not have even noticed if not for the blindfold over her eyes, which heightened her sense of smell. The dark cloth also covered her ears, but she heard well enough through the thin fabric to hear the whisper of a voice ahead, though she could not make out the words. She rolled her eyes even though they were closed and under a blindfold.

"By all that dances," she murmured. "Why is he whispering? Doesn't he believe we don't care about the passphrases into Mantol-Derith?"

"Apparently not," Aleina answered, nearby and off to the left. "Though he would probably say orders are orders."

The he they spoke of was Aligor Moonwhisper, leader of the Zhentarim they traveled with, who would be up front, speaking the secret words to both open the hidden doors into Mantol-Derith and disarm any defensive magic protecting them.

"Didn't I say these two should be gagged as well as blindfolded?" The Zhentarim crossbow specialist, Lenora, said from just behind her.

She held Jhelnae by the shoulder to guide her along while the half-drow was blindfolded. The mercenary was from far off Chessenta, across the Sea of Fallen Stars, the great inner sea to the east, and spoke with the lilting cadence of her homeland.

"Look," the aasimar said. "It isn't easy to walk blindfolded and it's needless. Like Jhelnae said, we don't want to learn the way into Mantol-Derith."

"Twice you've worn blindfolds," The Zhentarim scout, Saliyra, said. "At the beginning and here at the end. So, count yourself fortunate, noble daughter, and stop complaining."

The woman who guided the blindfolded Aleina was also Chessentan and spoke with a similar accent as her companion. For some reason she and Lenora had adopted the pet name of 'noble daughter' for the aasimar who, predictably, hated it.

"Will you stop calling me that," Aleina sighed. "You know I don't like it."

"I know," Saliyra assured.

It was true they'd worn blindfolds only twice. The first in conjunction with a teleportation spell so they wouldn't know where they entered the Underdark and again here for the entry into Mantol-Derith. Other than that, they'd journeyed as normal.

A sound came, the scraping of stone sliding across stone.

"Is that the door?" the Sky asked. "Can't I just take the smallest peek."

Something furry brushed against Jhelnae's right hand at that moment which she guessed to be the blind swish of tabaxi tail.

"That is the door," a male voice, Primwin, confirmed. "Alas, I can't let you take a peek. But it is a marvel. Indiscernible from the tunnel wall when closed."

He was the one guiding the blindfolded Sky.

"I bet I could find it," the tabaxi said.

"I'd take that wager," Primwin said. "The duergar constructed it and I have a hard time finding it even knowing it's there."

"Dwarf work?" Eldeth asked from further away. "Then you most assuredly would not see it, Sky."

Any mention of a wager or a bet brought memories of poor Jimjar to Jhelnae. Lenora, thankfully, pushed against her shoulder and guided her forward, distracting her from remembering the murdered deep gnome as she last saw him on the shores of the Dark Lake - neck sliced and innards spilled.

"Oh, come on, Primwin," Sky wheedled as they walked. "You're a pirate. Pirates don't follow rules. Just one eye free so I can see the secret door."

"Former pirate," her guide said by way of answer.

A yelp sounded accompanied by someone stumbling.

"Careful now," Saliyra chided. "There is a slight lip at the door. Wouldn't want noble daughter to stub a toe. Or trip again and run face first into a wall."

"Stop with the noble daughter," Aleina said. "Or you can find someone else to heal you the next time you're ambushed by a roper."

"It was only scratches and bruises," the Zhentarim scout said dismissively. "But if you insist, I can have Iandro attend to such things next time. Or perhaps… Kuhl."

"If he is ready at hand, why not?" the aasimar replied, voice slightly flat but not rising to the obvious bait. "Or Iandro. It makes no difference as long as injuries are taken care of."

Iandro was the Zhentarim healer and Jhelnae could think of several reasons why she'd choose Kuhl or Aleina over him for healing magic, not the least of which was him being a silent brooding sort. He rarely smiled and never laughed, not that she'd witnessed anyway. He must be some sort of priest but was so tight-lipped on the matter she didn't know what god he worshiped, or if he was even a priest at all. When he did speak it was usually to his even more mysterious companion.

Lhytris.

Just thinking of the man sent a creeping shiver along the nape of Jhelnae's neck. She didn't understand why Kuhl immediately paired up with him when they'd been called upon to choose guides while blindfolded, but it had saved her from possibly ending up as Lhytris's partner, for which she was grateful. He looked like a walking corpse - ashen skinned and bloodless in pallor. She even found the way he rested unsettling. Once she needed to wake him for his shift on watch and instead of laying down he'd just been sitting there, whispering to himself. Their return to the Underdark brought the return of the nightmares as well, at least when they couldn't find a place to camp away from the faerzress, but this was something far different than fitful sleep. His trance had been so deep she'd been forced to snap her fingers in front of his face to get his attention.

She breathed a sigh and shook her head slightly to clear these unfair thoughts and feelings from her mind. Lhytris looked strange and acted strange and was clearly afflicted with a malady or curse. But other than that, he'd given her no reason to fear or mistrust him in over a month of traveling together and neither had Iandro.

The grinding scrape of stone sliding on stone sounded from behind them followed by the thud of something heavy settling into place. A slight current of air felt against the skin stopped, the secret door must now be closed. Jhelnae reached for the blindfold, but Lenora batted her hand away.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lenora admonished. "No one said to remove that."

"We're past the door," the half-drow said. "We never agreed to wear blindfolds for the entire time in Mantol-Derith."

"You're past one door," the Zhentarim crossbow woman snapped back.

"How many more?" Aleina asked.

"Only one more," Saliyra answered. "But even if it were a dozen, those blindfolds would remain in place until we were inside. As was agreed."

"Another secret door?" Sky asked, voice excited. "Could I take the smallest peek at this…"

"No!"

The two Chessentans cut off the tabaxi in unison with their one word answer.

Silence settled as they continued forward, broken only by the sound of their breathing and the step and scrape of their boots against the unseen rocky terrain as the non-Zhentarim members of their group felt their way along. The ground seemed smoother past the first secret door and their pace quickened. They traveled in this manner a fair distance, though it was hard to judge distance walking blind, then Lenora tugged Jhelnae to a halt.

"The second door," the crossbow woman breathed over her shoulder in explanation.

From ahead whispers could barely be heard. That would be Aligor, again speaking passphrases to unlock this secret door and disarm its defensive magic. Stone audibly scraped across stone at the command of his indiscernible words. Once the grinding stopped, the Chessentan led Jhelnae through, which involved a turn to the right. They stopped at what the half-drow perceived as the other side and waited for the second door to settle back into place behind them with a thud.

"There," Lenora said, releasing her grip. "Done and done. Welcome to Mantol-Derith."

The half-drow took this as permission to remove her blindfold and wasted no time reaching for it. This time no one batted her hand away. She looked around. So far, the much anticipated Mantol-Derith was a bit of a disappointment. They stood in a tunnel, around twenty feet across, that looked like many others they'd traveled in the Underdark.

One Zhentarim member of the group, however, seemed very glad to be on this side of the two heavy, solid, secret doors.

"Thank the silver chalice," Nero Kelvane breathed. "I need a drink. Let's get to the enclave and have one. Also, we shouldn't just get Ghazrim's ring and leave again. I, for one, could use a break from the demon-infested Underdark."

The dark-haired young man stood just behind Eldeth, having served as the dwarf's guide while she was blindfolded. Kelvane, as he preferred to be called, was the fifth son of a Tethyrian nobleman, born as a result of his father's third marriage. Having little prospect of inheritance, he'd tried his hand at what he claimed were the typical professions of the excess children of nobility - dowry seeking, priestly acolyting, apprentice wizarding, and squiring - before becoming a mercenary. He'd followed the knight he'd squired for into this last profession, Aligor Moonwhisper.

Aligor might not be a knight or paladin anymore, but in his crimson plate armor with shoulder pauldrons crafted to mimic the stylized horse heads of chess pieces, he still looked the part. Handsome and well built, he would look very dashing were it not for the artificer crafted goggles strapped to his head and Jhelnae knowing that any woman trying to gain his affection would be competing with a ghost. She'd learned the story of his fall from knighthood, first at King Bruenor's banquet in Gauntlgrym through Lord Eravien Haund and later again in whispered bits and pieces during their journey through the Underdark in conversations with Kelvane.

Aligor had fallen in love with a beautiful tiefling mercenary captain under his father's employ, Aridayne. Apparently hiring someone with devilish ancestry was one thing, having a relationship and proposing marriage to her, quite another. Forced to decide between love and disinheritance, the young knight chose the former and joined her mercenary company. For a time, they were happy, journeying together wherever whim and contracts took them. Then she tempted fate one too many times and was killed, falling in a bandit ambush along with most of the company she'd forged through sheer pluck and charisma. Some of the Zhentarim Jhelnae traveled with now were the vestiges of that company - Aligor, Kelvane, Lenora, and Saliyra. The rest of the fallen knight's story even his former squire didn't know for certain, but speculation and rumor said Aligor made a deal with some hellish entity to get revenge on the killers of his lost love. Having seen the blazing infernal glyphs and runes on the dark iron sword he bore, along with the infernal powers he wielded, Jhelnae believed it.

"For once Kelvane is right," Gorath Torn grunted. "A drink and a break sound good to me."

The former gladiator, like all the Zhentarim, wore a pair of bulky goggles over his eyes. Built like a bear, he made the cloaked and cowled Diarnghan in front of him, who he'd been guiding, look small in comparison.

"Even just getting to the main cavern and taking off these goggles will be a relief," Saliyra said. "They give me a headache."

"Well that explains the moodiness," Aleina said in an audible aside.

"Not all of us were born with dark vision, noble daughter," the Zhentarim scout growled back.

"Rest and relax, but don't have too many drinks," Aligor said. "We retrieve the ring that shows the way to Gravenhollow from Ghazrim and grab some sleep, but then we're off to the stone giant library."

Collective groans followed his statement.

"The sooner done with this mission the sooner each of you receive whatever Davra promised in exchange for coming down here," the former knight reminded. His goggled gaze found Kelvane, Lenora, and Saliyra in turn. "One last job. Then you'll have enough to retire from this life."

"You mean we'll have enough," Lenora said, a hint of sharpness in her tone.

"I meant we'll," Aligor assured.

But his tone didn't sound convincing to Jhelnae and the glance the two Chessentan women shared showed they doubted him as well.

"And time is not on our side," Kuhl said. "Unless I miss my guess the further demons spread through the Underdark the more impossible it will be to find a way to banish them all back to the abyss."

"Also travel seems to be getting more and more dangerous," Dairnghan said from the depths of his hood. "Our trip down here was more difficult than even the caravan from Blingdenstone to Gauntlgrym."

"Which was a brutal enough journey," Eldeth grunted, shaking her head.

"Those are more reasons to make our stay here short," Aligor agreed, nodding

"Well then," Sky said, golden eyes bright and tail lashing. "Let's stop talking about this Mantol-Derith place you are all so secretive about and finally see it!"

She made a shooing gesture to indicate they should move along.

The former knight smiled and gave the sniff of a laugh.

"Does anything daunt that tabaxi curiosity, Sky?" he asked with an inquisitive cock of the head. "Because apparently even a very tiring journey through a demon plagued Underdark does not."

"If there is anything that does," Jhelnae answered for her friend. "I haven't found it yet."

But she spoke to Aligor's armored back as he already led the way down the tunnel, away from the closed secret door that looked like a dead-end even to the half-drow's keen dark vision enhanced eyes. A weak golden light appeared ahead once they rounded a corner and the Zhentarim collectively increased their pace, wasting no time in stripping off their goggles with sighs of relief. Rhianne next to the half-drow responded with a sigh of her own and reached under her cowl. In contrast to the humans of their group, she and Diarnghan would be donning the gnome crafted goggles they wore to protect their light sensitive eyes.

A large cavern opened up overhead as they walked, changing their tunnel into a trench, perhaps fifty feet in depth, and the rocky ground now held a sheen of wetness. Golden illumination refracted through misty air above, reflecting off the crystals embedded in the ceiling from some unseen light source outside the rift they traveled, or more likely light sources judging from the brightness. The sound of cascading water echoed down to them and Jhelnae flinched as a drop of water struck her forehead as she stared upward, one of many periodic drips falling from gathered condescension on the ceiling stalactites. Presently the half-drow realized she wasn't in a trench, but in a ravine carved by some rushing watercourse that had dried up or been diverted. A stone bridge spanned the rift and beyond that, on the ground, lay a grit covered shattered crystal platform. Two other smaller zurkhwood platforms were actually closer, if less eye-catching. The pair of geared tracks running up the trench walls made their purpose clear - some sort of lift system.

"What's that?" Sky asked, pointing at the shattered crystal one in the middle.

"An old magical device…" Aligor started to explain.

Then he stopped as the boom of metal against stone thrummed through the cavern, echoing down to them from the ceiling.

"What's that?" the former knight asked, unwittingly mimicking the tabaxi's question.

His blue eyes narrowed as he gazed upward in inquiry, blinking as an errant drip from a stalactite splattered against the brown skin of his upturned face. No one answered. A listening silence settled until another clash of metal against stone thundered.

"I can fly up and find out," Aleina offered.

Kuhl responded before Jhelnae with the same answer she would have given.

"We should stay together," he said.

"All I want is a drink and a break," Kelvane complained under his breath as another chiming thwack rang out. "Is that too much to ask?"

The former squire shook his head in frustration. Blows came with frequency now with an irregular, periodic cadence - thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, a pause for a beat where the roar of cascading water took over, and then the cycle began anew.

"It sounds like it is coming from the left side of the rift," Rhianne said.

The darklings, who could envelop an area in magical darkness to take away their opponent's sight, had an affinity for pinpointing sound.

"We're going up," Aligor said.

Impressively, he did not take long to marshal his thoughts and start issuing orders.

"Two groups," he said. "Kelvane take the others up this lift. I'll take our group up one further down."

It took no explanation to know he meant non-Zhentarim by 'others' as that distinction had evolved during their travels together."

'We don't want to be bunched up," he said. "Or too spread out. Or be on opposite sides of the trench from each other. Can you climb the wall?"

This question was directed Lhystris. The ashen skinned man stared at the trench wall as the chiming booms sounded. His gaze seemed unfocused, far away rather than looking for handholds, yet he answered quickly.

"Yes," he said, and the way he rasped that one word chilled Jhelnae's blood.

"Then go back the way we came and do so," Aligor ordered, "Find shadows and hide in ambush in case we need you. But kill no one unless I say so. We don't want to be the ones who break the peace of Mantol-Derith."

"Reap no souls," Iandro added as some sort of mysterious translation to the command.

Lhystris nodded, flipped his gray hood over his head, so frayed and dirt stained it looked more like a burial shroud robbed from a tomb than a garment of the living, then silently retraced their steps.

"I can climb up too," Sky said, golden eyes studying the rift wall.

"Don't run off, Sky," Jhelnae said. "Like Kuhl says, we should stay together."

"What about demons?" Lenora asked, as she unslung her crossbow then locked and loaded it.

The speed and ease she did this bespoke of long practice and experience, as did the way she hoisted the heavy weapon to ready position. Saliyra, next to her, did likewise with her smaller crossbow. Though she moved with slightly less speed the surety in her manner still showed extreme familiarity. Seeing them without their goggles made Jhelnae think, not for the first time, of their resemblance to each other, both dark eyed, dark haired, and dusky skinned. At first the half-drow thought they were sisters, but they had different family names - Haskur and Dalnor - and they were not cousins, Aleina once asked them that. Then again, they probably just possessed features common to Chessentans. They were the only humans from that region Jhelnae had ever met.

"If demons have infiltrated Manto-Derith," Aligor answered. "You know what to do."

"Stick them my Iron Tooth," Gorath growled.

He brandished his broad bladed glaive as he skirted the remnants of the shattered crystal platform with the rest of his group to another set of zurkhwood lifts further down the trench.

"Come on," Kelvane said. "Up we go."

Once they all stepped on the platform the former squire pulled down a lever on a metal box set in a corner and the lifting mechanism clacked to life. The platform below their feet shuddered then pulled them slowly upward with a jingle of chain and a spinning of gears. Some sort of magic must power it.

The companions readied themselves, Jhelnae and Aleina conjuring their warding armor while Kuhl unslung his shield. It was more like a buckler, having once been owned by a deep gnome, though it had been oversized for him. No dents marred its bronze-colored surface and the spiraling flaming serpent decorating it so far survived unscathed despite battles against oozes, demons, and whatever previous owners fought.

"Stay behind me," the half-elf ordered as they ascended. "And Sky, watch our backs."

"You may have fancy dragon scaled armor crafted by a silver haired enchantress of Waterdeep," Eldeth grunted. "But dwarf steel is its equal. Stay behind us."

She set the silver warhammer gifted to her by Sir Lanniver at the banquet in Gauntlgrym on a mailed shoulder in resting readiness. The shield she bore, unlike Kuhl's, was dented and scored, the painted Delzoun symbol of a horizontal double headed hammer in a triangle with three sparkling gems so scratched it was difficult to discern anymore.

"Well then," Diarnghan said, voice mild. "I'll have no trouble loosing over your shoulder and at least my lower half will be protected."

"So, the important bits," Rhianne observed, following the tone of banter.

"Ha!" the dwarf barked. "Mind one of your arrows doesn't take off an ear. And you're welcome for me protecting your mate's important bits, Rhianne."

A faint smile upturned Jhelnae's lips and some of her tension eased. But their heads were now nearing the top of the ridge and the group went into a ready stillness.

The clanging booms of metal against stone had continued ringing through the cavern as they prepared and traveled upward in the same cadence - thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, pause - on the ascent. Sky spoke before the half-drow could see what waited for them on their side of the rift.

"Tents are set up on the other side," she whispered. "There are lamp posts with light spells cast on them. I think it's a market. It reminds me of the Trader's Grotto in Blingdenstone, but this one is empty and abandoned."

"It's a market," Kelvane confirmed. "Our stalls and the stalls of the drow. The tents protect goods from water dripping from the ceiling. But where is everyone?"

Presently the half-drow could just peer over the edge of the trench and her field of vision grew as the platform clattered up to its final vertical position. She saw much the same thing as what the tabaxi described with key differences - the tents and stalls were destroyed and there were corpses.

Not humanoid corpses, but the dead bodies of beasts of the Underdark. A fallen leather tent did not fully cover the carcass of a giant riding lizard and a couple of slain steeders, monstrously large, furred spiders the duergar used as mounts, were also present. Market place goods were strewn among the ruins of the stalls and tents, including a few scattered gemstones the svirfneblin mined and traded, sparkling in the golden light of the enchanted lamp posts amidst the debris. Behind the destroyed market was a pool fed by a waterfall cascading from a crack in the ceiling. Over the roar of falling water sounded the metal on stone clack, clack, clack, clack from beyond the pool and off to the left.

"Methinks the peace of Mantol-Derith is already broken," Eldeth breathed.

"These are the duergar and deep gnome stalls," Kelvane said, tone hushed as if he spoke to himself. "What happened here?"

"It wasn't demons," Kuhl observed as he stepped off the platform, shield raised.

He was probably right. Demons would have added a vindictive savagery to the destruction of the market. The giant riding lizard and steeder corpses would be mutilated as well as slain. Jhelnae and the others followed the half-elf's lead and left the platform, Eldeth and Kelvane advancing to move alongside him and the half-drow, aasimar, tabaxi, and the darklings behind. Jhelnae held out her hand and her abyssal blade misted into existence, coalescing into her grip.

Another platform had delivered Aligor and his Zhentarim to the top of the trench and they now stepped off it as well. Presently it was revealed the market was not abandoned as it appeared. A pair of small forms, blurry and seeming to blend into the rocky ground they ran across, came sprinting out from under a fallen tent. Two enlarged duergar brandishing warpicks winked into sight and gave chase.

"Help! Help!" One of the blurred forms screamed in Undercommon as it ran.

The voice was unmistakably svirfneblin and they must be using their innate camouflage magic to blur and blend into rock.

"Warning bolts," Aligor ordered.

The crossbows of the Chessentans sounded and missiles flew, hissing their whirring passage just over the outside shoulders over the two pursuing duergar. The enlarged dwarves skidded to a halt and glared. Taking advantage of the situation the svirfneblin scurried away, dropping their blurring magic and solidifying into sight. Jhelnae saw them start towards her group, the closest one, then their gazes found her at the rear and their eyes widened. They changed direction and scrambled behind the Zhentarim instead.

Apparently they'd rather put their trust and faith in a group that didn't include a drow over one that did.

"Ye dare loose on us!" one of the duergar roared. "Have ye Zhents taken the side of the svirfneblin then?"

His yells echoed through the cavern and the ringing thwacks of metal on stone suddenly stopped. The absence of the by now familiar cadence of strokes was ominous.

"What is happening?" Aleina asked in an urgent whisper.

She and Sky did not speak Undercommon. The half-drow gave a slight shake of her head in response and kept her attention focused on unfolding events.

"We take no sides," Aligor said in Undercommon. "Only seek to maintain… re-establish the peace of Mantol-Derith."

"If that is so then ye'll help us kill these faithless oathbreakers," the duergar said. "Since its founding three rules have held sway here - no stealing, no disguising trash for quality, and no magic to charm for better prices. Their chief negotiator broke that first and most sacred of rules, stealing from one of our own. But were the svirfneblin willing to let her suffer the doom of thieves? No. And duergar were slain in repelling their rescue party. It was they, therefore, that broke the peace."

"Lies!" one of the deep gnomes shrieked. Now behind a large armed group he no longer cowered and the pointing finger he jabbed at the duergar shook with rage. "You kidnapped her! Snuck invisible right into our enclave and stole her away without even so much as an accusation. It was you who broke the peace."

"The fighting started from a theft?" Rhianne asked. "What was stolen?"

She cast her voice with a calm, hypnotic inflection which made Jhelnae wish she knew the answer so she could provide it.

"A black gemstone," the duergar speaker said. He seemed surprised he answered and shook his head as if to clear it, then his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Who is it under that cloak who asks me questions?"

"I am named Rhianne," the darkling bard said. "Rhianne Dubh Catha."

"Well, Rhianne," the gray dwarf growled. "Rhianne Dubh Catha, did ye not hear me before say that one of the three rules of Mantol-Derith is to not use charming magic to influence others? The punishment for breaking that rule is death."

Near Jhelnae, Diarnghan stirred at this threat to his wife and Kuhl too shuffled protectively in front of her. But the darkling bard answered calmly with the same tranquility inspiring voice likely laced with enchantment.

"What I heard was 'no magic to charm for better prices'. Do we haggle over goods or am I a stranger trying to learn the truth of a dispute to better arbitrate?"

"Strangers," the duergar said. "Should stay out of the affairs of others."

"Lady Rhianne," the svirfneblin breathed in surprise. "That would make the rest of you… those that fought the Pudding King."

His gaze went to each of the companions resting last on Jhelnae, she favored him with a slight nod.

"Help us!' the deep gnome cried when he had confirmed his hope. "You have to help us! They've kidnapped Yanthra and are torturing her! We tried to rescue her but..."

"We're not strangers," Aligor said, stepping in front of the svirfneblin and gesturing for silence. "We're trading partners. Lucrative ones. Who buys more of your iron works than the Zhentarim? In the spirit of that profitable relationship, will you not let us help? And the first thing we need to do is learn the truth of what happened."

"Ye have been told the truth of what happened," the duergar said. The former knight's words had found their mark and he sounded less combative. "Their chief negotiator stole from Krimgol a black gem, bigger than a fist to hear him tell it. He took it from her for appraisal and she would not return it and she will not reveal where she hid it. And that is where matters lay."

"Ask him if it would help if we found this black gem," Sky said, speaking Common from the surface.

"What black gem?" Aleina asked, brow wrinkling in confusion. "Wait, how do you know what is going on? You know Undercommon now?"

"A rock translated for me," Sky said with a dismissive wave, golden eyed gaze focused on Rhianne.

"A rock translated for you?" Jhelnae asked.

The half-drow and aasimar shared a perplexed and bewildered look.

"A rock named Golorr," the tabaxi answered. "Ask him."

That last insisting demand was directed at Rhianne.

"My friend here wants to know," the darkling bard said hesitantly in Undercommon, all traces of smoothness or enchantment gone from her voice. "If it would help if we found this black gem?"

"It would," the gray dwarf said. "But how can the furred one help with that? Does she possess some sort of mind magic? I warn her, having suffered so long under slavery to the ithilids, we do not favor the practitioners of mind magic."

"Not mind magic," Sky said. "Detective work."

"What is this thing," the duergar said after Rhianne translated. "Detective work?"

"The art of finding things," Sky answered, tail lashing. "Solving mysteries."

"You still have the Stone of Golorr," Aleina hissed in a low whisper. "We told you to give that to Laeral! It's dangerous."

Jhelnae suddenly understood. The translating rock was the sentient artifact known as the Stone of Golorr, which Lord Neverember, former Open Lord of Waterdeep, used to hide his embezzled hoard. And she distinctly remembered telling Sky, along with Aleina, to give it Laeral Silverhand for safekeeping.

"Did you?" the tabaxi said, blithely. "I must have forgotten."

During the revelations of the Stone of Golorr and Sky's convenient forgetfulness, Rhianne had translated for the tabaxi and the duergar had been conferring.

"In the goodwill we bear to our long-time trade partners, the Zhentarim" the gray dwarf said, speaking slowly at first. "We will try this strange surface magic ye speak of to try and find Krimgol's stolen property. This 'detective work'. But other than that, we make no other promises of releasing our prisoner or granting clemency for her theft."

Following this pronouncement, he made a slashing hand gesture and four of his kind, armored, wielding warpicks, and magically enlarged as he was, shed their invisibility and appeared.

"Ye did not have us as outnumbered as ye thought," the gray dwarf said, a cruel smile on his lips and a hardness in his expression. "And we'd have had the advantage of surprise. Ye best remember that all is never as it appears with us and this surface magic ye speak of, this 'detective work', had best not be a fool's folly."

"Iandro?" Aligor said in response.

"All is done now, Lhystris," the supposed priest called out.

The ashen skinned man, still hooded in his dirt stained and frayed gray cloak, seemed to materialize out of the shadow of the duergar who had been speaking and sheathed a pair of daggers.

"Your count," Iandro said, the grimness in his voice matching the gray dwarf's. "Seems to have been off as well."

The duergar's smile broadened, becoming less threatening and more bemused.

"Ye Zhentarim have always been worthy trading partners," he said. "Full of surprises. Mayhap this 'detective work' will yield a vein of unlooked-for ore afterall."

Long time no posting! I know. I'm sorry.

This one was a bear for me. I imagine it is a very hard one to run in game as well. I've read some play throughs people posted for some inspiration and it seems the Zhentarim do not really play a part in Mantol-Derith. They basically guide the party there and say, "Well, you're here now. Have at it." Makes sense game play. But in a novelization I found it really challenging as to why they would just turn the party loose. It is *their* place of trade after all and so they have a vested interest in it.

Which meant I then had to start thinking up backstories for the Zhents. For the obvious female names I was like, "Look Aleina, you've got a ton of female friends. What about I make them not get along with you? That would give them their own voice." And she was like, "That is a great idea! Yes! Give them their own voice!" So I started with the idea that they were very territorial and didn't like this whole group of women suddenly joining their group and Aleina came screeching back into my head. "What do you think you are doing? I said give them their own VOICE not make them territorial and petty." So I cheated and basically gave them the same backstory which will hopefully weave well into the narrative.

For Aligor... I watch a lot of anime with my daughter, and she just will rave about all sorts of tragic back stories the writers have contrived. Frankly I'm a bit sick of tragic backstories and when I created Kuhl, Aleina, Jhelnae, and Sky I had a rule of no huge dramatic backstories of dead parents, dead lovers, etc. But for Aligor I told myself I'd let myself play a bit in that trope. I think there will be some decent story beats because of it, but we'll see.

Then there were still *more* names to work with so I kept trying to come up with things that might lead to somewhere interesting further down the road. Again, hopefully it will pay off. I will be able to pare down the group in the future, but in the meantime, I'm stuck with 15 in this group. And while this is unwieldy in actual gameplay a DM would be potentially keeping track of 24 NPCs *beyond* the PCs and that doesn't include riding lizards and the shield guardian! So, I'm getting off easy, lol.