"Pain is just nature's way of saying, 'hey, you're alive!'"
—Ares, Xena: Warrior Princess, Forget Me Not
VICONIA
Viconia was the only one still awake and sat at the bar speaking to Hendak. Everyone else had gone to sleep. The gruff northerner had looked upon her with suspicion but was polite and deferential toward females- perhaps instinctively- and knew better than to insult her. She asked him for his tale since he seemed to be on Aphra's good side, and those who allied themselves with her jabbress were of her concern. Viconia was not unsympathetic toward his plight, but it seemed a terribly common story to her ears. Loss was common in the Underdark. She too had lost her entire family to a different kind of violence.
Hendak was also not completely unattractive to Viconia, and it had been some time since she had indulged herself. He was perhaps polite or unaware of her intentions but seemed keen on keeping their conversation going,. For a rivvil, he was surprisingly tolerable.
Aphra interrupted them, however, and came to sit next to Viconia at the bar and nodded at Hendak. Hendak diverted his attention and let the two of them speak in privacy, despite Viconia feeling slightly miffed that she had so easily lost his attention. "I've just had a very strange day," Aphra reported, and motioned for Bernard to come by and give her another glass of mead. Though Aphra had taken a liking to it only recently, Viconia could remember her fondness for it always. Viconia had returned to water, not wishing to lose her senses so much as stay awake and on alert. She had not needed her reverie, but Aphra operated much the same way despite not being an elf. Viconia had never known the nature of her jabbress, and this had not bothered her, even if she knew it bothered Aphra. Still, she wondered what it was exactly that kept Aphra running on so little sleep.
"And?" Viconia gestured for Aphra to continue and explain why Viconia should care about it.
"A woman approached me and Aerie on the roof and told me to come speak to her boss in the graveyard about something shady, so I snooped around the graveyard, but they'd already sneaked off," she listed on her fingers, "then we found a man in debt who'd been strangled and buried alive, and we had to dig him out, and not to mention getting that job for the acting troupe. What else happened today? Oh, I met Aerie, and found a genie—" As Aphra rambled over everything that had happened in the last twenty or so hours, Viconia's mind got stuck on the fact that she'd found a man buried alive in the graveyard.
Sometimes, Viconia would feel the walls around her, so close she couldn't move. Sometimes the dark would close in oppressively, worse than it ever had when she had spent her time turned to stone in the Underdark. Sometimes, she would wake up with her hands on fire and the taste of dirt on her tongue and the sound of her own heartbeat pounding against the drum of her ears.
Viconia pursed her lips and purged the images from the front of her mind. She had not asked Shar to remove them, although that was in her mistress' power. Instead she had kept them, wishing to remember the sins of the rivvin and the satisfaction of their deaths. It had been as much a sacrifice to Shar as it was to herself.
"Viconia?" Aphra repeated, and Viconia looked to her with startled red eyes.
"Yes?" the drow woman queried back.
"You looked distant there for a moment," Aphra explained with a concerned expression. It seemed out of place for her gray, slitted eyes, but they perhaps seemed more round in that moment - as if the pupils intended to swallow all the firelight around them. "I meant to ask you about something, actually, but it can wait if you want to rest," her jabbress offered.
"I will stay awake, I think," Viconia offered, "if that is your wish, you may keep me company."
"Every time I fall asleep something horrendous seems to happen, or I travel in time," said Aphra. "I'll sleep when I die. That does remind me what I came here to ask you about - can Shar help me with any missing memories I have?"
"It is not within my mistress' power to give you foreknowledge of your own future," Viconia said immediately.
Aphra shook her head. "That's not—I mean, I went to a temple, two different temples actually, and both priests said something about Shar being able to help me with my memories. Am I missing memories? Would I know if I was? Kelddath in Beregost did an augury and said something about, well, I don't remember off-hand but something."
"Your memory is selective," Viconia noted - something Imoen had once pointed out and something Viconia had come to notice herself. "And you cannot even recall what the matter is about, let alone what else you have forgotten."
Aphra pouted in frustration. "Can you help me or not?"
Viconia chuckled at her young abbil's ire. "I will try. I can tell you that your sister asked for a similar thing, back in Baldur's Gate, before you returned to Candlekeep."
Aphra's eyes widened. "Candlekeep? So we do go back? When?"
"You will know yourself in time," Viconia trusted. "And naturally, this was not information you shared with me. I departed from your company shortly thereafter, besides. Minsc was beside you then, perhaps you should ask the great oaf - of course there is no guarantee of a straight answer with that addled one. Give me time to rest and pray, and I will ask my mistress for a spell to help you with your memories."
"Thanks, Vi," Aphra smiled. Viconia was not fond of the nickname but tolerated it as it was something Aphra and Imoen had called her throughout their journey and reminded her how terribly young the girls truly were. Her jabbress was fearsome, but innocent in many ways still. So Viconia did not correct her and resigned herself to this moniker from the girl for the rest of their lives.
Aphra spent much of that night pestering Viconia with inane questions about their shared past - Aphra's future. Viconia answered what she could, though for her part Aphra seemed more concerned over matters Viconia would deem trivial. Did Garrick ever write that epic about their adventures? Where did Neera go? What was behind the Iron Crisis besides kobolds and bandits bad at leaving a paper trail? Some, like Neera's location, she did not know the answer to, for the wild mageling had departed their company to pursue her own interests after the events of the Shining Crusade. Aphra was curious about this as well, though Viconia could answer none of her pertinent questions, having lived on the periphery of these events and eschewed Aphra's company at the time.
Viconia was more the one keeping Aphra company as they stayed up well into the night, discussing her people and memories she had not thought to share of her family in some time. It did not put her in a bitter mood as she suspected, and she rather enjoyed the conversation and reminiscence. She even spoke of her younger brother, whose fate she did not know, but suspected was dead. It was a strange thing, to be the last living of an entire House and bloodline.
As morning broke, Aerie and Jaheira were up first. The little young elf and the surly half-elf could not have made an odder pair descending down the stairs, and Aerie for her part still stayed far away from Viconia. She seemed quite comfortable with Aphra most of all and sat down at Aphra's side when the two girls greeted each other as they would old friends. It was just as well - she did not care for the young one and thought Aphra rather silly for dragging the little clerical mage along with them, when Viconia and the mongrel Jaheira had plenty of spell-power between them. Aphra seemed determined to bring the young woman and that was that, and Viconia would not object so long as the elf continued to stay away from her and kept her stares to herself. Jaheira sat on the other side of Aerie and still seemed half-asleep, from the state of her braids.
Jaheira had yawned only once before Aphra started chatting away at her and Aerie - this time, with the beginnings of a plan for the day ahead in mind. Viconia only paid half a mind to this nonsense, and regretted it later, thinking perhaps if she had Aphra's gift of slipping through time, she might inhabit her past self and prevent the ensuing day from occurring.
They had entered the sewers of Athkatla by way of the Copper Coronet's secret passage and had been wandering about since trying to find answers to a strange and obscure riddle posed by a filthy pond. It could not have been a worse plan, Viconia thought as she watched Aphra digging through the guts of a carrion crawler in the filth of the sewers to try and harvest some of its innards. Why they bothered with such trivial matters was beyond Viconia, but Aphra was victorious once the puzzle was solved - never mind that it had been Aerie who had solved the riddles from the strange chamber they'd found adjacent to the sewers of Athkatla, where they were looking for an errant actor instead of leaving like Aphra had said. Jaheira, for her part, at least looked just as disgruntled as Viconia and even more restless from poor sleep. They had slain kobolds, slime, and otyugh all in pursuit of a damned riddle.
When what emerged from the pool at the end of their task was a talking sword, all Viconia could do was groan. She recalled that this - this tendency to get swept away in trivialities - was exactly what had driven her away from Aphra in the first place. More than once - which is more than should ever happen - Aphra had stumbled across someone in the wilderness conducting a mad experiment or being chased by gnolls. At one point she'd seen Aphra assist a terribly young rivvil necromancer into finding her undead cat that had fallen by a waterfall. No matter that Viconia herself had benefited from this strange penchant as that was how Aphra had met Viconia in the first place, when she was in the wilderness being chased by the rivvin law.
It was especially infuriating that Aphra decided to keep the sword after Aerie identified its capabilities - immunity to charm-spells and confusion, not insubstantial - but refused to use it herself, and instead handed it over to Minsc who happily dropped his inferior blade on the spot for his new talkative friend. Though, Viconia supposed, Minsc being the buffoon he was, he could certainly use such a weapon. She would not wish to fight him if he were confused in a battle by a mage's power.
"Aw, what? I thought we could be such a pair, sweetheart," the sword cajoled as Aphra handed it - him - off to Minsc.
"Don't worry Lilarcor, we'll still fight together," Aphra reassured him. "But I prefer smaller swords, with less broad a blade. You're more of a claymore, you know?"
"That's a low blow," the sword accused as Minsc held him up to the firelight and admired the way Lilarcor reflected it.
"Yes, a fine blade, for a mighty warrior! This is a great gift Aphra," Minsc grinned appreciatively and clapped Aphra on the back.
Aphra took the back-clap with aplomb and gave him one right back. "He's all yours, try to keep him sheathed and quiet if we're sneaking though," Aphra suggested. "If he's even capable of being quiet," she added with a wry grin.
"I know the word! Quiet as a mouse! Look!" The sword flashed light from within once, and then nothing happened for several seconds. Then, unable to resist talking, the sword spoke up, lighting up again. "See? I'm a saint."
"Did it occur to you that there was a reason this . . . Sword . . . Was imprisoned in the sewers behind a series of riddles where no one - in their right mind - would think to recover it?" Viconia spoke up, unable to hold herself back.
Aphra blinked. "Why would they do all that if they didn't want me to find it?" She shot back, confused.
Viconia slapped herself on the forehead and sighed. Her hair had been bound back in a braid and a few wisps around her face escaped as she shoved the length over her shoulder. "The sooner we leave this disgusting rivvin city, the better," she muttered.
"Now that we are quite finished with this matter," Jaheira said primly with an upturned nose, "may we move on?"
"Of course. We still haven't found where Mekrath is hiding out," Aphra reminded herself, more than everyone else.
"He most definitely is not here," Jaheira said primly.
"Y-yeah, probably not," Aerie agreed sheepishly.
"It's hard to hear what's going on over all the water," Aphra went on as if Jaheira hadn't said anything, "but I know the smell of spell components. Erm. If I can even smell anything over the sewage," she added, her nose wrinkling.
Jaheira sighed and said, "This Mekrath's domain is likely warded against such base detective measures. Viconia? Have you a spell of True Seeing?"
Viconia nodded. "Olath quar'valsharess, xal usstan kyorl xuil dosst solen," she prayed to Shar, and a darkness came to her vision that quickly abated. Everything appeared as it had been, although she knew that no illusion would hold on her sight now. "It would be better if I were to lead the way now," Viconia suggested. "My eyes can penetrate any darkness or spell no matter how deep or complex."
Aphra nodded in agreement., "You and Yoshimo should take the lead then, and I'll be close behind in case of trouble."
Viconia looked to the little Kara-Turan rivvil and nodded approvingly. His nerves did not fail him in combat, and he was as silent and unobtrusive as a good and subservient male ought to be. She did not mind this arrangement.
Viconia could not think up a more profound waste of time, since the venture had profited them all so little. One sword richer, and they still had yet to find the mage's hideout. Viconia was starting to wonder if she would ever get the smell out of her new boots or cloak. She had bound the latter around her neck to avoid its hem touching the sewage water but did not think her boots were entirely waterproof now that she was stepping in puddles of sewage.
"I will be disposing of these clothes upon our return," Viconia said with a scowl under her breath.
"Not fond of the smell? Don't worry, it only gets worse the further down you go," Yoshimo reassured her with a sly smile. She scowled at him with vehemence but did not otherwise respond.
They encountered a group of kobolds led by a rakshasa in rags, of all the unlikely candidates, and luckily Viconia's eyes spotted their targets moving in the darkness in infravision before the kobolds spotted them. They were successfully able to ambush the entire party and sent most of the kobolds running after Aphra killed the rakshasa in a scimitar-on-flaming-sword duel that Aphra handily won. Though they stripped the bodies, only the armor of their leader and the kobolds' fire arrows were of any use. Yoshimo tucked the sheaf of arrows into his quiver and Aphra lugged the armor in her pack for future identification and selling, since they lacked the time for Aerie to identify it at the moment.
They encountered nothing else, thankfully, before Viconia's eyes alighted on a warded structure embedded into the walls of the stone sewer. Wrinkling her nose, she pointed and said, "There. It is likely trapped beyond all measure, but it is there."
Yoshimo squinted and approached the wall. "I see," he noted as his eyes finally penetrated the illusion of an ordinary wall. "There is a door here."
"I don't see or smell anything," Aphra complained and sniffed.
"I can be a lockpick! Let me at it! I'll rip it apart!" Lilarcor cried out. Minsc hushed him with a glare.
"We are meant to be stealthy Lilarcor!" Minsc boomed, defeating the purpose of his statement entirely. He was, in turn, hushed by Jaheira. Boo gave out an indignant squeak.
"Oh! I-I see it now," Aerie piped up and pointed. She cast a spell with a quick murmuring, and the illusion over the door fell away, allowing Yoshimo to work on looking for traps more easily. Once the door was effectively disarmed, Yoshimo worked on the lock for but a few moments before the door unlocked itself and none other than the elven wizard Mekrath, a man with a hawk-nose, long black hair bound back in a braid, and a decidedly important and stuffy air about him poked his head out from behind the door and regarded them all archly. Yoshimo abruptly stood back up and reached for his katana.
"It's rude to break into a wizard's home, as I'm sure you well know by now," Mekrath greeted while they all scrambled for their weapons. "I doubt you'll be needing those. I take it you came here to rob me? No matter," he said dismissively and waved a hand in the air as a spell took hold over them with a prepared contingency. It did not extend over Viconia, such was her goddess' protection, but everyone else in the group froze in place all at once and couldn't make a sound. Their expressions became slackened, and a glassiness settled over their eyes. "It looks like I've inherited some new slaves, thank Tymora," Mekrath complimented himself and made another gesture. "Disarm yourselves," he commanded of the group, and everyone suddenly went into motion and threw down their weapons. Viconia did the same, and then kept very, very still.
Viconia kept her eyes lowered and unfocused, the perfect image of a subservient slave as the wizard wretch began to bark out orders at her companions. Aphra he had sent on a fetching quest as his familiar had run off with a valuable item elsewhere in the sewers. Aphra returned an hour or so later with the body of the familiar nonetheless, a hapless and limp imp's body, and the item in question in her possession - a mirror that Viconia noted had a magical aura. Aphra likely had not held back in speed or strength, and Mekrath was surprised she had returned within minutes of his request. The last thing they needed was for this Mekrath to have an inkling of Aphra's abilities, or nature as a child of Bhaal. Viconia knew she would have to act quickly, to secure their release.
The bard they were seeking was also a magically bonded slave of Mekrath's, apparently having been caught stealing a gem of power. No doubt the fools who had hired Aphra and her party had failed to mention this, or overtly disguised the truth by claiming the gem as their own. It was surely a magical artifact of some value, or they wouldn't be in such a predicament, but Viconia did not consider acquiring it to be her priority at the moment.
"You there," Mekrath commanded attention, and Viconia listened and stared down at his feet as he came to a stop in front of her. "Dhaerow," he addressed with contempt, and Viconia's spine straightened ever so slightly at the sound of the word. She steeled herself and schooled her expression into indifference - nonetheless, that was her people's word for themselves taken from the ancient elven tongue, something the elves used as a vitriolic insult. Viconia's people had reclaimed the word as their own. It did not belong to the elves. "What's a dhaerow priestess doing on the surface with, what's the word, rivvin?" Mekrath mused aloud. "Perhaps you are their mistress."
Viconia remained silent, awaiting her orders. There was nothing she would not do to survive, though the next words out of the wizard's mouth might determine how painful his death at her hands would be.
"Can't imagine the Spider-bitch is pleased about how low you've fallen," Mekrath said to himself, amused. "She's hardly the forgiving sort, even if she is a power-hungry demonic whore. I can only imagine what her hideous handmaids would love to do to you." Viconia internally raged, and prayed to Shar that the dread Spider-Queen had heard the insult and would shortly visit a terrible fate upon the wizard. If anyone deserved Lloth's wrath, it was him.
She would have tried to strangle him without delay, were it not for his watchful guard-dog, the tiefling. His exact heritage was unknown to Viconia, but if she had to guess, it was rakshasa. His pointed ears, strange claw-like markings upon his face, and silvered hair indicated something outer-planar in his heritage, and the blades at his side had a peculiar make about them that did not seem to Viconia to be of the Sword Coast. Though the tiefling wore no armor, he followed Mekrath as his shadow quietly and efficiently, with his hands never leaving his swords' hilts.
Viconia was certain he was no match for Aphra, however, but her jabbress was still charmed. She wondered how he had cast such a mass spell upon them and overcome so many defenses - if her innate dark elven heritage had not saved her . . . As she reflected, her eye caught the glint of a ring of ruby upon Mekrath's finger that was doubtlessly of immense worth. It occurred to her then that such an object, or indeed any of his other pieces of jewelry, might be the cause of her companions' plights.
"Regardless, I doubt I'll have any use for you beyond vain amusement," Mekrath mused, "so you there! Bald one. Kill her," he snapped his fingers and pointed at Aphra, directing her to Viconia.
Aphra walked over to Viconia quite casually and grabbed her by the throat and began to crush Viconia's neck in her mighty hand. Her expression did not twitch.
Viconia had a split second to decide and send a prayer to Shar for mercy - mercy for her jabbress, who would not forgive herself for such an action when she came to her senses. A flash of light settled into Aphra's eyes then, and their glassiness abated as Aphra came abruptly to her senses and saw what she was doing. Her fingers released Viconia immediately from their vise grip, sending Viconia to the ground while Aphra stared at her hands in horror.
The Sharran priestess coughed and pointed at Mekrath behind Aphra, who had already begun chanting another spell. Aphra flipped around and charged at the wizard with all her speed, but she was repelled into the stone walls of the lair with a crack of stone and a summons was immediately triggered, bringing mephits seemingly out of the woodwork that appeared to hassle them all.
Aphra was suddenly swarmed, but was quite effectively cutting down mephits in twos and threes with her flaming blade. She was distracted however by the tiefling, who had drawn his strange swords and charged her. Aphra defended herself from him without attacking, simply evading his blows as best she could. She would be of no help to Viconia until that was dealt with, so Viconia sent another prayer to Shar - this one in somewhat annoyed resignation as she no doubt would have to free the little pathetic elven girl first, who could then help her with the others. Mekrath was also to be dealt with, as a stoneskin had slid into place around his form and he sent flames at Viconia's face from his hands.
She dodged his scorching attack and ran for Aerie, taking care to slap the girl in the back of the head for good measure (and just because she could) before her dark mistress' spell slid into place and settled over Aerie with a flash of white light in her eyes, freeing her from the wizard's domination.
"Free the others!" Viconia commanded as Aerie came to her senses and stared at Viconia in terror. The girl flinched and nodded despite her obvious fear and Viconia had to push her down to avoid a lightning bolt from the wizard. It fizzled out over their heads on a bookcase and started a small fire on the shelf that only seemed to annoy the wizard, judging from his subsequent scoff.
She brought down divine strength into her mace at her side and left Aerie behind to contend with the others while she charged the wizard, doubting that the wretch had ever truly faced the might of Shar. Aerie would have to prove herself, here and now, or Viconia would not be able to tolerate her for much longer. She was much too skittish and frightful.
Viconia bore down on Mekrath and sent her divine hammer careening into his stoneskin. It bounced off, not that she hadn't expected that, but it did cause his concentration to falter through his next spell, rendering it useless as it fizzled in the air. Mekrath made an angry noise and backed away instinctively from Viconia.
She prayed to Shar for strength and protection as she wailed against him, hoping that eventually the blows would be enough to break through his protective layers. "El darthiir!" She screamed as she sent a series of blows against his stoneskin.
He managed to get a few spells off that slid off of Viconia's skin, due to her innate spell resistance. Eventually, she did hit flesh, and she kept hitting until he stopped moving.
"Uh, Viconia?" Came a call behind her.
Her hammer dissipated in her hands as she finally stopped hammering at Mekrath's gory form below her, and she turned to Aphra and Aerie who were regarding her with wide and careful eyes.
"I think he's dead," Aphra commented blithely, looking at the red mess that was Mekrath on the ground.
"Yes," Viconia agreed, and stole all the rings from Mekrath's fingers, because she could and they now belonged to her. She turned to Aerie, whose fearful, frightened expression now amused Viconia more than anything. Aerie had managed to free the others while she killed Mekrath, so Viconia could accept her. She extended her bloodstained hands full of the rings toward the little mage and asked, "Have you any idea what these enchantments might be? I suspect he had many."
Aerie took the rings carefully from Viconia's hands and held up one in particular. "I-I recognize this!" She declared, seeming excited. "Kalah had one that was similar . . . I think it's a ring of influence. It lets you cast powerful dominating spells over people. That must be how he charmed us!"
"We need protections against such measures in the future. Viconia, keep that ring," Jaheira declared, "and use it wisely."
She smirked and plucked the ring back out of Aerie's hands and put it on her finger. It was the golden one with the large central ruby that she had admired on the mage's hands. The other rings and materials would have to wait until they'd been identified and distributed to the others - Viconia for her part was satisfied with her loot. As an after-thought, she took the mirror from Mekrath's shelf that Aphra had retrieved for him, and determined it had to be useful beyond being a looking-glass. She stuffed it in her pack, wrapping her cloak around it.
The tiefling, meanwhile, rubbed at his eyes. He took Aphra's outstretched hand from his prone position on the ground, where she had knocked him in their combat. He seemed unaffected by wear, for Aphra had held her blows back significantly. He blinked at Aphra with eyes that were the color of obsidian orbs, and said, "This sparrow's vision is clear . . . My thoughts are my own! My—Mekrath is dead! And who are you, my lovely raven rescuer?"
Aphra stuttered foolishly, "Well, w-we came to rescue you, although that didn't go according to, uh, well, we didn't really have a plan beyond 'break into the wizard's abode' which, in hindsight we should've anticipated that would go awry. But you're free now! Let's get you back to Raelis Shai, yeah?"
"The gem!" The tiefling cried out as he reordered his thoughts, and then looked at Mekrath's sodden, broken form on the ground and kicked it once in distaste. "You have no idea what indignities that man made me endure," he said with a dour expression.
"I can imagine," Aphra commented lightly, rubbing at the scars on the sides of her head. Viconia raised an eyebrow. What had her young jabbress endured in Irenicus' dungeon? She wondered and wished violence on Irenicus for inflicting pain upon her abbil.
He said, "I am Haer'Dalis. Help me find the gem I came here for, and you will be well-rewarded by the leader of our acting troupe."
"That's actually why we're here - and you take your pick," Aphra suggested, gesturing around the wizard lab that was ready to be pilfered of every valuable item it had. "He's very dead now."
"You're welcome," Viconia offered magnanimously, folding her bloodstained arms.
"Thank you," Aphra expressed effusively, and Viconia shrugged off the praise, admiring the ring on her pointer finger. She had forgotten about the bloodstains on her hands, and for a moment felt as though she had traveled back in time just as her jabbress did - but to Viconia's own past, when she lived in a different world and had sacrificed so many to the spider goddess in instruction at Arach-Tinilith, such that their blood had spilled up her arms and hands. She was staring down at her own hands again, at the darthiir blood that coated them, and felt disconnected from herself for a moment.
"Did I miss all the action?" Lilarcor whined from Minsc's back, bringing Viconia back to her silly reality. "Come on people, this is what I'm built for!" He was ignored, and Viconia was once again annoyed.
"You nearly cut off my head, does that count?" Aphra offered.
The sword's metallic voice huffed and bemoaned, "No blood drawn, not even a wound! What am I good for?"
"I'm sure you'll get to fight someone besides me soon," Aphra tried to cheer him up.
"Minsc is glad we are free from the evil wizard's dominion!" Minsc declared, ignoring his sword's complaints. "Boo is glad Aphra was not hurt by Lilarcor in our fight. Friends should not fight friends!"
"Hey! A sword's gonna fight!" Lilarcor disagreed.
Viconia and Jaheira sighed simultaneously.
"I wish my sword talked," Aphra said with a smile and looked down at her flaming blade. Thankfully, she did not touch the genie lamp at her belt when she said so. "Imagine all the fascinating conversations we'd have!" Viconia's young jabbress went on. "We go everywhere together, after all. I bet it'd be the smartest sword on the Coast - hey, maybe that's why it's called the Sword Coast!" As Minsc replied with whatever nonsense 'Boo' had told him, Viconia wanted to sigh again but refrained. Jaheira did not and let out a loud one.
Yoshimo led the way through the sewers after that point (to no one's objection) toward where he knew the nearest exit would be. Why he knew his way around the Athkatla sewers was obvious to anyone that had eyes, and he even announced it as he, Minsc, and Aphra assisted the others in climbing out of the exit from the sewers toward the only place in Athkatla that had to be just as bad-smelling - the fishy, rank, odiferous docks. "The Shadow Thieves have a base near here, which is how this area is known to me," Yoshimo announced as Minsc grabbed Aerie's hands and pulled her up effortlessly back onto her feet out of the sewer gate they'd opened. She stumbled a moment on wobbling legs before Minsc righted her.
Viconia stared at a few on-lookers that pointed at them, and glared. She knew they made an odd bunch - a fragile elf, a sour half-elf, an addled berserker, a magnificent drow, and a worrisome tiefling (along with whatever her jabbress was). Still, the on-lookers moved along shortly.
Aphra complained, wrinkling her nose, "How did we go from the stinkiest place in the planes to the stinkiest place in the planes? Why does this place small just as bad as the sewers but in a wholly new and frightful way?"
"You've never been to the demi-plane of ooze," Haer'Dalis said with a strange smile.
Aphra gave him an intrigued look but seemed to second guess herself. "No, I don't really want to know about the plane of ooze," she finally settled on saying, after a moment. "Curiosity kills cats, as they say. And if I never have to worry about it, maybe I won't end up there."
Yoshimo gestured to the alley around them, whose narrow and tall buildings ensconced them in the shadow of the wretched sun. "There are more inns, fisheries, and boats out here than by the Bridge," he told Aphra. "If I do not report to the Bloodscalp soon, they will doubtlessly find me and be none too pleased."
"Can't imagine a fellow with the name 'Bloodscalp' being pleased about anything very good," Aphra said with a frown. "If we're in the area, we ought to stop by. Maybe see about negotiating this price for helping us find Imoen, forty thousand is just absurd!"
"Forty thousand?" Aerie's eyes went bigger and rounder than they already were. "I-I don't think I've ever seen that many danter!"
"Neither have I," Aphra admitted. "I never had to worry about gold back at Candlekeep. I ate with the old man, slept in the tower, and I never asked to leave." It was a sobering reminder of her inexperience; occasionally Viconia would forget that from her jabbress' perspective, she had just recently left her childhood home. "If I'm expected to pull this money out of my arse for them in exchange for information, the least they can do is offer me tasks and lower the price," Aphra concluded bitterly.
"You will have the chance to talk to them about it soon, then," Yoshimo said and pointed down the alley, "as their warehouse is one street away. Though I doubt you would find any work they have to offer . . . Reputable."
"Would you mind if we talk to some Shadow Thieves before we get you back to the playhouse?" Aphra thought to ask Haer'Dalis, who regarded her as if he might the prose of a fascinating book.
"I am at your service, and in your debt," Haer'Dalis reminded her. "Lead the way, my raven," he told her as she became flustered.
She seemed pleased at the designation, even though Viconia found it to be base flattery, and Aphra marched off after Yoshimo while the rest of them trailed after her through the narrow alleyway, Viconia first in line and eager to get out of the daylight as fast as possible. Viconia adjusted her pack on her back and shielded her face from the sun with her hand before stepping out into it and winced. Though she had been years on the surface, her eyes had still not adjusted from centuries of darkness.
They walked under the punishing daylight for a brief time, but it was still too long for Viconia's comfort. She would have to find a hat, or some manner of shade to remain in until nightfall to be comfortable.
Before long they stood in the shadow of a large, strangely blank building with no manner of label on the outside to determine its innards. There was only a single guard that stood visibly outside, but Viconia's hair on the back of her neck stood as they approached, indicating to her that they had hidden eyes upon them. Doubtlessly there were many rogues in the shadows, waiting to strike should the situation go awry.
"Hello," Aphra greeted, blinking her gray slit eyes slowly as she put her hands on her hips. "I'm told by Yoshimo this is where the Bloodscalp likes to haunt!"
The guard glared at her under his black hood, and with his twisted features this made his face into an unpleasant grimace. "Sssh!" He said ineffectually and opened the door in frustration. "Just get in here, ya damned fools!" He demanded and ushered everyone inside without another word.
"My, you're friendly," Aphra observed cheekily as she nonetheless ducked into the door-frame and stepped inside the warehouse, followed by Yoshimo, then the others. Viconia entered last to regard the male at the door with her red eyes, and hoped she conveyed her meaning to him with her silence. His suffering would be immense if he was leading them into danger. His posture stiffened, and he flinched. The reputation of her people, in this circumstance, benefited her.
Though they reeked of the sewers, they did not stand out amongst the small crowd of Shadow Thieves lingering inside. There were few windows, letting in minimal light, and what they could see was lit by candle and torch. It was a den of thieves from all levels of society - some were shrouded all in black, some were maids to the rich, and everyone mingled alongside beggars and far-too-clever street urchins. Viconia was grateful that they drew only a few stares, as most people were focused on their own conversations and matters, examining stolen goods, comparing weapons and techniques, and exchanging information. They were directed by a thief who introduced himself as Sidge to Renal through a series of back doors and rooms, until they met with the man who was called the Bloodscalp.
"Oh, you're shorter than I expected!" Aphra greeted Renal Bloodscalp, innocently irreverent. He was an unimpressive man at first glance, plain in face and dun in hair, and only came up to Jaheira's nose in height. His form was shrouded in matte black armor that was far more impressive than he, and was doubtlessly enchanted to facilitate agility, and he carried dozens of weapons strapped to his form, most of them knives. He wore his gear without a hood or cloak to disguise his features. It seemed he was unafraid of being identified or did not get out much regardless.
"And you're more bald than in your wanted poster," Renal shot back in a surprisingly cultured tenor for living in a warehouse by the docks of Athkatla. "But we all can't live up to our reputations, can we?"
Aphra frowned. "Wanted poster?" She seemed hurt by this information. "Just what have you heard about me, anyway?"
"Nothing you wouldn't hear from a gossipy tavern-keep," Renal said dismissively with a wave of his hand. "And none of it likely true. I'm more interested in what you can do for me now, rather than what you did or did not do in Baldur's Gate."
"What a coincidence, you lot seem to be the only ones who can help me find Imoen," said Aphra. "So it seems like we both want something from each other."
"Originally I had a task in mind for Yoshi here," Renal indicated toward Yoshimo, "but you're far more interesting, Aphra of Candlekeep."
"Yoshimo, if you please, sire," Yoshimo corrected. "Where I am from, such a pet name is only used by . . . Well, let us say that you and I have not become so familiar just yet."
"Point taken," Renal acceded.
Yoshimo frowned for a moment and seemed a little conflicted. "You will not . . . Endanger her, sire? It would be a poor treatment of my honor if my companion was brought to harm because of my debt."
"Thanks Yoshimo, but I'm mostly indestructible," Aphra said as Jaheira slapped her own forehead, "and I'm not even sure sir Bloodscalp could reach my head to scalp me even if he jumped."
"You'd be surprised," the Bloodscalp said in good humor, "I'm quite wiry. Now, down to business - Gaelan recommended you, and I trust his word. I am in need of mercenaries for hire to perform a series of tasks, and you are just the person to do it."
Aphra frowned and folded her arms. "Why us? Why not assign one of a thousand Thieves you have under your employ to do whatever it is you want done?"
"Fair question," said Renal Bloodscalp, shifting balance from foot to foot a little impatiently. "Any one of my assassins or thieves are quite skilled and capable, and on a normal day, it would not be necessary to look beyond my guild. As it were, my men are limited. I need someone of skill who is not one of the Shadow Thieves, someone more or less unknown to us."
"You seem to know a lot about me, I'm not sure I qualify," Aphra said dubiously.
"That is Aphra's kind way of saying that we barrel headfirst into problems and our enemies tend to die rapidly all around us," Viconia threw in.
"We're good at killing!" Lilarcor declared from his sheath, slightly muffled but still audible, and Aphra sighed with her face in her palm.
"Your talents are particularly suited to this task, I think," Renal disagreed. "And if your reputation holds true, and Mae'Var proves guilty, and of that I have little doubt - then you will have proven yourself to me fully."
"I'll bite, who's Mae'Var?" Aphra queried, looking back at him.
Renal smiled, and it was not a pretty sight on his face. Though he had been unassuming at first, Viconia got the sense that he had the advantage against even their large party. "Someone you will work for who runs a local guild hall, and you will work for him until you can acquire evidence of his guilt. I am certain he is collaborating with our enemies. The first part of your task is finding the evidence and bringing it to me - then we will discuss the second fold of your task, and your rewards."
Aphra looked to the others, and locked eyes with Viconia for a moment before deciding for them all. Not one of them voiced an objection, knowing how delicate their relationship with the authorities in Athkatla was - and they could not afford to displease the Shadow Thieves by refusing work so generously offered to them. "Very well," Aphra conceded. "I'll do as you ask. Where do I start?"
"Excellent!" Renal cried. He snapped his fingers, and a Shadow Thief appeared right out of invisibility next to him with papers in his hand, giving the others save Aphra a startle when he handed the papers to her. "You will need to present these to Mae'Var to gain access to his hall. I'm sure I don't have to tell you to be careful, do I? No? I thought not. Head to the storefront in the central docks and speak to the storekeep, Gorch. Show the papers to him, and he'll let you in. I'll wait to receive word of your exploits most eagerly."
"We do the bidding of thieves now?" Minsc objected a little bit and hummed disapprovingly. "This churns my belly like a hamster running endlessly within a wheel!"
"Chin up, Minsc," Aphra chided, rolling up the papers and tucking them under one arm as she slapped Minsc's upper arm affectionately with the other hand. "We'll be out of debt and on our way to save Imoen before long."
Mae'Var was an inflated male whose sense of self-worth outweighed his actual usefulness. He was callous and cruel, unusually so even for a surfacer, and Viconia would have had such a male flogged and flayed before her in her previous life in the Underdark. Especially since it was simply unnatural to have a male mongrel half-darthiir be in power. The Bloodscalp, though male, had civil manners and was useful, which made accepting his authority less difficult for Viconia. The drow Sharran had to avoid sneering at Mae'Var the moment she met him. Viconia knew that Aphra was restraining herself from outright just killing the man in front of her - judging by the shaking of her hand near her sword. It was only Yoshimo and Renal's earlier caution that stayed her jabbress' hand. Their distaste of the rivvil male might be for varied reasons however - Aphra objected to casual cruelty, while Viconia knew that cruelty could serve as an important lesson in power dynamics. Still, Mae'Var was uselessly sadistic, openly torturing people in front of them for no reason apparently other than his own pleasure. It sat in Viconia's gut as an oily, churning feeling. It was not Shar's way, to punish without cause for pleasure. That was the sphere of Loviatar, and the mad-god Cyric.
"Do you think Renal would be mad if I just beheaded him? With or without evidence?" Aphra asked this of Yoshimo as they sat down at the Sea's Bounty Tavern for a moment afterward, in the light of the setting sun. She had refused ale and only accepted water, but after sniffing the water at the inn decided against drinking it.
"Shadow Thieves do things by procedure," Yoshimo cautioned.
"Really? A guild of miscreants, thieves, and assassins has bureaucratic procedure?" Aphra scoffed.
"This is Athkatla," Jaheira reminded her. "I too share your distaste for Mae'Var, but we must be cautious in our steps here. We are treading in the underworld of Amn and must do so lightly. Any mis-step, and we could end up on that rack."
"Mae'Var seems bad," Aerie agreed, "and gross, and e-evil. If we find this evidence, d-does that mean we have to fight him?" Mae'Var, the half-elven leader of the docks guild hall was a wretched, silly character that Viconia cared not for in the least, but she wouldn't have put it the way Aerie did.
Aphra sighed. "Maybe. I hope so. I'd love to throw him over a bridge. And I agree, he's gross and evil, but we have to work for him for now," she told Aerie with a frown. They had reconvened after meeting Mae'Var in the basement of his guild hall, which was a carpet store on the front. Mae'Var had instructed Aphra to retrieve a particular amulet from the Talosian clergy, worn by the Weathermistress herself which she presumably only removed at night. A heavy necklace that was a trinket, something small to prove their ability to Mae'Var.
"I can do this task, if you will let me," Yoshimo offered. "I will need only a single night, and an invisibility potion or scroll."
"Are you sure? I don't want you crossing some Talos-worshipers," Aphra said with a frown. "I'm not sure what they'd do to you if they caught you."
"I will not be caught," Yoshimo was confident. "Trust me, Aphra. It will be easier for me to move on my own. And this is as much my fault as anyone's - I am the one who owes Renal a debt and brought you to him."
"Alright, we'll meet at the Copper Coronet then after you're done," Aphra instructed. "We've got to swing by the Bridge and the Five Flagons for Haer'Dalis and to give that gem to Raelis Shai, but after that we'll meet you there."
"It is a plan," Yoshimo agreed, and bowed at the waist formally. Viconia was pleased with Kara-Turan manners and cast a blessing on him before he left that startled him.
"May Shar shroud your step," Viconia told him.
Yoshimo nodded at her, and disappeared as soon as he stepped foot outside the Sea's Bounty. All around them rank-smelling sailors fresh off their boats were rowdy and causing a clamor, which prompted Aphra to lead them out and back outside toward the fresh-er evening air.
"Shall we fly to the playhouse, my birds?" Haer'Dalis suggested, gesturing to the district's arched exit ahead of them.
"We shall," Aphra said with a smile and led the way.
The sun was just low enough behind the buildings that it did not obstruct Viconia's vision, and she felt relieved once they were out of earshot of the docks - both because she could no longer smell the fish, and because she could see without pain.
They wound their way through the circuitous city that was rapidly approaching night. A few would-be muggers caught sight of the size of their party and parted ways for them, lurking in the shadows for other victims no doubt, but none Aphra paid any mind to or she was simply oblivious. She only pointed to the signs that led to the Bridge and followed them, used to having Yoshimo lead the way through his city. Without Yoshimo leading the way down an easier route, it took them until nightfall to reach the massive Bridge, under sandy archways and laundry lines strung up outside of apartment-style buildings.
They approached the familiar inn that had admittedly impressed Viconia a little bit with its selection of fine wines, something she hoped to take advantage of with part of her share of their reward. Aphra made a beeline directly for the playhouse downstairs, which was emptied of everyone but the actors backstage who milled about practicing lines or sewing costumes.
The red-haired one named Raelis put down a cloak she had been stitching and ran for them at the sight of Haer'Dalis, who in turn ran to her and embraced her fondly. "My sparrow!" Raelis Shai spoke, her voice thick with emotion. "I had thought you flown from us forever."
"This raven retrieved me, saved me from Mekrath, and recovered the gem," Haer'Dalis reported to her, pulling away from the hug as the other actors began to gather around them. There was a golden woman with small horns, and one human man, along with a male tiefling with red skin, long horns and a tail. Most of them had tails in fact, save Haer'Dalis and Raelis Shai.
Raelis stepped back and regarded Aphra very carefully. "I have not been . . . Entirely honest with you," she admitted very carefully, gauging their party's reaction.
No one reacted, save Jaheira who scoffed. "Of course you did, a'temra," Viconia said in a tired tone, as it had been a long day and she had yet to reverie. "That gem is not any more yours than it was Mekrath's. Had he not attempted to enslave us, I would not have violently slain him. Now pay us what we are due and we shall be finished with this odious task."
"Of course," Raelis agreed, and withdrew her entire coinpurse from her side and tossed it over to Viconia, who caught it easily. "If you are willing, I have one final task for you," and this she most pointedly addressed to Aphra.
Aphra had been staring at Haer'Dalis curiously and raised an eyebrow at Raelis. "What is it?"
Viconia started counting the coin but could tell by looking at the pile of danter that it was not worth the trouble. Considering what they had looted from the wizard's lab however, Viconia supposed that it would do.
"This gem will allow us to summon a young conduit back to Sigil," Haer'Dalis spoke up, drawing Aphra's interest. Viconia knew that her young jabbress had the heart of a scholar and was fascinated by the planes. Viconia sighed, tied the coinpurse to her hip, and mentally prepared for another odious task in service to the broke tiefling actors.
"The City of Doors? What's a young conduit?" Aphra was full of questions about this and Sigil, but Haer'Dalis brought the matter back to the point - the gem that they had recovered would allow the troupe to open a stable portal back to the planar city, where the troupe was originally from. They had originally left for Prime due to a play they'd put on that offended someone in authority vehemently.
"A door operates both ways, and there are beings that might seek entrance into Prime if they sense it," Raelis told them. "They will try to disrupt our casting. Elementals - imps perhaps, or devils. If you would agree to fend them off as I open the conduit—"
"Say no more," Aphra agreed, waving her hand to interrupt Raelis, "we'll protect your backs. Lilarcor? Are you ready for a fight?" She addressed the sword with a grin.
"Sweetheart, I was made ready," Lilarcor declared as he was drawn by Minsc.
The actors gathered behind Raelis, save Haer'Dalis who drew his swords and stood by Aphra's side, ready to fight. Raelis held the blue-green gem in her hands and held it up for a moment in both before drawing her hands away, leaving the gem sparkling in the air before her. A cacophony of noises crackled through the air like lightning, shaking the floor around them for a moment. Viconia wondered what the halfling tavern keepers would think of all this racket and if the morimatra was safe.
A bead of light emerged in the air that coalesced into a string that slowly - almost painfully widened with every bead of sweat that trickled down Raelis' brow. The string of light became an ovular portal that flashed with assorted colors and images, some chaotic and some peaceful, some merely sensations of heat or cold, some loud, some silent and gray.
A flash of heat marked the entrance of a fire elemental who clawed his way quickly out of the conduit and emerged before them. Aphra looked down at her flaming sword and perhaps in that moment felt a little silly - so she put away her sword and charged with her fists instead, alongside Minsc who started cutting with the cackling Lilarcor. The elemental dodged most of the attacks save a few from Lilarcor's edge, and was surprisingly quick to dart around Minsc toward the rest of the party. Haer'Dalis easily dodged a clawed swipe while Viconia went in with her hammer, unafraid to get a little singed in the process. Her cloak caught fire so she quickly divested herself of it and threw it on the ground - and had to duck under a swipe from the elemental that she turned into an upward blow with her hammer, sending it reeling.
Aphra, incongruously and impossibly grappled with the lava-creature from behind, but her hands went right through its form as it melted into the ground like warm butter and reappeared a few feet away. Her clothes were singed but her hands fine, and she growled impatiently and went after it again, unleashing her full speed and strength in the process. She was a terrifying blur of motion.
Two mephits showed up next, these ones some manner of dust or air mephit that emerged out of a foul-smelling portal. Minsc and Lilarcor made short work of them with a few blows however, and Lilarcor cried out as Minsc hacked away, "This, THIS is what I was made for! Ahahahaha!"
"Why won't you die?!" Aphra kept attacking the fire elemental fruitlessly, while Aerie finally cast a helpful spell that sent a cone of cold toward the creature with a brief warning in her tone for Aphra to keep away. Aphra did not dodge in time and got the full blast of the cold, but seemed unbothered by it and shook off the ice crystals that formed on her body in the spell's wake. The elemental did not shake it off and crumbled into ice-chunks of rock at Aphra's touch. "Thanks!" Aphra grinned and wiped her hands on her singed pants.
Abruptly, the portal coalesced into a silver-gray plane and Raelis let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, I have found—!"
And there was a knife at her throat from an attacker all in black. Aphra drew her sword but the knife pressed and drew a line of blood, and Raelis whimpered, so she released her handle on her sword upon hearing Haer'Dalis' keen at the sight. "Raelis!" the tiefling bard cried out. "Release her, please," he pleaded. "No offense was meant by that play!"
"Yet offense was taken," snarled Raelis' assailant. He was another tiefling or cambion, but deep blue-skinned and more demonic in appearance and armored in dark leathers. "The factrol has found you, and now you will all come through the portal with me, or we'll see her neck open beneath my knife. Did you think we did not watch all the doors? Foolish."
The other actors didn't hesitate and stepped forward toward the portal. Aphra cried out, "Wait!" but Haer'Dalis followed suit.
"What's this? More mercenaries?" The attacker presumed.
"No one important," Haer'Dalis said dismissively. "Patrons of the playhouse, nothing more." Aphra looked annoyed by this but didn't draw her weapon for fear of Raelis Shai's life hinging upon it. "Farewell, my raven," Haer'Dalis addre ssed Aphra with a small smile just before he disappeared into the portal after the others.
Aphra drew her sword and marched after him without a second thought or even a moment's consideration. Before anyone could object or talk sense into the brash young woman, she disappeared right through the portal after Haer'Dalis. "Wait! By Silvanus, that foolish girl will get us all killed!" Jaheira cried out and cast a spell of barkskin upon herself, covering her body in a bark shell over her flesh as she followed suit and ran ahead.
Aerie and Minsc followed after Jaheira, Aerie trailing a little behind as she cast stoneskin upon herself. Lilarcor was brandished high and Minsc gave out a mighty cry that was swallowed by the portal. In the silence after, Viconia let out a sigh, sent a prayer to Shar for divine strength and stepped into the wavering portal with her hammer clenched tightly in her hands.
"Gorion once told me," Aphra said to Viconia as they stared out into an abyss with Prime nowhere in sight, "that I could find my place by the stars in the Sphere. I'm looking at them now, Viconia, and I've no idea where I've taken us. I've really fucked things up this time, haven't I?" She lamented, putting her head in her hands.
All around them were strewn about bodies of the bounty hunters that had originally captured the actors, remnants of a slaughter. The actors were nowhere to be seen, presumably elsewhere in the planar prison they'd found themselves trapped inside when the portal had closed behind them. They had no choice but to fight their way forward, Minsc and Jaheira wounding themselves in the process quite severely but no one else coming to harm. It was nothing Viconia could not heal, but she let Jaheira take care of those wounds in case any of them got especially hurt later on, as her spells were more powerful. She was glad that Mekrath had been taken care of with largely brute force, for she still had a plethora of blessings from her Dark Mistress.
"We have no time for self-pity. Let us slay whom we must to leave this place, and depart at once," Viconia told her, trying to keep her tone more kind than she really felt. She wanted to criticize the waela but knew Aphra would not respond to that well - in the past she had blown off such attitude entirely and ignored anyone who insulted her completely. Viconia learned this the hard way - and perhaps it was her hindsight that told her that this was less due to Aphra and more Viconia's own condition. Viconia had been angrier when she had first met Aphra, but Aphra was much the same in either time.
"You're right," Aphra agreed easily.
"Of course I am," Viconia scoffed. She raised her hammer in hands. "Let us find the warden of this prison, and free ourselves."
Aphra nodded with determination and turned to the others.
Aerie was staring about them torn between wondrous fascination and utter horror at all the carnage they'd just wreaked upon entry. Her stoneskin had fell and her robes had gained a few bloodstains at the base of them that she hadn't noticed yet. Minsc sheathed the positively bloody Lilarcor and Jaheira flicked a bit of brain matter and bone off of her quarterstaff. They gathered around Aphra, and Aphra said, "Let's find a way to get the actors, and get out."
"A sound plan," Jaheira agreed, and everyone nodded.
"What in—unholy Hells! You killed them all!" A voice cried out from nearby in accented Common. A duergar from behind them on a raised, strangely fleshy platform raised a hand over his heart and took in the scene around them.
Aphra kept her sword drawn but did not raise it as she addressed the duergar, "Who are you? Are you a prisoner here?"
"I-I am," the duergar answered tentatively. He approached slowly from the shadows, with his hands raised, and was wearing rags with a strange metal collar about his neck that was bound around a central red jewel. "Where did you come from?" He asked, his simple shoes scuffing along the floor. "I assume Prime, from your clothes."
"Or something," Aphra said dismissively. "We're here chasing some tiefling actors. How do we free you all and get out of here, do you know?"
"Th-the Warden has the key to portals, but the collars control us. He doesn't know you're here yet," the duergar added in a warning. "He can control us and tell us to fight you, but if you free us from the collars . . . We can fight him too."
Aphra did not respond for a moment. Viconia looked to her young jabbress who stared down at the collars on the bodies of the fallen, lost in thought. "Oh," is all she could say.
"We will free you," Jaheira promised in her stead.
Their mission was clear after that point - find the master controller, which was an enchanted gem that was possessed not by the Warden but protected by the Warden's pets, two wyverns and a few slaadi from the nether planes. The goal was not to fight them, but to acquire the 'key' to the collars as quickly as possible under the influence of an invisibility spell and destroy it by any means necessary. The more chaos they caused, the better their odds were against the Warden, who was a cambion of no small power.
Though it galled Viconia somewhat, she was forced to work with Aerie's spellcasting and prayed to Shar to extend Aerie's field of invisibility over all of them. She hoped her mistress would not judge her for collaborating with such a weak-willed one as a Baervan Wildwanderer follower. The prisoner duergar directed them, but would not accompany them, to the wyverns where the key was being held. It seemed he fully anticipated that they would spectacularly fail or spectacularly succeed, but wanted nowhere near the level of violence that either of these outcomes would inevitably result in. Viconia did not fault him for his cowardice. If she had a choice in the matter, she would not have stumbled into that planar prison either - she had merely been chasing after Aphra.
"Have we ever faced wyverns or slaadi before?" Aphra whispered to Jaheira as they quietly walked along the walkways of the planar prison. There were no walls, no handles, nothing but a small fleshy walk that slid unpleasantly beneath Viconia's boots, and the vast abyss beneath them.
"We have," Jaheira hissed.
"Any advice on facing them?"
Jaheira cautioned her, "It is better not to face them at all. We must find the key to the collars and run."
Aphra frowned and gripped her sword's hilt tightly, drawing it with the smallest of audible hisses.
Viconia wanted to curse Jaheira for her advice later, but refrained, as Aphra was prone to taking such things literally. In this case, she did indeed find the key to the master controller, a ruby gem that matched the collars, and tossed it between herself, Minsc, and Jaheira to try and get it away from the giant stomping wyverns.
She had stolen it from under their noses in invisibility and Aphra drew their focus, her darting form dodging just about every swipe, until one sent her reeling and some feet away until she literally disappeared into one of the flesh-prison's cages via hole in the fleshy-ground and was swallowed up by it. It was as if she had been sucked into a sphincter, and Viconia cringed at the noise it made.
They began to charge after Jaheira who threw the controller gem (because everything had to be a magic gem) at Viconia's head. "Catch!" She shouted to the drow priestess.
Viconia did, and muttered, "Waela!" And ran for the exit. Aphra was on her own, for now.
She prayed to Shar for enough invisibility to shroud her own steps while Aerie charged in from the sides with an acidic arrow spreading from her fingers which hissed on impact but did no damage and began casting another spell just as Minsc charged at one with Lilarcor brandished over his head.
They had scouted the area under their invisibility and found a way to destroy the gem - a large brazier a few rooms away down fleshy walkways that would - hopefully - deactivate the runes on the gem and release the collars like the duergar prisoner had suggested. When she tossed the gem into the flames and nothing happened, Viconia took her hammer to it and solved the problem, shattering it into countless shards. "Why didn't we do this before," Viconia wondered aloud, shook her head, and ran back to her allies.
Viconia located Jaheira engaged against a black death slaadi and saw that Aphra was nowhere to be seen still. "We must leave! The collars are destroyed!" She called out.
Jaheira nodded and shouted something to Minsc that Viconia failed to catch, and in one fluid motion Minsc threw Aerie over his shoulder with a whooping noise and ran after Jaheira.
In the direction Aphra had disappeared was a strange hole in the ground that seemed to breathe with the flesh around it. Viconia stared at it in disgust, reminded of a beholder cavern she'd once ventured into, and followed into the hole last when Jaheira and Minsc jumped in.
Minsc put down Aerie next to them, who straightened her robe, hair, and cloak while Viconia took in the absolutely bloody scene all around them.
There were several githyanki that had attacked Aphra when she'd found herself cast into their cell, and all five of them were dead in various states of struggle. Aphra, kneeling at one of the bodies in which her sword had just been embedded, flicked blood off of her blade as she drew it in a circle and had the grace to look a little abashed at her circumstance. She wiped dark red githyanki blood from her stern, storm-gray eyes and said, "I swear they attacked me first."
"Githyanki hunters are not known to be rational in their pursuits," Jaheira supplied. "Perhaps they were driven mad by isolation. Come, let us leave this place. Viconia destroyed the gem." She seemed unconcerned, and Viconia was actually proud of Aphra for handling a problem by herself for a change.
"What about the wyverns and slaadi back there?" Aphra wondered and took Jaheira's hand to stand from her kneeling position. Jaheira grunted under the effort of helping Aphra stand.
"Let them be someone else's problem. We will find the tieflings and leave this place for good," Jaheira decided for them in a dictatorial tone that Viconia slightly resented, but thankfully Aphra did not object, since she had been the one to drag them into the mess in the first place.
When they found the tiefling actors in another fleshy cell nearby, Haer'Dalis alone was unsurprised even as Raelis cried in relief and didn't seem to understand why their party would rescue the actors after all the trouble they'd caused. Viconia didn't understand it either, Aphra was a strange and charitable sort.
Battle erupted throughout the planar prison as metallic clangs of struggle and crackling spellfire filled the air. Melee between the tiefling guards and the freed prisoners unfolded all around them as they made their way to the central platform of the planar prison, where the most conflict was taking place.
They stayed close to each other in a small group - and Haer'Dalis was amongst them with his peculiar swords unsheathed, watchful at Aphra's side. No one engaged them until the cambion on the central platform spied them and roared in rage, rightfully presuming they were responsible for the chaos. He pointed at them and barked out an Abyssal command, and three tieflings as well as a pit fiend descended on them, the pit fiend flying from above where he had been circling and casting spells into the fray.
The pit fiend landed right in front of Aphra and Haer'Dalis just as Aphra drew her sword, while the other tieflings surrounded Jaheira, Minsc, Viconia and Aerie. Jaheira cast a barkskin spell over herself and jabbed forward with her scimitar in an overhand slash that one tiefling easily deflected. Minsc, with Lilarcor, charged another and Aerie began to spellcast as she withdrew toward the center of the group. The last one eyed Viconia, and then took a draught from a potion at his belt and went invisible. Viconia cursed in Ilythiiri and backed up in front of Aerie to defend the girl if necessary.
Aerie's spell was finished - a stoneskin she wisely cast on herself, being entirely too fragile for her own good - while Viconia tried her best to hear her other opponent's movements. Nothing specific or telling was audible over the sounds of battle however, so Viconia began to swing wildly around her, hoping to contact some part of the invisible enemy's flesh. Her only spell of True Seeing had worn off hours ago and she wasn't certain her Dark Mistress would see fit to grant her another so soon.
"Viconia!" Aerie cried out, pointing, and Viconia guessed and swung at the air behind her, finally making contact with the tiefling that had tried to flank her.
The tiefling spat out blood from the wound that had glanced against his head and backpedaled onto the ground. Viconia was on him in a second, hammering at any inch of flesh she could see once the spell had worn off, but he rolled away and out from under her in one fluid movement and got to his feet again. The rogue charged at her while Viconia braced herself for combat.
Haer'Dalis suddenly intercepted Viconia's enemy with a blow that redirected his momentum away and changed the flow of movement. Viconia glanced over at the pit fiend - and saw Aphra had climbed onto its head and was hacking away at its eyes and face with her sword in a screaming display of terrifying frenzy. Viconia had seen her do worse, however, and left her young mistress to it. With Haer'Dalis now the focus of the rogue tiefling, Viconia took a step back and began to pray. She felt Shar's spell warm in her palm, a spell of wounding, and waited until the rogue was caught off-guard by a parry from Haer'Dalis before charging him and striking him with the spell in her hand. He went down on one knee, enough of a weakness for Viconia to kill him with a single blow from her hammer.
Behind them, the pit fiend went down after too many head-wounds and Aphra,positively covered in gore charged the now-reconsidering-his-choices cambion. He opened up a portal with a gesture and chant in his backpedaling and went through it, emerging elsewhere in the prison. Aphra spun in a slow circle, perhaps listening, as she picked a direction and charged off in it, there one second and gone the next.
The other tiefling warrior and warlock respectively were overcome by Minsc, Jaheira and Aerie, made easier by Aerie's spell of webbing that hindered their movements. Viconia did have to admit to herself that the little elf had her uses, and that perhaps Aphra was not entirely a fool about the matter. "Should we—should we go find Aphra?" Aerie asked nervously, when the battle was over.
"No," Viconia told her. "She will return shortly to report her success. It will be swifter if she did not have to worry about us being targeted by the cambion."
"The raven is quite deadly in her ways," Haer'Dalis said in a poetic form of agreement.
True to form, Aphra returned a few moments later, her flaming sword slung over her shoulder and looking unaffected by wear. "I think this is the stone he took from you, right Raelis? Can you open a, a conduit for us back home before you leave?" Aphra pulled out of one of her singed pants pockets the same blue-green gem Raelis Shai had used before that had resulted in their capture.
"What about all the other people trapped in here?" Aerie wondered. "Can they get home too?"
"If their home is Prime," Raelis said. "I believe this has one, maybe two charges left in it. One to Prime, and one for Sigil. Sigil will take them, if they do not wish to go to your plane. My sparrow? Shall we fly?" She turned to the bard and smiled.
Haer'Dalis smiled, but it fit his face differently and did not reach his eyes. "Not this time, my magpie. Our time has passed, and though I love your flame, being drawn to it has burned my flesh. The Prime calls to me."
Viconia, not a native speaker of Common, groaned when she parsed together what this meant for them. "Have we picked up yet another stray, jabbress?" Viconia asked of Aphra.
Aphra looked confused, but not opposed to the idea. "Do I understand — you want to go back to Athkatla - with us? Why? You know, a lot of people die around me. A lot of the time."
"And I would like to learn why that is, but first, we must get there," said the tiefling bard. Aphra looked to Jaheira who shrugged at her noncommittally - Haer'Dalis had been useful in combat after all, and they were nearly overwhelmed by the wyverns and slaadi before. It was, however, another mouth to feed and another one to split treasure with, making their already large task of raising funds for the Shadow Thieves even more enormous. Viconia decided she was not fond of her young mistress' tendency to pick up any stray she stumbled across but could not deny at the same time how this had benefited herself - one such stray among many.
After looting everything that wasn't nailed down or actively on fire in the planar prison, including some interesting chainmail they had yet to identify and several other pieces of armor, boots, and enchanted jewelry, they were escorted out of the Five Flagons. Or rather, kindly encouraged to leave by the Thunderburps after the ruckus they had caused - which put a dampener on Viconia's cheer for she had intended to enjoy a drink at the bar after their ludicrous adventure. Instead she purchased a bottle from Samuel and left with the others for the less-enchanting, more lice-ridden Copper Coronet all the way across the bridge to the south of town in the slums.
Viconia was displeased.
En-route, and quite strangely, Aphra had asked for them to stop in a particular Bridge neighborhood just off the street and went chasing after a man in red clothes. She pulled out a scrap of red cloth she had in her pocket. She then bodily picked this man up and pinned him against a wall in a sudden rage, and then after a heated exchange of words threw him into the river where he went crashing to his presumed death. Viconia, still with her bottle in hand, nonetheless went chasing after Aphra subsequently charged into a nearby house flaming sword-first.
There wasn't enough time for anyone to stop her or do anything but stand and watch as she tore through an entire house of armed people. The problem with Aphra, as those who traveled with her inevitably discovered, wasn't really her tendency to run head-first into trouble, but the inability of those around her to stop her from doing so. Viconia recalled Aphra kneeling in the carnage of the githyanki and thought it fitting that she were a daughter of Bhaal. Only one of such divine heritage could carve such a path in their own rage or carelessness.
The subsequent hostage that was being kept for ransom in the topmost floor of the building did seem to calm Aphra down somewhat, at least enough for the girl to be bothered to explain to her companions why she had just slaughtered her way through a house full of people. If she hadn't been covered in gore before, the blood that now stained her every inch made her look like quite the Bhaalspawn. Aphra, for her part, tried to act unbothered by it but clearly wanted a bath.
"The man in red - that was the only description that fellow in the graveyard gave us," Aphra directed this to Aerie as she tried to find anything clean to wipe her hands on and found nothing.
Aerie's hand closed over her mouth in surprise. "You f-found him?" She stuttered out.
"What happened?" Jaheira demanded to know.
"A-a man named Tirdir was buried alive in the graveyard, a-and we helped him get out," Aerie summarized.
Aphra turned to the hostage, a noble's daughter that had introduced herself as Lady Elgea. "You should get out of here and mind your step. I doubt you'd want to be seen with us, we look an awful lot like riff-raff and your parents might get the wrong idea. Maybe think we were the ones who captured you."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you! I will find a way to pay you back, I swear it!" the silly young woman babbled, repeating herself a few times before tottering off and leaving their presence. Viconia did not miss her - the noblewoman had mistaken them at first for her abductors and spoken to them as vermin. It reminded Viconia of a different life that she did not miss either.
"Sorry, everyone," Aphra said after the lady had left. "They had it coming, I promise," she offered a little weakly.
It did not bother Viconia, the violence, as much as it bothered Aphra. It did not bother Haer'Dalis either who said, "Indeed they did, my bloodstained raven."
"Burying someone alive is . . . There are worse things I'm sure, but they're hard to imagine," Aphra concluded.
"I hope there are baths awaiting us at the Coronet," Viconia grumbled, staring at her still-bloodstained and ringed hands.
"Yes, but at least seeing us covered in blood wandering the neighborhood isn't unusual for the Bridge District anymore," Aphra said with a smile. "Look, there's Rose—" she pointed and waved to the courtesan that had helped them solve the murders. "I like her. Alright, let's head back to the Coronet. Maybe Yoshimo's done with the temple errand - hard to believe only a few hours passed out here while we were gone."
"Time does not flow the same in every plane," Haer'Dalis supplied. "Some, it is languorously slow, while others it can run frightfully fast."
"I've read that's how Undermountain is," Aphra chattered excitedly, and Viconia tuned the rest of it out since she was not nearly as interested in planar travel as her jabbress was.
When they returned to the Copper Coronet after an uneventful stroll through the city, the children were thankfully all in bed and a few customers were milling about. Yoshimo had returned intact with the Weather-mistress of Talos' amulet, Shar be praised, and was sitting in a chair by the fire with a smelly, nasty looking dwarven man who was guffawing about a story he was in the midst of telling. Aphra made a beeline toward them, but Viconia took one look at that nonsense waiting to happen and decided she was better off drinking 'til she hit a reverie.
"You have the right of it," said Jaheira as she followed Viconia's exact thinking. As one they had turned toward the stairs while the others followed Aphra, the two women weary of the adventures of the day.
"Whatever she ropes us into can wait until I am done with this bottle," Viconia agreed.
"If you are in the mind to share, harlot, I will tell you more of what you have missed in your absence," Jaheira promised. "It is a dark tale, fit for a dark vintage."
Viconia examined the bottle as they went up the stairs and retreated toward their shared room. A whimsy hit her. Why not see what happened when the mongrel drank the brew? It changed all people. Perhaps it would better them both, or at least be good for a good laugh if nothing else. "Very well, but we will not drink from the bottle like swine. Fetch us some glasses and I will pour."
Jaheira rolled her eyes at Viconia's attitude, but nonetheless went back downstairs in search of wineglasses. When she returned with two, Viconia poured, and they talked late into the night of Irenicus' manifold crimes against them and of the siege of Dragonspear Castle. Viconia had been uninterested in becoming a pawn for the state during that time and took her share of treasure and her Ankheg plate mail gifted to her by Aphra to sell for a farm in Beregost. This, she did not tell Jaheira, for it was not the time to share such a story. Jaheira told her of Khalid, and rambled for some time about her wretched lost male to such a degree that Viconia began to regret sharing her drink with her. They talked until the colors about them began to shine and patterns in the simplest of objects emerged, and Viconia felt a rare sense of contentment that settled into her bones as a side-effect of the brew.
Viconia did eventually slip into reverie after Jaheira had fallen asleep in the rivvil manner. She did not hear Aphra enter their room, and when she went downstairs the following morning she saw Aphra still by the fire, now telling some of the children the story of their liberation of the planar prison. Viconia was told after breakfast they would be eventually venturing into the Graveyard District to find a particular tomb that the drunken dwarf from last night was convinced held a great deal of treasure. Viconia sighed, braced herself for another long day of dungeon-crawling and doom, and prayed to Shar for guidance. Was this really the fate her dark mistress had in store for her? Looking after the young Bhaalspawn while she careened headfirst into mishap? True that Viconia owed Aphra a debt, but it had seemed to Viconia that Shar implicitly supported Aphra's cause. After all, she still continued to answer Viconia's prayers for aid. What other conclusion could be reached than that they had Shar's tacit approval?
First, however, Aphra wished to report their success to Mae'Var and be done with that sordid business as soon as possible. Jaheira had matters in Waukeen's Promenade regarding the sale of their loot and bade Minsc go with her to carry their gear for selling. Viconia entrusted the unidentified items of jewelry she had found to the mongrel, save Mekrath's ring of influencing which she kept for herself. Aerie wanted to go with to visit her uncle in the Promenade, while Aphra, Viconia, and Haer'Dalis decided to go with Yoshimo to drop off the amulet for Mae'Var in the docks. They agreed to all meet in the Graveyard District in the evening with the drunken hargluk, if he even remembered the conversation from the previous night. He had been missing in the morning, at any rate.
Thankfully, they managed their way to the docks without misadventure and entered Mae'Var's compound without issue. The rivvil Gorch nodded them in past the shop front into the back and Aphra pulled out the amulet that Yoshimo had stolen for her as they descended into the lower level.
The sound of groans and a piercing scream preceded them, Mae'Var no doubt inflicting more pain on a victim. It was an old song to Viconia's years, one she did not miss in particular for it reminded her too much of Menzoberranzan and her mother's sanctum. Ginafae was much like other dark elven matrons - and was once favored by the Spider Queen. To be so meant much the same as Cyric's followers - and Shar's inner power given to Viconia became alight and inflamed at the sight of a medallion to Cyric on a nearby priest under Mae'Var's employ.
The scream died as they entered the room and Aphra's jaw turned to stone as Mae'Var nodded to the Cyricist next to him, who began to chant over the victim. "Alas, poor Lin's heart gave out. Ah well, it happens," Mae'Var shrugged it off, and turned to Aphra with a sickly smile. "Have you my treasure?"
She tossed him the amulet with some force but he caught it in his fingers deftly, frowning at her. "What's next?" Aphra demanded, cutting straight to the point.
"I have no current work for a peon such as you, but my left hand man upstairs - Edwin - might have some goonery you can engage in. Now leave me," he said dismissively as he eyed the amulet in his fingers with a slight smile. "Gaudy. Reminds me of some pieces from Calimshan. It'll look fantastic on my dog."
As Lin breathed in again and returned to life - and pain - Aphra marched out of there with the three of them in tow after, while Viconia gave a lasting glare at Mae'Var, catching his eye. She hoped the look she gave him spoke volumes of her plans to one day kill him for his insolence.
"Never have I ever wanted so badly to kick a dog I don't even know before," Aphra grumbled as they reached the top of the steps.
"It was not a great deal of trouble to steal," Yoshimo offered. "Had he asked us to steal, say, the gold statue of Lathander in the temple of the Morninglord, we might have had a problem."
Aphra chuckled in spite of her mood, then heard another scream from downstairs and gritted her teeth. "I hate this Shadow Thief bureaucracy," she griped. "Why can't we just—ugh. He's so slimy. I hate him!"
"You're talking about Mae'Var?" A nearby thief walking by noted aloud and held up a hand to forestall Aphra's next comment. "Everyone hates him," she defended, and pulled down her mask part of the way to reveal the rest of her face. She was deceptively beautiful. "It's thrilling to see a new face. I am Anishai," she introduced with a slight bow.
Aphra bowed back awkwardly to Anishai's amusement. "Aphra. Mae'Var delegated us to someone named Edwin - can you point us in the right direction?"
"I will take you to him," Anishai said, pulling up her neck-scarf over her nose and mouth once more.
Up two flights of stairs was a private office that Anishai knocked on the door of, announcing them as, "Mae'Var's miscreants here for you," with a smile. She left Aphra at the door to open it herself when a deep voice answered, "Enter."
What was unmistakably a Red Wizard - in his full regalia - greeted them with, "Ah, I see Mae'Var has—YOU!" He pointed in sudden fury toward Aphra.
She gaped a little bit, and then started doubling over with laughter. "Of all the Eds in the Realms, it had to be the one Dorn tossed into the river," she said after a few moments of laughter during which the Red Wizard glared at them miserably.
"I," Edwin snapped between gritted teeth, "am Edwin Odesseiron. You may address me as such for the duration of our work together, and never as 'Ed.' 'Sir' will suffice, or simply 'Edwin.' Believe me, I am as happy about it as you are."
"I'm ecstatic - what are you talking about?" Aphra chuckled. "This will give us the chance to properly repair our nonexistent relationship. Don't worry, I won't have you tossed into the river again. So what nonsense do you have prepared for us? I take it you know why we're here?"
"Yes, Bhaalspawn, I have work for you," Edwin spat.
Only Haer'Dalis raised an eyebrow at the address since he had not been told as of yet about Aphra's parentage. "How did you kn—never mind, seems like everyone knows these days," Aphra concluded tiredly just as she was about to object.
"It was announced publicly in Baldur's Gate at one point, I am surprised - no, I am unsurprised you do not recall. Retaining many blows to the head is part of the risk of your profession," Edwin concluded dismissively.
"I do get knocked around a lot, but I think I handle it well," Aphra said, with a defensive cant to her voice. "What's the work you want done?" She queried, cutting to the matter at hand.
"Yes. You know of the Cowled ones - the Wizards who run this country?" Edwin addressed, keeping his focus on Aphra although his dark eyes would occasionally flicker over the rest of them. "One such wizard has me under such scrutiny that I can barely breathe. You will dispose of him for me and bring me back his ring. He lives by the docks, on the east end in an estate. He will not be unguarded, but you may catch him unawares if you are clever, and quiet."
Aphra considered this for all of a second before answering, "No."
One of Edwin's brows hiked up his forehead. "'No'?" He repeated disbelievingly. "I can go to Mae'Var right now and tell him you work for Renal. Would that incentivize you to cooperate?" He phrased this threat as a question.
Aphra shrugged. "Go ahead. I'll just kill him, and then everyone else who attacks me. You think you can threaten me into murdering a man for your convenience? Get fucked. I'm not your goon. Find another idiot to work for you." And with that, she walked out of the room. Viconia smirked and trailed behind her.
"I have documents!" Edwin threw out desperately. "Or rather, know of them and where to find them. While you are gone, I will work to secure them. Mae'Var keeps copious records on his treachery. This is what the Bloodscalp wants, yes?"
Aphra paused and turned around to look at Edwin contemplatively. "Alright, you find these documents, and when I get back we're going to have words, yeah?" She said and marched out of the room after Edwin had pointed out where one might find Gethras' house. Yoshimo held the door for her and the others, closing it behind him.
They left by the front entrance where Gorch was, and he grunted a goodbye as they walked out the main door to Mae'Var's guild hall. Yoshimo was the first to guess, "We are not planning on killing this man, yes?"
"No," Aphra shook her head. "I'm not a hired killer and I don't want to piss off the Cowled Wizards any more than I already have. But I will investigate to see if he really is keeping an eye on Edwin and try talking with him. I'm sure we'll have a civil chat and everything will be fine. We can probably do that before meeting back up with Jaheira and the others. Come on, his house is this way."
In hindsight, Viconia would have cautioned Aphra that nothing - nothing ever - goes according to one's initial plan. Additionally, wizards were notoriously unreasonable sorts who were not to be trusted under any circumstances. With the power of the Weave at their very fingertips, it was only a matter of time before the connection to Mystra's raw magic drove them mad.
Aphra had knocked, ever so politely, before officially breaking and entering. Though for her this was less of a crime and more of a curiosity - she climbed up to the second story and went inside an unlocked window, making quite a ruckus before she found her way back down to the first floor. One discarded and singed golem greeted them, and she defended that, "It attacked me first, I swear," automatically even though no one had accused her of anything.
"Ah, I see we are breaking and entering after all," Yoshimo noted and withdrew his bow from his shoulder. "No doubt the wizard will have many defenses."
"I could just climb up to the top floor and see if he wants to chat. We've already lost whatever element of surprise we had when this fellow jumped out at me," Aphra pointed out, indicating the dismembered clay golem. With her scarred and singed appearance, and drastic haircut that Viconia was still having trouble getting visually used to, she made a terribly strange sight.
"You are bold my raven, to be so audacious," said Haer'Dalis as he drew his swords.
"Another word for foolhardy," Viconia murmured, and Aphra gave her an amused side-eye.
"Reminds me of Irenicus' lair," Yoshimo mused, staring at the golem bleakly. He shook his head. "No, there is safety in numbers, especially when a wizard is about. Who knows what tricks he might have up his sleeve?"
"You sound like Jaheira," Aphra criticized lightly and tossed her sword from hand to hand, "always, 'look out for enemy magic' this and 'don't go charging into that.' Alright, Yoshimo, we'll do it your way. Even though it's boring and slightly inefficient."
"My thanks, Aphra," said Yoshimo, impressively without sarcasm.
Viconia rolled her eyes, though internally she was a little impressed that Yoshimo after only knowing Aphra a brief time had managed to convince her not to charge into a situation blindly and get hit with the first maze spell. Her magic resistance was not so ironclad that she was immune to spell-craft altogether, and most spells did affect her when they were not physically damaging. Irenicus' scars, though Viconia knew him not, seemed to be proof of this.
They went into the house, though internally it seemed to be more of a wizard tower. Floor by floor, mephits, golems, and summoned elementals appeared. The elementals Viconia managed to banish, but they were more than enough for such a challenge despite their wearied state. Aphra alone was tireless, cutting everything down in her path that charged at her. It seemed the irony of her task was lost on her; she had sworn she would not murder the wizard yet cut her way through the wizard's defenses to 'speak' to him.
In any case, the wizard didn't want to be spoken to, nor was he anything other than hostile when Aphra dropped Edwin's name as in, "Edwin Odesseiron sent us but I'd really just like to—"
"You will rue the day you crossed me!" barked back Rayic Gethras and sent a spell of stinking cloud their way.
Viconia offered a prayer to Shar and a spell spilled from her hands that blew the cloudaway with a mighty breath. She commanded him in the name of Shar to silence, but he had silent contingencies set up that gave him stoneskin and teleported him to the other end of the room.
It did not save him from Aphra's speed, but her sword wasn't drawn. "Wait!" She placated. "I'm really not here to kill you, I promi—"
A golem folded itself out of the wall behind her suddenly and cut her off mid-sentence as it tried to engulf her in its arms. She managed to meet its strength and tore off one of its arms in her struggle and tossed it aside.
Viconia kept an eye out for other summoned allies - she knew the wizard would not die or cease without a fight. Yoshimo's arrows were useless against such creatures, so he drew his katana and charged at the wizard along with Haer'Dalis. They made nothing but dents in his stoneskin, until a globe of invulnerability slipped over him and that's when Viconia knew she'd have to step in to save the idiot males.
The easiest way to distract a wizard was with as much force as possible, preferably physical. This, Viconia knew from both her fight with Mekrath and from centuries of fighting against enemy wizards in other Houses of Menzoberranzan. She blazed right past Yoshimo and Haer'Dalis and prayed to Shar for strength in her next blow, that it might dispel the globe.
It did, and her hammer swung and interrupted his spell-casting with a blow to the face.
"Wait, Viconia!" Aphra called out. "We don't need to—"
Viconia struck repeatedly, each time the man attempted to spell-cast until he finally ceased altogether and his stoneskin began to chip away under her assault. Finally, he stopped, and plead for mercy, "Wait! Please! Stop! Take my things, give me my life!"
"Leave Athkatla now," Viconia instructed and withdrew her hammer, and approached him on his level as she knelt down to look the frightened man in the eyes. "Forever. Or you will die. That is the message."
"I'll—I'll open a portal to Calimport right now," he agreed. Viconia stared him down for a long moment before nodding, and agreeing, holding her hammer tight in her hands for a nice healthy reminder of the fate that awaited him, should he betray her.
Nonetheless, a portal was opened, and he stepped through it - or rather half-ran-half-scrambled on hands and knees through it, before it closed. She cared not where it led, save that the wael was not a problem for them anymore.
Aphra had dismantled the golem and watched Rayic run through the portal with a strange expression. "They all seem to run from me, except you lot. Why is that?"
Viconia could not answer her. Instead, she offered, "We should return to the Copper Coronet. Edwin can wait."
"I agree. Can't believe we've been conned into doing his dirty work," Aphra grumbled. "At least we didn't kill him for a change. That's rather nice."
"What's rather nice is what he left in this house that he's not coming back for," Yoshimo pointed out with wide eyes as he had begun to rifle through drawers and pocket sellable items.
Aphra ended up lugging out the bulk of most of what they found there, all the way through the docks and back across town. They met up with Jaheira and the others in the Promenade rather than wait for them, since they had more to sell now and pawn off and it seemed more efficient than waiting around in the slums. Viconia received her share of what she had wanted them to sell for her from the mongrel, and she was well-pleased with the new surplus they had found themselves in. She splurged on better armor and saved the rest.
Aphra dedicated her entire share to the 'save Imoen' fund, as did Jaheira and Minsc with most of theirs. The others donated shares and purchased what they willed; Viconia lingered around Aphra in the Promenade primarily for safety as she knew as a drow she would not be looked upon kindly without armed and armored company.
Once evening hit, they left the Promenande and marched toward the Graveyard District to meet with the smelly drunken hargluk and liberate an Athkatlan tomb of valuables. Viconia had done worse things for money however, and knew that such was the lot of adventurers. She hoped that this adventure, at least, would be more straightforward than the others they'd stumbled upon.
Much hail and gratitude to the mighty Trisa! This could not be done without her!