The Missing Black Gem…
Kuhl's gaze searched the fungal forest he approached, looking for hidden watchers amidst the stalks of the giant zurkhwood mushrooms. He saw no one. The way into the gray dwarves' trade enclave appeared to be completely unguarded. Even the gate of the tall iron wrought fence surrounding the enclave was open.
Which was very strange given the ongoing war between the duergar and svirfneblin in Mantol-Derith. Then again, considering the innate powers of invisibility of the duergar, not so strange. But If any invisible sentries lurked, the constant background roar from the waterfalls of the great cavern would make it all but impossible to detect them.
"They are there," Dawnbringer warned telepathically. "You can be certain of that. Only how many are unknown. Be on your guard."
The half-elf gave a slight nod of acknowledgement and brought his hand closer to her hilt in readiness to draw her if needed.
Their group followed the pair of duergar leading them from the destroyed market to their enclave with two more escorting behind. They passed through the gate and entered the fungal forest beyond, Aligor in his crimson plate armor first, then the hulking, glaive wielding former gladiator, Gorath, and then Kuhl himself. Tall nightlight mushrooms lit the interior with their soft, golden, bioluminescent glow. It was a garden as much as a forest with edible fungi like bluecap, ripplebark, and trillimac growing in cultivated patches on the ground under the caps of the towering Zurkhwood. Even the spores of the Zurkhwood themselves, the half-elf realized, could be harvested for food.
The short path wended through the stalks and led to a small rocky clearing across from which were a set of double stone doors sealing off a tunnel into the cavern wall. They were solid looking and well-wrought, but plain and functional, with no carvings decorating their surfaces. Presently an armored duergar winked into sight. Like most of the males of his race he was bald headed and white bearded with skin the color of ash. His pale, nearly pupiless, eyes narrowed with wariness as he used the inherent magic of his kind to enlarge to an imposing size. He then planted his feet to firmly bar the way to the door and hefted a spiked war mattock.
"When Ghuldur sent ye and yer fellows out, Grimmel," he said. "I thought it were to destroy the enclave of them rat-betraying svirfneblin. Not to lead an army of outsiders back to our very own threshold."
He spoke Undercommon, the trade speech of the Underdark, rather than Dwarven, which Kuhl would not have understood. Speaking in the trade language must be the custom of Mantol-Derith so all parties would understand each other.
"These Zhents," the gray dwarf leading Kuhl's group, Grimmel apparently, replied. "Say they can find Krimgol's stolen gem. Now maybe they can or maybe they can't. But I figure, where's the harm in them trying? Most of the lads are back on watch, making sure those oath breaking imps stay holed up in their enclave while the Zhents try."
This was true. The svirfneblin Kuhl's group rescued in the destroyed marketplace had been allowed to scurry back to their enclave to carry news of the temporary truce Aligor negotiated. Most of the duergar followed after to keep the deep gnomes hemmed in and on the defensive while an attempt was made to recover the mysterious missing black gem which started all the bloodshed. Only the four gray dwarves escorting them remained.
"Well, Ghuldur might not like your figuring," the dwarf before the stone doors grunted.
"Whether my brother likes my figuring or not is my problem," Grimmel said back evenly.
"Tis," the other gray dwarf replied. "Unless he don't like who I let pass. Then it becomes my problem, don't it?"
He paused, letting that thought sink in as he surveyed the group, obviously not liking what he saw.
"There's a drow in amongst these Zhents," he said with a disapproving sniff. "The most dangerous kind. Female. Another is a Morndinsamman idol-kisser."
He practically spat the name of the dwarven pantheon, and it brought to Kuhl's mind the tale Captain Errde Blackskull told back in Gracklstugh of duergar history and the bitter feelings of betrayal they felt against the gods they formerly worshiped for their lack of aid during the long enslavement of the gray dwarves to the illithid-mind flayers. That bitterness extended to their dwarven kin as well for continuing their devotion to these same gods.
"I also can't tell who or what is under the cloaks of a couple of them," the duergar said, still speaking. "And there are far too many of them. Why so many to find one gem? Cut down the numbers to equal your own and lose that drow and the idol-kisser and I'll let them pass with ye."
"By all that dances," Jhelnae said under her breath. "He's asking to find out just how dangerous I can be."
"Or rather he is a good judge of character," Lenora muttered in her lilting Chessantan accent.
Thankfully both spoke in the common surface tongue which the duergar might not understand. The half-elf would rather the duergar didn't sense a division in their ranks and realize they really dealt with two groups rather than one. Eldeth gave an indignant snort and an angry toss of her head, sending her red-haired braids swinging, in response to the slight of the gray dwarf against her and the gods of her ancestors. Her hand went to the handle of the silver warhammer hanging from her belt. Rhianne whispered something in the dwarf's ear and Eldeth visibly relaxed. But her hand remained resting on the haft of her weapon.
"Thurn has a point," Grimmel said, turning with a suspicious glare. "This surface magic, this detective work, can't need all of ye to find one gem."
"I'm really the only one you need," Sky said, raising a hand.
Thanks to the Stone of Golorr she understood what was said but didn't speak Undercommon. At Grimmel's confused look, Kuhl translated.
"Not all of us are needed," he said.
"Hey!" the tabaxi said, tail lashing, "That isn't what I said!"
"So, then," Grimmel said. "Which four shall it be? The furred one and one to speak for her. Who else?"
"I'll translate for her," Kuhl said.
"I will go as well," Aligor asserted.
"Well, they won't accept me," Jhelnae said. "They made that very clear."
"Or me," Eldeth sighed.
"What does Sky mean about being the only one needed?" Aleina asked."Why won't they accept Jhelnae or Eldeth? What is going on?"
Out of the entire group, including the Zhentarim, she was the only one who didn't speak Undercommon. She rolled her pale blue eyes and gave a growl of frustration when no one answered her.
"Patience, noble daughter," Saliyra said. "Things are being decided."
Typically, a mocking tone accompanied the Chessentans use of their pet name for the aasimar, but this time the Zhentarim scout spoke it absently in passing and Aleina didn't seem to even notice.
"That's what I'm afraid of," she muttered, throwing up her hands in exasperation.
"With all deference to our cat lady companion," Primwin put in, shaking his head. "This is a jester's errand. How can she find this stolen gem when the duergar it was stolen from cannot? So, if they'll only allow four inside, I wish those four the best of fortune, but I'll wait in our enclave, having that drink Kelvane talked about earlier."
The former pirate and Kelvane, the former squire, shared a nod.
"Tabaxi not cat lady," Sky said, tail lashing in irritation. "And I'll find it. I once solved a case in Waterdeep that was very similar. Only it involved missing socks rather than a gem and the client was a laundress rather than duergar. I wonder if the culprit is a brownie with a gem stealing compulsion?"
"Tabaxi or cat lady, let's do what Primwin says," Gorath rumbled, giving a dismissive wave to Sky and a gapped toothed grin that wrinkled his sun-leathered face at the idea the former pirate posed. "Best of luck to the four, but glaive wielding is thirsty work, which I'll quench by joining the others for a drink."
Iandro, the Zhentarim healer, and Lhytris, his friend stricken with some sort of malady that gave him a corpse like pallor, were silent on their preference, but their silence was an answer in itself.
"Let it be me," Rhianne said from the depths of her cowl, reverting the conversation to Undercommon and speaking directly to the duergar. "I believe my talents will be useful."
Next to her, Diarnghan shifted, hooded head lifting as if to speak, but he then seemed to think better of it and remained quiet.
"Not ye," Grimmel said, shaking his head. "Not until ye reveal who or what ye are under that cloak."
"What I am is a darkling," Rhianne answered, a soothing pleasantness lacing her voice. "Cursed with skin so sensitive to light even the gentle glow of these nightlight mushrooms would burn me. Hence the swaddling of cloth. And who I am is Rhianne Dubh Catha, a bard, who has performed for King Horgar Steelshadow himself. I am also known among the svirfneblin. So, I may be able to get answers to questions about this missing gem that you cannot."
The duergar looked to the harp strapped on the darkling bard's back and then glanced at each other. They seemed to reach an unspoken consensus. Grimmel nodded.
"I think I've heard of ye," he said. "I know a few of the Stone Guards assigned to the Hold of the Deepking. When ye say ye have performed for him, ye really mean her, his concubine."
"She did seem to be the one who enjoyed my music more," Rhianne agreed.
"They say she has a dress crafted of naught but glittering gold coins," Grimmel said, tone disapproving. "Ain't like a duergar to wear such. Even a derro wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like it. Yet I hear tell she slinks around the Hold in this or that kind of garb that is really all more of the same. So, don't ye be invoking the name of our Deepking when ye really mean her."
For some reason this comment caused Jhelnae to take a sharp breath and widen her green eyes, as if she suddenly realized something.
"And our methods of getting answers to questions are persuasive," the duergar continued. "I doubt ye can do better. But so be it. Ye shall be the fourth."
This seemingly decided, Aligor started issuing orders.
"Kelvane, take the others to our enclave," he said. "Report to Ghazim. We'll join you there soon."
"I don't like this," Lenora said with a shake of her head, shifting the language to surface Common and staring at her leader. "Let the duergar and svirfneblin kill each other over this black gem if they want. It's none of our affair. We came to Mantol-Derith for one purpose. Let's go to our enclave, get what we came for, and be done with it."
"I don't like it either," Aleina said. "Four of us separated from the rest? But I disagree about letting the duergar slaughter svirfneblin. That we need to try and stop."
Through a whispered side conversation with Eldeth the aasimar apparently now understood what transpired.
"This is less your affair than ours," Lenora said, rounding on the aasimar and pointing a finger. "You are only here in Mantol-Derith because of us."
"Think," the Zhentarim leader cut in before Aleina could respond. "Why are we down here? Why did Davra desire King Bruenor make no exclusive trade deal with Blingdenstone?"
He paused a moment before answering his own questions.
"Because access to the svirfneblin gems is lucrative," he said. "And the same is true of the iron works of the duergar. Zhentarim sources to both are now threatened. Which means our potential reward is as well. Understand the only reason Davra promised us rewards for this task was to preserve these markets for the Zhentarim. Lose that from a svirfneblin-duergar war and we lose our chance at what she promised each of us. Just like that."
He snapped his fingers for emphasis. His words found their mark among the Zhentarim. Many shared glances with worried frowns. It was an open secret that a reward motivated each to take on this mission to the Underdark, the only unknown was what each was promised.
"Well, some of us came down without needing to be promised anything," Aleina said.
"Those some of you are fools," Lenora growled. "So, I would not brag about it."
Her tone changed as she shifted her attention to Aligor, becoming resigned.
"Very well, you need to go. Then, go. But please take care. I do not trust these grays."
The former knight gave her the ghost of a smile.
"I will, but don't worry. Sky, Kuhl, and Rhianne will be watching my back," he said.
"I trust them barely more than the grays," the crossbow woman mumbled under her breath.
"Enough," Grimmel barked in Undercommon. "We care not if the fourth is her, or her, or her. Decide or we decide only three of ye are coming. Either is the same to us as only the furred one seems to know this detective work ye will be using."
He pointed at Rhianne, Lenora, and Aleina in turn and, not understanding surface Common, apparently thought the discussion was on who would be the fourth.
"It's Rhianne," Kuhl said, pointing at the darkling bard. "And we're ready to go."
He switched languages to speak to Aleina.
"You say we should stop the bloodshed. Finding this missing black gem seems the best way to do that and they'll only allow four of us inside. And you don't speak the language."
The aasimar's gaze narrowed and she crossed her arms, held a stiff back pose for a moment, then sighed and the tension drained from her.
"Fine," she said, tone implying the opposite. "But be careful, Kuhl Nightstar."
"Full name treatment," Sky said, golden eyes rolling and tail lashing. "Aleina is worried for no reason. Again. How surprising. We're just going to find one little black gem."
"And you be careful too, Red-Sky-in-the-Morning," the aasimar said. "But why am I asking for the impossible? Rhianne, take care of them for me."
"I will," the darkling bard said, a hint of mirth in her voice.
Then she went and gave a brief hug to Diarnghan which included a touching of the cowled foreheads and a whispering of unheard words. Breaking her embrace she approached Grimmel, beckoning Sky, Kuhl, and Aligor to do the same.
Those not entering the gray dwarf stronghold gathered around Kelvane in preparation to leave for the Zhentarim enclave, but they did not immediately do so. They watched and waited as the door guardian, Thurn, shrank back to dwarf size and led the four to the double doors and pushed them open. To the half-elf it felt like he could feel the weight of worried stares from Aleina, Jhelnae, Eldeth, and Diarnghan following them until the stone doors shut behind him. There was a note of finality in the portal's thud of closing. Like the shutting of a crypt to seal away the casket of the departed.
But the rough-hewn chamber beyond was a warehouse not a tomb, illuminated by hanging lanterns which glowed with an orange hue reminiscent of the smelters, foundries, and forges which lit the duergar city of Gracklstugh. The place was massive, Kuhl judged the ceiling to be at least forty feet in height, and in addition to crates and barrels the floor space was filled with racks holding black iron weapons and armor, enough to outfit an army.
One corner of the warehouse contained a pen holding around a dozen steeders - the giant furred spiders the gray dwarves used as mounts and pack animals - and in the corner opposite stood a stone building. Duergar, too many to count at a glance, sat or stood around tables at the center of the warehouse. The buzz of conversations died at the entry of Kuhl's group, and these gray dwarves silently watched as Grimmel and the other escorts led their charges towards the building of stone. High pitched babbling emerged as soon as Grimmel opened the door of the building.
"I don't know where it is!" a feminine voice wailed in Undercommon. "I swear! They stole it! The drow!"
"That be a lie and ye know it," A harsh voice growled. "Ye think me a fool? How'd these drow learn of it, eh? Did Yanthra Coaxrock run to the spider-lovers for help appraising a gem? Bah! Ye svirfneblin mistrust them drow even more than we and all of ye have more knowledge of a gem's worth in yer littlest finger than any dark-elf jeweler has in their entire spindly frame. Why else would I bring it to ye for assessment?"
Kuhl expected a scene of torture involving manacles and instruments of pain and, amidst the crates and barrels of this storage building, a tableau of torture did play out. But in a way the half-elf never would have imagined.
A deep gnome female dangled from a rope just out of reach of a very odd-looking pebbly skinned creature. Atop the monster's trunk-like body, facing upward, was a wide, gaping, maw ridged with a crown of long, sharp teeth. Everything else the creature possessed in threes - three stumpy legs, three yellow, stone lidded eyes, three muscle bound arms, and each of these with three taloned tipped fingered hands. The creature's great upturned jaw snapped, and its claws clacked as it spun and jumped, trying to catch hold of the hanging svirfneblin, who wore a robe sewn with gemstones.
"I did assess it!" the deep gnome screamed. "It was worthless, and I threw it away!"
"And so yer story changes back to this lie!" the growling voice rumbled. "I grow tired of it, Yanthra, just like me hands grow tired of holding this rope."
Two duergar held the end of the rope holding up the deep gnome, which was strung through a ceiling mounted iron ring. They let the rope slip through their fingers and the bound svirfneblin howled with terror as she fell a foot and into the range of the monster below. But as the creature lunged the pair of gray dwarves hauled on the rope and again pulled her back out of reach.
"Tell me, Yanthra!" the duergar roared. "Tell me what ye did with me gem or I feed ye to me xorn!"
Surprisingly it was the monster, the xorn, who first spied the newcomers. One of its large eyes focused on them, blinked a stony lid, then it spun itself on its stumpy legs so each of the trio of eyes set on its sides could take a look. The gnashing of its maw stopped, and its talon-tipped hands fell to its side as it regarded Kuhl and his group, perhaps evaluating the threat they posed. Noticing the change in the behavior of the xorn, the duergar holding the rope looked towards the door.
"Grimmel?" the duergar who had not been speaking during the interrogation said. "Has the svirfneblin enclave been destroyed so quickly then? Who are these with ye?"
"I've got the svirfneblin penned up tight in their enclave, Ghuldur," Grimmel said. "But I came across these Zhents who claim they can find Krimgol's missing gem."
A hint of trepidation was in his voice when speaking to Ghuldur that hadn't been present when speaking to the door guard and he waved a hand towards the other duergar holding the rope when he said Krimgol.
"Potentially help find this missing gem," Aligor amended.
"What nonsense is this?" Ghuldur growled, brow creasing as his pale, nearly pupiless eyes narrowed. "Ye interrupted our interrogation, brought Zhents into our enclave, for a potentially? And what were the promises ye made for that potentially I'm wondering?"
The rope bound gnome woman above, Yanthra, slowly spun a circuit as she sobbed though the monster below her now seemed calm and no longer leapt up at her. Kuhl started to suspect its previous antics an act, although it did tilt its trunk-like body so one eye could stare up at the suspended svirfneblin.
"No promises," Grimmel said quickly. "Just a temporary truce while the Zhents try."
There could be no mistaking the nervousness in his voice now. Hadn't he mentioned to the door guard that Guldur was his brother? The other three duergar escorting the half-elf's group shuffled back so Grimmel stood by himself.
"That was a promise," Ghuldur said, voice flat with disapproval. "A promise which caused us to lose any initiative or momentum we had."
"Initiative and momentum to gain what?" Aligor put in, stepping up beside Grimmel. "You would destroy the svirfneblin enclave over one gem? When your trade with them here in Mantol-Derith brings you countless others? Why jeopardize what's been built, break the peace of this place, over one gem?"
"We didn't break the peace," Ghuldur said as he and Krimgol tied off the rope they held to a wall mounted anchor. "Only kidnapped a thieving rodent to get what she stole from one of our own. Then a pack of those rats attacked us to get her back. Duergar were killed during the defense of our enclave and that blood must be answered with blood."
"From what I witnessed and heard," Rhianne said. "Weregild has been taken."
Ghuldur gave a considering look at the cloaked darkling, then glanced at his brother.
"Many svirfneblin were killed in our counterattack," Grimmel confirmed.
"So then, if this black gem can be found and returned," Aligor said. "Or other compensation made…"
"No!" Krimgol said, cutting the Zhentarim off. "No other compensation. The gem stolen from me must be returned. It is mine!"
"No it's mine!"
This scream came from the dangling Yanthra. She ceased sobbing and, despite still being bound and suspended over a monstrous creature, her eyes blazed with possessive conviction.
Silence fell as the two claimants of this mysterious black gem glared at each other. Ghuldur's expression became uncertain.
"Ye'll take no other compensation?" he asked with a sidelong glance at his companion. "None?"
"None but my own stolen property," Krimgol confirmed. "I found it! I need it! To buy my way back into my clan!"
"It is a gift from Segojan Earthcaller!" Yanthra shrieked down from above. "Svirfneblin heritage! Discovered in our time of need! None but our kind should possess it!"
"Ye are calassabrak?" Ghuldur asked Krimgol, his sidelong look becoming a squint of disbelief. "Clanless? Since when? For what?"
But the other duergar ignored the question.
"So, the truth comes out," he yelled. "A gift from a god? Ye said it was worthless."
"It is worthless to all but svirfneblin!" Yanthra screamed back. "And a curse on any who would keep it from us!"
"I think they're both affected by an enchantment," Sky said, watching the pair arguing over the gem with a thoughtful cock of her head. "She is calling down curses but might be under one herself. A madness of the mind."
She tapped a finger against her forehead for emphasis.
"She very well may be right," Dawnbringer telepathically said in Kuhl's mind. "But is this her insight or the stone's?"
An oval, glossy, gray-green stone - the Stone of Golorr - was clutched in the palm of the tabaxi's hand with which she'd tapped her forehead. The former Open Lord of Waterdeep, Dagult Neverember, had used that sentient artifact to lock away memories of the location of an embezzled hoard of gold. Sky was supposed to give it to Laeral Silverhand once they'd recovered the treasure, but apparently, she'd conveniently forgotten.
"Something strange is going on," Ghuldur answered the tabaxi. "That's certain. Krimgol is no calassabrak. How could he be clanless when he's the eldest of the few Muzgardts here in Mantol-Derith? He pronounce judgment on himself?"
Kuhl's eyes widened in surprise.
"You understand and speak surface Common," he said.
"Why wouldn't I?" the gray dwarf growled. "I'm the chief negotiator of our enclave ain't I? Of course I know the tongue of the Zhents."
"This makes things easier," Sky said, brightening. "So, you say he is acting odd, how about her?"
She pointed up at the bound svirfneblin dangling from the hanging rope.
"Yanthra?" Ghuldur said, squinting thoughtfully and stroking his snow-white beard as he peered upward at his prisoner. "Always thought her trustworthy. Gone to her meself when I needed a gem valued. Also… strange I couldn't get anything outta her. Hungry xorn right below her and her wearing a robe sewn with gems it craves to eat. Put the fear in her, like it does, but instead of answers she spun lie after lie each as nonsensical and unbelievable as the last. And she's still spinning them!"
It was true. While Sky and Ghuldur spoke in surface Common the tied up Yanthra and Krimgol continued to engage in a babbling conversation of accusations, excuses, and obvious lies in Undercommon.
"If they're both acting strange," Kuhl said, mostly speaking to himself. "And both handled this black gem, could it be the source of their madness?"
"Probably," Sky said, nodding, tail swishing behind her. "Makes sense. But we shouldn't be blind to other possibilities as we investigate."
The hand holding the Stone of Golorr absently rolled it in her palm as she spoke.
"How long ago did all this start?" Aligor asked, looking at Ghuldur.
"It were no more than a couple of hours ago that Krimgol first came to me about the theft," the duergar answered.
"Then if the source of the problem is this gem, we need to find it," the former knight said. "Find it and destroy it or try and get rid of it. Take it out on a boat and drop it in a deep part of the Darklake. Because in mere hours it has ripped the long-standing peace of Mantol-Derith apart."
"The Darklake won't do," Ghuldur said, shaking his head. "Plenty of creatures live down there who can find it and bring it back to cause more harm. Even heard tell of a demon lord rising out of the depths to destroy the home of the kuo-toa, if you can believe that."
Kuhl could definitely believe it since he had been in Sloobludop when it happened. Unbidden, a vision of Demogorgon wreaking destruction on the kuo-toa settlement swam up from the recesses of his mind and several heartbeats passed before he could force the memory down again. Sky must have been similarly affected since her fingers stopped playing with the Stone of Golorr and her golden eyed gaze went inward for a moment.
"Destroy it then," Aligor said.
"But ye need to find it first," Ghuldur said. "And as I told ye, I've been working on the one gnome who might know where it is and learned nothing."
"Let me try," Rhianne said.
The darkling unslung the harp on her back and sitting on a nearby crate, began to play, gloved fingers dancing deftly along the strings. The melody those strings wove was tranquil and serene, conjuring memories of moonlit glades, lapping lakeshores, and gentle breezes on summer evenings. Some part of Kuhl sensed the notes wove a spell as well as a song and the music infused him with a quiet stillness that seemed to penetrate to his soul. When the music ended the pureness of the tranquility slipped away, like a pleasant dream which swiftly passes on waking, refusing to exist outside the edges of oblivion. And yet like those dreams the feeling of the song lingered and the half-elf calm and relaxed.
He wasn't the only one. Soon after Rhianne had begun playing, Yanthra and Krimgol had also fallen silent to listen. They remained silent even with the ending of the song and in the gaze of the rope bound and suspended svirfneblin was a lucidity that was before absent.
"Try asking your questions again now," the darkling bard said, as she stood and again slung her harp across her back.
Let me tell you... Mantol-Derith has been a challenge for me. Part of it is my own fault as I couldn't figure out a reason why the Zhentarim would not want to be involved in quests that involved protecting their own trade interests even though the the chapter is clearly designed that the party deal with everything on their own. Also, what works in game play does not seem to work narratively, at least in my head. For example - when you go to the duergar enclave the module basically says you will be attacked by 4 invisible duergar when you enter the fungal forest. The exact wording is "Guarding the fungi grove are four invisible duergar that attack intruders on sight." Then, when you go to the clearing beyond the forest "Four more invisible duergar stand in front of the double doors and attack any non-duergar that come into view." Then you can go inside the warehouse, which is unlocked and there are 30 duergar here who don't want to fight and will talk with the party and share information. So then you don't care that I just killed 8 of your fellows just outside of here and then looted their bodies and left them to rot? Now I understand this is normal RPG behavior (this happens all the time in computer RPGs), but trying to write it so it made sense to me? I had trouble! Any of you readers play through the module? How did Mantol-Derith go for you? Seems like it would be difficult for a DM to run...