Morning Glory Blade
Jhelnae ran, eyes downcast to pick a path through the treacherous footing caused by all the loose stones scattered around the sloping tunnel floor. She ran in darkness, the swirling illumination of the faerzress present in many areas of the Underdark was absent here, casting her vision into shades of gray without color. No faerzress and no nearby thermals also meant it was cold and the air she breathed chilled her chest even as the exertion of running warmed her.
"Stop!" Saliyra yelled. "Lenora can't… keep running… like this!"
She sounded as exhausted as the half-drow felt, speech broken up by desperate gasps of air.
"I don't… hear them…" Aligor's voice followed. "We can… rest a moment."
From the sound of his ragged breathing he needed a rest as much as any of them. Not surprising considering the burden of his plate armor and that he and Kuhl supported the wounded Lenora as they ran. Along with the others, the half-drow stopped and regrouped.
All of them were out of breath, but the men helping the injured crossbow woman breathed especially heavy and sweat plastered their hair to their scalps. Together they lowered the ashen face, profusely perspiring Chessentan to a seated position on the ground. She grimaced during her descent and let out a sharp, hissing exhale, clutching at the arrow jutting out of her chest in a white knuckled grip. The woman at some point had pulled her dark vision granting goggles down to hang about her neck. Which meant she'd been running blind and fully relying on Aligor and Kuhl to guide her. No wonder they were so exhausted.
"Diarnghan… Saliyra," the former knight wheezed between breaths. "Scout ahead… Sky… Lhytris, make sure… those orogs… don't surprise us."
The half-drow didn't like the idea of her friend being sent with the strange, pallid skinned Lhytris and liked her heading towards the orogs who might still be chasing them even less. But the tabaxi gave a tired nod and, with a lash of her tail, set off jogging back the way they had come before Jhelnae could gather the energy to object. Lhytris trailed after and both moved nearly silently despite their pace.
"I should… stay with… Lenora," Saliyra said, crouching to try and examine her friend's injury.
She, like the other humans in the group except Lenora, wore the goggles that allowed them to see in darkness.
"Don't… touch it," the crossbow woman snapped, pulling away slightly as she sightlessly looked towards her fellow Chessentan. "And what… you should do… is follow… orders."
When Saliyra didn't immediately agree she continued.
"Do you have… healing magic? No? Then let others… tend to me. You're a scout… so scout."
The Zhentarim scout shook her head, a motion her companion wouldn't be able to see.
"Don't you dare… die on me," she breathed.
"I won't," Lenora said, giving a weak mirthless rasping chuckle. "We made… a promise… remember? We're dying… of old age… as noble ladies… in the… Border Kingdoms. Now go… find us a way… out of this mess."
"We'll take… care of her," Aleina assured, approaching and placing a hand on one of Saliyra's leather armored shoulders.
The Chessentan sighed, but nodded, then she and Diarnghan left to scout ahead.
"Be careful," Rhianne whispered after them, voice so hushed it was more prayer than communication.
"I still don't… hear the orogs," Kelvane said. "I think they… gave up… or perhaps… chose the wrong tunnel… at the last… cavern."
The former squire to Aligor also wore heavy armor and was bent over with his hands on his knees. Gorath next to him used his glaive the way an old man would lean on a staff. The former gladiator was the eldest of the humans and the biggest member of their group. Their running flight had clearly taken a toll. He seemed solely focused on breathing and not even aware of the conversation around him.
"Those were… no orogs," Eldeth said. "Orogs are… Underdark dwelling… orcs. Maybe a bit bigger… maybe a bit… stronger… but orcs. Those were… well… demon orcs… I'd call them."
What the dwarf said was true. Their ambushers were horned as well as tusked with spiky bony ridges and patches of red scales on their skin that provided natural armor. Also they were monstrously huge with short reptilian tails that didn't reach the ground. Tails. From having Ront as a companion during her previous journey through the Underdark, Jhelnae was certain orcs did not have tails, nor horns, nor scaly skin.
"Something to do… with demon lords… in the Underdark," the darkling bard said, cowled head gazing back the way they had come. "It has… to be. I don't think… they'll give up… chasing us… easily."
The half-drow feared she was right. To break free from the ambush they'd unleashed a barrage of magic, Jhelnae expending all the stored power in her Ring of Shooting Stars and Aleina doing the same with her Ring of the Ram. Since that hadn't convinced the orogs to give up she doubted a prolonged chase through the Underdark would dissuade them either.
"She's right," Lenora groaned from the ground, unknowingly agreeing with the half-drow's thoughts. "We need to get… moving again. Someone yank this… cursed arrow out. Then hopefully… one of you… can heal me?"
The three with healing magic, Aleina, Kuhl, and Iandro glanced at each other uncertainly at the question in her tone. Some of their group had been injured during the initial demonic orog ambush and more in the fight to break free. All magic had limits and they were all likely reaching theirs.
"I can," the aasimar finally said with a resolute nod to herself.
"Thank you… noble-daughter," the injured crossbow woman breathed. "I'll be in… your debt."
"You can pay me back… by not… calling me that… anymore," Aleina said.
The crossbow woman gave a wincing smile and shook her head in answer.
"Then let's get… that arrow… out of you," Aligor said.
But he was slow to move to do so, apparently needing to recover a bit more strength before he had the energy to kneel down in his plate armor. Kuhl, who wore the lighter mithril enforced dragon scale armor fashioned by Laeral Silverhand, moved to grasp the arrow shaft instead, gently prying Lenora's hands free from the missile. Jhelnae could not see the former knight's eyes behind his goggles, but she thought the look he gave the half-elf held gratitude.
"Aligor," Lenora whispered, holding up a hand to halt the arrow being drawn out. "You need to… tell us what… happened after… Urspreth. And what did…that demon mean… about saving… your soul. Promise me… if we survive this… you'll tell us."
The way she intently stared at Kuhl made it clear she thought he was Aligor. The half-elf did not correct her.
"You're asking this… now?" the former knight asked, voice incredulous.
"I've asked before," the Chessentan wheezed, shifting her sightless gaze up towards Aligor's voice. "We've asked before…"
Kelvane gave a side glance at Aligor, the former knight he'd squired for, at the word 'we've', and Jhelnae got the sense that what Lenora spoke of involved something from before Iandro or Gorath joined their group since they, in contrast, did not react the same.
"And if this arrow," the wounded woman continued. "Struck differently… I'd be dead and… never know. Like…"
She trailed off, but Jhelnae knew what she'd been about to say, likely they all did - 'dead, and never know. Like Primwin'. Unbidden into the half-drow's mind came the vision of the former pirate being butchered by a mob of demonic orogs hacking down at his body in a rain of blows. The rakish young man had often bragged he possessed Tymora's own favor when it came to luck, but in a lightless cavern deep in the Underdark, far from the Sea of Falling Stars where he once sailed, his luck had run out.
"Sounds like you," Kuhl said, dragging Jhelnae's thoughts from the gruesome past to an uncertain present. "Are owed an explanation. But for now…"
Bracing one hand against Lenora's shoulder he yanked the arrow in her chest free. She gave a sharp cry of pain then whimpered through gritted teeth as the half-elf stood and tossed the arrow aside to clatter against the stony ground. Aleina took his place, pulling the crossbow woman's hands away from the hole in her leather armor now leaking fresh blood so she could put her palms there instead. The aasimar's eyes shone pale and ethereal and her hands glowed with pale illumination. That light seemed to flow from her hands down into the arrow wound and Lenora sighed and tension left her seated posture.
"I'm sorry," Aleina said, wiping blood off her hands onto her tunic as she stood. "That's all I have left."
"It's enough," the Chessentan said.
She took a couple of deep breaths then held out her hands. Aligor and Kuhl each took one and hauled her upright. A spasm of pain crossed Lenora's face as she regained her feet, but she hardened her expression and pulled her goggles up from hanging around her neck to cover her eyes, adjusting the straps to fix them firmly in place.
"Everyone take a few sips of water," Aligor ordered. He had recovered enough to speak in a mostly normal cadence without gasping breaths between words. "Don't drink too much as I suspect we'll be running again and you don't want to cramp up."
The last part was likely targeted at Gorath who already guzzled from his canteen, head fully tilted back. The big man stopped drinking and lowered his canteen from his lips with a regretful sigh. Jhelnae took a sip from her own canteen. The cool water woke a deep thirst in her and she had to resist the urge to drink deeper. After taking a quick drink from his canteen, Aligor passed it to Lenora. The half-drow was close enough to hear what the crossbow woman whispered when she handed the canteen back.
"Promise me," the Chessentan whispered. "If we survive."
The former knight pursed his lips, then seemed relieved when the return of the forward scouts saved him from answering.
"We should… go back," Diarnghan said as he and Saliyra approached. He had not benefited from their brief rest and breathed heavily. "Choose another… tunnel."
"Why?" Rhianne asked.
"Part of the ceiling… of the cavern ahead," the darkling ranger answered. "Is covered with… dense webs."
"It's true," The Zhentarim scout huffed in affirmation. Her goggled gaze found the now standing Lenora. "You better?"
"Better enough," the crossbow woman answered with a nod.
"We saw no spiders," Diarnghan said. "But it was not… an abandoned web. And we heard singing..."
"Singing from up in the webs…" Saliyra said, taking over to let the darkling ranger catch his breath. "A woman's voice."
"Did you recognize the words of the song?" Rhianne asked, clearly intrigued.
"The singing stopped as soon as we entered the cavern," her husband said, breath coming easier now. "But I heard enough to recognize the song was in Elvish."
His tone held a note of warning.
"Drow," Eldeth said.
She spoke the word like a curse, which stung the half-drow a bit, even if she knew the enmity the dwarf felt was well earned and not directed at her personally.
"Velkynvelve was obscured from below by webs…" Aleina started, eyes widening as she trailed off.
"Did the cavern have a waterfall," Jhelnae asked, understanding the aasimar's fear. "A deep pool?"
"A stream fed pool," Diarnghan said, his cowled head tilting in query. "No waterfall."
"Are you two daft?" Eldeth grunted, setting her red braids swinging with a shake of her head. "We're on the wrong side of the Dark Lake for it to be Velkynvelve. And Ilvara singing? I don't think so."
Jhelnae realized the dwarf was right. The ring Aligor wore to lead them to the stone giant library of Gravenhollow had taken them no where near Velkynvelve.
"Still sounds like a drow outpost," Kuhl said. "And the singer might be a prisoner. One forced to silence when her captors saw you two scouting."
There was an implication to his words, one communicated through a shared look between Jhelnae, Aleina, Kuhl, and Eldeth. They had been prisoners of the drow, so, shouldn't they help others suffering the same fate?
Sky and Lhytris's return from their scouting mission brought the reminder the companions needed rescuing themselves.
"The orogs are coming," Sky hissed.
She was clearly tired, but not out of breath thanks to her tabaxi athleticism.
"They come," Lhytris rasped in confirmation.
He barely seemed to be breathing at all. His skin wasn't even flushed and still held his normal pallid pallor despite the exertion of running.
"How far?" Kuhl asked. "Did they see you?"
"No," Sky said. "But they don't need to. A pair of giant lizards are sniffing us out. The orogs aren't moving as fast as we're running, but their pace is quick and steady."
"They're running us down," Aligor sighed. "Following just fast enough to make us wear ourselves out."
"Drow ahead or demonic orogs behind," Iandro said, grimly laying out their options. "We need to decide, and quickly before the choice is made for us."
"Drow?" Sky asked, giving Iandro an inquisitive golden-eyed glance.
"There is a drow outpost ahead," Jhelnae explained.
Gorath cut off any questions the tabaxi or Lhytris might have had.
"Aligor," he breathed, shaking his head. "I can't run any further. I can't."
"You have to," the former knight said. "You saw the number after us. It's run or die. Hopefully…"
Jhelnae held up a hand for silence and cocked an elven ear, listening. The sounds of pursuit - footfalls, guttural voices, and the errant clink of metal - came faintly at first, but grew in volume till even the humans heard it.
"They come," Lhytris said, matter of factly repeating his earlier statement.
"Go," Aligor whispered, motioning for Saliyra and Diarnghan to lead them.
One by one the group broke into a run, but Jhelnae noticed Aleina hesitating and did as well.
"Kuhl, Gorath, come on," the aasimar urged.
But the former gladiator just stared impassively back down the tunnel the way they'd come and said nothing. The oncoming sound of pursuit grew louder, loud enough the half-drow feared seeing demonic orogs rounding the nearest twist in the tunnel at any moment. But sound traveled strangely in the Underdark, the surrounding rock sometimes echoing noises a fair distance and the orogs might not be as close as they sounded. Kuhl gave Aleina and Jhelnae a worried glance.
"I'll carry your glaive," the half-elf offered, holding out his hands. "I'll be right next to you if you need it."
For a moment he too was ignored, then Gorath's steel-eyed expression fell away with a rattling sigh. In a testament to his exhaustion, the former gladiator gave a frustrated snort and handed his weapon to Kuhl.
"Gorath Torn," he growled. "Survivor of the blood arenas of Manshaka. Unable to even carry his own glaive."
When he turned he seemed surprised to find Jhelnae and Aleina waiting.
"Go," he said, waving them forward. "I'm right behind you."
They ran. The brief rest had cooled and stiffened Jhelnae's muscles and her first steps felt heavy and slow. But soon a familiar burning settled into her lungs and body as she pushed herself onward. And Rhianne's singing voice began echoing back from ahead to encourage them.
"You're fleet of foot… fast as a falcon… swift as a stream… the song of a songbird… a tumbling torrent… or a wandering dream…"
The words were strung together rhyming nonsense and the bard clearly strained to maintain her song while running, yet the half-drow found her stride lengthening and her body falling into a rhythm of movement which increased her pace as she chased Rhianne's voice. The lumbering steps of Gorath behind her also lightened.
Aided by the bard's voice, the four stragglers caught up with the others as they entered a cavern dimly lit by the presence of the faerzress, which swirled in chaotic patterns of illumination on the high ceiling. Phosphorus fungi growing on the walls below the magical radiation glowed aqua green, adding to the light here.
"The ring says… that way," Aligor huffed.
"Right under the giant nest of spider webs?" Sky asked, lashing her tail.
As Diarnghan warned, a dense canopy of silky webbing obscured a section of the ceiling above a stream fed pool in a corner of the cavern. The former knight gave a weary nod.
"Of course… it does," Eldeth said, scowling. "Well, what choice… do we have?"
The sounds of the coming orogs grew louder as they made their way across the cavern. Their group collectively came to a halt as the tunnel on the far wall came fully into view. Thick strands of spider web completely blocked the tunnel entrance.
"Let's burn… a way out," Aligor said, looking at Aleina.
"Let's," the aasimar agreed, pulling out her moonstone orb.
But Lenora called out a warning before they could act on the thought.
"Aligor!" the crossbow woman yelled.
A pair of leashed giant lizards, like the kind the Emerald Enclave sent as riding mounts on the mission to relieve Blingdenstone, had entered the cavern behind them. These and their handler were driven aside as the main body of demonic orogs pushed their way past.
"Web," Jhelnae growled under her labored breath as her warding armor - a spectral cocoon of ethereal strands - settled into place over her. "By all… that dances! Why can't… I cast one?"
She was gifted power from a demon-queen-spider-goddess and she didn't even have a spell to mimic one of the core abilities of a spider! Webbing the tunnel entrance they entered through might have delayed their pursuers long enough to escape the cavern. Some of the demonic orogs streaming into the cavern roared war cries and loped forward, brandishing crudely made but brutal looking weapons. Others paused in their rush to send a flight of arrows whistling through the air.
"Arrows incoming!" Kelvane yelled, drawing his sword.
Gorath already dove to the ground, but not to take cover from the incoming missiles. He was scrambling after the glaive Kuhl dropped as the half-elf unslung his shield.
The half-drow's warding magic flared to deflect a loosed arrow she failed to dodge while other missiles clanged off raised shields or clattered against the stony ground. The crossbows of Lenora and Saliyra twanged in answer and Dairnghan's bow also sang. A pair of the closest orogs fell, one by bolts and another by arrow. The orog who leapt over those bodies wielded a finely crafted scimitar.
Jhelnae instantly recognized it as having belonged to the fallen Primwin. Her abyssal blade misted into her grip and with it she sent an eldritch blast of energy into the scimitar wielder. He fell, but whether from her attack or from the bolt which suddenly sprouted through his neck from Sky's hand crossbow, the half-drow did not know.
After drawing his weapon with a hissing rasp, Aligor also aimed his weapon. The infernal runes along the length of the black iron blade blazed orange and scarlet as hellfire scorched across the distance to strike another onrushing orog. His attack, however, like when they'd fought the orogs before, sloughed off the scaly red skin of its target and had little effect. Aleina had other options and apparently remembered their resistance to fire. She frosted the same orog with an icy blue ray from her moonstone orb, slowing him.
"Form up!" Aligor yelled as the frosted orog closed, "On me!"
Jhelnae thought those would be the former knight's last words. He did not move as a hacking slash descended to split his skull - until the last moment. Then he turned and side-stepped enough to take the attack as a glancing blow to his shoulder guard. It seemed the horse head pauldron there was not merely ornamental as it both held and deflected the blade. Aligor counter attacked, skewering his opponent with an upward thrust of his great sword and the war cry the creature roared morphed into a scream of pain. Then the former knight twisted and kicked the orog off the blade to send it tumbling and bleeding to the cavern floor. There Lhytris pounced, seizing a horn with one hand while the other slit the monster's throat, ensuring it would not rise to fight again.
A thunderous, piercing scream from the depths of Rhianne's cowl sent some of their attackers stumbling back, clutching at their ears and Iandro sowed confusion with multiple forms of himself which recklessly ran amidst the enemy, only to dissipate into nothingness when struck. Then Kuhl, Eldeth, Gorath, and Kelvane were able to join ranks with Aligor and for a moment their opponents retreated in the face of their fierce onslaught and the golden radiance of Dawnbringer - squinting and shielding their eyes.
But many more orog took the place of those who fell. They recovered and surged forward again. Fear of hitting companions kept Jhelnae from releasing a blast of eldritch energy into the knot of massed fighting. She, like those wielding crossbows and bows, focused on the enemy archers, trying to keep them at least ducking and dodging rather than sending flights of arrows. The half-drow had just sent the giant lizards scurrying back into the tunnel in a panicked flight, dragging along their handler behind them, when sticky strands of webs, many many webs, streaked down. They came from the tangled mass of webbing above and fell among the orogs, restraining those struck.
"You have entered the cavern of the singing spider," a clear, high toned feminine voice called down in Undercommon. "The price for passage through my lair is blood or song. From the orog, the payment will be blood I think."
Violet light suddenly limned a patch of orog, several of whom were struggling to rip themselves free from webs.
"Attack now!" the voice from above yelled, this time speaking surface Common. "While you still have the advantage of surprise. Hold nothing back."
Something moved across the webbing above and a bowstring sang, sending an arrow hissing down to pierce the skull of one of the highlighted orogs. The fighting had stalled in the confusion of this new entry into the fray. It now began again in earnest.
But things had changed. Those still restrained by webbing were easily dispatched and more webs, not as many as the first volley, but still enough to turn the tide, rained down. Arrows did as well with deadly accuracy. This and the efforts of the companions soon set the orogs to flight. War cries became panicked yells of retreat and those not stuck in webbing fled back the way they had come.
"A little demonic ichor flowing in their veins and they forget," the mysterious voice said. "Forget who hunts here."
As if to punctuate her statement she loosed another arrow, stilling an orog struggling to get free."
"Who are you?" Rhianne called out, voice wary. "Friend or foe?"
Jhelnae, along with her companions, stared upward, tense, weapons and spells at the ready.
"Friend or foe she asks," the voice mused. "Well, my pets, what do you think?"
Soft chittering answered her query as another arrow streaked down and another orog died with deadly efficiency. Two others tore free from the webs restraining them and ran for the tunnel entrance. Only one made it out, the other pierced in the back by a missile from the archer above.
"My pets are right of course," the voice said. "The truth is I am neither friend nor foe. I am a collector of tales, legends, and stories I can set to lyric cadence and accompany with music. So, I ask, sister-in-song, do you have any of these?"
Another arrow and another dead orog. More now freed themselves and fled. These the archer from above let go, seemingly intent on the answer from the companions.
"Sister-in-song?" Rhianne said. "You're a bard?"
"A bard," the archer answered. "And more."
"More?" the darkling bard asked.
"So, many questions," the voice said. "When they haven't answered mine. Yet I am the host and so I suppose the rules of hospitality say I should answer."
She began to sing.
"One day I charmed with my sweet song,
A bewitching dryad near mirrored pond.
"Come with me," that dryad bade,
And whisked me far from glen and glade.
Away to a castle amid icy fells,
Where the Queen of Air and Darkness dwells.
Before a throne crowned with diamond night,
Morning Glory Blade sang with all her might.
"Play on," commanded the Unseelie Queen,
Her voice was soft, yet sharp and keen.
Her court fell silent in spellbound thrall,
As the bard's music echoed in the cold stone hall.
With voice and lute she sang and played,
Her throat grew sore, her fingertips frayed.
Then the bard awoke to dawn's soft gleam,
Sunlight chasing away both dew and dream.
Morning Glory Blade lay near the mirrored pond,
In the mortal world, back from beyond.
But the bard knew a part of her in fey she'd left behind,
And forever more with darkness her fate would now be entwined.
Song ended, the singer leapt off the web and climbed party down the cavern wall, stopping to bow deeply. The only applause she received was rustling and chittering from the web. The top half of the singer was a moon-elf.
The bottom half of her, a giant spider.
Happy Halloween! Don't look at the calendar. You are right. It is a week after Halloween. But I conceived this chapter as something I'd drop on Halloween. I wanted something creepy, so I settled on a drider. Looking through the wiki on drider NPCs left me uninspired until I chanced upon one created by DnD staffer Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel for a previous edition of the game about a drider bard. So I figured I'd use her. So, why is it late? I had plenty of time to write it. I could blame work... but I had a really tough time writing it! The damned song along took about a week of tinkering with it! And I think I need to write another one for the next chapter... Ugh! For those interested, here is the link to Morning Glory Blade's info: