The Underdark and places much deeper

Things I never thought I'd see again.

Home.

Food. Actual cooked food.

My bed.

My dear kit with your fluff and icy nose.

The smiles of those I've fought next to. Ellamir. Leopold. Pan. Steve. Percival. Weskin...

It's been two, maybe three, days since we lost the odd Doctor and Aesthelus. It hardly seems like a measurable amount of time and yet I'll never forget what that demon made me feel.

Yes, creature of hell, it felt good. It felt good to burn the life out Sundada. I knew it wouldn't bring them back. Hell, it might have even been wrong but my hands couldn't reach your neck. They still can't. I'm not strong enough, not yet at least.

Was I different then? Before this trek into the deep?

I suppose the story begins a bit before that. It begins in a room full of death. The bodies of drow, perhaps a dozen, strewn about. The bodies of Dr Thugolonkus and Aethelus likely still seeping blood as Percival and Weskin made their way back to the manor.

In that moment there was a silence, the kind you only hear when you somewhere far away from home and hearth. The silence of being truly alone.

Except I wasn't alone of course. Malika towered over me while took what I assumed were my last breaths. I expected her to pull the life out of me, but instead she began picking over the dead and... talking. She was flippant, almost jovial. It was unnerving.

For some reason she wanted me alive. It seems she needed my "abilities" and as well as those of the slaves she later took from the drow witch Avaline.

I was to follow her orders. It went without saying what my other option was. Our first stop was in the nearby torture chamber. A man by the name of Cort was shackled there, likely for quite some time and she let me talk to him briefly. In retrospect this was likely just so she could revel in the glimmer of hope it brought him. Just enough time so that he would have the will to beg for his life.

Her demeanor changed slightly as she searched this room. She began acting and speaking with thinly veiled purpose and intent. From her actions in combat it was clear that she wanted the doctor alive and was annoyed that she'd only been able to trap me. Her convoluted plans seemed to include several of us from the manor though what those plans are is still unknown. In her ramblings she alluded to other planes and the forces which control the material plane. The name Iskund was mentioned, and Zigfreid. It was hard to follow.

Then, confused, Cort spoke up. If only he'd stayed silent.

Maybe Malika was distracted and forgot he was there. Maybe she just wanted to let him stew for a bit before she sucked the life out of him. I suppose it doesn't matter, her claws had barely touched his skin before he crumpled. What was it she said then? Something about snapping a twig or crushing a flower? I would have screamed except I knew she would have enjoyed it. She made me drag his body out of the room. A task not worthy of her valuable time.

We returned to the dead drow to find Sundada stirring, barely alive. She put me to the task of healing the assassin. I'm not sure what she hoped I'd do with the weakened drow. I don't suppose I was thinking of much at that moment except the sound of her weapons cutting into my friends and their screams. The rest of the room faded away and there was a noise in my ears like that of a rushing river. I think Sundada spoke. I think she said something, maybe to me, maybe to Malika. I didn't listen and I didn't care. I slipped my hands under her tunic and found my way to the area just over her heart.

Memories of my two fallen friends came bubbling up as I poured divine energy into the evil being. My energy can heal. It can heal some. I knew full well what it would do and I did it anyways. I burned the life out of that drow. She died on the tips of my fingers and I didn't care.

. . .

Silence again. Malika is standing inches from me, her eyes staring into me. Perhaps to revel in the rage or perhaps because she saw something new, something dark and valuable.

With Sundada dead and no one left to torture she ordered me to collect what I wanted before we set out. I didn't expect to ever take orders from her but I knew my life might depend on the magic items I could gather. I took what I could from the drow and my allies, saying a prayer for the souls of the two who's souls are worth a damn.

From there we began to walk, an activity that Malika was rarely required to to perform. Watching that ungainly chicken legged creature try to remain sultry over the rocky terrain was a sight to see. It made me forgot where I was and almost smiled. Almost. That was the last of that feeling though.

A drow noble and a group of guards were approaching. While a demon would likely walk free in the Underdark, a halfling would certainly be killed on the spot. Malika had thought of this and handed me a jeweled collar from the room that housed Cort. I was to be her slave or at least play the part. I suppose the situation hadn't really formed in my head yet but in that instant it became clear as a summer day.

Malika was the only thing keeping me from a swift death.

Like it or not my only options were assist her in whereever her plans led or die in the caves. I suppose I held onto the hope that I'd find a way to turn the tables on her. Perhaps slip a knife into her ribs and twist.

The succubus's charms made quick work of the patrol and she sent them off on a fools errand. For whatever reason she doesn't value the dark elves in the way she does the adventures of the manor. In her eyes we have some quality, perhaps a determination to fight, that others don't. It's an asset and thus belongs to her.

As the dread crept in I lost my interest in banter. We walked for several hours in the quiet dark until we came to the stone tower.

New allies

The tower's owner is a drow necromancer named Avaline the Wicked. She cuts up the bodies of the living, stitches them together, and re-animates the corpse. Several of the imposing abominations wandered the floors of the structure acting as guards and watchdogs.

Malika and Avaline talked briefly about some sort of vault and a valuable object contained within. Avaline had some control over the forces guarding the vault and Malika wanted those troops withdrawn. I kept my eyes down and tried to listen as best I could but the tables covered in blood and viscera were hard to ignore. As were the cages lining the room stuffed with humanoids.

In the end the troops of the Twisted Blade would be withdrawn and Malika would take some slaves to assist her in the raid. She left it to me to choose the few that would live. Ultimately, only three met with her approval came with us.

The first was an engineer named Orlec. He has skill with a blade and even more with a bow. The second, a human named Alara. She's fast on her feet and deadly with her hands. Thankfully she's got a practical head on her shoulders as well. The final choice was the creature named Cider. It's nature is still slightly unclear, though it showed compassion for life beyond what meager reserves I had. Throughout the journey it was eerily obsessed with bones, several times using magic to strip the flesh from bodies to gather parts of the skeleton.

Malika let us rest for the night so I could regain my arcane energies. All of us found beds except Cider. She gave in to Malika's sway and, well, the three of us slept as best we could.

In the morning Malika wasted no time in setting us to task. We were to follow directions to a pit, slay a basilisk, and retrieve it's heart. Oddly Malika promised our 'freedom' if we completed this task, though I was skeptical that we could trust the demon and even less sure how valuable that freedom would be this deep underground.

Luckily, Orlec knew quite a bit about the creatures but it would still be no easy task. The directions were simple and the journey not long. Near the pit we encountered an abandoned male drow named Paraclyn Whiteclaw. He guarded his house using some sort of fungus which consumes heat and produces deadly cold. I wandered too close and was struck by a shard of ice. I braced for pain but instead felt the white energy build inside of me. The cold barely effected me.

In that moment I remembered my mother walking out into the snow during a blizzard wearing nothing but her night clothes. When she returned I remember her eyes, they were vibrant in a way I'd never seen as if fueled by an inner light. This is beyond that, my connection to that energy is growing stronger by the day. The harder I push against it the more it rises. How far will this energy grow?

Alara and Cider can speak the language of the underdark and talked to the man, trying to get him to lead us to the pit. Eventually he turned on us and we were forced to fight. Hereklin had a slug creature penned up, the kind made from twisted magic and tortured bodies of good folk. We dispatched the unfortunate aberration and at Cider's insistence left the drow unconscious.

Further down that path we found the pit Malika spoke about guarded by a small contingent of drow. Despite outnumbering us they posed little threat. The soldiers fell to our blades and spells but the leader escaped into the pit. We gave chase, destroying ballista as we descended a slope.

It felt almost normal to once again be shoulder to shoulder with companions fighting our way through enemies. I didn't trust them but it was better than being alone with Malika. I knew the basilisk was up ahead and that there was a real chance some of us would end up as stone. I hoped that some of them survived if only to keep me company and get me out of Malika's grasp. How quickly fear eats away at you. Was I already willing to use people and walk away? No. I would not sink to her level. We would all make it out of here, no matter what it took.

At the bottom of the cavern we ran into an all too familiar problem. A wall of magical darkness greeted us at the edge of a water filled room. The drow leader was on the other side and after a short discussion sent the basilisk after us. Using masks from the chamber where Cort died we were able to kill the beast without risk. I'm normally careful not to expend all my energies lightly but in this moment I lost that care. I threw explosive fire over and over into the fray, burning not just the beast but every surface the drow had touched.

The basilisk fled into the darkness and the drow leader hoped to use the confusion of battle to get the drop on us. Cider's magic sent the elf off to kill the basilisk instead. The drow returned to the far side of the darkness and pleaded for it's life. We demanded the body of their precious creature and they gave it up. The heart acquired, we returned and delivered it to Malika and Avaline.

True to her nature Malika's promise of freedom was not what it seemed. The four of us were to accompany her to the 'vault' and defeat the creature standing between Malika and the item. The guard was a golem, a creature constructed and animated with magic. Golems are naturally immune to the flows of magic, which explained why Malika needed adventurers, though it wouldn't be clear until later why that included me. Though these constructs can be quite powerful this one was weaker, being made of wood and not stone or metal.

Excited to get her hands on the object of her desire the four of us set out under Malika's watchful eye. To my shock we returned to the site of the original battle. My mind raced at the thought of slipping up to the surface and to home. Being so close and yet still trapped by Malika was wretched. A detail which I'm sure she was enjoying.

The group convinced Malika to let us gather more equipment from the now rotting bodies. Begrudgingly she agreed and we gathered all that was left. As we gathered what arms and armor we could I noted that none of the items I'd left had been removed, which meant a party from the manor hadn't returned. I hastily wrote a note, hoping to get a message to them and slipped it into the shirt of the Doctor.

After gathering what we could Malika led us through a few corridors to one of the many locked doors in the area. A key I'd taken from Sundada fit the lock and opened into a large round chamber. Inside was an imposing, moss covered statue, wearing a gleaming crown.

For reasons I didn't understand yet Malika had promised our freedom once the guardian was defeated. This seemed at odds with everything I knew about her plans, yet standing there was the only thing standing between us and returning to the surface.

Expecting the construct to be vulnerable to fire we had come prepared with vials of alchemist fire. The foe sprayed us with gruesome spikes but as we had hoped fire bit into it rapidly. With only some moderate injuries and no casualties the battle went as we expected.

Malika's actions, on the other hand, were not at all what we expected.

The Crown of Awakening

In the same instant that the golem fell Malika snapped her magic at me. Instead of commanding me to hand her the relic the instructions forced into my mind were that I put it on. It took all my will but I resisted the command, knowing full well that I could neither run nor resist forever.

Malika had expected me to comply and in the brief moment I had I instead cast a spell allowing me to see magic. Normally it takes a few moments of examining the mild glow of an item to discern it's purpose. My plan was to delay Malika with words while I studied the item in my hands.

When the spell effect took hold I looked down. The crown was like nothing I've seen before. The radiance was nearly blinding. Whatever this thing was it was it was far beyond the power of anything I'd seen. I tried to sort out the aura but in doing so forgot to concentrate on resisting Malika. With a snap of her fingers a spell fell upon me and I began to place the crown on my head.

Having heard the tale of Zigfreid I feared the worst. In moments I would belong to her, possibly for eternity. I would burn the manor to the ground, killing all those I held dear. I would travel with my new master and commit unspeakable horrors.

The jeweled crown slipped down onto my head and connected with the wells of energy inside me. It drew upon that energy like a starving man before a feast. The process drained me and left me weaker, a weakness which I knew would not fade as long as the crown remained.

This item not made of magic woven by mortals. It's an artifact of being beyond the material plane. Not only that, but it's intelligent. I can talk to it.

From withing the item came a distant but deafening booming voice. The voice appears to be the crown, not some creature trapped within it. It's difficult to talk to since it seems to lack a clear understanding of the mortal realm but a few things are clear.

• The crown is drawn to my heritage and the energy that affords me. It draws on that energy to feed its powers though it does so with "reservation".

• That drain is slowly killing me.

• The crown has a purpose. It speaks of awakening and confrontation, of creatures outside this realm called sleepers which manipulate our world. These creatures have some relation to my lineage and wish to see "my kind" dead.

• The crown claims to prefer those of a kind heart to accomplish it's goals and it alludes to danger should those of other persuasions be able to wield it's power.

• It has no love for demons and sees Malika as a trivial inconvenience, which it is willing to help us stamp out quickly.

• The crown offers help in the form of 'guideposts' embeded in my mind which will guide our journey. It's possible it can see into the future.

• Within the next day, something will change. It lacks either the ability or willingness to explain what that is.

• If I remove the crown now, I'll fall into a coma for at least a week. It's also possible something else could occur, which may have been Malika's intent in giving me this item.

• Malika's plans are far, far beyond what we know. Despite our best efforts she thinks of us as little more than flies. Not unlike her control of my life in the underdark, the manor exists only because stamping us out isn't relevant to her plans. Everyone I care for is in danger.

Finally, and above all else the crown scares me.