Yes, it was a vampire. Specifically his name was Belgos, not that he introduced himself. He wasn't happy that the party just sent his lover back to the Abyss. Belgos swiped twice at Shan-Ju, who was invisible to him at the moment, with clawed fingers. Both attacks missed. Belgos tried and failed to charm Fen, the paladin, but failed. Now it was the party's turn, and the melee fighters did over 60 hit points of damage in a single round - despite that fact that hundreds of bats were swarming around Belgos to give him additional defensive cover. He soon went gaseous, and disappeared under a nearby boulder.
The party decided to go after him, and managed to push the boulder out the way, revealing a circular staircase going down. At the bottom of the stairs was a plush bedroom with lots of fine treasure, but no sign of a coffin. The party began searching for secret doors and eventually found what they were looking for, and opened a passage into what looked like an ancient crypt.
Coming up to a T intersection, there was a room down the right hallway with an eerie green light emanating from it. That must be what they were looking for. But as the party turned to go down the hallways, twelve wights rushed at them from the hall to the left. For any other party, this would have been frightening. But for the badass motherfuckers, it was a lightning bolt followed by a couple of sword swings and it was all over.
Moving into the room with the green glow, there was a coffin in the middle of the room and spider webs all over. Before the party could approach the coffin, a giant black widow dropped down from the ceiling, surprising everyone. The spider could not connect its fangs through the superior armor classes of any of the PCs, and they soon hacked the spider up into bits. But the spider wasn't the real threat. It was primarily acting as an alarm for Belgos, who was now fully regenerated within his coffin. The lid sprang open and Belgos leaped out. The party pivoted and responded with nearly 100 points of damage to the vampire lord before he even had a turn. He turned gaseous and reformed in his coffin and Dalron immediately staked him through the heart, cut off his head and shoved garlic in the stump. The party then burned the corpse. It was possible that some of the steps were unnecessary, but it gave everyone great pleasure.
Within Belgos' chambers the party came across a golden idol of a spider with a woman's torso attached. This was most definitely Lolth. Sebastian picked up the idol and instantly gained several powerful abilities. . . though likely at a price. He placed the idol in a bag and the party went about their way. Searching the rest of the place they found some treasure, some interesting goggles with pink lenses, and a basin full of what they identified as Oil of Etherealness. The latter had been used recently, and Sebastian put it on himself and walked through a wall to another part of the crypt. This part eventually led to another exit elsewhere in the underdark. It seemed like someone else may have been here with Belgos and escaped before the party made it down.
Among Belgos' clothes were some fine drow clothes, which the party took, and a Cloak of Protection that Sarril thought looked odd. Sebastian figured it might be another Cloak of Poisonous, and understood that the only way to know for sure would be to put it on, and so he did. And promptly died. Sarril removed the curse and the poison and cast Raise Dead on him. Down another con point, but just a little bit wiser, Sebastian relayed a harrowing tale.
While dead, Sebastian was unable to move on to his proper afterlife. Instead, he found himself among a sea of lost souls in an empty waste, marching toward a figure upon a rock. Vecna. Sebastian was certain of it. He knew the legends, what little there were, mostly about the eye and hand, but this skeletal creature was most certainly missing an eye and a hand. The fiendish being looked at Sebastian with his one glowing eye and spoke through his mind "you escaped me once before, but now you have returned. I am inevitable." That's all that he saw before being snapped back to life.
It turns out that this bedroom was the perfect place to rest, and so the party spent the night, safely and comfortably. The next day they headed out toward the drow outpost, another three day journey, but this time unobstructed.
The party was interested in getting through the outpost quickly and safely, and let Sebastian talk his way through, saying they wished to trade in Erelhei-Cinlu. The drow agreed to let them pass through, and so they did. On the way through they passed multiple slave pens with dwarves, svirfneblin and human slaves which were being sold to the Kuo-Toa. Sir Fenius, being a Paladin of St. Cuthbert, was appalled, but kept his cool, knowing that they had to get through to accomplish their mission, but there was no way he would not be coming back to rescue these prisoners. After moving through the outpost, it was three more days to Erelhei Cinlu and the party arrived on the morning of 28th Day of Ready'reat.
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The party emerged into an enormous cavern known as the Vault of the Drow. The cavern itself is thousands of feet high at the center and several miles across, all lit by a soft green glow. Underground rivers and fungi forests gave the place an alien outdoor feel. Donning the pink goggles, everything came alive with color - reds, oranges, yellows and greens. It was a sight to behold. Ahead of them loomed a large black tower on a mesa. A paved road led left and right in front of the tower. Sarril's familiar scouted overhead and could see the road to the right led to the city gates, and so that's where they went.
Approaching the gates of the city, they were halted by the guards there, who stated that outsiders are not allowed within the city without the express permission of one of the twelve great houses. Sebastian explained that they were merchants who wished to trade within the city. The guards explained they would need a merchant medallion. Sebastian asked what house the guard represented and he responded "Noquar." Sebastian then asked who within house Noquar he could talk to, and flashed some of the party treasure at him. This piqued his interest, and he directed the Sebastian to speak with Raerna of House Noquar a the envoy compound outside of the city and gave directions, so that's where the party went next.
While meeting with Raerna, Sebastian cut immediately to the chase. Without further negotiation, he presented the Golden Lolth idol, which turns out to be a lost artifact of great power and importance to the drow. He offered it as a gift in exchange for a merchant medallion. Of course the deal was accepted and the party was given permission to trade within the city as representatives of House Noquar - with 10% of all proceeds to the house, of course. Sebastian was all too happy to be rid of the artifact, as he began to notice strange black hairs growing on his neck. Evil artifacts always have a way of changing people, Sebastian knew.
Inside the city, the party was directed to the foreign quarter where non-drow are allowed to stay. They found an inn run by a duergar and purchased rooms for the week. Their instructions were to enter the city and then get word to Eclavdra's agent in the slave pens that they were in the city. So after settling in, they went to the slave pens (without the paladin, who was already struggling hard to avoid killing everything in sight) and gave a message to the drow they believed was the right contact. "We are from the surface and we are here to trade with House Eilserv" followed by where they are staying and where they will be setting up shop in the merchant quarter. The drow did not respond, but Sebastian walked away, confident that the message had been delivered. Now there was nothing to do but sit and wait.
The party did set up shop in the merchant quarter, trying to sell their wares. Business was not great the first day, as most of what they had to sell was jewelry collected from various dungeon exploits, and jewelry is a matter of taste. But Shan-Ju managed to find a mind-flayer merchant selling the most exotic, high-end magical equipment the party had ever seen (thanks to some excellent rolls of the dice). We are talking about magic items that cost 100,000 gp or more (+5 weapons and unique named magic items). It just so happens that the party has been accumulating a lot of wealth in the portal hole for many years, and this looked like a great time to spend some money. Most particularly, the party had an item, the Book of Vile Darkness, which would be hard to sell on the surface, but a more perfect market could not be found than here. The mind-flayer recognized its value to the drow and offered a full-value trade for two magic items. A Holy Sword for the paladin and some special Bracers of Defense for Shan-Ju which appeared to be an artifact from his ancient order and, if he can figure out how to use them, would provide additional benefits.
This is where we left off. The party is still talking to the mind-flayer and intent on making additional purchases while they wait for Eclavdra to contact them. It is the 28th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580.
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