The Situation With Eric (17/3) - Jaezred
Mar 21, 2022 19:33:15 GMT
Anthony, Toothy, and 2 more like this
Post by Jaezred Vandree on Mar 21, 2022 19:33:15 GMT
Stepping out of Killian Gourcuff’s “shop”, Jaezred invited the party to a round of drinks at the cocktail bar on the ground level of the Mountain Palace. Merriment was had as emotion cocktails were drained and cheerful conversations ensued, but sooner rather than later it was time to go home. He led them to the teleportation circle room where the mage on duty sent each of them off to their destination of choice: Bella to the Autumn Court, Toothy to Fort Ettin, and Itzal to Port Ffirst.
As the last adventurer blinks out of space and Jaezred stops waving goodbye, the smile disappears from his face and the veneer of tipsiness evaporates in an instant. With a flick of the wrist, he summons his tome of witchcraft to his side, the leather-bound grimoire fluttering open to a particular page, and picks up the raven feather quill to write a message.
I need an audience with the Queen, urgently. And you should be there too.
Imryll’s reply comes a second later as spots of ink appear on the page to form words, eventually a sentence: Oh? What is it? If it’s that urgent it would be useful to pass on what it’s about.
Abyssal influence at work in Lostbell Mine, he writes swiftly back. Unsure if ongoing situation, must assume so. Can explain more in person.
Okay. Leave it to me.
He does not have to wait long until he is called into the ritual chamber in the heart of the Mountain Palace. Imryll’s pretty face peeks out of the double doors and she declares in a mock-serious voice, “The Queen will see you now,” before smirking and waving him in.
He steps into the chamber, which he last saw in a vision when he made a pact with Queen Nicnevin: a vast, octagonal room lit by a large quartz jutting out of the vaulted ceiling, reflecting moonlight from outside. The gigantic Lady of Copper and Crystal stands on a raised dais in the centre of the room, directly under the quartz, a serious expression on her regal face. Her pupil-less, mossy green gaze lands on Jaezred as he strides before her and takes a knee.
“My Queen, I come bearing ill news,” he says with his head bowed.
“So Imryll tells me, Lord Jaezred. I presume you would deem it quite serious to warrant a personal report rather than your usual means.”
“As cruel it is of me to deprive Your Majesty of a recipe this time, I’m afraid it is.”
Peering slightly up, he spots the faintest hint of a smirk on her lips at that. “Then tell me, Lord Jaezred, what exactly is it you have found in Lostbell Mine.”
He stands up with his back ramrod straight and looks up at her. “I shall start from the very beginning…
“Earlier today, Dr. Killian Gourcuff and his assistant Eric went looking for a cursed fur cloak at the behest of the Pact. Eric found the cloak, touched it, and was transformed into a dog-bear-like creature and ran off into Lostbell Mine. Gourcuff hired adventurers from the Dawnlands, including myself, to retrieve Eric and collect pheldriss crystals for him — presumably for the good doctor's own research — as he claimed Your Majesty prohibited him from entering the mine.”
He pauses there briefly, for the sole reason of seeing Nicnevin’s reaction to that. She smirks again, rather enigmatically, but simply says, “Go on…”
Jaezred gives her a look that silently pleads for the goss but nonetheless obliges. “With detect magic, I sensed a consistent background enchantment and necromantic magic throughout the mine,” he continues. “The enchantment was clearly coming from the pheldriss crystals, but the necromancy was…curious, to say the least. We investigated the newer tunnel that seemed like it had less activity — the left one upon entering — and came upon another juncture: one tunnel leads south and another leads north but was behind a locked door. We forced our way into the northern one first, and that was where we encountered an undead creature, my liege; a miner’s corpse with a symbol of Orcus carved into its chest. It did not seem to have been doing anything but…waiting, waiting for something, until we came along, and it attacked us on sight.
“After we dispatched the creature, I casted the commune with nature spell on the spot. The spirits in the caves and crystals told me that there is influence from the Abyss in that mine.”
Nicnevin’s eyes flash for a moment, and the image of the creature from the mine rears back to the forefront of Jaezred’s mind, standing still in the tunnel until the moment it caught sight of him and his allies and began its strange shrieking.
“I see,” is her only reaction, before going silent again.
Glancing over his shoulder, he sees Imryll has kept her place by the door, standing with her arms folded and listening intently. Her usual smirk has been replaced with a plain expression, not belying her thoughts on the matter.
Jaezred swallows and continues. “The tunnel went ahead, however the party decided to turn back as it was impossible for Eric to have gone this way, given the locked door, so we went down the southward tunnel instead. There was a bend there with a dragon’s fossil in it. Looking around, one of the adventurers spotted dog-bear Eric fawning over a strange gem brimming with necromantic magic. He was fixated on it, but didn’t — or couldn’t — touch it. He ran away from us and when I picked up the gem, the magic dissipated from it entirely.
“We followed Eric to a room with a lift on a vertical shaft that, according to a foreman's diary, led down to a cavern full of crystal deposits. It appeared as though he was trying to get on the lift. I managed to get him stuck to the ground and dispelled the curse on him. When we interrogated him, there was not much he could say for he hardly remembered anything, only that he felt compelled to look for ‘the darkness’.
“We left him there and went down the shaft. Centuries ago, when the mine was still active, a large explosion of unknown cause killed all the miners and the bodies were just left there to mummify. And there was another of that strange gem, placed in a toolbox by the lift. This time, I casted identify on the gem without disturbing it from its position. The purpose of this gem, Your Majesty, is to absorb energy from its surroundings and send that energy to another plane, and it is enchanted with an effect similar to the glyph of warding spell that deactivates the magic if it is moved from its original position. I left the gem there, closed the box, and marked the area around it.”
“Very astute of you to do so,” the Queen remarks. “Anything else?”
“Yes. We found another gem in a cavern east of that one, where there were more bodies. I must conclude that these gems were put in places of death and ill portent to extract negative energy and send it to the Abyss, perhaps to empower someone or something,” he says. “Beyond that, well… I looked into the ravine that opened up during an earthquake that put all work in the mine to a halt for a year, prior to the discovery of the crystal chamber. There is an endless void down there…but I presume this is already known.”
“The void is known… Its discovery marked the end of that mine. Your assumption seems to hold some ground regarding the placement of these gems, Lord Jaezred. The great fossil and two separate locations filled with death would seem to indicate as much. Do you have anything further to suggest they link to the Abyss, beyond the creature you found? Or, for that matter, who would be leaving such things behind in abandoned places to begin with?”
Jaezred shakes his head. “Nothing more, Your Majesty. Perhaps if more exploration of the mine is unconducted, more would be revealed. As you might have guessed, I left the two gems there for another investigative team to look at should you desire it, liege, and I have the deactivated one here.”
He pulls out a purplish-black gemstone, about the size of a halfling’s fist, from his coat pocket and holds it out to her. Almost timed it perfectly and quiet as a whisper, Imryll appears at his side just as Nicnevin turns her gaze on her. “See what Star on the Horizon can make of it. The magic may be gone but perhaps he can uncover something of its purpose.”
At the instruction, Imryll nods and takes the gem, briefly shooting a cheeky grin at him — which is returned with an affectionate smile — before turning for the doors.
“You have done well, Lord Jaezred. I expected you to keep me apprised on the actions in the Dawnlands and here you are, uncovering secrets within my own court. It seems your particular skills are being put to good use. Now, however, would you be able to create a map to the exact location you left the remaining gems within the mine?” asks Nicnevin.
“Your Majesty honours me with your praise.” He bows deeply. “As for a map, I could try; at the very least, I would be able to mark the spots on an existing map of the mine or lead others to them.”
“An attempt on your part should be more than sufficient for now, Lord Jaezred. Was there anything else you discovered within the mine?”
“That is all, Your Majesty.”
“Then I thank you for bringing this to me.” Her eyes seem to settle onto his for a moment and there is that odd but familiar feeling of being looked into rather than at. “To satiate and guide any further research you may desire, the mine was left several ages ago, Lord Jaezred. After the void was discovered, the exploration teams found…‘things’ down in the depths, and several tunnels were purposefully collapsed to keep them back. The creature you found is one such ‘thing’ that seemed to have wandered up in the ages since. I know you are all too familiar with some of the strange and dangerous creatures of the Underdark, Lord Jaezred, so I will leave it to your imagination on what was and may still be down there.
“With that said, we shall have to see what Star on the Horizon uncovers as to exactly where this energy is being sent to, but the presence of one bodak is not proof of it being the Abyss. If you do continue to look or discover any more of these ‘gems’, you would be wise to bear that in mind.”
There is a sigh of relief breathed inwardly when he hears that. Something within him had been unsettled since the first mention of the Abyss in this affair. Perhaps, then, this has nothing to do with her.
“I see… Thank you, Your Majesty,” he says, bowing. “I am honoured to have done my duty.”
As soon as he is dismissed, Jaezred heads straight for the kitchen, as his stomach is rumbling and he needs something to take his mind off. It has been an eventful day and thus he decided to settle for something simple tonight: garlic butter escargot (using a type of bioluminescent snail found in the Underdark) topped with blind cave fish caviar and served with garlic bread and truffles as a main course, strawberry panna cotta for dessert, and red wine to pair. He realises after he had finished cooking that he’d essentially made a more fanciful version of a dish traditionally eaten by crystal miners in the Faerûnian Underdark where he comes from.
The table is set on the high balcony where they usually have their dinners together. He leans over the railing, gazing over the misty Witching Woods and smoking as he waits. Imryll is fashionably late as always (though not so late that the food goes cold) and Velkyn, his unseen servant, pulls up a chair for her when she arrives.
“Well, that was…interesting, wasn’t it, dearest?” he comments with a sigh as he sits down, laying a napkin on his lap. Velkyn begins pouring wine into both of their glasses.
“Still not used to having a formal audience?”
“I had to stand in the matron mother’s presence more times than I liked, so no, actually. I'm talking about the mine. Nigh impossible to tell how long this energy absorption has been going on but it’s certainly ominous.”
Imryll half-chuckles, satisfied that he took the bait, even just a little. “Ominous indeed, and quite conveniently timed. I’m afraid your little adventure into the mines is the Queen’s second hearing of such things though, dear.”
His eyebrows shoot up as he slurps from a snail shell. “What’s this now?”
“Last week I had a visitor myself, another beautiful drow seeking me out. I just seem to have a way of attracting them now, don’t I?” She flashes a playful smile before continuing, “But yes, something similar was found last week, by more ‘adventurers’ no less. Someone had corrupted one of the wild spirits in the court and left those pretty stones around to soak up the chaos.”
“Corrupted a nature spirit? And these same gems? And do I have a rival now?”
“Yes, yes…and yet to be seen.” Her playful smile morphs into a wicked grin.
“Well, time to brush the dust off the old garrotte and poisons, I suppose… But tell me more, which spirit? One of the ones up here in the mountain?”
“No, a ways southwest from here, a water spirit in Spriteswell Depths. Whatever it was, they seem to have cleared things up down there, but I also hear there was another occurrence further north, near Osarbreach, not long ago too. Seems someone or something has been busy around the court and the Queen is, unsurprisingly, quite annoyed with that.”
Jaezred pauses his eating, fishes out a map of the Witching Court lands from his back pocket, and unfolds it above the dinner table to look at these places named by her. Spriteswell Depths appears to be a large lake at the foot of a small settlement in the southwest, Osarbreach is a farming village in the northwest, and Lostbell Mine is a long-abandoned mine in the east. Each location is spread out from and has no ostensible connection with one another. “How was the water spirit corrupted?” he asks, glancing at her over the map.
“Dumping tainted slaad bodies, by the look of things. Quite gruesome, really…”
“Slaad? Why slaad?”
“That, we sadly do not know… The hags of Haspar knoll found a slaad at the Osarbreach incident but had already cleansed it before knowing it was a wider issue and the little group of adventurers from the lake burnt the thing up before anyone could get a look to even confirm if that one was a slaad or not.”
“Adventurers from the lake? Ah, I take it this was Reka’s notice.” He gives the map a once-over before re-folding it and putting it on one side of the table. “So this is… Hm, I see. How…concerning. Though if this is so, then Lostbell must have been the first attempt, or practice. Whoever is behind this may have moved on from using places of ill will to creating such places.”
“Indeed,” replies Imryll, popping a half-bitten piece of garlic bread with truffles on top into her mouth.
“But why the Witching Court of all places? Their knowledge of these lands makes me suspect that they could be a native.”
“That is the current thinking, but equally, we can’t be sure they have not done this elsewhere either… Needless to say, I’ve already been asked to put some feelers out too, but nothing else has come back so far.”
“There is also the matter that these gems seem to be sending off the energy to another plane. I thought it must have been the Abyss, but…now I don’t know.”
“Yes, the fact you found some and thought to leave them intact should hopefully help us there, however. All of the lake stones were disturbed and none have been found in Osarbreach, last I heard. Guess you’re not just a pretty face after all…” She smiles across the table at him.
“I have been well-endowed in more ways than once,” he answers with a smirk and a wink. “Well, I’d very much like to know the answers to all these questions we have currently, but for now — what exactly happened in the mine all those years ago? And why in Lolth’s name was Killian Gourcuff barred from it?”
The eladrin laughs. “Killian wasn’t barred from the mine, but he has no doubt wisely decided not to go wandering in himself. No, she simply — and honestly quite cleverly given his nature — forbade him from ‘causing more trouble than he solves in the court — from her point of view, not his’. Knowing his methods, he probably would have collapsed the entire mine if he went looking for Eric himself.”
“Oh, quite right, actually. The man is impossible and probably suffers from permanent brain damage caused by excessive drinking,” he chuckles and forks some escargot and caviar into his mouth.
“He certainly is interesting, but the Queen seems to have her use for him. I doubt he would have lasted very long otherwise…”
“But the void? What of it? Is it connected to the Abyss somehow?”
“I can’t say myself. First I’ve heard of it… What exactly did you see down there?”
“Just that. A ravine stretching down for two-and-a-half miles, then an endless void. It’s rather disturbing.”
“Nothing else? Tunnels? Markings? Anything?” she asks, genuinely surprised. He shakes his head. “Well, that is surprising. Normally you’d at least find something down that deep, the tunnels from some creature or another digging around… It is odd that there isn’t anything.”
“No Underdark — or Feydark as you call it here, I suppose — or anything. Only emptiness. The Queen said it is known and what stopped work at the mine.”
“Hmmm… That is very strange. Now you have me wondering what happened down there. Well, whatever it was, the Queen seems to be aware, at least. She’s certainly never asked me to find out anything about it.”
“Seems as though this predates even a crone such as yourself.”
She gives him a withering look. “Or perhaps my skills are best served elsewhere rather than playing in the dirt?”
“Oh, don’t give me that. As long as you’re not telling me your age, I shall assume and tell everyone that you are six hundred or older.” He grins playfully.
“Well, as long as you concede I don’t look a day over two hundred, I think we should be fine.”
“Whatever you need to hear to trance at night…” he says, the grin widening behind a glass of wine. She narrows her eyes menacingly but merely pouts at the jab.
Before digging into dessert, a ripple travels across the silhouette of the elven couple sitting at the dining table cast on the floor as a shadowy panther takes shape and rises from it, licking their feline nose and staring at Jaezred, who extends a palm full of leftover truffles to them. In recent weeks, he discovered that He’lylbreia, despite manifesting as predator beasts, prefers a vegetarian diet when they do choose to eat. The spirit munches on the scrumptious mushrooms whilst Jaezred’s other hand indulges them with affectionate pets and scritches, causing wisps of shadows to briefly curl up on their head.
“All this talk of corrupting nature spirits reminds me that I need to clean your shrine this month. We can’t have this mysterious figure corrupting you, now can we?” he coos to them. “They’d have Hell to pay.”
“They would certainly be brave trying to corrupt the shrines in the Queen’s back garden,” Imryll jokes. “Still, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a look around while you are up there, just to be sure.”
“Of course. I’ll go tomorrow morning. Tonight though, I want to do nothing more but lie in bed with you, my love.”
“Oh, with this old crone?”
“This old crone whom I love dearly and want to pamper as much as possible.”
“It’s a good thing you give good massages…”
“Only that?”
“…Maybe some other things.”
He grins.
The next day, he pays the spirit shrines up on the mountain a visit to clean He’lylbreia’s cave and restock the incense and candles there as promised. But it is quiet as usual and nothing appears out of place, and in that moment, the lands of the Witching Court seem to be at peace.
Co-written with the incredible Anthony.
As the last adventurer blinks out of space and Jaezred stops waving goodbye, the smile disappears from his face and the veneer of tipsiness evaporates in an instant. With a flick of the wrist, he summons his tome of witchcraft to his side, the leather-bound grimoire fluttering open to a particular page, and picks up the raven feather quill to write a message.
I need an audience with the Queen, urgently. And you should be there too.
Imryll’s reply comes a second later as spots of ink appear on the page to form words, eventually a sentence: Oh? What is it? If it’s that urgent it would be useful to pass on what it’s about.
Abyssal influence at work in Lostbell Mine, he writes swiftly back. Unsure if ongoing situation, must assume so. Can explain more in person.
Okay. Leave it to me.
He does not have to wait long until he is called into the ritual chamber in the heart of the Mountain Palace. Imryll’s pretty face peeks out of the double doors and she declares in a mock-serious voice, “The Queen will see you now,” before smirking and waving him in.
He steps into the chamber, which he last saw in a vision when he made a pact with Queen Nicnevin: a vast, octagonal room lit by a large quartz jutting out of the vaulted ceiling, reflecting moonlight from outside. The gigantic Lady of Copper and Crystal stands on a raised dais in the centre of the room, directly under the quartz, a serious expression on her regal face. Her pupil-less, mossy green gaze lands on Jaezred as he strides before her and takes a knee.
“My Queen, I come bearing ill news,” he says with his head bowed.
“So Imryll tells me, Lord Jaezred. I presume you would deem it quite serious to warrant a personal report rather than your usual means.”
“As cruel it is of me to deprive Your Majesty of a recipe this time, I’m afraid it is.”
Peering slightly up, he spots the faintest hint of a smirk on her lips at that. “Then tell me, Lord Jaezred, what exactly is it you have found in Lostbell Mine.”
He stands up with his back ramrod straight and looks up at her. “I shall start from the very beginning…
“Earlier today, Dr. Killian Gourcuff and his assistant Eric went looking for a cursed fur cloak at the behest of the Pact. Eric found the cloak, touched it, and was transformed into a dog-bear-like creature and ran off into Lostbell Mine. Gourcuff hired adventurers from the Dawnlands, including myself, to retrieve Eric and collect pheldriss crystals for him — presumably for the good doctor's own research — as he claimed Your Majesty prohibited him from entering the mine.”
He pauses there briefly, for the sole reason of seeing Nicnevin’s reaction to that. She smirks again, rather enigmatically, but simply says, “Go on…”
Jaezred gives her a look that silently pleads for the goss but nonetheless obliges. “With detect magic, I sensed a consistent background enchantment and necromantic magic throughout the mine,” he continues. “The enchantment was clearly coming from the pheldriss crystals, but the necromancy was…curious, to say the least. We investigated the newer tunnel that seemed like it had less activity — the left one upon entering — and came upon another juncture: one tunnel leads south and another leads north but was behind a locked door. We forced our way into the northern one first, and that was where we encountered an undead creature, my liege; a miner’s corpse with a symbol of Orcus carved into its chest. It did not seem to have been doing anything but…waiting, waiting for something, until we came along, and it attacked us on sight.
“After we dispatched the creature, I casted the commune with nature spell on the spot. The spirits in the caves and crystals told me that there is influence from the Abyss in that mine.”
Nicnevin’s eyes flash for a moment, and the image of the creature from the mine rears back to the forefront of Jaezred’s mind, standing still in the tunnel until the moment it caught sight of him and his allies and began its strange shrieking.
“I see,” is her only reaction, before going silent again.
Glancing over his shoulder, he sees Imryll has kept her place by the door, standing with her arms folded and listening intently. Her usual smirk has been replaced with a plain expression, not belying her thoughts on the matter.
Jaezred swallows and continues. “The tunnel went ahead, however the party decided to turn back as it was impossible for Eric to have gone this way, given the locked door, so we went down the southward tunnel instead. There was a bend there with a dragon’s fossil in it. Looking around, one of the adventurers spotted dog-bear Eric fawning over a strange gem brimming with necromantic magic. He was fixated on it, but didn’t — or couldn’t — touch it. He ran away from us and when I picked up the gem, the magic dissipated from it entirely.
“We followed Eric to a room with a lift on a vertical shaft that, according to a foreman's diary, led down to a cavern full of crystal deposits. It appeared as though he was trying to get on the lift. I managed to get him stuck to the ground and dispelled the curse on him. When we interrogated him, there was not much he could say for he hardly remembered anything, only that he felt compelled to look for ‘the darkness’.
“We left him there and went down the shaft. Centuries ago, when the mine was still active, a large explosion of unknown cause killed all the miners and the bodies were just left there to mummify. And there was another of that strange gem, placed in a toolbox by the lift. This time, I casted identify on the gem without disturbing it from its position. The purpose of this gem, Your Majesty, is to absorb energy from its surroundings and send that energy to another plane, and it is enchanted with an effect similar to the glyph of warding spell that deactivates the magic if it is moved from its original position. I left the gem there, closed the box, and marked the area around it.”
“Very astute of you to do so,” the Queen remarks. “Anything else?”
“Yes. We found another gem in a cavern east of that one, where there were more bodies. I must conclude that these gems were put in places of death and ill portent to extract negative energy and send it to the Abyss, perhaps to empower someone or something,” he says. “Beyond that, well… I looked into the ravine that opened up during an earthquake that put all work in the mine to a halt for a year, prior to the discovery of the crystal chamber. There is an endless void down there…but I presume this is already known.”
“The void is known… Its discovery marked the end of that mine. Your assumption seems to hold some ground regarding the placement of these gems, Lord Jaezred. The great fossil and two separate locations filled with death would seem to indicate as much. Do you have anything further to suggest they link to the Abyss, beyond the creature you found? Or, for that matter, who would be leaving such things behind in abandoned places to begin with?”
Jaezred shakes his head. “Nothing more, Your Majesty. Perhaps if more exploration of the mine is unconducted, more would be revealed. As you might have guessed, I left the two gems there for another investigative team to look at should you desire it, liege, and I have the deactivated one here.”
He pulls out a purplish-black gemstone, about the size of a halfling’s fist, from his coat pocket and holds it out to her. Almost timed it perfectly and quiet as a whisper, Imryll appears at his side just as Nicnevin turns her gaze on her. “See what Star on the Horizon can make of it. The magic may be gone but perhaps he can uncover something of its purpose.”
At the instruction, Imryll nods and takes the gem, briefly shooting a cheeky grin at him — which is returned with an affectionate smile — before turning for the doors.
“You have done well, Lord Jaezred. I expected you to keep me apprised on the actions in the Dawnlands and here you are, uncovering secrets within my own court. It seems your particular skills are being put to good use. Now, however, would you be able to create a map to the exact location you left the remaining gems within the mine?” asks Nicnevin.
“Your Majesty honours me with your praise.” He bows deeply. “As for a map, I could try; at the very least, I would be able to mark the spots on an existing map of the mine or lead others to them.”
“An attempt on your part should be more than sufficient for now, Lord Jaezred. Was there anything else you discovered within the mine?”
“That is all, Your Majesty.”
“Then I thank you for bringing this to me.” Her eyes seem to settle onto his for a moment and there is that odd but familiar feeling of being looked into rather than at. “To satiate and guide any further research you may desire, the mine was left several ages ago, Lord Jaezred. After the void was discovered, the exploration teams found…‘things’ down in the depths, and several tunnels were purposefully collapsed to keep them back. The creature you found is one such ‘thing’ that seemed to have wandered up in the ages since. I know you are all too familiar with some of the strange and dangerous creatures of the Underdark, Lord Jaezred, so I will leave it to your imagination on what was and may still be down there.
“With that said, we shall have to see what Star on the Horizon uncovers as to exactly where this energy is being sent to, but the presence of one bodak is not proof of it being the Abyss. If you do continue to look or discover any more of these ‘gems’, you would be wise to bear that in mind.”
There is a sigh of relief breathed inwardly when he hears that. Something within him had been unsettled since the first mention of the Abyss in this affair. Perhaps, then, this has nothing to do with her.
“I see… Thank you, Your Majesty,” he says, bowing. “I am honoured to have done my duty.”
As soon as he is dismissed, Jaezred heads straight for the kitchen, as his stomach is rumbling and he needs something to take his mind off. It has been an eventful day and thus he decided to settle for something simple tonight: garlic butter escargot (using a type of bioluminescent snail found in the Underdark) topped with blind cave fish caviar and served with garlic bread and truffles as a main course, strawberry panna cotta for dessert, and red wine to pair. He realises after he had finished cooking that he’d essentially made a more fanciful version of a dish traditionally eaten by crystal miners in the Faerûnian Underdark where he comes from.
The table is set on the high balcony where they usually have their dinners together. He leans over the railing, gazing over the misty Witching Woods and smoking as he waits. Imryll is fashionably late as always (though not so late that the food goes cold) and Velkyn, his unseen servant, pulls up a chair for her when she arrives.
“Well, that was…interesting, wasn’t it, dearest?” he comments with a sigh as he sits down, laying a napkin on his lap. Velkyn begins pouring wine into both of their glasses.
“Still not used to having a formal audience?”
“I had to stand in the matron mother’s presence more times than I liked, so no, actually. I'm talking about the mine. Nigh impossible to tell how long this energy absorption has been going on but it’s certainly ominous.”
Imryll half-chuckles, satisfied that he took the bait, even just a little. “Ominous indeed, and quite conveniently timed. I’m afraid your little adventure into the mines is the Queen’s second hearing of such things though, dear.”
His eyebrows shoot up as he slurps from a snail shell. “What’s this now?”
“Last week I had a visitor myself, another beautiful drow seeking me out. I just seem to have a way of attracting them now, don’t I?” She flashes a playful smile before continuing, “But yes, something similar was found last week, by more ‘adventurers’ no less. Someone had corrupted one of the wild spirits in the court and left those pretty stones around to soak up the chaos.”
“Corrupted a nature spirit? And these same gems? And do I have a rival now?”
“Yes, yes…and yet to be seen.” Her playful smile morphs into a wicked grin.
“Well, time to brush the dust off the old garrotte and poisons, I suppose… But tell me more, which spirit? One of the ones up here in the mountain?”
“No, a ways southwest from here, a water spirit in Spriteswell Depths. Whatever it was, they seem to have cleared things up down there, but I also hear there was another occurrence further north, near Osarbreach, not long ago too. Seems someone or something has been busy around the court and the Queen is, unsurprisingly, quite annoyed with that.”
Jaezred pauses his eating, fishes out a map of the Witching Court lands from his back pocket, and unfolds it above the dinner table to look at these places named by her. Spriteswell Depths appears to be a large lake at the foot of a small settlement in the southwest, Osarbreach is a farming village in the northwest, and Lostbell Mine is a long-abandoned mine in the east. Each location is spread out from and has no ostensible connection with one another. “How was the water spirit corrupted?” he asks, glancing at her over the map.
“Dumping tainted slaad bodies, by the look of things. Quite gruesome, really…”
“Slaad? Why slaad?”
“That, we sadly do not know… The hags of Haspar knoll found a slaad at the Osarbreach incident but had already cleansed it before knowing it was a wider issue and the little group of adventurers from the lake burnt the thing up before anyone could get a look to even confirm if that one was a slaad or not.”
“Adventurers from the lake? Ah, I take it this was Reka’s notice.” He gives the map a once-over before re-folding it and putting it on one side of the table. “So this is… Hm, I see. How…concerning. Though if this is so, then Lostbell must have been the first attempt, or practice. Whoever is behind this may have moved on from using places of ill will to creating such places.”
“Indeed,” replies Imryll, popping a half-bitten piece of garlic bread with truffles on top into her mouth.
“But why the Witching Court of all places? Their knowledge of these lands makes me suspect that they could be a native.”
“That is the current thinking, but equally, we can’t be sure they have not done this elsewhere either… Needless to say, I’ve already been asked to put some feelers out too, but nothing else has come back so far.”
“There is also the matter that these gems seem to be sending off the energy to another plane. I thought it must have been the Abyss, but…now I don’t know.”
“Yes, the fact you found some and thought to leave them intact should hopefully help us there, however. All of the lake stones were disturbed and none have been found in Osarbreach, last I heard. Guess you’re not just a pretty face after all…” She smiles across the table at him.
“I have been well-endowed in more ways than once,” he answers with a smirk and a wink. “Well, I’d very much like to know the answers to all these questions we have currently, but for now — what exactly happened in the mine all those years ago? And why in Lolth’s name was Killian Gourcuff barred from it?”
The eladrin laughs. “Killian wasn’t barred from the mine, but he has no doubt wisely decided not to go wandering in himself. No, she simply — and honestly quite cleverly given his nature — forbade him from ‘causing more trouble than he solves in the court — from her point of view, not his’. Knowing his methods, he probably would have collapsed the entire mine if he went looking for Eric himself.”
“Oh, quite right, actually. The man is impossible and probably suffers from permanent brain damage caused by excessive drinking,” he chuckles and forks some escargot and caviar into his mouth.
“He certainly is interesting, but the Queen seems to have her use for him. I doubt he would have lasted very long otherwise…”
“But the void? What of it? Is it connected to the Abyss somehow?”
“I can’t say myself. First I’ve heard of it… What exactly did you see down there?”
“Just that. A ravine stretching down for two-and-a-half miles, then an endless void. It’s rather disturbing.”
“Nothing else? Tunnels? Markings? Anything?” she asks, genuinely surprised. He shakes his head. “Well, that is surprising. Normally you’d at least find something down that deep, the tunnels from some creature or another digging around… It is odd that there isn’t anything.”
“No Underdark — or Feydark as you call it here, I suppose — or anything. Only emptiness. The Queen said it is known and what stopped work at the mine.”
“Hmmm… That is very strange. Now you have me wondering what happened down there. Well, whatever it was, the Queen seems to be aware, at least. She’s certainly never asked me to find out anything about it.”
“Seems as though this predates even a crone such as yourself.”
She gives him a withering look. “Or perhaps my skills are best served elsewhere rather than playing in the dirt?”
“Oh, don’t give me that. As long as you’re not telling me your age, I shall assume and tell everyone that you are six hundred or older.” He grins playfully.
“Well, as long as you concede I don’t look a day over two hundred, I think we should be fine.”
“Whatever you need to hear to trance at night…” he says, the grin widening behind a glass of wine. She narrows her eyes menacingly but merely pouts at the jab.
Before digging into dessert, a ripple travels across the silhouette of the elven couple sitting at the dining table cast on the floor as a shadowy panther takes shape and rises from it, licking their feline nose and staring at Jaezred, who extends a palm full of leftover truffles to them. In recent weeks, he discovered that He’lylbreia, despite manifesting as predator beasts, prefers a vegetarian diet when they do choose to eat. The spirit munches on the scrumptious mushrooms whilst Jaezred’s other hand indulges them with affectionate pets and scritches, causing wisps of shadows to briefly curl up on their head.
“All this talk of corrupting nature spirits reminds me that I need to clean your shrine this month. We can’t have this mysterious figure corrupting you, now can we?” he coos to them. “They’d have Hell to pay.”
“They would certainly be brave trying to corrupt the shrines in the Queen’s back garden,” Imryll jokes. “Still, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a look around while you are up there, just to be sure.”
“Of course. I’ll go tomorrow morning. Tonight though, I want to do nothing more but lie in bed with you, my love.”
“Oh, with this old crone?”
“This old crone whom I love dearly and want to pamper as much as possible.”
“It’s a good thing you give good massages…”
“Only that?”
“…Maybe some other things.”
He grins.
The next day, he pays the spirit shrines up on the mountain a visit to clean He’lylbreia’s cave and restock the incense and candles there as promised. But it is quiet as usual and nothing appears out of place, and in that moment, the lands of the Witching Court seem to be at peace.
Co-written with the incredible Anthony.
