The crazied drow smiles and chuckles, then moves his hands as if casting a spell. An abomination appears: a fiendish-looking eagle, clearly deformed - and, for the ones who know it, fleshwarped. The creature seems to be constantly suffering, and his talons seems to have extra features to allow it to burrow (even if for no use, since it can still weirdly fly with its different sized wings).
The monstrosity immediately flies, behind Sorala and the spider, followed by Lahrehn, maniacally happy with his creation, carrying his khokkara. He licks his own lips, thinking on how much worse the animal could have been warped.
As his Mistress indulges in the black arts of lettering, Hurk'kagg shifts uncomfortably.
Letters bad. Steal soul if not eaten once read. Hurk'kagg know this much
The brute distracts himself by eyeing the dwarf and imagining his beard scalp hanging at the bugbear's belt along with numerous gnome skulls...
Hurk'kagg see you longbeard. He will butcher you and all the little ones...
This adventure just gets better and better... Hands using the webs for support, T'unavor follows his sister and her conjured pet up.
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"Lord Geirni." Siobhan ignores the dwarf. "If my men are to be treated like common criminals then our truce will be done. We are proud elves and we will not submit to the whims of a dawg-knuri simply because we stand for everything he does not! Now you either accept our help as equals or we leave and let you face this by yourself! I have delivered the warning, if you or your councilors are too foolish to accept it then it is no concern of the Drow!"
Hurk'kagg yawns as the words continue, his maw a trap of jagged points... yet his floppy ears continue to twitch and swivel when each party speaks.
He then returns his baleful gaze back toward the dwarf, but ever mindful that at any point his mistress may speak an order dressed with the expectation of prompt action.
"We waste time. If Lord Geirni will listen to such cowardly counselors as this, let him and his people be swallowed by the oncoming storm. Our time is better spent preparing our own forces."
Sh'assaria wrinkles her nose in reply: "'The likes of us?' Well that's not very nice... we're not all the same, you know. Some of us are quite nice, once you get to know us."
She pauses to let that thought sink in. It's probably not true, but that's not the point.
"And if you don't make the effort to get to know us, how can you be sure?"
Her keen eyes do their best to pierce the darkness, to identify whoever's speaking.
Come out, come out, wherever you are...
Geirni claps and holds up his hands to silence the room. "My friends, surely we can reach a compromise. Siobahn of House Vytharia, my sheriff and Prince Oathsworn have made their concerns known, and they are concerns that I share. But if this attack is imminent, I see little choice in accepting the Baroness's aid. I will permit one dozen of your soldiers to bivouac in the town square for a week's time. Does that seem agreeable?"
"Udos ph'jhal draa mulke'staan tupora rescho. Ele xun dos deg'rabah?"
Behind them, a number of svirfneblin bodies hang in the web.
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"Your terms are acceptable Lord Geirni." Siobhan responds, coldly. She turns to Ssarilla, "Convey the changes to the instructions. We will still need to send the messenger as quickly as possible to the Baroness." Her fingers flicker, out of sight of Geirni and his lackeys. Tell them three days - then we attack.
Turning back to Lord Geirni she makes an effort to sound more civil. "My thanks, my Lord. I request that some accommodation be made available for myself and my second. It would not do to be sleeping alongside the soldiers. I'm sure you understand."
Arcavic raises an eyebrow and opens his mouth to respond to the dwarf's insult, but closes it when Lord Geirni speaks. It would not do to undermine all of his sister's hard work by losing his temper. Still, he looked forward to cutting the dwarf's head off. A snake? No, he and his family were spiders, and they would spin a web so fine the gnomes wouldn't see they were stuck until it was too late.
"Boredom and curiosity, that most deadly of combinations." T'unavor replies, with a sideways glance at his sister. "What brought gnomes along the mena doelyn?"
Sh'assaria blinks at the question. "We're not trespassing - we're drow! We own the Azathyr." She peers past the spiders at the svirfneblin bodies. "If you want more of those things, you should join us. We're about to get a whole village-full. Enough for everyone to have a few."
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The intelligent spiders skitter closer. "Absent owners," one says, its voice low and sibilant. "The skis'raal have not seen your kind in decades."
"Decades," the other responds. "Why should we help you? There is plenty of gnome flesh to be had on the road."
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T'unavor turns, spits. "I swear, the drow are blessed just because we make life down here actually interesting. Many gnomes in city." He's over-enunciating his words now, like he would to a particularly slow child he isn't allowed to whip for some reason. "Gnomes keep traveling to city. Merchants. Rescuers. Many houses in city. Very good lair."
Beside him, his spit starts to bleach the rock a sickly white.
Sh'assaria gives a slightly patronising smile in response. "Oh really, dears, you should know that just because you haven't seen us doesn't mean we aren't there. Watching. Waiting. We're drow." She shakes her head. This shouldn't be difficult.
Honestly, perhaps at this point it would just be easier to kill them and move on.
At the dwarf's growling threat to Arcavic, the hulking bugbear looks expectantly to his mistress, hoping for an signal to tear the longbeard apart...
It does not come.
Instead she conveys instruction and thought to the other dokk-alfur in their "hand-words" that reminded Hurk'kagg of a spider climbing.
The brute goblinoid snorts to himself as the twin evils of hunger and boredom begin to whisper in his tattered ears...
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Ssarilla simply nods before she turns to leave. This wasn't the way she would have done it. Taking out the dwarf and then subjugating the svirfneblin was much more her style.
She's barely out of sight from the negotiations when she collapses, letting out a scream and clasping her head as she does.
Those able to see into the ethereal would have noticed a humanoid shape tearing away from her.
Arcavic’s head whips around at Ssarilla’s scream, and he runs to her side. In Drow, he asks, ”What has happened? Did the gnomes strike at you?”
Ssarilla breathes heavily as she lays bunched up, arms wrapped around her head. She gently shakes her head at her brother's question. The fact that the only gnome in sight is a child also makes it unlikely.
It takes several more moments before she manages to maneuver into a sitting position, staring blankly into the distance. "She's gone."
Hurk'kagg follows his mistress' lead and moves to loom at her shoulder, needle teeth bared...
Longbeard first. Then the rest...
"Who? Wait...you mean mother?"
"Yes. It feels like.. Like she tore herself out of my skull, or something else tore her out. I don't know." She slowly shakes her head as if trying to get things back into place.
"It's so.. so silent."
"Did they say 'payment and' or 'payment in'?
Sh'assaria looks encouraging. "Now we're getting somewhere! What do you want as payment?"
"Siobhan." Arcavic motions her over. Once she is there, he says to Ssarilla, "Tell Sio what you told me."
"It's mother. Or actually, it isn't mother. She's gone. Torn away. I think she did it herself. I'm not sure." For a moment it looks like she is about to start crying but it fades as quickly as it came up.
"My mind is so empty now. So silent. I had forgotten what it was like to be alone in there." Her gaze appears to trail off into the distance.
Suddenly she turns her head to look Siobhan straight in the eyes and she switches to Elven, "Maybe we could spin it. Pass it of as an attack by the aberrations."
Arcavic looks at Sio, and merely nods agreement. This was an opportunity - one that could aid in ensuring they could fool the svirfneblin.
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Sio nods too, before rising gracefully and approaching Lord Geirni again, subtly waving Hurk'kagg down as she does so. As she approaches she inclines her head, slightly lower this time, a gesture of apology.
"My apologies Lord Geirni. It appears that my second has been struck by some sort of psychic attack from the abberations. She was able to repel the attack - barely. Clearly if they are seeking out psychics in your city then the situation is worse than we had anticipated. I will bring my men to the city with all haste. If I simply do not send a message to my superiors then I can offer another dozen elves to the cities defense - reinforcements may take longer to arrive, but these extra blades might be the tipping point. I offer them to you."
After a short pause Siobhan looks to each figure in turn. "Given this attack I do not wish to send my second alone. My thanks, and the thanks of the Baroness for your patience - we will return as swiftly as possible." With another short nod she turns on her heel to leave.
Hurk'kagg tries to process what occurs when Second Mistress Ssarilla wails in pain.
He hopes that the little ones and longbeard are somehow responsible and holds station as the other dokk-alfur see to their kin.
The brute eyes the dwarf as it hefts its maul, allowing himself to envisage slaughtering its wielder then stalking the gnomiz city spreading fear and bloody mayhem...
As if to add extra weight to her sister's words Ssarilla shuffles after her. She looks like she was just ran over by a bulette or some such, something she doesn't even have to fake.
"Or any flesh," the other continues.
He casts a derisive glance across the party. "Be gone from this place. Return with your soldiers, or do not return at all."
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Siobhan ignores the dwarf entirely and addresses herself to Geirni. "My Lord, I spoke in haste, out of fear for my sister. If I caused you" she stresses the you heavily, "then I offer my apology. Although if I may offer some advice - if you yapping hairball does not learn some manners he may find himself with rather less to catch his food in, if he speaks to my commanders in such a manner. I am more forgiving than they are."
With that she sweeps out of the audience chamber and waits, chin held high as her followers collect their weapons. "Note the buildings well." She murmurs in elven as Arcavic and Hurkagg rearm. "We will need to know them in order to defend them later." Against her chest her fingers make the sign of negation-reversal as she says 'defend'.
When they return to camp Siobhan takes a seat by the command tent and waits for her siblings, the picture of a relaxed lady Darkness. "Hurkagg - spar with a soldier or two - see how prepared they are." With the entertainment dealt with Siobhan ponders the situation until the guards report the arrival of the rest of the Vythara siblings.
The sight of their new monstrous allies makes Siobhan claps quietly as her siblings approach and she inclines her head to Sh'assaria with a smile, beckoning her into the privacy of the command tent. "The Patron favoured you sister. We were also fortunate - the gnome lord is a fool, although he has a dwarven advisor and an elder who appear to be more than he is. Our more venomous brothers and sisters should begin preparing for this. We have permission to bring a dozen warriors into the town to defend it from an abberation attack!" Her voice shows how ridiculous the whole idea is. "We should take a day or two for their vigilence to wane after we arrive and then strike. Nine or ten days hence should be perfect. What do you think?"
Arcavic shoots the Dwarf a glare before following Siobhan out of the audience chamber and re-arming, taking back his weapons. He nods as Siobhan issues an order and says in Elven, "It will be done."
He takes care to study the buildings and the route from Geirni's palace to the gates. They would have to move quickly once they'd let the rest of the army in place.
Arcavic will watch over Hurk'kagg's sparring with some of the soldiers, noting their skill and readiness. If he finds they need some training, he'll do that as well.
Hurk'kagg lumbers out after his Mistress, and tries to understand when she issues hissed instructions in the alfur tongue.
He dutifully nods, and takes a mental note to later ask Arcavic what she said...
... then promptly forgets the notion when reunited with his weaponry.
Once back at the army he lurks by Siobhan's shoulder, then participates in sparring with some of the chosen troop when ordered to.
The bugbear tries to tread a fine line between not injuring any of the dokk-alfur, and indulging his sadistic streak in humiliating any think he will be an easy mark as a slave (albeit a hulking brute of one).
T'unavor rolls his eyes. "Done, already. Renege and I vivisect you slowly." Probably going to do that anyway, but later...