The boggard resists Tandri's spell with a supreme effort of wil! Sari leaps into battle, hitting one of the boggards with enough force to leave it completely stunned!
The other three boggards croak angrily and drop their blowguns, instead drwaing whips and cracking them at Sari! She dodges all but one of the attacks.
Floare's anger at the ambush presents as a flash of magic towards one of the creatures attacking her mistress with a whip.
Towards one of the other whip-wielders she directs a summoned vine.
Deregar boosts Tyr as the dragon swoops in on a boggard. His jaws snap at the toad creature.
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Tamdri's annoyance at her spell is short lived as her mistress's fists and words command the frog men's attention. The same thrill she feels each time punishment is dolled out blossomed, allowing her to focus on what she does best... support.
The boggard resists Floare's hex. He vine and Tyr's jaws both fail to hit the wily foes, but Sariana lands another stunning blow, though not as strong as the first one.
The boggards continue to crack their whips towards Sari. Only one hits. All but the one who was stunned also invoke prayers to their demonic patron, Gogunta, and raise shields of force!
Deregar urges Tyr to bite and hold the boggard.
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Since the boggarts are bunched around her mistress, Tandri sends a ball of negative energy into the mix, eating their flesh while leaving her undead companions without a scratch.
Following Tandri's example, Floare follows up the blast of negative energy with a roiling cloud of poisonous gas.
The boggards choke and croak in pain as they are weakened by Floare's cloudkill and Tandri's harm spell. Sariana pummels her main assailant, then Tyr crunches down on it to finish it off.
The three remaining boggards sustain their shield spells and continue to attack Sari.
As the roiling green mist slowly moves away , Flore directs a gout of fire towards one of the enemies.
Seeing the boggarts have no chance against the Nightsongs, Tandri starts conserving her magic. A vivid pink lance of unholy light streaks out of her outstretched finger toward the nearest foe.
Deregar joins the attack on the boggards after strengthening Tyr.
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The remaining boggards don't last long before falling to your combat prowess! You move on from the swamp, and after a few more days, you arrive at Fort Drelev.
Fort Drelev is a sizable town, but the baron has overbuilt. Many of the buildings are empty or only partially completed. Guards patrol the area, mostly humans along with a handful of hill giants. They don't seem to be very vigilant, though, and you are able to sneak past them and into the town proper.
The citizens of Fort Drelev are a downcast and desperate lot. There’s very little activity in the streets, and while shops and markets remain open and farmers and craftsmen continue to ply their trades, they do so quietly and without much noise. No one wants to draw attention to themselves in Fort Drelev, not with the surly and easily angered mercenary guards patrolling the streets.
Following Kisandra's advice, you make your way to the Velvet Corner. Inside the gambling hall and brothel, the proprietress, Satinder Morne, gives you an appraising glance. "Here for a good time? What's your pleasure?" she asks, flashing a charming smile.
"A question more dangerous than you know," Deregar grins under his hood. "We've been sent by a mutual friend."
He holds out the jade ring Kisandra entrusted to the group.
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Sariana smirks at Deregar's answer. His pleasures will be solely of the mind now, yet another reason why vampirism is the superior form on undeath, but if she and her girls let loose in a place like this... It would be an orgy fit for the glories of Old Nidal. The heat rises in her throat at the thought, only to met with implacable willpower.
No. This is my land. To rule, not to devour. Her hand finds Tandri's arm and squeezes hard enough to snap frail human bones before gradually loosening as her will conquers her lusts.
"You have a rat problem and they've started spreading." She adds, keeping the growl mostly out of her voice. "We've come to deal with it."
Satinder regards the ring, and gestures for you to follow her into her private office. Once the door is closed, her smile widens. "I'm glad to see that Kisandra made it out. If she trusts you, then I do, too.
"You are free to use this establishment as a place to hide in rest while you're in town. I have several secret rooms here that can accommodate you. Things are bad in town, as you've no doubt heard. The baron and his cronies never come out of Drelev Keep. He lets his mercenaries do as they please by day. They keep my boys and girls busy, but they rarely pay. They 'put it on the Baron's tab,' but I've yet to see any coin from him.
"If you've come to deal with him, then I will tell you something I learned a while back: the baron built a secret escape tunnel from his keep that exits onto the shore of Lake Hooktongue just north of town. You can use it to quietly infiltrate the keep and get close to him. Kill or capture Drelev and his closest confidantes, and the mercenaries will no doubt abandon the town. Then, at last, we will have sweet revenge for the baron's transgressions against us."
"In Nightsong, those who transgress during the day face their consequences after dark," Deregar assures Satinder.
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Mom? Don't you, Lady Tandri, and Lady Sariana hunt people during the day as well?
"Hush, my lovely boy," Floare whispers back with a grin as she ruffles the fur of Dante's neck. "He's being poetic."
Isn't poetry supposed to rhyme?
"You can be poetic without rhyming. Now hush."
That's dumb.
The witch simply rolls her eyes at her pragmatic familiar's rudeness. Truth be told, she's glad for a distraction. It's been quite a while since she's fed and with all the bountiful flesh that was on display when they came in, she's feeling the hunger even more so.
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Tandri was distracted, first from the pain that shuddered through her body at her mistresses touch, then at the people sniffing into the air, catching her magical scent of whatever they delighted in most. In a brothel, those scents could be of anything, but truly and rarely about sex since that was their job.
Tandri would wilt at that, cringe at what her demoness blood brought attention wise to her, but not since her death. Now, her tail curled around Floare's arm as she watched the gasps, the blushes, almost pouting when she is pulled back into the office.
Luckily Dante is there to get tummy rubs. "Do you know the layout of the castle?" the pink dwarf asks the madame as her nails find that wonderful spot that makes a leg kick into overdrive.
"I don't know the keep's layout, unfortunately, but I know who may be inside. Aside from Baron Drelev and his wife, the baron recently gave shelter to a young foreign noblewoman. She’s a lot younger and prettier than his wife, Baroness Pavetta. I’m sure there’s more going on there than mere kindness.
"Shortly after the baron surrendered to Pitax and the Tiger Lords, his wife’s brother—a rather brusque, foul-tempered wizard named Imeckus Stroon—came to town. Since then, he’s sequestered himself in the keep, rarely emerging. No one in town knows what he’s up to.
"No knows for sure where the Tiger Lords' leader, Armag, has gone. After accepting Drelev’s offer of an alliance in exchange for sparing the town, he took several people as hostages and marched into the hills. He’s supposed to return the hostages once the baron has proven his loyalty to Pitax, whatever that means, but most folk assume the hostages are already dead."
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"So we kill the baron. If we kill the mistress then perhaps the baroness and her brother will leave and save us some trouble. If not then so be it. The hostages are a problem for another day. Now Satinder dear, where can we wait until nightfall? It's been a long trip."
Once night falls Sariana leads the group on swift feet and undead wings around the castle and towards the escape passage on the lake.
"Kill any who resist." She commands, always pragmatic when it comes to such things. "If they surrender or flee, let them. We know who the prey are tonight. Swift and silent as shadows we shall be."
She kisses each of her girls deeply and then leads the way into the passage, fangs bared in anticipation of the night to come.
At the base of a 30-foot-high bluff is the secret entrance to the escape tunnel. The tunnel eventually leads into a large cavern. The stone walls of this massive cavern bear signs of discoloration from occasional flooding, no doubt due to water from Lake Hooktongue entering through the eastern passage when the lake rises during the rainy season. Stagnant runoff has collected in a natural limestone basin of filthy water to the north. An iron gate caked with rust blocks a tunnel to the west.
Deregar conjures Tyr into the tunnel and has the dragon rip the iron gate out of the way.
As the cacophony of the iron gate coming to a rest fades away, Floare raises an eyebrow towards Deregar before placing a single finger to her lips in the universal shush gesture.
"Shadows, remember?" she whispers with a grin.
Deregar shugs: "Big rats they have around here."
Tandri's tail curls pleasantly at the thought of big rats, but she forces it to uncurl. Instead she reassures their skeletal dragon with pat "Much more impressive than some silly rodents, no matter how big" she smiles her fanged smile, then waits to enter the pitch black tunnel.
As Tyr loudly rips the gate out of the way, something stirs in the filthy water. You see a huge black ooze lazily raise a pseudopod as its body ripples. However, since you are all undead, the creature doesn't sense anything for it to digest, so it soon settles back down once more.
Beyond the ruined gate is a series of natural limestone caverns. At the far end, carved stairs lead up to what looks like a blank stone wall but in reality is a secret door into a secret vault in the keep's basement. A table sits in the southeast corner of this dusty chamber, its velvet-lined surface displaying a number of precious stones and pieces of jewelry. A couple of large, ornately carved cedar trunks take up the other corners of the room.
Upon the display table rests a golden yellow topaz worth 50 gp, a deep blue spinel worth 40 gp, an amethyst worth 35 gp, a chrysoberyl worth 10 gp, five freshwater pearls worth 10 gp each, and eight moonstones worth 5 gp each. The table also holds a golden circlet worth 75 gp.
In one chest, you find a suit of +1 resilient leather armor, a set of druid’s vestments, an oathbow, a moderate elixir of life, a greater antidote, four potions of flying, four greater healing potions, and four doses of wyvern poison.
In the other chest, you find a variety of treasures taken from the Tiger Lords’ barrow mounds worth a total of 150 gp. Among these treasures is a greater ring of acid resistance made of green wood carved to depict a snake and a lizard locked in a tangle. This ring is a companion to the ring of the tiger you found in a barrow mound in the Narlmarches long, long ago.
Another secret door leads out of the vault.
"This was certainly a profitable route," Deregar comments. "And the baron will soon have no need of such baubles."
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Sariana grins at their finds and lets her girls do their magical tricks to figure out what all the items do. She does claim one of the flying potions but otherwise seems content to leave serious loot work until later.
"Secret doors are meant to be opened." She comments, before leaving the vault by the other 'secret' exit.
The secret exit opens up into a well-stocked wine cellar, which adjoins a main cellar room filled with foodstuffs. Stairs lead up from here, and another door leads into the keep's dungeon.
Five cells, complete with meticulously crafted iron bars and doors, fill most of this cold, musty dungeon. Only one cell is occupied, holding Kisandra Numesti's father, Lord Terrion Numesti. He appears to be in poor health. Near the dungeon entrance, a door is propped open to an adjoining cramped room containing a very small table and a pair of chairs. Two guards are stationed here, but they are deep into a card game and aren't paying attention to you yet.
Paying no attention to her mistress? That's a crime in and of itself which Floare moves to rectify.
The witch casually enters the stuffy chamber, paying no mind as the door creaks open on iron hinges. As the guards look up from their game, she gestures and fills her hand with fire.
"Your immediate instinct is to reach for your weapons, but I will warn you that even touching them will sentence you to a very painful and bloody death," she declares. "You are in the presence of the Lady Nightsong, first of her name and bringing of violent vengeance to those that cross her will." She crosses behind Sariana, caressing the woman's neck with a teasing touch as she appears on the vampire's other side.
"You have only one option that will keep your miserable lives; Immediate and abject surrender."
Confronted with a terrifying group of vampires and skeletal undead, the guards do the sensible thing--drop their weapons and fall to their knees, quaking in terror and sobbing for their mothers.