Castinar quickly gathered the Truth Seekers together in the hall just outside the room they had just fought in.  He checked the map and told them “Looks like about another hundred yards or so.  Only two rooms, most of it is hallway.  Now remember, we’re just a group of servants walking around.”

 

Looking up the gray druid saw that they would have to do some quick patch-up work with the disguises.  While his injuries were internal, Narlan, Diana, and Shadow all had ripped and bloody cloaks from the strikes they took from the gargoyles.  After a few cantrips from Diana and Nikki the blood was cleaned off.  Some strategically placed cloaks and scarves hid most of the rips.

 

Once Sane pronounced the party sufficiently innocent looking Castinar led the group forward once again.  Fortunately they encountered nobody else before reading the central courtyard.  Sane, still invisible, slipped ahead to try and find Summ, the old drow.  He returned only a few moments later, announcing that Summ was walking towards the doorway the party was hidden behind.

 

When the drow entered he looked exhausted and more than a little frightened.  Still, he had possessed the presence of mind to retrieve the party’s Watch disguises.  In response to the party’s questions he told them he had dispatched the priestess, but that the sound of the battle had attracted more attention.  “We had planned on slipping you out quietly, but we don’t have time to finesse that right now.”  Bouncing his Wand of Lightning in his hand he continued “It looks like we’re going to have to take a more direct route.”

 

The party had a quick planning session as they changed out of the House Zimrath clothing into the uniforms of the City Watch.  Sane used and illusion on Narlan to disguise him.  It was decided that Summ would use his wand to breech one of the outer walls.  Sane would then call down a fog of obscuring mist to cover the party as they dashed across the courtyard and out of the compound.  “Falan will meet you just outside the walls and see you safely to wherever it is you go” Summ told them.  “May whatever Gods you worship watch over you!”

 

Once everybody was ready Summ cast an illusion on himself, making him appear much younger with markedly different features.  He raised the Wand and let loose with three blasts in short succession.  Once the dust cleared slightly a twelve foot gap was visible in the walls.  Summ nodded once more to the party, then turned and fled into the compound.

 

Sane summoned up his fog and the party dashed across the compound and out into the street beyond.  A few arrows skittered across the ground near them, but the escape was clean.  Once they made it past the fog back outside the walls they saw Falan running towards them.  “So much for simple and quiet” he noted as he ran up.  “Come, we must hurry.  The Watch will be coming to investigate.”

 

Falan lead the party down a nearby alley and then through a maze of narrow passages.  When they finally stepped back out onto a main street the Zimrath compound was a quarter mile away. 

 

“We’re still not out of the fire pit” Falan told them.  “If a Watch officer that is higher ranking than myself sees us he could order us to follow him back to House Zimrath.  We need to look like we’re in a hurry, that we already have our orders.  Take out your blades.  Try to stay in some kind of a formation.  We’re going to have to jog down to a lower level.”

 

Following their guide’s directions the party formed up and started out.  Falan had to admit he was a little surprised at how well the party held formation.  They even ran in step.  Little did he know Diana’s Combat Empathy spell was helping.

 

As the party was running Katrina pointed down and off to their left.  Fireballs were erupting around one of the large mansions a couple of miles away.  “House Aswadain” Falan explained.  The party ran on in silence, each lost in their own thoughts as the watched the extermination of an entire drow family proceed.

 

They made it half way down the hill before they ran into trouble.  Rounding a corner they almost plowed over a Watch patrol.  “Hey!  Where are you headed!” the leader of the other patrol shouted.  “General Order Four!  You need to split up and head to your posts.”

 

To the relief of the party the patrol moved on, but Falan was upset with the news.  “General Order Four is a civil security order.  Patrols of four Watch members guard every major intersection in town.  It’s probably in reaction to the battle at House Aswadain.”

 

“So what’s the problem?” Thengal asked.  “We can just say we’re running to our posts.”

 

“The problem is there are no patrols this large under General Order Four.  Our size will make other patrols suspicious.  And we will run into other patrols.  We’ve got at least half a dozen patrol points to pass through before we make it down to the docks.”

 

“We’ll split up then” Castinar offered.

 

Falan raised and eyebrow.  “Are any of you familiar enough with the layout of Sakar that you could get back down to your hiding place from here?”

 

Castinar thought he might be able to, but wasn’t sure.  “There are no nice straight roads down here like you’re used to up on the surface” Farlan continued.  “If you don’t know where the lifts and stairways are you could wander around on of the tabaqs for hours trying to find your way out.  Besides, do you want to take the risk that the group your human here went with could get caught?”

 

“What other options do we have?” Sane asked.

 

Falan grimaced.  “We take the low road.  The sewers.”

 

“No WAY I am going to go trudging through sewers!” Nikki exclaimed. 

 

“Oh, they’re not that bad” Falan said.  “This hill has several natural springs on it.  Several of them feed directly into the sewers.  They keep it fairly clean, although I would not exactly call them pleasant.”

 

It took a bit more discussion and persuasion, but everybody finally agreed to go along with Falan’s plan.  The Watchman spotted a sewer entrance nearby and the party began their odiferous journey.

 

Actually Falan was right.  It wasn’t too bad.  It did smell somewhat, but at least there were walkways along the sides of the sewers so the group didn’t have to trudge through the foul water.  Still, the going was much slower down here as they had to watch their step on the slick stones. 

 

It was almost two hours later before they finally saw the grill covering the end of the sewer ahead.  Falan suggested one of the spellcasters use magic to open the grill, but Matar stepped past him, grabbed two of the bars, and pulled them apart.  The party stepped past and out onto the end of the pipe.  Looking down they saw that they had about a ten foot fall to the waters of the Black Lake below them.  Nobody was excited about a swim, so Sane leaped out and flew up above.  He secured a rope and tossed it down.  The group then climbed hand-over-hand up the small cliff above them.

 

After that it was a short walk to the Amirsaqut compound.  When they were spotted they were hurriedly escorted to the covered dock where they had stayed before.  Upon arriving they saw Jax standing near a group of Dark Stalkers.  Kat ran over to him and inquired about Ariessus.

 

“I’ll go get here” Jax replied.  He then headed down to the room where the party had spent the past few weeks.  The Seekers, eager to see Ari, followed him.  They found Ari in the room.  She looked tired, and worn, and she had lost several pounds, but the fire remained in her eyes.  K’harn stayed so close to her it was like she was an extension of Ari’s body.

 

As the party was joyfully reunited with Ariessus Jax stood behind them, slowly shaking his head.  “How does she ever get anything done?” Thengal heard him mutter.

 

(OOC: We’ll take about a half hour to an hour at the beginning of the chat session to play out this scene, if you guys want.)

 

After several minutes Jax interrupted.  “We’ve got everybody here.  We should get going now.”

 

“What about Valdaeron?” Diana asked.

 

“He won’t be coming with us.  He’s got things here in the city he needs to take care of.  His orders were for us to get as many as we could onto the bioship once the Cormyrian and Ariessus were safe.  So come on, let’s get out of here.”

 

As the party was gathering their stuff Jax went on ahead to get the Dark Stalkers loaded onto the bioship.  Once everybody had all of their gear they climbed the stairs and began walking towards the bioship.

 

“Not so fast, you bitch!”

 

The party turned around and saw a small group of drow standing about a hundred feet away.  Ariessus snarled.  “Venom!”

 

“You’re the cause of all this!” Venom shouted.  “It’s been your fault since the day you didn’t roll over and die the way you were supposed to!  I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you just walk out of here, leaving my family in ruins!”

 

Venom threw her hands skyward and began to shout out something in Abyssal.  The word or name “Gathtazkhan” was repeated several times.  Venom then screamed out in pain as she was suddenly shrouded in flames.  Her screaming intensified as the flames grew brighter and hotter, until the party could feel them from where they stood.  Horrifically, Venom seemed to be surviving the scorching as she began staggering around, reaching out blindly.  The drow around her stepped away, their eyes wide in fear.

 

Finally the flaming priestess fell to her knees.  She convulsed once, then again.  With a roar her body exploded.  The drow behind her threw themselves to the ground as a fireball expanded from around her.  The party had to turn away from the flames lest they be singed.

 

Castinar was the first to recover and look at the aftermath of the explosion.  “Mielikki protect us!” he whispered as he grasped the holy symbol hanging from his neck.

 

The rest of the party looked.  It was their turn to have their eyes go wide.  A huge spider-like monster stood where Venom had fallen to the ground.  It stood at least fifteen feet tall on six of its legs.  The front to legs ended in huge blade-like tips, which it held before it like a weapon.  Venom dripped from its wide jaws, hissing on the stone where it fell.

 

<ALL RIGHT!> 

 

Finslayer’s telepathic voice startled everybody.  Castinar silently chastised him, wondering why he was so excited about this terrible beast.  <No, not this thing, the gogglers over there!>

 

Castinar turned to look.  He quickly called out a warning to the Dark Stalkers.  Kuo Tao were climbing up the side of the dock.  The Dark Stalkers quickly moved into position to repel the fishmen.

 

“Looks like we’re on our own against this beast” Castinar told the others.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

 

A map is up.  The big 1 is the spider.  2 – 9 are drow.  8 and 9 have robes on, not armor.  6 and 7 carry bows.  The others wear swords. Ari and K’harn have been added back in to the battle grid.  We’ll pick up from here (after the reunion scene) at chat tonight.

 

Saif