Sewers of Greyhawk
At long last, Lara Darro had got her wish. Now she just had to survive it.
In a dark, dank recess of the Greyhawk sewers, as sewage rained down into the basin at the back of the chamber, the man known as Black Cobra stood on a raised platform over the edge of the basin, speaking to a subordinate holding a lantern who had followed him here. Whatever secret message Black Cobra was telling the man to go deliver did not matter to Lara Darro, as the man was not going to live long enough to deliver it. Her first poisoned crossbow bolt was aimed at the subordinate, not Black Cobra. To kill him like that, without him even knowing who killed him…it would be too easy.
The crossbow bolt flew true and the venom on the quarrel was even now making its way into the bloodstream of the man through his chest. The lantern fell out of his hands as the man clutched at his chest, but the lantern rolled and did not break as it hit the platform. Burning oil did spill out from it, creating a small pool around where the lantern rolled to a stop.
In an instant, Black Cobra spun around and hurled a throwing dagger in the direction the crossbow quarrel had come from. It came up short -- he had to have known it would come up short, Lara thought, but hitting had not been his main goal. The dagger shed bright light that illuminated the high corner of the room where Lara was, the recess in which she perched with her crossbow, quickly reloading. It was her turn now and she fired her second shot – only to see its trajectory veer slightly before it would have hit him and missed him by less than an inch. No doubt he was shielded by some abjuration magic – a magic ring or bracers, perhaps.
Black Cobra raised his right fist, on which he wore a ring over his black leather glove. He spoke a command word three times and three glowing arrows appeared in the air, one after another, and flew at Lara. One missed and flew backwards through the air until it hovered next to Black Cobra.
The two that hit dispersed into nothingness on contact, leaving Lara unharmed. Lara was glad she had spent that gold on researching her foe and learned of his primary weapon. The risk of stealing that Brooch of Shielding from Roger Bacon had paid off.
But now Black Cobra had tossed something on the platform between them and dark, thick smoke was quickly erupting from the object. She could not risk losing sight of her target. Lara would have to abandon this position. Discarding the crossbow, Lara leaped into the air and did a double flip on her way to landing on the platform, about 30 feet from Black Cobra. She had no weapons in hand now, but she did not need them nor want them. Her exposed hands had no fingernails, but retractable claws that unsheathed as she stretched out her stubby, paw-like fingers. She charged forward, straight into the smoke cloud. She felt resistance as her claws tore something. When she emerged from the smoke cloud, so did Black Cobra.
Lara Darro, being only three feet tall, had to look up at him. She wore a padded coif around her head, but her human-like face was exposed. In the darkness her pupils had narrowed so that they looked more like cats eyes now. She wore leather clothes – dark brown coat, surcoat, and hose -- but not leather armor, and her short hose was cut in back to let out her long, furry, prehensile tail.
Black Cobra was not wearing any kind of armor either, but wore a leather surcoat stained a dark blue color. His gloves and boots were black leather, and he wore a black skullcap from which hung a black mask concealing his face. There was a tear in his surcoat, but no sign of first blood yet.
Black Cobra’s underling was lying on the platform nearby them, already dead.
Flickering light from the burning spilled oil illuminated both of them.
“So not unexpected to see you,” Black Cobra said. He had a dagger in his off hand, but his ring hand was still free to direct the magic missile hovering beside him. “It is so exciting having a personal nemesis, is it not?”
“This is no game, murderer,” Lara said. “I have come to avenge my kin. And reclaim the weapon that is my birthright.”
“That weapon I am saving for a special occasion. But if you want revenge, take it if you can.” With that, he sent his last missile flying at her and went for the short sword sheathed at his side all in one swift motion.
The missile was dispelled by the brooch, as the last two were. Lara closed the distance between them again in an instant, her razor claws getting closer. Black Cobra blocked one set of claws with his dagger, but was too slow drawing the sword and felt the other claws slash into his right thigh. Lara was in close now, almost too close for the sword, but Black Cobra was able to bring his knee up between them and kick her away. Now he brought both weapons into play, but Lara did a backflip to escape the whirling blades.
It was Black Cobra’s turn to charge now, but before his sword reached its mark Lara tumbled past him, her claws catching his hamstring. He cried out, in frustration as much as pain, but as he spun around he found her tail within reach of his boot. He stomped on it, and his sword bit into her shoulder.
It hurt, and worse, Lara had every reason to expect it was envenomed. She would need to finish this quickly so she could quaff the antivenom potion she had in the pouch at her back. Luckily, she saw the opening she needed. While his sword was on the backswing, and he had his dagger raised to defend himself, she leaped up, jumped onto his left forearm, and was about to tear both his mask and most of his face off with her claws.
That was when the crossbow bolt punctured her right shoulder. In that moment of blinding pain, Black Cobra was able to throw her off his arm and bring his sword around for a quick thrust, stabbing her right in the gut.
Lara fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Black Cobra could have finished her off right there, but he was now in a toying mood and landed his dagger’s blade deep into her thigh.
“I…should have broken into you…home, killed you in your sleep…” Lara said, fighting back the pain. Would she bleed out before the poison coursing through her veins finished her off? “I know…who you are.”
“Then you take that secret to your watery grave,” Black Cobra said. With his good leg, he kicked her hard enough to send her plunging over the edge of the platform and into the basinful of sewage beneath them. He came up to the edge and watched to see if she surfaced. She did not.
“A well-timed shot,” Black Cobra said without looking to the crossbowman who had assisted him. “I am glad I suspected I was being tailed and had you follow me. I am also glad you are taking to our world’s weapons so quickly, Feldwebelleutnant Lantz.“
The man at the far end of the platform still wore the grey military uniform of the 243rd Infantry Division of the Imperial German Army, but the crossbow he held was one of this world. “Jawohl, herr Cobra,” Lieutenant Lantz said, “but we had crossbows on our world too. We consider it a primitive weapon, but we must adjust to our present circumstances, do we not?”
“Only for now,” Black Cobra said. “The day will yet come when all your world’s weapons will be of great use to you.”
“You believe that, do you not? Hence why we have our alliance.”
“I do. I have dreamed that it will be so…”
Session 38
Prologue
The Company of the White Oak had received job offers in the past and turned most of them down, but they had two unusual ones this time that they were too curious to ignore.
Gendri had continued to procrastinate about exploring Odd Alley. He was feeling restless, thought of himself as no more than a hireling with a full share in the company, and was contemplating leaving their active roster. During this time he was was approached by a man who works for a man called Undron Nalvistor, and wanted to know if the Company of the White Oak was willing to undertake an unusual job in Hook Harbor, a small port town where the Selintan River passes through the Barony of Cairnway up north. He wanted them to create a ruckus that would keep the entire town guard distracted for four hours there, but it had to be this Starday, and the job would pay 500 gold.
Ulrich Fallingwater had recently graduated to an adept of the Unorthodox Common Church of Greyhawk, where his patron deity Odin was revered, and was busy learning how to cast clerical spells most of the time. One day, while off in the city enjoying some me time, Ulrich was approached by a woman who represented a party who wished to remain anonymous, who wanted to hire the Company of the White Oak to thwart whatever happened in Hook Harbor this upcoming weekend. She knew they had already been offered 500 gold; she could match that offer, or any other better offer the first party made.
No one wanted to be beholden to these mysterious benefactors, but clearly something intriguing was about to happen in Hook Harbor. So they resolved to skip the upcoming expedition back to Castle Gyeyhawk and travel further north instead…
Sunsebb 3, 621 CY
Selintan River
The Midbay Cruiser was a merchant cog going upriver to the Nyr Dyv, the Lake of Unknown Depths. There was room on board for Haruspex Niv, Percy, Reed Underbough, John Grond, Father Langdon, Ulrich Fallingwater, and Vask, plus the hirelings Harvard, Biros Frapple, Herv, Muelara, and the bear Gert (which got a ride in the cargo hold!). With a team of oxen pulling the cog on a towpath on the right bank, and men with poles keeping the cog from being pulled ashore, they made their way slowly but steadily up away from the sprawling city, past Castle Greyhawk (out of sight, off to the east), under the Great Stone Bridge, through the Selintan Gorge, and finally to Hook Harbor, overlooking Midbay (the southern portion of the lake) where it met the Cairn Hills, on the west bank. By now it was well past dark and past Hook Harbor’s curfew, so the team camped on the shore near the boat. The boat was staying overnight because there was a new play debuting at the local theater the next day, called The King in Yellow. Captain Basil had heard such good things about it that he was going to let the whole crew go see it.
They also asked Captain Basil if he had ever heard of an Undron Nalvistor, but he said he had not.
Sunsebb 4, 621 CY
Hook Harbor
That morning, the Company stuck together to investigate, but did not want to walk around town with all their adventuring paraphernalia, so they stopped at the Mercenary’s Guildhall at the center of town. Here, a man named Edzin served as a contact liaison to all four of the major mercenary guilds of Greyhawk – the Bronze Band, the Fellowship of the Torch, the West Kingdoms, and the Blackrazor Guild. The White Oak Company was independent, unaffiliated with any guilds, but became officially recognized in Hook Harbor before renting storage space for their arms, armor, and gear, with everyone choosing a different amount to leave behind. Edzin even knew Baron Dolph was expected to arrive in Hook Harbor today, presumedly to see the play’s debut.
It was still early morning, around 8:30 am, when they heard tell that the first act of disruption had occurred in Hook Harbor – an attack on the weaponsmithy, The Arsenal, on the west side of town. By now, the Company already had a good idea that the theater was going to be the real target and this attempted robbery was just a distraction, so instead of rushing there to investigate they all headed to the theater to guard it. There was a lot of noise behind the fence surrounding Gileon’s Playhouse & Hostlery, but as Reed observed from a neighboring roof, this was last minute set construction going on inside and not any kind of attack. They stayed here, spread out around the playhouse, even after hearing that the group that attacked the weaponsmithy had fled west into the woods.
Now, the Company decided it was time to look elsewhere for information, and what better place than a tavern? They moved, en masse, to the Sign of the Bat-Winged Boar. There, they spoke with the hobbit tavernkeeper, Stevo. Yes, Stevo said, he did know Undron Nalvistor. After the companions shared their theory that Undron wanted to stop the play, Stevo confirmed that Undron hated all plays and this was definitely the right call. He even described Undron for them.
Now the Company split up. John and Reed, with Reed’s hirelings, went to question the weaponsmith, William. Percy and Ulrich went to see the chapel in town. Everyone else stayed behind at the tavern. Vask, who was with Gert, was not going in anywhere, but stayed outside performing with Gert, and attracted a small audience everywhere he went.
At The Arsenal, John, Reed, Herv, and Muelara found it under attack a second time! A mixed group of clerics and thieves, a fighter, a gnoll, and a skeleton were killing the town watch members guarding the place. Muelara dropped them all with a sleep spell, save the skeleton, which was easily destroyed. John and Reed bargained with the town watch for possession of the robbers’ loot and managed to get half, plus first dibs. Then John questioned William and learned that William had been most concerned about what the robbers might have been there to steal. After some coercion, William revealed that he had magic ore in his possession (or, more specifically, buried in his yard) and was waiting to ask Baron Dolph to hire him to make a magic weapon from it. John was trying to scam William into hiring them to protect him for 100 gold when Langdon showed up, having followed John with questions of his own for William. By now, John had got William up to 60 gold and he offered to pay this in front of Langdon as if the idea had been his. But now John was intrigued by this magic ore and wondered if William could craft a magic item for them instead…
Meanwhile, en route to the chapel, Percy and Ulrich heard the Winchester Brewery, also on the west side of town, was just attacked. But they went on to the chapel, where they met a canon named Belmary, who explained to them about the Water Gods pantheon of Geshtai, Osprem, Zerbo, plus Beory and Procan, and all three of them prayed together for a safe resolution to the ordeals of the day.
Around noon, a slow-moving carriage surrounded by wagons full of armed men arrived in town and headed straight for Hook Keep. The Company, regathered at the tavern, followed this carriage and its retinue, only to see a man who must have been the baron exit the carriage and speak with his vassals at the main gate. The Baron, in turn, spotted them and bade them approach – though, it turned out, mainly out of curiosity about Vask’s bear. Gert was able to dance while balancing a helmet on her nose, which amused Baron Dolph enormously. He found more serious, though, the Company’s pronouncement that evil forces were at work in town. Learning what they knew, he was prepared to go announce the play would be cancelled, but the Company counselled him not to, in the hopes of drawing Undron and any other villains behind this out into the open.
At this point, the Company became officially deputized by the Baron and sent to guard the playhouse. At last, they spoke to Gileon at the theater. Gileon was very excited for the play, having been a big hit in the Great Kingdom for the past three years and finally making it out here to the “wilderness” of the Domain of Greyhawk. Gileon not only did not recognize Stevo’s description of Undron, but laughed at them for believing such a well-known liar. Stevo, after all, also said he was a wizard and had been hunting the bat-winged boar on his sign for decades.
Around 1 pm, a crowd started to gather outside the playhouse, of people wanting to get good seats when the play started in two hours.
At 1:30, the next assault happened – on the crowd outside the playhouse! From out of nowhere, two men in platemail, leading a group of zombies, a goblin, a gnoll, and an ogre, slunk out from around the nearby buildings and attacked the would-be theatergoers. The assault was over almost as soon as it begun, thanks to the zombies being blasted into dust and the rest being put to sleep (along with a lot of the crowd). Only one of the two men in platemail was still on his feet, and he was handily defeated by overwhelming force. The non-humans were killed on the spot, while the town watch dragged the human prisoners to the stocks outside the keep, where the Company was able to question the man they had just defeated.
His name was Reynard and, while everyone else they had defeated all day had no idea who hired them or why, Reynard was important enough to know. This was all prelude to keep the town in disarray before an attack on the Baron himself. Reynard was in charge of the prelude, while the actual attack would be conducted by a woman named Oriel. Haruspex’s ESP spell confirmed none of this was deception.
The Baron agreed to serve as bait for this trap and the play began to a full audience. The Company was spread out in the audience. The play was proceeding just fine until – a ghostly woman, matching Oriel’s description, floated out onto the stage. She said that Dolph would be punished for his crimes and she moved towards him. Those closest could see she had something in her hand. At first, it did not seem like weapons could stop her, as sling stones and crossbow bolts just passed right through her. Vask’s magic battle axe was able to injure her, but she was still able to reach the Baron and place a brooch on his chest. And then – the Baron vanished!
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