After being granted permission to descend the Black Raven Monastery’s legendary tunnel to the Underdark, Katarina and her crew made their descent. They soon saw why the area was so restricted, as it led directly through the tomb of the Black Raven himself! Guarded by four huge Iron Golems.
As they left the tomb and opened the gateway to the Underdark, they were ambushed from both sides by Duergar! . Apparently this was the consequence of refusing the offer to sack the Monastery. Fortunately by this point they were quite adept at combined maneuvers, and they were able to defeat their dwarven foes.After making their way into the Underdark proper, they were met by a contingent of Drow… strangely led by a male wizard. He introduced himself as Malavon, but seemed nothing like the insane drow wizard of legend from long ago. He claimed to be the original, with the unfortunate legend arising from the actions of a malfunctioning clone he had used to get out of a demonic pact a century ago. He was apparently the leader of a breakaway group of drow following Vhaeraun. By no means “good”, but opposed to Lloth and for more amenable to cooperation. Malavon wished to enlist their aid against a group of Drider which had made an alliance with the Legion of the Chimera in exchange for a method to reproduce themselves! This sounded potentially disastrous for all involved, and was directly in line with their current mission, so they agreed to the task. He had but one stipulation. Apparently his sister Ginafae was the leader of the Drider colony, and he wished her spared and asked to return to him if at all possible. Though this seemed an… unusual… request for mercy from a Drow . Katarina agreed. She had no intention of killing if it wasn’t necessary.After some exploring, they came upon a few… not immediately violent Drow who directed them toward the colony where they could speak with Ginafae. They were warned, however, that most Drider were not entirely sane and would attack on sight… Ginafae herself proved surprisingly reasonable. She said she had wanted to create a safe place for Drider outcasts, but that the assistance provided by the Legion of the Chimera had merely driven her companions insane and produced even more twisted monstrosities to swell their ranks. She was not quite yet willing to believe Malavon’s offer, but she would tell them what they most do to end the threat.She directed them to a bizarre laboratory hidden further inside the Drider tunnels. Inside a Thayan transmuter was studying notes and tinkering with alchemical equipment, while around the room were several large cages containing various twisted and malformed Spider-Drow crossbreeds. She seemed quite unconcerned about their presence, and happily explained her various “improvements” to the Drider race. They soon realized the only way to end the madness would be to start with her.After she and her creations had been defeated, Solstice and Elara worked tirelessly to make sense of her work so that they could devise a way to counteract or destroy it. Apparently there was a mutated plant called a Visicamera somewhere in the Drider tunnels, to which she fed captive Drow to be turned into Drider. They only had sufficient ingredients for one plant toxin, so they would have to make the opportunity count when they found it!Once they battled their way through a veritable swarm of mutated Drider, they had their chance. Given the difficulty and importance of the task, there was only one obvious choice to make the attempt. Throwing an irreplaceable flask across a room into the maw of a moving plant monster? Percy was made for the task.When they returned to Malavon, he was quite pleased with their accomplishments, and rewarded them well and told them how to make their way to the surface near the Severed Hand. He was especially pleased with the return of Ginafae, who he revealed as having been restored to her original form! He wouldn’t say exactly how he accomplished the feat, only that it was not something that a Drow still under the thumb of the Spider Queen would dare. Then he and his contingent vanished back to their hidden city.Unfortunately what Malavon did *not* tell them, was that their intended path went straight through a Mind Flayer outpost! They fought their way through an initial entry, and then took shelter to determine a better plan. Percy, by far the stealthiest of them, drew the task of initial reconnaissance.He reported that it was not, in fact a very large outpost. There were a number of Thralls, at most 5-10 Mind Flayers, and a relatively weak Elder Brain. This was manageable. They started out by taking out as many Mind Flayers as possible with ambush tactics, and then assaulted the Elder Brain directly. It was a fierce battle, but one they could all be proud of. One less monstrous threat in the Underdark. Next stop, back to the surface….
3 responses to “IWD2 Winter’s Warriors: Subterranean Strangeness”
atcDave
you got a number of excellent Drow renders! Very nice. Amusing how IWD2 reinvents Malavon and Ginnifae, the “mad clone” story is as good as any! It’s funny I don’t remember any of this, maybe I failed to finish? Its been long enough now it’s all been fuzzy though.
your Illithid is also menacing, nasty and awesome. And Driders, wow! Terrific stuff.
Irritating part about Driders. Its not *that* hard to get a male drider. Inconsistent and a lot of retries, but it mostly works. Change nothing but the sex and it hits the image filter at about 95%!! Grrr. Using Larry Elmore style cuts that to 90% – I guess because that cuts down on the risque. But for the most part I got female Drider by a) Using Larry Elmore and b) Not specifying gender at all and trying repeatedly until a female popped out.
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