Escape!
A raging Qhortho slashes through the tendril squeezing Qarzdaq. “Get the hell out of here!” Quickly he slashes at the tendril around Tholannan but is unable to break through the stony carapace.
Several tendrils go flying towards Qarzdaq and Qhortho. Luckily for Qarzdaq, each of them missed him or attempted to grasp an Illusory Duplicate. Qhortho, on the other hand, was snagged immediately and reeled in.
Qarzdaq quaffs his fire breathing potion and breaths out the glorious breath of R’hllor on the Roper leaving its stony skin scorched.
Tholannan feels the Mother Rhoyne bubble within him. He destroys the tendril wrapped around him and confidently approaches the Roper with Spiritual Guardians swirling all around him.
Qhortho rips the tendril from around him and quickly slashes at the Roper. The blow glances off its stony skin. Its ungodly mouth chomps at him in return. But as the Roper is about to make contact, Tholannan’s Spiritual Guardians swarm around it, radiating it with the power of Mother Rhoyne.
The Roper regrows a tentacle and grasps at everyone in range. Tholannan sees this coming and raises his arms up, eyes closed, looking to the ceiling. He gives himself to the creature knowing the Mother will provide all the protection he needs.
Longing for more companionship, Qarzdaq rips the patch of two Mastiffs from his cloak and tosses it on the ground beside him. Two fully grown Mastiffs appear before him and immediately sense the threat in front of them. They snarl for half a second before charging into action and attacking the Roper. Qarzdaq breaths fire at the Roper just before the Mastiffs arrive to bite its stony crust.
One of the Mastiffs, being only seconds old and lacking decent eye-mouth coordination, chomps down on his own tongue causing him to yelp and jump backwards. The Roper sees an opportunity and bites the dog as it recoils. This singular attack is enough to kill the newly-hatched Mastiff long before his time. Good night, sweet prince.
The team, minus one Shadowsilver but plus one Mastiff, continues to fight the Roper until it is eventually destroyed by the Spiritual Guardians swirling around it and picking it to pieces. Only a pile of rubble remains.
Ornogrim spins to face the group.
ORNO: Let’s get out of here!
A swamp of shadows appear from Ornogrim as they become shrouded by Pass Without Trace.
They run out from this alcove and see a huge red dragon to their right – the direction Shadowsilver ran towards. They run directly away from it, backtracking along the path they took into the cavern.
They calm themselves slightly and slow their pace to make it harder for them to be detected… just in case anything else has made its way down here. After about 15 minutes, they finally reach the entrance of the cave. The dead campfire and all the dead Ironborn almost give them solace. They take a few moments to regroup.
With Shadowsilver nowhere to be seen, they decide it’s not safe to stand around and wait. It’s also not safe for them to mount a rescue mission without a long rest. They leave the cave and are confronted by the Fire Giant illusion still on the shore. Ornogrim kicks the card, dispelling the illusion to prevent drawing any attention to this location. They begin to climb the rocky cliffside to rest by their horses and, although they run into some trouble climbing the slippery surface, they eventually make it to the top.
THOL: Where is Shadowsilver? We have to go back in there for her, red dragon or no.
ORNO: I’ll send Tinkey into the cave to scout it out first.
Ornogrim fully wargs into Tinkey by casting both Beast Sense and Speak with Animals, giving him a range of 1 mile. This combination allows him to both control and sense everything Tinkey experiences. He then controls her to explore the cave, with the hope of finding Shadowsilver’s whereabouts.
Tinkey flies through the cave system until reaching the huge red dragon. She stays far out of its reach and continues along to the left. Although Ornogrim has complete control over the body of the raven, he can still sense Tinkey’s mind inside the body with him. He felt her will become at-ease once she processed which direction she was headed.
Tinkey enters an area of the cave lined with small single-person prison cells. Not quite large enough for a human to stand. She notices a blonde woman with very fair skin facing one of the cells toward the back. As Tinkey focuses on that cell, she notices that it houses none other than Jonah Bick.
Shadowy Figures and Silver Linings
While the rest of her party battles the Roper, Shadowsilver enters the tunnel in the back of the alcove. Suddenly, she feels fire envelop her from behind. She looks back to see no one, but isn’t taking any chances. She fishes out her Deck of Illusions and tosses out the first card randomly. A giant Red Dragon emerges from the card. She instructs it to move 20 feet away from her and continues to dash down the dark tunnel. She stows her swords, lights a torch, and continues for several hundred feet, through two bends, first to the right then to the left, before reaching a dead end.
Before she can turn around, she is hit by two balls of fire. As she turns around, she is hit by two more blasts of fire.
When she can finally see, she can make out the attacker’s form. A tall blonde woman about 60 feet away. It is tough to make out any detailed features at this distance and in the dim light. The woman turns and runs beyond the closest bend, out of sight.
Shadowsilver runs after the woman. Once in sight, she drops her torch on the ground and retrieves her vial of Essence of Cosby… er… Ether… Essence of Ether. She tosses the vial at the woman’s feet. It breaks open on contact and releases a cloud of gas that seems to linger for a few moments. The woman seems unfazed.
The woman summons a ball of fire and launches it at Shadowsilver. A second one launches immediately after. Shadowsilver uncannily dodges both of them. The woman backs up to the edge of the first bend in the cave, but remains within sight.
Shadowsilver draws her bow and looses a poisoned arrow into the woman’s flesh. The woman breaks it off and returns fire, literally, with two more blasts. Shadowsilver is able to dodge some of the blast’s damage, with its effect further mitigated by her Dragonscale armor.
After trading damage back and forth, the woman releases a wispy smoke that morphs into several hands grabbing at Shadowsilver’s coins, spilling them onto the ground. Terrified at this sight, she drops her bow and dashes towards the dead end. Once out of sight of the woman, she regains her wits and shakes off the imagery.
The woman appears from around the bend and launches more fire at Shadowsilver as she quickly quaffs a deep red potion.
Shadowsilver tosses another Essence of Ether at the woman’s feet and, again, she remains unfazed. “What the fuck?!”
The woman releases more wispy smoke towards Shadowsilver, but this time, Shadowsilver refuses to succumb to the Fear. Seeing this, the woman backpedals.
Shadowsilver retrieves her last Essence of Ether and tosses it at the woman’s feet. The cloud has no apparent effect. “Ok. Fuck you lady!”
Two balls of fire slam Shadowsilver even stronger than the previous ones. This time singeing her hair.
Shadowsilver downs another deep red potion as another two balls of fire sear her skin.
Knowing she needs to do something to fix her odds, Shadowsilver closes the distance to push through her with brute force. While rushing forward, she grabs her bow as she runs over it. Shadowsilver pushes as hard as possible against the fair-skinned woman, but the woman resists with equal force. They remain fixed, faces a mere inches apart, Shadowsilver’s bow pushed against the woman’s staff. They separate by only a step apart and the woman smacks Shadowsilver across the face with her staff.
A sinister smile crosses the woman’s face as she realizes this did more harm than the fire.
Shadowsilver attempts to push past her again, but this time the woman overpowers her, pushing Shadowsilver back.
Shadowsilver disengages and steps back to try the ranged tact again. She is able to deal damage this way, but the odds are still against her.
The woman runs up to Shadowsilver and bashes with her staff as Shadowsilver quaffs another deep red potion.
Shadowsilver, retaining her creativity, disengages, backs away around the bend, retrieves her pouch of ball bearings and releases them onto the ground at the edge of the bend, just where she will be trying to shift direction. She then continues to back up an additional 3-4 paces and waits, leaving only 20 feet behind her to the dead end.
The woman appears from around the bend and runs through the trap without issue and attacks Shadowsilver with her staff.
Shadowsilver, looking for any way to end this, snags a vial of her Giant Scorpion poison and jams it into the woman’s mouth, causing it to break. Poison seeps from the woman’s mouth. She quickly responds with more bashes from her staff.
Seeing as this may finally be what shifts the odds, Shadowsilver grabs another vial of poison and is quick enough to succeed a second time. The woman sputters out shards of broken glass; drops of venom leak from the corners of her mouth.
Enraged, the woman smashes Shadowsilver with her staff again.
With a surge of energy, Shadowsilver attempts to push past the woman, this time managing to push the woman backwards into the bend and flat against the wall! Even she is surprised. Shadowsilver runs past the woman as fast as she can, jumping out of the patch of ball bearings.
Now she just has to get out of here. There’s no way the fair-skinned woman can catch her with this kind of a lead. She begins to sprint for her freedom. She pauses after about 30 feet to shoot a poisoned arrow at the woman, landing the difficult shot. She continues to run around the second bend. The red dragon is in sight – the exit is close. As she exits the tunnel, Shadowsilver glances back to be sure she will dodge anything coming her way. As she turns, she becomes overwhelmed by fire. A look of shock washes over face for a brief moment before her knees buckle. She collapses, unconscious.
Tinkey’s Report
Tinkey overhears the woman speaking to Jonah.
WOMAN: I’m sorry I had to do that to your friend, Jonah, but I simply could not let you just walk away with so much of this profit. I can’t stress enough how disappointed I am that you brought others into this. It’s no matter, they’ve gone now, leaving you behind because they already know what I have just learned. To never trust an urchin like you. Once everything is absolutely under control here, I will release you, without the spoils of course.
Jonah’s eyes convey disbelief as he stares across the room.
Tinkey follows his stare and sees Shadowsilver sitting slumped with her back against the wall closer to the entrance of this room. It’s now clear that blood is leaking from her body. Streaks lead from her along the ground toward the red dragon. She may still be alive.
Tinkey notices the swords and belt hanging on a post near the center of the room. A keyring hangs alongside the weapons. Tinkey moves out of sight and waits for the perfect chance to get that keyring to Jonah.
The woman leaves Jonah and walks around the room, inspecting a few of the cages along the way, then eventually walks over to Shadowsilver. Tinkey sees this as her chance and stealthily makes her way behind the woman towards the post. She snags the keyring and quietly gets to Jonah. He recognizes her and sees the key immediately. He opens his palm and Tinkey drops it into his hand. He pockets it swiftly.
Tinkey leaves the room without being seen and notices a tunnel directly behind the red dragon. She cautiously attempts to get past the dragon, but it sees the raven and breathes a great fiery breath at her. Tinkey flies backwards as quickly as possible, but it’s not fast enough.
The flames engulf her and Ornogrim believes she must be dead. But she’s not. His link is intact. What is this?! Realizing the dragon must be an illusion, her muscles relax somewhat and she continues forward. The red dragon appears to hologramize as she gets nearer. The thought runs through his mind that this hologram may be one of those magical cards Shadowsilver carries.
She flies to the back of this alcove and into a man-sized tunnel. She traverses for quite some distance before seeing the reddish-orange glow of a torch in the distance. Getting closer to the source lying on the ground, she identifies it as a lit torch, very similar to the ones they’ve carried since landing in Westeros. Not far from it are hundreds of ball bearings. Eventually she reaches a flat wall – a dead end. She looks around and finds nothing of any consequence, so she flies out of the tunnel, backtracking through the cave and reconvening with Ornogrim.
Ornogrim awakes while the rest of the party are lightly resting, preparing for a long rest. Ornogrim conveys what he saw through Tinkey’s eyes.
THOL: Your news about Jonah is very disturbing. I would have expected him to be the mastermind behind all of this.
QARZ: It sounds like Shadowsilver is dead – or at least incapacitated.
ORNO: Yeah. It looks like there was a pretty tough battle. Ball bearings and blood stains. You know how it goes.
THOL: Maybe she clings to life. We don’t know she’s dead. We need to go help her if possible.
QARZ: Yeah. We need to get in there.
ORNO: I’d like to send Tinkey back to check in with Jonah. If he’s out of the cage, then we can regroup with him and make a move for Shadowsilver – unless Jonah has already tried to reach her and says she’s dead.
QHOR: Or we could just send word to Highgarden to have them send aid.
QARZ: That would be days of waiting…
THOL: Have you not forgotten about our friend who has fought many battles with us? That saved us on many occasion? And we are going to just leave her to rot in some fucking cave?
QHOR: You mean the “friend” that turned her back on us in battle not 15 minutes ago?
THOL: She may not be a perfect friend, but she has saved our hides and we hers. She is part of our group, The Unlikely Assembly, The Busters of Ghosts, et cetera.
QHOR: She turned her back on us!
THOL: I agree it was a poor move, but should we not give her the benefit of the doubt?
QHOR: I cannot forgive turning your back on friends during a fight.
THOL: Well, regardless. We need to investigate.
QARZ: I agree.
QHOR: I… am not opposed.
The group rests until dark.
No Man or Woman Left Behind
Upon waking, Ornogrim tells Tinkey to recon the cave one more time. She returns less than 10 minutes later to tell Ornogrim that the woman is still patrolling the prison room and that Jonah is still locked in his cage. Tinkey adds that Jonah motioned for her to fly away, leaving it ambiguous as to what his plans are.
The group thinks this over carefully before taking action. Ultimately, they decide to get inside even if Jonah is about to make his escape: they may be able to help him if he needs it, and there is little downside to re-entering the cave as long as they do so under Ornogrim’s shadows.
They tie two of their ropes together to avoid any mishaps and unfortunate falls from great height. After fastening the rope to a large rock, they descend the cliffside stealthily. They reach the bottom without incident and begin their cave crawl.
About 15 minutes later, they arrive at the site of their last battle. Two piles of rubble remain between two large stalagmites that look to be in their original locations. The red dragon is in sight as well. They circumnavigate the stalagmites cautiously and approach the dragon; they all know it is an illusion at this point, but that does not make the sight any less harrowing.
Peeking around the corner and into the cavern, they see the woman still patrolling the room. She continues to pace the room while checking the integrity of random cells. She goes out of her way to frequently check on Jonah to be sure he doesn’t get out. She knows him well, it seems.
ORNO: Qarzdaq and I will approach and try to speak with Jonah at some distance. Maybe just stay here in case we get in trouble.
QHOR: Give me a sign and I’ll be at your side.
ORNO: I will, my friend.
Ornogrim and Qarzdaq slowly walk up, hoping to get line of sight on Jonah so they can telepathically Message him. The woman turns towards their direction and they back away behind the wall to ensure she doesn’t see them. Once she passes by, they seize the moment. They stealthily scurry closer to Jonah’s cell and get line of sight on him without being noticed.
Qarzdaq Messages Jonah: “Four of us remain. Need help? Attack now?”
Jonah responds: “Need opportunity, but ready to go. Tough fight ahead.”
Clearly, Jonah knows her well also.
Qarzdaq motions to the group to advance to his position.
JONAH: Hey. Jaidyn. Let me ask you a question.
The woman begins to walk over to his cell. She stops 3 feet from the door, her back turned to the Unlikely Assembly – though they are about seventy feet away.
JAIDYN: Yes?
JONAH: Why is it that it came to this? Why did you deceive me?
JAIDYN: All will be known in time.
This is it. This is the time to strike. As they advance, she swirls around just in time, extinguishing their expected element of surprise.
Qhortho rushes to welcome her with a raging Valyrian blade through her shoulder. An arrow strikes her as Qhortho slashes her a second time. He looks back to see Ornogrim firing a second one, hitting very close to the first.
QHOR: Nice group!
ORNO: Thanks!
Jonah takes advantage of being out of the woman’s sight. Jonah silently fiddles with the lock and only moments later, he is sneaking across the room towards his gear.
Tholannan bows his head and Blesses the entire group.
Jaidyn now sees her opportunity. She points to an area between her attackers. A Fireball erupts, engulfing them all and killing their beloved, if short-lived, Butternuts… their last remaining Mastiff. A flame that burned far too fast, for far too short a time. RIP Butternuts.
Qarzdaq quickly Blinks out of existence to console himself.
Tholannan bows his head. The air shimmers next to Jaidyn. A gleaming sword comes into existence floating alongside a shield emblazoned with a teardrop.
Qhortho and Ornogrim attack with a flurry of sword strikes.
Jaidyn whispers some words that take shape as wisps of smoke then diminish for everyone except Qhortho. The wisps approaching him take the form of a large muscular man, holding heavy chains, approaching to cuff Qhortho’s hands in slavery. The slaver looks as real as the night is black. Qhortho drops his Valyrian Greatsword and dashes for the exit. Every time he looks back, the slaver is almost about to get him.
Qarzdaq pops back into existence and attempts to Hold Person, but it fails to have any effect. Wide-eyed and panicked, he desperately attempts to Blink out of existence. He shuts his eyes tightly and nods his head. He opens his eyes and is startled to see everything look normal. “Fuck!”
Qhortho continues to Dash until he finally gets out of the woman’s line of sight. The slaver vanishes. Qhortho shakes his head and regains his wits. Qhortho now runs back towards the fight, not wanting to be seen as a coward, especially after Shadowsilver’s antics. He sees the rest of the Assembly, and Jonah now, fighting the woman heroically. They need him badly; he can’t get there fast enough.
Jonah finally reaches his equipment. He quickly fastens his belt and unsheathes two short swords.
Ornogrim continues to slash at Jaidyn, inflicting two more gashes in her fair skin. Just as his second blade is leaving her flesh, Jonah appears out of his periphery and slashes her across each thigh.
The woman repeats her last spell. Wisps of smoke reach out to all those in front of her, including Jonah this time. They all fade without effect. A look of slight panic appears on her face. She snags the Valyrian Greatsword at her feet, rising just as Tholannan’s Spiritual Weapon smashes across her stupid face. She doesn’t appear to be as hurt by the magical mace as she is from purely physical attacks – just need to hit her twice as hard!
Qarzdaq casts Haste on Ornogrim and Jonah. They immediately feel the speed rush through them. Qarzdaq once again closes his eyes tightly to Blink out of this physical realm. He opens his eyes, once again, to the common world. “Shit!”
Ornogrim connects with a flurry of strikes, dishing out consistent damage. Jonah follows that up by swiftly slashing each of her limbs. Qhortho arrives just as Jaidyn crumples to the ground. She falls as if in slow motion. The Valyrian blade clangs as it impacts the cave floor alongside her body’s thud.
Jaidyn’s form shimmers on the ground for a few moments before morphing into a Green Slaad.
In unison, the group vocalizes their shock at the revelation. Her, or its, strength and powers now make sense.
Qhortho retrieves his blade and stows it on his back.
Jonah pulls a trigger on each of his blades releasing two empty vials out of the hilt. He deftly grabs two more vials from his belt and pushes them through the bottoms of the handles. He releases the triggers then stows his blades.
The group is struck with amazement for just a moment before they remember… Shadowsilver!
Consequences
All of the Assembly rush over to Shadowsilver’s body. Tholannan gets on one knee and leans in close to her face, listening for breath. Nothing. He lifts her hand and feels her skin.
THOL: She’s very cold.
He drops her hand and bows his head in prayer. Shadowsilver’s body remains lifeless. The others bow their heads. Simultaneously, they each say their own prayer:
THOL: May the Mother Rhoyne take you swiftly to sea.
QARZ: May R’hllor guide you to the Light.
ORNO: May the Old Gods give you rest and peace.
QHOR: May the Stallion bring you victory.
Qhortho’s sadness quickly converts to anger at the current state of the Assembly.
QHOR: Why did she do that?! This was her fault! She shouldn’t have run off!! This is what happens when you ditch your friends in a fight!
QARZ: Easy friend. We are still alive and things may have gone much worse. We had all the warning signs that we were in mortal danger. She made her choice and that is what we are all afforded. Her choices all trended toward the same conclusion. And now her Light is out.
ORNO: I did not know her well, but I agree with the red priest.
Jonah walks up from behind the men.
JONAH: She was a good fighter and a skilled and clever deception artist. One of the few I’ve come across in my travels that kept me on my toes at all times. In fact, you may want to see just how good she was. This may feel too soon, but take a look in that coin pouch and backpack.
THOL: In time. Let us see what is to be learned from these prisons before we plunder our fallen friend.
After a moment of silence, the group agrees. Jonah shrugs. They begin to look for any clues about what was happening here. Tholannan inspects the prison cells carefully and realizes they are of considerable strength. They are plenty strong enough to keep even the fiercest of the Ironborn berserkers.
After a few minutes, and turning up nothing of any import, they naturally find themselves back at the Green Slaad’s corpse. Ornogrim makes a point to cut off its hands.
ORNO: Hey Jonah, what do you know of these creatures’ poison?
JONAH: I had never seen these sorts of things before. I’ve heard of mythical creatures resembling their description, but that’s it. We should probably get out of here. You guys really did me a great favor by coming back for me, and it is appreciated. I believe I was able to repay the favor during the battle.
QARZ: Well, I’d say you owe us one. We lost one of our group due to this excursion. We could have probably taken this thing (he kicks the slaad’s body) out on our own, but you probably would not have survived a one-on-one encounter.
ORNO: How about we put it this way. What was the cut promised to the woman?
JONAH: I’ll level with you. I knew this thing (he gazes at the slaad) only as an old friend of mine, Jaidyn Lannister. She told me that if I helped lured the Ironborn into this trap, I could keep all of the loot. I knew that she and I could not do that alone, so I enlisted you lot to help out. For fair payment, of course. I understand you lost one in battle here today, but you did it for your own reasons. I did not know what was lurking within Jaidyn. I had no idea she was capable of this. When we took out the Ironborn, I saw her at the side tunnel of the cave so I went over to her and didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t foresee she would lock me up.
ORNO: Something’s not adding up for me Jonah. How did you get down here without knowing these creatures were down here? We had to fight through a few of them just to get here.
JONAH: I didn’t see any of these creatures you speak of. There were more of these things?? We just walked down a tunnel and took a right down another tunnel when we got to a cliff. After a short walk, we came out to this large cavern. That was the last thing I remember though. She then must have hit me over the head or given me milk of the poppy because, the next thing I know, I am locked in a cage. I believe it is fair that I retain my part of the loot from the Ironborn. I also think it is fair to say our score is settled. I will add that I do not expect to hold claim to any of Shadowsilver’s possessions.
ORNO: Hmmm… Ok, I agree with that.
QARZ: Did the woman happen to scratch you or anything?
JONAH: Not to my knowledge.
QARZ: That’s good.
THOL: Why would the Lannisters want to capture the Ironborn?
JONAH: I have no ideas about that.
QARZ: Are you certain she was a Lannister?
JONAH: Now I cannot be certain of anything. I mean, why capture them? And why would she say she would let me free? I don’t get that at all. She held all the power; there was no reason to dangle that carrot in front of me.
QARZ: She wouldn’t have let you free.
JONAH: Perhaps.
ORNO: Maybe she’s working with someone.
JONAH: Yeah. Maybe.
THOL: Let’s bring our fallen friend out of this stale air and decide where we go next.
Day 270. 28,110 total XP. Unexpected consequences; unpredicted friends. Although the constitution of the Unlikely Assembly is weakened, their resolve remains as strong as ever.