Preamble
This is the story of a recent quest Soppi had on TLR. It's probably the only quest I've been on where I didn't think Soppi would survive because of the circumstances. I really don't want to go through that again soon.
It was very nicely done and spanned maybe 30+ hours over about a week, and let me explore the angry protective mother aspect of Soppi's personality.
I'm going to try to present this story in small portions as my other story was probably an effort to read through because of the size of each of the three parts.
Introduction
It had been a trying day already. They had just walked the duergar to Cobalt in the Fort of the Free Towns, Soppi going along to make sure he didn’t “disappear” in the company of the elves. She didn’t know exactly what he was expecting by revealing himself peacefully as a duergar and asking to speak to a priest of Moradin in Triboar when a force of his kind were attacking from the east, but if Soppi hadn’t been one of the people he revealed himself to he would have most likely already been dead. As it was, when Von turned up only a short time after that, Shadow and Isaniel shortly after her, Soppi had to put her foot down to stop them from either killing him on the spot or abducting him for “questioning”.
While she didn’t fully trust the grey dwarf, she didn’t appreciate the elves thinking they could do whatever they liked in Triboar, even after soldiers of the 12 came and told them not to take any actions against Tergrash, the duergar, despite their obvious distaste of him. Even then at times it seemed like the elves would take him despite Soppi’s insistence they had no right to take the law into their own hands within the boundaries of the town. If that had happened, Soppi wasn’t sure how she would have reacted. What made it worse was Shadow seemed to be taking after Von like a puppy dog in his disrespect of Soppi, and Soppi saw she would have to put a stop to Von’s poor manners at some point before it got out of hand.
The soldiers of the 12 had told Tergrash to leave town, but he refused and was arrested an hour later. Soppi wouldn’t have been overly surprised if they had hung him, and would not have objected if they did, but instead they released him into her care to escort him down to Cobalt. Once she handed him over, she released all responsibility for Tergrash over to Cobalt.
It had been a trying day and Soppi was ready to head back to her burrow and rest. But then Pokk showed up at the fort. He had brought War with him, and had a job for his lap dog lackey, Kail, who had helped escort Tergrash. Pokk also wanted Soppi and the elves to go with them to help clear out an evil cult in a cave in the Kryptgarden forest.
Soppi had never trusted Pokk and figured he was up to no good. He told her that he had some information of a risk to her people, but wouldn’t tell her unless she agreed to go. She finally relented to go to observe, but she would leave, or even stop his thugs if she felt they were being tricked into doing something wrong. He then whispered to her of the threat. Souldrinker had returned. Pokk seemed a little surprised when she said that meant nothing to her and he explained that it was a poison that stole the souls of the living that had caused some problems with the original Wayfarer group in the past.
The elves also resisted, but Pokk somehow managed to persuade them to go, Maeve being the only exception. Pokk handed them each a potion of water breathing and sent them on their way.
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
A Shard In A Crystal
The group traveled into the dark Kryptgarden forest and went straight to the cave with little trouble, several of the group knowing exactly where the cave was. The iron golem that usually patrolled outside the cave lay broken and beginning to rust, destroyed by War as he had said, the last time he had been there. Inside, the cave seemed empty save a decayed body lying by the entrance to the flooded tunnel that lead further down into the caves.
There were concerns about how to get back through the flooded tunnel once the water breathing potions Pokk gave them had been drunk, so they decided to try drinking half of the potion and seeing if that would get them to the other side. Kail drank half his potion and went first, and after he didn’t drown after submerging into the water, the rest followed. Soppi checked her items, making sure the airtight seal on her scroll case was secure before following. She tried to hold her breath, but the tunnel was too long and she experienced the unusual sensation of breathing in water when her breath ran out. Walking under the water was an unusual experience, her strides longer and lighter than on the surface and the divine light she had cast upon herself playing tricks of light under the water. A few breaths later and she was through to the other side and breathing the surprisingly fresh air where she tried to shake off as much of the wetness from her water walk as she could.
The caverns they emerged into were very wet, rivulets of water running down the jagged walls with puddles of water collecting all around the floor. From the cavern in which they emerged, War and Kail lead them up a tunnel to the left, warning the group of a powerful priest they had to run from in their last foray. They came across a basic but sturdy wooden wall and gate structure guarding the tunnel on the other side of a flooded cavern, with a small stone path going down the center of the cavern. A large force of aggressive lizard men waited for them behind the gate and burst out to attack as they approached. After they had fought their way through the lizard men into their crude underground village, they came across a cavern attached to the village with human priest performing a rite before a form trapped inside a crystal. Upon seeing the group, the priest immediately attacked, casting powerful divine spells before rushing into combat, but was soon overwhelmed by the group.
As the priest lay dying, he gurgled out his last words “You’re too late, it has already begun”.
Soppi looked to the rest of her group, almost all of which had shown her little respect. Most had been injured in the fights and normally Soppi would have rushed to heal them, but she was still angry about her treatment earlier in the day at the hands of the elves, and so she held back and said nothing. She would have healed them, but first they had to come and ask politely, in Von’s case she would also have to apologise for past behaviour, and War would have to promise to turn himself into the Soldiers of the 12 afterwards for his assaults on both Zach and herself. But none seemed to notice, or were too proud to ask for her help. Instead, they used potions and scrolls of healing worth hundreds, if not thousands, of gold. Soppi guessed they were just too stupid to learn her lesson.
With the priest dead, they investigated the crystal. There was a fire burning at its base, and the figure inside was what looked like a statue of a malevolent human molded from clay. Soppi could feel the evil radiating from within the crystal. It looked like the fire was breaking the crystal, small cracks appearing from its base, but the cracks didn’t seem to be spreading. They tried several things to extinguish the fire, but neither water nor holy water seemed to help and the ray of frost from the moon elf wizardess, Isaniel, only seemed to fuel the fire further, as if it fed off magic.
They decided to explore the rest of the caves, in hopes of finding another way to stop the fire, none knowing what would happen if the crystal chrysalis would hatch, but none wanting to find out. They went back to where the flooded tunnel lead in and took the tunnel to the right instead. They weren’t far into the tunnel when they were ambushed by a small group of humanoid creatures, covered in scales and topped with a fish head, who Soppi believed were kuo-toa. The fish-men were priests, and their mind affecting divine spells caused problems for some of the weak willed of the group, but they were otherwise defeated with only a moderate amount of difficultly.
The further they went down the tunnel; the more they were attacked by small groups of the fish-men priests, particularly in the small caverns connected to what appeared to be a large underground lake, where the fish-men would emerge from the water to attack. All the members of the group kept listening for, and dreading, the splashes that would pre-empt an attack.
Eventually the tunnel came to an end, cut off by the underground lake. Soppi couldn’t see far over the black water of the lake with the small amount of illumination provided by her light spell, but the elves’ vision in the dark was better and just before they were about to retreat out of the caves one of them pointed into the darkness to say he saw the tunnel continue on the other side of the lake. They decided to investigate further and one of the elves swam across the lake with a rope and it was secured on both ends so the less able would be able to use the rope to cross. The others kept as sharp a lookout as they could for an underwater attack when they would be at their most vulnerable.
There were no attacks as they were crossing, but a large attack came as the last of them crawled out of the cold underground lake. There was a lot of panic and disorder as the fish-men came from where they had just swum across and from further along the tunnel where the lake connected there. Soppi stayed back from the main battle and aided as best she could with bow and arrow, firing at fish-men when she got a clear shot. There were some close calls, but only the fish-men fell in the melee.
After gathering themselves back together they headed further down the tunnel until they came to a large cavern. Soppi was staying towards the back to watch out from attacks from behind, so she didn’t see what happened; she just heard the bloodcurdling scream suddenly caught short, a human scream so different from the gurgling death rattles of the fish-men. She rushed forward, in time to see War struggle back in apparent great pain, but with no visible wounds. Expecting a huge attack force, she summoned a dire bear and sent it forward, Soppi following behind it. As she rounded the corner War had run from she saw a single fish-man who the bear knocked down with a huge paw and crushed its head with its powerful maw.
In front of the now dead fish-man was Kail, lying on the ground with his helmet fallen from his head and rolled away. The lifeless expression on Kail’s face was of absolute terror, yet he also had no visible wounds. The fish-man must have been a very blessed priest to have cast negative energy spells powerful enough to bring low two such potent warriors in such a quick time. Perhaps even more powerful that Soppi herself.
“We have been tricked by Pokk!” exclaimed Isaniel angrily.
Soppi was unsure how, but laughed and replied “You were expecting anything else from him?”
“No.” Isaniel spat out.
The tunnel stopped there in that large cavern. Convinced that they would not find a way to put out the fire at the base of the crystal in the caverns, they made their way out of the caves again, harassed only a couple more times by the fish-men. Back in the cave they had emerged into, they finished off the rest of their water breathing potions before making the strange walk through the underwater tunnel. Outside, night had fallen and they made their way back through the Kryptgarden under the cover of darkness in silence to Red Larch to see Pokk in his orphanage.
Pokk seemed glad with what they had done, and offered to pay Soppi to raise Kail from the dead.
“I could do so if he wished it, but I would think he would be happier with his god.” She replied.
The others seemed convinced he would not be happy in the warm embrace of whatever god or goddess he had chosen to worship and Soppi said that she would need a blessed diamond shard and an offering to Yondalla for the raising. Pokk offered to pay for a school for her new warren, which Soppi found to be an acceptable tribute, but War refused to hand over the body he had carried from the wet caverns. He was firm in his objection to Soppi performing the rite, saying he didn’t trust the priestess of Yondalla. Soppi wasn’t interested in arguing for the right to raise Kail from the dead, so she left the orphanage with a shrug and headed to the Black Butter Inn to get a room so she could get out of her wet clothes and dry them and herself off at the fireplace in the room.
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
Haven Hill Warren
The gates were open! Haven Hill Warren was now fit for habitation, if not completely finished yet. There was still construction work needed on the inn and the tower, but the inn was Ghaliver’s concern, the price for his financial backing, and there were no residents for the tower yet, Flannigan Flamefingers’ mental stability in question and Millia still undecided on whether she would take up residence.*
Soppi looked upon the Warren with pride, the Temple Of The Folk the only temple for all the hin gods she had ever seen, and her its high priestess. But she had even more pride in the residents of Haven Hill Warren. They were formally the residents of Shining Falls, a warren to the east of Loudwater. On her visit there, she had seen that it would be too dangerous for them to stay there with multiple forces of Zhents and the Horde crushing everything in the area and each other. And so she had secured ownership of this hill and had evacuated them there through enemy lines, dangerously infested forests and many leagues of road with only the single loss of life of one of their well trained war dogs. She was proud of them for their stoic acceptance of this new life, even if it had taken longer than expected for the warren to get build, the hill more rocky than originally anticipated.
It was a tenday after she had been down into the wet caves and a few days since the warren was declared open for traffic. Soppi sat upon the hill, looking down at the south gate and watching the trade caravans pass through the gate on their way along The Long Road. The guards noticed here and called up a greeting, which she returned, before chatting to each other.
“You are looking a little pale there, Boris”
“Yeah, I’m not feeling too good, must be something I ate” replied Boris.
“Perhaps you should sit down.”
“No, I’m alright. You know, you’re looking a little pale yourself.” And with that Boris suddenly collapsed. Soppi jumped to her feet immediately and rushed down to Boris. He was still conscious, but up close he was obviously very ill. Soppi tried to determine what was wrong with him, but didn’t recognise the symptoms. Not only was he pale, but his eyes had a far aware appearance. She helped him to his feet and half carried him to the temple, leaving the other guard to take care of the gate.
In the temple she presented him to Kelinda, the former priestess from Shining Falls who now took care of the Temple Of The Folk in Haven Hill Warren. Kelinda didn’t recognise the symptoms either and upon closer inspection, Soppi noticed she was showing the start of the same symptoms. Kelinda noted that from the lack of light in his eyes, it almost seemed like his soul was missing.
And then it came clear with a sudden shock. Souldrinker. Soppi couldn’t talk for moments as the blood in her veins boiled more than she would have ever thought possible. Her anger grew into a pure murderous fury. Pokk! Somehow Pokk had done this to her people! The people she had come to think of her children. Pokk was stealing the souls of her children, and he would pay. If any of her children died, he would pay with his life!
She forced herself to remain calm with a great deal of effort when she turned to address Kelinda. “Find out what Boris has eaten and quarantine that food and check in on anyone who has eaten the same thing. Actually, check on everyone that you can. It would be best if we drew water from the river to the west instead of the well as well. Do what you can for Boris. I will be back as soon as I can, hopefully with a cure.”
“Where are you going?” asked Kelinda.
“I have to go have a few words with someone about this.” Replied Soppi through gritted teeth.
A Mother’s Fury
Soppi stormed down the road with purpose in her strides. Through Westbridge, those that would normally throw out a greeting took one look at her face and backed away out of her path. Just south of Westbridge, near the graveyard, she ran into Kail, dressed in a heavy black robe and very much alive. From the emptiness in his eyes, she saw that his soul was gone as well. He droned on about something, but Soppi didn’t listen.
“I’m going to go talk to Pokk.” She said as a way to dismiss him.
“I will come with you.” Kail replied listlessly.
Soppi shrugged, indicating she didn’t care one way or the other and continued down the road, paying no attention to Kail trailing behind her.
They arrived in Red Larch as the sun was setting over the horizon and went directly to Pokk’s orphanage. Soppi burst in through the front door to find a dark robed woman in the reception room.
“What are you doing here?” demanded the woman before Soppi could get out a word.
“Where is Pokk?” Soppi asked forcefully in return.
“Pokk is not here.” replied the dark robed woman.
“Where is he?” demanded Soppi
“He has been called away on urgent business to Baldur’s Gate. If you leave a message I will make sure he gets it.” the woman replied curtly.
“Don’t lie to me! Tell me where he is!”
“I told you, he is not here. I will pass on any messages you have for him.” the woman repeated calmly.
Soppi considered pushing past the woman and tearing apart the orphanage in search of her long time bane, but instead replied tersely “Very well. You tell Pokk that I hold him personally responsible for the welfare of my people.”
Her curiousity seemingly peaked; the woman asked “What is this about?”
“The souls of my people are being stolen, and I believe Pokk has something to do with it.” growled Soppi, having to say it out loud increasing the level of her anger.
“Wait here.” Replied the woman and walked through a door to her right. Soppi prepared herself to meet with Pokk, her hand subconsciously gripping the hilt of Horn tight enough for the skin over her knuckles to turn white.
The dark robed woman returned shortly, but instead of being accompanied by Pokk, there were 5 half-orcs with her, all dressed in the armour of banite priests and warriors.
“What is this?” Demanded Soppi.
The woman ignored her and turned to the banites with a command “Kill them.”
Soppi drew Horn from its sheath, and barely noticed as Kail ran screaming from the orphanage with a half-orc banite warrior on his heels. Less than a minute later the other four half-orcs and the woman lay dead on the floor of the orphanage in expanding pools of blood, cut down by Soppi’s sword and rage.
Soppi didn’t care enough to see what had become of Kail, so she ventured through the door the woman had gone through, up some stairs to the next level of the orphanage. She searched the empty and seemingly ransacked second level of the orphanage thoroughly, shouting for Pokk before taking the stairs up to the third level.
On the third level of the orphanage she immediately ran into five more banite half-orcs who seemed to be waiting for her. She summoned a dire spider from the ether and sent it against them, as she stood back and fired at the priests to disrupt their spells as the spider filled them with its powerful poison and soon all five poison bloated bodies lay dead on the ground, several of them sprouting arrows.
The third level was also empty and ransacked and so Soppi took the stairs to the fourth and top level of the orphanage. This level had also appeared to have been violently searched as Soppi made her way through it, paying a small amount of attention to the artifacts on display in one room.
She heard it before she saw it. At the end of the corridor there was a very large ogre bashing in the last door.
“Where are you, runt?” It was shouting into the air, not yet noticing Soppi.
Soppi approached the ogre. “Where is Pokk?” she demanded of it.
Ignoring the question the ogre angrily repeated her question back at her. “Where is little man?”
“I am looking for him myself.” She replied with an edge in her voice.
“You small too, me smash you instead!” The ogre yelled, seemingly frustrated.
Soppi had time to blast the ogre with a beam of divine light before it closed to close combat. It was a difficult battle, the ogre’s great club against Soppi’s small sword. It was one of the toughest ogres Soppi had ever met and it landed a couple of heavy blows, but it too ended up dead on the floor of the orphanage, cut down by many slashes from Horn, its black blood all over the walls, floor and Soppi.
Convinced that Pokk was not on this floor either, Soppi went back to the first floor to try the other door there, but it was locked. She went outside in search of Kail and found him standing anxiously just outside, now accompanied by Shadow and Vanavar. She ignored the two elves and their shocked look at the blood all over her armour, her skirt, her hair and her face as she spoke directly to Kail, cutting off what he was about to say to her. “Come with me.” And she went directly inside, not waiting for an answer. All three followed her in and as they reached the door, she commanded Kail. “Open it.”
Kail tried the door and looked nervously at her. “It’s locked, I don’t know if we should…”
“Open it.” Cut in Soppi, and Kail immediately threw his shoulder into the door, breaking the lock after a couple of blows.
“Uh… I didn’t do that, I wasn’t here, you haven’t seen me.” Said Kail sheepishly. “I don’t want to get in any troub...”
Soppi pushed past Kail before he could finish and ascended the stairs behind the door into the room that would normally house the orphans but was now empty, seemingly abandoned with great haste. Soppi scowled, not sure where to look next.
Kail nervously spoke up. “Pokk is a maskite… I know where the maskite enclave’s cave is… it’s where I was brought back from the dead.” He paused. “And where he took my soul.”
Soppi looked to Kail. “Take me there. Now.”
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
The Search For Pokk
Shadow came out of the orphanage after searching the part of the orphanage Soppi had already searched. He was more pale than usual, seemingly both shocked and impressed with the carnage Soppi had wrought in the upper levels.
Kail had been explaining what had happened to him and where the maskite conclave was, and on Shadow’s return they set out from Red Larch, west to Kryptgarden Forest, Selûne in its zenith.
They wandered around the forest for hours, it becoming increasingly obvious that Kail was lost and incapable of finding the entrance to the cave. Soppi was about to confront him, accusing him distracting them with a red herring for whatever reason when he suddenly declared that he remembered the way there and then strode north, back the way they had come, with purpose. They arrived at a large tangle of impassable foliage with a stream passing through it as dawn was breaking. Kail led them down the stream, the other three having to duck beneath the low hanging bramble, until they reached what appeared to be a cut path that weaved through the thick foliage.
At the end of the winding path was a small clearing with what looked like a crypt in the middle. “This is the place” exclaimed Kail. Soppi nodded grimly and cast her protection magics on herself and the others before they entered the crypt, Kail first and the rest soon behind.
Inside and down some stairs, Soppi stood still for a while to allow her eyes to adjust to the dark, revealing a large room at the bottom of the stairs too big for Soppi to see it all in the dark, but somewhere beyond in the darkness she could hear noises she thought was the guttural language of orcs. By the time Soppi’s eyes had adjusted, Shadow had already spotted a trap just in front of them and moved forward quietly to disarm it. Before he was finished, the orc noises sounded alarm and she could hear them rushing forward together with the pounding steps of an ogre who soon came into Soppi’s vision and looked like it was of the same stock she had slaughtered in the orphanage, the half-orc banites close behind it.
Shadow quickly jumped back to the other three, just before the ogre closed in. In one fluid motion, it jumped over the trap its club already swinging, Vanavar didn’t have time to move out of the way and the club crashed into his chest with a crunching sound, sending him flying head first into the wall behind him with a sickening thud. The others didn’t have time to tend to him as the ogre and half-orcs were right there and all three were at the bottom of the stairs, swords out and fighting for their lives. Shadow was the first to panic and break, running from the crypt, Kail almost immediately after him. Soppi took a swipe at the ogre as it ran past her to pursue the other two but she would not disengage the three banites and leave Vanavar to them there.
And then it was over, the three banites lay dead before her. She quickly checked Vanavar and was relieved to see he was alive, but very close to death. She cast her healing on him, and left him to recover before running out to see what had become of the other two. Outside, both the ogre and Shadow lay on the ground, the ogre laying face first on the ground with a large cut in its back, Kail standing over it. Soppi ran up to Shadow, also relieved that he was also alive despite the very large lump already forming on his head betraying a cracked skull. Her healing brought him back to consciousness just as Vanavar came out of the crypt of his own accord and rejoined the group. .
A few healing spells later and the group was back at full health and the two elves agreed to brave the crypt again – it was never an option for either Soppi or Kail. Soppi would have gone in if she was alone, the welfare of her children more important than her own life. The rest of the crypt was empty except for a few animated skeletons that crumbled quickly in the light of Yondalla’s power. At the back of the crypt was a pit leading down into the ground with a rope dangling down into the darkness.
They slid down the rope into a small cave with three tunnels leading off of it. Kail led them down the tunnel to the south, indicating it was the way to the maskites. It was just a little into the tunnel where it branched to the left and turned to the right a little further down. Kail told them that the turn to the right was where the enclave was and he scouted ahead, coming back soon saying that there was a small army of banite half-orcs in the maskite cave. Ready for a heavy battle, Soppi summoned forth a dire bear from the ether and sent it around the corner into the cave and watched bemused as it tore apart the five banite priests and warriors with lethal efficiency.
Apart from the spread remains of the banites, several maskites lay dead in the cave, obviously killed by the banites, but there was no sign of Pokk anywhere. The sparse furniture in the cave had been torn apart as if someone had been looking for something, and there was no sign of any kind of antidote to the poison anywhere. Kail rushed to the two chests in a corner, expecting to find his equipment that had been taken from him and cried out in anguish as he discovered they were empty.
They took the tunnel back to the left turn and came across a small boat on an underground lake. Shadow investigated the boat and found manacles onboard, but little else of interest. Upon seeing the manacles, Soppi believed she knew why Pokk had formed the orphanage when he had never seemed to be overly altruistic, and added that to her anger and list of things that Pokk had to answer to. They decided not to try to take the boat anywhere until they had explored further.
Looking for more clues on the whereabouts of Pokk, or a cure, they took the tunnel to the east from the cave they had climbed down into. It was a long tunnel and curved to the point where Soppi thought it was a large circle. All along the tunnel were giant spiders that were as tall as Soppi’s knees. Soppi had seen many much bigger than those before and they were all easily dropped with an arrow or two from the group, none getting close enough to bite. The tunnel ended at a cavern that appeared to be in the middle of the circle and contained a sight that gave them all a bit of a surprise. The spider in the cave must have been the mother of all the other spiders they had come across. It was easily as big as a house, far and away bigger than any other spider Soppi had ever seen. Perhaps out of shock the elves fired their bows at it instead retreating before the spider noticed them, and Soppi summoned a dire spider to send against it. As soon as the dire spider got close enough the colossal spider bit it in half in a single bite. Soppi decided there was nothing to learn with that spider and so called out to the others to run, already in a run herself. There was no protest from the others and fortunately the spider didn’t attempt to pursue them, although they didn’t stop running until they got back to the cave they had entered from.
They then took the last tunnel, this time to the north. The tunnel lead to another part of the lake they had seen near the maskite enclave, with only a gelatinous cube in the way. There was nothing there of any interest so they made their way back to the boat to investigate it some more. This time Shadow took the boat out to see where the lake led to, but returned shortly to say there were no exits.
With no other clues to be found in the maskite caves they left, and went on their way. Soppi had been up for more than an entire day. She was exhausted, and her only other lead was the Banite compound south of Westbridge, and she was in no condition to pursue that right now. She returned to Haven Hill Warren, to her people to treat them as best she could and to plan her next course of action.
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
The Poisoner Revealed
It was several days later. For a while Soppi’s ministrations had succeeded in stabilising the hin of Haven Hill Warren, however, recently they had started to get worse again, no matter what she did.
After a round of checking on her patients in their burrows, too many of them ill to be cared for in the temple, she entered the temple to check on Kelinda and to pray to Yondalla for her strength in the battle against the souldrinker poison. As she tended to Kelinda as best she could with, she looked up with her empty eyes, and pale drawn face.
“We” She began and then stopped in a fit of coughing before continuing “had a visitor for you earlier”
“Oh?” Asked Soppi, distracted by her tiredness and worry at tending to the entire warren, “Who was it?”
“It was I.” Came a voice from the entrance to the temple.
Soppi turned to see a female gnome dressed in robes enter the temple and walk up to her. “You wanted to see me?” She asked, not really wanting to be distracted from her work.
As she approached, the gnome woman bowed to Soppi and told her tale “Blessed of Yondalla, I bring your fortune to you, and the fortune of this village and the fortune of many things beside.” She started “The time of troubles...” She paused and looked around the room nervously “when the gods were cast from the heavens, two titans clashed far away, Bane and Torm. Torm smote Bane with his fury and sundered the dark one, breaking him into fragments which were claimed by the sea and the dark one was no more. Some of his essence was imparted to a vessel, his son Xvim and in time he was reborn as bane, but the fragments of his shell still bore some of his essence, his divine power. Most were lost to the depths, or trod to dust by Torm. One was taken and preserved by Kuo-Toa. They encased it in crystal as a precaution.” She looked deep into Soppi’s eyes. “I know you have seen it.”
Soppi nodded. “I have. That man was an essence of Bane?”
The gnome continued “That man has the barest portion of is power, he is clay, but alive. Preserved he was in stasis. He is responsible for the sickness of your people. He has started the poisoning. Your wells, filled with the poison. All who drank are infected, as they die, their souls go to him, to rebuild his power. He grows stronger with each death.”
“And how do we stop this? Where is the antidote?” Soppi replied, her anger building behind the tiredness
The gnome replied simply “There is no antidote.”
Soppi frowned, not ready to let her people die without doing something. “How are the effects reversed? There must be a way!”
“There is. His shell must be broken, releasing the souls he has taken. It is the only way.”
“How can his shell be broken?”
“That i cannot say, the crystal were he lay in stasis for so long may tell you. He escaped, but his former cage remains.” The gnome replied.
Soppi nodded “I see. I will go see what I can find with the crystals. Where will you be if I need to speak to you again?”
“I will watch the ill fortune your village has suffered. I will remain for some time.” The gnome replied with a twisted smile and as Soppi left the temple she added “The blessings of Beshaba upon you.”
Outside, she heard a commotion at the north gate and she went to investigate. Outside the north gate she was a little surprised to find a small group of Wolf, Amelor, Isaniel and Maeve.
As she exited the gate, they turned to her with greetings, but all stood away from her and the entrance to the warren with a little bit of fear in their eyes. Eying the warren with ware Wolf mentioned what he had heard of the sickness and asked how she was, not asking her directly if she was contagious with the so-called Fish Eyed Sickness.
“An essence of Bane has escaped from his crystal prison. I need to go back there to retrieve some crystal to find how he might be destroyed.” She replied, too tired to bother with niceties.
“You mean that figure?” Asked Isaniel.
“Yes.” Replied Soppi. “I was going to head north to see if I could find some water breathing potions in Triboar.”
“Is there no risk of spreading this rumoured sickness?” Asked Wolf
“I am certain Pokk has some more of those potions.” Said Isaniel, speaking to Soppi at the same time.
“Don't drink the water. Don't drink any ground water.” Was Soppi’s advice to Wolf before replying to Isaniel “Pokk has gone missing. Banites were looking for him. Now they are dead, but not before they destroyed Pokk’s enclave.”
“Is there a way to purify the water?” Asked Isaniel.
“No. A power of a god poisons it.” Replied Soppi. “We must destroy the figure in the crystal.”
“But it is ...loose now?” Asked Amelor. “The figure in the crystal. Who is it?”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Asked Wolf at the same time.
“Yes, he is free. As I said, I need to retrieve a piece of the crystal to determine how the figure, the essence of Bane, can be destroyed.” Replied Soppi getting a little agitated that everyone was speaking to her at once and asking her questions she had already answered.
“How are you so sure that this... another piece will not case further damage?” Asked Maeve.
“What do you mean?” asked Soppi in return with a sigh “My people are ill. I need to get the crystal.”
“The figure in the crystal seemed near to breaking already... to chip a piece could be...” trailed off Amelor, a little alarmed.
“The figure is free. Please try listening to me.” Replied Soppi, her agitation growing at her continual need to repeat herself.
“So... the figure was imprisoned in the crystal, but now the crystal has been broken, the figure is free?” Asked Wolf, to which Soppi just gave him a look, as if questioning his intelligence, tired of answering the same questions over and over again while her people were dying.
“And who exactly is that ... figure?” Asked Maeve, much to Soppi’s annoyance. Before she could answer with a biting comment about the usefulness of Maeve’s elven ears Isaniel answered his question.
“How would we get through to the crystal?” Asked Amelor.
“If I cannot find any water breathing potions, I can cast a water lowering spell, but I cannot cast enough water breathing spells for all of us.” Replied Soppi.
They discussed this between themselves for a short time before Soppi cut in. “You will all come with me?”
Wolf agreed to come, but speaking for the elves Isaniel replied “We will come, if you will help us with the Duergar.”, talking of the grey dwarf forces threatening their tree house.
Soppi sighed, her people far more important than her pride. “I will do as I can.” She agreed.
They headed south, the rest of the group walking around the village rather than through it as Soppi did.
At the south gate, Isaniel added more conditions to their help. “Before we go, here are some conditions that I like you to know first. We will help you, with everything we have, but you must do the same, Soppi, regardless of your view of Von'nes or any other of us.
“If you aid me, I will forgive past rudeness from Von in courteousy of your aid, but I will expect more politeness from her from here in.” Replied Soppi
“No, if she needs your aid, you will aid her. No arguing, no splitting hairs. We are going into certain battle.” Said Isaniel. “There is no place for this in a fight. Either you aid or you do not, no middle ground, no conditions.”
“Then I expect you have words with her regarding her rudeness at least. I will aid you because of this, and I will aid her because to do so will help to keep us alive, but I expect you to try to teach her manners at least.” Replied Soppi, with little choice but to agree to the elf’s demands.
“I asked her to try and be polite. We will see.” Replied Isaniel with a wry grin.
And so they headed south back to the caves where they first found the figure trapped in the crystal.
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
Back To The Wet Caves*
They made their way south towards the cave, neither the potioner in Westbridge nor Red Larch had any water breathing potions in stock, the demand for such potions being quite low. From Red Larch they moved west and into the Kryptgarden forest as the sun was setting and they cast their protections in preparation for whatever the forest would throw at them.
They reached the cave deep in the Kryptgarden forest as the moon was reaching zenith with little trouble apart from a small band of kobolds that posed little problem for the experienced group. The battered and broken iron golem still lay undisturbed outside the cave, weeds and moss already beginning to encase it as if trying to drag it into the earth, the sinister forest absorbing it into itself. An owl perched on its head, using it as a surface to eviscerate the mouse it held down with its talons, it paid the group a cursory look before returning its sharp beak to the grisly work.
“How long will this take?” Asked Maeve.
“It is easily accesible once we get into their cave from underwater. I do not know how long will it take to chip a piece.” Replied Isaniel.
“The crystal should be broken already.” Said Soppi
“You really think we will get something from that piece of crystal?” Asked Maeve.
“It is our only hope to stop the shell, ” Said Soppi “and he will not stop with the warren. He will steal the souls over as many as he can to increase his power. Stopping him now is as important as the druegar. Even more so, for if he takes your soul you will never reach your gods in the afterlife.”
“I plan to reach Arvandor alive, not dead.” Replied Isaniel. Soppi said nothing, but didn’t fancy her chances of that if they failed to stop the essence of Bane.
They decided to perform a quick exploration of the initial cave first before setting up camp outside so that Soppi could pray to Yondalla for a water controlling spell. Inside the cave it was how they had left it. Isaniel took it upon herself to explore a tunnel they had not gone down before and came running back quickly, a beetle as large as a brown bear on her heels. Again, it was nothing the group could not handle and it soon lay shattered on the cave floor, ichor spread all around the cave walls and floor. After looking at the water choked tunnel they would have to traverse to get deeper into the caves and deciding a water lowering spell would work on it, they left the cave again and set up camp.
Soppi began her prayers toning out the others in the group as they were discussing the best way to get through the water and whether or not a spear would be necessary. Her rest and prayers were complete as fingers of light began piercing the dark canopy of the forest, signaling the onset of morning. She waited patiently while the mages finished their studies and they cast their protections again before re-entering the cave.
In the cave Soppi cast her water lowering spell on the water-logged tunnel, which lowered the water enough for the group to walk through. On the other side, they emerged again into the wet caves and proceeded quietly up the north west tunnel, past the gate and into the lizard folk village. All the bodies had been removed – or devoured - and the only evidence of them was the blood stains on the ground, shown by the divine light spell Soppi had cast to light their path.
In the cave that had previous held the shard the gnome woman’s words proved true. The crystal was shattered and lay all over the cave with no sign of the figure inside. Soppi immediately got to work picking up pieces of the crystal without a word and soon the others picked up some pieces as well. As she picked up the pieces of crystal they felt strange to her, as if the crystal was from another plane, or perhaps even was once a living outsider.
After they had picked up a lot of the pieces of crystal pieces they all agreed to leave quickly and made their way cautiously back to the now accessible tunnel, within plenty of time of the hour and a half the water lowering spell would last. They picked up their pace a bit, their wariness increasing, as they heard the small splashes reminiscent of the splashes she had heard prior to a kuo toa attack the last time she was in these fish-man infested caves.
And then they were outside again without further incident. The others decided not to keep the crystals they had gathered for study and instead handed them over to Soppi, in fear of what dangers possession of the crystals would bring. They traveled together to Red Larch, Soppi remaining silent, ignoring the chatter of the group. At Red Larch, Maeve and Isaniel stayed behind while Soppi continued to Westbridge with the northman Wolf and his elven friend Amelor, reaching the small town well past noon.
They stopped in the temple of Torm to speak with Father Merric to inform him of the cause of the sickness in Haven Hill Warren and to ask if he would be able to help with the divination of the crystals. He professed that the powers blessed to him by Torm were no more than those blessed to her by Yondalla, and would be little additional help in the matter.
Soppi then took her leave of Father Merric and the remaining two in the group and made her way back to the warren, with hope that an answer would be able to be found in the crystals.
* This has been edited a bit, particularly to remove the part about finding Gus’ body and the subsequent consequences, as I didn’t feel it was relevant to the story.
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
Darkness Descends Over A Black Hand*
When Soppi arrived back at the warren, she went straight to the Temple of the Folk in hopes of finding the strange gnome woman there. Inside the temple, she absorbed a strange sight. Small shards of crystals similar to the ones she had just gone to the trouble of collecting lay scattered around the temple, the gnome sitting on a couch in the middle of the temple, Kelinda had seemingly retired to her quarters.
The woman looked to Soppi as she entered and cackled with a wild look in her eyes.
“Where did all these crystals come from?” Asked Soppi.
“The cage! The cage! The cage!” She screamed in reply, letting out another insane cackle.
Soppi said nothing for a short while. “I see.” She said finally. “And what can you determine from the crystals?”
“No crystals needed,” was the reply with yet another cackle “seen his mind I did. Touched the god I did, and he touched me.” And suddenly her cackling stopped and a haunted look appeared briefly in her eyes. And then it disappeared, her eyes went wild again and the insane laughter resumed. “He is weak now.”
Soppi nodded seriously “Where is he, and how may he be destroyed?” At this point the door to the temple opened again and a dark robed human man entered. Soppi had noticed Kail skulking around in Westbridge and trailing her north to Haven Hill, so she was not surprised to see him. She continued, ignoring him as he cleared his throat. “Can these crystals be used to take back his hold over my people?”
“Crystals were a cage, cage no more, just crystals. He grows though, growing, grown! Grows with each soul, soul grows weaker, he grows stronger. Like him.” At this she pointed at Kail. “No soul but not Bane’s.”
Kail spoke up in his soulless voice. “Bane took the hin souls? Mask took mine.”
“Not Mask,” replied the gnome with a disturbing laugh “Someone shorter. He looks for a better view. Higher. Or he views for a different look.”
“Pokk.” Said Kail “Damn, I'll kill that little bastard if I see him, I swear.”
Soppi, annoyed that the conversation had been turned, interrupted. “Where is the shell? And how can it be destroyed?”
“What are we talking about... the shell?” Ask Kail, confused.
“Be quiet, Kail.” Snapped Soppi.
The insane seer collected a crystal in each hand “Smash?” and crashed the crystals together violently. The crystals didn’t break, but dug into the flesh of her hands instead, drawing blood. “Shells break” she said with a frown “I think”.
Kail tried to interrupt again with a question, but Soppi told him again to shut up and he did so with a sigh.
The crazy gnome took off her hat instead and jumped on it, breaking it. “Like that.” She said with a final nod before sitting again.
“I don't understand. We should just smash the shell through normal means? Will that work?” Soppi asked in confusion.
The gnome shrugged “Don’t ask me, I’m just a girl” and laughed her insane laugh again. “Breakable he is. In towers. Not for long. Everything is breakable in the right circumstances.” Then she put her feet up on the arm rest and looked around as though observing the place for the first time. “Lovely abode.”
Soppi turned to Kail, certain she had got as much out of her ramblings as she would get. “I may need more aid for this.”
Kail replied “If I have to die to reclaim my soul, I will. What is life with an empty death?”
“I think I would need more than you, Kail.” Said Soppi, ignoring the gnome as she spat in the direction of the shrine to Tymora. “I may need to get help from the elves for this.” She said in reply, knowing that the towers mentioned were the towers of the Banite compound to the south.
The fortune teller spoke up with a laugh “I have friends”.
***
It was past midnight. Soppi had communed with a celestial servant of Yondalla and discovered the Shell was vulnerable to magic weapons and was indeed in the Banite compound. She had also found out something that disturbed her greatly. It was confirmed that Pokk was indeed selling children from his orphanage into slavery. That was something Pokk would pay dearly for, even though she now knew he was not responsible for the poisoning of her people.
It was past midnight. Soppi walked through the Banite compound, walking over the bodies she could not walk around. Hundreds of Banites lay dead inside the compound, half orcs all. Some lay dead in rooms, behind the barricades that had not saved them, others lay in corridors, having tried to fight or flee. Hundreds dead. Most of the bodies had not died through violent physical force, but appeared to have been drained and had looks of extreme horror and fear on their faces, with no other marks.
Kail and Soppi had gathered Amelor and had met the “friends” of the gnome at midnight. She had an idea of what to expect and was not too surprised at the host. This was for her people and she hoped Yondalla would understand and forgive her.
They came through the underground passages and into the night sky of a hidden shrine to Bane. The Banites here were also dispatched, but of the Shard there was no sign.
Soppi walked up to the powerful leader of the forces that had just decimated the Banites. “Where is the shell?” She demanded.
“What shell?” He replied with a sneer.
“The essence of Bane that was released and is supposed to reside here. Where is it?”
“Not here, obviously” he replied disdainfully.
“Where is it?” Soppi demanded again.
“Why don’t you try speaking to one of the dead, there are none left alive here.” He replied dismissively “Oh, and since I am here.” He turned and spat on Bane’s holy symbol.
“I see.” Said Soppi. “So you allowed such a powerful entity to escape.” She sigh resignedly “All for nothing.” Turning to Kail she ordered “Kail. You grab that half orc,” pointing to what appeared to be the body of the high priest. “And you bring it back for me. I will question his spirit.”
Amelor looked incredulous. “You can ask questions of the dead?”
“Yes, I can.” Was the simple reply.
They then made their way back to Westbridge, running out of the Banite compound as it was swallowed by shadows, summoned by the horde. They entered the temple of Torm in Westbridge and Soppi greeted Father Merric curtly as Kail dropped the Banite on the floor of the temple. “We return from the towers of Bane. The essence of Bane has escaped.” She said with a sighs. “However, we bring a priest of his. Perhaps he can tell us where he has gone?”
Father Merric offered to perform the ritual, and as Soppi had not prayed for the spell that day, she agreed. Soon Father Merric had called upon the power of Torm and the spirit of the Banite priest appeared.
In reply to the question of the whereabouts of the Shell of Bane the spirit hissed out its reply “Ssssssssword” and laughed which seemed to come from further and further away as the spirit disappeared again.
“Sword?” Soppi asked the air where the spirit disappeared.
“Sword Mountains, most likely.” Replied Father Merric.
“Perhaps the Shell is a sword. I have heard of swords containing souls.” Offered Kail. Soppi ignored him.
“How did you claim such a one as this?” Asked the Tormite High Priest. “I would have thought him beyond even your powers, Mother.”
“We had aid that is best not spoken of.” Replied Soppi.
“Dark forces, Mother?” Asked Father Merric, looking at the Banite’s wounds with shock “His life has been drained! What vile sources did you use? This troubles me greatly, Soppi.”
“I had no choice. My people are dying.” Replied Soppi simply.
Much to Soppi chagrin, Kail decided to speak up again. “Bane has dark enemies as well as those of the light. It was prestigious to let them take the front. Now Bane will not blame the hin for the destruction of their temple but those who we stood behind. It was sensible.” Finishing with a reassuring nod.
Father Merric gasped “The towers are destroyed? And those within?”
“You might walk past it some time. Take a look yourself” Replied Kail with a slight smile.
“All the priests inside were slain.” Said Soppi.
“Slaughtered. Most if not all” Said Amelor.
With a growing look of horror, Father Merric replied. “Hundreds dead! I do not know whether this is the darkest or lightest day for the region, I will speak to you on length about this, once this is done.”
“I think the grounds not to be safe though, there is a deathly aura about the place, it should be declared off limits.” Said Kail, opening his mouth one too many times.
Father Merric looked to Kail. “Who are you?”
“I am a Wayfarer.” Replied Kail.
Father Merric looked at Kail’s armour. “Your name?”
Kail shrugged “Does it matter? I serve the Mother.”
“I think it does matter, given what you have done on this day.” Replied Father Merric.
“I wish no fame,” Said Kail “I would rather stay a silent hero.” Soppi wished he would just stop talking. The more he talked, the more he put his foot in his mouth.
“Do you vouch for him, Mother Widenbottle?” Asked Father Merric.
Soppi sighed. “He aided me in this task. I asked for his help.”
“Like you asked for the help of dark forces?”
Soppi didn’t reply except to give a shrug.
Father Merric turned to Kail and asked forcefully. “What is your name?”
Kail hung his head “Kail... I myself died in there. I do not know what lies ahead for me. My existence is mere intangible nonsense at the moment. I seem to be in a limbo of sorts.”
Father Merric gave a suspicious look. “Kail, that name is known to me. The murderer. Are you he?”
Soppi had known the Kail was in trouble, but was unaware that he was a murderer.
“I murdered no one.” Replied Kail “You can test me to speak the truth if you like.”
Father Merric gave Kail a disdainful look “I will.” And cast a divine spell to detect lies.
Kail began telling his story. “I was paralysed with fear in that tomb by a dark being. Lying like a child quivering on the floor. The other and the dark being talked and when the 12 came in they slayed them all while I lay quivering in fear of the doom knight. Such an aura of malevolence the knight possessed. It threatened my destruction and to turn me into a bodak. The man in red and black, I have never seen since. I never killed a soldier of the 12, I was huddled in a corner screaming like a child in a nightmare. Will you inform the 12? They put out a contract on me. I had no choice but to avoid them. I know how ruthless the self riteous can be.”
“Yes. Go now.” He demanded, clearly drained by the events.
Soppi nodded and began walking out of the temple “Let's go.” She said, addressing Kail and Amelor. “Stop talking Kail.” Once they were outside, Soppi let out a long sigh. “ The Sword Mountains...” They would have to get past both hill giants and ettins.
“Or a sword.” Said Kail. “I worry more about an antidote.”
“He is not a sword.” Said Soppi, frustrated. “And there is no antidote. I must return to my people. They need me. I had hoped to have saved them today, but I failed.” Soppi let out a sigh and headed north alone, back to the warren.
*This part of the story has been heavily edited to avoid meta. Perhaps it will be changed one day if the meta is no longer relevant.
Current PCs:
NWN1: Soppi Widenbottle, High Priestess of Yondalla.
NWN2: Gruuhilda, Tree Hugging Half-Orc
/me whips MORE! MORE! Screw statute of Limitations! Me want read more!
<Gebb> ok, what does it mean to be "huggled"? <spidroth_esq> Something terrible. <Squamatus> buggered <Dran> sodomised <Squamatus> by an acorn on a stick <tresca> LOL <Gebb> that didn't help <alynn>
