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lettersfrombel20 Tarsakh 1492 DR
Ebonlake Grotto
My dear River,
Why did I come back here? Oh, right, because it seemed like a safer method to get to Moonrise Towers. If I ever think the Underdark is safe, please make sure I am in my right mind. At least last night, I had a pleasant and uninterrupted sleep.
Today started pleasantly enough. We met Thulla, the escapee the myconids are sheltering, and patched her up. She was sick enough to not question what a drow was holding to her lips (or at least not to stop me from doing so) which gives you a sense of how things were going for her. I could tell she was feeling better when she started demanding why a drow would help her. Please don’t get offended on my behalf, River dear, I expect Underdark folk to have suspicions based on actual facts rather than simple rumor. But, between the fact the myconids would murder me and use my corpse for hauling water, the presence of surface folks (well, Shadowheart, since Wyll looks like a devil and Lae’zel’s species isn’t familiar to anyone), and my charm and preference for favors over anything else, she calmed down. She did ask me to rescue her kin, and was willing to give me some stolen magical boots AND a contact in Baldur’s Gate. She was a bit evasive on why she and her clan were down here, but from what I understand, it is deep gnome clan politics. If I find out this is something explosive or dangerous, I will be quite cross. I already had to give the ‘do not touch the torchstalk’ lecture again today.
There are all sorts of reminders that this is where I am from. We found a drow supply cache, and I did not drop the letter from a cleric of Lolth into a ravine, although I sorely wanted to. Largely because that was useful information of drow activity in the area, not because my opinion on the Church of Lolth has changed. We also stumbled upon a grave marker, with a drow blade shoved into rock. It was clearly blessed, but not by the Spider Queen or any gods I had heard of growing up. Because it was a fallen warrior’s last resting place, perhaps even a cleric or paladin’s, I knew that the only way to honor the fallen was a bit of my own blood. The sword — or the god — seemed to accept it. The inscription reads 'Though I have to leave you, I will dance forever in Eilistraee's Light.’. It is a very good sword — amazingly light for its length. I think I needed the reminder that not everything my people keep down here is terrible or painful. If I ever learn of the former welder- well, they’re dead, so I don’t know what I’d do. Offer something to their next of kin.
Scouting around for those mushrooms Omeluun wanted did mean I stumbled on a spectator. Think ‘lesser cousin to a beholder’, which is why I am not dead, petrified or any number of horrible things. Apparently it was the aftermath of an academic dispute among the drow on who would make the first discovery of something called the Adamantine Forge. Unfortunately, after I nobly rescued most of the group — not really, just didn’t kill them when the spectator un-petrified them and charmed them to deal with us — the wizard decided I knew too much and tried to kill me. I’m certain ‘letting a drow with this many knives get within 5 feet of you and then deciding you want to kill him, and you don’t have a plan for when he draws and stabs you’ is a form of suicide. I’m not insulted he turned on me — I’m a drow from a house he’s never heard of, so couldn’t see if we had any standing relationships to leverage — I’m insulted he didn’t consider that no matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will cramp his style. (A proverb I heard once.). Wizards really need a lesson in managing hubris; the main downside is that in Lolthite culture, that is usually delivered by the Goddess or her priestesses, who are even worse about it.
We did find the second of the three hanging around a sursurr tree, which was a new one to me. Its blooms produce an anti-magic field, and its bark has other properties that a trained blacksmith can use. While the Underdark has enough magic that things can get weird, this is not a thing I’ve encountered before. I think it shocked Gale, so someone isn’t getting a sursurr bouquet on his pillow tonight.It’s probably fine since that little time bomb in his chest didn’t cause us any problems while it was there. I wonder if that is a solution for at least stopping the progression, but I think Gale might rather die than live without magic in a dank hole in what used to be a hook horror lair for more than a day or two.
I need to see if we can get some kind of washtub, both for laundry and for soaking in after a long day. We have enough magic users to provide hot water on days they don’t over-extend themselves, and I end up with enough blood and unmentionable fluids on me that I want something more than Prestidigitation. Astarion may have a point about being done with camping. (Master Halsin might also have a point that bears don’t have to do laundry. Unfortunately for him, even if I was inclined to just stop bothering with trousers, I still need armor to not die. We can’t all be druids, or learn Mage Armor.)
Your friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Ebonlake Grotto
My dear River,
Why did I come back here? Oh, right, because it seemed like a safer method to get to Moonrise Towers. If I ever think the Underdark is safe, please make sure I am in my right mind. At least last night, I had a pleasant and uninterrupted sleep.
Today started pleasantly enough. We met Thulla, the escapee the myconids are sheltering, and patched her up. She was sick enough to not question what a drow was holding to her lips (or at least not to stop me from doing so) which gives you a sense of how things were going for her. I could tell she was feeling better when she started demanding why a drow would help her. Please don’t get offended on my behalf, River dear, I expect Underdark folk to have suspicions based on actual facts rather than simple rumor. But, between the fact the myconids would murder me and use my corpse for hauling water, the presence of surface folks (well, Shadowheart, since Wyll looks like a devil and Lae’zel’s species isn’t familiar to anyone), and my charm and preference for favors over anything else, she calmed down. She did ask me to rescue her kin, and was willing to give me some stolen magical boots AND a contact in Baldur’s Gate. She was a bit evasive on why she and her clan were down here, but from what I understand, it is deep gnome clan politics. If I find out this is something explosive or dangerous, I will be quite cross. I already had to give the ‘do not touch the torchstalk’ lecture again today.
There are all sorts of reminders that this is where I am from. We found a drow supply cache, and I did not drop the letter from a cleric of Lolth into a ravine, although I sorely wanted to. Largely because that was useful information of drow activity in the area, not because my opinion on the Church of Lolth has changed. We also stumbled upon a grave marker, with a drow blade shoved into rock. It was clearly blessed, but not by the Spider Queen or any gods I had heard of growing up. Because it was a fallen warrior’s last resting place, perhaps even a cleric or paladin’s, I knew that the only way to honor the fallen was a bit of my own blood. The sword — or the god — seemed to accept it. The inscription reads 'Though I have to leave you, I will dance forever in Eilistraee's Light.’. It is a very good sword — amazingly light for its length. I think I needed the reminder that not everything my people keep down here is terrible or painful. If I ever learn of the former welder- well, they’re dead, so I don’t know what I’d do. Offer something to their next of kin.
Scouting around for those mushrooms Omeluun wanted did mean I stumbled on a spectator. Think ‘lesser cousin to a beholder’, which is why I am not dead, petrified or any number of horrible things. Apparently it was the aftermath of an academic dispute among the drow on who would make the first discovery of something called the Adamantine Forge. Unfortunately, after I nobly rescued most of the group — not really, just didn’t kill them when the spectator un-petrified them and charmed them to deal with us — the wizard decided I knew too much and tried to kill me. I’m certain ‘letting a drow with this many knives get within 5 feet of you and then deciding you want to kill him, and you don’t have a plan for when he draws and stabs you’ is a form of suicide. I’m not insulted he turned on me — I’m a drow from a house he’s never heard of, so couldn’t see if we had any standing relationships to leverage — I’m insulted he didn’t consider that no matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will cramp his style. (A proverb I heard once.). Wizards really need a lesson in managing hubris; the main downside is that in Lolthite culture, that is usually delivered by the Goddess or her priestesses, who are even worse about it.
We did find the second of the three hanging around a sursurr tree, which was a new one to me. Its blooms produce an anti-magic field, and its bark has other properties that a trained blacksmith can use. While the Underdark has enough magic that things can get weird, this is not a thing I’ve encountered before. I think it shocked Gale, so someone isn’t getting a sursurr bouquet on his pillow tonight.
I need to see if we can get some kind of washtub, both for laundry and for soaking in after a long day. We have enough magic users to provide hot water on days they don’t over-extend themselves, and I end up with enough blood and unmentionable fluids on me that I want something more than Prestidigitation. Astarion may have a point about being done with camping. (Master Halsin might also have a point that bears don’t have to do laundry. Unfortunately for him, even if I was inclined to just stop bothering with trousers, I still need armor to not die. We can’t all be druids, or learn Mage Armor.)
Your friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Some of Bel's irritation is from AI pathfinding and me not wanting to go into either individual control or turn-based mode to get everyone past every hazard.
We also did the mushroom picker quest, which involves retrieving the dwarf mushroom seller's husband. She tells you about a mushroom called Noblestalk that they were looking for, and you can do a number of things with, including help with a bit of Shadowheart's amnesia. My one time actually getting to the darn thing was having Lae'zel use Mage Hand... which didn't have the option of 'pick up and return it to me'.
I also summoned Shovel, a quasit whose scroll was found in the Blighted Village. I had Wyll do it, because the poor boy totally needs a tiny shoulder demon who likes murder and scaring people helping his image. Gale was the other option, but I know he has a tressym friend back home. Shovel is adorable, BTW.
I also got the Astarion trying to puzzle out what’s on his back scene. Bel wasn’t able to recognize it when he first saw it, but he did offer to draw it for Astarion and was very much ‘I know I don’t have to help you with this, but I am’. Bel is also starting to get a sense of when Astarion is being genuine and when he is wearing a mask, because game recognizes game, and Astarion-when-genuinely grateful always seems a bit shocked that people are doing nice things for him for no apparent reason.
This and his prior adventures is probably the longest Bel has gone actually being (mostly) honest with people, and he’s a little shocked how well it works. On the other hand, if any of them die or get seriously traumatized, Bel will lose his shit. (In the original Pathfinder game I created him for, Bel had a weakness that was ‘if anyone goes down, and you aren’t within 30 feet, you are at penalties until you get within 30 feet or they get back up’; it never came up in game, but does inform how I play Bel.)
Speaking of game, at one point the group fought giant spiders as one does, and in the nest they found a Lolth holy symbol. Bel was about ready to bring it back to whatever church he thought Lolth would find most offensive in town, but Orva, our half-orc fighter, was more efficient -- we were in the town sewers, so he just dropped it in the runoff, causing Bel to declare that Orva was his new favorite. Another difference between Bel and Ilphyl is that Bel is a lot more comfortable with letting his hatred of Lolth override fear of her.
The game dialog, at least for Selendarine drow also has Tav note that Lolth's symbol is all over the cache and makeshift altar, and that if it wasn't abandoned, it should all be lit on fire. Bel didn't let 'already abandoned' stop him, but he did remember 'pillage, than burn'.
(The aphorism about wizards is from Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books, but I feel like most rogues appreciate the sentiment. 'Pillage, then burn' is from Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary comic, as the first of 70 Maxims for Maximally Efficient Mercenaries.)
(I had to do the spectator fight three times, thanks to not saving regularly; the other two, the spectator killed the drow wizard after my attack broke the charm on him. I like how the mercenary leader is all 'yeah, I'm going to find some basilisk oil for my men and then we're going home', while the wizard is like 'whoops, I said to much, time to murder my rescuers' and the mercenaries go along with it. But in the playthrough that did involve fighting the wizard, he literally went down in the first turn before he could cast a spell to Bel's Sneak Attack. Hence Bel's contempt for him; at least walk away enough that the guy with the blades can't stab you.)
Bel did make the religion roll on the sword to identify Eilistraee, but I don't know in game how widely she is known in the setting. Because it feels more meaningful for this to be the first encounter Bel has with her and the Religion roll to free the sword was based more on general 'this sword was blessed by a god to honor the fallen, you aren't getting it out without shedding blood, and for a good-aligned deity, that means yours'; on a day when he sorely needs the reminder that he isn't alone in the 'why is my ancestral culture full of assholes'.
Eilistraee is also the patron of the brother who Bel thinks is dead, but is living their best non-binary life as a druid farther north than the Chonthair River valley. So, even if the game can't read Bel's backstory, I like the idea that the Dark Maiden took an interest in Bel, not just for 'oh, drow who broke away from Lolth, he falls within my remit' but 'oh, this one is related to one of my divine casters, maybe I can help'. (Bel doesn't have much time for gods, but does occasionally leave offerings because he wants to make sure that someone has a claim on his soul that isn't Lolth.)
The sword is a very bard sword, but it also is a good rogue weapon, being a longsword with the traits that allow you to sneak attack with it regardless.
