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lettersfrombel22 Tarsakh 1492 DR
Grymforge
My dear River,
This will be another long letter because of an eventful day. Settle in with a glass of wine, or a cup of tea, darling.
Do you know, I’ve gotten so used to the Cult of the Absolute blurring distinctions between species that I didn’t think to question why duergar were involved here. The reason the duergar are now counted separate from other dwarves has to do with them being heavily altered by mind flayers into what they are now. Unlike the githyanki, they do not seek out mind flayers because they have a degree of sensible caution. Needless to say, when we arrived at the port, it was clear the duergar were mercenaries and pirates, hired by the Cult of the Absolute to manage things. They also have enough psionic ability that some of them can spot True Souls, and have at least a suspicion that it is mind flayer-connected. I got the colorful phrase that a True Soul felt like ‘a mind flayer shat a worm into your brain’; duergar mercenaries have a way with words. (The gate guards also asked my escort if he was ‘ploughing drow’ now to explain my presence. Sadly, I did not think of a witty answer in time. I think they expected me to be offended at the thought of being fucked by a duergar.)
Coming to the Underdark with surface folk gives me a new perspective. A lot of what I accept as cruel, but inevitable is questioned by them. Consider slavery. We — the drow — use it, and so do the duergar. In human cities on the Sword Coast, it is considered both illegal and barbaric. To get through a duergar camp, it means accepting there will be slaves and that the ‘infiltrate and scout’ part of the plan means ignoring that. Thankfully, I can pass off ‘no desire for cruelty’ as an arrogant wish to get on with what I consider important conversations. But I definitely should not have brought Wyll until we got to the 'liberate the camp' stage of the plan. Or Karlach, who at least knows how to deal with this sort of situation, I assume, thanks to her time in the Hells, but clearly was not happy. Or Shadowheart, because this is clearly an abandoned Sharran fort, and it creeps her out. At least I left Astarion at camp, as he is definitely the sort who when threatened, might lash out at someone who doesn’t deserve it.
(That leaves Gale and Lae’zel, who are useful, but not enough.)
At least getting insulted and belittled by duergar is refreshing because they are doing it because I am a drow and our peoples have a complex history that largely comes down to ‘competing for resources in the Underdark’. And Nere, the Cult of the Absolute’s drow leader here is an asshole who got himself trapped in rubble and the duergar are only hanging around because he’s got the purse on him. It is always good to see my people doing their part to create a sterling reputation for the drow. (Sarcasm, obviously.) I swayed the elder to help out if we turn on Nere, and I managed to subvert some spiders as one of them had heard the Good News about Lolth the Spider Queen. Which, I took the option that means fewer beings to fight, and hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.
(My family made a business of breeding spiders; it is true that we tend to treat spiders more like surface folk treat anything from a prize cow to a beloved dog or cat. This lot may be more equivalent to a group of wild dogs rather than a prize herding dog, however.)
I do wonder how the spider learned of Lolth. The spider trainer had a bunch of strung up drow, which would answer that question, except that he said that they stunk of the surface. I would love to know what they were doing here; not many of my people are outside of Lolth’s web. Fewer now. (Apologies for being morbid there.)
We managed to find out one of the gnomes had run with enough explosives to clear the cave-in. I tried to talk her into not blowing us all to the Hells, and giving them to us and making her escape. Normally I am good at this, but… well, it is useful to know that Withers can cast resurrection spells for a fee. (We are all fine now, and I wasn’t the one waking up in camp with a missing gap of memory. I would like to know what Withers is, but he doesn’t answer questions about himself. Well, he does, but generally so cryptically that you just have more questions.)
Thankfully, we saved some smokepowder from the goblin camp, so I had Lae’zel carry a barrel over and Gale detonate it. True Soul Nere is say blisteringly incompetent and completely unaware of how unsubtle he is being about it when he takes it out on his underlings. Quite easy to tell him I was attacking him out of sheer contempt, because that was certainly a reason. The duergar who were not cult members were willing to piss off before the Cult of the Absolute sent reinforcements to figure out what the Hells just happened, and I talked them out of taking the deep gnomes with them, which was good because we were not up for fighting both the duergar and Nere’s forces.
The deep gnomes — the Ironhand clan out of Baldur’s Gate — had found the secret to runepowder, which was what they had used to explode the tunnel (and yours truly). Think ‘add gnomish magic to smokepowder, to make it even more potent’. Since the only copy of the formula was in the leader’s mind, the Cult of the Absolute immediately bundled him off to Moonrise Towers, presumably to get a tadpole shoved in his eye so they would control the recipe.
It seems the deep gnome I met on the surface (the one I rescued from goblins) — his name is Barcus, by the way — had gotten himself captured. He seems to be the leader of the Ironhand gnomes’ friend, or crush or something. I think he’s growing to trust me after I keep saving his ass, to our mutual surprise. He told me after the dust settled that ‘nothing good comes from the Underdark’, but…
I made something at least sort of good happen here. Oh, I still fucked it up by trying to go after the deep gnome with the runepowder rather than just use what we had, but not everyone died. The duergar, awful people that they were, can at least remain alive and free of the Cult of the Absolute, and the gnomes can go back to Baldur’s Gate. (Except Barcus, who might be going to Moonrise Towers with us. I think it helps that I’m the only drow in camp; he might slowly be accepting that I’m not going to sell him into slavery or bully him, but ‘and if he did, all these humans and surface elves will stop him’ is a comfort.)
(A reminder, dear River, don’t get mad at Underdark people being cautious around the drow. There are enough Lolthite settlements that caution is warranted.)
We’ll clear out the fortress here tomorrow, and I think we need to report back to Sovereign Spaw so I can get rid of Nere’s head. I’m grateful he didn’t want the entire body for a spore servant, because I’m not carrying that back, and I hate making Lae’zel or Karlach do it. After this, we could go on towards Moonrise Towers, but I think Lae’zel will stab me in my bedroll if I don’t at least try to deliver her to the creche.
Your friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Grymforge
My dear River,
This will be another long letter because of an eventful day. Settle in with a glass of wine, or a cup of tea, darling.
Do you know, I’ve gotten so used to the Cult of the Absolute blurring distinctions between species that I didn’t think to question why duergar were involved here. The reason the duergar are now counted separate from other dwarves has to do with them being heavily altered by mind flayers into what they are now. Unlike the githyanki, they do not seek out mind flayers because they have a degree of sensible caution. Needless to say, when we arrived at the port, it was clear the duergar were mercenaries and pirates, hired by the Cult of the Absolute to manage things. They also have enough psionic ability that some of them can spot True Souls, and have at least a suspicion that it is mind flayer-connected. I got the colorful phrase that a True Soul felt like ‘a mind flayer shat a worm into your brain’; duergar mercenaries have a way with words. (The gate guards also asked my escort if he was ‘ploughing drow’ now to explain my presence. Sadly, I did not think of a witty answer in time. I think they expected me to be offended at the thought of being fucked by a duergar.)
Coming to the Underdark with surface folk gives me a new perspective. A lot of what I accept as cruel, but inevitable is questioned by them. Consider slavery. We — the drow — use it, and so do the duergar. In human cities on the Sword Coast, it is considered both illegal and barbaric. To get through a duergar camp, it means accepting there will be slaves and that the ‘infiltrate and scout’ part of the plan means ignoring that. Thankfully, I can pass off ‘no desire for cruelty’ as an arrogant wish to get on with what I consider important conversations. But I definitely should not have brought Wyll until we got to the 'liberate the camp' stage of the plan. Or Karlach, who at least knows how to deal with this sort of situation, I assume, thanks to her time in the Hells, but clearly was not happy. Or Shadowheart
(That leaves Gale and Lae’zel, who are useful, but not enough.)
At least getting insulted and belittled by duergar is refreshing because they are doing it because I am a drow and our peoples have a complex history that largely comes down to ‘competing for resources in the Underdark’. And Nere, the Cult of the Absolute’s drow leader here is an asshole who got himself trapped in rubble and the duergar are only hanging around because he’s got the purse on him. It is always good to see my people doing their part to create a sterling reputation for the drow. (Sarcasm, obviously.) I swayed the elder to help out if we turn on Nere, and I managed to subvert some spiders as one of them had heard the Good News about Lolth the Spider Queen. Which, I took the option that means fewer beings to fight, and hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.
(My family made a business of breeding spiders; it is true that we tend to treat spiders more like surface folk treat anything from a prize cow to a beloved dog or cat. This lot may be more equivalent to a group of wild dogs rather than a prize herding dog, however.)
I do wonder how the spider learned of Lolth. The spider trainer had a bunch of strung up drow, which would answer that question, except that he said that they stunk of the surface. I would love to know what they were doing here; not many of my people are outside of Lolth’s web. Fewer now. (Apologies for being morbid there.)
We managed to find out one of the gnomes had run with enough explosives to clear the cave-in. I tried to talk her into not blowing us all to the Hells, and giving them to us and making her escape. Normally I am good at this, but… well, it is useful to know that Withers can cast resurrection spells for a fee. (We are all fine now, and I wasn’t the one waking up in camp with a missing gap of memory. I would like to know what Withers is, but he doesn’t answer questions about himself. Well, he does, but generally so cryptically that you just have more questions.)
Thankfully, we saved some smokepowder from the goblin camp, so I had Lae’zel carry a barrel over and Gale detonate it. True Soul Nere is say blisteringly incompetent and completely unaware of how unsubtle he is being about it when he takes it out on his underlings. Quite easy to tell him I was attacking him out of sheer contempt, because that was certainly a reason. The duergar who were not cult members were willing to piss off before the Cult of the Absolute sent reinforcements to figure out what the Hells just happened, and I talked them out of taking the deep gnomes with them, which was good because we were not up for fighting both the duergar and Nere’s forces.
The deep gnomes — the Ironhand clan out of Baldur’s Gate — had found the secret to runepowder, which was what they had used to explode the tunnel (and yours truly). Think ‘add gnomish magic to smokepowder, to make it even more potent’. Since the only copy of the formula was in the leader’s mind, the Cult of the Absolute immediately bundled him off to Moonrise Towers, presumably to get a tadpole shoved in his eye so they would control the recipe.
It seems the deep gnome I met on the surface (the one I rescued from goblins) — his name is Barcus, by the way — had gotten himself captured. He seems to be the leader of the Ironhand gnomes’ friend, or crush or something. I think he’s growing to trust me after I keep saving his ass, to our mutual surprise. He told me after the dust settled that ‘nothing good comes from the Underdark’, but…
I made something at least sort of good happen here. Oh, I still fucked it up by trying to go after the deep gnome with the runepowder rather than just use what we had, but not everyone died. The duergar, awful people that they were, can at least remain alive and free of the Cult of the Absolute, and the gnomes can go back to Baldur’s Gate. (Except Barcus, who might be going to Moonrise Towers with us. I think it helps that I’m the only drow in camp; he might slowly be accepting that I’m not going to sell him into slavery or bully him, but ‘and if he did, all these humans and surface elves will stop him’ is a comfort.)
(A reminder, dear River, don’t get mad at Underdark people being cautious around the drow. There are enough Lolthite settlements that caution is warranted.)
We’ll clear out the fortress here tomorrow, and I think we need to report back to Sovereign Spaw so I can get rid of Nere’s head. I’m grateful he didn’t want the entire body for a spore servant, because I’m not carrying that back, and I hate making Lae’zel or Karlach do it. After this, we could go on towards Moonrise Towers, but I think Lae’zel will stab me in my bedroll if I don’t at least try to deliver her to the creche.
Your friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Bel has this weird thing where he tends to find other traditional D&D 'evil races'... refreshing or amusing might be the best word. Because the culture he grew up with was full of 'but we have artistry', that covers the evil, and Bel finds groups that are just as horrible but aren't trying to be aesthetic at it refreshing. (Bel also finds it hard to care what strangers think of him if they can't do anything about it.)
Bel is also realizing that a lot of what he accepts as inevitable isn't seen as such by his companions, especially because of his crush on Wyll. He might not have risked trying to free the gnomes if he was alone, or if Barcus was not in the group. It would have bothered him, and he wouldn't have been able to explain why it bothered him, because five years of experience in cultures that lacked slavery can't fight a century of cultural conditioning.
Deciding that he was going to rescue Barcus (and thus, the other gnomes), because he liked the guy, and because enough other team members would like it, hit him as the 'wait, I can choose this because I want to, and it mostly worked out'. It's probably the first time, even counting saving the grove, that Bel realized 'I could be heroic'. Because fighting the Absolute is selfish, but there was no reason to talk the duergar into not taking the gnomes with him.
(Aside: I wonder how much the 'good drow hero' is shaped by Drizzt Do'Urden even in setting. Bel isn't that.)
I've also been trying to accept bad rolls, and one of them is letting Philomeen blow herself up because Bel failed the Persuasion check and I didn't have Inspiration to spare. (Wyll was the person who got killed, and Shadowheart was making death saves -- I needed to switch into Turn-based mode to better handle that.) I did have to do the Nere fight twice, because Bel got shoved into lava during the fight and was downed before I could use a Misty Step scroll. Thus, Wyll was the one trying to persuade the duergar to let the gnomes go, and he failed and we had to fight them with a person down.
