The Enemy of My Enemy

July 17, 2007

The group stares at the drow as the portal activates behind them. Nail steps through and immediately starts talking.

"Wow!" he exclaims. "You will not believe the time I had trying to track you down and, oh! Drow!"

The Drow and the group keep staring at each other.

"What is the delay? The are right behind us!" one of the drow in the back of the hall way says. The front ones keep looking at the group.

"This is our place," a male says again.

"Okay . . . " says Reece. "So, do you want us to leave?"

Several in the group notice that the drow are bleeding. Marcus steps forward and offers a healing potion. The male drow hands it to another, who casts a quick spell on it. Satisfied, he hands it to the female who drinks it and looks much better. It hasn't convinced the drow completely.

With those words, the drow are pushed into the room as the back ones give way with their fighting. Reece, who is closest to the action, can only see vague movement but the back drow is definitely fighting something. And whatever it is attacks and drops him. This allows Reece to see the Naga as it moves forward and keeps attacking, with bite and magic.

The group is still staring at each other, wondering what to do. Finally, Reece casts a spell at the Naga. The other drow are wary, and Nail is definitely wary of the drow, but a small truce is formed. The two groups attack the naga and make small work of them.

The drow start speaking among themselves but it is obvious to Marcus and Deuce that they are planning something that would not be good for the group. Thus, when the attack comes from the drow, it is not unexpected.

The drow would have been a tough fight except that they were still lined up. Reece took out the disentegrate wand and blasted through four of them with one shot. The last drow, who had been hesitant, attacked as best he could but was no match for the group of five. Soon, the group was exploring their surroundings.

They start exploring, looking for the shadow dragon, whom they have named Figment, hoping he is only that. There are several traps that Lisha disarms but she does fail with one. However, instead of doing damage, she realizes that probably just rearranged the level's walls. Knowing they might not be able to find their way back to the portal, the group presses onward.

Lisha comes back after scouting a room to announce that they have found him! He is disguised as well but is talking to a group of Naga. The party makes a plan to overload the fire wand Reece carries, hopefully destroying everyone in the room. They attach the wand to an arrow and as Reece starts the overload, Deuce fires the arrow into the crowd. Nail holds a strong door as a barrier so that the fire doesn't come at them as well.

The plan works perfectly. Nail gets a bit singed but is fine. And as they enter the room and look around, everyone is dead, including the other avarial Lisha saw. That's when Deuce asks, "Nail, would you turn back to a dragon if you died in that form?"

"Yes. Why? Oh."

The group sees that the body of the winged elf is still a winged elf. It isn't Figment.

"Well, I had to try," says Figment, stepping from the wall nearby and into the room. I hope I get some credit for that?"

There are muttered curses as he is still alive.

"By the way, thanks," continues Figment. "These are, well, were the dissenters among my groups. I am glad you took care of them for me."

There are muttered curses at this pronouncement.

"Why don't you stop this?" asks Marcus.

"Why? Dragon were meant to rule. It's only natural. When we did thousands of years ago, things were much better. The races lived in harmony under our rule and prospered, even. There is no reason we can't go back to that."

"There are lots of reasons we can't," states Marcus, flatly.

"There can be a good tyrant," Figment retorts.

Deuce tunes the debate out. He can't believe they helped him! He can't believed they were played again! He can't tell who is "winning" the debate as Marcus keeps him talking but Deuce sees his chance. As fast as he can, he whips an arrow into his bow, grabs all of the magic he can from the ruby and fires at Figment.

Time slows.

The arrow ignites. The bow ignites. The bow string ignites. Deuce knew that he used too much power and can only watch as he then ignites as well. The arrow slowly streaks across the room. Figment doesn't move, watching the arrow as it speeds toward his eye. The flaming arrow gets to a foot away when it stops.

And slowly reverses itself, heading back to the bow, fletchings first. The fire leaves Deuce, the bow and the arrow and the ruby is fine.

"Yes, that won't work. Not yet. You can't kill me at this point. At least, not with the magic you have been studying. It would take a different kind to kill me."

Deuce curses again and then breaks into the conversation between Marcus and Figment as it starts up again. "Let's go. We aren't going to join or help him, well, any more, and we should leave." The others agree. Figment says his good byes and says he will reset the level so they can get back to the portal.

Once the group is long out of Figment's sight, Deuce asks Marcus what the idea was, talking to him.

"I was trying to find out more. He kept trying to justify being a tyrant. The problem is, he can't defend that to me. Tyranny is the purvue of Bane, and nothing that one has done has ever turned out well for those of good heart. But, it is interesting that he is going to try. Further, he talked about getting help."

"Yeah," says Nail. "There are several kingdoms of serpents still in existence. I know one is in Chult and I think one is around this area but I am not sure where. No idea where the third one is. We should find that out."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but this has been a long day," sighs Lisha. "I am ready for a good ale."

"I agree with that!" exclaims Deuce. There is general agreement on this point. The group gets to the portal, activates it and finds themselves back in the King's Forest in Cormyr. They had to the nearby Inn, still a few hours away, to get something to drink and think about their next move.

Notes

• This one was a lot of fun. I generally want the player's characters to win but there has to be some time while they are catching up to the villains. So, when it was revealed that Figment didn't mind what they did, the players, and by extension the characters, weren't so happy. I think they had fun as well.
• The Nagas and drow were fun. I wanted some grey area there and some tension as to the fight but they made short work of them. Still fun!