by Paul S. Kemp
Chapter Four
Around Gromph, hundreds of fires crackled and burned. Black smoke poured into the air, casting the bazaar in a surreal haze. Abandoned shops and booths lay in charred heaps of rubble. The blackened, petrified forms of drow merchantsturned to stone by the touch of the lichdrow Dyrr, shapechanged into the form of a black-stone gigantlay scattered about like castings. Some of the petrified drow had run like candle wax in the heat of the Staff of Power's explosion; they would never be restored to flesh. Gromph gave their fate no further thought.
Wide, deep scorings from the gigant's thrashings marred the otherwise smooth floor of the bazaar. Still dazed from the destruction of the staff, Gromph sat in a heap on the cool stone floor with his legs stretched out before him. Smoke leaked from his clothes. His mind moved sluggishly; his senses felt dull. But not so dull that he was not conscious ofhis pain. A lot of pain.
Much of his body was burned. He felt as though a million needles were stabbing his skin, as though he had bathed in acid. His once-severed leg still had not fully reattached andsent shooting pains up his thigh and hip. His non-magical clothesthankfully, not much of his attirehad melted into his flesh, turning his skin into an amalgam of burned meat and cloth. He could imagine how the exposed flesh of his face must look. He was surprised he could still see. He must have closed his eyeshis captured Agrach Dyrr eyesbefore the explosion.
He held two charred sticks in his hands. He stared at them, dumbfounded as to their purpose. In appearance, they reminded him of his forearmsthin and burned almost beyond recognition. It took a moment for him to realize what they were the remnants of the Staff of Power.
With a wince, he uncurled his ruined fingers from the wood and let the pieces of the staff clatter to the ground.
Seeing no movement in the bazaar except Nauzhror, who squatted beside him and clucked nervously, Gromph thought for an absurd moment that the staff's destruction might have annihilated everyone else in Menzoberranzan.
The stupidity of the thought made him smile, and he instantly regretted even that small movement. The charred skin of his lips cracked, causing him an excruciating stab of pain. Warm fluid seeped from the wound and into his mouth. He gave expression to the pain only with a soft hiss.
Gromph was no stranger to pain. If he could endure his own rat familiar eating out his eyes and a giant centipede severing his leg, he could abide a few burns.
"Archmage?" Nauzhror asked. "Shall I assist you?"
The rotund Master of Sorcere put forth a hand as though to touch Gromph's arm.
"Don't touch me, fool!" Gromph hissed through the charred ruin of his face. More blood leaked into his mouth. Pus ran from burst blisters.
Nauzhror recoiled so fast he nearly toppled over. "I-I meant only to aid you, Archmage," he stammered. Gromph sighed, regretting his harsh tone. It was unlike him to let his emotions rule his words. Besides, the beginning of a plan for dealing with what remained of the lichdrow was taking shape in his mind. And with Pharaun away on the mission to the Demonweb Pits, he would need Nauzhror.
"Of course, Nauzhror," Gromph said. "We must let the ring do its work for a moment more. "
"Yes, Archmage," answered Nauzhror.
Gromph knew that the magical ring he wore would heal his flesh. The process was painful, itchy, and slow, but it was as inexorable as the rise of light up Narbondel's shaft. No doubt Gromph could have benefited from a healing spellwhich his sisters could again cast, it seemedbut it galled him too much that Triel had already saved him once. The lichdrow had beaten Gromph, turned him to stone, and he would have died or remained a statue forever but for his sister's intervention.
No, he could not ask her or any of the Baenre priestesses for healing or any other aid. Lolth's grace once more abided in them. Things would soon return to normal, and Gromph wished to be no more beholden to the priestesses of the Spider Queen than was absolutely necessary. He knew too well the price.
Instead, he would endure a few more moments of agony while the ring regenerated his flesh.
I am pleased that you survived, Archmage, said Prath in his head. The telepathy spell was still working, it appeared.
I share your pleasure, Prath, Gromph answered. Now be silent.
Gromph's head ached, and he no more wanted the apprentice's voice rattling around in his head than he did a dagger in his eye.
In only a few moments, his skin was itching all over. He resisted the urge to scratch only with difficulty. After a few more moments, dead flesh started to fall from his body and new, healthy skin grew in its place.
"Archmage?" asked Nauzhror.
"A few more moments," Gromph answered through clenched teeth.
He watched, wincing withpain, as clumps of blistered skin fell from his body and traced his silhouette on the ground. Gromph imagined himself as one of Lolth's spiders, molting its old form and pulling a larger, stronger body from the dead shell. The battle with the lichdrow had taxed him, but ultimately it had not beaten him.
Of course, he reminded himself, thebattle was not quite over.
When he felt ready, when most of his dead skin had sloughed awayinto a grotesque pile on the bazaar's floor, he extended his still-tender hand to Nauzhror.
"Here, help me rise. "
Nauzhror took Gromph's hand in his own and pulled him to his feet.
Gromph held still for a moment, gathering himself, testing his regenerated leg, controlling the last vestiges of the pain.
Nauzhror hovered near him, as attentive as a midwife but not touching him.
"I'm quite capable of remaining on my feet," Gromph said but was not sure that he was.
"Of course, Archmage," Nauzhror answered but stayed close.
Gromph took a deep breath and let his shaking legs grow steady. Through his stolen Dyrr eyes, he surveyed the wreckage around him, surveyed the whole of the city.
Except for the smoking ruin of the bazaar, the center of the city remained unaffected by the siege. The great spire of Narbondel still glowed, tolling another day in the life of Menzoberranzan the Mighty. Gromph could not remember if he had lit it or if another had.
He cocked his head and asked Nauzhror, "Did I light Narbondel this cycle?
"Archmage?" Nauzhror asked.
"Never mind," Gromph said.
Only the fact of Menzoberranzan's empty thoroughfares testified to the fact that the city was embattled. The ordinarily thronged streets were as still as a tomb. The Menzoberranyr had confined most of the fighting to the tunnels of the Dark Dominion, the Donigarten, and Tier Breche. The city's center remained untouched by any battle except that between Gromph and the lichdrow.
But that battle had nearly leveled the bazaar.
Gromph turned and looked across the cavern to the great stairway that led to Tier Breche. There on that high rise stood the spine of Menzoberranzan's power, the triad of institutions that had kept it strong and vital for millennia Arach-Tinilith, Sorcere, and Melee-Magthere.
Flashes, explosions, and smoke illuminated the schools in silhouette. The siege of the duergar from the north continued unabated. Gromph knew that each of the schools was scarred and burned by stonefire bombs, but he knew too that each stood.
And soon, the duergar would find the spells of Lolth's priestesses bolstering the defenses, strengthening the counterattacks, and rejuvenating the fallen.
"The duergar are stubborn," said Nauzhror, following his gaze.
"More likely, they are ignorant of Lolth's return," Gromph replied. "But ignorant or stubborn, they soon will be dead. "
In Gromph's mind, the battle for the city was already won. The siege of Menzoberranzan soon would end. He allowed himself a moment's satisfaction. He had done the part allotted him, and his city would live.
"Agreed," Nauzhror said. "It is only a matter of time, now. "
Gromph turned and looked to the other side of the cavern, where rose the high plateau of Qu'ellarz'orl. If Sorcere, Arach-Tinilith, and Melee-Magth
ere were Menzoberranzan's spine, the great Houses of Qu'ellarz'orl were the city's heart.
House after House lined the plateau, with House Baenre dominating by far in both size and power. Squatting in House Baenre's shadow along the rise, bare ly visible from such a distance, were the fortresses of the city's other great housesMizzrym, Xorlarrin, Faen Tlabbar, even Agrach Dyrr.
Gromph's eyes narrowed when they fell upon the stalactite wall of the traitor House. Occasional flashes of power and explosions of magical energy lit the Dyrr fortress. The siege by the Xorlarrin mages continued. Gromph imagined that it would for some time. With Yasraena and her underpriestesses once more wielding Lolth's power, the siege could take a long while.
"The Xorlarrin are also stubborn," Gromph observed.
"And greedy," Nauzhror said. "With House Agrach Dyrr defeated and removed from the Ruling Council. . . . " He trailed off.
Gromph nodded. When Agrach Dyrr fell, no doubt House Xorlarrin hoped to take its place on the Council. Nauzhror observed, "The fall of House Dyrr too is only a matter of time. "
Gromph nodded again and said, "But I cannot wait. "
Within House Agrach Dyrr, he believed, was the lichdrow's phylactery, the receptacle of the lichdrow's immortal essence. Gromph had to find and destroy it if he was to fully and finally destroy the lichdrow. Otherwise, the surviving essence of the undead wizard, embodied in the phylactery and driven by Dyrr's undying will, would bring itself back together and reincorporate a body within a matter of threescore hours. Were that to occur, the battle between the lichdrow and Gromph would begin anew.
And Gromph no longer had a Staff of Power to sacrifice in order to win.
Another fireball exploded along the parapet of Agrach Dyrr's wall.
"What are you thinking now, Yasraena?" he asked softly.
Gromph knew that the Matron Mother of House Agrach Dyrr already would have learned of the lichdrow's fall; likely she was scrying Gromph even then.
Like Gromph, Yasraena would know that the lichdrow was not fully dead until and unless his phylactery was destroyed.
"Did he confide its location to you, Matron Mother?" he whispered.
"Archmage?" Nauzhror asked.
Gromph ignored Nauzhror. He thought it unlikely that the lichdrow would have shared the location of his phylactery with Yasraena. He imagined that the relationship between the lichdrow and the Matron Mother would have been atense one, not unlike that between Gromph and his sister Triel. Likely, Yasraena no more knew the location of the lichdrow's phylactery than did Gromph. But like Gromph, Yasraena would look first to her own House, the most likely hiding place.
She already would be looking for it, Gromph knew. He had little time. He would have to find a way through the defensive wards of one of Menzoberranzan's great Houses while it was under siege and while its Matron Mother and her underpriestessesall once more armed with spells from Lolthwould be awaiting him.
He almost laughed. Almost.
"Come, Nauzhror," Gromph said. "We return to my sanctum. The war for the city is won, but there is a battle or two yet to be fought. "
Prath, he sent to the young Baenre apprentice. Meet us in my offices.
Yasraena stood over the marble scrying basin and watched the image of Gromph Baenre waver and fade as he and his fellow mage teleported away from the ruined bazaar. There was no sign of the lichdrow. The undead wizard's body had been utterly destroyed.
But not his soul, she reminded herself, not his essence, and that reminder gave her hope.
Though her heart pounded in her chest, Yasraena kept her expression outwardly calm. With the lichdrow . . . absent, she was the true and only head of House Agrach Dyrr. It would not do to show alarm. Two of her four daughters, Larikal and Esvena, the Third and Fourth Daughters of the House and each a lesser priestess of Lolth, stood to either side of her. Her First and Second Daughters were occupied supervising the defenses of the House against the besieging Xorlarrin forces, so it fell to Larikal and Esvena to gather intelligence and spy on the House's enemies. Both were taller than Yasraena, and Larikal bordered on heavyset, though neither was as strongly built as their mother. But both had inherited Yasraena's ambition. Both were as eager as any drow priestess to kill their way to the top of their House. Three males too stood in the chamber, on the other side of the basin. All were graduates of Sorcere and apprentices of the lichdrow. They seemed stunned that their undead master had been defeated. Slack hands hung limply from the sleeves of their piwafwis. Yasraena saw fear in their stances, uncertainty in their hooded red eyes. It disgusted her but she expected little better from males.
"The Archmage has retreated to his sanctum," said Larikal. "He is beyond our ability to scry. "
Yasraena vented her frustration on her daughter. "You state the obvious as though it were profound. Be silent unless you have something useful to say, fool. "
Larikal's thin-lipped mouth hardened in anger but her crimson eyes found the floor. The male wizards shifted uneasily, shared surreptitious glances. Yasraena gripped her tentacle rod so tightly in her hand it made her fingers ache. She would have strangled the lichdrow herself, had he stood before her.
Look where his plotting had gotten her House!
She stared at the dark water of the stone basin and tried to think.
The battle for the city was over, or would be soon. When the great Houses mustered their priestessespriestesses again capable of casting spellsthe tide of battle would turn rapidly. The duergar and tanarukks would be routed. Her House would stand alone against the combined might of all of Menzoberranzan.
Despite the dire situation, Yasraena held onto hope. After all, House Agrach Dyrr had single handedly annihilated several noble Houses in recent centuries, both under her stewardship and that of her sister Auro'pol, the previous Matron Mother. The Dyrr knew how to fight.
For a heartbeat, she entertained other options.
She could flee the city, but where would she go? Would she become a Houseless vagabond, wandering the Underdark or the outer planes with her hands out? The thought appalled her. She was the Matron Mother of House Agrach Dyrr, one of the great Houses of Menzoberranzan, not some beggar!
No, she would live or die with her House. She would withstand the siege, find a way to make her House useful to another great House, and ultimately arrange a truce. House Agrach Dyrr would be forced to step down from the Ruling Council, of course, and would have to endure a few centuries of ignominy, but she and it would survive. That was her only goal. The House would climb back onto the council in time. But to realize her hope, she needed the lichdrow. Without him, the House would not withstand the siege much longer. She knew that the undead wizard would reincorporate in only a matter of hours so long as his phylactery remained safe.
Unfortunately, no one seemed to know exactly where the phylactery might be. Her own divinations had been unable to locate it, though she assumed it to be somewhere in House Agrach Dyrrthe lichdrow spent virtually all of his existence within the House. He would not have secreted the phylactery anywhere else. Yasraena knew that Gromph Baenre would make the same assumption and would come for it. She had to find it first, or at least prevent Gromph Baenre from finding it at all. To do the latter, she needed to know what Gromph Baenre was doing at all times.
In the past, her daughters' and the House's wizards' scrying spells had been unable to pierce the wards around Gromph Baenre's sanctum within Sorcere, despite frequent attempts. But they had to find a way to do it, and so they would. Yasraena needed to know when the Archmage was coming.
She looked across the basin to Geremis, the aging, bald apprentice to the lichdrow. At that moment, his hairless head irritated her beyond measure.
"Scour your memories for any clue, Geremis," she commanded. "Or I will extract your brain and sift it with my own fingers. Where would the lichdrow have hidden his phylactery?"
Visibly shaking, Geremis shook his head and did not meet her eyes. "Matron Mother, the lichdrow sh
ared such information with no one. Please. Our divinations have"
"Enough!" shouted Yasraena, and stomped her foot on the stone floor. "The time for excuses is past. Larikal, you and Geremis organize a team to search the House. By hand, on all fours if necessary! Perhaps an ordinary search can find what spells cannot. Keep me informed on the hour. "
She knew that Geremis sometimes shared Larikal's bed. Both were ugly, and the thought of their coupling made her ill.
"Yes, Matron Mother," answer Larikal, not daring to argue. To Geremis, Larikal commanded, "Follow me, male. "
Both hurried from the scrying chamber, eager to get outof the way of Yasraena's wrath.
After they had gone, Yasraena looked to Esvena. "You, find a way to penetrate the wards around Gromph Baenre's sanctum within Sorcere. " She eyed the two remaining males, both homely, middle aged wizards; she did not even know their names. "You two, assist her. And bolster our own defenses. If you cannot get through the Archmage's wards, or if he or any Xorlarrin piece of dung breaches ours, I will be displeased. "
She let the threat linger in the air.
One of the males cleared his throat and began, "Matron Mother"
Yasraena lashed out with her tentacle rod. Two of the black, rubbery arms at its end extended themselves and wrapped around the throat of the wizard. He gagged and clutched at the tentacles. His red eyes went wide; his mouth moved but no sound emerged. With a mental command, Yasraena ordered the rod to squeeze the male's throat harder.
"You will speak only when I command it," she said and looked into the face of the other male. He did not meet her gaze. "As I said, the time for excuses is past. Do what needs to be done. "
Esvena looked on with a cold smile.
With her free hand, Yasraena backhanded her daughter across the mouth. The younger priestess stumbled back, bleeding from her lip and glaring hate at her mother.
"Do not dar e smile in my presence," Yasraena spat. "The fate of our House is at stake. Indulge your petty pleasures after we have defeated our enemies. "
Esvena wiped the blood from her lip and lowered her eyes. "Forgive me, Matron Mother," she said. Yasraena knew the apology to be insincere but would have expected nothing else. She released the male from her rod. He fell to his knees, before the scrying basin, gasping and choking.
"We all live or die with this House," Yasraena announced. "Should I so much as suspect treachery or half-efforts, you will be flayed to death, resurrected, and flayed anew. That process will continue indefinitely until my anger is sated. Do not doubt my resolve. "
She eyed her daughter, and Esvena's eyes showed real fear. The males did their best to grovel.
"Proceed with the attempt to scry the Archmage's offices," Yasraena said, "and do not stop until you succeed. Gromph Baenre will be coming and I must know when. I will check back on the hour. "
As she turned to leave the scrying chamber, a tremor shook the House, a byproduct of the Xorlarrin onslaught.
Telepathically connected to her First and Second daughters through the magical amulets they wore, she projected, Anival, what is happening?
Her First Daughter's calm mental voice returned, Xorlarrin ogre shock-troops bearing a magically augmented battering ram attempted the gates. All of them are dead and the ram ruined. The wards hold, and the Xorlarrin cannot gain even the moat. They appear to be regrouping. Another House may join them soon, Matron Mother.
Yasraena knew, but to her First Daughter she replied with only, Very well. Continue on and keep me apprised.
Yasraena did not know how long her House could withstand the continued siege of the Xorlarrin wizards. Wards and protective spells sheathed the House's moat, bridge, and adamantine wallsome of them Yasraena had cast, some her forbears, many the lichdrowbut wards couldbe broken. So far, the Xorlarrin had not been able to breach them, but sooner or later, given enough time, they probably would. Yasraena silently prayed to Lolth that the wards would hold for just a short time longer, long enough for the lichdrow to reincorporate and again stand at her side. That was all she would need to save the House. Unless. . .
Perhaps there was another way. It galled her, but it might save her House.
She would contact Triel Baenre. At the very least, she might be able to give her House more time.
Without another word, she left her underlings behind and headed for her private chambers. As she exited the scrying chamber, she heard Esvena berating the male wizards.