A Drow's Dilemma Ep. 61: A Way In

The nymph put one hand under Ashyr's bottom to pull her up to her, and the other wrapped around to the back of the drow's head. She seemed to be determined to exceed Zarag's kiss for passion. Or maybe she was trying to out-passion Ashyr. Either way, her kiss was incredibly intense, and lasted a good long time. Althaia only let Ashyr down as soon as she did for fear that the drow would soon run out of air. Ashyr was panting and as visibly flushed as a drow could be.

Giving Ashyr a pleased smile, the nymph bounced away, back to Selene and Caleldir. "Now we are ready to take the city." She said easily. "Are you finished learning your spell?"

"It has barely been a minute." Caleldir observed. "This will take fifteen or so, I am thinking."

"A tragedy." Althaia deadpanned. "So... Ashyr, should we keep going?"

"Do not exhaust her before we even start." Caleldir remonstrated.

"Ah, that is probably right." the nymph pouted. "I will just sit here and wait."

It looked like a grin was about to form on Ashyr's face at the prospect of being able to 'keep going' with Althaia. But that expression was halted by Caleldir's observation that they shouldn't tire each other out before taking the city. Okay, so it would mostly be Ashyr who was getting tired. The young nymph had boundless energy when it came to sex and, well, just about everything else, really. Caleldir was probably right. So the ranger plopped down on the bank next to Althaia and watched as the other two worked.

Selene caught on quickly to the spell. The materials weren't even a problem once she learned what she needed - and long as the ingredients weren't too expensive. For the lesser things, she could simply use her natural power. Finally, she spoke loudly enough for the other two to hear, "Alright, I've got it."

It was very near the fifteen minute mark that Caleldir figured. Caleldir had long ago grasped that Selene was nigh unto a prodigy when it came to mastering spells. He had come to rely on that genius of hers when estimating time to teach

"Thank you, darling." She said with affected carelessness. The younger drow's mood improved considerably in this task, as it usually did when she and Caleldir spoke about and did magic together.

Ashyr nudged Althaia at this, and shot her a knowing grin that was quickly returned. Selene must have been growing attached to the half-nymph if she even went so far as to thank him for something.

"Excellent. We can now all breath underwater. As for swimming, though, I am not sure how we will do in that area." He was gratified that Selene had thanked him. Honestly, he had not expected that from her. He actually blushed a bit because of it.

"I assume us two are going to let you nymphs do most of the swimming?" The ranger said as she stood and brushed the gravel and dirt from her ass. "Also, someone has to carry Bard. So who wants to do what?"

Althaia made a face. "I am not sure about dragging a wolf underwater for that long. Wolves are not fish. Are you sure it would not be better to put him inside R.I.S.A.'s dimension? If you hand him directly off to her, she can even keep him away from the rest of the army."

Caleldir pursed his lips in thought. "I suppose I could carry him if need be, but I would be unable to carry anyone else."

That ended up not being necessarynecces8. Ashyr agreed that Bard would probably be best put away into R.I.S.A's dimension. She didn't like doing it - the more time she spend with the wolf, the less she liked the idea of parting with him for extended lengths of time. Especially since he was separated from her the previous night. At least Bard was alive. She couldn't imagine what Tsabdrin felt. So, yet again, she regretfully handed the young wolf over to R.I.S.A. One day soon, she vowed to let the wolf actually be part of the combat. At the rate he was growing, that would probably be quite soon.

"I can carry either Ashyr or Selene." Althaia volunteered once that was sorted. "I would carry you, Caleldir, but that is redundant."

"Yes, that would be redundant." Caleldir said dryly. "But I do not know if they even need to be carried. How well do the two of you swim?"

"I, uh, cannot swim." Selene said softly. She seemed pretty embarrassed about it, but she was in the majority when it came to noble drow and swimming. "Theoretically, I can transform into an aquatic monstrous humanoid if I had a bit of one. But I do not."

"No need to pull a bit of naga out our asses." The ranger informed the rest of them.

"Naga aren't -" Selene began to say.

"Althaia, I assume you're a stronger swimmer, being more nymph? Either way, you're definitely stronger. You should probably help Selene." Ashyr said, and in doing so interrupted her cousin. Selene shut her mouth and tried her best not to correct her cousin. "I can swim pretty well, so I'll only need a bit of help. Good thing it's downstream. Should make things easier."

Selene nodded, then cast her newly obtained water breathing spell on both herself and Ashyr. "Lets go."

Stretching, the nymph's clothing disappeared, and she gave Selene a slightly naughty smile. "This is, of course, the best thing to wear while swimming. Would not do to get our clothing wet, right?" She trailed her fingers across Selene's face.

After ogling the nymph for a moment, Caleldir forced himself to scowl. "Not necessary. I will just wear swimming trousers." His clothing morphed into something like fish-scaled shorts.

Althaia pouted, and prodded the spot in the middle of Caleldir's chest where the rune controlling his clothing was invisibly located. Of course, Caleldir instantly was naked. "He is all yours, Ashyr." She smirked as she went over by Selene.

Unlike the Caleldir of a month ago, this one decided not to freak out and try to cover himself. It would be pretty silly to do so around present company, anyway. "Great, Althaia. Just great. Now I have to wait fifteen minutes or so for the thing to recharge, and in the meantime I am going to run around like this. I could give myself illusionary clothes, but I think that I will just let you ladies enjoy the view instead."

The drow did take a moment to appreciate his form. It didn't much matter that they'd seen him in such a state pretty much every day for the past couple weeks. Probably had something to do with him being half-nymph. Ashyr seemed to find it even more amusing that he decided to leave himself that way. It was not lost on her how far Caleldir had come since they first met. She almost missed his shyness; it was rather endearing. But she didn't miss it enough to wish for that modesty around the three of them back.

Like the nymphs, both Ashyr and Selene decided to swim without the potential of clothing weighing them down. Selene still wore her staff-made-circlet. She never took off that particular adornment, even when engaging in sexual activities. The mage was quite proud of it, despite its occasional protestations (that had been oddly absent recently.)

And so, the party entered the river and stayed near its bed. Even nearer the grate where the sewers fed out, the water was clean aside from the normal silt carried down from the mountains. The hole in the grate proved to be quite small and very deep - easy to miss by even a moderately paranoid city leader. The party would have to go through one at a time, and Urag would not have been able to fit through there at all.

Beyond the grate, the water got narrower and, eventually, shallow enough for the party to wade. By that time, Caleldir's rune had recharged, and he equipped himself with a full suit of that fish scale chainmail. Several passages broke away from the main one, and each held complete blackness that would require torches if the party hadn't been able to navigate without light. Even standing on the other side of the grate, the sewer did not smell at all like most of its ilk. It almost made up for the eternal wetness the drow would have to endure. Neither seemed to be too excited about wading everywhere.

As soon as the drow managed to get to their feet within the waterlogged chamber - it took them a little longer, since they were shorter and the floor only gradually inclined as it went up into the city - Selene did her best to dry off what she could of the upper half of her body and Ashyr's. Only after that was done did she allow anyone to venture forward.

"Does... does anyone hear that?" The ranger said suddenly when they had only managed to walk a couple feet.

"It sounds almost like... Oh, Lolth." Selene began to say before she realized what was going on.

"Water incoming!" Althaia shouted. Too late, though.

With little other warning that that, the water at their legs swelled, a wall of water arose from the darkness, and the party was treated to a deluge of fast-moving, strangely clean sewer water.

The drow were easily flushed back down the passage and got rammed into the gate. Somewhere between getting caught in the water and hitting the gate, Ashyr was able to catch Selene and take most of the blow against the hard metal surface, while the more delicate mage was cushioned against her older cousin.

Caleldir was promptly knocked over, and ended up a few yards away from the two drow. A decent swimmer he may have been, but he was still not the strongest of individuals. And his scaled armor weighed him down a bit.

The water subsided soon after, depositing both spluttering drow into water that had calmed back down. Slowly, with Ashyr's help, they began to swim back to a place they could stand.

"Seems we are off to a good start." Caleldir said slightly bitterly. He perked up. "Perhaps we will have all our bad luck right now, and have only good luck in the future!" He declared. He swam over to the other side of Selene, helping support her as needed to get back to Althaia.

When the three returned to where they could stand again, Althaia was still there waiting. "Have a good swim?" She asked cheerfully. "This sewer is rather clean, I must admit. Would recommend it to all my friends."

"No." Selene spat. She hastily dried herself off a second time - the upper half of her body, anyway. "Remind me why I'm coming with you three again?" She asked sourly.

Ashyr, at least, didn't have an answer for that. Not an answer that Selene would like in her already grumpy state, anyway. So she just grinned at the nymph-kin.

"I really do not see why not." Althaia responded playfully. "A quick burst of water, an exciting ride, a nice swim... sounds like another day in paradise to me!"

"Drow are not aquatic creatures." Observed Caleldir.

"Their loss." Althaia sniffed.

"I suppose that's going to be a common occurrence. Good thing we know about it now." The ranger said. It seemed that Ashyr wasn't going to let the minor setback foul her spirits. That didn't mean that she wanted to stick around there for no reason. "Come on, let's get going. Selene, perhaps you should hold Althaia's hand."

That didn't seem to be favorable to the younger drow, but it made sense. So, with a slightly disgruntled look on her face, she held her hand open for the paladin to take.

The nymph broke out into a grin. "My only regret is that I have but two, and not three hands, that I might walk with all three of you." She said sincerely. Of course, she enthusiastically took Selene's hand in her own, the nymph's grip soft but insistent.

"We should probably do the same." Caleldir observed as he sidled up alongside Ashyr. With a lopsided smile, he offered his hand to the older drow.

The older drow gave Caleldir a smile - a warmer expression than her usual mischievous grin - and took his hand as he suggested. It would likely be a little less effective than if Ashyr held Althaia's other hand instead. So it was that the four of them walked hand-in-hand (mostly) happily while wading through waist-deep (oddly clean) sewer water. To Ashyr, it might as well have been a leisurely stroll despite all the danger they were no doubt about to encounter. Selene, of course, was at very best apathetic to the situation.

After the point where most of the party was washed back down towards the river, the passage split off into three dark tunnels. They were visibly identical, and quickly became void of light as they snaked through the underground. Ashyr shrugged, and then began walking down a random passage. That, too, had a three-pronged fork. And so the foursome continued through the paths. Taking the wrong paths, more often than not. Which was frustrating, but not too disastrous. Althaia continued happily through the tunnels, humming to herself and laughing whenever they had to backtrack. Caleldir stayed mostly silent, as did Ashyr. Selene grumbled a lot.

Eventually the labyrinth (Selene swore on several occasions that this was intentionally confusing) connected with a much larger tunnel. Part of it snaked vary hard to the left, sort of in the direction the party came, and the other went forward. It was in much worse repair than the area the party had been in before. There were several oddly round pockmarks that dented and cracked the stone, but those were nothing compared to the huge chunks missing from the rounded walls and ceiling. It was evidence of a collapse that likely blocked off both sides of the passage, though it had since been mostly cleared.

Caleldir let out a sigh of relief. "I expected to be attacked by fish-people by now." He noted. "I assume that they are behind the next corner, so be wary."

Ashyr caught something out of the corner of her eye: a broken piece of what looked like came from a glass bottle. It had been caught in some of the missing wall. The ranger held up the bit to the rest of the party. "If this is Carlotta's, then we must be going the right way?" She didn't seem too sure of that conjecture, though. The glass could have come from anywhere. "So what to we think, straight forward? Or would that be... too... straight... forward?" She twisted her mouth into a displeased frown at her own words.

"Unless there is a better way to go, this one will have to do." Caleldir stated. "Looking at this place, it seems like a battle took place here. Probably the fish-people."

"I vote straight forward." Althaia said with surety in her voice. "Straightforward is the best way."

"Forward we go, then." Ashyr agreed. And for a time after that, they waded through the water unmolested by 'fishmen' or any other denizens of the sewers.

That is, until Althaia perked up. "You may not get your fishman wish, cousin." She said cheerfully. "But some sort of female snake-person is not out of the question."

Caleldir frowned. "How can you- Never mind, I hear them."

The drow went especially quiet and alert going forward; they seemed to have heard what the nymph-kin were talking about about when Caleldir did.

Hissing, frustrated, and almost human-like noises came from up ahead, and only got louder as they approached. By the time the party reached the source of the noise, they could see large, serpentine figures with almost human-like heads. Each were at least a good ten feet long. Two coiled next to a third, immobile creature. They seemed to be arguing with each other in Aquan, and the argument was only getting more heated. Caleldir and Althaia could understand them; they were upset about the third creature, apparently dead. One was trying to lay the blame on the other for the death, while that other maintained that they should be waiting in their ambush holes instead of idling around in the open. It would have been a wise decision, but the naga were too intent on arguing to actually follow said plan.

As loud as they were, the party was easily able to sneak up to the living pair. Even walking through water as they were, neither creature looked back at them. Their snake bodies were blocking the way forward entirely, however, and would need to be dealt with in some way or another.

Caleldir gave them a quick scan. Snake creatures with the heads of women speaking in Aquan... So, Water Naga then. Often hostile, but usually neutral rather than straight-out evil. He turned to the other three and whispered very quietly. "Diplomacy first?" He asked.

The drow obviously had their own opinions as to what to do with the naga. They couldn't have been too difficult to overcome in combat, and they were currently ripe for the ambush. Selene was even about to protest Caleldir's ideas of diplomacy. Ashyr, however, immediately covered her cousin's mouth and whispered into her ear, "If we reveal only him, we can still surprise them with numbers. Let them try their way first, dearest."

Althaia relaxed a little. "I agree. Hide now, attack if they do." Althaia felt that the best part about being a bloodthirsty nymphomaniac paladin was that no matter what happened: successful negotiations, all-out combat, spontaneous orgy (although probably not with the aberrations: Althaia had rather high standards, after all) it was all good. Since Caleldir had volunteered to talk, she would just wait and see. Make herself a snazzy new snakeskin sheath if things went south.

Caleldir, on the other hand, usually did not take all that much pleasure in violence. Sometimes he did, but then he regretted it (Goelon did not take pleasure in anything at all: even sadism had become boring a few centuries ago).

"Can you understand them?" Althaia asked.

A smug expression appeared on Caleldir's face. "I am the scion of a Titan. Since my father unlocked more of my potential, I now understand all languages upon hearing them." Sadly, that did not extend to sign-language. Also, understanding a language and speaking it was rather different. "Hopefully they speak Common. If not, I will be limited to using words I have heard them use already." He kept listening. "Which seems to mostly be abuse."

With that, he stepped out into the open, palms extended to show that he was weaponless. "Good morning, fair Nagas. We seek to pass by you. May we?" He spoke in Common for now, hoping that they would be like most of their kind and understand that tongue.

Twin hisses filled the waterlogged chamber, just as both their head swiveled to glance at the creature behind that whose voice interrupted their argument. They turned completely when they saw him, though they did not advance any more than was necessary for them to coil around themselves and face this strange intruder. The one who had been arguing that they should have long departed smacked the other with its tail. This caused the other to wince and force breath through bared, clenched teeth, but it did not attempt to retaliate.

"We cannot let you pass." A naga claimed, responding in common. It's body twisted and lifted to make himself(?) look just a little taller.

"If you go back from whence you came, we will not fight you, little man." Said the other. Like the first one, her(?) voice was seemed breathy and soft rather than the hissing quality the party's Yuan-ti 'friend's' speech had. But while the naga's voice was soft, she still managed to make it threatening.

A toothy grin spread across the face of the first. "There's even a way around and through. We will be so generous as to allow you that adventure."

Caleldir looked from one to another. He was aware that Naga were not necessarily a monogendered race, like harpies (and 99.9% of nymph-kind) were, but since they looked vaguely female on first glance it was disconcerting to have one seem male. If it was. Maybe both of them were male. Maybe neither. Damned if he knew. He did not want to find out. "If you will be so kind as to point the way around, I am sure that I can take it." Caleldir said genially. "But, if I may be so bold, why may I not pass this way? Are you guarding something? Not that it matters. I just want to make our way to the surface, and care not how I get there."

"To be free to roam as he does..." The second naga sighed wistfully, apparently speaking to the other. This time, her(?) tone was so soft that only the straining ear could make out what he(?) said.