Drow's Dilemma Ep. 146: Desperation

"Search the area for any clues or if someone was left behind," Ashyr told Dame Faetha. "We'll be speaking with Naliira; we can't afford to stand around and talk."

Selene nodded in approval before racing back up the hall, floating about an inch off of the ground.

Around the time the party reached the roots of Naliira's tree - still in the passages under the Keep - the stressed dryad dressed in pure diaphanous white grew from the ground in front of them. "There you are," she said in relief. "I discovered that I could not pass beyond the boundaries of my tree and became worried. What is going on?"

"Someone has activated an ancient artifact known as the God Deafener," Caleldir replied. "I had a book about it in my library. Long story short: until someone turns it off, all dimensional magic and divine magic is disabled on this continent. Since you are a Demigoddess, you are confined to your personal domain where you can still use all your usual magic, but cannot affect anything outside." He took a deep breath and told her everything.

"I feared that it was something like that," Naliira sighed. "I couldn't even contact Risa. I suppose that means you are leaving."

"We think the green dragon is moving against us. She seems to have underlings now," Selene began.

"And each will have their own army of underlings," Naliira finished absently. She had noticed a newcomer to her realm. "Tsabdrin, greetings. Where are- I see." She pressed a gentle kiss against his forehead.

"I have to get them back, Lady Naliira," he said earnestly.

"We were wondering what you might do for him," Aster said softly.

"If I don't do something, I'll go mad," Tsabdrin told her.

"Rightly so, young dark elf," Naliira agreed gently. "But there's no way I can think of to get your animal companions in the spider-tanks, which I assume you will use to... go to the Valkyrie outpost, correct?"

"You guessed it. Are we that predictable?" Ashyr asked, grinning.

The dryad demigoddess smiled serenely, "You are doing what I would have suggested: bring back your new allies after training with them for a while. They will thank you for involving them in an epic battle with formidable foes. You will forge a permanent bond with them. But Tsbadrin, you want to gain power with your animal companions at your side. The Valkyries can not do this as well as I and your father can."

"You don't want the Valkyries to train you anyway," Ashyr added.

"Do not tell me what I do and do not want. You simply don't want me to come, do you?" Tsabdrin snapped venomously.

Ashyr stepped back from her cousin in shock. Selene began to puff up indignantly. Caleldir shook his head sadly.

"-We want you to maximize your potential, Tsabdrin. Because we will need you," Naliira interjected before Selene could scold her brother for his disrespectful tone.

"I do miss having you along," Caleldir admitted. "Even if our time together was frequently very weird and awkward."

Aster looked between the group, all of whom were on-edge and wondering if Tsabdrin was going to blow up. She brushed the extremely stressed dark elf lightly on his arm. "You are running on borrowed energy. Can I convince you to rest a while?"

"How can I sleep when she needs to be rescued?" Tsabdrin said in growling frustration. At least it wasn't directed at anyone in the party.

"How can you know what needs to be done when the only thing keeping you up is succubus energy?" Aster countered very gently. "You are in a castle full of people who could help you sleep. We will make preparations while we wait for you to wake. Then you can either see us off or come with us."

It seemed that everyone held their breath as the dark elf thought about this. He finally responded in an almost-whisper, "O- okay."

"I can take you to your rooms," Naliira offered. "It is a long walk to the living quarters."

"You won't leave while I sleep?" Tsabdrin asked, suddenly suspicious.

"We keep our word here, Tsabdrin," Naliira told him with a hint of irritation in her tone. "Yes, even the dark elves."

"Right... yes, sorry." Tsabdrin deflated.

Naliira outstretched her arms and Tsabdrin let her encircle him in a motherly embrace. Together they melted into the ground.

Caleldir let out the breath he had been holding. "Well, I suppose we have until he wakes up to prepare for our expedition north."

"For the four members of Duskhaven Steel that you are bringing along," Dame Faetha began. "Vicora, Gaussra, and Triel of course, I will see who would be best to send along as well."

"You have a few hours," Caleldir nodded. He turned to the others. "Well, we have a long journey. We are probably safe in this tree, but obviously, we cannot just stay here and wait for the dragoness to do whatever she is planning to do. Based on my conversation with her I believe that her plan is: to get revenge on Duskhaven for your ancestor logging her underground forest, prove her perfection by overcoming all our allies, and finally I think she wants to acquire me for her hoard. All dragons collect things, and for whatever reason, she is collecting nymphs. I think she wants me for the same reason all dragons want things: other people want them, so they are valuable."

"That is consistent with what I studied," Selene confirmed.

"For the near future, though, we need rations. I can hunt some of it, but we need to bring as much as we can find that isn't in bags of holding. Abyss, but how are we going to carry it all?" Ashyr began thinking aloud.

The party took a couple of hours to find various solutions to their problems. They had come to rely so heavily on summoning and teleporting and dimension magic that they were severely crippled. Not much food, no camping gear, and missing magical items were the greatest of their worries.

"I wonder where Althaia is," Caleldir sighed after yet another food stockpile was found to be currently unusable due to being in a different dimension. "Even though most of her power will be gone since she relied so heavily on divine magic, she also had a good deal of primal magic that she could use to rustle up food. We might just have to forage as we go like the old days."

Finally, Tsabdrin emerged from his rooms. He located Caleldir to tell him his decision. "I will stay here after all," he said. "I realized that it would be nice to talk to my father again. Not to mention the training he and the rest of the people here can offer. I... I think that I will be satisfied if I can work hard."

Caleldir gave him a smile. "I do like Sornamal. He is an intelligent, well-read man. And rather lonely. Recently I have not talked to him as much as I should, because of... awkwardness." He rubbed his forehead ruefully. Incubization was inconvenient, and he was not upset that it had halted. "Do not worry too much about your lost lovers. The Empress of Souls will just have captured all of them, not killed them." Probably. "Once we make her see reason, she will give them back unharmed. Until then, keep your mind and body occupied and ready for when we call on you to fight an ancient evil. Which is pretty standard for us."

"I'm not afraid that she's going to harm them. I'm afraid that we're going to have to. The cyborg woman said that The Empress uses her captives as puppets. I need to be strong enough to subdue them without hurting them," Tsabdrin said in a stressed tone.

This drew a wince from Caleldir. "Well... uh... yes. That is how she operates. But... if the book I read on her reign was accurate, then injuring or even killing the puppetted bodies of the souls she traps will not do permanent damage to them. They regenerate slowly in the Jewel of Infinite Souls. Though... they do feel all the pain and injury that they suffer while being puppetted." He closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "We will try to take Vilinixia down herself and take her staff. Though that is going to be extremely difficult."

"Then you had better get going," Tsabdrin told him. "And I will go to my father. It's time for me to stop ignoring my magical potential. I can't hurt my nymphs if I use magic to paralyze them."

"Shall I lead you to Lord Sornamal's Chambers, Lord Tsabdrin?" Asked one of his attendants - he didn't remember which - who had recently joined the two men and was standing at a respectful distance.

"Yes. Farewell, Caleldir," Tsabdrin told him as he followed the female drow towards his father's chambers.

----

Blackdawn Cavern was once a fairly ordinary Drow settlement, though far, far away from the capital and Aralolth's center of influence. But that had been two and a half thousand years ago, and half of that time had been spent underneath the most dangerous land in the world, in the most dangerous part of the Underdark.

Already far from Aralolth, once Deusterra rebelled, the Blackdawns were able to openly renounce the Spider-Queen and all of the cruelty, treachery, and self-destructive in-fighting that she mandated through her eternal meddling. Even with the destruction of Deusterra by the Gods, Blackdawn managed to avoid any hostile divine influence from their former mistress. Instead, their dangers were epic monsters and machines of every horrifying description.

Now, after centuries of grim conflict, rigid militarism, and enforced eugenics from a mixture of selective breeding and straight-up genetic engineering among themselves (and the Nylameia brought in to bolster their population) the local inhabitants had been morphed into the single most militarized population in Niutitana.

As for their homes, Blackdawn Manor and Blackdawn City were long gone. In their place was the Blackdawn Fortress Complex, a massively convoluted and sprawling series of traps, chokepoints, guard stations, and so forth. It was without a doubt the most heavily fortified and defended location in this corner of the material plane.

It slowed Varyndaevyrress and her cohorts down.

The attack had begun the moment the God Defeaner had gone active. Though Matron Ilivarrra Blackdawn had continued with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother's drills for what to do when dimensional magic or divine magic was shut down, or for what to do when a fallen Solar assaulted them, for how to respond to an ancient dragon assault, and even how to deal with epic-level pixie rogues disabling their seven redundant layers of security. But all those at the same time in perfect coordination while two-thirds of their forces were out on patrol, and the ancient dragon in question fighting in the way that she did, now that they could not have prepared for.

Varyndaevyrress attacked the northern gate. First, she had used magic to disable its acid resistance, then she used her acid breath, then she punched it open. The guards on duty had attempted to stop her, taking only a moment to process that they seemed to be under attack by a tall naked nymph. She knocked them out almost instantly, and with Ceuphaera bringing up the rear (the Fallen Solar's divine magics, originating from herself, still fully online), the attack began in earnest.

The second gate blew open before the Blackdawn alarm had finished sounding. The third gate was destroyed by the time the security forces could form a counter-assault. With the security forces taken out so rapidly, Matron Ilivarrra ordered a full lockdown, to abandon the perimeter, and to pull all available forces into the Chamber of the Seven Moons, leaving only enough troops in their assailants' path to delay them enough to rally, evacuate, and lockdown.

The House Blackdawn military and the House Blackdawn general population were almost synonymous. Except for the children too young to so much as hold a dagger, every member of the great fortress complex mobilized as the orders flew out. Though as more and more data from their wards, scrying crystals, sensors, and security cameras flowed in, Matron Ilivarrra realized that only her most elite troops could only delay the attackers. She sent orders to have all of those who needed armor and weapons to fight to seal themselves in the bunkers and await the end of the first Zero Moon Lockdown in Blackdawn history.

When Varyndaevyrress and Ceuphaera blew through the Seventh Labyrinth and emerged into the Chamber of the Seven Moons, the elite of Blackdawn prepared to strike before the dragon-nymph held up her hand. "Abanonda," she said in a tone of thunder and honey. "I know you are here."

Abanonda Blackdawn stepped up, the muscles on her smooth, deceptively soft-looking frame tensed. "Are... are you Varyndaevyrress?" she asked haltingly. "What cause have you to war with Blackdawn?"

The emerald-haired nymph smiled, and opened her too-large eyes, staring with draconic intensity. "I am," she said pleasantly. "Do you like my new form?"

Abanonda's eyes flitted from the obsidian-skinned Blackdawn elite to the almost milky flesh of the dragon-nymph. All were beautiful enough to cause mortal eyes to ache, all wore nothing more than their own flesh, and carried no weapons but themselves. Other than the very non-dark elf coloration, Varyndaevyrress could have been one of them. But more so. She swallowed. "It is to our tastes," the greatest warrior of Blackdawn said slowly. "You... you seemed to have grown in power."

"I have," Varyndaevyrress purred. "You see, Abanonda, you inspired me. After our fight, I thought a lot about your techniques, your philosophies, your beliefs, your convictions. And I realized that I had been ignoring one of the most important aspects of perfection." Going up on her tiptoes, the dragon-nymph swayed and danced with superb grace for about half a minute while the incredulous Blackdawn elite looked on in surprise and awe.

The dragon-nymph finished her dance and swirled into an elegant bow. "Beauty," she declared. "What is perfection without beauty? Nothing. For they are the same. And nymphs are the epitome of beauty. You mixed your blood with nymphs to become Perfect. And now, so have I."

"You did not rampage through our defenses and slay dozens of our people just to show me that you have nice tits now, did you?" Abanonda said angrily.

Varyndaevyrress giggled. "I am not going to kill any of you lovely Blackdawns. For now, I am simply sealing you. I am putting Duskhaven through a trial, one that I do not want any of their allies to interfere with. If they pass, then I will return your sealed soldiers. If they do not, Blackdawn will be mine."

"You are here to conquer us?" Matron Ilivarrra tightened her fists. "Blackdawn does not answer to evil dragons."

"Ah, evil," the 'evil dragon' said philosophically. "I keep my word and give honor to the honorable. I seek perfection in all things. What more is there to this 'good' you speak of? Is not perfection the highest type of Good? Why do you call me an Evil Dragon? I do not wantonly despoil the weak, nor consume the innocent. I do not bully my lessers."

"You are bullying and despoiling us right now!" Matron Ilivarrra fussed.

"Ah, but that is a high compliment!" the dragon declared. "For I have recognized you as strong. As worthy. As my peers in the pursuit of beautiful perfection, to be honored by my acquiring you as my own!"

The dragon-nymph turned towards Abanonda once more, eyes glittering. "Specifically, I want you, Abanonda. You have all mixed yourselves with nymphs. I am sure you know what I want from you, you beautifully perfect warrior."

Abanonda gulped. "If... if you wanted to make me your lover, this does not seem-"

"Lover?" Varyndaevyrress scoffed. "You and Caleldir are to be the chief jewels in my horde. And you two will serve me for eternity." The dragon-nymph slipped down into a fighting stance. "That is, unless you can defeat me. Right here, right now."

Abanonda looked towards her aunt, the matron, who nodded. She let out a long breath and leaped through the cavern air to land in front of the dragon and her silent Solar companion. "You... you know I lost to you before your power increase, and without my divine magic I am weakened."

Varyndaevyrress smiled. "You think this fight is unfair, then?"

"I will fight my hardest, but this is not sporting."

"You are correct. Ceuphaera?"

The Sulphurous Solar stepped forward and raised her massive blade. Runes appeared in the air around the dragon nymph, who sighed as she shrunk to Abanonda's size. Abanonda stepped back in surprise, quickly casting several divination spells.

"I have copied your size, strength, and durability," Varyndaevyrress said haughtily. "And by my perfection, I swear that I will not use anything but my skill in the martial arts to defeat you."

A gasp went up from the audience. Abanonda clenched and unclenched her fists. "Surely... surely you cannot mean to give yourself that kind of handicap?"

The green-eyed one smiled a mad smile, her fangs on display. "If I cannot best you at what you are best at, how can I claim perfection? You have honed your arts for centuries, precious Abanonda." She launched several strikes into the air with such force and rapidity that shockwaves blew out, lighting rippling through the cracks in the air and a thunderclap ringing out across the cavern. Her voice grew deep and rumbled the earth. "I have honed mine for millennia. Now, beautiful warrior, show me your perfection!"

The dragon attacked.