Ellu'kha and her companions were deep within the cursed shadow lands, on the path to Moonrise Towers. On the way, however, they had some other things to do: namely, they needed to help Halsin rescue a fae from its prison and in doing so hopefully cure the shadow lands of its curse.
A quest just as important as their quests in Moonrise Towers, as far as Ellu'kha was concerned.
Unfortunately they needed to cross over to the even darker side of the shadow lands in order to accomplish these goals — a region where not even their torches could save them. In the meantime, one of the scouts wanted to set up an ambush nearby for a group of Absolute cultists and Ellu'kha was more than happy to help.
They positioned themselves around a long-abandoned building and waited. It didn't take long before the cultists trod the road and Ellu'kha couldn't help but notice a curious thing the drow was wielding: a lantern that seemed to annihilate the darkness all around it.
That could be useful.
With the number of scouts at their back and Ellu'kha's own group, the enemy was taken completely by surprise and were swiftly annihilated. The lantern clattered to the ground and Ellu'kha hastily retrieved it.
Standing within its light was akin to standing beneath the warm and gentle sun. It was radiating safety. But then, a knock on the glass and a little voice cried out from within for freedom.
A pixie was trapped inside!
Apparently the lanterns were designed to continuously harm the pixie inside so that pixie dust would flow and light the way through the darkness.
She showered the group with pixie dust, grateful for her freedom, and flew away.
Ellu'kha and her group were now safe from the cursed shadows. They could explore further into the region and face the ever-darkening darkness.
Blessed by pixie dust, they bravely took their first steps into the deeper, darker shadows.
Behind the veil of shadows that separated the cursed lands from the even more cursed lands, stood a stone masonry. Unable to help herself, Ellu'kha started investigating the area. It was always important to explore every area and make sure there were no nasty surprises hiding in the shadows. Especially in a place like this.
Strangely though, crouched behind a corner was one of the tieflings that was in the inn.
When they went over to speak with her and ask what in the hells she was doing out here, she vanished in a puff of sulphur.
That was most disconcerting.
While exploring the stone masonry, Ellu'kha's keen eye found a keyhole embedded in the wall, concealed by the stone around it. It just so happened that a key she had found earlier fit perfectly within the hole.
With a loud rumble and crumble of stone, the wall moved into itself and revealed a secret passageway.
A note was stapled to a nearby wall congratulating the thief for finding this secret place, and warning them that their journey was about to end.
On high alert, they crept through the passageway and discovered several traps and empty treasure chests rigged to explode upon their touch; their purpose obviously to weed out any greedy trespassers. They were greedy, but they were also smart. The traps did not matter to them. And the empty chests were very disappointing.
The passageway opened up into a large secret chamber. A table within was covered with silver plates and cutlery, book shelves covered every wall, and shadow creatures lurked, ready to strike.
Although irritating as the creatures danced in and out of the shadows and struck them from behind, a few well placed fire-arrows and fireballs lit up all the torches and candles around the room and the shadows were soon dealt with.
A button embedded in a wall led to another secret room with plentiful wine and scrolls, but apart from some information about the worshippers of Selune there was nothing else here.
Disappointed in the lack of goods in this place, they found their way out of the stone masonry and entered a nearby graveyard. A tiefling child was crying outside, unafflicted by the shadows or its curse.
Cautiously walking over to the child, they realised it was the same one they had rescued from the druid's, the one who had stolen an artifact in order to stop the ritual from occurring.
Ellu'kha braced herself, ready for the stench of sulphur as this tiefling would inevitably vanish in a puff of strange smoke too.
But that did not happen.
The tiefling, Arabella, was overjoyed to see Ellu'kha but then stepped back in shock as shadows rose up around them. Before Ellu'kha could prepare her bow, the child summoned vines from the nothingness to entangle the shadows.
Lae'zel was curious. The last time they had seen this child she was being threatened by the druid's snake, helpess; now she knew druidic magic?
Asking Arabella just where she had learnt magic like that, she said that the druid totem she had stolen had changed her. Now she could do magic! But she was looking for her mum and dad, they were lost in the shadows and she needed to find them.
Ellu'kha tried to convince the child to go to the nearby inn, it would be safe there, but the child refused. She only trusted three people in this world: her mum, her dad, and Ellu'kha — could she stay in their camp?
Yes, she could.
After the child was settled in at the camp, they continued on a bit past where they had found her and found more people — scouts long consumed by the corpse, ready to attack.
When the last one fell, Ellu'kha noticed that the plaques around the statue seemed to have a mechanism behind each one. Once activated in the correct order, a staircase revealed itself.
After a rest, they ventured down the stairs near expecting to be set upon by more evil... yet, the area seemed completely free from shadows or the curse. It was as though it were protected.
Once they reached the bottom of the stairs and activated the torches, they saw why — this place had been blessed by Shar.
The statues around the room offered Ellu'kha gifts once she had proved herself worthy: an increase in wisdom, charisma, and intelligence until the next she slept.
When the last test had been completed, a ritual room was revealed. It asked for blood. Ellu'kha's blood. And then bestowed scrolls and potions upon them for they were worthy. Shadowheart, of course, approved of this tribute to her dark lady.
After leaving the Shar sanctuary, they stopped and had a look around: it appeared they were closer to Moonrise Towers than they had planned. It was located just a few hundred metres in the shadows. They did not want to go there yet.
A building nearby appeared to be a toll-house; they went that way instead. They were due some riches after not finding anything of worth within the stonemason's secret chambers.
Instead of finding worth, however, they found an entity that wanted something of worth from them. The haunted remains of what had once been the toll collector.
She demanded gold. Lots of gold. ALL OF THEIR GOLD!
Ellu'kha managed to convince the toll collector that all the gold was already hers and that she should leave and vacation with all of the gold she had, and suddenly, appearing contrite, the toll collector sadly whispered that she would give the gold back... then fell to the floor in a pile of coins.
That was the easiest gold Ellu'kha had ever made in her life. Thousands lay scattered all over the floor! This was one of the greatest achievement of her life.
Counting all the coins, she grinned to herself and threw her weighty coin purse from hand to hand. This was a fantastic haul.
Until next time! 😊
and are from the game: Baldur's Gate 3