Siegfried knelt down next to the undead corpse splayed out at
the abutment of the Sleeping Dragon bridge. The monstrous humanoid’s flesh was purple and blotchy, as
though all its blood had been pulled to the surface of its skin. Siegfried’s eyes flashed as he activated his eldritch sight . His arcane sense caught
the aura of magical energy emanating from the corpse. It was an unholy blend of
necromancy and conjuration magic, the origin of which Siegfried was unfamiliar.
The aura itself was fading now that the creature had been slain. He turned to the creature’s body. A spiked helmet covered
most of its skull, and its fists were ensconced in heavy gauntlets that bore
bladed flanges. There was something alien and yet familiar about the
creature’s adornments. Siegfried rubbed his chin, deep in thought. Then he
snapped his fingers and smiled. Of
course! He recalled that as a child he had been taken to one of
Waterdeep’s famed museums as part of his schooling. He remembered the exhibit
was called “Mysteries and Monsters of the Unapproachable East” and included
sets of plate armor from far-flung reaches of Faerun, including…
“Thay,” Siegfried murmured to himself. There was the sound of whinnying horses and the Mintarn
mercenaries immediately ceased their loafing as General Sabine Wade, with
Sergeant Alphonse Knox at her side, rode up and dismounted from their animals. General Sabine still wore her ceremonial armor. “Just what
are you doing here, Master Thann?” Sabine asked. “I’m
wondering how a Thayan ghost found its way into my favourite city,” Siegfried
replied. “How are you?” “Never
better,” General Sabine said tonelessly. “Master Thann, this is clearly a job
for the Neverwinter Guard. Shouldn’t someone of your status have somewhere else
to be other than crouched near the riverbank like a footpad in the night?” “And where
would the honourable leader of the Mintarn mercenaries like me to be?”
Siegfried asked. “Out of my
way,” Sabine said. “But if you’re going to hang around, perhaps you can make
yourself useful and tell me what you’ve learned.” “Well,
first, I’ve learned that Lord Protector Neverember hasn’t placed you at the
head of the investigation into the attempt on his life,” Siegfried said with a
wink. Sabine
stiffened. “It’s a little early to make that claim,” she said. Siegfried
continued, gesturing at the corpse. “And second, I’ve learned that a Thayan
conjuration was sent to harass and threaten the people of Neverwinter.” “So, you’re
investigating this disturbance, then?” Sabine asked. “And here I thought you
were just passing through on your way to a Waukeentide party, or whatever it is
that Waterdhavian nobles get up to after dark. On whose orders are you
conducting this investigation?” “Do I need
orders to be nosy?” Siegfried asked innocently. Sabine
sighed. “I don’t have time to bicker,” Sabine said. “Come then, if
you’re coming.” She stalked past Siegfried and entered the sewer with
absolutely no hesitation, even though she was still clad in her formal armor.
Siegfried couldn’t help but wince as her shiny sabatons sank into the mire. Siegfried misty
stepped so that he was a step or two ahead of General Sabine. Sergeant Knox sighed and lit a torch, four Mintarn guards falling
in behind him. The sewer pipe, large enough in diameter to enter in a
crouch, smelled of rot and effluent, but also of freshly shed blood and offal. The
tunnel led to the southeast. Siegfried was careful to stay out of the sewer’s
central channel. “So tell me, General Sabine,” Siegfried said over his
shoulder as his darkvision acclimatized to the low light. “What have we learned
about the attempt on the Lord Protector’s life earlier this evening?” Sabine’s face was carved in stone. “You’re assuming the
attempt has concluded, Master Thann.” “If that’s the case, what are you doing here?” Siegfried
replied. “Attempting to determine whether this strange disturbance is
connected somehow to the incident at the Moonstone Mask,” Sabine said. “So far,
the only connection is that you were present at both locations.” Siegfried was about to retort when something in the dimness
ahead caught his eye. A portion of the sewer’s curved brick wall had fallen
away to reveal a passage beyond. Rubble was strewn about in the cramped
confines of the sewer. The smell of death was much stronger here, overpowering the
odour of raw sewage. Bloody footprints were leading out of the breach into the
sewer proper. “I want guards stationed at this breach while we investigate
further,” Sabine said. Sergeant Knox nodded and signaled to two of the mercenaries
at his side. They took up positions on either side of the hole. The rest of the party moved through the hole into a passage
that led to the south. The walls of the tunnel here were rough stone, in contrast
to the brickwork of the sewer it branched from. A change in the air currents caught Siegfried’s attention. “There’s
another passage that cuts across this one,” he said to Sabine. “But this doesn’t
look like part of the city’s infrastructure.” “Smugglers, sneak-thieves, and the like often hole up in
these disused tunnels and caves,” Sabine said, indicating the tangle of
discarded crates and furniture at the far end of the cave. “This one looks to
have been sealed up deliberately.” “And then recently re-opened,” Knox said. “Look here. It
took a crew of workers to do that kind of damage.” He notes a scattering of
discarded pickaxes and prybars near a rent in the wall that led northwest. There were bloody footprints leading from the side passage back
out to the break in the sewer tunnel wall. Siegfried quickly searched through the rude camp at the far
end of the passage. A cold campfire, some poor bedrolls, some stools and some
crates were all that he could find, with nothing incriminating amid the
implements. “Post a guard here while we investigate,” Sabine ordered. “Let me lead the way,” Knox said confidently as he brushed
past Siegfried into the narrow passageway. Sabine followed, and Siegfried
brought up the rear. The party entered a large, square chamber – a crypt of some
kind, judging by the large, ornate sarcophagus on a raised dais in the centre
of the room. On the floor was drawn a circle of intricate patterns in
powder around the central dais. The powder was made up of black iron and coarse
salt. “Sergeant Knox,” Siegfried said, quietly but firmly, “please
step away from that summoning circle, nice and slowly. That strikes me as a
dangerous place to be at the moment.” Knox obliged. Siegfried knelt down and inspected the circle and the
sarcophagus both. A faint aura, again of conjuration and necromancy, infused
the circle, but Siegfried couldn't read the unsettling runes that wound their
way around the dais. Siegfried moved closer to the coffin, investigating. An
inscription on the sarcophagus read: Here
lies Sedos Sebile, trusted servant of Nasher Alagondar , Survivor of the Wailing Death , Hero of the Peninsula Uprising, and Friend
of Neverwinter. Siegfried, ever the student of Neverwintan history, plucked
Sebile’s name from a list of heroic members of the Graycloaks, the city’s elite
guard, circa the late 1370s DR. “Right before the Spellplague hit,” he muttered
to himself. “We appear to have found the final resting place of one of
your predecessors, General,” Siegfried called to Sabine.
“Is that so?” Sabine replied, looking about. “I hope my tomb will be a bit
bigger than this one.” “Yes, about that,” Siegfried said. “What sort of smuggler or
sneak-thief discovers the location of a royally-commissioned tomb and doesn’t loot it?”
“A fair point, Master Thann,” Sabine replied. “You’ll note that the circle that’s
been drawn round the coffin is of far more recent vintage than the tomb itself.” Siegfried shrugged and used prestidigitation to break the circle. There was a flash of blue
fire as the circle’s magical energy rippled along its circumference, burning
away the salt and iron until only the taste of brimstone remained inside the
chamber. Knox exhaled a pent-up breath. “Well, we seem to have found the friends of Thay,” Siegfried
said. “Now then,” he straightened up, dusting off his hands. “What other secrets
does this crypt contain?” A set of stairs headed down to an open set of double doors
to the east. Blood had pooled at the base of the landing. “Oh, that’s not good,” Sergeant Knox said as he descended
the steps, stopping before his boots could get blood on them. He unlimbered his
battleaxe and tested the depth of the bloody pool. “It’s at least five inches
deep,” he said. “That’s a lot of blood.” Siegfried crouched down beside Knox and dipped a pinky
finger into the blood. He drew his hand to his lips and tasted it. “Hmmm,” he
said. “Well, it’s fresh, I can tell you that much, but placing it…well, my
palate is only so refined, you see, and-” “It’s human blood,” Sabine said from above them. “Let’s keep
moving.” Siegfried took note of the blood that had splattered on the
walls of the stairway. Something had opened the doors and splashed its way
through the pool as it climbed the steps. “Well, if we’re not going to wait for a cleric, I would
agree with you, General,” Siegfried said. “Sergeant Knox, if you please?” He
pointed at the sturdy-looking doors. “Let me lead the way!” Knox shouted as he threw himself
against the double doors, and grunted as they refused to give way. Siegfried drew out his lockpicks. Sabine snorted and gave the iron handle on the door a pull.
It opened easily. She stepped into the chamber beyond, as Knox and Siegfried
followed. Predictably, it was a bloodbath. The remains of men, and
parts of men, lay strewn about the chamber, corpses tangled in the poses of the
violently done-to-death. Great arcs of blood splashed the walls, ceiling and
floor, red rivulets marking its path across the slightly sloping flagstones
towards the base of the landing. “Shoddy workmanship, an uneven floor like this,” Knox observed. “Yes, either that or this tomb shifted somewhat during the
cataclysms that wracked this city over the decades,” Sabine said. There was another sarcophagus against the western wall of
the crypt. Empty, its lid was broken in two pieces and had been thrown down
from its resting place. A similar pattern of black salt and iron filings marked
the floor before the sarcophagus. Two smaller coffins flanked the chamber to the north and
south. There was an open passageway to the north and a closed door
to the south. “Strange for a summoning circle to be made of iron,”
Siegfried mused. “Traditionally those components are meant for binding.” “Strange indeed,” Sabine said absently as she inspected the
corpses. A scrap of parchment, half-sodden with blood, caught
Siegfried’s eye. He picked it up. It was a map, inscribed with runes that
Siegfried couldn’t decipher, but the drawings indicated directions leading from
the Sleeping Dragon Bridge to approximately the location of the crypt. “Someone gave these men information about what to find
beneath the bridge, and where to find it,” Siegfried said. “Does this remind you of anything, General?” Knox said in a
tone that suggested he and Sabine shared a long history. “Indeed, Sergeant. I thought our days of fighting the undead
on the Sleeping Dragon Bridge were long behind us, but it seems the Thayans
have left us a present.” Sabine replied. “This is bringing back a lot of bad memories,” Knox says.
“Last time we were in this situation we had the entire Neverwinter Guard at our
back.” “Well, today we have a Waterdhavian noble backing us up,”
Sabine said with the barest hint of a smile. “I like our chances.” Siegfried bowed gallantly. “I’m not sure I do, General. We
left behind our cleric and paladin at the Moonstone Mask, and this seems like
their bailiwick, wouldn’t you agree? And more to the point, we left them behind
doing what, exactly?” “Reveal yourself!” Knox bellowed. There was a sudden, heavy pounding on the door to the south,
which rattled in its frame as it absorbed a flurry of blows from whatever was
on its other side. Siegfried prepared to disrupt the second arcane circle, and
attempted to read the runes. He got a strong sense that the magic used to
create these circles involved an eldritch blending of necromancy and
demonology. “Time to call in the experts,” he said to himself, thinking
in particular of a certain sentient sword. He cast sending to
the sword’s current owner. Dunno what you've
found, but I'm knee deep in blood in a royal crypt dispelling unholy circles of
necromatic and demonic runes under Sleeping Dragon. Varien’s reply was not long in coming. Consider me rattled.
On my way, bringing Bob. Don’t blow me up when we get there. Siegfried smiled and prestidigitated
the iron and salt away. This time there was no flash and reek of brimstone;
apparently whatever magical energy was contained in this particular circle had
been expended. The pounding on the door intensified. There was a cracking sound as the door’s wooden slats
strained against their iron bands, bending them to the breaking point as they
splintered into shards. “Perhaps we should pull back and barricade the doors to the first
crypt,” Siegfried said. “I’ve called for reinforcements.” Sergeant Knox bellowed and charged pell-mell at the failing
door. The ancient door gave way as a horde of undead stumbled into
the room. The creatures were wrapped head-to-toe in strips of cloth,
but their bodies were also clad in sections of golden-colour armor plating.
Hideous armored masks covered their faces, but Knox could see their eyes
glittering in hatred as they walked inexorably towards the party. Siegfried’s discerning eyes recognized the bits of armor
plating as being fashioned from umber hulk carapaces. General Sabine drew her sword and stepped forward, standing
shoulder to shoulder with Sergeant Knox as she slashed at the nearest mummy, her
first strike doing only a meagre amount of damage as her follow-ups bounced off
the armor plates. “That’s umber hulk plating!” Siegfried shouted a warning. “Have
you ever seen this before?” “Not for a long while!” Sabine called over her shoulder. Siegfried placed a hex
on the first mummy and fired off an eldritch
blast . He was disappointed to see that its necrotic impact was negated. Knox bellowed and slashed at the mummies in front of him
with his battle-axe. The mummies retorted with a flurry of rotting fists that
Sabine and Knox were able to parry and block. A mummy attempted to fix Sabine
with a dreadful glare , but the
resolute general glared right back at the creature, unaffected. Sabine deftly stabbed and slashed at her opponents, cutting
through a section of wrappings to slice deeply into one mummy’s side. Black
ichor oozed disgustingly from the wound. Siegfried cast protection
from evil and good on himself to ward off the mummies’ infamous dreadful glare . He dropped the hex and
aimed a hexblade curse at another
mummy as he pushed his way into the centre of the fray. The mummies roared and pummeled the trio, who dodged and
blocked their assaults. Siegfried blew a kiss at one of the creatures, who wheezed
and moaned in frustration. But still they came, inexorably, shrugging off the party’s
attacks, rotting fists at the ready.
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“Sergeant Knox?” Sabine called to her subordinate. “If we
survive this, consider yourself on report.”