Journal of Arcadius - Day 122

Being at our wits end as to what to do next, we decided to call upon an unusual source of support and information - the Drow - or rather, the lady Alis Gozen, who had once offered us favor in return for dealing with some evil Drow foes of hers.

This offer we now took.

Using the magic porting device provided by her, we traveled to a city under the control of her and other friendly allied houses. A strange purple glow, like faerie fire, suffused everything. She, the lady was as dignified as ever. Truly a worthy example of leadership. From her we learned the specifics of our mission - the destruction of a Drow noble house in the service of the utterly evil goddess Lolth. She also assigned one of her family to guide us through the Underdark to the point where we would again use magic to attack the evil ones.

Our journey through the Underdark was gloomy but largely uneventful until a time while camped that we were ambushed by hideous hook-handed monsters of the deep caverns. We fought relatively well, and Fflam demonstrated a newfound prowess with his seemingly favored weapon of Alchemists Fire.

Somewhat later, we came to a great underground lake. We made the trip across on a Duergar boat powered by magic. Truly an impressive thing! Walter-Tupper spent much of the trip sketching what was meant to be either the lake, the boat, both, or the contents of his stomach - I could not tell which.

On the other side of the lake was a Duergar city - a place of strict laws it seems. I feel comfortable in such an environment, but worry about some of the others. In fact, nearly all of us have spent our time here so far worrying about Alcander and what he might do. Many of the Duergar are detectable as evil, and we've been concerned that he try to kill them at random. Meanwhile, Fflam has kept heavily concealed as it seems his folk and the Duergar harbor implacable hatred for one another.

However, rather than cause trouble and thereby getting us all killed, Alcander has stayed in his room, except to, quite rightly and wisely, pray for Walter-Tupper to answer the call of Heracles. As well he ought. In fact, I feel duty-bound to assist him so that Walter-Tupper may never feel a lack of concern for the well-being of his soul! We shall keep vigil so that he never feels left out or neglected by the benevolence of the gods.

Meanwhile, it was not Alcander, but Jacob who has done something worrying. The fool, or villain - time shall reveal - wandered around Duergar city until somehow he managed to find a human or at least humanish being who spoke, of all languages, DEMONIC. He then thought it fitting to purchase a magic-radiating book on Demonology from this individual. He then, quite blithely, walked into the common room of our inn radiating powerful magic and evil. When asked about it, he proceeded to lie, until called out for his lies.

We were not pleased.

I have this strange dread, though I'm not certain why, that this is Hrogar all over again. What could be the connection between the two? How mysterious! We seized the book from him, but otherwise tabled action until we are out of city. Once safely outside the reach of Duergar law, we will attempt to destroy this book, and will deal with Jacob. We hope he will be reasonable. If not, well, perhaps we can purge his soul of evil before sending him to the hereafter.

*A*