Arcadius and the Shadow Dragon

PART V - A MISSION AGAINST THE EVIL ONES

I arrived in a dark place of cold damp stone. At first it seemed pitch black, but I hesitated to call forth the light of Pelor, knowing nothing could make my presence more obvious. However, once my eyes adjusted, I saw that there was a very faint and distant light, and that I was indeed in a large natural cavern, as I had been told I would. Alas for the enemy Drow, they had but newly claimed this place, and must have failed to search it thoroughly enough to find the hidden beacon or marker that allowed teleportation to this spot.

Slowly, very slowly, I advanced. My time among the Drow had taught me some rudiments of stealth, however strange it may be for me as a Paladin of Pelor. Still - it is far, far from the greatest of my strengths, and I knew my task was to gain a sense of the enemy situation, then strike immediately. I spent what seemed like hours, taking each step with care, not only to avoid notice by the enemy Drow, wherever they might be, but to avoid falling into to some hidden pit or crevasse. At last, I could begin to make out details in the dim light.

Standing as still as I could manage, partially shielded behind a stalagmite, I saw five Drow. There was a woman who looked very high-ranking, performing a ritual on an altar inside a circle of power of some kind. Behind her were various implements on a table and a basin of blood. From time to time she dipped an implement into the blood. The area around her crackled with magic. Another woman who appeared to be of low rank was draining the last blood from a hanging something that must once have been a man of humanoid race, but it was so horribly carved up, in a most ritualistic fashion, that it was hard to say what it had been. From the look of the body, and the brown dried color of some of its blood, I guessed that the wretch had been tortured, very slowly, to death. Another high-ranking Drow, a man in fine armor and robes, stood by with a sardonic expression on his face. From time to time he scanned the area. The two remaining Drow were male guards of some lower rank, they stood by, facing outward and watched. However, all the Drow seemed tired, as if this ritual had been going on for hours.

Still, there was an edge of nervousness in the lower-ranking Drow, as if whatever ritual was being performed was so dangerous that its outcome worried them. Perhaps that danger, whatever it might be, was why this ritual was being performed in such a remote place. Fortunately, given the vileness of their deeds, that remoteness left them less defended from other threats, and exposed them to the just retribution they were about to receive. I now noticed that in front of the Drow lady - the wizard or priestess - was a complex arrangement of geometric forms and symbols on the ground. In the midst of it, something was slowly appearing... something formed, for lack of a better way to put it, of voids and spaces rather than shape and mass. My mind reeled, but then I felt the light of Pelor coursing through my spirit, giving me strength.

Whatever it was, in that place of power, it was growing.