The urgency of the attack left no time for ceremony for the Auvryndar clan and the newly named apprentice. Shar gathered his new gear and
moved to where the others went. Looking out over the drop from the impossible height of
their mighty fortress Darien, Tevera, and the other house females looked on as
House Drodeen and House Despana clashed in the sidewalks, waterways, and rooftops of
Skullport.
The attack came at first in the form of slave force, meager
underdark denizens whose only misstep was they lived too close to drow controlled
territories. Not all survivors of Ched Nasad’s houses used slaves, however; drow
also were likely to summon other denizens as well while another house secretly
forged political ties. Allies always fought better than slaves and were more
skilled.
“Be ready to rain down blue fire on them should they take
any actions against us.” Matron Darien Auvryndar said in an authoritative but sultry voice. “Until
then we shall watch them to destroy each other.” This was greeted by several
titters of laughter. Just then a loud rumble shook the enormous spider-shaped fortress
followed by screams of alarm.
“Yamon, Shar go and report.” Tevera commanded harshly; males
were not front-line combatants by custom but they were expendable compared to
the female hierarchy.
The fortress had three levels with several rooms and chambers;
the structure was intended to be a life-boat for the family if something
catastrophic were to happen. Little did the creators know it would be gods cast
from the skies that made the construct necessary.
Ahead Yamon could hear rigorous sounds of battle. “Prepare yourself Shar;
yon battle may be the last you hear in this life.” Little did Shar’s master know
that this statement was metaphorically true.
A shift in gravity orientation and the two drow knew the magical fortress
was on the move, likely scaling down the cavern wall or gaining a more defensive position. The master and ward emerged
from a wide opening in the fortress where the spider’s mandibles are located and
looked on as an orchestra of warfare played out in cosmic rhythm. Mages in red
cassocks, rogue factions, ancient dwarves, drow and others all vie for control
of the portals.
Yamon stood with his bow sending several arrows tipped with
a tiny ooze, targeting any drow he saw. Next to him Shar put to work his new wands sending regular intervals of magic missiles into the fray. Not necessarily into drow elves
but focusing more on giants and ogres. Now,
after exhausting one wand, Shar could see the Auvryndar mothers summoning
outsiders to help their cause.
Magical forces gathered, there was a pressure to the air,
and magic surged unhindered.
Decades later Shar to this day does not recall accurately the details of the wild surge
that occurred when the outsiders appeared answering the call of his mothers,
but remembered well the events after; events that set his life down a new path.
When Shar regained consciousness he found he had been
magically transported and now saw that his environment was no longer the dark
cavern of Skullport but a bright landscape of alien flora and strange company.
Shar had visited Waterdeep in the past but only at night never during the day. He had only read about the many forests and other
ecologies but the unconscious individuals around him were as unknown to him as
the species of trees that surrounded them.
Movement from one of the unconscious humans, a huge brutish man stirred threatening to awaken at the slightest provocation. Quietly getting
to his feet Shar took in the details of the others: a woman, adventurer of some kind she looked like a hunter; an older man, bureaucratic looking; the still stirring
brute who seemed to be covered in acid scars; a red robed Thayan; a middle-aged dwarf-gunslinger by estimation; and another human woman, naked save for a birthmark Shar thought he had
seen before.
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