Edmund’s heart was racing from the moment he left Blackstaff Tower. An entire Gray Hand elite force had been mustered in the dead of night after ten guard patrols disappeared, and all from the North Ward. Message spells were failing to get through, and scrying revealed only darkness. Something big was happening, and he hated going in blind. He was joined by four other Gray Hand elites; a paladin, two scouts, and a wizard. He had worked with one of the scouts, an elder dwarf ranger named Dorik that had mastered his profession over many centuries. As for the others, he could barely count them as work acquaintances. Typically warriors of their caliber were dispersed among recruits, and didn’t get the opportunity to work together. The fact that one of their battlemages was dispatched made Edmund even more uneasy, though the woman’s presence would be a boon in whatever situation they would soon find themselves.
“We’re almost there.” Dorik, the dwarven ranger, spoke. His voice was a low rumble, yet it carried just as far as it needed to. “I’m going up ahead, and Brazhak will take to the roofs for a better vantage.” He nodded to the other scout, a half-orc who managed to blend into the shadows despite his broad frame. Edmund heard the mage muttering something from behind him, and turned as he felt the presence of magic prickling the hairs on his neck. The mage’s eyes glowed for a brief moment before settling back to the way they were before. She repeated the casting on Edmund, the only other human in the group, and his eyes attuned themselves to the darkness, allowing him to see further down the street. The road was unusually dark. All of the street lamps had gone out, though there were workers hired to keep them lit through the night. Edmund glanced at the buildings. Many of them were residential in this area, though there were some storefronts. The paladin, an elf, suddenly stopped and drew her sword.
“I sense the foul presence of one of the Far Realm’s denizens. Something unearthly is lurking in these shadows.” The rest of the party came to a halt, peering around nervously. The Far Realm was a place of chaos and madness, and even the weakest of creatures from there posed a significant threat. As the party listened, a pained cry came from the rooftop ahead of them. Brazhak tumbled off the roof as a flash of movement skittered through a broken window. The wizard quickly chanted a few words of power, turning Brahzak’s plunge into a gentle fall. The paladin rushed over to him, her hands glowing with divine magic. A grievous wound was opened across his torso, a slash from his hip to his shoulder that was already beginning to close as the paladin helped him up.
“I barely heard it coming, let alone get a look at it,” He spat, bloodying the ground. “The damn thing seemed big. Strong too.” His leather armor hung loose, in tatters across his chest from where something had slashed him. He picked up his discarded bow, removing the remnants of the cut string. He drew another bowstring from one of his pouches as he fell in line with the rest of the party. “Any sign of Dorik since we split?”
“No sign of anyone, let alone the other scout,” Edmund said. “Not a single civilian or guard on the street, and that creature is seemingly still in the building. Any way to draw it out?” He glanced between the wizard and the paladin, hoping one of their spells could do the trick.
The paladin pursed her lips “Not that I can think of.”
“Nothing that wouldn’t endanger any civilians still trapped inside” The mage drew arcane glyphs in the air with the end of her staff, then touched it to Edmund’s chest. As the mage intoned a few words of power Edmund felt himself suffused in magical energy. A moment later the paladin was as well after offering a quick prayer to her god.
“I guess that’s as much as I could have hoped for,” Edmund said, drawing his sword. “Well, let’s make a house call.” The door was hanging off its hinges and the doorframe was shattered, seemingly knocked in by some large force. He readied his shield and stepped inside, seeing easily despite the gloom due to the wizard’s earlier spell. The building was a housing complex, with a dozen apartments on each floor.
Every door was smashed, and the scent of blood fouled the air. Glancing in a few of the rooms, it was readily apparent that everyone was dead. Slaughtered in their sleep, none of them had managed to make it out of their beds before being torn apart. Edmund pushed down rising emotion, swallowing anger and fear in equal measures. With a nod to the paladin, he slowly made his way to the next level. The stairs were covered, so he didn’t need to worry about being ambushed from behind, but turning the corners at the top of the flight was daunting. He peered around them as best he could, before taking a leap of faith and rounding the corner to the right. The paladin quickly filled in the space behind him, turning left to cover his back.
He saw another hallway lined with smashed doors, though it was the third floor the creature entered. He shared a look with the paladin and flicked his head upwards, raising his eyebrows in a silent question. She looked back down the hallway for a moment, listening, before nodding back. They turned and made their way up the next set of stairs, and found a similar scene.
Edmund walked down the right, while the paladin took the left. He glanced in two apartments, finding more of the same, but the third was pitch black. He squinted, trying to see through the darkness, but sudden movement alerted him that he was staring at the creature’s silhouette. It uncoiled like a snake lunging for prey, a mass of chitin and bladed legs so unnatural that he almost missed the attack headed his way. He caught the first stab with his shield, but the force catapulted him into the wall hard enough to cave it in. He heard the paladin whirl around and begin charging toward him, and he readied his shield to weather the rest of the creature’s attacks. From out of the darkness flew a vaguely insectile head, its mandibles crunching down on the edges of the shield, distorting them with its brute strength. As he fought to keep the creature’s jaws at bay, he felt one of its limbs pierce his leg, slicing through the chainmail and gambeson as if it weren’t there. He roared in anger and with a word, his sword was wreathed in enchanted flame. Letting go of the now misshapen shield he brought the sword down on the creature’s head with a two handed blow, only for the sword to stop completely against the alien creature’s thick armor. A limb batted him aside like a rag doll, sending him flying down the hallway. The monster skittered after him, moving far faster than its size would suggest. The only sounds he heard were the faint clatter of its legs on the floor and the unnerving clicking of its mandibles, punctuated by his pained breathing. He quickly raised his sword into a guard stance, and when the creature got close enough to attack he began deflecting the blows. It made no sound as it began whirling its spiked limbs at him, but it screeched as a burst of holy light seared its carapace from behind. Taking advantage of the lull in combat on his side, Edmund caught his breath and observed. The creature they were fighting was like nothing he had seen before, with a long armored body similar to a centipede, but as fast and flexible as a snake.
The paladin fell upon it, each blow from her radiant sword biting into the monster’s armor, but not breaking through. The creature’s body shifted, coiling and twisting until an armored end flew out and leveled the paladin, knocking her down and sending her sliding away. As it prepared to chase her down and deliver a killing blow, Edmund noticed gaps in the insect-like body segments, and stabbed through one, pinning the beast. The creature roared, and its head whirled to face the warrior. He began to pull his sword back but the monstrous body shifted, pinching the weapon between its armor plating and the floor. Robbed of his sword, Edmund found his hands grasping at the creature’s mandibles, desperately trying to wrestle the jaws away from his face, and he got his first good look at the creature’s head. It was horrifying, seemingly just a patchwork of the same small bumps that coated much of the rest of it with a large pair of mandibles framing a mouth full of needle-like teeth poised to shred anything that entered it. Only upon this unwilling closer look did he realize that the patches of bumps on the creature’s body were clusters of heavily armored eyes. He gazed into the hundreds of tiny soulless orbs as the mandibles drew ever nearer, the monster’s unnatural strength winning out over his own, when a deafening explosion engulfed the building.
Edmund stood still as he saw the world turn to fire before him. Everything from the walls to the creature was consumed by a torrent of flame that sprang up from nowhere and scoured away all, until half the third floor was gone. The wizard stood in the air, hovering above the blazing remnants of the apartment building as the fireball burned away everything but her companions, who remained untouched throughout the blast. The creature was launched through a wall and out of the building, and the outmatched warriors had a chance to collect themselves before returning to the fray. Edmund searched for his Flametongue longsword, but it must have been thrown clear in the blast. He drew his shortsword as the paladin healed him and then herself.
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“Thanks. Are you alright?” He asked
“I’ve never seen any manner of beast like it in all my years,” the elf said “How did it even manage to enter the city?”
“It's no beast,” The Wizard’s voice rang out above the crackle of dying flames. “This is a creature from parts untold. Their ilk do not appear unless called.”
As Edmund and the Paladin began to make their way to the staircase, a dwarven signal flare rose from an alleyway a few buildings away.
“Make haste, the battle’s just begun!” The wizard flew off, leaving the warriors to race out of the smoldering building and down the street to rejoin their group. By the time they arrived, the wizard was standing motionless over Brazhak, who was cradling the mangled body of his fellow ranger.
“Shit, what happened?” Edmund stared in disbelief at the sight of Dorik’s ruined corpse. Dorik was a master of his craft, an expert Deep-Walker who had survived centuries worth of exploration and patrol in the Underdark.
“He fought and died with honor, and dealt the enemy a great wound.” Brazhak stood, leaving his comrade where he died. “Its ichor stains the ground all around here, it must have been injured badly.” Viscous black fluid coated much of the ground, and Dorik’s axe was drenched in the stuff, coating the dwarven runes Edmund knew were glowing underneath.
“Let’s finish the bastard. Thanks to Dorik we’ll at least know where it went.” Edmund turned and began following the trail of blood, as the others fell in line and the wizard returned to the skies. The stream of ichor coated the street like paint, leading into a bathhouse. The door was broken, like most other doors on the block, but this one seemed to have been broken open from inside. Peering inside, Edmund saw the bodies of the staff and customers splayed out where they fell, those with intact limbs had their arms outstretched, as if grasping for the door. The congealing blood pooled on the ground mingled with the freshly loosed bile stemming from the monster, obscuring its trail. Letting the paladin enter first, he followed behind, shortsword at the ready. It wasn’t ideal that he had lost both his longsword and shield, but there was no time to retreat and gather more gear. It was unknown just how much of the city block was already dead, but given that there was no discernable reaction to a fireball detonating, it had to be most of them. The paladin entered the steam room, mist swirling as she delved into every corner in search of the creature. Edmund entered the main bathroom, water splashing at his feet as he walked the edges of the pool. He scanned the room, seeing nothing out of place in the dark water of the baths. The door to the back room was open, and he thought he saw a humanoid shape lying on the floor. As he drew closer, he felt his boots soaking through and stopped as he came to a realization. The bathhouse had drains to return water to the pool that had been splashed out, so why was there so much water on the floor? He turned back to the entrance and saw the paladin making her way in. Edmund raised a hand to stop her.
“It’s in the water” He whispered. A sudden splash echoed through the room as the creature lunged out, striking Edmund in the chest. His heavier plate prevented him from being sheared in half, but he was still slammed into the wall. His vision swam and he felt his helmet’s now flattened back end pressing against his skull. He heard the wizard shout something, then he was blinded by a searing flash of lighting that flew through a wall, slamming into the creature. The room filled with steam as the horror writhed in the now boiling water. Edmund dazedly got to his feet. He saw the wizard through the hole in the wall, already chanting out the beginnings of another spell. The creature turned to flee through the back door, and slammed head-first into an invisible wall.
The paladin sprinted past Edmund towards the beast, and he turned to follow. He scooped up his shortsword and moved past the paladin, who had engaged the monstrosity with her glowing sword and shield raised to ward off its blows, and attempted to flank it. As he sliced at writhing limbs, he caught sight of his longsword still impaled in the creature close to its tail end. He dodged a couple swipes and got in close, spotting an opening when one of Brazhak’s arrow’s drew an enraged shriek as he hit one of the spots left without armor after the paladin’s holy attacks burned through the chitinous plates. He dropped his shortsword and grasped the handle of his lost longsword with both hands, activated the flame enchantment, and pulled with all his might. The monster’s thrashing grew to a fever pitch, as the sword split off multiple segments from its body, causing some legs to fall to the ground twitching.
The creature got its feet under it and launched itself towards the lobby, where Brazhak and the wizard harried it from a distance. It crashed through the wall dividing the rooms, flattening the wizard as Brazhak rolled away. The monster fell upon the mage, raining blows that were mostly turned away by an invisible force, though some managed to get through and stab holes into her limbs. The paladin yelled out, her words ringing with the power of spellcraft, and the creature turned toward her, one of its mandibles hanging broken. It cocked its head for a moment, as if contemplating, before screeching and charging at her. She met it head on, and Edmund once again tried to flank it. No matter how many limbs they managed to sever or disable, there were always more to continue the assault. Though the creature was clearly getting worn down, so were they. As Edmund grew more exhausted, time seemed to blur, everything falling away except the fight. At some point a blow to the head rendered the paladin unconscious, leaving Edmund to fight alone. After what felt like an eternity, a bright light filled the building, beating down on the creature and igniting the roof. As the creature’s writhing finally stilled, the longsword slipped from Edmund’s grasp. His armor and the body beneath it was covered in gashes, dents, and he was certain at least two of his limbs were broken. The light shining down felt like a pleasant summer day, and he wavered and collapsed.
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Edmund thought his headache was almost as bad as a blow from that monster.
“How did this happen?” The angry voice of Vajra Safahr, the current Blackstaff of Waterdeep, Edmund’s boss, and the second most powerful wizard in the city, cut above the din of voices in the Gray Hand headquarters. “We have four hundred civilians dead in a matter of hours, as well as a dozen guards. A squad of our most skilled field agents went out there and every single one is out of commission, not to mention one of them died just to bring this creature down! How in the hells did that cursed thing even get into the city?”
As soon as the fatigue abated enough for him to get out of bed, he was in constant debriefings and strategy meetings.
“We suspect it was summoned, Ma’am.” One of the lead investigators for the Gray Hand, a tiefling known for his dedication to tracking down Waterdeep’s greatest threats, responded. “The bathhouse where it appeared wound up burning down, save for the back room which contained traces of material we believe to be from the Far Realm, as well as words written in the blood of an unknown source. Our analysis confirms it is human blood, but attempts at magical tracking have proven fruitless.”
“And the creature?” Vajra asked.
“Its body rapidly deteriorated, it was mostly a pile of blackened viscera when we got to it. The only thing that stayed behind after the creature evaporated was a cut up piece of paper that contained staggering amounts of the Far Realm’s chaotic energy. That’s the one we requested you destroy, Ma’am.” The investigator listed everything quickly and clearly, answering any questions asked by the Blackstaff or another attendee of the meeting. This one was the sixth Edmund had attended today, and it was getting difficult to maintain the facade of alertness. He wanted to go back to bedrest, but every time he closed his eyes he saw nothing but that monstrosity’s soulless eyes.
Edmund was drawn out of his stupor by movement to his left, and his eyes focused on the elven paladin he had fought alongside.
“Edmund, right? We haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Tegothel, but you can call me Teya.” He took the hand she offered, and took his first good look at the fellow warrior. She was tall, towering over him as most elves do, and was extremely muscular for such a normally lithe race. She had long dark hair, tinged blue, which framed a pale face. She had the typical defined cheekbones and delicate features of a high elf, but her eyes were hard and focused, and her skin was littered with scars, both faded and fresh, a testament to her experience.
“That's right. Edmund Alden. It’s a shame we had to meet under those circumstances, but I’m glad I had you at my side for it.” Edmund said. Her grip was firm as she responded
“Indeed. That was a harrowing battle, one I’ll not soon forget.”
Just as Edmund opened his mouth to continue the conversation, a new voice cut in. “There’s a new assignment for the two of you,” Vajra said as the meeting participants began to disperse. “Since this creature is from the far realm, you’re going to look into the Xanathar guild. This is too loud to be one of his normal schemes, but he’ll probably know something.”
“Yes Ma’am!” Edmund and Teya responded in unison.
“Good. You’ll be backing up our lead investigator on this, and you’ll be afforded access to more funding, equipment, and resources.” Vajra nodded curtly towards the tiefling investigator who had made his way over.
“Nice to meet you folks, you’ll be the ones responsible for keeping my hide intact at all times. I’m Kazir,” As a greeting he tipped his hat, the kind that all detectives worth their salt seemed to have. “And we’ve got our work cut out for us.”