“So where is our new headquarters going to be?” Hawke asks.
“The dark elves have a facility that will suit us perfectly. I will be leaving to gain unrestricted access and cooperation from their elders soon,” Shaddar explains.
“Bunking with palehairs? Ugh!” the man thinks, but Shaddar notes that none of his inner emotion reaches his facial features.
Shaddar continues with an upraised finger, “Actually, I believe that it will be more like a hostile takeover. I do not expect them to welcome us with open arms to their finest and most secret lair.”
Hawke barks a laugh. “Not one of their hovels, then?”
“Oh, no,” Shaddar says with a tone of distaste, “Just wait, Hawke. It is a fitting location for men of our stature.”
Hawke shakes his head. “No disrespect meant, but I’ll believe that the palehairs are capable of making a place like that when I see it, Boss.”
“One other thing,” Shaddar says, “Our methods of acquiring the goods required for our organization are moving beyond what larceny will provide. Such archaic and time-honored methods will be unsuitable for the volume and scope of our guild’s needs. Apply those in your network to finding merchants and other specialists such as herbalists who can provide for our requirements with discretion. We have the funds to use for bribes, but having someone we can extort simultaneously would be best.”
“Aye,” Hawke says with a nod, “I know just where to start on that, Boss. Leave it to me!” And he departs to see to getting the hobgoblins started on packing up.
Shaddar keeps an inner eye on Hawke’s thought for a few moments longer, just to be sure of the man. He’s all business with no rebellious thoughts. Only one thing bothers the human, but Shaddar is quite satisfied with how he handles it. When Hawke sees the slaves, both Shaddar’s wretches and the minstrels owned by the hobgoblins, he is quite shocked.
“Slaves? Huh… That’s… none of my business. I’ve got enough to worry about. How the Boss chooses to punish those that oppose us is not my concern.”
Just so.
Shaddar brings Toothsnatcher, Cutt, and his hobgoblin army with him on his trip to visit the drow elders.
Cutt complains instantly, “Walk? For how long? But, both my feet are still recovering from serious burns he acquired when looking after your interests, master!” Rather than listen to the whining and sobbing of the gnome for the entire trip, Shaddar orders Toothsnatcher to give the little fellow a ride on one of his shoulders.
The minotaur glares at the gnome and warns him, “If I must fight, you will be thrown to floor or wall.” The gnome nods in agreement and hops aboard.
Loolipo remains behind to organize the packing up of equipment and gear with the group of untrained hobgoblins – lead by Kug who will act as security while everyone else is out and about.
Shaddar’s tentacles writhe in amusement when he thinks of the long and twisty route that the drow warriors used to take him to their secret palace for their elders. They thought it would make the way impossible to find again, but he memorized the path quite easily. Shaddar has no trouble retracing his steps (and avoiding some of the obvious detours that were taken in a vain attempt to muddle his sense of direction). Honestly! Anyone raised in the UnderDark would be able to do the same.
The cool of the underground is soothing to Shaddar and his thralls. Cutt is especially enjoys himself, cooing about the lovely darkness until Shaddar silences him with a glare.
As they go deeper they come to doors that bar their passage. Some of the doors are locked, but each lock springs open at a touch from his eldritch staff and a flash of power.
Behind one of these locked doors Shaddar finds a group of four drow warriors, including one that Shaddar met on his prior visit to this area.
“How did you open that?” the drow warrior that acted as one of his guides last time whispers in shock.
“I am the great one,” Shaddar whispers back to him, “There is nothing beyond my power.” He raises his voice and commands, “I will allow you and your fellows to lead myself and my entourage to your elders.”
One of the younger drow who Shaddar doesn’t know pipes up: “You can’t do that! You must be invited!”
“I have just invited myself. And thus your rules of deportment are fulfilled,” Shaddar explains reasonably.
“But that’s not the way–“
Shaddar interrupts. “The dark winds of change are upon you! You can accept the new reality and travel with those winds – giving yourselves a chance to thrive under my glorious regime,” he shrugs and Toothsnatcher hefts his otherworldly, steaming greataxe over one shoulder. “Or you can be changed by it… Which will it be?”
Even if Shaddar couldn’t read minds, he would know which it is to be. The choice is writ clearly upon the dark elf countenances.
He briskly gives the cowering creatures their orders: “Lead on!”
One of the dark elves runs ahead while the other three meekly obey. The youngest drow is running at his top speed with the intention of giving the elders some advance notice of who and what is coming to call. The runner hopes that his speed will give the elders a chance to prepare and come up with a plan to deal with the rude interlopers. Shaddar doesn’t think any amount of preparation will be sufficient to deal with him and for his own entertainment he allows the poor soul to have his vain hopes and illusions.
The other drow are very frightened. Their thoughts are filled with the rumors they have heard both within their own community and from eavesdropping on the events going on in the human parts of the city while they work.
“Griselle spoke truly! This must be the Destroyer! The end of the world has come!”
“I thought this fellow and his freakish followers all died in that terrible explosion. How did they survive?””
“I hope Filazar never finds out how weak I was in the face of a barely spoken threat. He’ll make me work in the laundry for the rest of my life.”
Once during their journey, the drow escorts attempt to take him via a route that will add quite a bit of time to their walk. Shaddar taps his staff on the ground twice and gestures the other direction.
“I believe this way is faster,” he says in a warning tone.
They do not try anything like that again.
As they walk, Shaddar daydreams of what he can do with the magic developed by his dead master. The method will allow for rapid power collection once he returns home for not only himself, but also his people. Once he reads all of Felinxtrath’s notes and re-learns the process he will be able to become the most powerful illithid in the world! Well. Very nice. But first he has business to attend to. He returns his attention to the present just as they arrive at the main hall of the drow palace.
Quite unlike their previous visit when all of the help had been hidden away, this time the palace is filled with bustling activity. Dark elves are busy with the various tasks required to keep a large household and administration center in operation. One by one, as they see Shaddar and his minions, they scurry away like frightened mice.
Cutt is acting as if he rides the huge and fearsome-looking minotaur all of the time. In some ways, this makes the drow that flee from before their approach more nervous about him than they are about Toothsnatcher. Humorous.
No matter. The dark elves are correct about one thing: Fear is the proper feeling to have in his presence or those under his command.
With sure strides, Shaddar increases his pace and opens the double doors to the drow elders receiving chamber, leaving his dumbstruck guides behind at his audacity of not even waiting to be announced or admitted formally.
“Oh, this is going to be great fun,” Shaddar thinks.
Chapter 1 < Chapter 48 Chapter 50 >
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