Session 29 -- Face to face with the faceless

Ceangal was able to give the party the general location of the Drow outpost in the mountains north of Lake Lolth where the children are expected to be kept.  He cautioned them to avoid Karanji Astinda, the Drow capital.   Because of this, Murchad suggested that they go the long way around the lake to give the city a wide berth.

Once they were well inside the Domain of the Dark Elves, they found themselves surrounded by a scouting party with hunting spiders. The party managed to dispatch the threat, although one of the Drow slipped away in the fight.  The party members with crossbows looted some of the Drow's poisoned bolts, and Vegvisir got his hands on a ring of protection +3.

Some time later, the party was attacked by some giant wolf spiders. The spiders put up a decent fight, but the party managed to kill them all without too much trouble.

The worst was yet to come, however. Having almost reached the mountains after looping around the lake, the party was once again surrounded. Like the other two times, the party heard rustling in the dark foliage that surrounded them without seeing any enemies, except this time, several of them did see a figure standing at a distance between two trees, watching them.

"Scath!" Ceangal gasped. Tiv, Jack and Vedica could also see the figure. Dressed in dark elven chain, he seemed to be made of black smoke. This was the other half of himself -- the dark and evil side -- that was split off into its own entity (or was he split off from it?). Even though it had no face, Ceangal could feel its intense gaze, boiling over with hatred for him.

The party got to act first, and although they were aware that they were surrounded, the smoke figure was the only one they could see, so they started to move toward and attack him. Along the way, they stumbled onto many other Drow warriors. They each attacked Scath and several of the Drow, but Scath's first attack was to set off a fireball in the center of the main grouping of the party, catching Tiv, Vedica, Ceangal, Dwårfy, and Jack in its flames.

The party spread out and continued to fight, although Scath managed to catch Murchad and Dwårfy with a powerful lightning bolt. Vegvisir once again dropped his disguise to more easily cast spells.

During the fight, the Ceangal cast fireball back at Scath, catching him and one of the other Drow. After that, Scath cast darkness around himself. A black void seemed to blossom impossibly in the forest. Murchad used his healing absinthe and began to hallucinate. While the rest of the party dealt with the remaining Drow, Murchad stepped into the darkness. He could see nothing except a glowing version of the dark, smoky figure. He started to fight it.

Hearing the fighting, Jack, followed by Dwårfy, followed by Ceangal went into the darkness after him. Even with infravision, neither Dwårfy nor Ceangal could see a thing.

They could see nothing.

Murchad continued fighting the figure. He finally landed a blow -- on Dwårfy!

Finally, the rest of the party dispatched the remaining two Drow, and Tiv, having had enough of the darkness, lit up her mace and used its light to dispel the magical darkness from Scath's spell.

Scath was long gone.

The party picked its way through the mountains until it found the entrance to the Drow outpost. Before charging in, they decided to take a moment to use Tov and Vegvisir's healing skill as well as consume some healing potions.

As they rested and healed, Ceangal explained the history of the smoky figure, his "evil twin."