Koruk, Ozie, Venum and Rhadavasta stayed behind to finish the job. They decided now was the time to capture the mage. The matron mother would be returning soon and once she did it would be too late. It was now or never.
With the help of a goblin cook persuaded by Ozie to betray his masters, the group learned that the living quarters were below the keep. Venum, Ozie and Rhadavasta snuck invisibly through the hallways searching for the mage’s quarters while Koruk guarded the entrance near the kitchen to ensure there was no escape.
While Ozie and Rhadavasta discovered some caged prisoners guarded by a drider, Venum found the mage secreted in his study. After failing to paralyze the mage with a venom sac harvested from a carrion crawler, Venum appeared as the drow swordmaster and cast a suggestion which the mage was unable to resist, but not before he summoned a shadow demon.
Venum reached out his hand, “It’s me, brother. We are under attack. Come with me if you want to live.”
With the suggestion cast the invisibility on Ozie fell and the drider immediately became aware of the goblin, who was preoccupied with picking the lock to free the prisoners. At this moment Koruk grew bored and wandered the other direction looking for something to occupy his attention. He opened a door into an opulent chamber, setting off a poison gas trap. Ignoring the gas he strolled inside and began looting the matron’s bedroom.
Down the hallway and around the corner the battle raged, as the party fought a shadow demon and a drider. Venum struggled to maintain concentration on his suggestion spell as the shadow demon sank his claws into the mind whisper’s scaly flesh. If the mage managed to escape Venum’s mind control the battle was surely lost. Meanwhile Rhadavasta cloaked the hallway in her twilight blessing, taking turns between striking the shadow demon with her warhammer and casting spells on the drider.
With the shadow demon driven off Venum managed to escort the mage out of the fray, but not before he allowed him to go back and retrieve his research. Venum’s control on the mage was fragile at best and he didn’t want to do anything that would upset the balance.
Ozie finished off the drider with a mighty blow of his short sword, rescuing the prisoners from the drow captivity and into his own. Just as they thought the battle was over the shadow demon leapt through the wall in a last ditch attempt to free the mage, but Koruck intercepted the demon and sent it screaming back to the Abyss with a mighty blow.
Once the companions reassembled in the courtyard, Koruk grabbed the mage while the others gagged and bound him, ready for transport back to their benefactors for questioning.
