Journey to Baldur’s Gate

CH. 5 Venturing Into Danger

The following day in the Grove was better than yesterday. Ellynn dismissed Lae’zel and invited Shadowheart along, considering her the voice of reason for the group. She returned to the Grove and tried to convince Kagha to spare the Tieflings again, but to no avail. Her decision still stood. She then asked about a healer, to which she was pointed to Nettie, a dwarven druid in the next room. She and her group approached the druid, who was busy tending to a wounded blue jay.

“I see you,” she says, gently hovering her hands over the bird. “Just give me a moment.” Ellynn waits patiently as Nettie’s hands glow a green hue, gently whispering aloud, “Vis medicatrix…” The blue jay slowly stands on its feet, seemingly more lively but weak still from its injuries. “There. It’s up to her now. Life or death…” She turns to Ellynn to face her as the half-elf looks over her features. Nettie, a dwarven druid, stood before her. Her stature was short, broad like her dwarven kin, but with a soft face. She wore the druid’s garb, a leathery bodice with leaves integrated and strewn up the shoulders and over. The emblem of the druids is patched right in the center of her chest, and she has traditional tattoos along her face, which consist of straight lines and triangular patterns. She wore a woven branch-like headband wrapped around her head and carried a wooden quarterstaff.

“Now,” she says, looking up at Ellynn. “What was it you needed?”

“I’m looking for Nettie?”

“You found her. But I still don’t know what she can do for you.”

“I hear Halsin’s the best healer around. I need to find him.”

“You and every other soul here,” she says almost scoffingly. “I can help if something’s wrong. I’m no Master Halsin, but I can manage.”

“Then I need healing. Urgently, "Ellynn insists, her voice betraying her growing concern.

She smiles as she approaches. “Come here. Let’s have a look at you.” Ellynn leans closer to the dwarf as she examines her appearance closely. “Hm. You seem healthy enough. A bit tired ‘round the eyes, maybe.”

“Eheh, uh…. no good way of putting this, but I….uh…. I have a tadpole in my head.”

Nettie’s smile drops, and her eyes widen as she steps back in shock. “A tadpole? A mind flayer tadpole?”

“What other kinds are there? It’s not like a frog hopped into my eye…”

“That’s…. A serious condition… Come, follow me. I might be able to help. We need to be quick. This way.”

Nettie leads the group to a stone wall, where she casts a spell to open an extended room. This was the Enclave Library. In the center was a giant deer statue with lines of blue light glowing along its bust. Surrounding it were four stone pedestals, three of which had runes placed into them, while the fourth remained empty. In three indents of the room were shelves lined with books and rune slabs, likely carved with knowledge. The stone door closes behind them, and they see on a stone bed, next to a small stone desk that was strewn with notes and jars with organic samples, laid a dead drow man in nothing but his pants, eyes rolled to the back of his head and his mouth gaped open as if he was in pain.

Ellynn looked at the corpse with unease as Nettie turned to her. “This one had the same problem as you. Attacked us in the woods together with some goblins. Tadpole crawled out of his head soon after.”

“So… you killed him and laid him out on the bed?”

Nettie turns and digs into the desk momentarily, pulling out what looks to be a prickly branch before turning back to face Ellynn once more. “No,” she answers. “That was Master Halsin… a pity you got me instead of him. He understands these things—studied them. Still, we have options.” She looks to the group beside Ellynn and addresses them. “You don’t have to be here for this.”

Shadowheart frowns as she replies, “No, I’ll stay. I’d rather know exactly what you’re up to…”

Nettie nods as she shifts her gaze back up to Ellynn. “All right. Let’s see what we can do.”

Ellynn looks at the branch, raising a brow in suspicion as she asks, “What’s that plant? Will it help?”

“It might, but first things first. Tell me about your symptoms - have you noticed anything strange happening?”

Looking closer, Ellynn soon recognized the branch, and it was no druidic cure. Nettie held Kelemvor’s Kiss, a briar from the Dalelands and a deadly poison. “What is this?” She asks, increasingly suspicious of the druid. “I came to you for help!”

“I want to help you, but I can’t unless you work with me. So, has anything unusual happened to you?”

“Well…. I fell from a ship in the sky, but something caught me. It saved my life…”

“Protected from on high? Sounds like the drow - Master Halsin said he was tougher than he had any right to be. How’d you pick up the parasite? Halsin was desperate to find where all this was happening.”

“On a mind flayer ship - I was kidnapped and infected,” Ellynn replies, feeling a familiar squirm behind her eye as she mentions this.

Nettie’s eyes widen slightly. “A mind-flayer ship? But Master Halsin was sure—...Look, you’ve been straight with me, so I’ll be straight with you. You’re dangerous. If you transform here, we’re all dead. But you seem like a good soul. You deserve a chance to save yourself.” She slowly puts the branch on the desk and grabs something else, a small vial with something green inside, as she holds it out. “This is a vial of wyvern poison. Swear to me you’ll swallow it if you feel any symptoms.”

Ellynn looks at the poison, weighing her options before reaching down and taking the vial, to Astarion’s astonishment. “I swear…” She glances at Astarion momentarily, seeing his disapproval as she pockets the vial.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but… thank you. You know, I’ve spent my life treating folk and never once saw a mind flayer infection. Then suddenly, dozens of you – maybe more. Master Halsin and I were tracking them, studying them, trying to figure out what the hells was going on.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, because you should all be changing – there should be a small army of mind flayers out there! But you’re not. Weird powers aside, you seem perfectly normal.”

“You must have learned something from studying them.”

Nettie nods in response. “For one, that thing in your head is like nothing we’ve ever seen from mind flayers. It’s one of their worms, for sure, but this one gives you powers – telepathic connections. And it doesn’t turn you into one of them. Not yet, anyhow.”

“You said you were tracking other victims. Have they changed?”

“Hard to say, but there’s a lot we don’t know. Infected – folks like you – have been converging on an old temple of Selȗne, and I’ve no idea why. When Master Halsin heard the adventurers were heading that way, he saw a chance to get answers. Joined on the spot. Whatever he found there, he didn’t make it back.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“The thing is, I’ve sent birds to find him, but the place is rotten with goblins. None of us can even get close. You, though? You’re one of them – technically speaking, I mean. They won’t kill someone carrying their parasite. If you can find Halsin and get him out of there, we can discover what he learned. And perhaps he can save your life. How’s that sound?”

Ellynn ponders for a moment. If Halsin is a better healer than Nettie, he could help her more. “All right. I’ll find him.”

Nettie lets out a sigh of relief: “Thank you. It would mean everything to the grove—to me. I wish I could tell you what happened out there, but those adventurers were the only witnesses. And they’re long gone. All I can say for sure is they all went to the old temple of Selȗne, and Master Halsin didn’t make it back. Good luck out there. And if things start to go bad, remember the vial. Remember your oath.”

Ellynn nods as she turns and leaves the enclave, making her way through the hideout and back outside to the grove. Astarion quickly moves beside her, speaking in a low tone. “So, we’re just making promises to kill ourselves then?”

“Like the conversation we had before doesn’t come to mind?”

“That’s us, though. When you go around making a suicide pact with complete strangers who had the intention of killing you, that’s entirely different.” Ellynn raises a brow at him as he takes notice. “Yes, before we knew each other, that would have been fine, but we know each other well enough to consider these things more closely.”

“Look, it’s not like I’m going through with it. I only swore to give her peace of mind. What was I about to do? Risk getting poisoned anyway if I said no? And besides, she had the door closed. I doubt any of us knew the spell to open it if we were to kill her, and I doubt the druids out there would have taken kindly to us killing their healer.”

Astarion tried to offer a rebuttal but could not come up with a good response. Gale, however, had some choice words to offer: “If it is all the same to you, I would have been very peaked if she did go through with poisoning you. Trying to put you down like a dying dog without so much as a whisper of consent. How dare she try to snuff out life with as much as snuffing out a bloody candle!”

Ellynn stops and looks at Gale with concern. “Gale, it’s fine. Really. I handled it.”

“Yes, I know. I know you did. But a few moments more, a few different words spoken… but you did handle it. You handled it quite well… As for myself, I could quite do with a tumbler of Waterdeep Whiskey… Anyway, we live. For the moment.” He lets out a deep sigh as he smiles. “How about we find that chap Halsin little miss Poison Ivy mentioned? With a bit of luck, he has the means to offer us a cure rather than a coffin.”

“Right. For now, let’s try to explore a little bit. Maybe see about Auntie Ethel’s offer? Maybe she might have a better solution than Nettie tried on me.”

Astarion looks at her with a raised brow. “The same Auntie Ethel who let us kill those two men, might be holding a girl captive, and disappeared in a weird shimmer?”

Shadowheart frowns. “I’d say we should definitely pay her a visit. I would like to see what this is about.”

Ellynn nods as she and her party set out to return to where they last met Auntie Ethel. As they cross the bridge again, they see a mix of goblin and adventurer corpses strewn about the ground. “Goblins… Looks like an ambush…”

To everyone's disapproval, Astarion doesn’t hesitate to loot the bodies. “What? It’s not like they’ll be needing these anymore. Never know when we’ll need an extra healing potion.” He waves the small bottle around as Ellynn hesitantly snatches and pockets it.

“Fine. We take only what we need.” She and Astarion continue to loot while Gale and Shadowheart stand aside and watch them.

Shadowheart leans toward Gale, whispering, “So it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

“What is?” He whispers back.

“Oh come on. They’re clearly attracted to each other.”

“Well, I can hardly blame Ellynn. Astarion does appear to have the appropriate features that most people may find physically attractive, and he certainly has his charms. But past the facade, he’s more of an arrogant ass.”

Shadowheart smirks at him. “Wow. You’re attracted to him, too?”

“No, not him….”

“Ellynn? Well, I can see why. She has a look of innocence to compliment her combat skills. Even Wyll has taken a liking to her upon first glance, and I think the Gith is starting to see her differently.”

“So we all agree that we like Ellynn, then?”

“Perhaps. But she clearly likes Astarion more than any of us. Might as well root for her and see where this goes.”

Ellynn and Astarion finish looting the corpses as they gather once again. “Alright,” Ellyn began. “Now we can move on.”

The group continued their trek back to the meadow where they had met Ethel. Surprisingly, the bodies were still there. They walked past the two men as Ellynn suddenly stopped. Something about this meadow felt off. She could sense a robust magic presence from her surroundings and felt like she was being watched. She closed her eyes and attempted to dispel whatever magic was around them. To her shock, the entire area around them began to shimmer and vanish gradually, revealing a swamp underneath the beautiful illusion, and the sheer stench of it assaulted her senses.

Gale is the first to speak on it: “Well… I have to give credit where credit is due. That was a very convincing illusion.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Ellynn says as she walks ahead. With each step, she finds traps strewn in the bogs, a basket of poisoned apples, and an abandoned campsite, and she finds Redcaps, short troll-like creatures, wandering about. She tries to interact with one, but it…. Baa’s at her? It seems to think it’s a sheep, though the illusion has fallen. She and the party walk past it for now, trying to find on the map where Auntie Ethel is staying. As they make their way up a path, they see someone toward the left of it. A man with long brown hair, an upturned mustache and beard, and a scar stretching from the bridge of his nose to his right cheek just below the eye.

“Ah, stranger. Forgive the aroma.” Ellynn stood confused before a different stench pierced through the swamp air. She catches a waft of something more foul – metallic and sickly-sweet. “Powdered iron-vine. An old hunter’s trick – most monsters will think twice before making a meal of me.”

Astarion raises a brow as he slowly approaches him. “You’re a monster hunter? I’m surprised – I thought all Gur were vagrant cut-throats.”

“Uh… Pardon, but who – or what– is a Gur?” Ellynn asks.

The man chuckles and puts on a quick performance for her. “A mystical and dangerous people, we travel the land, never settling in one place. We steal your chickens, curse your crops, seduce your daughters – your friend here has heard it all, I’m sure. No, I wish I had half the power settled folk think my people possess. Alas, I am a simple wanderer. A simple wanderer and monster hunter. But I’m no witch doctor or cut-throat.”

Ellynn chuckles at his performance. “So, what monster are you hunting then?”

“Something terrifying, no doubt,” Astarion answers for them. “Dragon? Cyclops? Kobold?”

“Nothing so dramatic,” the Gur said. “I’m hunting for a vampire spawn.” Astarion’s face drops as the Gur continues. “His name is Astarion, but I fear he’s gone to ground. I was hoping the hag of these lands could help me flush him out if I could pay her blood price.”

Ellynn glances toward Astarion for a moment before shifting her gaze back to the Gur. “And when you find this ‘Astarion’? You’ll kill him?”

“Not this time. My orders are to capture him.”

“Oh?” Astarion chimes in. “And bring him where, exactly?”

“Baldur’s Gate. My people wait for me there.”

“Ahem…” Ellynn coughs up. “Only a spawn? Pity. Not like it’s a real vampire,” she says, trying not to let the Gur notice the tension building up.

“I don’t know.” Astarion replies as he glances at her. “I’m sure a vampire spawn could still rip your throat out if he felt like it.”

“He is right, unfortunately,” the Gur says. “They are only weak when compared to their masters. During the day, we have the advantage. But at night, when they hunt? You will not find a more deadly quarry.”

“Yes,” Ellynn replies. “I’m sure they can creep right up on you…”

“We’ve all survived so far, “ Astarion says. “Let’s focus on that.”

The Gur frowns a bit. “It would still be wise to pose guards at night. The threat is real.”

Astarion smirks at him. “Indeed it is. We should do something about this threat,” he says, glancing at Ellynn intently.

Ellynn could tell what he was thinking as she pondered for a moment. He’s reacting as if he knows the Gur well; the hatred appears palpable, though she couldn’t think why. Under all the smiles, she could feel Astarion’s tension. He’s coiled like a spring, hand inching toward his weapon. If he is reacting this way, the man must surely be dangerous. Or perhaps it is Astarion who is more dangerous than he let on. But she didn’t want anymore troubles to occur if the Gur were to live and find out about him. She sighs as she looks at Astarion. “Alright, Astarion. Kill him if you must…”

Astarion grins as he unsheaths his dagger, snarling, “Excellent!”

He inches toward the Gur as the man’s eyes widen. “That’s Astarion? It can’t be…”

“These days, I make the impossible seem easy… I’ve crossed paths with your people before, you know…” The Gur attempts to reach for his weapon, but before he can, Astarion grabs him by the head in one hand and buries the dagger’s blade into his eye with the other, pushing with all the strength he can muster before letting him fall limply to the ground. “It wasn’t a good experience…” He soon kneels and pulls the blade back out, wiping the blood on the Gur’s clothes before sheathing it.

Ellynn gulps as she watches him turn back toward her. “That bad, huh?”

“That bad,” he replies, blood still splattered on his cheek. “Let’s go, we’ve wasted enough time talking.”

“Wait..”

“Hmm? What can I do for you?”

“You uh… killed that monster hunter awful quick…”

“I know,” he says with a smirk. “Wasn’t it impressive?”

“Um…. No more impressive than you usually are…”

Astarion chuckles at her. “Aren’t you just obsessed? And here I am, not even trying. He won’t bother us anymore. Now I’ve made sure of it.” His eyes go dark as he says that momentarily before turning again and walking ahead of her. “Oh! Well, look at that. This must be where the Hag is staying. How convenient!”

“What?” Ellynn and the rest of her party run up and see a decrepit teahouse up the hill. “Well… That is convenient… He was close, that’s for sure.”

She walks toward the door and hears a couple of voices inside. One of them sounded young, and the other was Auntie Ethel. She opens the door and goes inside, and she sees Mayrina, the sister of the men from before, sitting at a small table with half a pie in front of her.

“I don’t want a crumb left on that plate, girl,” Auntie Ethel said sternly.

Mayrina groans, holding her stomach, as she looks up at Auntie Ethel with a pained expression. “Auntie Ethel, please. One more bite and this pie is gonna come back up to say hello..”

“Don’t make me get the wooden spoon. You’re eating for two, so get to it!” She turns and sees Ellynn and her party at her door as she smiles. “If it isn’t the cheekiest pup of them all. You’d best have one hells of an apology for me, young lady.”

Ellynn frowns at her. “You’ll get no apology from me, hag.”

“Hah! Oh, I do like the mouthy ones. You know, I was gonna give you a swift kick up the arse and show you the door… but I think you and I could have a bit of fun together.” She hears Mayrina groaning in the background as she lets out an exasperated sigh. “Gods, grant me patience… Eat up, Mayrina! I won’t say it again.”

“Do you treat all your guests so poorly?”

“Hmmm? Watch that tone, sweetie. You want to be in my good books, trust me. That wriggler in your head isn’t going to get its damn self out, is it?”

“Something isn’t right. That woman – why is she with you?”

“Busybodies are not appreciated around here… I’ll talk about your wriggler – and that’s it. Last warning.”

“No! This woman is clearly in trouble.”

Auntie Ethel soon turns toward Mayrina and waves her hand as the girl vanishes with a green flash. “You want to play the hero so badly? Fine. Let’s make this interesting.” Her body begins to glow green as her form shifts and warps before the party. In a flash, her proper form is revealed to them. She was a towering hag with pointed ears, jagged teeth, a pointed nose, and hunchbacked with what appeared to be bones bursting from her back. Her arms were long and wrapped in vines, and her fingers were long and bony with nails like long knives. She wore a ragged dress draping over her body, wearing what looked like a long seaweed-like scarf. Her hair was scraggly and tangled in the bones on her back, looking like moss and foliage. She snarled at the party, initiating a battle with them.

She goes invisible as Ellynn attempts to cast a firebolt to the spot where she stood, only to miss. Ethel lets out a call, causing the Redcaps from earlier to start dashing for the teahouse. She chuckles as she escapes, dousing the fireplace and making her way through it. A secret passage! Gale sets up a large puddle of grease while Shadowheart and Astarion charge their firebolts, ready to cast onto the puddle as the Redcaps attempt to run towards them through it. They slip on the grease as the two unleash their firebolts, the grease bursting into flames as the Redcaps catch fire. They all get up and attempt to continue their charge toward the group as Astarion takes out his crossbow and fires bolts at them. Ellynn and Shadowheart use their weapons to take down the ones getting too close while the bolts shoot the rest down. Soon, the charge lay limp outside and in the teahouse as Ellynn made her way to the large fireplace. She could feel the same magical presence she felt back at the entrance of the swamp as she stepped into the smoldering embers. She approaches the wall and reaches a hand up to touch it, only for it to phase through as the image of the wall shimmers, revealing a stairway downward and deep underground. “Her lair must be down here… We must make haste if we’re to save the poor girl.”

She walks through the illusion with her party as they descend the stairway. They come across a large room with much going on. They see a cauldron near the entrance, and going around from right to left, they see a head being held before a mirror, a dead elven woman with her eyes gouged out, a headless human woman holding her head, a petrified dwarf with a stone portrait of what could be assumed to be his family wrapped in vines, and a man surrounded by mirrors, cowering from whatever he was seeing in them. As she makes her way down to the room, Auntie Ethel suddenly appears before her, appearing quite frustrated.

“You are as thick as they come, sweetness,” she says, her voice harsher and warbling. This is my personal playhouse. And you don’t have an invite. Get. Out.”

“Tell me where Mayrina is!”

“Has that wriggler eaten your brain already? Leave. Or you’ll end up in tonight’s stew. You’ll go nicely with Mayrina. She’s already marinating. HAH!” She turns and runs before vanishing in a puff of green spores.

“Damn… What do we do? Can we even take on a hag?”

Gale comes up to her side. “We’ll likely face worse the further we go on our journey. Why don’t we consider this hag a test of our strength and will?”

Astarion groans. “You’re making this more boring than it needs to be. Let’s just go and kill the hag already. I’m just itching to stab something again.”

Shadowheart chimes in. “We need to consider how powerful she might be. We’ll need a good strategy to take her down and save the girl. Judging by her words earlier, I think she may be pregnant.”

Ellynn unsheaths her sword, looking at the party around her as they each nod, ready to face the hag by her side. “Alright…. Let us venture forth.”