The Earl of Marlshead's home was not what you might call modest, although it was not at the same level as the Elsinihre house in Taryspeek, where her uncle lived. Or her home, the Elsenspeer palace in Maidenspire. And it certainly didn't even come close to the royal castle of the Bossanares in Fairpake, a place she was all too familiar with, courtesy of being friends with the Queen's children. But, as far as human dwellings went, it was still impressive. And Dianara was inside it, standing before Lord Whiteking, Earl of Marlshead as he sat in his oversized chair, which was not only too big for the place (as impossible a task that seemed), but also grossly at odds with the decor.
"I'm glad you came, Lady Dianara," Lord Whiteking bowed in his chair, before continuing. "There has recently been a spate of kidnappings of young women in my earldom. I am hoping you would be able to find out who is doing this and why."
"Why can't you just get one of your sheriffs to conduct the investigation?" Dianara seemed clear in her dismissive speech that she really did not want to be here, and would take any reason to leave.
"Because they've come up with nothing," he responded, rising from his chair and walking own towards her. "And when I asked your father for assistance—fully expecting him to send one of his sheriffs to investigate—he insisted that you would be the best person for the job. I really do not want to have to tell him how poorly you did before you even started." His tone was uncompromising.
"Fine," she relented, "I'll do it."
"Good," the earl's tone changed, and he clapped his hands twice. Two guards appeared out of nowhere. "These two guards will accompany you during your investigation," he said finally, before taking his leave of Dianara, leaving her alone in the room with the guards.
Dianara took the lead immediately. "Okay, so if they're being kidnapped, I suppose the best thing we can do is wait to see who's doing the kidnapping."
The guards looked at each other in disbelief. "But don't you want to interview people?" the first one piped up.
"The kidnappers will come to us," she reasoned, "instead of us looking for them." She had a sound plan; if they were taking people regularly, it would be easier to set themselves up as bait than to just interview and hope you an track them down, especially if they were being stealthy about their task. "As you wish, milady," they both replied, convinced.
*****
Night fell. Dianara, as befitting her elven nature, meditated on her bed at a boarding house, while one guard slept, leaving the other to keep guard (by his choice).
The drow{sup]1[/sup] thought him a tasty, and easy, target. And he made a surprise attack with his shortsword.
It failed.
The guard noticed, and a few longsword swipes later, the drow was dead.
*****
"M'Lady, I must insist on interviewing witnesses."
"Why?" Dianara asked, wondering why she was being asked to start her morning doing this.
"There were more kidnappings last night, of which you almost became one," one of the guards responded.
"Why do you say that?"
"I killed the drow that tried to come for you." The guard's statement was definitive.
"Drow? I thought they were fairy tales."
"Oh no," the other guard finally piped up, "they are very real. They live in the Underdark
2, where all kinds of monsters lurk."
"Well, since they are coming out to kidnap me along with anyone else they can get their hands on, they'll try again tonight, and maybe bring more." Her plan, or moreover her choice to repeat the same one, was starting to wear a little on the guards. Still, they were sworn to her by the Earl, and they had a job to protect and assist her in any way possible.
They sighed heavily. "As you wish, milady."
*****
The guards had swapped around for this duty, while Dianara resumed her meditative state.
"He's the one, I'm sure," a voice whispered from on high, beyond the hearing of the guard. "He killed Armoz. He deserves vengeance."
The pair dopped down, and the whisperer launched its attack.
He was met with success, even if that success did not result in much except a gash in his target's shoulder and his reveal.
The battle was long, but the pair of drow finally had the guard dead. They made their way into the boarding house, seeking out their prey.
The other guard asleep in bed was a discovery they weren't expecting. "Hang on, this guy looks like him as well."
"I thought you said the first one was him!"
"I thought wrong, okay?! Let's get this one, just the same." They entered, and raised their shortswords above their heads. One hit, but it was enough to wake him long enough to see the face of his eventual murderer. This just left the elf.
Two dark manipulations for arms wrapped around Dianara, breaking her meditation, but she found she couldn't move, they had her grappled so hard. "Do not think about doing anything funny," one of them hissed in her ear, "or we will tear you limb from limb. Don't worry about your escorts; they have already been killed."
*****
Dianara's hands were tied to the front of the cage she had been bundled roughly into. The silk rope was tight. She looked around, seeing the rows upon rows of cages that lined the corridor's walls. She was not the only one here.
"Hey! Did they take you too?"
Dianara turned to see a dwarven girl looking right at her from her own cage on the other wall. "Yeah. I was supposed to be investigating the disappearances."
"Well, congratulations, you've just solved the mystery." There was no malice or saracsm in the dwarf's voice.
"What are they going to do to us?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
There was hubbub at the end of the corridor. "I'm Dianara, by the way," she said quickly. "What's your name?"
"Amoria," replied the dwarf.
The end of the corridor gave way to a widening sliver of light, as two doors opened out to a loud murmuring from outside. Drow came and untied the girls, pulling them from their cages and into a line out the door. Dianara tried to pull on her rope, hoping to break free, but realised she had only tightened it, making all the others think twice about trying to break their own bonds.
They were led out to a pavilion, and there Dianara noticed what filled it: mind flayers
3, dragons, yugoloths
4, demons...everything she could recognise, and all creatures she had, before now, believed were nothing more than boogeymen from childhood stories. A balor stood at a podium on the stage; she realised he was an auctioneer.
The girl in front of her was brought to the front, and the balor began his bidding spiel, setting the start at one hundred gold. The bidding went on, finally finishing at two thousand. She saw who she was being sent to: a regular mind flayer. She screamed, and struggled as she was taken offstage.
It was finally Dianara's turn. "Next up, and boy do we have a treat for you tonight!" began the auctioneer. "A High Elf wizard, a child of the noble houses! She will make a treat for anyone who wants her. I'll start the bidding at three thousand gold!"
The bidding was hot, initially between three parties: a red dragon, a neothelid
5, and a blue-skinned feral tiefling female. The dragon, however, was quick to back away after bids of 3800 and 4400 from the other two respoectively, leaving them to continue the auction. 4900. 5100. 6000. 6700. 7100. The tiefling and neothelid realised, once she had bid made the bid of 7900 gold, that their funds would be depleted quickly with this bid. The red dragon noticed, and made them an offer: go three ways in the bid, and they could share the girl three ways. They agreed to the lucrative offer, and they made one final bid: ten thousand gold.
"Sold!"
1 Drow are dark elves, residents of the Underdark. Mainly scavengers and thieves, and well-organised ones at that.
2 The Underdark is an underground network of caves and tunnels, home to dark reflections of overworld races such as elves, dwarves and gnomes, as well as its own unique inhabitant races. It is also a place where the less legal markets can appear among the more legal and unique.
3 Mind flayers are creatures with strong psychic powers and, usually, long tenacles tipped with barbs. Basically, if you end up with one of those, you're as good as fucked.
4 There's no real way to describe yugoloths, other than calling them demonic. Many have a mostly humanoid form, with just a small difference such as difference in head. However, lower yugoloths look somewhat insectoid in appearance.
4 A worm-like mind flayer, and a sary one at that!