Chasm of the priestess ambush

The chasm of the priestess ambush is a wide chasm deep in the tunnels below Gromkar, with roads running along it at different depths and caves opening high on its walls. In the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign, Kemp Corvus, Sarah, Ephorus and Baltazar hid in those caves for days to waylay a drow priestess and her escort.¹²

Karak's plan

In Gromkar, Karak spread a map in his house and explained that the drow kept safe houses in the empty homes cut into the rock. He wanted Ephorus to find them secretly by following the trail of supplies and messages, and the three to raid them if they could, since a large military operation might warn the spies. Large drow forces were passing beneath Gromkar, perhaps bound for some other target. From a drow he had captured the day before he had learned that they were making safe the route of a priestess, and he meant to ambush and kill her in the tunnels within a few days with the three he trusted.³⁴

He counted the killing of collaborators in the city a priority, but agreed that those who seemed valuable might be questioned when the companions argued for it. In his secret war plan, if the enemy's true goal lay near the dwarven homeland, the forces there would hold for six or seven months and then fall back fighting beneath the mountain; should he give that order, the three were to carry the news there faster by the surface, and Kemp promised to obey.⁵⁶

Maps and notes were prepared for a journey of several days and a long wait, since the priestess might travel apart from the main column for her safety. Karak said the army would deliberately leave some points open, so it mattered that the companions see the crossing at the right moment and stay hidden in that dark country full of caves. He suggested that a volunteer from a newly arrived column might join them, and the companions settled the length of the mission and the extra companion with the Baron.⁷⁸⁹

The road down

The first stretch of tunnels below the surface was not deserted: the companions met dwarves who gave them directions, and after about a day and a half reached the less travelled parts. They agreed on single and double whistles and regular all-clear signals with the scout who went ahead, and made camp without fire in a dead end where the passage had been blown in, out of sight of the road.¹⁰¹¹¹²

Scouting ahead, they saw on another road, far down across the wide chasm, green-skinned, orc-like figures and a large force passing below them. They climbed the steep slope, tied ropes and reached the caves that open high on the chasm wall, where they could watch the crossings and settle into ambush. There they weighed waiting in separate places, invisibility and spells of flight to reach the point of attack once the target was seen.¹³¹¹⁴

The wait

They waited in tension for about five days, learning the ground and the pattern of the watches. Then a vanguard of four appeared: two scouts in front and two riders on lizards lower than horses but broader. The vanguard swept the surroundings and the heights with light, and one lizard walked along the face of the chasm as if on level ground. Ephorus followed them unseen and hurried back to warn that others were coming behind.²¹⁵

About an hour later the priestess came, sitting cross-legged on a purple disc floating in the air, with three elite foot soldiers and two lizard riders. Her party moved faster than the vanguard and searched the surroundings less. The companions hid in the caves until their targets reached the place, and the fight began.¹⁶¹⁷

Spoiler: The ambush and its outcomeRevealSpoils: Sürgün Günlükleri #36; Sürgün Günlükleri #37 · Say what you have read

Kemp swept down from on high into the melee while the others attacked from a distance. The riders closed in on their lizards with poisoned blows and crossbows, and Baltazar was wounded. The priestess twisted and swelled into a demon-like thing with one great eye and a fluid, slime-like body that hardened like rock and flame. A blow of an icy sword into its mouth froze the eye, which shattered and spilled away, and the body began to cool.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰

Three drow watched from a ledge above and at first did not shoot. When one enemy rider was killed, his lizard fled and the other attackers fell back. Then a spirit put its head out of the rock and beckoned to one of the companions alone; as the drow above began to shoot, the company gathered behind that companion and followed. In the retreat someone tried to take the priestess's snake-headed object. The company slid a very long way down an opening passage, with Baltazar unconscious, and came to rest in a dark chamber full of mushrooms, beyond which lay the hidden settlement where they were held for some days.²¹²²²³

From there the companions reported by a spell of sending that they had killed the priestess and could not come back quickly. After a two-day journey they reached Gromkar again and met the Baron, who was now always under guard. He said the priestess's death had thrown the enemy into confusion: they had given up a direct attack on Gromkar and were trying to slip around its defences, and the struggle would now be a long, indirect one. Since no one of House Demirkapı was left, he advised them to give the object they had taken from the priestess to the authorities of Gazad Fortress when they reached the dwarven lands.²⁴²⁵²⁶

Karak planned to go down with a large force, set up a line of defence and then fall back fighting beneath the mountain. He said the witch hunters were very useful against the enemy's mages, and the companions were to carry the priestess's whip to the fortress of the ancestral house.²⁷