# Tales of the Legacy - Concluded



## Delemental

(This Story Hour is indexed.)

This Story Hour is set on a homebrew world, known as Aelfenn.  It's a world still very much in development, so this campaign has been a real journey of discovery for all of us, including our DM.  I don't want to bore you all with a lengthy exposition, so where appropriate I'll include footnotes to explain campaign elements.  For now, suffice it to say that Aelfenn would likely be described as a "high-magic" world, similar to the Forgotten Realms (in fact the campaign does use some FR material).  Our campaign begins with a familiar concept - the 'adventuring school'.  This school, known simply as "The Tower", lies in the middle of Trageon, which is the capital city of the human empire of Targeth.  Our characters started the campaign at 2nd level, advancing to 4th by the time we were out of school.

Though you'll have to wait a bit for the first installment ("What?  He starts a Story Hour and doesn't include any content?  What a load of..."), I can at least start with introducing the PCs.

*Kyle Goodson* - Male human wizard.  Kyle was born a farmer's son and was trained as a carpenter.  His latent talent for magic was discovered after he was hired on by the Tower as a handyman. Generally good-natured, he has a tendency to stick his foot in his mouth frequently.

*Ariadne "Arrie" Verahannen* - Female human exoticist (a fighter variant; basically trades in the Martial Weapon Proficiencies for 4 Exotic Weapon Proficiencies).  Arrie hails from the kingdom of Merlion, a tiny human barony in the midst of the elven nation of Tlaxan.  Arrie is part of one of the ruling noble families of that nation, but for some reason has been allowed to roam free of her lands and attend classes at the Tower.  Strong-willed and implusive, she sometimes leaps before she looks.

*Autumn Verahannen* - Female aasimar sentinel (a NG paladin variant focused on preventing incursions from evil outsiders).  Autumn was adopted by the Verahannen family, and she and Arrie refer to each other as sisters.  In many ways Autumn is the opposite of Arrie; refined where she is rough, reserved where she is impulsive.

*Lanara Rahila* - Female cansin bard (cansin are like tieflings or aasimar, but are descended from a chaotically-aligned outsider).  The epitome of the wandering minstrel, Lanara calls nowhere home for long.  Lanara prides herself on her ability to subtly manipulate others for a bit of fun.

*Osborn Greenbottle* - Male hin fighter/rogue (hin is this world's term for halfling; I think it's actually in the PHB race description, too).  Osborn grew up as part of a travelling hin circus, where his father performed as a knife-thrower.  Osborn went on the trail of a pair of thieves that had stolen the troupe's money, not giving up until he'd secured the stolen funds nearly two years later.  He was sent to the Tower by his troupe as a reward.

*Tolly Nightsleaving* - Male human cleric.  An orphan raised by the church, Tolly naturally entered their service.  He was sent to the Tower by his superiors in order to make him a bit more world-savvy.  He is dedicated, but a bit naive to the way the world works.

(Tolly eventually picks up a cohort, *Crystal*, a female axani cleric/rogue.)

*Baobab Ghurka* - Male human druid.  Ghurka was a druid obsessed with fire. He only lasted through our first adventure, as his player decided that the character didn't appeal to him.  He was replaced by Tolly.

*Xu Dhii Ngao* - Female human monk.  A young girl who ran away from an arranged marriage, Xu (and the name is pronounced "You Die Now"  ) took shelter in a monastery and learned their ways.  Usually quiet, she expresses herself on the battlefield.

*Kavan* - Male elf cleric.  Kavan (he has never given a family name) had originally followed in the footsteps of his father, becoming a professional escort.  But an encounter with an angry spouse led to a questioning of his life, and a discovery of his faith.

*Madrone* - Female elf favored soul.  Maddie comes into the tale much further along to replace another character, the circumstances of which I won't reveal here.  

*Razael Fletcher* - Male elf tracker (non-spellcasting ranger variant from Complete Warrior).  Razael is a very old, and very cynical elf, who has a tendency to get the wrong people upset.  He was a replacement for another character (which one?  You'll have to stay tuned to find out...)

*Yuri Fanchon* - Female human dragoon (a nation-specific prestige class that emphasizes leaping, acrobatic combat with reach weapons).  Joining the party late in the campaign, Yuri is a professional soldier who was recruited after her unit was wiped out in a war (which war?  Read on...)

That's it for now.  The first real post will hopefully come tomorrow, or late today if I can manage it.


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## haiiro

Delemental said:
			
		

> Our campaign begins with a familiar concept - the 'adventuring school'.  This school, known simply as "The Tower", lies in the middle of Trageon, which is the capital city of the human empire of Targeth.




I've never run or played in a game that featured one, so this isn't familiar to me -- and it sounds interesting. Are you running this campaign, or are you one of the players (your post suggests the latter, to me at least)?

This is a big party (thank you, Counselor Troi...)! I'm curious to see how this pans out in the story -- and in play, as the party for my current campaign has been pretty large at times.

In any case, I liked your introduction.


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## Delemental

haiiro said:
			
		

> I've never run or played in a game that featured one, so this isn't familiar to me -- and it sounds interesting. Are you running this campaign, or are you one of the players (your post suggests the latter, to me at least)?




The concept's something I've run across a couple of times - the party starts out in some sort of formal training program.  It's meant to allow characters to bond and get comfortable working together in a relatively "safe" environment (ie, less chance of a TPK at low levels just as the characters get to know each other).  It's a method for starting a campaign that, like any other element, can be done well or done poorly.  Generally you have to be careful how long you run 'school' adventures, because after a while players want to start doing things that are actually real instead of simulated.  One advantage is that you can string a variety of different types of adventures (dungeon crawl, investigation, city-based, etc) together without having to worry about tying them together.

And yes, I am a player.  My character is the wizard, Kyle.  I've been keeping the logs for our campaign since the beginning, mostly I think because I'm the only one willing to do it every week.   



			
				haiiro said:
			
		

> This is a big party (thank you, Counselor Troi...)! I'm curious to see how this pans out in the story -- and in play, as the party for my current campaign has been pretty large at times.
> 
> In any case, I liked your introduction.




The party size was a bit of a concern for us in the beginning, especially since a lot of the players are roleplay intensive and like to have their own personal subplots.  So far, it's gone all right, though we've learned the hard way that 'solve the mystery' adventures don't flow very smoothly for us (because inevitably with those kind of adventures splitting the party ends up the most efficient way to deal with the investigation, which means you end up with 3-4 separate groups... it took us 4 sessions to finish a relatively simple adventure).


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## Delemental

*School Daze*

The large double doors creaked slightly as Kavan pushed his way into the chamber, looking around at the rows of empty tables and chairs.  Even the circular instructor’s dais in the center of the room stood unoccupied.  At first, Kavan thought he was the first to arrive, but his keen elven ears picked up a slight scuffling from the lowest row of tables.  Moving to the side to get a better look, he saw a large figure crouched on the floor, apparently fiddling with one of the chairs.  The scene was almost comical as the broad-shouldered man tried to squeeze himself under the long table to get a better angle at his work.

_Nothing but a common laborer_, Kavan thought at first, but caught himself.  Whoever this man was, he was one of Erito’s* children, just like himself, and worthy of respect as such.  Kavan fingered the holy symbol around his neck, and said a silent prayer asking for forgiveness from his goddess.

            The man rose from his work as Kavan let his symbol fall back to his chest, and for a moment the elf’s usual poise and reserve was nearly broken.  The man had somehow managed to fit his broad shoulders into a set of mustard-colored robes, which Kavan swore were the same kind the school issued to students of magic.  The man brushed a few wood shavings from his black scruffy hair, then flashed a toothy grin as he put away his dagger.

            “Howdy,” he called out in a leisurely drawl.  “You here for Interdisciplinary Tactics?”

            Kavan nodded as he set his pack down on the table in front of him, far up on the back row.  He’d felt a little silly hauling all his worldly possessions up to the 267th floor of the Tower, but the directions given were specific.

            “Me too,” said the man, sitting down in the chair he’d just been working on.  He shifted his weight back and forth, then slapped his hand on the arm of the chair in satisfaction.  “I hate a wobbly chair,” he said.  “It’s why I always show up early – I swear there weren’t four chair legs of equal length in this whole tower before I got here.”  He put his feet up on the table, then looked back up at the elf in the top row.  “Name’s Kyle,” he said.  “What’s yours?”

            “My name is Kavan.”  He studied the man below him for a moment.  “You are… a student here?”

            “Yup,” said Kyle, grinning.  “And let me tell you, no one was more surprised by that than me.”

            Their conversation was interrupted by a commotion across the room, as two women in heavy armor came into the room through a door across from Kavan and Kyle.  The first was a blonde-haired woman in half-plate, with a longsword on her hip and a shield strapped to her back.  She had one hand wrapped around the arm of her companion, and seemed to be pulling her along.  The second woman wore chainmail armor, and wrapped across her chest and waist was a length of spiked chain.  Strands of brown hair drooped into her face as the two of them found seats in the midst of the room.  As the crash of metal and wood echoed through the room, no one noticed as a small figure slipped in through the door Kavan had used, and stood in the shadows observing.

            “Okay, Autumn, you can let _go_ now.” The woman shrugged out of the other’s grasp, then looked around.  Across from her she saw an elf with short, dark brown hair, wearing simple white robes.  There was some sort of holy symbol around his neck, but she couldn’t make out the details.  _Erito, probably_, she thought.  Below him sat another man, human like herself.  Even though he was as large and muscular as some of her fellow students in her combat training courses, he wore wizards’ robes.  The man looked up and grinned.

            “Howdy, ma’am,” he said to her, “Name’s Kyle.  What’s yours?”

            “I’m Arrie,” she replied, “and this is my sister Autumn.” Arrie gestured at the woman with strawberry blonde hair, who nodded in reply.  “She can’t talk today,” Arrie continued, “she got sick after last week’s outdoor survival course and lost her voice.”**

            Kyle nodded at the introductions, though he was having a hard time seeing the family resemblance.  Autumn seemed to have an inner glow, a subtle quality that suggested she was one of the Touched***, an aasimar.  Arrie, on the other hand, seemed as human as he was.  Still, the style of etching on their armor suggested noble heritage, and nobility sometimes had a strange definition of ‘family’.

            Arrie and Autumn’s glance turned up toward the elf in the top row.  “My name is Kavan,” he said to the implied question.

            The doors opened again, and a slender woman dressed in an unadorned outfit made of green silk stepped quietly into the room and sat down.  Her black hair trailed down her back in a long braid, which curled loosely around the end of a long pole strapped to her back.  She sat quietly, eyes nearly closed, until Kyle spoke.

            “Howdy, my name’s Kyle.  What’s yours, ma’am?”

            “Xu Dhii Ngao,” she replied.

            Kyle’s eyebrows arched in surprise.  “You know, it was just a simple question.  No need to threaten me.”

            Xu’s brow furrowed.  “I do not understand,” she said, perplexed.

            “Well, all I asked was your name, and you tell me I’m going to die now.  What am I supposed to think?”

            Xu shook her head, a tiny smile on her face.  “No, no, you misunderstand.  My name is Xu… Dhii… Ngao.  You may call me simply ‘Xu’.”

            Satisfied, Kyle relaxed.  “All right then.  Well, this is Kavan, and that’s Arrie and Autumn.”

            Another figure entered as the chimes signaling the beginning of class began to sound.  This person, also a human like Kyle, Xu, and Arrie, wore deep green robes that were frayed and singed at the edges.  He wore a full beard, and his blonde hair was long and starting to turn gray.  His eyebrows were missing, and the skin on his face seemed unusually pink, which only highlighted the criss-cross scarring on his cheeks that was typical of someone who has survived wyrmrage fever as a child.  He appeared several years older than the others, and at first it was assumed he was their teacher. But he sat down quickly at a table without comment.

Everyone in the room turned toward the central podium, expecting their instructor to appear. After a minute had passed, Kyle looked up at Arrie and Autumn.  “Um, are we sure this is the right room?”

            Just then the door closest to the two armored women flew open, and another female dashed in.  This one had a wild shock of hair that seemed dyed in a garish mix of pink and orange, and wore clothes in various shades of violet that, although seemingly thrown together from several different styles, somehow managed to look good together, especially considering the amount of skin they revealed.  As she collapsed in a chair, the others could see that her left eye was emerald green, the other sky blue.  She let out a muffled greeting, her voice blocked by the wedge of flatbread still in her teeth.

            Arrie elbowed Autumn.  “See, I wouldn’t have been the last one here,” she quipped.

            “Well, now that everyone else is here…”

            They all turned at the sound of the strange voice.  Stepping out of the shadows in the corner came a diminutive figure, just barely over three feet tall.  The young hin wore a black vest over dark studded leather, and his long black hair was pulled back.  A set of pearly white teeth flashed in the middle of a neatly trimmed goatee and mustache, and everyone could see the hilts of several daggers protruding from his vest, belt, boots, and his wrists.  He jumped up on top of the table near Kavan and sat cross-legged, still grinning.

            “Impressive entrance, Osborn,” said another voice, this one high above them.  Looking up, they saw a large man in leathers clinging to the ceiling, observing them.  He let go, and spun in midair, landing gracefully on his feet in the center of the instructor’s dais.  “I was wondering how long you would remain hidden.  At least I know you weren’t late for class.”  The instructor’s eyes wandered meaningfully over to the wild-haired woman.  “Isn’t that right, Lanara?”

            The woman called Lanara merely shrugged.  “Long lines at the kitchen,” she said, wiping crumbs off the table.

            The instructor turned back to the class without comment.  “Welcome to Interdisciplinary Tactics.  My name is Shilsen Brandovich.  Up until now, your instruction at the Tower has been focused on improving your individual skills; thus you have been working primarily with those of your own profession.  Now, you will learn to work with those of different talents and abilities.  You will learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and in so doing learn to create a more effective whole.”

            Shilsen circled slowly, taking in each person in turn.  “I’ve observed that most of you have already begun introducing yourselves.  This is good, as you will be working closely with the other students in this room for the remainder of your term here at the Tower, and quite possibly beyond.  However, this course is supposed to be about risks and how you handle them as a group.  Therefore, your first simulation will begin immediately.”

            The students looked around at each other.  Simulation?

            “In one hour, you will be taken to a simulated scenario very much like what you would encounter in the outside world as professional adventurers.  This is a simple pass or fail test; complete the assignment, and you pass.  But if you don’t complete the assignment, or you die, then you fail.

            “You have in front of you all of your equipment that you either brought to the Tower yourself or has been given to you as reward for your studies up until now.  This is what you will have to complete your mission.  Other items that can aid you may be found within the scenario itself, but don’t rely on that.  You have the next hour to talk amongst yourselves, to figure out what your capabilities are and what you lack, and make any plans.”  With that, Shilsen stepped off the instructor’s platform, went up the stairs, and exited the room.

----------------
* Erito is the head goddess of the Aelfenn pantheon.  She is the patron deity of the elves, and also the goddess of life, death, and magic.

** Translation: after making the character, her player was unable to attend the first few sessions.  Thus we needed some explanation for why she wasn't able to participate in the conversation.

*** The various races in Aelfenn that are humans with mixed blood are known as the Touched.  There are the Planetouched (classic aasimar and tiefling, as well as the chaotic cansin and the lawful axani), the Element-Touched (the same as the genasi in FR), and the Elf-Touched (half-elves) and Orc-Touched (half-orcs).


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## Delemental

An awkward silence drifted through the chamber.  Finally, Kyle cleared his throat.  “Well, for starters, I don’t think we ever got your name, sir.” He looked at the bearded man in green robes.

            “Baobab Ghurka,” he replied, “but I prefer to be called by my family name, if you don’t mind.”  Introductions were made all the way around, including the hin Osborn and Lanara.

            “Pardon me for asking,” said Kyle to Lanara, “but you’re a cansin, aren’t you?  One of the Chaos-Touched?”

            Lanara nodded, even as she leaned back in her chair.  “Why do you ask?”

            “Just wanted to make sure.  We don’t get many cansin in the school of wizardry.”

            Lanara stuck out her tongue in disdain.  “Wizardry?  Books and studying?  No thanks.  I prefer the natural route myself.” She waved a hand and tiny sparkles of colored light appeared over her head.

            “Wait,” said Kavan, “you’re a wizard?”  He studied Kyle for a moment; with his broad shoulders and large arms, he looked more like a lumberjack than a mage.  He’d seen the robes, of course, but Kavan had half-convinced himself it was a fluke.

            “Well, trying to be, anyway.  But how about you?  What do you do?”

            “I have many skills.  I can fight with bow and blade.”

            “From the look of that pendant around your neck, I would have guessed that you’re a priest.” Kyle squinted at the symbol around Kavan’s neck.  “Erito, I think?”

            Kavan nodded.  “Yes, I serve the goddess Erito as her priest.”

            “So you can command divine magic, including healing, and have power over the undead?”

            “Yes.”

            “Good to know.  As for me, even though my own grimoire is a bit thin right now, I’m willing to help out any way I can.  Offense, defense, information; I try to cover it all.  I looked into specializing – conjuration, divination, and all that – but in the end everything I saw meant giving up something else that seemed real interesting, you know?”

            Arrie watched the exchange with interest, then piped up when Kyle finished.  “Well, I’ll have to speak for both of us today,” she said, pointing at both herself and Autumn.  “My sister here is a Sentinel – a holy warrior devoted to righting wrongs, especially when they involve outsiders.”

            “Outside where?” asked Lanara.

            “Beings from one of the planetary realms besides our own,” explained Kyle.  “Demons, devils, that sort of thing.  It would technically include celestials too, though I get the feeling that Autumn’s not so opposed to them.”

            “Right,” agreed Arrie.  “As for me, I’m a warrior as well, though not as picky as my sister about whose head I bash in.  I’ve trained in a few unusual weapons, such as this.” She unwrapped the heavy spiked chain from around her torso, showing to everyone.  “It’s effective, and it’s great for knocking down those annoying, stick-figure wizards.” She gave an apologetic half-smile to Kyle.  “I also have these.” She reached into a large sack at her hip and produced a ball of iron about the size of a grapefruit.  “It’s an orcish shotput.  Deadly, if a bit clumsy.”

            Osborn’s eyes widened.  “That thing’s almost as big as my mother!” he exclaimed.

            “Yeah, I think that we used something like that to kill pigs back on the farm,” mused Kyle.

            “So did I,” commented Ghurka.

            “You were a farmer too?” asked Kyle.

            “I was a farmhand,” Ghurka replied, “until my boss’ farm burned down one year.  He had to let me go, since he had no crops to tend.  Work was hard to come by then, so I ended up staying in the woods near the farm, living off the land.  Over the next four years I watched the earth reclaim the land than humans had taken from it, and I gained a great respect for nature.  I was especially intrigued by how the whole process had started with fire.  I came to understand the important role fire plays in the cycle of life, and began to play my part to help that cycle along, setting blazes in the forest to clear out old growth so that new growth could prosper.  In time, members of the Druidic Order sought me out, and inducted me into their mysteries.”

            Kavan’s eyes narrowed.  “You set fires in the forest?  On purpose?”

            “Yes.”

            “That isn’t natural,” the elf said.

            “Untrue,” replied Ghurka.  “I am a part of the world, just as you are.  How can any action I take be unnatural?  It’s not as though I laid waste to the entire forest.  Creation and destruction exist in a cycle; both must exist in equal measure.”

            Kavan was silent, clearly still not approving.

            “Say,” asked Lanara, who had produced a fiddle and was tuning it, “are you the one responsible for the scorch marks on the floor on the 82nd level?”

            Ghurka looked around the room for a moment before replying, “I don’t know anything about that.”

            “Right.”  She began playing a soft tune.

            “So then what do you do?” asked Ghurka.

            “Oh, a little of this, a little of that.  Not much of a fighter, but that looks to be the job of the Tin Twins here.  I’ll just immortalize you in song… or write a moving eulogy, as the case may be.”

            “Okay, then,” said Kyle, looking around, “that leaves only two of us who haven’t spoken up yet.”  He turned toward Xu, still sitting quietly in her chair.  “What about you?  I’ll admit I don’t have a good guess.  Usually you can get a good idea from what a person’s wearing or carrying around, but you don’t have much of anything on you except that pole.  What is it you do?”

            Xu looked over at Kyle calmly.  “I, like the others of my order, train our bodies and minds to act as one… no, to be nothingness.”

            “Um, run that by me again?” said Osborn, who was trimming a loose thread off his vest with the point of a dagger.  “What exactly is your gimmick?”

            “My ‘gimmick’?” asked Xu, momentarily confused.  Then understanding dawned on her face.  “Ah, you mean my style of combat.  My style is that I have no style.  When the opponent expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And when the opportunity presents itself, I do not hit.”  She held up one fist in the air.  “It hits all by itself.”

            They all were silent for a moment, considering Xu’s words.  Then Arrie clapped one hand on the table in front of her.  “Down and dirty, fists and feet.  My kind of woman.”  She looked up as Osborn.  “Well, I’d have to guess you’re good with knives.”

            “That I am,” Osborn beamed.  “I’m also skilled in reconnaissance, and the circumvention of security devices… I guess you could say I’m an ‘acquirer’, if you will.”

            “Well,” said Ghurka, “we seem to be rather well-rounded in terms of talent.  That’s a good thing.”

            The eight students spent the remainder of their hour discussing details of their individual capabilities.  They dug through their packs to see what kinds of potions, devices, and other useful items they had accumulated during their first eighteen months at the Tower.  They all had a chance to meet Rupert, the great dane that served as Osborn’s faithful companion and mount.  They also were introduced to Ghurka’s animal companion, a hawk named Cawn.  Just as their conversations were beginning to wind down, Shilsen Brandovich re-entered the room.

            “Everyone, gather your belongings and make your way to the northwest transport,” he ordered.  The students followed him down the long hallway, gathering on the hovering steel disc that moved students through the various levels of the two-mile-high building*.  Shilsen moved to the small pedestal in the middle of the platform, which held a crystalline orb at about a human’s waist height.  He rested his right hand on the orb, and fished a smaller copy of the orb out of his pocket, holding it up to his forehead.  The platform was instantly surrounded by a bubble of magical force, and began descending rapidly.  Shilsen put his instructor’s key back into his pocket, and stood patiently next to the control orb.

            In less than a minute they were in one of the underground levels, where students were normally barred from entering.  They exited the platform and stepped into a rather ordinary chamber.  At the far end was a plain wooden door.

            “Your scenario lies beyond that door,” Shilsen explained.  “Once inside, you will meet people who will explain your objective.  Remember that this is designed to be a realistic simulation of the real world.  Your opposition, whatever form it takes, will be employing deadly force, and you may respond with the same.  Death of all members of the group will result in failure of the scenario, though of course the Tower’s policy of using resurrection magic on fallen students is still in effect.  Now, are there any questions?”

            A couple of hands went into the air.  Shilsen smiled.  “Good.  I sincerely hope you discover the answers at some point.”  With that he turned and got back on the transport platform, ascending rapidly.

            The eight of them (plus Rupert and Cawn) milled about uncertainly.  “So, who wants to go first?” asked Osborne.

            “We have no idea what’s beyond that door,” said Ghurka.  “We could be walking into the middle of a battle for all we know.”

            “Good point,” said Kyle.  “Maybe we should make a plan?  Decide who’s going first, that sort of thing?”

            Arrie yawned.  “Well, why don’t we just open the door and see what’s on the other side before we decide?”  Before anyone could stop her, she walked over and put her hand on the doorknob.

            The door seemed to swell in size, arching over their heads.  The door opened, and the frame seemed to rush toward them, enveloping the group.  There was a flash of bright light, and suddenly the group was standing on a well-worn road, surrounded by trees.  It was late in the day, with the first stars glimmering in the sky.  A few hundred yards down the road, they saw a small village, with smoke from cooking fires curling into the sky.  They could see a few people walking toward the large inn at the center of town.

            “Well,” said Arrie, seeing that everyone was staring at her, “at least it wasn’t a battle, right?”

---------------
* Yes, two miles.  The Tower is built upon an elemental Node, sort of a natural font of magical power, that supports the structure as well as the rest of the city.  The city of Trageon itself consists of three levels; an underground portion, the main city on the surface, and the upper levels which rest on a gigantic floating platform.  The Tower extends through all three levels throught the middle.  The best visualization is the city of Sigil from Planescape, but imagine Sigil as a disk rather than a donut.


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## Delemental

After getting their bearings, the group agreed to head into the small town, assuming that their ‘scenario’ would start from there.  As they approached the inn, which was constructed of rough-hewn stone, a voice called out to them.

            “Hail, strangers!  Are you the ones sent by the king?”

            They turned to regard the speaker, a heavy-set man in his forties.  After looking at each other uncertainly, Ghurka stepped forward.  “Err… yes?”

            “Thank the heavens,” said the man, coming up quickly and grasping Ghurka’s hand.  He went around and shook the hands of each of the students as he talked.

            “We’d just about given up hope – it’s been nearly two months since we sent word to the capital.  Everyone inside will be thrilled to see you here at last.  You’ve come at a good time – we’re holding a town meeting tonight.  How much have you been told?”

            “Umm, not much I’m afraid,” Osborn said quickly.  “When we found out how… desperate your situation was, and how much time had passed, we left immediately.  I’m sure you can fill us in on the details.”

            “Of course, of course!” said the townsperson, who rushed to the door of the inn and pushed it open.  “Come in, we’ll explain everything!”

            The group made their way into the inn, a dimly-lit, smoky building whose ambiance was not enhanced by the throngs of men of various ages packed inside.  Their presence was noted almost immediately, and no introductions were needed.  After several minutes, the students found seats, their arms numb from unending handshakes and friendly shoulder-slaps.

            A grizzled man of sixty years stood up, raising his arms to signal quiet.  As the room settled, he walked up to a spot near the bar, standing up on one of the long wooden benches to address the crowd.

            “Friends,” he said in a voice rough with age and hard labor, “Clevin has asked that I go over our situation from the beginning for the benefit of the adventurers sent by the king.  So bear with me for a spell.  For you young folks from the capital, I’m Parthus, and I’m as close as we get to any kind of authority around here.”

            While Parthus was talking, Kavan leaned over and whispered to Kyle, “I see only men in this inn.  Where are the women of the town?”

            “Home, probably,” replied Kyle quietly, “you know, making dinner, watching the kids.”

            Kavan frowned.  “That is not right.  In elven communities, women have an equal say in such matters.  They have as much right to attend this meeting as the men.”

            Kyle shrugged.  “I wouldn’t disagree with you in principle, Kavan.  But I know these folks – they’re simple people of the land, set in their ways.  And now ain’t the time to educate them.”

            Kavan let the discussion lapse as Parthus began explaining the problem.  “This town was built up around a copper mine that was discovered below some old ruins just a little ways to the east.  For years we’ve been mining the copper and selling it to the capital – the soil around here’s too poor to grow anything, so the mine’s all we’ve got to keep us going.

            “About two months ago was when the invaders came.  Actually, there were two invaders; goblins and kobolds.  They came up from below, overrunning the mines and chasing us out.  It seemed like there were thousands of them.  They’ve settled into the mines, and they have been raiding the town regularly ever since.  Some nights it’s the kobolds, other nights it’s the goblins, and sometimes it’s both one after the other.  We tried to send in a group of our own to root them out – fifty good men went in; barely a dozen made their way out.  We tried to set some traps in the upper levels of the ruins, but we haven’t seen the raids slow down – we think they may have another way out of the mines.  Our town once numbered over three hundred, and we’re down to what you see in this room, plus the women in children.”

            An uneasy silence settled over the room.  Arrie was the first to break it.  “How many goblins and kobolds are there?”

            Parthus shrugged.  “Not sure, really.  Few dozen of each, maybe.  They’ve settled into the lowest part of the mines, each in their own area.  We’ve seen enough to know that they aren’t working together, and they fight each other as much as us.  Probably the only reason we haven’t been wiped out already.”

            “Seen any with any unusual abilities?” asked Kyle.  From his studies he knew that kobolds in particular had a tendency to manifest sorcerous powers.

            “Nothing more unusual than them coming up and killing us,” Parthus said dryly.  He spat on the stone floor.  “Course, not bein’ high-up wizard types like yourself, we ain’t been all that interested in studying them.”

            Kyle dropped into silence as the students leaned together, whispering.  Then Arrie stuck her head up.  “We’ll do our best to aid you and your town, Parthus.  We’ll go into the mines and root out those filth.”

            Cheers erupted around the room.  As the noise died down, Parthus addressed Arrie with a grin.  “We’ve got rooms here at the inn you can sleep in till morning,” he said.  “Then tomorrow…”

            “Tomorrow?” Arrie interrupted.  “I figure there’s no time like the present.”

            Parthus’ smile faded a bit.  “Tonight?  Are you sure about that?  Those critters are likely just getting ready to go about now.”

            “They won’t expect an attack now,” she said confidently.  “We’ll catch them off guard.  Besides, I’m not afraid of anything a bunch of goblins and kobolds can throw at us.”

            The room was filled with the sound of cheering voices again at Arrie’s bold pronouncement.  Next to her, Autumn just rolled her eyes, her illness-ravaged voice too weak to make further protest.  As things quieted down again, they heard Osborn let out a large cough, which sounded remarkably like the word “reward?”

            Parthus nodded.  “Well, of course you can keep anything you find down there, except for our mining tools, of course.  Other than that, well…” Parthus looked down at the floor, and the room fell silent.

            Kyle spoke up.  “Hey, the only thing we need is to know your town is safe again, and for you to save us a couple of those rooms in case this takes a couple of days.  Deal?”

            Parthus looked up and nodded.  “Deal.”  He spit into his palm and extended it.  Kyle did likewise, and they clasped hands in agreement.  This time it was Osborn’s turn to roll his eyes.


----------



## Delemental

They were out the door within the hour.  They would have departed immediately, except that the townsfolk insisted on treating the companions to a round or two of cheap ale.  They’d escaped a third round by pointing out they needed to be at their best to do their job.

            They decided to scout out the surrounding hillside first, to see if there was truth to the rumor that the kobolds and goblins had exits out of the mines other than the ruins.  Sure enough, after only a couple of hours they stumbled across a small hole with a few kobold tracks going in and out.  The hole was so small that only Osborn could have fit inside, an idea he didn’t relish.  Instead, the students sealed off the hole with several large rocks, capped off with a large boulder rolled over by Kyle and Arrie.

            They searched for another hour or so, but couldn’t find a similar passage for the goblin tribe.  Finally, with the night wearing on, the group decided to head for the ruins and descend into the mines.

            They approached cautiously, and soon found the entrance, a single doorway in the hillside.  Parthus had told them that the building had once been a monastery of some sort, but decades ago a mudslide had buried it, and it was abandoned despite the fact that it was mostly intact inside.  The early settlers of the town had used the ruins as a communal root cellar until the day they were digging out a section and discovered a vein of copper ore just below the surface.

            The group lit torches and went inside.  There were no signs of activity in the upper levels, and dust hung thick on the floor.  Osborn waved his torch at the ceiling to point out a rather obvious deadfall to the rest of the party.

            “I think a wooden sign in the ground saying “Pretend there’s a trap here” would have been just as effective,” the hin said sarcastically.

            “They’re miners, not trapsmiths,” pointed out Ghurka.  “They did the best they could.”

            As they moved on through the ruins, they spotted a few more crudely designed traps.  Conspicuously absent were signs of goblins or kobolds – no tracks, no broken weapons, no shed scales or hairs.  The group concluded that the tribes must have decided to avoid the upper level entirely rather than deal with the traps, since they had other means of getting to the surface.

            The group turned and stopped just short of a large square chamber that was thick with cobwebs.  Just as Osborn was about to proceed in, Kavan’s keen eyes spotted something, and he grabbed the hin by the shoulder and pointed.  In the corner, the silhouette of a spider crouched, it’s body as large around as Osborn was tall.

            They stepped back to inform the others.  “What do we do?” asked Osborn.

            “Spider webs burn very well,” said Ghurka, a gleam in his eye.

            “You’d kill a defenseless creature without provocation?” said Kavan.

            “I’d hardly call a three foot wide spider with deadly poisonous fangs ‘defenseless’,” quipped Lanara.

            “Look, this is pointless,” said Kyle.  “We’re here looking for goblins and kobolds, right?  Well, I don’t see signs that either has gone near that spider.  So why sit here trying to figure out how to get past it when we can just avoid it altogether?”

            The rest of the group agreed that dealing with the spider now was pointless.  They moved along down the corridor, eventually coming to a larger room.  A strange, square structure was visible just inside their light; Kavan and Lanara, who could see better in the dark, told the others that there was a similar small building just past it.  Cautiously, they moved into the room, spreading out slightly.

            Osborn crept around the edge of the small building, coming to a half-rotted wooden door.  Gingerly, he reached out with the tip of one of his many daggers and flicked the door open.

            He jumped back in alarm as a human-sized skeleton came crashing out of the room toward him.  The others rushed over, weapons drawn, but by the time they arrived they could see that the skeleton had collapsed in a broken pile of bones.

            Osborn poked at the skull with his dagger while Xu looked around inside the room.  “Who do you suppose this was?  A prisoner left here to die?”

            “Unlikely,” answered Xu.  “This was a meditation cell; the door has no lock.  Perhaps it was one of the monks who inhabited this monastery, who chose to remain here after the slide that buried this place.”

            “Well, let’s keep looking around,” said Arrie.  “There’s a few of these cells, and I think we should check them all; there could be sentries hiding in them.”

            The group spread out through the room.  There were a dozen of the cells in total, with one or two near the far wall partially ruined by the hardened mud.  Each student took a door, and opened them in unison.  Most found nothing but simple cots and wooden bowls, but in the far corner they all heard the sound of Arrie’s spiked chain unfurling, followed by a high-pitched squeal.  Xu, who was closest, ran over to her side.  There was another squeak, and then the two women walked out to join their companions.  Both Arrie’s chain and the edge of Xu’s foot were stained with blood and bits of gray fur.

            “Rats,” said Arrie simply, as she re-wrapped her chain around her torso.

            There were two exits at the near wall; a door and a simple open archway.  Osborn checked the door, and finding no traps he pushed open the door.  A pair of stairs led downward into the earth.

            “Well, at least we know how to get down from here,” he said, pulling the door closed.

            The group chose to explore the archway, not wanting to leave anything dangerous at the top of the stairs.  They proceeded along a narrow, winding hallway a short distance, with Osborn scouting ahead slightly.  As he turned a corner, he stopped short and let out a slight yelp.  This time it was no dead body that had startled him.

            Arrie, Autumn, and Kavan rushed forward to see a huge centipede uncurl from its resting place on the floor in front of them.  As they drew weapons, the centipede lashed out, far quicker than it seemed for an insect of its size, its mandibles skittering off Autumn’s shield.

            Kavan was the first to react, drawing his sword and slicing at the centipede.  He stepped back, seeing ichor running from the tip of his sword, when the centipede struck back, sinking its jaws into Kavan’s forearm.  He immediately felt a flush of heat, and his muscles went slack as the centipede’s poison took hold.  Kavan tried to step back, but his legs weren’t responding, and he was unable to avoid another bite from the centipede.

            Ghurka stepped forward, seeing that the elf was in trouble.  He summoned up healing energies from the earth, and with a touch sent them into Kavan, closing his wounds.  But for his trouble the druid drew the centipede’s attention, and it lashed out with a vicious bite, poisoning Ghurka as well.  The two of them barely managed to drag themselves out of the combat, leaning on each other’s shoulders.

            Arrie and Autumn pressed in on the centipede, hacking away at it, and were shortly joined by Xu.  The corridor was too narrow for anyone else to contribute to the fight; Kyle tried to fire a crossbow bolt but it went past Arrie’s shoulder, missing entirely.  But the three trained fighters were more than capable, and after a few seconds the centipede began crawling away toward a small crack in the wall.

            “Oh, no you don’t!” shouted Arrie.  She dropped her chain and pulled out her orcish shotput, heaving the massive iron ball at the retreating centipede.  It connected solidly in the middle of the creature, and yellow-green ichor splashed in a wide ring across the hallway.  The centipede thrashed and quivered, practically torn in half.  When the death throes faded, Arrie walked up and retrieved her shotput, wiping the gore off before dropping it back in its sack with a satisfied smile on her face.

            As the three fighters cleaned their weapons, Kyle handed Kavan and Ghurka each a small vial.  “Antitoxin,” he explained.  “Made it myself.  It should help counteract the remaining effects of the poison.”

            They both drank, and felt the effects immediately.  They thanked Kyle and then stood up on legs that were not as shaky now.

            Seeing that there was nowhere left to go on the upper level, the group decided to head down the stairs.  Once again Osborn took the lead, who went silently down the stairs to a moderately-sized chamber of rough stone.  Scattered about were a few odd picks and other mining tools.  At the far wall stood a door.

            The group quickly surveyed the room, finding nothing of interest.  They gathered near the door, waiting as Osborn inspected it.

            “It’s trapped,” he whispered, “and not by miners.”  Osborn fiddled with the door for a few minutes, at first seeming frustrated but then at last smiling.  “There.  I’ve disabled the trigger for the darts that shoot out from the wall.” Osborn pointed out two tiny holes in the stone near the doorway.  As Osborn set to work on the lock, Arrie stepped up and placed a hand over one of the holes.  She called upon her Talent*, but she felt no telltale tingling in her mind informing her of the presence of poison within the darts.

            Osborn signaled for quiet as he pushed the door open a crack.  He peered inside, and immediately saw a single kobold sentry, sleeping in a chair.  Osborn suppressed a smile, and motioned for the others to remain where they were.  The hin slipped into the room, quietly drawing a dagger.

            He emerged a moment later, wiping blood off his blade.  “Well, there’s one kobold down.”

            “What else did you see?” asked Xu.

            “The one I got was sitting on a chair next to an open archway.  There’s another sentry in there, off in a side chamber.  I couldn’t see where he was, but I could hear him.” Osborn wrinkled his nose.  “I think he was relieving himself.”

            “What now?” asked Kyle.

            “I say we let Osborn take care of that one the same way he got the first,” offered Ghurka.

            “No,” said Kavan.  “We should capture him.”

            “Good idea,” agreed Arrie.  “We could get information about how many there are.”

            “Okay then,” said Osborn.  “We go in, grab him, and haul him back up the stairs to question him.  Ready?”

            “Hold on.” Arrie dug into her pack and produced a set of bolas.  “Another of my specialties,” she said.  “I can trip him up without hurting him.”

            Osborn, Xu, Arrie, and Kavan readied themselves to rush into the room; the others held back, knowing that the other four could easily handle one kobold.  They moved in quickly.  From outside the room, Kyle, Lanara, Ghurka and Autumn listened as they heard weapons slashing through the air.  They heard the whir of Arrie’s bolas winding up and flying through the air.  There were grunts, and shrieks. Ghurka dashed into the room, leaving the other three outside.  There was a crash, and they a high-pitched shout in a language unfamiliar to most of them.

            “Intruder alert,” Kyle translated, sighing.

            The other three moved into the room as they heard a larger commotion.  Arrie, Xu, and Kavan were engaged with a small pack of kobolds, perhaps half a dozen.  Osborn was throwing knives at one off to the side, and dodging sling bullets being shot back.  Autumn immediately moved to her sister’s side, while Kyle began to circle around the outside of the room, looking for a better angle.  Lanara stood by the door, waiting to see what happened.  Ghurka was tossing flasks of oil at the kobolds.

            The fight was vicious, but brief.  Soon all seven kobolds lay in pools of their own blood.  The students took stock of their situation.  The room wasn’t large, and in the center was another of the meditation cells like those above.  The stench emanating from a small opening in the stone wall marked the location of the kobold latrine.  On the opposite wall, an archway marked the beginning of a hallway that stretched into darkness beyond the range of anyone’s vision.

            “So much for one kobold, eh?” Lanara quipped.

            “Little bugger was fast,” complained Arrie.  “I’ve never seen anything wiggle out of a bola that quickly.”

            While the rest of the group discussed what to do next, Kavan began walking down the hallway slowly, trying to make out enough detail to get a layout of the area.  He picked up a small pebble and imbued it with a light spell, tossing it a short distance down the hall.  His elven eyes picked out the walls; the hallway stretched on into darkness, and there was a corridor to the left about thirty feet past the archway.  Kavan moved forward, trying to see further down the hall.  As he moved, he became so intent on the hallway before him that he didn’t realize he’d stepped out in front of the side corridor.

            The rest of the group was alerted when they heard a sound like hailstones.  They turned to see Kavan under a barrage of tiny stones.  Several bounced off his armor, but a few had struck home, opening gashes in his head and legs.

            The group rushed forward into a wall of kobolds.  The front lines were armed with spears, while another rank behind them were reloading slings.  Arrie, Autumn, and Xu rushed into the mass of small lizard-like creatures, whirling and slashing.  Kavan stumbled back long enough to call upon Erito for healing magic, closing his grievous wounds.  Ghurka and Osborn were the next to charge in, the latter riding atop Rupert.  From behind them they all heard the clear notes of Lanara’s fiddle as she launched into an inspiring battle-chant.  Kyle attempted to move around to fire off a spell, but once again found himself cut off by the press of his companions.  Cursing himself for choosing to prepare ray spells that day, Kyle cast mage armor on himself and waited for an opening, keeping an eye on the long corridor in case reinforcements came from that direction.

            The battle was going well.  Ghurka had called upon the spirits of the nearby plant life, and their roots had vines had erupted from the ground below the kobolds, wrapping them up and preventing them from firing more sling stones.  He was now back to throwing oil flasks at his opponents.  Arrie, Xu, and Autumn were making good progress on the front rank of kobolds, and soon Xu was able to break free and begin assailing the back rank, who switched to their spears to defend themselves.  Kavan rejoined the fray, slashing at kobolds when he could but keeping an eye on his companion’s injuries.  Osborn, who was unable to move through the tight ranks, decided to pull back.  He guided Rupert back to the sentry chamber, where Lanara was still singing, and decided to investigate the meditation chamber while he waited.

            Then, from far back behind the second rank of kobolds, they heard an odd sound, and then instantly the entire intersection was filled with sticky webs.  Everyone except Osborn and Lanara were trapped in the webs, and they were too far away to help.  Arrie was stuck fast, unable to move at all.  Kyle managed to pull himself free slowly, but he emerged in the empty hallway, cut off from everyone else.

            Xu twisted and pulled her way out of the webs, all the while trying to avoid the spears of the kobolds.  But fortune was not with her, and she became stuck for a few seconds – long enough for the kobolds to take advantage and jab her.  Bleeding from several serious wounds, Xu finally pulled free, and tumbled past the knot of kobolds before her, hoping to get at the spell-using kobold despite her injuries.

            Behind her, Arrie and Autumn managed to pull free enough to begin attacking the kobolds again.  Behind them, Ghurka shouted in triumph as he managed to call upon the power of a _produce flame_ spell.  Using the flames to burn himself free, the druid hardly seemed to notice the self-inflicted burns as he turned his attention to a nearby cluster of oil-soaked kobolds.  Grinning, he tossed a handful of flame at them, and watched them erupt in a foul-smelling conflagration.  Then he turned his attention to burning a path out of the webs.

            Xu found a small side corridor and darted down it a moment to catch her breath.  She’d seen no sign of the kobold sorcerer; it must have escaped.  Before returning to the fight, however, she heard a strange sound further down.  Curious, she moved on, moving agilely through Ghurka’s field of entangling roots.  She turned a corner, and had to suppress a laugh.  A band of four goblins was struggling underneath a heavy net, apparently rigged up to prevent just this sort of sneak attack.

            “Opportunity knocks but once,” she said to herself.  She cracked her knuckles, and moved up to the first helpless goblin…

----------------------------
* Every sentient being in Aelfenn has a Talent, which is essentially a low-level spell they can use once per day.  The Talent is usually something suited for the person's profession or personality.  Arrie's Talent is _detect poison_.


----------



## Delemental

It took the group several minutes to collect themselves, burning away the last remnants of the _web _ spell and finishing off the last dying kobolds.  Xu returned to the party, her hands stained with goblin blood.  The others could plainly see how badly hurt she was, and turned to Kavan.  The elven priest shook his head sadly.

            “My strength has almost entirely been depleted from this battle.  I have only one minor orison left to me today.”

            “I have the same problem,” said Ghurka.  “Healing does not come as easily to me as it does to Kavan, and what little ability I had has already been used.”

            “No problem,” said Kyle.  He pulled a potion vial out of his belt and handed it to Xu.  “This should help.”

            Xu accepted the potion and drank it.  It took another dose from Osborn’s supply before Xu’s injuries were healed enough to continue on.  Others busied themselves with cleaning their weapons or binding minor cuts.  Ghurka gleefully went about piling up kobold bodies and burning them.  Kyle began gathering up the kobold’s equipment and tossing it into the single meditation cell near the stairway.

            “What’s the point?” Arrie asked him.  “That stuff isn’t really worth enough to bother with.”

            “Not to us,” said Kyle.  “But it occurs to me that even if we succeed in clearing this mine, it’ll still take a while for those townsfolk up there to get things going again, especially since they’ve lost so many.  I figure they can sell some of this stuff off to bring in some money for food and supplies.”

            Arrie nodded.  “Or keep the weapons to use for their own defense.  You have a good point.”

            The party proceeded to explore the remainder of the second level.  They found the bolt-hole that the mysterious kobold sorcerer had used to escape, and blocked it off using a barrel of foul-smelling spirits that Lanara identified as Thudrud.  Ghurka desperately wanted to light the barrel and try to smoke out the kobold, but the rest of the party convinced him not to.  Kyle ended up using a smokestick to try rooting out the kobold, but when nothing happened, the party assumed the sorcerer had escaped to the surface, and just plugged the hole again to keep it from sneaking up behind them.  A quick count of the sleeping mats in the barracks told them that at most, only one or two kobolds had evaded them.

            In the chambers reserved for the kobold’s leader, they found a stack of twenty silver ingots under a pile of rags, as well as two unmarked vials.  Kyle attempted to determine what they were, but without proper alchemical equipment he didn’t get far.  The party agreed to donate a few of the ingots to the town to help them recover.

            In another side chamber they found a shrine, which Kavan said was dedicated to Qin-Chu, the demigod of lies and deception.  After a brief debate, the party decided that the picks and shovels of the miners would best deal with this evil god’s shrine once they’d finished their job.  Autumn seemed disappointed that she couldn’t personally tear it down, but understood that her efforts were better placed elsewhere.

             They proceeded down the hallway from which the failed goblin ambush had come, with Xu carefully gathering the net the kobolds had set up.  They easily found the door through which the goblins had come, and inside a small room they found two things of interest; a set of stairs going down, and a lone goblin corpse, lying in the middle of the floor.  There were no signs of injury on the goblin, but one hand was stretched out rigidly.

            Ghurka went to examine the goblin, and to his surprise found that it was still alive, but apparently unable to move.  Kavan noted a circular black patch of the palm of the goblin’s outstretched hand.  Lanara and Osborn, who were the only ones who could speak the goblin tongue, tried to get information from the goblin using a simple method of ‘one blink for yes, two blinks for no’.  However, after a few minutes it became clear that this was not a prize example of goblinoid intellect.  All the rogue and bard were able to glean was that there were more goblins downstairs, and that the item that had poisoned him was in the same room.  A quick check revealed that the doorknob for the room was coated with a contact poison, placed by the kobolds to prevent goblin raids.  This particular goblin had apparently been the sacrificial lamb.

            The group debated briefly over what to do with the goblin.  “We could burn it,” offered Ghurka.

            Autumn’s stare informed the group that she did not approve of that idea, evil creature or no.  “Well, we could tie it up and take it back to town later,” said Lanara.  “Let the townsfolk do what they want.  Give it a trial, or whatever.”

            “Trial?” said Kyle incredulously.  “Let me tell you, I know exactly what they’ll do with this goblin.  They’ll use what they call ‘frontier justice’.  Namely, they’ll just cut its throat as soon as they get the chance.”

            “Oh, well, then if that’s the case…” Ghurka pulled out a dagger, and before anyone could stop him, he opened the goblin’s throat from ear to ear.  It kicked for only a few seconds before going still.  Then, while everyone was still trying to figure out what had just happened, Ghurka proceeded to saw off the head entirely and shove it onto the doorknob of the room.  Everyone gaped at the druid.

            “What?” he asked, wiping blood off his dagger.  “It’ll keep us from accidentally touching the poison on the knob later.”

            “Ghurka,” said Lanara after a moment, “one of these days I’ll have to explain to you what a handkerchief is for.”

            The students decided to continue on down to the goblin’s level before things became heated.  Osborn proceeded down the stairs carefully, and stopped at a wooden door.  Listening at the door, the hin indicated that he heard nothing.

            The group crept slowly through the door.  At first it seemed to open into a long hallway of sorts, but the echoes of their footsteps indicated that it was a much larger room than it appeared in the darkness.  They realized that the wall to their left was actually a pile of rubble that went from floor to ceiling, blocking off their view of most of the room.  The rubble seemed to end about forty feet ahead of them.  Osborn and Rupert took the lead, watching for signs of goblins.

            Just as they reached the end of the rubble, there was a loud rumble, and a pile of rough bricks fell from the ceiling.  Rupert managed to jump out of the way, but Osborn was struck by a few of the bricks and was nearly knocked to the ground.  As a cloud of dust rose from the pile, they heard a shrill voice call out in a strange language.  The party didn’t need Lanara or Osborn to translate the alarm the goblins had just raised.

            Moving forward as Osborn pulled back to drink his last potion, the party could barely make out two figures huddled behind a smaller pile of rocks nearby.  The figures threw javelins at the party even as Kavan tossed a pebble he’d cast light upon earlier toward them.  The javelins skittered off Arrie’s armor as the goblin sentries were brought into sharp focus by the light.

            Most of the group pulled out missile weapons.  Kavan did well, hitting one goblin with his longbow.  Next to him Kyle also fired, but though accurate his bolt barely seemed to penetrate flesh.  Ghurka enchanted a dart with his own light spell and threw it, missing a goblin but giving more light to his allies.  Even Autumn tried to shoot at the goblins, but her arrows skittered harmlessly off the rock pile.

            Arrie pulled out her orcish shotput, and with a mighty heave launched it at the closest goblin.  Her aim was true, and the sickening crunch of bone echoed through the large room as the goblin’s brains spilled out of its skull.  Just as Arrie was about to go retrieve her shotput, she saw a group of five more goblins running up.  Grinning, she uncurled her spiked chain and waited for them to come.

            Most of them never got the chance.  Raising his arms, Kyle uttered words of arcane power, and beneath the feet of the largest group of goblins a layer of slick, fatty grease appeared.  Three of the five goblins slipped and fell.  The other two charged toward Arrie, receiving a lash with her spiked chain for their trouble.

            Unfortunately for the goblins, they seemed unable to mount a capable defense.  Another shot from Kavan’s bow felled the last of the two original sentries, while Kyle blinded the grease-covered ones with a flash pellet.  Xu and Autumn moved up to help Arrie, but then Xu noticed two more figures approaching.  These were much larger than the others, and carried longswords instead of morningstars.  “Hobgoblins,” muttered Xu, and she quickly leapt over the rubble pile to meet this new threat head-on.

            Kavan and Kyle contented themselves with firing on the greased goblins.  While Kavan continued to do well, Kyle once again found his bolts barely effective.  “Something must need tightening on this thing,” he said to himself, putting away his crossbow.  He was about to prepare a spell when he saw Ghurka walk up calmly to the cluster of goblins, a flask of oil in hand.  After dousing the pile of struggling goblins, Ghurka called upon his Talent, and suddenly his entire body was engulfed in flame*.  Though the flames seemed not to hurt him, the same could not be said for the goblins, who squealed in pain.  Two of them died instantly, while a third managed to extinguish the flames and ran for the far end of the room, disappearing in the darkness.  Arrie picked up one of the nearby light stones and threw it all the way across the room, striking the far wall but not spotting the fleeing goblin.  Kyle tried to do the same with his own light stone, but his aim was off, and the pebble bounced off Autumn’s helmet.  Kyle looked at her sheepishly.

            Nearby, Xu was keeping the hobgoblins busy, their two on one combat coming up a stalemate.  But then one of the hobgoblins was struck by a beam of pure blackness shot from Kyle’s hand, and then Ghurka, who was still aflame, came running up toward them, the flames shooting out in all directions and scorching the hobgoblins.  Enraged, one of them slashed at this new combatant, and the strike hit true.  Blood spurted across the floor, and Ghurka fell, trying to hold his own entrails in place.

            The others rushed in to finish off the hobgoblins.  Kyle cast another negative energy ray at them, while Xu and Arrie pelted them from both sides.  Kavan rushed to Ghurka and used the last of his divine power to stabilize the druid before he bled to death.  In a few bloody moments, it was over.

            The party rushed in unison toward the area the lone goblin had run, with Ghurka and Kavan trailing behind after pouring one of Ghurka’s healing potions down his throat.  The group hoped to be able to catch any counter-attack before it had time to organize.  As it turned out, no counter-attack was coming.  The goblins’ numbers were far fewer than the kobolds, and only a handful were remaining.  They were scattered about the remainder of the third level of the monastery, hiding, and were easily rooted out and eliminated.  Another shrine to Qin-Chu was discovered, almost identical to the one in the kobold’s stronghold.  Within the hobgoblin chieftains’ chambers they found yet another stack of silver ingots, as well as a few gems and platinum coins.  The hobgoblins also held a store of healing potions, which were happily parceled out among the party.  The entrance to the mine was found, and the reason for the interest of the goblins and kobolds became apparent; though the mines did hold a few meager veins of copper, they came upon new work that had revealed a rich vein of silver ore.

            “Well, that explains where the ingots came from,” commented Lanara.

            “I think we should go deliver the good news,” said Kyle.

            The party returned to the surface and reached town just as dawn was breaking.  They were greeted at the inn by Parthus, who had obviously waited up all night for them.  “What news?” he asked hopefully.

            “Well, we managed to eliminate about fifty or so, but there’s still a good couple of hundred left,” quipped Ghurka.  As Parthus’ face went white, Kyle elbowed Ghurka sharply in the ribs, aggravating his wound.

            “Our druid friend is making a joke,” said Lanara quickly.  “We’ve cleared out the ruins and the mines for you.”

            “That’s wonderful!” Parthus exclaimed.

            “Yes, and we have both very good news, and slightly bad news,” said Arrie.  “The slightly bad news is that you’ll probably have to hire some guards for your mine.  The good news is that the reason you’ll need guards is that a vein of silver has been unearthed down there.”

            “Silver?” gasped Parthus.  “Truly?  This is better than I could have expected!  Our town will be back on its feet in no time at all!  Oh, brave adventurers, how can I…”

            Parthus’ words suddenly became very faint, and his features blurred.  Soon the entire in was a haze of colors, which quickly melted away to reveal a very bare room.  Shilsen, their instructor, was standing where Parthus had been just moments before.

            “Congratulations,” he said.  “You’ve all passed.  Granted, it wasn’t perfect, but overall very well done for the most part.  There were, however, some glaring issues.”  Shilsen looked directly at Ghurka.  “Baobab Ghurka, I will need to speak with you in my office privately.”

            The druid looked up, his hand resting gently on the spot where he’d received the terrible wound in his gut.  “That… hurt,” he said, mostly to himself.  “I don’t think I want to do this any more.”  With that, Ghurka turned and walked out the door without saying another word to anyone, including Shilsen.

            “Well, it seems as though he’s already made a decision,” Shilsen commented.

            “Hope he can find his way out,” said Lanara.

            “Well, he can always burn his way out,” added Kyle.

            “Students,” Shilsen interrupted, “if you’ll follow me, you can receive your rewards for completing this exam, and we can discuss the details of your scenario.”

            They followed Shilsen back to the classroom they had started in.  Arranged on the tables were seven wooden chests of various sizes.  A neatly written sheet of parchment on the table in front of the chest identified who it belonged to.  As the students entered the room, they saw an eighth chest being carried out the back by two large figures.

            “You may claim the contents of your chest as a reward for a job well done.  You will also receive time to rest and prepare for your next exam.  You will be joined by another student in a day or two.  You will, of course, still receive instruction in your individual professions as needed, but from this moment on you are expected to spend the majority of your time with your classmates.  How you choose to spend that time is up to you – the Tower neither condones nor discourages any type of social activities among students.  Just bear in mind that the normal school rules still apply, and that you are still expected to perform at your best during exams.”

            The students looked around at each other, not quite sure what to make of the situation.  Kyle was the first to react, walking over and standing next to Autumn.

            “Well, I for one sure would like to get a chance to have an actual conversation with you after all this.  Let me tell you about an old home remedy I learned from my pa to treat a case of sore throat…”


* Ghurka's talent is _body of the sun_.


----------



## Parlan

Nice start Delemental! Keep your posts to the SH coming!


----------



## Delemental

*Spring Break*

First of all, thanks to Parlan for being my first commenter.  Always nice to have someone break the ice.

This installment was one of our first roleplay only sessions, mostly a 'getting to know you' scenario.

----------------

            Kyle yawned loudly as he walked down the hall toward class.  Despite his enthusiasm yesterday for getting to know his new classmates, the effort was short-lived, as they’d all discovered that they were too exhausted from their ordeal to socialize.  They’d gone their separate ways, promising each other they rendezvous another day.  For Kyle, the rest had been short-lived; that evening he learned of a last-minute opening in the student alchemy lab, and decided to take advantage.  Kyle had always found it difficult to schedule time in the lab, though he’d heard no similar complaints from his fellow students of wizardry.

            Kyle pushed open the door to the classroom, and was slightly surprised to see the chamber was occupied.  Sitting nearly dead center in the class was a large man with light brown hair, as broad as Kyle in the shoulder if not quite as tall.  He wore a simple brown and gray tunic underneath a polished steel breastplate, and a marble disk carved with the likeness of a bear hung from his neck.  The man regarded Kyle with bright blue eyes.

            “Hello,” said the man.  “My name is Tolly Nightsleaving.”

            “Howdy, Tolly,” replied Kyle, shaking the hand that was offered.  “Kyle Goodson.  You must be the new guy we heard would be joining us.”

            “Yes, I received the news yesterday afternoon that I was going to be advanced into Interdisciplinary Tactics a few months ahead of schedule.  I must admit I’m not sure what to expect.”

            “Aw, I’m sure you’ll fit in fine,” said Kyle.  “Besides, the rest of us have only been together a day, so you don’t have much catching up to do.”

            “A day?” Tolly frowned.  “I was told I would be joining an advanced group.”

            “Well,” Kyle shrugged, “I guess that’s technically true.  It was quite a first day!”

            “I see.”  Tolly studied Kyle for a moment before speaking again.  “So, you are a wizard, then?”

            “Yup, sure am, believe it or not.  I like it, though I wish they made clothes in my size.” Kyle strained his arms against the tight fabric of his yellow robes.

            “Perhaps you should take up sewing,” commented Tolly.

            “Well, how about you?  I’d wager that you’re a priest of Ardara*.” Kyle gestured at the bear symbol around Tolly’s neck.

            “Yes, in fact I was raised by the Church.”

            “Huh.  Well, we’ve already got an Eritan priest in our group, so you two should get along fine.”

            “I look forward to meeting them.  Do you have other skills besides wizardry?”

            “Well, I’d been working as a carpenter and general handyman for the Tower for a while before I enrolled.”

            Tolly nodded approvingly.  “Carpentry is a worthwhile trade.  I’m also a blacksmith by trade.”

            “A smith, eh?  That’s great.  I’ve pounded the anvil a few times myself.” Kyle’s speech slowed as he uttered this last statement, as he became aware of the unintended double meaning.  If Tolly recognized it, he showed no outward sign, and Kyle decided it was best to just press on rather than backtrack.

            The potential awkwardness was broken when the door opened and Xu walked in, quietly taking a seat.  Soon others followed; Kavan was next, and then Autumn and Arrie appeared just as the chimes rang to indicate the start of classes.  Lanara had slipped in just behind the two sisters.  As the chimes finished ringing, they realized that Osborn was there as well, having come in unobserved.  Tolly introduced himself as he got the chance.

            They waited quietly for the next minute, expecting their instructor Shilsen to appear.  When he did not arrive, the students began to look at each other nervously.  Then they heard a strange noise coming from the large wooden desk in the center of the room.  Xu stood up to investigate, and she heard noise coming from one of the desk’s deep lower drawers.  Cautiously, she used the end of her long pole to open the drawer.

            Shilsen was inside, contorted into what seemed an impossibly small space.  “Thank you,” he said to Xu, as he began to extricate himself from the tiny space.

            “Showoff,” muttered Lanara to herself.

            “Welcome, class,” Shilsen said as he finally stood up and slid the drawer closed.  “I see that some of you have had a chance to meet Tolly Nightsleaving, your new classmate.  The rest of you will have that opportunity later.  For now, however…”

            And thus began a grueling course of book study.  They covered every conceivable subject, from history to religious theory to etiquette.  Between this and their normal courses of study in their individual area of focus, the group barely had time to breathe, let alone spend any time together.  Each of them looked forward to the upcoming Earthturning Festival**, when they would be given a break from class work.

            Their patience paid off.  After two weeks, Shilsen announced that all students enrolled in Interdisciplinary Tactics were to be given a full tenday off in addition to the two days of the Festival.  Thus on the morning of the 25th of Lupan, the group found themselves standing outside the Tower for the first time in nearly two years, blinking in the bright sunlight.  All around them they say the hustle and bustle of Trageon, the tri-leveled city that surrounded the Tower and served as the capital of the kingdom of Targeth.  Only two of them were missing; Autumn had decided to spend her time off in prayer and meditation, while Osborn had excused himself, saying he had some “personal matters” to attend to.  They’d also had to send Tolly back into the Tower to change clothes, convincing him that walking about in full armor would give off the wrong impression.

            “Well, now what?” asked Kavan.

            “Obviously, we explore the city,” said Arrie.  “I have a few things I’d like to look into, and that’s where all the fun is going to be anyway.”

            They all agreed on this plan, as each of them had things to buy or investigate.

            “So,” asked Kyle, “do we split up, or stick together?”

            “I say stick together,” said Arrie.  Suddenly her face brightened.  “Ooh! We should have dinner together!”

            “Excellent,” said Lanara.  “I’m looking forward to getting Tolly here drunk.”

            Tolly looked confused.  “Are we not going to spend the Holy Days sequestered in prayer and observance?  I thought that was what one did during Earthturning.”

            Lanara rolled her eyes.  “Oh, honey, have we got a lot to teach you.”

            “I know that I’d like to see the Upper City,” commented Kavan.  They all cast their eyes upward to the floating upper level of Trageon, where the wealthiest citizens lived and did business.  They saw the morning light reflecting off the inverted crystalline prism upon which the Upper City sat.  At mid-day, the light from the sun would filter down through the city and into the prism, sending rainbows of light down to the surface so that the main city would not be obscured in their shadow.  Only the Undercity, far under their feet, remained in perpetual gloom.

            “I dunno,” said Kyle, scratching his head, “I’m just in the market for some good tools.  The Upper City looks… pricey.”

            “Hey, we can do our shopping down here another day,” said Arrie.  “After all, we have twelve days.  We’re just going up to look around.”

            Eventually they agreed on a plan, and a few minutes later were on a transport platform headed for Upper Trageon.  They spent a few hours browsing the high-priced shops; Kyle looked wistfully at a business specializing in magical goods, while Lanara studied high-quality instruments.  As the sun came close to dipping below the edge of the Upper City, they decided it was time to get their meal.  After asking around a bit, they were referred to a ‘restaurant’ – an odd type of business that was like an inn, but without rooms to rent, only food.  The group gathered in front of the cozy, elegant building – a sign out front read “Gio’s”.

Everyone had brought along their best clothes for the occasion, and had changed into them before arriving.  They sat in the lobby of Gio’s for about fifteen minutes or so before being escorted to a large, oval-shaped table.  Glittering silver candelabras decorated the center of the table, surrounded by fresh flowers.  Somewhere in the background, an unseen harpist could be heard playing soft, comforting music.  Each person at the table was handed something called a ‘menu’ – a very thin book listing the dozens of dishes and spirits served by the restaurant.  It was a bit unsettling for those who were used to more common inns and taverns, where the selection for a given evening could usually be counted easily on the fingers of one hand.

“You know,” commented Kyle, looking down the listings, “I know that this is written in Common, but it still doesn’t make sense.”

A well-dressed servant came by and took drink orders.  Kavan ordered a bottle of Fire Wine, while Arrie opted for a more refined elven wine.  Lanara’s only criteria for a beverage was that it be ‘something blue’; however, after receiving a sapphire blue concoction that had the taste and aroma of spring water, her next request was for something with ‘a bit more character’.  The servant also had them place their food orders.  Tolly, wanting to try something different, ordered elven cuisine; Kaven in contrast, wanted something bold and spicy, and ended up with an orcish dish.  Xu ordered a vegetarian dish to go with her tea, while Kyle ended up pointing at the menu at an essentially random selection.  Lanara ordered seafood, and Arrie chose a dish inspired by the four elements.

“So anyway,” said Kyle, as they sat around enjoying their drinks, “I had a question for you, Arrie.”  He continued when Arrie’s gaze met his.  “A few weeks ago, during our first exam, I remember making a comment to you that you seemed to be some sort of nobility, because of the etching that was done on your armor.  Now, it seems to me that you weren’t too comfortable with that comment.  Did I get it wrong?”

“Well, no,” she said.  “It’s true that my family does have land and titles.  But I came to the Tower of my own free will, and I don’t want anyone to think that I’m here because Daddy sent me to get a piece of paper telling everyone I’m smart.”

Each of them nodded in understanding.  The Tower did not cater exclusively to adventurers; wealthy families sending their heirs off to get training in etiquette, heraldry, diplomacy, and other ‘noble’ pursuits generated most of its business.  Each of them had had multiple run-ins with young, arrogant men and women in silk blouses who acted as if they personally owned the Tower and everything in it.

“Yeah, I can understand that.” Kyle grinned at her.  “Well, if it means anything, I sure think you’ve proven you have what it takes.”

Arrie nodded at the compliment.  “So, what about you, Kyle?  You spend so much time asking everyone else about themselves, I don’t know much about you.”

“Ah, well, that comes from my Pa.  He always told me the best way to start a conversation is to ask people to talk about themselves, ‘cause it’s the one topic most folks are best at.”

“Was your father a wizard too, or a carpenter?” asked Tolly.

“Farmer, actually.  My folks raised two things well; barley and kids.  I have four siblings, two on each side of me age-wise.  Well, things were good until about the time I turned eleven.  That was when Ma caught the fever and passed on.  That same year was the big drought, and Pa lost the crop.  He couldn’t manage the farm with five mouths to feed, so he sold the land and became a sharecropper.  He sent all us kids off – the young’uns he sent to live with old relatives, and me and my older brother and sister were apprenticed.  I went to work for a carpenter, and that’s where I learned my trade.  After a few years, I left Master Silas and came here to Trageon.  I got myself hired as a laborer in the Tower, but then a couple of years later I discovered I had what the instructors here called ‘magical aptitude’.  So I took out a loan for tuition, and here I am.”

“Any idea where your father is, or your siblings?” asked Kavan.

Kyle shook his head.  “It’s been years since I’ve seen them.  Pa did what he had to do to make sure we all survived.”

“I hope you find your family again someday, Kyle,” said Tolly.

“Speaking of family,” Kyle replied, “I thought you mentioned that you were raised by the church of Ardara?  What’s your story?”

“There is little to tell,” Tolly said quietly.  “I was found on the doorstep of the church as a young child.  I was fostered by the Church, and raised in their tradition.  Becoming a priest was a natural progression for me.  I have spent little time outside the Church, and have known few people besides Ardara’s priests and her dwarven patrons.  Thus it was felt that I would benefit from an education at the Tower, in order to give me… experience.”

“Probably a good thing,” commented Lanara.  “I can’t imagine a life locked up in a temple worshipping rocks.”

Tolly’s response was interrupted by the arrival of their meals.  Distracted by the delicious smells, they ate quietly for several minutes.  Kyle wasn’t sure what he’d received, but noticed that Lanara had the same thing, so assumed it was seafood of some sort.  Whatever it was, he decided, it was delicious.

“So, Kavan,” said Kyle between bites, “you have a story to tell?  What made you end up here?”

Kavan was silent for a minute before answering.  “I don’t think I’m ready to discuss my past with all of you yet,” he said.  “Suffice it to say I have done things I regret, and I am trying to live a better life in service to Erito.  Coming here to the Tower is a part of that.”  Kavan smiled slightly.  “Don’t worry, friends.  I know that secrets and half-truths are no way to win trust.  When I am ready, I will share my story with you.”

“Fair enough,” answered Kyle.

“Thank you,” Kaven looked across the table at Xu, who was quietly eating crispy vegetables in sauce.  “Though maybe it’s unfair to keep my own past shrouded in mystery and then ask another to reveal theirs, I find myself curious to know about Xu.”

Xu gently put her utensils aside before speaking.  “My tale is a simple one,” she began.  “My parents are merchants from a land far from here, and like many merchants they wished to rise to a better station in life.  Thus I was betrothed to a nobleman.  Upon meeting him for the first time, I knew I could not marry him; his wealth was the only quality he possessed of any merit.  I wished to marry for love, not status.  So I ran from my family and this noble, and was taken in by an order of monks.  They taught me their ways, their philosophies.  Upon leaving the monastery, I came to this city to educate myself in the local ways, and in the hope that my family and my intended fiancé would never find me.”

Everyone at the table nodded in sympathy.  “It’s a terrible thing to be forced to into such a position when there is no love,” Kavan said, his eyes strangely distant.

Almost in unison, everyone turned to look at Lanara, who was the only one who hadn’t spoken yet.  She looked back at them, a few loose tentacles dangling from her lips.  She slurped them up and grinned.

“Oh, my story’s not that interesting,” she said, still chewing.  “You’ll hear it soon enough, I’m sure.”  Suddenly she pointed at the doorway.  “Ooh, look!  Dessert!”

Lanara’s tale was forgotten as the dessert cart came around.  Several minutes later, over plates of pastries and custards, the conversation turned to plans for the following days.  At one point a glittering ring on Arrie’s finger caught Kavan’s eye, and he commented on it.

“Thank you,” she replied, without offering further explanation.

Kavan was about to press the issue, when he felt a strange touch on his back just below the neckline.  He looked up to see someone behind him.

“Good evening, Kavan,” said the stranger.  The others looked up to see a dark, slickly attractive stranger standing behind their elven friend.  Looks of puzzlement and curiosity crossed the faces of much of the party as they looked upon the stunning and androgynous being standing before them.  Kavan held this look as well, although it was not the first time this being had crossed his sight.  The stranger, dressed in elegant green robes that shimmered like scales moving across the water, wore a symbol of a serpent about the neck.  A few of the party recognized the pendant as a symbol of Qin-Chu, remembering the symbol from their first exam a few weeks ago.

The stranger’s eyes had not moved from Kavan.  “It is quite a pleasure to see you again,” the stranger said, still holding the stare.

Kavan, his face turning instantly red, replied coldly – but unconvincingly – “Perhaps a pleasure for you.”

“My!  What manners!  Don’t they teach you etiquette?” The stranger finally broke the stare, looking around the table at Kavan’s companions.  “Then again, it looks like they’ll let just about anyone in there, won’t they?”  he said, flashing them a sweet smile that didn’t quite reach the eyes.  “Well, have fun, then!”  The stranger looked back down at Kavan, who was now slightly shaking,  “and I’ll see you later.”

“Not if grace finds itself my way,” muttered Kavan, as he watched the dark being walk away.  The being looked back a couple of times, catching Kavan as he quickly tried to look away and go unnoticed.

Kyle’s eyes followed the stranger’s progress as well.  “Is… that… a ‘friend’ of yours?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t say a friend, dear Kyle,” replied Kavan, as he firmly patted Kyle’s shoulder, attempting to avert Kyle’s gaze without showing any jealousy or desire for the stranger.

While the tension of the situation was alleviated by the arrival of the bill, Kavan would remain transfixed, thoughts about the stranger swarming.  He would need to seek counsel about this entity, as it was pulling him back to old patterns of thought, dangerous patterns of thought.  Kavan was not sure that he was strong enough yet to resist such a delicious temptation.

So delicious.

Arrie scooped up the parchment that listed their bill and looked it over.  “Not bad,” she said.  “Only two hundred thirty gold.  Well, since this was my idea, I’ll cover half.” She brought out a small pouch and began counting out coins.

The rest of the table nodded approvingly and began doing the same.  Unseen by the others, Kyle was growing pale.  Two hundred and thirty gold coins on one meal?  He’d had no idea it would be that expensive; the menu had not listed prices.  That was a year’s income on his parent’s farm.  Kyle looked sheepishly at his coin purse.  He’d received a share of the treasure from the first exam like everyone else, but he’d very carefully set aside the majority of it to buy a few good sets of tools.  He didn’t have nearly enough left to cover his share of dinner, let alone have any money left for the rest of the vacation.  He started to consider what purchases he could do without.

Kavan caught him looking into his coin purse.  “What’s the matter, Kyle?  Someone swipe your money before you left?”

“Um, err… no…”

Kavan smiled at him.  “You didn’t bring enough, did you?”

“Well, um…”

Kavan waved at him dismissively.  “I’ll cover you, Kyle.  I’ve had times myself where I didn’t bring as much coin as I should have.”

Kyle’s face reddened.  “Um, thanks, Kavan.”  He was too embarrassed to point out the flaw in Kavan’s assumption.

With the bill taken care of, the party went out into the streets.  However, they found that Upper Trageon after dark was… dull.  Almost all the businesses were closed, and the residents had retreated to their manses for private celebrations of the upcoming festival.  Thus they decided to drop back down to the main city, and made their way to the Temple District.  Lanara had suggested it, saying that Tolly needed to see how other religions besides Ardara observed Earthturning.  Not surprisingly, the cansin led them to the temple of Feesha, goddess of chaos***, and Ladta, goddess of good fortune, where the celebrations were decidedly more… liberal.

The next afternoon, the party gathered to begin their shopping.  Many of them had bought a room in the city, although Tolly had stayed at the Temple of Ardara and Kyle had insisted on sleeping back in his room at the Tower.  After meeting for a quick breakfast, the party spent their day going back and forth among the shops of Trageon, either as a large group or in smaller clusters.  Kavan inquired into the possibility of enchanting his longsword to create flame, but soon learned that such an enchantment was well beyond his means.  Others looked into more reasonable items; Kyle acquired his tools with the help of Tolly, Arrie did some investigation into makers of exotic weaponry, and Lanara priced new instruments.

Late in the day, Kyle sought out Kavan.  “I have something for you,” he said, presenting a small package to the elf.

Kavan unwrapped the brown paper to reveal a beaten copper vial.  “What is it?”

“Bladefire,” Kyle said.  “An alchemical liquid similar to alchemist’s fire.  You can coat a weapon with it and it will burn.  It only lasts a short time, and it’s not quite as potent as a magical flaming sword, but it’ll do the trick until you can get the real thing.”

Kavan turned the vial over in his hand.  “Thank you.”

Kyle smiled.  “Thanks for dinner.”


-----------------------

* Ardara is the goddess of Earth, Law, and the patron deity of the dwarves.  She is one of a quartet of primary deities known as The Four, which are the world's primary deities under Erito.

** Earthturning is one of five mahor festivals in Aelfenn, dedicated to Ardara (somewhat appropriate, since we had just acquired an Ardaran priest).  As it falls in the spring, Earthturning is primarily a planting/fertility celebration.

*** As a side note, Feesha is one of The Four as well, and in addition to being the patron of Chaos, she is the goddess of Air and the patron of the Hin.


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## The Amazing Dingo

*Very well done*

Very well done!  I just wanted to be the second to say that I'm enjoying the gameplay, the characters, their interactions, the gaming world, and even the set-up.  I admit that I was a little leary at first (and tend to stay away from the somewhat cliche opening set-ups) but I was definately wrong this time around.  Also, the writing is smooth and easy to follow.

One question: how far ahead in terms of game time and level is the group currently?


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## Delemental

The Amazing Dingo said:
			
		

> Very well done!  I just wanted to be the second to say that I'm enjoying the gameplay, the characters, their interactions, the gaming world, and even the set-up.  I admit that I was a little leary at first (and tend to stay away from the somewhat cliche opening set-ups) but I was definately wrong this time around.  Also, the writing is smooth and easy to follow.
> 
> One question: how far ahead in terms of game time and level is the group currently?




Admittedly, even I was a little leery when our DM said that he'd be using the school - like you, I've seen it done poorly.  I think what he did right in this case was remembering that the school was merely a pretext to get our group together, and didn't keep us there too long.  I usually see the school concept overdone in the sense that the PCs stay there far too long, and the players quickly get bored of everything being a 'test' and not really involving any risk or real change.

I appreciate the comment on the writing - one of my primary motivators is improving my style.  I'm hoping that the characters and interactions will only improve as I go, as it's one of the things I'm working on.  One of the problems with writing a Story Hour as a player is the strong tendency to overemphasize your own character - after all, that's the one you're most familiar with.  My goal is to make all the PC's seem like they get their time in the spotlight, and not to make the story turn into "Kyle and his Amazing Friends".

We're about 5-6 months ahead of this point in game time, and currently we're about midway through 6th level.  The DM promises that his metaplot will sustain us through 20th level and beyond.  I wanted to build up a sizeable lead between my postings here and the actual game, not only to give myself a buffer but also to allow me to continue posting updates regularly even if our group skips a week or two.


----------



## Delemental

*Trouble at Grog's*

The spring festival came and went all too quickly, and the students found themselves trudging slowly back to the Tower to resume their studies.  Shilsen started with another week of book study, and then switched gears unexpectedly.  He told the students to come to one of the simulation rooms with all their gear, and for the next week put them through endurance training, having them travel from dawn to dusk in a variety of simulated terrains.

            On the evening of the fifth day, as the group sat around soaking their feet in a small mountain stream, Shilsen suddenly walked out from behind a large elm tree.

            “I’m here to inform you that your next exam will be held tomorrow,” he said. “Tomorrow evening, at the end of your day’s march,” Shilsen paused long enough to let them groan at the thought of another day of hiking, “you will come into a small town.  You are to go to the inn there, and your next scenario will begin there.”

            “Excuse me, sir,” asked Tolly, raising his hand, “but what is the purpose of beginning the exam after the endurance training?”

            Shilsen almost smiled.  “One of the facts noted during this group’s first exam was that despite the fact that the scenario began at dusk, and it had been implied during the exam that the group had been traveling from a considerable distance, the group immediately launched into activity.  While such initiative must be commended, it was felt that fatigue would have to be added in as a factor in order to give the students the opportunity to see how it might affect their decision making.”

            The next day they group gathered at the simulation chamber, and as it faded into a worn dirt road cutting through a sparse forest, they began walking.  They were surprised to see that today Osborn had been allowed to bring his dog, Rupert, which eased the hin’s burden considerably.  Arrie was leading a large white horse, which she called ‘Ghost’, and had filled its saddlebags with extra equipment.

            As they walked, Tolly kept his eyes open, trying to get a sense of how the party members related.  He saw that Autumn and Arrie stuck close together, conversing in low voices.  He couldn’t help but admire the workmanship on Autumn’s full plate armor, which had apparently been a reward she’d earned after the first exam.  She’d been a bit awkward in it at first, but quickly adapted.

            These two, however, seemed to be the only ones that engaged in any consistent conversation.  The others milled about, occasionally asking questions or commenting on a bit of passing scenery, but little else.  Tolly saw that Arrie would occasionally speak with other group members, but Autumn was less likely to do so.  Lanara had developed the habit of playing what she called “traveling music” on her flute, the mellow tones of the simple reed instrument echoing through the hills.  While he couldn’t deny that the tunes were pleasant, they also kept the cansin from conversing much.  Osborn seemed far more connected to his riding dog than anyone else, but opportunity for conversation was limited in that relationship.  Xu was quiet as well, but seemed to be at ease with this, contenting herself with observing the world around her.  The elf Kavan was strangely unreadable, making it difficult to tell how he related to the others.  Kyle seemed the most uncomfortable at the lack of communication, but also seemed to be at a loss on what to do about it.  Tolly assumed that this lack of communication and camaraderie was due to the group’s relatively short time together as well as underlying tension regarding the upcoming exam.  Nevertheless, Tolly had trouble relating to this phenomenon.  He’d never had difficulty in finding common interest among his brethren at the Church.  Perhaps the lack of a common faith was the missing ingredient.  Tolly mulled this over as a topic for future discussion.

            Just as the afternoon sun touched the tops of the trees, the group came upon a cluster of small buildings on the bank of a small river.  A large, dagger-shaped stone outcropping jutted from the center of the river.  They guessed that the town was occupied no more than three hundred souls at best.  Beyond the town they saw several fields stretching out into the hills, freshly furrowed after the recent spring planting.  At the near edge of town, they saw a large, two-storied building whose windows glowed with firelight.  The party moved into town, assuming this building was their destination.  Just outside of town, a wooden sign read “Welcome to Dagger Rock”.

            The party proceeded toward the large building.  They began to hear the shouts of laughter and merrymaking from several yards away.  A wooden sign above the door read “The Happy Half-Ogre” and just below it, the phrase “Touched welcome”.  There had been a crude attempt to carve the letters “UN” just before the word ‘welcome’, but it had been mostly obscured.  The party looked at one another, then walked in.

            They were immediately greeted by the sight of a glowering, eight-foot tall figure at the door.  The massive brute had flame-yellow hair, and dark eyes.  The brute regarded the group coldly for a minute, then broke into a wide grin, showing teeth as yellow as his hair.

            “Welcome to the Happy Half-Ogre,” he said.  “Name’s Grog, the owner of this fine establishment.  Sorry about that bit before, but we needs to keep out the riff-raff, ‘specially those adventurer types.”  Grog guffawed loudly, slapping a meaty hand against his thigh.  “Ah, I’m just havin’ fun with ye!  Everyone’s welcome here.  There’s still a table or two at the back, the music’s lively, the food’s hot, and the mugs are as bottomless as yer coin purse.”

            The group shuffled through the crowded inn, finding a circular table in the far corner.  The building looked capable of holding nearly a hundred people at a time, and it seemed as though that many were in here.  As they moved past the locals, they saw with some surprise that a table full of orcs sat at another corner, huddled over drinks*.  Kavan eyed the group suspiciously, inspecting their gleaming scimitars and wondering what sinister surprises lay within the folds of their white desert robes.

            A few minutes after settling in, a tired but still friendly-looking serving girl made her way to the table.  “Good evening, my name’s Mary,” said the human woman.  “I’ll be happy to take your orders now.  Fair warning, we’re fairly busy tonight, so it may take me a while to get back to you.  I’d recommend ordering a lot now.”  She gave Tolly a sly wink, to which he did not react.

            “Bring meals for everyone, as well as dwarven ale,” said Autumn unexpectedly, tossing Mary a small sack of coins.

            “Tea for me,” interrupted Xu, “and no meat, if you please.”

            “I’ll see what I can do,” Mary said.  “Anything else?”

            Autumn turned to her sister.  “Ariadne, do you require anything else?”

            Mary left as soon as Arrie shook her head ‘no’.  It took a moment for the rest of them to wrap their heads around the name ‘Ariadne’, as they’d never heard her full name used before.  Autumn stood up as soon as Mary left.

            “I will go see Grog about getting rooms,” she said, walking away.

            Kavan stood up as well.  “I’m going to go see if I can hear what those orcs are discussing.  Something about them makes me nervous.” He crossed through the busy room and took up a position near the orc’s table, trying to look as if he were watching the stage.  A young, pretty elven woman was singing and dancing up there, accompanied by the shouts of the inn’s patrons.  The girl had a fair amount of talent, though much of the crowd’s reaction was probably based on the fact that her dancing could best be described as ‘bouncy’ and her clothing did little to hide that.

            Autumn returned to the table and announced that she’d acquired a common room for them to sleep in.  “I have also obtained a separate room for you, milady,” she said, nodding to Arrie.  Again, the others looked at each other uncertainly.  While this would be the first time they had had to make sleeping arrangements as a group, and so really couldn’t say that Arrie having her own separate room was unusual, it didn’t seem to fit the exotic warrior’s demeanor.  For her part, Arrie said nothing either way.

            Most of the group ended up wandering around in the Happy Half-Ogre while waiting for their food to arrive.  Tolly and Osborn went to examine an enormous double-headed battleaxe hanging over the bar, flanked by two equally large shields.

            “Think they belong to Grog?” Osborn asked.

            Tolly shook his head.  “Far too large, even for him.  There are runes carved on the weapon, but I don’t recognize them.”

            Osborn squinted at the faint lines.  “I think I’ve seen similar writing before,” the hin said.  “Giantish – probably a frost giant dialect.  No idea what it says, thought it’s probably just the name of the weapon; ‘Icepick’ or something like that.”

            Kavan spent several minutes trying to eavesdrop on the orcs, but after a few minutes they seemed to quiet down, as if they knew they were being observed.  Sullenly, Kavan went back to the table to sit.  Lanara, meanwhile, had gone to speak with the elven performer, whose name was Salae, and ask permission to play for a short while.  Salae agreed, and Lanara ended up playing twice that evening for the rowdy crowd.

            Kyle attempted to engage Autumn in conversation.  “So, anyway, thanks for getting the food and rooms.”

            “You’re welcome,” she replied.  “It was surprisingly inexpensive, really.  Grog’s prices are much lower than most places like this I’ve been to.”

            “Well, I’m sorry you missed us during Earthturning.  We had a good time that first night.”  Kyle took a long draw from his mug.  Mary had brought several tankards over in order to keep the table happy, and with most of their companions wandering about, there were plenty for the taking.  “We all had a good talk.”  He blinked, then leaned in closer to the sentinel.  “So, how come you came to the school?”

            “I follow my lady,” Autumn replied.

            “Yeah, but you’re enrolled in the classes too.  So you must have something personal you’re after from the Tower.”

            She paused before answering.  “I seek… experience.”

            Kyle blinked again, then shrugged.  “Okay, then.  So, what exactly is a sentinel?  I’ve heard you’re kind of like a paladin, but different.”

            “Yes, that is fairly accurate.  My order devotes itself to combating outsiders, specifically demons and devils.”

            “Well, I’ve never met a demon or a devil before, but I’m sure they need fighting,” Kyle said.  “So, you get much of a chance to smite demons following your sister around?”

            Autumn smiled slightly.  “My sister is very adventurous.”

            By this time Tolly and Osborn had returned to the table.  Kyle’s attention had been diverted by Lanara’s performance.  Tolly looked over at Autumn, and smiled sympathetically.  “He did the same thing to all of us the other night,” the priest explained.

            The others migrated back to the table as the food finally arrived.  Lanara descended from the stage to shouts and applause.  Her performance was praised by all her companions.

            “Ah, it wasn’t my best work,” she said.  “Just a little diversion from the local favorite.”

            “Nonsense,” said Kyle loudly.  “I thought you were much better than that other woman.  You’re dancing was bouncier.”  Kyle stopped himself short, looking straight at the cansin bard.  He looked down into the mug in his hands, then back at Lanara.  “Okay, I think I’ve had enough ale,” he said quietly.  Lanara tried to look offended, but cracked a smile when Kyle looked away.

            They ate with gusto, not realizing how famished they were after a day’s long journey.  The meal was only interrupted once, when a young man who’d snuck in for a few free ales got drunk and nearly fell from the second-story balcony.  He was rescued by the bouncer, a Fire-Touched man with wild flame-colored hair and coal-black skin named Fist, who sent the inebriated lad off to wash dishes with Matilda, the cook, who was an orc.

            “I’ve noticed that a lot of Grog’s help seems to be made up of orcs and Fire-Touched,” commented Osborn.  “Except for the serving girls and that bard Salae.”

            “Maybe that explains the presence of those orcs in the corner,” said Arrie.

            “Or maybe more,” said Lanara.  “While I was working the crowd before my first performance, I heard some of the graybeards talking.  Apparently there’s been a crime wave in the town – burglaries and muggings, mostly –and it seems some are putting the blame on Grog’s crew.”

            “Odd,” said Autumn, “Grog seems a decent sort, despite his heritage**.”

            “Yeah, worst he’s done is sell good ale cheap,” said Kyle.

            “Well, that may be the problem,” commented Osborn.  “Turns out there are two taverns in this little town.  Grog’s only been around for a year or so.  Before that some guy named Yuri had the only game in town.  Sounds like it was never the best place to begin with – you paid a little too much silver for your ale-flavored water, if you know what I mean – and with Grog selling everything extremely cheap, Yuri’s not doing so well.  Sounds like motivation for framing someone with a fake crime spree to me.”

            “Or, Grog’s prices could be low because his criminal activities are profitable enough to make up for the loss,” Tolly added.  “We should not jump to conclusions.”

            “Well, someone should look into it,” said Kyle.  “Maybe we could do some checking around while we wait for our exam to begin.”  When he noticed the stares, Kyle thought for a moment, then looked back down at his mug, shaking his head as he realized his mistake.  “Okay, I _really _ need to stop drinking ale.”

---------------------

* It should be noted that orcs in this campaign are considered a humanoid race just like elves and dwarves, and not just rampaging monsters to kill.  Orcs in Aelfenn have a nomadic desert culture.  However, they are still generally evil in nature, as their patron deity is Grabâkh, god of evil and fire (he is also one of The Four).  Thus their presence in and of itself in the tavern would not be cause for alarm, though it would usually raise the kind of suspicion that Kavan is experiencing here.

** Grog, like a few of his staff, is a Fire-Touched, a being with some trace of ancestry from an elemental outsider.  Because the element of fire is associated with Grabâkh, Fire-Touched tend toward evil, and thus generate the same levels of suspicion as orcs.


----------



## Delemental

A couple of hours later the group retired for the night.  Most of the group bunked together in a large room with several bunk beds, a large table, and several chairs, obviously meant to cater to adventuring groups.  Autumn and Arrie went to a separate room, right next to the large room.  After a bit of awkwardness in deciding on sleeping arrangements, the group settled down for a long sleep.

            Their slumber was short-lived.  Osborn had decided to go out to take a walk around the Happy Half-Ogre that evening, to see if there was anything unusual going on.  As he came around the corner, he smelled the pungent odor of burning straw, and saw a flickering orange light coming from the stables.  He quickly ran up and saw the building was aflame.  Inside, terrified horses screamed, and Rupert was barking wildly.  Osborn dimly made out a figure inside, trying to pull one of the horses out.  The hin whistled, and Rupert came dashing out of the burning stables just as the figure managed to pull a horse out.  Osborn saw that it was one of the orcs from the inn.  The orc had been surprisingly adept at handling the spooked animal.  The orc spotted Osborn, and quickly gestured – making a motion near his own throat, then pointing at the inn.  Osborn understood the pantomimed message immediately; I’m mute, you go tell the others.

            Osborn dashed into the inn, “Fire!  Fire!”

            A bleary-eyed Matilda emerged from the kitchen door.  “What you going on about, little one!”

            “Fire!  In the stables!”

            Matilda snapped awake, and immediately began bellowing.  Grog and his other staff soon came barreling down the stairs.  Osborn, meanwhile, had dashed up to his companions to rouse them.  All of them went down to help, except for Lanara, who wouldn’t wake up, and Autumn, who chose to remain back and watch over their belongings.

            The party arrived and began to help form a bucket brigade from the river.  By this time other townspeople had begun to gather, and were standing around watching.  The party noticed with disgust that most of them were not helping.  Despite this, they managed to get the blaze under control with relatively little damage and minimal injury to the horses.

            Osborn caught sight of the mute orc, whose name he’d caught as ‘Shod’ while fighting the fire, tending to one of the horses.  The orc passed his hands over the horse’s flank, and the burn wounds seemed to shrink and disappear of their own accord.  There’s more to Shod than he lets on, thought Osborn to himself.

            Several of the party had started poking around the stable once the smoke cleared.  “This fire was deliberately set,” said Tolly.

            “Don’t suppose Ghurka followed us, do you?” asked Arrie.

            “Look here,” said Kavan, pointing at a spot on the ground.  They gathered around a clear footprint in the earth, a boot mark left by someone with small feet.  The print was close to the stable, heading away toward the river.

            “There was no one over here fighting the fire,” said Kavan.  “I think this is our arsonist.”

            “Should we follow the trail?” asked Xu.

            “In the middle of the night, in unfamiliar country, with only one print to guide us?” asked Kyle.  “Sounds like an invitation to get lost.”

            “Or worse,” said Osborn.  “Besides, we’re still tired from our march, and in no condition to chase this person.”

            By this time the head of the town watch had arrived, a man named Captain Bearclaw.  As he approached the scene, several of the party noted that he bore a strong resemblance to Mary, one of Grog’s serving girls.  He examined the burnt stables, spoke with Grog and a few others briefly, then came over to the party.

            “I understand you found something of interest,” said Captain Bearclaw.  He knelt down to examine the boot print, then walked slowly in a crouch in an attempt to follow the trail.  “There are a few more boot prints further on, but they start to get obscured after a few yards.”  He sighed and straightened up.

            “Captain,” Tolly said, “we’ve been hearing rumors about recent criminal activity in your town, and that some suspect Grog and his employees.  What are your thoughts on this?”

            Captain Bearclaw regarded Tolly and the others.  “Grog is a decent person, and I don’t believe for a minute he’s guilty.  Unfortunately, I have no proof either way, and most folks” - he jerked his head back to indicate the crowd of townspeople, who were still watching impassively, “have already made up their minds.”

            “They honestly believe that Grog would burn down his own stables?” asked Arrie.

            “Sure would,” said the captain.  “They’ll say he’s just trying to distract the town, or build up sympathy.  Some will probably say he was destroying evidence before the meeting.”

            Tolly’s eyebrows arched in curiosity.  “Meeting?  What meeting?”

            “Town council’s meeting in six days to ‘resolve’ the issue with Grog.”

            “So, like a trial, then?”

            Captain Bearclaw shook his head.  “Not so much.  They’ll just decide whether or not Grog can stay in town or not.  That way you don’t have to fuss with things like a trial, or evidence.”  The captain shook his head sadly.  “Look, folks, I’m going to go send these people off home.  Why don’t you get some rest?”

            The party went back upstairs to their room and went back to sleep.  The next morning, there was a knock at Autumn and Arrie’s door; the kind of knock that was made by a very large person trying to be gentle.  Autumn opened the door cautiously, he sword ready behind the door.  Grog’s faced peeked through the crack.

            “Begging your pardon, ladies,” he said.  “But I wanted to invite you and your friends to breakfast – on the house, to thank you for your help last night.  And I wanted to talk to you about a private matter.”

            “We will join you shortly,” Autumn said.  She closed the door, and then finished getting dressed.  She sat down on the edge of Arrie’s bed, and began massaging the small of her back gently to wake her sister.

            “Ooh, that feels good,” Arrie moaned, sore from their days of long marches.  “Don’t stop.”

            After a minute or so, Autumn stood up and left to let Arrie change while she went to wake up the others.  She opened the door to find that Kavan was already awake, as were Xu and Lanara.  Osborn and Tolly were sound asleep.  Kyle was also awake, but still lying in bed with the blanket over his head.

            “We’ve been invited to breakfast,” said Autumn.  “Grog wishes to talk to us.”

            “Great!  I’m starved.”  Lanara dove under her blanket, one hand reaching out and grabbing her clothes from the floor.  After a moment of frantic movement under the covers, Lanara emerged fully dressed.

            “Shall I wake the others?” asked Xu.

            “They will wake up and join us soon enough,” said Autumn.  She held the door open while Kavan, Xu, and Lanara walked out.  Then she looked back and saw that Kyle hadn’t moved.  “Kyle?  Are you coming?”

            Kyle’s head poked out from the blankets.  His face seemed unusually flush, and he was having trouble making eye contact with Autumn.  “Umm… I’ll be down in a couple of minutes.”

            “Are you all right?”

            “I’m fine.  I just… need a minute, okay?”

            Shrugging, Autumn closed the door.  Kyle sighed heavily and fell back into bed.  His bunk was on the wall closest to Arrie and Autumn’s room, and he’d been awakened when Grog had knocked.  He’d continued to listen, and had overheard Autumn waking her sister.  Unfortunately, the effects of a night of excessive drinking had caused his imagination to wander, and both Autumn and Arrie were attractive women.  When Autumn had come into their shared room, he’d caught himself in the midst of some very unprofessional thoughts about his fellow classmates.  Kyle wasn’t certain he’d be able to look either of them in the eye for the rest of the day.

            “I swear, I’ve got to be careful around dwarven ale,” he muttered to himself.

*          *            *​
             “So, anyway, there’s my situation,” Grog said.

            They’d finished off their breakfast some time ago.  Kyle, Osborn, and Tolly had joined the others only a few minutes late, and had eaten heartily after last night’s excitement.  Then Grog had invited them back to his personal room in the back, a spacious room with an enormous bed and a dire wolf pelt rug on the floor.

            Grog had explained how he and his fellow adventuring companions had retired here at Dagger Rock after making their fortunes.  The Happy Half-Ogre was Grog’s dream, and he’d come here on the recommendation of Captain Bearclaw, who was himself a former adventurer who’d worked with Grog briefly in the past.  Things had been fine until recently, when the muggings and break-ins began.  Now the people of town blamed Grog, since his inn was open to anyone and he charged less than cost for his wares.

            “I don’t need the money,” he explained.  “I’d rather use it to run a place where everyone can feel welcome.”  Grog looked forlornly across the room.  “I don’t know what I’d do without it.”

            “You think that Yuri’s behind this?” asked Osborn.

            Grog shrugged.  “Maybe.  He’s never liked me for opening up competition.  Not that his place would be much competition, even if I did charge full price.”

            “What about this meeting?” asked Arrie.

            “Well, it’s in six days.  Unless I can prove I’m not behind the crimes being committed, I think they’ll vote to shut me down and run us all out of town.”

            “Who’s on the council?” asked Kyle.

            “Well, there’s Captain Bearclaw…” Grog said.

            “Hey!” exclaimed Lanara, “there’s one on your side!”

            “…and Yuri…”

            Her face fell.  “Never mind.”

            “… then there’s Barak, and the town smith Logan Ironhand, and of course the mayor, Winston Jacob.”

            “Have you tried looking into this yourself?” asked Tolly.

            Grog shook his head.  “Been too busy to spare the time.  Besides, me and my mates sort of stand out,” he ran a thick hand through his flame-yellow hair, “and I don’t think we’d get far.  That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.  I’d like to ask you to look into this, see if you can find out who’s behind this crime wave.   If you can find something out before the meeting in six days, I can reward you for your time.”

            “Starting with free room and board?” asked Osborn hopefully.  He dodged an elbow from Autumn.

            Grog grinned at the comment, however. “Smart little man.  Always start with the free room and board; that was the first thing me and my mates learned in our day.”


----------



## Delemental

The party emerged from the Happy Half-Ogre into the morning sunlight.  The sun was most of the way over the eastern mountains, and the forest at the edge of town threw long, jagged shadows across the newly plowed fields.  They could hear the wheel of the mill churning off to the west.  The group turned and began walking up the main road of Dagger Rock.

            Soon they arrived at the door of one of the few stone buildings in town; Bearclaw Manor.  Grog had suggested speaking with him first this morning.  After knocking, the door opened and a young lad of perhaps fourteen answered.  He led them into a small foyer to wait.  Five minutes later, Captain Sidon Bearclaw came down to greet them.

            “Good morning,” said Captain Bearclaw, “have you had breakfast?”  When they indicated that Grog had already prepared breakfast, he nodded.  “Then I hope you’ll forgive me while I eat.”  He led them down a long hallway running the length of the building, and invited them into a simple dining hall.  He sat at the end of the long table and invited the group to take seats as well, even as he was served a plate of plain bread with butter and honey.

            “We wanted to talk to you more about the fire last night, and the crimes that have been happening over the last month,” said Kyle.

            “They’ve stumped me, that’s for sure,” admitted the captain.  “This whole mess has been keeping Raymond, Leif, and I busy.  The three of us are all this town has for a watch.”

            “Has there been trouble like this before?” asked Tolly.

            Captain Bearclaw shook his head while chewing.  “This town’s been pretty peaceful.  No bandits, no humanoid raiding, no violent crimes.  Most we ever dealt with was the occasional fistfight at Yuri’s place, and of course Jim the town drunk.  Then the muggings start, and then the break-ins.”

            “Have you seen any kind of pattern in the attacks?” Tolly asked, “Or have there been certain individuals that haven’t been victimized that should have been?”

            “Nope.  They only hit the locals, and not the wealthy ones either – like they know they’re more likely to have bodyguards.  Sure has got the town riled up, though; the mayor won’t go out into town alone any more, and now there’s this meeting.”

            “Do you think Grog is behind this?” Kavan asked.

            “No, I don’t.  Grog and his band are a decent sort.  Maybe not the most upstanding of citizens when they were on the adventuring trail, but they’re not the sort to engage in petty theft.  I’ve tried to convince people of that, but a lot of them have gone past the listening stage.”

            “What exactly would happen if the town meeting went against Grog?” Autumn asked.

            “Well, he and his crew would be run out of town.  His holdings and accounts at the bank would be forfeit.”

            Tolly scratched at his chin.  “Who would benefit from this?”

            The captain thought for a moment.  “Well, Yuri probably would.  He runs the Dagger Rock Tavern, but he’s been close to going broke ever since Grog’s place opened up.  Tough to say, other than that.  He and his crew certainly have brought a lot more business to town.”

            “Has he employed anyone in town,” asked Tolly, “or do his own people do all the work at the inn?”

            “No, he’s hired a few folks.  My daughter Mary works for him as a serving girl, and so does young Julia.  And he hired Esmerelda as a maid right after Yuri let her go – Yuri accused her of stealing, though there was never any proof.  And even if he hasn’t provided a lot of jobs, the coin they spend in town makes up for it.  Their bouncer, Fist, is a clothes horse, and has probably doubled the tailor’s income since they came here six months ago.”

            “I saw another inn on the way here,” commented Lanara.  “The Hearthfire Inn?  What about them?”

            “Oh, the Hearthfire’s been around forever, even since before Yuri.  The Withams own that inn, and their business has been the same ever since I can remember.  Most of the older folks in town go there, the ones who aren’t keen on the wild atmosphere at Grog’s or the seedy reputation of Yuri’s.”

            “How do you think the vote will go?” asked Kyle.

            “Well, I know I’ll vote to let Grog stay, and I know Yuri will vote for him to leave.  Mayor Winston doesn’t have anything personal against Grog, but he’s a ‘man of the people’, if you catch my drift, and right now most of the vocal town members are against Grog, so I figure that’s two against him.  Logan Ironhand, the town smith… I’m pretty sure he’s okay with Grog staying.”

            “That’s two votes each way,” said Kyle, “what about the fifth?”

            “That would be Barak, who runs the general store,” said Captain Bearclaw.  “To be honest, I have no idea where he stands on the issue.”

            “If we were to look into this matter,” said Kyle, “who would you suggest we speak to?”

            The captain shrugged.  “Pretty much anyone you want.”  Sidon waved over his servant and muttered a few words in his ear.  The servant left and returned a minute later with a large parchment roll.  The captain spread it out on the table, and the party saw it was a map of Dagger Rock.  He began pointing out buildings to them.  “The stonemason, Mexalo Stonethumb, lives here behind me.  Good dwarven craftman, and a friend of mine.  Tell him I sent you.  The bank is here, and the jail here – Leif Delaryn should be on duty now.  Here’s Logan’s smithy – he should be at work by now with his son Raymond, my other watchman.  The church is up here, you might try talking to the priest, Hiram Veril.”

            “What denomination?” asked Tolly.

            “Paccë… I mean Krûsh.*  Sorry… the church used to be dedicated to Paccë, but six years ago it burned down and the town’s priest was killed.  Hiram’s his son, but he follows Krûsh.”

            Captain Bearclaw continued to point out where various people lived and did business; the mayor, the baker, the tanner, the tailor.  Once finished, he rolled up the map and excused himself, stating he needed to get to work that morning.  The young boy, who turned out to be Sidon’s son, escorted the party to the door.

            “Well, now where to?” asked Kyle.

            “We should split up,” offered Arrie.  “We’ll cover more ground that way.”

            “Agreed,” said Tolly.  “I can visit the stonemason and the blacksmith.  Since I have a background in craftsmanship, I may be able to establish a common bond.”

            “Autumn and I can visit some of the other businesses.”

            “Kyle, do you wish to accompany us?” asked Autumn.

            Kyle looked at both Arrie and Autumn, standing next to each other, and an odd look crossed his face.  His gaze dropped to a point right around Autumn’s feet.  “Um, thanks,” he said, “maybe another time.  I think I should, uh, go with Tolly.  You know, the whole manual laborer camaraderie thing.”

            “Very well,” Autumn shrugged, not sure why the wizard was still acting strangely, “We’ll take Xu with us.  Perhaps we three can visit some of the more ‘feminine’ businesses, such as the tailor and the baker.”

            “That leaves Lanara, Kavan, and Osborn,” said Kyle.

            “Someone should stay at the Happy Half-Ogre, just in case something happens, or to listen for any news or gossip there,” offered Lanara.  “I nominate myself.”  She raised her left arm into the air.  “Seconded?” her right arm shot up.  “Then it’s settled.”  She dropped her arms, and waggling her fingers in farewell, began flouncing down the path toward the inn.

            “How about Kavan and I tackle the bank,” said Osborn, watching the bard walk away.  When he caught the gaze of the others, he sighed.  “I meant talk to the banker about Grog and the robberies.”

            “We can go visit the town church as well,” offered Kavan.  “As a courtesy for a fellow man of faith.”

            “All right, then,” Arrie said, “Back at the inn for mid-day meal?”



*          *            *



            It was a very busy morning for the group.  Tolly and Kyle approached Stonethumb’s house, a squat stone structure just behind Bearclaw Manor.

            “You don’t have to worry about translating for me,” said Kyle casually as they approached the heavy oak door.

            “Excuse me?”

            “I just mean that you don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll be able to follow you.  I’ve learned to speak Dwarven.”

            Tolly looked perplexed.  “Why is that important?”

            Now Kyle was beginning to look confused.  “Well, given your background with the church of Ardara, I’d assumed you’d take the lead in the conversation with Stonethumb.  And sine you’ll probably be talking in Dwarven, I wanted you to know ahead of time that you don’t have to interrupt your talk to fill me in.”

            Tolly blinked calmly.  “I don’t speak Dwarven.”  He knocked firmly on the door.

            “You don’t… but I thought… you talked about spending all that time in the church with dwarves…”

            He shrugged.  “My education focused on extraplanar languages, primarily.”

            Kyle was still staring at Tolly incredulously when the door opened and Mexalo Stonethumb appeared in the entry.  He was a brown-haired dwarf with a few streaks of gray, and looked up at them with bright blue eyes.  His beard and clothes were covered in a fine layer of stone dust, and his hands were large and knobby.

            “Hello, strangers,” Stonethumb said, “what can I do for you this morning?”

            “My name is Tolly Nightsleaving.  Your friend Captain Bearclaw said we should come speak to you.”

            “Sidon sent you?  Well, come in, then!  Hope you don’t mind if I work while we talk.”

            “Not at all.” Tolly followed the dwarf into the back, where Stonethumb picked up a hammer and chisel and set to work on a block of granite.  “Who’s your big friend?” Mexalo asked.

            “Oh, forgive me,” said Tolly.  “This is Kyle Goodson.”

            “Pleasure,” said Kyle.  Seeing that Tolly had been distracted by a carving on the wall, Kyle pressed on.  “So, I hear you’ve done most of the stone work in town.”

            “Most of it?  Ardara’s left teat, son, I’ve done all of it.”

            “And excellent work, I must say.  It looks like no one’s getting into that bank – and if they try, they sure aren’t getting out of that jail.”

            Stonethumb seemed not to pay attention to the complement.  “Too bad there’s not more work to be done around here,” Kyle continued.

            “Oh, there’s plenty of work,” Stonethumb said.  “I’ve done all of the foundations and basements in town.  This close to the river, you need a solid foundation.”

            “Well, sure, of course you do.”  Kyle glanced over at his shoulder to see if Tolly was going to pick up the conversation, but the priest was now looking over the dwarf’s tools.

            “Well, you must’ve done the basement at the Happy Half-Ogre, then,” Kyle said.

            Stonethumb paused for a moment before grunting in the affirmative.

            “Well, it so happens we’re kind of looking into those burglaries that’ve been happening round here.”

            “I don’t know nothing about that,” said Mexalo, a little too quickly.

            “Well, of course not.  I just meant that since Grog is sort of the prime suspect, and since you probably spent a lot of time around him and his men while building the basement, you might have gotten a sense of the man… er, ogre.”

            At first it seemed Stonethumb was ignoring the question, but then his hammer slipped and hit the back of his knuckles.  Stopping work long enough to flex his fingers, he looked up at Kyle.  “Look, Sidon says Grog’s okay, and I believe him.  Sidon’s not the sort to hang around with disreputable sorts.  All I do is build basements for people around here.”

            Kyle regarded the dwarven mason curiously.  He was acting as if he’d accidentally mentioned something he shouldn’t have, and rather than backpedaling had decided to push forward.  “Well, sure, I’m sure you spend a lot of time on basement work.  You probably know more about most people’s homes than the owners.”

            Stonethumb sighed and set down his tools.  “Look, son, I can’t really say much, you know?”  The dwarf began heading back toward the front door.  Kyle and Tolly followed, curious as to what they’d stumbled upon.  Stonethumb opened the door and pointed west toward the river.  “You see those two buildings over by the river?” he said in a low voice, pointing.  “The southern one’s the tanner, and the northern one’s the cobbler.  All I’m going to say is that you should check out the cobbler’s fields.”

            Kyle nodded.  “Well, I appreciate the directions, Stonethumb,” he said in a loud voice.  “I probably do need to look into a new pair of boots before I leave town.”

            Tolly and Kyle began to walk away as Stonethumb closed his door.  “We should still head for the blacksmith’s first,” Tolly said.

            “Sure, but before we go, I have to ask you something.”  Kyle barely suppressed his smile.  “You do speak Common, right?”

---------------------------

* Paccë is the goddess of community and harmony.  Krûsh is one of The Four; he is the god of Water, and Good, and is the patron of the gnomes.


----------



## Delemental

Arrie, Xu, and Autumn walked up to the tailor’s shop, chewing on hunks of warm bread.  They had started their morning at the shop of Aram Gahn, the baker, asking about the crimes in town and his opinion of Grog.  Aram had been reluctant to talk at first, but Arrie had wooed him with a combination of flattery and attentiveness that eventually loosened his tongue.  Though he didn’t hold a very high opinion of the Happy Half-Ogre, he didn’t seem to hold any specific malice or regard for Grog himself.  Aram indicated that he’d noticed a trend in his conversations with customers; most of the older citizens of Dagger Rock were against Grog and the changes he’d brought to town, while the younger populace generally supported him.

            The three women walked into the tailor’s store.  A tall, thin woman with a narrow face greeted them.  Just inside the door were two mannequins, featuring stylish, if not extravagant outfits for a man and woman.

            “Welcome!” said the woman.  “My name is Jessica Merriweather.  How may I assist you three lovely ladies today?”

            “Oh, we just had a few questions,” said Autumn.

            Jessica’s face fell.  “Oh, dear, I had hoped you would be looking to purchase something.  I’m afraid I’m very busy right now, and don’t really have time to socialize.”

            The three women looked at each other.  “I think we have not made ourselves understood,” Xu said quickly.  “While my companion does not wish to purchase anything, I am in fact looking for a new set of clothing.”

            “Oh, indeed?” Jessica’s face lit up, and she quickly approached Xu, unfurling a long piece of marked twine.  “Well, in that case, I’ll be more than happy to take a few measurements.  I’m assuming you’re not in town for long, so if you’d like I can place a rush on your outfit… with a deposit, of course.”

            “Of course.”  Xu dropped a few coins into the tailor’s palm, then stood patiently while Jessica measured her from every angle.

            “Do you have anything in mind?” she asked.

            “I defer to your wisdom,” Xu replied, “though I would prefer something that conforms to the shape of my body, rather than a garment that flows loosely.”

            While Jessica continued to measure and write down numbers on a slate pad, Arrie cleared her throat.  “So, we were referred to you by the bouncer down at the Happy Half-Ogre.  We were admiring the clothes he wears.”

            “Oh, you mean Fist,” Jessica said, her voice brightening.  “Yes, I must admit he’s been quite a boon to my little shop here. There aren’t many farmers who have need of fine clothing.”

            “You seem to not share the low opinion others have of Fist and his employer,” Autumn commented.

            “Well, I suppose I can tell you three, seeing as you won’t be around much,” she looked around the shop as if expecting someone to be listening in.  “But if you ask me, things have been a lot better in this town ever since they arrived.”

            “They seem to run a respectable place,” said Arrie.

            “Oh, I quite agree.  But lately there’s been a lot of nasty stuff going around – people assaulted in the streets, homes broken into, that sort of thing.  Some of the other townsfolk are convinced that Grog is behind it all – laughing at us from his inn while he becomes the crime lord of Dagger Rock.” Jessica rolled her eyes.  “Ridiculous.”

            It took a bit of willpower for Arrie to keep from laughing out loud at the notion of ‘Grog, Crime Lord of Dagger Rock’.  “That does sound bad.  Isn’t there anything that can be done?”

            “I wish,” said Jessica, sighing.  “There’s no proof of their ‘crimes’, of course, so thankfully Sidon Bearclaw hasn’t been forced to do anything rash.  But there’s going to be a town meeting in a week, and I’m afraid the council is sure to vote to kick him and his friends out of town.”

            “Are they so certain that things will improve if Grog leaves?” Autumn asked.  “It seems they generate quite a bit of income for your town.”

            “I’ll miss their coin, and I’ll bet others will too.  But people will believe anything as long as they thing the troubles will stop.”

            “So, how much do you think has taken from the town?” Arrie asked.

            “Pardon me?” the tailor asked, as she did some calculations on his slate pad.

            “Whoever’s behind all this.  How much do you think they’ve stolen?”

            Jessica snorted derisively.  “Well, that just goes to show.  Whoever they are, they aren’t very bright.  The only people who have been robbed are the less affluent in town – the farmers and herders who barely have two silvers to rub together.  Anyone in town with real money – the mayor, the banker…”

            “Yourself,” Autumn observed.

            Jessica nodded, acknowledging the truth of the holy warrior’s statement.  “Well, none of us have been victimized.  I would think that as long as you’re going to the trouble of robbing someone, you’d want to get as much money as possible while you’re at it.”

            “It would make sense,” Arrie mused.  “But I’m sure that before you know it the whole problem will be resolved.”

            “We’ll see,” Jessica said.

            With the measurements finished, Jessica showed Xu a few fabric swatches, then wrote up her order on a sheet of parchment.  She bid them farewell and told them to return the next day.  As they left, Xu frowned in displeasure.

            “Perhaps I am succumbing to the weakness of vanity,” she said, “but I find myself disappointed that my new clothing will not be ready by this evening.  I had planned to attempt to lure the robbers into the open by walking alone in the town at night, and a new garment might have done more to entice these men than the simple robes I wear now.”

            “Well, don’t worry, Xu,” said Arrie.  “I’m sure between Autumn and myself we can fix you up with something for tonight.”

            Xu looked at the two warriors and shook her head.  “I thank you for your generosity, but I am afraid that your own wardrobes would be inappropriate.”

            As Xu walked on, Arrie fell back a step.  “Were we just insulted?” she whispered in Autumn’s ear.

            Autumn thought for a moment before answering.  “You know, the problem is that I’m not exactly sure.”

*          *            *​
            Meanwhile, Osborn and Kavan were sitting in the priest’s chambers, waiting for Hiram Veril to arrive.  They’d started their morning investigations at the bank.  Though the banker was tight-lipped about the accounts of the town members, it was no great effort to learn that Grog had a large sum of money in the bank.  The banker had also mentioned that fact that due to the recent robberies, many other townsfolk had been putting their own valuables in the vaults.

            “You know,” Osborn said to Kavan as they waited, “there’s one theory we haven’t discussed.  Maybe whoever’s behind this is trying to create a panic, to get people to put their money in the vault.   Grog’s just a handy scapegoat because he’s big, ugly, and new in town.  Then someone comes along and steals the whole town right out form under them.”

            “Who could pull that off?” asked Kavan.

            “Someone who had access to the bank vault, or knew another way in.  He mentioned the vaults were underground – maybe someone dug a tunnel.”  Osborn listened for a moment to see if anyone was nearby before continuing.  “Maybe we ought to try and deposit some valuables of our own so that we can sneak a peek at the vaults.”

            “Assuming that we’re allowed inside, of course,” Kavan said.  “The banker may just take our valuables to the vaults himself.”

            Osborn frowned.  “That’s true.  But it would also be interesting to see who would get Grog’s money if he were run out of town.”

            Just then the door opened, and a young, sandy-haired man wearing simple robes and the dolphin totem of Krûsh came in.  “Good morning, gentlemen.  I am Hiram Veril.  I was told you wish to see me?”

            “Good morning, Hiram.  I am Kavan, of the church of Erito, and my companion Osborn Greenbottle.”  Kavan settled back into the simple chair as best he could.  “We wanted to speak to you about the fire last night, as well as the other problems in town recently.”

            “Ah, yes, the fire in Grog’s stables,” Hiram said.  “A shame that had to happen.  I’m thankful that no one was seriously hurt.  I did what I could to help, but by the time I arrived the fire was mostly under control.”

            “I’m sure Grog appreciates your help,” said Osborn.  “He seems like he could use more friends around here.”

            “Yes, I’m afraid he’s not very popular right now,” sighed Hiram.  “It’s too bad – I’ve spoken to him on several occasions, and he strikes me as a decent fellow, even if he is a bit more boisterous than our little town is used to.”

            “You’ve visited the Happy Half-Ogre?” Kavan asked.

            “Yes, on occasion.  Mostly I go to visit with Mary Bearclaw, his serving girl, though I admit I also have a fondness for Matilda’s spicy sausage.”

            “How do you know Mary?”

            “Well, her family and mine go back…” he trailed off, a sudden sad look passing over his face.

            “Is something wrong?” Kavan asked, extending his hand and placing it on Hiram’s shoulder.

            “I’m sorry,” he said.  “I was thinking of my father.  He was the priest here before me, though he served a different god.  He died six years ago.”

            Osborn nodded.  “We’d heard something about that.  There was a fire, wasn’t there?”

            “Yes.  Like the fire last night, no one knows who set it or why.  But unlike last night, two people lost their lives in that fire – my father, and Sidon Bearclaw’s wife.”

            Kavan and Osborn looked at each other.  “May I ask why Sidon’s wife was at the church?” Kavan asked.

            “My understanding was that she may have been receiving advice from my father around some marital problems.  I don’t know much about it; my father was careful to respect the privacy of his parishioners.”

“Would anyone else in town know?” Osborn asked.

“Sidon would certainly know, though I wouldn’t advise asking him.  Perhaps Mary may know something.  Why do you ask?”

“We’re looking into the recent crime spree in town,” Kavan explained.  “We believe, as you apparently do, that Grog is not to blame.  The only reason we ask is that last night would be the second unexplained fire in this town, and perhaps knowing more would help us identify the person who did it.”

Hiram nodded.  “Well, the fire six years ago was blamed on someone passing through town.  I’m not sure whether the two events are related.  However, if you wish to approach Mary and ask about her family, that is up to you.  I only ask that you respect her wishes if she doesn’t wish to talk about it.”

“Of course,” Kavan said, standing up.  “Thank you for your time.”

*          *            *​
            The group slowly congregated back at the Happy Half-Ogre that afternoon, meeting up with Lanara.  They sat at a table in the far corner, discussing what they’d learned.  They had been joined by Mary, Grog’s barmaid and Captain Bearclaw’s daughter.  She’d caught up to Osborn and Kavan on their way back from the church, and asked if she could show them around town.  Kavan had asked her to join them for lunch first, hoping to be able to ask about her parents.  As they walked, Kavan noticed that Mary’s gaze kept wandering to him, but he chose to ignore it.

            “So,” said Tolly, after they’d all said their piece, “where do we look next?”

            “Well, I think we have enough to at least suspect someone else is behind this,” said Osborn.  “Whether Yuri’s involved remains to be seen.  That connection almost seems too easy now that other possibilities have been raised.”

            “True,” said Kyle.  “Your thoughts about someone trying to get all the town’s money in the vault so they can grab it is interesting, especially with what Stonethumb was hinting at.”

            “I agree.  I think I should check that cobbler’s field out tonight.”

            “Perhaps you should go in the day, so as to become familiar with the landscape,” offered Tolly.  “Someone could accompany you and distract the cobbler by pretending to be interested in buying shoes.”

            As they spoke, one of the orcs from out of town came down the stairs, and approached the table.  “Does one of you own the gray horse in the stables?” he asked.

            “I do,” replied Arrie in Orcish.  The two then began a conversation in the orcish tongue.  As none of the others could follow the conversation, they turned back to their own affairs.  Only Lanara, who did speak the language, bothered to pay any attention.  The orc was apparently trying to buy Arrie’s warhorse Ghost.

            “Mary,” said Kavan, “perhaps you could tell us what you know about Hiram?  I understand your mother was being counseled by his father at one point.”

            She looked away.  “I’d rather not discuss it publicly,” she said.

            Kavan nodded.  “I don’t wish to cause you discomfort.”  He turned back to the group.  “Mary has invited me on a tour of the town.  Lanara, would you like to come with us?”

            “Huh?  Oh, yeah, sure.”  Lanara was too busy listening to Arrie talk to the orcs to notice the disappointed look on Mary’s face.

            “And I’d like to visit the school,” said Kyle.

            “Why?” asked Tolly.

            “Because it’s like Osborn was saying when we first got here.  In a town like this if you want to know what’s really going on, you talk to kids.  See, adults don’t pay much attention to them, so they don’t realize how much they really see and hear.”

            “I can come with you, if you like,” said Autumn.

            “Sure,” Kyle agreed.  A morning full of investigation and interviewing had put his morning’s embarrassment out of his mind, so he felt more at ease around the two warriors.

            “I could go and check the town’s land records at the mayor’s office,” Tolly said.  “Knowing who owns the land under this inn, or who will own it if he leaves, might be an important clue.”

            “I think we should also talk to Jim,” offered Arrie, who had concluded her conversation with the orc.

            “The town drunk?” Lanara asked.  “Why?  I thought Bearclaw described him as a worthless bigot.”

            “Yes, but like Kyle’s children, he’s someone who might have been around to see things other people weren’t because nobody cares what he sees.  And perhaps there’s something behind that racism that’s useful.  Regardless, I think that whoever approaches him should be ‘pure’, if you’ll pardon the expression.” She nodded toward Kavan, Osborn, Lanara, and Autumn.

            “I also think you’ll need this.” Kyle picked up a clay jug at his feet and slid it across the table to Tolly.  “Tolly and I had the same thought, and picked that up at the wine and spirits shop across the road.  Figured it would make introductions easier.”

            “We’re still planning on checking out the Dagger Rock Tavern tonight, right?” said Lanara.

            “Tonight or tomorrow night,” said Osborn, “and I think we should look into the Hearthfire Inn as well.  I keep hearing what a nice little place it is and how it hasn’t been affected by all this trouble around Grog and his inn.  Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but that raises alarms in my head.  Surely they’d benefit somehow from removing their main competition.  However, I’m planning on resting this afternoon.  I’m going to go check out that cobbler’s field tonight.”

            “I will rest as well,” said Xu.  “I have my own plans this evening.” She looked over at Autumn and Arrie, who nodded knowingly.

            “So, it seems we have a busy afternoon ahead,” commented Tolly.  “We should finish up our meal and get started.”


----------



## Delemental

The group separated and went about their business in the town.  Autumn and Kyle walked toward the schoolhouse, where several children could be seen playing.

            “What exactly are we doing here?” Autumn asked.

            “We see if any of the kids have seen or heard anything unusual,” explained Kyle.  “Sometimes kids’ll tell you things that adults want to hush up.”

            They approached a group of four young girls, no more than ten years old.  “Hi there,” Kyle said, kneeling down so he was closer to their height.

            “Hi,” said one of the girls, looking at the two strangers.  “Who are you?”

            “My name is Autumn,” said the holy warrior, also kneeling, “and this is Kyle.  Do you mind if we ask you some questions about the town?”

            “What kind of questions?”

            “Just about stuff going on around here,” Kyle said.  “You see, we’re adventurers, and we like to help fix problems.  We’ve heard there’s been problems here in Dagger Rock.”

            The little girl glanced at her friends uncertainly.  “Then why don’t you talk to the grownups?”

            Kyle smiled.  “Because we know who really knows what’s going on in any town.”

            The girls nodded to each other confidently.  Unfortunately, their attempts to glean any news from the children proved less satisfying than expected.  One girl talked about seeing ghosts in the graveyard.  Another talked about how the orcs staying at Grog’s tavern were here to buy horses, although they hadn’t bought many.  Several of the kids described Grog as a “monster who eats children”, obviously influenced by their parent’s warning about the fire-touched man.  After speaking with several of the children, Kyle and Autumn took their leave of the school.  They decided to take a walk around town, strolling past the cobbler’s field on their way so they could tell Osborn of any unusual features they saw.

            “Kyle,” Autumn said suddenly as they walked, “may I ask you a question?”

            “Sure.”

            “Yesterday, at the inn, when you were asking all those questions – are you always so direct and inquisitive?”

            Kyle thought for a moment.  “Well, I suppose part of it comes from my Pa.  He always taught me that the best way to start a conversation is to ask someone about themselves.  See, most people don’t have a problem talking about themselves – not that they’re conceited, or anything, just that it’s the subject they’re most familiar with.  I hope I didn’t offend you.”

            “Not at all,” Autumn replied, “it was just… abrupt, that’s all.”

            “Well, I never was very good at social graces,” he grinned.  “Probably comes from my upbringing.  I worked on the family farm mostly growing up, and then was a carpenter’s apprentice.  Neither profession allows for much socializing.  Once I was hired on by the Tower as a handyman, I mostly kept to myself, since the students didn’t talk to me and the staff only would when they needed something.  Once I became a student, it didn’t help matters – most wizards are good folks, but pretty intent on what they’re doing.  At least, that’s how I see it.  I had the hardest time striking up conversations unless I was pretty blunt about it.”

            Autumn looked at the broad-shouldered wizard.  “How did you come to be a student?” she asked.

            “Well,” he replied, “like I said, I was hired on by the school for general maintenance – mostly carpentry, of course, but I also picked up a bit of blacksmithing, stonework, whatever was needed.  So one day one of the professors in the wizardry school needs a new set of bookshelves.  Well, she lets me borrow a few of her introductory magical theory tomes, so I can get the size right.  One night I just picked one up out of curiosity.  Though some of it didn’t make sense, I found a lot of it did, and I could follow what they were talking about.  I read some of the other books, but didn’t think much about it until the professor asked me why they hadn’t been returned.  Well, I fessed up to reading them, but instead of getting mad she was intrigued.  She gave me a couple more books, and did a couple of tests.  After a while she was giving me private lessons at night – said I was a regular prodigy.  She taught me enough wizardry to get by, then encouraged me to apply to the school.  Well, several thousand gold worth of debt later, here I am.”

            “An interesting story, Kyle,” said Autumn.  “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

            “You’re welcome,” said Kyle, blushing slightly.  “Though I’d appreciate a little discretion.  See, the instructors in the wizardry school aren’t supposed to take on apprentices or private students.  I’d hate to get Professor Vorsha in trouble.”

            “I understand.”  They walked for a little longer, past the cobbler’s fields.  Seeing nothing that stood out as obviously unusual, they decided to go to the general store to talk to the owner, Barak Andovan, who was the fifth council member and the only one whose vote on the Grog issue was unknown.

            “So, Kyle,” asked Autumn.  “What do you think of our companions?”

            “Oh, well, they seem a good bunch of folks to me,” he said.  “Some of them have their quirks, but who doesn’t?”

            “Like what?”

            “Oh, well, nothing serious.  I noticed that Kavan and Lanara seem real tight-lipped about their pasts – I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that, and they’ll probably talk when they’re ready.  I guess I just figure that we’re supposed to be learning to work together as a group, and the best way to do that is to get to know each other.” He grinned again.  “Maybe that’s another reason I’m so pushy with my questions.”

            “Anyone else?” Autumn prompted.

            “Nah, not really.  Everyone else is pretty straightforward; your sister really seems to be the ‘what you see is what you get’ type.”

            Autumn smiled slightly.  “Ariadne is not really my sister,” she said.

            “Well, I knew that,” said Kyle.  “I mean, obviously you two don’t have the same parents.  But Arrie calls you her sister, and I wasn’t going to say much about it because I didn’t know if there was some sort of family secret you two were hiding.”

            “No, no secrets,” said Autumn.  “We are related, but not true sisters.  But Ariadne and I were raised together.”

            “I see.” Kyle stopped for a moment to get his bearing before they proceeded to the general store.  “So, how about you?  What’s your opinion of our classmates?”

            “I think I share the same general opinion as you,” she said.  “They are a diverse group of people, but each has their own unique skills, all of which I believe will be useful in accomplishing our goals.  On a more personal level… I suppose that I’m still trying to figure that out.”

            “That’s because you don’t nag people with personal questions the way I do,” Kyle joked.

            Autumn laughed, then was silent for a minute.  “You know, I could teach you if you like,” she said.

            “Teach me what?”

            “Social graces, as you put it earlier.  Perhaps help you not to come off quite so… abrupt.”

            “Well, I’ve never turned down a chance for self-improvement,” said Kyle.  “And I’ll be sure to return the favor, though I don’t suppose you’re much interested in the finer points of carpentry.”

*          *            *​
             Tolly and Arrie had spent the last two hours in the town’s records, deep inside Mayor Jacob’s home.  Arrie had donned her family’s signet ring, and used the Verahannen name to convince the mayor that she was interested in acquiring land in town and wished to research available plots.  While Tolly has stuck steadfastly to reading land ownership records, Arrie’s search was much broader in scope, thanks to several tomes that ‘accidentally’ fell open on the table.

            They had discovered several interesting facts.  It appeared that Yuri was the primary landowner in town, and leased to several townspeople.  Grog’s inn was owned outright by the fire-touched; he had placed the highest bid on the land when it came up for auction.  They also noted that the mayor and the other council members owned their own land.  The financial records indicated that for the most part Yuri had recouped his costs for buying land within two years of leasing it out, which meant he was either buying it cheap or overcharging his tenants (or both).  They noted that Yuri had first come to town about ten years ago.  Interestingly, Arrie noted that two of the people named on the original town charter from seventy years ago were Yuri’s grandparents.  There was no mention of Yuri’s parents in any town records.

            They left the mayor’s house and began searching for Jim Aransee, the town drunk.  They didn’t have to look far, as they spotted him stumbling out of the Green Grape Wine and Spirits shop, a jug in hand.  Tolly looked ruefully at the jug he was carrying; they’d originally planned to lure him into conversation with the wine in that jug, assuming he didn’t have the resources to buy his own.

            Arrie looked at Jim, then at Tolly.  “Just follow me, and play along,” she said.  As they got closer to Jim, Arrie clutched the priest’s arm, and began to shuffle and stumble a bit.  When they neared the wine shop, she pulled up short.

            “Come on, give me some money,” she called out loudly.  Jim stopped his progress, and stood, wobbling, watching them.

            “Money for what?” Tolly still wasn’t sure what Arrie had up her sleeve.

            “You know what,” she said.  “Come on, I need a drink.”

            Tolly caught on.  “Oh, no.  Do you think I’m just going to hand over good coin for you to squander?  I remember what happened last time.”

            “I’ll be good this time, I promise,” Arrie said.  “I just need a little.”

            “I have my doubts,” said Tolly.  Then he looked up at Jim.  “Maybe you could convince this gentleman to share with you.”

            Arrie looked up at Jim and grinned wildly.  “How about it buddy?  He won’t give me any money.  You want to share your wine with me?”

            “Nuh uh,” Jim replied, wobbling as he shook his head back and forth.  He staggered off and leaned against the side of the blacksmith’s shop, seeking refuge from the afternoon sun.

            “Look,” said Tolly, “why don’t you wait here, and I’ll go inside and get something for you.”  He let Arrie’s arm go, and went inside the Green Grape.  Arrie stumbled over and sat next to Jim, trying to pretend she didn’t notice the stench.

            “I knew he’d see things my way,” she said.  She tried to lead the conversation around to various subjects; Grog, the town, the recent muggings.  Jim’s answers were mostly long, rambling tirades against Grog and other ‘impure’ races.  He seemed to admire Yuri, mostly because Yuri never cut him off.  But it seemed that despite their hopes, Jim hadn’t been witness to any unusual activity in the town.

            Tolly returned after several minutes; he’d delayed by striking up conversation with the shop owner, Gretchen.  She indicated she was fairly neutral toward the issue of Grog staying or leaving; she said that when Grog had arrived, Yuri’s orders from her shop had dropped, but Grog’s had replaced them.  She assumed that if Grog left, Yuri’s orders would rise again.  Gretchen was apparently happy with her lease from Yuri, and said she’d almost saved enough to buy the land from him outright.  Tolly presented Arrie with the jug of wine he and Kyle had bought earlier; she took the jug and pulled the cork with her teeth, filling her mouth with as much as she could.  She stood up, and began to stagger away; Jim called out loudly that she should come drink with him again, as soon as she “lost the a**hole”.

            Once around the corner our of earshot, Arrie spit out the wine.  “What is this stuff?” she asked, disgust on her face.

            “What Kyle referred to as ‘the cheap stuff.’  He saw no reason to waste money on something that was being used as bait for a drunk.”  Tolly took the bottle from Arrie and replaced the cork he’d picked up before they left.  “Should I get rid of it?”

            “No, keep it,” she said.  “We may need to clean a wound or something one day.”


----------



## Delemental

Kavan and Mary the barmaid strolled through the town, arm in arm.  Lanara lagged a few feet behind, trying to look as if she weren’t paying attention.  It was fairly obvious that Mary desperately wanted to lose the bard and be alone with Kavan, and it was equally obvious that Kavan wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.  Lanara had been in enough taverns in her life to know that it was usually the men who had to chase the barmaids, not the other way around.  She wasn’t sure why Kavan was so keen to avoid what she’d consider a ‘sure thing’, but figured that it would be entertaining to watch.

            “So,” said Kavan, after looking behind himself for the hundredth time to make sure Lanara was still behind them, “what can you tell me about the town?  Any mysteries or strange things happen here?”

            “Well, there’s the forest outside of town,” she answered.  “Tristan lives out there – he’s the local ranger.  He’s kind of mysterious, I guess.  And of course there’s Dagger Rock.  Say, would you like to swim out and see it?”

            “Perhaps… another time,” said Kavan hastily.  “I’m just hoping we can do something to help out Grog.  I’d hate for all of you to lose your jobs.”

            “Yes, it would be sad,” she said.  “I could probably find something else, but Esmerelda would have a tough time – Yuri fired her because he said she was stealing.  I don’t believe it, but a lot of people in this town listen to what Yuri has to say.  And I’m sure Sevem and Julia would have trouble.”

            “Why?”

            “Well, they used to work for Yuri too.  But it got rough for them, especially after they got married.  Of course Yuri didn’t like Sevem because he’s orc-touched.  Well, when Grog came to town six months ago, he offered them a job with better pay and fewer dirty looks.  You know, I could show you the spot up by the church where Sevem proposed.”

            “Thank you, but I’ve already visited the church this morning.  I’d asked you about your mother and the old town priest, remember?”

            “Oh, yes.”  Mary’s smile faded just a little.  “You know, I really don’t want to talk about my parents.  All of that was… in the past.”

            “I understand.”  Inwardly, Kavan scowled.  Though he respected her decision, much of the reason he’d agreed to this tour was in hopes Mary might confide in him about what problems her mother and father had had before the fire six years ago.  Though it seemed a remote chance, the current priest Hiram had thought there were similarities between the church fire and the one in Grog’s stables last night.  Now he would have to focus on remaining cordial to Mary while at the same time avoiding the possibility of a more intimate encounter with her.  It all reminded him too much of his past life for his own comfort.

            They let the conversation lapse for a moment, listening to the sound of the nearby river.  “I’m curious, Mary,” said Kavan after a while, “those orcs staying at the inn.  What are they here for?”

            “They’re horse traders,” said Mary.  “They’ve been in town since winter.”

            “Horse traders?” Kavan thought that Dagger Rock seemed a poor place to trade horses.  Then a thought sprang into his mind.  “Mary, when did the problems with the burglaries and muggings start?”

            “A few months ago, I’d say.”

            “Was it before or after the orcs came?”

            “After, I suppose.”

            “And has no one thought to suspect these orcs are behind the crimes?”

            Mary thought for a moment.  “Well, I suppose it’s been suggested.  But they actually do seem to be horse traders – I mean, they haven’t really bought many, because most people won’t sell their horses around her.  But even if they are, it doesn’t help Grog much to point it out.  They’ve been staying at his inn all this time, after all, and some of the others would just say that Grog was bringing in outside help.  It’s no secret that Grog has no trouble associating with those of orc blood.”

            “That’s true,” admitted Kavan, “but perhaps if we…”

            Their conversation was cut off by a loud yelp from Lanara.  They turned to see her being assaulted by an enormous pig.  The swine had a glazed look in its eye and foam dribbling from it’s mouth as it slammed into the cansin, nearly knocking her over.  They heard a shout, and saw a farmer rushing over to them, waving his arms wildly.  The farmer attempted to pull the pig off Lanara, but for his trouble the animal turned on him and began biting and stomping him.

            “Do something!” Mary cried.

            Kavan pushed Mary behind him and took a defensive stance.  He attempted to move in, hoping to subdue the animal with the flat of his blade.  But in its frenzy it lashed out at anyone who came near before turning its attention back to assaulting both Lanara and its terrified owner.  Kavan saw that the massive pig could seriously injure or even kill one of them in its rabid state.  Quickly, he focused his will and muttered a brief prayer.

            “Blessed Goddess, she who fills the Chalice of Life, I pray you now take your measure from this creature.”

            Kavan extended a hand and touched the pig on the back.  Divine power coursed through the animal, and its eyes went wide.  Blood spurted from the pig’s mouth, spraying Lanara’s skirts, and the beast fell lifeless to the ground.

            Kavan helped the shaken farmer to his feet while Mary went to aid Lanara. “I’m sorry I had to do that,” he said.  “I will compensate you for the loss…”

            “Nonsense,” said the farmer, “if anything, I should be compensating you.  I’m the one who let Hildy here bust loose before I could take the mallet to her skull.” He pointed over to his house, where a heavy wooden mallet leaned against the wall next to a broken section of fencing. “You probably saved my life,” he added.

            “I’m only glad no one was seriously hurt,” Kavan said.  Behind him, Lanara cleared her throat loudly.  She was limping after twisting her knee in the fall, and her arm bled where she’d been bitten.  Kavan stepped over and healed her injuries before returning to the farmer.  “What’s your name, good sir?”

            “Elmo,” he said, extending a hand.  “Say, if I could ask you folks to help me haul Hildy back over to the shed and get her on the hooks, then I’d like to invite you back to my place this evening for a pig roast.  Bring your friends.”

            “We wouldn’t want to impose,” said Kavan.

            “Yes we would,” said Lanara, her wounded pride forgotten at the thought of roast pork.

            “Please, I insist.  It’s not like I’m going to be able to eat the whole thing myself.  Besides, it tastes better fresh.”

            “Very well,” said Kavan.  “My friends and I will come back this evening.  Thank you for the invitation.”

            When they had finished, the three decided to head back to the Happy Half-Ogre so that Lanara could change clothes.  Mary and Kavan sat downstairs while Lanara headed up to their room.  While waiting, Kavan began rubbing his right shoulder.

            “What’s wrong?” asked Mary.

            “I may have strained my shoulder while trying to subdue that pig,” he said.  “Having to carry it back to Elmo’s house didn’t help matters.”  He sighed.  “Well, it’s nothing a back massage wouldn’t cure,” he said casually.

             “Oh, well, then you just sit there and relax!” Mary said, jumping up.  She began massaging Kavan’s shoulders, leaning in close enough that he could feel her bosom brushing up against the back of his head.  Kavan closed his eyes and groaned.  He’d walked right into that one.  Old habits, he thought wearily to himself.

            Upstairs, unseen by both of them, Lanara leaned over the railing and watched them, smiling.  Barmaid one, elven priest zero, she thought.

*          *            *​
            On the way back from the general store, Kyle and Autumn ran into Arrie.  “Any news?” she asked.

            “Not really,” Kyle said glumly.  “The kids weren’t as observant as we’d hoped, and Barak was pretty tight-lipped about his opinion on Grog.  Even with Autumn there to help smooth over my, well, directness,” he flashed a small smile at Autumn, “he wasn’t about to talk to us about it.”  He sighed heavily.  “Well, at least I got a good set of waterskins while I was there.”

            “Speaking of water,” said Arrie, “I’m thinking of going swimming.  I asked Tolly, but apparently clerics of Ardara the Earth Goddess aren’t too keen on water.  Of course, since he never takes that breastplate off it’s probably a good thing.  Want to come with me?”

            “That sounds good,” said Autumn.  She and Arrie turned and began walking toward the river, but stopped after a few paces.  They turned to see Kyle standing there.

            “Well, are you coming or not?” Arrie asked.

            “Me?  Oh, well, I sort of assumed that you were only talking to your sister.”

            “No, of course you can come with us.  You can swim, right?”

            “Well, sure, well enough I suppose.”  Kyle fell in behind them.

            The three of them walked toward Dagger Rock, Arrie talking about what she and Tolly had learned.  Once they reached the river, they found a small ledge near the bank where they could pile their belongings.  The river itself was perhaps a hundred feet wide; they could see a small set of docks extending into the water just south of the Rock.

            “I’m going to go out and take a look at that thing,” Arrie said, pointing at Dagger Rock.  “It just seems so odd, stuck there in the middle of the river like that.”

            “Just be careful,” said Autumn.  “Kyle and I will stay nearby.”

            “Hey, I’m a better swimmer than you, Autumn,” said Arrie.  “How about you, Kyle?”

            Kyle looked up as he folded his yellow robes.  He’d been thanking his lucky stars that he’d decided to wear his breeches under his robe today.  Had it been the hot summer months instead of spring, he might have had a potentially embarrassing situation to explain to these two young women.  “Oh, I’m sure you could swim circles around me, Arrie.  But we’ll hang close just in case.”

            The three dove into the water and began to make their way to Dagger Rock.  Arrie reached it well ahead of the others, and began exploring the strange obelisk.  A lip of stone protruded from the dagger a few feet under the surface, allowing her to walk around it.  She circled the stone twice, then dove under to explore the surface.  She came up with a quizzical look on her face.

            “What is it?” asked Autumn.

            “I’m not sure,” said Arrie.  “I’m not an expert in geology or anything, but the base just seems odd.  I mean, it looks and feels natural, but it’s a very… square kind of natural, you know what I mean?”

            “Like it was man-made?” asked Kyle.

            “Sort of, but not really.  I mean, it doesn’t seem like it was carved.”  She looked up at the top of the dagger-shaped stone, thirty feet over her head.  “I think I’ll see what’s up there.”

            Arrie tried to climb the stone dagger, but the obelisk’s sheer surfaces made the task difficult, and the fact that Arrie was dripping wet didn’t help.  After a few minutes, she gave up.  She, Autumn, and Kyle spent a few minutes casually swimming around Dagger Rock, then returned to shore.  As they pulled their outer clothes back on, Arrie looked back at the rock protrusion.

            “That’s just going to keep bugging me,” she said to herself. 

*          *            *​
             The group waited nervously for Osborn to return.  The hin had gone out nearly an hour ago to check out the cobbler’s fields.  The rest of them sat quietly, drinking slowly.  Elmo’s feast wasn’t due to start for another hour at least, and the minutes dragged interminably.  They all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Osborne enter the Happy Half-Ogre.  But the look on his face as he approached the table was serious.

            “We need to talk,” he said, “but not here.”

            After a moment of whispered conversation, the group began to slowly filter out of the inn in ones and twos so as not to attract attention.  They met up down at the mill.  They all leaned in close to hear Osborn over the sound of the water wheel.  Osborn had insisted they meet here so they would not be overheard.

            “So I went to the field to look around,” he said, “and I notice a wheelbarrow leaning up against the tool shed.  But the dirt in the wheelbarrow didn’t match the topsoil – it came from much deeper.  I followed the wheel rut to the stables, where I found a trapdoor covering a tunnel.”

            “Just as we suspected when Stonethumb pointed us that way,” Kyle said.

            “So I follow the tunnels,” Osborn continued.  “And there are a few branches.  One of them still seems to be a work in progress, but near as I can tell it’s heading in the general direction of the bank vault.”

            “That would seem to support our theory of scaring people into putting their money into the bank so it can be robbed,” commented Tolly.

            “Well, let me keep going.  One of the other tunnels leads up into a basement.  I’m not sure exactly where, but all I saw was a wine rack and a couple of guard dogs.  I didn’t stick around to let the dogs get my scent.  Another tunnel had human bones in it; kind of spooked me, until I saw there were more bones in the walls, and I realized I was under the graveyard.”

            Kyle and Autumn looked at each other.  “Ghosts in the graveyard.” Autumn said.

            “Yeah, yeah, so anyway I try another tunnel.  This one goes up through a well or something, and ends in a little room that I can’t figure out how to get out of.  But I figure something’s got to be there, because whoever dug the tunnels set up a tripwire.  The best I could guess was that it was somewhere near the center of town.”

            “Yuri’s tavern is near the center of town,” Xu observed.

            “Yeah, and so’s that other inn, the Hearthfire,” Osborn sighed at the constant interruptions.  “Well, I haven’t got to the worst part yet.  I finally get to the last tunnel.  It kind of narrows down a bit – I was okay, but most of you would have to crawl – which ended in a wooden door with a ring.  I open it up, and I’m in a basement.  There’s a lot of noise upstairs; people singing, laughing, that sort of thing.  It doesn’t take me long to figure out where I am – the Happy Half-Ogre.”

            The faces of the party members fell.  “That doesn’t look good for Grog,” said Arrie.

            “What about those orcs staying here?” asked Lanara.  “Kavan had some suspicions about them not really being horse traders.”  

            “No,” said Kyle, shaking his head.  “The tunnels that Osborn described would take months to dig.  The orcs have only been here since winter.  It’s possible to have dug them in that amount of time, but everyone in town would know about it.  For it to stay a secret, they would have had to start last summer at the absolute latest.”

            “So, that means that it’s someone in the town,” said Arrie.  “Grog’s only been here six months, so he couldn’t have dug those tunnels.  Besides, Osborn said they got smaller just before going into Grog’s basement.  Most of his crew are pretty big people.”

            “So now what?” asked Kavan.

            “Tonight Xu will try going out and acting as bait as planned,” said Osborn.  “I’ll follow her to make sure she’s all right.”

            “I’m meeting one of the orcs out at the stables later,” Arrie said.  “They wanted to buy Ghost.  I’ll see how much they really know about horse trading, and see what else I can get out of them.”

            “Tomorrow we should go back and have a longer talk with the mason Stonethumb,” Tolly said, “and find out exactly how much he knows about those tunnels.”

            “There’s still a lot to look into,” Osborn agreed, “but right now we have a date with a pig.”

*          *            *​
            The feast did much to lift their somber moods.  They laughed and talked as grease dripped from their chins.  Lanara played, sang, and danced for the group, and even the normally reserved Xu was inspired to play a tune on a small reed pipe.  Arrie and Autumn came dressed in their best clothing; after their trip to Dagger Rock they’d changed clothes and attempted to bluff their way into the bank vault in order to see if it was vulnerable, but they were rebuffed by the banker.  As the evening wore on and the fire began to die, Elmo stood up and addressed the party.

            “Thank you for coming out tonight,” he said.  “What with all the trouble in town it’s been hard to get folks together like we used to.  You’ve eased my burden some, and that’s no small thing at my age.  I’d like you all to have something.”  He reached behind the stone he’d been sitting on and pulled out a dagger, handing it to Kavan.  The dagger was made of iron, and was roughly made at best.  Obviously not meant to hold an edge, the dagger seemed little better than an oddly shaped metal stick.  Mounted in the pommel was an oddly shaped yellowish stone of poor quality.  Kavan could tell it was a diamond, though not a very good one, worth no more than a few gold at best.

            “I found that, years ago, while plowing my field.  I always meant to ask someone about it, but never did.  It’s just sat on my mantel collecting dust.  I know it’s not much, but consider it a token of my appreciation for your help today.”

            Each of the party members said their thanks as they passed the dagger around.  Tolly examined it closely, frowning.  The workmaship was odd, almost as if it was meant to appear as crude as it did.  Then a thought occurred to him, and he held the blade up, silhouetting it against the moonlight reflecting off the river.  He moved the dagger until it was even with the dark shape of Dagger Rock.  The resemblance was uncanny.

            “Arrie,” he said, handing her the dagger, “I think your instinct about Dagger Rock being unusual may be correct.”  He pointed out the comparison he’d just made to her.

            Arrie contemplated the dagger, a gleam in her eye.  “I may have to go swimming again tomorrow,” she said.

            Soon the moon was high overhead, though it was barely visible through the clouds.  The party helped extinguish the bonfire and cart the meat they’d been unable to finish into Elmo’s home.  Sleepily, they returned to the Happy Half-Ogre.  When they got in, Arrie began changing out of her noblewoman’s clothing and into her armor.

            “Aren’t you going to sleep?” asked Autumn.

            She shook her head.  “I’m meeting that orc horse-trader at midnight,” she said.  “I’ll be back shortly.”

            Arrie went outside about a half-hour later and walked around to the stables.  The smell of burnt wood and straw still permeated the air as she stepped inside.  Patting Ghost on the flank, she saw the trader, Barok, standing at the far end of the building.

            “So, Barok,” she asked in Orcish, “I’m here as we arranged.  Tell me, what made you decide to buy my horse?”

            A toothy grin was his only reply.  Suddenly Arrie saw stars as something heavy hit her on the back of the head.  Turning wobbily, she saw a second orc standing behind her, a cudgel in hand.  He seemed rather surprised that his blow had not dropped the human woman.

            Arrie’s chain was out in a flash, whipping out and raking across the thug’s chest.  The orc yelped and tried to make his exit, but with another lash of the chain he was on his feet, dazed.  Arrie ran up and kicked him right under the jaw with her heavy boot, knocking him cold.

            She turned to deal with Barok, but found him splayed out on the ground.  Standing over him, a heavy saddle clutched in his hands, the mute orc stablehand Shod glowered at the unconscious Barok.  Arrie could see the imprint of Barok’s teeth embedded in the leather of the saddle.

            “Nice work, Shod,” said Arrie.

            Shod bowed slightly, then pointed toward the inn, and made gestures framing out a very large person.

            “Right, go get Grog.  Wait here.”

            Just then Osborn came running into the stable.  “I was out giving Rupert a walk when I heard a commotion,” he gasped.  Then he saw the two unconscious orcs on the ground.

            “Go get Grog, and the others,” Arrie said, “we have a couple of horse thieves here.”

            Within minutes the party was gathered in the stables, where Arrie and Shod had trussed up Barok and his friend.  Grog came in soon afterward, carrying a bastard sword and wearing a chainmail shirt draped over his barrel chest.

            “So, shall we wake them?” Arrie asked, as Kavan used a small amount of divine power to heal the injury to her head.

            “Allow me.”  Tolly summoned up his own divine power, and a moment later the orcs were drenched with gallons of water that appeared over their heads.  Sputtering, they looked around angrily.

            “Allow me,” said Grog, stepping forward.  He walked within an arm’s length of the two orcs, looking down at them.  His eyes glowed red, and his hair appeared to literally burst into flames.  The orcs fell silent as Grog spoke to them in Orcish.

            “I am very, very upset right now,” he told them.  “I suggest you talk.  Now.”

            Twenty minutes later the door to the Dagger Rock jail opened, and Grog walked in, dragging one of the two orcs behind him by the feet.  The second was brought in by Arrie and Autumn.

            “I have here two criminals,” Grog said to Leif, the young guard.  “They’ve admitted to trying to steal her horse, and to setting the fire in my stable last night.”

            The group watched as Grog and Leif hauled the two terrified orcs into cells.  They looked at each other apprehensively; the orcs had also admitted to being paid by someone in town to run them out, but no amount of coercion had convinced the orcs to disclose the name of their employer.

            “Well, at least we know for sure someone else is behind all this,” Lanara said.

            “Yes, but our adversary remains hidden, while we are vulnerable,” said Xu.

            Arrie watched the two orcs as they were locked up.  She rubbed the bump on the back of her skull.  “Then we just make sure we find out who it is and get to that bastard first,” she said.


----------



## Delemental

The group talked quietly amongst themselves as they walked from the jail back to the Happy Half-Ogre.  Most of them were exhausted from a long day walking about town, and Arrie in particular was nursing a lump on her head after the attack by the orcs.  The idea of going down into the tunnels that evening was discussed, but quickly dismissed.

            Osborn, Xu, and Lanara, who had spent the day resting in anticipation of a late night, decided to proceed with their plans.  Xu walked around the streets of Dagger Rock alone, shadowed by Lanara and Osborne.  Though at first Xu had difficulty remembering that she was trying to be conspicuous, eventually she broke the habit of walking in the shadows and went out into the open.  Despite their best efforts, however, Xu was not the victim of an assault by the town’s mysterious muggers.  In fact, a stray cat was the only living thing they saw.

            The three heroes met up at the end of the town, and decided to check out the graveyard, as one of the tunnels Osborn had found came up somewhere inside the cemetery.  Xu took up a position in the branches of an elm tree overlooking the graveyard, while Lanara circled around the perimeter.  Osborn went inside, exploring the many gravestones.  Most of the graves were marked with flat stone rectangles, though several had more traditional standing tombstones.  There were two mausoleums as well, jutting into the night sky.

            As he walked around, Osborn’s sensitive ears picked up a very faint sound; a dull, rhythmic chunk.

            “Digging,” Osborn whispered to himself.  He managed to locate the source of the noise; it came from a simple grave with a flat marker.  Osborn read the inscription; Jack Kineron – He Deserved Better.  A quick inspection revealed a well-hidden seam in the grass, and Osborn couls see that it concealed a wooden trapdoor with sod nailed on top of it.

            Osborn went to get Xu and Lanara.  “What is it?” asked Xu, after leaping out of the tree and turning a somersault in midair.

            “I’ve found where the tunnel comes out in the graveyard,” the hin explained.  “And I can hear digging.”

            The three walked out to the graveyard and cautiously opened the trapdoor.  It was pitch black below, and they could now all hear the digging sound; it seemed far away, though it was difficult to tell with the echoes coming from the tunnel.  Lanara indicated that she could see nothing in the tunnel to the limit of her darkvision.

            They decided to go down to investigate.  Osborn led the way, as he had already been in the tunnels and knew where they led. Xu and Lanara followed, the monk holding a tiny oil lamp in her palm to provide just enough light for she and Osborn to see.  They came close to a four-way intersection of tunnels, and Osborn held up his hand so that his friends would stop.  He quietly crept back to speak with them.

            “I can hear the digging coming from the tunnel to the left,” he whispered.  “That’s the unfinished one leading to the bank.  There’s also a bit of light coming from there. I’m going to peek around the corner and see what I can; you wait here and come quickly if I yell.”

            Osborn moved forward again, disappearing from view as he left the radius of Xu’s dim light.  After only a few minutes, he returned.  Motioning for Lanara and Xu to turn around and walk back the way they came, he stopped them once they were well out of earshot.

            “There are three of them,” said Osborn.  “There are two elves doing the digging; one male and one female.  There’s a short, balding human supervising them, holding the wheelbarrow I saw out by the cobbler’s field.”

            “Anyone you recognize?” asked Lanara.

            Osborn shook his head.  “But there are plenty of people in town I haven’t seen yet.  Yuri, for one.”

            “Do you think the short human is Yuri?” Xu asked.

            “Maybe,” he shrugged, “I don’t know for sure.  I didn’t think Yuri would be hanging around with elves, though; I thought he didn’t like non-humans.”

            “Should we try and stop them?” asked Xu.

            Osborn thought about it for a moment.  “Probably not.  We have no idea of their capabilities, and it’s three against three right now.  Neither Lanara or I are much good in a close-quarters fight, and these tunnels won’t let me get enough distance to throw daggers.  I say we wait and come back tomorrow night with everyone.”

*          *            *​
            The next morning Osborn filled in the rest of the group on their discoveries.  They agreed to go down to the tunnels together that evening.  In the meantime, there were several people that the group wanted to speak with, mostly about Yuri.  They agreed that since whoever was behind the crimes in town was obviously on to their investigation, they should all travel together to avoid any more surprises like Arrie had.

            “I want to take some time to investigate Dagger Rock,” Arrie said, as she pulled on her boots.  “I want to see if that dagger Elmo gave us has something to do with it.”

            “Sure,” said Osborn.  “Sounds like something we can do this afternoon.  We’ll all swim out and have a look.”

            With everyone busy getting ready to leave, no one noticed both Tolly and Lanara looking uncomfortable at the mention of swimming.

            Their first stop was very close.  Arrie walked down the hall and knocked on the door to the room that until recently was occupied by the orc “horse traders”.  Pushing on the door, she saw Grog’s elderly maid, Esmerelda, busy cleaning up.

            “Oh, hello dear,” said Esmerelda.  “What can I do for you?”

            “I just wanted to ask you something, if you don’t mind,” Arrie said.  The rest of the party waited outside in the hallway, not wanting to mob the poor old woman.

            “Well, come inside then,” Esmerelda said.  “You don’t mind if I sit a spell while we talk?”  She lowered herself to the edge of the bed, groaning slightly as her knees bent.

            “Esmerelda,” Arrie began, “you’ve probably heard by now that we’re looking into the recent trouble in town in the hopes of clearing Grog’s name.”

            “Yes, and bless you for it, dearie.”

            “Well, don’t say anything to anyone yet, because we’re not sure, but some of us suspect that Yuri might be behind it.  I wanted to ask you about the problems between you and him.  We’ve heard the rumors, of course, about you being accused of stealing.”

            “I never stole anything from him,” Esmerelda said testily.

            “I know you didn’t,” said Arrie, patting the elderly woman’s hand.  “I was wondering if there was some other reason Yuri let you go – something maybe you don’t talk about much?”

            Esmerelda shook her head.  “Near as I can figure, Yuri was looking for an excuse to let some staff go, seeing as his business weren’t too good.  Fortunately Grog was there to pick us up after Yuri kicked us out.  He’s hired a lot of Yuri’s old employees – besides me, there’s Sevem and Julia, and not too long ago he hired that girl Jenya to help out Matilda in the kitchen.”

            Arrie nodded.  “Do you know what happened to Yuri’s parents?  I noticed that the Kinerons were some of the town founders, but there’s no mention of his parents, and Yuri himself only came into town a few years ago.”

            Esmerelda shook her head.  “Afraid I don’t know, dearie.  Never met then as far as I can recall.”

            “Well, did you know Jack Kineron?”

            “Jack Kineron?”  Esmerelda repeated.  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know a Jack Kineron.”

            “There’s a marker for him in the graveyard.  It doesn’t say when he died, though.”

            Esmerelda shook her head.  “No dearie, I’ve known a lot of people in this town, but none named Jack Kineron.”

            Arrie smiled, though a bit disappointed.  “Thank you for talking to me.  I’ll let you get back to work.”

            “Oh, that’s all right, dearie.  I needed the rest anyway.  These old bones don’t move like they used to.”

            Arrie left the room, and the party went downstairs.  They proceeded to Bearclaw Manor to speak with Sidon, but his butler informed them that he was at the town jail.  They stopped by in time to see him delivering food to the orc prisoners.  Kyle knocked at the jail door, and they were let inside by Sidon.

            “Good morning,” he said.  “And good work catching these two.”

            “Well, the credit really goes to Arrie and Shod,” Kyle said.

            “What can I do for you?” Sidon asked.  “Have you found out who’s behind these crimes?”

            “Not yet,” said Osborn, “but we think we’re close.  We wanted to ask you what you know about Yuri.”

            Sidon scratched at the beard stubble on his chin.  “Well, not much.  He came into town just shortly after I did.  He built the Dagger Rock Tavern across from the Hearthfire, and then started buying up land around here.  He leases a lot of the land to people in town around here.  Then Grog came and built his place, and since then Yuri’s been stirring up the town against him.”

            “Probably burned him up to see a person not of pure human blood being successful,” commented Osborn.

            “Huh?  Oh, Yuri’s not racist,” Sidon paused for a moment.  “Well, I suppose he doesn’t care much for orcs or folks with orc blood, which is probably why he had a problem with Sevem, but he’s not nearly as bad as that drunkard Jim.  No, I think his beef with Grog is just that he’s losing customers.”

            “Do you know anything about Yuri’s parents?”

            Sidon shook his head.  “Like I said, Yuri came here from Vharnath just after me.  I’d heard he had roots here, but I have no idea about his parents.”

            “What about a Jack Kineron?  Is he like an uncle, or cousin or something?”

            Sidon looked confused.  “Who?”

            “Jack Kineron,” Osborn repeated.  “There’s a marker for him in the graveyard.”

            “You must be mistaken,” said Sidon.  “The only Kinerons up there are Yuri’s grandparents, Piter and Hannah.  Until Yuri came back those were the only Kinerons that ever lived here.”

            “Interesting,” Osborn muttered to himself.  “Well, we’d best be getting on our way.”

            “Okay, then,” Sidon said.  “Just remember that whatever you find out, we need evidence.  Either some physical proof, or something that either myself or one of the other councilmen can witness.”

            Osborn smiled, thinking of the network of tunnels that lay under Captain Bearclaw’s feet.  “Oh, I’m sure we can find something.”

            As they were about to leave, Kavan spoke up.  “Captain, I was wondering if there are any elves living nearby.  I’ve not seen any, and I long for the company of my own people.”

            “Well, there’s Tristan the ranger, who lives out in the forest,” said Sidon.  “But he’s elf-touched, so not quite what you’re looking for.  Oh, and of course there’s Rinlin and Aeoli.”

            “Who are they?” Kavan asked.

            “Oh, I think they’re siblings or something.  They came to town a few months ago, and they’re working for Yuri now.  They’ll probably be at the tavern.”

            The group looked at each other knowingly.  “Thank you,” said Kavan.


----------



## Delemental

The group hurried through the rest of their morning.  They attempted to confront the dwarven mason Mexalo Stonethumb about the tunnels and what he knew, but Stonethumb refused to speak with them, slamming the door in Kyle’s face.  Convinced he was somehow involved but not wanting to break down the door in the middle of the day, they moved on.  On the way to the river Tolly stopped by the wine shop on a hunch and spoke with Gretchen again.  He learned that she did, indeed, keep two guard dogs named Buttercup and Cream Puff in the basement to guard her wine, confirming their suspicion that one of the tunnels emerged under her shop.

            The group arrived at the riverbank close to Dagger Rock.  Several of the group began stripping down in preparation for the swim to the obelisk.  Tolly tugged at his breastplate near the neckline, and Lanara almost looked green.

            “I’m not going swimming,” she said flatly.

            “I have no wish to enter the water myself,” agreed Tolly.

            Arrie, who was already wading out, turned around, water lapping at her knees.  “Well,” she said, looking at Lanara, “if you want you can stay here with Autumn,” she pointed toward her sister, who was sitting on a nearby boulder watching.  “But you have to come, Tolly.  You’re the only one who knows about stonework.”

            “Be that as it may, I cannot and will not swim,” he repeated.

            Arrie sighed and climbed out of the water.  She walked a short distance downstream, toward a cluster of small boats in the middle of the river.  “Hey!” she shouted to the fishermen, “we want to hire a boat!”

            One of the fishermen, who didn’t seem to be having much luck anyway, pulled in his nets and began rowing to shore.  The keel ground to a halt in the sandy shoreline.

            “A little bird tells me you’re looking to hire a boat,” he said.

            “Yeah, a little bird with a fifteen-foot-long chain,” said Lanara quietly to herself.

            “Yes, we would, sir, if you don’t mind,” said Arrie.

            The fisherman looked at the assembled group.  “I can’t take all of you,” he said.

            “Not all of us, just him.” Arrie jerked her thumb over her shoulder to indicate the Ardaran priest.

            The fisherman eyed Tolly.  “He planning on wearing that armor out there?”

            “Yup,” answered Kyle.  “Actually, I don’t think he can take it off.”

            With a quick exchange of coin the group was once more on its way to Dagger Rock.  Once they reached the lip surrounding the obelisk, they began walking around, studying it.  Osborn was especially diligent, feeling around in the muck with his bare toes for anything unusual even as he studied the sheer stone surface.  Tolly, safe in his boat, cast _detect magic_.

            “The entire thing is faintly magical,” he said.  “Perhaps some mild preservative enchantment, or the lingering aura from a more powerful spell.  The dagger that Elmo gave us doesn’t radiate any magic.”

            After a few minutes, Osborn suddenly stopped.  “Wait a minute…” he knelt down and felt the stone surface under his feet, the water coming up to his chin.  “There’s some sort of hole here, covered in slime… it’s deep, but narrow…”  Osborn looked up at Tolly.  “Hand me that dagger.”

            Tolly tossed the dagger-shaped lump of metal to the hin, who immediately plunged it under the water.  A moment later, those standing on the obelisk felt a slight shudder, and there was a sudden swirl of water just in front of Osborn.  As the group gathered, they saw that a secret compartment had opened up in the stone just under the water.  The fisherman’s eyes got large.

            Osborn reached into the boat, where he’d stashed some of his gear in case he’d needed to climb the rock itself, and pulled out a small sack of coins.  Pressing it into the fisherman’s hand, he said quietly, “We’d appreciate it if you kept this to yourself for a while.”

            The fisherman nodded and pocketed the money, likely more than he’d see from an entire season of fishing.

            Meanwhile, Ari had already dove down into the chamber.  She came up a moment later.  “Looks like an old stash,” she said.  “Most of it’s rotten, but there a few items left, including an iron chest.  It’ll take a few trips, but I can get it all out.”

            “Let me help,” Kyle said.  He concentrated for a moment on his inner power, and called up his innate Talent.  A translucent form appeared next to Kyle.  “Go down into the chamber there,” Kyle said, pointing, “retrieve any item you can carry and bring it up to this boat.”  The unseen servant immediately disappeared into the chamber, appearing as an amorphous bubble under the water.

            It only took a few minutes to clear out the chamber.  They quickly rowed back to shore, thanking the fisherman for his assistance and discretion.  Osborn tried to jimmy the lock on the chest, but it was rusted shut.  Autumn handed her sister a crowbar, and Arrie immediately put the “warrior’s lockpick” to good use, breaking open the chest.  Inside they found a well-preserved book, three sealed vials, a gold ring fastened to a leather necklace, and a scimitar, the blade engraved with images of basilisks, displacer beasts, manticores, and hydras.

            “Well,” said Lanara, looking over everyone’s shoulder, “either this’ll be our bonus for a job well done, or Grog’s farewell present.”

*          *            *​ 
            Flush with excitement from their unexpected find, the group decided to have lunch at the Heathfire Inn.  They’d hoped to try the Dagger Rock Tavern to see what Yuri and his elven helpers looked like, but it wasn’t open yet.  The group ate a pleasant, if unremarkable meal at the Hearthfire.  Most of the customers looked as if they’d been going there for many, many years.  They talked with the locals as they ate, and learned a few interesting facts – the first was that no one had ever heard of someone named Jack Kineron in town.  The story of Yuri’s parents was finally revealed; the original Kinerons had always been infected with wanderlust and a need to expand their horizons; so while Yuri’s grandparents had been part of the town’s founding, their children found Dagger Rock too settled for their taste, and simply left.  The most important thing they learned was that Yuri was a short, balding man, and his workers Rinlin and Aeoli matched the description of the two elves Osborn had seen the previous night.

            On the way back to the Happy Half-Ogre to rest, Osborn swung by the jail.  “We’re coming by your place at midnight tonight,” he whispered to Sidon when he opened the door, “be ready, and you’ll have your answers.”

            Sidon nodded.  “Then I’d better get some rest,” he said.

            That evening, Sidon was waiting for the party outside his home, dressed in his armor and carrying a sword.  He followed the group into the graveyard, and his eyebrows arched in surprise when they lifted the secret trapdoor on Jack Kineron’s grave.  Osborn put a finger to his lips, then cupped a hand to his ear.  Sidon listened intently, and heard the same thing they’d heard the night before – digging.

            “There’s a whole network of tunnels under the town,” Osborn said, lowering the trapdoor temporarily.  “One branch connects to the cobbler’s stables, another comes out here, another in the basement of the winemaker’s shop, and another one in Grog’s basement.  There’s one tunnel which ends in a small room that I couldn’t figure out how to get out of, but I think it comes up somewhere near the middle of town.  The tunnel that you can hear them digging is headed toward the bank vault.”

            Sidon’s eyes widened.  “I think I need to see this for myself,” he said.

            The group moved down the tunnels toward the sound of digging.  Most of them stopped at the intersection to block any escape, while Osborn led Sidon forward to the bank tunnel.  They came back a few minutes later.

            “That’s Yuri, all right,” whispered Sidon, “and Rinlin and Aeoli too.  I never would have expected anything this big.”

            “We think that they have created an artificial panic in town with these robberies,” said Tolly.  “Causing more people to place their valuables in the bank vaults.  Yuri gets the money, Grog is voted out of town which eliminates the competition, and once the tunnel connecting the vault to Grog’s inn is discovered he would naturally be blamed for the robbery as well, leaving Yuri blameless.”

            “Well, now what?” asked Arrie.  “Do we jump them?”

            “I think if we just confront them all together,” said Captain Bearclaw, “they should surrender without a fight.”

            Indeed, as the group of nine seasoned adventurers rounded the corner and confronted the three diggers, they very quickly realized the odds were against them and gave up.  The party helped bring the shackled prisoners up to the surface, where they were led into the jail by Sidon.  Once secure, Sidon pulled out a pair of heavy leather gauntlets and began pulling them on.

            “I’ll need some privacy to interrogate the prisoners,” he said.  “I’ll send Raymond to go get Logan Ironhand up and join you.  I think you ought to go take a look at the Dagger Rock Tavern.”

            The group emerged from the jail, eager to put the final nail in Yuri’s coffin.  “I think we should head back into the tunnels,” said Osborn.  “I want to check out that dead-end tunnel one more time.  If it leads into Yuri’s place, which I think it does, it’s going to be a lot easier to come up from below than it will be to find the entrance from the tavern.”

            Sure enough, once Osborn crawled into the small alcove, he found what he was looking for.  Perhaps Yuri and his crew had been less cautious tonight than before, but this time the hin easily spotted the hidden pull-ring that opened the secret door.  The party emerged into a long room, containing nothing but a table with six chairs around it.  On one wall was a map of the entire tunnel system, showing the intended path straight to the vaults.  Autumn pulled the map off the wall and rolled it up.  “Evidence,” she said.

            Kyle looked at the table.  “Six chairs,” he mused.  “I think we’ve only caught half the conspirators here.”

            Kavan’s head perked up suddenly.  He’d caught the faint feel of a breeze where there shouldn’t have been as he walked toward the door.  Stepping back, he examined the wall.  “There’s another secret passage here,” Kavan said.  He pushed on the wall, and it swung open.

            “Wait here,” Tolly said, summoning a light.  “I’ll check it out.”

            The rest of the group sat patiently while Tolly went into the darkness.  Osborn listened at the door at the far end of the room.  “I hear something inside,” he said.  “It sounds like a cat.”

            They opened the door and found a small closet.  Inside were two large chests, and perched atop one of them was a large cat.  Osborn, Lanara, and Xu recognized it as the one they’d seen in the streets the night they’d tried to act as decoys.  Kavan attempted to pick the cat up to pet it, but it clawed and hissed at him, then bolted out of the closet and down the hole they’d come in.

            “I was just trying to be nice,” said Kavan sadly.

            “Well, I’m sure it’s not your fault,” said Osborn, who was already working on the lock of one of the chests.

            Tolly came back a minute later.  “This leads into a large bedroom, I presume Yuri’s.  There’s a hallway that leads into a hidden part of the tavern, where it looks like he’s set up some sort of gambling hall.”

            “Is gambling legal here?” asked Arrie.

            “I’m not certain.  We’ll ask Captain Bearclaw when we get the chance.”

            “I don’t think we’ll need to worry about it much,” Osborn said.  He was working on the second chest, but pointed at the first one, which was open.  “If I had to guess, I’d say that’s all the stuff that’s been stolen from the town.”

            Within minutes Yuri’s tavern had let go all its secrets.  Lanara found another hidden door while exploring Yuri’s closet, which led out into the main room of the tavern.  She walked out just as Logan Ironhand and his son Raymond came in through the front door.

            “Oh, you’re just in time,” she called out to them.

*          *            *​
            The party gathered around one of Grog’s large tables, enjoying the last remnants of a feast.  Captain Bearclaw was with them, as was all of Grog’s staff, with one notable exception.

            Between the diary kept by the elven wizard Aeoli (who was Rinlin’s wife, it turned out, not his sister) and Yuri’s confession, the whole story had come out.  Yuri had known the elven couple back in Vharnath, and had recruited them for this job; in addition to digging, they had also been the burglars and muggers, using Aeoli’s magic to remain unidentified.  Their accomplices were Jim Aransee, who turned out not to be quite the drunkard that everyone thought.  He’d acted as the eyes and ears of the conspirators.  Keeping an eye on Grog was Kayla, the cook’s assistant Grog had hired recently.  A search of her apartment above the wine shop turned up a supply of debilitating poisons, which was apparently Yuri’s fallback plan should the bank heist go awry.  The sixth conspirator turned out to be Mexalo Stonethumb, who turned himself in.  Yuri had blackmailed him when the tavern owner found out that Mexalo had seriously overcharged the town for building the jail.

            “So what’ll happen to them?” asked Arrie.

            “Mexalo’s agreed to work off his debt.  The others have been banished on pain of death.  As for Yuri, everything he had – which turned out to be surprising little, thanks to his gambling debts – is forfeited to the town, and as for him… we’ll take care of his sentencing right here in town.”

            As if Sidon’s meaning wasn’t clear enough, Grog grinned and drew his thumb across his neck.

            “Well, if you’ll excuse me,” said Sidon, standing up, “I’m going home and getting some rest at last.”  He walked out the door to the sound of hearty farewells.

            “Well, yer as good as yer word, young’uns,” said Grog, grinning.  “Ye saved my inn and my crew, and I thank ye for that.  Now, I’ve promised ye a reward, and ye’ll get it – I’ve left it up in yer rooms, just to be discreet about it.  Stay here as long as ye like before ye have to leave.”

            Thanking their host profusely, the party soon went upstairs to collect their reward and turn in.  But as they opened the door, they saw their instructor, Shilsen, sitting on the bed, holding the magical jambiya that Arrie had found on the orcs.

            “So, it seems as though it’s been a job well done,” he said, looking at them.  “You should be proud of yourselves.”

            “Thank you,” said Tolly.  “It was an interesting simulation, to be sure.”

            “Simulation?”  Shilsen smiled.  “No, I think you’re mistaken.  Dagger Rock is a real place, and you actually did walk here.  It’s in the Farmer’s Circle, a group of villages that surrounds the city of Vharnath.  No, you’ve actually been on a real mission, and helped real people.”

            The party looked around at each other, not knowing what to say.

            “The Tower feels that a final examination should take place ‘in the field’, so to speak, to give them a chance to see what it’s really like out there,” Shilsen explained.

            “Wait,” Lanara said, “did you say ‘final exam’?”

            “Why, yes, Lanara, I did.  Aren’t you glad you came to class on time for this one?”  Shilsen smiled as he stood up.  “I’m pleased to say that you’ve all passed, and will graduate from the Tower.  Speaking of which, the graduation ceremony’s in three days.  If you set a good pace, you should just barely make it back to Trageon in time.”  With that, Shilsen twisted a gem on a bracelet he wore, and vanished.

            An audible groan filled the room.

-----------------------------

We learned some valuable things in this adventure.  The main thing we learned is that a mystery-style adventure takes forever with eight players.  THis is a relatively short published adventure, and it took us four sessions to finish.  With a group as large as ours, there's no reason not to split up to investigate leads, which means the DM's dealing with four groups of two instead of one group of eight.  We also ended up chasing a lot of red herrings and side plots (like Dagger Rock itself) that in a smaller group might have gone untouched.  IN the end, we were all so weary of the adventure (including the DM) that the final confrontation was glossed over (though realistically Yuri and his flunkies had no chance against eight of us anyway).  We've agreed to avoid these types of adventures in the future - though individually none of us has a problem with an investigative adventure, the group dynamics don't support this particular style.

So, from this point on no more school setting - it's for real now!  (Cue ominous music)


----------



## ledded

I'm liking this story, keep up the good work.

And while I too am a huge fan of investigative adventures, you are right in that they are quite hard to do with a large group and maintain any kind of groove for your game.


----------



## Delemental

*Death Makes No Sound*

The group saw little of each other after graduation.  They were allowed to stay in the Tower while awaiting their compulsory service call, but with no classes or exams to worry about most of them bent their energies to personal pursuits.  Money flowed from their hands into the waiting pockets of merchants both within the Tower and in the surrounding city of Trageon.  The eight companions didn’t remain completely isolated, however.  They met briefly in order to divide up various items they’d acquired in their exams, and to show off their graduation gifts.

Though Kyle was not seen much outside of the Tower, his companions did receive evidence of his well being several days after graduation, when they each received a small gift of a potion or a scroll he’d made for them.  The very next day, Kyle received two gifts in return; a new leather-bound book with pen and quill from Autumn, and a new set of robes, a rich forest green with golden embroidery.  There was no note identifying who had sent the robes.

Lanara was also rarely seen, though in her case she was rarely inside the school.  She put her graduation gift of a magical fiddle to good use, performing throughout Trageon.  Though successful, her exuberance cost her in the end, as she ended up contracting a severe case of the Stygian Shakes* after a night of dancing and singing in the Undercity.  Thus when the group finally received the call to assemble at the base of the Tower two weeks after graduation, Lanara came to the gathering wrapped in a heavy blanket, shivering despite the warmth that usually accompanied the month of Canith.

The group stood patiently, mingled among several other clusters of students.  Part of the terms of education at the Tower was that each graduate was expected to perform a service for the school.  In the case of those training as adventurers, the Tower contracted out groups to towns and villages to solve problems.  Though the school kept the fees negotiated by the Tower’s representatives, the same amount was credited to each student’s tuition debt, thus easing the considerable financial burden a bit.

Kavan spotted a shiny black bird perched atop Kyle’s shoulder, and his eyes widened.  “Is that a raven?”

“Yup,” he said, grinning.  “Her name’s Violet, on account of those feathers over her eyes.” He pointed out a line of purple feather arching over the bird’s black eyes like a pair of eyebrows.  “She’s my new familiar.  Say hello, Violet.”

“Hello,” Violet cawed.

Kavan reached out and stroked the bird’s head.  “You’re truly fortunate, Kyle.  The raven is Erito’s totem animal.”

“Well, thanks, Kavan.  And hey, I know you like to collect raven feathers for your cloak**.  You’re welcome to anything Violet ends up molting.”

The group’s old instructor, Shilsen, approached the group.  “We’ve hired you out to a remote logging settlement in Tlaxan.  We’ll be teleporting to Fingol and crossing through the gate to Aleppi.  From there it’s about two days ride.”

“We?” asked Arrie.  “Are you coming with us?”

“Of course,” replied Shilsen.  “Someone has to make sure the Tower gets their money.  But let’s get one thing clear – I’m there as an accountant, nothing more.  I’m not saving you if you get in over your head.”

Conversation waned as they stood waiting to be sent to their destination.  Soon one of the Tower’s archmage instructors came by.  Shilsen handed him a sheet of parchment, and after studying it for a moment the wizard began speaking words of power.  Moments later, the scenery of Trageon vanished, to be replaced by a wide road leading through a vast field.  Before them lay a small city.

“Fingol,” said Shilsen, as he began walking.

The city of Fingol turned out to be rather unremarkable despite its relatively large size and level of activity.  It was the major trade hub between Targeth and the elven nation of Tlaxan to the east.  The party proceeded almost directly to the docks, where a ferry was already waiting for them.  The craft, which was propelled by a bound water elemental, made straight for the two parallel columns of stone that marked the gateway through Targeth’s defensive magical barrier***.  They could see the barrier ripple before them in the middle of the river, appearing almost as a heat shimmer.  They all knew well that from Targeth’s side the barrier merely acted as an impenetrable wall, but anyone attempting to enter the nation through the barrier would be utterly destroyed.

The ferry landed in the city of Aleppi, Fingol’s counterpart in Tlaxan.  This city, though far more haphazard than where they had just come from, seemed to exude a friendlier, more welcoming air.  The group stopped for lunch at one of the local inns.  While chatting with the locals, the group learned that the major concern of the city seemed to be the rising cost of metals produced by the dwarves in the mountains.  However, one old man was heard to complain about the scarcity of timber recently, which piqued their curiosity.

“So, what exactly is happening in this logging village we’re going to?” Osborn asked Shilsen.

Shilsen shrugged.  “You’ll get to find out when you get there.  I don’t know any more than you do.”

After lunch the party mounted their horses and rode to the northeast, leaving Aleppi behind them.  They made camp that evening, and went about the business of setting watches for the night.  Lanara was excluded from the watch due to her illness, as was Kyle, since it was well known that wizards required rest to prepare their spells.  Kyle protested that he could take a morning watch, but was overruled.

As the sun set, Osborn and Kaven looked at the horizon at an approaching back of clouds.  “Could be rain tomorrow,” said Kavan.

“Maybe,” said Osborn, “but I think they’ll hold for a couple of days.”

The evening passed uneventfully, but at sunrise something odd happened.  Kavan sat on watch with Xu, keeping an eye on the surrounding forest, when he spotted a slight movement.  As Kavan watched, a humanoid figure slipped out from behind a tree and moved off silently into the woods, away from the group.

“Xu!” Kavan whispered, “do you see that?”

Xu squinted at the spot where Kavan was looking, but she saw nothing save the deep shadows of dawn.  The monk shook her head.

Kavan brought up what he’d seen later that morning at breakfast.  “What should we do?” he asked.

“Well, whatever it was, at least it wasn’t hostile,” said Autumn.

“Yet,” added her sister Arrie.

Osborn had gone over to the tree Kavan had pointed out to take a look around.  He came back after a few minutes.  “I found only one footprint, of a human or elf-sized shoe.  Any other tracks were well-hidden.”

“There seems to be little we can do except be watchful,” commented Tolly.  “So far this creature seems content in observing us.  At any rate, we should reach our destination by this evening according to Shilsen.”

They broke camp and continued their way northeast through the forest.  However, it turned out that Kavan’s weather prediction was the more accurate, and soon the falling rain turned the trail to mud, slowing their progress.  Despite their best efforts, they were forced to make camp yet again.

The next morning, Kavan once again saw the odd figure slip away from a nearby tree.  He called out to it, but it seemed to ignore him as it vanished into the forest.

Later that morning, Osborn walked by Kyle as he sat studying his spellbook.  “Say, nice robes,” the hin commented.  “Where’d you get them?”

“They were a gift,” he said, rubbing the fabric of his sleeve between his fingers.  “I have no idea who gave them to me.  I’ll admit it’s nice to have robes that fit, though I’m not used to wearing anything this nice.  I keep worrying that I’ll get them dirty.”  Kyle sighed.  “Oh, well, I suppose that’s why they teach us cantrips.”

The group managed to make it to their destination just after the rain stopped.  They rode up to a village, deceptively large because it was so spread out.  About half the buildings in town were actually constructed in the treetops themselves, connected by sturdy rope bridges.  A simple wooden placard on the trail leading to the village proclaimed its name as Canyon Camp.

The townsfolk gave the party curious but fleeting looks as they rode into the village.  Most of the population were either elves or humans, with a scattering of elf-touched and a mere handful of the other races.  Most of the people in town appeared to be women, children, and the elderly; the healthy adult males were no doubt hard at work somewhere in the forest.  The party heard the sound of a waterwheel turning, and saw the sawmill perched on the river’s edge.  The river itself seemed just large enough to float the cut timber down the hill toward Aleppi, though much was probably milled in town and taken by wagon.

The party rode toward the large building in the center of town, obviously the town hall.  After passing a large number of taverns and brothels, they dismounted and secured their horses outside the hall, following Shilsen inside.  Just inside the door, an elven women say at a large wooden desk.

“The company from Trageon, here to see David Adi,” said Shilsen.

“Do you have an appointment?” the woman asked.

Shilsen looked around at the empty foyer.  “Yes, we have an appointment.”

She flipped through a large book at her desk.  “You’re late,” she said, not betraying any emotion in her voice.

“I know,” he replied.  “The rain made the roads difficult.  May we see him now?”

“I’ll have to see if Councilman Adi available,” she said.  “You are late for your appointment, you realize.”

“I know,” Shilsen said, self-control evident in his voice, “that we’re late.”

After leaving her desk for a moment, the group was escorted back to a small office.  Shilsen took a seat outside the door, waving the rest of them in.  Inside a small, balding human of perhaps sixty years sat behind a much smaller desk that the one in the foyer.  Several wooden chairs had been crammed into the room.

“Please sit,” he said, “and please excuse Milana.  She’s always been a stickler for protocol.”

The group found seats and sat as comfortably as they could in the small office.  Tolly and Kyle found that the chairs, likely of elven manufacture, were not quite wide enough for their large frames, but made do the best they could.

“I appreciate that our request for aid from Trageon was answered so quickly,” David said.  “Normally this would be the type of situation I’m sure Tlaxan would have addressed internally, but the problems of one tiny logging village hardly bear the notice of the capital, thus we felt contacting your school would be the best course.”

“How is it that we can help you?” asked Arrie.

“For some time now, we have had problems with our citizens disappearing,” David said.  “Some simply vanish without a trace, others are taken forcefully by their homes.  We didn’t have long to wait before we found out what happened to them, though.  Witnesses have started to see the same people returning to abduct more of our townsfolk, but they aren’t the same.  They’ve been turning into zombies.” 

The group winced in unison at the thought of the vile undead.

“We think that a necromancer is in the area somewhere, building up his forces,” David continued.  “None of our searches have turned up evidence, but our resources are limited, and as more people disappear the rest of the town is afraid to go out.  The attacks have begun to affect our logging operations.”

Arrie looked across the desk at the councilman.  “Have you noticed any patterns in the abductions?”

“None, really.  They haven’t taken any children, or any of the smaller races,” David nodded toward Osborn as an example, “but I suspect that’s only because they would make less effective troops once reanimated.”

“What has been done to prevent the attacks?” asked Tolly.

“There is little we can do.  We have a town militia, but it’s only a handful of volunteers, and they’re much better suited to dealing with drunks and ruffians than the walking dead.  The zombies are usually accompanied by skeletal archers that discourage pursuit.  Besides, Canyon Camp is so spread out they have trouble covering the entire town.”  Councilman Ari sighed.

“Don’t you have any priests here?” asked Kavan.

“We have two,” he replied.  “Our priestess of Bles****, Sisz, is new to our town.  She does what she can, but her strength is limited.  Our other priest, Kath, is devoted to Rovenor*****.  He’s been with us a while, but he’s the one who accompanies our men out when they’re cutting trees.  Most of his power is tapped just performing his everyday tasks, let alone the added burden of these zombies.”

David stood up and looked out a narrow window at the nearby forest.  “Should our timber production fall much further, our financial backers may decide to pull out. They may not even have to wait that long; the people here may decide it’s no longer worth the risk and leave of their own accord.”  He looked back at the party.  “Can you help us?”

The group looked at each other briefly, nodding.  “We’ll do our best,” said Arrie.

“I wish you luck,” said David.  “We’ll put you up at the Whistling Satyr.  It’ll be a bit cramped at first, I’m afraid, until they can find some more space.  But it’s definitely the quietest of our local houses – more of a hostel than an inn.  In addition, we’ve negotiated with the Tower and will pay them three hundred gold apiece on your behalf.”

“We’d like to speak with the captain of your town militia,” said Arrie.  “We may be able to coordinate with them to patrol the town tonight to improve your defenses.”

“We’d also like to speak with these priests, Sisz and Kath,” said Tolly.

“Any ideas where the zombies are coming from?” asked Kyle.

“You might try looking into the old crypts about a half-day west of here,” David suggested.  “It may be where this necromancer obtained his initial supply of corpses for his vile rituals.  I’m afraid no one here has had the courage to investigate them.”

“Do you have a map?” asked Osborn.

“Well, we probably have a copy of the original plans somewhere in the records room,” David said.  “Though some of it night have changed.  Talk to Sisz and Kath; they’re in charge of burials, and would have more first-hand knowledge of them.”

David led them to the town hall’s small records room.  After a half-hour or searching, Kavan stumbled upon the map they were looking for, misfiled under tax records.  They spread the old, crumbling parchment out on a table.

“This is going to be hard to take with us without destroying it,” said Kyle.

Autumn leaned up close to the wizard and said quietly, “You know, I gave you that book for a reason.”

Kyle grinned sheepishly.  “Oh, yeah.”

Once they had finished copying the map, the group followed David’s directions to the Whistling Satyr.  Just as the councilman had warned them, their two rooms were ‘cozy’ at best.  Each had a single bed that would hold no more than two people.

“I think I will choose to sleep outside tonight,” said Tolly.

They went downstairs and out into the afternoon air.  Arrie flagged down a young, rotund boy who was running by.

“What’s your name, son?” she asked.

“Cookie,” said the round-faced boy.

“How appropriate,” said Lanara, though with her voice still hoarse it came out barely audible.

“Well, Cookie, can I ask you to do me a favor?” said Arrie.

“I’ll do it for a cookie,” said the boy.  Lanara had to bite her lip, or else she probably would have started choking.

“Well, how about I give you this instead.” Arrie pulled out a silver coin and held it out, then pulled it away as Cookie’s chubby fingers reached for it.  “After you deliver two messages for me.  If you can go run and find the two priests in town and tell them that we’d like to speak to them at the Whistling Satyr, I’ll give you this when you get back.”

“You mean Antler Lady and Big Kath?”

“Yes, exactly.  Now, hurry along.”

The boy waddled away excitedly, eager to earn his silver coin.  As they watched him dash off, a stern-looking man in a faded tabard walked up to them.  “I’m Kas, scheduler for the watch.  I heard you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, indeed we do,” said Autumn.  “We’d like to offer our help to you and your men on tonight’s patrol.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kas sniffed.  “What you have in mind?”

“Well, how do you normally conduct your patrol?” asked Arrie.

“Well, me and the boys usually start out at one end of town and circle clockwise along the perimeter through the night.  What with the zombies, none of us are too keen to be caught alone.”

“Do you always follow the same predictable pattern?” asked Tolly.

“Naw, we mix it up every so often – start in a new place, patrol in the other direction, that sort of thing.”

“Well, Scheduler Kas,” said Arrie, “perhaps my companions and I could walk a patrol similar to yours, but on the opposite side of town.  Would that be acceptable to you?”

“Like I said, sounds good to me.  I’ll send someone with some watch tabards for you, so the town’ll know why you’re here.  We’ll all meet up at sunset at the town hall.”  Kas nodded and walked away without another word.

The group only had to wait a half-hour before Cookie returned, red-faced and panting.  After collecting his coin, he told the group that Kath was still out with the loggers, but he’d left a message with an attendant at the temple of Rovenor.  Priestess Sisz, or ‘Antler Lady’, would be coming by shortly.  True to his word, only a few minutes after Cookie departed, a slightly built elf-touched woman came into the hostel.  She wore a necklace of antler horn tips around her neck, signifying her status within the church of Bles.

“I am Priestess Sisz,” she said, “how may I help you?”

The group introduced themselves to the priestess, inviting her to sit with them.  “We’ve been sent by the Tower in Trageon to help your town with its recent troubles,” Kavan said.

“Oh, good.  I’m glad to see you came quickly.  I’m happy that Kath and I managed to convince the town council to send for you.”

“What can you tell us about what’s been happening?” asked Kyle.

“Well, I’ve not been here very long, I’m sure you’ve heard.  My predecessor died a few months ago, and I was sent to replace her.  I’m afraid it couldn’t have come at a worse time; her skills were far greater than my own, and I have been hard pressed to serve.  I have tried to remain vigilant during the night, as that is when the undead come, but by the time I learn of a new attack, they are already gone with their victim.  I am left to tend the wounds of the survivors.”  A saddened look crossed her eyes, and the physical and spiritual fatigue was evident.

“We are planning to investigate the town crypts tomorrow,” said Arrie.  “What can you tell us about them?”

“Well, it has been a few weeks since I was last there.  Ever since the attacks began, no one wishes to travel that far from town.”

Kyle opened his book and showed the map to Sisz.  “What can you tell us about that isn’t on this map?”

Sisz studied the map carefully.  “The structure is similar to what you have here, but there’s another chamber here, and one here.” She pointed at blank spots on the paper.  Then she looked at the map again, then up at the group.  “There’s more,” she said, “but I’m afraid that I have taken certain vows.  I can only reveal more to those who are ordained.”

After a moment’s uncertainty, all of the group except Kavan, Tolly, and Autumn stood up and filed out of the Whistling Satyr.  They loitered around the outside of the building for several minutes before the four came out again.  Priestess Sisz said her farewells and started walking back to her church.

“What’d she tell you?” asked Osborn almost immediately.

Kavan looked down at the eager hin.  “We swore to her we would not reveal anything to those not ordained as servants of a faith,” he said.  “She revealed some secrets of her church regarding the crypts.  We will be able to put the information to use, but only when it becomes necessary.”

“Oh, all right,” Osborn sighed.  “What say we take a walk around town while we wait for the loggers to come back, to get ready for our patrol tonight?”

The group agreed to this plan, and spent the next few hours walking through Canyon Camp.  They stopped to take a closer look at some of the homes that had been attacked by the zombies, but found nothing unusual about them.  They also noticed a few areas on the perimeter of town marked by large ashen circles.  Poking around the circles, they turned up bits of broken and charred bone.

“The people have probably started burning their dead,” commented Kavan, “in order to keep them from being turned into zombies.”

The loggers were returning from their day’s work just as the group returned to the Whistling Satyr.  A few minutes later, a young boy came into the hostel and told them that Kath was at the Mad Paladin Alehouse, and would speak with them there.  Lanara decided to stay inside and rest, hoping to recover from her bout of the Stygian Shakes before their expedition to the crypts tomorrow.

The group pushed their way through crowds of rowdy lumberjacks, who were cheerfully drinking, singing, and groping any woman that came within arm’s reach.  Arrie, Autumn, and Xu were spared such treatment, most likely due to going into the tavern fully armed and armored.  Kyle asked someone where Kath was, and he wasn’t hard to spot; he was an enormous, red-haired man that towered a full head over everyone else in the place.  He had a large bastard sword strapped to his back.

“Evening,” Kath said, as the group approached, “I hear you were looking for me?”

After quick introductions over the noise of the crowd, Arrie got right to the point.  “We’d like to know about what’s been done about the undead problem.”

“Well, you’re here, right?”

“Yes,” said Tolly, “Priestess Sisz told us about convincing the council to send for us.”

Kath grunted.  “Sounds like she’d taking credits for my ideas.”

“Actually,” replied Tolly, “I find the best ideas are reached by cooperation.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Kath shrugged.  “Anyway, what else do you want to know?”

“Well, what are you personally doing about the undead?” asked Kavan.

Kath sighed.  “Look, I spend twelve hours a day out in the woods with these lads, helping them out and making sure none of them get killed.  After that, I can’t stay up the rest of the night chasing zombies.  That’s supposed to be Sisz’s job.”

“But you are obviously better equipped for this situation than she,” said Tolly sternly.  “I don’t see why you could not just modify your routine to deal with the current situation.”

“Hey, I’m as worried about the zombies as anyone else, but do you think that they’re the only dangers here?  Besides, Sisz wouldn’t be able to handle the strain if she took my place.  I spend most of my day running from place to place to heal injuries or help with a problem.”

“What other dangers are you talking about?” asked Autumn.

“Well, recently there’s been rumors that our boys have been attacked by fey creatures from the forest.  I haven’t seen anything personally, but the rumors aren’t going away.  Now, normally that’s why the elves oversee our work, to make sure we don’t over-cut an area and anger the forest dwellers.  Far as I know we’ve done nothing wrong, so I have no idea why the fey would be after us.  But if it’s true, then my place is with them.”

The group withdrew from the Mad Paladin Alehouse to confer outside.  “I don’t like him,” said Tolly.

“Neither do I,” agreed Kavan.

“Why?” asked Arrie.

“Because he should be protecting this town, not spending his days out in the woods,” said Tolly.

“But you know nothing about him, or what he does,” stated an exasperated Arrie.

“I know enough not to trust him,” said Tolly.  “For all we know, he’s the necromancer.”

Arrie just rolled her eyes behind Tolly’s back and let the subject drop.

The group gathered at the hostel for a quick meal and to check on how Lanara was doing, then went to the town hall to rendezvous with Scheduler Kas and the watch.  The group was handed seven hastily constructed tabards, and a rough plan was worked out for the evening patrol.  The party walked to the northern edge of town, opposite the regular watch, and began walking clockwise around the perimeter of Canyon Camp.  Kyle’s familiar Violet circled overhead; Tolly had suggested she fly around the town counter-clockwise in order to provide more coverage, but it was pointed out that a raven’s night-vision wasn’t particularly good, and she’d more likely end up a target of hungry owls.  But since Violet had the capability of speech, they agreed that if there were trouble they would send Violet to find Priestess Sisz.

The first few hours passed with little incident. They stepped in to break up a drunken brawl, and chased off a group of young boys that were throwing rocks at a small dog.  As the sky darkened, the party noticed that the streets became empty and quiet very early.  They could still hear noises coming from the taverns and brothels, but when people did emerge they walked quickly to their homes, looking about fearfully.

They heard the call for help just as the first moon****** reached its peak in the night sky.  The group ran as quickly as they could toward the commotion.  Xu was the first to arrive, and she quickly surveyed the scene.  A group of six zombies crowded around the door of a simple wooden house, trying to bash the door down.  The terrified cry of someone inside could plainly be heard.  Nearby, two skeletons with bows stood ready to attack any living being who came to help.

Xu decided the skeletons would have to be dealt with first, and charged in, shouting a ear-piercing kiai.  Leaping into the air, her foot impacted right into the chest of one of the skeletons, crushing the ribcage into a fine white powder.  The bones tumbled into a pile at her feet.

Arrie, Kavan, and Kyle arrived in time to see three of the zombies pull away from the door and head toward Xu.  The skeletal archer fired a shot at her, but the monk grabbed the arrow out of the air in mid-flight.  Arrie began running toward the three zombies still at the door, pulling her infamous orcish shotput out of the bag at her hip.  Kavan rushed in to help Xu, slashing at one of the zombies, while Kyle summoned a wave of pure force that slammed into another zombie on Xu, pushing it away.  The zombie reoriented itself, then began to make its way toward Kyle.

Xu leapt nimbly over the head of one of the zombies, coming down between it and the remaining skeleton.  Two quick punches left the skeleton in the same state as its former companion.  She turned to face the zombie she had just jumped over, even as Arrie’s shotput went flying and smacked into one of the other zombies’ arms, leaving it a useless, dangling sack of broken bones held together by rotting flesh.

Osborn was the next to arrive, his short stride compensated for by his natural skill at long-distance running*******.  He took aim at one of the zombies by the door and fired a sling bullet at it, the steel pellet sinking deep into its gullet.  Meanwhile, Arrie had thrown her second shotput, which nearly took the head off one of the zombies, while Xu pounded on her opponent, felling it.  Kavan stepped back and called forth a _sound burst_, wounding one of the zombies with the blast of sonic force and toppling the one he’d slashed at before.  Kyle, stepping backward to avoid getting in range of his zombie’s fists, unleashed a missile of acid, which began burning away at the undead creature’s ligaments and muscles.

Finally, Tolly and Autumn arrived, panting slightly under the weight of their heavy armor.  Tolly stepped over and smashed his warhammer into the skull of the zombie pursuing Kyle, destroying it and spraying Kyle with ichor.

“Hurry up, sis!” shouted Arrie, as she unfurled her spiked chain.  “You’ll miss out on the fun!”

Autumn ran as fast as she could to join the melee, but in her burdensome field plate she was too far away.  Arrie’s chain whirled around and finished off one of the three remaining zombies, while Xu and Kavan rushed in to finish off a second.  Osborn, seeing that the battle was as good as won, put his sling away.  Similarly, Kyle and Tolly took stock of the situation, and Kyle cast a _prestidigitation _ spell in order to clean the gore off himself and the Ardaran priest.

Autumn pushed herself to get in at least one blow, but just as she got within reach of the last remaining zombie, Arrie’s chain whipped out and took the head off the final zombie.  Autumn, flushed and sweating from her exertion, turned to her sister.

“You could have waited, you know,” she said, her fatigue letting her irritation rise into her voice.

“Sorry, Autumn,” Arrie said.  “You were taking too long.”

The group gathered at the door, and called out to whoever was inside.  The door cracked open, and an older man peered out at them, gripping a pitchfork with white knuckles.  When he saw that the people at the door were still breathing, he relaxed, and threw open the doors, gushing his gratitude.  At the same moment, the rest of the town guard arrived, cudgels in hand.

“All clear, gentlemen,” announced Tolly.  “You can haul off these bodies to be burned while we check the area for more of them.”

Nearby, Kyle had finished cleaning himself off magically, and was turning his attention to his companions.  As gobbets of dead flesh flew out of the links in Kavan’s elven chain, Kyle glanced over at Autumn, who stood nearby.  She had removed her helmet, and loose strands of hair clung to her forehead, still wet with perspiration.  She had a look of vague disappointment on her face, a distant sort of sadness that she’d been unable to lend her aid in battle.

Kyle’s glance dropped to take in Autumn’s exquisitely designed field plate, unsullied by the evening’s fight.  It was the weight of the suit that was the problem, not Autumn herself.

_I’ll have to help her with that, somehow,_ he thought to himself.


---------------------
* Stygian Shakes is a dreadful disease that is caught by a character whose player will not be in attendance at the gaming session.  The primary symptoms are an inability to speak or take independent action.

** Clerics of Erito frequently make cloaks of raven feathers.  The number of feathers is a symbol of the cleric's standing with his or her deity.

*** In recent history, the nation of Targeth was threatened by orcish hordes from the west.  To defend their nation, the nation's archmages constructed a magical barrier that surrounds the entire country.  One can only penetrate the barrier at one of three gateways.  One of these gateways lies in the middle of the river separating the city of Fingol from its couterpart, Aleppi, in neighboring Tlaxan.

**** Bles is the goddess of fertility and agriculture, and serves directly under Erito.

***** Rovenor is the god of freedom and travel, and serves under Feesha.

****** Aelfenn has five moons, one for each of Erito's five servitor deities.  There's no formal system worked out for which moons are out when, so there are pretty much as many moons in the sky as I want there to be.  I also assume that Aelfenn's five moons are significantly smaller than Earth's moon.  This ties in to Aelfenn's rather unique cosmology, which is a bit too much to explain in a footnote.  If it becomes necessary, I'll explain it in more detail in the future.

******* (wow, 7 footnotes!) Hin in Aelfenn get Run as a bonus feat.  The hin are naturally nomadic, and used to travelling by foot.


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## Elder-Basilisk

Good stuff. I just started reading this and I like it a lot.


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## Delemental

*Forest Foray For Four*

This installment requires a bit of explanation.  This was the session following the beginning of 'Death Makes No Sound'.  However, real-life events led to a situation where only half of the group could meet.  So, our DM decided to run a small side adventure for the four of us, which actually starts before our arrival at the logging camp but ends well after our initial encounter with the zombies at the end of 'Death'.  In the following week, the DM ran a side-adventure for the other four players to compensate; those players that had been in the first side adventure played NPCs in the second.

This post, like the last one, runs a bit long for my taste (I like my Story Hour updates substantial enough to be worth the click, but not too much at once).  But it's a one-shot adventure, and I see no reason to split it.  I'll probably return to breaking things up a bit more after this.

****************************

            Tolly’s eyes wandered as he sat on watch, despite himself.  They were due to reach the village sometime in the next day, but the proximity of civilization did not settle his mind.  Somewhere out there, some unknown entity was watching them.  Kavan had spotted it the night before, just before dawn, stealing away from their camp.  So far the entity seemed benign, but this fact didn’t put Tolly at ease.  Autumn sat nearby, her aasimar eyes able to penetrate the darkness of the forest much better than his own, but neither of them had seen a thing.

            Tolly glanced at the moon, high in the sky to his left.  “I think it’s time to wake the next watch,” he said quietly.

            Nodding, Autumn watched as Tolly rose and went into the tent occupied by the men.  He shook Kavan and Osborn gently.  Kavan responded almost immediately, emerging from his trance.  Osborn was a bit slower to rouse, but eventually his right eye cracked open.  Tolly walked out of the tent to give them room to dress and get ready for their watch.  He glanced over at Kyle, who was sleeping soundly.  The wizard had been excused from watch because of his need to rest in order to prepare his mind for his spells.  Tolly felt a twinge of jealousy; though no stranger to all-night vigils, he didn’t relish them, and he and Autumn had agreed to take the middle watch, which was always hardest.

            After several minutes Kavan and Osborn emerged, fully dressed in their armor.  Kavan looked at Autumn.  “How’s Lanara doing?” he asked her.  Lanara was fighting a case of the Stygian Shakes that she’d picked up back in Trageon.

            “Fair,” she told the elven cleric, “but she’s sleeping poorly.  We could hear her tossing and turning all night.”

            “Hopefully she’ll recover soon,” said Tolly, as he unbuckled his breastplate and set it down.  Autumn watched as the Ardaran priest stretched his shoulders.

            “Perhaps I should remove my own armor out here, too,” she said.  “So I won’t disturb Lanara.  Kavan, can you assist me?”

            Tolly muttered goodnight and went into the tent as Kavan began pulling on one of Autumn’s many straps.  He knew that the process of removing and packing the sentinel’s field plate would take several minutes, and he saw no need to watch it.  Setting his own armor and weapon next to his bunk, he crawled under his blanket, and was asleep within moments.

            Which is why he was somewhat irritated to find himself awake moments later.  As he stood there, looking around at the trees, he suddenly realized that he had no recollection of getting out of bed, let alone getting dressed again.  He also realized that where he was standing was in the same forest, but their camp was nowhere to be seen.  What he did see were three of his companions; Kyle, Arrie, and Xu.

            “Where are we?” Arrie asked.

            “I believe we are dreaming,” said Xu.

            “This seems very real for a dream,” replied Tolly.  “Not to mention that we all seem to be sharing the same dream.”

            “I think I read about something like this in school,” Kyle piped in.  “There’s magic that can do something like this.  A very powerful mage or magical creature could do it.”

            “You mean, something like that?” Arrie said, pointing off into the woods.

            The rest of them turned to see a large, translucent figure floating toward them.  The creature had the head of a wise-looking human male, perched atop a lion’s body.  Enormous feathered wings were folded at its sides.

            “What is that?” asked Xu.

            “Androsphinx,” both Kyle and Tolly whispered simultaneously.

            The sphinx came within a few feet of the four adventurers, floating in midair.  Then his mouth opened, and his voice was like thunder.

            “Who will hear the riddle of Ujaset?”

            Both Kyle and Tolly yelped at the loud noise.  Xu and Arrie remained calmer.  “What riddle?” Arrie asked.

            This time Ujaset’s voice seemed to emanate from all around them.  “What is half a dragon, but lacks a wyrmling’s strength?  What is half a dog, but lacks a mongrel’s length?  What is it that has two halves, but has but half to stand on?”

            As the echo of the sphinx’s words died down, the group moved together to consult.  “What do you think?” asked Arrie.

            “Well, he seems to be describing a creature that is small and weak,” Tolly said, “and is somehow related to both dragons and canines.”

            “A chimera, perhaps?” offered Xu.

            Kyle shook his head.  “No, a chimera’s got three heads, but only one’s a dragon head.  The others are lion and goat; no dog.”

            “Perhaps the part about ‘having half to stand on’ means that the creature is bipedal,” said Tolly.

            “So, a small, weak biped, with both dog-like and dragon-like features…” Kyle mused.

            It only took them a moment to put the clues together.  “A kobold,” announced Tolly.

            “Correct,” Ujaset said, smiling.  “You are just the sort I am looking for.”

            “Where are the rest of our companions?” asked Kyle.

            “My power was unable to bind them into the dream world,” said Ujaset, “they must be asleep for the magic to work.”

            “So, what did you mean when you said we were ‘just the sort you were looking for’?” Arrie asked.

            “I would ask you to do a task for me, so that my soul may be at rest.”

            “So… you’re a ghost?” Kyle asked.  The androsphinx nodded.

            “I was slain in my lair and my possessions taken, and now my spirit is restless and cannot depart this world for the next.  I need to have someone avenge my death and remove the taint of the creatures from my home so that I can be at peace.  Do this task for me, and what was once mine shall be yours.”

            “What sort of creatures?” asked Arrie.

            “The answer to your question is the answer to my question,” replied Ujaset.

            “Kobolds?” Tolly asked, incredulously.  “You were slain by kobolds?”

            “I do not wish to speak of it,” the sphinx said, and the sky seemed to darken.  “But there were many of them, and there was a sorcerer of considerable ability among them.”

            “Forgive me for asking,” Tolly said, “but you seem to be a creature of considerable power yourself, and as a ghost you cannot be harmed by physical weapons.  Why not deal with the kobolds yourself?”

            “Because I cannot return to my lair.  I have wards in place to keep out the undead, which are unfortunately still active.  Also, I am unable to manifest in the physical world, so my ability to affect the kobolds is limited.  After all, I have only been a ghost for a few days.”

            “Okay, fair enough,” Arrie responded.  “So where are these kobolds, and how many are there?”

            “They are in my lair still,” said Ujaset.  “As to their numbers, I cannot say, for I died before I get a sense of that.  As I said before, one of them is a sorcerer.”

            The four adventurers talked amongst themselves briefly.  “Okay, we’ll do it,” said Kyle.  “Where’s your lair?”

            Ujaset described the location of his lair, in a cave perhaps a half-day’s walk from their campsite.  As the androsphinx finished, the world suddenly became hazy, and then vanished.  Each of them awoke in their own bedrolls.  They went about their day as usual, proceeding to the village they’d been hired to help.  The four humans discussed the dream privately as they walked.  They agreed not to involve the other four members of their party yet, so that they could focus on their current mission.  Having only half the group show up to the village would probably reflect poorly on them.  They resolved to address Ujaset’s plight as soon as an opportunity arose.

            The opportunity came sooner than expected.  The group had settled into the village, and had gone on a night patrol looking for the undead that were plaguing the loggers there.  They encountered and destroyed a group of zombies and skeletons.  The next day, some of the group wanted to go out with the loggers to investigate rumors of fey creatures attacking the men.  Upon hearing this, Arrie mentioned that a ‘local’ has asked for help with a problem.  They agreed to have Kavan, Lanara, Autumn, and Osborn accompany the loggers, while Arrie, Kyle, Tolly and Xu went to investigate the other problem.  Later that morning the four humans mounted their horses and rode out into the forest.

            They left their horses secured at the site of their last campground, and proceeded on foot to the sphinx’s lair.  After a couple of hours of walking, they emerged from the forest into a boulder-strewn glacial plain.  As they walked on, Tolly heard a sharp, reptilian rattling coming from the trees behind them.

            “I believe there is something behind us,” said Tolly.  “I suggest we…”

            He was interrupted by a horrific screech, as a large winged form burst from the treetops and dove for the group.  The flying reptile’s body was twice as long as a horse, and its long tail was that length by itself.  At the end of the tail was a barb that was slick with a foul-looking ichor.  The creature swooped down and grasped Tolly by the shoulders, and began lifting him into the air before anyone could react.

            “Wyvern!” shouted Kyle.

            Arrie stepped back and tried to lash at the creature with her spiked chain, but barely missed.  Xu tried to leap up to attack the wyvern by using Arrie as a makeshift ramp, but mistimed her step and ended up flat on her back.  Tolly wrenched his arm around enough to produce his holy symbol, and despite the pain managed to unleash a blast of sound at the wyvern’s head.  Reeling from the assault, the wyvern dropped Tolly, and then hit the ground itself, too disoriented to stay in the air.

            Unfortunately, the wyvern was directly above the party when this happened.

            Only Arrie was out of the way when the wyvern hit the earth.  Tolly and Xu, already prone, were not much harmed by the ton of draconic flesh dropping on them, but Kyle was buried under the creature’s bulk.  He struggled to break free, but was unsuccessful.  Xu and Tolly fared better, squirming out from under the wyvern even as Arrie took a chunk out of its side with her chain.  The pain of Arrie’s attack roused the creature, and it lashed out in several directions at once.  Tolly was impaled by the poisonous tail barb, while Arrie leapt out of the way of the wyvern’s jaws and Xu nimbly dodged the thrashing wings.  The beast found an easier target in Kyle, who was directly under its claws.  Bleeding profusely, Kyle finally managed to free himself as the wyvern lifted its bulk off him.

            Arrie, Xu, and Tolly attacked the wyvern again, slashing, punching, and hammering at its scaly hide.  The beast, its breathing now labored from the punishment it had received, spread it’s wings and threw itself into the air, clearly trying to flee.  It lurched in midair as two magical bolts summoned by Kyle struck the wyvern in the chest.  As the wyvern started to climb and bank away, melee weapons were dropped in favor of bows and crossbows.  Arrie launched a quick shot from her double bow, striking the fleeing wyvern just under the wing.  Xu fired her crossbow, but the bolt went wide.  Then, as the wyvern started to soar over the treetops, blood dripping onto the forest floor below, Kyle stepped up and leveled the butt of his crossbow to his shoulder.  Ignoring the pain from his own considerable wounds, he squeezed the trigger.

            Moments later, they all heard the satisfying snap and crunch as the wyvern dropped through the trees and landed head first in the hard earth.

            “So,” said Tolly, as he walked up to administer healing to the party with his wand, “do we go after the body now, or come back for it?”

            “What do we need the body for?” asked Arrie, as she stowed her weapons.

            “Well, the tail does contain sacs with a rather potent poison,” said Kyle, who was looking considerably less pale now that he’d received the attention of Tolly’s wand.

            As if to underscore the wizard’s point, Tolly suddenly doubled over, vomiting.  His knees shook as he tried to regain composure.  Arrie stepped up and used her innate talent to detect poisonous substances.  The area around the puncture wound in his shoulder glowed a sickly green.

            “Are you all right?” she asked, helping the priest to stand.

            “I… will be,” said Tolly, only a slight tremor in his voice.  “I think the worst has passed.  I do feel weaker, but tomorrow I will pray for the power to restore some of my strength.”

            “I think that we should not stray from our mission,” commented Xu.  “The wyvern is no longer of concern to us.”

            The others agreed, and after giving Tolly a moment to recover they set out for Ujaset’s lair again.  The group arrived at the cave entrance shortly before sunset.  They saw the yawning opening in the side of a hill, no signs of life anywhere nearby.

            “What’s our plan?” asked Kyle.

            “Well, Ujaset said it was just one big open cave, no passages or side chambers,” said Arrie, studying the cave entrance.  “So the kobolds are likely camped out right in the middle.  Tactically, it’s not the best scene.  Our best bet is to go in as fast as we can and hit them hard before they know what’s up.  Hopefully we take enough of them out in the first attack that they can’t counterattack.”

            The party began making preparations.  Tolly invoked a blessing on the group, and enhanced Arrie’s strength.  Xu drank a potion that surrounded her in a field of force to deflect blows.  Kyle created his own protective field, then cast another spell that caused a half-dozen illusory duplicates of himself to appear.

            “I have a spell that will neutralize the sorcerer,” said Kyle, his words somehow strange coming from seven separate mouths.  “But I’ll need to touch him.”

            “We’ll see what we can do,” said Arrie.  “But the basic plan is Xu and I are the front line, and you stay behind us.  Of all of us, Kyle, you’re the least protected and not trained in close combat.”

            “I’ll make sure that nothing happens to him,” said Tolly.

            With no other preparations to make, the group moved as close as possible to the cave, then charged in, weapons ready.  As they drew near, they spotted a single kobold sentry crouched behind a loose boulder.  The kobold spotted them at the same time, and with a terrified yelp at seeing a group of hardened warriors charging him (including, apparently, seven wizards), it dropped its spear and threw its hands in the air.

            Kyle rushed up to the kobold, as he was the only one who spoke the kobold’s language.  “How many of you are there?” he barked.

            “Me!” the kobold squeaked.

            Kyle suppressed the urge to punch the kobold; he reminded himself that in a situation like this he’d need to be very concrete with the poor creature.  “I mean, how many are there inside the cave?”

            “Me!” it yelped again.

            Tolly saw the look of frustration cross Kyle’s features.  “Let me ask him,” he said, hefting his warhammer.  The kobold screeched and soiled itself.

            Kyle held his hand up to stop Tolly, then took a deep breath, not an inconsiderable feat considering the strong odor of kobold urine now surrounding their captive.  “I want to know,” he said slowly, “how many kobolds there are inside the cave besides yourself.”

            “None!” it squawked.  “Jaalask here alone!”

            The others blinked in disbelief when Kyle translated.  But sure enough, when Xu stepped into the cavern, it was empty except for a large, half-rotting corpse; Ujaset’s remains.

            Tolly picked up the kobold, apparently named Jaalask, and shook him.  “Tell us where they are,” he growled.

            The rest of the group stepped up as Tolly dropped Jaalask to the ground.  Kyle knelt down to the kobold’s level.  “Look, Jaalask, we’re here because we were told a tribe of your people had come here and killed the androsphinx that lived here.”

            “Yes yes!  Blackspear tribe kill big lion-man!  Blackspear tribe very strong!”

            “And where is the Blackspear tribe now?” Kyle asked, after translating for the others.

            “Tribe take lion-man’s shineys, go back into woods.”  Jaalask suddenly frowned.  “Leave Jaalask here because Oppal say I no fight good.”

            “Who is Oppal?  Your tribe’s leader?”

            “No,” Jaalask said at first, then a sly smile crept onto his face.  “Well, yes.  Oppal is shaman, his mojo is strong.”

            Kyle was about to ask another question when he saw Arrie watching him intently.  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

            “Oh, no,” she said.  “I just wanted to listen in, see if I can pick up a little Draconic.”

            “Well, why didn’t you say so?  I’d be more than happy to teach you if you wanted.  But let’s finish up here, shall we?”  He turned back to address Jaalask.  “How strong is Oppal’s mojo?  What magic have you seen him do?”

            “Oh, Oppal’s mojo very strong.  He can make lightning come from his hands.  He can make blizzards come from his hands.  He can make himself look like other people – he goes to other tribes to spy on them, which is why Blackspear tribe is strongest.  He can make scary animals come from nowhere and fight for him.”

            After hearing this translation, Arrie frowned.  “What does that mean?”

            “Well,” replied Kyle, “the spells he’s describing could be as simple as a _shocking grasp_ or a _ray of frost_; both of those are spells I know.  Jaalask could also be describing _lightning bolt_ and _cone of cold,_ which are well past what I could manage.  Potentially, that’s bad news for us.”

            “Well, what now?” asked Tolly.  “What do we do with this one?”

            Kyle knelt down again.  “Can you tell us how to find your tribe?”

            Jaalask nodded furiously.  “Jaalask will swear oath to Grabâkh to lead you to tribe if you swear oath to your gods that Jaalask will not be harmed.”

            “Why would you lead us to your own tribe?  You must know that we’re going to attack them.”

            Jaalask shrugged.  “If you beat tribe, you stronger.  Jaalask will go find new tribe.  If tribe wins, then Jaalask is hero for leading humans to tribe to be killed.”

            The group mulled the proposal over.  “I’m not fond of the idea of letting such an evil creature go free,” Tolly said.

            “I know,” said Kyle, “but if he leads us to the Blackspear tribe we could potentially wipe them all out.  Then Jaalask either finds a new tribe, or he’s eaten by something in the woods while trying.  Even if he finds another tribe to take him in, one kobold isn’t going to make that much of a difference.”

            “You have a good point,” Tolly admitted.  “But we’re securing him with rope.”

            Kyle went back and relayed their terms.  At first Jaalask was skittish about being tied up, but Kyle explained that they were doing it to help their priest feel safer, so that he wouldn’t accidentally injure Jaalask.  Then Arrie stepped up, and after talking briefly with Kyle to learn the proper words, she spoke with the kobold.

            “I swear by my god Tor that no harm will come to you if you lead us safely to the Blakspear tribe.”

            Jaalask nodded enthusiastically.  “Come come! Blackspear tribe not far!  We get there before moon is high in sky!”

            The group began collecting their things.  Tolly, however, walked into the cave mouth and looked at the decomposing body of Ujaset.  Summoning divine power, he caused some of the rock in the cave ceiling to soften, which allowed much of the cave to collapse on the body, burying it.  As the rocks tumbled down, a large boulder in the side of the cave came loose, and through the dust Tolly saw a glint of metal.  Once it was safe, he went to investigate and found a suit of mithral chainmail stashed in the hidden alcove, obviously missed by the kobolds.  After showing the prize to the others, Tolly tucked it away in his pack.

The group set off, pausing long enough to pull a loose rope around Jaalask’s waist.  They walked quickly across the plain and headed back into the forest.  As they walked, Kyle asked more questions to Jaalask about the tribe; he learned that there were between 15-20 of them, in addition to Oppal and a pair of dire weasel “pets”.  A few hours later, Jaalask stopped and pointed.  Just beyond the rise they saw the glow of campfires.

            “Do you think they’ll try and move before sunrise?” Kyle asked the kobold.  Jaalask shook his head.

            “Tribe likes it here.  Trees are big, block sun.  Tribe sleep here during day.”

            “Well, then,” said Kyle, after relaying the news, “I’d like to propose resting here and attacking in the morning.”

            “Why not attack now?” asked Tolly.  “They won’t be expecting it.”

            “Yes, but all those spells we used to get ready have worn off, and I hardly have anything left,” said Kyle.  “Besides which, you’re still suffering from wyvern venom.  In the morning we’ll be close to full strength, and they’ll be sleeping.”

            Arrie nodded approvingly.  “Where’d this come from, Kyle?”

            “Hey, they do give us classes in basic tactics in the school of wizardry, you know,” Kyle said, grinning.  “True, it’s usually not much more in depth than ‘here’s where you want to put the _fireball_', but still…”

            The group bedded down in a small depression just out of sight of the Blackspear camp.  Arrie and Xu took turns at watch, allowing Tolly and Kyle to rest.  The next day they rose and made their preparations as before, except that Kyle did not use his mirror image spell.  Jaalask agreed to stay back away from the camp so that he wasn’t accidentally targeted.  They decided to move up to the camp quietly to scout it out before engaging.

            The group came over a small rise and approached the camp.  Most of the kobolds were fast asleep, sprawled out on the ground surrounding a large fire pit.  The remains of several casks of ale were strewn about, and off on the far side of the camp the dire weasels were curled up next to each other.  Three sentries stood around the camp, barely watching the forest around them.

            The group moved forward, hoping to be able to take the sentries out quickly and leave the remainder of the kobolds as easy targets. Unfortunately, as they approached the edge of the camp both Kyle and Xu stepped on a large branch buried under a pile of dead leaves, snapping in cleanly in half.  The sentries jerked their heads up, and began chattering loudly.  The two weasels looked up, and began bounding toward the group, prodded on by one of the sentries.

            Tolly was first to act, obliterating a trio of kobolds with a sound blast before they even had a chance to get to their feet.  Xu moved around a tree and took a shot at one of the dire weasels, injuring it.  Kyle cast a spell, and a translucent glowing hand appeared just over his shoulder, hovering.  Arrie trained her elven double bow on a larger kobold that was rushing toward them, sending two arrows into its chest.  Another large kobold in chainmail armor fired a crossbow back at Arrie, but missed.

            Now the entire camp was on their feet and rushing to engage the intruders.  The weasels leapt up on Xu and grabbed hold of her, even as another sound burst from Tolly killed three more kobolds nearby.  Xu managed to get out of the grip of one, but the other held fast and began biting at her neck in an attempt to sever her arteries.  Kyle, seeing Xu’s plight, cast a spell that coated her in a layer of grease, allowing her to wrench free.  The large kobold that Arrie had shot tried to attack Tolly with its spear, but was cut down by Arrie, who had switched to her deadly spiked chain.  Tolly looked around and realized that as Xu had backed away from the dire weasels, she had opened a direct path between them and Kyle, and so moved to protect him.  But Kyle had seen the dire weasels coming, and threw out a spell that created a hypnotic pattern of light and color that mesmerized one of them.

            The kobolds finally managed to swarm into melee, yapping with glee.  But their enthusiasm waned as four of them were beheaded by a swipe from Arrie’s chain.  The kobold’s own attacks were not nearly as effective; even the kobold in chainmail, a safe distance away, was so nervous that his shot fired at Arrie missed.  As Tolly engaged the lone dire weasel, Xu quaffed a healing potion to staunch the blood flowing from her throat.  Kyle sent a pair of magic missiles at the kobold with the crossbow, demonstrating that distance did not guarantee safety.  As Arrie ripped another kobold to shreds, the three remaining enemies saw that the writing on the wall was written in kobold blood, and scattered.  Xu began to run after the kobold in chainmail even as Kyle singed him with a rolling ball of flames.  Arrie moved to help Tolly finish off the dire weasels as Kyle cast a _detect magic_ spell.  He looked around, but could detect no magical auras other than those possessed by his friends.  Kyle scowled; there had been no sign of magical attack coming from the kobolds.  Where was Oppal?  Kyle even scanned Jaalask quickly to make sure he wasn’t cloaked in illusion magic, but there was nothing.

            Tolly stepped back as Arrie landed the killing blow against the last dire weasel.  He looked around and surveyed the carnage in the exoticist’s wake.  “That was… impressive,” he said.

            Arrie grinned, flecks of gore dotting her face.  “Yeah, my master’s thesis was ‘Ripping Little Gobbets of Flesh From My Opponents’.”

            Meanwhile, Xu managed to run down the fleeing kobold leader.  Cornered, it fought back savagely even as Xu attempted to bring it down without killing it.  The kobold’s short sword slashed out and drew blood on a few blows, and for a moment it seemed as though the small creature’s desperation might bring him victory.  But then with a lightning-fast backhand Xu sent the kobold to the ground, senseless.  She bound him and dragged him back to the camp.

            It was several hours before the kobold prisoner awoke.  It that time the group had tended to their wounds, burned most of the bodies, and allowed Jaalask to take his pick of the kobold’s meager belongings and be on his way.  They found remnants of Ujaset’s treasure, including a short sword and a cloak worn by the kobold leader, which Kyle saw were magical.  Another kobold, likely a lieutenant, had a potion.  Coins of various kinds and denominations were found in a sack stuffed under a rotten log; Kyle had used his innate talent to summon an unseen servant to sort the coins for them.

            Interrogation of the leader led the party to discover that Oppal had left the camp two days ago with the gems the tribe had taken from Ujaset in order to buy weapons for the tribe.  The leader sold out the sorcerer in exchange for his life; he told the group that Oppal would go to the nearby village in disguise to buy supplies.  After giving a detailed description of Oppal’s usual magical guise of a gnomish merchant, he was released after being allowed to take a spear from one of his fallen tribesmen.

            The party made their way back to their horses, and made their best speed for the village.  They arrived in the late afternoon, just before the loggers were due to return.  Knowing that their companions were out with the loggers and couldn’t be reached, the group went straight for the merchant section of the village, knowing that a gnome wouldn’t be hard to find in an elven logging village.  A few questions pointed them to Caramip’s Spicehouse, whose proprietor was a gnome and would likely have had contact with others of her race.

            “Greetings!” Caramip said brightly, as the group walked in.  “What can I do for you?”

            “We’re looking for a gnome,” said Tolly.

            “Well, you’ve found one!” she replied.

            “No, I mean another gnome, a different one.”

            Caramip pouted slightly.  “Why, is there something wrong with my shop?”

            “No, no,” said Arrie impatiently.  “That’s not what we meant.  We’re looking for a gnomish merchant with blue eyes and a blue shirt.  We were told you might have seen him.”

            “Oh, him?” said Caramip, the pout disappearing.  “Yes, he was here.  Very strange – didn’t want to talk, very impolite.  Not very… gnomish, if you know what I mean.”

            “I think we do,” Arrie said.  “Do you know where he went?”

            “He said that he was going to see Potter, the blacksmith,” she said.

            “Thanks,” Arrie said over her shoulder as she moved out the door of the spice shop.  Tolly, however, lingered a bit to buy some spicy dried peppers, hoping to smooth over their rather brusque conversation.  Kyle went outside to keep Arrie from getting too far ahead of them.

            Once reunited, the group went to Potter’s forge.  They found him just as he was packing up the last of his work for the day.

            “Greetings,” said Tolly.  “We’re looking for a gnomish merchant with blue eyes and a blue shirt by the name of Oppal.  We understand he came looking for you.”

            “Why yes, he did,” Potter said.  “He was here two days ago.  He wanted to buy weapons and shields from me.  He’s staying in a house nearby waiting for me to finish my work.”

            “How many weapons and shields?” Arrie asked.

            “He wanted twenty of each, whatever he could get.  He had a bag of gems to pay for them, too.  I was actually just about to go out to see him – a friend of mine from the city came into town yesterday and sold me a large amount of surplus weapons and armor.”

            The party looked at each other.  “Do you think we could go with you to see him?” asked Kyle.

            “Why?  What’s wrong?”

            “We have reason to believe that the money Oppal is using to buy your goods is stolen,” Tolly said.  “In addition, we believe he intends to give these weapons to a local kobold tribe.”

            Potter’s brow furrowed.  “Stolen money, you say?  That’s serious.”  He walked over to a hand-cart in the corner of his smithy, laden with wooden crates.  “If what you say is true, then Oppal has no right to these.  I can show you where he’s staying.”

            “Thank you,” said Tolly.  “Hopefully we can lure him out and capture him without incident.  However, we fear he may resist.  If you take us to Oppal’s residence, I would be prepared to get to safety should the situation get out of hand.”

            Potter led the group across town, carting the load of weapons and shields.  He stopped outside a two-story home near the edge of town.  A set of wooden stairs on the side of the house led up to a doorway.

            “He’s upstairs,” said Potter.  “The woman who lives here rents rooms to traveling merchants.”

            “Call him down,” suggested Arrie.  We’ll wait down here to get him when he’s out in the open.”

            The group spread out to cover the area.  Arrie hid underneath the stairs, while Tolly waited at the bottom.  Xu remained close to Potter, while Kyle moved off near the corner of the house and waited.

            “Hey!  Oppal!” shouted Potter.  “I’ve got your order ready!  Come down here!”

            After a minute, a high-pitched voice shouted back.  “Why can’t you bring them up to me?  You’re a big, strong man.”

            “Uh, er…” Potter looked around for help, but the group had moved too far away.  “You, uh, need to come take a look to make sure they’re all right!”

            There was the sound of soft grumbling, but a moment later a gnome in a blue shirt appeared at the top of the stairs.  He looked around, squinting.  “Who’re these other three people with you, Potter?”

            “They helped me bring the stuff over,” Potter lied.

            Oppal’s eyes narrowed even further.  “But it’s all on that cart you’ve got there.”

            At this point Arrie stepped out from under the stairs.  “Actually, Oppal, we have other business with you.”

            Tolly began heading up the stairs.  “Oppal of the Blackspear Tribe, you are under arrest for deceptive trading practices, bargaining with stolen goods, and intent to provide armaments to hostile humanoids.”

            In response, Oppal uttered a short, barking string of arcane syllables, and promptly vanished.  Tolly dashed up the stairs, but the landing was empty; he stood in the doorway, hoping to block Oppal’s escape if he’d fled inside.  The others waited for some sign of the kobold sorcerer’s presence.

            They didn’t have to wait long.  There was a shimmering in the air on the stairs behind Tolly, and suddenly a vicious-looking dog with burning eyes and black fur appeared, snarling at the priest.  It opened its jaws and a gout of flame erupted from its snout, singing Tolly but fortunately not spreading to the wooden house.  Xu moved up behind the hellhound to attack it, while Potter the smith promptly fled, as did several other passers-by.  Arrie moved out away from the house, listening intently for any sound the kobold was making.  Kyle did the same, but remained where he was.

            Tolly, realizing that he was trapped, leapt over the rail and down to the ground.  He tried to help Arrie search, but their efforts produced no results.  Arrie could hear Oppal casting more spells, but she could neither pinpoint the sound nor see any visual effect from the casting.  Snarling, she moved far out away from the house, hoping to cut off a retreat.

            “This isn’t working!” she shouted.  “I can’t even find him!”

            “Keep looking!” Tolly shouted back.

            “What good does it do?  We have no idea where he is!”

            “Well, do you have a better idea?”

            Kyle, listening to the exchange, suddenly realized that he did have a better idea.  He saw that Xu was having little difficulty with the hellhound; she’d been bitten, but not badly. He ran around the corner to the door on the lower story of the house, and pounded his fist furiously on it.

            Whatever Kyle had planned, it was never put into practice.  As Tolly moved out searching for the sorcerer, there was a shimmer, and Oppal appeared, hand outstretched toward the priest.  A blast of frigid air came flying from Oppal’s palm, blasting Tolly full force.  Arrie, finally seeing a target, pulled out her double bow and fired a quick arrow at Oppal, but the blast from the ice storm diverted the shaft and it missed.  But the sound of the spell distracted the hellhound long enough for Xu to land the killing blow, dispersing the summoned creature.  Kyle, seeing his chance, cast a spell that surrounded his hand in glowing energy.  He started moving closer to the sorcerer.

            Tolly moved in to engage Oppal, despite the fact that he was barely standing.  He swung at the disguised kobold even as it was chanting another spell.  He managed to wound Oppal, and another two shots from Arrie hit their mark. But despite the injuries Oppal managed to keep control of his spell, and suddenly four large, wicked-looking rats appeared, two surrounding Tolly and the other two positioned to block Xu and Kyle’s advance.  Xu stayed back to deal with the new threat, killing one of the fiendish rats, while Kyle took his chances and charged in, swinging at Oppal with his ensorcelled hand even as the other rat sunk its teeth into his calf.  The pain of the bite broke Kyle’s focus, and his swing missed.  Nearby, the other two fiendish rats swarmed Tolly, and their bites managed to overwhelm the priest, sending him down.

            Oppal turned to deal with the new threat posed by Kyle.  He summoned four magic missiles, slamming them into the wizard.  He also directed the rats that had just downed Tolly to attack Kyle, and one of them sunk its teeth into his other leg.  Xu also received a disease-laden bite while battling her summoned foe.  Arrie, seeing that Kyle was in trouble, began running toward the combat, unfurling her spiked chain as she ran.

            Kyle’s vision blurred slightly as he considered his predicament.  He’d used up most of his defensive magic in the fight with the Blackspear tribe, and thus was relatively unprotected.  He’d intended to use this spell against Oppal from a safe distance, but he’d already wasted his spectral hand spell in that same combat.  For some reason Kyle’s mind flashed to memories of his days at the Tower – struggling to answer questions in class that the other students seemed to know by heart because he hadn’t been studying magic since childhood; watching helplessly during the first examination with his new group of friends because he’d chosen the wrong kind of spells to prepare; stumbling through the investigation at Dagger Rock because he’d never learned the finer points of talking to people.  And now it looked like he was about to be taken down by a kobold and a couple of rats, which would force Arrie and Xu to break off their attack to save him and Tolly.  That could give Oppal the opportunity to escape.  Kyle was tired of feeling helpless, tired of not being able to pull his weight.

            No more.

            Lunging forward past the snapping teeth and claws of the fiendish rats, Kyle’s hand shot out and grabbed Oppal by the head, lifting him off the ground by his skull.  Arcane energy poured directly into the kobold’s brain.  Kyle let go, and Oppal dropped to the ground.  He sat on the ground, unmoving, a line of drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth.  The summoned rats, with no will to direct them, suddenly became quiescent.

            Arrie slowed her charge, seeing that all the opponents were down.   Xu moved to help Tolly, pouring a potion down his throat to stop the priest’s slow descent into death.  She smiled as she saw the bluish tinge fade from his skin, and heard his breathing become less ragged.

            Arrie approached Kyle, stopping long enough to step on the necks of the motionless fiendish rats.  “What did you do to him?” she asked.

            “_Touch of idiocy_,” he said.  He looked at the hand that delivered the spell.  “Though I didn’t expect it to be that… effective.”*

            “Well, whatever you did, good job.  Let’s see what he’s got on him.”

            Once Tolly had revived and recovered enough to see to the rest of his and Kyle’s injuries, they secured Oppal and removed his belongings.  They also searched the room he rented, and found a pouch of star sapphires as well as some other loose coin.  Oppal the sorcerer was handed over to the town guard, after warning them of his abilities and pointing out that his true form would be obvious to all within a few hours.  As the comatose kobold was hauled away, the four heroes felt a sudden sensation of peace wash over them.

            “I think we’ve satisfied Ujaset,” Kyle said.

            “Agreed,” added Tolly.  “Now we should focus on our task of aiding these villagers with the undead menace.” 

            “Actually, Tolly,” said Arrie, “we’ve been pushing hard for the past two days, and we don’t even have an idea what our companions have been up to.  I think our focus should be on a good night’s sleep.” She paused, then smiled.  “Hopefully with no dreams.”


-------------------

* Kyle rolled a critical on his touch attack for the spell, and nearly maxed out the double roll.  The more rules-lawyery among the readers will note that a critical on _touch of idiocy_ shouldn't do anything, as the spell applies a penalty rather than ability damage.  At the time, however, none of us caught that (and hey, it was cool).


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## Delemental

Just dropping a line to say that I haven't vanished.  Simply dealing with a technical issue.

Specifically, the next installment should be the adventure that the other four characters went on.  However, I myself wasn't present for that session, so I asked another player to take notes (this was before I got smart and started taping sessions).  Unfortunately, on game night that player was suffering from a case of the 'sleepies', which resulted in a less than precise accounting - specifically, the last half of the adventure is pretty much non-existent.  It's been long enough now that no one really remembers details of the session (this Story Hour is about 4-5 months behind our campaign).

So, I'm faced with having to craft the session from scratch.  I'll tackle the project as time allows and hopefully post soon, and then return to a regular posting schedule.


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## Delemental

Just another quick note to say I'm still around.

I've written up the missing adventure, and just sent it off to the rest of my group for review to make sure I didn't miss anything important.  I can't promise this will be the best installment; for one, the first half was written by someone else, and so there will be the inevitable differences in style.  And since this session was so long ago, I was forced to be rather skimpy on details.  However, hopefully I can get this up within the week, and then return to weekly postings next weekend.

Thanks for your patience.  I realize that as an unestablished Story Hour author, I can't afford too long a break between updates (unlike, say, folks like Destan, Sepulchrave or Piratecat, who can go months between posts and still have their audience hanging on every thread bump).


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## Delemental

*Where Shadows Lurk...*

The four nonhumans watched as the humans rode into the dim light of the false morning. The group had decided to split, as the humans all claimed to have a need to check into something they had passed. 	
	"Well, now that they are gone, shall we meet the loggers, and go find this 'problem'?" asked the cansin, Lanara.
	Autumn shrugged, disconcerted by her sister's insistence that they separate for this particular outing. The group wordlessly moved as one to the central meeting area of the town, and joined Kath, the Rovenori priest.
	"Morning, all! Ready for a walk?" He turned and left without further ado, and the loggers filed in behind him and the foreman Rek. Eyes met throughout the party, and a near-simultaneous shrug gave voice to their reactions.
	As they moved to the central logging camp, Kath explained that the loggers would operate from a central location and fan out in a certain direction, working in small groups of 5-10 each, for maximal flexibility. They usually went no further than a half-mile, and Kath spent his time running from group to group, tending to accidents and checking on them. The foreman would remain in the camp, and provide a central authority who was always there for aid. The loggers and party moved into the campsite, and the foreman climbed upon a large stump in the center of the clearing, and started giving out orders and locations.
	A roar suddenly ripped through the clearing, and loggers began running desperately to the south. A huge bear burst from the woods and tore towards the stump. Kath and Kavan moved forward, along with Autumn to form a defensive line. Lanara took a position behind them, her whip at the ready, as Osborn ran for a tree, to ‘get a better vantage point’. His hurry cost him, as it took the nimble hin two attempts to climb to a low branch. Kavan summoned Erito's energies, and _doomed _the beast, as it laid into Autumn, laying rents open in her armor. Kath swung at the bear's head, cutting a line from ear to shoulder, and Lanara followed his assault with cracks of her whip at the beast's eyes and sensitive nose. Autumn returned the bear's claw attack with a "claw" of her own, and plunged the point of her longsword deep into the bear's shoulder through the slice Kath had made. The bear reared back, and voicing its displeasure, turned and ran for the forest. He escaped handily, as the party and loggers made no attempt to pursue or hinder it.
	The loggers returned as Kath and the party yelled for them to return, and when heads were counted, a young man named Len was missing. The party searched the immediate area and unfortunately, found him. He was impaled on a branch, with a noose of thorns encasing his head and ending at his now empty eye sockets. They carefully searched the area around him, as Kavan laid hands upon him and commended his soul to Erito, and did his best to carefully take down the body. Osborn suddenly clicked his tongue, having found boot prints, and they left the body in Kath's care and followed the faint trail. They had just lost the trail and were desperately trying to reclaim it, when a shout came up from somewhere nearby. They ran to assist, finding that another logger had hit a tree only to have it explode with acid. The badly burned young man was healed by Kavan, but he could do naught for the scarring that the acid would leave. As they cared for him, the foreman came up to them, and explained that the crew was breaking it up early, due to the death and burning, as well as an entire crews axes breaking in the same point. Investigation provided evidence of sabotage on the axes, as well as the 'acid tree'. It was getting too close to dark for the loggers, and they returned to town.
	The next day it was a very subdued crew of loggers, escorted by wary adventurers that moved into the forest. As they moved down the well-worn path, the party spotted a feline looking creature ahead of them, and moving very fast to intercept. Lanara fired her crossbow at the creature, but its speed avoided the quarrel. Kavan created a glowing longsword of Erito's energy, and assaulted the creature with it as it closed. It leapt at Autumn, and she barely had time to hit it before it laid into her with claws and teeth. It looked as if a mad wizard had bred a lion with a lizard, and wrapped an anemone about its neck, and was vicious as Arrie was before her morning tea.
	Kavan and his holy sword swung in unison at the beast, both striking deep into its side. Lanara began a song of confidence, its energies coursing into the companions, bolstering their arms and spirits. The creature struck back at Kavan, its claws unable to penetrate his chainmail, and thrust its tail at Autumn, clubbing her shoulder. Osborn fired a bolt at the creature, but it flew wide to the right.	
	Gleaming energies surrounded Kavan's hand, and he slapped the creature's face as it bit at him. The beast howled in pain as its skin turned black and cracked, showing the muscle beneath. Autumn lunged at the howling beast, pressing her blade into the cracks and through to the other side of its neck. Osborn followed through with his daggers, driving them into its spine. The ghastly creature fell back and to the ground, and the light went from its eyes. A brief search allowed the party to find its lair, and pick up certain items that its victims had been carrying.
	“What was that thing, anyway?” Osborn asked, as he held open a sack that Lanara was dropping loose coins into.
	“A gorgon*,” the bard explained.  “They pop up all over from time to time.  Some are created one purpose by experimenting wizards, others are natural creatures that wander too close to a magical node and get mutated.”
	The party paused, and refreshed itself before walking into the clearing of the campsite. They arrived to find a trio of strange fey humanoids standing upon the stump forming the center of the site. They wore suits of dark leather than seemed infused with thorns, and their weapons were similarly emblazoned with wicked-looking barbs and spikes.  
	“Who are you?” demanded Autumn.
	“We are Shadar-Kai,” hissed one of the fey creatures, “and you are trespassing on our land.”
	“Your land?” Lanara asked.
	“Our land,” the shadar-kai repeated.
	“You are the ones who have been sabotaging and attacking the loggers,” said Kavan.
	The shadar-kai leader turned to the priest.  “A simple reminder to them to respect our territory.”
	“Your territ…” Autumn trailed off, and she took a moment to compose herself.  “You have no right.  These people are here by right of a legal charter with the Imperial Court of Tlaxan, within the Empire of Tlaxan.  Under what terms has the Court given you rights to this land?”
	The leader made a noise that almost sounded like a snort.  “Our claim precedes that of the elves on this land.  Now that we have returned, we shall reclaim it.”
	“Returned?  Returned from where?” Autumn asked.
	Lanara suddenly grew pale as she remembered the answer.  She remembered hearing the tale of a race of fey creatures, not unlike the dryads, satyrs, and nymphs, who had survived the Cataclysm** by going ‘somewhere else’.  Where they had gone, Lanara wasn’t exactly sure; the tale had become increasingly metaphysical at that point, and it seemed as though these fey had gone nowhere, to a place that didn’t exist.   But these fey were not known for their cruelty before they had vanished; and now they were back, returned from some place that was nowhere on Aelfenn, and apparently changed.
	“You will deliver a message,” the head of the shadar-kai was saying, “tell those who reside in the settlement to depart at once.  They will be given time to gather that which they hold precious, no more.”
	“Look here,” Kavan said, “you can’t just come in here and order these people out of there homes.”
	Lanara had a sudden idea.  “That’s right.  This land is important to Tlaxan.  I mean, we got sent out here just to look into a little zombie problem.  Imagine what the Imperial Court will do when they find out a bunch of fey have shown up in their lands, claiming they were here first and giving their citizens the boot?”
	The shadar-kai were silent for a moment.  “We are not ready for a conflict with the elves,” the lead one stated.
	“Look, it’s a big forest, right?  Maybe you could both live here without getting in each other’s way.”
	“Your words have merit,” the leader admitted.  “Wait here while we consider this.”  The three shadar-kai stood, and walked back into the forest, quickly vanishing from sight.
	Lanara looked at her companions.  “What do you think?”
	“I say we kill them,” Autumn said flatly.
	“Whoa!  Bad idea.” Osborn stepped forward from where he’d been trying not to be noticed much.  “It’s not that I don’t agree with you, Autumn.  I’d love to put a dagger in their hearts for what they did to Len.  But we have no idea what these ‘shadar-kai’ are capable of.  Those three could wipe us out without breaking a sweat.  And we have no idea how many there are out there.”
	“They at least seem like they’re willing to negotiate,” added Lanara.  “Let’s see what happens.”
	Autumn gritted her teeth, and nodded.  The thought of dealing with such tainted beings grated on her, but she had to admit to herself that there were too many unknowns to act.
	The shadar-kai did not return for almost an hour.  When they did, they took up positions almost exactly as they had before.  “We are altering the terms of our offer,” the lead fey said.  “Send a message to the leaders of this settlement.  Tell them that they must no longer send their men north of the three standing stones that lie an hour’s walk from here.” The shadar-kai pointed to indicate the direction of the stones.  “We shall erect markers along the borders so that none can mistake our territory.  They will have two days to decide if they accept these terms; until then we will not harm you or the people of the settlement.  If they accept, they may signal this by placing a dagger in the earth in the middle of the standing stones.”
	“What if they refuse?” asked Osborn.
	“Then they accept the consequences of that refusal.”
	“Will you at least hear their reasons for not accepting, if they choose that path?” the hin persisted.
	The lead shadar-kai thought for a moment.  “Very well.  If they wish to plea their case, they may send one of their own to the standing stones, and we will meet with them.  But understand this – this land belongs to us, not the elves.  In allowing these mortals to remain, we have already compromised.  We will be reluctant to compromise further.”
	“We understand,” Lanara said.  “We’ll deliver your message.”
	The three shadar-kai turned and walked away into the forest, vanishing as before.  The party gathered their things and hurried back to where Kath and the loggers were working.
	“Where were you?” demanded the big Rovenori priest.  “We could’ve used your help.”
	The party quickly explained their meeting with the shadar-kai and their demands.  Kath paled as he heard the story.  Then, he blew three sharp blasts on a whistle around his neck, signaling that work was done for the day.
	“We’ll have to take this message to the elders,” Kath said.  “They’ll probably call a town meeting for something this big.”  Kath looked around at the loggers quickly packing up their tools.  “Grabâkh’s Flaming Balls!” the priest swore, “first the zombies, and now this.”
	“Let us take care of the zombies,” Autumn said.  “The rest of our companions should be back by morning, and we can investigate the catacombs and root out the source of this evil.”
	“Fine, fine,” Kath said, between barking orders.  “Just try not to stir up any more trouble, okay?”
	“Not much on gratitude, is he?” Osborn commented as Kath walked away.
	Kavan smiled.  “Those who revere the God of Roads are not known for their patience.”
	“Yeah, well they’d better be known for their apologies,” Lanara quipped.  “Because after we clear out their zombie problem, I’m expecting a big fat one from Kath.  Preferably expressed with expensive wine or jewelry.”

-----------------------

* THe term 'gorgon' is used for any magically-mutated creature.  The 'gorgon' in the Monster Manual is known as a 'stonebreather' on Aelfenn.  THe group encounters one in a later adventure.

** I'm not sure I've ever had the Cataclysm come up.  THousands of years ago, humans were the only inteligent humanoids on the planet, a joint creation of Erito and the four elemental gods.  But the humans started messing around with forbidden powers, and eventually ended up getting mostly wiped out by a divine plague that swept the planet (the Cataclysm).  After that, each deity went off and created a race pleasing to them; Erito created the elves, Ardara the dwarves, Krush the gnomes, Feesha the hin, and Grabakh the orcs.  The specifics behind what led to the Cataclysm are unknown in the present day; the gods eradicated such knowledge.  All that is known is that whatever powers the humans were tinkering with led to the destruction of an entire continent.


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## Delemental

*Death Makes No Sound, Part Two*

It was another two days after stopping the zombie attack in Canyon Camp before the group set out for the tombs.  After catching a little sleep, the group had divided in half – Osborn, Kavan, Autumn, and Lanara went out with the loggers and the priest Kath the next day to investigate the rumors of attacks, while Arrie, Kyle, Tolly and Xu went out into the woods to assist the spirit of an androsphinx that had enlisted their aid via dream-messages.  It wasn't until they reunited that they set out for the town's crypt.

            The tomb itself was only an hour’s walk from the village, embedded in the side of a hill.  The group had spent much of the previous afternoon poring over their map, making marks for the locations of hidden doors and pit traps and discussing strategy.  They had picked up several long planks to use as makeshift bridges across the pit traps; even though they knew how to deactivate the traps, it was assumed that if the necromancer was in there he or she would know how to rearm them.

            The sun shone high in the sky when the group came to the tomb location.  Small blocks of stone and carved statuary were scattered about the hillside.  The wooden doors to the tomb appeared to have been burst open from the inside.

            “Well, it certainly looks like Councilman Adi’s suspicions about the tomb could be correct,” mused Tolly.

            “Okay, then,” said Osborn, clapping his hands together.  “Looks like I’m in the lead.  Just give me a little space.”

            “Wait a moment, Osborn,” said Tolly.  He cast a spell, then touched the hin on the shoulder.  “This enchantment will render you undetectable to the undead,” he said.  “If you are going to be our scout, you may as well benefit from some protection.”

            The group approached the tomb entrance and went inside, unpacking their lanterns.  The small entryway was strewn with dead leaves, but the wind had swept away any dust and did not show any tracks.  The twisting corridors were narrow, and they were forced to move single file.  Osborn stayed a few paces ahead, glancing occasionally at their copy of the map to locate the hidden doors in the chamber.

            “Which way do we go?” he asked at one point.  “There’s a passageway beyond this wall that leads to the rear of the ossuary, or we can just proceed further into the tombs.”

            “I don’t want to leave any surprises behind us if we can help it,” said Arrie.  “Let’s check out the ossuary.”

            The group navigated past the secret corridor into the ossuary.  The dried bones of hundreds of dead men and women were piled against the walls, a little over waist high to the humans.  A narrow pathway remained down the center of the pile, allowing the group to more through but so narrow that their hips would occasionally knock a few loose bones to the floor.

            “Gee, looks like the perfect place for a few hidden undead skeletons to jump us,” quipped Kyle.

            His joke turned into prophecy as six forms rose from the piles on each side of them.  Four were human skeletons wielding swords, while the other two appeared to be skeletal dogs or wolves.  The undead laid into the party, but their own movement was just as hampered by the piles of bones as that of the living, and after being blasted by the holy power summoned by both Tolly and Kavan, the skeletons proved more an inconvenience than a challenge.

            They emerged from the piles of bones into a room tiled with black onyx.  They moved from there to a back section of the tomb that was used for preparing bodies.  The stench of dried blood and offal was nearly overwhelming, but there was nothing unnatural in the chambers.  The only item of note they found was a corridor that did not appear on their map.  The hallway sloped downward, and extended past the range of their light.

            “Down the hole we go?” Osborn asked, already knowing the answer.  He moved forward into the hallway, moving even more slowly than before since he could no longer rely on a map to find traps or secret doors.  The hallway descended for a considerable distance before stopping at a dead end.  A large boulder sat off to their right, blocking up a passageway.  Tolly and Kyle set to work on it, borrowing a crowbar from Osborn.  Eventually Tolly realized that the stone would be easier to push from the top rather than the side, and after a few minutes the large boulder fell over and rolled into a bowl-shaped depression beyond.  The party moved into the chamber, and saw another opening across from them, as well as an opening about thirty feet above their heads.

            Osborn pointed at the landing above, looking at the map.  “I know where we are,” he said.  “This is the bottom of this pit here on the map.  Had we gone down the hallway when we first got here instead of going into the ossuary, we would have ended up there.”

            Behind them Lanara sighed.  “So much for the thrill of the unexplored passageway.”

            They moved across the pit to the other opening, and climbed up a narrow stair to get back to the main part of the tombs.  They continued moving, eventually coming upon a small antechamber where two corpses were hanging garishly from the wall.  Close inspection showed that barbed wire had been laced through the flesh of the bodies.

            “These look like they’re being prepared for animation,” said Kavan, examining the bodies.

            “Should we destroy them?” asked Autumn.  “Can they animate and pursue us if we leave them behind?”

            “No,” said Kyle.  “The fellow that’s behind this needs to touch the body to animate it.  I figure we can deal with these two on the way out.”

            While the group discussed the finer points of undead, Osborn stole ahead a bit to see what to expect.  He was getting nervous, but a little excited at the same time – the map showed that there wasn’t much left of the tomb to explore.  He glanced into the next room, secure that Tolly’s spell would let him spot any undead without being seen.  Sure enough, in the next open area he spotted a quartet of zombies, oblivious to his presence.  He went back to report to his companions.

            “There’s four zombies in the next room,” he said.  “It’s divided up into cells, and there’s one zombie in each cell.  The cells have open doorways, so no chance of picking them off one by one.”

            “Then I say we rush them,” said Arrie.  “Pin them in so they can’t join forces.”

            The group agreed to the plan.  Kyle remained in the back, watching the passage behind them for any surprises, while Osborn moved past the zombies to watch what lay beyond.  The others prepared themselves, and moved into the room en masse.

            The zombies proved tougher opponents than the skeletons in the ossuary.  For one thing, they were laced with barbed wire like the two bodies they’d found, and had apparently been instructed to grab their opponents and squeeze.  They were also far stronger than expected.  At one point Kavan found himself pinned between two of them, and was in a bit of trouble until Xu moved in to assist the elf.  But eventually the party triumphed, hacking down the last zombie.  Osborn signaled that all was clear; the battle had apparently not raised any alarms.

            The group moved onward past the chamber into a small makeshift chapel, stripped bare of any religious trappings.  Past the chapel lay a reinforced wooden door.

            “This is it,” Osborn whispered.  “This is the last room on the map.  It’s the mausoleum – should be nothing but a bunch of stone sarcophagi.”

            “Sounds like the perfect place for a necromancer to hang out,” quipped Arrie.

            “I’ll go check it out first,” said Osborn, “and let you know what’s in there.”

            “Hey, be careful,” said Lanara.  “Remember that necromancer’s probably not undead, and Tolly’s spell won’t do jack to protect you.”

            Osborn’s only answer to the cansin was a wink as he went inside.  After several tense minutes, he emerged from the shadows and motioned for the group to follow him back away from the door a few paces.

            “The crypts are in three chambers in the center of the room,” Osborn said, sketching a quick map in the dust.   “The hallway wraps around them like a U.  There are open archways between the chambers and out into the hallway here, here, and here.  This far chamber here, that looks like it only holds one coffin?  It’s actually a desk.  I heard someone moving around in there, but I couldn’t see them.  There was a big black book on the desk – I’d guess a spellbook.”

            Kyle’s eyes lit up for a moment, then sank.  He remembered that all property gains from this mission were to be given to the Tower as part of their contract.  He’d never get to see the spells in that book.

            Autumn caught the look in his eyes.  “There are probably nothing but vile, evil rituals in that book, Kyle,” she said.

            “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

            “Okay, so, what’s the plan?” Osborn looked at the group expectantly.

            “Perhaps a pincer move might be the best strategy,” said Tolly.  “Send our quietest members around to the far side of the room and surround the necromancer.”

            “Good plan,” said Arrie.  “Osborn, Xu, and Lanara; that would be you three.  You up to it?”

            They nodded their agreement.  They took a moment to make what preparations they could, with Tolly laying a blessing on the group and enhancing the strength of Arrie and Autumn.  Then the three stealthiest party members crept into the room.  After giving them a silent count of thirty to get into position, the others moved into the chamber.

            As they approached, they heard the sound of something moving inside the chamber where the necromancer was supposed to be – something far larger than what they expected.  But it turned out that they were not the only ones with discerning hearing.

            “Ah, I was wondering when you would arrive,” said a smooth, elegant voice.  “I’ve been expecting you for some time.”

            The group was hardly surprised at being discovered, though they were not expecting such a cordial welcome.  Arrie, however, seemed stunned when she heard the necromancer’s voice.  Arrie’s reaction was not lost on her sister.

            “Ariadne?  Is something wrong?” Autumn asked.

            The question seemed to snap Arrie out of her stupor.  “The family will be so disappointed in you,” she called out to the necromancer.

            Autumn’s look went from puzzled to shocked.  “Do you know him?” she asked.

            The necromancer himself seemed just as uncertain.  “Who is that?  What are you speaking of?”

            Arrie stepped into the room.  She saw the necromancer, a thin, pale elven noble, standing behind his desk.  In the corner of the room stood an enormous fleshy construct that seemed stitched from several bodies.  Electricity arced between metal bolts protruding from its skin.

            The necromancer, seeing Arrie’s face, suddenly smiled.  “Ah, yes.”

            Meanwhile, Osborn, Lanara, and Xu waited impatiently in the hallway.  Why were they suddenly having a conversation with this man?  But then, another figure stepped around the corner in their direction.  It looked like another zombie, but this one was constructed from the corpse of an ogre.  It towered over their heads, swinging a large bone club.

            Inside the chamber, the necromancer seemed just about to address Arrie, when he cocked his head to the side, seeming to look through the wall behind him for a moment.  His smile turned into a sneer.  “Clever adventurers.”

            Tolly decided he’d had enough prattle.  Stepping into the room, he unleashed a blast of acid at both the necromancer and his guardian.  It seemed to drip off both with little effect.

            “Golem!” shouted Tolly in warning, as the stitched-up horror raised it’s arms and began moving to defend its master.

            Kyle moved around the group of heavily-armored fighters.  He’d never get a good line of fire from where he was.  As he moved, he threw up his last defensive spell.  Kavan threw a blast of sonic energy at the golem and its master with the same results as Tolly.  Xu moved up to engage the ogre zombie, but a single swing from its massive club sent her reeling back.  She and Lanara moved away from the undead monster.  Osborn, still protected by Tolly’s hide from undead spell, moved around the zombie.  He knew he could do little to hurt the undead with his skills, but the necromancer was another story.

            Autumn had the same idea as Osborn, and laid into the elven wizard with her longsword.  Her blow connected solidly with the necromancer’s chest, but the gash seemed to close up instantly as tendrils of black energy pulled the wound together.  In response, the necromancer cast a spell at Tolly, and a pair of translucent hands wrapped around his neck and began to strangle him.  Tolly also suffered a blow from the golem’s flailing fists.  He and Arrie tried to fight back against the golem, but their blows bounced off its skin harmlessly.

            Kyle rounded the corner and saw the battle raging.  He launched two magic missiles at the necromancer, but they fizzled against the shield spell that was already in place.  With Kyle in sight now, the necromancer grinned and cast a spell at him.  Suddenly Kyle could no longer hear anything at all.  Almost at the same time, the necromancer kicked a lever underneath his desk.  There was the sound of a metallic crashing from the entrance to the mausoleum, and everyone in the room (except Kyle, who couldn’t hear it) assumed that they were now trapped inside.

            Kavan heard Lanara crying out for assistance, and so moved and used his healing magic on Xu.  The monk tried to wade back into battle, but even her iron blows could not penetrate the flesh of the ogre zombie.  The zombie itself ignored Xu and moved partially back into the chamber to pound Autumn with its club.  Lanara, now by herself but away from the combat, caught a quick glance of the necromancer through the doorways between them.  With nothing to lose, she sang the words to one of her magical compositions, and sent it toward the necromancer.  Amazingly, the magic seemed to penetrate the wizard’s sinister mind, and moments later the necromancer was on the ground, laughing nasally.  But despite his new vulnerability, Autumn was still unable to penetrate his magical defenses.

            Tolly and the golem exchanged blows, but Tolly was receiving the worst of the exchange.  Kyle sent a ray of intense heat at the necromancer, which barely succeeded as Kyle was unable to hear himself intone the magical words needed to cast the spell.  Kavan slashed at the ogre, and dodged a return strike from it.  Lanara began to sing an inspiring song to her companions, which gave Osborn the strength of spirit needed to wade into the chamber where the golem was and shove his dagger deep into the necromancer’s side.  This time the wound did not close completely, and blood flowed from the elf’s ribcage even as he continued to laugh.

            Arrie, seeing that Tolly was badly injured, pressed a potion into his hand as she moved past.  But Tolly did not drink it, fearing that the pause might give the golem the opening it needed to finish him.  Instead he pressed the attack, wounding the golem further.  He’d used Ardara’s power to temporarily enchant his warhammer before the battle, and he was glad he had.  He remembered enough about golems to know that only magical weapons, such as his hammer and Arrie’s chain, could penetrate the skin of a flesh golem.  He also knew that all golems had a weakness to a particular type of energy, and were enhanced by another.  However, he couldn’t remember which was which for flesh golems.

            “Kyle!” he shouted.  “What magic do you use against flesh golems!”

            Tolly got no response; he was unaware that his companion had been deafened.  Instead, Kyle had produced a tanglefoot bag, and thrown it on top of the necromancer, hoping to keep him secure once Lanara’s hideous laughter spell wore off.  Xu and Kavan pressed their attack on the ogre, Kavan sending positive energy into it with a touch.  In response the ogre zombie smashed its club into the priest’s shoulder, dislocating it.   Lanara tried Kyle’s tactic against the ogre, but her tanglefoot bag missed and splattered against the back wall.  Both Autumn and Osborn laid into the necromancer and opened up new wounds.  The golem moved to protect its creator, and launched a mighty blow at Autumn that dented the sentinel’s breastplate.

            As the ringing of the golem’s blow reverberated through the chamber, the others heard a new sound – a steady hissing coming from above them.  Looking up, they saw that pipes in the ceiling were pumping a foul greenish gas into the room.

            As Tolly and Arrie continued to assault the flesh golem, Kyle moved to aid Kavan and Xu.  The ogre zombie had swung at Xu and broken her leg, while Kavan had stepped back to heal his own wounds.  Kyle threw a flask of acid onto the zombie, while behind him Lanara moved up, ending her song in order to use the power of her magical fiddle to heal Xu’s leg.

            In the other chamber, Osborn and Autumn prepared to attack the necromancer again.  But Lanara’s spell had ended, and the elven wizard was in control of himself again.  He uttered a few magical syllables and vanished, the strands of alchemical goo that had been holding him down collapsing into a puddle.  The hin and the aasimar looked at each other for a moment, then chose new targets.  Autumn slashed at the ogre zombie, while Osborn produced a small pebble from a bag and threw it at the golem.  The pebble expanded in size to that of a small boulder, and it smashed into the golem’s skull.  Despite the grievous damage it had endured, however, the golem still stood, and it directed it’s attention toward Tolly.  Both fists came down on Tolly’s shoulders, and the priest dropped to the floor, blood spurting from his lips and nose.

            Arrie lashed out at the golem again, both in hopes of avenging Tolly and in fear of the fact that she would be its next target.  Sure enough, the golem pounded her mercilessly, leaving her bruised and bloody.  Most of the group, unaware that Tolly had fallen, continued to press the attack on the zombie.  Xu, still grievously wounded, rolled out of range of the zombie’s club and eagerly took a healing potion from Kyle before rejoining the battle.  Kyle himself, now juggling several vials and flasks, hurled alchemists’ fire at the zombie, followed by more acid.  Lanara used her magical fiddle again to weave protective magic around Xu before restarting her inspirational music.  Kavan attempted to banish the undead creature, but was unable to summon enough strength within the unholy place.  For a moment, only Autumn was left standing toe to toe with the ogre, and her blows landed true while the ogre’s club was deflected by her shield.

            The gas had seeped down into the room.  Kyle, who had not heard the gas being piped into the room, inhaled the vapors deeply before he knew what had happened.  Suddenly he began to feel weaker.  The others fared better, but they were running out of time.  Osborn was underneath the desk, trying to reverse the mechanism triggered by the necromancer, but it was a complex device and would take time – perhaps more time than they had.

            The golem smashed into Arrie again, and her head swam.  She staggered back out of the chamber, holding onto the wall to keep herself steady as she fumbled for a healing potion.  Kyle caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, and moved back into the chamber to see the situation.  He quickly weighed his options.  He had only one offensive spell left, _burning hands_.  Was fire good or bad to use against flesh golems?  He couldn’t remember.  Either way, an attack would certainly draw the golem’s attention, which might give Arrie enough breathing room to heal herself.  Kyle decided to take a chance.  As the flames surrounded the golem, he saw it roar in pain, and then saw that the arcs of electricity around it seemed to be diminished, and its movements slower.  But not slow enough; the creature turned and smashed its fist into Kyle.  The wizard’s protective spells held, but the force of the blow still hit him full on, and he felt ribs give way.

            At the same time, Kavan had moved back into melee with the ogre zombie, joining Xu and Autumn.  Autumn’s blade missed the ogre, while Xu’s fists and Kavan’s sword hit home.  The zombie ignored the monk’s attacks, as her fists were doing little harm to it’s leathery skin, and instead focused on the one who had hurt it the most; Kavan.  With a swipe of its club, Kavan was sent flying into the far wall, where she slumped unconscious.

            Now several of those still standing were feeling the effects of the poisonous gas.  Arrie managed to heal some of her injuries with a potion even as Kyle threw more alchemist’s fire at the flesh golem.  The golem’s counterattack glanced off his shield spell.  Xu dragged Kavan’s unconscious body away from the ogre, leaving Autumn standing alone against it.  The monk attempted to bandage the Eritan priest’s wounds, but was having trouble stanching the bleeding.  As the ogre’s lifeless eyes turned toward Autumn, the sentinel muttered a quick prayer and buried her sword into its skull, finally toppling the creature.  Without a moment’s pause, she moved into the next room to assault the golem, arriving at the same time as her sister.  But both of their blows glanced off the creature without effect, and Kyle’s last vial of acid went wide and missed as well.  The golem tried to finish off Arrie, but its luck was as poor as its opponents.  For a moment it was a tense standoff between the three – Arrie, Autumn, and the golem were all grievously wounded, and another blow could finish any one of them.  The three launched their attacks almost in unison.

            Almost… except that Arrie was just a little faster.

            Her spiked chain ripped through the golem, tearing apart stitching and ripping dead flesh.  The golem did not so much fall as collapse, separating into its component parts.  Exhausted, Arrie and Autumn lowered their weapons and went to find their companions.  Kavan was just sitting up as they approached, Xu having given up on bandages and gone for another healing potion instead.  A few seconds later, there was a click, and the hissing sound stopped.  Osborn walked out a second later.

            “Good news, bad news, worse news,” he said.  “Good news is I stopped the gas.  Bad news is there’s no way to get rid of the gas that’s already here.  Worse news is that there’s no way I can open the door.”

            “Then we have to break it down,” said Arrie.  “Where are Kyle and Tolly?”

            Osborn shook his head sadly.  “I just checked on Tolly,” he said.  “He’s not helping anyone… he’s gone.”

            The news sank in fast, but they had little time to mourn.  Several of them had already been affected by the poison; Kyle and Osborn in particular were looking very pale and unsteady.  They moved to the entrance to the chamber, where an iron door had dropped from the ceiling and sealed the chamber.  Kyle tried to lift it (after some quick pantomiming from his companions), but it didn’t budge.

            “Wait a minute,” said Lanara, pointing at Arrie and Autumn, “didn’t Tolly make you two stronger?”

            The two sisters looked at each other.  Osborn grinned despite the situation.  “Looks like Tolly found a way to help after all.”

            The three of them managed to get the door opened, and they quickly moved outside to fresh air.  Gasping, Kyle summoned his familiar, Violet, who he’d left perched in the trees outside.  “Go to town,” he told her, in a voice that was a little too loud.  “Find Priestess Sisz.  Tell her to meet us at the tombs, and that several of us have been poisoned.”

            As the raven flew off, Osborn approached Arrie and offered her a flask.  “Drink this,” he said, “you look like you need it.”

            “I’m fine,” she replied.  “Keep it.”

            “But you’re hurt,” said Osborn.  “You need healing.”

            “We’ve finished the battle, Osborn,” she said, snapping at the hin.  “Save it.  I’m fine.”

            Osborn’s brow furrowed at the fighter’s stubbornness.  He stuffed the vial back into his belt pouch.

            It was nearly two hours before Sisz arrived, accompanied by Violet and by Shilsen, their former instructor and overseer for their mission.  He listened attentively to the group’s account of the battle with the necromancer, then proceeded down into the tombs.  He emerged a few minutes later holding a large sack.

            “This fulfills your last obligation to the Tower,” Shilsen said.  “Good luck to you in your future careers.”  He looked over at the body of Tolly, who was being strapped to a makeshift travois for the trip back to Canyon Camp.  “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.  “Would you like me to return his body to the Ardaran priests?”

            They thought for a moment.  “We don’t know if Tolly wishes to rest in the afterlife, or if he would want the opportunity to return,” Kavan said.  “Perhaps you could deliver a message to the priests of Ardara in Trageon and ask them to contact Tolly’s spirit to learn what his wishes are.  Should he wish to return to us, we will see to it that the arrangements are made.”

            “Very well,” Shilsen said, and he touched the brooch on his chest and vanished.

            Meanwhile, Sisz had done what she could for the group, lifting most of the weakness from Kyle and healing the wounds of others.  “I’ll need more time to tend to the rest of you,” she said, “and I can get some help from Kath.”  She looked anxiously at the entrance to the tombs.  “Do you think the threat to our town is gone?”

            “I think so,” said Autumn.  “Though the necromancer escaped, we have destroyed all his creations and rooted him out of his lair.  He would be foolish to return.”

            As the group began following Sisz back to the town, Autumn walked over and whispered into Arrie’s ear.

            “All right, Arrie, who was that elf?  You seemed to know each other, but I don’t recognize him.”

            “I’ll tell you when we get back,” she whispered.  “But the first thing I need to do is send a message to the capital.  Now.”


----------



## Delemental

*A Difference of Opinion*

It was not an easy night.

            The group returned to the town of Canyon Camp to nurse their wounds after the battle with the necromancer.  Tolly’s body was brought to the church of Bles, where Priestess Sisz said she would keep him and prepare his body for whatever fate held in store.  After a moment of silence, Kavan told the others that he needed to spend some time alone in reflection and meditation.  He gathered his belongings and left the small bed and breakfast they had taken up shelter in, promising to return after a day.

The others cleaned up as best they could, and prepared to meet the onslaught of grateful townspeople who came to extend their thanks.  Only Kyle did not participate in the revelry – the deafness inflicted upon him by the necromancer would not lift, and so the celebration held little joy for him.  In addition, he was beginning to feel unwell, complaining of chills despite the fact that he was sweating profusely.  He remained in the upstairs rooms while the festivities went on.  For the others, the death of Tolly and the absence of Kavan and Kyle weighed heavily on them, making the evening less enjoyable.  Adding to the discomfort was the obvious tension between Arrie and Autumn, though they left their thoughts unspoken while in the midst of the joyful villagers.

It wasn’t until the next morning, after everyone had gone to bed exhausted, that the tension came to a head.  Osborn, Xu, and Lanara were awakened by the sounds of shouting coming from the room the two sisters had shared.  Uncomfortable over the heated words being exchanged, the three left the inn and went about their business in the town.  Only Kyle, unaware of the noise, remained in his room, listlessly making notes in one of his large tomes while coughing into his sleeve.  For a while Osborn tried to entertain him with an acrobatic routine, with some success, but eventually the hin grew restless and departed.  He went to see Sisz, who was carefully washing Tolly’s body and making it as presentable as possible.

“Good morning,” said Osborn.  “I was wondering if you could help my friend Kyle.  He seems to have lost his hearing.”

“Oh, dear,” said Sisz.  “How did it happen?  Was he exposed to a loud noise?”

“No, I think the necromancer cast a spell on him in the battle,” Osborn replied.

“Oh.  Well, I’m sorry, but I believe your friend has been affected by a kind of curse.  It’s permanent, I’m afraid, unless it’s lifted.”

“Can you do that?”

She shook her head.  “I know that such feats are possible to those of faith.  However, my own power is not great enough for the task.”

“What about the Rovenori priest?  Kath?”

“His skills in harnessing divine power are even less developed than my own, to tell the truth,” Sisz replied.  “His talents lie in more physical pursuits.  What of your own companions?”

“Well,” said Osborn, “we do have two priests.  But Kavan’s gone off into some sort of retreat, so I can’t ask him.  And our other priest is, well…” he gestured at Tolly’s mangled corpse.

“I see.  I’m sorry I could not aid you.  Please give my sympathy to your friend, and I’m sure you’ll run across someone who can end his condition.”

“I hope so,” Osborn said.

Meanwhile, the fight between Arrie and Autumn had reached its head, and Autumn had stormed out, slamming the door so hard that even Kyle noticed it, feeling the vibrations through the floorboards.  She went out a short distance from the village, her crossbow and a brace of bolts in hand.  She stopped a short distance from where Xu sat cross-legged under a tree.

“What are you doing here?” Autumn said, a little too harshly.

“Meditating,” she replied.  “And yourself?”

Autumn held up the crossbow.  “Target practice.”

“Perhaps I can be of some assistance,” Xu said as she rose.  “It is time for my morning exercises as well.”

The two of them spent almost the next hour in practice together.  Autumn shot bolts at Xu, while the monk caught them.  Autumn tried to challenge Xu, shooting from different angles and locations.  Slowly, her anger toward Arrie diminished.  But toward the end of their practice, Autumn loosed a bolt from her crossbow which sailed across a clearing and buried itself into a tree truck a mere inch from Xu’s head.  The monk seemed not to have even noticed.

“Xu!” Autumn shouted, running up.  “Are you all right?”

“I am fine,” she replied.  “Did you not hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“A voice, which sounded as though it were carried on the wind, yet I know it sounded only inside my head.  The voice said, ‘Meet me at the town square at noon’.”

“Do you recognize the voice?” Autumn asked.

“No, I do not.”

Autumn frowned.  “I’m not sure what it means,” said the sentinel, “but perhaps we had all better be with you at the town square at noon.”

*          *            *​
            The sun glared down from above them, warming the cool forest.  It was late spring, and it was just starting to get hot in the fullness of the day.  The group stood in an uneven semi-circle, waiting.  Kyle stood picking loose bits of dirt off his robes.  He had almost not joined the others, but Lanara pointed out to him (in writing) that with Tolly dead and Kavan still gone, they were sorely lacking in spell power should whatever had contacted Xu turn out to be unfriendly.

            A full fifteen minutes past noon, just as the group was beginning to wonder if it had all been some kind of hoax, a man suddenly appeared out of the ground, rising up through it as if surfacing from the bottom of a pool of water.  He was old and wizened, though his eyes gleamed with intelligence.  His white beard was braided with all manner of precious stones, and he wore resplendent robes in earth tones.  Slowly, he looked over the group assembled in front of him.

            “My apologies for being late,” he said.  “There was a strata shift I hadn’t anticipated that delayed me.”

            “Er, hello?” offered Osborn.  “Who are you?”

            “Oh, of course, how rude of me.  My name is Jerome.  I imagine you must be Osborn.  And this would be Ariadne, Autumn, Lanara, Xu, and Kyle.  There’s one missing, I think… ah, yes, Kavan.”

            “Um, how do you know who we are?” asked Arrie.

            Suddenly, the pieces clicked together for Lanara. “Wait a minute,” the bard said, “you’re Jerome?”

            Jerome nodded his answer to Lanara.

            “As in Archprelate Jerome?”

            He nodded again.

            “As in Archprelate Jerome, head of the church of Ardara on Aelfenn?”

            A third nod.  “I’ve heard reports of the companions Tolly had taken up with after leaving the school.  Nice to put faces to the names.”

            The other group members, now aware of who stood before them, did their best to offer the proper greetings.  Only Kyle stood by, unaware of what was going on, wondering why everyone was making such a fuss.

            “Well, enough of that,” Jerome said, waving them aside.  “I received a report from your former instructor, Shilsen, about you predicament, or rather about Tolly’s.  But let’s have a bit of lunch first, then see what we can do for him.”  The Archprelate began to shuffle off.  The others followed him, with Autumn tugging on Kyle’s sleeve to let him know they were leaving.

            Jerome stopped and looked at the wizard.  “Something wrong with your large friend there?”

            “Well, sir,” said Osborn, “I’m afraid he was affected by a spell cast on him by a necromancer.  He can’t hear.”

            “Really?  Well, that’s no way to spend an afternoon.”  Jerome walked up and touched Kyle on the forehead, speaking words thick with divine power.  Suddenly Kyle’s hearing returned.

            “Wow, thanks a bunch, sir!” he exclaimed.  “I’m sorry I missed all that before, can I…” Kyle was interrupted by a fit of coughing, “ask your name?”

            Autumn leaned in.  “Kyle, this is Archprelate Jerome, of the church of Ardara.  He’s here about Tolly.”

            “Yes,” said Jerome, “but let’s have a look at you first.  Nasty cough you’ve got there, and looks like chills, too.”

            “Oh, really, sir, I’ll be fine.  You shouldn’t waste your time on someone like me.”

            “I’ll be the judge of what’s a waste of my time or not,” said Jerome, not unkindly.  “Now, open your mouth and let me have a look.”

            Thus Kyle found himself standing toe to toe with the head of the Ardaran church as he peered down the wizard’s throat.  “Filth fever, just as I thought.  You’ve been bitten by some sort of vermin recently, haven’t you?”

            Kyle started to answer that he hadn’t, then he remembered the fiendish rats the kobold sorcerer Oppal had summoned.  He nodded his head.

            “Well, let’s take care of that.”  Jerome spoke more words of power, and healing energy raced through Kyle’s body, eliminating the disease.  Kyle immediately felt better.  “Wow, sir, I mean, thanks a lot.”

            “Just watch out for evil necromancers and rats next time, son,” Jerome grinned.  “Now, where’s a good place to eat in this town?”

            As they walked, Kyle stepped back to Arrie.  “Well, now that I can hear the answer, I have a question I’m dying to ask.  Who was that necromancer we fought?  You two seemed to know each other.”

            Arrie looked uncomfortable and tried not to notice Autumn’s eyes flashing behind her.  “Well, his name is Sauroth, and he’s… well, he’s a cousin of the elven royal family.  I know him because my family has close ties with the elven royal family.”

            “Yes,” said Jerome, interrupting suddenly, “I thought you looked like a Verahannen to me.”  He grinned as the group blinked at his sudden intrustion.  “Nothing wrong with _my_ ears, you know.”

            “Well,” said Arrie, regaining her composure, “don’t worry about it, Kyle.  I’ve sent messengers off to the Elven Court telling them of our encounter with Sauroth.  Although technically the practice of necromancy itself is not illegal among the elves, his behavior will get him in trouble.  The Court will take care of it.”

            “Yes,” said Xu quietly behind them, too soft for Arrie to hear, “with all the speed of elven bureaucracy.  Which means that they will attend to this Sauroth in about five hundred years.”

            Lanara, who was able to hear Xu, blinked.  “I think you just made a joke, Xu,” she said.  “I must be rubbing off on you.”

            Xu smiled one of her half-smiles.  “My family had dealings with elven merchants on many occasions, and had many occasions to curse their endless laws and regulations.”

            Lunch was a simple affair at a local tavern.  The group drew many curious stares from the townsfolk, many of whom had already heard of the method of Jerome’s arrival.  The group tried to engage in small talk, but found it difficult to know exactly what one discusses with the head of a major religion and one of the most powerful priests on the planet.  If Jerome found their efforts lacking, he did not indicate it.

            Finally, Jerome stood up.  “Well, I suppose it’s time to go see Tolly, and see what he has to say about all this.”

            Jerome followed the group to the church of Bles, where Tolly’s body lay in state.  Priestess Sisz, upon seeing who was with the group, bowed deeply before Jerome.

            “You honor us with your presence, Archprelate,” she said.

            “Rise, Harvestchild,” he said, smiling.  “The church of Ardara recognizes the service that you have performed for one of our fallen.  I shall be certain that you superiors within the church of Bles are made aware of your devotion.”  Jerome placed a grandfatherly hand on the head of the young priestess.  “Now, I must attend to Tolly.”

            Archprelate Jerome approached the altar where Tolly’s body lay.  Surveying the damage inflicted by the flesh golem, Jerome shook his head sadly.  “At least there is little damage to his head,” said Jerome.  “That makes things easier.”

            Placing his hands on Tolly’s body, Jerome began to intone words of power.  After a while, the chanting stopped, and those assembled nearby could see Tolly’s jaw move slightly.

            “Tolly.”

            “Yes?” Tolly’s voice sounded strangely far away, as if he were standing in the bottom of a deep cave.

            “Do you feel your work in this world is finished?”

            There was a pause.  “Apparently not.”

            “Do you wish to return to the world of the living?”

            “Yes.”

            “Very well.”  Jerome spoke a word, and Tolly’s jaw stopped moving.  “Tolly wishes to return,” said Jerome.  “I assume you wish it as well?”

            Each of them nodded.  “The ritual used to return someone from Erito’s embrace is not an easy one, not even for me.  In addition, as recognition for Tolly’s service to our church, I will be asking Erito to forego her Tithe on Tolly’s life-force*.  In consideration of this, I must ask that the rest of you agree to perform some service for my church in the future.”

            “What kind of service?” asked Arrie.

            “Something suiting your talents, and not opposed to your personal ethics, I assure you,” said Jerome.  “I will contact you through Tolly when a suitable task is found.  Do you agree?”

            Kyle looked at the others.  “Well, I say it sounds fair, and it’s the least we can do.”

            The others were in agreement.  Jerome turned his attention back to Tolly’s body.  He reached into a pouch and produced four large, flawless diamonds.  He placed one on Tolly’s forehead, one in each hand, and the last one atop his chest.  Then Jerome produced a golden flask, and began to pour a dark, gritty oil from it onto the body, anointing it.  The preparations complete, Jerome began to chant again.  This time the words he spoke seemed almost saturated with holy power, and they seemed to reverberate from the very ground itself.  As the archprelate chanted, Tolly’s body began to glow with white light.  As the others watched, the terrible wounds in Tolly’s torso began to mend.  Finally, as Jerome’s spell reached it’s climax, Tolly suddenly breathed in sharply, and the nimbus surrounding him exploded outward in a burst of positive energy.

            Slowly, Tolly’s eyes opened.  He blinked, and looked around, spotting his companions first.  He sat up on the altar, flexing his fingers as if they were brand new to him.  As his feet swiveled around to the edge of the altar, he saw Jerome standing nearby.  Tolly immediately dropped to the floor and went to one knee.  He grasped Jerome’s hand and kissed the large ring on it.

            “Archprelate,” he said, “I am honored by your presence.”

            “Rise, Tolly Nightsleaving,” said Jerome.  “and rejoin your companions.  I wish I could stay to speak with you further, Tolly, but I must return home to pressing matters.”  Jerome walked down the central aisle of the small chapel, stopping just outside the doors.  “But Tolly?  Next time, duck.”  With that, Jerome vanished, swallowed up by the earth in the same manner he had arrived.

            The group exchanged hearty greetings to their newly restored friend.  They spent the better part of the next hour discussing what had happened to their group; not only the battle with Sauroth, but their efforts to aid the sphinx Ujaset against the kobolds, and the encounter in the woods with the mysterious shadar-kai.

            “Well,” said Tolly, after a time.  “What are our plans for dealing with these fey, then?”

            “We should hunt them down and destroy them,” said Autumn, eyes flashing.

            “I agree,” said Tolly.

            “Wait a minute,” said Arrie.  “Before you two get all worked up, remember that the townspeople haven’t decided how they’re going to respond to the shadar-kai.  We could be getting ahead of ourselves here.”

            “Why?” asked Osborn.  “We don’t need their permission to do what’s right.”

            “Actually, we do,” Arrie replied.  “Within the borders of Tlaxan, adventurers must operate with the consent of some sort of governing body, or else they’re considered brigands.  The town has to ask us to deal with the shadar-kai.”

            “Where did they come from, anyway?” asked Tolly.  “Why have they not made themselves known before now?”

            “Well, there’s an old story about them,” said Lanara.  “The story goes that the shadar-kai used to be the kinds of fey we’re used to seeing – nymphs, satyrs, pixies, and so on.  But during the Cataclysm, they were in danger of being destroyed.  So, they went… somewhere else.  No one knows for sure – it wasn’t any of the known planets**, or the Astral or Shadow planes.  But when they returned, many centuries later, they had changed.  They had become malicious and cruel… they had become the shadar-kai.”

            “All the more reason to destroy them,” said Autumn.  “It is my sworn duty to defend this world against incursions by outsiders.”

            “But they might have been here first,” said Arrie.  “You heard Lanara.  Maybe they’re coming back to reclaim their old territory.  The Elven Court might even recognize their claim as legitimate.”

            “Are you actually trying to defend them?” asked Osborn.  “Do I have to remind you they left one of the loggers impaled on a tree as a ‘warning’?”

            “I’m not saying they’re not evil,” said Arrie, “but I don’t attack an orc just because he’s an orc.  Yes, that act was wrong, but they’re also offering to negotiate with the loggers about territory.  I’m just saying that we’re standing on uncertain ground in regard to local laws.”

            “If I may,” interjected Kyle,  “why don’t we go see what the villagers have decided.  They’re supposed to have a meeting about it, right?  Maybe if we know what their response is, it’ll help us decide on ours.  Besides, Arrie does have a point – we can’t just go off doing whatever we want without someone saying it’s all right.  I’m as mad as any of you about what those shadar-kai did, but we should be careful.  We don’t know how many there are, and they seem to be willing to live in peace with this town, for what it’s worth.  We go charging in there, and maybe we all end up on a slab like Tolly was.  And then the shadar-kai think the villagers sent us, and they decide not to be so neighborly any more.”

            The group absorbed his words.  “Hey, Kyle,” said Lanara, “when did you become the diplomat?”

            He grinned.  “Must be the filth fever affecting my brain.”

*          *            *​
            As it turned out, the town had already held their meeting.  Councilor Adi informed them that a vote had been taken that morning, and the town had decided to honor the shadar-kai’s territorial claims and move their logging to the south.  He also paid them for ridding the town of the necromancer, handing out a script for thirty platinum coins apiece from the treasury.  They were about to head to collect their reward, when Autumn turned on her heels and stormed out of the town hall, clearly unhappy that they would apparently not be eradicating the shadar-kai.

            “Ooh, she’s sooo angry,” winced Arrie.  “Maybe I should catch up to her.”  She left to follow her sister out the door.

            She caught up to Autumn at the edge of town.  Autumn had dunked her head into a small stream nearby.  The sentinel looked up at Autumn, droplets of water dripping from the ends of golden wet curls of hair.

            “What?” she snapped.

            “You look like you could use a good ride,” said Arrie.  “Nothing clears the head like speed.”

            Grudgingly, Autumn agreed.  They went to the stable and saddled their horses, Defiance and Ghost.  They rode together through the trees, winding between the large trunks and trying to find clear spaces to spur their steeds into a gallop.  After a while, Autumn’s mind wandered away from the shadar-kai.  She began to take in the scenery around her, the deep forest reminding her a little of the lands around her childhood home.  Things had been simpler then, when it was just her and her adopted siblings.  Before that bastard had ever laid eyes on Ariadne…

            Her train of thought stopped short as she caught a glimpse of something to her left.  She reined her horse in and held out her hand to bring Arrie to a stop.  She pointed through a pair of elm trees at a large, hunched figure in the distance.  The grotesque, tentacled creature appeared to be gorging itself on the body of a wolf.

            “Gorgon!” hissed Autumn.  “Bigger than the one we fought the other day.”

            “It’s close to the village,” Arrie whispered back.  “Too close.”

            “Let’s go back and get the others,” said Autumn.

            They turned their horses and moved away as quietly as they could, getting several hundred yards away before breaking into a trot.  Upon reaching the edge of town, they leapt off their horses and dashed toward the bed and breakfast where they had been staying.

            “Gorgon!” shouted Arrie, bursting in through the door of the business.  “Big one!  Everyone get your things and meet us at the southwest edge of town!”

            The group scrambled to don armor and secure weapons.  Arrie and Autumn mounted their horses again, and offered a hand up to the others.  Osborn arrived astride his riding dog Rupert, and Xu stated she would run.  Kyle, after casting a spell upon himself, said he would run as well.  Thus Tolly and Lanara were hoisted up onto the flanks of the two horses, and they took off after the gorgon.

            It was still in the same spot as before, chewing on wolf bones, as the group approached from the rear.  They had dismounted several yards back and made their initial preparations.  Most of them stayed in a group, but Xu and Osborn circled around to flank the creature.

            “Let it come to us,” Arrie said.  “We’ll stay together and lure it into being surrounded.”

            “I can hit it from here,” said Kyle.  “One of my new spells.  It should get the critter’s attention.”

            They moved up into position behind the still unaware gorgon.  Kyle chanted for a moment, then thrust his hands toward the creature.  A jagged streak of lightning shot from his hands and arced toward the gorgon.  But as the bolt reached the creature, it seemed to skitter away and dissipate, the spell deflected by the arcane energies that had warped the creature into a gorgon in the first place.

            Kyle looked crestfallen.  “This is not good for my self-esteem,” he muttered.

            The others launched their own attacks.  Arrows and bolts launched by Arrie, Autumn, and Osborn hit, penetrating the gorgon’s thick hide.  A sling bullet fired by Lanara went wind and impacted a tree, shattering and releasing its payload of alchemist’s fire.  The flames slowly began to climb into the branches.   With a scream of pain and anger it whirled around and charged at the largest cluster of enemies it could see.  Tolly, Arrie, and Autumn readied their weapons, waiting for the beast to get within range.  Osborn but another bolt in its flank as it charged, while Kyle charged up another spell, waiting for Xu to charge into combat so he could reach her with it as well.

            He didn’t have long to wait.  The creature tore into Tolly and Autumn, slashing each of them viciously and batting away their counterstrikes.  Autumn felt the sting of acid in the creature’s slavering bite, but her celestial blood protected her from the worst of it, though the bite itself was still painful.  Xu jumped into the combat, shouting savagely.  As soon as she was within range, Kyle let his spell loose, and suddenly Arrie, Autumn, Tolly, and Xu felt as though they were moving faster than before.  Arrie and Tolly put the new speed to good use, landing savage blows against the gorgon.  Autumn, however, seemed disconcerted by the change, and her attacks went wide.  The gorgon was not so easily distracted, and went after the vulnerable Autumn.  Its claws slipped under the plates of her heavy armor, and the sentinel collapsed, blood flowing from a hole just under her ribcage.  Tolly received a vicious bite from the gorgon’s jaws, while Xu narrowly avoided a blow from its prehensile tail.

            The mystical melodies of Lanara’s bardic music began to fill the air, and the group closed in.  A trio of magic missiles from Kyle lanced into the gorgon, this time penetrating the arcane warp surrounding the creature.  Xu’s feet and fists pounded the gorgon in a blur of motion, snapping bones and severing tendons.  Finally, Arrie’s spiked chain wrapped around the gorgon’s neck, and she pulled, ripping away flesh until the creature’s jugular was torn open.  It died, spasming on the ground.

            Tolly and Lanara bent to offer healing to Autumn.  As she came to, Tolly stepped away and dealt with the fire, dousing most of the flames with magically created water.  Arrie grabbed Tolly’s cloak and smothered the oily residue of the alchemist’s fire.  Once they were sure the gorgon was dead, they sought out its lair, not too far from where it had fallen, and recovered a few odd valuables from some less fortunate travelers.

            The group made their way slowly back to Canyon Camp to rest once again, stopping in a tavern just before the loggers returned from their day’s work.  “I think we should be moving on,” said Arrie.  “There’s not much left to do around here.”

            “Well, where should we go?” asked Lanara.

            “Kind of depends on what we want to do, doesn’t it?” said Kyle.  “I mean, we’re out of school now, so I guess it’s up to us what we decide to do with ourselves, isn’t it?”

            They all paused at the question they knew had been hanging over their heads since graduation day.  Where was their place in the world?

            “We could form a sort of traveling troupe of performers,” offered Xu.  “Use our talents to entertain.  It would be the perfect excuse to travel about.”

            “I like it,” said Lanara.

            “I have nothing against performing,” said Osborn.  “It’s what I used to do for a living.  But why do we need an excuse or a cover story?  We’re Tower-certified adventurers.”

            “I have to admit that I didn’t exactly get into this line of work to end up as a stage magician,” said Kyle.

            There was another pause before Autumn spoke.  “We aren’t going to resolve this today.  It will require greater thought and discussion.  I suggest that we travel to a larger city, where there are more resources.  I know my own coin purse is heavy, and there isn’t much I can use here.  Perhaps we could go northeast, to the capital?”

            Tolly frowned.  “While I am as interested in seeing Noxolt as anyone, I would like to suggest Laeshir, a city to the south over the mountains.  It’s a dwarven city, and more likely to have the kinds of things we need.  Besides, I could use some time at a forge, and such are easier to find in a dwarven city.”

            After some discussion, the group agreed to go to Laeshir.  Osborn and Lanara grumbled a bit about spending time in a city full of stuffy dwarves, but even they had to admit it was practical.  They decided to leave in the morning, after Kavan returned from his retreat and they had bought supplies for the two-week journey.

            As they discussed their travel plans, none of them noticed that one of the other patrons in the tavern was not a familiar face.  As more customers began to stream in, the observer sat quietly, watching with dark eyes.

-----------------------------
* Erito is the Goddess of Life and Death, and her Tithe is the portion of a dead soul's life-force she retains when a person is brought back from the dead (ie, the lost level).  Jerome is asking his goddess, Ardara, to pay the Tithe in Tolly's stead (ie, he's casting True Resurrection).

** I see that I can no longer delay the cosmology discussion.  Aelfenn is in the center of a geocentric solar system, and the other four major celestial bodies (one sun, three planets) are the domains of The Four.  There are no outer planes or elemental planes; the planets serve that function.  For example, Karakor, the system's sun, is Grabâkh's realm, the home of evil outsiders (devils) and the elemental plane of fire.  The Many, who are the lesser servitor gods of the pantheon, have their realms on the moons orbiting their patron's planet.  It's not known whether Erito's realm is Aelfenn itself or somewhere else entirely, but Aelfenn does have five moons - one for each of Erito's five servitors.

The Ethereal, Astral, and Shadow planes do exist in pretty much the same way they do in standard D&D.  The Astral, of course, facilitates extra-planetary movement (instead of extra-planar).  The Ethereal is the realm of unborn spirits, and the Shadow Plane is the realm of dead spirits (a temporary waystop for those recently dead, unless they have no patron deity to claim them, in which case their souls are trapped on the plane).

As a side note: because alignment is rather strongly implemented in this world, some of the standard alignment patterns of outsiders have been altered.  Devils are still evil, but not necessarily lawful evil.  Demons are associated with chaos, but are not all chaotic evil (yes, that means a Chaotic Good balor is possible).  The archons are lawful in nature, and good is represented by the angels.  Eladrins are neutral in alignment, but can vary in their neutrality (Chaotic Neutral, Neutral Evil, etc).  Elemental creatures aren't True Neutral, but take on the appropriate aspect associated with their deity (fire=Neutral Evil, air=Chaotic Neutral, etc).


----------



## Delemental

*Tolly's Education*

This week we have a two for one; first a brief interlude written by Tolly's player, then the next installment.  This interlude actually takes place between "Death Makes No Sound" and "Difference of Opinion", but I posted it here only because it sort of gives away Tolly being raised from the dead.

So, without further ado...

*          *          *​
            Tolly swung the hammer yet again. His enchanted hammer was badly denting the gruesome creature, but not fast enough. He could see the chain of his companion come whipping past him time and again, but whether it was his body blocking her view, or the wizard's incantations, she was having trouble reaching the golem. The sweat ran fast down his back under his breastplate as he dodged, again too late. The pain of his carefully worked armor collapsing into his ribs was shocking, but no worse than the constant choking he felt around his neck. Ariadne had tried to hand him a potion to heal the wounds the creature had dealt him so far, but there was no time to drink it. If he moved his attention from the beast in front of him, it would surely kill him and then go for Autumn's back as she fought the Necromancer. He could not, WOULD not allow that. Not on his life and vows as a protector of those weaker than he. He had advantages over the usual people in the world--the Church had seen to his every need. Most orphans had not that advantage. He swung again. The golem was definitely feeling the blows, and turned all of its attention to him. He saw the strike coming--both fists swung up and then down at him. There was no time to dodge. He threw his shield in the path of those arms, and it crumpled beneath their force. He felt his shoulder give and tear from its socket. Then the other fist hit. He felt nothing more.

*          *          *​
            He opened his eyes to the distinct lack of pain, and a pale green light. An Archon stood before him. He leaped to his feet, and performed the proper obeisance for the rank of Trumpet Archon.

            "We see that passing has not changed you, Tolly." 

            He heard the voice, yet could not say that it had been spoken. "It is finished then? So soon..."

            "Yes, too soon, son of the Earth. You were brave, but somewhat foolish. That creature was beyond your abilities."

Tolly felt a burst of anger. "Do you imply I should have done other? Abandon my post, and left them to be crushed. There was but one other who could harm the golem."

            "Then should you not have let her do it?"

            "It was my duty as a member of the Secretariat. We aid. I had hoped she would be able to get to the villain who had created the beast while I stood my ground. That form of communication had not yet become second nature. It was, after all, our first true outing. Why do you question me so, Herald? Is there a flaw in my thinking? Am I not in the state I should be for passing on?"

            "No, Tolly, We do not question you to point out errors--only to confirm how We suspected your thoughts were on the matter. We feel that perhaps some speech with a less comfortable hand would do you good. Your adopted Fathers have done well, but their affection has left you naive. We feel this needs correcting."

            Tolly puzzled over this. "In what way, Herald?"

            The Archon spread it wings and then they were in a classroom, and there was but one desk. "Sit Tolly, and we shall teach to you the Philosophy of Ardara, and of Steel."

            Tolly sat--he could think of little else to do.

            "In the beginning, there was but Erito, and she thought to create a world, and in that thought was contained a planet to be on, and the rules by which it could exist, and in those rules and Earth was Ardara. And she moved forth into the world.

            "She brought with her Law, and in her strength was unassailable, for Law is likened unto Steel, Tolly. Steel, like Law, can be defense for those being attacked, but can also be a weapon in the hand of the attacker. It can be flexible as the rapier, or as rigid as the blade of an axe. It must be tested many times before it is known to be the correct mix for the ends to be met, and those ends are Ardara's.

            "You have been training as a Protector, Tolly, and have served Her well in this regard, but it is becoming a time where She needs Her Blades--She has plenty of Armor. For this to be, you must return. When you hear the call of the Prelate, you will return."

            "But, Herald..."

            "There is no time for such questions! Are you Hers?"

            "Of course, Herald."

            "Then do Her bidding, Tolly Mulholland, and know that you are in Her Hands, as her Weapon of Choice, and Weapons have not mercy. As a surgeon's scalpel you will be, removing bits of poisoned Earth and unLawful debris. If some healthy flesh must be sacrificed to make the body well again, so be it."

            Tolly could hear the call of the Prelate. "Wait, Herald, Mulholland...?"

            "The time for questions has passed, Tolly, now GO!"

            "But..."

*          *          *​
            He opened his eyes...


----------



## Delemental

*Feeling Swamped*

And now, we return you to your regularly scheduled Story Hour...

*          *          *​
            The group left town early the next day, hoping to get a good start on their long trip to Laeshir.  They guessed that the journey would take about three weeks to complete.  Along the way the group talked about a great many things – it was the first chance that they’d had since finishing school to get to know each other outside of a mission.  There was some discussion over where the group would go after their stop in Laeshir, but nothing was decided for certain, and they agreed to wait until after concluding their business in the dwarven city to make a final decision.

            For the first day or two Autumn spoke little, still upset over their decision to leave the shadar-kai unmolested.  But she returned to her former spirits eventually, and was even seen smiling by the fourth day of their trip through the forest.  Kyle was more talkative than ever, however, perhaps reveling in the fact that his deafness had been cured.  He was seen wandering back and forth to the other members of the group, asking them questions and occasionally making notes in one of his books.

            A break in the monotony of the forest came on the fifth day of their trip.  Kavan had climbed a tree to get their bearings, and when he came down reported seeing signs of a small village up ahead about an hour’s walk away.

            “Good,” said Osborn, chewing on a chunk of bacon.  “Maybe they’ll have something to eat there besides trail rations.”

            “Osborn,” said Arrie, “we’ve only been on the trail for five days now.”

            He caught her in a level stare.  “One day of trail rations is one day too many.”

            They continued on without further discussion of the subject.  The group chatted amiably as they walked, but as they came around and caught sight of the village, the words died in their throats.

            The village looked as though it had once consisted of about fifty buildings, though only half that stood now.  Thick, choking vines seemed to have wrapped themselves around some of the structures, and appeared to be literally tearing them apart.  The entire village was eerily quiet, with no sounds of dogs barking or children playing.  A pungent smell wafted across the village and assaulted their noses.  The only sign that anyone had ever lived here was the prone figure in the center of the street ahead of them, lying motionless in the summer sun.

            “Is he dead?” asked Kyle.

            Tolly squinted.  “It’s hard to tell from here,” he said.  “Maybe.”

            Kavan pushed his way forward and began walking toward the prone figure.  “We should see if he needs help,” he said simply.

            A few of the others stammered out mild protests about ambushes and plagues, but the warnings went unheeded.  Kavan knelt down by the man and turned him over.

            “He’s alive,” he called out, “but very sick.”

            Tolly approached and knelt next to Kavan, studying the man.  He frowned.  “Slimy doom,” he said, “very nasty.  Turns the victim’s innards into ooze.”

            “Can you cure him?” asked Lanara, who was holding a cloth up to her face.

            “Perhaps,” said Tolly, “but not today.  I would need time to request the proper rituals from Ardara.”

            Kavan nodded his head to indicate that the same was true for him.  “Perhaps there’s a healer here in this town,” he said, standing up.

            Just then another figure came running up from behind one of the few undamaged buildings.  “Hello!” he cried, waving his arms in the air.

            “Greetings, friend,” said Kavan, extending his hand.

            “Oh, it’s been so long since we’ve seen anyone come through here!” the young man exclaimed.  He looked over the group, eyeing their weapons and armor.  “Oh, please, tell me you’re adventurers.”

            The group looked at each other.  “Well, yes, we are,” said Arrie.

            “Thank the gods!” he shouted.  “Please, you have to help us.  We’re being attacked!”

            Hands went to the hilts of weapons immediately.  “Attacked?  Who?  Where?” Arrie barked.

            “There’s this crazy hin that lives in the swamp!  He’s been coming to our village for the past two weeks now.  He sends wild animals to attack us, he makes the plants rise up and destroy our homes!  He’s been sending plagues to kill us off slowly!”

            “All right, all right, slow down,” said Arrie.  “I’m sure we can help.” She glanced over at Kavan, who was still looking at the man on the ground.  “But first we need to see your healer.”  She looked over at Tolly.  “Is this slimy doom stuff contagious?”

            When Tolly shook his head, she and Kavan picked up the unconscious man and carried him into the village, following the young man.  They arrived at a small building on the edge of town, and Kavan went inside while Arrie laid the man down out front.

            Inside an old, stooped woman with bright eyes like a bird was shuffling over to a pot of boiling water, clutching a handful of roots and leaves in her hand.  On the floor next to her was a young woman, obviously just as ill as the man outside.  The young woman was shivering despite the heat of the day, and in the dim light of the house Kavan saw that her lips were blue.

            “Are you the healer?” Kavan asked.

            “Aye, Mahina’s my name, stranger.”

            “I am Kavan.  My friends and I found a man outside the village.  He appears to have contracted a disease called slimy doom.  Can you help him?”

            Mahina looked up at Kavan and shook her head sadly.  “I can make him comfortable, but I cannot cure him, son.  These diseases are beyond my skills.  I’m just a poor old woman who knows a few tricks with elixirs and poultices.”

            “Diseases?  You mean there’s more than one?”

            “Aye, son.  Ever since that hin showed up from the swamp.  Most of them I’ve never even heard of, like this ‘slimy doom’ of yours.  But the ones I do know… like her, for example,” Mahina pointed with a crooked finger at the shivering woman on the floor.  “I read once a long time ago about a disease called ‘devil chills’ that literally freezes you from the inside out.  This looks exactly like what the book described, but how can that be?  Devil chills only come from contact with devils.  There’ve been no devils in our village that I’ve seen, unless that hin is one himself.”

            Kavan thanked Mahina for her time and withdrew from the home to share what he’d learned from the healer.

            “Neither Kavan nor I can do anything about the sick villagers until tomorrow at the earliest,” Tolly said.  “Perhaps we should deal with this hin that is causing the problem.”

            “He sounds like a druid to me,” said Kyle.  “The attacks that we’ve heard about  remind me of some of the spells we saw Ghurka use.”

            Arrie turned to address the young man that had approached them.  “Where is this hin?”

            “He lives in the swamp,” he said.

            “Do you know where, exactly?” Kyle asked.

            “I’m not sure,” said the man, “but if I were him I’d be living in the ruins of the old castle.”

            “Who would build a castle in the swamp?” asked Lanara.  “Wouldn’t it sink?” *

            “Don’t ask me,” the man said.  I just know it’s there, about two hours walk from here.  Most of it’s ruins, but parts are intact.  There’s an old cobblestone road that leads to the ruins from here through the swamp.  It’s a bit slippery, but better than wading up to your waist through the muck.”

            “Sounds promising,” said Arrie.  “We’ll check it out.”

            “Someone should stay at the village,” said Tolly, “in case this hin returns while we’re gone.”

            “I’ll stay,” said Autumn.  “Field plate doesn’t do well in a marsh.  Besides, I may be more resistant to the hin’s magic than others.”

            “I’ll stay too,” offered Osborn.  “I can try and set some booby traps for him if he does come back.”

            The rest of the group tied their horses up in the center of the village and set out for the swamp.  The edge of the marsh was only a quarter mile from the village.  Soon the group was sloshing through dank water, following the barely visible outlines of the cobblestone trail.  As promised, the footing was treacherous, and within fifteen minutes only Arrie and Xu had managed not to slip and fall in the slimy water.

            “Hey, Kyle,” Lanara said, spitting out strands of rotten plants, “you got one of those ‘clean-up’ spells handy?”

            “You mean _prestidigitation_?  Yeah, but only one.”  He looked around at the mostly soggy group.  “It’d probably be better if I saved it for after we leave the swamp.”

            Lanara grimaced, and kept walking, hoping the water wouldn’t ruin her leather outfit.

            During the exchange, Xu was looking around, admiring the swamp.  She had been trained to notice the details that others missed, and she was able to pick out spots of bright color amidst the gloom.  Her eyes lit upon a large, bright green vine dangling on a branch overhead.  It appeared far larger and healthier than the others nearby.  But as she stepped forward to get a closer look, the vine suddenly twitched, then shot out and wrapped itself around her neck.  Gurgling, Xu was lifted off the ground, kicking.

            The others instantly turned at the commotion.  “Assassin vine!” Lanara gasped.

            The group moved in to help Xu.  Lanara threw a flask of some foul, brown liquid, which seemed to eat away at the vine.  Tolly and Arrie took swings at it, as did Kavan.  Xu herself managed to escape the vine’s grasp, and jumped up into the tree to attack the deadly plant at its roots.  Kyle, seeing that his line of fire was clear, stepped up and let loose a blast of fire from his palm, burning the vine badly.  In response, it lashed out at the wizard, wrapping itself around his neck.  Kyle was not as well trained in breaking a grapple as Xu, and soon he began to turn blue.

            The others laid into the vine with renewed fury.  Kavan sent healing energy into Kyle to keep him from being asphyxiated, while the others pounded away.  Soon all that was left of the assassin vine was a mass of shredded plant matter, oozing with a milky white fluid.

            The party set out again, making their way to the old ruins.  But only a few minutes later Arrie yelped as her boot came down in a hole in the trail and she felt the sting of several pairs of fangs.  As she jumped back, five large copperhead snakes wriggled out of the hole and went after the other party members.  Though the snakes were quickly dispatched, the party had to spend the next several minutes inspecting their calves for bites.  Fortunately, no one appeared to have been seriously poisoned.

            “My, such a warm, inviting place this is,” grumbled Lanara.

            They continued their trek, this time walking slowly to avoid more mishaps.  Even so, the loose stones under their feet sometimes gave way, and sent someone into the water.  Still, by some miracle, Arrie and Xu remained clean and dry… at least from the knees up.

            Kavan’s head suddenly perked up.  His keen ears had picked up a faint sound in the distance, over the burbling of the swamp and the cries of various animals.

            “Listen,” he said, calling a halt to their march.  “Do you hear that?”

            They all strained to hear.  Soon the noise became louder – a pitiful, desperate sound of a young child calling for help.

            “Someone’s lost!” Kavan said.  He jumped off the old stone path, and began wading through the tangle of marsh reeds.  “It’s coming from this direction!”

            The rest began to follow, albeit more slowly.  Kyle, in particular, was slow to move.  “Something’s not right,” he said to himself softly.  Then he called out to Kavan and the others.  “Hey, that kid doesn’t sound right to me!”

            They all slowed their advance, listening again.  Kavan, several feet ahead of everyone else, concentrated on the sound and realized what Kyle was talking about.  The cries for help were too repetitive, too similar to each other.

            Just then a large form jumped out of the water next to the elven priest.  It looked like a jaguar or other large hunting cat, but at the end of its long tail was an appendage that looked remarkably like a human hand.  It slashed at Kavan with its claws while the hand-tail grabbed for his face.  Kavan barely managed to avoid its grasp.

            Arrie and Xu ran forward to help.  Unfortunately, the footing within the swamp was much more treacherous, and both of them tripped on underwater roots and slime and ended face-down in the brackish water.  Tolly approached much more cautiously, hoping he could make it up to the cat in time.  Lanara looked at Arrie and Xu struggling to get up, and bit back a comment about ‘poetic justice’ Instead, she pulled out her sling.  Kyle, seeing her, did the same with his crossbow.  The cat was large enough to fire at its flanks with little risk of hitting Kavan, and Kyle wanted to preserve his spells for the battle with the druid.  Kavan himself slashed at the strange cat-creature with his longsword, putting long gashes into its side.  As crossbow bolts and sling bullets slammed into its side, and with three other enemies converging, the cat decided this meal wasn’t worth the trouble, and swam away quickly.

            “What was that thing?” asked Arrie, wiping mud from her face.

            The rest of them shrugged collectively.  “I suggest that we no longer deviate from the path,” said Tolly.

            Another half-hour of walking finally brought them to their destination.  The castle had once been large, but the majority of it had fallen into the swamp.  The path led up to some sort of old gatehouse, which was remarkably still mostly intact.  They approached the building until they were within a few yards, then Tolly held up a hand.

            “We should split up and approach from different angles,” the priest said.  “That way we don’t present a single target if the hin is expecting us.”

            They group agreed, and after preparing themselves for battle, they split into three groups.  Arrie and Lanara approached from the left, Kyle and Tolly down the center, and Xu and Kavan from the right.  They closed on the yawning opening to the building.  Thin shafts of light poked through the ceiling in places, providing minimal illumination.  They could hear dripping water inside.

            Tolly called forth holy power, and the inside of the building was filled with light as bright as the sun.  They then moved cautiously inside.  Half the room was flooded, with deep pools in each corner and a smaller one in front of them.  The group moved in, and spread throughout the room searching for signs of the druid.

            They didn’t have long to look.  From the far corner of the room, shrouded in shadow, a thin, ragged voice called out.  “We have guests,” it rasped.  “Have you come to join me in my cause?”

            “What cause?” Lanara asked.

            “To protect nature, of course,” the voice wheezed.

            “Why do you attack the nearby village?” asked Arrie.

            “To obliterate the stain of civilization from the land,” the voice replied.  “Their dwellings are a wound upon the land.”

            “Hold on a minute,” said Kyle.  “Aren’t you living in a building right now?”

            They heard heavy breathing for a moment.  “This place suits my purpose for the moment,” it said at last.  “But soon it too shall fall.”

            “Sounds pretty hypocritical to me,” said Kyle.  His companions braced for combat.

            Sure enough, a second later a huge form erupted out of the pool opposite the voice’s source, close to where Xu stood.  An enormous crocodile burst onto the shore and closed its jaws around the monk, hoping to pull her into the water.  At the same time, the sound of chanting could be heard, and a moment later Kyle and Lanara were in the midst of a swarm of rats.  They kicked and fought their way out of the biting, clawing mass of rodents, Lanara retreating to the far side of the room, while Kyle attempted to cast a spell at the druid that would paralyze him in place.  His spell, however, failed to take hold.  The other party members rushed toward the druid, identifying him as the greater threat and confident in Xu’s ability to handle the crocodile.

            Xu, however, was not so sure.  Her blood flowed freely into the creature’s jaws.  She had already been wounded by the assassin vine, but at the time had not felt she was injured seriously enough to seek healing.  Now she regretted that decision, as the vice-like jaws of the crocodile were aggravating her old wounds.  She managed to slip out of its toothy grasp, and dashed around the corner just outside the building to gain a moment’s respite and drink a healing elixir.

            The chords of Lanara’s magical song began to fill the room as the heroes pressed forward.  The hin summoned lightning from the sky to strike down Tolly, but much of the bolt’s strength was sapped away when it had to punch through the ceiling, and it did little harm to him.  Arrie spun her chain around, but the diminutive figure immersed in the pond was difficult to strike.  Kavan charged his hand with destructive negative energy and tried to touch the druid, but he also had difficulty locating his target.

            Kyle avoided the swarm of rats once again, and then noticed Xu dash outside, bleeding.  He decided the hin was well in hand, and turned his attention to the croc.  He summoned his own bolt of lightning to strike it, but the jagged bolt grounded itself in a pool of water just shy of the reptile, doing little harm to it.  The bolt was enough to get its attention, however, and it charged Kyle, snapping the wizard up in its jaws.  Kyle, though strong, was not able to apply the correct leverage, and remained trapped in the jaws of the beast.

            On the other side of the room, the fight had turned to the party’s advantage.  Arrie was holding her strikes, waiting for the hin to begin casting a spell before lashing out.  Kavan’s hand finally connected, and much of the druid’s life energy was drained away.  Tolly hit the druid with one of his _acidic bursts_, and then waded in with his warhammer.  The assault was too much for the hin, and he fell lifeless into the stagnant water.

            The party moved in to aid Kyle just as his vision was beginning to blur from pain and blood loss.  Kavan summoned up enough healing energy to keep him conscious, while the others pounded of the creature.  The crocodile let Kyle go, and tried to escape.  As it turned, however, it found itself looking a much healthier Xu right in the eyes.

            One kick finished the battle.


---------------------------------------

* You can all stop reciting the Monty Python skit right now.


----------



## Delemental

*Horse Thieves*

Lanara looked up, and sighed.  It was going to rain.

            They were only three days from Laeshir, by their best guess.  Until she’d seen the clouds rolling in, Lanara hadn’t been looking forward to arriving at the stuffy dwarven city.  She’d hoped her traveling companions would be ready to move on from there quickly, but the conversation around the campfire didn’t give her much hope.  Kavan and Kyle were talking about making potions for everyone, and that priest Tolly was talking about making full plate armor!  The cansin had no idea how long that took, but she guessed that “a couple of days” wasn’t the answer.  She took comfort in the fact that Osborn, like her, would be pressuring the group to move along quickly.  The hin’s presence in the group was comforting to her, as entirely too many of the others were too rigid for her tastes.  A couple of them had potential, though.

She began to look her companions over, her gaze resting on a few in particular.  Thoughts began to form in her head, not for the first time.  Lanara had to fight not to smile to herself as she contemplated some of the ideas that had sprung into her head in the last few weeks while traveling with these people and watching them interact with each other.  Do I start now, or do I wait? She thought to herself.  Certainly, it was within her ability to accomplish; after all, she’d once managed to cause a sophisticated noblewoman to fall in love with her stableboy; this would be no more difficult than that.  It was amazing what kinds of situations you could get two people into with just the right song, the right turn of phrase, the subtlest of comments dropped here and there…

Her train of thought was interrupted by a large drop of rain that landed on her nose.  _I’ll wait_, she thought to herself, wiping away the offending drop. _Right now I’d rather concentrate on getting out of the rain._

*          *            *​
            The steady rains of that day turned into true thunderstorms by the next morning.  The group slogged on, careful not to curse Dakotha* too frequently in case the goddess of storms decided to prove things could be much worse.  They kept to higher ground as much as possible, but the pouring rain and mud slowed them down, delaying their arrival in Laeshir by at least a day.  They halted their march by late afternoon, finding a slight rise on a hillside that would make a suitable campsite.  Within an hour they were all huddled inside their two large tents, forlornly chewing their provisions of dried venison and even drier biscuits.

            “At least there’s plenty of water to wash these down,” Kyle joked.  No one laughed.

            Once they had eaten and dried off their provisions as best they could, they set watches for the evening.  It was a long, miserable night; the heavy rain prevented those on watch from talking, and the others in their tents weren’t feeling much more talkative either.  For Tolly and Xu, who were on the last watch, it seemed as though dawn would never come.

            But just as the clouds in the sky began to lighten from the sun hidden behind them, Xu stopped, and pointed up the hillside.  Tolly’s gaze came to rest on the nearby trees, and the large, shadowy forms moving just out of the range of their vision.

            “Wake the others,” Tolly commanded, and raised his arms.  Light as bright as the sun shone forth from his holy symbol, bathing the area.  At the edge of the light, Tolly could now make out two of the hulking forms.

            “Ogres!” he shouted back toward the tents, hefting his warhammer.  He then turned back to face the ogres.  “Come, foul creatures!” he bellowed.  “Come and face Ardara’s wrath!”

            Meanwhile Xu had dashed into the men’s tent, quickly shaking Kyle, Kavan, and Osborn awake.  She dashed out of their tent just as Tolly’s challenge rolled out across the hills.  Osborn stod up and dashed outside, his dog Rupert on his heels.  Osborn went behind the tent and began pulling on his leather armor.  Kyle and Kavan walked out as well, and as soon as Kyle saw the ogres he threw up a _mage armor_ spell.  He then reached out and touched Kavan on the shoulder, protecting him with an enchantment that blurred his form.  Kavan was already walking forward to stand next to Tolly, his longsword bared.  Rivulets of rainwater dripped from the blade’s edge.

            Xu made a quick pass through the women’s tent before dashing outside and off into the woods, hoping to circle around and flank the ogres.  Unfortunately, the women were much heavier sleepers than the men, and did not rise immediately.  It wasn’t until Kyle noticed their absence and began shouting for their help that Arrie, Autumn, and Lanara woke fully and moved out into the rain.  Arrie grabbed her bow and poked her head out.  She could clearly see six ogres approaching, now well illuminated since Tolly had moved forward to engage them.

            “This is an armor situation,” she gulped.  “Definitely an armor situation.”  She knew that the reach of the ogres’ greatclubs was equal to what she could manage with her spiked chain, which took away her primary advantage if they closed into melee.  Once, when she was younger and first learning to use the chain, she’d grown cocky over her advantage in reach.  Master Galbreth and a pair of his longspear-wielding assistants had taught her a valuable lesson; she still bore a tiny scar just below her left armpit as a reminder.

            “Autumn!” she shouted, “help me put on my armor!”

            Autumn quickly stepped up behind her sister and began pulling at the clasps and straps that held the light chain shirt together.  She glanced wistfully at the own field plate, carefully packed away next to her bedroll.  Donning her own armor would take far too long.

            Meanwhile Kavan and Tolly had moved up to engage the ogres, ignoring the scattering of javelins that came at them.  They were accompanied by the sounds of Lanara’s lilting voice, carrying inspiring words to their ears.  The cansin bard had taken up position behind the tents where she could still be heard, even over the rain.  Kyle stood back away from the battle, trying to decide where to lend his help.  He saw Arrie and Autumn emerge from their tent, Arrie with her double bow and Autumn with a crossbow.  Arrie had her chain armor loosely draped over her shoulders, while Autumn had no protection.  Kyle winced to himself – he should have saved the mage armor spell for her rather than put it on himself; he could just stay out of the way.

            He shook his head and looked back at the ogres.  Wishin’ don’t make the corn grow, as Pa used to say, he thought.  He pulled arcane energy from the ether and shaped it into a pattern, then let it loose upon a trio of ogres advancing through the trees.  Thick, sticky strands of webbing enveloped them; one managed to pull free before the webbing set, but the other two were stuck fast.

            Tolly and Kavan had managed to do well, holding against the ogre’s initial charge.  Tolly had taken a heavy blow to the chest, but unlike Autumn he was armored, and the force of the blow was dissipated somewhat.  The two priests had counterattacked, inflicting minor wounds on a pair of the brutes.  Suddenly, the ogres began to withdraw.

            “What’s going on?” asked Kavan, a snarl on his normally serene face.  “Why do they run?  We’ve barely scratched them!”

            “I don’t know,” said Tolly, who had paused to heal himself.  “Perhaps they fear magic?” He gestured at the globe of webbing that two ogres struggled to free themselves from.

            “Unlikely,” Kavan snapped.  “These creatures are too stupid to know fear.  Come on, they’re getting away.”

            Kavan began to move forward even as Autumn and Arrie loosed arrows into one of the wounded ogres, dropping it.  Kyle tried to weaken one of the trapped ogres to prevent it from escaping, but his aim was off, and with a roar it burst out of the webs and began to withdraw as well.  Soon only one ogre remained, buried deep inside the webs.  Arrie, Tolly, and Kavan surrounded it and began to tear into it while Autumn and Kyle covered them to make sure the other ogres didn’t return.

            By this time Osborn had finished putting his armor on, and he snapped his fingers to call his riding dog to him.  But just as he was about to mount, his ears perked up at a strange noise coming from the other side of the camp, where they’d tied up the horses.  Cautiously, Osborn went to investigate, pulling out a lamp enchanted with a continual flame.  The light from the lamp cut through the pre-dawn gloom, allowing Osborn to see the small hillock where there horses used to be.

            “The horses!” Osborn shouted.

            Only Lanara, Kyle, and Autumn were close enough to hear.  They came running to join their hin companion, who was frantically searching around in the mud.

            “Gone,” he moaned.  “Even the pack horses.  All our supplies, all our food…”

            “Impossible,” Autumn said.  “Defiance and Ghost are trained for war.  If a stranger tried to lead them away they would have fought them.”

            “I don’t see any signs of a struggle,” said Osborn.  “The hoof prints just go off into the woods.”

            “Can you follow them?” asked Kyle.

            Osborn shook his head.  “I’m no woodsman.  The tracks are pretty obvious here, but the rain’s already starting to wash them away, and the ground’s rockier that way.”

            “We have to try!” said Autumn.

            “Relax, Autumn,” said Lanara.  “Sure, it’s a pain in the ass, but they’re just horses.  We can buy more in Laeshir.”

            “No,” she said through a clenched jaw.  “I will not abandon Defiance.  He is… he is all I have of my own family.”  She turned and walked up the hill to alert the others.

            Lanara’s expression was puzzled.  “I thought Arrie was her family.”

            “Arrie’s her cousin, not her sister,” said Kyle.  “She was adopted into Arrie’s family as a child.  I think Autumn might mean her birth family.”

*          *            *​
            Subduing the last ogre was a simple task, if not quick.  Once the ogre was securely tied, the group quickly broke camp and armed themselves fully.  There was some concern for the whereabouts of Xu, who had not been seen since she had woken the camp, but they couldn’t go to look for her with their prisoner, and they dared not split up the group for fear the ogres were waiting nearby to ambush them.  They decided to cross that bridge later.

            Kavan seemed particularly eager to dispatch the ogre.  The elven priest seemed to have little regard for the giant-kin.  Thus he stood by impatiently while the ogre was questioned, Lanara using her innate magic to communicate with it.  Unfortunately, though her spells allowed her to understand the ogre’s language, none of them could speak it, and their efforts to pantomime their questions were fruitless, as the ogre was either too stupid or too stubborn to respond.

            “Well, now what?” asked Arrie.  She’d been pacing during the entire attempt at questioning the ogre; the news that her own horse Ghost had been stolen was almost as upsetting to her as it was to Autumn.

            Kavan looked back at the bound ogre casually.  “We could skin him.”

            Osborn’s eyes widened.  “Why would we want to do that?” he asked, horrified.

            “We skinned that crocodile that attacked us, didn’t we?”

            “Yes, but crocodile hide is worth something!”

            He shrugged.  “An ogre’s skin has got to be worth something to someone.”

            They all just stared at Kavan.

            “Look, we can’t kill it yet,” said Lanara.  “In case you’ve forgotten, we have no idea where they took our horses.  Maybe we can convince it to lead us to their hideout.”

            “You mean like we convinced him to tell us where it is?” Osborn smirked.

            “Okay, then, we let it go and follow it home like a lost puppy.”

            “Do not bother,” said Xu.

            They all turned in unison to see Xu walk up from behind them, as if she had been out for a quick stroll in the rain.  None of them had heard her approach.

            “I know where the ogres have gone,” the monk said.

            Kavan smiled.  “Excellent,” he said, as he drew a dagger and began walking toward the ogre.

*          *            *​
            It turned out that Xu had been quite busy while she was gone.  Intending to flank the ogres, she noticed that they were withdrawing unusually quickly.  Curious, and as yet undetected, she decided to follow them to find out where they were going.  Once she had a good look at their camp, she walked back to her companions.

            They all now looked at that camp.  They had come to the base of a cliff, perhaps four hundred feet high.  Built into the base of the cliff was an old castle that had seen better days.  Only the main floor and part of a tower remained. There were no windows facing outward, and the wooden door was closed fast.  There was no movement outside.  The sun rose behind the cliff, so the cliff face and castle were in deep shadow.

            “That’s where they went?” Arrie asked, pointing.  Xu nodded.

            Kyle studied the castle.  “First the swamp, now here.  What’s with all these dang ruined castles?”

            “They’re pre-Cataclysm,” said Lanara.  “Or very early post-Cataclysm.  Only humans build castles like that, so for them to be in the Dwarven Confederates they’d had to have been built before the dwarves showed up.”

            “Well, let’s go,” Arrie said.  “I want my Ghost back before he ends up on a spit.”

            “I don’t think ogres cook their meat,” offered Kyle, but he quickly shut his mouth when he saw the looks from Autumn and Arrie.

            The group began walking toward the castle, spread out a bit in case the ogres charged out of the front door.  With no visible windows in the castle, they were unafraid of coming under fire from javelins.

            Autumn suddenly stopped when they were a few yards away from the door.  She grabbed Kyle by the shoulder, and pointed up at the cliff.  “Can you see that?” she asked.

            Kyle squinted and followed the sentinel’s finger.  Just barely, he could make out what looked like a cave about halfway up the cliff.

            “Yeah, I see it.  But I don’t see any way to get up there from here.”

            As they both watched, however, they saw some movement within the cave.  A moment later something large came out and began plummeting toward them fast.

            “Incoming!” shouted Autumn.  She grabbed Kyle by the arm and pulled him aside, but they became tangled and she ended up falling on top of him.  A few feet away, a large boulder crashed to the ground, only inches from where Tolly had been standing.

            “Are you all right?” asked Autumn.

            “Yeah,” gasped Kyle, looking up at the field plate clad warrior, “but I might’ve been better off under the boulder.”

            The group quickly scrambled for the castle as boulders began to rain down.  Arrie reached the door first and began to bash it with her shoulder.  Kavan, Tolly, Xu, and Osborn were immediately behind her.  Kyle and Lanara hung back, realizing that if there was resistance on the other side of the door there would be a bottleneck, and those in the back would be easy targets for the ogres.

            As another stone landed right where Autumn was standing a moment ago, Arrie finally bashed in the door.  She dove into the room in a roll, hoping to come up behind any sentries.  Instead, her roll stopped short as she ran into something large and solid.  The others scrambled up to see Arrie sprawled upside down, at the feet of her warhorse Ghost.

            “A little help, please?” she asked.

            They quickly righted her and looked around.  The chamber was small, barely big enough for Ghost to stand.  Doors led off to of the parts of the castle.

            “Osborn,” Tolly said.  “Please check those doors.  And quickly; we need to move forward so our friends have cover from the boulders.”

            “On it.”  Osborn squeezed past everyone and quickly checked a side door.  Opening it, he called out “Defiance is in here!”

            He moved to another door as the others shifted and squeezed to let everyone inside.  Eventually Osborn found the main hallway, and the group was able to fully move past the two warhorses.  In a side chamber they found the remainder of their riding horses, but their pack horses with all their gear were nowhere to be seen.

            “Over here!” called Kavan.  He pointed through a doorway to a long, winding corridor that sloped sharply upwards.

            “I think this leads up to that cave Autumn saw,” he said.

            Osborn went to investigate.  He came back with a glum expression.  “Well, I have good news, bad news, and worse news.”  He sat down on a nearby flagstone, sighing. “The bad news is that the ogres can easily throw their boulders down the corridor as we come up; we’d be sitting ducks.  The good news is that I think they only have three boulders left.”

            “What’s the worse news?” asked Lanara.

            “In the cave there’s the four ogres we saw before; a couple of them are still hurt.  But I also got a look at their leader, who we hadn’t seen before.” Osborn sighed again.  “He had blue skin.”

            Tolly coughed and shook his head.  “An ogre mage,” he said.  “More intelligent, and more dangerous.  They are resistant to magic, and their wounds heal almost instantly unless inflicted by fire or acid.  They can become invisible at will, and have other magical abilities as well.”

            The group looked at each other.  “You know,” said Osborn, “we have most of our horses.  We’ve lost our supplies except for the tents, but we’re only a couple of days from Laeshir.  We could just leave.”

            “We could,” said Kyle, “but that leaves these ogres here to keep doing this to other people.”

            After a moment’s silence, Autumn spoke.  “We need a distraction.  Something to lure the ogres into wasting their last boulders.”

            “An excellent idea,” said Tolly.  “Perhaps some of us could scale the cliff and attack from two fronts?”

            “Most of us aren’t that good of climbers, though,” said Lanara.  “It’s raining, and half of you wear heavy armor, including you Tolly.”

            “I could make the ascent,” said Xu.

            “So could I,” said Osborn.  “But we still need something to distract them while weg et into position.”

            Kyle’s eyes suddenly lit up.  “Who has some spare clothing?” he asked.

            Lanara looked at him “I have a few outfits.  Why?”

            “Can I borrow one for a while?”

            “Well, sure, but I don’t think they’d flatter you very much.”  She set down her pack and pulled out a tight bundle.  She unwrapped it and shook out a brightly colored set of clothing that seemed to have entirely too little fabric in them.

            “Perfect,” said Kyle, taking the clothes.  Concentrating for a moment, he summoned his innate magical talent and created an unseen servant that filled the clothing.  Though the shape was wrong, it was passably human looking from a distance.

            Kavan looked at the clothes hovering in the air, then at Lanara.  “I’ve never seen you wear that outfit,” he told the cansin.

            She smiled, and her mismatched eyes flashed.  “It’s my dancing outfit.”

            Kavan continued to stare at Lanara.  When his gaze had rested on her a little too long, she cleared her throat.  “Hey, Kavan?  You can stop picturing me wearing the outfit any time.”

            Kavan blinked, and gave an apologetic half-smile.  “Forgive me.  Old ways of thinking are difficult to completely abandon.”

            Lanara wondered what the elf meant by that.  Other than his devotion to Erito, they knew little of Kavan.  He had hinted at some sort of dark secret in his past, but said that he wasn’t ready to share it yet.  Lanara was dying to know.

            Meanwhile, Kyle, Osborn, and Xu had moved back up to the castle entrance.  “Get ready,” Kyle said.  He looked at the stack of floating clothing.  “Go out into the open area outside the door and move around randomly, keeping these clothes with you at all times,” he ordered.  The servant began to float out the door.  As soon as it was within sight of the cave above, Kyle motioned for Osborn and Xu to begin their ascent.

            “We’ll be at the cave by a count of five hundred,” said Osborn.  “Be ready.”

            Kyle watched from the door as Osborn and Xu moved out along the castle wall and scrambled up a pile of rubble to reach the cliff face.  Meanwhile, a boulder came flying down, landing just short of the decoy.  The second boulder, however, flew true, and the servant and its clothing were smashed under the stone.

            “Oops,” said Kyle to himself,  “looks like I owe Lanara a new outfit.”

*          *            *​
            Mandool waited patiently.  He knew the travelers from the woods were coming up the passageway; he need only wait.  Two of his minions waited at the entrance, their last remaining stone ready.  He scowled at that; they had wasted the other two on that decoy.  At least one of them was dead, though.  Behind him, his other two remaining servants waited.  He had decided to keep them in reserve, as they’d already been wounded by the travelers.

            Soon, he thought.  Soon they will be here, and they will die, and I will let these simpletons suck the marrow from their bones while I claim the real prize.  Mandool had no doubt the travelers carried many valuables, and perhaps even magic.

            His keen ears perked up.  From the tunnel, he heard the sound of metal armor clanging.  At last, they were here.  He pointed down the tunnel, and the boulder was hurled down the tunnel.  Mandool grinned as he heard the satisfying clang of stone against metal, and knew they’d struck at least one.  Then, he heard the rhythmic chanting of arcane magic.

            That will be the arcanist, the one who ensnared Grom and Udan.  His smile grew wider.  Let him try that trick on me.

            The two ogres by the door drew in shoulder-to-shoulder as the travelers rushed up the tunnel.  He saw the human woman with the chain in the lead, next to the male with the hammer who Maag had told him was glowing like the sun.  Behind them came the celestial-kin and the elf, and behind them, barely visible, were the chaos-touched woman and the arcanist, blocked from the battle by their own companions.  The chaos-touched woman began to sing, for lack of anything better to do.

            Suddenly Mandool saw movement out of the corner of his eye near the ground.  He jerked his leg away just as a hin clambered over the edge of the cliff and swiped at him with a tiny sword.  Angered, Mandool swept his hand out and caught the hin in the chest, sending him back over the edge.  Next to him, another human woman with no weapons came up and rushed him.  Mandool knew better than to assume that unarmed meant not dangerous.  He barked a command, and his two reserve ogres came up to confront the small woman.

            Turning back to the main battle, Mandool saw that the elf was gesturing at him with some sort of holy symbol.  He felt the divine power strike him, and to his astonishment it penetrated his indomitable will as well as the aura of innate magical power that coursed through him.  He suddenly felt the wrath of Erito in his heart, and he knew these were not foes to take lightly.  He would have to be cautious.

            Chaos ensued.  Mandool tried to attack the unarmed woman, but she dodged out of the way.  With a scowl he saw the hin scramble back up as well, having apparently secured himself with rope before coming into the cave.  The travelers seemed to be moving unnaturally fast, no doubt thanks to that arcanist.  One of his ogres went down, its brains splattered across the cave walls by the priests’ hammer.  Nearby, the other priest was healing the celestial-kin.  Mandool finally connected with the dodging woman, but not before the hin cut him deeply across the shin.  No matter, thought the ogre mage, as he could feel the wound healing over already.  A burst of energy exploded near his head, and a spray of acid flew at him.  But the magically summoned acid washed over his magical defenses, flowing away harmlessly.

            “You’ll have to do better than that, priest!” he bellowed in the human tongue to the hammer-wielding priest who had sent the acid.  But then the small woman jumped in and jabbed at his stomach.  At first he thought he would hardly feel the blow, but as her fist landed, he suddenly felt dizzy, and the edges of his vision went dark.  Images swam in his eyes as he tried to clear his head; he saw another of his minions fall, and suddenly there were forms around him.  He felt the bite of weapons from several directions.  He saw the arcanist summon a missile of acid and launch it, the magic penetrating his defenses and seeping into his flesh where it burned horribly.  He was being separated from his remaining two ogre servants as well.  Mandool knew when to retreat.  Summoning his inner power, he willed himself off the ground and began to fly out past the edge of the cliff, out of range of the intruders.  Once at a safe distance he would balst the entire cave with numbing cold.  True, the ogres would die as well, but he could always find another tribe.

            As he moved he felt the weapons of the intruders bite into him with renewed fury.  Mandool felt his head going light from blood loss.  Still, he smiled.  Even if they managed to draw enough blood to cause him to lose consciousness, and send him plummeting to the earth below, his magically-enhanced metabolism would continue to function.  Within the space of a minute or so, he would be able to rise again and make his escape.

            Sure enough, Mandool felt a sword slip between his ribs, and he felt suddenly cold.  As he tumbled, he caught sight of the interlopers turning and laying into his former tribe.  Then there was a horrible crunching sound, and all went black.

*          *            *​
            Kyle could see the battle was well won.  With the ogre mage gone, they would make short work of the other two ogres.  Kyle turned to say something to Lanara, but she was no longer behind him.  Shrugging, Kyle walked over to a small side passage he’d noticed.  Summoning a light, he walked inside, curious as to what he’d find.

            He was halfway into the next chamber when he felt a metal gauntleted hand on his shoulder.  “Where do you think you’re going?” Autumn asked.

            “I’m exploring,” said Kyle.  “The fight’s practically over.”

            “By yourself?” The sentinel frowned at him.  “That’s unwise, Kyle.  You have no idea what’s in here.”

            “And everyone else is just a shout away,” he said.  “Besides, I still have my _lightning bolt_ spell.”  When Autumn didn’t return his grin, he sighed.  “All right, come with me then if it makes you feel better.”

            They walked into the chamber.  Inside they found a large bed, and in the corner were three large boxes.  Autumn and Kyle looked at each other, and then at the boxes.

            “Osborn?” Autumn called out.  “We found something for you to check out!”

            The hin walked in a moment later, wiping ogre blood off his dagger.  He looked around at the chamber, and whistled.  “Not bad for a big blue ogre, huh?”  Osborn glanced at the enormous bed, then at Kyle and Autumn.  “Boy, you two should be glad that Lanara didn’t wander in here before me.  She’d probably make some sort of comment about the two of you wandering off together into a room with a big bed.”

            Kyle looked around as if he wasn’t quite sure how he should react to the comment.  Autumn, on the other hand, only smiled.  “Yes, I could see her saying something like that.  She’s never one to miss a compromising situation, is she?”  Autumn looked around as the others began to file into the room.  “Say, where is Lanara, anyway?”

*          *            *​
            Mandool’s consciousness slowly returned.  At first there were only vague sounds and flashes of color, but they soon coalesced into coherent thought.  The ogre mage inhaled deeply, feeling ribs snap back into place.  With a smile, he opened his eyes.

             Standing above him was the chaos-touched woman, the one who could do nothing better than sing during battle.  In her hand she held a lit torch.  Mandool’s smile faded.

            The woman held up a tangled, filthy mess of colored fabric in her free hand.  “You ruined my dancing outfit,” she said angrily, before she shoved the torch into Mandool’s face.

            There was pain, but only for a moment.

---------------------------------------------

* Dakotha is the weather goddess.


----------



## Delemental

*Problems at the Mine*

Hello readers (assuming I have any);

Just a quick note to say that although I'd hoped to continue updating this story hour on a weekly basis, I'm going to have to drop down to every other week for a bit.  Not a huge change, but I figure better to say something.

But now, without further ado...

------------------------------------------------


           Though it seemed as though the day would never come, at long last the group crested a rise and saw the broad plateau of the city of Laeshir spread out before them, white limestone and marble structures gleaming with a pinkish hue in the early morning sun.

            “I never thought I’d be glad to see a dwarven city,” said Osborn.

            “I hope that sentiment stays with you, Osborn,” said Tolly.  “We may be here for some time.  I must spend time at the forges of my church, crafting a new suit of armor as befits my new purpose.”

            Osborn rolled his eyes behind Tolly’s back.  Ever since being brought back from the dead, the Ardaran priest had been droning on and on about his ‘new purpose’ – something about being Ardara’s scalpel, or bread knife, or her lemon zester… something like that.  Frankly, he didn’t see how anyone could be that serious about something for so long – sure, Osborn admitted to himself, even he could buckle down when he had a particularly clever trap or complex lock to handle, but that was what, two, three minutes tops?

            The group moved on, eager to finally sleep in real beds and take real baths.  On the way down, they saw Arrie take out a leather cord and tie it around her neck.  The cord had five small, rough gemstones braided into it.  Tolly glanced at the necklace.

“That’s the kind of necklace that dwarven children wear to show the level of respect they have earned from their elders,” he commented.

Arrie smiled.  “Yeah, most dwarves really don’t see me as ‘grown-up’ yet.”

They passed through the gates fairly quickly after a rather unremarkable interview from the town guard, and found a pleasant-looking inn called the Uncut Emerald just off the main trade road before it dropped into the tunnel leading to ur-Laeshir, or “Lower Laeshir” as Tolly explained it.

            “Most large dwarven settlements here in the Confederate have at least half their city underground,” he explained.  “Most of the surface structures are there to cater to non-dwarven merchants, travelers, and residents.”

            The group was lucky enough to be able to take up most of the rooms of the Uncut Emerald, laying out a large sum of gold to rent them for the next two months.  The innkeeper, a plump dwarf named Burbark Hammerhand, groused a bit at the prospect of having so much space taken up by the party, but his protests eased when Lanara promised to perform in his common room at least twice a week.  They rented a total of five rooms; each shared one room with another member of the group (a considerable improvement from sleeping four to a tent in the woods), and a smaller fifth room was rented for Kyle to use as an alchemical lab.

            After changing clothes and bathing, the group set about taking care of long-overdue business.  Tolly went to the temple of Ardara to report to his superiors and request access to their forges, while Lanara, Autumn, and Arrie went down to ur-Laeshir to try to get a good price on the treasures they’d found in the ogre mage’s possession.  Kyle and Kavan went to a local alchemist’s shop to stock up on potion-making supplies, while Osborn volunteered to sample the nearby bakeries, butcher shops, and eateries to find out where the best places to eat were.  Xu remained behind at the Uncut Emerald.  “I wish to take advantage of your absence and meditate in solitude,” she said.

            Lanara laughed.  “I’ll bet you just want a chance to do all your bendy exercises without worrying if Kyle’s spying on you from behind a bush.”

            Kyle opened his mouth to protest, but shut it when he realized he’d never come out on top of that kind of exchange with Lanara.  The cansin saw this, and winked at Kyle to let him know he’d made the right choice. Xu, for her part, said nothing either way.

            It was late in the evening before the group saw each other again.  They sat at a corner table in the common room, watching Lanara’s performance for the sizeable crowd.  The bard rejoined her friends after receiving thunderous applause from her audience.

            “So, how’d everybody do today?” she asked.

            “Well, the room’s set up,” said Kyle, referring to his makeshift lab.  “I can get started tomorrow on those potions with Kavan’s help.  It’ll be a long stretch, but we should be able to finish well before Midsummer.”

            “We did sell some of the jewelry we found,” said Arrie, “but as we suspected, a couple of the pieces were more interesting.”

            “Yeah, that crown we found?” Lanara chimed in, “you know, the one I thought was so interesting?  Turns out it’s from pre-Dwarven Confederate days, during the time of the old Targethi Empire.  It belongs to one of the minor kings who ruled in this area.  Most likely wiped out during the orcish invasions from the Haran Desert a millennium ago.”

            “Which means that it’s probably going to fetch a higher price if we find someone interested in that historical period,” said Arrie.  “We’ll look around for a local sage or historian, but we may actually fare better if we take the crown into Targeth.”

            “Well, I’m sure we’ll make it back that way some day,” said Kavan.  “What else?”

            “This ceremonial knife was also interesting,” said Autumn, as she pulled the knife out from her cloak.  “At first I thought it was just a knife dedicated to Bail*.  But we learned that it’s actually a dwarven oathbond.”

            “What’s that?” asked Kyle.

            “Whenever dwarves sign treaties, they will forge a special blade commemorating the event and present it to the other side as a token of the strength of their oath,” explained Arrie.  “The implication is sort of ‘if we break our promise you can stab us with this knife’.  This knife was made as part of a trade agreement between the Dwarven Confederates and Tlaxan.  The reason Bail is featured so prominently in the design is that her church was the main arbiter of this agreement.”

            “Okay, so… what’s that mean?” asked Osborn.

            “It means that this blade belongs to the Elven Court of Tlaxan, and should be returned to the Court in Noxolt as soon as possible,” said Autumn.

            “Tlaxan?” Osborn moaned.  “But we just came from there!”

            “I didn’t say we had to go now, Osborn,” said Autumn. “We can journey that way once we’ve finished our business here.”

            “Hey!  Maybe when we leave we could head east and cut through the Peca Provinces to get to Noxolt!” Osborn looked up hopefully at Autumn.  Lanara showed interest as well; a healthy dose of travel through the gnomish provinces would be a welcome remedy from their long exposure to dwarven stuffiness.  Her only fear was that the party might be infected by the gnomes’ love of water and decide to take a boat to Tlaxan.  On the other hand, there were the gnomish bathouses…

            “That may be a possibility,” Autumn replied.

            “Okay, so that’s two bits of shiny stuff that we’ll need to cart around a little longer,” said Lanara.  “Now, what about you, Tolly?  You got that armor finished yet?”

            “No, Lanara, I haven’t started yet.”

            The bard rolled her eyes.  “Why not?”

            “Because such things take time, Lanara.  Mithral is challenging to work with, and one cannot just ‘whip up’ a suit of field plate even when working with common steel.  There are precise measurements to make to ensure the armor fits properly on me.”

            “Oh,” said Osborn, “then I guess you won’t be ordering any pie tonight, will you?”

            Tolly didn’t answer, though the corner of his mouth curled up slightly.  “However, I have been informed by my superiors at the church of a situation at a nearby mining town that requires intervention.  I thought I would bring the matter to you, as it is the kind of work we specialize in.”

            “So, long journeys in dark places with sporadic bursts of violence?” asked Arrie.

            “Precisely.  In addition, should we prove successful it may result in the work on my armor taking far less time that I anticipated.”

            “Okay, so, what’s going on?”

            “Three days from here is the town of Lisk, which supports a respectably-sized copper mine.  The church of Ardara received word from the local priest there that about a week ago a stonebreather got into the mine.”

            “Stonebreather?” Lanara asked.  “You mean those big metallic-looking bulls that can turn you to stone with their breath?”

            “The very same.  The priests here in Laeshir were about to send someone to investigate, but when I arrived they asked if we could intercede on their behalf.  They have stated that I may take the stonebreather’s hide as reward if we succeed.”

            “Excuse me,” asked Xu, “but how does defeating this creature speed your work?  We shall have to leave this city in order to deal with the stonebreather.”

            “The hide of a stonebreather can be rendered down and alloyed with any other metal,” explained Tolly.  “This alloy retains all the properties of the base metal, but it becomes far easier to work into the proper shape when heated, thus requiring less time at the forge.”

            “Well, I’m in,” said Lanara.  “Not that I’m all that excited about crawling into a mine, but any excuse to get out of the city, I’ll take.”

            “Same here,” said Osborn.

            Others began to nod their agreement.  “Just give me some time to cap off my beakers, and I’ll be ready,” Kyle said.

            As the talk turned to other matters, Kyle scooted his chair next to Autumn’s and put a hand on her shoulder.  “Hey, sorry about that knife,” he said to her.  “I know that you were wanting to hang onto it because Bail’s your patron.”

            Autumn looked at Kyle and smiled.  “No, it’s all right, really.  I’m very much looking forward to returning this blade to the Elven Court.”  As she spoke, a strange gleam appeared in her eye.  Kyle almost questioned it, but decided against it – the question would probably come out all wrong anyway.

-----------------------------------------------------

*Bail is a minor god of trade and the honest accumulation of wealth and privilege.


----------



## Delemental

After three days of uneventful travel through the mountains, the party arrived in Lisk.  They immediately went to the town’s small Ardaran church, where a dwarven priest named Durkoth greeted them.

“Thank you for coming so quickly,” he said.  “The stonebreather has taken up residence in our mine, and all work has halted.  We’ve lost a few of our miners to the beast already.  The town guard has set up a watch outside the mine entrance, to keep others from wandering in.”

“Any other exits?” asked Kyle.

Durkoth shook his head.  “Ventilation shafts, but nothing the stonebreather could use,” he said.  “And recently some of the guard have reported hearing rumblings from inside the mine, as though there have been cave-ins.”

“It’s possible that the stonebreather is knocking out support beams,” said Lanara.  “They’re really sort of the ‘see it, charge it’ variety of monster.”

“It’s the being turned to stone part that worries me,” said Osborn.  “Kyle, anything you can do about that?”

“Sorry, Osborn.  That’s a bit beyond what I’m capable of.”

            “Actually, I can offer some help in that regard,” said Durkoth.  “Just prior to your arrival, the Church sent us a vial of _stone salve_ to aid those who had fallen victim to the stonebreather.  I would be more than happy to reserve it to aid you should you require it, but there is only a small amount in the vial, and if several of you are petrified by the creature there may not be enough to help all of you.”

            “We’ll take our chances,” said Arrie.  “Now, which way to the mine?”

            Durkoth led them to the mine entrance, introducing the group to the town guard so they would be allowed to pass.  Durkoth advised them that the creature would be on the upper level, as it would be unable to operate the lifts to get to the lower tunnels.  After unpacking their light sources, the group went inside.  Osborn crept ahead, to just inside the range of their lamps.  He made shadow-puppets of a bull on the wall while waiting for the others to get ready.

            They didn’t travel far before encountering the stonebreather’s first victim.  Their light shone on the small statue, which appeared as though it had been running for the exit and looked back at the moment of its doom.  Kavan regarded the stone face frozen in fear as Tolly muttered a short benediction.

            “This poor, unfortunate soul,” said Kavan.

            “He’s better off than others,” said Lanara, pointing at the ground nearby.  They saw scattered chunks of stone littering the ground; Lanara bent down and picked up a hand-shaped chunk of rock.

            They continued to explore the tunnels, retracing their steps once or twice when they encountered a dead end.  Occasionally they would pass another dwarf statue, or the shattered remnants of one.  They eventually came to a widening in the tunnel just before it made a sharp right.  The tunnel had once gone straight as well, but part of the wall had collapsed, blocking off the tunnel.  Osborn peered up at the piles of stone.

            “You know, I think I can squeeze through there,” he said.  “Might want to check it out, in case that stonebreather got caught back there or there’s any trapped miners.”

            “Sounds good, Osborn,” said Arrie.  “We’ll wait here.”

            Osborn unpacked his own lamp and scrambled up the piles of loose stone.  His dog, Rupert, looked up at him, whined once, then laid down at the base of the pile.  The hin shuffled through a narrow gap, allowing only the barest sliver of light to escape from his lantern.  After going about forty yards, Osborn stopped and listened.  He could hear the sound of water nearby.

            Odd, he thought to himself.  Just then he caught a glimmer of motion in the darkness ahead.  After a moment’s self-debate, Osborn allowed a little more light to escape his lamp.

            The tunnel opened up again a few feet ahead.  Osborn saw that his light had caught the reflection of a large pool of water that had collected in a depression in the ground.  The water rippled slowly, and Osborn could see that the chamber had no other exits.  He was about to begin crawling back to his companions, but then he felt that familiar itching at the end of his nose.

            Osborn had learned not to ignore that itch.  It was his personal warning system, the way he knew that he’d missed something important.  The itch had saved him back when he was still hunting for the man who’d stolen his troupe’s money, when he almost walked into that ambush.  It saved him when he was opening up the door to that merchant’s home in order to get out of the rain (a simple Sargian double-tumbler, he recalled) and he’d almost missed the poison needle.  It had saved him during his training at the Tower, when he realized that the pressure-plate trap he was disarming was counterweighted to go off if the main trigger was jammed.

            Osborn surveyed the scene, this time more carefully.  His eye kept wandering back to the pool of water, so he studied it.  It was too shallow to be hiding anything, and even if someone was back here they could easily avoid the water.  Scowling to himself, he looked harder, willing himself to see beyond the obvious.

            Then he had it.  He watched the rippling of the water, and realized that it was too regular, and a little too slow.  He also realized that there was no water dripping into the pool from the ceiling that would cause the rippling.  He also watched the light from his lantern dance on the surface, and realized that it wasn’t reflecting onto the cave walls properly.

            Osborn decided that he needed some advice.  He backed up into the tunnel, eventually emerging back on the other side of the cave-in.  He gave Rupert a quick pat before reporting.  He filled in the others of what he’d seen, including the details that bothered him.

            “That is unusual,” Tolly admitted when Osborn finished.  “However, whatever the cause of this strange pool is, we are not in a position to investigate.  The pool is behind this pile of rock, and it would take days to clear it.”

            “Besides, we’re not here to look at weird water,” said Arrie.  “We’re here to kill a stonebreather.  Let’s keep going.”  She picked up her lamp and began to move around the bend.

            Just then, the pile of stone moved.  Or rather, something moved through the stone, oozing out from between the jagged rock.  It was almost the same color as the grey stone surrounding them, and the spots where it touched the rock were hissing and smoking slightly.  Three large gray blobs dropped onto the floor in front of the party, and pseudopods began to rise up from them, menacing the group.

Osborn immediately stepped back; he knew there was little he could do against a living ooze.  Xu tried to punch one of the oozes, but quickly withdrew her hand in pain as the highly acidic ooze burned her flesh.  Fortunately she was not seriously damaged.  Arrie’s chain swept through an ooze, send globules flying everywhere.  Her chain started to smoke a bit, but she whipped it around in a reverse stroke that flung most of the clinging bits off.  Tolly pointed at the oozes and let loose an acid burst, which to everyone’s surprise actually seemed to hurt them.

“Heat and cold won’t affect them!” shouted Tolly.

Kyle stepped around to the side and let a _lightning bolt_ fly through all three, scorching them and causing one to splatter apart altogether.  Kavan and Autumn drew their swords and hacked into others, using swift strokes to avoid having acid cling to their weapons.  In all, it only took a few more seconds for them to destroy the other two oozes.

            Lanara looked around at the globs of ooze dripping from the walls, leaving shallow channels where the acid had eaten through the stone.  “So, Tolly, is this sort of thing common in dwarven copper mines?”

            “Not really,” he said.  “Perhaps some of these cave-ins opened up a channel to an underground river, and the ooze came in from there.”

            “I did hear running water while I was back in that chamber,” said Osborn.

            “Well, let’s keep moving,” said Arrie,  “and don’t step in any puddles.”

            The tunnel wrapped around, descending slightly.  After about a hundred and fifty paces, the tunnel dropped further, and water lapped at their feet.  The tunnel had flooded in front of them, and although it seemed the water was only about four feet at it’s deepest, there was no telling how far it extended.

            Xu dipped the end of her long staff into the liquid, and examined it.  “It is just water,” she said.

            “Looks like we’re wading,” sighed Kavan.

            Lanara looked apprehensive.  “Are you sure it’s safe?”

            “It won’t even go over your head, Lanara,” said Autumn.

            “I know,” she sighed, “but it’ll ruin my leathers.”

            Kyle suddenly yelped in surprise.  Osborn had jumped up onto his legs and was scrambling up his back.

            “Let’s go!” Osborn said, grabbing onto Kyle’s shoulders.

            “What are you doing?” Kyle cried out.  The others tried to hide their smiles.

            “I need a ride,” Osborn explained.  “The water may not be over Lanara’s head, but it’s over mine, and I don’t think she’d let me climb her.”

            Kyle relaxed a bit.  “Well, okay then.  But you could have said something first.”

            Osborn looked at him curiously.  “But then it wouldn’t be funny,” he said.

            “Yeah, but I have to admit, you’re the last person in this group I expected to try and climb on top of me.”

            There were a couple of snickers from the others.  “And who were you expecting to be the first, Kyle?” Kavan asked, his eyebrows arched into a mischievous look.

            “Oh, come on, Kavan,” said Arrie, not even trying to hide her laughter.  “Everybody wants some wizard loving.”  She looked at Kyle, waiting to see how red he’d end up.

            Instead, Kyle looked at her and flashed a half-smile.  “Yeah, it’s something about our long staffs.”

            Everyone had a hearty laugh.  Arrie nodded, slightly impressed.  She hadn’t expected such a witty comeback from Kyle.  Maybe there was hope for him after all.  _Best get my fun in now, because in a few years…_

            Everyone saw Arrie’s face suddenly grow somber.  “All right, let’s go.”

            It turned out that the flooding didn’t extend too far.  They waded through until they felt the floor under their feet start to ascend.  Once the water was low enough, Osborn jumped off of Kyle and began walking forward.  He got to the edge of the water, and looked around.  The first thing he noticed that was odd was that he could see his own reflection dimly just a few feet away.  This time he didn’t need the itch to tell him something was wrong.

            “Help!” he cried.

            The others began wading forward quickly as a large, cube shaped mass of nearly transparent matter slid forward slowly.  Tolly, Kavan, and Arrie drew weapons and charged, while xu produced her crossbow, having learned her lesson from the fight with the ooze.  Autumn had moved up closer to the cube, but had yet to draw her sword.  Kyle dashed just in front of her in order to get into range, and loosed a beam of intense heat at the cube, watching in satisfaction as chunks of the ooze crisped and curled away.  He prepared to fire another bolt, but at that moment Autumn stepped up behind him with a flask of alchemist’s fire in her hand.  She placed a hand on Kyle’s shoulder to make sure he didn’t step into her arc of fire.  Her aim was true, but the unexpected touch threw Kyle’s aim off, and the second beam lanced into the ceiling, leaving a smoking black line.

            “Sorry,” said Autumn quietly.

            However, the loss of Kyle’s second ray made little difference in the final outcome.  The slow-moving cube was unable to react quickly enough, and was quickly cut into chunks of quivering slime.  Pausing only long enough to wipe their weapons clean, and collect the loose coins and valuables that had been suspended in the cube, they moved forward.

            The group waded through a second flooded section of tunnel, this one blessedly free of any sort of ooze, mold, or fungus.  As they went around yet another bend, Kyle suddenly called a halt.

            “Listen,” he said, leaning up against another pile of loose stone.  Leaning in, they heard the sound of a hoofed animal pacing somewhere beyond the barrier.

            “Do you think it’s trapped back there?” asked Osborn.

            “Are we going to have to dig it out?” asked Lanara.

            “I’m not sure,” said Kyle, “but this tunnel continues on.  It may bend back around and meet up to wherever that thing is.  Let’s check it out before we start moving rocks.”

            They continued forward, and sure enough the tunnel made a sharp turn and began to double back on itself.  Within minutes, they could hear the same rhythmic stamping of hooves Kyle had picked up before.  The group paused a good distance away, around a sharp corner.

            “What’s the plan?” asked Kavan.

            “We’re going to run in there and kill it quickly before it knows what hit it,” Arrie said, grinning like a madwoman.

            “Ah, ‘Plan Get ‘em’,” said Lanara.  “I think I’ll just stay back here and play my fiddle.”

            The group made preparations.  Tolly unloaded most of his remaining divine power on the party, enhancing their weapons and bodies.  Kyle used a wand they’d found in the ogre mage’s cave to make the warriors stronger, then used a mirror image on himself, surrounding himself with seven identical images.

            The group crept up to the corner as quietly as they could.  Arrie raised a hand with three fingers extended, and began counting down.

            Three.

            Two.

            One.

            The majority of the group rushed into battle.  Kyle placed a _haste _spell on several of them just as the charge began, which allowed them to easily engage the stonebreather standing several yards down the corridor.  Tolly lit up the tunnel with _daylight_, banishing the darkness, while Kavan doomed the beast.  Xu immediately engaged the metallic creature, striking a solid blow, while Osborn moved around to flank.  Arrie and Autumn approached from either side, hugging the walls of the tunnel.  Kyle also moved forward, though his progress was slower since he hadn’t hasted himself.  The wizard saw that he wasn’t quite close enough for the spells he had in mind, so instead unleashed a magically conjured cloud of golden particles.  Kyle hoped that the cloud might blind the stonebreather, but it blinked them away.  Still, it was now covered in sparking gold dust, and would be easy to find if it chose to run away.

            Kyle felt his heart beating faster with anticipation.  He felt that he’d prepared well for this battle.  Though he’d had to use his _lightning bolt_ and _scorching ray_ against the oozes, he had more tricks up his sleeve.  A _grease _spell would ensure that the stonebreather was unable to charge anyone, and a _ray of enfeeblement_ would render it too weak to do much damage.  All he needed to do was get a little closer so he was in range.  It was one of those rare moments when Kyle felt he might just make a difference.

            Then the creature breathed.

            A thick, greenish cloud blasted out of the stonebreather’s mouth, enveloping everyone except Lanara, who was safely tucked around the corner.  Kyle felt the vapors surround him, and he held his breath, but it almost felt as if the vapors were leaching into his flesh.  He began to move forward to cast his next spell, but his feet suddenly felt very heavy.  Glancing down, he saw the ends of his boots had transformed into solid stone.  With horror, he realized the transformation was crawling up his legs.

            Kyle tried to turn around, but the effect had traveled up past his knees, and his legs were now too heavy to move.  He twisted spasmodically, as if he could shake the effect off somehow.  He felt the petrifying magic move up past his hips, and he was hit with an unsettling sensation as his intestines were turned into granite.  He tried to cry out, but the air was forced out of his chest as the magic solidified his lungs from the bottom up.  Gasping, he looked around to see who might be able to aid him.  The others seemed to have escaped his fate – Osborn and Xu were behind the stonebreather when it had emitted its magical breath, and the others had resisted its effects.  All except one.

            Autumn was standing just a little ahead of Kyle, and now stood helpless as she was slowly turned to stone.  Autumn managed to turn her head to look back at Kyle just as the effect reached her neck.  Her face was contorted with a look a panic, but upon seeing Kyle had suffered a similar fate, a glimmer of sadness appeared in her eyes just as she was fully petrified.  A second later, Kyle’s vision went black.

            Arrie coughed, waving the noxious clouds away from her face.  She stepped back a moment to survey the scene.  Her eyes came to rest upon the granite statue that was once her adopted sister.  Blood rushed to her head, and she tightened her grip on her chain, her knuckles turning white.  With a cry of rage, she spun her chain around in a blur, bringing its full weight down on the creature’s smooth, metallic hide.  She was barely aware of her companions surrounding the bull-like beast, slashing and hammering away.  None of that mattered to her.  All that did matter was that this hells-spawned beast was trying to take away something precious to her, but that this time, at least, she had the power to do something about it.

            It was Tolly, ultimately, that brought the beast down.  Reeling from the fury of the party’s onslaught, the stonebreather was unable to sidestep Tolly’s warhammer as it crushed the creature’s forelegs, bringing it down in a heap of flesh and metal.  A return swing caved in the top of its skull.

            As Tolly stooped down to cut the stonebreather’s throat and begin bleeding it, and Osborn went off into the tunnel behind the beast to make sure the coast was clear, the others gathered around the statues of Kyle and Autumn.

            “What do we do?” asked Kavan.

            “We get them back up to town,” said Arrie.  She was still covered in gore from the stonebreather, but seemed unaware of it.  “He’ll bring her back.  He promised he could bring her back.”

            “You mean bring ‘them’ back, right?” said Lanara.

            Arrie blinked and stared at Lanara for a moment, almost looking through her.  Then she shook her head.  “Yes, of course.  You’re right.  I’m just not thinking clearly right now.”  She reached out and patted Kyle’s stone cheek, leaving a pinkish smear.  “Sorry about that, Kyle.”

            Navigating the two heavy statues and dead stonebreather through the tunnels was no easy task.  Fortunately, the strength-enhancing enchantments they’d received before fighting the stonebreather were still in effect, which made the task easier.  Before long they were standing out in the sun, surrounded by a crowd of dwarves that were cheering and throwing rocks at the dead beast.  The priest, Durkoth, examined the two statues, and then produced a small golden vial.  He poured a viscous liquid onto each one, watching as it oozed down and soaked into the stone surface.  Within moments, both Kyle and Autumn stood fully restored, blinking in the sunlight and trying to get their bearings.  Arrie gave her sister a big hug.

            Later that day, as the group made their way slowly up the mountain trail leading back to Laeshir, Kyle spoke.  “You know, this may sound kind of dumb, but in a way I feel bad that they had to use up all that _stone salve_ on us.  I mean, they’ve got their own folks to take care of, too, and now they won’t have the opportunity.”

            “Nobody begrudged you or Autumn your chance at life, Kyle,” said Kavan.  “You shouldn’t feel guilty about that.”

            “I guess,” he replied.  “I just wish that there was more that we could do to help.”

            “Well, can you make any of that salve?”

            “No.  It requires stronger magic than I’m capable of handling.”

            Autumn, who was listening in, stepped back to join the conversation.  “Stronger magic than you can handle now, Kyle.  One day you’ll have the ability, and maybe then you could return here to set things fully right.”

            “You really think so?” asked Kyle.

            Autumn smiled.  “I’m certain of it.”

            Kyle looked back over his shoulder at the small town, where he could see several bonfires had been lit in celebration.  “One day…”


----------



## Felikeries

the beginning of this SH is great,it was like a novel,very interesting,but i find
that later on it gets difficult to interpret all these characters doing their stuff and keeping the theme of the action etc. coherent

maybe if there were less to this party,(i am saying killing them off as DM is a good idea)could make this more of a story,but i know that i myself am a game player not a writer so the SH can done however best pleases what an RPG friend is doing


----------



## Piratecat

I'm really diggin' this. Good writing.


----------



## Delemental

Felikeries said:
			
		

> the beginning of this SH is great,it was like a novel,very interesting,but i find
> that later on it gets difficult to interpret all these characters doing their stuff and keeping the theme of the action etc. coherent
> 
> maybe if there were less to this party,(i am saying killing them off as DM is a good idea)could make this more of a story,but i know that i myself am a game player not a writer so the SH can done however best pleases what an RPG friend is doing




I should clarify one thing off the bat; I'm a player in this campaign, not the DM.  So while I could try and kill off some characters, I think that I'd end up being the only _player_ that would end up leaving the game.  

Also, thanks for the comment.  I was beginning to wonder a bit if I still had any readers.  I know you're not supposed to write Story Hours just to get comments, but lets face it; it's a nice bonus.  

Admittedly, the fact that this is based of the actions of a rather large group of PCs does present its own challenges, and I'll admit that it's probably less effective a story than if there were fewer characters to focus on.  But the truth is that this is a Story Hour based on a real game, and not a fiction novel where I have complete control over the characters.  My challenge is to craft as good a story as possible within those bounds.  The reason I do this is because I enjoy it, and it helps me improve my writiing skills.  This SH is still fairly early in the campaign; I think that I get better as time goes on (my SH posts are about six months behind the actual game), so some of the problems with coherency may ease as the characters become familiar and settle into their roles more.  Bear in mind that as players we're still fleshing out these characters at this point in time, which doesn't help.  Also, at this point in the game I was still hand-writing notes during sessions; later I switch to a tape recorder, which makes a world of difference.

I think the major difference is that in a work of fiction, there's one or two central characters to hang the story on.  Here, I have eight.  In fact, a lot of my struggles in this phase of the campaign was trying to get the other players to contribute side material that I could incorporate into the SH in order to keep their characters fleshed out (inserting little vignettes, internal monologies, private conversations, etc that would give them depth beyond the in-game interactions).  My biggest fear is that I end up focusing on one character for the sake of making writing easier, but by consequence turning the other PCs into secondary characters.  After begging for material for a while, I finally gave up and started making stuff up for them, and basically said "if you don't like it, tell me and I'll change it, otherwise it stays".  So far no one has complained that I got their character 'wrong'.  I do think there are some characters that come out a little flatter than others (Xu Dhii Ngao is one I have trouble with).

Right now I'd say my biggest challenge is narrating large combats.  Tracking the actions of eight PCs, plus multiple enemies, in a way that doesn't sound like a financial report isn't easy.

Well, that turned into a long response to a relatively simple comment.  I must be feeling wordy today... I should probably be writing.


----------



## Delemental

Piratecat said:
			
		

> I'm really diggin' this. Good writing.




Thank you.  I consider that high praise from you, given your own illustrious Story Hour career.


----------



## Delemental

*A Midsummer Night's Nightmare*

The first day of Midsummer was heralded by a cloudless sky and a warm sun, a welcome sight in the normally chilly mountain are surrounding Laeshir.  The residents of the dwarven city came to life slowly this morning – most of the shops and businesses were closed in honor of the festival, and even the normally industrious dwarves knew when to take advantage of a well-reserved rest.

            At the Uncut Emerald, the guests were even slower to arise – or at least eight of them were.  Slowly, the doors to their rooms opened, and the members of the party came out in pairs, gathering in the common room of the inn where the innkeeper was serving soft bread and cheese along with a light breakfast ale.  Xu and Osborn were the first to arrive, followed soon after by Kavan and Tolly. They sat around in a circle of chairs they’d pulled together, conversing quietly as the others joined them; Arrie and Autumn were next to arrive, followed by Lanara.  Kyle, surprisingly, was the last one down, coming slowly down the steps and sitting down without a word of greeting.  His face was pale, and his eyes seemed slightly sunken.  He was surrounded by a noticeable chemical odor, and the ends of his fingers were stained various hues.

            Autumn reached out and placed her hand on top of his, a look of concern on her face.  “Kyle, you look terrible.”

            He looked over at her, and flashed a weak smile.  “Potions,” he said.  “Twenty-one days straight of making potions.  If I never see another distilling coil it’ll be too soon.  I need a break.”

            Arrie tossed Kyle a hunk of bread.  “Well, then you picked a good time for it.  What are your plans?”

            Kyle sighed.  “Well, I need to clean up the lab and return the equipment by the end of Midsummer.  Figure I’d tackle that first to get it over with and give the room a chance to air out so that Burbark over there can rent it out again.  After that, probably a long bath so that I can be in public again.  The rest of my day I haven’t decided what to do with yet.”

            “Then keep your night free,” said Lanara.  “We’re going out tonight.”

            “We’ve been talking, and we’d like to all go together over to the Dirty Horse Tavern tonight to celebrate the first night of Midsummer,” Arrie said.

            “Not to mention celebrating being around each other almost four months without anyone threatening to kill each other,” added Lanara.

            “Unfortunately, I will be unable to come with you,” said Kavan.  “Midsummer is Erito’s festival, and she requires her priests to spend the first evening in candlelight vigil.” The elf smiled.  “However, after that the time is mine to observe as I see fit, so I’d be in favor of a second outing.”

            “Sounds good to me,” Kyle said.  “When should I meet you here?”

            “Nine bells,” said Osborn.  “And come thirsty.  I was over at the Dirty Horse yesterday, and they’ve got a stack of ale barrels as big as my mom over there!”

            “That sounds great,” Kyle said between bites.  He stood up, brushing crumbs off his robes.  “Well, I’m going to go tackle that lab.  I’ve let too much of the day slip by already.”

            Autumn looked up.  “Would you like some help?”

            “Sure,” Kyle said, offering a hand to help Autumn up.  After they left,  Arrie shook her head.  “Man, Kyle needs to get out more.  He looks like Death warmed over.”

            “It’s the potion-making,” Kavan said.  When Arrie gave him a look of not understanding, Kavan explained.  “In order to create a magical potion, or any kind of magical item in fact, the creator is required to give up a portion of his or her life-force as a kind of seed to bind the enchantment to the item.  In the case of such minor magic as potions this amount is small, but can build up over time.  I’ve given what I could of my own energy to help him.”

            “Wow, I didn’t know that,” said Arrie.  “It doesn’t sound like much fun.”

            “It is not unpleasant, but it is draining,” said Tolly.  “It is a matter of striking a balance; using enough of your life-force to create items that will be of use to you or your allies, while not weakening your own inner strength to the point that you become less useful even with the new items.  One can forge a weapon with the mightiest enchantments, but it will do little for you if you lack the strength or skill to wield it properly.”

            Lanara stood up.  “Okay, you guys are really killing my Midsummer mood.  I’ll see you all at nine bells; I want to go see what dwarves do when they aren’t working.”

*          *          *​
             Lanara was slightly disappointed.

            Most of the early observances of Midsummer were spent in very formal, very dull ceremonies.  There were speeches, and observances, and more speeches, and honorary titles given out, and yet more speeches.  The crowds sat and watched with rapt attention, but Lanara quickly grew weary of it and left.  The others scattered throughout the city, attending to their personal whims.  Even Tolly, who was unable to work on his armor as the Ardaran forges were closed, spent the day touring Laeshir to see what he’d missed during his unrelenting work.

            Finally, the afternoon wore into evening, and the party gathered in the common room of the Uncut Emerald.  Several of them had bought new clothes for the occasion.  Osborn walked up to Kyle, leaned in, and sniffed the wizard’s robes.  Smiling, he gave Kyle a thumbs-up.  Then he looked up at Tolly, who was dressed in simple but elegant Ardaran robes.

            “Hey, Tolly, you’re not wearing armor!  You feeling all right?”

            “Since you have pointed out numerous times that I need not go to every occasion fully armored, I thought I might adopt more casual dress tonight,” he replied.

            Lanara leaned in and whispered into Osborn’s ear.  “I’ll bet he’s wearing a plate-mail loincloth under that robe.”

            The Dirty Horse Tavern, despite its rather unpleasant name, was actually a well-kept and lively establishment, only a few blocks from the inn where they were staying.  Each of them had been to the Dirty Horse on several occasions, but never together.  As they walked, the group saw that the city’s many taverns and fest halls were filled to overflowing, and rowdy dwarves were running around everywhere, most with mugs of ale in their hands.  The party had to sidestep a brawl that erupted out of the door of one tavern in front of them.

            “I can’t believe I had to wait a whole month for this place to get interesting,” Lanara moaned.

            As expected, the Dirty Horse was packed full, but the party was able to spot an open spot on the far wall by virtue of the fact they were taller than most of the other patrons.  The seven of them squeezed around a small circular table, pressed together tightly.  Ales were soon deposited on the table, and the waitress departed before anyone could fish coins out of their purses.  As it turned out, there was quite a fierce competition going on between several of the regulars as to who would buy the next round for the entire tavern, and so there was no lack of ale flowing their way.

            Osborn and Lanara chose to drink sparingly; Osborn wanted to stay alert in case any disreputable sorts with sticky fingers might be in the tavern, and Lanara merely wanted to be able to enjoy the chaos around her with a clear head.  Xu, as befit her vows, declined any of the alcohol, and after a long discussion with the barmaid explaining that her choice had nothing to do with the quality of the ale or of the establishment, was served mugs of hot tea.

            The others had no inhibitions in their consumption.  Kyle seemed eager to down as much ale as possible; so, surprisingly enough, did Autumn, who was encouraged along by her sister.  Arrie herself drank more moderately, keeping an eye on Autumn.  Though she was glad to see her more reserved sibling let loose, Arrie wanted to make sure Autumn didn’t get too out of control and do something she’d regret.  She found it somewhat comforting that the only other person at the table drinking as much as Autumn was Kyle, and he was harmless enough that she didn’t need to worry about him.

Tolly was keeping up with Kyle and Autumn in terms of quantity, but a lifetime raised among dwarves had allowed him to build up a considerable tolerance, and so he was less affected by the ales than the other three.  Still, after an hour had passed, Tolly’s smile was considerably wider than it had been when they arrived.

            Across the room, a single dwarf stood up on a table and began shouting for everyone’s attention.  Although he was easily recognized as the owner of the Dirty Horse, his cries were mostly ignored.  Frustrated, he shouted across the room.

            “Everyone pay attention, or no more ale tonight!”

            The room grew deathly quiet.

            “Thank you!  Ladies and gentledwarves, its time for the annual Dirty Horse Bar Brawl!”

            There were shouts and cheers across the room.  People began picking up tables and chairs from the center of the room, pushing them back to the already crowded walls.  The dwarf who had made the announcement pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and marked out a large rectangular area on the stone floor.  He then stood in the center of the room.

            “The rules are simple.  Stand in the square if you want to be in the brawl.  If you’re thrown out of the square or go down, you’re out.  Last one standing is the winner.  No weapons.”

            “What about magic?” shouted Tolly.  A resounding chorus of “No!” from the entire bar answered him.

            A handful of dwarves began to filter into the square.  Immediately the spectators began shouting out bets as they sized up the competition.

            Arrie looked around at the others.  “I think I’m getting in on this,” she said.  “Who else wants to try their luck?”

            “No thanks,” said Autumn.  “I’m not that drunk yet.”

            Tolly stood up.  “I’m not that drunk either, but I would enjoy the challenge.”

            Xu also rose.  “Indeed, this would be a good test of my skills.  I shall also participate.”

            The three of them were about to head into the fight area, when Kyle stood up.  “Hey, wait up.”

            Everyone turned to look at Kyle, who was taking off his robes and setting them across the back of his chair.  “Um, Kyle?” asked Lanara.  “You do realize you’re a wizard, right?”

            “Yeah,” he said, words slurring under the weight of six ales.  “And I haven’t been in a good bar fight in years.”

            Lanara looked at Kyle, taking in his large shoulders and well-muscled arms, and then looked at the other contestants assembled in the ring already.  “Oh, this oughta be good,” she said, and she went off to sit next to the tavern owner.  Osborn also left, climbing up into the rafters to get a better view.  Once up there, he discovered several dwarven youth hiding up there, also eager to watch the annual bar brawl.  Autumn remained at the table, guarding their ales, though it seemed she’d decided the best place to keep them safe was in her own stomach.  To remedy this, Osborn pulled out a rope and grapple, and used it to hook ale mugs off the table and bring them up for everyone to share.

            As the four humans walked into the ring and began sizing up their opponents, Arrie sidled up to a dwarf on the sideline who had been taking most of the bets.  “What’re the odds on the girl?” she asked, pointing to Xu.

            “The little thing?  Twenty to one.”

            Arrie fished out a handful of coins.  “Put me down for ten gold,” she said.

            The dwarf chuckled.  “It’s your money, sweetheart.  At least it is for about the next, oh, I’d say twenty seconds or so.”

            Just as the dwarf finished his notation in his ledger, Xu began to stretch out in anticipation of the fight.  Arrie and her bookie watched as Xu began bending backward, feet planted firmly on the floor, until her forehead was touching the ground behind her.  Then she flipped over and landed on her feet again.  Arrie looked over at the dwarf and grinned madly, while his face took on a decidedly green hue.

            When it was clear that no one else was stepping forward, the owner stood up again and raised a small gong.  An expectant hush fell over the crowd.

            The sound of the gong was quickly drowned out by the roar of the crowd.

            Xu immediately leapt into action, confronting three dwarves at the same time.  They tried to punch her, but she was far too agile, blocking their clumsy fists and sending her own counterstrikes into their heads and stomachs. She was a blur of motion, and for a while commanded the most attention.  Arrie and Tolly each squared off against their own dwarven opponents, while Kyle found himself surrounded by two dwarves intent on reducing the non-dwarven population of the brawl by one.

            Tolly crouched low, and grabbed hold of the dwarf he was facing.  Getting a good hold, he lifted the dwarf off the ground.  Years of being raised by dwarves had taught him that the most effective way to fight them was to get them off the ground, though it was no easy task.  Tolly staggered with the struggling dwarf toward the chalk line, and unceremoniously dumped him on the other side.  The poor dwarf was soon covered in ale thrown by the other patrons.

            Off to the side of the brawl, the owner scowled.  The brawlers were being far too cautious, and it wasn’t making for a good show.  He’d tried to stimulate the event by tossing a loose ale mug into the ring, but no one had even tried to pick it up and bash someone over the head yet.  He turned to Lanara, who had been performing in his tavern for a few nights over the past month.  “Anything you can do to liven things up?” he asked.

            In response, Lanara began to play a lively tune on her fiddle.  The music wafted over the arena, working its way into the minds of the brawlers.  Immediately the combatants began to grow bolder; the dwarves who were cautiously avoiding Xu now charged in, confident they could take her down with strength of numbers.

            Arrie was dealing handily with her own dwarven opponent.  Like Tolly, she had spent many years with dwarves, and knew the same tactics.  She just about had the dwarf pinned to the ground when suddenly she was grabbed from behind… by Tolly.  The Ardaran priest had come up behind them and joined in the melee, hoping to eliminate two opponents at the same time.   But Arrie was a cannier combatant than that, and within seconds she and Tolly were locked together in a death-grip, neither one able to get an advantage.  The hapless dwarf was caught between them, an unwilling participant in this wrestling match between two humans.

            The crowd’s attention was quickly diverted to this match, taking their eyes off of Xu who had by now dropped two of her opponents and was being charged by three more.  The shouts were interspersed with catcalls and various lewd comments as Arrie and Tolly continued to grapple.  Lanara leaned over and whispered something into the owner’s ear, and with a grin he waved over one of the barmaids and gave her instructions.  She ran back into the kitchen.

            Moments later, Arrie, Tolly, and the other dwarf were taken by surprise as a bucket of a warm, clear, slippery liquid was dumped on them, coating them thoroughly.  The crowd went into a frenzy of cheers and hoots watching the two humans slip around and over each other trying to keep their grip, while the poor dwarf looked as though he’d like nothing better than to stop being the filling of the human sandwich.

            Lanara leaned over to the owner again.  “What’d you use?  Oil?”

            He shook his head.  “Butter!”

            Lanara laughed.  “Good call!”  she glanced over at the continuing melee, then winced.  “Ugh, I guess that Tolly’s not wearing a plate mail loincloth after all.  But I really, really wish I hadn’t found out about it like that.”

            It was a sight to see. Xu continued her impressive display, spinning and kicking her opponents until they lay unconscious on the tavern floor.  The dwarf involved in Arrie and Tolly’s fight wiggled his way free, and staggered away, wiping butter from his eyes and clearly shaken by the whole unnerving experience.  Arrie and Tolly were aware of the lewd comments being made by the crowd, but they both possessed an inner fire of competitive spirit too strong to allow them to break off their battle for something as paltry as personal dignity.  But eventually, Tolly managed to gain the upper hand, getting Arrie in a position where he could lift her without being knocked back over.  He staggered, and nearly lost his grip as Arrie fought fiercely, but at last he was able to eject her from the ring.  Panting with exertion, Tolly turned quickly to survey the scene.  His eyes immediately came to rest on Xu, who had eliminated all but two of the dwarves.  One of them, he saw, was the dwarf that had been caught between he and Arrie, still dripping butter.

            A mischievous grin crossed Tolly’s face.  The sight was so startling on the priest’s normally stoic expression that Lanara stopped playing her fiddle.  Tolly walked up behind the butter-soaked dwarf, and laid a hand on his shoulder.

            “I’m back for more,” he said, giving the dwarf’s shoulder a slight squeeze.

            Panicked, the dwarf swung around wildly.  Tolly hadn’t noticed it before because the dwarf’s back was to him, but after getting out of the grapple he’d apparently picked up the loose mug that the owner had tossed into the ring.  The dwarf swung at Tolly’s waist, missing by a hair’s breadth.  Tolly’s amusement turned to irritation, and he slugged the dwarf, sending him crashing to the floor.  Looking up, he saw that Xu had dropped her last opponent.  Looking over at Tolly, she raised her hand and motioned for him to come for her, a confident smile on her face.

            Tolly charged in, hoping to use the same grapple and toss strategy that had served him well so far.  But Xu was not so easily caught, and was prepared.  Just as Tolly was about to close his fingers around Xu’s arm, he saw stars as she kicked him in the jaw.  He stumbled back, head spinning, and when the next blow came he was out like a candle in a winter storm.

            Xu looked down at the unconscious Tolly, quickly honoring him mentally for his bravery and determination.  Just as she looked up, however, was when the weight hit her like a charging bull.

            Kyle’s fight with the two dwarves had been largely ignored by everyone, as it was a simple back and forth slugfest as opposed to Xu’s acrobatic assault on multiple opponents or Arrie and Tolly’s quasi-erotic wrestling match.  But somehow Kyle had come out of it, battering down his opponents with sheer determination.  He’d looked around at the scene through bruised, swollen eyes, and saw Tolly and Xu finishing off the last of the dwarves.  He circled around as Tolly charged in to attack Xu; Kyle was pretty sure who was going to come out on top of that fight.  That left him and Xu standing.  Kyle was sure that he’d be lying face down on the floor next to Tolly within a few seconds, but he wasn’t going to give up.  He saw that in the fight Xu was only a few feet from the edge of the arena, and an idea sprang into his head.  He crouched down a few feet from Xu, and waited.

            Kyle made his move just as Tolly fell.  His momentum caught Xu by surprise, and she staggered backwards to get some distance between her and Kyle.  _An admirable effort_, she thought, _but the charging bull is felled by a single arrow from the sky_.  She prepared to deliver a quick, painless strike to Kyle that would cause the blood to temporarily drain from his head, causing him to pass out.  As she moved to strike, however, she became aware that the crowd had gone deathly quiet.  She looked down, and saw that between her feet and the heavy boots of Kyle, a thick chalk line stretched out in either direction.

            Xu looked down at the line, then up at Kyle, who was bleeding from a split lip and had both eyes nearly swollen shut.  Slowly, a smile appeared on her face, and she bowed.

            The patrons of the Dirty Horse went crazy.  Kyle was immediately swept up by the crowds and carried in a victory lap around the tavern.  He was set down next to his friends, who all came up to congratulate him, except for Tolly who was still sprawled on the ground.  Arrie pounded Kyle’s back and grinned, seemingly unconcerned that she’d lost her bet on Xu.  He was pulled away by the owner, who had him stand on a table.  “We have our winner!” he shouted, and again the crowds cheered.  One of the barmaids brought out a gold-plated beer stein suspended from a gold chain, and placed it around Kyle’s neck, though he had to lean forward for her to reach.  The barmaid kissed him on the cheek and then walked back into the crowd.

            “What’s your name, son?” the owner asked, as he filled Kyle’s golden stein with ale from a pitcher.

            “Kyle Goodson,” he said proudly.

            “Well, Kyle, as the winner of the annual Dirty Horse Midsummer Bar Brawl, you win our prize!  You have the honor of buying the drinks for the entire bar for the rest of the evening!”

            The dwarves all around him erupted into a frenzy of cheering and shouting for their mugs to be filled.  Kyle, forgotten in the excitement, turned pale.  He’d spent most of his money buying new spells, and had only a handful of silver to his name.  Kyle began to imagine what dwarves did to people who couldn’t pay for their ale.

            Seeing his distress, Arrie caught his attention and winked, letting him know that it was all right.  Tolly, who had recovered enough to hear the announcement, also flashed Kyle an ‘its okay’ signal.

            The remainder of the evening passed in a blur.  Several more ales were consumed by the party, especially by Kyle and Autumn.  Arrie suggested to her sister that they should dance with the winner of the brawl, and to everyone’s amazement Autumn agreed.  Lanara immediately struck up a lively, bawdy tune for them.  As they moved around the table dancing, a very drunk Kyle observed that only one of his dancing partners was covered in butter.

            The situation was quickly rectified by the helpful staff of the Dirty Horse Tavern.


----------



## Delemental

Early the next morning, three dwarves wearing the tunics of the Laeshir City Watch entered the Uncut Emerald.  They proceeded up the stairs and knocked loudly on the first door they saw.  A moment later, the door was answered by Xu.

            “Are you Lanara Rahila?” one of the dwarves asked.

            “No,” Xu replied.  “May I help you?”

            “Is Miss Rahila inside?”

            “She is still asleep,” Xu explained.  “Can you return later today?”

            “I’m afraid not.  Can you get her, please?”

            Puzzled, Xu closed the door and went to rouse her roommate.  Lanara peered out from under her blankets with her green eye.

            “What is it?” she groaned.

            “There are three men outside from the city watch who wish to speak with you,” she said.

            Lanara stood up, her pink hair poking out wildly from her head.  “Why?”

            “They did not say.”

            Grumbling, Lanara stood up, wrapping her blanket around her torso like a toga.  She shuffled over to the door and opened it.

            “Lanara Rahila?” asked the head dwarf.

            “Yeah, that’s me.  What’d you want?”

            “Can I see your boots, Miss Rahila? The ones you were wearing last night.”

            “My boots?”  Lanara was about to make a comment about strange fetishes, but saw the serious look on the faces of the watchmen, and thought better of it.  She moved away from the door, and produced her boots.  “And it’s Lanara, not ‘Miss Rahila’.  I haven’t been called ‘Miss Rahila’ since… actually, I’ve never been called that.”

            The lead dwarf took the boots, and turned them over to examine the soles.  He pulled a piece of parchment out from his pocket, and compared the bottom of Lanara’s boots to the parchment.  He then handed back the boots, and rolled up the parchment.

            “Miss Ra… Lanara, do you recognize this?”  From another pocket, the dwarf produced a scrap of fabric and held it out for Lanara to see.  The blue, semi-transparent material was instantly recognizable to Lanara.  It was the sleeve from her old dancing outfit, the one she’d lost to the ogres in the mountains on the way to this city.

            “Yeah, I recognize it.”

            “Does it belong to you?”

            “Well, it used to.”

            The dwarf put the material away.  “I’m going to have to ask you to come with us, ma’am.”

            Lanara looked genuinely shocked.  “Now?  Why?”

            “You’ve been named as a suspect in a crime, and we have cause to take you into custody.  Please, get dressed and we’ll escort you to the nearest security station.”

            “One moment, officer…” Xu said, coming up to the door as Lanara walked backward, stunned, and sat on her bed.

            “Estagond.  Detective Estagond.”

            “Detective, what is the charge?”

            Detective Estagond shook his head.  “I’m afraid that the laws of Laeshir don’t allow us to reveal specific charges to the public until a suspect has been detained.  You and any other concerned parties are welcome to report to the security station where we can provide details, and you will be allowed to make a statement if you wish.”

            By this time Lanara had pulled on a loose shirt and skirt, and shoved her feet into her boots.  She walked out of the room, and was escorted out of the tavern by the watch.  Xu immediately walked across the hall and knocked on the door.

            Osborn’s head poked out of the door a moment later.  “What’s up?”

            “Osborn, please wake Kyle.”

            Osborn glanced into the room.  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

            “We have no choice.  Lanara’s been arrested.”

            “What?” Osborn dashed out into the hall, looking around.  “When? Why?”

            “Just this moment, and the cause is uncertain.  We must go to the security station to learn more.”  Xu turned to knock on the next door as Osborn dashed inside and shook Kyle, shouting his name.

            Kyle jerked upright, blankets falling away from his head.  His injuries from the brawl had faded, but his hair and clothes were matted with congealed butter.  He winced at the morning light.  Osborn was somewhat surprised at the wizard’s appearance.  Toward the end of the night he’d left the tavern to escort the young dwarves home, and so didn’t see how the night ended.  The bruises he expected, but not the butter.  Osborn quickly decided he was no longer in the mood for toast this morning.

            “Go away,” he muttered.  “You don’t wake up a man with a hangover who knows the _lightning bolt_ spell.”

            “Do you have that spell prepared right now?” Osborn asked.

            “No,” Kyle admitted after a pause.

            “Good, then wake up.  Lanara’s been arrested, and we need to go see what’s happened.”

            “Arrested?”  Kyle dropped the blankets onto the floor.  He shielded his eyes from the light, and yawned.  “Gods, I feel like I’ve been run over by an ale wagon.”  He yawned again.  “I can’t wake up.”

            “Better find a way, and hurry!” Osborn shouted from down the hall.  “I’m going to help Xu wake up the others!”

            Kyle blinked and shook his head, but it didn’t help the spinning.  He tried to recall what had happened last night, but after the brawl it was a blur.  He vaguely recalled something about dancing…

            Kyle snapped himself out of his train of thought.  He’d have to do something drastic to focus on the present.  Kyle took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.  Then he pointed his index finger at himself, and recited the words to the _ray of frost_ spell.

            The others were quickly roused by the hideous shriek that came from Kyle’s room moments later.  Everyone came rushing in to see Kyle standing up, brushing frost off his robes, looking considerably more alert.  The group looked around at each other, their gazes falling in particular on Tolly, Kyle, and Autumn, who were slicked with butter.  Kavan, who had been at his church all night and only returned to the inn early that morning, looked bemused at the scene.  He was clearly trying to envision what sort of escapades the three of them had been in last night.

            Autumn looked down at her clothes.  “How did I…” she looked at Kyle.  “How did you…”  She then looked at Arrie, who only smiled and winked.  She’d been sober enough at the end of the night to clean herself off, eliminating any incriminating evidence.

            Autumn looked at Tolly.  “Do you have butter on you?”

            He looked down at his once-pristine robes.  “Oh… yeah.”

            Xu explained what had happened to Lanara while Kyle cleaned everyone off with _prestidigitation_.  They set out immediately for the security station, with Tolly and Autumn remaining behind to pull on their armor.  Osborn almost made a comment that the process might go faster if they were still covered in butter, but in his haste to get to Lanara he let it slide.

            The security station was bustling with activity.  Droves of hungover dwarves were coming out of the station, having been detained the night before after their drunken revelry got a little too boisterous.  A clerk at the front desk directed them down a long hallway to speak with the Detective’s Bureau.  Several minutes passed as they waited in a small foyer, eventully being joined by Tolly and Autumn.  Shortly after that, they were escorted back to a small, windowless office and sat around a long, narrow table.  After another few minutes, Detective Estagond came into the room and sat at the head of the table.

            “I’ll get right to the point,” he said.  “Your friend has been accused of theft by the Temple of Estranë*.  Last night around three bells a reliquary of the Temple was stolen from them.  Evidence on the scene links Miss Rahila to the area, and thus she was named as a suspect.  She will be held here until her trial, or until a bail of 200 gold is paid.”

            “Oh, we’ll be posting bail today,” said Arrie.  “Now, what kind of evidence are we talking about?  Because I know that Lanara was with us last night at three bells.”

            “A sketch of a boot print at the scene of the crime matches the footwear Miss Rahila had on last night.  In addition, an article was found on the scene which she has admitted belonged to her.”  Detective Estagond leaned forward onto the table.  “You say that she was with you last night at the time in question?”

            “Yes, she was.  I remember hearing three bells sound just before we left for our inn last night,” Arrie said.

            “You were out last night?  By any chance were you intoxicated at the time?”

            Osborn chimed in.  “She was, but I wasn’t, and neither was Xu, and Arrie’s telling it right.”

            The detective nodded and made a few notes on a sheet of parchment.  “Is there anyone besides yourselves that can vouch for Miss Rahila’s whereabouts last night?”

            “Just every single person in the Dirty Horse Tavern,” said Osborn.

            “I see.  We’ll send someone by there to take a statement.  I would appreciate it if you would all do the same while you’re here.”

            “Is Lanara the only one accused of this crime?” asked Tolly.

            “We have other suspects,” Detective Estagond said curtly.  “That’s all I’m at liberty to say.  If you wish to post bail, I can direct you to the clerk’s office.  Miss Rahila will be free to move about the city, but not leave it.  Should our investigations conclude that Miss Rahila is responsible for the theft of the relic, she will be brought to trial by the city of Laeshir, but if convicted will be turned over to the church of Estranë for punishment.”

            After entering their statements, the party paid the bail and met Lanara outside about an hour later.  “What did they tell you?” Osborn asked her as she emerged from the jail.

            “They told me that they thought I stole some old saint’s thighbone from Estranë,” she said, shivering slightly.  “Why on earth would I want an old bone?”

            “We’re going to figure this out,” said Autumn, putting an arm around Lanara’s shoulders.  “What do you want to do first?”

            “I need a long bath, and new clothes,” said Lanara.

            “I am going to the Temple of Ardara,” said Tolly.  “I wish to research the legal codes here in Laeshir, so that we know what to expect from the legal system.”

            “Let’s all meet back at the inn this afternoon to decide what we’re going to do about this,” Kyle said.  They parted ways, with most of the party returning to the inn with Lanara.

            The cansin stomped her way upstairs, eager to change her clothes and get into a relaxing bath.  How dare they accuse her of stealing?  She had a mind to write a scathing ballad about the city.  She opened the door to her room, and saw a dwarf sitting in the middle of the floor, going through her things.

            “Qin-Chu’s toes!  Who are you?  What are you doing in here?”

            “Searching for evidence,” he said nonchalantly, tossing a handful of her unmentionables aside.

            Autumn came into the room, responding to Lanara’s outcry.  “What business do you have here?”

            He jerked a thumb at Lanara.  “Ask her.”

            “He’s going through my things!” she cried, her face turning red.

            “On what authority?” Autumn demanded.  In response, the dwarf produced a folded sheet of parchment.  “Search warrant,” he said. Autumn opened the document and scanned it.  “This says you’re authorized to look for the missing relic,” she said.

            “Does it look like I have a thighbone in here?” Lanara shouted.

            “Dunno yet,” he said.  “So far no, but I’ve only checked this room and the one across the hall so far.”

            “Wait a minute,” said Autumn, “you’ve been going through our possessions as well?”

            “Can’t be too careful.”

            By this time Osborn had wandered by, and saw the commotion.  “What’s going on?”

            “This man has been searching our rooms,” said Autumn, glowering.  “He claims to have a warrant.”  She handed Osborn the parchment.  The hin looked at the document carefully.  It seemed legitimate, but something about it was off.  “I’m going to go check this out,” he said.

            “Knock yourself out, little man,” the dwarf said, as he opened up a few jars in Lanara’s pack and began sniffing them.

            Osborn whistled for Rupert who loped into Lanara’s room.  Despite the dog’s massive size, the intrusive dwarf seemed to pay it no heed. Jumping onto the dog’s back,  Osborn ran straight to the security station, and dashed into the detective’s station in the back.

            “Detective Estagond!” he cried, leaping off Rupert.  “There’s a man in our rooms searching through our belongings.  He says he has a warrant!”

            The detective took the paper Osborn was holding, and studied it.  “Well, this is a legitimate search warrant, but not issued by the city.”

            “I don’t understand,” Osborn said.

            “Well, the truth is that the church of Estranë controls about half the legal system here in town.  They have the authority to dispense their own justice through their priests, which includes searching suspect’s belongings, making arrests, and bringing suspects to trial in front of a church tribunal instead of the city courts.”  Estagond looked as Osborn.  “It’s basically whoever gets to them first has legal rights to them.  Your friend is lucky we found her first.”

            “Can he really go through all our stuff?”

            Estagond sighed.  “Not really.  We’ve had this kind of trouble before.  I’ll come around with a couple of my boys and settle this.”

            Moments later, Osborn returned to the Uncut Emerald with Detective Estagond and two watchmen in tow. Lanara had worked herself into a lather watching her belongings scattered everywhere.  Autumn continued to argue with the dwarf, who largely ignored her.

            “Ah, Borendor,” said Detective Estagond, stepping into the room.  “I thought it might be you.”

            “I have a warrant from the temple, Estagond,” said Borendor, who nonetheless looked nervous for the first time.

            “I can see that.” Estagond unfolded the paper and glanced at it.  “Tell me, have you found the stolen item among the suspect’s personal effects?”

            “No,” Borendor sulked.

            “Then you’re finished here.  Watchman Hedros, kindly escort Master Borendor out.”

            As one of the guards watched Borendor stomp out, Estagond turned to Autumn.  “I’d check your things if I were you,” he said, “and keep a close eye on them from now on.  The people who work for Estranë are known to sometimes accept unsolicited contributions, if you get my drift.”

            “Isn’t there anything you can do to stop it?” Autumn asked.

            Estagond shook his head.  “My hands are tied.  They have the legal power to do this.  If you’d like I can assign a watchman to accompany you, Miss Rahila, in order to make sure everything stays above-board.”

            Lanara sighed.  “Whatever, fine.  I just want this nightmare over with.”

            Estagond nodded.  “Watchman Erron, you are to stand watch over the suspect.” The second watchman saluted, though the look in his eyes said he was no more excited about the assignment than Lanara.

            “Detective,” said the bard, “I’m telling you that I didn’t steal that relic.”

            Estagond looked around, then spoke in a hushed tone.  “For what it’s worth, I believe you.  But the evidence points to you, and that’s what I have to base my decisions on.”  He stepped closer, and put a hand on her shoulder.  “If I were you, I’d start thinking about who might be trying to frame you, and why.”

*          *            *​
            The group spent much of the afternoon discussing the question of who might have wanted to frame Lanara for the theft of the reliquary from the Temple of Estranë.  Several figures were named; Sauroth, the necromancer they’d defeated in Tlaxan; the church of Estranë themselves, as part of some elaborate cover-up, or some other minor enemy they’d made.  Tolly returned from his research into Laeshiri law that afternoon, and briefed the group on the finer points.

            “Most notable is the fact that the accused is permitted to investigate their own case to produce evidence that will establish their innocence, as long as such investigations are supervised by an officer of the accusing organization.”

            “That’d be me,” said Watchman Erron, raising his hand.

            “The accused may also recruit assistants for their investigation,” added Tolly.

            “That’d be us,” said Kyle.

            They continued to discuss the possible suspects.  Tolly and Arrie got into a heated debate over whether the culprit had followed them into the city from Tlaxan, or if they were based here in Laeshir and had backtracked the party’s route into the city in order to obtain Lanara’s old dancing outfit.

            “Hey, guys?” interrupted Kyle.  “Maybe we should focus on where that thighbone is rather than who the thief is.”  He turned to Erron.  “Can we investigate where the theft occurred?”

            “You can,” the dwarf replied.  “It’s an official investigation.  Of course, the crime scene’s in the Temple of Estranë, and they have the right to block access to their grounds for religious reasons – ‘we’re purifying the site today’ and such.”

            “I think we should go talk to the guards at the main gate,” said Arrie.  “Maybe they saw someone come into town last night that caught their eye.”

            “Arrie, hundreds of people come through that gate every day,” Kavan said.

            “Yes, but mostly dwarves.  We already know the culprit wasn’t a dwarf because of the boot prints.  And if they were trying to pretend to be Lanara – well, she’s rather distinctive, isn’t she?”

            “What are you saying?” Lanara said, running her fingers through her wild pink hair and staring at Arrie with her mismatched eyes.  She then flashed a smile at the warrior.

            “Very well, perhaps we should split up,” offered Tolly.  “Kyle, Kavan, and I can go to the Temple of Estranë to examine the scene.”  Tolly looked over at Osborn.  “I’d appreciate if you would accompany us, Osborn.  You may spot something there the rest of us miss.”

            “Happy to come along!” the hin said.

            “The rest of us will go to the gate,” said Autumn.  “Perhaps we should send the watchman with you in case the church gives you trouble.”

            “Sorry,” said Erron.  “I have to stay with her.”  He pointed a stubby finger at Lanara.  “But stop by the station on your way and they’ll send someone with you.”

            The group separated, agreeing to meet back in a few hours.  The four women, with Erron in tow, went out to the main gate and struck up a conversation with the watchmen on duty.  Luck was with them; the shift had just changed, and thus the guards on duty had also been on the previous night.  After some casual questioning, one of the watchmen looked at Lanara, then back to Arrie.

            “Well, I can’t say as I noticed anyone odd coming into the gate, but I swear I saw your friend there in the streets late last night.”

            “Really?  Where?” asked Arrie.

            “I saw her walk across the street there,” he said pointing a short way down the main trade road.  “From that alley across to that one.  Couldn’t miss her; pink hair and everything.”

            “Interesting,” said Arrie.  “Thank you.”

            They decided to check at the other town gates to see if there had been other sightings.  “So, we know that whoever this is can look like you,” said Autumn.  “We could be dealing with a magic user.”

            “True,” said Xu, “but it could also be a doppelganger, or someone skilled in the art of disguise.  Or even another cansin with similar features.”

            “Whatever the reason,” chimed in Arrie, “it’s obvious that they wanted to be noticed, so that they could establish that Lanara was out in the streets at the time of the crime.  It seems that this was targeted against her from the start.”

            “I still don’t get it,” Lanara complained.  “I don’t have any enemies!  At least, none that would go to this length to get to me.”

            Their check of the other gates did not produce any more sightings of ‘Lanara’.  The group returned home to see the four men sitting in the inn’s common room, looking glum.

            “What happened?” asked Autumn.

            “Well, let’s put it this way,” said Kyle.  “Things probably would have gone a lot better if I’d been in charge of the diplomatic exchange.”

            Autumn winced.  She’d been giving Kyle lessons in etiquette recently, but his tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time was well known to all of them.  If he would have done a better job…

            “Tell us what happened,” said Arrie, sitting down at the table.

            “We got into the Temple just fine,” said Kavan.  “Big, impressive building, built to look like a fortress, though Osborn says it’s mostly for show.  We get to look around at the scene of the theft.  There’s a stone dais where the relic once sat.  It used to be covered by a glass dome, but the thief apparently broke it.  The priests had already cleaned up the glass.  The priest there said that the boot print was found just outside the temple, and that the scrap of clothing was found on the floor next to another display case.  They’re guessing that the thief caught it on the case on their way out.”

            “Have they done any divinations?” asked Autumn.

            “They had, but the priest we were talking to said the results were church business, not ours.  That’s when Tolly demanded to speak with the high priest.”

            The four men glanced at Tolly, who sat impassively listening to the story unfold.  Osborn picked up the tale.  “So we get into High Priest Valuchar’s chambers after waiting a while, and Tolly demands that the church hand over the divination results to the city.  The High Priest refuses, though we do find out that their attempts to locate the reliquary itself have failed.  Then Tolly tries to pull rank on this guy.”

            “You did what?” gasped Lanara.

            “Estranë is one of the servitors of Ardara,” stated Tolly.  “I reminded High Priest Valuchar of that relationship.”

            “And Valuchar reminded him that Estranë may serve Ardara, but that doesn’t mean her church does,” Osborn continued.  “Things got ugly from there.  I distinctly remember Tolly shouting at Valuchar – ‘Your weakness shall be your downfall’.  That’s when we got thrown out of the Temple.”

            Lanara groaned.  “Well, so much for that.  We’re never getting into there now.”

            Kavan laid a hand over Lanara’s.  “Perhaps we could try again tomorrow.  I plan to send a letter to High Priest Valuchar in hopes he might reconsider.”

            “I don’t think we’ll need to go back,” said Osborn.

            They all looked at the hin.  “Why not?” asked Kyle.

            “Because I have this.”  He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small shard of glass.  “I found it on the ground near the dais where the thighbone used to be.  I think they missed it when they cleaned up.”

            Tolly looked at the glass, then at Osborn.  “Why didn’t you share this with us before?”

            “Because I wanted to tell everybody at the same time,” he said.  “Besides, I couldn’t let you get off the hook so easily for being a stubborn jackass.”

            Tolly fixed Osborn with a stare, then slowly broke into a smile.  “I knew I asked you to come along for a reason.”


 ----------------------------

* Estranë is the goddess of tyranny and rule by might.


----------



## Delemental

The fragment of glass was taken to the Temple of Ardara, where Tolly requested that one of the priests perform a _divination_.  This time, he met with more success.

            “What question shall I ask?” an elderly priest asked, taking the shard from Tolly.

            “What do you mean?” asked Lanara.

            “We have to ask a question about this piece of glass,” explained Kavan.  “The answers to such spells are never clear, though.  It is not given to mortals to know the future in this way.”

            “So, why not just ask where the stupid bone is?” asked Lanara.

            “Probably wouldn’t work,” said Kyle.  “It didn’t work for Estranë’s priests, so probably the thighbone itself is warded somehow.”

            “Can we ask where the thief is?” Arrie offered.

            Tolly shook his head.  “We could if we knew who the thief was, or had some item belonging to them.”

            “Hey,” said Autumn, “we’re assuming that the person who took the reliquary broke the glass case to get to it, correct?”  When the others nodded in agreement, she pointed at the shard in the priest’s fingers.  “Then why not ask for the location of the person who caused that glass to be broken?”

            It was immediately agreed that Autumn had hit upon the correct question.  After a few minutes of wrangling over the exact wording, they waited while the priest cast the ritual.  After a few minutes, the old man opened his eyes.

            “Here is the answer I have received.  ‘He lives in a house of stone and shadow, guarded by cats and a snake.’”

            Lanara screwed up her face.  “You were right about the not being clear part, Kavan.  Couldn’t he have just given us an address?”

            “It’s a metaphor,” said Kyle.  “We just have to figure out the meaning.”  He thought for a moment.  “A house of stone and shadow implies the undercity,” he said.

            “Sounds likely,” said Arrie.  “It’s also funny that it mentions being guarded by cats, plural, but only one snake.”

            “Well, it could be symbolic,” said Autumn.  “The animals could represent something else.”

            “Say, isn’t the totem animal of Qin-Chu a snake?” asked Osborn.

            “Sure is,” said Lanara.

            “Maybe they’re involved.  After all, lies and deception are what Qin-Chu’s all about.”

            “Hey, what ever happened to that one guy... er, gal?”

            “Is it a man or a woman, Kyle?” asked Autumn.

            “I’m not sure,” he said.  “It was when we went to dinner for our spring break.  You weren’t with us that evening.  At the end of the meal this, um, person wearing Qin-Chu’s robes came up to Kavan and acted like they knew him.  Did you ever find out what that was all about?”

            “No,” said Kavan.  In fact, he’d never seen the exotic-looking cleric again at the Tower after that night.  He smiled inwardly, his memory filled with the delectable vision of the stranger’s delicate features.  Too bad, he thought to himself.

            “Well, maybe it’s a long shot, but what about him?” asked Kyle.

            “Or her,” Osborn added helpfully.

            “He, or she, is the only cleric of Qin-Chu we’ve ever had personal contact with.  Could he be behind this?  Going after Lanara to get to Kavan?”

            “Possibly,” said Arrie.  “I don’t think we’ll know for sure until we find the thief.  What about the cats part?  Whose totem animal is a cat?”

            “Ladta,” said Kavan.  “I doubt the goddess of good fortune would be conspiring with Qin-Chu.”

            “And the divination said cats, not cat,” added Tolly.  “That part is probably a bit more literal.”

            “Maybe the thief is an old woman with lots of cats?” offered Osborn.

            “Or the grounds are guarded by panthers,” offered Arrie.

            “Or weretigers,” added Kyle.

            “Rakshasa?” Tolly chimed in.

            “Oh, you guys are really cheering me up,” snorted Lanara.

            “Why don’t we run this by Detective Estagond,” said Autumn.  “He knows the city better than us.  Perhaps it’ll have some meaning to him.”

            “I’ll stay behind,” said Osborn.  “I’ve got plans tonight, and I need to catch some shuteye.  I’ll see you in the morning.”  The hin got up and walked up the stairs to his room.

            “I need to finish cleaning out the lab and return the equipment by sunset,” said Kyle.  “I’d best stay too.  Besides, someone should keep an eye on things around here in case those Estranë priests come around with another search warrant.”

            “I’ll stay with you, Kyle,” said Autumn.  “I told you before I’d help you.”

            The rest of the party went to the security station.  Detective Estagond didn’t have any better leads, though he did mention that some of the estates of the wealthier residents of Laeshir had large stone lions at their gates.  A few of these estates lay close to the Temple of Estranë.  Arrie’s eyes gleamed at the thought of checking out these estates, and at a few points on the way back had to be talked out of going there immediately and jumping the wall of one of the estates.

            The party went to bed soon after getting back.  Lanara, who couldn’t sleep, spent the night talking with Jobu, the watchman who’d been sent to relieve Erron for the evening.  Jobu was pleasant enough to talk with, though obviously not that happy about working on the second night of Midsummer.  Arrie came down and joined the conversation a little bit later.  The evening passed slowly, and quietly; the only disturbance came around midnight, when they thought they heard the back door of the inn open, but no one was around when Arrie checked.  “Must’ve been Osborn leaving to do whatever he’s planning,” Arrie said when she got back to the table.

            In fact, Osborn had left the Uncut Emerald Inn quite some time ago.  At the time Arrie was checking the back door, he was sitting in a small bakery in the undercity, talking with one of the workers there.  From his time spent among the thieves of Targeth, Osborn knew how to spot the right sort of connections in any city.  To anyone else walking into the bakery, they would have seen a hin in black clothing talking with one of the bakers about a large order for an upcoming banquet.  The real topic of conversation was carefully couched in innuendo and double meanings.

            The ‘baker’, who gave his name as Balthezar, was initially suspicious of Osborn until the hin revealed a small tattoo of an open black palm.  Balthezar nodded.  “You here on business?” he asked.

            “Not officially, no,” Osborn replied.  “The Hand isn’t looking to expand its territory.”

            “Just checking.  So I take it you’re hoping for a little professional courtesy?”

            “I am.  You know who pulled the job at the Temple of Estranë last night?”

            “Seems I might have heard a thing or two.  Problem is my memory’s fuzzy.  Strange condition, but it seems to clear up when I hear metallic clinking noises.  Coins seem to work best.”

            “I see,” said Osborn.  “How many clinking sounds do you think it’ll take?”

            “Oh, I’d say at least five.”

            Osborn pulled twenty gold coins out of his pocket and dropped them into Balthezar’s palm.  “To your health,” he said.

            “Ah, yes… yes, I think it’s working.”  Balthezar pocketed the coins.  “Seems I remember that it was done by a splinter group of the main guild here in the city – call themselves the Stone Shadows.  Seems someone from the outside hired them for the temple job.  Far as I know, the loot from that job’s still with them.”

            Osborn nodded.  That definitely fit the ‘stone and shadows’ part of the divination.  “Where could I find them?”

            Balthezar rattled off a set of directions to a large manor in the undercity.  “Can’t miss it, there’s a couple of lion statues out front.”

            “I appreciate the information,” said Osborn.  He reached into his purse and brought out another twenty coins.  “A token of my appreciation.  I hope that hearing too many clinking noises doesn’t aggravate your memory problems.”

            “You know what?  Sometimes it does.  In fact, I’m having trouble even remembering this conversation.”

            Osborn grinned.  “I thought you might.”

*          *            *​
            Osborn returned to the inn just after the first bell.  Arrie looked up to see him walking in the door.  “That was quick,” she said.

            Osborn nodded, though he didn’t really understand the comment.  Jobu eyed the hin carefully.

            “Who’s this?” he asked.

            “Oh, he’s with us,” said Lanara.  “He’s Osborn.”

            “Just checking,” Jobu replied.

            “So, I have some information,” said Osborn.  “But I’m tired.  I’ll talk to everyone at breakfast.  Save me some bacon, will you?”

            “Save you some?” Lanara laughed.  “We’re lucky if we even get any bacon when you’re around!”

            A few hours later they were all gathered in Osborn and Kyle’s room, listening to Osborn relay what he’d learned last night.  Watchman Erron, who had come back to the inn that morning to relieve Jobu, sat downstairs waiting for them.

            “So, what are we waiting for?” asked Arrie.  “Let’s go get them!”  She stood up, ready to go.

            “Not so hasty,” said Autumn, putting a hand around Arrie’s wrist.  “Remember we’re doing this to clear Lanara’s name, not bash heads in.”

            “True,” commented Tolly.  “We should at least inform Watchman Erron of our intentions, to avoid making Lanara’s situation worse.  Most lawful societies frown on vigilantism performed by non-citizens.”

            “But we’re adventurers!” said Arrie.  “Unauthorized vigilantism is what we’re all about!”

            Despite her protests, however, Arrie agreed that they should run it by Erron first.  They went downstairs and laid out their information to Erron, who listened carefully.

            “So, where did you hear all this?” Erron asked.

            “Oh, I heard it from some kids in the city,” said Osborn.  “Kids see a lot of things that adults miss.”

            “Kids… right.  Well, I’m afraid that the Watch can’t act on information coming from children.”

            “But we can,” Arrie mumbled under her breath.

            It turned out that Erron’s hearing was better than average.  “Now, officially, I’d have to stop you.  I’m here to protect the rights of the accused, but also to make sure she, and by association the rest of you conduct a legal investigation.  I can’t go along with what amounts to an illegal entry and search on private property.”  After letting he words sink in, Erron leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the table.  “Of course, I’m only really charged with watching Lanara, not the rest of you, so if you were all to go off about your daily business, there’s not much I can do to stop you.  And of course, Lanara is allowed some privacy, so if she were to, say, decide to spend an hour or so this morning sitting quietly in her room, I’m not under obligation to keep her in my sight at all times.”

            “I see,” said Lanara.  “And how long before you might grow suspicious and come to check on me?”

            “Oh, probably about an hour or so,” he said.  “Of course, by then I’m planning on having breakfast, and of course I wouldn’t want to discuss such unpleasant news as losing track of my charge so soon after eating, so I’d guess it’d be a good hour after that before I could report to Detective Estagond. Of course, I’d have no idea where you’d be at that point, because you certainly didn’t discuss any plans to break into an old manor house in the undercity in front of me.”

            “Of course we didn’t,” said Arrie.  “And so you probably wouldn’t find Lanara again until we came to you, possibly with hard evidence of the real thieves of the reliquary that we just happened to stumble across?”

            “Probably not,” Erron said.  “It’s not a perfect system.”

            “Indeed,” agreed Arrie.  “So, everyone, are we going out to run errands like we planned this morning?”

            “You all go ahead,” said Lanara.  She made a great show of yawning and stretching. “I was up all night, so I think I will go to my room to sleep.  Very quietly.”  Lanara stood up and walked upstairs, closing the door to her room very loudly.

            Minutes later, the group gathered around the back of the inn, pausing long enough to help Lanara climb out the back window.  They began moving toward the undercity.  Lanara used her Talent to change her appearance, looking like a nondescript dwarf.  “Best not have anyone say they saw me in the street,” she said.

            Within the hour they were walking past the house Osborn said was their target.  The manor house appeared dark and ill-kept, with a few windows smashed out.  A pair of lion statues flanked the gate, which was hanging loose from its hinges.  Osborn walked close to the statues to get a better look, and noticed something odd.  He pointed it out to the others.  Woven into the stone mane of each lion was a serpent, carefully carved so that it was almost unnoticeable unless you knew it was there.

            “Looks like the kind of mark a secret temple of Qin-Chu would have,” commented Kavan.

            The group huddled together a short distance away from the house.  “What’s the plan?” Lanara asked.

            “Well, we need to get inside,” said Tolly.

            “We could just go in,” said Arrie, hefting her spiked chain.

            “No, Arrie,” cautioned Autumn.  “We have no idea what’s inside, or how many are in there.  Just charging in would be foolish.”

            They noticed at that point that Osborn had slipped away.  Assuming he’d left to scout out the house, they continued talking.  “I may have an option,” said Tolly.  “Today I have prayed for a spell that allows me to see through the eyes of another.  This effect can be passed to others by touch.  If I could place this spell on one of the residents of the house, I would be able to see what they saw, and gain information about the layout of the house as well as its occupants.”

            “Sounds good to me,” said Kyle.  “How do we do it?”

            “We could pretend to be making a delivery,” offered Arrie.  “Tolly throws his spell on one of us, and we make sure we touch whoever answers the door.  Then we sit back and find out what’s up inside.”

            “What can we deliver?” asked Lanara.

            “Hey, Xu,” said Arrie, “you still have that snake you picked up in the swamp?”

            “I do,” she replied.  She’d kept the snake as a sort of pet, though her inexperience with raising animals meant that their relationship consisted mostly of the snake biting her.  Xu did not mind it so much; her spiritual and physical regimen allowed her to ignore the snake’s venom, and she was able to use the snakebites to practice maintaining her focus while experiencing pain.

            “Well, nothing like a new snake for the secret church of Qin-Chu,” Arrie said.

            After several minutes of arguing, they settled upon a plan.  Tolly would cast his spell on Xu, and remain about a block away.  Autumn stayed by his side to protect him, as Tolly explained that he would be unable to see while using the spell.  Xu, Arrie, and Lanara would pose as delivery persons, bringing Xu’s snake to the manor in the hopes of making contact with someone inside.  Kyle and Kavan remained nearby on standby in case things went awry.  The group held hopes that Osborn would rejoin them at the right time.

            Once Kyle was around the corner and out of sight of the others, though, he sighed.  To his mind, their plan wasn’t a very good one.  Did they really think they could fool a priest of the god of deception with such a simple ruse?  He didn’t think Autumn was too crazy about the plan either.  Still, everyone else was set on it, and he didn’t think it was his place to argue the point.  He knew they only had so much time before the City Watch had to come looking for them.

            As he thought, Kyle saw Kavan looking at him curiously.  “Something wrong?” Kyle asked.

            “Not at all,” the elf replied.  “I was just thinking that you seem… different today, Kyle, but in a good way.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I find myself paying more attention to you than usual.”

            “Oh, that,” Kyle waved his hand dismissively.  “I used a bit of minor transmutive magic this morning on the way here.  I figured that if we had to do any sweet-talking or browbeating, it’d help it I were a little more, well, focused than usual.  The spell enhances a person’s overall bearing and presence, and improves appearance.  It’ll be gone in a few hours.”

            Kavan smiled.  “It suits you, Kyle.  It gives you an air of authority, of confidence.  You should consider using it more often.”

            Kyle shrugged his shoulders.  “Well, maybe.”

            By this time Arrie, Lanara, and Xu had approached the door, Xu carrying a small basket.  Lanara still wore her dwarf disguise.  Arrie knocked on the front door, and they waited.  After a minute had passed, the door slowly swung open, but there appeared to be no one on the other side.

            “Hello?” shouted Lanara.  “We have a delivery!”

            As Lanara’s shouts echoed from inside the manor, they heard Lanara’s voice again, coming from behind them.  “Where are the others?” the voice cooed.  “It’s no fun without all of you here.”

            The trio looked around uncertainly.  “Umm, we need someone to sign for this package?” Arrie called out.  Lanara stepped a little closer to Xu.  “This is the last time we deliver to a creepy haunted house,” she said loudly, still hoping to propagate the ruse.

            Their only answer was silence, and a moment later the door closed again.  The three women stepped off the front porch, and met up with the others down the road.

            “It seems that they know who we are, and that we’re here,” said Xu.  “It is likely that they are preparing for us as we speak.”

            “Damn!” Autumn swore.  “What now?”

            “Now we do things my way,” Arrie said.  “Kick in the door and start swinging.”

            “That’s foolish,” Autumn argued.  “It’s not a smart way to fight.  We’d be at a severe disadvantage.”

            “But they’re just thieves, how bad could it be?” Arrie countered.

            “Thieves supported by a cleric of Qin-Chu.”

            “I think my statement still stands, Autumn.” Arrie retorted.

            Autumn sighed.  “Look, it’s not good to walk into an ambush that we know about.”

            “It’s better than walking into one we don’t know about,” observed Xu.

            “Look, everyone,” said Kyle.  “The situation isn’t good, but the answers we need are inside that house, and we haven’t got a lot of time.  It’s not like we can come back tomorrow – the thieves may have moved by then.  As much as I hate to say it, I think we have to go with Plan Verahannen again.”

            Arrie grinned.  “Now we’re talking.  Let’s go kick down the door.”

            “I think we should go through a window,” said Kavan.  “It might give us just a little bit more of a surprise.”

            The group quickly went to the manor, readying themselves for combat.  They went around to a large window in the back of the house, and smashed it open, quickly moving inside.  They spread out into a large, empty room, filled with dust and cobwebs.  They moved out into a hallway, similarly dusty and abandoned.  Several doors presented themselves.

            “Spread out and check the doors,” said Tolly.

            They moved carefully, trying to keep each other in sight.  Most of the doors led to small side chambers, all of which looked as though no one had been in them for years.  Tolly opened a double door, and peered in through the gloom at what appeared to be a large foyer.  From the darkness, he heard Lanara’s voice.

            “Come in, I’ve been expecting you.”

            “In here,” said Tolly, throwing the doors open wide.  The others began to move into the room, looking around cautiously.

            “I don’t like this,” muttered Autumn.

            The room was large, with doors in the center of each wall.  A pair of staircases flanked the party as they entered, leading up to a balcony.  As the group spread out, watching for any sudden movement, Lanara suddenly yelped and pointed up to the balcony… at herself.

            Standing at the rail was someone who seemed to be Lanara’s twin, right down to the colors in her outfit.  She smiled at the group assembled below.

            “So glad you could make it,” she said.  “I suppose you’re here about that silly bone.”  The false Lanara waved a hand, and across the room a small table appeared.  Resting on the table was a ornate lead box.

            “Why are you doing this to me?” shouted Lanara.  “What have I done to you?”

            “You?” the false Lanara laughed.  “Why, my dear cansin, this has nothing to do with you.”  Before their eyes, the false Lanara’s features changed.  Soon they were looking up at a figure in the green-scaled robes of Qin-Chu.  Exotic, glittering eyes looked down on them from above.

            “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Kavan,” the cleric said.

            Kavan turned angrily, but still couldn’t help but be drawn to the cleric’s exotic features.  “I’d think you would have found something better to do with yourself after the Tower,” he said.

            “I might say the same of you,” he replied.  “But I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to catch up later… Father.”

            The words echoed like a clap of thunder on a warm spring day.  At first, Kavan thought it was a trick, another lie from a master of lies.  But then his eyes fell upon the line of his jaw… the color of his eyes… the slight points on his ears…there were other things as well, little mannerisms and movements, that reminded him of someone he once knew…

            Kavan’s face grew pale.  Suddenly he was hit with the thoughts he’d carried in his mind since meeting this person, tantalizing thoughts… It was too much for Kavan, and he fell to one knee, retching.

            On the balcony, the cleric smiled.  “Family reunions are trying, aren’t they?”

            Meanwhile, Tolly had moved slowly into a position below the balcony, just under where the cleric stood.  He reached up and touched the stones over his head, and prayed for Ardara’s aid.  Power coursed through his fingers, reshaping the stone below the Qin-Chuan’s feet.

            The others saw the cleric suddenly drop a few inches.  He looked down at his feet, then leaned over the rail.  “Oh, that was very naughty,” he said.  “And with that, I must say farewell.”  The cleric clapped his hands twice.  Suddenly, portions of the walls in the main foyer wavered and vanished.  Standing in hidden alcoves were several well-armed dwarves.  At the same time, a trio of dwarves came out of a room off the balcony, and took up positions in front of the cleric.  “Leave the elf alive,” the cleric said.  “Do with the others as you wish.”

            The rogues of the Stone Shadows Guild moved in to attack.  Arrie was hit in the back by a thief’s blade, but she ignored the pain and lashed out at him with a vicious blow.  Xu quickly ran upstairs to the balcony and kicked one of the dwarves at the rail, who appeared to be a wizard of some sort.  His suspicions were confirmed a moment later when the dwarf cast a spell, and Xu suddenly realized how utterly hilarious everything around her was.  She collapsed, laughing, onto the floor in front of the wizard.

            Downstairs, the party’s own wizard looked around to see what he could do.  Autumn had moved to engage a dwarf in heavy plate armor with a greatsword, while Lanara was trying to ward off a bare-fisted fighter with her dagger.  Kavan was heading up the stairs to aid Xu, while Tolly faced off against two dwarves, one with a longsword and another with a sap.  Suddenly Kyle felt a jolt of pain as a crossbow bolt slammed into his shoulder.  He looked up to see one of the dwarves on the balcony calmly reloading.  Kyle gestured at the balcony, and covered it in webs, being careful not to envelop Xu as well.  Through the mass of sticky white threads, he could see the cleric of Qin-Chu struggle for a moment, then smile at him before he vanished.

            Kavan came up to Xu’s side, and reached through the webs to touch the dwarven wizard.  He shrieked as Kavan sent negative energy into his body.  Then, from another doorway on the balcony, Osborn came out, daggers drawn.  He’d snuck into the manor through a rooftop window, and had been quietly watching the disguised cleric of Qin-Chu, waiting for an opening.  Osborn threw his daggers into the webbing, sending one at the space the cleric once occupied, another at the dwarf with the crossbow.  The first dagger sailed harmlessly through space and embedded itself in the wall, while the second was caught in the webs mere inches from its target.  Osborn swore.

            Tolly faced off against his two opponents.  He’d summoned the power of Ardara’s forge, and tried to heat up the metal in their armor.  The spell only affected one of the dwarves, the one with bare fists that was menacing Lanara.  But Tolly had means other than magic to inflict damage.  He hefted his warhammer, and waited for them to charge.

            The three rogues caught in the web tried to escape.  The one with the crossbow managed to pull himself out and went over the railing, landing with a heavy thud.  Osborn moved up and jammed his dagger into the side of the wizard, killing him.  Seeing that Xu was no longer in danger, Kavan went down to heal Kyle’s injuries.  Kyle tried to dispel the enchantment on Xu, but couldn’t unravel the spell’s energies.  Instead, he turned and cast a spell on one of the dwarves facing Tolly, who appeared to be weaving and dancing around the Aradaran priest so fast that he couldn’t defend himself.  Kyle’s spell wove through the rogue’s muscles and joints, freezing them in place.  Unable to move even a single muscle, the only sign of fear they saw was the single drop of sweat that trickled down the dwarf’s face moments before Tolly split his skull open.

            The warrior with the sap had moved around to pursue Lanara, who’d begun her inspiring song.  Lanara moved out into the hallway, hoping to avoid his attacks but wanting to remain within sight of the others as well.  Tolly saw her retreat, and began to make his way toward her.

            Kyle looked around for another target.  He saw that Arrie was making short work of her opponent, and the outmatched dwarf was trying to limp away to safety.  Autumn seemed evenly matched with her foe, trading blow for blow.  He started to move to help her, but then felt the familiar agony of a crossbow bolt hit him in the side.  A second bolt flew by Kavan’s ear.  The Eritan priest summoned divine power and created a mace of pure energy.  He charged the dwarf with the crossbow, menacing him with his new weapon but failing to connect.  With that threat dealt with, Kyle turned back to Autumn.  He pointed at the dwarf in field plate, and cast a _ray of enfeeblement_.  The magic struck true, and the dwarf was weakened to the point he could no longer support his own weight in the armor.  He fell over backwards, greatsword slipping from his grasp.

            Upstairs, Osborn was making his way over to the last dwarf.  The ring he wore allowed him to move unhindered through the webbing, although it was still difficult to cut through the webs to hit anything.  Close by, Xu finally came out of the effects of the wizard’s _hideous laughter_ spell.  She stood up, and surveyed the scene.  She spotted the bare-fisted fighter below her, and decided to get the drop on him, literally.  She vaulted over the railing and landed next to the pugilist.  But despite the surprise, the dwarf managed to avoid her foot sweep.  Moments later, though, the dwarven fighter fell to Arrie’s chain, as she came up behind him after dispatching her previous foe.  Xu had trouble hiding her scowl as Arrie walked by, displeased that she’d been deprived of her opponent.

            Out in the hallway, Tolly moved to engage the dwarf with the sap that had been menacing Lanara.  Seeing him approach, the dwarf reached into a bag at his side and pulled out what looked like a small ball of fur.  He tossed it onto the floor behind Tolly, and it erupted into a snarling badger that immediately tried to sink its claws into Tolly’s leg.  But the beast was unable to get through his leg greaves, and so Tolly ignored the creature’s attacks.  He slammed his hammer into the dwarf at the same time as a trio of magic missiles slammed into the rogue, courtesy of Kyle.  The dwarf dropped into unconsciousness.

            The fight was all but over.  The dwarf still stuck in the web surrendered after Osborn put a dagger to his throat, as did the dwarf with the crossbow after realizing he was surrounded.  The dwarf in full plate, unable to move, had no choice but to yield to Autumn.

            The group began to tie up and strip the rogues, collecting their belongings in a pile.  When Tolly went back to recover the dwarf with the sap and the magical bag, he was nowhere to be found, apparently having faked his death in order to escape.  Lanara ran to get Detective Estagond so they could turn over the reliquary and their prisoners.

            The party’s attention was diverted by a loud thud from upstairs.  They looked up to see Kavan standing on the balcony, his back to them.  He had opened up the throat of the dwarven wizard with his knife, and had used the blood to write the word ‘COWARD’ on the walls in large letters.

            Kyle walked up to Kavan.  “You know, I think you might have some explaining to do about this whole ‘father’ thing,” he said.

            Kavan turned to look at Kyle.  The wizard glanced down at the elf’s hands, which were drenched in blood.

            “Later,” Kyle said.  “We can talk about it later.”


----------



## Delemental

*Family Reunions*

It took a while before the group was finally allowed to return to their inn.  The city watch, taking statements from each person in turn, questioned them extensively.  The group was not even allowed to clean their weapons or armor, as the watch claimed that every piece of gore was ‘evidence’.  Finally, however, the group was permitted to leave, after the missing relic was secured and delivered to the Temple of Estranë, and a message was sent back informing Lanara that the church had made a ‘mistake’ and that she was no longer a suspect.

“That’s it?” said Tolly.  “No apology?”

“Let it go, Tolly,” said Osborn.

The group was studiously avoiding Kavan, whose rage had been replaced by a distant numbness.  He walked silently back to the Uncut Emerald with the others, and upon arriving home went wordlessly upstairs to the bath chamber.

The others soon made their way to their rooms, acutely aware of the harsh looks they were getting from the innkeeper due to the blood dripping from their armor onto the floor.  Only Kyle and Osborn did not stay at the inn; being relatively gore-free, they chose to walk to a nearby market to get some breakfast.  Lanara, exhausted from having been up all night, immediately went to bed without even bothering to change clothes, figuring that anything Kyle couldn’t clean magically could be burned.

Autumn went upstairs without her sister; Arrie decided to go around to the back of the inn to clean out the chunks of hair and skin still stuck in her spiked chain.  She sighed as she closed the door to her room and began pulling off what she could of her heavy armor.  She glanced down at her sword, the blood coating its edges now thick and tacky.  She was somewhat dismayed to see the bright red of humanoid blood, rather than the greenish-black ichor of a rampaging devil.  Though she enjoyed the company of her friends, she couldn’t help but feel her talents were wasted at times; she had been trained to battle outsiders, not dwarven cutpurses.

As they had so many times before, her thoughts drifted to the mysterious shadar-kai who had appeared in the forests in Tlaxan.  She still disagreed with their decision not to confront these otherworldly beings, even though the reasons were sound and logical.  It was a different kind of dissent, one borne of the heart rather than the mind.  But even this didn’t touch on the real source of her troubled soul, something that ran much deeper, an indescribable feeling of unrealized potential that she’d borne silently ever since she had come of age.

She became so lost in her thoughts that it took several minutes for Autumn to realize that something in her room was amiss.  But eventually she realized that her pack was not sitting on her bed exactly as she’d left it that morning, and laying on top of the pack was a folded piece of parchment.

Autumn tentatively reached out and picked up the parchment, opening it.  There was a brief note inside, written in a neat, elegant hand.

Thank you for such an enjoyable time.  Now that I have what I was really after, I’ll be on my way.  I hope I will be seeing you soon.

-          Marrek

Gasping, Autumn dropped the note and grabbed the end of her pack, dumping its contents on the floor.  As she scanned her belongings, one prominent item came up missing.  Autumn quickly snatched up the letter again, and opened her door.  She needed to talk to someone about this.  Her first thought was to talk to Arrie, but she was nowhere to be seen.  She thought of Kyle next, but she knew he was off with Osborn.  She made a decision and walked across the hall, banging on a door with her fist.

The door opened a moment later, and Tolly looked out at her.  “What is it?” he asked.

*          *            *​
Tolly and Autumn quickly decided to bring the matter to Kavan.  The elven priest was still in the bath, still looking ill, when Autumn knocked.

“Come in,” he said weakly.

They stood on either side of Kavan, each unsure of who should begin.  Finally, Autumn handed Kavan the letter.  Reading the letter’s playful tone, he didn’t have to ask who Marrek was.

“The oathbond knife is gone,” Autumn said.

Kavan crumpled the note in his fist.  “Damn that bastard.  Damn him.”

“We have a conundrum,” said Tolly.  “Obviously, there would be merit in pursuing this Marrek and retrieving the oathbond blade from him so it can be returned the the Elven Court as we planned.  However, I still have nearly three weeks’ worth of work to complete on my armor.”

“Isn’t there someone in the church you could trust to finish the work for you?” asked Kavan.

“It’s not that simple.  Forging the armor is part of a ceremony I must undergo to mark my transition into the Secretariat.”

“Then we’ll lose him!” cried Kavan.

“Not necessarily.  We have means at our disposal to track Marrek magically.  I could ask members of the church of Ardara to perform divinations.”

“But I want to go after the knife now!” Kavan was nearly shouting, as he raised up out of the bath.

Autumn looked at Kavan coolly, careful to keep her eyes locked on his.  “The knife, or the thief?” she asked.

The commotion in the room drew attention, and soon Xu and Arrie wandered in to see what was going on.  They were quickly filled in on the situation, and just as quickly began arguing about what to do.

“I think we should all be here to make this decision,” Autumn said.  She went out and walked into Lanara’s room, knowing that knocking was futile.  It took a few minutes to shake the cansin awake.

“How long have I been asleep?” she muttered into her pillow.

“About fifteen minutes.”

“Is this really necessary?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Moaning, Lanara stood up and followed Autumn into the bath.  Her eyes perked open somewhat at seeing Kavan standing in the midst of her friends, wearing only a bath towel.  The thought of using _mage hand_ to whisk away the pesky towel entered her mind, but she figured it would be a bit too disrespectful under the circumstances.

About this time Kyle and Osborn also returned, chewing on strips of crisp bacon.  They paused in the doorway to the bath, and went inside to see what was going on.

“Marrek stole the knife,” Autumn said to them.  “We’re trying to decide what to do.”

“That’s great,” said Kyle.  “Who’s Marrek?”

The story was retold, and the crumpled note passed around.  Autumn, Kavan, and Xu expressed their desire to begin pursuing Marrek right away, while Tolly again reminded them that he needed more time in town.

“You know,” said Arrie, “I get the feeling that this Marrek is playing a game.  If he wants to play, he won’t get very far away.”

“Kyle, what do you think?” asked Autumn.

“Well, he does seem to be baiting us,” said Kyle.  “I mean, if he really wanted to get away with the oathbond knife scot-free, he wouldn’t have left the note.  It might have been a couple of days before we realized it was gone.  But he left the note, as if to say ‘look what I have, come get me’.”

“Kind of like a big, fat ‘neener neener neener’?” said Lanara.

“Exactly.”

“It’s like the dwarven game of ‘Hide the Tap’,” commented Tolly.  “The point of the game, to some extent, is to get caught.”

Kyle looked sympathetically at Kavan.  “Look, I know it’s a shame that Marrek got away, and took the knife.”  He turned his gaze to Autumn.  “I know the knife meant a lot to you, especially.  But I have to figure that if Marrek wanted this knife so badly, he’ll hang on to it for a while.  We can always track him down later and get it.”

“I agree with Kyle,” chimed in Osborn.  “This feels like a trap to me, and I’d rather not walk into it.  If Marrek wants to be found, we’ll find him.”

“And by the same token,” Kyle added, “if he doesn’t want to be found we won’t find him, whether we start now or in three weeks or in three months.  He’s a priest of Qin-Chu, and if a priest of the god of deception wants to hide, he hides.  Even the divinations of the church of Estranë couldn’t find him, and they’re in their home territory, so to speak.”

There was a long silence in the room.  Finally, Kavan spoke.  “I can’t deny the wisdom of your words,” he said.  “But part of me longs to go after the dirty bastard.  I have to be honest; it will be hard to fight the urge to pursue him.  At the very least I will be going to the elders of my faith to request they try and find him.”

“Understandable,” said Autumn.  “I’m sure we’ll get the chance to confront him soon.”

Another heavy silence hung in the air.  An unspoken question hung in the air, seeming to swirl around Kavan.  Finally, he spoke.

“I wish I knew who the mother of that bastard child was,” he said through a clenched jaw.

“Must’ve been a heck of a party,” Lanara muttered to herself.

“Look, it’s been a long morning,” said Arrie suddenly.  “Obviously this is a hard subject for you to discuss.  Why don’t we all leave Kavan alone, and when he’s ready he can tell us more.”

“Yeah, like maybe tomorrow!” said Kyle, hoping to break the tension.

“Or in ten minutes!” said Osborn, catching Kyle’s intent.

Osborn was obviously the only one, as the room fell silent.  Just as the silence reached the point of discomfort, Kavan looked up, eyes burning.

“I was a whore, all right!  A whore!”

The uncomfortable silence immediately switched to a stunned silence.  Kyle blinked, and stammered weakly, “I didn’t mean it, really…”

Suddenly Kavan rushed forward and put his arms around Kyle, seeking comfort.  Tears flowed freely down the elf’s cheeks.  Kyle, not sure what to do, just stood there.

Lanara sidled up to Arrie.  “You were right,” she whispered, “everyone _does _ want a little wizard loving.”  Arrie ignored the comment, and instead went up and put a hand on Kavan’s shoulder.

“Look, no one thinks less of you for your past.  We like you for who you are, not what you’ve done.”

“I’m sure we’ve all done stuff in our past we’re not proud of,” said Osborn.  “But, here we are now.”

“Like what?” said Tolly, eyeing the hin.

“I don’t know, I’m just saying that there’s something in everyone’s past… maybe you swiped a rock once, or whatever it is you guys do!”

“It’s true, Kavan,” said Autumn.  “We don’t care about your past.”

The others nodded their agreement.  Kavan released his embrace, and stood looking at them.

“Thank you,” he said.  “I’m glad to know you don’t think badly of me for what I was.  But I was a whore…”

Lanara interrupted him.  “And that’s a problem because…?” 

“Because of my bastard spawn,” he muttered.  “And now he’s passed from my problem to yours.”

“We got into this business to be adventurers, right?” asked Lanara.

“We graduated together, we stay together,” commented Tolly.

“All of us may have things in our pasts that could one day arise to trouble us again,” said Xu.  “To deny ourselves companionship for fear of bringing trouble to others is foolish.”

Kyle stepped up.  “Look, if we all wanted nice, safe lives, then none of us would have signed the admission forms for the Tower, right?  I mean, maybe one day Arrie’s husband decides to come after her, or Xu’s parents, or people from that guild Osborn was pretending to be a part of.  The point is, we’ll deal with it together.”

Kavan stood in the midst of his companions, taking in their words.  “Perhaps I should finally write to my father,” he said at last.

“Why?” asked Autumn.  “Would he know about Marrek?”

“Perhaps.  He’s the one who turned me into a prostitute.”

Silence descended on the room again, but it was quickly broken by Lanara.

“Okay, I have had way too little sleep to handle that bit of information,” she said, as she began walking to the door.  “Good night.”

*          *            *​
The final few weeks in Laeshir flew by, even for poor Lanara and Osborn.  The divinations requested by Kavan indicated only that Marrek was heading north; ironically, the very direction the group would be heading.  They decided to buy passage on the River Lassh north from Laeshir to Aleppi, and from there journey east to the nearby kingdom of Merlion, Autumn and Arrie’s birthplace.  After a brief stay, they would then continue onward to Noxolt, the capital city of Tlaxan.  Lanara didn’t seem very enthusiastic about riding on the gnomish riverboats, but agreed to anything to get out of the stuffy dwarven city.

The group discussed what Marrek’s motivation for stealing the dwarven oathbond knife could be beyond baiting them, but could reach no firm conclusions.  Kavan was able to narrow down the list of Marrek’s potential mothers to ten women, but none would have any particular reason to seek him out.  With no tangible leads, the group busied themselves tying up loose ends in the city.

After the ill-gotten goods from the Stone Shadows guild was sold off, Kyle approached Arrie and handed her a sack of coins.  “I understand that you paid the tab for me at that tavern during Midsummer.”

She looked at the sack of coins.  “You don’t need to do that.”

“Well, in a way I kind of do.  I mean, I know what you’ve said before about how you feel about being born with more than others, and it’s your responsibility to help.  I guess I can respect that.  At the same time, I was raised to believe that a man’s got to pay his debts and be able to support himself.”

“I really don’t look at it as a debt, Kyle,” Arrie said.  “I’m sure that if the situation were reversed, you’d do the same for me, even though you know I come from a wealthy family.”

“Well, sure.  But it’s not really about that.”  Kyle got an odd look in his eyes.  “I mean, I guess I just need to prove to myself that I can make my own way without relying on help.  I know that paying the bar tab isn’t the same as buying food for my family or anything, but I guess in my mind if I can’t do the former then I’ll never be able to do the latter.”

Arrie shrugged.  “Okay, then.”  She took the sack of coins from Kyle, and returned his grin.  After he departed, though, she began to wonder why it was suddenly so important for Kyle to prove his own solvency.  She considered that maybe traveling with several people of means for all this time had made him uncomfortable, seeing more money spent that he was accustomed to.  Despite his talents, he still came across very much as the son of a farmer.

The riverboat ride from Laeshir was rough.  The River Lassh was well known for its rapids, descending rapidly out of the Charnhold Mountains.  Even with the gnome’s specially designed craft made from wood treated alchemically to bend rather than break upon impact, it was not a comfortable ride.  The entire group decided it was best to splurge on a concoction sold by the gnomes that would render their horses unconscious for the entire five-day trip.  Lanara asked if she could buy an extra dose for herself, but the gnomes informed her that the effects on humanoid digestive systems were unpleasant.  Lanara still weighed the decision for a few moments.

After the five-day trip out of the mountains, the groups stayed on the ship for another week until it docked at the harbor in Aleppi.  After taking a day to recover from the voyage, they turned their horses east and headed toward Merlion, another week’s ride.  After a long, monotonous ride through grasslands and light forests, they began to approach the foothills of the mountain marking the boundary of Merlion.  The mountain might have been impressive, had they not just come from the Dwarven Confederates.

Soon they came upon a small but impressive castle, sitting in a small valley.  Banners were fluttering in the breeze atop the tower, and they could all see people moving about in the courtyard and surrounding village.

“Home,” Autumn said, looking down at it from atop her steed Defiance.

“Home to our parents, too,” Arrie said, with less enthusiasm.  She turned to her sister.  “I’ll give you five to one that she yells at me for not telling them we were coming, and will thank you for bringing me home.”

A slight smile crossed Autumn’s face.  “Five gold,” she replied.

The group rode down into the valley, approaching the castle.  Two guards at the main gate came to attention as the strangers approached, but came to even sharper attention once they recognized two of the strangers.

“Lady Ariadne, Lady Autumn!” one of the guards called out.  “We hadn’t heard of your arrival!”

“We hadn’t known we were coming, Brandon,” said Arrie.  “Are my parents here?”

“Yes, milady,” Brandon said, bowing.  “I’ll send someone to announce your arrival, and to have rooms prepared for your entourage.”  Brandon nodded, and the second guard ran into the castle.

A few minutes later, three people came to the main gate.  The first was a short man, in his fifties, who looked as if he were once fit and muscular but had lost much to age.  The second was a stiff and regal looking woman a half-head taller than the man.  Despite the heat of summer, she was dressed in her full regalia, right down to the wimple.  Next to her walked a tall elf in a purple tunic with gold trim.  Upon seeing the elf, Arrie’s face blanched momentarily.

Autumn looked over at the others.  “Lord Zanich and Lady Auror Verahannen,” she said, indicating the two humans.  She made no attempt to identify the elf.

The party bowed as the trio approached, except for Arrie, who grasped her father in a bear hug.  The embrace was returned, despite the cold looks that Auror shot at her.  Introductions were made all around.  Zanich seemed to warm to the group immediately, while Auror remained coolly formal.  Glancing at Lanara, Auror commented that she was pleased to see her daughters had brought along a minstrel for the evening’s entertainment.  When Lanara was introduced as one of their companions and not as hired help, there was little if no acknowledgement of her error.  Lanara did her best to ignore the slight.

Arrie finally turned to address the elf.  “It’s good to see you,” she said.

“You as well.  Your letters have been interesting.”

“I’m sure they have.”  Arrie almost cracked a smile.  “I’m sort of an interesting person that way.  I’m sorry that you’ve missed experiencing some of it in person.”

“Your letters are… enough,” he replied.

“How is your family?” Arrie asked, changing the subject swiftly.

“Generally well.  We’re looking into some potential trouble – that is the reason I’m here now.”

Autumn walked up next to Arrie suddenly.  “So, Arrie, introduce me to your friend.” She spoke with an unusually flat tone.

“Yes, Ariadne,” said Lady Auror.  “We have a distinguished visitor, and you do not give him the respect he is due?”

“Sorry, Mother,” Arrie said.  She turned to address the rest of her friends.  “Everyone, this is my husband, Prince Herion*.”  She turned to Herion.  “Would you like me to introduce my companions again?”

“I overheard their names the first time, Ariadne.  That won’t be necessary.”

“Prince of…?” Tolly asked.

“Of Tlaxan,” Arrie said hurriedly.  “Sorry.”

“I am in line for the throne, but likely that will not fall upon my shoulders,” Herion explained.  “Though my father tires of rule, my elder brother will likely succeed him.  This frees me up to handle other family affairs and obligations.”

Lanara looked Prince Herion over, and nodded approvingly when she caught Arrie’s gaze.  Arrie returned a sly wink before returning her attention to her husband.

The group engaged in idle conversation as they went inside the castle.  The group quickly learned that the warnings that Arrie had given them before their arrival were accurate; Lady Auror was as formal and cold as anyone they had ever met.  Lord Zanich seemed to want to be more friendly, but was reined in by his wife’s disapproving looks.  Lanara tried to keep her tongue still at the ridiculousness of it all.  Kyle was looking decidedly nervous, and barely spoke at all unless asked a question.  At one point Osborn couldn’t help but snicker at a comment made by Lord Zanich, and he was immediately shot a contemptuous look by Auror.

While Autumn kept her attention focused on Zanich and Auror, Arrie was looking about, greeting servants as they passed by.  There were several hunting dogs running about in the lower level, and Arrie would stop to pet one occasionally or scoot it out of their way.

The party was taken to a small room, where they were offered platters of fresh fruit and cool spring water.  Zanich, Auror, and Herion departed to give instructions to their staff to make preparations for their stay.  As soon as they were gone, Tolly turned to Arrie.

“So, how much of the tales of our exploits will we have to curtail in your mother’s presence?” he asked.

“I’ve pretty much explained everything in the letters I’ve written home,” she replied.  “Though I may be impulsive, I don’t tend to do things I’ll regret later.  I have nothing to hide.”  A mischievous grin crossed her face.  “In fact, I often tell her things I think are hilarious because I know she won’t approve.”  Suddenly she got a serious look, and her gaze wandered to the stairs that Lady Auror had ascended.  “I’ll admit that I’ve not been the best daughter.  We argued quite a lot.  My mother was always more fond of Autumn.”

An hour later, a pair of servants came down and escorted the group upstairs.  The men were separated from the women and led to separate sitting rooms where they could relax and prepare for the evening meal.  They were informed that they could shed their protective gear in the room and it would be cared for.  At first Tolly was reluctant to shed his armor, knowing that Kavan’s son was still on the loose somewhere, but it was pointed out to him that dealing with Auror’s disapproval in armor would be more difficult than dealing with Marrek without the armor.

A half-hour later, there was a knock on the men’s sitting room door, and Prince Herion walked inside.  “Pardon me,” he said, “but do you mind if I join you for a moment?”

Herion came in on their invitation, and sat with the other men.  Osborn immediately walked up.  “So, what do you do for fun?”

“Mostly I walk in the forest,” he said.  “Though recently I’ve had little time for that.”

“Yeah, what’s this I hear about family troubles?”

Herion smiled.  “Actually, it’s because of information I received from Ariadne that I’m here.  I’m looking into the recent activities of our cousin, Sauroth.  I understand you had a run-in with him a few months ago.  One of the reasons I came to speak to you was to get information on what you saw.”

The group talked for quite a while, relaying everything they had seen or heard when they confronted the elven necromancer Sauroth.  They gave him theories and conjectures on his motives.  Herion listened carefully, then stood.

“Thank you for the information, gentlemen.  Hopefully I will be able to track him down and set things right.”

“Well, if you ever need help,” Kavan said, “let us know.”

“Interesting,” said Herion, rubbing his chin.  “It would be something to see my wife in action on the field.  Perhaps I will take you up on that offer should the need arise.”  Nodding to the group, Herion took his leave.

Eventually they were summoned by the servants, and the group collected together in the hallway waiting to be escorted to dinner.

Kyle leaned over to Autumn.  “This is going to be one of those occasions where they use more than one fork, isn’t it?”

“Just sit next to me, and follow my lead,” she said.  “Be very polite and courteous when spoken to.” She glanced over at Kyle.  “In fact, it would be best if you said as little as possible.”

They were led into a large, elegant dining hall.  Huge portraits were hung at each end of the hall, and the head and foot of the table.  Lord Zanich and Lady Auror stood at the head of the table, and Prince Herion was standing to Zanich’s right.  Arrie took a seat next to Herion, while Autumn stood next to Auror.  The others shuffled in and took up their seats.

Dinner was long, and dull.  Auror directed the conversation, and it mostly revolved around affairs of court.  When she did direct her attention to the group, she filtered her questions mostly through Autumn, clearly expecting that she spoke for all of them.  Zanich and Herion were a little more open in speaking with the other party members.  The evening was uneventful, except for once when Kyle accidentally cut his thumb right after a serving girl leaned over his shoulder to refill his wine glass.

As the meal wound down, Auror looked the group over, then turned to Arrie.  “I suppose you’ll want to get an early start on your way tomorrow, won’t you, Ariadne?”

“Of course, Mother,” said Arrie, not missing the obvious hint.  They all rose as Zanich and Auror stood and walked out of the room.  Servants came and escorted the party to their rooms.  As they walked, Lanara elbowed Kyle.

"So, what’d you think of your first exposure to the noble life?” she asked.

He shook his head.  “I thought I’d understand it better after seeing it, but I’m more confused than ever.  That woman is…” he glanced up at Autumn, who was walking just ahead of him, and cut off his comment.  “It’s… different.”

“Well, at least they have a mother to dislike them,” Lanara said.  “Mine left when I was a baby.”

“Really?  I didn’t know.  I’m sorry.”

She shrugged.  “Don’t be.  Obviously, she had it in her blood to not be the type to settle down.”  Lanara tugged at a wisp of her tousled pink hair.  “Besides, Dad was good to me, and I got to see the world with him.”

Kyle was silent for a moment.  “Did you ever notice that adventurers seem to have rotten family lives?”

“Mostly.  But Osborn’s parents are still around, and seem to be decent enough from what he says.”

“True, but he also grew up in a circus.”

Lanara laughed.  “You may have a point there.”


----------------------------------

* I'm not sure that we ever discuss this in-game, so a bit of background to clarify.  The kingdom of Merlion is a small human kingdom that is part of the elven Empire of Tlaxan.  Among the treaty obligations is for intermarriage between the noble families.  Thus Arrie was obliged to marry Herion.  After the wedding she basically negotiated a ten-year 'vacation' so that she could see the world before settling into court life.  Since this was a relatively insignificant amount of time to an elf (and he wasn't all that thrilled about the arranged marriage either), Herion agreed.  At this point they have been apart for about two years.


----------



## Delemental

*Where Elves Walk*

Today, a double update.  This is part one.

This installment was for another game that I was unable to attend.  Thus it was written by another player, Neil.  Unlike the last time, however, this time he was alert and took better notes.  

--------------------------------------------

            It was the second day of the party's stay at Arrie and Autumn's ancestral home. Much to Arrie's irritation, her mother proved to be just as obstinate as she feared. Notably, her attitude eased slightly as Tolly used all of the charm learned in dealing with wealthy and noble parishioners (whose donation was less than Ardara would prefer). It went from deathly chill to just mildly arctic when she was in the room. At one point, Osborn wandered over after the older woman left, and Tolly was visibly relaxing.

            "So, you do know some diplomacy." Tolly shot a look at the Hin.

            "Of course. All priests need to be able to draw out confessions and donations from their parishioners, and an agile tongue is needed for such."

            "So, what happened back at the Temple of Estrane?"

            Tolly's expression darkened. "He irritated me, much as a certain Hin is doing."

            Osbron glanced at Tolly's belt, and then at his back. "Well, let's see, no armor, no hammer, no mace--have any lightning spells or some such today?"

            "No, I tend to ask for healing and such in safer locations. Why?"

            "Then I don't have to worry much, do I?" The Hin suddenly pointed at the entrance to the gardens. "Isn't that Autumn and the Prince?"

            Tolly's eyes widened. "Oh, my. This could be unfortunate. Brother Osborn, let us wander towards the garden, and perhaps sit just outside after greeting our colleague."

            The diminutive rogue peered up at the tall cleric. "Um, sure."

            Tolly muttered an incantation under his breath as they walked over to where the Sentinel was glaring at the Elfin Prince. "Sweet morning Autumn." As she looked over at him, not having noticed him due to her intense attention on Herion, and returned his greeting, he leaned in close and whispered into her ear. "Don't kill him. It would be rude." He clasped her shoulder, and moved past.

            "Let us go sit over there, Osborn, and you can make certain I am not disturbed as I meditate."

            "And this would be my job why?...oh, hey, you did that eye spell, didn't you?"

            "You are indeed sharp, my friend of shortened stature..."



            "Oh my."

            "What does that mean?"

            "She tried to punch the prince."

            "Oh my."

            "Exactly my point."



            "Well?"

            "His guards didn't kill her."

            "That is good news. Did she get him?"

            "No, and I am not sure if that is good or bad."



            "Uh-oh. They're on their way. And a guard just came in and told them they are needed in the hall. Let's go."

            "Okay, but you have to fill me in later."

            "Of course."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

            Tolly and Osborn came into the great Hall just as Xu and Kavan entered from another side. The adventurers advanced in unison to the table where Arrie's father sat, and where Arri, Autumn, Lanara, and Herion already stood, waiting as a bloodied caravan guard spat out his story. Tolly and Kavan moved as one to heal the poor man, Tolly stepping back, and making way before the Eritan with a bow. Zanich looked at the group, and addressed them.

            "This man just managed to escape an ambush--one of our major caravans of fleece and mutton was hit by a large band of goblins. Is this not the sort of thing you... adventurers... train for? Will you assist us?"

            Arrie looked at the party, and then back at her father. "Of course we will, Father."

            "I will join you." Herion stood up suddenly. "Perhaps then I can understand better this adventuring you deem necessary." Arrie looked as though she would object, but sighed, and let it go.

            "Anyone know where Kyle is?" Autumn questioned.

            "Went to the town--he can catch up later. We can't afford to wait," Tolly ordered. "There is usually a timeline associated with dwarven trade, and if you are late, they refuse to pay more than half the value. We must go quickly, or Arrie's father stands to lose much more than his caravan crew." He stood.

            "Let us teach some of our lesser greenskinned brethren the folly of their ways."

-----------------------------------------------------------

             After some hard riding, they found themselves at the ambush site. They quickly scanned the area, finding the rather obvious trail, and began to follow it when Herion stopped them.

            "Anyone else notice that a large group of humans could not manage to kill even one goblin here?" He glanced at his bodyguards. "Stay here, and make sure we aren't caught from behind. I am sure that these folk are adequate for protection." Both Tolly and Autumn looked irritated at being called merely adequate, but looked at each other and shrugged. A look from one of the guards at Arrie said much about what would happen should Herion be injured in their company, but she just smiled it away.

            They followed the trail up into the hills, finding themselves looking up at a cave, and 3 goblins at its mouth arguing. With experienced motions and looks the party sent Xu and Osborn up ahead to deal with the watchful goblins. Herion watched as the group barely spoke, yet laid out a plan to deal with the sentries.

            "Is it always like this?" He asked Kavan. The Elfin cleric looked at him askance, and placed one finger across his lips. The group moved up to a corner before they would be in view of the cave, and the rogue disappeared along with the monk. The party waited tensely, and then a squeal erupted from above them.

            "By Ardara, are we never to have any luck?" Tolly cursed and launched into the ascent.

            The 3 goblins died soon thereafter, but more could be heard coming from passages within the cave. Tolly quickly spent his strength spells on Osborn and Xu, as Kavan put up protections based in her faith in Erito, and the form of the Cansin bard became indistinct. Autumn asked for the favor of her gods as well, and the group moved into the right fork of the cave, to find goblins awaiting them behind tables. Herion reached for Arrie's shoulder, and muttered arcane syllables. She suddenly started fidgeting and moving more quickly, as Lanara burst into song.

            Arrie and Autumn rushed in, followed by Osborn, Xu, and Kavan. Tolly hung back to cover the bard, and make certain they were not ambushed. The fight went quickly, the only glitch being Kavan's errant knife spray, which caught Herion and Arrie.  As they searched the room for secrets, the chanting of Tolly was heard, and the distinctive hiss of one of his acid bursts erupted. As they moved back up the hall, they quickly surrounded and wiped out the few which had come forth. Osborn pointed out after the comeback something that had been lurking in the back of his head.

            "Anyone else notice that these guys share wounds?"

            "Yes," started Herion. " It seems to be a sharing magic, probably divine..."

            Arrie cut him off. "That's fine--just means more than one die at a time. Let's go." She rushed forward, followed closely by Herion, Osborn, and Autumn. Tolly paused long enough to envelope his hammer in the flames of the forge, and lend the strength of the earth to his arm. They moved into a large room, and stopped in dismay at the size of the large beast in the far corner. Greenskinned, and almost undulating, the giantish creature snorted laboriously, and hawked directly at the 2 elves, striking Herion. Immediately, his robes began smoking and hissing, as the spittle ate through. As if that was the signal they were awaiting, the almost unnoticed horde of goblins around him charged, and a pair of lizardlike beasts came out from behind him.

            Spines erupted from the backs of the lizards, standing straight out from their bodies. One tore into Kavan, grasping with both claws, and striking with the tail as well. The second jumped Herion, who avoided the claws, but not the tail. The goblins unleashed a veritable forest of spears, only to find that the reflexes and thick armor of the party was too much. Xu slapped one aside almost idly, and found that 3 of them had identical handprints on their faces. Lenara began anew her song, filling the party with righteous anger. Arrie struck with her spiked chain, the deadly loops tearing into the lizard chasing her husband.

            Tolly stepped around the corner, and his eyes lit on Kavan's peril. "By Ardara! Such cannot be tolerated!" The young cleric charged across the room, eyes filled with holy outrage at the desecration of his friend. Ardara was certainly watching in approval as his hammer drove home into the head of the beast, crushing it utterly and sending bursts of holy flame into its body, filling the air with the smell of roasted flesh. Its mate looked over at Tolly and roared a challenge.

            Herion took advantage of the pause to grasp the back of the beast's neck, angry red lines striating across its body as he pulled energy from its lifeforce, dropping it to the floor. Kavan healed himself, nodding in gratitude to Tolly. Autumn rushed past them, focused on the large humanoid on the dais. The abomination blocked her first swing, and responded by slamming a fist into her breastplate, expelling her breath and shattering ribs. Her pain was matched by horror as she realized that the arm appeared to have goblins contained within it, under the skin. It drew back and laughed daemonically, before bellowing as a sling bullet suddenly became the size of a catapult's shot and plowed into its side.

            On the other side of the room, Osborn sent more sling bullets zinging into the creature's body, as Xu defended him, wading into the goblins. As she assaulted the right, Arrie's spiked chain was devastating their numbers on the left. Her training was paying off as nary a goblin could move near her without the chain tearing through throats and snapping necks, not even to flee.

            Back on the dais, Tolly moved up to the beast and laid his hand on Autumn, knitting her ribs with Ardara's grace.  Kavan and Herion joined magical forces and hit the beast with a stream of energy swords as well as a lightning bolt. The beast struck at Autumn once more as she moved closer, his horny claws striking sparks and slivers of metal from her sword. She returned the strike, but with more success as she opened a wound across his stomach, only to find herself open to his wide jaws. They clamped upon her shoulder, lifting her and shaking her about as he reached out with both claws at Herion, with one finding purchase in his arm.The beast's divided attention was beginning to cost it the battle as Tolly plummetted his hammer into its kidneys. He screamed out after the hit.

            "It heals itself! Use acid and fire!" He stepped away momentarily, and covered its back with an acid burst. Herion lunged forward and buried his sword in the beast's forehead. Its eyes crossed, and it fell backwards. Even so the wounds began closing, but Tolly would have none of it.

            "By Ardara, this abomination ends here."

            The flaming hammer struck twice more, incinerating the beast's skin, and it finally ruptured, expelling the bodies of many goblins, all with vestigial limbs and strange umbilicals stringing back to the center of the beast. Tolly turned to see that Xu and Arrie had finished all of the goblins.

            Osborn walked up to the dais, and looked down at the remains of the goblin leader.

            "Wow, what a stink. Want some bacon?"


----------



## Delemental

*Ties That Bind*

And now, part two.

You may have noted Kyle's absence in the last adventure; since I play Kyle, and I wasn't there, that just makes sense.  But our DM allowed me the chance to make up the XP lost by writing a short side jaunt for Kyle, which is what this story is.  Just to be clear, none of the events in this particular story were played out in any way - it's all pure fiction.  Fiction that becomes important to the character much further down the line, but fiction.

----------------------------------

            “Meet me down in the cellar after dark.”

            Kyle nearly lost his grip on his knife as the serving girl behind him whispered into his ear as she leaned past him to fill his glass.  He quickly glanced around to see if anyone had overheard, but neither Autumn to his right nor Tolly to his left seemed aware of it.  The serving girl herself was gone, off to continue her duties.  But as she came round the table and offered the pitcher of wine to Arrie, she caught Kyle’s eyes with a long look.

            He desperately hoped that he wasn’t flushed.  He hadn’t expected to receive such an invitation, especially not in the middle of dinner with Lord Zanich and Lady Auror.

            “Are you all right?”

            Kyle almost jumped out of his chair.  He turned to look at Autumn, who was staring at him.  “I’m fine, why do you ask?”

            “Your thumb,” she said, her eyes glancing down to Kyle’s plate.  “It’s bleeding.”

            Kyle looked at his plate, and saw that a few bright splotches of blood had scattered onto the white plate.  He turned his thumb over and saw a long, but shallow cut.

            “Oh, that,” he said.  “I, um, must have slipped.”

            Tolly glanced at the minor injury.  “Kyle, if I may?”  He reached over and touched Kyle’s hand, sending a tiny spark of divine energy into him.  The cut immediately sealed itself.  “No reason to continue bleeding on our host’s table,” he said.

            Kyle looked around the table, flashing an awkward smile.  Most of the people around the table hadn’t even noticed the incident, or had gone back to their own meals or conversations.  Arrie gave him a slight wink, and Lord Zanich called for a new plate for him.  Lady Auror’s continual frown of disapproval seemed to deepen.

            He saw the young woman several more times that evening, as she went back and forth from the kitchens bringing food and drink.  She was about his age, perhaps a bit younger, with auburn hair tied back neatly.  She dressed modestly, and seemed to be energetic in her duties.  More than once, her blue eyes caught his as she went by; each time they did, Kyle heard the same phrase echo in his mind.

            “Meet me down in the cellar after dark.”

            Of course, he should refuse.  He shouldn’t even be near the cellars until they left the Verahannen estates.  Perhaps, under different circumstances, he might have thought differently, but this was the home of two of his adventuring companions, his friends.  Spending his evening coupling with one of their servants might not go over well.  Besides, he thought, there are other considerations, other reasons why such an act would be wrong.*

            Despite himself, however, the thought kept popping into his head.  Sometimes he thought it was a kind of curse, the way his mind would keep picking at a situation until he’d seen every possible interpretation or consequence.  His instructors had called it a sign of his remarkable intellect; he found it worse than a conscience.  At least a conscience only came up with two alternatives; right or wrong.  His ‘intellect’ could spin off dozens of possibilities if he let it.

            The first thing he thought was that there was something odd about the request.  Not that he’d received it in the first place – he’d had his fair share of propositions from women at taverns or barn dances.  But the manner was odd.  Though the whispered message held a certain urgency, a kind of intensity to it, it wasn’t the right kind of intensity.  Some of the subtleties were missing; she hadn’t pressed her breasts into his shoulder when she whispered to him, she hadn’t once winked or pursed her lips when catching his gaze.

            Kyle shook his head slightly.  He was grasping at straws.  The right thing to do would still be to ignore the request.

            By this time dinner had ended, and they were being led upstairs to their rooms.  After a moment of banter with Lanara, Kyle was shown to his chambers.  The room was probably small by the castle’s standards, but still larger than he was used to, and for the first time in months he had no roommate to share it with.

            Kyle settled into the small desk, lighting an oil lamp and cracking open one of his hefty books, the one he kept notes in about future projects or theories on magical item design.  AS his pen scratched out a few ideas on a blank page, he started to think about how long the serving girl would wait downstairs before realizing he wasn’t going to show up.

            At that thought, the pen stopped moving.  Kyle had spend plenty of his time talking with people who worked for other lords in other castles.  The help, he knew, were notorious gossips, and rumors spread like wildfire.  And he knew from talking with Autumn that the lords and ladies of those castles heard far more of these rumors that their staff realized.  While the woman at dinner hadn’t seemed the vindictive type, it was impossible to tell from just a single sentence and a few exchanged looks.  What if she felt angry at an apparent rejection?  What if she’d bragged to her friends about spending the night with one of the guests?  She might say it happened anyway, just to cover herself, or make up an even more outlandish story.  Stories that might reach Auror’s ears; stories that would then end up being told to…

*          *            *​
            Kyle glanced about the dark cellar.  He’d brought no light, so as to escape the notice of the castle’s guards or servants, but before leaving his room he’d cast a spell on himself that mimicked the darkvision ability of the dwarves, allowing him to see plainly.

            He’d made up his mind; he would meet this woman, explain to her that while he was flattered by her offer he couldn’t accept it because he was a guest here, and then depart.  While by no means a perfect plan, it was the best he could do on short notice.  He didn’t dare mention anything about the girl to anyone else; the news might get out, and Kyle doubted that Lady Auror was one who took kindly to ‘the help’ consorting with her guests, even when she saw the guests as not much better than the help in the first place.

            Finally, he spotted her waiting behind a pile of flour sacks.  She was holding a single candle in a tin holder, whistling a quiet tune.  When he came into the light, she smiled.

            “Thank you for coming,” she said, nodding.

            Kyle held up his hand, about to launch into his prepared speech.  Instead, she grabbed his hand and began pulling.  “Please, come this way.”  She began leading him toward the stairs that led outside.

            “Wait a minute,” he said, pulling away slightly, “What is…”

            “Forgive the haste, but my husband will be home soon.  We must get back to our house before then.”

            Kyle gaped.  Was this woman really bringing him into her own home with her own husband on the way?

            “I have to say, I was excited to hear you were finally here,” she said.  “We’ve been so worried about you.”  By this time they were up the stairs and out on the castle grounds, walking toward the outer gate and the cluster of homes surrounding the estate.  The girl waved at passers-by as she led Kyle by the hand.  Kyle, now too confused to protest, went along with her.

            They arrived at a simple wooden house near the western edge of the village.  She went inside, and pulled out a chair for Kyle at the table.  Cautiously, Kyle sat down.

            “I must say, you’re taller than I expected, but I’d recognize those eyes and that chin anywhere,” she said with a wink.

            “I… well… um… who are you?” he stammered.

            The woman laughed.  “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry!  In my hurry to get you here I forgot to introduce myself!”  She held out a hand.  “My name’s Elsie.  Elsie Goodson.”

            “What?” Kyle said, not sure he heard her right.

            At that moment, the door opened and a man strode in.  He was a half-head shorter than Kyle, but had the same broad-shouldered build.  His wavy black hair was flecked with sawdust, and his blue-gray eyes took in the scene with some measure of bewilderment.  Kyle stood up suddenly, not knowing what to expect.

            Elsie jumped up.  “Surprise, dear!  Your long-lost brother’s here at last!”

            The man looked Kyle up and down.  “Elsie, buttercup, this isn’t my brother.”

            “It isn’t?” she asked.  “But Kevin, he looks so much like you.  And I heard one of the guards mention that his family name is Goodson, too.”

            “Is that so?”

            Kyle looked at the two of them.  “Well, it’s true I’m a Goodson, but my two brothers are named Angar and Bryant, not Kevin.”

            Kevin turned to Elsie.  “Did you ask this man his name?”

            “Well, no.  When I found out, I didn’t really have time.  I wanted to surprise you.”

            Kevin turned to Kyle.  “Can I have your name, sir?”

            “It’s Kyle.  Kyle Goodson.”

            Elsie’s face fell as Kyle gave his name.  “Your brother’s name is Nicholas.”  She looked as if she were about to cry.

            Kevin put his arm around her shoulders.  “It’s all right, buttercup.  You meant no harm.  You just let your heart get ahead of you again.”

            Elsie put her arms around him.  “I’m sorry, dear.  I just know you’ve been worried.”

            After they embraced, Kevin turned to Kyle and extended his hand.  “I’m sorry for the trouble, Kyle,” he said.

            “Not at all,” said Kyle, taking the offered hand.  He was relieved that the situation hadn’t been what he feared at all.

            Kevin’s grasp on Kyle’s hand held for a moment, and an odd look came over his face.  “Come to think of it, Elsie’s right.  You do look an awful lot like me.  And you say your name’s Goodson, too?”

            “That’s right.”  Kyle was beginning to notice the similarities as well.

            “Who’s your mother and father?” Kevin asked.

            “My father’s Rufus Goodson, and my mother Anjele.”

            Kevin smiled.  He looked at Elsie.  “Well, buttercup, you may not have found my brother, but you did manage to dig up a cousin.”

            Kyle’s eyebrow arched.  “How so?”

            “My father was Seamus Goodson.”

            Kyle smiled.  His father’s father, Andrew Goodson, had had four boys of his own.  One of his father’s older brothers was named Seamus.

            “Well, I’ll be,” said Kyle.  “And here just this evening I was telling one of my friends that I never expected to see any of my family again.”

            The three sat down and exchanged stories.  Seamus had come to Merlion years ago, along with two children; his son Kevin, and his sister Annia.  The year after moving here, Seamus also took in a young boy named Nicholas, whose parents had been killed in a fire.  He raised the boy as his own son, and Kevin considered him as much a brother as if they were related.  Nicholas even took the family name as his own.  While Kevin had become a lumberjack and settled in Merlion with his wife Elsie, Nicholas and Annia has sought their fortunes elsewhere.  Annia ended up going back to Targeth and worked as a seamstress, and Nicholas became a merchant, who mostly plied his trade in northern Tlaxan.

            “That’s why Elsie here assumed you were Nicholas,” Kevin explained.  “Nicholas has done well for himself, so he wouldn’t be out of place as a guest of the lord and lady.  Plus you look a lot like me.  Of course, the real Nicholas looks nothing like me, because he was adopted; I think that Elsie was just so excited when she saw you that she didn’t remember that little detail.  She’s never met Nicholas before.”

For his part, Kyle told Kevin and Elsie about how his mother Anjele had died of plague, and how after losing the farm the next year his father Rufus took he and his four siblings and split them up to give them a fighting chance at survival.  Kyle told them about ending up at Targeth’s famous school; they both stared incredulously when he told them he was a wizard.

            “And I always thought that the Goodson family had manual labor etched into their bones and blood forever,” Kevin whistled.  “Now I’ll have something to tell the boys tomorrow.”

            “There’s not much to tell, really,” Kyle said.  “I’m just an ordinary man, like yourself.  Besides, as wizards go I’m not much to brag about.”

            “Well, I don’t think the boys are going to care much.”

            “I was wondering something, though,” Kyle said.  “When I first got here, and Elsie thought I was Nicholas, she said something about you being worried about him.  Why is that?”

            Kevin and Elsie looked at each other before Kevin answered.  “Though I don’t see much of Nicholas and Annia, we keep in touch by letters.  About a month ago I got a letter from Nicholas saying that he wanted to visit, and was trying to work out a trade route that would bring him close.  Three weeks after that he sent another letter saying he’d made a deal, and the first chance he’d have to come here was on the first of Columbad.  He said his route would take him to Balnad’s Ford around then.”

            Kevin leveled Kyle with an intense stare.  “Balnad’s Ford is a three-day ride north of here.  He’s past due, and we’ve had no word.”

            Kyle nodded in agreement; tomorrow was the ninth of Columbad.  “And it’s not like a Goodson to be late,” he said.

            “Not if we can help it.  Now, overall, this is pretty safe country around here, and Nicholas knows what he’s doing.  I’d love to go up to the Ford myself to check into it, but neither of us can leave that long.  There’s just too much work for me, and the lady of the castle doesn’t take kindly to her help skipping out for a week.”

            “I can imagine,” said Kyle, knowing full well what Lady Auror’s disposition was like.  “Well, tell you what.  Why don’t I run up there and check it out for you?”

            “Oh, we couldn’t ask that.  We know you’re a guest of the lord and lady.  It wouldn’t be…”

            “Nonsense,” said Kyle.  “You’re family.  Probably about the only family I’ll ever get to meet in my life.  And I can get there and back faster than you; I’m a wizard, remember?”

            Kevin and Elsie looked at each other again.  “It would put your mind at ease, dear,” Elsie said.

            Kevin scratched his chin.  “Well, I don’t have much to cover your expenses, but it’s a short trip…”

            “You let me worry about the expenses.  I can take care of myself.”  Kyle grinned.  “We have a deal?”

            Kevin grinned.  “Deal.”  He extended a callused hand and gave Kyle a firm handshake.

*          *            *​
            Kyle slept at Kevin and Elsie’s home that night, spreading out a few blankets on the floor in the main room.  It was far too late in the evening to be entering the castle, and Kyle didn’t feel like explaining how he got out in the first place.  When he arose the next morning, he went to tell his companions about his newly discovered kin in town, and to let them know about his trip to Balnad’s Ford.  He discovered that his companions had left without him that morning.  There had been reports of goblins attacking a caravan that they were on their way to investigate, and they couldn’t wait for him.  Once he got the news, Kyle returned to his room and wrote out a letter:


Friends,

 Gone off on a personal errand for a friend here.  I expect to be back in three days at the outside.  Should you decide to move on before I return, leave word at the castle and I’ll catch up with you.  Make sure to take my horse, Matilda, with you if you leave.

                                                                                                 Yours,

                                                                                                            Kyle



            He slipped the letter under Autumn’s door, where she’d be sure to see it, and then went out of the castle.  He walked until he was just outside the edge of the village surrounding the castle, and then sat down and began to cast a spell.  After several minutes, a vaporous, translucent form of a horse materialized.  Just as Kyle was about to mount the apparition, he heard a rough voice behind him.

            “You weren’t leaving without me, were you?”

            Kyle smiled.  “Of course not, Violet.  I was just letting you sleep in.”

            “Sure, sure.”

            He’s been slightly surprised to hear his familiar.  Though the raven was gifted with the ability to speak, she rarely did so except when she was alone with Kyle.  Violet said that she thought the others were too unnerved by a talking bird.  She also said that she didn’t want to be bothered by their endless requests for advice.  “It’s bad enough that Eritan priest keeps waiting for me to molt so he can decorate his cloak,” she would often say.  “I don’t want him to get the idea that I’ll be handing out pearls of wisdom from the Goddess.”**

            Violet flapped her wings and landed on Kyle’s shoulder.  She cawed at the horse-like thing under them.  “You really planning on riding that thing?”

            “Violet, it’s just a phantom steed.  Perfectly harmless.”

            “What’s wrong with Matilda?” she asked.

            “Nothing, but this steed can go much faster than a normal horse.  Balnad’s Ford is normally a three-day ride; this way I can do it in one, and not have to worry about camping on the roadside alone.  Plus, I get there and back faster so the others aren’t waiting for me.”

            “I thought you told them not to wait in that letter,” Violet said, pecking at a bug that had landed on Kyle’s back.

            “Yes, but you know them.  Autumn would probably make them all sit around twiddling their thumbs until I got back, then chew me out for not waiting and bringing everyone along.”

            “Well, why not wait for them?”

            “Because I don’t think it takes eight battle-hardened adventurers to run up to the next town and ask if a particular merchant has been seen recently.”  Kyle willed the phantom steed to turn around and face the road north.  “Now, any more questions, or can we be on our way?”

            “Fine, fine,” Violet croaked.  “But if we see any dead animals on the side of the road, you have to stop, okay?  I’m getting tired of bugs and seeds.”

            “I’ll be sure to remember that, Violet.  Now, hang on.”

*          *            *​
            Kyle ended up having to summon a second steed before he made it to Balnad’s Ford late that day.  Exhausted from the long ride, he found an inn and paid for a room, deciding to take up his search for Nicholas Goodson in the morning.  His sleep was only marred by Violet complaining that they’d found no carrion on the trip into town.

            His inquiries the next morning produced fast results.  Several townspeople had seen the man that Kyle described to them.  He had arrived in Balnad’s Ford on the second, and spent a day there with his goods until the buyer arrived and paid him.  He then went south on the fourth; the locals assumed that he was heading to Castle Verahannen to ply his trade.

            “Too bad he didn’t stick around another day,” one old shopkeeper said.  “He’d of had himself an opportunity right here.”

            “What do you mean?” asked Kyle.  Violet sat calmly on his shoulder, watching a spider crawl down the wall.

            “Well, the day after he left, a group of fellows came into town asking after him.  Said they had business with master Goodson.  Well, we told them that he’d gone south the day before, and they packed off after him that very afternoon.  Probably at the castle with him right now.”

            Kyle didn’t mention that he’d just come from Castle Verahannen.  The hairs on the back of his neck stood up; Nicholas should have been at the castle three days ago, from the sound of it.  He didn’t like the sound of these men asking after him.

            “Did Nicholas act at all like he was on guard or defensive while he was in town?” Kyle asked.  “As if he was expecting trouble?”

            “No, can’t say as he was,” the old-timer drawled.  “He wore a short sword, but that’s not that irregular for a traveling merchant.”

            “And what about these men asking about him?  Were they at all threatening?”

            “Nope, they was all real polite.  Course, there were eight of ‘em, which could be a bit unnerving, but they wasn’t armed with nothing but these funny knives.”

            “Funny how?” asked Kyle.

            “Well, they were sort of curved, like a scythe, and the blade was… hold on, I’ll show you.”  The man picked up a slate board he kept at the counter to tally up sales, and a stub of chalk.  He quickly sketched the knife he’d seen.  “Mind you,” he said as he worked, “I only saw one of those guys with these, stuck in his belt.  Seemed a bit small to be much of a threat.”

            The old man held up the board for Kyle to see.  His eyes widened for just a moment, then he mumbled a word of thanks to the shopkeeper and dashed outside.  He went around the corner and immediately began sketching the symbols in the dirt to summon another phantom steed.

            “What is it?” cawed Violet.  “What’s wrong?”

            “That knife the old man described,” Kyle said.  “I’ve seen one like it before.”

            “You have?  What kind of weapon is it?”

            “It’s not a weapon, Violet, it’s a tool.  I saw it at the Tower, during our studies in basic necromancy.  We were examining corpses to learn how magic is used to reanimate them as undead.”

            “What does that have to do with a knife?” Violet asked.

            “That blade is a disemboweling knife,” Kyle said grimly.

*          *            *​
            Kyle rode hard for three full hours.  He estimated that Nicholas had had a good day’s head-start, but that the eight men would have ridden hard to catch up to him.  When he got close to where he thought they might have spotted him, he slowed down and rode at a normal pace, looking around for anything unusual.

            After nearly an hour of searching, Violet turned her head.  “You smell that?”

            “Smell what?”

            “Something died nearby.”  She tilted her head slightly.  “Off that way somewhere.”

            Kyle dismounted from his magical steed, a lump rising in his throat.  He quickly muttered the words to a couple of protective spells, and then walked off the road into the brush in the direction Violet had indicated.

            The raven’s sense of smell directed him several yards into the brush.  As he walked, he began to notice signs that he wasn’t the only one to have come this way recently.  Broken branches and old footprints attested to the recent passage of a small group of people.  Kyle was no ranger, but he could guess it was about eight or nine men.

            Eventually they came upon a ruined building, a squat stone house that looked as if it had been abandoned decades ago.  Remarkably, it was still mostly intact.

            “In there?” Kyle asked.  Violet cawed her confirmation.  Kyle moved forward, hoping he wouldn’t see what he expected.

            As he walked into the doorway, he saw both exactly what he expected, and much he hadn’t.

            Swarms of flies buzzed about the room.  In the center of the floor a body lay sprawled naked, coated with dried blood and viscera.  The body lay in the middle of a circle inscribed with magical runes.  Even from the doorway, Kyle could see the body had been mutilated, and there were signs that small predators had been there as well to take morsels.

            Slowly, Kyle unshouldered his pack and dug out a smokestick.  He lit it and tossed it into the room, filling the space with thick smoke that drove away the flies as well as the putrid stench.  Then Kyle moved into the room, and knelt next to the body.

            The body was obviously that of Nicholas.  Curly brown hair covered his head, though it was now matted with blood.  Kyle traced a finger along the man’s jawline, feeling the scar that Kevin said Nicholas had gotten as a young man in a fight over a woman.  Nicholas’ eyes had been cut out of his head.  Quickly examining the body, Kyle saw that other important parts were also missing; the heart, the kidneys, and the testicles.

            “They got all the best parts,” Violet grumbled.

            “Now is not the time,” Kyle growled.

            “Sorry.”

            Kyle turned Nicholas’ head to the side.  He saw that a pair of iron nails had been hammered into his ears and into his brain.  This was probably what had killed him – and Kyle suspected it was probably the last thing they did.

            “Why go to all this trouble to rob a merchant?” asked Violet, as Kyle examined the glyphs surrounding the body.

            “It wasn’t a robbery.  See?”  Kyle pointed down to Nicholas’ right hand, where he still wore a large gold signet ring.  “Thieves would have taken that.”  Kyle then pointed to the circle around them.  “You see these runes?  They’re meant to block the spirit from the Shadow Plane at the time of death, and dissolve its energy.  They weren’t just trying to kill the man, they were trying to destroy his soul.”

            Violet shivered.  “That’s horrible.  Did it work?”

            “I can’t say for sure.  Obviously, the men who did this thought it would.”  Kyle frowned.  “But why?  I could understand a merchant having enemies, but Nicholas didn’t seem important enough to warrant… this.”

            “Hey, what’s that symbol for on the wall?” Violet asked.

            Kyle turned to look.  A large symbol was painted on the wall in blood, presumably Nicholas’.  Kyle hadn’t seen it before because it was on the inside of the wall with the doorway.  Slowly, he stood up.

            “I don’t know,” he said.  “I’ve never seen a symbol like that before.”

            The crude symbol on the wall resembled a pair of four-fingered claws, almost like a bird’s talons.  The first digits were touching each other at the bottom, while the middle talons arched over and nearly touched.  The third digits also arched toward each other, but there was a larger gap, and between the ends of the pointed digits was a word Kyle didn’t recognize, though he alphabet used was Draconic.  As he studied the symbol, Kyle got an impression that there was supposed to be something else in the middle of the symbol, in the space between the middle digits.  He found the gruesome symbol strangely fascinating.

            “It must mean something,” Kyle said.  “I should write this down.”  Kyle fished his notebook out of his pack and sat cross-legged on the floor, copying the symbol.  He found it was surprisingly easy to replicate the symbol, even the complex script at the very top.  Kyle also copied the symbols in the circle for good measure, as well as describing how he’d found the body.  When he finished, Kyle pulled the signet ring off of Nicholas’ finger, then retrieved his pack and walked a short distance away.

            “What now?” Violet asked.

            “Now, I burn the body,” Kyle said.  “Then we go back to Balnad’s Ford to see if anyone else knows anything about these eight men.  After that…” Kyle sighed.  “We go back to the castle and deliver this to Kevin.”  He held up the signet ring.

            “What do you think happened here?”

            “I don’t know.  It looks like some sort of cult, maybe a sect of Fiel.  Nicholas must have run into them at some point in the past, and they made him a target.  Maybe that talon symbol on the wall is the cult’s symbol.  Fiel’s totem is a spider – maybe that symbol is supposed to be eight legs, not two sets of four claws like I thought.”

            “You going to tell the others?”

            Kyle thought for a moment.  “Not yet.  Like I said before, we don’t need more delays on the way to Noxolt.  Besides, the trail of these men is cold, and as unfortunate as it is, it’s probably an isolated incident.  When we get to the capital, maybe I can get access to a library and see if I can do some research on that symbol on the wall.”

            Violet was strangely silent as Kyle summoned magical fire to incinerate the corpse and all evidence of the horrific scene inside.  She remained silent all the way back to town.

            “What’s the matter, Violet?” Kyle asked as they came upon Balnad’s Ford once again.

            “Nothing,” said Violet.  “I was just thinking about finding that man.  If what you say is true, about them destroying souls, then I’d hate to have people like that after me.”

            “I agree with you,” Kyle said.  “But I’m sure we have nothing to worry about.”

--------------------------------------

* As to those "other reasons": by this stage in the game Kyle and Autumn had been spending a great deal of time together, and were beginning to explore the possibility there was a romantic potential between them.  So at the time this story takes place, they are sort of 'dating'.  However, Autumn and Kyle wanted to keep the whole thing secret from the others (partly so that if things didn't work out, they could break it off and not cause a stir, but Autumn also had her own, private reasons for secrecy).  In order to simulate the subterfuge, Autumn's player Erica and myself agreed not to reveal our little subplot to the other players, conducting most of it through private email.  Thus you'll see little direct evidence of the relationship in the Story Hour for a while.  Eventually we let everyone in on it (most had figured it out anyway), and you start seeing more obvious signs of the relationship in the story.

** The raven is Erito's totem animal, and it's considered a sign of status among the priesthood to have a cloak made of raven feathers.


----------



## Delemental

*The Tenth Part*

Kavan sat bolt upright in bed, the rays of the early dawn sun streaming through his window to illuminate his smooth elven features.  A drop of sweat ran down his temple.

            The dream still lingered on the edge of his consciousness.  Kavan quickly rose from his bed and pulled on a pair of trousers over his nightshirt.  Walking to the door barefoot across the cold stone floor, he opened the door and went out.  He immediately walked across the hall to the door opposite his, and began knocking.  He had to talk to someone.  Now.

            “What?” said a voice from the other side of the door.

            “Osborn, it’s Kavan.  I need to speak with you.  It’s important.”

            Kavan heard mumbling and cursing, and the sounds of Osborn’s dog Rupert whining and scratching.  A few moments later the door opened, and the large dog burst past Kavan and ran down the hall, no doubt headed outside.

            Osborn looked up at Kavan, and with a wave of his hand invited him in.  The hin sat down on the edge of his large bed, while Kavan took one of the chairs in the room.  From the state of the bedding, Kavan could tell that Osborn had shared the bed with his dog.

            “Okay,” Osborn said, yawning, “what’s so important?”

            “I’ve just had a dream – a very disturbing dream.  It’s warning me that someone is in danger, but I’m not sure who it is.  I need someone to help me figure it out.”

            “A dream, huh? Well, you tell me your strange dream, and I’ll tell you mine.”

            Kavan cleared his throat.  “I was surrounded by the essence of my goddess, Erito.  She was embracing me, and seemed pleased with me.  She was telling me of a time of great change that was coming, and how I had to be a shepherd to guide her children.  But as she spoke, she suddenly became alarmed.  She told me that the soul of the human girl-child is in peril, and that I had to go to her before all was lost.  She commanded me to awake.  That was only moments ago.”

            “Wow,” said Osborn.  “So who’s the ‘human girl-child’?”

            “That is what I don’t know.  Erito did not reveal her identity to me.”

            Osborn scowled.  “That’s not very helpful.”

            “Erito is a goddess of secrets among her other duties.  She often does not reveal all to her priests, so that they do not become complacent.”

            “Well, do any of the people in the castle have children?”

            “None that I know of,” said Kavan, shaking his head.  “The families of the castle staff would not live here, though.”

            “Well, I guess we can search the village,” said Osborn.

            Kavan sighed.  Such a search might take hours, even days, and he sensed that this girl didn’t have that much time.  Kavan knew the answer had to be close at hand, or Erito would not have revealed it to him the way she did.  As his mind danced around the problem, he looked at Osborn, still sitting on the edge of the bed.  It was large even by human standards, and its size made Osborn look like a small child himself.  If he hadn’t known better, he’d almost think…

            Enlightenment came like a flash of summer lightning.  Kavan had to force himself not to smile.  He stood up.

            “Osborn, come with me.  I think I know who the child is.”

            They dashed out the door, Kavan leading them down the hallway.

            “Where are we going?” Osborn shouted.

            “To the other side of the castle.”

            “Why?  I thought we agreed there were no children living in the castle!”

            This time Kavan couldn’t keep the smile from touching the corner of his lips.  “It’s a matter of perspective, dear Osborn.  A matter of perspective.”

            They walked quickly down the hallways, drawing strange looks from the few servants up and about.

            “What was your dream?” Kavan asked.

            “What?”

            “You mentioned you had a strange dream as well.  What was it?”

            “Oh, that.”  Osborn grinned.  “Well, I dreamed that everything in the world was made of bacon.  And I started eating it, because it was bacon.  And I kept eating, and eating, until all that was left was me.  I ate the world, because it was bacon.”

            “How… disturbing.”

            Minutes later they rounded a corner and entered another corridor.  Kavan glanced around at the half-dozen doors in the hallway.

            “This is where Arrie and Autumn’s rooms are,” said Osborn.

            “Yes, I know.  Arrie is the one in danger.”

            “What?  She’s not a child!”

            Kavan nodded.  “Yes, I know.  But she is married to an elven prince, and Erito is the patron of the elves.  She has only seen eighteen summers.  In their eyes, she is a child.”  Kavan frowned.  "But I don't know which room she's in for sure."

            “Well, then, let’s find her!”  Osborn immediately ran to the door on his left and opened it, going inside.  He dashed through the small sitting area and went straight for the bedroom, opening the door with a crash and moving to the large canopied bed in the center of the room.  He pulled aside the sheer curtains, and looked straight into Autumn’s blue eyes.

            Osborn didn’t miss a beat.  “Autumn, come quick!  Your sister’s in trouble!”  He dashed out of the room without waiting for a reply.

            Meanwhile, Kavan was about to employ the same search method as Osborn, when he heard something odd from the door to the right about halfway down the hall.  It was a low chanting, in a male voice he’d not heard before.  Kavan grabbed one of the burned-out torches in a wall sconce, and walked to that door.  He considered kicking it in, but remembered that he had no boots on.  He tried the door, and found it open.

            Kavan walked through the sitting area, hearing the male voice coming from the bedroom to his right.  He glanced to the wall, and saw a spiked chain hanging from the wall.  Kavan immediately rushed into the bedroom.

            Arrie was lying on her bed, dressed in a light shift to ward off the summer heat.  The sheer fabric around the bed was torn aside.  Arrie lay in the center of the bed, writhing and twisting in evident pain.  The otherworldly male voice was coming from her lips, seeming to echo even in the small room.  Kavan recognized the words as Elvish, but it was a strange, archaic form, and Kavan was unable to make out its meaning.  Arrie looked up at Kavan with glowing red eyes.  In the midst of the horrific litany, Arrie uttered a single name that Kavan recognized.

            The elven priest rushed to Arrie’s bed, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her.  “Arrie!” he shouted, “Wake up!”

            Just then Osborn came into the room.  “What’s going on?”

            “Arrie’s been possessed by Sauroth!”

*          *            *​
            Chaos reigned in Ariadne’s bedroom.

            Kavan tried to drive the spirit out of Arrie with a burst of positive energy, but Arrie’s condition didn’t change.  Autumn came in on Osborn’s heels, her sword in hand, just as the hin dumped a pitcher of water over Arrie, soaking her shift but producing no change.

            “Let’s slap the evil out of her!” Osborn offered.

Kavan looked at Osborn.  “Go get Tolly.  I need his help.”

Osborn dashed off to get Tolly.  Meanwhile Autumn had gone to get Prince Herion, who was sleeping in one of the rooms in the same corridor.  She burst in on him sitting on the edge of his bed, meditating.

“Herion!” she shouted.  “Something’s wrong with Arrie!”

His eyes immediately opened, and he stood up to follow Autumn.  Once inside Arrie’s room, Herion stood listening to the words spilling from Arrie’s mouth.  His face went ashen.

“What is it?” said Autumn.

“It’s… my grandfather.  Sauroth has bound the soul of my grandfather into Ariadne.”

Autumn looked panicked.  “Well, how do we stop it?”

            “I don’t know.  I would suggest killing Sauroth.”

“We don’t know where Sauroth is!  How can he do this without being here?”

“I don’t know.”

Autumn looked near to tears with frustration.  “Was your grandfather evil?”

“It doesn’t matter.  Sauroth had bound him with evil magic.”

Autumn put a hand on Herion’s shoulder and spun him to face her.  “Do I need to smite my sister?” she shouted, her eyes aflame.

Herion bowed his head.  “Not yet.”

Autumn smoldered for a moment, then went to the door, shouting for guards.  When two arrived, she commanded them to bring four sets of shackles from the prison. 

Just then Osborn returned with Tolly.  Tolly immediately stepped forward.   “What’s going on?  What’s happening?”  As he stepped forward, Osborn turned to go get the other party members.

Kavan looked up at Tolly, still holding onto Arrie’s hand.  “Sauroth has bound the spirit of Herion’s grandfather into Arrie.”

Tolly immediately laid his hand on Arrie’s forehead and sent a surge of positive energy into her.  Her eyes fluttered for a moment, and a faint whisper escaped her lips, in Arrie’s own voice.

“Stop… him….”

Tolly looked up as the male chanting voice returned.  “Nothing.”

“I thought perhaps we could combine our efforts,” offered Kavan.  “Combine the power of two gods.”

“Three,” said Autumn.  “I, too, have the ability to channel positive energy.”

Tolly nodded in agreement.  Then, for a moment, a troubled look crossed his brow.  “Have any of you heard the term ‘deathless’ before?”

Each of them indicated they hadn’t.  “Autumn,” Tolly continued, “is there anything around here that might be considered a ‘frozen heart’?”

“Nothing I can think of.  Why?”

Tolly shook his head.  “Nothing.  It’s not important now, anyway.”

The two priests and the sentinel stood around Arrie’s bed, letting positive energy flow into Arrie.  For a moment, they seemed to be having an effect, but the spirit stubbornly clung to Arrie’s body, refusing to relinquish its prize.  As they prayed and chanted, Xu and Kyle walked into the room along with Osborn, and were informed of the situation by Herion.  Soon Tolly, Kavan, and Autumn were unable to continue, and stepped back.  But just as the spirit began to settle back into Arrie, Tolly cast a spell.  Though most of the people in the room saw nothing happen, Autumn saw a faint shimmer to the air, rising above Arrie’s body.  The entity itself did not seem evil, but seemed bound by evil’s power.

Autumn raised her sword and slashed at the disturbance in the air.  She felt her sword pass through it, but felt that she had sliced through something more than air.  Behind her, she heard Herion chanting magical words.  She was relieved that someone else had seen the spirit as well and was doing something.  She pulled back to swing again, but suddenly her muscles went rigid.

Herion sighed, and went up and pulled the paralyzed Autumn away from Arrie, wrenching the sword from her hand.  As he set her down in the back of the room, Kyle walked up.

“Why did you cast _hold person_ on Autumn?”

Despite being unable to move a muscle, Autumn seethed.

“She was attacking my wife,” he said, his voice shaky.

“No, I think she was attacking the air above your wife,” he said.  “Maybe she saw something we can’t.”  Kyle turned to Tolly.  “What spell was that?”

“_Hide from undead_,” said Tolly.  “I wasn’t sure it would work, but the spirit seems unable to locate Arrie now to regain full control.  It’s now floating above her.  I’ve also warded those of us in the room, so the spirit doesn’t attempt to possess one of us.”

“How long does it last?” he asked.

“An hour,” Tolly said.

Kyle picked up the frozen Autumn and began taking her to her room.  “Look, I don’t think destroying Herion’s grandpa is the answer here.  It’s the spell that’s evil, not the spirit.  We need to find Sauroth.  He can’t be that far away.”  Kyle’s voice was cut off as he kicked the door to Autumn’s room closed with his foot.

By this time the guards had returned with shackles.  Herion commanded them to restrain Arrie to her bed, wrapping strips of cloth around her wrists and ankles so as not to injure her.

“Do you have anything you can do to keep the spirit out of Arrie after my spell wears off?” Tolly asked Herion.

“No,” he said flatly.  “And I must leave.  I have no choice.”

As harsh as it sounded, the group understood.  The previous day, shortly after Kyle had returned from his excursion, an elven messenger had ridden into the castle with a missive for Herion.  Though the contents of the message were not made public, Herion had confided in the group that his father, the emperor of Tlaxan, was dying.  Herion had to return to the capital, Noxolt, to be by his side.

“Then we don’t have much time,” Tolly said.

“I have a spell that will help us find Sauroth,” Kavan said.  “I can use it once we are ready to leave.”

“Why not now?” asked Xu.

“The spell works for only a moment, telling me the direction in which whoever I’m trying to find is located.  I would rather wait until we are ready to travel before I cast it.  I won’t know how far away he is.  But as Kyle suggests, he can’t be far from here.  I’d also guess he’s located in some sort of structure.”

            “So once we know what direction he is, we can ask someone what lies in that direction that might be a good place to look,” Osborn said.

            “All right, then, let’s go,” said Tolly.  “Someone will need to wake up Lanara.  I will go assist Autumn with her armor; my own has been enchanted in such a way to make it much easier to don than normal, so I will need no help.”

            The group quickly went to prepare themselves to leave, leaving Arrie chained to her bed, still spewing forth words in archaic Elvish.

*          *            *​
             Kavan’s spell pointed them in the direction of the lone mountain in the region; the castle itself was built at the foot of the mountain.  Local woodsmen indicated that there was little of interest on the mountain, except for an abandoned watchtower and a series of caves.

            Autumn was the last to emerge from the castle, having made sure that Arrie was as comfortable as possible.  She then went to deliver the news to her parents, Zanich and Auror.  Autumn was slightly astounded to see Auror express genuine concern for Arrie’s well being.  It did her heart good to know that despite the frequent conflicts between Auror and Arrie, they truly did care for one another.

            The group was able to ride for two hours before the terrain became too treacherous for horses.  As they dismounted and collected their supplies, some of the party members readied their longer-lasting defensive magic.  They then began hiking toward the watchtower they’d been told about.  During the journey, Lanara was uncharacteristically quiet, even considering their grim purpose.  Several people in the group noted it, but the opportunity to ask her about it never arose.

            An hour later, they spotted the watchtower, jutting out from a ridge of bare rock.  An outer wall surrounded the tower itself, and stretching from the top of the outer wall to the tower was a layer of heavy canvas, making the entire structure resemble a large circus tent.  The group took up positions hidden in the boulder field below the tower, as Osborn crept up silently to scout.  The only visible entrance was a large opening in the outer wall.  Some of the other members of the party began loosening weapons, and readying spell components.  Lanara pulled out a stoppered flask, and moved up next to Autumn and Tolly.

            “This is ghost oil,” she said quietly.  “It only lasts a few seconds, but if I pour it on your weapons you’ll be able to hit insubstantial creatures.  I have enough for both your sword and your hammer.”

            They each nodded in understanding, keeping a close eye on Osborn as he reached the opening.  The hin poked his head inside the opening, but quickly stumbled back as a black, clawed hand reached through the wall and scraped his shoulder.  The rest of the group began running up the hill as fast as possible.

            They came up on a terrifying sight.  Standing to either side of the opening, about twenty feet back, were a pair of wraiths.  One of the wraiths had been the one that had clawed at Osborn.  Behind them another forty feet was what looked like a stationary tornado.  Tortured faces appeared in the storm, wailing as they circled around.  Further back, near the base of the inner tower, a figure in full armor riding a sinister black horse stood ready, lance in hand.  And finally, at the entrance to the inner tower, a lone figure stood.  The thin elf dressed in black robes, and looked as if he’d been expecting the party all along.

            “Sauroth,” growled Autumn.

            Lanara’s attention, however, was drawn to the whirling mass of faces.  Her own face turned white.  “Qin-Chu’s toes!  It’s a Caller in Darkness!”

            “I’ve never heard of them,” Kyle said.

            “They haven’t been seen since before the Cataclysm,” she whispered.  “They use magic to induce people to commit suicide, and those who do join with the Caller.”

            “Then we shouldn’t listen to it,” said Tolly.

            Lanara nodded, and began singing a hope-filled, energetic song to counter the Caller’s presence.  As she sung, she unstoppered her flask of ghost oil and began pouring some on Autumn’s blade.

            The group began moving in.  The assembled undead guardians did not advance, apparently waiting for their living foes to make the first move.  Far behind them, Sauroth wove protective spells around himself.

            Kyle decided to make a bold opening move.  A bright blue bead streaked from his extended hand, flying between one of the wraiths and the Caller in Darkness.  It burst into a globe of bright, flashing lightning, nearly blinding everyone.  Unfortunately, the arcs of electricity passed through both enemies without harm.

            “So much for that,” growled Kyle, clearly disappointed in himself.

            Meanwhile, Osborn took up a position just behind the outer wall.  Reaching into a pocket, he pulled a small stone out of a sack and loaded his sling.  He twirled it over his head and fired the stone at Sauroth.  As it flew, the tiny stone grew to the size of a catapult boulder.  Sauroth tried to twist away, but the stone impacted the elven wizard’s hip, causing him to grunt in pain.

            Others took Osborn’s lead, taking up defensive positions behind the wall and attempting to soften up the enemy with missile fire.  But many of the arrows and bolts went wide of their mark, as under the gloom of the covering tent the inky black undead were difficult to see.  Tolly attempted to destroy the wraiths with holy power, but was unable to summon the strength.  Kavan took a similar approach, but instead targeted one of the wraiths with a blast of light, which seemed to partially disrupt the undead’s form.

            With the party committed to battle, the enemy began to close in.  One of the wraiths raked its claws at Xu, attempting to leach away her life force, but the monk’s years of meditation had hardened her resolve, and she suffered only minor scratches.  Tolly and Osborn were not as fortunate; they were pummeled by unseen bursts of energy summoned by the Caller in Darkness, which had yet to move.  The mounted figure near the rear also stood out of the combat, waiting.

            Knowing that they would have to move quickly or be denied entry to the tower, the party dropped their bows and began drawing weapons, moving in through the opening to engage the undead.

            It was the moment Saurouth was waiting for.

            A ball of flame erupted among the party as they pressed through the narrow opening in the wall.  Only Xu and Osborn managed to avoid the blast entirely.  Kyle, brushing soot off his robes, quickly dashed forward in an effort to open up the entrance, and to be out of range of another blast.  He wove a spell around himself, causing his form to seem to shift several feet away.

            Unfortunately for the wizard, the mounted figure had marked his location before the spell took effect.  Lowering its lance, the armored figure charged forward, and impaled Kyle through the shoulder.  Blood sprayed across the courtyard, and Kyle was knocked back several feet by the impact, the end of the lance breaking off in him.  Kyle screamed in pain and looked as though he were about to pass out.  It was a miracle that he stood at all.

            Several people immediately came to his aid.  Xu slipped past the wraith who had attacked her, and landed a blow against the armored man’s sinister mount in an attempt to fell it.  Lanara, inspired by Xu’s tactic, used a wand to summon a large spider to attack the beast, assuming it would be far easier to kill a fiendish horse than its mysterious rider.  The warrior attempted to wheel the horse out of the way, but was soon surrounded.  Those who surrounded the horse and its rider could feel a palpable aura of menace.  The man drew a sword and began slashing at its assailants, even as the horse reared up and kicked out with razor-sharp hooves.

            Kavan stepped up and healed Kyle’s wounds, even as the wizard stepped back and downed his own healing potion.  Nearby, Autumn’s blade scythed through one of the wraiths, destroying it.  Turning around, the sentinel noticed Kyle’s injuries and the mounted enemy being surrounded for the first time.  She turned her focus from Kyle to Sauroth, who was still standing near the tower smiling and casting spells.  She began running toward him as fast as possible, sword gripped tightly in her hand.

            Osborn led the other wraith on a merry chase around the courtyard, narrowly avoiding most of its sweeping claw attacks.  A short distance away, the Caller in Darkness, still unmoving, began to utter a strange, wailing sound.  Those among the living began to feel thoughts of depression and despair pressing in on their minds; they ignored the effects as best as they could and focused on their immediate survival.

            With some of his strength returning, Kyle’s head cleared and he saw Sauroth again, with Autumn charging toward him.  Looking around, he saw Xu, Lanara, and Tolly engaged with the mounted warrior, and Osborn dealing with the remaining wraith.  Kavan had just summoned a quarterstaff comprised of force, surrounded by a nimbus of holy power, which he sent to attack the Caller in Darkness in an attempt to stop its assault on their minds.  Kyle looked again at Sauroth.  He wasn’t sure there was much he could do to challenge a wizard of such skill, but he had to try.  An idea came to his mind – it was a long shot at best.  For it to work, he had to get closer.

Kyle began running toward Sauroth, even as the necromancer struck Autumn with a beam of sickly energy.  He knew from the gestures that Sauroth had made that he’d just cast a _ray of enfeeblement_; sure enough, Autumn’s movements began to slow, and she appeared to be laboring under the weight of her own armor.  Although already protected by _displacement_, Kyle threw a _mirror image _ on himself for good measure, causing six copies of himself to appear.  He figured his only chance against Sauroth was to make it hard to hit him.

            Osborn, who was now easily avoiding the clumsy attacks of the wraith, decided to lend his weight to the fight against the mounted foe.  A pair of his daggers buried themselves in the horse’s shoulder.  The rider slashed at his opponents, including the growing number of spiders being summoned by Lanara, but was unable to drive the party off or break free of them.  The horse was bitten by two of the large spiders, their mandibles tearing off huge chunks of flesh.  Xu began trying to pull the rider off the horse, but struggled with the warrior’s armored bulk and its secure position in the saddle.

            Kavan, seeing that the melee surrounding the horse was too thick for him to contribute to, paused to examine the scene.  Osborn seemed to be having little trouble with the wraith, though it was drawing closer and would have to be dealt with soon.  The Caller in Darkness was still unmolested, save for the injuries inflicted by Kavan’s spiritual weapon.  He considered directing more spells toward it, but he remembered that Lanara had described this creature as dating from before the Cataclysm.  Against a foe of such unknown potential, caution was advised.  Instead, Kavan tried to cast a _hold person_ against Sauroth to aid Autumn and Kyle, but his spell slipped off the elven wizard with no effect.  Cursing, Kavan returned his attention to the nearby battle.

            Autumn, despite being weakened by Sauroth’s spell, finally reached the wizard, and slashed at him.  But her blade was deflected by a field of force surrounding Sauroth.  Smiling, the elf cast a spell, avoiding her slashes.  A field of crackling energy surrounded his hand, and with a sneer he reached out to touch Autumn.  His hand just barely missed connecting, but the electricity arced onto Autumn’s breastplate.  Smoke rose from under the collar of the sentinel’s armor, and she cried out in pain.

            Kyle raced toward them, mentally judging the distance to Sauroth.  He wanted to get closer, but he knew he didn’t have that luxury.  Summoning as much arcane power as he could muster, he shouted at Sauroth.

            “Hey!  Since you’re obviously so capable of defeating us all by yourself, why not send away your undead friends?”

            Kyle felt the words, laced with energy, slithering their way toward Sauroth.  He sensed the elf’s formidable will as a solid wall, blocking his spell’s path to his mind.  For a moment, Kyle knew the spell would impact upon that wall and shatter, without effect.  He began to wonder why a common laborer like himself thought he could wield magic against a true practitioner like Sauroth.  Just then, his inner eye detected a tiny crack in the wall he envisioned.  Kyle bent his spell toward that tiny crack, hoping beyond hope.  The spell wormed its way through the tiny flaw in Sauroth’s mind, anchoring itself on the necromancer’s immense ego.

            Blinking, Sauroth turned his attention from Autumn for a moment, concentrating.  Immediately, the lone remaining wraith and the Caller in Darkness began to rise, floating up near the tent ceiling and flying into an upper window of the tower.  The armored figure glanced back at Sauroth for a moment, then continued its attack.  The warrior slashed at Xu, leaving a deep slash across her stomach.  The monk staggered back a few steps, holding her insides in with one hand.  Driven by sheer determination, she attempted to leap up on the horse and grab the warrior, but with her hands slick with her own blood she was unable to maintain a grasp.  Wisdom overcame aggression, and she stepped back to drink a healing potion.  Similarly, Kavan used the unexpected reprieve to administer to his own wounds.  The horse was struck a solid blow by Tolly’s flaming hammer, but was unable to respond to the threat because it was too busy crushing spiders, which Lanara was summoning as fast as she could.

            Kyle ran up close to Autumn and Sauroth.  The necromancer was still able to avoid Autumn’s blows, aided by her weakness and his magical defenses.  Having seen the spell Sauroth used against her, Kyle decided to use a similar tactic.  Soon his hand was wreathed in electricity, but instead of charging in Kyle held back, waiting for an opening.

            Tolly swung his hammer at the horse again.  Its fiendish nature had allowed it to absorb most of the damage of their attacks, but the continual assault had worn it down.  Dazed and nearly senseless, the horse was unable to avoid the incoming blow.  Its life force crushed, the summoned steed vanished.  The warrior atop the horse suddenly came to the earth, but by some miracle he landed on his feet and kept fighting.

            Sauroth’s confidence began to fade slightly.  He’d sent away his last wraith and the Caller, convinced these peasants would be little more than a diversion to him.  But now his ally was off his horse, and the holy warrior and that damnable wizard were pressing in.  He shrugged off an attempt by the bard to infect him with laughter, and considered his options.  Perhaps a slight withdrawal to a more defensible position would be best.  Sauroth stepped back from the feeble swings of the sentinel’s sword, and easily dodged an attempt by the wizard to strike him with his _shocking grasp_ spell.  He considered his options, and smiled even as arcane syllables began to spill from his lips.

            Kyle heard the words, and although he was not familiar with the spell, he knew its effects.  Sure enough, he felt the tell-tale shift in air pressure indicating that an invisible barrier now stood between them and Sauroth.

            “He’s put up a wall of force!” Kyle shouted.  He reached out with one hand and stepped forward until he felt the wall’s smooth surface, and began feeling his way along, hoping the spell didn’t extend all the way to the other wall.  Autumn paused, drinking a potion while waiting to see what her options were.  

            With the horse gone, the party turned its wrath on the armored rider.  Blows from fists, daggers, and hammers rained on its armor, though he fought back fiercely.  Kavan redirected his spiritual quarterstaff to attack Sauroth, sending it over the wall of force.  Then he turned to the armored figure.  Casting one of his few remaining spells, he channeled healing energy into the warrior, expecting the positive energy to further wound the undead knight.  But when the warrior sighed in relief at the touch, Kavan and the others realized their error; the warrior was not an undead being.  With a grimace, Kavan began redirecting his efforts to healing the wounds of his allies rather than their enemies.

            Lanara summoned another of her spiders on the other side of Sauroth’s wall, trying to harry the wizard.  But before it could attack, Sauroth cast another spell and touched the spider with a hand limned in a greenish glow, draining its life energy and adding it to his own.  Meanwhile Kyle had found the outer edge of the magical wall, just a few yards shy of the watchtower’s outer wall.  With a shout to let his friends know of his success, Kyle ran full-bore down the other side of the wall.  Sauroth attempted to interrupt his charge with a _hold person_ spell, but there was a flash of light from one of Kyle’s rings and the spell was countered.  Kyle slammed into Sauroth, leading with the hand still charged with electricity.  Sauroth groaned from the impact. 

            While Autumn was standing still, Kavan reached out with Erito’s power and asked her to remove the baneful enchantment from her shoulders.  With a surge, Autumn felt her strength returning.  She saw that Tolly and Xu had combined to batter the warrior to his knees, rendering him incapable of resistance.  That left only one opponent standing.  Autumn began running for the end of the invisible wall.

With a sneer, Sauroth uttered a syllable, and instantly vanished, reappearing on the other side of the wall far from Kyle, Kavan’s spiritual weapon, and Lanara’s spiders.  He chose a spot in the courtyard far from the others, hoping to buy himself enough time to recover and turn the tables on his enemies.  The only one in close proximity to him was the cansin bard, who would prove no obstacle.  He chuckled with amusement as he saw the wizard turn and begin running back around the wall of force, reaching its end just as the sentinel came to it as well.  The fools would exhaust themselves running around.  At that thought, Sauroth’s amusement grew. He awaited the next enemy to approach.

That enemy was Xu.  She used her impressive speed to dash toward Sauroth, hoping to catch him before he cast another spell.  But the distance was too great, and before she knew it a black ray was striking her in the chest.  Suddenly Xu felt as though she’d just spent a week training in the dojo non-stop.  Her muscles ached with sudden, unexplained exertion, and her breath came in ragged gasps.  She tried to kick Sauroth in the jaw, but she could barely get her leg up to waist level, and her movements were so slow that he easily avoided her.

Sauroth’s mocking laughter was cut off as Lanara’s whip curled around his ankles, and he was pulled off his feet.  He rose quickly, furious at the few seconds he’d just lost.  To one of his power, seconds meant the difference between easy victory and a difficult one.  He regained some confidence when he saw a crossbow bolt from the him bounce away ineffectually; the little one was unaware of the ward he’d placed against such things.

He was not, however, warded against a charging Ardaran priest.  Tolly slammed into him, sending him flying back a few feet.  Then Autumn charged in, cutting into his chest with a vicious sword cut.  Lanara’s whip sent him crashing to the ground again.

Sauroth’s vision began to blur.  In the distance, he saw the elven priest run his sword through the heap of armor that was once his guardian.  Sauroth sighed.  Never trust the living with important tasks.  Even as he was beaten to death, Sauroth’s mind refused to register defeat.  He had simply miscalculated, that was all.  These interlopers would soon learn what it meant to cross him.

And so Sauroth the Necromancer, cousin to the Royal Court of Tlaxan, died with a smile still on his lips.


----------



## Delemental

*Life and Death*

Autumn slowly closed the door to Arrie’s room.  She turned to address the group of people assembled in the hallway.

            “She agrees with our decision.”

            The rest of the party nodded solemnly.  Earlier that day, they had rode out into the mountains near Arrie and Autumn’s ancestral home to combat Sauroth, an elven necromancer who was a cousin of the Imperial House of Tlaxan.  Herion had ordered them to bring him Sauroth’s head after the wizard had possessed his fiancée using the spirit of Herion’s grandfather.

            They rode back to the castle in haste after dispatching Sauroth, pausing only to search for the mysterious Caller in Darkness, the undead entity that according to Lanara hadn’t been seen since before the Cataclysm.  But there had been no trace of the creature, and their haste to check on Arrie’s well being prevented a more thorough search.

            They found that Arrie’s possession had ended, but the ordeal had left her close to death’s door.  Her strength and vitality had been sapped by the struggle for her own soul, and she was barely able to move or speak.  But beyond that, they all recognized the hollow look in Arrie’s eyes as she sat in bed, tended by servants.  It was a look that belied something perhaps more frightening that Arrie’s weakened body; it was the look of someone whose innermost confidence and self-assurance had been deeply shaken.  There were no herbal restoratives or clerical rites that would heal this type of wound; only time would do that.

            Kyle walked up and put his arm gently around Autumn’s shoulder, offering her support.  The others began milling about, talking amongst each other.

            “She knows that we’ll be back for her after we finish our business in Noxolt, right?” Kavan asked.

            “Yes, she does.  She thinks that by then she should have recovered enough strength to travel with us again.  She sees the wisdom in remaining here while the rest of us go to the capital, especially since we’ll be coming back in this direction anyway once we’re done.”

            “Yeah, and considering what she’s been through,” piped up Osborn, “she’s probably eager not to be around too many elves right now.”  He gave Kavan an apologetic smile.  “Nothing personal, of course.”

            The group spent the rest of the evening preparing to depart for the elven empire’s capital of Noxolt.  In the morning a dozen House Verahannen lancers, an honor guard sent by Lord Zanich to accompany them, met them outside.  After bidding farewell to Lord Zanich and Lady Auror, the group turned their horses toward the road leading to the main imperial road.

            The journey north to Noxolt took a little over two weeks, and given the fact that they traveled on a large highway accompanied by a dozen horsemen, the trip itself was uneventful, even boring.  The late summer heat was oppressive, and both Tolly and Autumn roasted in their heavy plate armor.  The only odd thing that happened was that as they traveled, Kyle would occasionally wander over to trees at the side of the road, and pick up large fallen branches to examine them.  Sometimes he would walk with them for a short distance before discarding them.  At one point Kavan asked what he was doing.

            “Trying to find my staff,” he explained.

            “You don’t carry a staff,” Kavan said.

            “No, I never have.  I never felt comfortable with a staff, kind of like I was pretending to be something I’m not.  But I guess I just decided it was time, like maybe I’m ready.”

            “So, what’s the problem?  One staff is as good as another, right?”

            “Well, for most people, but not for a wizard.  See, it’s kind of like a symbol, the way people recognize you.  I’ve been told that when a wizard sees the staff that’s supposed to be his, they just know it.  So, I’ve been looking, but so far nothing’s grabbed my attention.”

            Kavan looked at Kyle curiously.  “You know, I think this is one of the few times I’ve heard you talk about yourself like a wizard instead of a carpenter.”

            A shrug was Kyle’s only answer.

They arrived in the wide valley containing the city of Noxolt as a large bank of storm clouds began to roll in from the west, providing some respite from the heat.  The party rode through the streets in astonishment at the grandeur of Tlaxan’s capital city.  Although the approaching storm diminished the effect, the sight of the delicate arches and spires sticking out from numerous gardens and orchards drew appreciative glances.  Even Autumn and Kavan, who were more familiar with elven architecture, couldn’t help but let their eyes wander around the beauty that surrounded them.

            It took nearly half a day to ride to the gates of the Imperial Palace, a sprawling compound the size of a small city in and of itself.  The palace guards examined the letter of introduction that Lord Zanich had provided them, and with a curt nod allowed them to pass.  The large gates to the compound opened slowly, the massive doors apparently connected to some sort of hidden mechanism.  They dismounted in a large courtyard, where stableboys in crisp uniforms led their horses to the stables and robed officials took down their names and began leading the party toward the palace itself while their escort was led off to suitable quarters.

            During the walk to the palace, the party marveled at the sights around them.  There were many of the shops and professions within the compound that could be expected in service to an emperor; smithys, tailors, gilders, barracks.  They noted a wide variety of people within the city, many of which they hadn’t seen since their days in Trageon.  There were Touched races of all descriptions; they even saw a few tieflings wandering about.  Of course, the majority of the citizens they saw were elves, many wearing uniforms of the House Guard.  Lanara tried catching the eyes of some of the guards for a little harmless flirting, but they seemed even more somber than one would expect from guards.

            The official leading them took then up the stairs of the palace, and escorted them down a grand hallway.  Though the walls were made of white marble, the floor was polished wood, and several tapestries and carved wood panels softened the effect. The hallway was littered with niches and alcoves, which held statuary of various sizes and other objects of art.  The effect seemed designed to distract and draw the eye away, yet at the same time make the imposing stone structure feel more comfortable.

            They were led to the third floor of the south wing of the palace, into a large reception area.  The room lacked chairs or tables, but numerous large cushions and pillows were stacked against the walls, obviously meant to provide a comfortable spot to relax.  In the corners of the room stood large wooden screens, meant to provide a bit of temporary privacy to the room’s occupants.  A handful of servants stood nearby, some holding silver trays with cups of cool water or small delicacies.  Autumn and Tolly made their way to the screened corners, accompanied by two or three servants of the appropriate gender to assist them with their armor.  Osborn immediately stacked up a pile of cushions nearly as tall as he was, while Lanara primped at her hair while looking in her reflection in a polished bronze shield being held by a small statue against the wall.  Kavan struck up a conversation with one of the young maidservants, while Xu began sampling some of the food being offered, pleased to discover that most of it contained no meat.

Kyle picked at loose threads on his robes, and grimaced.  The robe had once been very fine, probably the finest he’d ever had; it had been an anonymous gift after his graduation.  But it was also the only robe he owned; his old mustard colored robes belonged to the school.  Months of wear and tear had taken their toll, and there was only so much that a _mending _ cantrip could do.

            “Hey, why don’t you put on your nice robes?” asked Osborn.

            “These _are _ my nice robes,” Kyle said through pressed lips, as if hoping to avoid being overheard by the palace staff.

            “Oh.  Why don’t you buy more clothes, then?”

            “Because I’ve never been very good at it, to tell the truth,” Kyle admitted.  “And it just seems strange to me to spend money on fancy clothes.  Still, its probably time I changed that attitude, if we’re going to keep staying at palaces.”

            Osborn laughed as he took a handful of small, leaf-wrapped appetizers from a passing tray. He sniffed at one, and frowned.  “Fish.  I don’t suppose they’ll serve a lot of bacon here, will they?” he sighed.

            Once everyone had had a chance to relax, a herald came in and announced to the party that a member of the Imperial Family was on their way to greet them.  After the herald left, the party gave a knowing look to Kyle, who immediately cast a _prestidigitation _ spell and worked quickly to remove two weeks’ worth of sweat and trail dust.

            A young elven girl walked into the room, looking to the humans in the room as though she were in her mid-teens, though they knew she was probably decades old.  She wore a surprisingly simple dress in browns and greens, and her long hair cascaded over her shoulders.  A large hunting dog came in close on her heels; Osborn smiled and nodded appreciatively at the hound, which was obviously well bred and well trained.

            “Greetings,” the young girl said.  “I am Princess Aralda.”

            They all bowed.  Autumn rose first, and approached Aralda, taking her hand.  “It’s good to see you again, Aralda.”

            “And you as well,” Aralda replied, smiling.  “My brother told me that you might be coming soon.”  She looked around the room at the assembled guests.  “But where is Arrie?”

            “Arrie remained at home,” said Autumn.  “She is still recovering from her ordeal.”

            “Yes, Herion told me a little about that,” she said.  “Not much, though.  He’s frightfully overprotective.  But I overheard enough to know that it must have been dreadful.”  She sighed.  “Well, when you see her, send my love, and thank her for the lovely comb she sent with Herion.”

            “And how is your family?  Your father?”

            Aralda’s gaze fell to the floor.  “I fear he’s not well.  The news has traveled throughout the kingdom by now.  We fear it won’t be long – perhaps within the week.”

            “I’m sorry to hear that, Aralda,” Autumn said.

            The princess smiled appreciatively, then turned her attention to the rest of the party, standing nearby.  “Please, introduce me to your friends.”

            Autumn introduced Princess Aralda to the rest of her companions.  Aralda spoke briefly with each of them, seeming very comfortable in her role.  She explained that her older brother Herion was delayed with matters relating to their father’s illness, and it would be some time before he could greet his guests personally.  The conversation went smoothly, though the room went silent when at one point Kyle asked Aralda if she, too, was expected to marry someone she didn’t know.  But Aralda laughed it off, saying that she was the youngest of the emperor’s children and too far down the line of succession to worry about such things.

Aralda sat with the group and talked for nearly an hour before another herald announced Prince Herion’s arrival.  The man who strode in bore little resemblance to the calm, dignified elven prince they’d met at the Verahannen estates.  He looked drawn and haggard, and his eyes were heavy from lack of sleep.  If elves grew facial hair, one could easily imagine several days’ worth of stubble on his chin.  Herion greeted the party warmly, if with little energy.  Tolly offered to try and alleviate Herion’s fatigue with clerical magic, but the prince declined.

            “I apologize for how I must appear,” Herion said.  “But my father’s health has worsened, as I’m sure Aralda has mentioned.  He lost consciousness several days ago.  And beyond dealing with the grief of watching our father die, you understand that the impending death of an emperor carries with it a great deal of preparation and work, not only for the funeral, but for the succession.”

            “We understand,” said Autumn.  “And we don’t wish to take up any more of your time than necessary.”  She collected a large sack from the corner of the room, and handed it to Herion.  Herion peered inside.

            “You’ve brought me… a rock?”

            Tolly cast a _stone shape _ spell, and the outer casing of rock fell away from the object in the sack.  Herion blinked in slight surprise, then nodded.  Aralda tried to look inside, but Herion pulled the sack away from her.

            “You’ve done our kingdom a service,” he said.  “I’m sure my father will rest easier knowing that this one will no longer trouble us.”  He closed the sack and held it in one fist.  “As I promised when I gave you this task, there will be a reward for you.  I will order the House Guard to allow you access to some of the palace vaults, where we keep some of the relics and magical treasures belonging to Tlaxan.  I’m sure you’ll each be able to find something suitable for yourselves there.  I’ll also take the liberty of having something appropriate selected for Ariadne.  Though she was not present when this…” he held up the sack “trouble was dealt with, I think we can agree that my fiancée was involved in the affair.”

            No one argued with Herion, and they each professed their gratitude.  “I’m sorry that I can’t stay and converse with you further,” said Herion.  “Please, stay as guests of the palace.  It will take two or three days for the arrangements to be made with the vaults.  And, of course,” Herion swallowed heavily, “should my father finally pass into True Sleep, you would be attending the funeral as friends of the Empire.”  Herion glanced at Autumn briefly, conveying in that brief look that as the representative of the Verahannens, and perhaps even all of Merlion, she would be expected to stay.

            “Thank you again,” said Tolly.  “And though I know you must be busy, there is one other matter that we must bring to your attention.”  When Herion’s gaze fell on Tolly, he continued.  “While we were battling Sauroth, there was a creature in his service that none of us recognized.  However, Lanara told us that it was known as a Caller in Darkness, and that such creatures had not been seen in Aelfenn since before the Cataclysm.  We never had the opportunity to dispatch it; it fled the field of battle, and we were unable to locate it afterward.”

            “I don’t know how tough those things were supposed to be,” Lanara chimed in, “but all I remember hearing was that they used their powers to induce people to commit suicide.  That part seems accurate – I know I was having a hard time staying chipper when I heard it calling to me in my head.”

            “That sounds like formidable magic indeed,” said Herion.

            Lanara shook her head.  “No, from what I remember of the old stories, the Caller in Darkness had powers that weren't magical - some sort of natural mind-control.”

            Herion’s already pale face grew even whiter.  “Erito preserve us,” he whispered.  “Then I am glad you chose not to face this creature.  As I understand it, the legends state that even the gods themselves sometimes could not stand against the creatures of the mind.”  Herion thought for a moment, his fingers stroking the sides of his chin.  “Still, such a creature cannot be allowed to rampage unchecked.  I will alert the proper people of your discovery.”

            “If I may,” said Kyle suddenly, “perhaps if I could have access to your library, I could see if there is information on the Callers in Darkness.  And, to be honest, I have one or two items of my own I’d like to research.” The look in Kyle’s eyes grew strangely distant for just a moment.

            Herion nodded.  “I will see to it.” He then bowed to his assembled guests, and took his leave.  “I will have servants escort you to your rooms,” he said, just before turning and walking out the door, his sister Aralda on his arm.

            As soon as they left, Lanara turned to Kyle.  “A library?”

            He grinned.  “I know.  I never thought I’d hear those words come out of my mouth.  If my brother Angar were here, he’d probably beat me up on general principle.”

            The rooms were more extravagant than they thought possible.  Kyle stated that his room was bigger than the house he grew up in.  Enormous feather beds dominated the sleeping chambers, carved from rich mahogany.  Tolly, who was used to simpler accommodations from his years being raised by the church of Ardara, requested a hard cot to sleep on.  Lanara, on the other hand, immediately requested more pillows.  Autumn requested that tailors be sent around to each of her friends’ rooms in the morning, to measure them for appropriate funerary garb should the occasion arise.

            Within an hour of settling in, each of the party received an invitation to dine with Princess Aralda that evening in her suites.  In the meantime, most of the group spent their time wandering about the palace grounds, admiring the many manicured gardens and songbirds.

            They were escorted to Aralda’s suite later that evening.  Only Kavan begged out of the invitation, stating that he needed to report to the Temple of Erito in the city to speak with his elders in the church.  The others, knowing that Kavan probably wished to seek guidance around his newly discovered son Marrek, did not challenge his departure.

            Aralda’s rooms were decorated with a strong hunting and outdoor motif.  A number of hunting dogs roamed about, and they guessed it was only a five-minute walk to the stables.  Aralda greeted them in a large, but surprisingly empty chamber.  As they engaged in small talk, servants began to set up a table in the center; evidently Aralda had chosen to present a less formal meal to put her guests at ease.  Despite this, at first the conversation was quiet and halting, until Aralda asked what was wrong.

            “Well, nothing’s wrong,” said Lanara.  “It’s just that we’re not used to dining with elven princesses whose fathers are dying.”

            “Oh, I see.  Well, if it helps, please know that I’m glad you’re here.  As the youngest, I have very little to do with the goings-on, and so having you here gives me something to keep my mind off things.  If you can, just try to ignore it all.”

            As they talked, Autumn’s eyes were drawn to Kyle.  Somehow, he seemed different to her, as if he were drawing more attention than normal.  She noticed that he seemed more at ease in the room, not stumbling over his words as much as usual.  She couldn’t help but note that several of the maidens attending Aralda were eyeing him and whispering to themselves.  Curious, she approached the wizard.

            “You seem different tonight, Kyle,” she said.  “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but you’re doing far better than I expected this evening.  Somehow I don’t think the etiquette lessons I’ve been giving you can explain it.”

            Kyle smiled, and winked at her.  “Just a little magic to enhance my bearing and poise,” he said.  “I was feeling kind of like a bumpkin when we first got here, like I should be scrubbing the floors or something.  I figured this might help me get through the evening without putting my foot in my mouth like I did earlier when I asked about Aralda getting married.”

            Autumn nodded.  “I suppose I can see why you’d do it.  But be careful; you’re attracting quite a bit of attention.” She nodded toward a small cluster of maidens in the far wall, obviously watching them.

            At first Kyle thought she was exaggerating. But later in the evening, Kyle would find a note tucked inside his sleeve, wrapped around a flower.  The note invited him to go to a particular waterfall-filled grotto on the palace grounds after the dinner was concluded.  He decided that Autumn had been right, and using the _splendor _ spell on himself was probably not the best idea.

            Aralda and the party sat around a large table, conversing and drinking wine as servants brought around platters of various foods.  Rather than serving one large main course, the meal consisted of several smaller samplings of a variety of items.  As they sampled the delicacies, Autumn made note of the hunting motifs in the room, and asked Aralda about it.

            “Hunting is a hobby,” she said, smiling.  “If you’d like, I could take you out on a boar hunt tomorrow.  The Imperial Forest is kept rather untamed for that very reason.”  She glanced at Kyle.  “You’d like it, Kyle.  You’re nice and big.”

            “That sounds exciting,” said Autumn.

            Lanara turned up her nose.  “Well, I may ride along, but facing down a boar doesn’t sound like my idea of fun.”  Lanara’s eyes looked down at the rug for a moment, then she looked back at Aralda.  “I don’t suppose that you have anyone in the palace that does dream interpretation, do you?”

            “I’m sure we do.  Why do you ask?”

            “I… just might like to visit them, that’s all.” Lanara’s eyes took on a distant look that many of them had seen over the past few weeks, and she fell silent.  The cansin had not explained her sudden lapses to anyone, so the others were left wondering what troubled her.

            Aralda looked to quickly fill the silence.  “So, was that my cousin’s head in the bag you gave Herion?”

            “Yes, it was,” Tolly nodded.  “But I got the impression that Herion didn’t want you to know that.”

            “There’s a lot he doesn’t want me to know,” she replied.  “But being the youngest and largely ignored has its advantages.  Care to tell me about it?”

            “Well, again, Herion didn’t seem to want us to inform you about it,” Tolly said.  Then a slight smile creased his face.  “So I suppose you’ll have to overhear us discussing it amongst ourselves.”

            “I wrote a song about it, actually,” said Lanara, coming out of her reflective state.

            At Aralda’s urging, Lanara took up her fiddle and began to play, her exquisite voice rising up above the instrument to fill the room.  The song was at once both inspiring and tragic, their deeds in the battle rising with the music to the level of epic heroism.  Lanara followed her song about Sauroth’s fall with one depicting their first encounter with the necromancer, when Tolly had been killed.  Lanara’s retelling of that tragedy brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the room.  As the last notes faded away, they could hear a burst of spontaneous applause from across the room, where several of the servants and handmaidens had gathered to listen to the song.  Xu, who was sitting close to a window, glanced outside and saw that a sizeable crowd had gathered below as well.

            Aralda wiped away a tear from her eye before looking at Lanara.  “I don’t suppose I could persuade you to stay here?” she asked.

            Lanara beamed.  “Well, I did have some slight success with Arrie’s mom, too,” she said.

            “I think you’d be happier here,” Osborn chimed in.

            Aralda laughed.  “Yes, I have heard from Arrie that her mother can be quite… austere.”

            “I don’t know,” said Tolly, “I found Arrie’s mother to be refreshingly uptight.”

            The others laughed at Tolly’s joke, not realizing that he was being mostly serious.  Having been raised as an orphan by the church of Ardara, and living among dwarves, he was accustomed to a strict, disciplined lifestyle.  Having lived among his companions, who were somewhat more free-spirited – or, in Lanara’s case, a great deal more free-spirited, he thought to himself – he’d actually had found a slight comfort in Lady Auror’s demeanor.

            Thunder rolled across the valley outside the window, announcing the approach of the coming storm.  Aralda set down her wine glass.  “So, after your stay here at the palace, where will you be heading?”

            “Well, after we return to Merlion to rejoin our companion Arrie,” said Tolly, “we will be going west, to seek out some diamonds.”

            “Diamonds?  Why diamonds?”

            “He owes someone a really big favor,” Lanara jumped in.

            Tolly sighed.  “Archprelate Jerome used some rather rare diamonds from the church treasury when he returned me to the world of the living after our first battle with Sauroth.  As part of my obligation to the church for that act, I have been commanded to replace those diamonds.  I have been told that such can be found west of here, in the Haran Desert.  My companions have agreed to assist me with this.”

            Aralda nodded.  “As you might imagine, I rarely get a chance to travel far from the palace.  The Haran Desert is the realm of the orcs, isn’t it?”

            “Yes, it is.  Which is one reason I’m glad for the help of my companions, in case there’s trouble.”

            The leisurely, informal dinner continued for several hours, Aralda staying and conversing with the party well after they had had their fill of the fine elven food.  The princess glided through the room, speaking with all her guests in turn several times.  She asked what everyone needed to do while in Noxolt, and offered to act as their guide.  Tolly, perhaps having underestimated the effects of elven wine on his judgement, made a rather crude comment about what Autumn needed.  The sentinel’s face turned red, but she managed to restrain her violent impulses to merely throwing the remnants of a dinner roll at Tolly’s head.  Tolly looked down at Autumn’s flaky instrument of revenge, and then turned to Lanara.

            “You’re a bad influence on me,” he said.  Lanara grinned and planted a wet kiss on his cheek in response.

            Finally, Aralda bid her guests a good evening, and they returned to their rooms.  As expected, the next morning each of them was visited by tailors, fitting them for appropriate funeral clothes.  The elven tailors had a bit of difficulty fitting Tolly and Kyle’s large frames, but managed to make the proper adjustments.  Only Kavan was able to excuse himself from the fittings; the Temple of Erito had a wide variety of white funeral robes to select from, as befit the goddess of life and death.  Osborn, who was accustomed to wearing black and somewhat offended by the implication that his own clothes weren’t good enough, could be heard loudly complaining through half the palace for hours afterward, until mercifully someone brought him a plate of sizzling bacon to soothe his wounded pride.

As promised, that afternoon Princess Aralda led a few of the group on a boar hunt.  Autumn, Kyle, and Osborn participated directly in the hunt, while Lanara and Tolly accompanied but chose not to hunt.  Xu also came along; though she expressed no interest in killing animals, she thought the experience of trying to subdue a wild boar without weapons was a worthy challenge.  Later that evening, when Kavan greeted them, Lanara regaled him with the tale of how they were attacked in the woods by a dire boar, and how Xu took it on single-handedly and saved them.  Kyle had even brought back the boar’s corpse, magically shrunken, to prove the story true.  Later, the others would confide to Kavan that Lanara had exaggerated a bit, but that Xu really had faced the boar head-on.

News of the excitement spread through the palace, and soon Xu was receiving the kind of attention from the palace’s young men that Kyle had received from the maidens the night before.  Though she was polite to the elven men, she declined their invitations for moonlit walks.  Being sought after by so many only brought her bitter memories, of the life she lost because her parents wanted to force her into an arranged marriage.  She wondered, briefly, what had become of that man, or if her parents still searched for her after all these years.  It was uncommon for her people to leave the boundaries of their country, so she presumed that they would not cross the sea to look for her on the continent of Affon.

After the day of excitement, life turned into an uneasy period of waiting for everyone.  As the Emperor’s health worsened, even Aralda was called away to help the family prepare, and so the party was left in the capable hands of the palace staff.  Kyle spent much of his time at the palace library; when asked, he stated he was researching the Caller in Darkness as well as ‘one or two other things’, though he would not elaborate further.  Lanara had the opportunity to visit a dream oracle, but the experience did not appear to comfort her, and she was unusually quiet for two entire days.

For the most part, the group saw little of each other over the next several days.  Each one was absorbed in their own pursuits, each trying to stay out of the way and keep their mids off the fact that they were living in the home of a dying man.  A bright spot came when Arrie was able to join then only a few days after the party had arrived.  Arrie had recovered faster than expected, and upon hearing of the Emperor’s failing health and that her friends had not yet left Noxolt, she managed to convince the priest of Tor that served as the Verahannen’s chaplain to use magic to speed her to the capital.  That evening both Aralda and Herion managed to break free from their duties and join the party for a friendly, if brief dinner.

For nearly two weeks they resided at the Imperial Palace, preparing themselves for the inevitable time when they would have to depart and seek out places where they were needed.  They were meeting together in a small chamber one afternoon, looking over maps, when a somber-faced herald stepped into the room.  As soon as he walked in, the party heard the great Crystal Chime of the palace spire begin to toll, its clear, high note sounding out for everyone in Noxolt to hear.  They all turned expectantly to the herald at the door.

“The Emperor is dead.”


----------



## Delemental

*Guilded Cages*

The funeral proceedings for the Emperor of Tlaxan, and the coronation of the new Emperor took up the next week.  Leaders of other nations might have suggested that having the two events so close together was a breach of decorum, but for the practical elves it seemed only logical not to delay the investiture of their new leader any longer than necessary.  The party went through the expected rite and ceremonies with quiet dignity, except perhaps for Osborn, who was still chafing at being forced to wear white (although he was only required to wear a full white outfit the day of the funeral, and the rest of the week only needed to bear a white armband, the presence of anything not black on the hin was mortifying to him).

            For a few days it almost felt to the party like they were being ignored, which in a way was a slight relief, as they could then walk about and experiment with the items they’d been given as gifts from the Imperial Treasury without feeling like they were showing off or being disrespectful to the departed Emperor’s family.  Only Kavan and Tolly’s gifts had not come from the palace’s vaults; instead they now carried relics from their respective churches, having been granted the privilege after the Imperial Family impressed upon their superiors the two priests’ dedication to their faith (and made a large donation to each church’s coffers).

            It wasn’t until five days after the funeral that they discovered their impressions had been correct; with everything else going on, the presence of the party at the palace had been overlooked.  Once Prince Herion and Princess Aralda realized this, they quickly organized a formal dinner to allow the party to meet their oldest brother, Emperor Haxhta, in person.

            The dinner itself was less awkward than they’d expected.  Although Emperor Haxtha didn’t know them, he’d heard of them through his younger siblings, and thus was familiar enough to be able to add some depth to his polite conversation.  Much of the talk revolved around making plans to return to Tlaxan at some point in the future for a reunion; it had been agreed by the group that with the funeral and coronation concluded, they should be on their way within the day or two so as not to strain the palace’s hospitality.

            There was an unexpected commotion as a page rushed into the room from a side door.  He bowed to the Emperor, then looked up at him.  His face was white, and sweat trickled down his brow.

            “Your Majesty,” he said, fear causing his voice to tremble, “your son… he’s…”

            Then they all heard the pealing tone echoing through the room, the sounding of the Crystal Chime; the bell that only sounded upon the death of a member of the Imperial Family.

            Emperor Haxtha fainted.

            Herion was there in a flash, catching his brother before he fell to the floor.  Aralda sat still as a marble statue, and nearly as white.  Lanara, who was looking at the princess when the bell had sounded, thought she saw a look of guilt flash across Aralda’s face.

            “Was there any more to your message?” Autumn asked the page.

            “No, My Lady,” he said, shaking his head.  “Only that his son has died.  We do not know the cause.”

            The Emperor recovered shortly, and Herion led him to his chambers to recover.  Several of the party offered to go to see the prince, to see if they could learn what had happened.  Aralda remained behind, as did Kyle and Lanara; the former because he thought that the death of the Emperor’s son was none of his affair, and the latter because she wanted to talk to Aralda about the strange reaction she’d seen.  Tolly helped Herion with the Emperor, and offered words of comfort to both.

            There were guards posted around the room as the party entered.  The Emperor’s son was only ten years of age, barely out of infancy by elven standards.  His body lay in the middle of his bed, surrounded by wooden rails as if it were a large crib.  There were no marks on the body.  Autumn concentrated for a moment, then shook her head slightly at Arrie; there was no taint of evil in the room.

            The only other person in the room was a round-faced elf sitting in the corner, brow creased with grief and frustration.  Kavan asked one of the guards, and learned that this was Jey’ri, from the palace infirmary.  Kavan walked up and introduced himself, then sat beside the elf.  “What happened here?”

            “One of the guards had come in to check on the young prince,” Jey’ri said.  “They noticed that he was not breathing, and could not be roused.  That was when I was sent for.  The death must have just happened – the prince had not been asleep long, and the… body is still warm.  But I can find no trace of what killed him.  Were the prince human, I might call it a simple cribdeath.  But elves do not sleep as humans do, and the prince was well beyond the age for such things to happen.”

            “Where is the boy’s mother?” asked Kavan.

            “The prince was conceived near the end of his mother’s service to Haxtha,” Jey’ri explained.  “After he was weaned, she left the palace.”

            Kavan nodded.  Such was the custom with the Emperor and his chosen heir; rather than marry one wife, and endure endless political wrangling and accusations over whom that woman (or man, in the case of Empresses) would be, they chose a consort to give them children and provide companionship.  The Imperial Consorts served for a period of one hundred years, and then left with a sizeable dowry.  It was likely that Haxtha, Herion, and Aralda came from three different mothers.

            Kavan looked around.  Osborn was carefully looking around the room for anything amiss, but seemed to be having no luck.  Arrie had left, presumably to find her fiancée Herion.  Autumn was about to leave, telling Xu that she was going back to the dining hall to check up on Aralda, Lanara, and Kyle.  Xu herself had been talking to the guards, to see if they’d heard or seen anything odd while watching over the prince.  Kavan realized that there was only one person they weren’t talking to in the room.

            Kavan thanked Jey’ri for his time, and stood slowly.  He made his way to the side of the crib, and looked down at the small, still form.  For a moment, thoughts of his own son flashed in his mind, and Kavan grimaced, wondering how things might have been different if he’d known of Marrek’s existence when he was still at this tender age, rather than meeting him for the first time as an adult, an adult who apparently wanted his father to suffer for some unknown worng.

            Kavan began quietly chanting the words to his spell.  As a priest of Erito, Guardian of the Dead, he had been granted some ability to pierce the veil between this life and the next.  For a moment he considered that he should probably ask permission for what he was doing, but it would take too long explaining how what was lying in this crib was nothing but an empty vessel, that the essence of what the prince was had already departed.

            He hoped to connect to a tiny portion of that essence now.

            The spell finished, Kavan saw the boy’s eyelids flutter open, and his jaw begin to quiver.  Kavan decided to keep his conversation with the boy quick and quiet, so as not to alarm any of the armed palace guards.

            “What happened to you?” whispered Kavan.

            “I fell asleep, and I didn’t wake up,” the boy’s body answered.

            “Where are you now?”

            “I’m in my bed.”

            Kavan cursed to himself.  The question had been answered quite literally by a ten-year-old child.  Not only had he failed to consider that, but he forgot that it was the prince’s corpse he was conversing with, not his soul, and the questions would be answered from that perspective.

            “Have you been here the whole time you’ve been asleep?” he asked.

            “Yes.”  The eyes closed again.

            Kavan sighed.  Though not terribly useful, at least he knew that the prince had not perceived being moved or leaving his room at any point.  Looking up at his companions, he saw that their investigations had been no more fruitful.

            “I think we should find the others,” he said.

*          *            *​
            Lanara had news for them all when they came back.

            While Kyle had pushed food around on his plate with a fork, not knowing quite what to say to Aralda but thinking that continuing to eat wasn’t the proper thing to do, Lanara had used her prodigiously more advanced conversational skills to talk with the princess.  The cansin had managed to obliquely reference Aralda’s odd expressions upon hearing of her nephew’s death.  Finally, the princess had asked to talk to Lanara privately in a corner of the room.  They talked for several minutes, but when Lanara returned to the table, Aralda didn’t follow her, but returned to her own rooms.  Autumn passed her on the way, and noticed that she was crying for the first time that evening.

            As the rest of her companions wandered back to the dining hall, Lanara asked them all to gather around her.  In a low voice, so as not to be overheard by the handful of servants who were somberly clearing away the remains of dinner, she spoke.

            “We need to meet with Aralda at midnight tonight in the Western Gardens.”

            “Why?” asked Arrie.

            “Because she has information about this situation to give us that could be helpful,” Lanara replied.  “It seems that the princess has gotten herself in trouble with a couple of groups here in the city, and she thinks one of them is responsible for her nephew.”

            There were several incredulous stares, but they all had the sense not to cry out and alert the servants that something was wrong.

            “Here’s the situation,” Lanara continued.  “The local druid’s circle has been pressuring Aralda for some time.  I’m sure you’ve all noticed her fondness for animals and green things.  Well, the druids want her to give up the royalty thing and go live in the woods with them, and stop trying to live two lives.  But she’s also been dabbling with the thieves guild, and…”

            She was interrupted by a loud cough from Osborn.  “I know,” Lanara sighed, “they don’t ‘really’ exist.  Well, one of these groups sent her a note saying that they would kill her father if she didn’t give in to their demands.  But the former Emperor was so damn old that nobody suspected foul play when he died, least of all Aralda.  But then she got another note, saying that since she hadn’t paid attention the first time, they would take someone else close to her.  The death of her nephew is a little too coincidental for her taste.”  Lanara looked around at them before going on.  “She asked if we might be able to help.  She can’t turn to her own family, or anyone at the palace.  I said that we would probably be able to help – I know that Autumn’s all about smiting evil, and we have Tolly with his ‘scalpel of Ardara’ business.”

            “Was that disrespect?” Tolly asked, one eyebrow raised.

            “No, it wasn’t,” Lanara said.  “It was actually a compliment.  And of course Osborn, clever as he is, might be able to find something out if it does turn out to involve the guild.”

            “Well, if Aralda’s in trouble,” said Arrie, “then it’s my business.”

            “And if its Arrie’s business,” said Tolly, “Then it’s our business, too.”

            “Can she tell who wrote the notes?” Osborn asked.

            Lanara shook her head.  “Though obviously she hasn’t taken them to be analyzed by anyone.  But Aralda suspects it’s the thieves, as this doesn’t strike her as the way the druids would act.”

            “It doesn’t seem like something a druid would do,” Autumn agreed.

            “But there was that one crazy hin druid in the swamp,” Lanara pointed out.

            “And don’t forget Ghurka,” Kyle said.

            “The point is, anyone can turn hinky on us,” Lanara said.  “But regardless, I think we should go to our rooms and prepare for a late meeting.  In the end, I think it’s kind of rude to accept their hospitality and then not help.”

            They all agreed, and went to their individual rooms to rest and prepare for their meeting with Aralda, with Xu only pausing long enough to ask Lanara what ‘hinky’ meant.  They each made their own way to the Western Gardens, gathering in a small, private glade where there was little chance of being overheard.  Aralda was already there, holding an arrow in one hand and a rolled piece of parchment in the other.  She seemed slightly unsteady on her feet.

            “I’ve received a new message,” she said, holding out both arrow and parchment.  “It says, that now that they’ve demonstrated their power, they want me to meet them tomorrow night in the city.”

            Osborn took the note and studied it.  “It’s in Elven, of course,” he said, “but the writer isn’t an elf.  Elves have longer fingers, and their pen strokes tend to be lighter and more flowing.”

            “That’s not much help,” said Kyle.  “Half the people in the city aren’t elves.”

            “Do you know where they want you to meet them, Aralda?” asked Autumn.

            “It’s in the city, near the outer gates,” she said.  “I’m supposed to meet them at midnight.”

            “Well, since the meeting place is in the city, and not out in the forest, it seems more likely that the thieves’ guild is behind this.”

            “I think we should go scout it out in the morning,” Osborn said.  “We can check out the situation, and maybe set up some sort of surprise.”

            The group nodded in agreement, but Arrie frowned.  “Look, I don’t know how this clandestine stuff is supposed to work, but I’d think that a bunch of thieves and assassins would set something up themselves, an ambush in case there was trouble.”

            “True,” said Xu.  “They have set the time and place for the meeting, and thus have the advantage.  They will have watchers.”

            “Perhaps this would be a good time to use my _chain of eyes_ spell,” said Tolly.  “If I place it on Aralda, she might get in the position to touch whoever she’s meeting.  We can then follow them back to wherever they came from.”

            “One problem,” Arrie said.  “I don’t think Aralda’s in any condition to meet anyone.”

            They all looked at the pale, trembling elven princess, and realized Arrie was right.

            “And there’s also the possibility that these people just plan to jump the princess when she gets there, and kill her or kidnap her,” said Lanara.

            “So, someone should stand in for her,” said Arrie.  She looked around at her female companions, but the shortest of them was a foot taller than the very young Aralda.  “We’d need someone very good at disguise.”  She glanced pointedly at Lanara.

            “What, you think I want to be the one who gets killed or kidnapped?” snapped Lanara.

            “Look, Lanara…” Arrie began.

            The cansin waved her off.  “Oh, I’ll do it.  I’m just complaining for the sake of complaining.”  She threw a crooked smile at Arrie.

            Arrie returned the grin.  “Well, you’re still a bit tall for the role.”  Arrie turned to Kyle.  “Do you have anything that would help that?”

            He shook his head.  “There’s a spell that would help, but it’s not one I know,” he said.

            Aralda stepped forward.  “Kyle, I think I know the spell you speak of, and I know that my brother Herion has used it in the past.  I can bring you his spellbook tomorrow morning; he will be distracted all day with our nephew’s death.”

            “Well, then, I can use that to help,” he said.  “I also have magic that enhances persuasiveness.  It’s the same magic you have in your cloak, Lanara, but I might be able to boost it for a few hours.  It could help you convince these men you’re the real princess.”

            “Thanks, Kyle.”

            “No problem.  It’s better used on you than on me, anyway,” he said with a slight wink toward Autumn.

            “We should set up an ambush plan of our own, to come to Lanara’s aid if she’s discovered or attacked,” said Tolly.

            “Or to follow the thieves back to their lair,” agreed Autumn.  “Hopefully we’ll be able to get to the source of the problem and eliminate it.”

            Tolly nodded appreciatively at Autumn.  He and the sentinel shared many ideals about how to handle a problem.  And she was a woman of both martial accomplishment and spiritual devotion; as dedicated a seeker of corruption as he was, even if they looked for it in different places.  Tolly felt a stirring in his chest, one he’d been feeling more frequently of late, and found he was having trouble taking his eyes off Autumn’s exquisite features, which looked to him as though they’d been carved in marble.

            Arrie held out her hands to quiet her friends, who had begun calling out suggestions and making plans.  “I think we should wait to make any concrete plans until we’ve seen the place Aralda’s supposed to go to and know what we’re working with.  Lanara, Xu and Osborn can check it out in the morning.”

            “I should spend the day with Aralda,” said Lanara.  “We don’t know how well these people know the princess, and I should practice some of her mannerisms.”

            Aralda nodded.  “That’s wise.  And given some of the wonderful performances you’ve given while here, no one will think it odd that I’ve asked you to be at my side.  They’ll assume I’ve requested you play to soothe my grief.”

            “Sounds great,” said Osborn.  “Now, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us, so let’s get some rest.”

            As the group began to break up, wandering off singly or in pairs so as not to attract the attention of any observers, Lanara sighed.  “This didn’t turn out to be the vacation I’d hoped for.”

_*          *            *_

            By the time all the details had been worked out, the party agreed that their plan was about the best they’d ever come up with.  Simple and elegant, it still covered every possibility they could think of.  They all knew with a certainty that their plan would allow Lanara to complete her mission unharmed, and get them the information they needed.  When talking about it, much later, each of them expressed some level of regret that they’d never had a chance to execute it.

            Osborn came back to the palace and reported that the meeting was being held in a narrow alley littered with garbage and old crates, between two large warehouse-type buildings.  There were a few small balconies overlooking the alley, which Osborn assumed would be filled with observant rogues that evening.  Both ends of the alley were open, and though there were plenty of places to duck behind, fully hiding from view would have been impossible.

            As promised, Aralda brought Kyle her brother’s spellbook, hidden in a new pack.  After preparing the _alter self _ spell from that tome, the group made preparations.  Xu climbed to the roof of one of the buildings, watching for any snipers or scouts.  Osborn, disguised as a beggar, remained at one end of the alley camped under a balcony; Arrie hung out at the other end just around the corner.  Kyle, Tolly, Autumn, and Kavan were all safely tucked away inside a _rope trick_ that Kyle had conjured an hour before the meeting, hovering just over the meeting spot at the widest part of the alley.  Just before climbing into the extra-dimensional space, Kyle had cast both _splendor _ and _alter self_ on Lanara, allowing her to take the form of Princess Aralda.  Some borrowed clothes completed the disguise.  Tolly also spelled the bard with _chain of eyes_, instructing her to try and touch whoever she met with in the hopes of transferring the spell to them.  Once secure inside the _rope trick_, Tolly activated the spell, and watched through Lanara’s eyes.  His instructions were clear; keep them informed of what was happening in the alley, and if there were any violence Kyle would end the _rope trick_ and allow them to drop right into the middle of the thieves.  Arrie and Osborn were responsible for keeping people from escaping out of the alley, and Xu would handle any thieves on the roof or balconies.

            As the appointed hour approached, Xu and Osborn noticed people begin to take up positions at the balconies.  When one of the rogues climbed over the wall to take up a position on the roof, Xu decided to be proactive, shoving him over the edge and then following him down to the alley below to make sure he didn’t get up.  Xu hid quickly as others approached, and listened as the thief’s partners found him lying in the alley, and assumed he’d fallen and broken his neck. Xu ascended back to the roof as they threw the corpse onto a nearby trash heap and covered it over.  Soon the monk saw another thief climb up to the roof, but this time decided to stay hidden and bide her time. One fall was unlucky; two would be suspicious.

            Just before midnight, Lanara walked into the alley.  If her companions had not known about the ruse, they would have sworn that Princess Aralda herself had just arrived.  Lanara was dressed in Aralda’s hunting clothes, with a heavy cloak draped over her shoulders.  The cloak helped hide the suit of fine chain that Arrie had loaned to her; as a druid herself, the real Aralda wouldn’t have worn metal armor, but the group felt the extra protection was worth the flaw in Lanara’s disguise.  Lanara was also protected by as many enhancement spells as the group could place on her without visible effect.

            A short, balding human was waiting there.  He was only a scant inch or so taller than the princess was.  “Princess,” the man said, “I’m glad you’ve finally decided to see the light.”

            Inside the _rope trick_, just above their heads, Tolly sat quietly, his own eyes closed.  “She’s met someone,” he said.  At that signal, Kyle began reciting arcane words, casting spells in rapid succession on himself and his companions inside the dimensional hole.

            “Is there something wrong with being a princess?” said Lanara, perfectly affecting someone who was terrified but trying to sound brave (in truth, she didn’t have to stretch far to reach that state).

            “Not at all.” The man smiled. “We’re just glad you’ll be working with us instead of against us.”

            “I wasn’t aware I was working against anyone.”

            “You kept stymieing our overtures,” he explained.  Then he shrugged.  “What’s passed is past.  Are you ready to go?”

            “Depends on where we’re heading.”

            “Down.”

            Lanara frowned.  “What do you mean ‘down’?  How far down?”

            “Far enough,” the man said.  “We should get there by morning.” He grinned, then swept his arm out in a mockery of a polite invitation.  “If Her Highness is ready to go?”

             Tolly frowned.  “He’s wanting Lanara to follow him.”

            “Do we need to move?” Kyle asked, ready to dismiss his spell.

            Tolly shook his head.  “No one else is making a move.  I think we’re planning on following.  Wait a second…”

            At the end of the alley (where a quick glance spotted Arrie hunkered down behind a crate), Lanara grabbed the man’s shoulder.  “Was all this really necessary?  Did you have to kill members of my family?”

            “I’m not the one to answer your questions, Princess.  I’m just a simple guide.”

_Simple guide?  I think not._  Lanara kept her thought to herself, however, and kept following the bald rogue.

            Tolly concentrated as soon as Lanara touched the balding man, trying to transfer the _chain of eyes_ spell to him.  Unfortunately, the boundary between the _rope trick_ and the real world interfered with his control, and he was unable to relocate the magic.  “My spell’s still on Lanara,” he said.  “I think she’ll want us to follow her to see where they’re taking her.”

            Lanara and the rogue began walking down the street.  Arrie immediately began to trail them, as did Xu, following on the rooftops.  Osborn waited and checked to make sure the watchers in the alley had moved off, then crossed through the alley and signaled the four people in the _rope trick_ that the coast was clear.  The five of them moved off, following behind at a safe distance.  Tolly was able to track Lanara’s movements through the city by his spell, giving directions to his companions while Autumn helped guide him along.  The streets of Noxolt were surprisingly busy for that time of night, and the crowds slowed their progress.

            The bald rogue walked with the ‘princess’ for almost an hour, walking along the outer edge of the city almost to the other side.  Lanara took what opportunities she could to make physical contact with the man, not knowing if Tolly had been able to transfer his spell or not.  She played up her role as the young princess, jumping and clutching his arm at every loud noise or sudden movement.  The rogue, seemingly unaware, just shrugged her off and kept walking.  Finally, they approached a non-descript house in the worst part of town; drunks and prostitutes were scattered all over.  The rogue turned to say something to his guest, but then his eyes went wide in shock. 

            The _alter self_ spell had worn off.

            Lanara stepped forward, trying to intimidate the man.  “We don’t appreciate your treatment of the Princess,” she said.

            “I don’t know anything!  I’m just a middle-man!  I was just told to bring the princess to this house!”

            “Who told you to do this?” Lanara said, grabbing the man by the shirt and putting his face mere inches from hers.

            “He was…” the rogue suddenly jerked, and began spasming.  As he slumped forward in Lanara’s grasp, she saw a crossbow bolt protruding from his back.  There was a bit of black paste smeared on the shaft.

            Lanara looked around.  She could see the shot had come from a nearby alley, but could see no one running or making themselves obvious.  She moved toward the nearest wall, keeping the body held up in front of her as a shield.  A group of people had begun to gather around Lanara as she interrogated the thief, but had scattered when the bolt hit home, making spotting anyone specific even more difficult.  But then she saw something jump down off a nearby roof, and heard something snap even over the noise of the crowd.  A moment later, Xu walked out of the alley, tossing a broken crossbow aside as she gripped a rogue in a headlock.  Osborn had also crept up on the snipers, slicing one of them across his Achilles’ tendon and sent him down like a sack of wet potatoes.

            Lanara heard a whistling sound in the air, and she saw another person go down, his legs wrapped in Arrie’s bolas.

            The others ran up quickly.  “I was able to transfer the spell while you were walking,” Tolly said.  “I saw when your disguise failed, and knew you’d need help.”

            “Fortunately, we get the chance to find out what he knows,” said Arrie, kicking the man at her feet.  She wrenched his arm around behind his back, causing him to yell in pain.  “We need any more prisoners?”

            “I don’t think so,” Autumn said.  “Let’s find out who is behind this, and kill them.”

            “While I agree that their actions are unlawful, and I agree with you in principle, Autumn,” said Tolly, “in the eyes of the law we have no proof that these people are behind the deaths of the former Emperor and the young prince.  Until we have it, we can’t just ‘kill them’.”

            “What about those letters that Aralda has?” Autumn asked.

            Tolly’s eyes brightened, and he looked admiringly at his aasimar companion.  “I’d forgotten about those.  Good enough.”

            “Well, let’s see where they were taking me, anyway,” said Lanara, pointing at the house.

            The party went to the house, taking the body of the guide with them as well as their three prisoners.  Osborn picked the lock, and swung the door open.    Upon entering, Osborn had to quickly step back to avoid a tripwire across the door, but once he discovered the trap it was easy to disable.  It was obvious there had once been people waiting in the house, but they’d fled when the commotion started.  A quick search revealed a trap door in the floor, under a threadbare rug.

            The interrogation of the prisoners didn’t result in much useful information.  The men were all thieves with the guild, and had been told to watch the house and make sure Princess Aralda arrived.  Their orders had come from immediate superiors, and they had no idea who was calling the shots or where the tunnels below the house led.

            “The guy said he was taking me ‘down’ to meet the person behind all this,” Lanara said, pointing at the trap door.  “This looks ‘down’ to me.”

            “Agreed,” Autumn said, as she threw open the trapdoor and peered into the gloom.

            “Hey, guys?” asked Kyle.  “Are we sure this is such a good idea?”

            “Maybe, maybe not,” said Arrie.  “But the truth is that whoever was waiting here to take Aralda is probably going to tell the person behind all this.  We already know they can get to the Imperial Family without being discovered.  We don’t have time to wait and see what happens.”

            And, with that, they descended into the darkness.


----------



## Delemental

Osborn peered down into the dark shaft, clinging to the narrow ladder.  The armor he’d been given as his gift from the Tlaxan Empire allowed him to sense his surroundings even in complete darkness, but he was still unaccustomed to the feeling, and was more cautious than usual.  The fact that they were descending into a den of thieves that probably knew they were coming didn’t help the feeling.  His nose itched like crazy.

            The others waited above until Osborn signaled it was clear, not wanting to crowd into the narrow shaft.  The hin finally reached the bottom of the ladder, and almost immediately found a tripwire across the hallway.  Though he wasn’t able to tell what the wire triggered, he disabled it anyway and moved forward.

            The hallway met another at an odd angle about forty feet ahead of the ladder, sloping downward.  As he crept forward, Osborn finally spotted the other end of the tripwire trap; a large bag filled with marbles fastened to the ceiling.  As he moved forward into the intersection, Osborn’s heart leapt into his throat as he felt the ground beneath his feet disappear.  His superior reflexes kicked in, though, and he stepped off the door of the pit trap before dropping.  Osborn considered the setup of the hallway, and he understood.  The marbles were obviously meant to carry anyone in the hallway down toward the intersection and the pit.

            Osborn flicked a small boulder back up the hallway toward the ladder, a signal to the others to begin coming down.  Then he went around the corner to the left to check the hallway, but he only got a few feet away from the intersection before the walls on one side exploded outward.  Osborn threw his arms up to shield his eyes from the chips of stone and mortar, and then almost immediately had to duck as three figures in full plate armor stepped out of hidden alcoves and began swinging at the hin with longswords.

            Arrie and Kavan, who had just come down the ladder, heard the commotion and rushed forward.  They skidded to a halt at the edge of the pit, but Arrie saw that there was just enough room to get around it, and stepped around the corner, spiked chain whirling.  Her trained warrior’s eye could see that the three armored figures moved stiffly, and she suspected they might be undead.  However, there was very little space for her to maneuver in, which made things complicated.  The narrow hallways also meant that only two or three of them would be able to come to Osborn’s aid.

            However, even the minimal amount of help was more than enough.  Osborn was easily able to avoid their attacks, and deal damage back.  Arrie’s chain chipped away at them as well.  Xu was next down the ladder, and was easily able to leap into position to attack the armored opponents, despite the close quarters.  Autumn came next, and realizing she would be of little use, instead stepped to the other side of the pit and kept watch on the corridor, taking advantage of her darkvision to warn everyone if more enemies approached from behind them.

            Arrie’s chain finally dispatched one of the attackers, and the empty suit of armor clattered to the floor.  “What kind of undead is this?” Arrie shouted at Kavan.

            “They’re not undead,” he shouted back.  “They’re constructs of some sort!”

            “As long as they stay down when I hit them,” said Arrie, grinning.  The grin vanished as she stepped back to avoid a swing from one of the armored figures, and almost stumbled down into the pit.  She caught herself in the nick of time, and steadied herself before pressing her counterattack.

            Arrie, Xu, Kavan, and Osborn continued to hammer at the animated armor suits.  The others came down the ladder, but hung back, knowing they would do little good pressing in.  The battle only lasted a few more moments, and soon two more suits of armor clattered to the ground.  As they started hauling the suits across the hall to dump them into the pit (figuring the sound of battle had already drawn attention, the added noise of dumping the armor wouldn’t matter much), they heard Autumn yelp and slice at something at her feet.  Arrie turned her lantern in that direction, and saw that the floor in front of her sister was covered by a stone-gray lump of writhing mass, which flailed at Autumn with long pseudopods.  They all recognized the creature from previous experience as a gray ooze.

            Autumn sliced at the ooze, turning her shield to deflect its waving pseudopods.  Arrie stepped around the pit to stand next to her sister and give her light to work with, and Kyle also moved forward, stopping a few feet back to be ready to help if needed.  But the sentinel seemed to have matters well in hand, dispensing with finesse in favor of raw power, hacking at the amorphous mass with unrestrained fury.  Soon there was not a single piece of the ooze left that was larger than a dinner roll.

            Wasting little time, Osborn began moving down the hallway again, toward a doorway he’d spotted at the far end.  The rest of the group followed a few feet behind.  Osborn rounded the corner and walked into one of the strangest rooms he’d ever seen.

            The floor was uneven, with large blocks set higher and lower from the entrance in apparently random fashion.  Osborn could tell the room was large, but had trouble making out the other side.  However, he had no trouble making out the sound of swords being drawn from sheaths, and crossbows being cocked.

            “There’s naughty people in here!” Osborn shouted, as he ducked to avoid a crossbow bolt fired toward the door.  The group moved forward quickly and spread out into the room, scrambling up and down the uneven floor to get to the people menacing them.  There turned out to be five guards on duty, two of them wielding crossbows.  The sentries put up a good effort, but their inexperience quickly became evident, as the room’s unusual design seemed to present both an advantage and a hindrance to them.  The party moved to deal with the rogues, though Lanara hung back at the doorway to stay out of trouble.

Kyle moved into the room, and hesitated for a moment before launching a trio of _magic missiles_ at the crossbowmen.  Autumn almost immediately moved in front of him.  Kyle watched as his companions began to swarm around the room, and began to pull his crossbow out, but after a moment lowered his hands.  He was positioned in a low spot in the floor, unable to see much of the enemy; though it wasn’t a problem for _magic missiles_, he doubted he could hit them with anything else.  Scowling with frustration, Kyle moved back into the hallway behind Lanara to keep a lookout.  As he passed the bard, he saw that she was casting spells of her own, and saw one of the rogues attacking Xu freeze in place.  His scowl deepened.

Tolly moved to attack one of the rogues, but his target was positioned nearly eight feet above him.  The rogue glanced at Tolly’s warhammer, and grinned mockingly.  In response, Tolly heaved his warhammer at the rogue.  It flew wide by several feet, and the rogue’s grin widened, until the hammer hooked back around and slammed into his back, knocking from his perch and sending him sprawling at Tolly’s feet.  The grin transferred to Tolly’s face.

Lanara prepared to hold another one of the rogues, when she saw Autumn come out of the doorway and move to stand in front of Kyle, who was still watching the hallway.  Lanara was a little surprised to see the sentinel leave a battle, but looking into the room she saw the fight was in their control, and Autumn’s absence would not affect the outcome greatly.

“You’re blocking my view,” Lanara heard Kyle say.

“And what would you do if something did come down the corridor?” Autumn asked him.  “Someone’s got to protect you.”

“That’s why I’ve got Lanara here,” he replied.

Lanara heard Autumn cough at the suggestion.  She wasn’t offended; she’d made her aversion to combat well known to the group from the beginning, and felt no loss of pride for her attitude.  She was far more useful with a fiddle in her hands than a sword.

“What’s wrong with you?” Autumn’s tone wasn’t harsh or accusatory; it was one of genuine concern.  “I saw you hesitate in there before you cast your spell, and then you walk out here.  That’s not like you.”

“I’m just nervous about what we’re doing.  I used up most of my power preparing for that ambush in the alley that never happened.  I don’t want to waste what little I’ve got left on sentries, so I figure I’m more helpful being out of the way.”

Lanara heard their conversation continue in lower tones, but she didn’t pay attention to what else was said.  She didn’t have time to listen to the wizard and the sentinel argue like an old married couple.  Her focus returned to the battle, and she cast her _hold person_ spell on another rogue, who froze up exactly like his companion.  As this had been the last significant resistance in the room, it was all over a moment later.

There were two doors leading out of the room on the far walls.  Osborn chose one of them, and after inspecting it thoroughly opened the lock and went through.  On the other side was a plain corridor, with more doors at the end.

Those doors turned out to lead to a whole series of short corridors, small rooms, and dead ends.  Osborn moved through, with the rest of the party trailing behind in single file.  He expressed his theory that these corridors, as well as the uneven floor in the previous room, were designed to slow pursuers like the City Watch.  Rogues familiar with the layout could navigate it easily, while others would become disoriented by the series of identical doors and corridors.  Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, they came to a door that led into a much larger chamber.  The room was filled with columns placed seemingly at random in the room, and there were piles of junk and old clothing everywhere.  Osborn risked using more light to see the extent of the room, using a magical glass globe that Kyle had given him to throw out a bright glow.  He walked into the room a few paces, trying to see past a pillar to get a glimpse of the far corner, when he promptly vanished.

The others began to rush forward, skidding to a halt when they saw Osborn’s fingers poking up through the floor, and heard his voice calling out, “Wow.”  Slowly, the hin seemed to emerge out of the floor itself, rising up from the tiles as if he was coming out of a pool of water.

“Pit trap,” he said, once he was on solid ground again.  “It’s covered by an illusion.  I’d bet there’s more of them in this room.”

Arrie cursed when she heard the news.  She’d had plenty of exposure to magic in her youth, especially when visiting the Coviere family in her home country of Merlion.  Though none of it truly surprised her, she’d always been flummoxed by illusions.  Navigating this room would be especially nerve-wracking for her.  “Shouldn’t we tie ourselves together?” Arrie suggested, but no one seemed to listen.

Osborn began walking toward the corner of the room, followed by Xu, who held one end of a rope tied to Osborn’s waist (he had, in fact, been listening to Arrie). Osborn first went to the door to their left, but after establishing the floor in front of the door was real he moved on to another door in the far corner.  He tapped along the floor with his crowbar, and as he expected found a few more spots where the floor wasn’t real.  Once he was fooled, and fell through, but Xu was able to stop his fall and pull him to safety.  They finally made it to the corner, and Osborn started examining the door they found there.  Opening it up, they saw the chamber beyond was filled with a thick fog.  The fog seemed to suppress even Osborn’s magical tactile sense of his surroundings.  He announced his discovery to the group, also pointing out a ladder in the opposite corner that went up through the ceiling, probably to another safe-house on the street.

Tolly walked toward the first door Osborn had checked, following his path.  “Are we concerned about noise?” he asked.

“Well, since Osborn just shouted across the room to us about the fog…” Lanara pointed out.

Tolly slammed his shoulder into the door.  It shuddered, but didn’t budge.

“Do you want help?” Autumn asked.  She began walking toward Tolly, but she didn’t walk along the same path that Osborn and Tolly had followed, and only a couple of feet away she let out a cry of surprise as the floor beneath her feet turned out to be an illusion, and she began to plummet.  Kyle’s hands shot up to cast a _feather fall_, but Tolly was faster.  The cleric turned and grabbed Autumn’s outstretched hand, halting her fall.  He strained for a moment to support Autumn’s armor-clad weight, until she got her feet onto the edge of the pit.  She was being pulled to safety as Kyle ran up behind them, feeling his way with the end of his staff.

“Are you all right?” Kyle gasped.

“I’m fine,” said Autumn.  She turned to Tolly.  “Thank you,” she said, squeezing the hand that he still held in gratitude.

“Of course,” said Tolly.  He spoke unusually softly, and Kyle could swear he saw him blush a little, but he had little time to wonder about it, as Autumn had begun trying to bash down the door herself.  The three of them began discussing the problem.

Meanwhile, Osborn and Xu continued to watch the fog-shrouded room to make sure no nasty surprises jumped out.  Out of the corner of her eye, Xu saw a slight shudder of movement from a pile of rags near the door.  Assuming it was a rat, Xu waited, ready to snap the vermin’s neck with her foot when it emerged.  Thus she was somewhat surprised when the pile of rags itself suddenly jumped into the air and swarmed over Osborn, trying to envelop him.  Osborn, reacting quickly, grabbed a flask of oil and dumped it onto the pile, but before he could do anything else it started wrapping around him.  Xu, now unable to light the oil-soaked rags without immolating Osborn, tried instead to pull them free while Osborn slashed with a dagger.  Despite his seriousness in defending himself, Osborn couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the absurdity of being assaulted by refuse.

The commotion drew the attention of the others.  “What’s going on?” Arrie asked, still too nervous to attempt to move from her safe spot on the floor.

“It looks like Osborn’s being attacked by laundry,” said Lanara.

“Do they need help?”  Arrie inched forward slightly, leaning over trying to see what was happening.

“I’m… not really sure.  It’s hard to tell who’s winning.”

Autumn concentrated for a moment.  “Whatever it is, it’s not evil,” she said.

“But it’s trying to eat the hin!” Arrie cried.

“Maybe it’s another illusion,” offered Autumn.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not!” yelled a struggling Osborn.

Kyle, who had not been any more effective than Tolly and Autumn in opening the other door, started to walk across the floor to see what was going on, still probing the call with his staff.  About halfway across, Kyle passed by a stack of old ropes and belt straps, which suddenly flew into the air and enveloped the wizard.  At the same time, another pile of clothing rose into the air near where Kavan and Arrie were standing.  Unlike the piles of loose scraps that were assaulting Osborn, however, this apparition was made from a complete, if mismatched suit of clothing, which took on a human-like form.

“What the…?” Kyle stammered, but was cut off as the swirling cloud of straps wrapped tightly around him, wrapping him up like a mummy.  Autumn and Tolly immediately ran to his aid, as did Xu, who saw that Osborn had gotten the strange creature under control.

“What is this thing?” Autumn shouted as she ran up to Kyle, drawing her sword.

“It’s called a ragamoffyn,” Tolly replied.  “Construct.  They envelop you and then take over your mind.”

Autumn’s eyes went wide, and she swung her blade, slicing through a few straps and hunks of rope.  But she also heard an audible groan, and blood began seeping out from the gash she’d left.

“Don’t slash at it,” Xu told a white-faced Autumn.  “Try and pull it free.”

The three of them grabbed handfuls and began ripping at straps even as Kyle struggled from inside to break free.  Meanwhile, Kavan had gone to confront the third ragamoffyn, but fell into a nearby hidden pit and had to scramble to grab the edge.  Arrie swung at the creature, but her offense was hampered by her unwillingness to move from where she stood.

With the advantage of surprise fading, the ragamoffyns began to have trouble sustaining their attack.  Kyle was finally freed from the animated ropes, and backed up to launch a series of _magic missiles_ at it, while Tolly, Autumn, and Xu continued to pull and rip at it.  Kavan managed to pull himself out of the pit, and joined Arrie and Osborn in dealing with the second ragamoffyn.  A few moments later, the air was filled with tiny remnants of cloth and leather.

The party gathered themselves together, and made an effort to slowly and carefully explore the room, marking the location of each hidden pit.  When they finished, Osborn looked up at everyone.

“I’ve been thinking about this place,” he said.  “Obviously it’s meant to throw off pursuers – that’s why there’s all the confusing corridors, uneven floors, and so forth.  But I think the people moving through the area wouldn’t bother going through all this.  I think we may very well have missed the actual entrance to the lower levels back by where we came in.  Chances are that if we keep going we’ll just run into more of the same as this.”  He gestured around to the pit-covered floor.

“Sounds reasonable,” said Arrie.  “What do we do?”

“I say we go back that direction and look really carefully,” Osborn said.  “There was a corridor leading off from the other side of that pit.”

The party made their way back through the series of corridors and into the room with the uneven floor.  They searched that room on Osborn’s hunch, but all they found was a small hidden nook where a sword and a couple of potions had been stashed.  Kyle suggested they rig up some sort of nasty surprise in the nook for the next person to open it, but Osborn told him it would be impractical.

They worked their way into the corridor, moving past the first pit trap and into the hallway beyond.  Osborn, taking the lead, spotted a small chamber to one side blocked off by iron bars closely spaced together.  The hin looked for a way to open the bars, but then realized that the chamber beyond was probably the lair of the gray ooze that had attacked Autumn, which would easily be able to flow through the bars.

Osborn rounded a corner, with Kavan a few feet behind, and the remainder of the party trailing single-file behind.  Around the corner he saw a doorway ahead of him, and one more on each side, offset from each other.  Across from each door was a small alcove.  Osborn cautiously crept forward to inspect the first alcove, but jumped back when he saw a figure come toward him out of the alcove.  He’d almost thrown a dagger at the figure when he realized that he and his opponent were the same size and wore the same clothing.  Looking closely, he saw that a large mirror had been hung in the alcove, and he was looking at his own reflection.  Osborn breathed a sigh of relief, then flashed a smile at his image and began to straighten his hair.

That was when the crossbow bolt came through the mirror.

Osborn twisted away, and the bolt only grazed his forehead.  Kavan, who was the only one who heard the tiny noise of the bolt penetrating the glass, came rushing up behind Osborn as he smashed through the mirror with his crowbar.  Leaping through the opening to the hidden chamber beyond, Osborn saw another of the animated armor statues inside, in the process of reloading a crossbow.  Not one to waste an opportunity, Osborn jumped in and slid his daggers into the armored plates, prying them loose and hurling them aside.  The construct, under orders to fire at intruders, couldn’t react to this threat, and before long Osborn had completely dismantled it.

He crawled out of the alcove, nodding a greeting to Kavan, and immediately went to examine the other mirror.  This one, however, did not conceal a hidden chamber.  Finally Osborn inspected the doors, finding the side doors opened into small dead-end closets.  After carefully inspecting the door at the end of the hallway, he opened the lock and went through, wedging it open with a stick so the others could follow.

The door opened into a long hallway, which extended past Osborn’s tactile senses and even the range of his magical light.  As Kavan stepped through the door, he noticed a discoloration in the wall to their left, and looking closely saw the seam of a secret door.  He and Osborn quickly found the latch, and after a pause to administer some healing to Osborn (who was suffering from a half-dozen old wounds), they opened the hidden door.

Kavan was nearly knocked senseless by the wave of nauseating odor that blasted out of the door.  The reek of months-old sewage oozed out of the chamber beyond.  Holding their noses, the party looked inside.  The chamber beyond was a series of stone platforms interspersed throughout the space.  In various places small stone pillars rose to the ceiling, supporting it.  Some rickety planks were placed across a few of the platforms.  About five feet below the platforms, they could see the blackish muck of concentrated offal bubbling.  The party took a depth measurement, using a rope and the helmet scavenged from the construct, and found the sewage was about twenty feet deep.

“Are you feeling okay?” Kyle asked Kavan, who was looking green.  The elf shook his head weakly.  “I can’t go in there,” he said.

“All I see is a ladder going up in the corner,” Osborn said, holding up his light.  “I think this is just another room to throw off pursuit.  No sense torturing ourselves.”

They quickly exited and shut the door.  They kept going down the long corridor, which eventually turned to the left.  Kavan found another hidden door, but it obviously led into the sewage room, so they didn’t even bother opening it.  The party continued down the corridor to another door.  When Osborn opened it, he saw deep, impenetrable fog roiling in the room beyond.

“We seem to have made it to the other side of the fog room,” sighed Osborn.

“Now what?” asked Arrie.  “Where would you put the ladder down?”

“It could be in here,” Osborn said, gesturing into the fog.

“Or in the sh** room,” said Lanara sourly.

“Well, let’s split up and check both rooms,” suggested Tolly.  “Those of us wearing heavy armor will explore the fog, and the more agile of us can look into the sewage room.”

Kyle, who was looking into the fog, turned around.  “I thought it might be an illusion, and tried to see through it, but it’s either real fog or a really good illusion.  But either way, it seems Tolly’s got the best idea, even though it means I’m going back into that other room.”

He party split up and began checking their respective rooms.  Xu volunteered to make her way across the platforms, after tying a rope to her waist and giving Kyle the other end.  Lanara and Kavan waited in the hallway beyond.  However, as Xu stepped onto the first platform, the floor beneath her opened up, and she dropped down.  Kyle felt the rope begin to slide through his hands, but heard a sickening splat just as he tightened his grip.

“Oops,” he said.

As they hauled up and began to clean off the vomiting monk, the others began to move into the fog-shrouded room.  Tolly led the way, moving around to his left to circumnavigate the chamber.  As he stepped around the corner, a figure darted out from behind a corner and slipped the end of a rapier between Tolly’s armored plates.  Growling from pain and surprise, Tolly hefted his hammer.

“Rogue!” he shouted.  “Take him alive!”  Tolly swung his hammer, angling the head to glance off his opponent’s skull instead of caving it in.  Nonetheless, it was a solid hit, and the rogue crumpled silently.

“Never mind,” said Tolly, as Autumn came rushing to his side.  The priest picked up the limp form of the cutpurse and began dragging him out of the nearby entry.  “Now, let’s find out where that door is.”

*          *            *​
             Drake couldn’t decide what woke him up first; the pain in his head or the stench.  He never really had the time to consider the matter fully.

            He came to quickly and took stock of his situation.  He was hanging over a pit of the foulest smelling slime he’d ever experienced, tied by his ankles.  His hands were bound to his waist, probably to keep him from trying to reach up and untie the rope.  Not that he was going to try.  He thanked Shesh that the bonds on his wrists also kept his hands from dropping into the excrement below.

            Hearing a noise, Drake looked up (or was that down?  It was so disorienting) and saw that a few people were looking at him from a stone platform.  A slender but tough-looking woman was holding the other end of his rope.  In the light coming from their direction, Drake saw a spiked chain wrapped around her torso.  A man in shining plate armor glared down at him; Drake barely remembered him as the one that had clocked him back in the Chamber of Mists.  Another plate-clad woman stood next to him, hands on her hips; if not for his situation, he might have been able to appreciate that she was a real looker.

            All in all, once he had his bearings, there was only one appropriate reaction.

            “Oh… my… god!”

            The three people up on the platform grinned at him.

            “What won’t get me dropped in this sh**?” Drake cried out.

            “We have questions,” said the woman with the chain.  “And if you don’t answer them in a way that makes me happy, what I’ll end up doing to you will make you wish we’d let you drown in this.”

            Looking up at her, Drake realized that she was deadly serious.  The taut rope twitched as he began trembling, and he felt something warm begin to dribble down his back.  If there was a shred of Drake that cared about this loss of dignity, it had long since fled his mind along with any scrap of defiance.

            “I want to know where the entrance to your guild is,” she continued.  “Not the ladders down from the street, not the fake secret doors – we know about those.  If Tolly here tells me you’re lying, I’m not very patient.”

            Drake glanced over and saw the armor-clad mad hold out some sort of holy symbol and mumble strange words at him.

            “I don’t know where it is!” he shrieked.  “You have to believe me!”

            The woman glanced at the man she’d called Tolly, who frowned.  Drake’s voice came out as a squeal.  “I’m not lying!  I’m not high up enough to know!  We’re just here to guard the area from the Watch and keep everyone else out!  I swear it!”

            A moment passed, then the woman jerked on the rope to get his attention.  “How did you get here then?”

            “I came in from above!”

            “Who showed you how to get here?”

            “This guy I know in the guild… Laquana!  He got me started!”

            “And where would I find him?” came the question.

            “I don’t know!  I haven’t seen him for a long time!”  The fumes from the sewage, combined with the blood rushing to his head, were making him light-headed.

            “So,” said the woman, who seemed to be losing her temper a bit, “Are you always stationed in the room with the fog?”

            “No,” he said meekly, hoping to clam her down.

            “Describe the rooms you know about.”

            “Well, there’s the one you found me in, that’s the Chamber of Mists.  Then there’s the Crooked Room, the Endless Corridors, the Maggot-Wolf Lair, and the Junk Room.”  Briefly, Drake wondered where these people had taken him; he didn’t recognize the room, and he was sure he’d remember this.

            “Maggot-wolf?  What’s that?”

            “I don’t know.  It looks like someone’s insides.”

            “That’s pretty repulsive.  Where is that room located?”

            “It’s north of the Junk Room, on the other side of the Chamber of Mists.”

            “Are there any others like you hiding in the Chamber of Mists?”

            “No more than eight or ten,” Drake babbled.  “We’re told to hit and run, hide in the mists if we see strangers.”

            The woman sighed, then looked back over her shoulder.  “Does anyone else have any questions?  Otherwise, I’m ready to drop him.”

            Panic caused Drake’s body to convulse.  “No!!!”

            Looking up at the woman, getting ready to plead for his life, he saw a large man in robes walk up behind her and whisper something in her ear.  Smiling, she turned her attention back to her captive.

            “So, you say you’re not important enough to know where the guild entrance is?  Well, surely there must be some people who come through here who are important enough.  Tell me, what room to they go to?”

            Drake almost smiled; surely they’d let him go free for answering this question.  “Well, I…”

            Suddenly the filth just under him boiled and erupted.  For a split second, Drake saw some sort of tentacled beast rise up around him, and then he felt the sharp ripping pain of hundreds of sharp teeth in his abdomen before his world faded into blackness forever.

*          *            *​
             The party stood in front of the door to the ‘maggot-wolf’, the same door that Autumn, Tolly, and Kyle had tried unsuccessfully to bash down before the ragamoffyns had attacked.  Osborn had unlocked the door, and they prepared to explore the last area in this underground area.

            They’d carefully cleared out the remaining opposition in the Chamber of Mists, using the information they’d gleaned from their captive thief before he was devoured by the otyugh (Xu expressed gratitude that the beast hadn’t emerged when she had fallen in earlier).  In all, nine of the rogues fell to their weapons; while the fog provided the thieves with an element of surprise, when that was eliminated the mists only served to isolate each individual opponent from his allies.  A thorough search of the area only revealed another emergency stash of equipment, but no passageway down.

            The door opened into a narrow, circular tunnel that Kyle said looked like it had either been eaten away by acid or formed naturally by underground water.  The smell of carrion wafted out of the opening.

            “I think that when we kill this thing,” Osborn said quietly, “I’m going to cut its head off and make a hat out of it.”

            Autumn, standing behind him, winced.  “Why?”

            The hin shrugged.  “I need a new hat.”

            Kavan looked into the narrow opening.  “Maybe you should hold a piece of bacon out on a stick first,” he offered.

            Osborn looked offended.  “And waste good bacon?”

            The tunnel curved off to the left, and Osborn led the way, followed closely by the rest of the party.  After only traveling a few feet, Osborn began to hear a sound in the distance like something squishing around.  He drew his daggers and began to creep forward slowly, sticking to the wall of the cavern.

            He rounded the bend and came to a widening in the tunnel, easily twenty or thirty feet across.  Against the far wall was a creature the size of a large horse.  Most of it looked like a huge wolf covered in sores and boils, but instead of a wolf’s head, a mass of enormous, writhing maggots emerged from its shoulders.  The maggot-heads were buried in the corpse of a man that looked like it had been killed days ago.  The heads rose up, and turned to look at Osborn.

            Tolly immediately stepped forward, putting himself between Osborn and the creature.  Osborn ducked down, and threw a pair of daggers between the priest’s legs, one of them skittering off the rocks and the other striking true.  Tolly stepped forward and brought his hammer down on one of the maggot-heads, leaving an ugly purplish-yellow bruise on the glistening flesh.  In response, the heads lashed out at Tolly, and one of the maggots managed to squirm under his armor and began to tear at the flesh at his ribcage.

            The rest of the party tried to press forward as best they could, but the tunnels were narrow and moving was difficult.  Xu got a short running start, and ran over the rest of the party, running up the side of the wall and corkscrewing over their heads to land near the hideous creature.  Autumn began to hack at its flanks, but pulled back when one of the heads bent back impossibly far and began to burrow into her hip.  Setting her jaw in grim determination, she charged back in, and with a mighty swing sliced off nine of the dozen or so maggot heads.  The creature staggered, and was unable to react as Xu jumped in and brought her elbow down on its spine, killing it.

            The party began to gather in the wider portion of the tunnel, even as Xu, Kavan, and Arrie moved out to explore the other tunnels beyond.  Autumn kicked at one of the twitching maggot heads.

            “So, Osborn,” she said, “do you still want that hat?”

            The others laughed as Osborn made a face.  “I think that’s the first joke I’ve heard you tell,” Lanara said proudly.

            Autumn smiled.  “You must be rubbing off on me.”

            Lanara watched as Autumn looked around the chamber at the others, and noticed their looks back.  As the bard watched, a few odd things suddenly clicked into place in her mind as she saw the looks certain people were giving the sentinel.  It was all Lanara could do to keep her jaw from dropping open.  She almost said something, but decided that this would require more watching and waiting.

            As the party was cleaning their weapons, they heard Xu call out from a side tunnel.  Heading in that direction, they passed a ladder going up to the street, then found Xu at a dead end, staring down at a broken off stalagmite.  When she saw the others were there, she wordlessly bent down and put her hand through the stalagmite, pulling at something on the floor.  A wooden trapdoor appeared out of the rock, and once opened they could all see a simple steel ladder leading downward.

            They stood around the opening for a brief moment before Arrie spoke.  “Are we ready?”

            Most of the group nodded.  “No,” said Kyle, the lone voice of dissent.  “But I’m going anyway.”

            “Well, hang on tight, then,” said Arrie.  “It’s about to get very sticky from here on in.”


----------



## Delemental

The party clambered downward through a narrow, pitch-black shaft, climbing down a sturdy iron ladder bolted into the wall.  They didn’t dare use any light, not knowing what might be below them waiting, so they descended in darkness, trusting to Osborn’s blindsense and Autumn and Lanara’s darkvision to warn them.

            The shaft dropped down into a larger tunnel leading off underground.  The tunnel was obviously man-made, and after getting his bearings Osborn declared it led off toward the center of the city above them.  The group had a sudden sense of déjà vu, feeling just as they did traversing the underground city of Laeshir.

            They followed the tunnel quietly, until after several hundred yards they saw the tunnel open up ahead, and light spilling out across the rock walls.  Cautiously, they came up through the tunnel to where it opened up into an enormous cavern.  The party stood at the edge for a moment, marveling at the sight.

            The cavern was bowl-shaped, dropping down from where they stood at a gentle slope.  It was easily the size of a small city – this was easy to determine, as a small city had been built inside it.  Though nowhere near the size of Noxolt, the cave-city was no less busy; even from where they stood the group could see figures moving back and forth through the streets.  In the center of the cavern, a large plateau rose up above the rest of the city, until its flat upper surface was nearly level with the spot where the party stood in the tunnel.  Built upon this plateau was a large, stately mansion, with no other buildings sharing its prominent location.  Looking around, the party noticed several of the buildings, including the mansion, were decorated with a spider motif.

            “Fiel,” Kyle muttered, looking at the spider carvings on a nearby building.  The others looked at him a moment, wondering why the name of the god of murder had come so easily to his lips.  Kyle noticed the looks, and shrugged.  “The subject’s come up in some of the research I was doing recently.  And Fiel gets mentioned once or twice in Sauroth’s old spellbook.”

            Arrie pointed out toward the mansion.  “I think it’s pretty obvious that’s where we need to go.”

            “Problem is, none of you look like thieves and assassins,” said Osborn.

            “Maybe we could try disguises again,” offered Lanara.

            “I’m not taking off my armor,” said Autumn.

            “Nor I,” agreed Tolly.

            “You wouldn’t have to take it off,” said Osborn.  “We just need to make you look like a thug instead of a holy warrior.”

            “No.”

            “But you’ll stick out like a sore thumb!” protested the hin.

            Autumn gestured at her face, which displayed her obvious celestial qualities.  “I already stand out,” she said.  “I see no reason to soil my armor.”

            “I never want to be dirty again,” said Xu quietly, shuddering as she recalled her fall into the pool of sewage.  She’d used an entire pound of soap and all the water that Tolly and Kavan could summon, and still didn’t feel clean.

            “Look, we don’t have to ruin it,” Osborn argued.  “Just rub some dirt on the surface.”

            “Do you have any idea,” Tolly interrupted, “how badly plate armor will rust if you leave it dirty?”

            “Yeah, but if we get caught,” Kyle chimed in, “then we find out what the effects of large amounts of our blood have on plate armor.”

            “If that much of my blood is on my armor, I’m probably beyond caring.”

            “Hey, everyone!” said Lanara, nearly shouting.  “I have a disguise kit.  There’s some tar makeup in there we can smear on their armor that won’t damage it.  All we need is a couple of big cloaks and we’re good.”

            “Fine,” said Arrie, clearly getting impatient.  “What about the rest of us?”

            “Well, Kyle looks fine to me,” said Osborn, examining the wizard’s old, tattered robes.  “He just needs to not say anything.  Xu’s also looking pretty grungy right now.  Kavan’s an elf, so they won’t give him a second look.  Arrie can easily pass for a mercenary.  I think that if Lanara uses her disguise kit to tone down the hair a bit, we’ve got a shot at this.”

            “So, should we split up?” asked Arrie.

            “It would look better than a large group walking to the mansion,” agreed Osborn.

            “I don’t know about that,” said Lanara.  “Sounds too risky.”

            “I agree,” said Kyle.  “If there is trouble, we’ll need everyone’s help to get out of here.  I say we just spread out as we walk into the city, so that we’re within view of each other without looking like we’re together.”

            “That sounds good to me,” said Arrie.  “Shall we go?”

            “Let’s not just head straight there,” said Osborn.  “Let’s wander through the town first, get some information.  Find out who’s in charge, what they’re doing down here.”

            “I agree,” said Xu.  “We need to know our enemies.”

            “We could grab a couple of people off the street, pump them for information,” suggested Arrie.

            “Or we could watch the mansion for a while, see who comes and goes,” offered Autumn.

            “Or you could get jumped by the guards,” said a voice behind them.

            The group turned just as five figures jumped out of hidden crevices in the walls.  A pair of gnomes scrambled forward and jabbed sharp daggers into Xu’s liver, while an elf-touched with a longsword slashed at Arrie.  Kyle quickly spun around and shouted arcane words, pointing at a cluster of four of the guards.  There was a sudden pressure in the air as a blast of sonic energy ripped through the rogue guards, which broke up the stone floor beneath their feet into a gritty, gravelly pile.  One of the victims, an orcish woman with a spear, wiped blood from her nose and began to sing, the harsh rhythms of her chanting weaving through the battle.  Lanara began her own song in challenge to the orcish bard.

            A human with a two-bladed sword looked at Osborn, who was leaping in to engage the gnomes, and spewed out a horrific string of curses that were laced with power.  Osborn nearly diverted his attention to the human, but he managed to shake off the supernatural effect and press his attack on the gnomes.

            Kavan stepped up and healed Xu as Tolly threw his hammer at the elf-touched guard that had wounded Arrie, angling his throw so that the magical hammer struck him from behind and pushed him into close proximity of Arrie, Autumn, and Xu, where he was quickly eviscerated.

            “Never touch my sister,” said Autumn, pulling her sword free.

            Xu turned her attention to helping Osborn fight the gnomes, while Arrie waded through the pulverized cavern floor to deal with the orcish bard.  Autumn concentrated for a few moments, and suddenly a large wolverine with silvery-gold fur appeared out of thin air next to her, which accompanied Arrie to attack the bard.  Kyle gripped his staff in both hands and ran in to help Osborn and Xu, clubbing at the two gnomes.  Tolly and Kavan focused on the rogue with the two-bladed sword; he tried to flee, but was cut down by one of Kavan’s arrows.

            The group dragged the bodies out of sight, stripping the corpses even as hey searched the area.  They found several of the hidden niches in the walls, where a sentry could easily hide and observe the tunnel.  The rogues had likely been listening to their plans for some time.

            “I think that we’ve lost the element of surprise,” said Kavan.  "There are more niches here than there were guards, so someone could have slipped away to raise an alarm."

            “Agreed,” said Osborne.  “So as much as I hate to say it, I think we only have one option left; head straight for the mansion and kick down the door.”

*          *            *​
            The group marched up the pathway leading up the side of the plateau.  They had encountered no resistance on the way up; most of the residents of the underground city seemed to be common cutpurses and beggars, and fled rather than confront a heavily armed band of adventurers.  They walked into an empty courtyard, and proceeded straight through the open main doors of the mansion and down a long hallway of plain stone.  At the end of the hallway stood a pair of double doors, also open.

            “Think we’re expected?” said Lanara, not expecting an answer.

            They walked through the double doors into a large reception room, a high ceiling supported by four large pillars.  At the far end of the room, a dais rose twenty feet into the air.  Standing in front of the dais was a tiefling, his hands resting on the hilt of a rapier.  Atop the dais, the party saw a creature unlike any they had ever seen before.  It was humanoid, and at first they thought it was an elf or an elf-touched.  But his skin was a dark, chestnut brown, and his features were thin and elongated.  The figure had no hair except for a black topknot.  The being wore plain robes, and sat in a meditative posture.  The group looked at each other; none of them had ever seen or heard of a being such as this.  A tiny sliver of a long-forgotten memory twitched in the back of Lanara’s mind, but it refused to come out and show itself to her.  But even the vaguest speculations the cansin had about what this being might be caused the hairs to stand up on the back of her neck.

            The figure opened his eyes as the party walked in.  Even from across the room, they could see his eyes glowing green with inner power.  The figure’s irises were oddly shaped, and combined with his flattened nose gave him an almost reptilian appearance.  The figure regarded the party without passion or concern.

            Kyle swallowed nervously.  He’d been worried about this journey ever since they first went under the streets of Noxolt.  He’d prepared most of his spells to handle the planned ambush of the rogues who were meeting Princess Aralda, and much of his power had been spent hours ago setting up the plan.  What little offensive power he had left had been spent in their trip down into the undercity; the _shatterfloor _ spell he’d used on the sentries was the last of it.  Looking up at the strange figure on the dais, it was easy to assume he was a spellcaster of some sort – and unlike Kyle was probably fully prepared.  Kyle knew he could contribute little if this came to a fight.

As he contemplated simply stepping into a corner if things got ugly just so he wouldn't be in the way, he felt an itching in the hand he held his staff with.  As the itching became a throbbing, he glanced down, and was surprised to see the silvery-gray wood was beginning to glow softly.  Kyle wasn’t sure what to make of this.  He’d taken the staff as his reward from Prince Herion for killing Sauroth – even though the keepers of the Imperial Vaults had said that it held only a very minor enchantment and was notable only for the rarity of the wood it was made from, Kyle had felt drawn to it.  Now, as he watched the glow intensify, he began to feel something else… power.  Raw, unfettered power, more than he’d ever felt in his life.  He knew it was coming from the staff, and he felt it trying to work its way into him.  Somehow, the feeling was reassuring to him, as if he somehow knew it was safe.  Kyle let his mental barriers drop, and immediately the power surged through him, into the parts of his mind where he stored and shaped the magic under his control.  He felt the power run through his mind, restoring structure and substance to spell constructs he’d depleted long ago.  Not everything was replenished, but much of it was.  Kyle nearly stumbled off his feet from the sudden rush as the staff completed its work.

The rest of the party didn’t notice Kyle’s strange reaction, as their attention was focused on the strange being before them.  If the creature had noticed anything odd, he showed no signs.  After looking the party over for a few moments, the being spoke.

“My master said that I was to destroy you,” came the quiet, lilting voice.  “Yet I feel this would be a foolish move.  You clearly have no small amount of talent, unlike those you dispatch to reach me.  And so, I offer this instead; work with us, instead of against us.  Help us to bring freedom to this world.”

“Speak your name, sir,” said Kavan.

“I am called Xerxes.”

Lanara decided to play along.  “What’s in it for us?”

Xerxes had an expression on his face that might have been a smile. “I have access to knowledge ancient beyond the reckoning of even the gods.  Knowledge from before the Cataclysm.”

“Excuse me,” asked Arrie.  “But would part of this ‘bringing freedom’ involve killing a lot of people?”

Xerxes’ body moved under his robes in something that was almost a shrug. “There are those who desire the genocide of certain peoples, just as there are those who would find it… impractical.  Perhaps if you feel strongly one way, our goals would involve death.”

Tolly sighed as he stepped forward.  “By Ardara, what was known before the Cataclysm should not be allowed!  The gods have forbidden it!  You will surrender now.”

Xerxes shook his head, looking directly at Tolly.  “You are a god-slave.  You will need to be purged.”  He held up a hand, and ignoring the cries of Tolly’s companions, sent a beam of white-hot fire straight into the priest’s chest.  Tolly staggered back from the impact, his breastplate charred and smoking.

The party jumped into action.  Kyle ran around behind the party, chanting arcane syllables as he moved.  He came up to Autumn, and laid his hand on her shoulder, casting a _fly _ spell on her.  “Go get him,” he said.  The sentinel rose into the air and began heading for the dais, even as her celestial wolverine minion scrambled after the tiefling.

Tolly recovered from Xerxes’ attack and ran forward, throwing his hammer in an attempt to knock Xerxes from his perch.  But the hammer rebounded off some sort of invisible barrier, and Xerxes remained in place.

As the rest of the group began to move forward, a pair of figures jumped out of the shadows behind pillars and attacked.  A hin wearing a chain shirt embossed with several spider symbols slashed at Lanara with a dagger, cutting deep into her thigh.  Xu jumped to defend the bard even as she jabbed back at the hin with her own dagger.  On the other side of the room, a human jumped out and menaced Kavan with a dagger dripping with a greenish fluid.

Xerxes glanced at Arrie, and suddenly the air was filled with a strange noise that reached a crescendo as a ring of green energy burst out from him.  Arrie staggered for a moment, and out of the corner of his eye Tolly saw her face go slack and her limbs jerk oddly.  He had little time to wonder at this, though, as the tiefling had run up to engage Tolly.

Autumn flew up to Xerxes, and slashed at him with her longsword.  In response, he finally stood up, and his hand snapped out, and a blade of greenish energy sprang into existence in his palm, narrowly missing Autumn as it flashed by.  He almost seemed as if he was barely paying attention to the sentinel.  Autumn’s gaze fell onto Xerxes’ belt, and she spotted a familiar gold-hilted dagger tucked there.  Her vision went red as she recognized the ceremonial oathbond dagger of Bail that Kavan’s bastard son Marrek had stolen from her in Laeshir.

Below them, at the base of the dais, Arrie suddenly turned and wrapped her spiked chain around Tolly’s ankles, pulling him from his feet.  Then she turned and lashed out at Autumn’s summoned wolverine, scoring its hide with deep red gashes.  Scrambling to his feet, Tolly saw what was happening, and stepped back away from the tiefling long enough to cast as spell.  Arrie suddenly stopped moving.

Kyle, who had just finished putting a _mage armor_ spell on Xu, ran up next to Tolly.  “Rod!” he shouted, as he approached.  Tolly handed Kyle a golden rod from his belt as Kyle went past.  “What’s with Arrie?” he said quickly as he took the rod.  Kyle had seen Tolly cast the _hold person_ spell.

“She’s not in her own mind,” he replied just as quickly, returning his attention back to the tiefling.  Before he did, though, Tolly noticed that Kyle’s new staff was glowing almost white, pulsing with energy.  Odd, he thought, but had no time to contemplate it further.

Kavan struggled with the human with the envenomed dagger.  He used divine power to wound the assassin, but he kept coming, and managed to slide the blade in between two of Kavan’s ribs.  The Eritan priest felt the sting of the poison, but stayed on his feet, trading blows.  Finally the assassin leapt away from Kavan and drank a potion, before coming back into the fray and trying to pull the elf to the floor.  Osborn, who had been throwing daggers into the assassin, held back as the two became a tangle of limbs.  On the other side of the room, the hin was holding off Xu and Lanara, though the monk was landing a few good blows.

Kyle ran up to the base of the dais.  He dug into a pocket, and pulled out a tiny wooden crate.  He’d shrunk the crate down hours ago, intending to use it to block off the alley where Aralda was supposed to have met her guild contacts, but they’d never had to use it.  Now, he set it down next to the dais, and spoke the words to end the shrinking spell.  The crate immediately grew to a ten-foot wooden box.  Though climbing it would still be difficult, it would be a lot easier than scaling the smooth stone of the twenty foot high dais.  He then moved around the back of the dais and cast a _rope trick_, setting the opening well above the top of the dais so that he could climb the rope and help Autumn.

Initially, though, it seemed as though the sentinel needed little help.  Her sword blazing with holy power, Autumn cut through Xerxes’ protective powers and into his flesh.  Xerxes looked annoyed and sent a blast of power at her.  She managed to ward off the mental barrage, and prepared to renew her attack, but it had given Xerxes the opening he’d wanted.  Reaching out, he touched Autumn on the arm, and the wounds that Xerxes had suffered seemed to flow off his body and onto hers.  Autumn screamed in pain and wobbled in her flight.  Xerxes then walked across the dais, and straight down the side of it, coming down to ground level.

Below them, the tiefling dispatched the wolverine, sending it back to its home in the celestial forests of Orcor*.  Tolly, hearing Autumn’s scream, tried to press forward to come to her aid, but was blocked by the rapier-wielding fiendling.  Arrie, who had been released from Xerxes’ control but was still held by Tolly’s spell, could only listen helplessly, unable even to turn her head to see where her sister was.  Lanara, who had managed to get away from the dagger-wielding hin, used her wand to summon a giant spider, but lacked the range to get to Xerxes and had to settle for helping Tolly against the tiefling.  Kyle, cursing that all his efforts to get up to the dais had been wasted, ran around the edge of it and hurled a trio of _magic missiles_ at Xerxes, using the magical rod he’d borrowed from Tolly to add extra power to them.

Xerxes was obviously hurt by the spell, but did not pause in his stride.  He walked up to the immobilized Arrie, and held his glowing energy blade to her throat.  “You’d best let me leave,” he hissed, leaving the consequences of failure unspoken.

The situation looked hopeless for Arrie.  Most of the party was heavily wounded; Kavan’s head swam from the poison in his veins, and Tolly was barely standing trying to defend himself from the tiefling.  Lanara and Xu were pursuing the hin, who was trying to escape and likely bring in reinforcements. Kyle hesitated, a spell on the tip of his tongue, but he knew he couldn’t cast fast enough to prevent Xerxes from cutting Arrie’s throat.  A smile began to curl the corners of Xerxes’ mouth.

That was when Autumn hit him, her sword blazing with power.  She tried to bring her blade down on his weapon arm in hopes of severing it before he struck, but Xerxes’ reflexes seemed unnaturally quick, and he shoved the energy blade into Arrie’s neck.  But at that very moment Tolly released his spell on Arrie, assuming that Xerxes would not try to kill Arrie if she was still under his control. She jerked back trying to prevent her head from being severed, but Xerxes’ blade still left a deep gash in the side of her neck, and she tumbled to the floor, blood flowing freely onto the stone floor.

Autumn pressed her attack while Kyle rushed up and pulled Arrie’s limp form away.  He ripped a strip of cloth off the hem of his robe to try and staunch the blood.  But as he pressed the wad of fabric to Arrie’s neck, her eyes opened and she winked at him.  Kyle paused, then nodded slightly, continuing to bend over the warrior and hold the bandage to her neck in order to keep up the ruse.

Xu managed to fell the hin, easily catching up to him with her superior speed and breaking his neck.  Turning, she saw Kavan pinned to the floor by the human, and the elf’s struggles were weakening.  Osborn was darting in and out of the combat, jabbing his dagger into the human when he could get an opening.  Xu ran in to help pull the man off Kavan.  But before she could reach him, the assassin drove his dagger under Kavan’s sternum, and the elf went limp under him.  The assassin stood and tried to flee, but was surrounded by Osborn and Xu, who pummeled him into a bloody mess.  Xu then knelt down and poured one of her healing potions down Kavan’s throat, sighing in relief as the priest started breathing again.

Xerxes parried Autumn’s attacks, and then spun out of the way in a blur of motion. Once out of the sentinel’s range, Xerxes turned and ran out of the room, moving with freakishly unnatural speed.  In the space of a few moments, he was past the door and several dozen yards down the hall.  Autumn watched his retreat, rage flashing in her eyes, then she flew over to the tiefling.  “Tolly!  Heal Arrie!” she shouted, as she engaged the tiefling.  At that moment, Lanara ran up and cast a spell at the tiefling, who suddenly collapsed in gales of magically induced laughter.  Tolly stepped back, and moved to heal Arrie’s apparently mortal wound, when the exotic fighter suddenly stood up and dropped an orcish shotput on the tiefling.  Seeing that Arrie was fine, Tolly moved to pursue Xerxes, but saw that he was well out of their reach.  Kyle launched another volley of _magic missiles_ at the strange man, striking him but not felling him.

The only enemy remaining in the room was the tiefling.  “Get a prisoner!” Osborn shouted, still tending to Kavan.  Autumn, however, was still in a blood rage, and brought her sword down on the tiefling as hard as she could.  Dark blood sprayed across her armor.  Before she could strike again, Lanara’s whip wrapped around Autumn’s legs, pulling her down toward the floor to allow Arrie to grab hold of her and pull her sister back.  Tolly ran in and interposed himself between Autumn and the tiefling.  “This won’t help Aralda!” he shouted at her.

The reminder of their purpose in coming down into the undercity seemed to get through, and Autumn relaxed, letting the sword drop from her hands.  Tolly turned and applied healing magic to the tiefling to keep him alive, while the rest of the party tended to their own wounds.  Arrie pulled Autumn aside, and spoke to her quietly, trying to calm her down.  A minute or so later, Tolly walked over to talk to her as well.

“Grabâkh’s burning balls!” Kavan swore, “what in the world was that thing?”

“I don’t know,” said Kyle.  “I’ve never even heard of magic like that.”  He seemed to be watching the conversation between Arrie, Autumn, and Tolly, although he couldn’t hear anything.

“I’m not sure it was magic,” Lanara said quietly.  She was staring down the hallway where Xerxes had fled, as if expecting him to return any moment.

“What else could it be?” said Kavan.

“I can’t say for sure,” the bard answered.  “I’ve had this tickle in the back of my head since we first saw Xerxes.  Something I maybe heard once a long time ago, or read somewhere, or saw in a dream.  It’s not coming back to me.  But when he talked about ‘knowledge from before the Cataclysm’, it struck a chord with me.  I think that whatever kind of creature Xerxes is, his kind hasn’t been seen on Aelfenn since that time.”

Osborn walked up, having finished checking the room.  “Nothing much here, and from what I could tell, Xerxes’ boss isn’t going to be around here.”

“I wonder who his master is,” asked Kavan, to no one in particular.  “Who could command a creature with such powers?”

Before anyone had a chance to respond, Kyle collapsed onto the floor.

---------------------------------------------

* Orcor is the name of the moon which is the home plane of Autumn's patron deity, Bail (demigod of trade, privilege, and the honest accumulation of wealth)


----------



## Delemental

*Carnivalé*

Kyle was already waking up by the time Kavan rushed to his side.  He shook his head groggily as he was helped to his feet.

            “Damn,” he muttered, “didn’t expect that.”

            “What happened?” Kavan asked.  “Are you hurt?”

            “No… well, not really.  It’s… this.”  Kyle held out his staff.  The white glow that had enveloped his new staff during the battle had faded.  Kavan could now see the arcane markings carved into the wood, the flowing symbols curling halfway up the shaft.  He thought that there was now a new line of the strange script on the staff that hadn’t been there before, but he wasn’t sure.

            “It gave me power,” he explained.  “I don’t know how, and I wasn’t expecting it, but I could feel it literally pushing arcane energy into my mind, restoring the spell patterns I’d already depleted.   But then I guess it needed to recharge itself, restore the power it had just given me.  It started taking that power out of me.  I could feel it draining me through the whole fight, and I think once the rush of battle wore off I finally felt how much it’d taken from me.”

            A dark look, tinged with fear, crossed Kavan’s eyes.  “Kyle…”

            “Relax, Kavan,” he said, giving him a weak smile to try and reassure him.  “It stopped draining me a while ago.  And it wouldn’t have killed me or anything.”

            “How do you know that?” Kavan inquired.

            “I just… know, that’s all,” Kyle said, gripping his staff tightly as he leaned on it for support.  He glanced into his reflection in the crystal globe atop the staff.  “I think I just need to figure out how it works so I can control it better next time.”

            There was little more time for discussion, as the party began moving out of the mansion in the middle of Noxolt’s undercity and headed for the surface.  They spoke little to each other on the way back, except for Arrie and Autumn, who conversed in whispered tones at the head of the party.  The scene reminded Tolly of how the group had been months ago, while they were still in training at the Tower.

They encountered no resistance on their way out, and were able to return to the palace within two hours.  The first purple-pink streaks of dawn stretched across the sky as the party passed through the palace’s inner gate and began climb the marble steps to the main palace itself.  They could make out two figures standing by the massive gilded doors, and soon identified them as Prince Herion and Princess Aralda.  Herion spread his arms wide in greeting as the group approached.

“Welcome, friends!” Herion said, smiling.  “On behalf of our family, I thank you once again for the service you have provided us.  I shall rest easier knowing that this threat to our family’s safety has been exposed and dealt with.”

Kyle, still leaning on his staff, began to step forward, looking at Aralda.  Before he could speak, however, Tolly also stepped forward in front of Herion.  “Your words of concern for your family ring hollow in my ears, Herion.  I lay the blame for what happened at your feet.”

The party stared at the Ardaran in stunned silence.  Herion’s eyes narrowed.  “Explain yourself,” he said darkly.

“You are the elder brother to Aralda, and it falls to you to defend her and keep her from trouble,” Tolly said, staring the prince directly in the eye.  “It should have been you that Aralda came to when she first learned of the threats against the Imperial Family.  But she is apparently so terrified of you that instead she kept these threats a secret, and when she could no longer hide them she sought succor from a group of strangers.  You speak of family, Herion, and yet you are a poor example of it.”

One could almost literally hear the sound of jaws hitting the floor behind the two men.  Autumn began to step forward to intervene, but Kavan put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head.

The corner of Herion’s mouth twitched.  “You presume much, priest.”

“I only know what I have seen – that you are a man incapable of true feeling.  How Aralda wishes to deal with this is her decision."

Herion’s mouth twitched again, but this time it curled up slightly in a mocking grin.  “Indeed, priest, how she chooses to live her life _is_ her choice to make.  The Imperial Family has always fostered independence in their sons and daughters, as we trust in our strength.  Perhaps if you'd had a family of your own, you might understand that.”  He turned and walked stiffly back into the palace through the main doors.  Aralda, tears streaming down her face, ran off in another direction, toward the stables.  Kyle made a slight motion, as if to go after her, but Arrie, who had seen Kyle’s initial move toward the princess, shot a dark look at him before she took off after Aralda herself.  Tolly watched Herion disappear inside the castle, and then stormed off toward the palace library.

The others stood awkwardly about, still not sure what to make of Tolly’s unexpected tirade toward the prince.  Lanara leaned down and whispered into Osborn’s ear.

“So, how fast can you pack?” she asked.

*          *            *​ 
            In a show of grace and composure that Kavan would later swear had to be caused by Erito’s divine intervention, the Imperial Family allowed the group to remain at the palace, and even rewarded them for discovering the undercity and uncovering the threat hidden there.  Kyle was bedridden for seven full days; the effects of his staff proven resistant to clerical magic, and only time could restore his strength.  Kyle complained that he could be using the time more productively, but the palace healers felt that any attempts to utilize his magic would prolong his recovery.  Kyle only relented when Lanara threatened to have a half-dozen of Aralda’s handmaidens keep him in bed by sitting on him.

            It wasn’t until three days after their return from the undercity that Kyle finally got to speak to Aralda.  She had come in to visit Kyle in his sickbed; Autumn, Lanara, and Kavan were already in the room talking with him when she came in.

            “I’m glad to see you’re doing well,” she said, sitting on the edge of his bed.  “I haven’t had a chance to thank you personally for helping me.”  She laughed lightly.  “Thank Erito that’s all over with!”

            Kyle’s expression didn’t change.  “You know,” he said slowly, “they were right.”

            “Who was right?” Aralda asked.

            “The guild.  They were right about you.”

            Aralda’s mouth tightened into a tiny frown.  “What do you mean?”

            “What I mean is that they were right to tell you that you had to make a choice,” he said harshly.  “You been acting the spoiled child for who knows how long now, thinking you could lead three lives and get away with it.  I mean, how long did you really think you could get away with toying with both the Druidic Enclave and the assassin’s guild, as well as being Princess of the Tlaxan Empire?  And even when you start to get warnings, you still try to play the game, until they make the consequences serious enough that you had to come to us for help.  Well, I can tell you right now, Aralda, that the next time you might not have anyone around to pull your butt out of the fire.  Maybe it’s time for you to grow up a little and decide what kind of life you’re going to have.”

            Aralda stared at Kyle for a while, face as hard and still as granite, then she rose and swiftly departed the room without speaking another word.  The room remained silent for a while, until Lanara groaned.

            “I swear, Kyle, between you and Tolly…” she turned to Autumn.  “So, what do you think I should wear to the execution?”

            As it turned out, there was no execution.  Lanara saw Aralda go into Kyle’s room a few days later, and come out after a few minutes, with no apparent sign of being upset.  The princess smiled and nodded at Lanara as she walked by.  When the bard reached Kyle’s door, he was dressed and heading out.

            “Where are you going?” Lanara said suspiciously.

            “Out to the gardens for a walk,” he said.  “I need some fresh air after being in bed for a week.  Is that all right with you, Nurse Lanara?”

            She waved a hand at him dismissively.  “Fine, fine, I suppose we’ve kept you tied up long enough.”  Lanara glanced down the hall at the receding figure of Aralda.  “So, what’s up with her?”

            “Nothing,” Kyle said, smiling.  “We just had a brief chat.  I think we’ve come to an understanding.”  With that he stepped past Lanara and went down the hallway.  Lanara started to go her own way, then something caught her eye.  She turned and called out to Kyle.

            “Hey, are those new robes?”

            Kyle glanced down at the new, midnight blue robes that had replaced his tattered green ones.  “Yeah, they are.  I also got a more formal set packed away.”

            “When’d you buy those?”

            “I didn’t.  I just found them in my room one day.”

            Lanara’s eyebrow arched.  “Is that part of your ‘understanding’ with Aralda?”

            Kyle blushed.  “No, at least I don’t think so.  I can’t find out who sent them.  I asked around, but all I got was a servant who said that a ‘Lady Hancomb’ had sent them.  Well, there is no Lady Hancomb in the palace, so someone’s trying to be sneaky.  I don’t think Aralda would be that coy.”

            “Any idea who it is?”

            He thought for a moment.  “I have my suspicions.  But if they want to remain anonymous, I won’t pry.”

            Lanara couldn’t help but smile to herself as she turned and left.  She had her own suspicions, too.

            By the next day Kyle was given a clean bill of health by the palace healers, and the party at last began packing their belongings in preparation to leave.  They’d held long discussions about their travel plans from Kyle’s room in the weeks since their battle with Xerxes, and had agreed to travel north to the port city of Erum in order to catch a coastal vessel.  Tolly had received a command from the head of the Ardaran Church, Archprelate Jerome, ordering him to obtain rare diamonds to replace those used in the ceremony that had restored him to life several months ago.  Diamonds of the required quality were most easily found in the orcish lands of the Haran Desert, on the other side of the continent, and so a sea voyage was the most efficient way to reach that part of the world.  Autumn expressed some concern about the unknown menace of the shadar-kai, who the group had encountered some time ago, but she contented herself with writing a letter to her adopted father, Zanich Verahannen, whose realm lay close to the forests where the mysterious fey had appeared.  She requested that he send one of his rangers to the area to keep tabs on the situation, and send word to her if anything unusual happened there.

            At dawn the next day, the party rode out of the gates of the Imperial Palace of Tlaxan for the last time.  They waved farewell to Herion and Aralda, who had come out to see them off.  As the sound of hooves on cobblestones echoed through the wide streets, Lanara sighed.

            “Something wrong?” Kavan asked.

            “I just wish we’d been able to stay a little longer, that’s all,” she sighed.

            “Longer?” Tolly cried.  “We’ve been here for a month!”

            “Yes, but it was a good month,” the bard said, waving to a cluster of palace ladies and gentlemen who had come to see them off.  “I was popular and well-liked here.”

            “I didn’t notice anything special about their treatment of us.”

Lanara muttered something under her breath.

It was a two-week ride to Erum, and while more comfortable than their ride into Noxolt, it was still hot given their proximity to the equator.  At first it was difficult to adjust to sleeping on bedrolls again after a month of feather beds, but by the time they reached the port they’d worked out the kinks and sore muscles.

Erum was situated on a natural harbor, and appeared set up for commercial trade.  Vast warehouses surrounded the harbor, and goods went back and forth in large wagons.  The group traveled down to the harbormaster, and inquired about booking passage.  After making their desire for somewhat private accommodations known, as well as their intended destination and the fact that they would need to bring horses along, the harbormaster recommended the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_, a smaller merchant coster known as a ‘porthopper’ as it stayed close to shore and made several stops.  Though the trip would take longer than on an open sea voyage, the fact that the ship was close to land meant that it needed less room for supplies, allowing it to take on passengers and animals more easily.  Lanara immediately voted to take the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_, attracted mostly by the prospect of being able to stop on dry land frequently.  The others agreed, and the party was given the location of the ship’s berth as well as the name of its captain once they had paid for passage.  The harbormaster said a messenger would be sent to the ship informing the captain that they had booked passage.

Most of the group went into town.  They had decided that they would sell their horses here rather than bring them on the voyage, and then would buy new desert-bred horses at their destination.  Autumn and Arrie went straight to the ship, as they had no intention of parting with Defiance and Ghost.  Osborn had also refused to part with Rupert, though the riding dog’s relatively small size meant that there was little concern about how much space he would take up.

Autumn and Arrie approached the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_, spotting a few odd crew members doing maintenance.  Autumn approached the railing and hailed one of the workers, a gnarled old gnome.

“Aye, lass?”

“Is the captain on board?”

“No, he’s not.”

“Is the mate available?” asked Arrie.

“Aye, he’s here.  What would you be wanting with him?”

“We’d like to talk about passage,” said Arrie, getting a little annoyed.

“You’d best be talking to the harbormaster about that,” the gnome growled.

“We already have,” said Autumn.  “We’ve booked passage on this ship.”

“Then when we hear from him, we’ll be glad to welcome you aboard,” the gnome huffed.  “Not our fault you beat the messenger here.”

“Very well,” Autumn said.  “We’ll wait.”

It was almost two hours before the harbormaster’s messenger arrived, and even after speaking to the mate and departing, the crew made no move to notify Autumn and Arrie or welcome them aboard.  The rest of the party had managed to sell their horses, have lunch, and lay in some supplies before coming to retrieve the two women.

“You’ve been here all this time?” Lanara asked, amazed.  “Are you really that eager to eat hardtack and beans every day?”

“We won’t eat hardtack and beans every day,” said Arrie.  “The ship makes frequent stops at port, remember?  Besides…” Arrie reached into a pocket inside her cloak, and pulled out a handful of fresh food that her magical garment had produced.

“Fine,” Lanara sniffed.  “But still…”

The crew had no idea of the captain’s whereabouts, so the group continued to stand in front of the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_.  After a few minutes, Lanara spoke up again.

“Has the captain shown up yet?  Why are we all standing around?”

“We have nothing better to do,” Arrie explained.  “And Autumn seems content to stand here.”  Truth be told, Arrie was not content to just stand there, but she truly had nothing better to do, and she had had as much training in diplomacy as her adopted sister, and knew it was improper to board a ship without permission to come aboard.  Still, the waiting was grating on her nerves.

“Well, this stuff is heavy,” Kyle complained, a large sack over his shoulder.  He pushed past the rest of the group and walked up the gangplank.

“What do ye want?” asked a crewman, who was scrubbing the deck.

“Permission to board,” Kyle said.  “We’ve booked passage?”

“Ah, yes, the passengers.”  The crewman stood up.  “We set sail an hour after dawn.  Be here before then and we’ll load your gear.  The captain likely won’t be back today, so you can meet him in the morning.  You’ll have to stay in an inn tonight; no one stays on the ship if the captain’s not aboard.”

Kyle nodded, and walked down the gangplank to join the others.  “Sometimes diplomacy is overrated,” he said with a wink.

 So finally the group consigned themselves to an overpriced inn of slightly below average quality called the Vermillion Crab.  Osborn decided to go fishing, and spent most of the afternoon and evening sitting on the dock, feet dangling over the edge.  After an evening of longing for their comfortable bedrolls out in the wilderness, the group rose (or rather, stopped laying awake in their cots) and went to the ship.  Approaching the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_, the party saw that the number of people on and around the ship had easily tripled.  Men of all shapes and sizes loaded heavy crates onto the ship, shouting orders at each other.  The taskmaster appeared to be a large, loud orc-touched man with dark skin and a scar across his left cheek.  Kavan glared at the orc-touched even as Autumn approached and asked for permission to board.

“Welcome aboard, lords and ladies!” the orc-touched said in a rough voice.  “I’m second mate Caruthers, at your service.  We’ve been waiting for your arrival.  I’ll have a few of my boys take your things below, and your horses as well, unless you prefer to handle them yourself.  The Captain’d like to see you before you’re shown to your quarters.”

The group turned and followed Caruthers to the ship’s stern, where the captain’s quarters were located.  After knocking, Caruthers stepped aside and allowed the party inside.

The captain sat behind a large maple desk.  He was a large, powerfully built man, with wavy green-blue hair that marked him as a water-touched.  On his formal officers coat, they could see a silver dolphin pin that marked him as a priest of Krûsh.

The captain looked up from his charts.  “Good morning,” he said.  “And welcome aboard.  My name is Captain Mohan.  The harbormaster told me that you wish to travel to the desert lands, specifically to the mouth of the Kruga River.  My ship can accommodate you.   We’ve originated out of Medos, and our voyage will take us around the entire continent, so you’ve caught me at the right time of year.  If this were spring, I’d be heading the wrong direction.”  He smiled to himself.  “I’m afraid that she’s not the largest ship on the sea, and so I haven’t the room to give each of you private quarters.  You’ll be sharing cabins, two apiece.  Your horses will be stowed below in the hold.  Your dog can stay with you, little master.”  He nodded at Osborn.  “Does your hound have any problem with cats, sir?”

“None at all,” Osborn said.

“Good, as we keep a few cats on board to help with the rats.  Of course, if your dog can catch rats, he’s more than welcome to lend a hand… or a paw, as it were.”

Osborn looked down at Rupert, curled up at his feet.  “You hear that, Rupert?  If you see a rat, eat it.”

“I’m told that a few of you inquired about working off part of the price of passage,” Captain Mohan said.  “Well, if you have skills we can use, you’ll be paid a fair wage for them, just like any member of my crew.  But I don’t require my passengers to work, unless the ship is in danger.  But if one of my officers gives you an order, assume it’s for a good reason.”  He stood up, leaning against his desk.  “We’ll cast off within the hour.  Expect to stop at port every two to five days, but most of our stops will last a day or less, so don’t wander far from the ship.  There are twenty crewman on board, including myself and the officers – my two mates, the bursar, the navigator, and the boson.  Expect the crew to change at each stop – life on the sea isn’t as romantic as most people think.  My officers should stay the same, however.”

The captain picked up a whistle and blew it, and a moment later a crewman came into the cabin.  Captain Mohan ordered him to show the party to their cabins.  The actual rooms were quite small, with just enough room to stow personal belongings and hang hammocks.  Arrie and Autumn took one cabin, as expected, and Lanara and Xu took another.  Kyle and Tolly bunked together, and Osborn and Kavan took the last cabin.

The voyage began, as promised, within the hour.  Once the ship was out of port and the activity settled down a bit, the party emerged to meet the rest of the crew and officers, except for Lanara, who was settling in for a long bout of seasickness.  Osborn learned that the navigator was a hin wizard, and so they became fast friends.  Most of the other party members found ways to keep busy – Kyle in particular was rarely seen, as he was either in his room working on magical projects, or was making use of his carpentry skills on board the ship.  Autumn and Lanara, on the other hand, found they had a lot of idle time, neither of them having many useful maritime skills (and Lanara being generally too nauseous to put on a good performance).  Autumn ended up doing a great deal of embroidery work, and Lanara used the time to keep a journal and write new songs she’d created.  And if any of the crew had objections to the two attractive young women wandering around on the deck, they were never voiced.

A full month passed before the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_ made it all the way past Tlaxan and Targeth into the Western Expanse, the region of general lawlessness situated in the northwestern portion of the continent.  Captain Mohan had to put in at a rough and tumble seaport town, but shortened the normal week’s shore leave to three days.  The crew complained at first, but when two of the men came back with knife wounds, and one of the gnomish crewmen never returned at all, they saw the wisdom of a brief stay.

“We’re making good time,” Captain Mohan said casually to Osborne one day, as he and the navigator looked over the charts.  “With luck we should reach the Kruga in another three weeks.”

That was, of course, the signal for the storm to arrive.


----------



## Delemental

They saw it coming, of course, but the initial signs told of a minor squall of the sort that the _Maiden, Mother and Crone _ had rode out a half-dozen times already during the voyage.  The severe storm season was still at least a month away, and given that their only other choice was to put in back in the cursed hole of a port town they’d just left, the captain chose to ride this one out as well.

The storm hit them by early afternoon on the second day out of port, and by sunset they were fighting for their lives.  The storm’s fury had seemingly come out of nowhere, tearing into their sails like claws.  Everyone was on deck lending a hand as they could; Lanara and three other crewmen lashed themselves to the wheel, Autumn and Kavan joined other crew down in the hold trying to secure their cargo, and everyone else was on deck securing lines and helping where they could.

Dawn rose over a disturbingly calm ocean shrouded in heavy fog, illuminating the deck of a ship that looked as if it were manned by corpses.  Everyone had worked themselves to exhaustion during the night, and simply collapsed where they stood.  Slowly, as the sun climbed into the sky, the men stirred from their deathlike slumber.  Tolly stood up, clutching one end of a rope that dangled over the side of the deck.  He pulled on it, and the end came up out of the water, with a loop tied to the end that had clearly snapped in half.  Tolly stared at the frayed ends for a while, then dropped the line to the deck.  Kyle came up to his knees, still gripping a wand in white knuckles.  Osborn was helping Lanara and the other crewmen untie themselves from the wheel, while Autumn and Kavan stumbled up the stairs, carrying a wounded sailor with them.  He was laid on the deck, and examined by the first mate, who began preparing a splint for a broken arm.  All the clerics on board, including the captain, had exhausted their spells during the storm trying to keep the crew alive and the ship in one piece, and they were far too exhausted to pray to their respective deities for more.

“Damage report, Mister Caruthers,” Captain Mohan said to his second mate, limping over to him.

“She’s still seaworthy, sir,” growled the orc-touched.  “We sprung a few leaks but nothing we can’t stick a cork in until we make port.  We’ve lost about half the sail, and a good deal of rigging, though we can piece together enough to get us moving again.  Roll call says we lost one crewman, and we’ve got three more wounded enough that they’ll not be much use to us today.”

“Thank Krûsh for so few casualties,” said the captain.  “I think we owe a debt to our passengers for that.” He nodded toward Arrie, who had come up from the ship’s stern to report in.

“I’ve saved the worst for last, sir,” Caruthers said.  “It’s the mast.  You’d… you’d best have a look for yourself, sir.”

The problem was obvious even from their vantage point.  A large split ran most of the way down the mast, gaping open the width of a man’s fist in some spots.  A quick inspection by a crewman told them that the split ran the length of the mast, all the way down to the keel.

“It’s good we lost as much sail as we did,” Captain Mohan said.  “Under full sail she’d have snapped like a twig.”  He turned to address his navigator.  “Any idea of our position?”

“None, sir,” the hin admitted.  “We’ve lost sight of the continent, not that we can see ten feet in this fog.  We do seem to have drifted into a current – which one I don’t know, but it’s taking us west.  I’ll be able to get our bearings again tonight once I can see the Eyes and the Earthworker*.”

“I see.”

“Captain,” said Tolly, approaching the water-touched, “Although my powers as well as those of my friend Kavan have been depleted today, in the morning we can easily restore the mast, and be on our way.”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” said Kyle, walking up next to them.  “I took a closer look at the damage to the mast.  The force from the split threw it out of joint with the supports.  If you use magic to repair the split, the sudden shift in pressure will cause it to twist, and the mast will likely just drop straight through the bottom of the ship.”

“Can we fix it?” asked Tolly.

Kyle shook his head.  “We’d have to cut the old mast out entirely in order to get at the damage, and it’s not something I’d want to try on the open sea.”

Captain Mohan nodded.  “Then it seems our option is to find out where we are and get back to land.  Anything you can do to strengthen the mast enough to raise a partial sail, Kyle?”

“Not much.  Like the rest of you, magically speaking I’m tapped out for the day.”

“Perhaps in a few hours, I could create some bracing straps out of any spare metal we have,” said Tolly.  “I can reshape steel and other metals magically once my power is restored.”

“It will have to do,” said the captain.  “For now, we drift on this current, and see to what repairs we can manage.”  He began shouting orders at his officers and crew.

The ship floated silently in the current for hours.  The heavy fog refused to lift, even in the late afternoon sun.  The crew began to mutter at how strange it was, casting wary looks at the fog as if expecting something to emerge from it.  At one point in the afternoon, Kyle was at the bow, staring out at the fog, when Autumn walked up next to him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him.

“It’s… strange,” he replied.  “I’ve been studying the fog for signs of magical auras, but I’m not getting any clear auras.”

“Well, that means no magic, right?”

“No, it means I can’t tell one way or the other.”  He rubbed his eyes.  “Maybe I’m just tired, or just not smart enough to figure out what it means.”

Autumn began to put her hand on Kyle’s shoulder to reassure him, then stopped.  “Wait. I thought you told the captain that you’d used up all your power during the storm.  How are you able to sense magical auras?”

“Oh, it was a gift from Princess Aralda for helping her to see that trying to lead three lives wasn’t working,” he said.  “I can see magical auras any time I want, kind of like how you can sense the presence of evil.  Didn’t I mention it?”

“No, you didn’t,” she said.

“Oh.  Must’ve slipped my mind.”

Kyle continued to stare out at the fog.  Autumn looked at him a moment longer, an odd expression on her face, and then she went to speak with Tolly.

            As the sun began to set and the mist had still not lifted, the crew began openly questioning their fate.  Stories began to circulate about ships drifting into a mysterious fog, only to emerge in a land of nightmares ruled by monsters.  But suddenly, a cry went up from the navigator, who had climbed to the crow’s nest to try and see some stars (the captain only gave him permission to climb the damaged mast because he was a hin and the lightest member of the crew).

            “Land ho!”

            The crew rushed to the railing to try and see for themselves.  Sure enough, after a few minutes they could see the silhouette of an island, crowned by rows of tall, straight trees.

            “That’s not good,” said Autumn, when she heard the report of trees on the island.

            “No, we want trees,” said Osborn.  “We need a new mast.”

            “It’s just a little creepy,” chimed in Arrie, answering for her sister.  “Just what we needed in the nick of time?”

            “Captain,” said Autumn, who was standing next to them, “is this island on your charts?”

            “Perhaps,” he said, “but since we don’t know where _we _ are on the charts, I can’t say for sure.”

            The captain was shouting orders to the crew, who were breaking out the oars.  The party lent a hand in rowing, until the ship finally dropped anchor in a shallow cove only a few yards from the shore.  Captain Mohan left second mate Caruthers on the ship as well as a skeleton crew, and journeyed to the island with the party and the remainder of his crew.

            “We’ll need to find a tree tall enough and straight enough to serve as a new mast,” he told everyone.  “We’ll move out in a group and search for one.  There’s only an hour or so of daylight left, so let’s get inland a bit and organize search parties for the morning.”

            Out of the corner of his eye, Kavan thought he saw movement in the forests surrounding them.  He looked more closely, but whatever he’d seen was gone – or a trick of his imagination.  He pointed the spot out to others, but they saw nothing.

            The island was marshy, and soon they were up to their knees in muck.  The odd mist that had followed them throughout the day was absent here, which at least made it easy to see.  After going inland for a few hundred yards, Kavan spotted what looked like a game trail.  But upon closer inspection, he realized that it was far too wide and straight to be made by animals.  The elf pointed out the trail to the others.

            “Looks like a good trail to drag a tree down to the ship,” he said.

            “Or for the natives to attack the ship,” commented Autumn.  “I think we should look for whoever made this trail.”

            “We can explore the island further once we’ve found a new mast,” said Arrie.  “For now we should stay with the crew and help them.”

            A short distance away, Kyle was looking up the trail toward the center of the island.  He pointed in that direction.  “Um, guys?  Lights coming.”

            They all looked and saw flickering lights coming down the path toward them.  “Torches?” asked Lanara.

            Kyle shook his head.  “A _dancing lights_ spell.”

            As the lights got closer, the party saw that the lights were floating over the head of a tall, thin human dressed in flowing robes decorated with gold thread and hanging jewels.  His hair was very short and white, sticking up in small spikes.  Behind him were a half-dozen men of various descriptions carrying spears, also dressed in loose, colorful clothing.  The entourage stopped a respectful distance away from the party and the crew of the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_.  The men leaned on their spears, not holding them in a threatening manner.

            The party slowly drifted together to converse.  “I say we just talk to them,” said Kavan, answering the unspoken question of ‘what do we do now’.  “They aren’t threatening us, and they didn’t sneak up on us either.”

            “I agree,” said Kyle.  “But let’s not have Tolly talk to them.”

            The Ardaran priest frowned.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

            “Just, um…” Kyle stammered.

            Lanara stepped forward.  “Hello?”

            “Greetings, travelers,” said the tall man.

            “We’ve got a broken part on our ship,” Lanara explained.  “We need to fix it.”

            The man tsked and shook his head.  “Oh, dear, that does tend to happen in this area.  We have on occasion received other unfortunate visitors such as yourselves.  I would like to welcome you on behalf of our lord to the island of Momuus.  My name is Iolan.”

            “Lovely island you have here,” commented Kavan.

            Iolan smiled.  “Thank you.”  He turned back to address Lanara.  “Our island is well off the normal trading lanes, so we receive very few intentional visitors.  Thus we are always glad to see new arrivals, even if the circumstances that brought them here are unpleasant.”  Iolan held out his arms benevolently.  “We are, of course, happy to aid you in repairing your ship and getting you on your way as quickly as possible.  But because we so seldom receive news of the outside world, we would ask that you join us this evening as our guests.  We have fresh food and water, and can offer beds on hard earth instead of this marsh.” He gestured at the swampy ground just off the trail.

            The party discussed the offer among themselves; Captain Mohan gathered his crew together a short distance away to do the same.  “He seems like a nice guy,” said Kyle.

            “I agree that he seems sincere,” said Osborn.

            “Hey, I just want fresh fruit and a bed that doesn’t rock,” said Lanara.  Sensing no opposition, the cansin looked up at Iolan.  “I can’t speak for the captain and his crew,” she said.  “But we’ll take you up on your offer.”

            Captain Mohan stepped forward.  “We accept your hospitality as well.”

            “I am pleased to hear it,” said Iolan.  “I understand should you wish time to clean yourselves off and prepare.”

            Lanara leaned back.  “I think that was a hint, guys,” she said out of the corner of her mouth.

            “No problem,” Kyle said.  He pulled a brand-new wand out of a bandoleer across his chest, and pointed it at each of them, using magic to pull the sea salt, dirt, and grime off their clothes and bodies.  When he’d finished with the last of Mohan’s crew, he slipped the wand back in place.  “Just finished making that the other day,” he said proudly.  “I figured with the number of times I’ve been asked to clean you guys off…”

Iolan looked pleasantly surprised.  “Very well, then.  Follow us, please.”

The group followed Iolan en masse back up the trail, toward the center of the island.  They emerged into a large clearing in the forest, roughly a half-mile across.  Scattered through the clearing were several wooden houses, built up on short stilts and with several gaps at the top and bottom of every wall for ventilation.  Since the island was still quite warm even this close to nightfall, the need for the gaps was obvious.

            The village was filled with people of all shapes, colors, and sizes.  All the natives appeared to be human, but were not descended from a common ancestor.  They were unified only in their common style of dress; loose, colorful clothes just shy of flamboyant.

            “Seems a little odd,” said Autumn.

            “Not necessarily,” said Xu.  “Iolan said that they have had shipwrecked sailors land here before.  Some of them may have chosen to remain.  All of the people here may very well be descended from former sailors.  In my homeland there are many tales of such ‘lost tribes’ found on remote islands, forgotten desert oases, and forbidden mountain passes.”

            A small cluster of natives sat near the center of the village, playing a lively rhythm on drums.  Other natives danced, while still others stood quietly off to the side.  In the center clearing, across from where the party had been led, an unusual structure stood.  It appeared structurally like any of the other homes, but a sheer, colorful fabric, which shrouded a single humanoid figure seated on a throne, had replaced the walls.  The silhouetted figure seemed to be watching the celebration.  As the group began to spread out at the edge of the firelight, Iolan broke away from them and strode across to the veiled structure, stopping a respectful distance away.  The drums stopped playing, the dancers stopped dancing, and everyone turned to look at the strangers in their midst.

            “Lord Momuus,” Iolan said, bowing elaborately.  “I have brought outsiders, who bring news of the world.  They, as many others before them, have been brought to us by the storms.  We ask your permission to have them join us in celebration this evening, and then allow us to aid them in repairing their vessel.”

            The figure inside the veil nodded its head slowly, and an instant later the celebrations resumed.  Men and women went into some of the larger houses, and emerged with platters of exotic fruits and roasted game birds.  The crew of the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_ quickly dispersed among the natives, most of them gravitating toward the young women.  Kavan’s eye roamed contentedly among the attractive women as well, and it was only with difficulty that he fought down his urge to approach one of them, instead focusing on watching the dancing while fingering his silver raven holy symbol.

            Lanara joined the drummers for a while, and then went off and began singing her own songs, passing along news of the world through song and story.  Of all of them, only Osborn and Tolly seemed uninterested in the festivities.  One of the natives approached Osborn with a tray of food, as the hin sat chewing on a strip of dried bacon.

            “There is plenty of food,” said the native.  “Why do you not eat?”

            “My people have special food needs,” he lied.  “I have brought food from my homeland.”

            “Surely you can at least drink the water,” said the native, noticing that Osborn was drinking from his waterskin.

            “Of course.  Leave a cup for me, please.”  The man smiled and set down a large wooden cup.  As soon as he had walked away, Osborn tossed the water over his shoulder.  Kavan, who had seen the motion, gave Osborn an odd look but said nothing.

            Arrie and Autumn walked up to Iolan.  “Excuse me, we would like to pay our personal respects to Lord Momuus.”

            Iolan considered the two women for a moment.  “Very well,” he said.  “You may approach, but maintain a respectful distance.  I will accompany you and guide you in the proper observances.”

            The three of them approached the veiled tent, and Autumn and Arrie followed Iolan’s lead, performing an elaborate bow.  Arrie tried to get a glimpse of the person inside the shrouded room, but they were still a good twenty paces away, and in the flickering firelight it was impossible.

            “My lord,” Iolan said, “this one wishes to pay her personal respects to you.”  He gestured at Arrie, who stepped forward and recited a well-worn formal greeting learned at her father’s knee.  When she stepped back, Autumn was introduced by Iolan, and she gave a similarly memorized display of her gratitude.  Lord Momuus never spoke, but simply made indistinct gestures that Iolan told them indicated he accepted their thanks and was pleased.

            “Lord Momuus is more pleased than I have seen in some time by your presence here,” Iolan told them as they walked away.  “It is a sign of great respect.”

            Arrie leaned in to Autumn and whispered as Iolan walked away.  “That was ‘excited’?  Looked more like ‘drunk on poppy wine’ to me.”  Autumn elbowed her sister in the ribs, but there was a smile on her face.

            A short distance away, Tolly frowned.  He, like Osborn, had not partaken of the food and water offered by these ‘natives’.  The entire island reeked of Chaos.  He was sure that Lanara was in Paradise right now, but he felt uneasy.  Looking around the village, he caught Autumn’s eye, and she smiled and waved at him.  Tolly felt a surge of admiration for the sentinel.  Though he was sure she was just as wary of this island as he was, she managed not to show her suspicion openly.  Though he was schooled in the principles of diplomacy, his years among the proud, outspoken dwarves had colored his own development; he formed opinions quickly, and expressed them openly.

            Tolly decided he needed reassurance, or at least information.  “Kyle?”

            Kyle turned to look at him, a bit of roast bird dangling from the corner of his mouth.  He stuffed it in with a fingertip as he chewed and spoke.  “What is it, Tolly?”

            “This vision of yours that sees magical auras.  What do you see with it now?”

            “Oh, well, I hadn’t really been paying attention for a while.” Kyle looked around at the village, staring intently.  When he returned to Tolly, his expression was puzzled.  “It’s like I was getting before, in the fog.  Nothing distinct saying whether there are auras or not.  Occasionally I get a flash out of the corner of my eye, like there’s a really potent aura there, but it’s gone when I look directly.  Even places I know should have auras, like you or me, are coming up blank.”  Kyle scratched his head.  “I’m starting to wonder if the magical powder Aralda gave me to give me this ability wasn’t as permanent as she thought.”

            Tolly nodded, even though he didn’t like the sound of what Kyle said.  “Thank you for trying, anyway.”

            Kyle nodded, and was about to turn back to watch the dancing when he suddenly looked back.  “Hey, when did I tell you about my aura vision?”

            “You didn’t.  Autumn told me about it earlier today.”

            “Oh.” Kyle cocked his head, as if trying to think of when they might have spoken, then shrugged and went back to his food.

            The feasting and celebration went on well into the night.  As the faces of Nula, Dathel, and Shakar rose over the tree line surrounding the village, the fatigue of their harrowing night and day at sea began to catch up with them.  Osborn was the first to fall asleep, nodding off while sitting against a large tree.   Arrie and Autumn dozed off leaning against each other’s shoulders.  Lanara practically passed out in the middle of dancing.  Tolly and Xu fought sleep the hardest, but eventually even they succumbed to Dream’s embrace.

*          *            *​
            Arrie woke up feeling very odd.

            She opened her eyes slowly to adjust to the light of morning, but then discovered that the sun had not quite risen yet.  She looked around, and saw that the central village square was mostly deserted, except for her friends and the ship’s crew, most of whom were still sleeping.  She sat up, and it seemed as though her limbs were unusually heavy this morning.  Looking around, she didn’t see Autumn anywhere; she must have moved during the night.  Then Arrie blinked, and changed her mind; she must have been the one to move, because this wasn’t where she had fallen asleep.  She must have been exhausted to not even remember moving.  Arrie rubbed the heavy stubble on her face, trying to wake up enough to get moving.

            The moment she realized what she was doing, she let out a very surprised, and very masculine yell.

            Others began to stir at the sound.  The crew of the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_ remained fast asleep, but the rest of Arrie’s friends began to rise; yes, there was Kyle, and Osborn, and Xu and Lanara, and over there was Kavan, and across from him was Autumn and… herself.  Arrie was only missing one, and as she rubbed the beard on… her? face, she knew where Tolly was.

            The others were beginning to discover the problem, as sleep-addled glances turned to second glances, then to stares, then to frantic self-checking.  Xu was studiously examining herself, as was Lanara.  Arrie was staring at the ground as if she’d never seen it before, while Autumn was poking at her plate armor.  Tolly was taking everything in, as was Kavan.  Kyle looked furious, but Osborn was unusually calm.

            Just as they began to approach each other to ask what was going on, they noticed that the sheer fabric veils around Lord Momuus’ hut were standing open.  Sitting on a throne that appeared to be made of old children’s toys, a regal looking man wearing an elaborate harlequin’s costume regarded them coolly.

            “Good, you are awake.” Lord Momuus said.  “I’m glad you enjoyed my hospitality last night.”  He glanced, oddly enough, at Xu and Arrie, and then said, “whether directly, by eating my food, or indirectly, by accompanying those who ate and sharing in the enjoyment of my carnival.”

            “Okay,” said Lanara, “when is it over?”

            “Well, you see, everyone had their chance to enjoy themselves last night, except for me,” explained Lord Momuus.  “And I am the lord of this island.  As such, it is now my turn to be amused.  There is something you will do for me to provide me with amusement.  It is a task that needs to be done, but I have chosen to have you do it like…” he gestured at all of them, “… this.”

            Kyle’s hands clenched and unclenched rhythmically, as if eager to wrap his fingers around Lord Momuus’ throat.  Nearby, Autumn’s fingers were matching his, but suddenly she looked down at her hands, and they stopped.

            “You see,” Lord Momuus continued, “one of my… rather more precocious underlings has made off with part of my scepter.”  He held up a thin rod, atop which was a theatrical face mask.  As he turned it, they saw that it was a smiling face, although a disturbingly creepy one.  The mask looked as though it had been split lengthwise, and the left half was missing.

            “I would like you to retrieve it for me,” he finished.

            “You know,” Autumn said, “you could have just asked us to get it without all this.”

            “Yes, but that wouldn’t be as much fun, now would it?” said Momuus.

            “So,” said Tolly, “what exactly are the ‘rules’ of your little game?”

            “Find the other half of the scepter’s mask and bring it back,” he said.  “Do this, and all will be made as it once was.”

            “Is there no other way for you to be entertained?” asked Lanara.  Though the bard had never been one to shy away from innuendo to gain an advantage (or a few extra coins out of an audience), this statement was laden with an especially strong suggestiveness that caught everyone by surprise, even though they knew Lanara literally wasn’t herself.

            “Again, I find this to be far more entertaining,” Lord Momuus said, unmoved by Lanara’s offer.  “Now, I have no real expectation of how long this task will take.  However, understand that my people’s numbers decline over time, and so we must recruit new followers when we can.  I’m afraid I can only restrain my people for so long before they decide to begin selecting recruits from the sailors you have brought with you.  So it may be in your nest interest to ‘shake a leg’, unless you know how to sail a ship.”  A broad grin crossed Momuus’ face.

            “Why have the crew of the ship not awakened?” asked Xu.

            “I chose to keep them asleep until we finished our conversation,” said Lord Momuus.  “It would have taken ever so much longer if we’d had to explain everything to them.”

            “Is the mask on this island?” asked Autumn.

            “Yes.”

            “Um, would you mind telling us what the mask does?” Tolly asked.

            “In its current state, it does nothing.” He held his scepter up, allowing the mask to cover his features.  “Except cover half of one’s face, of course.  The fool who stole it thinks it will bring him power.”

            “Well, in a way it does have power,” offered Tolly.  “Power to get your attention.”

            “Yes, that it does.  But that is not a good power to possess.”  He smiled again.  “I’ll be watching.”  He gestured at the curtains, and they slid closed by themselves.  The sheer veils suddenly turned opaque.  Kyle rushed forward, and pushed the fabric aside, holding his staff like a large club.  But Lord Momuus and his throne had vanished.

-----------------------------------

* As is probably obvious, these terms refer to stars.  The Eyes of Silko mark north and south, and Oringo the Earthworker is one of about ten constellations that are depictions of people from Aelfenn folklore known as the Paragons.


----------



## Delemental

“Damn!” Kavan swore.  “He’s probably a worshipper of the same god as his…” Kavan glanced around at the others, then down at himself, “… my bastard son!”

            The group was standing in the midst of the strange island village where they had been shipwrecked.  They were still all trying to make sense of the bizarre situation in which they now found themselves.

            Autumn seemed to be concentrating on Lord Momuus’ former location.  “I don’t think I’m doing this right,” she muttered to herself.  “How can she stand wearing all this heavy stuff?”

            “I think we should get a move on,” said Tolly.

            Xu looked at Tolly, shaking her head.

            Arrie walked over to Osborn, and grabbed a hunk of bacon out of his pack.  “Wow, I’m really far off the ground!” she said, chewing on bacon.

            “Okay, well then,” said Tolly.  “I guess I can figure out who’s in my body.  I’m glad you like it.”

            Kyle stormed over to Autumn.  “I want to know who’s in my body.”

            “It’s not Tolly,” said Xu, who still seemed to be mesmerized by her own body.

            “We can discuss this as we walk,” said Tolly.

            “Arrie’s got to be in my body,” said Xu.  “No one else is that impatient.”

            Meanwhile, Kavan had walked up to Autumn and Kyle.  “I’d like to know who’s in my body, too,” he said, looking at Kyle.

            “Kyle, it’s me.”  Kyle gestured at Autumn, who looked back and forth between the two of them.  “Okay, I’m getting lost here.”  She glanced over at Lanara, who was looking at herself in a pocket mirror.  “Does my hair always look that bad?” Autumn asked.

            Eventually they settled down enough to go through systematically and discover whose minds were in which bodies.  To make sure they had it right, Kyle wrote it out on a piece of paper:

Body/Mind

Arrie/Osborn
Autumn/Lanara
Kavan/Kyle
Kyle/Autumn
Lanara/Kavan
Osborn/Xu
Tolly/Arrie
Xu/Tolly

            While figuring the whole situation out, some of the party admitted that they could still feel a residual presence of the original soul with them, which seemed to be coloring the way they thought and acted.  Thus it wasn’t just Kyle in Kavan’s body, but Kyle, with a healthy dose of Kavan mixed in.  After some discussion, the party agreed that it would be easiest to refer to each other by the name of the body, as that would be what was seen and therefore the first impulse of what to call someone.

The next issue that they encountered, after finding out who was who, was the realization that dawn had risen, which was normally the time when spells were prepared.  After a little experimentation, however, they discovered that each of them somehow knew how to utilize the skills and abilities of the body they were in.

“It’s probably why we can feel a little bit of the original soul inside us,” offered Kavan.  “Momuus wants his fun, but wants his scepter too, and knows we can’t get it if we’re cut off from our skills.  So he left just enough of the ‘original us’ to allow us to function.”

“All I know is that if I get the chance, I’ll be cutting something off of Lord Momuus,” said Kyle.  Lanara nodded in agreement.

The casters went off to perform the now somewhat unfamiliar task of preparing spells, while others spent time getting familiar with their new talents.  Arrie ran around, grinning like a madwoman as she spun the spiked chain over her head.  Then she ran over and picked up Osborn.  “Look at me! I’m so small and cute!  And so light!”  The hin inside Arrie’s head had decided that since there was little he could do right now to fix the situation, and since some of his companions were obstinately refusing to hurry up and get going, he might as well enjoy himself.

Clearly annoyed at being picked up like a child’s toy, Osborn tried to kick Arrie, and looked frustrated when he missed.  “I must learn to compensate for these shorter limbs,” he said.  Then, after being put down by Arrie, he walked over to Xu, and looked up at her.  “I would appreciate it if you would refrain from fondling yourself while you have stewardship of my body.  I don’t recall giving you such permission.”

Xu slowly withdrew her hand from under her tunic.  “Sorry,” she said.  “I just find the experience rather unusual.”

“Yes, well, I suggest that when this matter is finished, you find another female with which to satisfy your curiosities.”  Osborn missed Xu turning red as he walked away.

Kavan had wandered over to where Kyle sat with his spellbook.  “Almost finished?”  As Kyle nodded, Kavan peeked over his shoulder at the tome in Kyle’s lap.  “Wow, it’s strange not to be able to read my own spellbook,” he commented.

“Finished,” Kyle said.  He slammed the book closed, clearly still very unhappy with the whole situation.

“Hey!  Careful!  That one has loose pages!”

“Sorry,” Kyle said, as he put the books away.  He looked up at Kavan.  “You look unusually calm, under the circumstances.”

“Oh, well, I was just praying.”

“Yes, I know, to Erito for ‘your’ spells.”

“Well, yes, but there was something else.  I had the oddest sensation at the end.  At first it felt like confusion and curiosity, as if even Erito were trying to figure out what was going on.  But then there was another feeling, one of comfort.  As if Erito were glad to finally meet me.  I’ve never had that kind of feeling when I offer prayers to Bles.”

“Interesting,” said Kyle, sounded as if he believed exactly the opposite.  “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get ready to hunt down this mask and get back into my own body.”

            “Yes,” said Tolly, standing nearby.  “For the record, I just want to make one comment – eww.”

            “I agree,” said Kyle, walking off before he saw the slightly hurt look on Kavan’s face.

            Slowly, the party organized themselves.  They agreed to return to the beach where their ship had landed, and start their search there, spiraling inward toward the center of the island.  Kyle wanted to spread out in pairs across the whole island, until Kavan pointed out that if one of them did find the underling that had stolen the mask, they’d be unable to call for help.  Kavan offered to cast a locate object spell to help find the mask, but after casting it in the midst of the village, he realized that it wouldn’t last nearly long enough to be useful.  Mumbling about ‘unfamiliar spells’, they pressed on.

            Once at the beach, Tolly had a thought.  “Kyle?”

            “Yes?” said Kavan and Kyle at the same time.

            “Which one of you is still connected to Violet?”

            After a brief pause, Kyle said, “I am.”

            “Why don’t you ask Violet if she’ll fly around and look for anything unusual on the island?”

            “All right.”  Autumn, inside Kyle’s body, tried sending her thoughts out to Kyle’s familiar.  _Violet?_

_You’re acting weird this morning, boss,_ came the mental reply.

_That’s because I’m not ‘boss’_, she answered.  There was a long pause as Violet stared at Kyle.  _Don’t worry, _Autumn added, _it’ll just hurt your brain._

_Too late,_ Violet said.

            Autumn explained the situation to Violet, then relayed her request to the raven, and it flew off.  Meanwhile the party began their search.  The island itself was not large, no more that a mile or two in radius, so there wasn’t much ground to search.  But most of the island was comprised of wet, marshy ground, and soon everyone was up to their knees in mud, especially those in heavy plate armor.

            “This is gross,” said Tolly, pulling his leg out of a mud pit.  He looked at Xu.  “How do you stand it?”

            “You’re trained to,” Xu said.  “It is much like learning to deal with elves.  It is unpleasant, but you get used to it.”

            Eventually, after spending the morning wading through muck, the party decided to climb up some tall trees to try and sight something.  “I mean,” Tolly said, “I’m assuming this guy with the mask has people with him.  And unless they’re frog-people, they probably aren’t wading through this junk.”

Osborn, who was looking a little green (Xu, inside his body, had spent the morning pulling out hunks of bacon from his pack and chewing on them before realizing what she was doing and spitting them out), climbed a tall pine.  In the distance, toward the far end of the island, he saw a small ridge with some dark spots that could be caves.  He climbed down and reported this, and the party decided to check them out.  About that time, Violet returned to Kyle.

_No luck, ‘boss’,_ she said.

_No luck?  What about those caves over there?  Didn’t you see those?_

_Well, sure,_ the raven replied.  _So?_

Autumn wanted to scream.  _Why didn’t you tell me about those caves?
_
_Because you told me to look for anything unusual, ‘boss’,_ Violet said.  _There’s nothing unusual about a cave.  I know this whole familiar thing is new to you, but you should really learn to be more specific when asking for something._

Autumn found herself wondering what roasted raven tasted like.

_Stringy and tough,_ came the answer in her head.  _I wonder what aasimar eyeballs taste like?_

They agreed not to talk to each other for a little while after that.

It took the party a little over an hour to reach the caves, as they took a trail to get there.  As the trail reached the tree-line and it opened up in front of the ridge, they looked around and saw several caves.  Up toward the top, Lanara and Kavan spotted two humanoid figures hunched at one of the entrances.

Kyle and Lanara began to move up quietly, with Xu right behind them.  Osborn also followed them, using what little cover there was to remain unseen.  After a pause, Arrie also began moving forward, while the rest stood near the shrubbery just outside the tree-line, waiting.

As they got closer, Lanara saw that the two figures were disfigured, misshapen men, clearly warped by magic.  She wanted to provide a distraction, but couldn’t even be sure the two creatures spoke Common.  But they were men, and they were humanoid, and so Kavan, inside Lanara’s body, figured he had the perfect solution.

With a smile, a wink, and a flash of enough cleavage for a half-dozen tavern wenches, Lanara began to dance, and sing.  Her song had no words, merely a tune, but still somehow held a tantalizing promise.  Both of the creatures turned their heads at the sound, and one of them began to growl at her, while the other stood, drooling, watching the strange girl dance and shimmy.

Kyle stepped forward and tried to cast a spell on the menacing creature, but it shook off the magic.  At the man roared and began to move forward, the rest of the party began to charge up the hill, but most of them were several yards away.

The snarling man-creature jumped for Lanara, raking his long, dirty nails across her face.  As she tumbled back out of the way, her fascination of the other creature was broken, and it began to shake off the effects.  Kyle, standing nearby, launched _magic missiles_ at the man attacking Lanara, slightly singing its hairy body.

Autumn, charging up the hill, paused a moment to concentrate, and suddenly there was a flash of holy light as a silvery-gray wolverine appeared at her side, snarling with righteous fury.  Arrie pulled out her double bow, but despite being easily within range continued to climb closer.  Xu, who had been just behind Kyle and Lanara, stepped forward and punched the unwounded man-creature.  The blow seemed to knock the wind out of the beast, but as her fist touched its flesh, she felt a dark, sinister energy crawling across her arm, pulling strength from her.  The creature raked at Xu in response, while the other launched itself at Kyle.  The wizard was saved by his _mage armor_, but Xu was struck and was now bleeding profusely.  Although Tolly, inside Xu’s body, knew that the monk could dodge attacks, he was trained to take blows on his plate armor and shield, and thus his reactions inside the monk’s body were slowed.

Kyle quickly cast a spell and grabbed the creature attacking him, sending a jolt of electricity into it.  But as Kyle stepped back, smiling, he saw that some of the burned flesh was beginning to heal over.  The shock was enough for him to drop his guard, and he got a claw in the chest for his trouble.  Snarling, he responded with a gout of flame, angling it to try and hit both of the creatures.  For a split second, it occurred to Autumn that the spell would also hit Xu, but she trusted that the monk would get out of the way in the time.

Xu might have been able to get out of the way normally, but Tolly, in Xu’s body, wasn’t so lucky.  She collapsed in a heap, still smoking.  Fortunately, the rest of the party began to arrive as Kyle stood there, looking at the unconscious monk in disbelief.

An arrow flew from Arrie’s bow, striking one of the creatures, as Tolly, Autumn, and Osborn came running in.  Kavan stepped up next to Lanara, and used a wand to heal the scratches on the bard’s face before charging in with his flaming sword, trying to ward off the creature that had leapt off of Xu to attack Lanara.  Kyle was still under pressure from his opponent, taking more blows from its filthy clawed hands.  Despite this, he still ran over and poured a healing potion down Xu’s throat, sighing in relief as he saw the monk stir.

Autumn and her celestial wolverine split up, each taking one of the monsters.  Osborn did likewise.  Though difficult, eventually both creatures collapsed.  Tolly came running up just as the last creature fell.  He suppressed a look of frustration.

Kavan went around healing everyone in the party with his wand, before turning his attention to Kyle, who had received a terrible beating from the creature.

“You need to be more careful,” Kavan said to Kyle before healing him.  “You’re not going to be able to take that kind of punishment.”

“I don’t understand why you just don’t wear armor,” he replied.

Kavan shook his head.  “Just hold still.”  He placed his hand on Kyle and summoned healing power.  When he finished, there was an odd smile on his face.  “Say, that feels good!” he said.  He went off to tend to Xu’s wounds next, and then checked everyone else a second time, seeming vaguely disappointed that no one else was injured.

The party began gathering together, giving each other advice on what they ‘should’ be doing in battle.  At Kavan’s prompting, Kyle looked at the two bodies with his enhanced vision and saw a strong aura surrounding one of them.  Tolly inspected that one, and found that it wasn’t quite dead.  He could also feel the strange life-draining aura surrounding the creature.

“Say, someone want to fix this?” he said, pointing out the still-living creature.

Just then, the creature rolled over and sank its teeth into Autumn’s ankle, drawing blood.  In response, Kyle ran up and blasted it with a_ lightning bolt_, nearly decapitating it with the stroke.  The rest of the party rushed over and battered the thing back down, and then dumped oil on the twitching body and lit it on fire for good measure.

“Holy cow!” said Tolly, looking at Kyle.

“I wanted it dead, and no one was cutting its head off,” Kyle stated.

The party gathered at the entrance to the cave, casting preparatory spells on each other.  Knowing that any hope of a stealthy approach was shot, Lanara threw a thunderstone into the cave in the hopes of stunning anyone just inside, and then Osborn crept in to scout out the situation.  He came back reporting that a few yards down into the cave there was a huge chamber with a pool in the back half.  Osborn suspected there were creatures hiding in the pool.  The party moved forward.

They stopped just a few yards inside the tunnel, to where the cave opened up into a huge chamber.  The walls were lit by phosphorescent mosses, lending the chamber a eerie green glow.  As Osborn had reported, there was a pool of water in the back half of the chamber, with water dripping from stalactites overhead.  A number of creatures stood within the pool.  Closest to the pool’s edge, four large creatures were standing with tridents at the ready.  They were covered in green scales, and their heads were crowned with green fins.  They looked vaguely piranha-like, with rows of tiny teeth adorning their gaping mouths. A few feet behind them, a similar creature sat waist-deep in the water, but its scales were glossy black instead of green. To the far right were a pair of creatures that bore a vague resemblance to lizardmen, but they were much more feral in nature, appearing more like crocodiles from the waist up; below that they looked like giant snakes.    Next to the black-scaled fish-man was a giant-sized humanoid, also holding a trident and standing in the pool up to its knees, which looked as if it had been skinned alive.  And in the very back of the cave was a huge creature that looked like a mass of tentacles emerging from the water.  There were various odd objects being clutched in the tentacles; the party could see the half-mask they were after in one of them.  Scratched into the glowing moss behind the tentacles was a simple message in Common.

WELCOME TO THE FREAK SHOW

“Um, Tolly?” said Arrie.  “What was that you said earlier about ‘frog-people’?”

“So, what’s the plan?” Autumn asked.  “Kill everything and take the goods?”

“Or grab the mask and run like hell,” Kavan offered.

Their discourse was interrupted as one of the tentacles waved in their direction, and a blast of sonic energy erupted in their midst, sending them flying.

The party sprang to action.  Lanara summoned a large spider with her wand, even as she used her magical fiddle to summon a half-dozen mirror images.  Kavan cast a spell at the black fish-man, blasting it with sonic energy just as its master had done to them and stunning it.  Kyle, doing one better, launched an empowered _fireball _into their midst, severely burning the two lizard-creatures and one of the green fish-men, and killing a second fish-man. Arrie and Autumn charged forward to the water’s edge, as did Autumn’s wolverine companion.

The tentacles waved, and a deep mist rose up around the back of the cave, hiding the creature from view.  The crocodile-men and fish-men moved forward to attack, though the one with black scales was still shaking off Kavan’s spell.  The skinless giant casually rammed its enormous trident into Lanara’s spider, impaling it.  Tolly chanted a spell, and much of the ground around the shoreline suddenly erupted in shards of razor-sharp stone, blocking the aquatic creatures’ advance onto shore.  One of the crocodile-men tried to run through the stones to get at the intruders, but fell to the ground unconscious a moment later, its feet shredded and oozing blood.  Tolly smiled gleefully.  “Thanks, Ardara,” he said quietly.

Everyone had moved forward by now, except for Kyle.  Having learned a lesson at the hands of the mutated humans, he’d held back the impulse to rush forward.  But as his companions battled the aquatic humanoids, a sudden idea came to him.  Hadn’t Kavan said something about grabbing the mask and getting out of there?  A moment later, Kyle vanished, his disappearance unseen by anyone else.  The wizard’s destination was similarly unobserved, as it was deep in the midst of the magical fog, right next to the tentacled creature.  Unfortunately, had Kyle been himself he would have factored in the disorientation caused by a _dimension door_ spell.  As things stood now, by the time he got his bearings, Kyle found himself entangled by a pair of the thick tentacles, being slowly pulled apart.  To add insult to injury, both Tolly and Kavan threw dispel magic spells at the area, hoping to eliminate the magical fog, but not only was the fog untouched, but some of Kyle’s protective spells were dispelled.

Xu had begun to circle around the chamber, running quickly along a narrow ledge at the back of the pool.  One of the green fish-men broke off from the combat at shore and swam out to intercept her, and there was a brief struggle before the monk was able to stun the creature and send it under the water’s surface.  Then she continued around, dashing into the fog.  She saw movement, and struck out at it, but the mist made it difficult to make out her target.  She was also completely unaware of Kyle’s presence, as she had come in from the other side and couldn’t distinguish his flailing limbs from the tentacles.

Autumn’s wolverine was jabbed in the side with a trident, and its eyes rolled up in its head.  It launched itself at the offending fishy creature, tearing into it.  The black fish-man launched bolts of fire at Arrie and Autumn, trying to keep them from eviscerating his bodyguards.  Then Lanara cast a spell, and suddenly the skinless giant fell into the pool backward with a huge splash, laughing uncontrollably.  Bubbles rose up from under the water as it continued to laugh.  The black-scaled sorcerer, realizing that it was in trouble, started to back up, trying to throw a _ray of enfeeblement _at Autumn but just missing.  Tolly dropped the _spike stones_ spell, allowing them to wade into the water in pursuit.  Arrie, seeing that she wasn’t needed in taking down the opposition here, began to make the long journey around the pool to get at the tentacled beast.

Kyle struggled against the tentacles, but was unable to pull free as they continued to pull his legs out of their sockets. The tentacles also lashed out at Xu, but found it harder to hit the monk.  They tried to immobilize her with a spell, but she resisted it.  The green crocodile-man that had pursued Xu earlier recovered and swam after the monk, hampered by crossbow bolt shots from Lanara before it plunged into the mist cloud.

A pair of _searing light_ spells from Tolly and Kavan struck the black-scaled crocodile-man, as well as a crossbow bolt from Osborn.  Caught between the party and its incapacitated giant ally, the sorcerer almost looked panicked.  It tried to blind Kavan with a spell, but failed, and continued to try and avoid attacks from Autumn and her wolverine (mostly by keeping his sole remaining green-scaled bodyguard between them and himself), even as it reeled from a pronouncement of holy vengeance that Tolly invoked in Ardara’s name. 

            Kyle finally managed to pull free of the tentacles, and landed on the ledge with a hard thud.  He struggled to his feet as the creature cast a spell at both him and Xu, trying to compel them to step forward into the water.  Kyle shrugged it off, as did the monk.  For a moment Kyle considered retreating, but the sentinel’s training overrode the wizard’s instincts, and he stayed put, casting a beam of energy at the creature that sapped its strength and vitality.  The tentacles squirmed uncomfortably in the water as the spell withered the creature from within.  In response it sent out a blast of negative energy that wounded both of its enemies.  Xu concentrated for a moment on dispatching the irritating green fish-man, sending it down with a snap kick that put it under the water permanently.  Then she turned her attention back to the mass of tentacles.

            The black-scaled sorcerer cast a spell and quickly touched Autumn, draining her of intellect and will. It would have preferred using his spell against one of the damnable priests, but they were out of reach; he at least hoped that the spell might disturb the sentinel enough to get her to break off her attack.  Rather than withdrawing, however, Autumn responded by hacking down the sorcerer’s last remaining bodyguard.  At the same time, Tolly threw his magical hammer at the black lizard, and pushed it forward out of the water and close to the party.  The wolverine leaped forward, and turned the black-scaled sorcerer into mincemeat.  Taking advantage in the brief respite in the combat, Kavan stepped up and healed some of Autumn’s wounds.

Just as the rest of the party began to consider running around to attack the tentacled creature inside the mist, the skinless giant erupted from the water with a roar.  Lanara silently cursed; she’d hoped the giant would drown under the effects of _hideous laughter_, but apparently it was unharmed.  Tolly hurled his hammer at the giant just as Osborn shot a crossbow bolt at it, and Kavan called upon Erito to curse the skinless creature.  Seeing the carnage surrounding it, and feeling the effects of the damage it had already suffered, the giant threw down its trident and began to raise its arms in surrender.  Unfortunately for it, enraged wolverines rarely take prisoners.  A ball of silvery fur leapt into the air, using Kavan as a launching platform to hurl itself at the giant, striking it in the chest.    Under such an onslaught, the giant quickly succumbed, crashing back into the pool and taking the wolverine with it.  Blood frothed up from the water.

Kyle threw another necromantic spell at the tentacles, beginning to drain more of its vitality.  At the same time Xu struck some of the tentacles with her fists, leaving large bruises and tears.  In response, the tentacles waved, and suddenly Kyle and Xu found themselves unable to continue their attacks, feeling as though some sort of ward was preventing their desire to kill the creature from translating to action.  Arrie, who had just barely made it all the way around to the creature, found herself similarly blocked, and was forced to simply wait for a target to prevent themselves.  Kyle took advantage of the respite afforded by the creature’s _sanctuary _to drink his last healing potion, while Xu focused her will on penetrating the creature’s spell.  She was able to overcome the _sanctuary_, but when she lashed out with her foot, she found that in its brief respite the creature had improved its defenses, and her foot skidded off an unseen barrier.  Kyle was also able to break free of the compulsion, and launched a few magic missiles at the tentacles, but the same magical barrier absorbed them.  Then, without warning, the water surrounding them surged upward until it touched the ceiling above, and Kyle, Xu, and Arrie found themselves floating underwater.  From this vantage point, however, they could now see the true nature of Lord Momuus’ ‘underling’ – it looked like a giant squid, though on its head was a large jeweled crown, and several jeweled armbands adorned the base of its tentacles.  The half-mask they sought dangled at the end of one of those tentacles, just out of reach.  The squid was obviously in pain, feeling the effects of Kyle’s necromantic spells slowly draining its essence.

The squid lashed out with a tentacle, trying to affect Xu with a curse, but the monk resisted the spell’s effects through her superior will.  However, the attack on Xu caused the sanctuary on the squid to vanish, and they were free to act.  However, the water proved a significant barrier in itself; Arrie swung her spiked chain, but the attack did little damage; Xu found herself in a similar position as the water resistance softened her blows.  Kyle, who found himself unable to cast any spells underwater at all, began swimming away from the squid to get out of its reach.  But a few yards away, he suddenly emerged from the column of water… several feet up in the air.  As the radius of the water column matched that of the obscuring mist cloud that had hidden the battle with the squid, the party members on land suddenly saw a battered and bleeding Kyle emerge out of the fog in midair and land with a wet smack on the pool’s surface.

The party stared for a moment before the shock wore off and they could act.  Kavan stepped up and cast a _freedom of movement_ spell on Tolly.  “You looked like you could use something to do,” he said with a nod toward the fog cloud.  Tolly looked for a moment like he wanted to hug Kavan, then began to charge into the pool toward the squid.  But just as he reached waist level, the fog cloud dispersed, and the column of water collapsed.  The squid had finally succumbed to Kyle’s life-draining spells, and the tentacles twitched as they slipped under the water.

Kyle, who was being dragged out of the water by Tolly, looked back at where the squid had sunk to the bottom.  “That’s right, you damned piece of calamari!” he shouted.  Despite his grievous injuries, he stood at the water’s edge, grinning.  “I totally kicked its ass!” Then he turned to Kavan, who had come up to heal some of Kyle’s wounds.  “That was great!  How come you never use any of these spells?”  He continued to grin like a madman as Kavan used up the remainder of his power, then walked off with Tolly to get more healing, still talking excitedly about going toe-to-toe with the squid.  Kyle completely missed the forlorn look on Kavan’s face as he walked away.

The party finished healing their injuries, and then went about recovering the half-mask as well as the other valuables on the aquatic creatures; Tolly and Osborn did most of the underwater recovery, aided by their ability to move unhampered in the water.  Then, with the sun just touching the treeline, the party made their way back to the village where Lord Momuus hopefully waited.  Along the way, Kyle’s excitement from the battle waned enough that he was able to thank Xu and Arrie for aiding him in battling the squid.  The group began to talk about how eager they were to return to their own bodies, and what they would do if Momuus didn’t fulfill his promise to restore them.  Only Kavan remained silent.

The party walked into the village just as the sky was beginning to turn a vibrant shade of orange and pink from the setting sun. The men of the _Mother, Maiden, and Crone_ were still laying about the village, though several changes seemed to have been made. Some had marks or brands carved into their skin, while others seemed to have been marked as territory by wild animals. The Lord of the Carnival reclined in his throne, a smile touching his red, red lips.

"Ah, wondrous people that you are, you have returned. Not that I'd any doubts, mind."

"Of course not," murmured Tolly.

Lord Momuus winked at Tolly. "So, then...who has my mask?"

Kyle held up the piece, the half-mask leering devilishly back at Lord Momuus. "I do...and why should I give it up to such a fiend as yourself?"

The jester chuckled. "There are many reasons. We can start with enlightened self-interest. It's no good to any of you, whereas I can put it to great use...say, by upholding my earlier promise. I, for one, do not back out on my promises. "

Kyle flushed a bit, and loosed his grip on the mask. Before it could tumble to the earth, it simply vanished, with a small flash. When the group looked back, Lord Momuus' mask smiled back at them. Only the jewels of his eyes could be seen, twinkling in the evening sun.

"So," his voice echoed out from behind the mask, "you have fulfilled your part of the bargain. I shall fulfill mine. I must apologize for the loss of crewman Jax; however, as I said, such things do happen."

Xu cried out, "You said you'd put it right! Give him back!"

Nothing seemed to change about Lord Momuus, but the sun choosing that moment sink behind the mountain seemed to set a more ominous tone. "I encouraged haste; as you choose not to recall, I did advise you that not all of my crew were fully under my control."

Xu grumbled, but within her, Tolly's memory stirred, and nodded internally.

"Now, as for the rest of you..."

There was the sound of an intake of breath, and as the Carnivale King lowered his mask, the party saw naught behind it but mist, and void; and with the exhalation, that mist and void rolled out, and covered them all, infiltrating their bodies and minds...

*          *            *​
The party awoke to the sounds of creaking rigging. The ship had taken quite the pounding through the night storm, but thanks to the intervention of the adventurers, the ship had fared far better than expected. Some of the sail was torn, and the mast had come dangerously close to cracking, but through the night, the crew had only lost a single man overboard. Now everyone was laying exhausted on the deck, just listening to the quiet lap of waves on wood, and watching the morning sun burn the mists off.


----------



## Delemental

*Wolves in the Desert*

After their harrowing night at sea, the rest of the voyage was relatively uneventful. The damage to the ship was reparable, and after making some emergency patches and giving the navigator a day to get their bearings, the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_ was soon back on course.  For the next three weeks the party went about their normal business on board.  Lanara was somewhat upset when she was told that they would be reaching their destination on the day after Skyfest, but was assuaged somewhat when the captain told her that they would try and make some sort of observance on board (sailors, for the most part, being more than happy not only to honor the wind, but to have an excuse to drink and dance).  Osborn was also somewhat dejected at being away from family for another festival, but cheered up when Kyle presented him with a unique item that he and Kavan had crafted for him; a small pig carved of pink quartz, that would produce a pound of bacon when its belly was rubbed.

            Kyle, in fact, had been spending more time than usual around Kavan.  The two of them were seen quietly talking on deck frequently.  Two weeks after their strange dream-encounter with the Carnival King, Arrie and Lanara were walking out of the hold toward the stairs as Kyle was walking by.  Lanara put out a hand to stop him just as he was going past.

            “Hold it there, big guy.”  Lanara’s fingers snaked underneath the neck of his tunic, and she pulled out a simple silver chain adorned with a small icon of a raven in flight.  “You should know better than to think you can walk by two women without talking about your new jewelry.”  Lanara looked at the small symbol before letting it fall back to his chest.  “Didn’t that used to be a deer?*”

            “It was,” Kyle said, tucking the tiny religious symbol away.  “But Kavan gave me this one to replace it.  I’ve decided that Erito’s probably… more appropriate for me as a patron.”  He nodded his farewell to the two women as he went on his way.

            “Good eye,” said Arrie, as they kept going up the stairs.

            “Actually, I noticed it a couple of days ago, and haven’t had a chance to ask about it.  I’m guessing Kavan gave it to him on his birthday.”

            Arrie stopped Lanara mid-climb.  “Kyle had a birthday?”

            “Yeah, on the twenty-sixth.  Didn’t you know?”

            “No idea,” Arrie admitted.  “Autumn’s usually better at remembering things like that than I am.  She never mentioned it.”

            The _Maiden, Mother and Crone_ slid into port at the Kruga River on the fourth of Ophos.  The party unloaded their gear (and their two horses, who looked at once thrilled to be back on dry land and annoyed that they’d had to step onto the boat in the first place) onto flat-bottomed riverboats that were poled into the harbor.  As the party waved their goodbyes to Captain Mohan and his crew, they turned and began preparing themselves for the Haran Desert.

            It took most of the day to pole their way to the trading city attached to the harbor.  As the party was separated onto several boats, they were unable to discuss their plan of action until that evening when they arrived.  The nameless settlement was little more than a collection of tents.  The party located the area where visitors could set up their own tents, and did some asking around as to the location of markets, horse traders, and other important resources before settling down for the night.

            It was Kavan who first brought the subject up as the group sat around the campfire, warding off the chill of the desert night.  “So, what are we doing now that we’re here, Tolly?”

            “It is not entirely clear to me,” Tolly admitted.  “When Archprelate Jerome commanded me to come to the desert to seek diamonds to replace the ones he used to return me to the world of the living, he did not provide further details.  I have just spent some time in communion with Ardara – as you know, Kavan, the gods do not see fit to reveal too much of the future to their faithful.  In addition, it is difficult for me to attain the proper connection to Ardara while on the deck of a ship, so my attempts at divination had to wait until we were on dry land.”

            “So, what did Our Lady of the Granite Bosom have to tell you?” asked Lanara.

            “Her message to me was not clear,” Tolly replied, ignoring the sacrilege.  “But that is the way of such things.  It is not given to mortals to know the minds of the gods.  However, the message I received was ‘The alpha wolf in the desert will lead you to triumph’.”

            Osborn sighed.  “Remember the good old days, when the gods would just tell you what you needed to do?”

            “So, it sounds like we have some questions to ask,” said Arrie.  “We need to see if we can identify this ‘alpha wolf’.  That sounds like something Lanara can do.”

            “We’ll also need supplies,” added Autumn.  “Most of us need new horses, and we need desert clothing to protect us from the heat.”

            “Actually, the heat doesn’t bother me,” said Lanara.  “It’s the cold at night that’ll be a problem.”

            “I have enough raw material left over to make one more wand,” Kyle offered. “I could throw together an _endure elements _ wand in a day, for emergencies.”

            “Something to help us navigate if we’re in the deep desert would help, too,” said Arrie.

            They spent another hour working out details, then turned in.  The next day they separated in order to get everything done.  Lanara and Tolly went off to investigate the ‘alpha wolf’, Osborn and Xu went to buy clothing, Autumn went to get horses and maps, and Arrie took care of food and other supplies.  Kyle remained at the tents working on his wand, with Kavan keeping him company and watching over their belongings.

That evening they all came back with their wares.  They had managed to find a few enchanted items to ward off the heat, and between those and their own resources figured they were well-equipped to handle the desert.  Autumn, however, had come back empty-handed.

            “I don’t understand it,” she said.  “It’s as if people were going out of their way not to help me.  Why would that be, Tolly?”

            “Well, in this region your heritage may be working against you,” Tolly observed.  “What the rest of us find pleasing about you, the locals may not care for.”

            “What do you mean?” Autumn asked.

            “You’re an aasimar, Autumn,” Arrie said.  “Haven’t you noticed there are a lot of tieflings around here?  Not to mention the fire-touched, and of course the orcs?  You’re not exactly popular among these folk.”

            “We can go out tomorrow for horses,” said Tolly.  “The orcs are well known as horse traders, so that should present no problem.”

            “Hey, Autumn,” said Kyle, “I’ll go with you tomorrow if you want.”

            Autumn glanced over at him  “No, that’s okay, Kyle.  I think someone else should go get horses.”

            “We did get a lead on this ‘alpha wolf’, said Lanara, changing the subject.  “There isn’t anyone known by that name specifically, or a variation of it, but there’s news of two orc brothers that control rival tribes.  Apparently the leader of one of the tribes, Keth, is unusual because he actually attempts to use discipline and structure – leads with an iron fist, is what they said specifically.  One of the orcs I spoke to even described them as a ‘wolf pack’.”

            “When we heard these descriptions of this orc’s leadership style, it reminded us that the totem animal of Estranë is the wolf,” added Tolly. “This Keth could be a follower, or even a member of Estranë’s clergy.”

            “So we get to look forward to Tolly’s diplomatic skills with the Estranëans,” Lanara said.

            “Sounds as good a lead as any,” said Osborn.  “Where is this orc?”

            “His tribe’s territory is not far,” said Lanara.  “Two days following the river, then three days south.”

            Arrie piped up.  “Okay, then, let’s get our horses tomorrow and we can head out the next morning.”

            The party followed Arrie’s plan to the letter the next day.  With five new horses (as Arrie and Autumn had brought their own, and Osborn still had Rupert), the party set out along the southern bank of the Kruga River.  Having been given advice on desert travel by the residents of the tent city, they stopped in the afternoon and rested, avoiding the worst heat of the day.  Knowing that none of them had training in survival or navigation, they had managed to find a wand that would allow Lanara to keep their bearings.  Autumn packed away her heavy armor for the journey, but Tolly insisted on keeping his on, using his clerical magic to keep the worst of the heat at bay.  Lanara had tried to buy a map of local oases and watering holes, but she was told by an orcish trader that these oases were considered property of the tribes, and their locations not only closely guarded secrets, but also the site of frequent territorial battles.

            As expected, their journey over the next five days was uneventful, as there was little sign of life in the desert other than the party themselves.  Once they left the riverbank, the party’s lack of training in survival began to show as disagreements over the proper course of travel surfaced.  Fortunately, Lanara’s wand kept them on track.  The other problem they noticed was that as soon as they entered the deep desert, the clerical magic they were relying on to provide water diminished in power, providing mere pints instead of gallons.  Thus both Kavan and Tolly had to dedicate far more of their power that expected to making enough water to survive.

            On the morning of the sixth day, the party spotted a lone rider on the crest of a distant dune.  The spear-wielding rider quickly turned and vanished over the horizon.

            “I think we can expect company soon,” Osborn said.

            The party prepared themselves to meet the tribe.  Autumn strapped on her armor, and they moved to a defensive position at the top of a dune.

            “Remember what I told you about dealing with orcs,” said Osborn.  “Show enough strength that they know we can defend ourselves, but don’t make them think we’re here to take territory.”

            A half-hour passed before they heard the low rumble that signaled the approach of riders.  Soon they saw the telltale dust cloud, and a moment later about twenty orcish riders came over the horizon from the direction the sentry had come, the sunlight glinting off the tips of their spears.

            “Um, guys?” Lanara said, looking nervous.  “Do we have any tactical options?”

            “We’ll be fine, Lanara,” said Arrie.

            “Autumn, perhaps you should lower your visor,” advised Tolly.

            “Why?”

            “So the orcs can’t see your face.  They might not react well to seeing an aasimar.”

            Autumn reluctantly lowered her visor as the riders approached at an easy, but determined pace, and quickly encircled the party, lowering their spears to point at them while still maintaining a cautious distance.  Those unable to position themselves in the front row had put away their spears and strung short bows, laying them across their laps in the saddle.

            One of them spurred his horse a few paces forward.  “Who are you, and why do you come to the lands of Clan Hulg?” he demanded in the human tongue.

            Arrie stepped forward.  “We come here searching for something,” she said.  “We are adventurers from the east.  We have not named our group, so I have no one name to give you.”

            “I will name you trespasser unless you speak quickly,” the orc snarled.  “Why are you here?”

            “Can you help us find the alpha wolf?” Lanara asked.

            “Why do you seek him?”

            “It’s part of our quest.”

            “Who has given you this quest?”

            “The gods,” Tolly said, interrupting the conversation.

            “Which one?  There are many.”

            “Ardara,” Tolly replied.

            After a momentary pause, the orcs raised their spears.  “Keth has told us that Ardara is to be respected, if not worshipped, within his lands,” the lead orc stated.  “However, we demand a test of strength from all potential guests.  Will one of you meet us in unhorsed combat?”

            The party looked at each other before Xu stepped forward.  “Unarmed?”

            “If you wish,” the orc said, a sardonic smile on his lips.  “Our tribesman will choose to keep his weapons.”

            “I accept,” she said.

            A few of the horses broke away, galloping down the side of the dune.  Once they reached the base where it leveled out, they began to circle, marking out a rough circle in the sand with their hooves.  As Xu descended the slope, one of the riders dismounted and stood in the center of the circle, having traded his long horseman’s spear for a scimitar.  The party and the rest of the tribesmen watched from the top of the dune.

            “What are the terms?” Arrie asked.

            “Until surrender,” the orc spokesman said.  “If your woman and our tribesman are stubborn, then it is to the death.”

            “Could it be to first blood?” Lanara asked.

            “No,” the orc said flatly.  “This is a contest of strength, not a game to determine a winner or loser and award them some shiny trinket.”

            It was a long battle under the oppressive glare of Karakor between Xu and the chosen orc warrior.  The monk was able to land a few good blows, but the orc proved a fierce opponent, and Xu was unaccustomed to fighting in the sand.  Finally, she had to raise her arms in surrender before her opponent felled her.

            The party looked at each other uncertainly.  Did this mean they would be chased off Clan Krug’s lands?  Would they be seen as weak and attacked?

            The orc facing Xu looked at her sternly.  “You fight well for one with no weapons,” he said at last.  “It is a style I have not frequently seen here in the desert.”  He looked up the dune’s face, and waved a hand-signal at his leader, the orc who had spoken to them throughout their encounter.

            The leader nodded, and turned to address Arrie.  “You are welcome within our lands,” he said.  “Come, we shall ride to our camp.”

            The party mounted up as the orcs began to fan out and ride off, following the line of the dunes.  Each of them held the same unspoken question in their minds; what lay in store for them in the lair of the desert wolf?


----------------------------

* The deer is the totem animal of Bles, goddess of agriculture and fertility.


----------



## Delemental

The group rode for nearly two hours before cresting a dune and coming upon a fortified encampment.  Large wooden stakes planted in the sand, ponting outward to repel attackers, surrounded the encampment.  Tents spread out everywhere haphazardly, and at the center were several large wagons carrying huge barrels, presumably of water.

            Upon entering the encampment, the party was told to tether their horses at a spot near the camp’s edge.  As it was approaching noon, they were instructed to find shelter, and that Keth would meet with them later. The party rested for several hours, talking quietly or sleeping, until the sun went down.  As the sun slipped below the horizon, the party noticed that no torches were being lit; other than a couple of small cooking fires, the camp was pitch dark.  Fortunately, three of Aelfenn’s five moons were out this night, and without a cloud in the sky there was enough light for those without darkvision to get by.

            The orc who had led the scouting party approached the party.  “Keth will see you now,” he said.  “He has chosen to honor you by breaking bread with you.”

            The party followed the orc to a large tent near the center of the encampment.  Stepping inside, the party noticed that lanterns hung on each of the tent-poles lit this tent.  Looking around, they could see why; there were shelves holding books stacked inside the tent, most looking well-used.  The floor was covered in layers of rugs and cushions.  A curtain made from hundreds of rough, uncut gemstones hung across the tent’s interior, dividing one corner from the others.  Through the curtain, the party could see about a half-dozen figures lying on pillows; Osborn could see that they were scantily-clad orc women.  In the center of the main portion of the tent, a large wooden plank was set on the floor.  Food was stacked up on the makeshift table, consisting mostly of spiced meats wrapped in long grasses and roasted.  On the far side from the party sat a powerful-looking orc.  He wore simple clothing, and no obvious signs of rank or other affiliations.

            “Welcome, visitors,” Keth said.  “Please, sit and eat.”

            “Lovely place you have here,” Kavan said as he sat, eyeing the gemstone curtain.

            Keth nodded at the compliment.  “There are few places of loveliness in this desert.  We must carry them with us.”

            “You seem to be doing very well,” Lanara commented.

            “I am the chieftain.”  Keth gestured toward the platters of food in front of them, encouraging the party to eat even as he took one of the wrapped bundles of meat and bit into it.  Everyone took food, except for Xu, who couldn’t eat meat.

            “I have been told that you have been sent here on a quest for the Ardaran church,” said Keth after a while.

            “Indeed,” Tolly replied.  “I have been sent forth by my church to replace some items that were used to my benefit.”

            “What items do you seek?”

            “Diamonds.  My resurrection was costly.”

            “I see.  Then you seek not just diamonds, but large and well-formed diamonds, then.”

            “Yes.”

            Keth nodded.  “Those are difficult to find even in the best of times.  None of the gem fields in my lands could provide what you seek.  However, I believe we can help each other out.”  Keth shifted his position to recline on cushions.  “Here is my situation.  I am currently engaged in war with my brother.  It is partially a war of control, and partially of vengeance.  I was exiled from the desert at a young age by my brother.”

            “Why were you exiled?” asked Tolly.

            “It is the way of things in the desert.  We were the sons of the chieftain.  Only one may rule, and my brother feared the competition I might bring him. He did not want his road to power to be rough.”

            Tolly nodded.  “Then it was best paved early.”

            “Indeed,” Keth agreed.  “But my exile gave me an opportunity to travel the world and hone my skills.  I also learned to see things much, much differently that those of the desert.  I believe I can rule better than my brother.  As you can see, I have many who share that belief and side with me.  I believe my brother may also be somewhat mad.  He talks of ‘expanding the orcish empire’ beyond the desert.”

            “You mean like uniting the clans?” Lanara asked.

            “Exactly, though the idea of an ‘orc empire’ is ludicrous.”

            “Similar things have happened before,” Tolly said.  “This is why Targeth has its shield.”

            “Indeed,” Keth said.  “And I fear another attempt to invade Targeth would lead to the decimation of the orc race, something I am naturally opposed to.”  He gestured vaguely to the south, indicating the vast desert outside the camp.  “My brother’s lands lie south of here.  South of his clan territory are diamond mines that I believe will hold what you seek.  It would be easiest for you to simply travel due south of here to find them, however I doubt my brother will grant you passage.  But if you help me defeat him…”

            “How many men does your brother have?” Tolly asked.

            “He has a slight edge in numbers, perhaps a quarter more than what I have.  However, my men are better trained and better equipped.”

            “So how many men do you have?  Can you give me numbers?”

            Keth frowned.  “That is a military secret I am not willing to share with outsiders.  Suffice it to say that he has greater numbers, we have greater training.”

            “So you see our presence as the edge you need.” Tolly said.

            “That is true.  In addition, however, my scouts report that they have seen my brother’s followers using a kind of magic they have never seen before.”

            The party exchanged subtle glances.  They had recently encountered ‘strange magic’ themselves – the powers of Xerxes.

            “What about you?  Do you have any magical desert tricks?” Kavan asked.

            “We have our sorcerers, and our clerics of Grabâkh,” he said dismissively.  “We offer the burned sacrifices, as I’m sure they do as well.  They have something… strange.  We do have our warsingers, a tradition that my brother appears not to favor.”

            Lanara nodded, recognizing ‘warsinger’ as the orcish term for the bardic tradition.

            “Are you a child of Grabâkh as well?” Tolly asked.

            “No, my own patron is Estranë,” Keth replied.  “I respect Grabâkh, and pay homage to him since he brings light to the world and allows things to grow.  This is why I also offer respect to Ardara, and Feesha, and even Krüsh, as they all have their place in our survival, and thus deserving of our respect.”

            “An enlightened view,” said Tolly.

            Keth nodded.  “Allow me to further enlighten you as to the ways of my people.  It appears none of you have been to the desert before, save perhaps this one, who carries some of our traditional weapons.” He gestured to Arrie, who had placed her orcish shotputs nearby on the floor while she ate.

            “I have had brief experiences with the predominant orc culture,” Arrie said.

            “You may notice that our women and children are not here,” Keth continued.  “There are two sources of wealth in the desert – one is of use to us, and one is of use to others.  The first is water.  It comes from oases and natural springs, as well as the few rivers in the Haran, such as the Kruga to the north.  The locations of oases are closely-guarded clan secrets; you will not find them.  If you did, you would either join the clan they belong to or die.  The second source of wealth is the gems that lie buried beneath the sands.  The smaller, plentiful ones are as dust to us – no more than affectations.  We collect and trade these to other lands for things that we lack; forged weapons, metal armor which can be worn in the desert for short periods, and such.  It is these things that we protect.  The families – the women, children, the aged and infirm, they stay at the oases.  We do not build castles or have standing armies as they do in other lands.  Secrecy and mobility are our greatest weapons.  Our armies move constantly, not only to intercept raids from other clans but to strike at their oases and more profitable gem mines.”

            Keth leaned forward, gesturing at the party with half of a meat bundle.  “We do not kill in the desert as often as most outsiders believe.  A prisoner has value; the information they hold on the holdings of their clan.  Those who give up that information are set free.”

            “But wouldn’t they be outcast from their former clan, on suspicion that they had given up information?” Lanara asked.

            “They would be hunted and killed, I would think,” Arrie commented.

            “Do you offer prisoners the option of joining your clan?” Osborn asked.

            “We do, though not many take it,” Keth said.  “We are unique among the clans in this, as we are newly-forged.  Other clans would not.  This is how I have gathered many of my followers.”

            “Where is your mother?” Kavan asked.

            Keth blinked for a moment at the sudden change in subject.  “She died years ago in a raid on Sargia.”

            “Unfortunate,” said Lanara.

            “It is the way of things,” he shrugged.

            “The desert is harsh,” the bard added.

            “Indeed.  It tests us daily.  That is why we are here; because orcs are the only race strong enough to survive in this land.”

            Kavan continued his questioning.  “Any other siblings?”

            “None, except my brother.  I have hordes of cousins; my father was a prolific man.  Some are with me, some with my brother, others dead, or scattered among other clans.”

            “So, how do you wish for our assistance?” Tolly asked.  “I do not wish to step too fully into clan wars.”

            “It’s a bit late for that,” Keth said.  “If you do not wish to be involved in orcish clan wars, then in the morning my men will escort you to our borders, and you can return home.”

            “What I meant was that I do not wish to become permanently involved.  There is a difference between assisting due to a mutually beneficial agreement, or ending up hunted by your brother’s clan for the rest of my days.”

            “Oh, well, if we win they will either join us or be wiped out,” Keth said dismissively.  He left unspoken what would happen if his own clan lost.  “What is your true concern? Is it the time involved?”

            “Time is not of the essence, though I have been commanded to complete this quest within a year,” Tolly said.

            “Let me enlighten you as to how we make war.  Much of our effort is expended on information gathering – if we can’t find the enemy army, we cannot make war on them.  Surprise is the most common tactic used.”

            “You never attack an oasis?” Tolly asked.

            “No, because accidents happen far too easily, and water is too precious to risk spoiling, even if it means ignoring an undefended target.  It would be like blasting a pile of gold coins with a wizard’s fireball; the gold is still there, but is unusable without great effort.”

            Tolly was silent for a moment.  “If I could have time to talk with my companions – I cannot make all of the decisions for them.”

            Kavan chuckled slightly at this, and Lanara and Osborn rolled their eyes.
            “So, they are here of their own free will?” Keth asked.

            “We have formed a bond,” Tolly explained.

            “So, they follow you freely?” Keth asked again.

            “Um, we travel together,” Lanara chimed in.

            “We have no leader,” Osborn explained.

            Keth seemed confused by this.  Tolly quickly interjected.  “Whoever is most suited to the task at hand is chosen as leader.”

            “Ah, this I can understand.  So, who leads now?”

            “We are following Tolly’s quest,” Lanara explained, “but not following Tolly.”  Lanara seemed unwilling to even give the impression that someone might be in charge of making decisions on her behalf.

            “What are you really asking?” Arrie said.  “Do you wish to know who speaks for us?”

            When Keth indicated that was what he wanted, Lanara again stated they they spoke as a group.  Tolly tried to explain that they had their own rules within the group for deciding such things.  Finally, Keth held up his hands and conceded.  “If you need to discuss, you need to discuss,” he said.  “I will tell you this.  You will not be mixed in with my troops, nor become part of my army.  Your first assignment will likely be to guard the water casks.  An army lives or dies by the water they carry, so they are an obvious target.”

            “Do you ever poison the water in your brother’s casks?” Lanara asked.

            “It is one tactic,” Keth agreed, “but it is difficult, as the casks are made of wood sheathed in metal, and hard to penetrate.  And if we win the battle, then the water is useless to us as well.”

            “How far away is your brother?” Kavan asked.

            Keth frowned.  “I cannot pinpoint his exact location, which is… vexing.  I know he is relatively close, no more than a week out.  Depending on which direction we travel, we could meet tomorrow, or not see each other for a month.  It is the way of things.”

            Autumn let out a low whistle to signal Tolly.  The sentinel had kept her visor closed the entire time they were in the encampment, to avoid revealing her celestial heritage and possibly causing suspicion.  She leaned over and whispered something into the cleric’s ear, and he nodded.  “Keth, do your clerics or sorcerers ever use summoned animals as scouts?”

            “It is uncommon, but not unheard of,” Keth said.  “It is a careful balance between the benefit such creatures can provide, and the fact that it is yet another mouth consuming water.”

            “We may be able to provide some assistance in that area,” Tolly stated.

            “If you have such resources, they are welcome,” Keth said.  “Much of our scouting, and theirs, is done through magical means, and therefore most of our defenses in that area are geared toward blocking scrying.”

            The group took their leave of Keth, promising that they would return with a decision in the morning.  While most of the group went off to set up their tents, Osborn stayed to speak privately with Keth, and Arrie and Lanara also remained behind to further discuss orcish culture.  It was fully night by they time everyone had gathered around their two tents.  Kyle had conjured up an opaque hemisphere that surrounded their camp and glowed softly inside, allowing them to have enough light to talk without the light being visible from outside.  A couple of the orcs in the camp had come over to barter for a portion of Osborn’s bacon, as the smoked meat was unfamiliar to them.  Osborn left the exchange richer by a topaz of moderate quality.

            “So,” said Kyle, as soon as they were together, “at any point, did anyone else wonder if Keth was telling the truth about all this, or if he’s actually dripping evil and fooling us into doing his bidding?”

            “He seemed genuine to me, Kyle,” said Autumn flatly.  Osborn nodded his agreement.

            “But, couldn’t we simply ask that before we agree to work with him that he submit to some simple divinations, to make sure?”

            “Well, I have faith that Ardara would not lead me to seek out this man if his outlook was opposed to hers,” Tolly said.  “And both Autumn and I carry these tokens of our respective faith, which will inform us if our actions are placing our souls in danger.”

            “I have a question,” Arrie said.  “Even if Keth is ‘evil’, does it really matter?”

            “As long as he is respectful of order, then his moral leanings are of lesser concern to me,” Tolly said.  “I’m interested in the goals of my church, not defeating evil.”

            “I mean, personally, unless he’s lying, I don’t think it matters.” Arrie continued.  “One side is as good as another in these kinds of conflicts.  And if Keth is lying, then we go after him.”

            The group nodded agreement, though Kyle seemed reluctant.  “Another thing that worries me is this talk of ‘a strange magic that we haven’t seen before’,” he said.

            “Yes, we’ve run into that before,” Tolly said.  “Xerxes.”

            “In which case,” Osborn said, “we have an obligation to look into it.  If Xerxes, or some other source of pre-Cataclysmic power is aiding Keth’s brother, then we need to know.”

            “I agree,” Tolly said.  “The gods have forbidden that for a reason.  We have an obligation to enforce that sentence.”

            “I think that we should just stay on water patrol,” said Autumn, “and not get any more involved than that.”

            “I don’t think Keth will agree to that,” Arrie said.  “He probably expects us to fight.”

            “And it limits our options,” Osborn said.

            There was a bit of discussion on their role as part of Clan Hulg’s forces.  Kyle, who seemed to have lost interest in the subject, went to tend the horses.

            “One thing I’d recommend,” Arrie interjected, “is that we provide Keth with a speaker for our group.  It’s obvious that he’s very orderly, and has difficulty with our more egalitarian ways.  We need to give him a face.”

            “Whose face might that be?” Kavan asked.

            “I think it should be Tolly,” Autumn said.

            “Is everyone comfortable with having Tolly speak for us?” asked Arrie.

            “I think we should have faith in him,” Autumn countered.

            “I don’t hate all Estranëans,” Tolly said, answering the unvoiced concerns about his last unsuccessful interaction with a representative of that faith.  “The High Priest in Laeshir rubbed me the wrong way, and I was young.”

            “It wasn’t that long ago,” Osborn said quietly.

            “I would actually recommend Lanara,” Arrie said.  “While Tolly is sensible, and appears to be compatible with Keth, Lanara is more worldly.”

            “And she’s gorgeous,” Kavan added.

            Lanara laughed.  “I don’t think I’m his type,” she said.

            “Orc-touched have to come from somewhere,” Arrie observed.

            “He’s already got five wives,” Lanara said, “and those are probably just the ones he brought with him.  What would he want with me?  But hey, you want me to talk, I’ll talk.”

            “Well, you would be better at concealing our motives than I would,” Tolly conceded.  “In the event things worked out unfavorably for us.”

            Arrie nodded.  “Lanara is far more facile than any of us in expressing both purely what she believes, and disguising it when needed.”
            “You mean I’m a good liar.”

            “And I think,” Osborn added, “that she would be good at keeping the interests of those of us who are not so devout in mind.”

            The party agreed to elect Lanara their spokesperson.  Kyle was filled in when he returned, and went along with the group’s decision.  The group turned in for the night, although Kyle remained awake a while longer.

            The next morning the party arose, and watched as the sun caused an iridescent rainbow to flash across the sands of the desert.  Lanara went to speak with Keth, meeting him outside his tent as his wives went about breaking it down and packing it.

            “I have been chosen to speak for us,” Lanara said.

            Keth looked slightly relieved at only having to deal with one person.   “What is your decision?”

            “We agree to guard your water supplies,” Lanara said.

            Keth frowned.  “I fear I have not made myself entirely clear.  If you are to aid me, then I will direct what aid you will give.  This is my clan, and my command.  If you agree to aid me, then you will go where I say and do what I say.”

            Lanara nodded.  “Allow me to return to my group and make certain they understand this.”

            Lanara went back and raised her concerns.  There was some brief discussion; some felt that it was understood from the beginning that they were following Keth’s orders, others were worried that his orders might conflict with their interests.

            “I think,” said Autumn, “that we should clarify the extent of how far we will follow his orders; not blindly, but to a point.  If we feel uncomfortable with his orders, we will not follow them.”

            “I don’t think that will go over well,” Lanara said.

            “I will not follow an order that will cause me to go against my faith.”  What Autumn left unspoken was that while listening to Keth’s desire for their absolute obedience, she had felt a twinge of warning from her _phylactery of faithfulness_; not a true sense of wrongdoing, but a sense that a blanket agreement with Keth might violate her ethics.

            “Perhaps we needn’t say anything about it,” Kavan offered.

            “Or we can be honest and tell him that some of us might have vows that could conflict with his orders,” Arrie said.

            “I think I can do that,” Lanara said.  She and Arrie went off to find Keth, who was supervising his wives as they loaded supplies on his horses.

            “I believe we can agree to your terms,” Lanara said.  “However, you should be aware that each of us follows a different path, and some of us have taken certain vows.  Should your orders conflict with those vows, certain members of my party may not be able to comply.”

            “Who, and what actions?” Keth asked.

            “I can better speak for one of the primary objectors, as she is my sister,” Arrie said.  “Autumn has taken vows as a member of the order of Sentinels.  While your goals may be coterminous, there are certain actions that she cannot take.”

            “I am familiar with the order,” Keth said.

            “I think that as long as she isn’t ordered to slaughter innocents, there won’t be a problem,” Lanara said.

            “I have no plans to give such orders.”

            “Perhaps this arrangement will work,” Arrie offered.  “We can agree that if a situation arises that causes problems for Autumn, she will inform you immediately and directly.  And if at all possible, she will step aside.”

            “It is highly unlikely that her oath will be called into question.  I don’t foresee my brother bringing women and children to war.  Forgive me; non-combatants.  We do have some warrior women among our clan.  It is from these that I choose my wives.”

            “I noticed that your women were extremely competent,” Lanara observed.

            “Indeed.  I like my women to be competent.  I have had to best each of them in battle for their hand in marriage.”

            Under her breath, Lanara muttered, “Lovers and fighters, interesting.”

            “As I said, her vows should not be called into question.  In fact, she may be able to fulfill her higher purpose – it is not unknown for our clerics and sorcerers to summon extraplanetary aid in battle.”

            “That would make Autumn very happy,” Arrie said.

            “For today,” Keth said, “we have three water wagons.  Normally, they are dispersed throughout the line.  However, due to the proximity of an enemy force, today we will keep the wagons together.  Half my forces will ride ahead, and the other half will remain behind with the wagons as a reserve.  But if they are signaled to come to battle, they will come – leaving only you and a small squad of my men on each wagon.  I must admit that it is not unheard of for my brother to attack and force me to bring in my reserves, and then attack our wagons with a small reserve force of his own.  His greater numbers allow him to utilize such a tactic.  You will ride with the wagons, and do whatever you feel is necessary to defend them if needed.  An encampment will be prepared by nightfall.  We will not make a full encampment for many days.”

            “What is our authority in relation to the guards?” Arrie asked.

            “Each squad has a captain, and there will also be a commander.” Keth nodded to Lanara.  “You are the captain of your squad, and will report to the commander.  Obey him as you would me – he knows what is needed for survival here, you do not.  The other captains have no authority over you.”

            Lanara and Arrie returned to find Tolly tracing intricate designs in the sand.  He sat chanting and burning incense for a few minutes.  Suddenly, the sand inside the circle began to swirl like a whirlwind, and emerging from the sand came a large wolfhound.  The dog sat patiently, looking at Tolly.  Arrie gasped, and looked truly delighted at the sight.

            “We are looking for a certain amount of assistance,” Tolly said to the dog.  “We need to find the location of the opponent of the orc, Keth, with whom we are currently allied.  And we need knowledge as to what this ‘unfamiliar magic’ that he has mentioned might be.”

            The dog sat back on its haunches, wagging its tail and panting.  Then it grinned, and cocked its head to the side.  “I’m so disappointed in you, Tolly Mulholland,” the dog said.  “You get one task from me, and one task only.  Which would you like me to perform?”

            Tolly nodded, seemingly oblivious to being addressed by the name ‘Mulholland’, even though it was one none of his companions had ever heard.  “I am more concerned as to the nature of this magic,” Tolly said.  “My worry is that it is pre-Cataclysmic in nature, such as we have encountered in the recent past.”

            “What do you offer for this task?” the dog asked.

            Tolly frowned and thought for a moment.  Meanwhile, Arrie reached out and petted the dog’s head.  “I’m not certain how long this will take,” Tolly said at last.  “Perhaps you have some suggestions as to what you are looking for?”

            “You have some renown as a weaponsmith, yes?” the dog asked.

            “Yes.”

            “Excellent.”  The dog suddenly stood up on its hind legs, stretching upward, and kept going up until he was standing fully upright.  His paws had been replaced by human hands and feet, though his head was unchanged.  The hound archon reached behind his back and pulled out a greatsword that had appeared there, placing the point in the sand and resting his hands across the pommel.  “We have battles with Feesha’s followers from time to time.  Though I am strong, her followers also have certain vulnerabilities.  What I desire is for a blade such as this, forged of alchemical silver.”

            “I will have time to finish this task before I start yours?” Tolly asked.

            “Of course.  These things take time.  But it must be at your first opportunity.”

            “Agreed.”  Tolly spent a few minutes taking measurements and asking questions about grip and balance.  Then the hound archon transformed back into its canine form, and trotted out into the desert, vanishing a few yards away.

            Autumn took a moment to summon a celestial companion of her own – a hawk – that immediately took to wing and circled high into the sky.  The party mounted their horses and rode into position near the water wagons as they began to roll out.  Soon the entirety of Clan Hulg, plus eight additional members, was on the move into the deep desert.


----------



## spidertrag

I've sadly came to the end of this SH----I want more!  
I, for one, enjoy the long posts----& the number of pcs. If I can get my right hand drawing again, I'll definately send some fan art yalls way. maybe its my exposure to having to watch soap operas as a kid, but I'm also lookin forward to seeing how the relationship between kyle & Autumn  

again, good job


----------



## Delemental

spidertrag said:
			
		

> I've sadly came to the end of this SH----I want more!
> I, for one, enjoy the long posts----& the number of pcs. If I can get my right hand drawing again, I'll definately send some fan art yalls way. maybe its my exposure to having to watch soap operas as a kid, but I'm also lookin forward to seeing how the relationship between kyle & Autumn
> 
> again, good job




First of all, thank you.  Comments help reassure me that I do, in fact, have an audience.  

There's definitely more.  I've actually got several sessions already written up after this, so even if our game abuptly ended tomorrow, I'd have enough to keep posting for a few months.  I started writing this SH purely for the members of my gaming group, and it wasn't until about a year into it that I decided to post it here as well.  It's one of the reasons my posts tend to be long, as I'm essentially cutting and pasting from our group's website (where the original stories are posted) to here.

Fan art... wow.  Didn't expect an offer like that, but would certainly love it if you wanted to.  Which means, of course, that I should probably offer some physical descriptions at some point in the near future.  One of our players does do anime-style art, and has drawn a few of the characters already - I'll ask her permission to post those to the thread.  We actually all have character portraits on our group website, but I don't give out the address - some of the artwork is by people who aren't in our group, and since I do have a modicum of respect for artists and copyrights, I figure the best thing I can do is keep those pictures within the group.

As far as Kyle and Autumn... well, at this point in the campaign things got interesting.  See, as I mentioned before, Autumn's player and I decided to develop the romnace in the background, to see if it would go anywhere without worrying about interference from other characters (Autumn also has in-character reasons for not wanting to go public with it).  This is why there aren't really any obvious references to the relationship in the story; Kyle and Autumn save the sappy love stuff for times when they're alone.  One of the results of this decision was that Tolly's player also decided to try his hand at a romantic relationship with a PC, and also chose Autumn as his ideal mate.  As you can imagine, we three players had to have a discussion about how to play this out.  We decided it wasn't fair to shut Tolly out completely, as his player has just as much right to sub-plots as any of us.  So,  I sort of had to manufacture a rift between Kyle and Autumn so that Tolly's sudden interest wouldn't necessarily be rebuffed automatically.  Tolly's advantage over Kyle was that he could press his suit more publically.  This is why, in more recent stories, Autumn seems a bit distant toward Kyle, and she's rather complimentary toward Tolly (Kyle, because of other things going on for him, is a bit clueless to all this).

How does it all turn out?  Patience...   I will say that in a relatively short time, we end up making the relationship(s) public, so they'll be a lot more obvious.

Of course, what I should really do is dig out some of the game fiction that I and other players wrote, and post that too.  It helps fill in some holes - not only for this particular subplot, but other characters as well.


----------



## Delemental

*Autumn Evening*



			
				Delemental said:
			
		

> Of course, what I should really do is dig out some of the game fiction that I and other players wrote, and post that too.  It helps fill in some holes - not only for this particular subplot, but other characters as well.




And, so I shall.

This is another fictional piece I wrote.  Campaign-wise, it takes place during the 'Carnivale' adventure, on board the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_.  In the future, I'll try to be more diligent in posting these side-stories closer to when they actually happened in the timeline.

----------------

            Light from the setting sun danced across the water’s surface as the prow of the _Maiden, Mother and Crone_ slid through the ocean.  Dolphins swam just ahead of the ship, occasionally jumping out of the water and splashing.  The captain had said it was a sign of favor from Krûsh, and that they would make good time to the next port.

            Autumn was tired of looking at dolphins.

            She sighed as she stepped back from the railing, and regarded the greater expanse of the ocean.  The truth was, she was bored.  She’d been on ocean voyages before, as a young girl growing up in the Verahannen household, but they’d never lasted more than three or four days, and between lessons and playing with Aiden and Arrie, there was never a dull moment.  This voyage had lasted nearly three weeks already, and was due to last at least that much longer if not more.  Autumn had quickly realized that she had no practical skills for a sea voyage, and the number of things she could do to keep herself busy was wearing thin.  Her armor was dent-free and so polished she could see her reflection in it, as was her sword.  There were only so many hours a day she could spend in sword practice, and only so long she could tolerate embroidery work.  She couldn’t go riding, she couldn’t effectively practice archery, she had no books to read, and any letters she might have wished to write had been written and sent days ago.

Even her sister Arrie’s company had worn thin under the close quarters they now shared, and they now avoided each other – to be more accurate, Arrie was avoiding Autumn, as she’d been unusually snippy toward her sister recently.  The only thing that had made the voyage bearable was Tolly.  He’d been keeping himself as busy as everyone else, of course, but had taken the time to seek her out and talk with her, seeing how restless she was.  She’d been surprised to discover that they held a lot of similar opinions and interests.  A small smile crept across her face thinking about it.

            After a few minutes of picking splinters out of the railing, Autumn turned and began walking toward the stairs leading down to the hold.  She pointedly ignored the stares her passage elicited from the crew.  She hated the way the ocean spray made her clothes cling to her body, and the looks that it provoked.  She couldn’t understand how Lanara not only tolerated such looks from these men, but actually seem to encourage it by the clothes she chose to wear. She longed to be in her armor again, but wearing a suit of full plate on board a ship was highly impractical, if not suicidal.  At least none of the crew had done anything besides stare while she was around.

            No, that wasn’t quite true.  There was that one crewman, barely three days out of Erum, who during the evening meal had grabbed her like a common tavern wench and suggested she… ‘climb his mast’ were the words Autumn remembered him using.  The captain had put him off the ship at the next port with his wages.  Autumn vaguely remembered wondering if the money would be enough to buy a set of false teeth to replace the ones she’d shattered.

            Autumn descended below decks, thinking to spend a few minutes brushing Defiance before returning to her cabin and working on – she sighed – more embroidery.  For a moment, she even considered joining Osborn at fishing off the side of the deck, but she’d never found the activity enjoyable, and so dismissed the impulse.

As she walked past the galley, she heard a loud commotion.  Curious, she stopped and poked her head around the doorway.  A group of seven or eight crewman sat at the far end of the room, surrounding a small barrel with cups in their hands.  Autumn knew that Captain Mohan had taken on a small supply of rum at their last stop, and assumed that the cask was part of that supply.  Watching the sailors, Autumn saw a flash of deep blue in their midst, and was surprised to see Kyle in the crowd.  Just as she recognized him, the group broke into a drinking song.  At first they were uncoordinated, the lyrics spilling out seemingly at random, but by the end they were mostly singing in unison.


_And Mary McGregor, she was a pretty whore
She'd always greet you with a smile and never lock her door
But on the day she died, all the men in town did weep
For Mary McGregor finally got some sleep_


            Autumn smiled and shook her head.  The lyrics were as atrocious as Kyle’s singing voice.  He’d never have a career as a bard.

            She stood at the doorway and watched him for a while, leaning against the doorframe.  The song had come to a jumbled end, and now the men were swapping stories.  She could tell even from this distance that Kyle had not had nearly as much to drink as the others – in fact, ever since Midsummer, when he’d won the bar brawl in Laeshir (the ‘prize’ being the honor of covering the tab for the whole tavern), he’d been very cautious about how much he drank.  She watched the way his new, midnight blue robes flowed around his large frame.  The robes had been an anonymous gift during their stay at the palace in Noxolt; Kyle had accused her of buying them at first, but she hadn’t been responsible.  She had wondered for a while who had given him the robes, but in the end decided that he looked good enough in the new clothes that it didn’t much matter.  His old green robes had been nice, but the deep blue suited him better, and these weren’t threadbare.

            She studied his other features.  His face had lost the slight softness it had acquired after their month-long stay at the Imperial Palace (in truth, they’d all lost a bit of softness; five weeks of overland travel and then a sea voyage had snapped the entire party back into shape).  She was surprised to realize that his hair had grown longer; he used to keep it quite short, hacking off the ends with his dagger every so often, but now it was long enough he’d had to tie it back with a silver ring.  A loose strand had escaped the ring and hung free next to his right temple, barely touching his cheek.  Autumn’s gaze kept going back to that loose strand, strangely drawn to it and the way it swayed back and forth in front of Kyle’s beautiful blue-gray eyes.  She felt a warm, pleasant feeling spread from her chest, wrapping her in comfort.

            “Copper for your thoughts?”

            Autumn blinked in surprise and realized that Kyle was now standing directly in front of her.  Somewhere during her reverie she’d missed seeing him stand up.

            “I’m sorry, what?” was the best she could manage in the moment.  _Brilliant, Autumn,_ she thought to herself, _very eloquent.
_
            “You were staring at me,” Kyle said.  “I tried to get your attention, but you were kind of lost in thought there.”

            In her own mind, Autumn laughed at herself.  _Staring at him.  And here I was only a few minutes ago mentally castigating the other sailors for doing the same thing.  Lesson in humility learned.  Lord Pot, meet Lady Kettle.
_
            For Kyle, she only smiled.  “I was only thinking of… something nice.”  Then, because she couldn’t help herself, she reached up and brushed the loose strand of hair back behind his ear.  She pulled her hand away quickly in case anyone was watching, but it wasn’t what she wanted to do.

            “So, Kyle,” she said, “Since I have your attention, I was wondering if you could help me with the horses?  That is, if I’m not interrupting anything?”

            “Oh, them?” Kyle looked back at the cluster of sailors, who had launched into another song about a sailor, which included a rather graphic description of why he was called ‘Three-Legged Pete’.  “Nah, just enjoying a round with the boys.  We finally finished replacing the support timbers in the aft hold this afternoon, so the first mate said it was okay to tap one of the casks.”  Kyle looked back at the sailors again.  “At this point, I don’t think they’ll notice that I’m gone.”

            Kyle followed Autumn out of the galley and down the narrow corridor toward the next flight of stairs.  As they walked, Autumn had the chance to ponder her rather strong reaction to seeing Kyle.  Perhaps it was the thrill of stealing an illicit moment – no, that seemed unlikely.  Their entire relationship was comprised of such moments.  Perhaps it was simply a release from the frustration she’d felt at not being able to be alone with him, like she’d been able to do at the palace.  That didn’t seem right, either.  Though she admitted the separation was hard, it wasn’t as if she and Kyle were rutting animals unable to control their instincts (though on some occasions, Autumn secretly wondered about Kyle; and even more secretly, admitted that sometimes she didn’t mind).

            But something on that line of thought seemed to stir her thoughts, so she mulled it over.  She hadn’t truly had a private moment with Kyle since leaving the palace at Noxolt.  There, even though publicly they still had to conceal their affair, there was opportunity aplenty for them to meet, given the expansive grounds and the huge staff of servants trained not to notice anything.  But on the road to the port, and on the small, cramped ship, such opportunities had vanished.  Looking back, Autumn realized that in the past five weeks she’d and Kyle had exchanged fewer than a dozen words in any conversation they’d had.  As soon as she had that thought, something clicked into place, and the revelation was so surprising she nearly stopped walking.

            The problem wasn’t that Autumn was bored – she was lonely.

            At first, it didn’t make much sense to her; after all, she had her sister, and Tolly, and the other members of the group, all of whom she could spend time with if she wished.  But Autumn had never been one to deny or discount her own feelings, and it came to her that there were many different forms of loneliness.

            They walked down to the lower decks, where Autumn’s steed Defiance was being stabled alongside Arrie’s mount Ghost.  Glancing at the gray-white horse next to hers, Autumn could tell that her sister had already been down to groom Ghost.  With no other animals kept in this section of the hold, and with the rest of the crew under orders not to disturb the horses unless there was an emergency, it meant that for a few minutes they would be undisturbed.

            “I’ve missed you,” she said, as she ran a currycomb across Defiance’s coat.

            “Really?  It’s not exactly like I’ve been far away.”

            “You know what I mean.” Autumn was sure that Kyle’s comment was meant as a joke, but suddenly she didn’t find it very funny.

            Kyle got the hint.  “Look, I know.  I’ve missed you too.  But our situation…” he shrugged helplessly.  “And besides that, I’ve been kind of busy.”

            “I’ve noticed,” Autumn said, a little more harshly than she intended.  “This is the most I’ve seen of you in three weeks.”

            “Autumn, I talked with you about this before we even boarded the ship.  For the first time since leaving the school, it seems that I have the time, the money, and the energy to work on some of the projects I’ve been planning.  Who knows when I’ll get another chance at this?  Besides, it’s not like I’ve spent the entire voyage in my cabin.”

            “No,” she admitted, “but when you are out of your cabin, you spend the entire time working with the crew.  Tolly has just as many ‘projects’ as you, but I still get to talk to him.”

            Kyle just shook his head, clearly not agreeing with her.

            Autumn focused on brushing Defiance for a few minutes, wanting the time to think.  Kyle’s response hadn’t pleased her at all.  But then again, didn’t he have the right to spend his time as he wished?  But if that were the case, why didn’t he choose to spend any of that time with her?  But, but, but.

_ If only I could talk to Arrie about this,_ Autumn sighed.  But that was the problem with a secret relationship, now wasn’t it?  The only person she could really talk to about it was Kyle, and his wasn’t exactly an objective opinion, nor was it a feminine one.  In lieu of her sister, Autumn would have accepted advice from Lanara, Xu… even Kavan in a pinch.

            She sometimes wondered if she’d gotten in over her head in choosing Kyle as her… what would she even call it?  They were nowhere close to engaged (Gods!  What a nightmare that would be explaining to Mother!), nor could she say they were intended.  ‘Lovers’ was probably the closest, but the word had such a tawdry sound to her ear, it made their union sound cheap and crude.  For a moment, Autumn wondered if her mother – her real mother – had thought these same thoughts when contemplating her own tryst with her celestial father.

            “Exactly what planet are you spending so much time on tonight?” asked Kyle, shaking her out of her train of thought.  She’d completed her brushing of her horse without conscious thought, and had been standing unmoving at his flank for Bail knew how long.

            “None of your business,” she snapped, this time not caring that her irritation was coming out in her voice.  He certainly hadn’t make things any easier on her recently, and it irked her that he was having a grand old time on this ship while she was ignored.

            Now Kyle was beginning to get annoyed.  “Hey, what did I do?”

            “Nothing, Kyle.  That’s the whole problem.  You’re not doing anything.”

            She turned on her heel and began to head toward the stairs, when Kyle grabbed her arm, pulling her toward him.  “Now wait just a minute…”

            They stared at each other, her brilliant blue eyes locked with his smoky blue-grays.  The lock of Kyle’s black hair had fallen out of place again, dangling just to the side of his face.  Now, instead of compelling, it just annoyed her.

            Kyle looked as if he were about to say something to her.  She waited, expectantly.  She had to have faith in him.  Had to have faith that he’d say the right thing now, that he’d make all this go away.  Make her feel warm, safe, and happy, like he did the first night they were together.

            Behind them, there was a noise as someone came down the stairs.  Kyle held Autumn’s gaze for another moment, then his grip on her arm loosened, and he stepped back.

            “I’m sorry to hear you’re not enjoying the voyage,” he said, a bit too cheery.  “I hope you can find some way to pass the time.”

            Her eyes blazed.  “Don’t worry, Kyle.  I will.”  She stormed away, past a somewhat startled crewman coming down the stairs to check the cargo.

            She ended up back on the deck, looking out at the ocean from the bow.  She fought furiously to keep the tears from falling.  She was glad that Kyle hadn’t tried to find her after she left, or she might very well have thrown him overboard.

            Autumn couldn’t believe what had happened.  She had thought that Kyle cared for her a great deal, but there was little evidence of that tonight.  Had she misjudged him?  Had his feelings for her waned?  Had his feelings even been genuine?

            She wanted to believe the best.  She wanted to think that someone could truly care for her in this world – a world where she had already given up so much of what she should have.  But now, as the first moon began to emerge from the endless ocean, she wondered if she had been used and discarded, like her mother.

            The sound of heavy boots on the deck told her that someone was approaching.  At first she thought it might be Kyle, and began searching for exactly the spot in the ocean she’d throw him in.  But then she realized that the gait was wrong, and quickly took a deep breath to calm herself.

            Tolly stepped up next to Autumn at the railing.  “Good evening, Autumn,” he said.  “How are you tonight?”

            She had to suppress a bitter laugh.  “I’m fine, Tolly.  Just… having trouble sleeping.  I guess I have a lot on my mind.”

            “Is there anything I can do?”

            She shook her head, then placed her hand atop his on the railing, squeezing softly.  “You’ve already been a great comfort to me during this voyage, Tolly.”

            Tolly looked down at her hand resting on his for a long time.  When he spoke, his voice was unusually quiet.  “Autumn, I came out here looking for you because I have something I want to give you.  I was glad that I caught you alone.”

            More alone than you realize, Autumn thought to herself.  But to Tolly she said, “Something for me?  Why, Tolly, I’m flattered.  You shouldn’t have.”

            “Well, I… wanted to give this to you.”  He was stumbling over his words now, and a flush was rising on his face.  Reaching into a pouch at his side, he produced what looked at first like a simple white rose in the dim moonlight.  But as Tolly placed it in Autumn’s hand, she felt the cool, smooth texture of metal.  She examined the token closely.  It was a rose, cold-forged from iron.  She nearly gasped as she saw the intricacy of dozens of overlapping petals connected to a slender stem.

            “A token of affection,” Tolly said, almost whispering, “for a fellow adventurer true.”

            The world seemed to spin.  “Tolly…” Autumn said, still staring at the rose.  “You… shouldn’t have…”  Despite this, however, her grip on the iron stem only tightened.  Finally, she looked up at Tolly, her face a mask of emotion.  “Thank you, Tolly.  I’m…” She found she could not finish the thought – she had no words.

            For several minutes all she could do was look back and forth between the rose and Tolly.  Her heart was pounding in her chest, and at times she thought she might faint.  It was all too much for her.

            The tears, so long in coming, finally started to flow.  “Tolly, I… I need some time to be alone… please?”  She didn’t want for his response, but bolted toward the stairs, her vision blurry.

            Tolly stood watching Autumn leave, seeming unsure of what to do.  He finally turned and stared out at the ocean, watching the second moon rise.  Several minutes later, someone walked up behind him and stood at the rail.

            “Hey, Tolly,” said Kyle.

            “Good evening, Kyle.”

            “Hey, am I going to be able to use our room tomorrow?  Did you finish that ‘special project’ you were talking about?”

            “Yes, I am finished.”

            “That’s great.  How’d it turn out?”

            Tolly smiled a little.  “Quite well, I think.  Only time will tell.  It was a bit of a chancy endeavor.”

            “Oh, I’m sure whatever it is will work out perfectly for you.  You shouldn’t be afraid to take chances, Tolly.”

            “I think you may be right, Kyle.”  Tolly pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, wiping his forehead against the warmth of the near-equatorial night.

            Kyle noticed the gesture.  “Say, that’s some beautiful embroidery work there,” he commented.  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a sweetheart somewhere.”

            Tolly smiled and shrugged as he put the handkerchief away.

            “Oh, ho!” Kyle laughed.  “Seems our forthright Ardaran priest has a few secrets!  Come on, what’s her name?”

            Tolly opened his mouth to answer, but then Kyle slapped him on the back.  “Oh, I’m just joking with you!  Say, want to come down to the galley with me?  If we hurry, we might be able to get in one more cup of rum before we turn in, before the crew starts tearing apart the barrel and sucking on the damp planks.”

            “No, thank you.”

            “Well, I could use one more stiff drink to end the night,” Kyle said, the good humor in his voice losing some of its fervor.
            “Something wrong, Kyle?”

            He shook his head and waved his hand dismissively in the air.  “It’s nothing. Minor squabble with one of our friends today.”

            “Really?  Who?”

            “It doesn’t matter, and I don’t want to embarrass them by naming names.  Probably just getting antsy over this long voyage.”  He looked slightly forlorn for a moment.  “I just wish it hadn’t ended so rough between us.  There were… things that needed to be said that weren’t.”

            “Well, perhaps you’ll have that chance tomorrow.”

            “Maybe.  But maybe I’d best just let things lie for now.  Just stay out of their way until things blow over.”

            Tolly nodded.  “You could be right, Kyle.”

            “Sure,” Kyle agreed.  “After all, no harm in waiting, right?"


----------



## Delemental

*Arrie and Autumn*

THis is another player-written fiction, this one by Arrie's player, Anne.  It occurs immediately after the last one, picking up after Tolly presents the iron rose to Autumn.

Just FYI, Anne tends to abbreviate her characters' name as 'Ari' while I've gotten in the habit of using 'Arrie'.  She says she doesn't mind either way.  Just didn't want people thinking 'Ari' was an NPC.

-------------------------------


Ari sighed and ran a hand over her damp forehead. Her hands were developing new calluses from hauling and handling the ships ropes. While she didn’t have specialized skills like Kyle, and she wasn’t as eerily talented as Xu, Ari was finding that she was pretty good at quite a few things that the sailors aboard the _Mother, Maiden and Crone_ did daily. She was strong enough to handle hard physical labor, quick enough to handle the tasks that required nimbleness and generally clever enough to take on the easier tasks without supervision. She was so tired that she fell asleep the instant she curled up in her hammock at night and frankly it felt good. All the strangeness and uncertainty she’d felt while they were staying amongst the elven court was gone. She started rummaging in the foot locker for her nightshirt when the door flew open and Autumn strode in.

Ari looked up, a smile on her face, ready to tease her adopted sister about being in a hurry but the words died on her lips as she saw tears glistening on the aasimar’s cheeks. The bundle of clothing fell from her hands and she reached for her chain without removing her eyes from the other woman’s lovely, tear-stained face.

“Who am I killing?”

A smile tried to brighten Autumn’s face, but she was so frustrated and confused that it came out as a lower-lip quiver.

“If it was another fresh sailor, he’ll wish you’d gotten to him instead when I get through with him.” Ari’s fingertips found the familiar weight of her chain but Autumn didn’t seem angry enough to merit someone getting a beating in the name of sisterly love. “What’s the matter?”

Autumn fumbled with her hammock, wanting to sit down, but the blasted thing was uncooperative and she ended up letting out a little whimper of dismay. She heard Ari’s chain drop back into the foot locker and a moment later, she felt a warm arm around her shoulder. The gesture was a little awkward since Ari was shorter than her sister, but the comfort of the gesture was certainly felt.

“Its just… men.” She huffed out the last word, putting all her frustration and confusion into the single syllable.

Ari interposed herself momentarily between the aasimar and the hammock and then guided her sister into it next to her. Seated, Ari could put her arms around her sister’s shoulders and gave her a fierce hug.

“What’s the matter?” Ari withdrew, giving Autumn room to share what she needed to but trying to be careful not to push her sister into sharing anything too personal. They had grown apart since re-uniting and Ari was doing her darndest to respect the other woman’s privacy.

Autumn took a few deep breaths. Her head cleared a bit and she realized that while they may have drifted apart, there was no one aboard who would more zealously defend her heart. Slowly, she told Ari about the interlude with Tolly on the deck.

Ari waited for a moment, waiting to make sure that Autumn was done speaking before adding her advice. “Well, it sounds like Tolly is interested in you are more than a friend. He respects you and the gods know that you’re gorgeous and talented. You both have particularly strong faith; I know if I were an impressionable young man I’d be enamored of you. The question is, how do you feel about this attention?”

Autumn frowned. “I’m not sure.”

Ari pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “Well then, I’d recommend avoiding Tolly for a little bit. Not running at the sight of him, just avoiding being alone with him until your feelings are a little more clear. It wouldn’t be good to alienate him if you decide you do want his attention, but if you decide you don’t like it and he presses his suit then it could result in some seriously bruised ego. Men are tricky that way.”

Autumn nodded and started to feel calmer. Too many problems on top of each other was overwhelming, but sitting in the tiny cabin with Ari’s earnest and occasionally bloodthirsty support was bringing things into perspective.

“Really,” Ari continued, “You could probably socialize with some of our other friends a bit more. Kyle could certainly use your help working on social skills and he’s got a quick mind. Perhaps you could do with a bit more intelligent discussion that doesn’t involve theology. Lanara and Osborne are lots of fun too. Xu is quiet but she’s very deep when you get her to open up. Tor’s hounds, even Kavan’s got some really interesting views of the world.”

Autumn nodded in agreement then frowned. “Is there a particular reason that you waxed poetic about Kyle and only briefly extolled the virtues of the others?” Perhaps their stolen moments had made her paranoid, but Ari seldom seemed to give anyone more than a two-word compliment and Kyle had earned a whole sentence. In the parlance of Ari’s mind that was akin to a glowing and poetic description.

Ari smiled. Leave it to Autumn to latch onto anything out of the ordinary. It was a quality that made her a great sentinel. “Well, a little. I do like Kyle, I mean what’s not to like about someone who’s genuinely nice and aside from his little social gaffs has a certain homey charm? Xu is so quiet that its hard to get her out of her shell sometimes. Lanara and Osbourne are great fun for me but I don’t know if they annoy you. Kavan has a really dark past and I don’t know if you want to deal with that. As for me, I don’t know if you’re still upset with me so I don’t want to force my company on you. You’ve got a mean right and I don’t relish the thought of being on the receiving end of it.” Ari paused and then raised her eyebrows. “Besides, its not as though Kyle’s hard on the eyes. I certainly appreciate attractive male company, don’t you?”

Autumn considered the other woman’s words for a moment. All of the assessment was pure Ari, colored by her remarkably simplified view of the world. “Well, while we’re talking about male company, I’ve got a question for you.”

“As long as it doesn’t involve re-introduction to Miss Right, I’ll answer any question you want.” Ari shifted a bit to get more comfortable and escape even for a few seconds her sister’s piercing blue gaze. Ever since they had first met, Ari had been strangely at ease with the god-touched girl but she’d always found the intensity of Autumn’s gaze disconcerting.

Autumn took a moment to gather and re-organize her thoughts. The question had been gnawing at her for quite some time but she had held it back, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer. “How do you think the family would take it if a man were to start courting me?”

Ari almost laughed with relief. She’d dreaded that Autumn’s question would involve a certain elven prince and she wasn’t quite sure how she felt and where she stood with Herion. With her family, she always knew where she stood and could generally trust on opposite notion to match her family’s thoughts. On the issue of familial duty though, Ari was pretty sure she knew their stance.

“Well, I can’t read Mother’s mind, but since we’ve had some rather spectacular discussions about it recently I think I can speak intelligently about it. Really, as long as you’re not interested in someone who is rooting for the downfall of the kingdom I think they’ll be ok with it. Really, they’ve already gotten their sacrificial virgin and you can’t marry into better in-kingdom alliances since Mother married Father and Aiden is helping the twins. There’s no trumping our alliance with the elven imperials unless you want to be Haxtha’s consort.” Ari paused a moment to shudder at that thought. “And if they do have an objection, they can lump it. Really, you’re the ideal daughter to them and you’ve already done so much to please them that I don’t think you can do much more. No matter what you do, Mom will disapprove, that’s what Mom does. Dad will be quietly happy, that’s what Dad does. These are like fundamental laws of the universe.

I mean, if you think about it, there are even some men we know who would work out. Take Kyle for instance. He’s human so you won’t run into my problem with marrying someone so many times your own age. He’s got a career ahead of him, the gods know that wizards are always useful. Tor’s hounds, he may not be cultured but at least he tries and its not like he’s of a mind to overthrow the kingdom.”

Autumn arched her eyebrow at her adopted sister.

Ari hurried on. “There are others who aren’t exactly the best choices. Take Tolly for example.” She held up a forestalling hand in case Autumn was going to protest. “This is all hypothetical. But look at some of his qualities. He’s so zealous about his faith, good in a cleric true, but bad in a politician. He’s good with words and at times I’m quite sure that he thinks of just the exact wrong thing to say to someone so that he gets them really riled up. He’s capable of good sense, but sometimes he chooses not to exercise it.”

Autumn leaned back and thought about that for a moment. Her mind would not be still. She decided to confide something in Ari that only a handful of other people knew. Her eyes hooded and distant, she put her hand on Ari’s shoulder. “What if there were more? I mean, what if there were more to me than just being adopted by your mother and father?”

Ari shook her head, confused. “I don’t understand.”

“Well, I know that you’ve never pressed it. I remember you hitting a boy who dared to ask about my parentage when we were little because it made me look upset. Ari, I know who my mother and father are.”

Ari looked excited, then worried. “So is it bad then?”

Autumn shook her head and laughed softly. “Not really. You remember your mother’s sister, yes?”

Ari nodded, remembering her aunt, Lysanne Coviere; the queen of Merlion. “She was always nice to me, and I remember she always treated you…” She trailed off.

Autumn nodded. “She was my mother.”

“But why would she have fostered you with us? Why didn’t she keep you with her?” Ari’s cheeks flushed a bit, her eyes flashing.

“No, don’t be angry. Its not bad at all, really. When she was young, she was visited by a servitor of one of the good gods. She fell in love with him and he cared for her. They were together for only a short time, but I was the result. Mother couldn’t marry him, she needed a consort to help her rule the kingdom.” Autumn looked down at her hands, wondering once more about the relationship between her father and her mother. “To make sure that there weren’t any problems in the line of succession, she gave me up. She couldn’t bear to let me go far so she gave me to her sister, your mother. The twins know, and your parents and now you.”

Ari took her sister’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Thank you for trusting me with this. I always knew you were special.”

Autumn nodded and squeezed back. “No more secrets.”

Ari grinned. “But now you’ve got to stop pretending to be a maid. I should pretend to be yours if you really think about it.”

Autumn flashed her sister a shy smile. “No more pretending.”


----------



## Delemental

Here's three of the character portraits, done by Anne in a manga style.  Unfortunately for me, she says she only draws women because her male portraits look funny.  So, no anime-Kyle in the near future.


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## spidertrag

Delemental said:
			
		

> Here's three of the character portraits, done by Anne in a manga style.  Unfortunately for me, she says she only draws women because her male portraits look funny.  So, no anime-Kyle in the near future.




I like 'em  --tell her to keep practicing, she'll get those guys---faces in general were one of the things that took me forever to get 'right' (& I use that term loosely  )

I'll use these as reference for drawing the girls---other descriptions (body type, equipment, etc...) will be useful---feel free to pass out my email address (in sig)

Ari's (Arrie's) story was great---seems yall are a creative bunch---btw, tell your DM, if he has any more creatures/interesting npc's he want a visual representation of, drop me a line---it'll give me a chance to put my regrowing artistic creativity towards something


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## Delemental

Okay, here's what I could find as far as physical descriptions.

*Ariadne Verahannen* - Stands 5'4", with a wiry build.  Her hair is dark brown, and long, though usually loosely bound.  Her eyes are a grey-lavender color.  SHe has no identifying marks on her skin, and her complexion is described as 'peaches and cream'.  Her clothing tends toward grays and purples, and she wears a chain shirt.  Her preferred weapon is the spiked chain, though she also favors the orcish shotput.  She was 18 years old at the start of the campaign.

*Autumn Verahannen* - Stands 5'5", with an average build, though more muscular than her sister.  Her hair is strawberry blonde, and long, usually worn loose.  Her eyes are an intense blue.  Due to her celestial heritage, her skin and complexion are almost unnaturally flawless.  She tends toward blue and silver clothing, and wears well-polished full plate armor.  At this point in the campaign she was using a longsword and shield, though later on she switches to a greataxe, and I think the player would prefer a greataxe picture to a sword (there's a dearth of 'women with big axe' pictures on the net).  She was 18 years old at the start of the campaign.

*Kavan* - Kavan is 5'8", with an average build.  He has short, dark brown hair, usually neatly groomed.  His eyes are green.  His skin tone is somewhat dark, as if he were well-tanned.  He has no facial hair or marks.  Kavan's facial features are somewhat effeminate.  His clothing is always neatly tailored, and he doesn't have a color preference.  His armor is a suit of chainmail, and he uses a longsword and shield.  He was a tender 102 at the start of the campaign.

*Kyle Goodson* - Kyle is 6'3", and is broad-shouldered and stocky, unlike most in his profession (STR 15, CON 16, for heck's sake...).  He has black hair, which by this point in the campaign had grown to about shoulder length (prior to this, Kyle cut his own hair... it wasn't pretty).  His eyes are a piercing blue-grey.  His skin has an olive tone, and he has no facial hair or other marks.  His facial features tend toward the 'farmboy' stereotype; square jaw, cleft chin, etc.  He wears midnight blue robes, and carries a staff of silver-grey wood topped with a spherical crystal.  He was 24 at the start of the campaign.

*Lanara Rahila* - Lanara stands at 5'10", with a slender build.  Her hair is bright pink, and is always loose and wild.  Her skin is pale.  Lanara's left eye is green and her right eye blue.  Her usual outfit is a revealing leather armor dyed purple, and on the rare occasions she uses a weapon, she uses a whip-dagger.  More frequently, she's seen with a fiddle.  She was 28 at the start of the campaign.

*Osborn Greenbottle* - Osborn is 3'1", with an average halfling build.  He has black hair, worn long and tied back.  His eyes are also black, and he sports a goatee and moustache.  His skin is ruddy.  Osborn wears blacks and dark browns, sports studded leather, and a lot of daggers.  He was 23 at the start of the campaign.

*Tolly Nightsleaving* - Tolly stands at 5'10", and has a robust build.  His hair is light brown, and very short, and he also wears a slight beard.  He has a dark complexion, and has blue eyes.  He wears earth tones in his clothing, naturally, and sports a suit of full plate.  His preferred weapon is the warhammer.  Tolly was 17 when the campaign began.

*Xu Dhii Ngao* - Xu is 5'8", with a slim, athletic build.  She has 'typical' asain features (skin tone, eye shape, hair color, etc).  Her hair is very long and worn in a single braid.  He clothing is simple, but usually in bold colors (red, gold, green, etc).  Naturally, she wears no armor and carries no weapons.  SHe was 19 when the campaign began.

Hope that helps, spidertrag (or anyone else reading who's trying to picture the characters).


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## Delemental

Okay, enough with the soap-opera romance crap, let's get on with the game!  

------------------------


            Escorting the water wagon quickly became tedious.

            After speaking with Jekar, the orcish commander in charge of the guard units, it was decided that the squads would be split evenly among the three wagons, one unit flanking each side.  The party was assigned to guard the left flank of the last wagon.  They marched along in relative silence; sound carried far in the open desert, and the orcs did not want to give their position away.  Lanara, who had been hoping for a few loud orcish marching songs, sulked as she rode.  Only Xu was able to occupy herself on the monotonous desert trek, poking at the occasional brush or overturning rocks with her long pole.

            “What are you doing, Xu?” Lanara asked after watching the monk rattle the tenth sagebrush that morning.

            “Looking for a scorpion,” she said.

            “Why?”
            “I wish to keep one,” she replied.

            “Don’t you already have a snake?”

            “Yes.”

            Lanara sighed.  “Okay, Xu.”

            Noon came, and the wagon train stopped.  The wagon itself was large enough that the troops and the party could rest in the shade underneath.  A large canopy was unpacked and mounted on poles to give some shade for the horses.  Waiting through the intense heat of mid-day was uneventful, save for the return of the celestial hawk that Autumn had summoned that morning.  She learned from it that the enemy was camped a few miles ahead; Keth had chosen his course of travel wisely.  This information was passed to Jekar, who said he would send a rider ahead to inform Keth as soon as they began moving again.

            “What will happen then?” Kavan asked Lanara, after she returned from her conversation with Jekar.

            “Hopefully we can get close to Orth’s forces without them knowing,” she said.  During the march the party had finally learned the name of Keth’s brother – one of the squad captains commented that Keth so despised Orth that he almost never used his name.  “Then it’s apparently rush in with everything they’ve got.  Jekar guesses that the battle will take place near sunset.  We’ll still remain behind with the water, in case Orth has a vanguard or sentries.  So, if we’re sneaking up, I guess that means no singing.”

            Autumn nodded.  “Kyle, that includes you.”

            Kyle looked confused and a little hurt by the comment.  Osborn seemed confused as well.  “Yeah, since he sings… so much.”

            “And so well,” Tolly said dryly.

            “Oh, I’ve known Kyle to sing a couple of times,” Lanara said.  “Usually after a couple of drinks.  We could arrange that, later on, if you want.  But otherwise I’d agree – keep your mouth shut, Kyle.”

            Kyle pressed his lips together and returned to studying his spellbook.

            The midday break ended slightly sooner than the party expected, though they had to admit that a race that was born and raised in the desert probably had a higher tolerance for the heat than they did.  A messenger was dispatched to Keth with Autumn’s information, and about an hour later the order came back to have the reserve forces begin moving forward.  Later in the afternoon, the party got word that Keth’s scouts were reporting that Orth’s tribe was setting up camp for the evening, and so an attack was almost certain.  The water wagons were soon left far behind as Keth’s forces began the push forward.  The train turned away from following the main army, shifting their course slightly west as they apparently made for a pre-arranged rendezvous point away from the potential battlefield.

            Just as the fiery disk of Karakor began to touch the tops of the tallest dunes in the distance, the wagon train dipped down between two large dunes.  Jekar had said that they hoped to keep the water wagons out of sight in case Orth had any sentries about – not only to protect the water itself, but to keep Orth from finding out how close Keth was.  As the wagons creaked along, Osborn glanced around at the walls of sand on either side.  Then something odd caught his eye; something about the sand didn’t seem right for some reason.  His nose began to itch.

            “Hey, Tolly,” he said quietly to the priest standing next to him.  “Look at that sand over there.”

            Tolly glanced over.  “It’s… sand, Osborn.”

            “It doesn’t look right,” Osborn said.  “I think someone’s under there.”

            Suddenly a horn blasted out three sharp, high notes.  The sand around the wagons erupted as several men came out of holes dug in the sand and covered with canvas.  Men and horses sprung to their feet and began to move down the slopes of the dune.  By far the larger force was on the right flank, consisting mostly of cavalry.  Only Osborn had the presence of mind to act, throwing a dagger at an unarmored fire-touched man with a pair of wands on his belt.  The dagger bounced off an invisible barrier surrounding him.  High up on the dune, an man with a longbow and a chain shirt – a human, or possibly an orc-touched – fired on the party, sending a shaft into Kyle’s shoulder but missing Arrie and bouncing a third arrow off Autumn’s armor.  A wolf stood next to the archer, watchful but still.  Three large orcs with greataxes began charging down the hill, their eyes rolling back in their heads.  The one in the center wore a suit of chainmail, while the others wore studded leather.  Just behind them was a pair of creatures that were obviously devils.  They both had long, nasty beards, and one wielded a wicked-looking glaive.  Though the party had been assigned to the left flank, it was obvious the squad on the right would need reinforcements.  Lanara, Xu, and Kavan moved to help them, while the others braced for attack, leaping off their horses and bracing for the charge.

            The orc in the center reached the wagon first, seeming to glide down the sand dune as if it were smooth glass, sand spraying out behind him in a funnel.  He laid into Arrie with his greataxe; as it bit deeply into her hip, she saw that it wasn’t made of a dark metal as she’d first thought, but some sort of black crystal.  She whipped out with her spiked chain in retaliation, ripping into the orc’s shoulder.

            One of the other orcish berserkers ran straight for the horses hitched to the wagon, hacking into one and sending it to the ground screaming.  The other began to make for the rear of the wagon.  The devils split up and began to make their way down the hill, though they were much slower, their progress through the sand as slow as any native.

            The fire-touched pointed at Osborn and muttered, and a loud noise blasted out around the hin’s head, causing his ears to bleed.  The roar of battle faded to a high-pitched whine.  Osborn bared his teeth as he weaved and dodged in the sand, hurling more daggers at the offensive sorcerer.

            Tolly finally managed to bark out the words to a spell, and the ground surrounding the wagon erupted in a field of sharp spikes.  However, the loose sand did not hold an edge well, and the spell did not tear into the charging attackers as much as it might.  One of the devils ignored the spikes completely, the points dissolving back into sand as it stepped through.  Tolly left a narrow corridor through the spike field directly in front of Autumn, knowing she would want to engage the devils as quickly as possible.  However, it was Kyle who took advantage of the corridor, maneuvering forward to get a proper angle for his spell.  Opening his mouth wide, a blast of sound erupted forth, distorting the air in front of him.  The blast caught one of the orcs and the glaive-wielding devil; though the spell’s energies seemed to flow around the devil harmlessly like a river around a stone, the blast caught the orc full on, and blood erupted from its ears, eyes, and nose.  Unfortunately, this only seemed to make the orc mad, and he charged at Kyle.  Kyle tried to backpedal, but was unable to give his feet purchase against the sand.  The orc’s greataxe rose, glinting red in the late sun, and then fell.  Kyle crumpled to the ground, a horrific gash in his ribcage.  At the same time, a fireball from the sorcerer blasted into the battle line.  Only Tolly was caught by the spell, and his armor protected him from the worst of the flames.

            Autumn took a moment to bless her sword, filling it with holy power, before moving forward.  She came up on Kyle just as he was cut down by the orc barbarian, and his blood splattered on her armor.  She turned to engage the barbarian, but glanced over and saw Tolly running up, smoke from the fireball still trailing off his armor, the familiar glow of a healing spell on his hand.  Then she noticed that the two devils had vanished, reappearing a second later behind them.  One appeared next to Arrie, while the one with the glaive had appeared in the open close to Osborn.  Autumn turned on her heels and went after the unoccupied devil.

            Arrie, now confronted by two powerful opponents, shifted to a more defensive stance, whirling her chain in front of her to ward off blows from the orc’s crystal axe and the devil’s claws.  The battle turned into a three-way stalemate, with no one able to land an effective blow.  Osborn began to back away from the devil that had teleported close by, but then saw Autumn bearing down on it and returned his attention to the sorcerer.  But his aim was hampered by the rain of arrows that suddenly descended on him from the archer on the hill.  But Osborn was well-trained in the use of his throwing daggers, and decided that when pinpoint accuracy wasn’t an option, the best compensation was sheer quantity.  Thus the sorcerer was rather surprised when a half-dozen daggers came flying at him, many passing through his magical force armor and sticking into his flesh.  In response the sorcerer summoned a wave of force that pushed Osborn back, in the hopes of getting the hin out of range.

            The devil grinned as the armored female charged, and he grinned as he raised his glaive and ran the saw-toothed blade under her shoulder plate, drawing blood.  But then she closed and swung her own blade, and the devil howled in pain as the blessed weapon bit hard into his infernal flesh.  Not expecting this, the devil began to back away, fending off the persistent warrior with his glaive.  Autumn pressed her attack, ignoring the pain of the wound in her shoulder to hack into the devil again, calling upon the holy power of her order to ignite her blade with even more holy energy that burned at the devil’s flesh and muscles.

            Kavan, Lanara, and Xu had moved off far to the right flank, engaging a cluster of four mounted orcs that was trying to circle around to the rear of the wagon.  Lanara used her whip to catch and pull the riders off their horses, where they were quickly dispatched by Xu’s fists and Kavan’s sword.

            Tolly knelt down quickly and touched Kyle, healing his wounds.  At the same time he dropped the field of spike stones, seeing that most of their opponents had already crossed them, and they served no further purpose.  The barbarian that had felled Kyle ran up and buried his axe in Tolly’s back, biting deep but not felling the priest.  In response, Tolly backed away and cast another spell, calling upon Ardara to fill his foe with the unmoving essence of the earth.  The barbarian froze in place, axe raised over his head.  Kyle quickly crawled away and stood up next to the wagon, gathering his wits and his bearings.  The enemy was pressed close around them, most of them engaged in battle with his friends.  He cursed himself for being stupid enough to get in the way again, and then targeted the archer on the hill with an _acid arrow_, hoping to discourage him from firing at them.

            The orc barbarian that had been cutting down the horses leapt up onto the wagon to attack the driver, who had been throwing javelins at the attackers on the right flank.  The two orcs grappled with each other as the combat boiled around them.  The sorcerer launched beams of fire laced with foul, black energy at Tolly and Osborn, missing the hin but striking Tolly in the chest.  Tired of the sorcerer’s spells but now out of throwing daggers, Osborn charged in and engaged the fire-touched in melee, burying a dagger into his groin and twisting, sending the fire-touched down in a most unpleasant manner.  Tolly was forced to pull back and heal the wounds he’d sustained, while the archer on the hill turned his attention to Autumn, though he was still unable to penetrate her plate armor.  Kyle took advantage of an opening in the battle between Autumn and the devil, firing a beam of negative energy at the outsider as it backed up to try and bring its glaive to bear.  The devil reeled as its life force was drained away, and its guard dropped just enough for Autumn to take its head off with her sword.  The devil melted away into a cloud of smoke and flame.

            With the sorcerer dispatched, Osborn moved around behind the held orc, and began jamming a dagger dripping with poison into his kidneys to dispatch it before the spell wore off.  There was a thud as the barbarian was thrown roughly out of the wagon, his chest pierced by a half-dozen javelins.  Autumn rushed in to attack the second devil on Arrie, while Kyle launched _magic missiles_ from a wand at the orc with the crystal battleaxe.  With some of the pressure on Arrie lifted thanks to her sister’s help, the exotic warrior began to press her attack on the barbarian.  The orc, seeing that their ambush was beginning to stall, quickly rolled out of range of the spiked chain and came up next to the water wagon, burying his axe into the side of the huge barrel.  Water sprayed out onto the sand, and the barbarian began to laugh.  But Tolly had been prepared for just such an emergency, and with a magical word and gesture of his holy symbol, the gash in the side closed up.  The orc’s laugh cut short.

            The archer, still suffering from the burning acid from Kyle’s spell, put an arrow into Tolly.  The cleric toppled, finally overcome by the battering he’d received throughout the battle.  The archer then decided to withdraw, disappearing over the edge of the dune and denying the party their vengeance.  Kyle, who had been ready to pepper the archer with more _magic missiles_, instead put the wand away and pointed at the orc with the crystal axe, blasting him with another ray of negative energy.  This time, Kyle enhanced the spell’s power using the magical rod he carried, and it slammed into the barbarian.  The barbarian screamed in pain and rage, and then dropped lifelessly to the ground.

            Autumn stepped up to the second devil, her steely gaze locked on its black eyes.  It leered at her, then leapt with claws extended.  Autumn almost casually swung her blade as it advanced, and a moment later the devil vanished in a puff of sulfurous smoke.  With the last enemy vanquished, Arrie immediately ran up to the unconscious Tolly and poured a healing potion down his throat.  He coughed and sputtered as his senses returned.  Looking around, he saw Autumn standing nearby, looking quite pale as an unusual quantity of blood poured from the wounds she’d received from the devil’s glaive.  Tolly began to rise to heal her, but the world spun around him.

            “Easy there,” said Arrie.  “Better take care of you first.”  She offered another potion, but Tolly frowned and waved it off, casting his own healing spell.  When he felt his vitality return, he stood and did the same for Autumn.  It took a bit more concentration than he expected, as if the wounds were somehow fighting Ardara’s power, but his will prevailed and the gashes sealed themselves.

            Meanwhile the rest of the party had gone about examining the damage.  They guessed that Tolly’s quick reactions in repairing the barrel meant that only a few gallons had been lost.  Two of the horses had been killed, but Lanara, Xu and Kavan had managed to bring down their opponents without injuring their horses, so the losses were easily replaced.  Xu and Arrie went off to dispatch any of Orth’s tribe that were wounded, while Autumn stood guard over the wagons.  Osborn and Kavan busied themselves stripping the corpses and picking out the magical items.  Tolly had started examining the crystal axe carried by the barbarian, studying it carefully.  It was made of a type of crystal he’d never seen before, though it seemed in all respects as strong as steel.  Some of its properties reminded him of some of the more exotic metals, like mithral and adamantium, though if this black stone had any special properties, they were beyond his ability to discern.

            “Kyle,” Tolly called out, “do you see an aura of magic on this axe?”

            Kyle, who was sitting on the sand next to the wagon wheel, looked up.  “Let me come take a look.”  He rose and walked slowly over to Tolly, leaning on his staff due to the pain from the terrible chest wound he was still suffering from.  As he drew close, however, the staff began to vibrate and emit what sounded like an angry hum.  A faint blue glow illuminated the runes that snaked up the bottom half of the staff. Kyle stopped in his tracks, feeling the staff vibrating in his hand.  “What the…?” 

            Arrie, who had returned by this time, noted the flummoxed look on Kyle’s face.  “Are you having a problem with that, Kyle?” she asked, doing a poor job of hiding her smile.

            “It’s… angry,” he said slowly.  He waved the crystal sphere atop the staff at the axe, noting that the vibration increased as he did so.  “It’s angry at that axe.”

            The others had started to gather around.  “I wonder,” Osborn said, “this axe is causing your staff to react.  The last time I saw it do anything strange was around Xerxes.  Maybe your staff is capable of detecting pre-Cataclysmic weirdness.”

            Kyle looked at his staff for a while, then at the axe.  “Maybe,” he said slowly.  “but looking at the axe with my aura sight, I don’t see any magical fields on it.  So I don’t know why…”

As he talked, Kyle had relaxed his grip on his staff and let it drop slightly, bringing the crystal sphere in front of his face.  When he glanced through it at the crystal greataxe, he stopped and nearly dropped his staff in surprise.

“What’s the matter?” Tolly asked.

“The axe.  When I look at it through here, I can see an aura around it.”

“A magical aura?”

“Yes… no.  I mean, it looks the same as magic, but the color’s wrong.”

“The color?” Osborn asked.

“When made visible by the proper divinations, arcane magic gives of an aura in shades of blue, and divine power in shades of yellow,” Tolly explained to him.  “One can then discern more by studying the intensity and variations in the hue.”

“This axe is showing a green aura,” Kyle said, staring at the weapon through his crystal.  He swept the staff around and glanced at the spoils the group had claimed, then pointed at the boots that were once worn by the same orc that carried the crystal axe.   “Those boots are showing up as green, too.”

“So, that’s easy,” said Osborn.  “Yellow and blue make green.”

Kyle shook his head.  “It doesn’t work like that.  If this were simply a combination of divine and arcane magic, you’d see both colors distinctly.  And besides, I should be able to see the aura without this,” he held out the staff.  “No, I think this is that pre-Cataclysm power we’ve been talking about.  It’s like magic, but different.  I can’t really explain it.  See, look.”  Kyle held out the sphere so that it was between Osborn and the crystal axe.  The hin peered through it, then shook his head.  “Looks like an axe to me,” he said.  “I don’t see any green stuff, or any other color.”

“Oh, well, maybe you have to be able to use magic,” Kyle said.  “Tolly, you try.”

Tolly looked through the crystal, and shook his head.  “I see nothing unusual.”

“Really?  Hey, Kavan, you have a _detect magic_ spell prepared, right?  Try using it and looking though my staff at the axe.”

The elven cleric complied with Kyle’s request, but his answer was no different.  “I know my spell worked, because I can see the magical auras on other items, but that axe looks quite mundane to me.”

Kyle spent a few moments looking through the crystal, then pulling it away, then putting it back in front of his face.  By this time Osborn, Xu, and Lanara lost interest and went back to sorting through loot.

“So Kyle,” Autumn asked, “how come your staff is being weird?”  She glanced through the crystal, not really expecting to see anything but curious all the same.

“I’ll bet they have ointments for that,” Arrie said, biting her lip to keep from giggling.  Tolly just shook his head at the warrior’s lack of restraint.

“I honestly don’t know,” Kyle said, shaking his head.  “I mean, when I took this staff as my reward from Herion, it was just because I liked it.  I mean, I’d been looking for a staff for a while, but I’d expected just to get a plain old stick of wood.  But when I saw this one it just seemed… right to me.  Heck, when I chose it, the Master of the Vaults tried to talk me out of it, just because as far as he knew it didn’t do anything.  Told me that I should choose something more in line with what the rest of you all got.  Guess he didn’t want me coming back to him thinking I’d been cheated.  I almost let him talk me into it, but then I guess… well… I just didn’t want to, for some reason.”

“Well, it seems that in your hands, it is more than they suspected,” Tolly suggested.

“Or, he got clocked in the head harder than we thought,” Arrie chimed in.

“If you don’t mind,” Kyle said, ignoring Arrie’s jibes, “I’d like to spend some time examining that axe and those boots.  Maybe I can figure out more about them, and about my staff, too.”

“Hey,” said Osborn, holding up two wands, one made of bone and the other of fire-blackened iron, “we have other stuff you need to look at, too.”

“Sure, sure,” he said, not really paying attention, “put it all together and I’ll get to it later.”

The party cut their discussion short as Jekar rode up and told them that they were taking the wagons to a safe location near the battle site.  They rode for another hour before making camp.  As they set up their tents, they were able to see the fight in the distance.  The glowing forms of summoned fire elementals darted about, and summoned devils clashed on both sides of the conflict.  The wagon teams fortified their positions as best they could, then waited.

About an hour later, Keth’s army returned from the battle, to the cheers and shouts of their companions.  Kyle spent most of the night sitting by himself, studying the crystal axe and occasionally writing notes down on a piece of parchment.  Eventually he put everything away, but strangely did not rejoin his friends.  He sat quietly by himself, eyes closed as if deep in thought.  He didn’t even get food when offered, and barely acknowledged anyone speaking to him.  Even Kavan, who went over to finally finish healing his wounds, barely got more than five words out of him.

The others mostly went about their routines, though they were somewhat on guard due to being so close to the enemy.  Arrie tried to volunteer to help chase down enemy stragglers, but when she was denied she occupied herself by helping with the wounded.  Xu occupied herself by sparring with those orcish soldiers who hadn’t yet had their fill of battle, and talking with them about orcish philosophy.  Osborn also mingled with the orcs, trying to trade more of his bacon for gemstones, and asking about their clan and their lifestyle.  Autumn spoke for a while with Tolly while sharpening her sword.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“For thinking of me, during the ambush.  When you left that path open through your spell.”

“Oh, well,” he said, blushing.  “It was nothing, really.”

“No, I appreciate that you pay attention to things like that,” she said, placing her hand on his knee.  “Not everyone would.”

Just then, the sand next to them began to shift and swirl, and a dog’s head poked out of the ground.  “Good evening, Tolly Mulholland,” it said, looking at them.  “Am I interrupting anything?”

“Not at all,” Tolly said, as Autumn pulled her hand away.  “Do you have news?”

“I do,” the archon said, “though we should not discuss it here.  Meet me alone beyond that dune to the northeast.”  The dog’s head disappeared under the sand.

Tolly stood up and looked at Autumn regretfully.  “I should go,” he said.

“Of course.  I hope he has useful information for you.”

Tolly glanced across their area of the camp, to where Kyle was sitting, waving his fingers slowly in the air as a tiny mote of multi-colored light danced in the air.  “Perhaps you should go try and talk to him.  He is acting strangely.”

“Probably just the effects of that wound he took when he stepped in front of a raging barbarian,” she said.

Tolly shook his head.  “Kavan healed him.  It’s something else.”

“So have Lanara talk to him.”

“She was summoned by an aide-de-camp to debrief with Keth.”

“Xu?”

Tolly looked down at her.  “I think you know as well as I do that conversation is not among Xu’s many talents.”

Autumn looked annoyed, but nodded.  “You’re right.  I’ll go see if he’ll talk.”  She rose and began to walk toward Kyle as Tolly left.

It was a bit difficult for Tolly to find his way once he left the camp and the meager amount of light it provided, as a high cloud of dust and sand had partially obscured the moonlight, but after a few minutes he found the archon standing patiently at the bottom of the dune.

“Thank you for seeking out what I have asked, Archon.”

“You may call me Alexriel,” the archon said.  “And you may thank me by completing the weapon you promised me as soon as possible.  When it is complete, simply mention my name in your morning communion with our Goddess, and I will come.”

“Of course.  Now, what have you learned?”

            “The orc called Orth has his standard cadre of followers; barbarian bodyguards, a cleric of Grabakh, and so forth. Same for many of the troops. However, as I watched the battle from afar, I noticed several abominations. The pre-Cataclysmic force once called ‘psionics’ was at work on Orth's side. Indeed, two of his very retainers seem to employ it.” Alexriel continued to outline specifics, such as tactics used in combat, and obvious displays of psionic power, not really seeming to notice or care about Tolly's widening eyes.

            “Fear not, though, sweet Tolly. I will be with you in this fight.”

            “Huh?”

            “The One, the Four, and the Many have always directed their servants to root out and destroy this abomination whenever and wherever it is found.” A frown seems to cross the dog’s face. “Though the fact that Grabakh’s followers seem to sanction these beings bodes ill. Perhaps they have been duped…but perhaps not.” 

            “Either way, Alexriel, your help is greatly appreciated. I just don’t know how we’re going to get to Orth and his followers.”

            “I do.”

Tolly mentally grumbled; he wasn’t used to being perplexed by dogs this often, not even Rupert. “Really? How?”

“Patience, Tolly Mullholland. The answer will come shortly. For now, let us return to your comrades. I believe I should get to know them a bit better.”

*          *            *​
Shortly after Tolly returned, Lanara rode back to the party, and asked a nearby orc-touched soldier to go find Arrie, who was still out in other parts of the camp.  Xu and Osborn were sitting in the sand nearby, working out the details on a trap to catch some of the desert mice that scurried about the dunes.  Xu needed food for her snake, and though she usually caught small rodents, toads, and lizards herself as part of her training, in the desert such creatures were far and few between. Whatever conversation had taken place between Autumn and Kyle had ended long before, and Autumn now sat with Kavan, while Kyle seemed as though he hadn’t moved.  When the entire party was finally gathered, Lanara ushered them inside one of their tents.

“Okay, guys,” she said, taking a deep breath, “here’s the situation...”

*          *            *​
            “You want us to do WHAT?!”

            Keth frowned at the cansin. “Assassinate my brother. It’s tactically sound, will save the lives of my men, as well as those of possible future tribesmates, and is well within the capabilities of you and your group.”

            “But…”

            “As well, my men reported to me how you took down that strange warrior with his crystal axe that did not break. You seem to have experience in combating these strange magics that my brother’s men wield; it is most likely that he would keep the strongest source of that close to himself.”

            “But…”

            “Orth is not like me; he leads from behind, not from the front. None of any of my warriors, clerics, or sorcerers can accomplish this. Only you.”

            “But…” Lanara trailed off one final time, and looked around the table. Two dozen eyes stared back at her, out of thirteen different faces. She could see, reflected in those eyes, just how much it cost these orcs to admit to the fact that there was something that they weren’t strong enough to do; and not only that, but that outsiders were stronger than they. Lanara came to a decision, and nodded firmly at Keth.

            “We can do it…but we’ll need some help. There’s things that some of us just aren’t good at, and sneaking around in a big tin can is one of them.”

            Gell, the Sorcerer-Captain spoke up. “My people can help with that, warchief. We can at least make them invisible, though they’ll likely have to carry their armor to whatever location they choose, and don it there. Less noise over the sand.” Many other heads nodded in agreement, and the captains murmured to each other. 

            Keth raised a hand, and the room fell silent. “Excellent. Here is what you shall do, then…”

*          *            *​
            “So, let me get this straight,” said Arrie. “We’re gonna be invisible, sneak around behind Orth’s army, wait for the battle tomorrow, and when everyone commits their reserves, we run up and kill him?”

            “That’s the plan,” Lanara confirmed. 

            “Sweet!” Arrie exclaimed, launching a fist into the air. She stood exultant for a moment, then looked around at the faces of her companions. “What? What’d I say?”

            “This is going to be harder than usual, Arrie. Kavan won’t be with us.”

            The elven cleric tried very hard not to pout. Nature won out over willpower. “I won’t? Why not?”

            “Keth’s healers are just too overworked, right now. Tolly’s far more of a front-liner, says Keth, but you, well…frankly, the orcs think you’re just too breakable.” 

            Kavan started to open his mouth, when Xu, surprisingly, spoke up. “Remember, Kavan, we did agree to a stint in the army. He is the leader. His orders must be followed, for the best of all who follow him.”

            Kavan blinked at Xu, then sighed. “Well…I guess I’m not surprised that followers of gods of fire, murder, and vengeance are a little light on healers. I should go rest.” 

            The group nodded to Kavan, and wished the elf well, before they bent their heads and began to plan their tactics for the next day.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

It wouldnt surprise me if Kyle started 'trying' to learn psionics... and why is it outlawed?


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> It wouldnt surprise me if Kyle started 'trying' to learn psionics... and why is it outlawed?




I considered it for a while, but decided against it.  To me, Kyle just feels more like a wizard than a wizard/psion, or anything similar.  I've never even been able to find an arcane-based prestige class for Kyle that I felt fit; I doubt I'll take anything but wizard levels with him.

There's also mechanical issues; in this campaign, magic and psionics are like oil and water.  So there's nothing that might help merge the two disciplines (like the cerebromancer PrC).

As to why psionics are outlawed, that's a major storyline element that comes out later.  For now, suffice it to say that a very long time ago the psions did something very, very naughty.


----------



## Delemental

Kyle never thought it would be this easy to accept the fact that he was going to die.

            He listened to the arguments of his companions from an oddly detached state, knowing that they were quibbling over unimportant details.  The crux of the matter was unchanging; they were going to face down Orth, and more importantly, they were going to face down his two lieutenants, the ones who wielded the power that the archon Alexriel referred to as ‘psionics’.

            More to the point, _he_ was going to face them down.

            Kyle almost felt like weeping.  It had taken him several hours to come to grips with it, but he could no longer deny it.  The staff he carried, the one he had picked from the vaults of the elven Imperial Court, was designed for the purpose of combating psionics.  He could no longer deny that the staff had chosen him to be the agent through which it did its work.  That it had chosen poorly was irrelevant now.  The staff’s abilities to detect sources of the pre-Cataclysmic abomination had been passed to him, which made him responsible for identifying and confronting threats of that nature.

            His eyes fell onto Autumn’s face, radiant even in the shadowy light of the orc encampment.  He thought of what she might say if he had told her earlier what he was really thinking.  She would worry, of course.  They would all worry.  They might try to relieve the burden on him, try to take on more than their share in battle.  Their concerns might divert their attention at a critical moment.  Kyle was tired of his own inadequacies as a mage dragging the rest of them down.  This was too important.  They all had to be at their best.  So, he kept silent.  Better that they think him moody and unfriendly this evening, than know the truth.

            He had no doubts that he would be annihilated.  He was no match for one, let alone two.  The best he could hope for was to make the best effort possible, and hope that his efforts would give his friends the edge they needed to bring the two abominations down.  The task was really in their hands, not his – all he could do was try and minimize the advantage these two lieutenants had, if he didn’t screw it up.

            Kyle’s thoughts were still distant as Lanara spoke.  “Keth wants us to meet with him and his Master of Spies after they finish their council,” she said.  “I think he wants to impart some personal, private information.”

            “All right,” said Tolly.

            “Is your dog coming with you?” asked Lanara.

            Tolly glanced back at Alexriel, who had returned to his dog form and was patiently on the floor, wagging his tail.  “Sure, I’ll bring my ‘dog’.”  Everyone, of course, knew that the dog was the hound archon that Tolly had summoned early that morning, who now chose to accompany them to destroy the two wielders of psionics that were with Orth.

            The party was discussing general battle plans when an aide came to their tent.  “Keth wishes to see you now,” he said.

            As the party walked to Keth’s tent, Tolly looked down at Alexriel.  “I wish to make certain of something.  Are we supposed to destroy any objects we find that are infused with this psionic energy, or can they be used against our enemies?”

            “The abominations and their tools must be destroyed,” Alexriel replied sternly.

            “I thought that was the case.”

            As the party approached the tent, Tolly heard the faint sounds of an argument in Orcish coming from inside.  He couldn’t understand the language, and so had no idea what the argument was about.  A moment later, they were all escorted inside by one of Keth’s honor guards, who promptly left.

            Keth sat in the center of his tent, along with another figure in black leather.  As they entered, several of the party members seemed surprised when they saw this new person.

            “I didn’t know you had any hin in your clan, Keth,” Osborn said.

            “Who are you talking about, Osborn?” Kavan asked.

            “That guy,” he said, pointing at the black-clad figure.  “He’s a hin.”

            “No,” Kavan said slowly, “he’s an elf.”

            “I’d swear that she is an assimar,” Autumn said.

            “Allow me to explain,” Keth said, “this is my spymaster, the Faceless One.  This is, I am given to understand, his Talent.  But it is one that he has no control over.  Thus he appears to each of you as a member of your own race and gender.”

            “That would get kind of annoying after a while,” Arrie said.

            The Faceless One looked at her.  “You have no idea.  Imagine my difficulty in finding a woman to bed.”

            Xu’s brows arched at the mental image as the Faceless One turned to Lanara.  “Keth has requested I give you the information I have gathered while wandering around his camp.”

            “That would be helpful,” Tolly admitted.  “What can you tell us about Orth and those who follow him?”

            The Faceless One’s eyes lingered on Lanara for a moment before turning to regard Tolly.  “Orth is a powerful warrior, but he is also a smart one.  He comes from a long line of chieftains, long known as warlords.  Their mere presence can inspire their forces to victory.  That is why you have been assigned this mission – without Orth, many of his forces will lose the taste for battle.”

            The Faceless One scratched at his chin.  “Where to begin?  Well, let us start with Orth himself.  He favors a rather cunning style of fighting, rather than the smashing and looting favored by most orcs.  He is currently fighting with a falchion in personal combat, but unlike most orc chieftains he keeps his composure most of the time.  He leads from the rear, which is unusual for an orc, but it is said that he has confidence in his ability to win victory and this has no need to be present at their battles.  That is why this tactic may succeed, where against other clans it would not be considered, as the chieftain would be at the head of his army rather than isolated at the rear.

            “It is unlikely he will attack again this evening.  Orcish tradition dictates that battles take place under the watchful eye of Grabâkh, so that he may see them prove their strength against their enemy.  Night attacks are not unknown, but not on this large a scale.”

            “It seems your brother has begun using several non-traditional methods,” Autumn commented to Keth.

            “Yes, the ones with the strange magic,” answered the Faceless One.  “There are two who remain with him at all times, but whether they are allies or bodyguards I cannot say.  One of them is… I am not certain.  If he is human, as he appears, then he is the largest human I have ever seen, and hope never to meet his like in battle.  He is perhaps a third again as tall as Keth, and seems carved from a solid block of muscle.  If I had not seen him move and speak with the grace and wits of a human, I would have thought him an ogre.  He wears a suit of full plate armor, though he carries no weapons.  I have heard this one called Sun-Harrow.”

            “Not an auspicious name,” Tolly commented.

            The Faceless One nodded his agreement.  “The second of them appears to be an orc-touched, short in stature compared to most of his kind.  He appears the more intellectual of the two, and he is closer to what I would know as a sorcerer.  He wears no armor and carries no weapon.  This one I have heard called Takar.”

            “What does the relationship with the priests of Grabâkh appear to be?” Tolly asked.

            “It varies.  Their leader, an orc priestess by the name of Gell, also stays near Orth, but does not seem friendly toward these other two.  I would describe her as ‘guardedly hostile’.  The lesser priests seem to regard these two, especially Takar, with a combination of fear and reverence.”

            “Anyone else with him?” Lanara asked.

            “He has an honor guard, anywhere from four to ten orcs with pole-axes.  They are unremarkable, though they seem to known what they’re doing.”  The Faceless One took a sip of a strong-smelling concoction in a wooden cup.  “Any questions?”

            “How did you come by this information?” Autumn asked.

            “I managed to sneak in during yesterday’s battle,” he explained, “and looked around for a while.  I stayed for about an hour or so after Orth’s armies returned, and then I left.”

            “Can you draw us a map of the camp, so we can plan our route in?” asked Tolly.

            “And what can you tell us about their patterns of movement?” Autumn added.  “Guard rotations, and the like?”

            The Faceless One shook his head.  “You misunderstand.  You will not be attacking Orth in his camp.  His tents are in the middle of the camp, and it would be impossible for you to get close enough, especially with your heavy armor.  We had considered this at first, but realized that sending you to attack Orth in his camp would fail.”

            “But Keth’s sorcerers have offered to render us invisible,” said Tolly.  “And with a silence spell…”

            “No,” interrupted Keth.  “Magical silence dampens sound within an area.  You would be unable to get close without someone detecting a sudden lack of noise.  My brother’s men are too clever not to recognize what that means.”

            “The Warchief’s plan,” continued the Faceless One, over Tolly’s sigh, “is that at dawn we will attack with our army.  Orth will move out of his encampment to meet us, though he will remain at the rear of the lines directing his forces.  Likely, he will take a position at the top of a tall dune, or just beyond the crest where he can view the battle. Initially, we will be outnumbered.  But then Keth will commit his reserve.  This will force Orth to commit his reserves, lest he be outnumbered.  With the reserves at the front, he will be relatively unprotected.  That is when you will strike.”

            “How will we approach?” asked Tolly.  “There are some of us unskilled in stealth, myself and the sentinel included.”

            “The Sorcerer-Captain has offered several of his men to render you invisible, as you mentioned before.  We will move you into position behind their lines tonight, and hide your position.  You will be given several sand-tarps that will allow you to conceal yourselves through the night until the battle starts.  It will then be up to you to locate Orth and approach without being spotted.”

            The party looked at each other and nodded.

            “As for the outcome,” the Faceless One said, glancing over at Keth, “my Warchief and I have a disagreement.  Keth would prefer you take Orth alive; I would rather you kill him and have done with it.”

            “What is your reason?” Autumn asked Keth.

            “I would like to capture my brother, restore him to full health if needed, and then bring him before both armies, where he and I would fight to the death.  That way, there would be no doubt as to who the true warchief is.”

            “Can he be trusted not to cheat?” Tolly asked.

            “He probably will,” the Faceless One said.  “That is why I feel it is better to kill him and have done with it.”

            “I think we can take into account the feasibility of capturing Orth once we are there,” Tolly said.

            Keth and the Faceless One looked at each other, and nodded.  “Very well,” Keth replied.  “Then you will be given two signal torches; light the one that gives off green smoke if you take him alive, and the red one should he be killed.”

            “And if they both go off, we’ve been hit by a _fireball_.” Tolly commented.

            Everyone looked at Tolly, silent for a split second.  “Tolly made a funny,” Osborn said in awe.

            “I did?” Tolly said, straightfaced.

            “So, are there any questions?” the Faceless One asked.  “Your eyes may see something ours do not.”

            “Osborn?” Tolly asked.

            The hin shook his head.  “I have no experience in this,” he said.  “My background was more in the area of sneaking into a house when everyone was asleep and taking stuff.”

            Kyle, who had been quiet for most of the meeting, suddenly spoke.  “What capabilities have you witnessed from Orth’s lieutenants?”

            The Faceless One sighed.  “Takar seems able to manipulate pure force, much as our sorcerers can create force missiles or force shields, but his abilities exceed theirs in both breadth and power.  Sun-Harrow I have not seen in battle.  Neither of them carries weapons, as I said before, though Sun_Harrow does wear his full plate.  Gell carries her sacred battle-axe, of course.  She is the most powerful cleric in the encampment, though I’m not familiar enough with such things to give you a certain answer.  However, I have heard her comment to Orth that she stays at his side to protect him because she does not have the power to bring him back.  Take from that what you will.”

            “I think we are in agreement with your plan,” Arrie said.  “If you will give us an hour to discuss details amongst ourselves before we leave?”

            “Of course,” Keth said.  “I will also make healers available to you if you need them.  I won’t mince words with you – the success of our war against my brother rests upon your shoulders.”

            The party took their leave, and went quickly back to their tents to ready their equipment and discuss their plan of attack.  Soon they were called out by one of Keth’s honor guard, and four of the guards and a trio of sorcerers escorted them out of the camp.  They rode out as far as they could before they risked being spotted by Orth’s sentries, and then the party dismounted.  The guards took possession of their horses as the sorcerers began to cast invisibility spells.  Soon the party was trekking out across the sand, their footprints being obscured by the _unseen servant_ that Kyle had summoned.

            The party dug into the sand about a half-mile from where they guessed the battle would take place, hiding under the sand tarps and getting rest.  As dawn broke, they emerged and made their preparations in silence.  They moved toward the battle site, with Kyle using a _prestidigitation _spell this time to obscure the tracks in the sand.  They walked for about an hour, hearing the sounds of many troops moving off in the distance.  Soon they approached the back side of a large dune where they suspected Orth had set up his command post.  Osborn crept forward to scout, followed by the hound archon Alexriel, still in his dog form.  They returned a few minutes later.

            “They are there,” Alexriel said, “about twenty or thirty feet below the crest of the dune.  Orth is there, as are the abominations, and the priestess of Grabâkh.  There are also five of Orth’s bodyguard stationed below them.”

            “Okay, then,” Tolly said.  “As we planned.  Xu, Osborn, and Alexriel from the far side, Autumn and myself from the other, and Arrie and Kyle in the center.  Lanara will remain up at the crest of the dune to monitor the situation and call for a retreat if needed.”  Tolly turned to Arrie.  “Arrie, you’re going after Orth.  Do you think you can keep from killing him?”

            She shrugged.  “I’ll try.  But if he makes me hit him, I’m going to hit him hard.”

            “Autumn, since there are no outsiders here, you can take on Gell,” Tolly said.  “I’ll place a spell of silence on you just before we go, to help mask the sound of our approach, but it will also hinder her.”

            “I will tend to the honor guard,” Xu said.

            “Good.  Osborn and I will go where we are needed most.  Kyle…”

            Kyle looked up.  “I will deal with Takar and Foe-Hammer.”

            Tolly seemed a bit taken off guard.  There was a note of grim finality in Kyle’s voice he’d never heard before.  “Very well.  Perhaps if you can neutralize them quickly, Osborn and I can dispatch them before they do real harm.”

            “Perhaps.”  Kyle then turned to Arrie.  “When we go over the crest of the dune, there is one thing I can try that may neutralize Orth as a threat.  You’ll know within the first moments if it was successful or not.  Be prepared to change your target.”

            “Okay,” Arrie said.  “So, are we ready?”

            Kyle nodded, and began casting the last of his defensive spells.  He felt ashamed for a moment that he was piling so many defenses on himself, rather than using them on his friends, but he knew that he had to do his best to live long enough to make a difference.  It wouldn’t change his ultimate fate, but if he could draw enough attention to himself, it might make a difference in the fate of the others.

            At last, they were ready.  They began to march up the hill, even as Kyle cast his last preparatory spell, _haste_, on the party just before Tolly’s silence enveloped Autumn.  Alexriel shifted into his archon form, drawing his blade as they reached the top and began to spread out.  Thus, with the sun at their backs and the sounds of war echoing across the dunes, the strangers from the east descended on the Warchief Orth.

*          *            *​
_An excerpt from The Time of Trials, Volume XII:



            “Gather, brave warriors, and listen to a tale of strength, and of courage, and of victory.  Know that all I speak is true; for what I see is the same as that which Grabâkh sees, for his Eye is everywhere, and should my words be false, his Axe shall strike me down.

              “On this very morning did seven companions set out to do battle with the Warchief of Clan Nak’to.  One of the companions was not among them; the Chosen of Erito was forbidden to do battle, as the Mother Goddess had called him to other tasks that would aid his clan.  But Ardara had sent one of Her servants to the aid of Her Chosen, as in her wisdom Ardara knew that Clan Hulg was most fit to rule.

            “It is known that the Warchief of Clan Nak’to leads his clan from the rear, not from the front as is proper.  This was offensive to Grabâkh, and so he gave the Warchief of Clan Hulg the wisdom to know how to strike, and to the companions he gave the gift of stealth, so that they might approach the Warchief and his guard unseen.  The Warchief sat at the lee of a dune, sending orders to his clan with drums and flags, while he sat safe with his Council and his guard.

            “The companions descended upon the Warchief like a firestorm.  The Lady of Chains drew first blood on the Warchief, who despite his years of training on he field of war was unable to avoid her righteous fury.  Then the Chosen of Ardara struck out at the Warchief, crying, ‘You have been tried by She Who Sits in Judgment, and found wanting!  Feel Ardara’s wrath!’  And the Warchief was struck by a terrible curse that made his arms weak and his wits dim.  And then the Warlock, who rose into the air like the desert hawk, pointed at the Warchief and spoke words of power, and the Warchief was entrapped in a globe that no living being could shatter.  For the Warlock knew that to take the Warchief alive would be the greatest victory. And so the Warchief, wounded and cursed, was forced to watch the battle unfold around him but was unable to take part in it.”

            The warsinger paused for effect before continuing.  “The battle raged on, even as the Warsinger of the companions rose her voice over the fury of battle.  Two among the Warchief’s Council were known to the companions and hated above all; the abominations who dared to use forbidden powers in defiance of the One, the Four, and the Many.  These two, the Juggernaut and the Mind-Witch, were the focus of the companion’s wrath.  Also among the Warchief’s Council was the Chosen of Grabâkh, and five of his honor guard.  To make certain that the Mind-Witch could not use his power to flee, the Warlock struck him with more magic that denied him the ability to leave the plane.  The Devil-Slayer smote the Chosen, and cut deeply into her flesh, and the Knife-Master threw a pair of his daggers into her as well.  The Juggernaut tried to attack the Chosen of Ardara with claws that grew from his fingers, but the claws only struck his shield.  The hound archon swung his holy blade at the Mind-Witch, sending his blood into the sand.  The Lady of Chains also cut into the Mind-Witch, seeking to send the abomination to its grave.  Under such a blinding assault, the Mind-Witch could not hope to prevail, and he died a useless death, having not even raised a hand against the companions.

“The Flowing Fist ran with the speed of a desert horse and engaged the honor guard, taking on all five at once in defiance of their skill in battle.  The Juggernaut managed to land a blow on the Chosen of Ardara, and then before their eyes grew even larger than he had been before, transforming into a true colossus.  The companions knew that the greatest threat now lay in the unnatural claws of the Juggernaut.  Blades flew from the fingers of the Knife-Master, the holy hammer of the Chosen of Ardara sang through the air, the Lady of Chains swung her weapon at him, and the Warlock threw terrible magics at him, sapping the Juggernaut’s impressive strength.  The Juggernaut struck back, laying a terrible blow on the Knife-Master and then another upon the hound archon.

“The Devil-Slayer continued to press her attack on the Chosen of Grabâkh, wounding her time and again with her blade.  The Chosen called upon Grabâkh to heal her wounds, but our god looks poorly on those who would save themselves instead of striking against their foe.  Her wounds were healed, but the Devil-Slayer was able to deliver far more death that the Chosen could ward away. Unable to stand long in battle against this terrible foe, instead she summoned the power of the fire god and shattered the magical prison that held the Warchief.”  There was a pause as the audience gasped, as they had at every other telling.  “But her act of defiance came too late, as the Devil-Slayer’s sword bit deeply into her gut and she fell to the ground.  The Devil-Slayer prepared to end the Chosen’s life, but then she heard the words of their Warsinger, telling her to spare the priestess.  For the Warsinger had seen into the heart of the Chosen, and knew she was not true to the Warchief of Clan Nak’to.  So the Devil-Slayer held her killing blow, and instead turned to fend off the honor guards who had come too late defend their priestess, exchanging blows with them.

“Now free to act, the Warchief called his troops to rally around him.  The honor guard had fought bravely under Grabâkh’s watchful Eye, and now did honor to their Warchief by following his orders without question.  But the companions were already in their midst, and so their defenses were of little use to them.  One of the guards fell to the Flowing Fist, a second to the Devil-Slayer, and a third to a blast of lightning from the Warlock that struck the Warchief and all his guards.  The Lady of Chains broke away from the Juggernaut to continue her pursuit of the Warchief, wounding him severely.  The Chosen of Ardara also smote the Warchief, seeking to punish him for his blasphemy in consorting with abominations.

“The Knife-Master and the hound archon continued their assault on the Juggernaut, who seemed to ignore their blows as he fought.  But he could not ignore the blast of magical fire that came from the Knife-Master, summoned from an item forged by the hand of their missing companion, the Chosen of Erito.  Thus it was that even in his absence the Chosen of Erito was able to lend his aid in battle.  The Juggernaut chose to focus his power upon the archon and the priest who had summoned him, striking at both in turn with his massive arms and landing telling blows despite being weakened by the Warlock.  But his decision was a costly one, as the Devil-Slayer saw an opening in his massive armor and slid her blade into his heart, killing him.  Now all that remained was the Warchief.”  There was another dramatic pause; the camp was silent as a grave.

“Seeing that his cause was lost, the Warchief forgot his honor and the teachings of Grabâkh, and tried to flee.  But the Lady of Chains was too fast, and used her chain to bind the Warchief.  Then the Flowing Fist landed a deadly blow on the Warchief, causing him to fall.  With their leader gone, the honor guard could do naught but preserve their honor by a glorious death.  The companions gathered the bodies of the dead and their captives, and moved away into the deep desert as the armies of Clan Nak’to turned to pursue them.  But with their leader gone, the tribesmen were confused and disorganized, and failed to locate them.  And so, the companions returned to Clan Hulg, victorious.  By the Eye and the Axe, this is what I have seen.”_

*          *            *​
“Damn, this guy is heavy,” grunted Autumn as she carried Orth slung over her shoulder. “I’ll bet this part doesn’t make it into the stories.”

“Oh, I dunno,” replied Lanara. “I bet I could make it work. ‘And thus did the righteous devil-slayer sling the sack of sh** that was the warchief up into her mighty thews to return him, victorious, to the camp of his enemies.”

Autumn favored Lanara with only a dirty look as she trudged on through the sand. Stealth had been all but abandoned at this point; it was only a few minutes after the search parties had ceased looking for them, but they could still hear the battle raging on over the dunes. The party had decided it was a seriously bad idea to try and make their way to Keth’s camp through that, and had opted to circle around as fast as they could. Xu, with her superior speed over the grasping desert sands, was scouting; mainly keeping an eye on the skirmisher forces, to let the party know if any were to approach them.

Ironically enough for Xu, she was enjoying herself. Not because of the battle they had just fought and won, though the knowledge that she had made the world a bit safer by taking some abominations out of it was comforting.  It was that she was once again free to stretch her limbs, and be best what she was; herself. She glanced out over the carnage that sprawled across the desert floor, shaking her head. The blood of hundreds of horses, orcs, and their allies sunk immediately into the sands, but dyed it a crimson hue reminiscent of certain spices of her homeland. Xu decided that she would be set off of cinnamon toast for some time.

“The battle still rages,” Xu called to her companions from the top of a dune. “It would seem that Orth’s men are a bit more tenacious that we’d first anticipated.”

Kyle shook his head. “I hope Kavan’s okay. The longer this battle goes on, the more work he’s going to have to do.”

Xu nodded in agreement, and looked back out over the battle. A strange flash of light caught her eye, from what was obviously near Keth’s banner.  She rubbed sand and grit out of her eyes to make sure that she was seeing what she was seeing, and glanced quickly at Orth’s belongings to double-check herself, then cried back to her companions. “Something strange is happening! Orth’s battle-standard just appeared on the field next to Keth’s!”

“Wait here,” said Osborn to the metal-clad warriors. “I’ll go have a look-see.” He scrambled up the duneside to lie down near Xu, and peered out over the battlefield. “Yeah, that’s his standard alright. I’ve got one better for you, though, Xu – Orth’s down there, too!”

Kyle, overhearing this, double-checked Orth with his magic sight, but saw nothing other than his own party’s lingering effects. “Um, I’m pretty sure we’ve got the real Orth here. Anything magical on him is whatever we put there.”

“An illusion, then?” Tolly was close to gaping. “I can’t believe Keth would be capable of doing such a thing.”

“I can,” Arrie piped up. “Keth will do whatever it takes to preserve the lives of his men. If he kills an illusory Orth, the battle will stop right then and there.”

Tolly slapped the head of his hammer into his mailed hand, then winced. He still sometimes forgot just how much power flowed through that hammer. “I need to have some words with that man, then.”

“Maybe, maybe not Tolly. He’s a general. He’ll explain things to us if he feels like it. I’m sure your superiors don’t always fully explain themselves to you. In fact, if they had, I don’t think we’d be caught in the middle of a clan war.”

Tolly grumbled a bit, then sighed and shook his head.

“Come on!” piped Lanara. “We’d better get back before the rest of the army does. We’ll miss the party!”

*          *            *​
 “Nicely done,” said Kavan, offering his hand to help Lanara sit down.  “One of these days you’ll have to recite it in something besides Orcish.”

The group had just come from Keth’s tent, where Kavan had rejoined them.  Lanara had told their tale to Keth and the Faceless One in classical orcish style, which had left some members of the party more confused than Keth’s explanation of what happened on the field of battle.   The cacophony of orcish voices echoing across the desert sand was nearly deafening.  With their enemies vanquished, there was no longer any need to observe the strict discipline of silence that normally permeated the camp.

Most of the tribe was gathered in a large circle near the southern edge of the camp, squeezing in close together to hear the warsingers tell the tale of the final battle against the enemy.  Many of them had heard the tale already, and some had heard it two or three times; but there were those who had not yet heard it told, and there were none who were not willing to have it told again.

“Remind me again,” Arrie asked, “why all the ‘Lady of Chains’ and ‘Chosen of Grabâkh’ stuff?  Why not just use names?  I know there’s a reason for it, but it escapes me.”

“Orcish warsinger tradition,” Lanara explained.  “It’s considered arrogant to be mentioned by name in a warsinger tale.  Only the greatest of the orcish legends get that honor.  So when telling a tale of a great battle, everyone gets an honorific to identify them.  The practice also allows the orcs to spread their stories between clans, making each tribe seem as if it’s done more than it really has.  Probably about half the stories you’ve heard since we’ve been here about the great victories of Clan Hulg actually originated with another tribe entirely.”

“Gotcha.”

The conversation trailed off as the party turned their attention to a discussion between Tolly and Kyle, who were sitting a short distance away.  The volume of the conversation had risen slightly, mostly on Tolly’s part.

“I fail to understand why they haven’t been destroyed,” Tolly said.

“We’ll get to it soon enough, Tolly,” said Kyle.  “I just want a chance to poke at them a bit and see what they do.”

“They are items infused with psionic power,” Tolly argued, “and therefore are abominations.”

“No, Sun-Harrow and Takar were abominations.  These are just the things they owned.”

“Your distinctions are pointless.  They are to be destroyed.”

“And, like I said, they will be.  But I want the chance to see how they work, so that maybe we can figure out what these ‘abominations’ are capable of doing.”

“The only thing I want to learn from these things is how to destroy them more efficiently.”  Tolly stood up and walked away, seeming immune to the merriment around them.

Osborn stood up and shuffled over to Kyle.  “You okay?”

“Fine.”  Kyle had a strange smile on his face.  “Tolly’ll come around, I know.  He’s just being overly zealous since that archon was hanging around for so long.”  Kyle looked at Osborn.  “How are you doing?”

“Better after healing,” Osborn said, rotating his right arm at the shoulder and wincing slightly.  “Sun-Harrow really clocked me.  Of course, you wouldn’t know – nobody even touched you.”

“I know,” Kyle said, “kind of strange, don’t you think?”

“Nah, it’s not that strange.  You’re just good at what you do.  That trick with Orth in the bubble was priceless.  Too bad Gell managed to dispel it before we got to have some real fun.”

“Thanks.”  Kyle had a far-away look in his eyes, and for a moment Osborn was afraid he was going to slip back into the withdrawn moodiness he’d been in yesterday.  Then, suddenly, Kyle turned back to the hin.  “Life’s a funny thing, you know?”

“How so?”

“It’s just funny what a man can put himself through, how far gone he can get, before he finally gets the chance to see that maybe he’s looked at things the wrong way for a while,” Kyle stood up, brushing sand off his robes.  “But enough talk.  Until I can get somewhere where I can buy spell components, those psionic items are just going to have to wait.  Hopefully I can keep Tolly from burning them before I get to it.  But there’s a party going on right now, and here I sit missing it.”

Kyle walked over to where the rest of the group sat, grinning like a madman.  He looked down at the person seated to his right, and extended his hand to her.

“Pardon me, milady,” he said, “but would you care to dance?”


----------



## Delemental

*A Night to Be Merry*

This week's update is a short fictional piece written by Tolly's player, Neil, though the dialogue between Tolly and Arrie was a joint project of their players over email.  This story gives a bit of insight into the workings of Arrie and Autumn's home kingdom, Merlion - I added a bit more at the end.

--------------------------------------------


            Tolly watched Lanara closely. She had muttered under her breath most of the time as they were coming back to the Orcish camp, and he distinctly noted differences in the cadence of what she had been practicing, and what she was singing now. He did not understand Orcish, but there was a certain set of words that Arrie had identified as meaning "Warchief" that was no longer in her telling. He regretted that necessity, but Keth was very firm about not wanting the true nature of their mission made public. Cowardly, but what more could one expect of Grabâkh’s get? One could dress a pile of dung in fancy clothes, but it would still reek. He returned his attention to Kyle.

            “I fail to understand why they haven’t been destroyed,” he said again, raising his voice.

            “We’ll get to it soon enough, Tolly,” said Kyle. “I just want a chance to poke at them a bit and see what they do.”

            “They are items infused with psionic power,” Tolly argued, “and therefore are abominations.”

            “No, Sun-Harrow and Takar were abominations. These are just the things they owned.”

            “Your distinctions are pointless. They are to be destroyed.”

            “And, like I said, they will be. But I want the chance to see how they work, so that maybe we can figure out what these ‘abominations’ are capable of doing.”

            “The only thing I want to learn from these things is how to destroy them more efficiently.” Tolly stood, and strode away, before his anger got the best of him. He could not understand this need of Kyle's to justify the existence of the heretical items. Why couldn't the poor fool see that he was endangering his very soul? He was already a man in flux, as was obvious by his mental shifting from Bles to Erito in his religious patronage, and this insistence on studying the Forbidden was obviously a temptation he was unable to overcome. Steps would have to be taken. He fingered his hammer at his side. Heresy has to be stamped out, or it would fester, like a wound gone sour. And did not a Archon tell him he was to be Ardara's scalpel, her tool in cutting the infection that was psionics out of this world?

            The problem was, he liked Kyle. Kyle was a dependable, intelligent fellow, with a forthright nature and eye for good craftsmanship. Their friendship had grown quickly, and had been strong before this had come between them. He prayed that it would not be a decisive split, for it would be distinctly painful spiritually for him to have to act against the mage. He sighed, and then a light touch on his shoulder pulled him from his reverie.

            "Tolly? Are you alright?"

            He knew without turning who it was--he had memorized that voice--how could he not? He heard it in his dreams all night as well as awake in the day. He drew a deep breath, and concentrated on control.

            "No, not particularly, Autumn. Kyle is being...unreasonable about these abominations. Can he not see that they are offensive to the very Earth we stand upon?"

            "Tolly, you have to trust that he knows what he is doing. He doesn't enjoy arguing with you, he just wants to see their capabilities before destroying them, so that we can be prepared for others like them."

            "A righteous sounding cause, but one that rings hollow, my Lady."

            "Besides, Tolly--did you not see how different that axe is? What if those materials that they are made from are a common thread, and only when that material is included can the item be 'charged' with that energy? Kyle needs to study them to try and find that commonality."

            The cleric turned to gaze at Autumn. "Now, that is a thread I did not see. Hmm. Perhaps. I think that I feel outnumbered in this, and the lack of support has me on edge--your sister, Lanara, and Osborn have all stated that they feel Kyle is correct, and Kavan has been quiet on the subject. I find that while I feel I am on solid theological ground, my companions are staring at heresy, and finding it attractive to them."

            "Now, Tolly, you are not alone in wanting to destroy these things--I agree with you. They must be broken, but we have to know what we are fighting!"

            Tolly sighed. "As you wish. I will attempt to mediate myself, but it feels so...wrong! But, I drag you down, when you should be celebrating our success."

            "How can we celebrate, when one of us is so upset?" The Sentinel smiled at the Ardaran priest, and he lost himself there for some moments. The smile started to fade a bit. "Tolly?"

            He shook himself. "Well, then, let us return to the celebration. Have you ever heard of the Dwarven Toss Dance?"

            She looked at him askance. "No, I don't believe so. What does it entail?"

            "Do you trust me?"

            "Maybe..."

            Tolly grabbed her hand, and led her to the center of the dancing circle.

*          *          *​
            "Arrie? A moment of your time? In private?" Tolly stood at the shoulder of the lithe fighter. She looked up at him.

            "Only if you promise not to throw me around like you did Autumn. Wasn't that the Ale Toss dance?"

            The young priest blushed. "Well, yes, but she did not know that, and I was not going to let her think she was being compared to a keg--it could lead to unpleasantness. It is, however, a very energetic and enjoyable pastime."

            "I'll bet," laughed Arrie.  "So, what did you need?"

            "Oh, just a few questions concerning yourself and your sister. You of course, have been...hmm...deeded, perhaps? Hmm, the term escapes me, but your marriage was arranged. Is it thus with all of your family? Or are some more free to choose than others?"

            "Well, my sister made some overtures to the family about such things. Autumn outright... threatened is such a nasty word, so we’ll say told instead – the rest of the family that if they have any ‘ideas’ for her, then they can stick them someplace… unpleasant.”

            “That probably sent your mother into a fit.”

             “Actually, Autumn talked to the twins* about it, just because they’re in charge of our kingdom, and Mother and Father are pretty much going to do whatever they tell them.  That… that pissed Mother off.  But she was sort of prepared for it, so she just sort of simmered."  Arrie shrugged as though to indicate helplessness.  "Mother disapproves; she just does.  It’s kind of her whole point in existing.” 

             “So actually, I did very well when we went there and she didn’t disapprove of me as strongly as the rest." Tolly's voice was thoughful. "One could say I’m exceeding with her.”

            “Uh-huh.  Mother disapproves of everything, so no one ‘wins’ with Mother.  Father will quietly be happy for Autumn if she’s happy.  He’s actually really mellow, sort of balances Mother out.  So, pretty much so long as Autumn’s happy, he’ll be happy for her… quietly, but happy for her.”

            “Quietly so as not to set off your mother, one would presume?”

            “Exactly.” Arrie laughed richly. “He’s learned.  Really, Autumn can choose whoever she wants, because Autumn is an adult.  What would be nice would be to find someone who can respect her; not necessarily as an equal in all things, because Autumn needs to excel.  So it needs to be someone – at least, in my opinion – someone that let’s Autumn be special in the way she is special.  So, if she hooks up with another Sentinel, I foresee things getting tumultuous.  If she hooks up with someone who is more… cerebral, that would probably be a good match, because he’s, you know, smart, and she’s… brawny.

            “But someone who can deal with the family’s politics is probably also a good choice, because while Autumn may not be directly involved in things, she’s never going to be able to get away from being involved in them somehow.  So it would be nice if her mate didn’t have really vocal opinions about what’s going on; like, I don’t know, if he hated the elves, that would make for some friction, since our kingdom is inside the elven empire.  You know, stuff like that.”

            “I don’t hate the elves, I just dislike certain individual elves, Arrie."

            "Of course."  Arrie looked quizzically at Tolly.  "Why the sudden interest in my sister's marital situation?"

            He shrugged.  "Curiosity.  I was uncertain if arranged marriages were a common practice in your homeland."

            "Nope, just for me.  It's a treaty thing**."  The exoticist turned at looked very directly at Tolly before she spoke again.

            “Really, if anyone breaks Autumn’s heart, I will break them.  Quietly, so that Autumn doesn’t notice, but I will break them.  Because that’s what we would do for each other.”

            Tolly peered at Arrie, looking for signs of humor, and finding none. He raised his eyebrows. "So," Tolly said, changing the subject, "what is the role generally of priests in your political climate in Merlion?”

            “Um, priests of any type are not very common in Tlaxan in general, other than Erito maybe.  In Merlion, there's even fewer.  Erito is not the racial deity for humans, so I mean everything’s not ‘in Erito’s name'.  The church of Tor is pretty active as far as keeping justice and dealing it out.  The rest of the clergy has their niches and fulfills them.  The Coviere family has tended to be, at least outwardly, fairly aligned with Erito as a patron, because it’s acceptable.  My father’s family tends to be more aligned with Tor, just because of the position they hold in the kingdom.  Autumn, because of her own religious beliefs, has not chosen to endorse anyone in particular over the rest.  She has her patron, but she’s not like…” The fighter waved her hands, as though searching for a concept. "blatant about it."

            Tolly looked thoughtful for a moment, absorbing the new ideas.

            “What are generally the views on priests of the Four, rather than the One?  Because you’ve mentioned the One, and a few of the Many, but none of the Four.”

            “Because they’re all patrons of other races, and our kingdom is mostly human, and we’re surrounded by elves, generally Erito and those directly beneath Erito are more common.”

            “More at the forefront?”

            “Generally the clergy of, like, Ardara and Feesha are not going to go out of their way to go through Tlaxan to get to Merlion.  So we tend to have a dearth of certain types of clergy.  It happens not to include the four racial deities because, well, we’re humans.  We got screwed.”

            "I don't think screwed is quite the way to look at it--anyone is free to worship any of the gods. I'm human."

            Arrie shrugged. "I know, but you always hear about the 'favored children'...and humans." 

            "I see. Thank you for the information, Ariadne. I appreciate the knowledge. Some day in the future I may wish to settle, and creating a Temple in an area bereft of Ardara's faith would be of benefit to myself and my Church. Merlion could be an area to consider." He bowed to Arrie. "If you will excuse me?"

*          *          *​
            The next morning Tolly woke with the sun. His morning ablutions he performed briskly, and with some discomfort. He had forgotten how much work the Ale Toss dance could be--even when what you were making airborne weighed less and was far more pleasant to handle than the kegs he had learned the dance with. He caught the attention of one of the orcish priests and gained the loan of a small pedestal. After a victory such as they had yesterday, it was proper to give thanks, and he felt the need to preach the word of Ardara today. Besides, if he could get Kyle to stay for the sermon, perhaps he could prick his conscience where the abominations' items were concerned. He smiled at the day. The battle were going well, he was on his way to fulfilling his vows, he was almost eighteen, and he was, so far as he could tell, successfully courting a beautiful woman. What could possibly stain the day?

            "Lo! Hearken to my words, for I shall speak of beginnings, of Love, and of cooperation..."


-----------------------------------

* The 'twins' Arrie refers to are Damen and Corrissane Coviere, identical twins who share the throne of Merlion.  Auror Verahannnen, who is Arrie's mother and Autumn's adopted mother, is an aunt to the Coviere twins.  The Coviere family has always ruled the kingdom of Merlion, and their cousins, the Verahannens, generally see to its defense.

As was revealed in a previous story, Autumn is actually the eldest daughter of Damen and Corrissane's mother, Lysanne Coviere, through an affair with a celestial that occurred before Lysanne married her husband, Alrich.  Autumn was adopted by the Verahannens after the birth of the twins in order to avoid any complications of succession.  Though she legally has some claim to the title, Autumn has no desire to be Queen of Merlion, and so continues the charade and has kept the Verahannen name.  She also avoids going to Merlion's capital city, as she is the spitting image of her birth mother and her appearance there would likely raise questions.

** The arranged marriage between Arrie and Prince Herion is part of an old treaty between the Kingdom of Merlion and the Empire of Tlaxan - basically, Merlion doesn't have a lot to offer as a vassal kingdom, so had to offer up a relative of the royal family to cement the deal.


----------



## Delemental

*Ghosts From the Past*

Tolly stepped up to the small pedestal, and looked out at the small but attentive crowd. He never got completely used to this use of his teachings, but he was assured by his Fathers that he was more than adequate for the task. At least the younger women seemed to pay attention at the Shrine when he would take the stand.

"Lo! Hearken to my words, for I shall speak of beginnings, of Love, and of cooperation.

"Out of Erito, first of Firsts, came the Concept of Life, and thus Truths revealed themselves. And those Truths partnered among themselves, and Behold! There were the Four, each a Duality of Truths.

"For there to be Life, there was required an Earth, and the Order to create form. Ardara set the Earth in place in the Heavens, and Erito smiled upon Her.

"Feesha looked at the Earth, and cried out, 'Sister, you are too strict, too rigid. I will encompass your Earth with the Skies, and ever alter direction and form, ensuring the change you reject.'

"Ardara sighed, knowing that her sister was willful, and unlikely to relent. She turned to her Brothers, and spoke unto Grabâkh. 'Brother, I would have you give of your strength to us and the Earth, as you are Strongest among us, and have such to spare.'

"'I will,' replied the Giver of Fire,' but I will be merciless in this giving, for I will dominate this life, and will tolerate the weak not at all.'

"Ardara hung her head, knowing that Grabâkh allied with her sister would lead to harsh and unbending conflict, and a loss of certain of Erito's gifts.

"'Worry not, my dear sister,' spoke Krûsh adoringly, 'For I will lie my essence upon this Earth and make a barrier with which to ease the climes, and make the Gift of Life less burdensome to those not so strong.'

"And Erito smiled fully, for her Children had done well, and even as they engaged in minor conflicts, had crafted a jewel finer than any other through their Work, and her Will was fulfilled.

"And speak we do, of cooperation, we who are the Children of the Gods. While the strongest may stand alone in their realm of expertise, only One stands truly above, and her Works are mysterious, so we strive to be the Tools of her craftsmen, those of us who are Chosen by her Children and their brethren. All else have weaknesses to offset their strengths, and we band together, so our strengths merge, to become more as they form a whole which is truly more than the sum of its parts.

"And it is the Order, the Laws of Nature, which encourage this that we must thank Ardara for. The essence of working as a unit rather than as separate and varied entities is what forges us in Strength, we who believe in Law, who form the Law, we who Ardara touches with her Blessed Aura. Gather to me now, and attend, those who revere Law, for I must also reveal that the Touch of Law is compassionate, and that Love is the one Law that can temper itself, for Compassion is a Law unto itself, but a Law nonetheless. She smiles upon us, we who follow Her Laws with Love, and She blesses our endeavors.

"But know this as well, Her smile does not show weakness, for the Blessing of Ardara can be the hard edge of Steel to those who feel the need to break her Edicts, and circumvent that which is not to be allowed, as do those who harbor that which is Forbidden, not just by the Giver of Laws, but the Giver of Light, and of Life itself! The very presence of these abominations is such that Lawful or Chaotic, Good or Evil, the Gods are united in the displeasure at their vile existence, these who attempt to alter the orbits of the worlds, and corrupt them with their blasphemous rumors, spouting such mistruths as they strive to change that which even Feesha regards as unchangeable. 

"Remember, my children, and this day, and the next day, and for all the days of our lives, shall we strive to relieve the Forbidden of their heretical existence, and we shall be blessed in this endeavor by She who sees all Ends, for She shaped the roads which shall lead us to those Ends. In Ardara's Name, by the One, the Four, and the Many, let us be silent a moment in respect. Amen."

Tolly paused, bowing his head for a count of ten, and then moved away from the pedestal, closing the Book of Ardara and replacing it in the waterproof leather pouch it rode in on his hip. He looked out at his friends, and noted who had come to listen. It was well, for the word of Ardara should be spread.

One face in particular caught his eye.  He was glad that he hadn’t seen Autumn in the crowd during the sermon, or he might have stumbled and lost his train of thought.  Although she wore a large hood to obscure her features – even after their victory against Orth, she felt that the orcs, tieflings, and fire-touched that made up Keth’s tribe might react poorly to an aasimar in their midst – what he could see of her was still as exquisite as polished marble.  He made a mental note to speak with her later today; she had wandered away from the celebrations at one point last night, and when she’d returned some of the spark had left her eyes, as if something heavy hung on her heart.  Attempting to alleviate her distress was the least he could do; after all, she had come to him after he’d argued with Kyle last night over the forbidden artifacts they’d removed from the Abominations.

Tolly’s mind continued to reflect on Autumn, even as he received the praise of some of the gathered orcs for his sermon.  As far as he could tell, his efforts at courting the sentinel were going well – she had certainly not rejected him.  His lack of experience in such things made it difficult for him to tell for certain.  Thus he had approached this courtship as he would approach work on a fine weapon or suit of armor; slowly, methodically, testing the temper as he went to make certain his work would take the shape he desired.  But though he was pleased with his efforts so far, there was a part of him, deep in his still youthful heart, that kept reminding him that at times metalwork required periods of fast, intense effort – to ‘strike while the iron was hot’, as the saying went.

His recent conversations with Arrie had given him hope as well.  Arrie had indicated that unlike herself, Autumn’s marriage had not been arranged by her family; in fact Autumn had apparently been quite insistent on that fact, superceding her adopted parent’s authority and pleading her case to Damen and Corissane Coviere, the current rulers of Merlion.  So there was no competition for Autumn’s hand waiting in the wings.  He smiled to himself as he remembered Arrie’s thoughts on a suitable mate for her sister – someone who would allow her to excel in her field, Arrie had said, someone intellectual rather than physical.  Well, though he was certainly not incapable on the field of battle, he was more than willing to concede to her superior training.  And he knew the priests of Ardara had honed his mind as well as his body, so he was more than capable of taking on the role of the contemplative.  Arrie had also mentioned that Autumn’s mate should be someone who could handle the family’s political dealings, even if they weren’t an active participant.  Again, something he was more than capable of managing.  Those facts, combined with the knowledge that Autumn’s mother Auror approved of him (or, at least, disapproved of him less than most), gave him considerable hope for his success.

But all of that would have to wait.  The orc-infested desert was no place to properly press his suit.  And there was other business to attend to first.

Tolly made his way to their tents, where some of his other friends had returned to prepare for the day.  They would be unable to leave Keth’s camp this morning to make their way south to the diamond mines; Keth had promised an honor guard to help the party avoid problems, but right now he needed his men here to help consolidate his power over his brother’s former territory.

Tolly scowled a bit as he considered the end of that battle.  Keth had used magic to project a false image of Orth into the battle, once Keth knew they had captured him, and then ‘defeated’ his brother in front of both armies.  Though it had the effect of ending the conflict quickly, it also meant that their own role in defeating Orth went unrecognized.  They had been met outside of Keth’s camp by the Faceless One, who bundled the unconscious Orth into a sack and snuck into Keth’s tent.  There they’d waited until Keth arrived and rather unceremoniously beheaded his brother, along with the corpse of a common soldier he’d dragged into the tent with him (obviously meant to be ‘Orth’).  After placing his brother’s head on his battle standard, Keth had gone out to give his victory speech.  The Faceless One had asked Lanara to modify her impressive accounting of the battle; Keth had told his men that the party had been sent to deal with the Abominations.

Though he disliked such duplicity in his name, Tolly could understand Keth’s reasoning in acting as he did.  At the very least, it allowed them to remove the blasphemous items from the Abominations in the privacy of Keth’s tent, before they were claimed as spoils of war and distributed among the clan.  Those items were still a matter to be settled.

As he walked by his tent, he saw one of those matters being packed away.  Kyle knelt down inside the tent, carefully rolling up into a blanket some of the forbidden psionic items. As he stuffed the blanket inside his saddlebag, Kyle caught Tolly’s eye.  Tolly noted the dark circles under the wizard’s eyes, as if he’d not slept well.  Normally Tolly would have expressed concern, but his disgust at seeing the blasphemous items going with them instead of shattered under his hammer made it difficult for him to feel sympathetic.  Instead Tolly just shook his head and growled unhappily before moving on.  As much as he disliked the idea, Autumn had made a good point last night; perhaps there was some critical mineral or substance necessary in creating these forbidden items, and if Kyle’s research uncovered such a substance, they could then work to destroy the source of that material.

He was glad they would be moving on soon, forbidden artifacts or not.  Though Keth was certainly far more organized and disciplined than most orcish warchiefs, the orcish culture was still far too random and chaotic for his tastes.  He longed for an orderly dwarven settlement, but such dreams seemed far off.  Especially since some of his friends were speaking of returning east overland, through the Steppes.  The thought of enduring an entire tribe of wild hin made his spine shiver.  But even faced with such a prospect, it would be good to finally have fulfilled his duty to the Church and to the Archprelate.

The thought of Archprelate Jerome gave Tolly pause.  He had still never fully understood why it was that the Hand of the Earth himself had come to raise him from the dead; the function was well within the capabilities of lesser priests.  That his work on Aelfenn was not yet finished he accepted without question; he had been told as much by the servants of his goddess, when his spirit had briefly resided upon Surrek after his death.  What that work was still not clear, though Tolly had his suspicions.  Perhaps when his quest was complete, he would spend some time in prayer to ask guidance from Ardara.  _So many things to attend to,_ he thought wryly.  _It would be easier if there were two of me._

Tolly’s introspections were interrupted by Lanara bouncing up to him.  “Hey, Tolly,” the bard said, “” spoke to the head of Keth’s warsingers last night.  She was told by Keth to tell us about where we’re going for the diamonds you want.”

“Very good,” he replied.  “Tell me about it.”

“No, no, no!” she sang.  “You’ll have to wait!  She’s going to recite the tale tonight.”  She laughed at Tolly’s sigh.  “Oh, come on, you’ll love it!  I’ll make sure I save seats for the two of you right up front.”

“I suppose that if there is… wait, why ‘the two of you’?”

“Oh, did I say that?” Lanara said with feigned innocence.  “My mistake.  Maybe I was thinking there was someone in particular you’d want to sit next to.”  Lanara turned to go, then turned back.  “Hey, I have a question,” she said.  “I noticed last night that after you and Arrie had been talking, she went off with Autumn and they talked for a while.  Any idea what they were talking about?”

“None,” Tolly said.  “The private conversations of two sisters are none of my concern.”

“Oh, of course.  Just curious, that’s all.  You know how nosy I can be, poking into everyone’s business trying to find out what’s going on.  But they were probably just having a little girl talk – you know, talking about the men in their life, things like that.”

Tolly shoot his head as Lanara skipped off.  The cansin’s behavior was absolutely inexplicable.

*          *            *​
            “Long ago,” began Shara, the head warsinger and one of Keth’s wives, “there was a Warchief whose name was feared by all in Grabâkh’s lands.  The tale of the _karrak _ is told after every great victory, so that our Warchiefs will always remember that the Eye is always watchful, and to avoid the fate of the _karrak_.”

            The party sat clustered in two rows near the front of the audience, listening to Shara recite her tale.  Thanks to the judicious application of _tongues _ spells, they were all able to understand the orcish story.

            “Hey, Lanara,” Kyle whispered, leaning over from behind the bard, “I thought you said orcs didn’t use proper names in their stories.  Why did she call him Karrak?”

            “It’s not a name,” she whispered back.  “_Karrak _ is an orcish term; it’s difficult to translate into Common, which is why the spells probably didn’t pick it up.  It refers to someone whose name has been stricken from the memory of the orc race.”

            “Wow,” Kyle replied, “sounds like he wasn’t very popular, then.”

            “Just listen,” Lanara advised.

            “The _karrak _ had accumulated great wealth and power,” Shara continued.  “None know from where his power stemmed, but his success attracted a great many followers.  But though his conquests were glorious, his heart was dark, and he honored none save himself.  The karrak slaughtered the young, the old, and the infirm, simply because their presence on his lands offended him.  He sent assassins to slay his enemies in their beds rather than face them in honorable battle.  But the _karrak_’s greatest sin came upon the day he rode to the Ghar’kán Oasis, which was held by his enemy, and poisoned the waters there.”

            There was a collective gasp from the audience, and a woman in the back began to wail.

            “It was this last act that united the other clans against the _karrak_.  Four of the greatest tribes united and rode out to do battle against him, for he was mighty and his followers were legion.  But at last he was defeated and brought before the Warchiefs in chains along with his most powerful advisors.  The Warchiefs did not wish to see the _karrak _ go to the realm of Grabâkh, for his deeds had not earned him such a reward.  Instead, he and his advisors were entombed within Ardara’s cold embrace, far from Grabâkh’s Eye.  There he remains, forever denied the glory of Karakor, in a place where no orc may set foot lest they awaken the _karrak_.  By the Eye and the Axe, this is what I have seen.”

            The assembled tribe sat in mute silence, contemplating Shara’s words.  As they began to disperse, Lanara leaned back and looked at her companions.  “Guess where we’re going,” she said.

            Autumn, sitting next to Tolly, frowned.  “I thought we were going to a diamond mine, not a tomb.”

            “When we first told Keth we needed diamonds, he assumed we just wanted uncut stones,” she explained.  “So he mentioned the mines to the south.  But these tombs are nearby, and rumored to hold a great amount of wealth, including several cut diamonds of the quality Tolly will need.  Now that Keth controls the land on which the tomb lies, he can send us there without anyone knowing.  The honor guard will think they’re escorting us to the mines, but we’ll divert our path once they’re gone.”

            “Doesn’t Keth worry about ‘awakening the _karrak’_?” Kavan asked.

            “Keth is far less superstitious than your average orc,” Lanara said.  “And he thinks that after what we did to Orth and his friends, we should be able to handle ourselves.  Besides, as he pointed out to me, we’re not orcs, and the legend only says ‘no orc may set foot’ there.”

            “You seem unusually excited about the prospect of facing danger, Lanara,” commented Arrie.

            “Well, who could resist?  I mean, we’re going into the tomb of someone whose entire existence has been erased!  What a song that’ll make!  Besides, I have all of you here to protect me.”

            She drew a few sporadic laughs as most of the party rose and began to make their way to their tents.  Soon only Kyle and Lanara remained sitting at the center of the camp.  Kyle’s eyes followed Autumn’s back as she walked away, chatting alternately with Kavan and Tolly.

            “It hurts, doesn’t it?” Lanara said quietly.

            “I’m sorry?”

            “My shoulder,” Lanara said.  “I said it hurts.  I think I pulled something helping lug those lumps across the desert yesterday.”  Lanara turned her back to Kyle, and pulled her cloak away from her shoulders.  She pointed to her left shoulder.  “Be a dear, would you?  Xu’s off doing monk things, and you’ve got strong hands.”

            Kyle sighed and began rubbing her shoulders.  Lanara purred and squirmed in delight.  “Thank you, Kyle.”

            “No problem, I guess,” he said.

            “Hey, you’d better get used to it, my boy,” she said.  “One of these days you’ll find yourself a good woman, and you’ll be doing this every day.”

            Kyle paused for a brief moment.  “Sure I will,” he said, with a slight edge in his voice.

            “No, really!  You’re actually quite a catch, Kyle.  I mean, you clean up pretty good.  Sure, you may have a little trouble remembering which fork to use – or to use a fork at all – but… yow!” Lanara pulled away from Kyle’s pinch for a second before resuming her place.

            “You have a point, I’m assuming?” Kyle said, though he was smiling.

            “Just that you’re a good guy, Kyle, and if you want to, you’re going to make someone very happy one day.  And don’t let anyone… anyone make you think different.”  Lanara stood up suddenly, rotating her right shoulder.  “Oh, that feel’s much better, Kyle.  A little practice and you’ll give Xu a run for her money.”

            “Thanks, I guess, I… hey, wait, didn’t you say it was your left shoulder that hurt?”

            “Did I?” Lanara gasped.  “Well, my mistake I guess.”

            Kyle stood up and brushed sand off his robes.  “Lanara, what you were just saying… I hope you aren’t trying to suggest that you… that well we…”

            “Us?” Lanara said, and then burst into laughter.  “Oh, Feesha’s Mercy, no, Kyle!  You’re a great guy, but honestly, sweetie, I’d break you within a week.”

            Lanara dashed off toward the tents, leaving Kyle standing there gaping.

*          *            *​
            Kavan slowly pulled the tent flap back, nodding to Keth’s honor guard as he passed.  He moved inside quickly, and knelt next to a figure lying on the floor.  The figure, an orcish female, was covered in numerous burns and healed-over scars.  She was barely dressed, and sleeping restlessly.  Kavan reached out and gently touched her shoulder.

            “Good afternoon, Gell,” Kavan said.

            Gell’s eyes opened slowly.  “Ah, my elven benefactor,” she said.  “You are back.  That must mean Keth approved your request.”

            Kavan held up a small sack.  “Lunch, as I promised,” he said. He opened the sack and began pulling out a few items of food, offering them to the orcish priestess.

            Kavan had first come to meet Gell on the night of the victory.  She’d been in bad shape then, covered in fresh burns.  Kavan had healed her, then asked for permission to have lunch with her the next day.  Gell had laughed at this – as if the decision were in her hands – but agreed nonetheless.

            Kavan nodded at Gell’s arms as she ate.  “There are a few fresh wounds, I see.  Did they question you further last night?”

            Gell shrugged.  “It is no less than I expected.  I betrayed Warchief Orth to come here, and they are very untrusting of traitors.  But I am too useful to kill, not only for what I know of Orth and his forces, but because I am a priestess of Grabâkh.  Keth has, truly told, acted with a great deal of restraint under the circumstances.”

            “Have any of them… tried to take advantage of you?” Kavan asked.

            She shook her head.  “Not yet.  I believe that is part of the ‘restraint’ Keth has ordered.  Though I fear what may happen when Keth feels I have no more useful information to give.  Then he will care less what happens to me.  Most will not touch me, for I am married to Grabâkh, but there are some who will see me as simply another spoil of war.  But I will throw myself on their spears before I allow that to happen.”

            Kavan gasped.  “Surely there’s something you can do to protect yourself?” he said.

            “If I had the opportunity to commune with my god, then perhaps,” Gell said.  “But Keth is not stupid.  He ensures that my ‘questioning’ begins before dawn, so that I do not have the chance to pray.  And of course, he keeps me in this tent, out of sight of Grabâkh’s Eye.”

            Just then the tent flap opened, and Tolly walked in.  Kavan quickly rose and went over to him.

            “What are you doing here?” he whispered to Tolly.

            “I want to ask Gell some questions about the Abominations in Orth’s service,” he said.

            Kavan looked back at Gell, then at Tolly.  “Tolly,” he said, placing his hand on the Ardaran’s shoulder, “as a friend, I’m asking you to take it easy on her.”

            “I have no problem with the followers of Grabâkh,” Tolly said.

            “No, I mean in your normal way of dealing with others.  Perhaps you could use a bit of… softness.”

            “I’ll take it under advisement,” he said, then walked to the center of the tent and knelt next to Gell.

            “Ah, the Ardaran priest that helped defeat Orth joins my mysterious benefactor,” Gell said.

            Tolly looked back at Kavan for a moment.  “Benefactor?” Without waiting for an answer, Tolly turned his attention back to Gell.  “I wanted to ask you why you came with us back to Keth’s camp.”

            “Orth was consorting with powers he should not have been,” Gell said.  “Takar and Sun-Harrow had managed to dupe most of the lesser priests, as well as Orth, who was always… well, somewhat slow-witted.  When you and your companions came and slew them, I knew that I could be free.”

            “What can you tell me of the ones that Orth consorted with?” asked Tolly.  “We have made it our mission to destroy such Abominations.  Though they are dead, knowing of their capabilities may help us defeat their allies.”

            “There is little I can tell you,” Gell admitted.  “They came as ‘Heralds of Flame’.  Takar literally set the desert on fire and then they walked through it unscathed, proclaiming themselves to be the leaders of the orcish nation.  But there was something wrong.  They never mentioned Grabâkh, nor did they wear his holy symbols.  But Takar did have tremendous control over fire, which is what convinced most of the others.”

            “It is not unknown for those who are heretics and apostates to be able to mimic the powers of the faithful,” Tolly said.  “Did they have anyone they appeared to be communicating with outside the clan?”

            Gell shook her head.  “They came with a very well-formed plan.  Takar was clearly in charge, and Sun-Harrow was a bodyguard, though he had a keen mind as well and would often point out things the other would miss.  I took steps to eliminate them myself, but was stopped by Sun-Harrow, not because he intercepted my assassins, but because he somehow knew beforehand that they were being sent.”

            “Do you have any family or friends remaining here?” Kavan asked suddenly.

            “I know not.”

            “Will you stay here?”

            “I have little choice.  I will be strong, and I will either join this clan or I will die.  Which it will be, Keth has not determined.  If he decides to take me as his wife, then I will die.”

            “Why?” Kavan asked.

            “Priestesses of Grabakh must remain pure,” Gell said.  “Should I be forced to submit, I will throw myself on the spears of the guards.  In the eyes of my god, it is no different than being taken by force.”

            Tolly nodded again, then stood.  “I will see if I can have a word with Keth on your behalf,” he said.  “In times such as these, we of The Four cannot allow our minor squabbles to keep us from working against the menace of the Abominations.”

            Gell’s brow furrowed.  “This is not the first time you have encountered such things?”

            “No, it is not.”

            “That is disturbing.  You may wish to inform Warchief Keth of this.  The presence of Takar and Sun-Harrow certainly interfered with Keth’s plans before.  If he knows that more like them exist, he may wish to leave those who have had experience with them alive.”

            “Certainly,” Tolly said.  “I thank you for speaking with me.”

            Tolly turned and left the tent.  Kavan lingered for a moment, then leaned down to Gell.  “I will return tomorrow,” he said.  “I may be able to help you remain pure, or at least to punish those who would seek to defile you.”  He stood up straight when he saw Gell nod her assent, and left the tent.

*          *            *​
            Early the next morning, Kyle began to gather the party for a meeting.  Osborn stumbled out of the tents of the camp followers, blinking in the sun.

            “It’s too early,” he complained.

            “I agree,” Lanara muttered.

            “Sorry,” said Kyle, “but we all seem to be getting busy later in the day, so I wanted to catch everyone early.  We need to talk about what we’re going to be doing after we get Tolly’s diamonds.”

            The group sat down around a cooking fire, heating up bits of meat as they talked.  “So, where do we have to take the diamonds?”

            “Most likely I’ll have to take them to the Archprelate in Medos,” Tolly said.  “The Cathedral of Eminent Order lies in the capital city, M’dos.  Unfortunately, it lies on the other side of the continent, which means we either trek across the land to get there, or we return to the coast and hire another ship.”

            Lanara stuck out her tongue.  “No more boats!”

            “It probably would be a bad idea,” Kyle said.  “It’s the middle of winter, and we’d have to sail south into colder climates.  I’d rather not deal with winter sea storms.”

            “And if we go over land, we could go through the Khag Steppes, where my people are from!” Osborn said excitedly.  “Hey, maybe we’d even run into my troupe!  You could all meet my mom!”

            “Couldn’t you just send the diamonds from here?” asked Xu.

            “The only form of delivery I’d trust would be to summon another one of Ardara’s servants,” Tolly explained.  “And it would require an expenditure of time and life-force I’m reluctant to part with now.  Besides, if I summoned an archon it might be subjected to some form of humiliating act by my companions.”  Tolly then glanced at Arrie.  “I can’t believe that you petted an archon.”

“It was a reverent pet,” Arrie protested.

“Well, anyway,” Kyle said.  “Going to Medos might not be such a bad idea.  Maybe we can get some more information from the libraries there about these psionics and pre-Cataclysm times; somebody had to have kept some records.”

“You are from Medos, are you not?” Tolly asked Kavan.  The elven priest nodded.  “Then so, in theory, is your son Marrek.  We know that he is somehow connected to Xerxes.  Perhaps we might find clues to allow us to track him down.”

“You know, I think I’d like to know Erito’s opinion on these psionic items,” Kyle said to Kavan.

“We already know her opinion,” Tolly said flatly.  “They are Abominations and should be destroyed, along with their tainted items.  Immediately.”

“No, that’s Ardara’s opinion,” said Kyle.  “I’d like to have Kavan confirm that Erito feels the same way before I assume anything.  I think that since it seems we keep running into these psionics, that we should pursue it further.  But if the gods are wanting us to deal with the problem, they could at least give us a bit of advice.”

“As arrogant as that sounds, Kyle,” Tolly said, “I’m forced to agree that some guidance would be helpful.”

Kyle opened his mouth to speak, but Autumn, looking for some way to head off another argument between them, pointed at a large pavilion tent going up just outside of camp.  “What’s going on?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Lanara said.  “Let’s go find out.”

The party rose and walked toward the pavilion, where several orcs were busy laying out blankets.  Standing nearby supervising was Keth, wearing the plate armor that was once worn by Sun-Harrow.  As the party approached, they were met by the Faceless One.

“Ah, good, you’re here.”  The Faceless One reached into a sack, and pulled out a small round stone with the orcish rune for the number ten carved into it.  “This is your token for your group,” he said, handing it to Lanara.

“Token for what?” she asked.

“For the division of spoils.  Tokens are given out to each unit based upon rank and merit.  It signifies the order in which each unit will enter the pavilion and be allowed to collect their share of the spoils.”  The Faceless One nodded toward Keth.  “Obviously, the Warchief and his command staff have already made their selections.  It’s a good system, really; most orcish tribes settle for a ‘first-come, first-serve’ approach that leads to several fights, and consequently, a slightly larger pile of spoils.  Usually the spoils are laid out inside the Warchief’s tent, but Orth commanded a very wealthy clan.”

“When does all this start?” Osborn asked.

“Later today.  Come when you hear the horns blow.  When it is your turn, you will have five minutes to search through the spoils for what you want.  You should know it is considered poor sport to simply collect everything you can carry out of the tent.  Your position in the lottery ensures you a certain quality of treasure, not quantity.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Lanara said.

The party returned to the camp.  Once there, Autumn went into her tent and pulled out a large bundle, handing it to Tolly.  When he unwrapped it, he saw it was the crystalline greataxe the orcish barbarian had used in the ambush, the one that was charged with psionic energy.  Tolly looked at Autumn curiously.

“Kyle gave it to me,” she said.  “He’s learned all he can from it.  He says it’s relatively benign.”

“Nothing about these things are benign,” Tolly said curtly.

“I think he meant that its properties weren’t very unusual.  The point is that he gave it to me to give to you, so you can destroy it.”

Tolly beamed.  “Most excellent.  Will you assist me, Autumn?  I need to make sure that not so much as a single sliver of this unholy relic is left behind.”

*          *            *​
            The huge pavilion tent was nearly bursting with the many treasures looted from Orth.  They were spread out on rugs and blankets, hung from pegs in the tent poles, and collected in piles in the corners.  The heat inside the pavilion was uncomfortable; all of the walls had been enclosed to ensure the privacy of those inside, leaving no way for air to circulate.

            In the end it had taken most of the day to set up the pavilion, and so the sun was setting by the time the first squad went inside.  Now the party was inside, spread out while they picked through the stacks of weapons, armor, and other treasures.  The only other person inside the pavilion was the Faceless One, who stood near the entrance next to a large hourglass that marked the time they had remaining to choose.

            Lanara sidled up to Autumn as she regarded a magical helmet.  Keth’s mages had worked non-stop to identify most of the magical goods found in Orth’s camp, and each one had been tagged with a strip of cloth marked with runes denoting its function.

            “See anything you like?” Lanara asked casually.

            “One or two things,” Autumn replied, not looking up.

            “Yeah, it can be so hard to choose, can’t it?”

            Autumn nodded her agreement before putting the helmet down and picking up a set of gauntlets nearby.

            “I mean, at least we’re all in the same boat here, right?”  Lanara pointed across the tent.  “Take those two, for example.”

            Autumn glanced over to where Lanara pointed.  Tolly and Kyle were standing close to each other, considering separate items. Kyle was trying on a large leather belt, while Tolly held up a platinum medallion on a silver chain.

            “I mean, you can tell a lot about a person by the choices they make.  Kyle, there, he’s got something kind of rough, but practical.  I’m sure with a little work it’ll clean up real nice, though.  Tolly, on the other hand, is going for the polished, more impressive piece.  Useful, if a bit obvious.”

            “Is there a point you’re trying to make, Lanara?” Autumn was getting slightly irritated that the bard was wasting what little time they had chatting instead of looking through the piles.

            “Not really, just saying it would be hard to choose between them.  But I’m sure it’d be easy for you.”

            Autumn ignored Lanara at first, but then something about the cansin’s words made her pause.  She looked up to say something, but Lanara was long gone, now chatting up Osborn.

*          *            *

            The party left five days after their battle with Orth.  They were sent on their way by a joyful and cheering mob of orcs, as well as a speech from Keth thanking them for their aid.  Osborn proudly displayed the clan token he wore that marked him as a clan brother, apparently part of some agreement he had with Keth after their success in capturing his brother.  Keth sent an honor guard of ten lancers with the group to escort them to the diamond mines, as well as one of the apprentice warsingers, who was charged to learn all he could of the psionic Abominations and their abilities.  The wide-eyed, youthful orc warsinger immediately gravitated toward Lanara, who proceeded to fill his head with dozens of off-color ballads.

            On their first day out, during the daily stop to avoid the worst of the desert’s heat, Tolly approached Kavan.  “I noticed that you went to Keth’s tent this morning before we left.  Did Gell tell you anything else that was relevant?”

            “I didn’t go to Gell to ask questions,” Kavan replied.  “I went to offer her some help.”

            Tolly’s brow furrowed.  “You did know that Keth has decided to accept Gell into his tribe, correct?”

            “Yes, Gell told me that herself.  But not everyone in Keth’s tribe may choose to recognize that.  I only wished to make sure she could still serve her god.”

            “What do you mean by that?”

            “I gave her some protection against anyone who might wish to violate her.”

            “Kavan,” Tolly said slowly, “you do know that if Keth’s men find a weapon on her, it will not go well for her?  Keth may be willing to accept her, but she is still a prisoner.”

            “I didn’t say I gave her a weapon,” Kavan said.  “I scribed a glyph.”

            “Why would you do that?” Tolly said loudly.  “There are men who will need to enter that tent for other reasons than to question Gell!  I don’t think they deserve to die for that!”

            “Tolly, Tolly,” Kavan said, smiling.  “I didn’t scribe the glyph on the entrance.  Well… not the tent entrance, at least.”

            It took Tolly a moment to catch the elf’s meaning.  His eyes went wide as buckler shields.  “You didn’t.”

            “I did.”

            “You… you couldn’t.”

            “Actually, it wasn’t that difficult.  As you might remember, I do have some familiarity with the female body.”

            Tolly stammered for a moment before Kavan laid his hand on the human’s forearm.  “Tolly, relax.  The glyph will do nothing unless someone tries to force themselves on Gell.  And should she decide she is willing, she knows the command word to deactivate it.  Though I doubt she would do that, as that would mean betraying Grabâkh.   Should it happen to be activated, it should serve as a strong reminder to the rest of the camp that Gell is the bride of Grabâkh.”

            Tolly could only walk away, shaking his head.

            Two more days passed uneventfully.  Occasionally they would see riders on the horizon, but they were either some of Keth’s scouts, who would then ride up to exchange news with the captain of the lancers, or the unknown rider would see the banners being flown by the orcish escort and would quickly vanish over a dune, never to be seen again.

            On the afternoon of the fourth day, the group was sprawled out over the sand, struggling to capture as much of the meager shade as they could as the sun beat down from high over their heads.  Though the morning’s ride had not been hard, the group was weary, and soon dozed off, trusting to the sentries to alert them to danger.

            The indistinct gray behind their eyelids resolved itself into a most unexpected scene.  Each person in the party found themselves standing on a balcony overlooking the ocean, with rolling storm clouds overhead.  They were dressed in their normal clothing, but none of them had weapons or armor.  The balcony connected to a house constructed of gray granite blocks.  The floor of the balcony was a red slate tile, and the railing appeared made of a weatherworn hardwood.  The group almost immediately realized this was no ordinary dream, since they were all together and apparently in control of their faculties.

            “Where are we?” Autumn asked.  “How did we…” she shuddered involuntarily as memories suddenly flooded her.  The others were experiencing similar sensations.  A long-forgotten dream, of a shipwrecked crew on an island ruled by a strange being who forced them to live in each other’s bodies, suddenly became very real to them, and they all knew instantly that it had really happened to them.

            “Can someone help me break off the end of this?” Arrie said, grabbing onto the railing and starting to pull.  Tolly walked over and had it half out of its posts before someone said something.

            “Excuse me?”

            They all turned to see an elderly man approaching.  He wore white robes with a golden belt.  His hair, once red but turning to white, fluttered in the coastal breeze.  His eyes sparkled with intelligence.

            “Excuse me,” he repeated, “but would you mind not… well, I guess that’s my fault.”  He sighed.  “I did bring you here, and I apologize for not warning you.  I would ask that you not destroy my home, but I understand how you are somewhat tense and off-guard right now.”

            Tolly turned to face the old man, while Autumn moved in front of Arrie in a defensive stance.

            “I’m sorry,” said Arrie, putting the section of railing down, “but the last time something like this happened to us, things got… weird.”

            “Very.” Tolly asserted.

            “Oh, you’ve run into Jak, then,” the old man said.  “He was one of my former students, who deceived me.”

            “He called himself Lord Momuus,” Xu said.

            “Yes, that would be Jak.”

            “So, there are more of you running around?” Lanara asked.

            “It’s a long story,” the man explained, “and frankly I don’t have a lot of time to tell it.  I have perhaps an hour during which no one can look in on us.  I would like to offer you the hospitality of my home.  There are some things that need to be explained.  I have some tea available, as well as some small sandwiches.  I may have some wine, as well, if anyone wishes it.”

            “And you are?”  Tolly asked suspiciously.

            “My name is Aran.”


-------------------------------

Ah, the 'Lanara decides to screw with the Love Triangle' adventure. A few things happened in the background during this period which probably bear explaining.  After Tolly and Arrie spoke (detailed in the last post), Arrie finds Autumn and tells her flat out that Tolly's intending to court her.  THis leads to some conflict for Autumn, and she ends up finding Kyle and essentially giving him the 'let's just be friends' speech - she needs time to decide who she should choose, though Autumn doesn't tell Kyle about Tolly.  So, as of right now Kyle and Tolly are still unaware of their mutual interest in Autumn, which is probably good given the growing tension between them.

Don't worry, folks, it's not too much longer before this all comes out in the open.  And for those whose stomachs turn at all this 'Days of our Lives' romance crap, I'll reassure you by saying that it really becomes more of a background thing as time goes on.


----------



## Delemental

The party followed Aran into the home.  Most of the interior was decorated in the same spartan white and gold motif that described Aran’s style of dress.  The architecture was tall and thin, very airy and open.  He led them to a parlor and offered them seats.  Once the party was seated, Aran turned and looked intently at a door at one end of the room.  Through the door came a creature none of them had ever seen before.  It stood as tall as Osborn, but had faceted insect-like eyes and tiny antennae.  It’s skin seemed covered with a light carapace.  Aran looked at the creature for a moment, which then nodded and rapidly departed.

            Aran turned and noticed the stares.  “I’m sorry,” he said.  “That was my friend, Tek.  He helps me out around the house.”

            “What form of creature is it?” Tolly asked.

            “His race has not been seen on the surface in quite some time.  He is a dromite.  Well, not precisely ‘he’.  Tek has no true gender, like most insects.  I refer to him as male for convenience.  Please, sit down.  My story will take some time to tell.  Tek will bring us refreshments.”

            “We have had several plots directed our way recently,” Tolly said.  “Would you mind if I created a _zone of truth_ here?”

            “Feel free.”

            Seconds after Tolly had cast his spell, a plate of finger sandwiches suddenly appeared on the table in the center of the room.  Kyle walked over and grabbed a couple, stuffing one in his mouth while he went back to his seat.  The others watched him nervously as he chewed.

            “Good,” said Kyle to Aran, “but I’d need about a hundred of them to fill up.”  He glanced around at his friends, still watching him.  “What?  If he wanted to kill us, he could’ve probably done it without bringing us to his home and poisoning us.”

            “You have been encountering beings with powers that have not been seen on the surface in quite some time,” Aran began as a few of the other party members rose to pick up a sandwich.

            “Abominations,” Tolly said.

            “The powers of psionics,” Aran continued, “which are displeasing in the eyes of the gods.”

            “To say the least,” Lanara quipped.

            “The people from the groups you’ve been encountering… well, there are multiple factions among the psionic community, and you have been encountering the more hostile and genocidal members of the faction.  As a person opposed to that faction, I wished to explain to you a bit more fully about our history, and how things came to be; to enlighten you so that you will be able judge based on both sides of the story.”

            “Or at least two sides,” Lanara said.

            “Two sides,” Aran consented, “instead of only that which the gods choose to release.  It’s not that we hate the gods; far from it.  I fully respect them, but just that they seem to fear us.”  Aran paused for a moment.  “Perhaps with good reason.”

            “Wait,” Autumn said, “are you saying that you are one of these psionic beings as well?”

            “I am, which is how I brought you here.  And the generally accepted term among our kind is ‘psionicist’.”

            Tolly visibly stiffened, and his fingers curled around the haft of a warhammer that wasn’t there.  Autumn prepared to step in front of the Ardaran should he decide to act.

            “Where should I begin?” Aran said to himself, seeming oblivious to the tension in part of the room.

            “How about the beginning?” Lanara suggested.

            “The beginning… yes… that would be a good place.”  Aran looked out past the party into the hallway beyond.  “Erito created the Four out of the Void; together the Four created Aelfenn, and the Many.  However, there was some… problem when the world was created.  I do not know if it was by Erito’s design, by the design of one of the Four, a flaw in the Void, or something else.  But when the world sprang up, there were races on the surfaces besides the humans – races that theoretically had not been included in the original design.  Races such as the giants, the dromites, the xeph.  There was also the force called psionics.  It is a force similar to magic, but it doesn’t spring from the gods.  As such, it is also not bound by their limitations; things that are resistant to magic are defenseless against psionics.”

            “Which is why the gods would be rightfully afraid of it,” Lanara said.

            “Very true,” Aran asserted.  “Because there used to be more of the Many.  Well, at least one more.  The Cataclysm was the result of the destruction of one of the Many by psions.”

            Stunned silence permeated the chamber.  It was nearly a minute before Aran spoke again; when he did, the party was surprised to see that tea and wine had been brought out on a silver cart.  Nearly everyone reached for wine.

            “I have no solid facts of that time,” he said.  “And I will not speculate on such a matter.  I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.  But from that time, the gods have… rightfully, I suppose… declared a moratorium on psionics.  We are hunted, we are slain off-hand.  But, for some reason, people with psionic powers continue to be born.  I don’t know why that would be, but it suggests two strong possibilities among many.  Either Erito and the other gods do not have the capability to eradicate psionics from Aelfenn, or for some reason they wish it to remain.  It is not a question I can answer.  What I can say is that, much like any people that have been persecuted for millennia, we would like to live in peace with our neighbors.”

            Aran paused for a moment to sip tea, then continued.  “There are different ideas on how to accomplish this.  I am part of a faction that advocates slow change; education and a slow re-entry.  Perhaps starting with institutions such as the school in Trageon, informing the surface people about us, and then expanding from there to slow, tightly-controlled contacts.  We would ensure that such a rampant abuse of power that led to the Cataclysm would not be possible.

            “Unfortunately, my faction is rather small.  The vast majority of the psions and psionic races favor a more forceful return.”

            “Forceful in what way?” Autumn asked.

            “Like Xerxes,” whispered Lanara.

            “Oh, you’ve met Kristyan’s creature, I see,” Aran said sadly.  “He is one of the beings known as a xeph.  He is quick of mind and body.”

            “We noticed,” Lanara said.

            “His master is Kristyan, a powerful telepath.  Xerxes follows the discipline of the mindblade; they manifest their power into a blade of energy.  If you’ve met Xerxes, no doubt you’ve seen it.”

            The group nodded in memory of their battle with Xerxes, and his escape.

            “My reason for bringing you here is to give you insight.  To let you know that, just as with any people, all psions are not inherently evil, we are not inherently bad, and we are not inherently cursed by the gods.  The source of our power differs from that of a sorcerer, or a cleric, or a druid, but in much the same way is not inherently good or bad, it is what we do with it.  I wanted to give you some insight into what we can do, what we are capable of, of how our power differs from what you are familiar with.  I want to see these genocidal people stopped.  Their philosophy is abhorrent to me.  I want you to have the tools you need to stop them.”

            “How come Kyle can detect psionic energies, when others cannot?” Autumn asked.

            Aran turned to Kyle, looking genuinely surprised.  “Can you?”

            “Not on my own,” the wizard admitted.  “I have the ability to see magical auras at will.  I recently got a staff that I found out will let me see psionic energies by adapting that ability.”

            “Without seeing this staff, I couldn’t say for certain,” Aran said.  “Unfortunately, I could not bring you all here with your belongings, other than what was necessary for modesty.  What I brought here was a physical manifestation of your dreaming selves.  You have a body here, as well as back on Aelfenn.”

            “Like traveling through the Astral Plane,” Kyle said, suddenly understanding.  “A physical construct created out of the native material, in this case ‘dream-stuff’.  Effects on one body mostly don’t translate to the other.”

            “Exactly.”

            “Why can you only speak to us in dreams?” Kavan asked.

            “The effort required to reconstruct all your belongings would be too great,” Aran said.  “And this is also less of a risk for me.” He turned and smiled at Arrie.  “Your handling of my balcony railing demonstrates why I might feel safer this way.  It’s also safer for you, as I couldn’t, say, pick up a knife and stab you and have any lasting effects.”

            Kavan shook his head.  “No, I mean why not meet us in person?”

            “Because I am being watched,” Aran admitted.  “I can meet you here because they don’t know you are here.  One of Tek’s clutch-mates is projecting an image that I am going about my normal routine.  That is why we only have an hour before they begin to suspect something.”

            “Are you always watched?” Autumn asked.

            “We all make a point of monitoring each other,” Aran said.  “Most of then consider me a doddering old fool; a powerful one, but one that won’t get in their way.”

            “So, where are you really?” Kavan asked.

            “I’m here.”

            “Where is that?”

            Aran smiled.  “Let’s just leave it as ‘here’ for now.  In the future, if you find yourself dreaming of a rocky coast under a gray sky, we may be able to talk again.”

            “So, you said you wanted to explain psionics to us,” said Kyle.  “From what little I’ve been able to tell so far, psionics have the same capability to improve and enhance physical objects as magic.”

            “That is correct,” Aran said.  “Psionics have certain advantages over magic, and vice versa.  Psionics excel in the manipulation of the mind; rewriting memories, taking control, and so on.  Our abilities are more advanced in temporal manipulation as well.  Psionics also excel in manipulation of the self, such as making one stronger, or faster, or hardening the skin, or…”

            “Or growing to great size,” Tolly interjected.

            “Yes, such as what you witnessed with Sun-Harrow.  I was not sorry to hear of his demise.”

            “But back to psionics and magic,” Kyle pressed.

            “Yes, my apologies.  Magic is superior in the area of illusion; with a single spell you can create a phantom wall that all can perceive; for us it would require contacting each observer’s mind separately and making them see a wall.  Magic is superior in the base alteration of reality.  It is also unparalleled in the reanimation of the dead.  Most areas, however, are equal between the two disciplines, though they may approach the same task in different ways.  This would include the manipulation of space and matter, divinations, conjurations and summonings, and healing of physical or mental injury.”

            Aran went on for several minutes.  He explained some of the various disciplines within psionics, such as the psychic warriors; those like Sun-Harrow who channel their power into martial improvement.  There were also the psions, who developed their innate powers much like a sorcerer, but like a wizard could learn more through study and practice.

            “Of course, much as wizards have those who practice the discipline of conjuration, or necromancy, or divination, we psions have those who concentrate on one aspect of psionic power as well.  I specialize in the manipulation of space and time; Kristyan is a telepath, focused on direct control of the mind.  There are also wilders, who know fewer powers but can use them more frequently than psions, and can also channel their emotions into their powers to give them greater impact.  And of course, there are the mindblades, a discipline you are already familiar with.”

            Xu suddenly looked up.  “Would your enemies include someone who had the power to change their appearance so that others perceived them as one of their own race and gender?”

            Aran frowned.  “I’m aware of no such being, though I am not gifted as a seer.  However, such would be a difficult power for a psion to develop.  Do you know of such a person?”

            “We’ve met someone known as the Faceless One,” Arrie said, “who has such an ability.  He himself has explained it as an aberrant Talent.”

            “Ah, yes, Talents.  It might be good for you to know that one way of detecting those children who will develop psionic powers is that they either do not manifest a Talent at adolescence, or their Talent will be underdeveloped; something subtle and common, such as minor manipulation of objects.”

            Kyle’s brow furrowed at this, but he said nothing.  His father didn’t have a Talent; no one on his father’s side of the family did.  He and his siblings had been the first in generations, and their Talents were nothing remarkable.  Kyle hoped that Tolly wouldn’t just start slaying unTalented children out of hand based on Aran’s words.  But glancing at the hard line of Tolly’s jaw as Aran spoke, Kyle guesses that Tolly was barely hearing anything the man said.  The thought of this brought up another wave of anger and frustration like when he’d argued over the psionic items they carried.  Why did Tolly insist on being so blind?

            Aran continued to explain some of the various disciplines of psionic powers, as well as describing some of the psionic races that lived below the surface in the region he termed the ‘Underdark’; the half-giants, the dromites, the xeph, and the maenads.  Kyle listened attentively, asking several questions.  Arrie quickly grew distracted and attempted to communicate with Tek, who was standing near Aran.  Once she succeeded at making her intentions known, she ended up having a mental conversation with the dromite. At one point Tek looked at Aran, who then looked at Arrie and frowned.  Arrie looked slightly startled.

            “What are the plans of this militant faction?” Kavan asked.

            “I’m not certain what their ultimate goal is,” Aran said.  “Right now it appears that they simply wish to rise out of the depths of the earth and re-conquer the surface world.”

            “Do you know from where?”

            “There are many cities in the Underdark, just as there are many cities on the surface.  And not all psionicists are based in the Underdark.  There are psions born of every race; human, elf, orc, aasimar… every race.  Only those races that can’t easily mingle with the surface races are forced to hide in the depths.”

            “What of the shadar-kai?” Tolly asked.

            “No, they are not among the psionic races.  I believe they are fey of some kind.”

            “What is the origin of the half-giant race?” asked Kyle.

            “The true giants were a psionic race before the Cataclysm.  The adults were all killed by that tragedy, and the humans took in their young.  Over time, the two races began to interbreed, until the half-giants, or giant-touched, emerged as a true-breeding race.  The creatures that you know as ‘giants’ on the surface world are primitive cousins of the true giants.”

            “What do you know of a priest named Marrek?” Lanara asked.

            “An elf-touched, associated with Xerxes,” Kyle added.

            “Marrek?  I think… oh, yes.  Xerxes uses Marrek as a pawn, to run errands he himself cannot easily accomplish on the surface.”

            Kavan shook his head when he thought of his son involved with these beings.

            “How does one defeat such powers?” Tolly inquired.

            “The defenses are varied, and are much the same as they are against magic,” Aran explained.  “If someone tries to control your mind, whether through magic or psionics, your best defense is a strong will.  If your enemy unleashes fire or energy bolts at you, your best defense is to get out of the way.  The only advantage psionics has is the fact that even those who are protected against or resistant to magic are vulnerable to psionics.  Even the gods have no resistance against it.”

            “You said earlier that psionicists killed one of the Many,” Arrie said, looking up from her silent conversation with Tek.  “Did that god have a name?”

            “I don’t know.” Aran replied.  “There are very few surviving records, and what I’ve told you is what I’ve managed to glean from those sources I’ve found.”

            “By what you’re saying,” Kyle interjected, “the Cataclysm was not truly the fault of the humans, at least not entirely.” *

            “Perhaps not.  It’s difficult to say for certain.”

            “Is there any way, or anywhere we could find that information?”

            “We could always ask those who erased it, Kyle,” Tolly said flatly.

            “If they’re willing,” Kyle replied.  “I mean, the gods have kept this secret for a long time.”

            “They don’t wish to be slaughtered,” Autumn stated.

            “Yes, but if they don’t want it to happen again, it might be nice to know what really happened the first time, so we could recognize if this faction is trying to build up to something similar.”

            “If it truly happened that way,” Tolly said.  “Records can be falsified… or misquoted.”

            “And you have every reason to distrust me,” Aran said, “and not believe a word I’m saying.  Were I in your position, I wouldn’t either.  I can appreciate your position.”

            “What you are saying is true, at least as far as I am aware,” Tolly said, gesturing into the air to indicate the spell he’d used earlier.  In truth, its power had faded long ago, but Tolly hoped that this Abomination’s unfamiliarity with divine magic would cause him to believe the field was still active.

            “For the time being, it’s the only version of the truth we have,” Kyle said.  “It’s another reason I’d like to find a source of these records.”

            “What would you do, in our place?” Kavan asked.

            “For now, merely keep your eyes open,” Aran said.  “I have agents in this world as well.  I will attempt to have them contact you.  I will try to determine the plans of our enemy and relay them to you, though my own skills in far-seeing are limited.  However, one of Tek’s clutch-mates is skilled in this way.  In fact, it is what he is currently doing – or to be more specific, he is interfering in the far-seeing powers of others.  How long it takes to get information to you depends on where you are.”

            “Is there any way to know if a dream we’re experiencing is a true dream, or something sent to us by a psionicist?” Lanara asked.

            “It could be difficult, depending on the intent of the person sending the dream.”

            “Is there any way to ward against it?”

            “There are magics that can also manipulate the dream state,” Aram said.  “The defenses would be similar.  Some psionic powers do interact with magic, and one can interfere with the other.  A magic spell that reveals invisible creatures will work regardless of whether the invisibility is magical or psionic in nature, for example.”

            “Most of those defenses are beyond my current skills,” Kyle admitted.

            “But a spell that strengthened the will would work, right?” said Arrie.  “The spell would be affecting the person, not the psionic power.”

            “That’s correct,” Aran said.  “You also have one other advantage.  We psionicists cannot change what we know.  A wizard or a cleric can change their spells and invocations daily; we cannot.  Thus once you get to know a particular psion, their capabilities will be somewhat predictable.”

            Tolly suddenly stood.  “If no one else has further questions, I think we’re done with him,” he snapped.

            Kyle made no move to leave; neither did Arrie or Kavan.  Autumn, who looked as though she was about to stand, settled back for a moment.  “Why did you seek us out?” she asked.

            “I have watched you interfere in the plans of my enemies time and time again.  It seems that if you are going to continue doing so, I should offer my help.”

            “When the champions are crushing their foes, it’s better to stand behind them than get in their way,” Tolly said.

            “Have you used outsiders before?” Kavan asked.

            “Yes, but never like this.  But then, I’ve never needed to before this.”

            “You did not wish to squander the opportunity,” Xu observed.

            “There’s that, and that my opponents are now moving less openly and less rapidly than before.  This gives me cause for concern, as it suggests their plans are moving into an end-stage.”

            “And what actions will you take?” Kavan asked.

            “I will not take any direct action,” Aran said.  “Primarily because the gods do watch over you directly.  If I were to interfere more directly than I have, I would risk opening myself to their wrath.  That is unpleasant.”

            “Besides,” added Kyle, “you said your enemies see you as a ‘doddering old fool’.  Anything you do to prove them wrong might cause them to take action against you.”

            “Exactly.  There are far more of them than there are of us, perhaps three to one.  They can also be very persistent.”

            “Do the loyalties of each group tend to fall along racial lines?” Arrie asked.

            “The Underdark races tend to follow my opponent’s faction, and the surface races tend to adhere to my faction,” Aran said.  “This is not always true, of course; Tek and his clutch-mates are an example of that.”

            The party looked at each other, and started to rise from their seats.  But Kyle remained firmly planted in his chair.

            “I have some questions in regard to the comparisons of psionic power structures to the traditional arcane structures of nodes and valences,” ** he said.

            “He wants to do what with his which now?” Lanara muttered to Osborn.

            The remainder of their time was almost entirely dominated by Kyle, who asked a series of questions that most of them didn’t even understand.  Even Tolly, who was educated in traditional arcane theory, had trouble following the way Kyle processed and interpreted the information.  Aran, on the other hand, seemed to have no such difficulty, and information flowed back and forth freely.  Kyle pointedly ignored the growing irritation of Tolly at having to endure the presence of an ‘Abomination’.  What he was learning was too important.

            After about forty-five minutes, Aran held up his hand to interrupt Kyle.  “They are beginning to probe my home,” he said.  “I’m afraid I must send you back to where you came.”

            “Finally,” Tolly grumbled.

            “You’ll have to excuse Tolly,” Kyle said.  “He doesn’t like to have his faith clouded with knowledge.”

            Tolly glared at Kyle as Arrie bent down to try to say goodbye to Tek.  The dromite rubbed his antennae against her forehead briefly before stepping back.

            A moment later, they were all blinking in the late afternoon sun of the Haran Desert.

*          *            *​
            It took the party eight days to be led to the diamond mines where the majority of Keth’s tribe thought they were headed.  A sandstorm on the sixth day had forced them to stop, and Lanara noted they weren’t exactly making a beeline for the mines either (when she made this observation to Arrie, the warrior guessed that they were taking a route that would keep the party from spotting any of Keth’s oases).

            The journey had been a fairly quiet one.  Most of the group was still mulling over their meeting with Aran.  Kyle and Tolly made a point of avoiding each other; the other party members either stayed out of both their paths, or approached them individually.  Kyle, in particular, seemed to be struggling to keep his emotions under control.

            Upon arriving at the mines, the party said their farewells to their escort, and made preparations as if to set up camp as the lancers turned and rode back north to their Warchief.  As soon as they were out of sight, the party packed up their belongings and began to ride southeast toward the forbidden tomb.

            It was supposed to be a three-day ride, but the party pressed their horses and made it in two, hoping to get to the tomb as soon as possible and be on their way.  So it wasn’t until late in the evening that the party came up the crest of a large hill and were able to overlook the Tomb of the _Karrak_.  Though they were still some distance away, four of Aelfenn’s five moons were in the sky that night, casting enough light upon the desert to allow them to make out a fair amount of the tomb itself.  Kavan, in particular, was able to pick out details in the dim moonlight.

            The tomb lay in the middle of the desert, nestled amidst the dunes.  The ground here was hard-packed dirt rather than sand, with scraggly grasses poking out of cracked earth.  A simple gateway jutted out of the earth, marking where stone steps led downward.  The gateway la in the middle of a large circle of stones, slightly off-center.  The stones ringed the entrance at a distance of 50 yards or so; each stone was ten feet high and twice that in length, and pointed.  The points were directed either toward the tomb or away from it, alternating as they went around.  The effect was like a crown of thorns surrounding the tomb, or perhaps some sort of barricade; one meant to keep something in as much as it was meant to keep something out.

            Lanara glanced up at the night sky.  She noted the position of Silko’s Eye, and the constellation of the Paragon Yerodin, as well as the locations of the moons Nula and Dathel, and made a quick mental calculation.

            “Happy new year, guys,” she said quietly, as they stared down into the valley below.

END OF PART ONE


-----------------------------------

* The common version of the Cataclysm myth states that it was caused by human wizards who experimented with powerful magics and created a weapon that destroyed an entire continent.  In this version, the Cataclysm was a magical plague sent by the gods to wipe out most of the humans on the surface; after that, Erito and The Four each went off to create a new humanoid race after their own ideals; the elves, dwarves, gnomes, hin, and orcs.

** Terms I borrowed from Sepulchrave's Story Hour and campaign, because I like the concept.  In reality, we've never gotten that detailed about magical theory.


The conversation with Aran marked a transitional point in the campaign; the fact that it fell on the campaign world's new year was pure coincidence.  Ironically, it nearly corresponded with the real-world New Year; this session was played in mid-December, 2004.

Oh, and the line about Kyle having 'trouble controlling his emotions'?  It's because a couple of days after meeting Aran, Arrie tells him about Autumn and Tolly.


----------



## Delemental

*Raiders of the Lost Orc*

The party celebrated the new year as best they could.  Kavan produced a bottle of wine from his pack, and they took turns at it – except Xu, of course – while telling each other stories of the previous year.  Of course, they had been together for most of those tales, but reliving those days was still pleasant.

            Once, in the midst of the revelry, Arrie stood up and walked a short distance away, staring out at the bright southern star known as Silko’s Eye.  Kyle followed her a moment later, tapping her on the shoulder lightly.  She seemed slightly surprised when she turned her head to look at him.

            “I was expecting you to be Autumn,” she said.

            “She’s still sitting next to Tolly,” Kyle replied.  “Is everything okay?”

            “Yes… no… I’m not sure.  A thought just hit me while I was sitting there.  It’s a whole year gone by… one year gone from my time before I have to go back to Herion.”

            Kyle nodded.  Arrie’s life as an adventurer was being led on borrowed time; she had been married to the elven prince since she was fifteen, but had negotiated with him to be allowed time to ‘see the world’ before settling fully into her role as a lady of the Elven Court.  Herion had given her ten years before she was obligated to return to Noxolt.

            “It probably just hit me because it’s only my third year away.  Well, closer to four, really – my birthday’s only three months away.  I’m sure after a couple more years it won’t be so hard to think about.  And Herion’s a good man, he really is.  The fact that I’m even here now says that much.”

            “True enough,” Kyle agreed, “and you’ve had other things that’ve been bothering you lately, too.”

            Arrie smiled slightly.  “Right, there’s that too.”  She patted Kyle’s shoulder.  “I’ll be fine in a second.  Tell everyone the wine hit me funny after days of drinking orcish spiced beer.”

            “Sure.  And Arrie?  I’ll do what I can to make the next few years as long and tedious as possible.”

            Arrie’s laughter followed Kyle back to the campfire.

            The wine was gone all too soon, and the reality of the moment settled in slowly.  They were in the middle of the Haran Desert, preparing to enter the tomb of an orcish warchief who was considered so wicked among a race of generally evil beings that his name was stricken from their records and all were forbidden to come to his resting place.  Slowly, they began settle in to bedrolls and tents for a chance at a few hours’ rest.

            For Kavan, however, sleep did not come easily.  It wasn’t the tomb of the _karrak _that worried him, it was what lay in store afterward.  Tolly had said that once they had the diamonds that supposedly lay in this tomb, they would have to take them to the Cathedral of Eminent Order in M’dos.  Though he was certain that Tolly was excited to see the city where the leaders of his church resided, for Kavan the thought held no joy for him.  His memories of the City of Temples was not of the seemingly endless spires of stone and glass and crystal jutting into the azure sky; they were of carved mahogany bedposts.  Closing his eyes did not bring back the scents of burning incense and sacred oils, but of cheap perfume, sweat, and the cloying musk of spent passion.  His ears did not echo with the tolling of bronze bells or the cries of priests calling their faithful to worship; instead they heard the inanity of forced conversation, the grunts and gasps of exertion, and always… always the jingle of coins exchanging hands.

            Kavan became aware that he was breathing fast, and forced himself to calm down, thankful the others were asleep.  Thinking about his past always made him feel so small, and so angry.  Angry with the women, too many to name, who had used him as a salve for their own empty lives.  Angry with himself for allowing it to happen, and enjoying it. But most of all, angry with the architect of his emptiness.

            Kavan’s jaw clenched as the image of Elessar’s face came unbidden to his mind.  Unable to even affix the label ‘father’ to the image, Kavan banished the hated face by focusing on Kyle’s familiar, Violet, whose silhouette he could just make out inside the tent.  The outline of Erito’s sacred bird helped calm him, reminding him that he had a new life now, one far removed from Elessar’s brothels.

            But what Kavan feared was running into those who might not appreciate his new calling, who might only remember the old Kavan Ar-Feiniel.  Some of those encounters might only be uncomfortable, others embarrassing.  But Kavan had left behind his fair share of jealous and angry husbands when he fled M’dos, and some of those had tempers that still might not have cooled, even after five years.  Of course, there was always the risk of encountering his father or some of his associates, though they were rarely in the habit of frequenting the Temple Ward.  But they wouldn’t likely be spending their entire stay in M’dos in the Cathedral of Eminent Order; to find lodging they’d have to go to the Market Ward, where Elessar’s escorts would be thick.

            But there was one person in the entire nation of Medos that he dreaded seeing more than any other – the one person he knew he would have to seek out.  The list of women who might have borne his son was not as long as some might have guessed; though it would take some time, Kavan was sure he could find her.  He needed to know all he could about Marrek.

            Kavan tried to turn his mind to more pleasant thoughts.  Immediately, the image of his mother’s smiling face sprang into his inner vision.  Kavan smiled as memories came back to him, and he tried not to think of how many decades it had been since she had fled from her husband, taking his brother Finrod with her to keep him from being corrupted as her eldest son had been.  _Dear Erito_, Kavan thought, _Finrod will be turning seventy soon._  He wished that he knew where his mother and brother now lived, so that he could see them again, and talk with them, and be there as his younger brother reached adulthood.  Most of all, he wanted his mother to know that her firstborn had not been lost after all.

            Kavan must have drifted off into a trance as his mind wandered, because the next thing he was aware of was a gentle stroking sensation on his ears.  He opened his eyes to see Lanara looking down at him, running her fingers gently over the points of his ears.

            “Time for your watch, sunshine,” she whispered.

            Kavan motioned as if to bat her hands away from his head and put a scowl on his face.  In truth, the sensation was exquisite, and he loved it when the bard broke him out of trance like that.  He feigned annoyance at it, though, knowing it was the best way to make sure she would keep doing it.  Deep down, Kavan knew that Lanara could see through his ruse; it had become a little game they played – two sensual creatures engaged in a dance of pseudo-intimacy.  For Kavan, the game held reminders of his past, when his entire life was lived for such pursuits of the flesh.  But Lanara had transcended the baser nature of the flesh, and emerged as a whole being; there was a purity to her carnal nature, one that Kavan doubted other people could even see.  It gave him hope that one day he too could attain such purity.

            Kavan rolled out of his bedroll, being careful not to wake up Kyle, who slept next to him.  He bid Lanara good night as she retreated to her own tent, and then pulled his pack out to retrieve his armor and weapons.  He glanced at the sky as he dressed himself; still several hours until dawn and morning prayers.  He looked across the horizon to the east, where the sun would rise.

            To the east, where Medos lay waiting.

 *          *          *​
            It was late in the morning by the time they were ready to go.  The party led their horses down the dune toward the area of the tomb, but as the animals approached they became nervous.  Kyle’s familiar Violet squawked loudly, her cries echoing off the large stones surrounding the tomb.  As the horses became more and more skittish, the party eventually decided to leave them just outside the stone circle, placing them on the northern side to give them some degree of shade.  Then they proceeded on foot, making a direct path for the yawning tomb entrance.

            Steep steps carved of sandstone seemed to drop straight down into the sand.  At the bottom, Kavan could make out a very faint light.  The party paused to prepare themselves, casting a few preparatory spells and unpacking light sources.  Kavan knelt down near the entrance to the tomb, eyes closed, softly chanting.  After a few moments, he stood and looked at his companions.

“The flow of time around this place has been shown to me,” he said.  “This place has stood for at least eight centuries – that’s as far back as I can see.  In that time many have come, but none emerge once they descend those steps.”

“Treasure hunters?” Arrie asked.

Kavan nodded.  “And undead as well.”

“What kind of undead?” Autumn asked, drawing her sword.

“All kinds. The most powerful type that I saw was a wight, that arrived here nearly five hundred years ago.  Most were of lesser types – skeletons, zombies, and the like.”

Autumn frowned.  “A sword is little use against skeletons,” she said.

Tolly unhooked the heavy mace he kept as a spare weapon and handed it to the sentinel, who took it with a smile and nod of thanks.

They proceeded slowly, with Osborn taking the lead, scanning the steps and walls for anything unusual.  The stairs opened up into a large chamber, the other side obscured in darkness.  The walls were sloped inward, making the chamber feel like a shallow pit.  They could barely make out four square support columns spaced evenly in the chamber in a box pattern.  Their best guess put the chamber at a little over a hundred feet square.  Dozens of corpses, some of them centuries old, littered the floor throughout the chamber, but were heaviest in the center.  Torches burned in sconces mounted on the columns.  Osborn peered at the closest torches, and realized that the flames were not moving, as if the fire itself were somehow frozen.

Kyle glanced around for a moment, but quickly squeezed his eyes shut.  He blinked and opened them slowly.  “This whole place reeks of magic,” he said quietly.  “Too much for me to make anything distinct out until I get used to it.”

            As the rest of the party milled about, uncertain of what to make of the strange torches, Arrie and Osborn moved forward down the center of the chamber, the warrior covering the rogue as he looked for traps or ambushes.  As they moved, carefully stepping around dried bones, they made out four smaller pillars between the support columns, two on each side, creating the appearance of a grand hallway leading to the back of the chamber.

            Osborn caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye to the right.  Trying not to give away the fact that he’d seen something, he tried to inspect the source of the movement surreptitiously.  Just barely within the glow of the torches, he saw some humanoid shapes shuffling against the wall, their flesh peeling and gray.  The four shapes seemed to be sliding back along the wall, moving for the back of the chamber.

            “We’ve got movement,” Osborn whispered to Arrie.

            Arrie began unfurling her spiked chain.  Autumn, noticing the movement, began to walk up next to her sister.  As she drew closer, her darkvision allowed her to see the humanoid forms, and she drew her sword as well.  Arrie and Osborn both began to move toward the back of the chamber, hoping to intercept the skulking creatures.

            As they crossed the midpoint of the chamber, two things happened at once.  One of the gray humanoids suddenly turned its head and hissed at the three intruders, its long curling tongue positively identifying it as a ghoul.  At the same time, the four smaller pillars began to shift and warp, melting into the forms of armored female warriors wielding large bastard swords.  They began moving about the chamber, one heading toward the ghouls while another moved toward Arrie and Osborn.  The other two took up positions in the center of the room, confronting the remainder of the party but not moving forward, waiting for the tomb’s defilers to advance.

            Tolly sucked in his breath.  “Cataryid columns,” he said loudly, remembering a reference to the guardian constructs he’d read in a book his mentor in the church had him study.  “Very dangerous!  Weapons shatter on their skin!”

            “I’ll keep that in mind!” Osborn shouted, as he rolled out of the way of a bastard sword.  Arrie retrieved an orcish shotput and hurled it at the cataryid that had attacked the hin, but it bounced off harmlessly.  Kyle pulled out a wand and launched _magic missiles_ at the two cataryids blocking their path, but the magic dissipated harmlessly around them.  Kyle looked crossly at Tolly.  “Were you going to get around to mentioning the resistance to magic?”  The sound of Lanara’s singing drowned out the cleric’s curt reply.  Kyle pointed his wand again and tried to target the cataryid next to Osborn and Arrie, this time succeeding in getting a few missiles through.

            Kavan, not wishing to risk his sword against the hard stone of the cataryids, instead drew his bow and let arrows fly, though the shots went wide.  Autumn, deciding to try a different tactic, approached the two cataryids guarding the tomb and nodded deferentially to them.  “You have vermin,” she said, pointing with her sword at the ghouls.  “We wish to help you rid this place of them.”

            If the two stone women heard Autumn or understood her, they made no sign of it.  Instead, they raised their own swords and attacked.  Tolly rushed forward to assist her, striking one of the cataryids with his hammer.  It felt like he was hitting a boulder.

            Osborn scrambled away from the cataryid attacking him, letting Arrie take the charge in his place.  She’d dropped her spiked chain and instead brandished a two-bladed sword, not willing to risk her favorite weapon against the constructs.  Arrie wielded the weapon more like a crowbar than a sword, trying to wedge the blade into tiny cracks and literally pry the cataryid apart.  Looking around, and realizing that his combat skills were almost useless against both constructs and undead, Osborn slipped a ring on his finger and promptly vanished.

            The ghouls swarmed the cataryid on the far side of the chamber, though their ragged fingernails were nearly useless against the stone warrior.  It was only a matter of time before the construct would eradicate them.  The other cataryids squared off against Arrie, Tolly, and Autumn respectively, while the rest of the party moved around to try and help.  Xu dashed around quickly to intercept a ghoul that had broken away and was trying to flank Arrie, but upon getting close she was overcome by the putrid stench coming off the body.  Suddenly reminded of her horrific experience falling into the sewage pit underneath Noxolt, her stomach turned in knots.  Despite her discomfort, she was still easily able to avoid the ghoul’s claws.

            Kavan moved around close to the combat between the ghouls and the cataryid, hoping he could damage them all at once and end the combat sooner.  He unleashed a blast of sonic energy that sent all four combatants reeling.  Then, moving forward further, he raised his holy symbol and sent out a pulse of positive energy, hoping to weaken the ghouls further.  Unfortunately, he’d forgotten to account for the magical enhancement Kyle had placed on him that improved his force of will, and the blast disintegrated the ghouls into ash.  As the now unengaged cataryid turned toward Kavan, he stepped back uncertainly.

            A sword came around in a blur, slashing deep into Tolly’s arm.  A similar blow penetrated Autumn’s armor.  Kyle, switching strategies, ran forward and summoned up a spear of force that stretched out across the distance and struck the cataryid fighting Autumn in the chest with it, sending spiderweb cracks across the surface.  Another swift jab caused it to shatter, sending stone fragments flying.  The others were making slow but steady progress, chipping at the cataryid’s hard skin.  Xu dispatched the last ghoul, and moved to help Arrie, pulling out a pair of seldom-used nunchaku in order to spare herself from punching rocks.  When that proved ineffective, Xu switched to a more cunning plan; she moved behind the cataryid and used leverage to knock it to the ground, allowing Arrie to pound on the female statue without mercy.

            The battle became one of attrition, which normally would have favored the unliving constructs but in this case was an advantage to the more numerous and better-equipped party.  Kavan managed to take down his cataryid single-handedly, his flaming sword seeming more effective than expected.  Kyle’s magical spear jabbed into the cataryid that Arrie and Xu were fighting, sliding into a weak spot caused by Arrie’s last attack and crumbling it to dust.  Finally, Tolly managed to pulverize his opponent, even as Lanara stepped up behind him and used her magical instrument to heal some of his wounds.

            Tolly glanced over at Arrie as he shook stone dust off his hammer.  The warrior was gleefully twirling her two-bladed sword in the air.  “Would you like for me to enchant that for you?” he asked.

            “You can enchant any weapons for me you want,” she said.  “I’ve got an orcish double axe you could work on.  Or a double bow?”

            “Where’s Osborn?” Autumn asked, looking around.

            Osborn removed his ring as the party began looking around and calling his name.  He was sitting on the stairway leading down to the next level.  “I’m ready when you are,” he said.

            “Hey, Kyle,” Arrie said, “what was that you were using?”

            “_Thunderlance_,” he said, grinning.  “First chance I’ve had to cast it, too.”

            “It was pretty cool,” she said admiringly.  “Can you make them for other people?”

            “Sorry, Arrie.  You’ll have to limit yourself to the twelve weapons you already have.”

            The party gathered themselves and proceeded down the stairs.  They emerged into another square chamber, much like the one above but smaller.  The four massive pillars they had seen above were here as well, apparently running down through the entire tomb.  The effect was that of an inverted pyramid.  In the center of the room was a large, circular dais carved with strange symbols, which seemed to glow with an ethereal blue aura.  The dais seemed carved from a single block of stone.  Arranged around the dais were eight small stone pedestals, and past those on the same line were eight bronze torch stands, the entire arrangement resembling a wagon wheel.  Like the chamber above, the torches in the stands appeared frozen in place, but unlike the others, these burned with a cold blue flame.  The entire arrangement lay within the square delineated by the four support pillars.  There was no apparent exit from the chamber.

            The party looked at each other apprehensively.  “More cataryid columns?” Autumn asked Tolly, pointing with her sword at the pedestals.  He shrugged in response.

            “Perhaps, but they seem too small for that.”

            Arrie decided to chance it and stepped forward.  When nothing happened, she began to look more closely at the carvings on the dais.

            “Hey, guys?” she said.  “These carvings look like letters from the orcish alphabet.  But it’s like they carved one letter on top of the other, all the way around, several times.  It seems like they should say something if we knew the individual letters, but they’re too jumbled together to make out.”

            “Any indication of what order they were carved?” Tolly asked.

            “Nothing obvious,” Arrie shrugged.

            “Let me take a look.”  Kyle stepped forward and looked at the carvings closely, followed by the rest of the party.  After a moment, he stood and turned to Lanara.  “You can cast a _comprehend languages_ spell, right?”

            “Yes, but I already speak Orcish,” she pointed out.

            “Yes, but I don’t, and maybe if I could, I could use my big, throbbing wizard brain to figure it out.”

            The party laughed aloud at Kyle’s euphemism.  Lanara had to suppress a snort to finish the spell.  “Okay, I’ve always wanted to see your enormous… brain in action.”

            “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that euphemism used in… that way,” Arrie said.  “I’m very disturbed, Kyle.”

            “I do my best,” he said, grinning, as he began studying the carvings again.

            While Kyle worked, Arrie began wandering around the dais.  She noticed that on the inner surface of the smaller pillars were bolted small bronze plaques.  Looking closer at one, she saw that the plaque was carved with a stylized image of a flame.

            “Hey, Kyle, what do you make of this?”

            Kyle looked up at the plaque, studying it for a moment.  He glanced around, then walked around to each pedestal, looking at the plaque.  Then he looked around again.

            “Each of the flame images on these plaques is slightly different,” he said.  “And look here.”  He walked over and pulled one of the frozen blue torches out of its stand, bringing it over to one of the pedestals nearly opposite it.  “See?” he said, holding the torch close to the plaque, “they match.”

            “Well, I’ll be,” Arrie said.  “Everyone, grab a torch and see if you can find the matching plaque.”

            It took a minute or two, but eventually they matched each torch to a plaque, sliding them into the stands corresponding to each pedestal.  As Kavan was about to drop the last torch into place. Kyle grabbed his wrist.

            “Hey, we don’t exactly know what this will do, if anything,” Kyle said.  “Why doesn’t everyone stand back against the wall, and I’ll drop this in.”

            The rest of the party edged back close to the stairs, taking positions just behind the support pillar.  Gingerly, Kyle slipped the torch into place.

            Slowly, the blue flames began to move, twisting and flickering in their stands.  Then, unexpectedly, the flames began to melt, dripping to the floor like candle wax.  The glowing liquid flowed toward the dais, and then ran up the side and into the carvings.  The liquid fire filled in one of the sets of letters carved in the dais.  Kyle read aloud as the words formed.
_
            “Turn my head, and you go where you want,
            Turn it again, and you stay till you rot.
            I have no face, but I live or die
            By my crooked teeth, who am I?”_

            Osborn sighed and shook his head.  “A riddle,” he complained.  “they really didn’t want any orcs getting past this room, did they?”

            The party began to discuss the meaning of the riddle.  Some, who felt the exercise was outside their skills, began to search the room for signs of an exit.  Lanara stood near the group trying to solve the riddle, nodding at their comments.  But after a moment, she stopped nodding.  Then she began scowling.  Then she began tapping her foot.  Finally, she shouted something in Orcish.

            The blue liquid fire drained out of the carved letters, crawling back up to the torches.  There was a sound of stone sliding on stone, and the entire dais shifted over, revealing a stone staircase spiraling down.

            “What did you say, Lanara?” Kavan asked.

            “I said, ‘the answer is a key’,” she replied.

            “When did you figure out the answer?” Arrie asked.

            “Oh, I’ve heard this riddle before.  I just wanted to give someone else the chance to feel smart.  But you all took too damn long.  Now, who’s going down the steps first?”

            The party made their way downward again, Osborn in the lead again followed closely by Arrie and Autumn.  The stairs dropped down into yet another square chamber, as expected smaller than the one above.  This chamber, however, was featureless except for the four support pillars.  Again, there was no apparent exit.

            The party spread out at the base of the stairs and began to look around for anything unusual, half expecting something to suddenly materialize and attack them.  Thus when they heard a sudden rumbling, they all drew weapons.  But the sound came from the ceiling above them, as the dais swiveled back into place, sealing off the stairs leading up.

            “That’s not a good sign,” Lanara said.

            Kavan’s ears perked up suddenly.  “Did you hear that?  It sounded like sand shifting suddenly.”

            There was another grinding of shifting stone, and suddenly from each wall a slit opened up, a foot tall and four feet wide.  Sand began to pour into the room from all four sides, spilling out onto the floor.

            “That’s an even worse sign,” Lanara said, as sand buried her feet up to the ankles.

            Osborn looked around, stepping high as he walked to keep his feet from being buried.  He ran over to one of the pillars, grabbing on for support as sand cascaded past him.  He scanned the surface carefully, and soon found what he’d suspected would be there; a chunk of stone slightly off-color.  He pressed on the odd stone, and it slid in with a click.  On the wall to his left, the slit began to close.

            “Search the pillars!” he shouted over the hissing sand.  “Look for an odd-colored stone and press it!”

            The party fanned out quickly, coughing from the dust that was swirling around them in clouds.  Though it took them longer to spot the odd stone than it had Osborn’s trained eye, eventually all four slits slammed closed as the triggers were located.  They were safe, but no exit had presented itself yet, and the room was still a quarter full of sand.  Xu considered trying to slip through one of the sand slits, but decided that it was too narrow, and there was no guarantee that it would lead anywhere.

            It took Osborn several minutes of inspection and experimentation, but eventually he figured out that the stones that had deactivated the sand trap were actually double switches, and by pressing them again in the same order, a new mechanism would be activated.  When the party did so under Osborn’s instructions, the sand in the room suddenly vanished through holes in the floor, like water evaporating in the sun.  A larger panel in the floor slid open, revealing a stairway.  The dais above the spiral stairs in the center also slid away to unblock the way up.

            “That’s what we call a little hin magic,” Osborn said, clapping his hands together to remove the dust.

            Again, the party gathered and proceeded down the stairs.  They walked into a smaller square chamber like they expected, but the support pillars were absent in this room.  The air was noticeably warmer down here.  Fully half of the room was bare, and a thin, glowing red-orange line cut the chamber into two sections.  On the other side of the line there appeared to be lavish living quarters of some kind for a being of some size.  All of the furnishings appeared to be made of  stone and metal.  In one corner stood a huge metal practice dummy, its surface dented and scorched as if it had seen extensive use.  Sitting on a metal chair was an enormous creature with crimson skin and a leering grin.  Its entire body seemed to smoke, and there was a visible heat shimmer in the air around it.  The being and the party stared at each other in silence.

            “Hey, guys?” Lanara said quietly, “can we go back to the room with the sand now?”

            “Efreet,” Kyle sighed, “why did it have to be efreet?”

            Even as Kyle spoke, the efreet stood up to his full height and raised his arms menacingly into the air.  Palpable waves of heat washed over the party.

            “Beware, mortals!” the efreet roared.  “I am the great and powerful Ali Azrahad Mazhuir…” the efreet unexpectedly trailed off mid-sentence.  Then, even more unexpectedly, he sighed, and sat back down.  “You know what?  Forget it.  It’s been too long since I’ve had visitors.  Have a seat, make yourselves comfortable.”  He waved his hand, and on the party’s side of the room several simple chairs appeared around a long table.  The group looked at each other uncertainly.

            “Look, let me just say this from the outset,” the efreet stated, holding up one finger.  “I am bound here as a guardian.  Just don’t cross the line, and we won’t have any problems.  So, why are you here?”

            “Diamonds,” Autumn stated.  The party had begun to move toward the table, but no one had sat down yet.

            “So,” Kyle whispered to Kavan, “who wants to tell him that we’re here to cross the line?”

            “Would you like anything?” the efreet asked.

            “Well, for starters, what do we call you?” Lanara asked.

            “Can we call you George?” Kavan asked.

            “No,” the efreet said flatly.  “but I doubt any of you could pronounce my real name, and the translation in Common takes about a minute to recite.  You may call me ‘Ali’.”

            “Well, how about some water, Ali?” Lanara asked.

            “I could never turn down a fine wine,” Kavan said.

            “Okay, some wine for Kavan.  Oh, and Xu there will probably want tea.”

            Ali waved his hand again, and flagons appeared on the table.  Most were filled with water, though the flagon in front of Kavan held wine.  Ali picked up one of the flagons, and stuck his finger into it.  The water was boiling within seconds.  He set the flagon on the table, and it slid toward Xu, stopping next to a small brass pot that she discovered held tea leaves.

            “Anything else?”

            “Some diamonds, perhaps?” Tolly said, only half-joking.

            Ali shook his head.  “For diamonds, you would have to offer me something more substantial in exchange.  Food and drink I am happy to provide in exchange for conversation and news of the world.  It’s been over a century since I’ve seen anyone intelligent down here.”

            “Is there a particular region you’re interested in hearing about?” Autumn asked.  When Ali shrugged his shoulders, Autumn began reciting off all the history she knew.  After about two minutes of her fairly dry recitation, Lanara interrupted her.

            “Perhaps you’d like a more lively rendition?”

            “I am always willing to be entertained.”

            The cansin immediately launched into a stirring epic rendition of events in the last century.  She included the party’s own exploits in her accounting.  It took nearly twenty minutes, but when Lanara’s last note finished echoing through the chamber, Ali smiled.

            “You have been busy,” Ali commented.  “It seems there are many things afoot in this world.”

            “It certainly seems that way,” Lanara said.

            “The world never stops moving,” Xu added.

            “It does down here,” Ali said bitterly.

            “So, how were you chosen for this duty?” Tolly asked.

            “I was the last one to step back, so to speak,” Ali said.  “I have been bound here for almost twenty-five hundred years.”

            “That seems an awfully long time to be cooped up down here,” Lanara said.

            “Are you bound here forever?” Kavan asked.

            “Yes, or until the end of the world.  I hadn’t expected it to take this long.” Ali sighed.  “I’m not only supposed to keep others away, but I’m supposed to keep him from getting out.  He tries, maybe once or twice a millennium.  I just pull his arms off and throw him back down the stairs.”

            “If someone were to destroy the _karrak_, you could go, right?” Kyle asked.

            “Yes, but my contract states I’m supposed to stop anyone from doing that.  Kind of the whole point of his punishment, you see, is to not be able to die and go back to Grabâkh.”

            “But if someone were to do it…” Osborn prompted.

            “Then yes, I could leave.  But the stairs are on this side of the line, and like I said, if you cross the line…” Ali flexed his massive biceps, and cracked his knuckles to make his point.

            “Who wrote the contract?” Kavan asked.

            “The priests of Grabâkh that summoned me.  They summoned me and bound me with some explicit terms.”

            “I suppose that in twenty-five hundred years you’ve probably looked for a loophole or two?” Lanara asked.

            “Oh, there are plenty.  But none that I can exploit directly, and my contract forbids me from revealing any of the flaws in the contract.”

            “Well, why not just tell us what the rules are, then?” Lanara asked sweetly.

            Ali nodded.  “I am bound here for all eternity to guard the _karrak_.  None may set foot beyond this line.  If the _karrak _attempts to emerge from the chamber below, I am to send him back.  I may not destroy the _karrak_, nor by my direct action cause his destruction.  I must act immediately should either of these two events occur.  I must fight any foe to the best of my abilities, save that I cannot destroy the _karrak_.”

            “I assume that when he does come up, you toy with him a little?” Lanara asked.

            He shrugged in reply.  “What else is there to do?”

            “Well, besides sparring,” Lanara gestured toward the metal practice dummy.  “I noticed your partner.”

            “As did I,” Xu said.  She had studied the patterns of dents and scorch marks on the dummy, and could tell that Ali had undergone extensive training as a monk.  She did not recognize the style, though she assumed it could be one unique to his home planet.  “I am quite envious.”

            Ali glanced at his sparring dummy.  “It’s a little big for you,” he said.

            “Xu always enjoys a challenge,” Lanara quipped.

            “Indeed?  Well, I’ve not been with a woman for nearly three thousand years.”

            The rest of the party turned to look at Xu, awaiting her response.  When none was forthcoming, Arrie chimed in.

            “Well, it wouldn’t work anyway.  Xu can’t cross the line to your side, and you can’t cross the line to hers.”

            “Who said I couldn’t cross the line?” To prove his point, Ali stood and stepped quickly across the orange line, then stepped back and resumed his seat.  “I cannot leave the tomb, but I can go where I wish inside of it.”

            Finally, Xu spoke.  “I do not think I would be interested in… that type of sparring.”

            “So, Ali,” Kyle said, quickly trying to change the subject, “what stops you from just pulling this guy apart and scattering him around the tomb so he can’t go anywhere?”

            “He is a death knight,” Ali explained, “and has access to some ability to channel negative energy.  He can use it to restore damage he has sustained.  Scattering him about would only cause him to take longer to reform.”

            “So, he can’t be destroyed?”

            “Of course he can.  His ability to heal himself is one of conscious effort; much like the healing spells your priests use.  The _karrak _can be destroyed as can any other undead.”  Ali leaned forward in his chair.  “All this talk about that fool is unnecessary.  If all you desire is diamonds, then I can provide that.  Of course, you would have to offer something worthwhile in return.  And, before you ask, a few minutes of pleasure with her,” he flicked his finger toward Xu, “would not be adequate.”

            “I do not think they were going to suggest that,” Xu said with forced calm.

            “I don’t suppose you’d be interested in a used pair of magical boots, would you?” Lanara asked.  Ali shook his head.

            “Could your contract be renegotiated?” Kavan asked.

            “Only if a priest of Grabâkh chose to do so,” Ali said.

            “Hey, Kavan, doesn’t Gell owe you a favor after you helped her with her, um, security issues?” Lanara asked.  “Maybe she’d do it.”

            “Unlikely,” Ali stated.  “The priests of Grabâkh placed the _karrak _in this tomb for a reason.  To defy the will of the Eye is blasphemy.  Besides, what you’ve heard about ‘no orc may approach the tomb’ isn’t just idle gossip.  Orcs tend to explode, quite messily, when they set foot here.”

            “Perhaps there’s a way to make your servitude more tolerable,” Kavan tried again.  “A pet, perhaps?”

            Ali snorted.  “I’d probably eat it.”  Seeing Kavan’s shocked expression, the efreet smiled.  “Understand that I would outlive the creature, and then it would be of no use to me.”

            Kavan sighed.  “I would think that after twenty-five hundred years stuck down here, you would have contemplated suicide.”

            Ali frowned.  “Let’s just say that death for beings like myself is… different than it is for you, and leave it at that.”

            “You know, folks, let’s not forget something here,” Kyle said.  “Ali’s here for a reason, like it or not.  If we get him out of this, then the undead orc warchief under our feet is free to wreak havoc on the land again.”  Kyle turned to Ali.  “What was he like, back then?”

            “He was… I’m not sure your tongue has words to describe it.  In Ignan, the best word would be _d’kwahd_.  He was a corrupter by nature.  He cared not what he defiled.  He violated priestesses of Grabâkh, he poisoned wells and oases, he somehow learned to bind diametrically opposed spirits into weapons and forced them to work in unison to serve him.”

            “What if we could arrange it so he couldn’t come out again?” Lanara asked.  “Then could you leave?”

            “How?” said Ali with contempt.  “I’d really like to hear this.”

            “A magical compulsion?”

            “Not against undead.”

            “Seal him in stone?” Tolly offered.

            “It was tried.  It took him a hundred years, but he broke free.  He has infinite time, and no need to eat or sleep.”

            “A binding or ward of some fashion?” Autumn suggested.

            “No way,” Kyle answered for Ali this time.  “We have nothing in our possession that would last long enough, nor be strong enough to hold him.”

            “So, it seems your only choice would be to kill him,” Ali suggested.

            “But again, the problem with the line,” Arrie pointed out.

            “Could we fight him up here?” Kyle asked.

            “I’m obligated to send the _karrak _back down to his chambers the moment he sets foot up here,” Ali said.

            “What if we were assisting you in that task, and by accident destroyed him?” Xu asked.

            “Well, that might have worked, but now that I’m aware that’s your intent, I can’t allow it.  In order for you to ‘help’, you would either have to cross the line, or I would have to allow him past me to get to you, which means I took direct action that led to his destruction.”

            “Perhaps we could leave, and return later when we have something that you would find suitable as compensation for some diamonds?” Lanara asked.

            Ali laughed and shook his head.  “Well, you could do that, but then the poison I placed in your drinks would surely kill you.”

            The party fell silent and stared at Ali, who shrugged.  “The fact that two and a half millennia of servitude has cooled my thirst for indiscriminate violence does not change the nature of who I am,” he said.  “In you I have a means to an end.  If I can do that with you willing, so be it.  If not, then I have no problem applying leverage.  And should you prove stubborn, well, your agonizing deaths will prove entertaining.  As I said before, I am always willing to be entertained.”

            After a moment of quiet shock, Autumn spoke.  “This is why I despise dealing with evil outsiders.”

            “Well, aren’t you supposed to be smiting him or something?” Lanara asked.

            She shook her head.  “Though the desire is there, the truth is that an efreet’s primary nature is that of fire, not of evil, thus my vows to keep all evil outsiders out of Aelfenn are less clear in regard to him.  Besides, he is too formidable a foe for me to defeat in combat.  I would rather think of a way to release him from his servitude here, as once free he will most certainly return to Karakor.  I have no problems with outsiders that stay on their own planets.”

            The party conversed quietly for a few moments, trying to think of either a way to circumvent the efreet’s contract, or to offer him a suitable price to get diamonds from him directly.

            Suddenly, Tolly looked up.  “Ali, how far below us is the _karrak’s _chamber?”

            “It is just below your feet,” he replied.  “The tomb is, as you probably already have figured out, nothing but an inverted pyramid.  The _karrak _resides in the room below, which still possesses some of the trappings of his former life.”

            Lanara’s face brightened as she realized what Tolly was getting at.  “Tolly, do you think you can…”

            “Maybe,” Kyle interrupted, “we should discuss this outside of the efreet’s hearing, so that he’s not aware of our intentions.”

            “Hey, can we make a big hole in the floor?” Osborn suddenly shouted out to Ali.  Kyle shook his head.

            But Ali only smiled.  “I care little what you do on that side of the line.  I just can’t allow you past the line to the stairs.”

            “See, Kyle?  He says its okay!” Osborn beamed at the wizard.

            “How thick is the stone between the two chambers?” Tolly asked.

            Ali held up large hands to indicate a depth of about two feet.  “I can make a hole large enough for us to fit through,” Tolly said, “but only one at a time.”

            “Well, what are we waiting for?” Arrie asked.  “Let’s go!”

            “Excuse me?” Kyle said, a bit exasperated.  “I realize everyone’s excited at jumping down a hole to get eaten by an undead orc, but maybe we could plan this a little better?”

            “You have a point,” Tolly said grudgingly.

            “So, Ali, what can the _karrak _do?” Kyle asked.

            “He is a death knight.  He has the abilities of an unholy warrior; not unlike those possessed by your sentinel companion, but obviously devoted to different ends.  He favors a double scimitar; he has done something to it – even I cannot explain it – that gives it both a holy and unholy power.  He wears field plate armor at all times.  I know that he has the power to unleash a ball of unholy fire; he tried to use it against me once, early in his imprisonment.  It… tickled.  He is not terribly clever.”

            The party withdrew to a back corner, discussing their options and resources.  Finally, a plan was developed, several preparatory spells were cast, and the party gathered around a spot on the floor.  Tolly cast his _stone shape_ spell, creating a large circular hole in the floor.

            “So,” said Xu, “if we are able to destroy the _karrak_, and free you from your servitude, will you provide the antidote to this poison?”

            Ali thought for a moment.  “All right,” he said.  “A fair bargain.”

            Lanara studied the efreet closely, looking for signs of deception, but saw none.  “Great,” said Lanara, sticking the end of a wand of fireballs she’d obtained from Keth’s spoils into the hole and trying to speak the command word.  But the wand fizzled, only emitting a few sparks.

            Osborn was the first down the hole, hidden by his ring of invisibility.  The chamber was nearly bare, except for an enormous bed in one corner and an armor stand on the opposite wall, both riddled with dust and cobwebs.  Standing motionless a short distance away, near the stairs leading to Ali’s chamber, was a fully-armored figure that could only be the _karrak_.  He was holding his double scimitar at the ready, clearly expecting trouble.  Obviously, a hole opening in the ceiling and sparks raining down was not an everyday occurrence.

            Arrie came down next, stepping squarely on Osborn’s toes as he scrambled out of the way.  She, like the rest of the party, had been warded with a _hide from undead_ spell from Tolly, but her landing was not as soft as the hin’s.  The _karrak _came to sudden alert, raising up his double scimitar and turning to face the center of the room rather than the stairs, scanning the room with glowing red eyes.  Arrie immediately charged in, swinging her spiked chain and connecting with a solid blow that wrapped the chain around the death knight’s legs and pulled him down.  But the spell that hid her from the death knight’s vision was dispelled by the attack, and the _karrak _retaliated, standing up quickly and slashing at Arrie with his double scimitar.  Her flesh seemed to twist and tear as the blade sliced across it, as a strange mix of both positive and negative energy tore through her.

            Autumn, Xu, and Kavan were next to drop down into the chamber, as Lanara’s bardic song began to echo down through the hole, and Osborn moved back by the large bed to get out of the way.  Autumn and Xu moved in to support Arrie, while Kavan angled away and drew his bow, shooting one arrow at the death knight that bounced off the ancient armor.  Autumn landed a solid blow, denting the _karrak’s _shoulder plate as her blessed sword came down.  Xu also pounded on the undead orc, cracking millennia-old bones.

            There was a loud crash as Tolly dropped down the hole, and then the sound of his deep voice shouting words of faith.  A deluge of acid enveloped the _karrak_, causing his armor to smoke and hiss.  Kyle dropped down immediately after, moving around behind Kavan and casting a _shocking grasp_ through a _spectral hand_ he’d cast earlier.  The ghostly hand connected, but the death knight seemed unaffected by the jolt of electricity that blasted him.  At the same time, a hail of thrown daggers came toward the undead abomination from Osborn, which all bounced harmlessly off his armor.

            The _karrak _stepped back toward the stairs, now aware of all of the enemies in the room, and suddenly pointed one gauntleted hand toward the center of the room.  Instantly, the room was filled with a blast of unholy fire, scorching everyone in the room.  Only Osborn and Xu were able to avoid the hellish flames, the first by diving behind the large bed, the latter by ducking behind the armor stand.  Everyone else was forced to drop flat to shield themselves from the blast, save Autumn, who was hit by its full force.  Only her innate resistance to fire from her celestial blood kept her on her feet.  Taking advantage of the respite his hellfire had given him, the death knight began to flee up the stairs, seeing he was outmatched.

            Autumn, her head swimming from the blast of heat, made out the _karrak’s _armored form trying to retreat from the battle.  Anger clouded the sentinel’s vision as she remembered other foes that has slipped out of her grasp; the shadar-kai, Sauroth, Xerxes.  Anger turned to grim purpose; this enemy would not be added to that list.  Summoning forth the righteous power of her order, Autumn stepped forward and swung with all her might, severing the death knight’s left leg at the knee.  Suddenly off balance, the _karrak _was unable to defend himself as Xu stepped up, pulling off his breastplate and punching straight into his chest, snapping ribs.  With a scream of rage and hatred that had burned for centuries, the _karrak _crumbled into dust, his armor falling with a clatter to the ground.

            In the chamber above, Lanara looked up to see Ali grin suddenly.  With a flourished bow, he vanished.  All of the ornate furnishings in the chamber also vanished, save for the long table, upon which rested eight slender vials filled with a purplish liquid.  The glowing orange line that bisected the room faded, then disappeared.

            A thorough search of the lower chamber turned up a stash of the _karrak’s _treasures, which included a coffer filled with many large gemstones.  Tolly picked out four large, white diamonds and set them aside, then returned to packing up the death knight’s plate armor.  Autumn reached down to pick up the double scimitar, but as soon as her hand closed around it waves of numbing energy went up her arm, sapping her strength.  She quickly released it and backed away.  Arrie stepped over and retrieved the weapon herself, and was seemingly unaffected by the weapon’s aura.

            “I think that weapon is evil, Arrie,” Autumn warned.

            “I’m not so sure,” Arrie said, twirling it in her hands.  “I felt it hit me, and it was… odd.  Like Ali had said, it was both good and bad at the same time.  I think it affected you because you’re a holy warrior.  I don’t feel a thing.”

            The party finished looting the tomb and made their way back up to the surface.  The various devices and traps they’d encountered now seemed inert, and the strange frozen torches throughout the tomb had gone out.  The party emerged, blinking, into the mid-day sun.  Waiting in a line outside the tomb were a unit of twenty orcs on horseback, their lances leveled at the party.  The group recognized some of them as the ‘honor guard’ that had escorted them out of Keth’s camp.

            “Thanks for waiting for us, gentlemen,” Lanara said calmly.

            “Thank you for bringing us so much treasure,” the unit commander replied.

            “Who said you get it?”

            The orcs tightened their grips on their lances.  “We do.”

            Tolly glanced at the line of orcs, and then at his companions.  They had fought too long and too hard to simply give up on his quest at this point.  Looking around, he saw that his friends agreed with him.

            There was a loud roar from the horizon just as the party drew their weapons.  Streaking across the sands, trailing fire behind him, Ali suddenly rushed toward the lancers, blasting them with beams of white-hot fire.  At the sight of one of Grabâkh’s mighty efreet servants, the orcs scattered and fled, certain that the wrath of their god was about to fall upon them for defiling the tomb.

            “We told you it was ours!” Lanara shouted after them.

            As they disappeared over the dunes, Ali laughed heartily.  “Ah, that felt good!” he roared.  “That service, I give to you for free.  Now, I feel like chasing down some orcs and eating their heads.”

            “Just leave Keth alone, please?” Lanara asked.

            “Ah, the warchief of whom you spoke.  Indeed, I think that after slaughtering these score of orcs, I shall be satisfied, and return home to Karakor.”  Ali bowed again, and then ran off into the desert, quickly vanishing.

            Lanara glanced over at Arrie, who was grinning wickedly as she continued to twirl the _karrak’s _double scimitar.  “Hey, Kyle?” the bard said quietly, “I think you might need to do something to Arrie before she hurts someone with that thing.”

            Tolly, who was standing nearby, pointed at one of the curved blades.  “We may not need to do anything.  Look.”

            Small spots of rust had appeared on the blade.  As they watched, the splotches grew larger, as if the weapon were corroding from within.  Within minutes, the weapon had fully disintegrated, except for the central section of the shaft.  From either end of the section came two ghostly serpentine shapes; one seemed to be made of shadow, and the other of rainbow-colored light.  The snake-like apparitions floated into midair, curling around each other in bands of light and darkness.  Suddenly they spoke with a single voice.

_Thank you for freeing us from our vile servitude.  It will be joyous to return home, but sad to be parted after so much time._

            “May I ask your name?” Tolly said.

_It has been… too long.  Our identities have been lost.  We shall regain our selves when we return home to heal.  In gratitude for our freedom, allow us to restore that which you have spent._

            Beams of gray light shot out from the eyes of the twinned spirits, touching each member of the party.  They felt their wounds closing, and their spirits refreshed.  There was a flash of light, and the spirits were gone.

            The party was left standing alone, outside the tomb, the silence broken only by the occasional bark from Rupert, who was waiting by the horses.

            “So… now what?” Arrie asked.

            Lanara took one last look at the tomb, then at Tolly, who had the diamonds he’d been commanded to retrieve in his belt pouch.  “I’m tired of the desert,” she said at last.  “Let’s get out of here, shall we?”


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*Great...*

I am always along time lurker of these boards who rarely comes out or posts...however I must say that I love this SH...everything about this game seems great to me.  Please keep up the good work.

I place you in my personal fav list...(a good crowd; Wulf's, Wiz, LB...)

PS Any chance of getting the PC stats, and that of their gear?  Like in an RG or in the SH?

djordje


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## Delemental

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> I am always along time lurker of these boards who rarely comes out or posts...however I must say that I love this SH...everything about this game seems great to me.  Please keep up the good work.
> 
> I place you in my personal fav list...(a good crowd; Wulf's, Wiz, LB...)
> 
> PS Any chance of getting the PC stats, and that of their gear?  Like in an RG or in the SH?
> 
> djordje





Wow, thanks.  That's some pretty impressive company you associate me with, and I'm not sure it's entirely deserved.  But since one of my reasons for doing a SH was to improve my writing skills, perhaps I have to accept the fact that they might have actually gotten better.  

As far as stats, I can see what I can do, but it could be hard.  The tricky part is that our actual game is about 6-7 months ahead of this; currently our characters are around 12th level, whereas when we left off in the Haran we were around 7th-8th.  I can guarantee with some certainty that no one (including me) kept their old character sheets.


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## djrdjmsqrd

*I understand...*

Your groups characters are a pleasent mix, and I believe you show alot of the Roleplaying in your writtings..hey even if the PC Sheets are a little ahead of the SH I would still love to see em...


----------



## Delemental

*Smoke and Mirrors*

It was a week’s ride before the party was able to cross the range of low mountains that separated the Haran Desert from the rolling grasslands that marked the Khag Steppes.  As sand gave way to waist-high grasses, Osborn and Lanara’s moods visibly brightened as they looked out over familiar territory again.  Osborn took a deep breath and smiled.

            “Home,” was all he said.

            They continued to ride east, tending slightly south in order to reach the city of Miracle, which would then allow them to cross the river into Medos.  Once they had left the desert behind, the party was reminded of the fact that it was the middle of winter.  Though still far enough north to avoid the worst of the cold, they awoke every morning to frost covering the ground, and occasionally rode through a light flurry of snow.

            Along the way, both Osborn and Lanara instructed the rest of their companions on life in the Steppes.  “There’s two types of people who live out here,” Lanara said, “settlers and wanderers.  The settlers gather in small towns and villages all over the Steppes.  None of them big enough to show up on a map…”

            “Except for Miracle,” Osborn interjected.

            “…except for Miracle.  Of course, there’s really no such thing as a ‘permanent’ settlement here.”

            “Why is that?” Tolly asked.

            “Well, you know, things happen.  Maybe the people living there just decide to move on, maybe whatever brought them there in the first place runs out or leaves, maybe the town gets destroyed by raiders, whatever.”

            Tolly sniffed.  “I don’t see how people can live with such uncertainty.”

            “It’s the way of life out here,” Osborn answered.  “Actually, most of the people living on the Steppes don’t settle in one place for very long at all.”

“It’s true,” Lanara agreed. “Most folks wander from place to place in groups, like the hin family clans.  Most are fine, although there are a few you have to watch out for.  There’s the cults, the bandits, the raiders, the looters…”

“Ah, yes, now I see the appeal,” Tolly snorted.

“Hey, at least life never becomes dull out here,” the cansin retorted.

They rode for another week through the grasslands.  As Osborn predicted, they did encounter one or two small groups of natives.  One was a small group of hin merchants that exchanged news and a few odd trinkets with the party.  The second was a mixed group on a pilgrimage through the Steppes to Sargia, who made an amicable, if persistent attempt to convert the party to worshipping Dakotha.

Early in the afternoon, two weeks after leaving the tomb of the _karrak_, the group spotted a rather large group of wagons in the distance ahead.  The wagons had stopped on a rise leading up to a small town, and now lay between the party and that town. They rode up on a low rise to get a better look.

“What do you see, Kavan?” Lanara asked.

“They’re flying some sort of banner,” he replied.  “I’m trying to make it out, but the wind… it’s a yellow banner, with something on it… looks like a very tall woman between two men standing on their heads…”

Osborn’s eyes went wide, and with a joyous whoop he quickly turned his riding dog Rupert around and began heading down the hill toward the wagons.  He soon vanished in the tall grass, leaving a long trail of flattened stalks behind him.  The others, confused, turned their mounts and followed after him.

The party came upon a group of a half-dozen hin outriders on canine mounts a few dozen yards from the wagons, obviously some sort of perimeter guard.  Osborn’s trail led past the group, continuing on toward the wagons.  With a smile and a nod, the perimeter guard waved the rest of the party through.

“Odd,” said Autumn, “that they didn’t even ask our names.”

“No,” replied Arrie, “that was just unusual.  _That_ is odd.”

They all looked to where Arrie was pointing.  They had emerged from the grass into the clearing made by the passage of the large wagon team, where a number of people were scurrying about.  Most were hin, though a few odd humans, cansin, and air-touched were among them.  A trio of hin was leading a lion on a rope toward a series of iron cages to their right.  On the left, an air-touched woman with light blue hair was sitting on a crate, contorted in what seemed an impossible position.  But what drew their attention was what Arrie had seen; standing a short distance from them was a group of four people, waving at the party.  One was a middle-aged hin, dressed in bright colors.  Next to him was a younger hin in similar attire, but who looked like the spitting image of Osborn.  Osborn himself was sitting atop the shoulder of the fourth person, beaming.  The woman who held him aloft looked like a hin, bearing their distinctive elongated skull.  But she was easily over six feet tall, and as broad as Autumn’s warhorse Defiance.

“Hey guys,” Osborn said as they rode up close, “Welcome to The Amazing Traveling Circus.  This is my mom.”

*          *            *​
            The party soon got a full introduction to the Greenbottle family from Osborn; his father Bartlebee, and his twin brother Gerald, who were the knife-throwing act for the circus.  Lillian, who was Osborn’s mother, was introduced as the circus fat lady.  The amiable woman took no offense at the title, as she shook each of their hands with thick, sausage-like fingers.

            “Mom’s Talent was the ability to grow to enormous size,” Osborn explained.  “But she could never control it very well, and one day she just got stuck like this.”

            Osborn took the party around to meet other members of the Amazing Traveling Circus.  They met the circus boss, Billyup, and the ringmaster, a cansin midget who went by the name ‘Tallfellow’.

            “Well, it’s not entirely inappropriate,” Lanara said upon meeting him.  “He may be short to me, but he’s still a foot taller than most of the hin.”

            “Indeed, madam,” Tallfellow said cheerfully.  “And as far as being too short for you, let me assure you that when it comes to meeting young women of your… stature, I find that my height is ideal to fully appreciate their… assets.”

            Lanara smiled at Tallfellow.  “Those aren’t my assets you’ve been staring at, my good man.  Allow me to illustrate.”  With that, she turned on her heel and walked away.

            Osborn gave the party a full tour of the circus, shouting greetings to people who walked by.  There were a few new faces, and a few faces that had disappeared (“We had to hire a new Boneless Woman,” Bartlebee quipped, “the old one grew a spine.”).  Many of the hin there came up and spoke eagerly with Osborn, asking how he was, and how the school had been.  But the conversations were brief; there was a show to put on, and everyone was busy getting ready.  Boss Billyup invited Osborn and his friends to watch the show free of admission.

            It was a spectacular show.  Though each of them, in their time had seen performances by other traveling carnivals and performers, none of them rivaled the performance of the Amazing Traveling Circus in their breadth, or complexity.  There were lion-tamers, and tiger acts, and even a trained dire bear.  The strongman, a human with rippling muscles, went into the audience and hefted the bench that Autumn, Arrie, Lanara, and Xu were sitting on with ease, drawing applause.  There were trapeze artists, acrobats, and contortionists.  There was the knife-throwing act, featuring Bartlebee and Gerald, which drew extra cheers from the party when they invited Osborn down as a ‘guest performer’.  All of the acts were enhanced by a choreographed display of light, sound, and color, provided by the circus band as well as a trio of illusionists.

            It was late by the time the performance had ended and the townsfolk had returned home.  The Greenbottles invited the party to join the performers for a late meal.  They returned to the main tent to find that two long tables had been set up side by side inside, packed with performers and circus workers.  Boss Billyup sat at the head of one table, next to Tallfellow.  The ringmaster waved at Lanara and motioned for her to sit next to him, but the bard stayed with her friends and sat near the Greenbottles.

            “So, where have you been recently, son?” Bartlebee asked.

            “Well, we just got back from the desert.”

            “Really? How was it?”

            “Hot.  Full of orcs.”

            “What were you doing out there?” Lillian asked.

            “We were looking for diamonds for Tolly,” Osborn explained.

            There was a sudden hush in conversation nearby.  Several pairs of eyes fell on Tolly.  “Really?” Gerald asked.  “What kind of diamonds?”

            “Big ones,” Lanara interjected.

            “Really?” Gerald repeated.

            “Yeah, they’re for his church,” Osborn said, loud enough for everyone listening in to hear. There was a barely perceptible sigh, and everyone went back to their own business.

            “But look!” Osborn said, pulling a leather cord out from around his neck.  “I’m a brother to Clan Hulg!”

            “Oh!” exclaimed Bartlebee, “is that what that tooth is on there?” Osborn’s father took a closer look at the totem.  “Tell me, do the orcs always carve designs on their teeth like this?”

            “Sometimes,” Osborn shrugged, “if they want to.”

            “Before or after they take them out of their mouths?”

            “Either.”

            “Huh.”  Bartlebee let the tooth drop down onto Osborn’s chest.  “Orcs.  Never understood them.”  His face brightened.  “So what else have you been up to?”

            “Oh, we’ve been on lots of adventures!  I’ll tell you all about them!”  He paused, then reached into his pocket.  “Say, want some bacon?”

            “Well, sure.  Who wouldn’t?  But we don’t have any, son.  Kind of hard to raise pigs when you’re on the move all the time, you know that.”

            Osborn grinned and pulled out a small statuette of a pig rendered in white marble.  He rubbed the belly of the figurine, whispering something in its tiny ear.  Instantly, a large slab of bacon appeared on the table.  The rest of his family gasped in delight.

            “Wow!” Bartlebee shouted, nearly falling out of his chair.  “Magic bacon!  You’re the best son ever!”

            Across the table, Kyle smiled to himself.  The “Magic Bacon Pig”* had been his idea, and he and Kavan had worked on it during the sea voyage to the desert.

            Osborn spent the rest of the evening regaling his family, and other listeners, with the tales of his exploits after leaving the Tower.  It was very late by the time people began to turn in.  The Greenbottles invited the party to pitch their tents near their wagon; Osborn, of course, was invited inside.  Boss Billyup walked with them.

            “So, where are you headed now?” he asked.

            “We’re heading to M’dos,” Osborn said.

            “Well, we’re heading east for a while ourselves,” he replied.  “Why don’t you all stay with us for a spell?  Of course, you’d have to take on some work around here, pull your weight and all.”

            “That’s right,” Osborn agreed.  “No free rides here.  I don’t see why we couldn’t – makes sense, since we’re all going in the same direction and all.”

            “All right, then.  We’re moving out in the morning – this town’s not big enough to stay another day.  Come see me in my wagon in the morning and we can talk about what you can do around here.”

            After a good night’s sleep, the party met with Boss Billyup.  Osborn, naturally, was incorporated into the knife-throwing act.  Xu offered to perform a display of her martial and acrobatic skills as a sideshow act, which was eagerly accepted.  Lanara offered her usual skills, but Billyup informed her that a circus was a poor venue for a bardic performance.

            “I could use a carnival barker, though,” he said.

            “Sure, I’ll try anything twice.”

            “Twice?” Kyle asked.

            “Yeah.  First time to try it, second time to see if I like it,” she said with a wink.

            Tolly, who by his own admission had no suitable performance skills, offered to help out with repairs around the camp.  Kavan offered to work on costumes.  Kyle offered his magical talents, but had to admit that his repertoire of illusion magic, which would have been most useful, was fairly meager.  But when he mentioned his skill with alchemy, Billyup assigned him to help make flash powders and colored smoke bombs.  Arrie and Autumn offered to help with general labor, as well as care of horses and general security.  There was some talk of reviving the ‘butter wrestling’ that marked last Midsummer’s festivities (a proposal of matching up Autumn and Lanara was enough of an image to cause Kyle to lose his train of thought), though that discussion was curtailed when Arrie hefted what she called “a 15-pound ball of _no_”.

            Their jobs assigned, the party spent the next week as part of the circus.  Though they never had the chance to perform, the party got a chance to meet and talk with several members of the circus.  Tolly spent a good deal of time with the orc-touched tinker named Nadoc, who’d lost an arm several years ago while apprenticed to a smith in Sargia and came out to the Steppes to ply his trade.  Lanara spent most of her time staying out of sight of Tallfellow.  Autumn and Arrie spent hours riding out on patrol for the circus, getting a rare opportunity to talk as sisters without being overheard.  Osborn and Xu practiced for their acts, Kavan helped with costumes, and Kyle picked up some pointers from the circus’ spellcasters.  For a week, they were able to forget their cares, forget that they had apparently been thrust into the middle of a millennia-old war with forbidden powers.  They were able to forget, but not completely.

            It was Kyle who first broke the spell of circus life.  The party was sitting around their campfire, finishing the last of their meal, when the wizard looked Kavan in the eye.

            “Kavan, I think I’m ready,” was all he said.

            The others knew what he meant.  Since their encounter with the psion Aran in the dream-realm, Kyle had argued that they needed more information to base their decisions on.  The arguments between he and Tolly had grown quite heated, until they suddenly stopped a few days later, shortly after leaving the tomb of the _karrak_.  It was soon after this that Kyle asked Kavan if he could determine what Erito’s view would be on the issue of psionics.  Kavan told him about the relic he carried, that allowed him to communicate directly with Erito and ask questions of her.  Kyle had told Kavan that he would need time to decide what to ask.

            “All right, Kyle,” Kavan said.  “I’ll need a few minutes to prepare.  Would you like to do this in private?”

            “No, everyone should hear the answers, no matter what they are,” Kyle said.  “That’s only fair.”

            The rest of the party stood up and went for a short walk around the camp while Kavan meditated in preparation for the ritual of communion.  Autumn caught up with Kyle out where the animals were kept, and they watched as a pair of bear cubs wrestled under the watchful eye of their mother.

            “Kyle,” Autumn said at last.  “I know that you believe Aran told us the truth, but…”

            “I don’t believe anything, yet,” he answered before she could finish.  “I’m just willing to accept that he might be telling the truth.  And there are parts of his story that I just find easier to swallow than… other people’s versions.”

            “Kyle, why is it so difficult for you to understand where Tolly is coming from on this?”

            “It’s not that hard to see where he gets his opinion.  What I don’t get is why he can’t see the common sense in my point of view.”

            “That has nothing to do with it.  You know that Tolly is only following what he believes his goddess tells him.  The works of the gods don’t always make sense to us.”

            “And that’s why I’m asking for this ritual from Kavan.  I’m giving Erito a chance to explain herself a little.”

            Autumn’s eyes narrowed.  “Careful, Kyle.  Sometimes I have to agree with Tolly that you sound a little blasphemous when you talk about the gods like that.”

            “I don’t think Erito’s going to get her knickers in a twist over it, so I don’t think you should, either.”  Kyle laughed.  “As for Tolly, and Ardara, well… all I can say is I don’t see how she can expect Tolly to do her work in this world without telling him the whole story.  But, that’s never stopped him, right?”

            There was a brief silence.  “Kyle… you do realize that when you do this ritual, there’s a chance that Erito will be in support of Tolly’s views, rather than your own?”

            “The thought had crossed my mind,” he admitted.

            “What will you do then?”

            He thought for a moment.  “I’m not sure.  But even if it does turn out that Erito has the same view as Ardara’s archon gave us, I’m not so sure I could go along with the wholesale slaughter of anyone born different.  You just never know who that might turn out to be.”

            Autumn shivered, from more than just the cold.  “It’s probably almost time to go back,” she said.

            “Yeah, guess there’s no show without me, is there?  If I don’t show up, then Osborn’ll probably take my place, and I don’t think Erito wants to answer that many questions about bacon.”

            Autumn laughed as they turned and began walking back to camp.

            “I like to hear you laugh,” Kyle said.  “I haven’t heard it much lately.”

            “There hasn’t been much time for it,” Autumn replied.

            “I remember you used to laugh quite a bit, back when we were in the palace at Noxolt,” he said.  “Especially when we were alone.”

            “Kyle, we agreed…”

            “What?  I’m just remembering a good time.  It’s not like I’m trying to seduce you… again.”

            “You never ‘seduced’ me, Kyle.  It was by mutual consent.  And you’re treading on thin ice now.”  Autumn’s voice was stern, but the look in her eyes belied the fact that she was more amused than irritated.

            “Okay, okay, fine.  But just because I agreed to let you have some time alone to sort your life out doesn’t mean I’m going to forget what we’ve had, or that I’m going to stop hoping that we can have it again.”

            Autumn stopped, and turned to face Kyle.  “I’m not going to forget it either, Kyle.  It meant a lot to me.  And I do hope that one day things can go back to where they were between us.  I’m just… still not sure.”

            “Well, until you do know for sure, I’ll wait,” he said.

            Autumn pulled Kyle toward her and hugged him.  “Thank you,” she said.  As she held him, familiar memories stirred in her mind and warmed her heart.  She looked up at him, and her left hand drifted up and slipped behind his head.  She felt his hair between her fingers; it was much longer now than it was the last time she’d been this close to him, almost… dear Bail, had it been four months?  It seemed as though it had been both far less than that, and far more at the same time.

            Her lips were within a finger’s width of his when he pulled back.  “Now who’s breaking the rules?” he said.

            Autumn stepped back quickly, though not without a pang of regret.  “I’m sorry,” she said quickly.  “I was just…”

            “It’s okay, Autumn,” Kyle said.  “No harm done.  Maybe you were right to warn me about bringing up old memories.  I’ll keep them to myself for now.”

            Autumn smiled, the flush slowly receding from her cheeks.  “I’ll do the same.  Shall we head back now?”

            “I’ll hang back a minute,” he said,  “let the others think we never met up.  I do still remember that I’m supposed to keep ‘us’ a secret.”

            “Very true.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to think about that.  Well, then, see you at camp.”

            Kyle watched Autumn walk away, her hair flowing in the slight breeze like waves of wheat.  He smiled broadly as she vanished around a corner.  He really hadn’t intended to stir things up quite that much, even though he’d quite deliberately brought up the memories of their past romantic encounters.  Kyle knew that Autumn’s current desire to remain separate and think about the course of her life stemmed in some small part from that fact that after Noxolt he’d become so wrapped up in his own problems that he’d neglected her.  So much so, that she’d had to go to someone else to get the attention she needed.

            Kyle sighed.  Although there was still the chance that in the end Autumn would decide that she simply couldn’t stay with Kyle as anything more than a friend and adventuring companion, this time it wouldn’t be due to lack of effort on his part.  He just had to be careful not to overdo it.  He did genuinely respect her wishes to back away from any sort of intimacy until she got things sorted out, but he saw no harm in ‘nudging’ her thinking in certain directions once in a while.  And as for Tolly… well, that issue would probably take care of itself.  He shook his head in disbelief, remembering how upset he’d been when Arrie had confided in him that Tolly was interested in Autumn.  It had taken a few days for him to come to his senses.  He still wasn’t sure why Autumn had allowed Tolly to continue his pursuit for so long – maybe it was just because she needed someone to talk to while he’d been ignoring her.  But Kyle was certain that she’d soon let him down easy, telling him there was no future between them.  Maybe she already had – Tolly had grown suddenly very quiet on the way out of the desert, and he’d stopped constantly haranguing Kyle about ‘the peril to his soul’.

            Kyle shook his head to clear it.  There were other things to think about now.  The ritual was ready.

------------------------

* _Magic Bacon Pig_ - The small figurine of a common barnyard pig is carved from white marble.  Once per day, the owner may rub the pig's belly and speak the command word to produce one pound of uncooked bacon, cured as to the owner's desires.  This bacon is not sufficient to sustain life or prevent starvation.

Mild conjuration; CL 7th; Craft Wondrous Item, _create food and drink_; Price 500 gp.

(For those who wonder, our DM is pretty liberal with allowing cooperative magic item creation; Kyle provided the feat, Kavan the spell.  It's cheap because it's intended as a 'flavor' item; we limited it by saying you couldn't just live off the bacon.)


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## djrdjmsqrd

*bump...*

...set...spike......

to the top! more please...


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## Delemental

Ask, and ye shall receive!  (Sorry for the delay, real life can be so demanding...

---------------------

           The eight companions sat in a circle.  Kavan and Kyle sat cross-legged in the center, facing each other.  Kyle’s raven familiar, Violet, was standing between them.  Violet had agreed to act as a focus for the ritual in the hopes it might have a greater chance at success.  The others sat around the wizard and the cleric, watching.

            “I have opened a channel to Erito’s realm,” Kavan intoned, in a voice not quite his own.  “Speak your questions now.”

            Kyle took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.  “Does Erito desire that all beings with developed psionic abilities are destroyed without exception?”

NO. The answer seemed to come as much from the air around Kavan as it did from the elf’s lips.

            Kyle’s eyes flickered to Tolly, and he couldn’t help but smirk a bit.  “Does Erito desire that all beings with any psionic ability, developed or not, are destroyed without exception?”

NO.

            Another smirk crossed Kyle’s face he could focus back on the task at hand.  “Is the accounting of pre-Cataclysmic events given to us by the being we know as Aran accurate?”

UNCLEAR.

            This answer caused Kyle to frown.  It wasn’t what he’d hoped for.  “Is Aran’s information regarding the philosophical factions within psionic society and their goals accurate?”

UNCLEAR.

            An idea popped into Kyle’s head with this second non-committal answer, but it would have to wait.  The ritual did not allow for pauses.  “Does a location exist on Aelfenn where an accurate accounting of pre-Cataclysmic history can be found that our party could feasibly access?”

NOT AT THIS TIME.

            This answer was a pleasant surprise for Kyle.  The way Kavan had explained it, answers more detailed that ‘yes’ or ‘no’ were very rare.  “Does Erito forbid the use of psionically-crafted items to those without psionic talent?”

UNCLEAR.

            This answer was not as troubling to Kyle as the previous two.  He’d thrown that question in mostly just to see if destroying the psionic items they’d found was really necessary.  “Are all the gods unified in their stance in relation to psionic beings?”

NO.

            This answer was not surprising at all, though it begged certain other questions.  However, those would have to wait.  “Would Archprelate Jerome of the Ardaran church be able to provide more clarifying information on the subject of psionics, should he choose to do so?”

UNCLEAR.

            Kyle had one final question, but realized that the answer would be redundant based on the previous questions, and so he signaled Kavan that he was done.  The aura of divine power around Kavan faded, and as Kyle looked around he saw that his friends were already discussing the results of the ritual.

            “So, why so many ‘unclear’ answers?” Lanara asked.  “No offense, Kavan, but I thought Erito was supposed to be top of the heap.”

            “If I had to guess,” Kyle said, “I’d say that even though Erito is head of the pantheon, she’s not omniscient.  And that conversation with Aran took place in his dream-realm, which may lie outside the influence of the gods.  Erito might not be able to tell us whether what Aran said was true simply because she doesn’t know what he said.”  Kyle shrugged.  “Poor phrasing of questions on my part.  Live and learn.”

            “What about the question about Archprelate Jerome?” Autumn asked.  “Why was that unclear?”

            “Because Erito would not be privy to the information that the other gods might share with their clergy,” Kavan said.  “She cannot know how much the Archprelate knows about psionics.”

            “Well, sorry about that, Tolly,” Kyle said.  “I was hoping to get an idea whether or not it would be worth your time to try and ask Jerome about the subject.”

            “I appreciate the thought,” Tolly said, “though it would appear that the answer to your first two questions leaves little doubt as to where the gods stand.”

            “Actually,” Arrie said, “all it proves is what Erito thinks.  She even said that all the gods don’t agree, right?”

            “That’s true,” Kyle said.  “For all we know Ardara isn’t as forgiving as Erito.  These questions are a start, but they’re nowhere near enough to go basing any decisions on.  We’ll just have to keep asking more questions.”

            “I can only perform the ritual once a month,” Kavan said.

            “Well, we’ve still got a long road ahead of us,” Osborn commented.  “Seems like Kyle will get another crack or two at Erito before we hit M’Dos.”

            “Speaking of a long road ahead,” Lanara said, yawning, “it’s getting late, and Boss Billyup says he needs to make up some time on the road tomorrow.  We’ll hit the next town in two days.  We can discuss this tomorrow night.”

            The party agreed with Lanara, and moved to turn in.  Dawn would be upon them all too soon.  Soon only two people were left sitting at the waning campfire.

            “Is something wrong?” Autumn asked.

            Tolly sat pensively on a wooden crate, stroking his beard.  “Kavan’s ritual,” he said at last, “the answers from Erito are… troubling.”

            “Well, they’re exactly that, Tolly; Erito’s answers.  We don’t know what Ardara thinks.”

            “Yes, but Erito ranks above Ardara, thus her views must hold a certain weight.”

            Autumn moved over to sit next to Tolly on the crate.  She placed her hand atop his and squeezed.  “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?”

            He sighed.  “I’ve been contemplating the possibility of working with this Aran, and whether it would be in conflict with my duty to Ardara.  My phylactery has been silent during these meditations.”

            Autumn nodded.  She knew the functioning of the phylactery well; she had received one as well during their lessons at the Tower.  It was supposed to provide a means of knowing if one’s actions or intentions would violate the tenets of a person’s patron deity.

            “The archon Alexriel was so clear on this matter,” Tolly said.  “Psionics are an abomination.  All users of psionics must be exterminated.  All items using psionic power must be destroyed.  But now it seems that Ardara does not hold that view as clearly as I thought.”  Tolly looked at Autumn, and she saw the torment in his eyes.  “When I died, I was told that I would serve as the scalpel of Ardara, to root out the corruption in this world.  How can I serve in that manner, when I don’t even know where I should cut?”

            Autumn thought for a while before she responded.  “When I was a young girl, my father used to give me advice all the time.  ‘Wear the blue dress to the ball,’ ‘Tighten your grip on the reins’, ‘keep your shield up’.  Then, when I was thirteen, men from the Order of Sentinels came to test me.  When the testing was done, they said that I had the potential to become a sentinel, and that I would have to choose whether I would make the journey to the Vigilant Fortress to begin training.  I went to my father to ask him what I should do.  He didn’t say a word to me – he just stood up and walked out of the room.

            “I remember how hard that was for me.  I was angry, then sad, then terrified.  Finally, I went back and demanded to know why he’d ignored me like that.  He sat me down, and very calmly told me.  ‘Autumn, your mother and I have raised you well,’ he said.  ‘Well enough that I trust you to make a decision like this on your own.  If I tell you what I think, then it’s no longer fully your decision.  You need to decide for yourself what is best for you.  This decision is too big, too important in your life for it to be otherwise.  And no matter what you choose, I will stand behind you, because I know you made the best choice for yourself.’” Autumn smiled a bit at the memory.  “A week later, I was riding to the Vigilant Fortress.  Tolly, maybe Ardara doesn’t want to tell you what to do, because she trusts you to make your own decision on this matter.  Maybe it means that she will stand behind you no matter what you decide.”

            Tolly thought for a while, then smiled at Autumn.  “You seem determined to make sure I don’t sleep well tonight.”

            Autumn laughed.  “Well, forgive me for that.”

            “There’s no need for forgiveness, Autumn.  I don’t mind being kept awake all night by a woman as lovely as yourself.”  Tolly smiled again, but then blanched when he realized the unintentional double meaning of his words.

            Autumn took it in stride.  “That sounds like something I’d expect Kyle to say,” she laughed.

            “Yes, I suppose it is.”

            She gave his hand another squeeze.  “Good night, Tolly.  I hope you can decide what you want soon.”  With that she stood, kissed him on the cheek, and went into the women’s tent.

            Tolly sat and watched her depart, admiring the way the light from the fire reflected off her hair, which shone like pure gold.  He could still feel the press of her lips on his face.  Gods, man, he thought, could things be any more clear?  He’d been slowly increasing his efforts to subtly woo Autumn, and so far she had not resisted or balked.  Her reaction to his verbal gaffe was even more of an indication that she would welcome a serious suit from him.  After all, he knew Autumn had no other prospects waiting for her; he’d already determined that by talking to her sister Arrie.  Soon, he thought, it will be time to make my intentions known.  But not yet.  Not until M’Dos, at the earliest.  But before then, he would have to keep working at winning Autumn over.  He’d reached the limit of what he knew what to do; his own lack of experience with such worldly affairs was a limitation that would have to be overcome.  To do that, he’d need some help.  He thought about speaking with Kyle, but dismissed the idea.  The wizard was a good person at heart (despite his dalliances with blasphemy), but would have little to offer for wooing a person of Autumn’s noble heritage.  Perhaps Kavan?  Yes, that might work.  Despite the indiginity of his former life, the Eritan priest might have some insight into proper courtships.  And as a man of faith like himself, Kavan would surely understand his situation, and would practice some amount of discretion.  Tolly resolved to speak with Kavan soon.

            “Good night, Autumn,” he whispered.  Then, suddenly tired, he stood up and made his way to the tent.  With at least one question hanging over his head now resolved, sleep would come easier. 

*          *            *​
            They saw the plumes of smoke a half-day outside of the town.  Boss Billyup sat atop a pony, peering at the black columns.  The party sat on their mounts behind him, armed and ready.  They’d gathered when the clan’s scouts first reported the smoke.  Only Xu remained on foot, as her natural foot speed was greater than that of any horse.

            “The scouts say it’s not a brush fire, thank Feesha,” Billyup said.  “But it doesn’t look good.  Raiders, maybe.”

            “We should go and see what happened,” Tolly said.

            “Yes, well, I suppose…” Billyup said hesitantly.  “It’ll take a while to get everyone moving, and…”

            “We can ride ahead,” Autumn offered.

            The party rode off with Billyup’s vigorous agreement.  They rode at a rapid pace, hoping to get to the town and return before nightfall.  Still, it was early afternoon by the time the buildings came into view.  Or, what was left of them.

            They rode slowly into the town, surveying the devastation.  The town sat in a wide, shallow valley carved by a meandering river.  About half of the buildings had been burned to the ground, most still smoking and emitting waves of heat.  Scattered around the streets were the bodies of the townspeople.  Men, women, and children lay in tortured poses, many surrounded by pools of their own blood.  Most of the bodies were in several pieces.

            “Split up and search,” Arrie said quietly.

            It didn’t take them long to discover that no one was left alive in the town.  The party conducted a silent body count, at the same time stamping out small bits of smoldering debris that had landed in the grass.  They gathered in the center of town, holding cloths up to their faces to ward off the smell of burnt flesh.  They added up the bodies they’d found, and guessed that three-quarters of the population lay dead in the street.

            “Where are the rest?” Tolly asked.

            “Prisoners?” Xu asked.

            “Maybe,” said Kavan, “but Kyle found this.”  He held up a small amulet that looked like it had been torn off in a struggle.  It was a stylized spider.

            “Fiel,” Kavan spat.

            “There’s this, too.”  Arrie held out the broken end of a spear.  The tip was slightly discolored.  “Poison,” she confirmed, indicating she’d already used her Talent to detect toxins.  Kyle took the spear and carefully scraped the substance into a vial.

            “This looks like the work of Ravagers to me,” Kavan said.  Tolly nodded in agreement.

            “Who are these Ravagers?” Xu asked.

            “Cultists devoted to Fiel.  It’s a small cult, and the cells tend to die off pretty quickly, but they’re very dedicated.  They pretty much kill for the sake of killing.  This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of them doing something like this.”  Kavan looked out across the plains.  “If the Ravagers did take prisoners, it’s because they want to save them to be slaughtered in especially gruesome ways.  Or eaten.  When I was training to be a priest, I was warned about the Ravagers.”

            “Then we should find them,” Autumn said, dashing off to her horse and vaulting into the saddle.  “This all happened today, by the looks of it, which means they can’t be far.  Let’s go!”

            “Autumn,” Arrie said gently.  “I agree with you, but none of us are trackers.  We’ll have a hard time finding them after so much time has passed.”

            Kyle walked up and stood next to the sentinel, still in her saddle.  “You can summon celestial creatures, right?”

            “Yes,” Autumn said.

            “Could you summon something that might be able to track these Ravagers down?”

            Her face brightened.  “Of course.”  She concentrated for a moment, and a moment later a large, silvery-furred wolf appeared.  Kavan walked up and allowed the wolf to sniff at the Ravager amulet, and after receiving some rudimentary empathic instructions from Autumn, it immediately began to circle around, trying to find the scent.

            “Kyle, couldn’t you send Violet off to see if she could find them?” Autumn asked.

            “Well, I can give it a shot, but a raven’s not too good at seeing long distances.”  Kyle looked at Violent, who cawed and then took off into the sky.

            A few minutes later the celestial wolf began to bound off into the grass.  Autumn immediately turned her horse Defiance and began to follow.  Xu looked up as she began to ride off.

“Excuse me,” Xu said to the others, “but Autumn is riding off.”

Arrie sighed.  “And everyone complains about me.”

“Well, we know where she got it,” replied Tolly.

The party scrambled to catch up to Autumn.  Just as they got onto their horses, Violet came flying back.

            “Boss,” the raven croaked, landing on Kyle’s shoulder.  “You know that group of people that you wanted me to find?”

            “You saw them?”

            “Yeah, off that way.” Violet gestured with one wing across the plains.  “Looks like they’re riding toward the circus.  They don’t look friendly.”

            Kyle gasped.  “The Ravagers are heading for the circus!” he shouted.  He wheeled his horse around and pointed in the direction Violet had given him.  The others began to gather around Kyle, even as Arrie rode out to catch Autumn and redirect her.

            “So, boss,” Violet said, “You gonna need me for this?”

            “I… guess not,” Kyle said.  “Why?”

            “Well, there are a lot of dead bodies back there, and, well…” Violet flapped her wings eagerly.  Kyle groaned in response.

            “How many times have I told you not to tell me these things, Violet?”

            “Sorry, boss.”

            He sighed.  “Just… don’t bring back leftovers, okay?”

            Violet cawed and flew off.  Kyle’s gaze met Tolly’s, who was looking at him sternly.  “Look, she may be a familiar, but she’s still a raven.  They’re carrion birds.”

            “Was the part about ‘leftovers’ truly necessary?” Tolly asked.

            Kyle winced.  “Unfortunately, yes.”

            “Not now, you two,” Osborn snapped.  “We have to ride hard to catch these Ravagers before they reach the circus.”  He turned Rupert around and began bounding through the tall grass.  The others followed behind him at a gallop.

            The horses had worked up a heavy lather by the time they party came within sight of the wagons.  The hin had already circled into a defensive formation, and had mounted shields along the large wheels to act as a barrier.  Arrows flew out from inside the wagon circles to pepper a group of nearly a dozen raiders.  The motley band was unified in appearance only by the scar-tattoos that marred their facial features.  Most of them appeared to be dressed in hide armor; there was a pair of hin with short swords, an orc with a scimitar and shield, and a pair of humans with similar weapons.  A second orc bore a greatsword.  Another human in he raiding party was wearing splint mail.  The rest of the band was even more varied; there was a tiefling riding atop a giant spider with a brace of javelins strapped to his mount, a cansin with a pair of large dragonfly wings emerging from her back, and a fire-touched in red robes.  The fire-touched and cansin had wands clutched in their hands.

            Tolly and Kyle opened up the party’s offensive with a pair of spells as soon as they were in range; Tolly raised a field of _spike stones_ between the raiders and the wagons, while Kyle summoned a _stinking cloud_.  As the greenish vapors began to rise, the raiders scrambled to get out of the area; most seemed to emerge none the worse for wear.  Crossbow bolts from Xu and Osborn followed, though neither found their mark.  The others just moved in as fast as possible to get into melee, save for Lanara, who slowed enough to prepare some defensive spells from her magical harp.

            The raiders moved to defend themselves from attack, the warriors moving to engage the party while others hung back to press their assault on the circus.  The two hin charged toward Kavan just as he unleashed a blast of _searing light_ at one of the human warriors, but instead of attacking the priest directly they slashed at his horse, severely wounding it.  Kavan jerked at the reins trying to keep his mount under control.  The fire-touched pointed at Tolly and a bolt of fire shot out at him, barely missing.  Kyle, on the other side of the battlefield, realized with a shock that the fiery bolt was not caused by any kind of spell, but seemed to be conjured by the fire-touched by sheer will.  He had little time to contemplate this, however, as he began to urge his mount around, hoping to avoid the Ravager’s fighters and get at their mages, one of which had dispelled his _stinking cloud_.

            Tolly, Autumn, and Arrie slammed head-on into the Ravagers, several of whom had begun to foam at the mouth and scream incoherently.  Tolly swung his hammer, which was slick with an acidic sheen, at the orc wielding the scimitar.  In response, the raging orc slashed at Tolly’s horse, severing its front legs and sending Tolly crashing to the ground.  The orc followed through by cutting deep into Tolly’s thigh.  Arrie ducked as another fiery bolt from the fire-touched went over her head, and then she moved up to assist Kavan with the pair of hin barbarians.  Autumn’s blade flashed as she engaged one of the humans with a scimitar; next to her, the celestial wolf she’d summoned attacked the second human.  Osborn and Xu launched more crossbow bolts, with one bolt from Xu sticking into the leg of the orc.  Well behind the main fighting, the tielfing urged his arachnid mount forward as he cast a spell, calling on Fiel’s wrath.  Most of the party was caught in a foul cloud of unholy power that came out of nowhere. Though they were able to shake off the worst of the effects, Autumn’s wolf companion caught the full brunt of the priest’s power, and vanished with a yelp of pain.  The horses were also staggered by the spell; though most survived, Kavan’s steed, already wounded, could not bear the torment, and collapsed in a bloody heap, sending the elf tumbling to the ground.

            Kyle, seeing that Tolly was vulnerable after falling off his mortally wounded mount, cast a _ray of enfeeblement_ at the orc, channeling it through his magical rod to increase its power.  The orc’s strength drained away to the point that it could barely hold his weapons.  Taking advantage of the orc’s surprise, Tolly cast a spell on himself, imbuing his body with Ardara’s power and increasing his fighting prowess.  Across the field, the two hin pressed their advantage against Kavan, driving him back and wounding him severely.  Arrie tried to help, but was blocked by the press of horses and men and was only able to land a single blow.

            The battle began to shift from horseback to feet, as the party, wary of the Ravager’s tactic of killing mounts, began to jump off their horses and let them run to safety.  Osborn hurled a dagger at one of the hin attacking Kavan, and Xu waded into the fray as well, hitting the other hin.  Behind the main line of combat, the tiefling, cansin, and fire-touched prepared another barrage.  The fire-touched launched another beam of fire at Osborn, this time connecting and severely burning him.  He slapped at the spot where he’d been struck, beating out the flames.  The cansin, whose dragonfly wings were carrying her a few feet in the air, launched a bolt of dark energy at Autumn, which connected and sent her reeling.  Worse, the evil spell robbed the sentinel of her sight.  Autumn staggered back a step with a cry of surprise.  Then, the panic was replaced by indignant fury.  Reaching into a pouch, she pulled out a small black crystal bead and hurled in toward the area where the mages had converged.  The bead landed in their midst by sheer good fortune, and detonated, scattering the mages and their bodyguards.  The bead also created a sphere of force, which didn’t manage to capture any of the Ravagers, but blocked their path, forcing them to relocate in order to bring their firepower to bear on the party again.  The blast forced one the humans in splint mail into Tolly’s field of spikes, cutting bloody gashes in his feet and ankles.

            “Nice throw!” Arrie shouted to her sister over the din of battle, unaware that Autumn was unable to see.  Then, when Autumn shifted Defiance over in order to avoid the attacks of one of the Ravagers, which opened up a line of attack for Arrie, she shouted, “You are such a good sister!”  Arrie went back to the battle, alternating her blows between the pair of hin that were assaulting Kavan and Xu, and the human barbarian that had shifted from Autumn and was now menacing Osborn.  Tolly was now facing off against both orcs, although the weakened one was now hardly a threat at all.  The winged cansin managed to fire off a quick _sound burst_ at Autumn, giving her a nosebleed but failing to stun her with the concussive blast.  Lanara, slightly behind the battle-line so her bardic song could be heard, tried to use a _hold person_ spell on one of the hin, but it had no effect.  The Ravagers, with most of the horses now away from the battle, shifted from trying to destroy mounts to trying to destroy shields.  Kavan’s shield was nearly split in two by a blow from one of the hin, while Tolly’s mithral shield weathered the attack of the orc’s greatsword much better.  With no horse, a nearly ruined shield, and bleeding from several wounds, Kavan was forced to withdraw in order to heal himself.  Xu was also quite badly hurt, Tolly was pinned down, and Arrie was desperately trying to keep the human Ravager from attacking Osborn while at the same time blocking the progress of the hin barbarians by knocking them off their feet.  Autumn’s sight was slowly returning, but she was out of position.  Kyle was nowhere to be seen, and the Ravager’s mages were now positioned to resume their magical assault.  Things were looking grim.

            Xu ran over and kicked at one of the hin that Arrie had tripped, breaking several ribs.  But a gesture from the winged cansin caused an arm made of earth to erupt from the ground and try to grab at the monk, forcing her to fall back from her attack.  Osborn managed to avoid another blast of fire from the fire-touched, and in response used his own _circlet of blasting_ to fire an energy bolt back, burning a hole into his chest.  Autumn, whose vision had returned, turned and saw that she had an opening to the cansin, who was hovering just a few feet above the ground.  She wheeled Defiance around and spurred him into a gallop, at the same time pulling her boots out of the stirrups and coming up to her knees atop her saddle.  With a cry of rage, Autumn jumped off of Defiance as they passed under the cansin, her longsword stretched out as high as possible.  The blade, bright with holy power, cut into the cansin’s leg, taking it off at the knee.  As Autumn landed with a metallic crash, the cansin fell to earth behind her, the shock of sudden blood loss rendering her unconscious.  The human in splint mail quickly moved to engage the new threat, while at the same time the tiefling reached out and cast a spell over the fallen fire-touched, drawing his life-force out and imbuing the spider-mounted priest with power.  But just as the tiefling was about to cast another spell at Autumn, he jerked suddenly, and his eyes glazed over.  For the briefest of moments, a translucent image of Kyle appeared behind the priest, his arm outstretched and holding onto the tielfing’s leg, and then the image vanished.  The spark of intellect and reason vanished from the priest’s eyes, and with a sudden look of primitive panic, he turned his spider and began to run away.

            Heartened by the enemies’ sudden loss of their spellcasters, the party pressed their attack anew.  Tolly swung his hammer around furiously, crushing the skull of the orc with the greatsword and following through into the second.  Osborn finally got the opening he wanted, and a storm of daggers flew through the air impaling the human barbarian.  The hin, trying to go after Kavan again, was tripped by Arrie’s chain and then beaten into a gristly pulp by Xu.  Kavan, with a reprieve from the assault, was finally able to summon some divine power for a task besides healing, shouting out invocations to Erito that bolstered his companion’s spirits and struck fear into his foes.  The tide of battle shifted dramatically in the heroes’ favor.

            Autumn squared off against the human in splint mail, who fought with a pair of daggers expertly wielded.  They danced back and forth for a few grueling seconds, equally matched, right up until the point where the image of Kyle flickered behind the human, his arm outstretched and enveloped in sickening black energy.  The Ravager screamed as his life-force was ripped out of his body violently, and Kyle smiled before vanishing again.  Though he recovered quickly from the shock, he was still unnerved, and Autumn was relentless.  Unexpectedly, the human raised his hands, and a globe of darkness enveloped the battlefield, obscuring the vision of everyone.  Tolly felt the blade of his orcish opponent slash past him in the darkness, and decided that he would not allow his enemy this advantage.  Stepping back, he summoned the holy light of Ardara’s forge, pushing back the darkness.  Once again able to see her opponent, Autumn pressed her attack.  Her blade flashed in and out, and several deep cuts later, the Ravager fell to his knees, dying.

            By this time the battle was all but over.  The remaining Ravagers tried to flee, but the party cut them down as they ran, showing them the same mercy they had shown the townsfolk.  Autumn swung back into the saddle of Defiance and chased down the fleeing priest of Fiel, shooting arrows at the spider until it crashed to the ground, then riding down the addle-brained tiefling.  The few that had not been killed outright were dragged back into the camp for questioning.  Osborn, Arrie, and Lanara had begun stripping the gear from the Ravager raiding party when Autumn rode back in, the corpse of the priest slung across Defiance’s haunches.

            “Where’s Kyle?” Autumn asked as she dismounted.  Walking across the camp to where her sister stood, she stopped suddenly, her eyes wide with surprise.  Moments later, Kyle suddenly appeared a few feet away from the sentinel, grinning like a fiend as he quickly backpedaled away.

            “That was definitely against the rules, Kyle!” she shouted at him as he vanished behind a wagon.  Arrie looked up curiously.

            “What are you talking about, Autumn?  What rules?”

            Autumn lowered her gaze, her face turning red.

            “Never mind,” she growled.  “We have prisoners to question…”


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

**smiles**

claps, claps, thank you!


----------



## Delemental

There were only two of the Ravagers left for the party to question; one of the hin barbarians, and the cansin with dragonfly wings.  Knowing the cansin was a mage, they decided to keep her unconscious and interrogate the hin instead.  The party watched for a while as some of the circus hin poked at their Fiel-worshipping kinsman with knives and hot pokers, retaliation for the terror caused by one of them own race.  The Ravager’s scar-covered body barely showed the blood and burns, and he was laughing between screams.

            “Somehow I don’t think torture will get us results here,” Kavan said.

            “I think we’ll need to try a different approach,” Arrie said.

            “Should we grab a feather?” Osborn offered.

            “Kyle,” Arrie said, “maybe we could trick him into telling us where their camp is.  He can’t be too bright.”

            “Maybe,” Kyle replied, “but that’ll take time.”

            “We don’t have that time,” Autumn said.  “I don’t think the villagers will last the night.”

            Kavan closed his eyes, sighed, and then stepped forward.  “I can try something,” he said.  “My Talent is the ability to influence minds so that people are more friendly toward me and more likely to want to help me.”

            “Really?” Lanara said.  “I didn’t know that.  You’ve never talked about your Talent before.”

            “I haven’t used it in quite a while,” the elf replied.  “I used to use it all the time, in my… former career.  Using it brings back unpleasant memories.  But as Autumn says, this is important, and we don’t have time to waste.”

            Kavan walked up to the bound hin, who was still laughing at his captors.  Kavan concentrated a moment, then smiled and asked the hin if he could help find his camp.  The hin’s reply was to spit in the elf’s face.  Kavan walked back to the group, wiping the spittle off his face.

            “Sorry, everyone,” he said.  “I’m afraid it didn’t work.  I’m out of practice.”

            “It’s okay, Kavan,” Lanara said, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “We appreciate you trying.  But I think I can handle things from here.”  Lanara began walking toward the prisoner, unslinging her lute as she walked.

            Osborn’s father, Bartlebee, walked up to the group as they watched Lanara work.  “What’s going on?”

            “Lanara’s about to find out how to get to the Ravager’s camp, Dad.  There were some prisoners taken from that town.”

            “Prisoners, eh?” Bartlebee said.  “Well, then, I guess I’d better get ready, then.”

            “Ready for what?” Osborn asked.

            “To go with you, of course,” he replied.  “You folks are pretty beat up already after taking care of that raiding party, and you’ll need the help.  Besides, we owe you for helping us, so this is how I can repay you.”

            “Sir,” Tolly began, “we appreciate the offer, but I am sure your son would…”

            “Nonsense!” Bartlebee blurted, cutting Tolly off, “who do you think taught Osborn everything he knows?”  The middle-aged hin turned and dashed off toward his wagon.

            Lanara walked up as they watched Bartlebee run off.  “I’ve got it,” she said, tapping her finger on her temple.  “It’s about two hours ride from here.  If you want to get there before sunset, we’d better move.”

            As the party moved to get ready, one of the circus hin ran up to Tolly.  “What should we do with the prisoners, sir?” he asked.

            Tolly looked back at the bound hin.  “They are pillagers and looters,” he said flatly.  “Kill them.”

*          *          *​
            The party rode as fast as they could toward the Ravager camp.  With Kavan and Tolly’s horses dead, they had to double up, which slowed them somewhat, and the fact that their horses were already tired from the previous ride didn’t help.  Still, they managed to get to the camp before the sun dipped below the horizon.

            They spotted the Ravager camp about a half-mile away, perched on the side of a small hill.  Dismounting, they tied their horses in a small grove of trees and approached on foot.  A wall of wooden spikes pointing outward to ward off riders surrounded the camp.  The main gate was a barn door, which appeared to have been carried off whole and driven into the ground.   The entire stockade was about two hundred yards across. After some initial planning, the party sent Osborn to scout out the garrison.  He returned after about half an hour.

            “There are some sort of magical runes on the gate,” Osborn reported.  “As for the walls, I think I could squeeze through the gaps, or they might be climbable.  Inside is just a bunch of tents, with one wooden building.  I’m assuming their leader is in the building.  About halfway up the hill, there’s a cage made of grasses that’s holding prisoners.  I’d say ten to twenty people, I couldn’t tell for sure where I was.”

            “A grass cage?” Autumn looked confused.  “That doesn’t seem very secure.”

            “I think they’re being held more by fear than anything,” Osborn said.  “Anyway, inside I saw a couple of giant spiders like that tiefling was riding, and a couple of barbarians – humans and orcs again.  I also saw a cansin with butterfly wings that looked an awful lot like the one back at the circus.”

            Arrie looked at Lanara.  “How come you didn’t get wings?”

            “I picked pink hair instead,” she said sarcastically.

            “There was another prisoner, too,” Osborn said.  “An old human, in a loincloth, chained to a stake outside the leader’s home.  He looks like he’s been there for a while.  He must be some sort of special prisoner.”

            “You know,” Bartlebee said, “it seems strange that the Ravagers would build such a permanent structure here.  There’s nothing here worth guarding as far as I can tell, and Ravagers usually stay mobile so they can spread death and pain further.”

            “What is the ground like around the wall?” Tolly asked.

            “The ground?  I don’t know, it was… dirt.  Like this.”  He dug his fingers into the soil at their feet.

            “I can soften the earth around the gateposts, and we could push it over,” Tolly said.

            “Why not save that for the cage?” Arrie suggested.  “We are here to save the prisoners, after all.”

            “We could enter the camp near the cage,” Xu offered.  “That way we could get them out more rapidly.”
            “Good idea,” Arrie said.  “We sneak up to the wall, bust in, and run out.  Hey, you know what would be good, Tolly?  A spell that makes us quiet.”

            “I don’t have such a spell available,” Tolly said.  “It’s not one I asked Ardara for today.”

            Arrie looked cross.  “Why not?”

            “Because it’s not one of the spells I pray for when traveling,” he replied.  “I did not get up this morning expecting to fight a clan of Fiel-worshipping barbarians.”

            Arrie sighed, then looked at Kavan and Kyle, both of whom shook their heads to indicate they didn’t have a spell that would do what Arrie wanted.

            “I think we are approaching this the wrong way,” Tolly said.  “If we all go to free the prisoners, then the Ravagers will come to stop us, and they can bring their full force to bear while we’re trying to defend the townsfolk.  Instead, why not send a few to rescue the prisoners, while the rest of us assault the gate as a distraction?  I should point out that besides freeing the prisoners, destroying this cult before they strike again would be a good idea.”

            “That’s a great plan!” Osborn said.  “I’ll go free the prisoners.”

            “I’ll go with you,” Bartlebee said.

            “Xu, you’re pretty nimble,” Arrie said.  “You should go with them, too.”

            “You may need some magical assistance,” Tolly said, “I will accompany you as well.”

            “You, Tolly?” Autumn asked.  “You’re not exactly stealthy like the others.”

            “I can remove my armor and pack it in with me,” he said.  “That should help me be quiet.  The armor is enchanted to be simple to don, so if there’s trouble I can be ready in a few moments.”

            “Why not send Kyle with them?  He doesn’t have to worry about armor.”

            “Because, Lanara, Kyle may have to deal with the wards on the gate.  Kyle, I assume you have a _dispel magic_ prepared?”

            “Sure do,” Kyle replied.

            “Here, Tolly, take this,” Osborn said.  “It’ll help.”  He handed the priest his _ring of invisibility_.

            “How do we know when to start the attack?” Arrie asked.

            “We’ll send a signal,” Osborn said.

            “Yes, when you hear people screaming, that’s the signal,” Bartlebee quipped.

            “I can send a short message telepathically,” Tolly said.

            “Perfect,” Arrie said.  “So we have our plan.  Let’s get into position.”

            The party moved out, skulking through the tall grass surrounding the hill.  The Ravagers didn’t appear to have any sentries or lookouts, so their approach went unchallenged.

            “Tolly, give us a count of two hundred before you cast your spell,” Osborn said.

 Osborn and Bartlebee pushed through the gaps in the wall, while Xu scrambled up the wall by jump-stepping up between two posts and flipping over the top.  Tolly remained outside, invisible, waiting for the others to eliminate any sentries before bringing the wall down.

            Xu, Osborn and Bartlebee made their way to the grass stockade.  Along the way, one of the giant spiders lumbered by, and spotted the party, but a few quick dagger throws from Bartlebee put the arachnid down silently.  They approached the cage, and after reassuring the prisoners, began pulling apart the bars.  At that same moment, there was a tremendous crash as a large section of the outer wall collapsed, flinging loose dirt into the air.

            As the late afternoon air filled with shouts of alarm, Tolly, who had begun donning his armor after casting soften earth and stone, stopped long enough to cast a _sending_:  “Now.”

*          *          *​
            Arrie, Autumn, Kyle, Lanara, and Kavan took up their positions as close to the gate as they dared.  Kavan and Kyle muttered the words to a few preparatory spells, while Lanara, softly singing to herself, wove arcane phrases into her song and suddenly vanished from sight.

            Autumn, looking over at Kyle, noticed that he was frowning.  Of course, he had also cast a _mirror image_ spell, so she saw seven frowns.  “What is it?”

            “There’s a magical aura here,” he said.  “I can’t quite pin it down.  I know I’ve seen something similar, but I can’t remember where.”

            “Is it from the runes on the gate?” she asked.

            He shook his head.  “No, it’s stronger than that, but… less distinct.  I can’t figure it out.”

            “Maybe there will be time later,” she said.

            Kavan, listening to their conversation, cast a _detect magic_ spell of his own to check what Kyle was seeing, and though he saw the magical aura Kyle had mentioned, couldn’t make any more sense of it than him.

            Just then, Autumn stiffened as Tolly’s voice echoed in her mind.  _Now_.

            “Go,” she said, standing up suddenly.  The others followed Autumn and Arrie toward the gate.  Kyle attempted to dispel the wards on the gate, but they were too strong.  He shouted out a warning, and Arrie suddenly veered off course, heading toward the wall near the gate.  She scrambled up to the top, teetered on the tops of the sharp ends, then jumped down into the garrison.  Kavan, taking a slightly less acrobatic approach, cast a spell on himself and suddenly lifted, running on the air itself as he dashed over the wall and landed near Arrie.

            “Nice of you to join me,” Arrie said as she unfurled her chain.

            “Any time,” he replied.

            The other three, still outside, waited for Kyle to take out the wards.  He reached for a dispel scroll, but realized that it was less potent than what he could muster himself.  Instead, he grabbed onto Autumn and Lanara’s arms (grateful that thanks to Princess Aralda’s gift, he could see the invisible bard) and used a _dimension door_ spell to get to the other side of the gate.

            Autumn drew her blade.  A few feet away stood an orc gripping a greatsword tightly.  Several feet behind him was a tiefling wearing the priestly garb of Fiel, its barbed tail swishing behind him eagerly.    Across the yard, closer to Arrie and Kavan, Autumn saw the old man chained to the ground like Osborn had described.  Standing next to him was a figure that at first the sentinel thought was surely a devil or demon of some variety.  Looking closer, she realized that it was a humanoid, perhaps another tiefling, but perhaps the most diabolical-looking tiefling she’d ever seen.  Ebony horns protruded from a head covered in scaly red skin, and black claws tipped each finger.  It grasped a black iron mace in one hand, and with the other backhanded the old man, who nodded weakly and began casting a spell on the fiendish creature.  A second orc barbarian with a greataxe stood nearby the infernal figure, eyeing Kavan and Arrie greedily.

“This bunch is uglier than the last,” Lanara’s voice rang out.

            Kyle, still disoriented from the teleportation, gasped at the sight of the horned figure.  “Acolyte of the skin,” he said.

            Autumn knew all about such foul beings.  Drawing her sword, she pointed it at him.  “Devil-spawn!”  she shouted, “Let us dance!”

*          *          *​
            The four in charge of the prison break tried to help the prisoners out as fast as they could.  Most of them were children and older people, and so moved slowly.   As they clambered over the fallen wall, Xu suddenly shouted a warning.  Behind them, three figures approached.  One was the butterfly-winged cansin, another was a human with a scimitar and shield.  The other was a feral-looking hin in uncured hides and blackened, crooked teeth.  He bore the same facial scars as the others, but instead of a spider the hin bore the image of raptor wings across his face.  The hin was gibbering to itself, apparently casting a spell… somehow.

            Tolly’s voice growled out of the air near Osborn.  “Priest of Feesha.”

            Osborn regarded the feral hin.  “Didn’t we kill him months ago, back in that swamp?”

            “Apprently, there is more than one crazed hin spellcaster in this world,” Xu replied.

            Osborn, Bartlebee, and Xu turned to face the Ravagers as Tolly continued to help the townsfolk clamber over the remains of the wall and flee.  Bartlebee casually juggled several knives, waiting for the enemy to draw closer.  Osborn, however, clicked the heels on his boots, and ran forward at accelerated speed, firing a crossbow bolt at the human and striking him in the leg.

            “A crossbow?” Bartlebee shouted incredulously.  “A crossbow!  I taught you better than that!”

            “Relax, Dad!” Osborn shouted back, as he withdrew a pair of daggers from his vest, “They were out of range!  When they get closer, then I’ll release the death!”

            Just then the cansin pointed, and a massive shadow came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around Osborn’s face, burning his flesh and rendering him unable to see.  Panicked for only a moment, Osborn called on the enchantment in his armor that gave him the ability to sense his surroundings and activated it.  The magic flared to life just in time for Osborn to sense the human charge in and slash at him, spilling his blood onto the flattened grass.  In response, Osborn stepped back and hurled eight daggers at the man, turning him into a pincushion.

            “See?” Osborn shouted.

            Tolly, who had just helped the last prisoner over the wall, ran full-bore toward the hin priest.  Seeing him coming, the hin cast a _sanctuary_.  Compelled to ignore the Feeshan, Tolly instead headed toward the winged cansin.  Xu also attacked the cansin, and was much faster, leaping into the air and punching the warlock in her solar plexus, sending her crashing to the ground in a heap of limbs and butterfly wings.  Bartlebee took advantage and threw a handful of daggers at the cansin, hitting her and making sure she didn’t get up again.

            The scimitar-wielding human, now bleeding profusely, began to froth and shiver and charged Osborn, cutting him deeply again.  Osborn continued to step back and throw knives, further wounding the Ravager, but he knew that he’d soon run out and be forced to resort to melee.

            Tolly, denied his target, once again focused on the hin priest.  Summoning his will, he managed to break through the compulsion keeping him from harming the priest, and with a smile he threw his warhammer at the Feeshan, which arced around and struck the hin in the back, pulling him toward Tolly.  Though startled by this move, the hin was crafty, and responded with a curse that stole Tolly’s vision from him.  Shrouded in permanent darkness, Tolly was forced to withdraw.  Xu, seeing his plight, ran to aid Tolly, whirling and kicking at the feral hin.  Her blows were solid and deadly, but the priest’s wounds seemed to close of their own accord, and the hin refused to die.

            Meanwhile, although Osborn’s own vision had returned with the death of the cansin, he had thrown his last dagger at the human.  But just as he was about to pull his sword, the man shuddered, and fell face down, a quartet of Bartlebee’s daggers in his back.  From a short distance away, Osborn’s father waved before turning his attention to the Feeshan priest.

            “Hey!” Osborn shouted at him, “I had this guy!”  Secretly grateful for the aid, Osborn took a few moments to collect his own daggers from the body.  Tolly stumbled past him, ignoring his own blindness and following the sounds of battle on the other side of the camp, hoping to find Kyle and the potion he carried that would cure his blindness.

            The cleric of Feesha, now menaced by two enemies and with a third on the way, started to get desperate.  After blasting Xu, Bartlebee, and the withdrawing Tolly with a _chaos hammer_, he then summoned an air elemental to fight off his foes while he healed himself.  The huge vortex of air slammed into Xu and Bartlebee, scattering them like geese.  But they recovered, and fought back against this new threat in the most efficient way they knew; by killing the hin that summoned it.  A combination of fists and daggers brought the Feeshan cleric down, and with a howl of rage the elemental vanished.

            “That was nasty,” Bartlebee said, wiping blood off his brow.  “You do this all the time?”

            “Not as frequently as many believe,” Xu replied, “but often enough, yes.”

            Osborn came running up.  “I think we should go try and help out the others,” he said, “they’re still fighting at the gate.”

            “Where’s your big friend with the beard?” Bartlebee asked.

            “He wandered off that way,” Osborn pointed.  “Probably eager to get into another fight.  I hope there’s something left for him by the time he gets there – the opposition didn’t seem too bad over here.”

*          *          *​
            On the other side of the encampment, things were not going so well.

            Autumn had tried to charge the acolyte of the skin, but was blocked by the orc with the greatsword, whose opening blow had been to shatter Autumn’s blade.  Forced to switch to an old mace she’d borrowed from Tolly ages ago, the sentinel was in a pitched battle with the barbarian, both bleeding profusely.  Arrie and Kavan’s charge toward the devilish being was similarly blocked by the orc with the greataxe, who was handily keeping them both at bay while seemingly ignoring the wounds they inflicted back. The tiefling cleric had unleashed an _unholy blight_, sending several of them reeling.  The acolyte was also unleashing bolts of dark purple energy into the party, which would strike one person and then jump to another as if it were alive.  Kyle had hit the acolyte in return with a _scorching ray_, although the acolyte’s demonic skin had absorbed most of the damage.  In response, the acolyte had fixed Kyle with a horrific gaze that had sent Kyle to his knees, rendering him senseless for several seconds.

            Lanara, still invisible, had remained close to Autumn while she sang, first casting a _blur _spell on the sentinel after her sword was broken, and then staying close to provide what little healing she could.  But the orc was opening wounds faster than she could close them, and Autumn was paying little heed to her own defense, instead trying to edge close enough to the stunned Kyle to protect him from harm.  Looking across the field, she saw the old man cast another spell – she didn’t know what, but assumed it was another protective spell for his captor.  The cansin chafed at such forced servitude, and decided the best thing she could do was free the old man so his powers couldn’t aid the enemy any more.  Slowly she began to make her way around the battle toward him.  As she moved, she saw that the tiefling cleric was standing unchallenged, and sent a small spider from her wand of summoning to harass him.  But as the spider approached, the tiefling concentrated for a moment, and suddenly the spider twitched and turned around, heading to attack Autumn.  Lanara bit her tongue to keep from swearing out loud and giving her location away.  _Cleric of Fiel – their totem animal is a spider.  Brilliant._  Fortunately, the spider seemed unable to penetrate Autumn’s armor, and would only last a few seconds anyway, so Lanara ignored it and kept going.

            Kyle’s head spun.  The sheer evil of the acolyte had been too much for him, and he couldn’t focus.  He was vaguely aware that the orc with the greataxe had been attacking him, and the only thing that had saved him thus far was his _mirror image_ spell.  But the images were disappearing fast.  Then, out of the corner of his eye, Kyle saw a badly wounded Kavan rush up behind the orc.  Arrie had broken off to try and stop the acolyte, and was being barraged by arcane bolts.  Kavan swung, and his sword bit deep into the barbarian’s side, cutting a large chunk out of his flesh and exposing rib bones.  The orc’s eyes turned black, and with a feral snarl he turned and brought his greataxe around in an arc.  The head of the axe bit into Kavan’s shoulder, and continued straight through on a downward angle into his chest and erupted out near his waist.  The two halves of Kavan fell to the ground with a wet thump.

            Kyle wanted to scream, but his jaw wouldn’t work.  Arrie had put a few wounds on the acolyte, and had knocked him down, but was unable to pin down the acolyte, and was suffering under his barrages.  Autumn was barely holding up against the orc with the greatsword, and it seemed as though the tiefling cleric was targeting her with spells as well, though his vision was still too fuzzy to tell what he was casting.  Lanara was nowhere to be seen.  Everyone else was too busy fighting for their own lives to have seen what happened.  But now the barbarian was coming after him unchallenged; he had to move.  Stumbling a short distance away, Kyle muttered the words to a simple cantrip and his staff raised up off the ground and into his hands.  He was just able to deflect another swing of the greataxe enough to keep from being decapitated, though the force of the blow crushed his shoulder.

            Lanara finally made it over to where the old man was chained.  But as she stepped up to try and speak to him quietly and formulate a plan, she stepped past an unseen barrier, and her invisibility suddenly vanished.  She found herself looking at a very startled old man.

            “Hi.  We’re here to rescue you.”

            The old man blinked, then nodded his understanding.  Looking over at the acolyte, he cast a spell, and the devilish figure screamed as all of his protective enchantments suddenly pulsed and poured raw magical energy through him.  His eyes dark with fury, the acolyte ran up and began attacking the old mage, smashing him with his mace.  The prisoner tried to fight back, but his offensive spells were apparently very meager, and being chained to the ground prevented him from fleeing.  Fortunately, Arrie was right on the acolyte’s heels, and laid into him with her chain.  The acolyte began blasting away with arcane power again, arcing his bolts between Arrie and the old man.  Arrie took the brunt of the punishment, however, and soon fell to the earth, finally overcome.

            On the other side of the field, there was a sudden concussion as the tiefling priest dropped a _sound burst_ in the midst of the combat between Autumn and the orc with the greatsword, apparently unconcerned that he was hitting his ally.  Though severely wounded now, Autumn pressed her attack, and she finally managed an opening, bringing the head of her mace down on the orc’s forearm and shattering it.  Unable to bring his sword up, the orc was defenseless as Autumn caved in his skull.  She then immediately ran up to block the other orcs’ attack against Kyle, who was down to his last _mirror image_.  She swung at him and connected, then stepped back awaiting the counterattack.  Then she saw a figure come out from behind the wooden structure.

            “Tolly!” she shouted, “Heal Kavan and Arrie!”  She returned her attention to the orc, unaware that Kavan was beyond help, and that Tolly was blind.

            A moment later, it didn’t matter.  The orc barbarian ran up to Autumn and swung his greataxe with unearthly power, knocking her shield aside like it was paper and biting deep into her throat.  Gurgling a last curse, Autumn fell stiffly to the ground, and lay unmoving.

            The acolyte, now unchallenged, concentrated on slaying his prisoner.  Kyle tried to hit him with _magic missiles_,but he still stood inside the area of the old man’s _globe of invulnerability_, and the missiles dissipated.   Lanara quickly stepped back, out of the area of the old man’s _globe of invulnerability_, and tried to charm the acolyte.  When the spell failed to take hold, she threw a tanglefoot bag at him hoping to tie him up, but the acolyte stepped out of it before it hardened.  The acolyte was so focused on his enemies that he did not see Xu run up and pour a healing potion down Arrie’s throat.  The warrior rose, and once again waded into battle, though she was still very weak and approached much more cautiously.  Xu also closed on the acolyte, as did Tolly, who heard the sounds of battle and assumed that would be where Arrie and Kavan would be.  The fiendish warlock tried to blast Xu and Tolly; the monk avoided the invocation, while Tolly was hit and staggered by the evil force behind the blasts.  Xu and Arrie landed solid blows, and for the first time a look of worry replaced the acolyte’s smug grin.  Then Osborn ran up into the battle, arriving quickly thanks to his _boots of speed_, and threw a storm of daggers into the horned figure, finally bringing him down.        

            The Fieli cleric cast another spell, and the orc Autumn had just killed slowly rose to his feet, the cold light of undeath in his eyes.  However, the old mage, who had a reprieve from the acolyte’s assault, saw the orc rise and cast his own spell, severing the spark of magic that animated the corpse.  Meanwhile the orc that had just killed Autumn turned his attention back to Kyle, swinging his axe and dispelling the last of Kyle’s protective images.  The cleric also hit Kyle with a _deific vengeance_, though the wizard was able to shake off the spell’s effects.  Kyle looked at the orc with hate-filled eyes; he had killed Kavan, and he had killed Autumn.  He would suffer terribly for that; if necessary Kyle would tear him apart barehanded. As the words to a spell came into his mind, time seemed to slow to a crawl.

_ No.
_
            Kyle heard his own voice in his head. The sensation took him by surprise.

_This isn’t the way.  I  won’t avenge Autumn if I get myself killed.  I’m wounded, and my best offensive spells are gone.  That orc can take anything I throw at him right now and keep coming.  There’s a smarter way to do this – I just need to see it._

            Kyle blinked, and glanced around the battlefield.  It almost seemed to move in slow motion, even though Kyle knew nothing had changed.  He saw the orc coming at him, axe raised, blood pouring from the many wounds inflicted by Kavan and Autumn.  A short distance away he saw the priest of Fiel, practically unharmed, preparing another spell.  Understanding came in a flash.

            The words to the destructive spell faded from Kyle’s mind, replaced by another.  The uttered the spell, then shouted at the orc rushing in.  “Ravager, hear me!” he shouted.  “Look upon he who would call himself Fiel’s servant in this world!”  Kyle pointed with his staff at the tiefling priest.  “He stands apart from battle, inflicting no pain, no death!  For the greater glory of Fiel, slay this upstart and prove yourself to your god!”

            The orc blinked, the magic of Kyle’s _suggestion _seeping into his rage-addled brain.  With a snarl, the orc turned and charged the priest, who rose his arms in a panicked attempt to cast a protective spell.  But at that moment Lanara cast a spell of her own, and the tiefling froze in place, held by her spell.  Thus he wasn’t even able to close his eyes as the orc’s axe came down through his skull.

            The orc turned as the halves of the tiefling fell away, ready to dispatch the mage.  But then he stumbled, and his axe dropped.  The adrenaline that had been keeping the orc on his feet was wearing off, and he’d lost too much blood.  He still tried to step to attack Kyle, but only made it a few steps before stumbling over his feet and falling to the ground.  The orc looked up to see Kyle standing over him, the end of a wand in his face.

            “This is for Autumn, you son of a bitch,” he said.

            With the orc dispatched, the party gathered together over the bodies of Kavan and Autumn.  They had won, but at what cost?


----------



## Delemental

*Broken Mirrors*

_            Light.

            All around Kavan was light, and peace.  He floated in an eternity of luminescence seeming to go nowhere and everywhere at once.  After an amount of time that Kavan couldn’t determine, he saw something emerge from the light.  The tall, radiant form of a ghaele eladrin stood waiting.

            “Welcome, Kavan Ar-Feiniel, son of Erito.  Are you ready to join the glory of our Goddess?”

            Kavan stood, overwhelmed by the experience.  “Then I am dead?”

            The eladrin nodded.  “You have transcended your material form on Aelfenn and your soul has journeyed to Erito’s realm.  Your time as a mortal is no more – your eternity in Her Light is about to begin.”

“A moment, Vardilae,” said a voice.

            They both turned as a form coalesced from the light that surrounded them.  It took on the form of an elven maiden of exquisite beauty, with long hair that looked like spun mithral and a simple dress of the purest white.  Her eyes were filled with a sparking violet radiance.

            Even the eladrin seemed astonished, and immediately dropped to one knee.  “My Lady,” he said reverently.  “I am at your service.”

“Rise, Vardilae,” Erito said.  “I would speak alone with Kavan Ar-Feiniel.  You may go about your duties.”

            “Of course, My Lady.”  The eladrin vanished without further delay.

            Erito turned to Kavan.  “Walk with me, Kavan Ar-Feiniel.” She turned and extended her arm out to Kavan.  Reverently, he slipped his arm inside hers, and they walked almost as a pair of lovers strolling through a garden.

            “I am honored that you would visit me in person at the time of my death,” Kavan said.

            Erito laughed.  It was a joyous laugh, one without prejudice or malice.  Kavan would have waited an eternity to hear that laugh again.  “Dear, sweet Kavan, I am here because it is not your time.”

            “It isn’t?”

            She looked at him.  “I am the Goddess of Life and Death.  Do you question me when I tell you it is not your time?”

            “No, Mistress, of course not.  But if it wasn’t my time, then why am I here?”

“Kavan, why did you die?”

            He paused for a moment, uncertain.  Surely Erito knew the circumstances behind his death?  “I was battling against an encampment of Ravagers in the Khag Steppes,” he explained.  “I was confronting one of their barbarians when I was felled by a mighty blow.”

            Erito smiled at him.  “That is how you died, Kavan.  Why did you die?”

            Kavan frowned.  He knew he was being tested.  It was an old tradition among those of the Eritan faith, to promote enlightenment and self-discovery among the faithful by repeatedly asking the same question until all pretense and artifice was stripped away, leaving only truth.  “I died because my skills in combat were inferior to those of my foe.”

“Why did you die?”

            “Because I failed to consider…”

“Why did you die?”

            Kavan stopped.  He was thinking of this the wrong way.  Taking a breath (or was he?  After all, he was dead, and had no body to breathe with.  It was an intriguing paradox for him), Kavan rethought the question.

            “I died because I could do no less.  Because I believed in our purpose enough that I had to give all I could, because to do less would be to dishonor my friends and dishonor you.”

            Erito’s smiled widened.  “That took far less time than it does most,” she said.  “And it does not sound like the actions of a self-absorbed, superficial male prostitute to me.”

            Kavan couldn’t help but stare at Erito.  He could feel himself trembling.  “What… what do you mean?”

“Kavan Ar-Feiniel, I have never seen you as anything but the being of radiance you are.  Now, at last, perhaps you can see it too.”

            Understanding flooded Kavan like a tidal wave.  He collapsed to his knees, and sobbed.  Erito sat down, and put her arms around him and held him against her, his face buried in her lap.  After several minutes, Kavan pulled back, and wiped tears away from his eyes as Erito smoothed out her dress.  Looking up at his goddess, he suddenly chuckled.

“What amuses you, Kavan?”

            “I was just thinking that Tolly would be mortified to know that I’d just cried all over my goddess,” he said.

            Erito’s blissful laughter once again seemed to fill eternity.  “I believe he would.  You can ask him yourself when you return.”

            “You’re sending me back?”

 “Yes, though not as you were.  I have need of you on Aelfenn, Kavan, of your determination.  But I believe you would best serve me outside of the bounds of my church.  I would send you back as one of my Favored.”*

            Kavan gasped.  The Favored were the vessels of the gods, who called upon divine power without the training and indoctrination of a cleric.  They were seen as the closest thing to a mortal representation of a god’s will.

            “If you find me worthy, Erito, then I will do as you ask.”

            Erito stood up, and took Kavan’s hands in hers.  Stepping forward, she laid a soft, gentle kiss on his forehead.  Kavan felt power surge through him, more than he’d ever thought possible.  He felt the power changing him, transforming his very essence.  When Erito broke contact and stepped back, he could only stand in awe for several minutes.

“Your friends will have need of you in the days to come,” Erito said.  “I know what it is you are about to face, and I have given what help I can.  But I can hold you here no longer.”

            The violet glow in Erito’s eyes intensified, and suddenly the light that surrounded them started to recede.  “Keep me in your thoughts, prayers, and dreams, Kavan Ar-Feiniel, and I will keep you in mine.”

            “Always, My Lady.”

            Everything around Kavan dissolved into darkness, except for the lingering image of Erito’s luminous eyes.  Sounds became indistinct.  He thought he could still hear Erito’s voice echoing around him, as if very far away.

“I will give into your trust a map,” Erito said.  “It will lead you and your companions to the knowledge you seek.”

A map.  He would have to remember to look for a map when he returned.

“The enemy will rise again, and the world will be as it was before.”

Erito’s voice was becoming less clear, and Kavan wasn’t sure he heard her right.  Was that meant as a warning, or a prophecy of things to come?  Perhaps he was starting to imagine things as he made the transition back to the world of the living.

“Tell Kyle Goodson that his family’s staff is far older than he realizes.”

            Now Kavan truly started to doubt whether he was still hearing Erito at all.  What would Kyle’s staff have to do with any of this?  Kavan had little time to ponder this, as he heard the voice one final time.

“One more thing, Kavan.  When you return, there will be some changes.  Your enemies know you as you were, but not as you will be.”

In the distance, Kavan saw another light._

*          *            *​
            The disc of Karakor was touching the horizon when the din of battle finally silenced.  The cooling air picked up into a breeze, causing the tall grasses of the Khag Steppes to bend and ripple like ocean waves.  In the midst of this ocean lay an island of blood and grief.

            Tolly blinked even in the fading light of dusk, as his vision slowly turned from black to gray to muted colors.  The bitter taste of the potion he’d consumed to cure his blindness still lingered in his mouth, but he hardly noticed.  Looking up, he saw Kyle a short distance away, looking out past him at the battlefield, looking at two still forms lying on the ground.  The first was obviously Kavan, though the elf had nearly been split in two.  The other…

            Tolly screamed.

            When the Ardaran kept screaming, sending the carrion birds that already begun to gather flapping and screeching into the night sky, Xu walked up and slapped him hard.  He immediately fell silent, staring at Xu, then slowly nodded his head in gratitude.

            Autumn’s body lay sprawled on the ground, the soil turned into a grisly reddish mud by all the spilled blood.  Arrie sat next to her, holding her head in her lap, staring off as though she refused to accept the reality.  Kyle tried to approach, but a look of cold death from Arrie caused him to retreat, and he joined Osborn at Kavan’s side, who was trying his best to keep the body from falling apart.  Lanara stood a short distance away, floating a few inches above the gore thanks to her _boots of levitation_, looking sadly at the carnage.     

            Kyle walked up to Tolly.  “Tell me,” he said through gritted teeth, “that you can do something about this.”

            He looked back at the wizard.  “Not yet,” he said. “It’s not in my realm of capability.”

            “When will it be?”

            “Only Ardara knows that.”

            “Well, then, why don’t you ask her?” Kyle’s eyes flashed with emotion.

            “Ardara’s powers don’t just appear at my whim,” Tolly replied in a growl.  “I can’t just read something off a piece of paper to learn it.”

            Kyle opened his mouth to retort, but Xu stepped between them.  “Enough, both of you,” she said.

            Kyle glared at Tolly a moment longer, clearly unhappy with the answer. He turned around, muttering to himself about “Tolly’s stupid dirt goddess”; then, slowly, he returned to helping Osborn bind up Kavan.  Tolly started to walk away, heading off to the other side of the encampment.

            “That’s way more anatomy than I ever wanted to see,” Lanara was saying to herself as Tolly walked by, “especially from the inside.”  She then walked over to the corpse of the Feeshan priest and began kicking the small, blood-smeared hin.

            Tolly stopped.  “Don’t be so crass about something so… primal, Lanara.  Show some respect for the dead.”  He then pointed at the dead hin.  “And is that truly necessary?”

            “Shut up, Tolly,” Lanara snapped.  “It makes me feel better, and it helps me think.”

            Tolly looked as though he were about to respond, then thought better of it and turned away.  “Good idea,” Lanara snarled.

            Tolly continued on his way, disappearing behind the tents.  The others just wandered in the battlefield, unsure of what to do.  Arrie continued to hold Autumn, starting blankly, occasionally moving her lips as if about to say something.  Lanara’s voice slowly rose from the silence, filling the air with a gentle, ephemeral eulogy for their fallen companions.  So enraptured were those present that at first they failed to notice the rumbling, a faint sound like distant thunder.

            It was Osborn who first noticed that Kavan’s body was being lifted off the ground by an unseen force.  At the same time, the ground all around them was starting to glow brightly.  They all stood transfixed, unable to move or speak. The glow seemed to reach up and envelop Kavan, growing in intensity as it touched his dead flesh until it became unbearable to look at.  Arrie threw herself across Autumn’s body, determined not to let anything else happen to her.  But the light did not touch the sentinel, and after a minute or two it began to fade.  As the light vanished, they saw the plate armor that Kavan had been wearing dissolve into thin air, and his body slowly came back to earth.  As soon as it touched the ground, the party all saw Kavan’s chest expand in a sudden intake of breath.

            For a few seconds no one moved, unsure of what had happened or what it meant.  Lanara looked questioningly over at Kyle.

            “I don’t know,” he said to the unspoken question.  “Maybe it has something to do with the Node.”**

            “Node?  What Node?”

            “We’re standing on top of a major Node.  I didn’t realize it until after the battle.  It’s probably why they were camped here in the first place.”

            It was Xu who first approached Kavan.  There was something odd in the way Kavan’s body lay on the ground, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.  As the monk stepped up next to Kavan, she saw that the elf was, in fact, breathing quite normally, and the wounds had vanished.  But she noticed something else, too, that was quite unusual indeed.

            Kavan’s eyes opened just as Xu was about to call out to the others.  Looking up into the monk’s face, Kavan screamed.

            “I could say the same for you,” Xu replied.

            Kavan blinked at Xu, unsure of how to respond.  Looking around and seeing Kyle standing nearby, Kavan wearily rolled over and began crawling toward him.  Kyle grabbed Kavan’s arm and pulled the elf up to a standing position.  Kavan grabbed on and held him tightly.

            “Kyle,” Kavan said tearfully, “I have so much to tell you, but I must rest.”

            As Kavan drifted into unconsciousness, Kyle looked perplexed.  Kavan’s embrace had felt strange – not quite what he had expected.  Curious, he pulled open the neckline of Kavan’s tunic and looked down.  He closed the shirt again very quickly, however, and started to turn red.

            “What is it?” Osborn asked.  “What’s wrong with him?”

            “Well,” Kyle said, “for one thing, it’s ‘her’, not ‘him’.”

            The others, save for Arrie, started to rush over, until Kyle held out a hand.  “Um, look, let’s let Kavan rest for a while before we try to figure out what’s going on with hi… um, with Kavan.  I’m going to carry h… Kavan into that wooden building to sleep.”  Picking up the limp form, Kyle began to make his way to the wooden hut.  Draped across his arms, Kavan’s physical differences were quite obvious.  As he walked past Arrie and Autumn, he stopped and looked down at the two sisters.  “Arrie, you might want to move her into the shack too.  It’s getting late, and those vultures will be back, as well as field mice, and in the morning I can preserve her body to prevent decomposition…” He stopped talking when Arrie fixed her gaze on him and looked like she was about to snap.

            As Kyle walked, he could feel some strange bumps and ridges along Kavan’s back, obviously not accounted for by her ribcage or spine.  Once he got her inside, he rolled her on her side and gently lifted her shirt in the back.  Spread across the skin of her back was what appeared to be a hand-shaped area filled with ridges made of scar tissue.  The scars looked too smooth and straight to be from any injury, and Kyle had seen Kavan’s back before and knew that he’d (when he was still a he) had no scars.  Looking closer, he realized the ridges formed patterns… there was a mountain range… there was a river…

            “A map?” Kyle said to himself.  “But a map to what?”  The questions would have to wait; Kavan was in no shape to answer them.  Pulling her shirt down again, Kyle rolled Kavan onto her back and spread a blanket over her.  He finished just as the door opened and Arrie walked in, holding Autumn in her arms.  Arrie had stripped off the sentinel’s armor and cleaned up the blood as best she could.  Arrie laid her sister down on a nearby cot, putting a blanket over her and arranging her as if she were just sleeping deeply.

            “I can stay here tonight.” It was more of a statement of fact than an offer.

            “I will have to come in to check on Kavan once in a while,” Kyle said.  Arrie nodded her understanding.

            “You know, what I said earlier about preparing… well, the real reason for it is that it gives us more time to seek out someone who can perform the ritual to bring her back.  I mean, if she wants to come back, of course, because she… I’ll shut up and leave now.”

            Arrie continued to stare vacantly as Kyle left.  He went outside and immediately launched into setting up camp, stripping bodies of gear, and disposing of the Ravager corpses.  He worked well past dark, and only when there was absolutely nothing left to do did he sink to the ground and start to cry.

            Arrie only came out once, to care for Ghost and Defiance.  When she returned, Kavan had awoken, and had moved over to lie next to Autumn.  Kavan had one arm draped over the body, and was whispering softly to it.

            “Why are you dead, too?  Why didn’t you come back, too?”

            The scene was too much for Arrie, and she went back outside.  As she stood in the doorway, a late storm broke, and rain began to fall.  Lanara, standing under the eaves of the wooden hut, had picked up the eulogy she’d begun earlier, the sounds of her fiddle weaving in with her voice and with the falling rain.  Glancing over at Arrie, Lanara began to weave a subtle message into her song, imploring the young warrior to sleep, to let go of her cares for a night.  Unable to resist the compelling song, Arrie stumbled back inside the hut and collapsed in the doorway.

*          *            *​
_Dark. Cool.

Sorrow flows through Tolly's body like an underground river. Curled in the fetal position, he sobs and shudders in his grief and loss.  Having separated himself from the others long ago in order to ‘pray’, he is alone with his sorrow.  So intense is his grief that he fails to hear the sound like thunder, or the cascading light that heralds Kavan’s return.  For Tolly, there is no light.

 Gradually, he becomes aware of another presence, surrounding him, warming him, comforting him through the worst of his grief. He knows this presence--the pressure, the darkness, the scent. The Earth Mother consoles him in his grief.

"Mother, " Tolly says, after he has finally cried himself out. "She's gone. I have lost her."

Oh, my poor Tolly, the voice reverberates quietly around him. You feel this pain. You feel this sorrow. Why?

"Autumn is gone, Mother. I won't get to talk to hu-er anymore, or f-fight beside her, or..."

Your friend Kavan is gone as well, yet you shed no tears for him. Why for Autumn?

"We...were closer. More alike. Better matched."

And?

"And because I am not falling in love with him!" screams Tolly, sorrow flaring into rage. "I LOVE HER!"

He feels a soft smile around him. And this was so hard to admit, my sweet blade? Do you feel better for it now?

"I..." Tolly gasps, and reflects for a moment. "Yes, it was. And yes, I do, Mother. Thank you."

Do not thank me yet, Tolly Mulholland. This amount of grief is unseemly. You are young, and it has disabled you. I cannot have this weakness in my blade. You must be tempered.

Tolly feels himself stretched out of his curled position. What he thought was a self- protective position is instead the unbending shape of his body. He is pounded, stretched, folded, in the heat of Ardara's attention, as a blade may be on the anvil, yet neither her blows upon his form nor the reshaping of his body can match the pain of the vacuum in his heart.

Before too much time has passed, his body is now straight as a blade, and he can feel Her gaze upon him, judging her work, and gauging his worth. Hmm. So, it seems my blade has a fuller. Weakness has become Strength. How interesting.

Tolly stands straight as he feels that gaze, two warm ovoids within the blackness. Very well. Strength you will now have, Tolly Mulholland, when you return to yourself. Remember this, though – no matter how you may love another...

Tolly feels himself slipping, into waking, into light, the last of his goddess' words echoing in his mind...

...you belong to me._***

Tolly blinked, and awoke.  The faint luminescence of false dawn touched the clouds above; it had rained last night. He stepped outside, and placing his bare knees against the earth, began to pray. Spells flowed from the earth into him, and suddenly a new range of abilities made themselves known to him, and he could hear a voice saying to him that he knew what use this one would be. He stood, a certain amount of joy suffusing him. He walked to the hut, noting that only Osborn and Bartlebee stood watch. He stepped past Defiance, patting the steed’s shoulder.

"Only a moment more, lad, and we will all be brighter for the day. Patience."

Over Arrie was his next step, and he was into the wooden structure. He was startled by the fact that Kavan was hugging Autumn's corpse. What had he missed as he was out in the plains last night, entreating the Earth for aid, begging it to not be true? No, this wasn't Kavan – this was a woman! But it looked like Kavan; felt like Kavan. He shook his head, certain that someone would explain later. He watched the woman breathe, and then looked at Autumn. He had been unable to do that last night – seeing that alabaster skin just one shade too pale--the jagged tear across her throat – the utter lack of movement or expression. His eyes closed, and he tensed himself. He had work to do. He moved the woman's arm gently off of Autumn, and shifted her some distance to the side. He waited for her breathing to quiet, and then he began.

"Ardara, I beseech thee..."

Moments later he was done. Exhaustion hit him, the release of tension causing him to shake briefly. He watched carefully, and his heart sang with joy as he watched her breathe in that first ever-so-important breath. She immediately slipped into the healing sleep needed after such an experience after fluttering her eyes. He stood, leaned over her, and kissed her forehead.

"Welcome back, beloved. We are waiting for you." He stepped away, and met the sleepy eyes of the woman he believed to be Kavan. He smiled, bowed to her and turned away. As he passed the door, he knelt and gently shook Arrie's shoulder

"Awaken, Ariadne. Your sister will need you."

Tolly walked out past Defiance, gently stroking his shoulder for a moment, and nodding at the horse. The horse met his gaze, and seemed to acknowledge the young cleric. Tolly walked out onto the prairie some distance, and stared out at the view, such as it was. It was a good beginning to the day.

*          *            *​
            The news traveled fast, thanks to the exuberant shout that Kyle raised when he went in ready to cast _gentle repose_ on Autumn’s body.  Everyone gathered inside the small hut, except for Tolly, who was off tending to the refugees from the town the Ravagers had destroyed.

            Autumn had been a little confused when Kyle had thrown his arms around her and woken her up.  It took a while for them to explain that she hadn’t just been knocked unconscious.  Kavan and Arrie, who had woken up while Tolly had performed the ritual to bring her back, explained it all to her.

            “I understand that, now,” Autumn said when they were done, “but why is everyone looking so strangely at Kavan?  Is something wrong with him?”

            “Well, no, there’s nothing wrong with… _him_,” Lanara said.

            “Autumn,” Kyle said, “We’re not sure how or why, but Kavan’s a woman now.”

            Autumn’s eyes went wide, and she looked at Kavan again, as if seeing him… her for the first time.  Kavan just smiled back.

            Osborn nudged Kavan with his elbow.  “Kyle looked down your shirt,” he said with a mischievous grin.

            Kavan looked at Kyle, a lok of shock on her face, as one hand went protectively up to the neckline of her shirt.  “Kyle?”

            “What?  No!  I mean, yes, but not on purpose.  Well, it was, but I wasn’t expecting to see..”  He turned and began addressing Autumn.  “Kavan was dead, and then there was this light, and he crawled over to me, and I was holding him up and it felt strange, so I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong, and I didn’t know he was a she now, or I…”

            He broke off as everyone around him had a good laugh.  Even Arrie smiled and chuckled a little, as did Autumn.  Knowing he’d never recover, Kyle made a quick exit from the room.

            As the laughter died down, Arrie stood up.  “Okay, then.  I think it’s time for some girl talk.  Osborn, Bartlebee, out.”

            The two hin scrambled out of the building and began walking toward camp, in order to round up some breakfast.  Kyle was found by Tolly several minutes later.  The wizard was examining the rough wooden logs that had made up the defensive wall around the Ravager encampment.  Standing over the pile of fallen logs where Tolly had brought down the wall, Kyle began to chant a spell.  Tolly stood and watched as the logs rose into the air and began to split and shape themselves.  After a few moments, the rough logs had been replaced by a simple but sturdy wheeled cart.

            Kyle looked at Tolly, mopping sweat off his brow.  “Kavan and Autumn won’t be in any shape to ride for a few days,” he explained.  “Figured it was a good chance to try out the new spell I’ve been working on.”

            “Very thoughtful,” Tolly said.

            “Yeah, speaking of which… I’m sorry about how I acted yesterday.  And thank you for what you did.  You have no idea what it meant to me.”

Tolly nodded.  “Thank Ardara, Kyle, not me. It is her work--I am but an instrument. Oh, and Kyle...if you ever utter the words 'dirt goddess' where I can hear them again, I will kill you. It will tear me apart to do so, but I will never willingly allow such blasphemy again. You have no idea what it cost to do this, and hopefully never will."

Tolly walked away, leaving Kyle standing next to his new cart, deciding that he wasn’t going to open his mouth again for the rest of the day.

---------------------------

* Kavan's player is not terribly experienced with 3E, and was getting overwhelmed by Kavan's spell selection as a cleric.  She (the player) had also expressed a readiness to move on from her 'male prostitute seeking redemption' background.  With Kavan's death came an opportunity to address both issues, by remaking the character as a favored soul, and allowing him a conversation with Erito so that he could see how he'd grown as a person.

** Nodes are concentrations of magical or elemental power.  Minor Nodes are connected to one of the four elements, while Major Nodes are connected to magic itself.  A person can bind themselves to a Node to access greater power.  One of the reasons the Ravager Acolyte of the Skin warlock was such a problem was that he was bound to the Node, and was getting a significant caster level boost.

*** Heck of a way to get to ninth level, huh?    And if you are curious, there was no fudging to give Autumn the raise; the party was at the cusp of ninth level before the Ravager battles.  (Kavan did get raised by DM fiat, admittedly, but there were story reasons behind it, and Kavan did lose his magical plate armor as 'payment').


----------



## Delemental

*Endless Hunt*

With everyone reunited, the party made preparations to return with Bartlebee to the Amazing Traveling Circus.  The rescued townspeople agreed to travel with the circus until they reached the next major settlement, where they could then start over.  The party gave them the supplies the Ravagers had stocked up at their camp, as well as some of the weapons and armor to either use for their own protection or sell at the next town.

            Among the refugees was the old sorcerer, who had gone largely ignored while the party had dealt with Kavan and Autumn.  He rode in the back of the wagon with them now, too weak to walk or ride.  Kyle rode up close and greeted him.

            “I’m afraid we haven’t been very social since we rescued you,” he said.  “We’ve had other things on our mind, you see.”

            “I understand,” the man said.

            “So, what’s your name?” Kyle asked.

            A pained look came over the sorcerer’s face.  “I… don’t remember.  I’ve been the captive of the Fiendslayer for a long time, and he tortured me every time I tried to use my own name.  The only name he would allow me to use or be called by was ‘Bitch’.  After a while, it was the only name I knew.”

            “I’m sorry,” Kyle said.  “But that’s over now.  The hin will take care of you until you heal.”

            The old man nodded wearily, then closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.  He did not awaken again until they reached the circus.

            The party spent three days with the circus, resting and preparing for the next leg of their journey.  The circus was starting to turn south, and they still needed to head east, toward the city of Miracle, where they would cross into Medos.

            Late at night, the group sat huddled around their campfire, with Kavan and Autumn laying in bedrolls covered in warm blankets, discussing the events of the past few days, in particular the information that Kavan had brought back with her from the other side.

            “So, this map on your back is supposed to lead us to information?” Osborn asked through a mouthful of bacon.  “What kind of information?”

            “I’m not sure,” Kavan admitted.  “I was making the transition from Erito’s realm back to the world of the living, and everything was getting hard to distinguish.  I think she might have meant information about what’s been going on with psionics.”

            “Then we should try and find it as soon as possible,” Kyle said.

            “We have other business to conclude first, Kyle,” Tolly reminded him.  Kyle looked as though he were about to respond, then he closed his mouth and said nothing.  From her bed, Autumn looked up and gave him a reassuring smile.

            “I think that anything from Erito herself is worth looking into as soon as possible,” Autumn said.  “Perhaps after Tolly delivers his diamonds to the Archprelate, we can spend some time looking in a library and see if we can find where Kavan’s map leads, barring anything more pressing coming up.”

            “Yeah, because it sounds like whatever it is Erito wants us to know will help keep the world from getting screwed up again,” Lanara said.

            “Lanara, Kavan herself has admitted that Erito’s warning was unclear to her,” Tolly piped in.  “There may be nothing that will prevent the enemy from rising and transforming the world.  Erito’s words may have been meant as a statement of fact, not as a call to action.”

            “I have trouble believing that Erito would tell us about something that we have no power to prevent,” the bard retorted.

            Tolly shrugged.  “There are some things that simply cannot be altered.”

            “Oh, really?  Tell me, why is it that Kavan is wearing a dress now?”

            “Anyway,” Autumn interrupted, to prevent the argument from going further, “why don’t we keep Kavan’s map to ourselves for now, and once we’ve reached M’Dos we’ll make it our first priority.  Arrie, do you agree?”

            Arrie sat quietly nearby, rubbing at a spot on her right palm vigorously.  She seemed unaware of anything else until she sensed people watching her.  Looking up quickly, she balled her right hand into a fist.  “Um, yeah, sure, that sounds great.”

            None of them questioned Arrie’s odd behavior.  She’d only slowly come around after the shock of seeing her sister die, and everyone assumed that any quirks in her behavior were the result of that.

            “Well, enough talk,” Lanara said.  “We’re leaving in the morning, and those two need their sleep.  We’ve got about four weeks to Miracle, I think.”

            “What can we expect there, Lanara?” Kyle asked.

            “I’ve only been through there once,” she said, “but everyone out here on the Steppes knows about Miracle.”  Lanara’s voice took on the tone that said she’d gone into her story-telling mentality. “Miracle rests entirely upon a great stone bridge spanning the river, and is the main point of trade between Medos and the Steppes.  It didn’t exist until about twenty years ago, when the high priest of the church of Paccë came out to the great river dividing the two regions and beseeched his deity to create a ‘city of peace’.  Miracle fulfilled his wish beyond his wildest dreams.  No blood can be shed on its streets, or harm done to those who live there.  Anyone who tries to do so is transported instantly a mile outside of the city, and by the will of Paccë they may never come even a single step closer to Miracle, until the end of time itself.”

            “Sounds dull,” Osborn said.

            “It sounds safe,” Lanara replied, “which is why it’s popular.  And it’s also the best crossing point for miles.  And don’t think you can get away with something violent and talk your way out of it; you’re dealing with the will of a god in Miracle.  And we can forget selling any of that armor or weaponry we’ve been carting around; there’s no market for it there.”

            “Well, at least it’ll be a short stay,” Autumn said.  “Now, like Lanara said before, we all need sleep.”

            They all rose and began to prepare for bed.  Kavan motioned Kyle over.

            “A little help getting up, please?”

            The wizard walked over and began pulling Kavan up.  She looked ruefully at the tent where Xu and Lanara were already setting up their bedrolls.

            “That’s one thing I’ll miss about being a man,” she sighed.  “When there were four to each tent, it worked fine.  Five in the women’s tent is a little crowded.”

            “Well, it’s too late to switch back,” Kyle said.  “I’ve gotten used to the extra room in the men’s tent.”

            Kavan gave Kyle a playful slug in the shoulder.  Then his face grew serious.  “Kyle, there was something else Erito told me.  A message for you.”

            “For me?”  Kyle looked slightly concerned.  “What is it?”

            “She told me to tell you that your family’s staff is older than you think.”

            The look went from concern to confusion.  “That doesn’t make any sense.  My family is  made up of farmers, not wizards.  And what does the age of my staff have to with anything?  I already knew it was old.  Are you sure you heard right?”

            “Pretty sure.  I don’t know what it means either, but of all the things she could have said, that’s what she wanted you to know.”

            He scratched his head.  “Well, it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.  Maybe I’ll understand it when we get to that place on your back.  Speaking of which, we should really make a copy of that some day.”

            Kavan smiled.  “Kyle, there are more subtle ways to get a girl to take her shirt off for you.”

            Kyle turned red.  “Um, Kavan, I know you’re joking, but, well… I don’t think you’ve been a woman long enough for me to be comfortable thinking of you like that.”

            Kavan laughed.  “I understand, Kyle.  Now, help me get into the tent before Autumn.  She’s a sprawler.”

            “I know, she… I mean, I’ve heard.”  Kyle quickly lifted Kavan and moved her into the tent.  Arrie was right behind, carrying Autumn.  No one lingered to talk more or enjoy the cool night air; they all knew that by this time tomorrow they would be on the road alone again, and with two people down that meant longer watches for the rest*.  Sleep came quickly, and the dreams of all were peaceful.

*          *            *​
            For most of the party, the first two weeks of the journey passed quickly.  For Autumn and Kavan, it lasted forever.  Weakened by their return to life and unable to benefit from magical healing, they were forced into bed-rest for the journey.  Though the party had tried to make the wagon as comfortable as possible, it was still a bumpy ride, and with nothing to look at but clouds, it was a dull ride as well.  The noise of the wagon, combined with the need for the other party members to remain alert, meant that the only conversations that took place were between the sentinel and the new favored soul.  Though at first they enjoyed each other’s company immensely, after a few days they simply ran out of things to say to each other.

            The only reprieve they had from the monotony was when the party would stop to rest, and Autumn and Kavan would be helped out of the wagon and given a chance to walk around and get some exercise.  The others would take turns leading them around, there to lend a hand if they needed support, and to protect them if something should happen.

            It was during one of these breaks, about a week out from the circus, that Tolly offered to escort Kavan out for her exercise.  It was a bit unusual; Tolly had been unusually quiet and withdrawn lately, even for him.  Kavan accepted his offer, and soon they had wandered several yards away from the horses.

            Unexpectedly, Tolly turned to Kavan. "So, Kavan, you have said that you have some experience with women – do you know how it is generally acceptable to court them in the Elven Kingdoms? I find my current life experience to be...insufficient."

            Kavan was startled at first by the sudden question, but then nodded and smiled slightly.  “Although I’d say my understanding of women has altered significantly recently, Tolly, I think I understand your question.  If you are truly serious about "courting", Tolly, you must speak with a parent about your intentions. Does the woman you want know it? I must admit that most of my experience with women is more to capture their fancy, rather than marry them. I've really seen many more marriages that lack a sacred respect. I do know that it has proven most beneficial to arrange a date, or a setting, that would be desirable for the focus of your desire, tell her what your heart desires and most often - you will hear the truth of her heart. You should be yourself, she should know who you are.”  Kavan looked Tolly over as she spoke.  “I can help you with proper dress.”

“Truly?” Tolly stroked his beard thoughtfully.  “I suspected as much, but I daresay we will not be going into the area in which her parents reside anytime soon. We are, after all, en route to another part of the world. I believe she at least suspects my intentions – I have gifted her a token of affection, made with my own hands, as is the dwarven way, but I know not if she is aware of what that means. She was, after all raised by humans in elven lands.”  Tolly paused for a moment, thinking, before he spoke again.  “But, in respects to another statement you have made – what is wrong with what I wear now? Is not armor or clerical attire proper no matter the time?”

Kavan had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing.  She didn’t want him to think she was making fun of him, but he was just so…stiff.  “There is a time and place for armor and clerical gear, and a time for something beyond it. Something warmer, fuzzier and more appealing to senses outside of war and faith. Something to accentuate your eyes and your step.”

“I am a bit...lost when you say warm and fuzzy, Sister. Are not the senses there to help us to our faith? What could be more appealing?”  He sighed heavily. “I suspect there is more to this courting then I expected. First, I am warned to watch my step by her sister, and now I find I am too hard in the opinion of a fellow priest. Is there truly hope for such as I to win such as she?”

“Oh yes, you can win her, friend – it may just take stepping outside of your comfort zone a bit.” Kavan placed a hand on Tolly’s shoulder.  “Not away from your faith, but in addition to it. It may also benefit you to befriend her sister, as you definitely don't want to come against her. Most importantly, you must act - do something - or it will pass you by. Whether it works or not - you must try and you must put your heart into action.  While Autumn has strong faith and conviction - she is also a woman. While her…”

“Wait,” Tolly interrupted.  “Why do you assume I speak of Autumn?”

Kavan smiled.  “Dear Tolly, I know that you haven’t had much opportunity to speak to women beyond the four… well, now five in our group, and only two of them are sisters.  And I don’t think you’re the type who would try and woo a married woman.”  When Tolly’s silence told Kavan that he wasn’t going to argue with her logic, she continued.  “As I was saying, while her vows of service may be much more rigid and faith based, the physical courtship may be more ‘warm and fuzzy’ - maybe even funny sometimes. I have found that despite any personality that any woman shows in public, behind intimate closed doors a much different personality may come out – one more primal and less refined – and there is beauty and a bond to be found in these times.  One that makes the relationship different than others.”

“Primal?” Tolly sounded genuinely shocked. “You make it sound as though a woman loses all pretense of civilized behavior once they pass the doors of the bedchamber!”

“I meant precisely what I said my friend, civilization has no place in the bedchamber - and if it does, it is boring and predictable. Being unpredictable is exciting.”

Tolly scratched at his beard.  “I think perhaps we speak of things too far along in a courtship for me to consider now,” he said.  “After all, I have yet to win her heart; to speak of proper behavior in the bedchamber is perhaps not seemly.”

“Perhaps you’re right, friend.  As I said before, my experiences with women usually only involved the bedchamber, and there was little effort needed to coax them there.”  Kavan took a moment to stretch before continuing.  “Let’s back up a few steps, then.  Tell me about this token.”

“The token was an iron rose.  I crafted it myself, cold-forged on the ship as we made our way to the western half of the continent. Such a thing is given when one has wish to link one's family intimately with another’s, whether that be through marriage or adoption as clanmembers. It is not something that is chatted about lightly, though I suspect her sister… Arrie may recognize it for what it is.  I do not believe Autumn would know that, though, having not lived among the dwarves as Arrie has.”

“You could attempt to send her the meaning of the rose in a dream,” Kavan suggested.

“Send in a dream? Hmm…would it not be better to be waking, so that meaning is not lost upon awakening?”

Kavan shrugged.  “Perhaps.  But dreams are nice not because one is guaranteed to remember detail, but because they impress us in a way that nothing else can - they impress intrinsic feelings upon us - in addition to some detail. It may also prompt Autumn to ask you about the item, so that you don't have to approach her first and run risk of making her feel stupid. The other way you could address it is by writing to her or asking her if she enjoys her gift?”

“Ah.” Tolly looked back across the grassy field they were stopped in.  Some distance away, Autumn was walking with Kyle, unarmored but carrying her new greataxe so she could take a few practice swings.  “I don't deal much in dreams, Sister; in truth, I would not even know how such a thing was accomplished.”

Kavan nodded in understanding.  She had to remember that Tolly was still a cleric, and a cleric of a lawful god, and thus his divine abilities were far more structured than her own now were.  The sending of dream-messages could very well be beyond him.

“I shall move more in the realms of quill and parchment,” Tolly was saying, “and perhaps idle converse.”

“Conversation would be good, Tolly.  Perhaps you should ask her to dinner, and begin to delve into the parts of herself that she does not show others – finding a way to bond with her in a way others haven't. Finding out funny stories from her childhood, or from her many adventures with Arrie before the rest of us met them. You can then learn what she values in other people, rather than what her ideals are.”
            Tolly frowned.  “Bit tough to do that out here, Sister. The ability to converse privately is somewhat...limited. But the suggestion to get more of her past is a worthy one. I will most certainly consider it.”

“We won’t be in the Steppes forever, Tolly,” Kavan chided.  “And please, stop calling me ‘Sister’, unless you intend to find and wed my younger brother.”

“I meant no offence, Kavan.  It is merely habit; it is how members of the Ardaran faith address fellow clergy of equal station.”

“Well, I prefer the term ‘friend’,” Kavan said.  “As to conversing with Autumn, there are many options.  For example, making the space to be alone with her - perhaps a picnic?  Oh, I should mention that tree houses seem to have the most wonderful effect on women, especially when surrounded by fairie lights and large comfortable pillows.”

“Are all elves as obsessed with being in trees as you are?” Tolly asked. “I'll think about what you have mentioned, but I must say this seems...eccentric. Why would one not wish to be in direct contact with the Earth our Lady?”

“Remember, Tolly, being unpredictable is exciting.  Maybe a tree house won’t thrill Autumn, but you won’t know unless you try.”

“I see your point.  You have given me much to consider, Kavan.”

She smiled.  “Just take care that you don’t spend so much time considering and leave some time for doing. Take care my friend, let me know when and if I can help.”

“I will, and I thank you for…” the conversation was broken by a sudden cry of alarm back at the wagon.  Tolly and Kavan turned and began to make their way back, Kavan walking as fast as she could, and Tolly staying nearby, eyes peeled for trouble.

The trouble wasn’t difficult to spot.  A small pack of carnivorous dinosaurs had spotted the wagon and decided to make a try for an easy meal.  Osborn had warned them about these human-sized lizards, known as raptors, and so the party wasn’t caught entirely unaware.  Kyle, who had been with Autumn when the raptors were spotted, had obviously tried to get her back to the wagon, but she had instead moved to engage the dinosaurs, swinging her axe.  She now sat in the middle of a _resilient sphere_, obviously very unhappy about it, as Kyle blasted one of the raptors with _magic missiles_.  Lanara and Osborn were inside the wagon, shooting the other two raptors with crossbows, and Xu was waiting for one to get close enough to attack.

Arrie came running in, pulling her spiked chain off of her chest with a fluid motion of her left hand.  But as the chain came around and slapped into her right, she gave a slight cry and jerked her hand back, causing the chain to lose momentum.  In a flash, one of the raptors took advantage in the opening and sent Arrie sprawling, blood gushing from where a talon had opened up her cheek.  The lizard ran and jumped into the air, intent on landing atop Arrie’s soft belly.  Instead, it met the iron-hard foot of Xu in midair, who shattered bone and ripped tendons in the raptor’s ribcage and drove it to the side.  By this time Tolly and Kavan had arrived, and Tolly laid into the raptor with his hammer, killing it.  The other two in the pack, crossbow bolts sticking out of their sides, decided to find their dinner elsewhere, and fled.

Tolly and Kavan rushed over to where Arrie lay, still trying to clear her head.  Tolly looked up at the elf, who shook her head.  “My gifts are different now.  I lack the ability to heal.”

Tolly summoned up divine power and touched the side of Arrie’s face, closing the wound.  As she sat up, they all heard the distinct pop of a force-sphere being dispelled, and turned to look as Autumn began to move toward her sister, pausing only long enough to give Kyle a look that said _I know why you did it, but I’m still annoyed.
_
The sentinel was less forgiving to Arrie.  “Bail’s bronzed buttocks,” she swore, “what’s the matter with you, Arrie?  You’ve been scratching at that hand for days, and now it’s affecting your fighting ability.  If you don’t knock this off now, I’ll…” As she spoke, Autumn grabbed Arrie’s wrist and pulled it out, then uncurled her fingers to expose the palm.  Arrie struggled against her sister, but Autumn was too determined.

The palm of Arrie’s hand was dominated by a large open wound, perhaps two or three inches across.  In the center of the raw, oozing sore was a dark spot, which seemed to rise up out of the skin and was clearly visible, almost as if it were floating on top of the wound instead of underneath it.  The spot was shaped like a mastiff’s head.

Autumn’s eyes went wide, and she gasped, letting go of Arrie’s wrist.  “How?  When?” was all she asked.

Tolly reached over and touched Arrie’s palm while incanting a healing orison, and the open wound vanished.  Now the hound’s-head mark was clearly visible.  “What is that mark?” he asked.

Arrie sighed, and made no attempt to close her hand or hide it.  “This is a Hunt-mark. When worhippers of Tor band together to hunt down a fugitive, the priests join us all with a spell that makes this mark appear on the palm of our hand. All of us joined in a hunt can recognize each other because of the Hunt-mark. While we are hunting, the mark is visible and doesn’t disappear until one of Tor’s judges declares that the hunt has been fulfilled. The hunt if fulfilled when the fugitive is either returned alive to the judges for punishment or, in the case of particularly heinous criminals, when they are declared to be dead.”

            “So, what does this mean?” Kyle asked.  “Have you joined a new Hunt?”

            Arrie shook her head. “I’ve participated in quite a few hunts since I joined the church, but none since I went to the Tower to study.”

            “So, then, this is a Hunt-mark for an old Hunt,” Tolly concluded.

            “Right, but I’ve never heard of a Hunt-mark becoming active again after the hunt has been declared fulfilled and I’ve never participated in a hunt that hasn’t been fulfilled.”

            “How long has this been here?” Autumn asked.

            “It appeared the same day that we found that town that was burned by the Ravagers,” She replied.  “At the time we were too busy with them for me to pay attention to it, and then you… well, there was the unpleasantness that night.  Since then I’ve been kind of hoping it would go away.”  She flexed her fingers around her newly healed palm.  “I guess I kind of hoped a little too hard, didn’t I?”  She flashed a weak grin.  “Haven’t exactly been at my most rational for the past few days.”

            Arrie moved to stand, helped up by Autumn.  “Thanks, guys, for saving my bacon.  I promise, no more self-mutilation.”

            “What are you going to do about that?” Osborn asked, pointing to Arrie’s right hand.

            “There’s a church of Tor in Miracle.  When we get there, I’ll report to the priests and see if they can explain what this means.  Until then, there’s nothing I can do.”

            The party began to pack up to begin their journey again.  Tolly escorted Autumn to the wagon, while Xu walked with Kavan.  Arrie hung back for a moment, then motioned Kyle over.

            “Kyle, did you really put my sister into a force bubble?” she asked.

            “She was… rather determined to help out despite my advice that she sit this one out,” Kyle replied.

            Arrie smiled and nodded approvingly.  “You’re pretty ballsy, Kyle.”

            He grinned.  “Not really.  I was ready to cast a _fly _spell on myself if it didn’t work.”

            Arrie laughed out loud, perhaps for the first time in days.

-------------------------

* Just to clarify, in our campaign there's a house rule that when brought back from the dead, you return at a single hit point, and you can't benefit from magical healing until you've recovered your full hit point total naturally.


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*I do have to say...*

...this SH is becoming right up there with Wulf's and LB's as my top-three SH...I really do like the SH/party make-up!

Stats would still be nice though!  LoL

djordje


----------



## Delemental

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> Stats would still be nice though!  LoL




Okay, fine, I'll stop procrastinating...

I can at least start with the character I have the easiest access to... my own.  Bear in mind that this is Kyle at 12th level, and at this point in the story we've all just hit 9th.



		Code:
	

[B]Kyle Goodson[/B]: human wizard 12; Medium humanoid; Hit Dice 12d4+36; hit
points 77; Initiative +3; Speed 30 ft; AC 22, touch 17, flat-footed 19; Base Atk +6, Grapple 
+8; Atk +10 melee (1d6+5/x2, staff) or by spell; Full Atk +10/+5 melee (1d6+5/x2, staff); 
Special Abilities unseen servant 1x/day (Sp), detect magic at will; see invisibility at will; 
Alignment NG; SV Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +12; Str 15, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 24 (20), Wis 14, Cha 
10.
 
[I]Skills[/I]: Appraise +10, Bluff +2, Concentration +18, Craft (alchemy) +14, Craft 
(blacksmithing) +10, Craft (carpentry) +11, Craft (jewelrymaking) +13, Craft (stonemasonry) 
+10, Decipher Script +9, Diplomacy +2, Heal +4, Knowledge (arcane) +22, Knowledge 
(architecture & engineering) +12, Knowledge (geography) +9, Knowledge (history) +9, 
Knowledge (nobility) +9, Knowledge (psionics) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10, Knowledge (the 
planes) +10, Profession (farmer) +3, Profession (sailor) +5, Ride +4, Spellcraft +24, Swim +3

[I]Feats[/I]: Brew Potion, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Extraordinary Spell Aim, Magical 
Artisan (Scribe Scroll), Spell Penetration, Spellcasting Prodigy, Spellstrike*, Scribe Scroll

 
[I]Possessions[/I]: Scion’s staff**, amulet of natural armor +3, belt of many pockets, 
blessed book, bracers of armor +2, glove of far reaching***, glove of storing, headband of 
intellect +4, dusty rose ioun stone (+1 insight to AC), pearl of power (1st) x2, pearl of power 
(2nd), ring of protection +3, ring of counterspells, lesser metamagic rod of empower, 
steadfast boots, vest of resistance +2
 
[I]Spells [/I] (spells per day 4/6/6/6/5/3/2; save DC 18 + spell level):

[B]Cantrips[/B] -- Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic  Detect 
Poison  Disrupt Undead  Electric Jolt, Flare, Ghost Sound, Horizikaul’s Cough, Launch Bolt, 
Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, 
Repair Minor Damage, Resistance, Silent Portal, Touch of Fatigue

[B]1st[/B] -- Alarm, Animate Rope, Burning Hands, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, 
Comprehend Languages, Detect Secret Doors, Detect Undead, Disguise Self, Endure 
Elements, Enlarge Person, Erase, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Floating Disk, Forcewave, 
Grease, Hold Portal, Hypnotism, Identify, Ironguts, Jump, Kaupaer’s Skittish Nerves, Mage 
Armor, Magecraft, Magic Missile, Magic Weapon, Mount, Negative Energy Ray, Obscuring 
Mist, Protection from Chaos, Protection from Evil, Protection from Good, Protection from Law, 
Ray of Enfeeblement, Reduce Person, Shelgarn’s Persistent Blade, Shield, Shocking Grasp, 
Sleep, Spirit Worm, Summon Monster I, Summon Undead I, True Strike, Unseen Servant, 
Ventriloquism

[B]2nd[/B] -- Acid Arrow, Alter Self, Bear’s Endurance, Blindness/Deafness, Blur, Bull’s 
Strength, Cat’s Grace, Cloud of Bewilderment, Command Undead, Continual Flame, Cunning, 
Darkvision, Death Armor, Detect Thoughts, Endurance, False Life, Flaming Sphere, Fox’s 
Cunning, Ghoul Touch, Glitterdust, Grace, Igedrazzar’s Miasma, Invisibility, Levitate, Life Bolt, 
Locate Object, Magic Mouth, Mirror Image, Obscure Object, Owl’s Wisdom, Phantom Trap, 
Protection from Arrows, Resist Energy, Rope Trick, Scare, Scorching Ray, See Invisibility, 
Shatter, Shroud of Undeath, Spectral Hand, Spider Climb, Splendor, Strength, Summon 
Undead II, Theskyn’s Hearty Heave, Toothed Tentacle, Touch of Idiocy, Web

[B]3rd [/B] -- Amorphous Form, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Displacement, 
Fireball, Flame Arrow, Fly, Gaseous Form, Gentle Repose, Handfang, Haste, Healing Touch, 
Heroism, Hold Person, Lightning Bolt, Major Image, Nchaser’s Glowing Orb, Phantom Steed, 
Ray of Exhaustion, Scintillating Sphere, Shatterfloor, Shrink Item, Skull Watch, Spider Poison, 
Stinking Cloud, Suggestion, Summon Undead III, Tiny Hut, Tongues, Undead Lieutenant, 
Undead Torch, Vampiric Touch, Water Breathing

[B]4th[/B] -- Animate Dead, Assay Resistance, Bestow Curse, Black Tentacles, Contagion, 
Darsson’s Potion, Defenestrating Sphere, Dimension Door, Dimensional Anchor, Enervation, 
Fear, Ghorus Toth’s Metal Melt, Greater Invisibility, Gutsnake, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, 
Mass Darkvision, Mass Resist Energy, Mindfrost, Mnemonic Enhancer, Plague Carrier, Remove 
Curse, Resilient Sphere, Scrying, Shout, Sinsabur’s Baleful Bolt, Solid Fog, Summon Undead 
IV, Thunderlance

[B]5th[/B] -- Beltyn’s Burning Blood, Blight, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Dismissal, Dream, 
Fabricate, Fleshshiver, Hold Monster, Kiss of the Vampire, Magic Jar, Mass Fire Shield, Mass 
Fly, Nightstalker’s Transformation, Permanency, Prying Eyes, Secret Chest, Sending, Servant 
Horde, Shroud of Flame, Summon Undead V, Symbol of Pain, Telekinesis, Teleport, Wall of 
Force, Wall of Stone, Waves of Fatigue

[B]6th[/B] -- Analyze Dweomer, Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, Freezing Glance, Legend Lore, 
Mass Endurance, Shadow Walk, Stone to Flesh, Transformation, Veil


* Spellstrike is a homebrew metamagic feat, which allows Kyle to add a 'concussive' spell template to any damaging spell (Balance check at DC 10+caster level or knocked prone).  Adding the template requires adding a pearl worth at least 25 gp as a material component.

** The Scion's staff is an artifact-level magic item, which is revealing its powers to Kyle slowly.  Currently, it's a _+2 psibane quarterstaff_ with a number of special powers (including the ability to convert _detect magic_ spells into _detect psionics_, a +2 bonus to penetrate the spell resistance of psionic beings, and the ability to restore expended spell slots by taking burn damage to physical stats).

*** The Glove of Far Reaching is a unique magic item created by Kyle.  It allows the use of _mage hand_ at will, and once a day can cast _spectral hand_.


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*Thank you.*

Kyle is one of the best PCs in the SH IMHO...I would love to see them all but this is a very nice treat...thank you


----------



## Sinewgrab

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> Kyle is one of the best PCs in the SH IMHO...I would love to see them all but this is a very nice treat...thank you




I have to say, I am indeed glad to know someone else is reading this story hour. I, being one of the players, have been enthusiastic about the author's continuing transcription of our escapades into story form, and his improvement needs to be noted by more than than just those of us within the group. So, I want to thank for de-lurking.

And Kyle is just a mealymouthed, dirt-digging heretic, not the coolest character in the story.


----------



## Delemental

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> Kyle is one of the best PCs in the SH IMHO...I would love to see them all but this is a very nice treat...thank you




Well, I'll work on getting the rest.  The first step, of course, would be remembering to ask for them.  

I appreciate the compliment on Kyle, though I admit it sort of raises an alarm in my mind.  One of the easiest things to do when writing a SH as a player, rather than as the DM, is to highlight your own character over others.  It's by no means intentional - it's simply the fact that I know Kyle far better than I know the others.  But I really don't want to turn the SH into "The Kyle Goodson Dog and Pony Show" - he's by no means the center of the campaign.

It's just a reminder to me to make sure everyone gets equal time in the spotlight.  It's actually a good thing for me to remember right now, because at our current point in the campaign, we just finished up a long story arc that centered mostly around Autumn and Kyle.  I now need to make sure I start focusing on other characters more.


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> And Kyle is just a mealymouthed, dirt-digging heretic, not the coolest character in the story.




Don't talk to me about 'dirt-digging', you stiff-necked Ardaran lackey!

(Sinewgrab, as you might have guessed, is Tolly's player.)


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*LoL...*



			
				Delemental said:
			
		

> Don't talk to me about 'dirt-digging', you stiff-necked Ardaran lackey!
> 
> (Sinewgrab, as you might have guessed, is Tolly's player.)




I don't mean to imply that Kyle is the main center, rather, I enjoy intresting twists on wizard characters thats all...intresting and orginal twist on any core class is very good to me...and I liked the idea of the characters background...

djordje...yes the SH is good...


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

Hey Sinewgrab, why dont you put Tolly's stats up?


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> Hey Sinewgrab, why dont you put Tolly's stats up?




Yeah!  And while you're at it, post the stats for Lanara, too!  <cracking whip noises in background>

(Sinewgrab's spouse is Lanara's player, BTW.)


----------



## Delemental

*Okay, here's another one...*

I don't have full stats for Autumn; her skills won't quite add up, and I don't know all her feats.




		Code:
	

[B]Autumn Verahannen[/B]: aasimar sentinel* 10; Medium outsider (native);
Hit Dice 10d10+30; hit points 100; Initiative +3; Speed 30 ft; AC 30, touch 15,
flat-footed 27; Base Atk +19, Grapple +15; Atk +17 melee (1d12+9/19-20 x3,
greataxe); Full Atk +17/+12 melee (1d12+9/19-20 x3, greataxe); Special Abilities
Turn evil outsider 1/day, [I]dispel evil[/I] 1/day; [I]searing light[/I] 1/day, [I]bless[/I]
1/day, [I]protection from evil[/I] 3/day, Smite evil 4/day, summon companion; 
Alignment NG; SV Fort +15, Ref +11, Will +10; Str 20 (16), Dex 16 (12), Con 17 (13),
Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18.
 
[I]Skills[/I]: Concentration +3, Diplomacy +17, Gather Information +13, Knowledge
(religion) +5, Listen +9, Sense Motive +19, Spot +13

[I]Feats[/I]: Power Attack, Extra Smiting, Celestial Bloodline, Eyes of Light
 
[I]Possessions: +2 mithral full plate, +2 keen thundering greataxe, +1 axiomatic
heavy mace, ring of protection +2, amulet of natural armor +3, Shaundaukal's boots,
portable hole, cloak of resistance +2, Autumn's corset**, belt of giant strength +4,
bead of force, crown of the elven kings***[/I]


*A sentinel is much like a paladin, but is focused on keeping evil outsiders off the Material Plane, and must be Neutral Good.  The abilities are very similar.  I believe this class may have come out of a Dragon magazine.

**_Autumn's corset_ is a unique magical item made for her by Kyle.  It gives her +4 to Dex and Con.

***The _Crown of the elven kings_ (I'm not sure I have the name of the item right) was gifted to Autumn by Herion for reasons... well, which will become clear later.  It gives +2 to Con, and also gives a +10 bonus to Diplomacy when dealing with elves.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Delemental said:
			
		

> Yeah!  And while you're at it, post the stats for Lanara, too!  <cracking whip noises in background>
> 
> (Sinewgrab's spouse is Lanara's player, BTW.)




  I knew I should have never actually posted. Now I have to pony up and actually be helpful. (sigh) Note that this is the current Tolly, at 12th level of ability.

Well, here we go:

Tolly Nightsleaving (Mulholland): 6th level cleric of Ardara, 2nd level Church Inquisitor, 4th level Elemental Savant; medium human; hit dice 6d8+4d4+2d8+36; hit points 113; Initiative +3; movement 30'; AC 26; touch 15; flat-footed 23; Base Attack +11; grapple +11; attack +14 melee (1d10+8 x4 Maul); Full +14/+9; Special Abilities: Detect evil at will, detect good 1/day, spontaneous cure, immune to charm, immune to sleep, acid resistance 10; align LG; SV Fort+12, Ref+9, Will+19; Str 18, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 16
Skills: Bluff 10, Concentration 7, Armorsmith 14, Weaponsmith 12, Blacksmith 10, Diplomacy 10, Gather Info 10, Heal 7, Hide 7, Intimidate 9, Know ARcana 14, Know Planets 12, Know Religion 9, Know Nobility 6, Know Psionics 7, Listen 5, Move Silently 7, Perform Dance 5, Ride 5, Sense Motive 13, Spellcraft 12, 
Feats: Power Attack, Extend Spell, Energy Sub: Acid, Divine Vigor, Leadership
Items: Pylactery of Faithfulness, Cloak of Resistance +3, Necklace of Adaptation, Ring of Feather Fall, Ring of Force Shield, Shaudukal's Boots, Full Plate +3 (silent, shadow, glamered), Maul +2 (Holy, Sizing)
Access to the Strength, Metal, and Inquisition Domains.
And I am NOT listing his spells--unlike Delemantal, my character is not in a computer. So there.

Sinewgrab
------------------------------------
Tea audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.


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## Sinewgrab

And now for the Bardic nuisance....

Lanara Rahila; 9th level Bard, 2nd level Virtuoso; medium outsider (cansin); hit dice 9d6 + 2d6 +22; hit points 65; Initiative +3; movement 30'; AC 25, touch 13, flatfooted 22; attack bonuses and such are not in a manner I can translate; Special Abilities: Acid resistance 5, fire resistance 5, change self 1/day, entropic shield 1/day, darkvision 60'; align NG; SV Fort 5, Ref 10, Will 12; Str 11, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 22
Skills: Balance 7, Bluff 18, Concentration 4, Decipher Script 8, Diplomacy 18, Disguise 13, Escape Artist 10, Forgery 6, Gather Information 18, Hide 15, Intimidate 8, Know History 11, Know Nobility 7, Know Religion 6, Know Dragon 5, Know Local Tlaxan 5, Perform Stringed 18, Prof Warsinger 10, Prof Storyteller 10, Sense Motive 15, Sleight of Hand 7, Swim 1, Tumble 10, Use Magic Device 10, Bardic Knowledge 14
Feats: Dodge, Extra Music, Lyric Music, Weapon Finesse
Items: She has 3 Instruments of the Bard, which in Aelfenn combine into one instrument when brought close to each other. Other than that, she has multitudes of items the likes of which I am afraid to decipher.
Her spells are also illegible to me.
And Delemental had best keep his little trap shut about that, because if he gets me in trouble...No more babysitting!


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*Thank you all...*

Thanks guys, gals, and other creatures!  Now, a couple more updates?

-sorry I am like a kid at christmas now...


----------



## Delemental

Certainly, there are larger cities on Aelfenn than Miracle, and cities with more impressive features.  The party had seen the deceptively delicate spire of the Tower in Trageon rising miles into the air, surrounded by the massive floating platforms that comprised the Upper City.  They had seen the elegant grandeur of the Emperor’s Palace in Noxolt.  Kavan had told them all tales of the thousands of elegant spires that rose from the island city of M’Dos, which they would soon all see themselves.  But despite all this, they found that it was difficult, if not impossible, not to be awed at the sight of a city that existed purely by the will of a god.

            As expected, the dominant feature in the city was the temple of Paccë, a grand structure that went by the deceptively humble name of “House of Harmony”.  The temple’s single spire was clearly visible several miles from the city.  Kavan commented that from this distance, the temple in Miracle looked to be nearly as impressive as the one in M’Dos.

About a mile from Miracle itself, the party came to a large way-station staffed by priests and priestesses of the god of peace.  “Peace to you, strangers,” said a round-faced priestess.  “May I ask your business in Miracle?”

            “Rest and supplies,” said Lanara, “before continuing on to Medos.”

            The priestess eyed the party’s many weapons.  “Are you aware of Paccë’s decree that no one shall come to harm within Her city?”

            “We are aware,” Lanara said, “and regret that the nature of the world outside Her city is such that the bearing of arms is necessary.”

            “I understand.  If you would like, we offer the courtesy of peace-bonding your weapons while inside the city.  If you ride your horses around to that building over there, my fellow peace-brothers will assist you.  While in the city, please be certain to visit the House of Harmony.”

            The party rode around as instructed and met a small cluster of Pacceans waiting for them.  As they handed over weapons, the party was somewhat surprised to see that rather than the standard notion of ‘peace-bonding’ – a leather strap tying the weapon into its scabbard – that here the process involved wrapping the dangerous parts of any weapon in several layers of heavy white cloth.

            “That’ll be a little hard to sheathe,” quipped Lanara as Autumn regarded her greataxe, which now looked like a ball of laundry on a stick.

            “I don’t exactly feel sorry for her,” said Arrie, who was now holding a medicine ball-sized bundle that used to be an orcish shotput.  “I wasn’t expecting them to be quite so thorough.”

            They rode into town without further incident, following a well-used road and passing several other travelers, mostly merchant caravans from Sargia or hin clans from the Steppes.  The edge of the bridge upon which Miracle rested was marked by a row of majestic marble columns, spaced fifty feet apart.

            “I’m not used to a city without a gate or a wall,” Arrie commented as they passed the columns.

            “Not much need,” Lanara said.  “They say that there’s only been one time that the city has been attacked.”

            “What happened?” Autumn asked curiously.

            “It was a mercenary warband out of the Steppes, about four years ago.  As soon as they rode within a mile, the entire city, bridge and all, rose into the air and just stayed there, safely out of reach.  As least, that’s what the stories say.”

            “What about the warband?” Arrie wondered.  “Obviously, the citizens of Miracle didn’t do anything like drop rocks on their head.”

            Lanara shook her head.  “Wiped out by a joint attack from the Sargian and Medosi armies.  Seems they didn’t appreciate the disruption in their favorite trade route.”

            While Lanara talked, Kyle saw a pair of teamsters driving a large wagon, furiously whipping their horses to get them moving.  “I’m confused,” he said out loud.  “Shouldn’t those two be disappearing right about now?”

            Lanara pulled her horse up and turned to face everyone.  “Look, things aren’t quite as cut-and-dry here as that priestess at the way-station would have you believe.  Paccë’s protection only extends to bipeds – humans, elves, gnomes, the touched, even things like gnolls and goblins, though you don’t really see them around here much.  And it only affects sentient creatures, so that horse, if it wanted, could kick that teamster back and nothing would happen.  That’s why animals are often used as guards here, since they can wound and kill without disappearing.  Same thing applies to constructs, so some of the wealthier houses and businesses will have golems.  I’ve even heard there’s a few that’ll use undead, though not publicly, of course.  Besides, getting hold of bodies in a city of peace ain’t exactly easy.”

            “Hey, Lanara,” said Osborn, “I had a cousin who came here once a while back.  He mentioned getting in a bar fight while he was here.  I guess that decking someone doesn’t count?”

            Lanara nodded.  “Anything that doesn’t cause lasting harm is okay.  Seems Paccë realized that occasionally the town guard would have to do something to stop a person who didn’t want to be stopped.”  She grinned.  “There’s always loopholes in any set of rules.  For example, if you’re interested there’s a thriving drug trade here, and a variety of prostitutes.  Seems that self-inflicted harm doesn’t count either.”

Once inside the city itself, the party gave a young tout a few coins to guide them to a decent inn and stables.  The boy led them about a half-mile into the city, to a sturdy three-story stone building whose sign proclaimed it to be The Cedar Grove.  The inside was clean and well-lit, and true to its name, was dominated by cedar chairs, table, and ceiling beams.  After arranging their rooms (which, after some discussion due to the recent changes in their standard sleeping arrangements, ended up being two large suites), Arrie told the others that she was going to find the local church of Tor, and would meet them back at the inn that evening.  The others spread out in the city to sell a few items, buy supplies, and take care of personal business.

            That night, Arrie was the last to return to the inn.  When she arrived, she was accompanied by a tall, middle-aged man carrying a sword of unusual design on his back.  The man’s dress and facial features were very similar to Xu’s; no one seemed more surprised by this than her.

            “Any luck?” Autumn asked as Arrie sat down.  The stranger remained standing nearby.

            “At first, I didn’t think I would,” Arrie said.  “The church of Tor here isn’t that big, more of a dispatch point for the churches’ hunters.  Seems a lot of fugitives get the impression they’ll be safe here.  But then I ran into Togusa here, and he’s filled me in on what’s going on.”

            “What is it?” Kyle asked.

            “I’ll let Togusa explain,” she said, motioning the man over.  Togusa walked over and sat down calmly next to Arrie.  He looked everyone at the table over before speaking.

            “My name is Togusa.  I am originally from a land far from here, though I suspect you know of this already.” He made the slightest of nods toward Xu, who returned it.  “For some time now, I have been a hunter for Tor.  Several years ago, Ariadne, myself and perhaps ten others participated in the hunt for a fugitive convicted of a series of brutal murders. This person tried to justify his crimes as being in pursuit of alchemical knowledge, saying that his victims had been party to alchemical experiments that had failed. When confronted with the possibility of punishment, he fled and a Hunt was formed. We pursued him to a small village where he had stopped and was trying to find passage across a river. His flight was impeded by the fact that unseasonable rains had flooded the river and no one was willing to risk themselves to ford him across. We pursued him to the river and fought some of his creations. During this battle, he was mortally wounded and bled to death. However because of the flooding we were unable to retrieve his body. The Hunt was declared completed however, since the criminal was dead.

“Over the past few weeks, the mark from that Hunt has been slowly reappearing for the original members.”  Togusa held out his right hand, and revealed a black hound’s head mark identical to the one Arrie had.   “There are scant rumors about that the criminal has reappeared, peddling his alchemical creations here in Miracle.  In addition, the other members of our Hunt have been dying. We are investigating further the whereabouts of the dead members’ corpses, as one corpse has gone missing from the place where it was entombed.”

Arrie leaned in and said in a low voice, “I think you all can see where this is going.  About five of the original twelve in the Hunt are dead now, and one missing body.”

“How do you want us to help?” Tolly said automatically.

“I need your help in tracking down information about this criminal, who’s apparently alive again,” she said.  “Neither Togusa or I are very skilled in the ‘investigating and tracking’ part of a Hunt; we were more on the ‘subdual and capture’ end of things.  Unfortunately, all of the investigative types in the original Hunt are dead now, and the church here doesn’t have anyone in town right now with those skills.”

“I can help with that,” Lanara said.

“Who are we supposed to be looking for?” asked Autumn.

“His name was Neville,” Arrie said.  “But he had a lot of aliases.  Basically, the reason that the church of Tor marked him for death – not just to be brought back for justice, but marked for death – is because wherever he went he let a trail of bodies in the name of his ‘experiments’.  He was beyond a murderer, he didn’t care who his experiments hurt.  He had absolutely no conscience.  The church of Tor only issues a death-mark for the most heinous, unforgivable crimes.”

“If what you say is true, and this Neville is practicing his foul craft again,” Tolly said, “why come here?  Would not Paccë’s ban make his work impossible?”

“Remember the drug trade here, Tolly,” Kyle said.  “If he gets people to be in these experiments willingly, then he’s not harming them in Paccë’s eyes.”

“If he is here,” Arrie said, “then Togusa and I will need your help to take him out.  But first we need to find him, and I can’t make the same kind of connections that some of you might.”

“What does he look like?” asked Kavan.

“He’s fairly tall, perhaps a few inches taller than the average human male.  He had medium brown hair, very pale eyes, darkish skin.”

“Any distinguishing marks?” the elf pressed.

“Other than the scars from when we fought him at the river, no.”  Arrie thought for a moment.  “But he did have an assistant.  An orc-touched, I believe.  He was… well, let me put it this way.  I’ve never met anyone who I haven’t been able to like in some way, but this man was… foul.  Nothing obvious that you could point to, but just unpleasant to be around.”

During the conversation, Xu had eyed Togusa warily.  She recognized his style of dress as that of a samurai, and he had the requisite top-knot marking his station, as well as the katana at his back.  But he did not carry the smaller wakizashi, which would mark him as ronin.  As she studied the warrior, she saw him studying her back.  There was a barely perceptible nod exchanged between them; _we will speak later_, that nod said.

“You said this guy was an alchemist,” Kyle was saying.  “I have to go pay for the healing potions I ordered earlier today anyway.  I can drop a few questions around to see if anyone knows anything.”

“May I come with you?” Autumn asked suddenly.

“Um, sure, but it’ll probably be pretty dull.”

“I’d still like to come,” she said.

“I can speak with the priests at the church of Paccë,” Tolly offered.  “Perhaps they have heard of recent disappearances in the city, or problems with grave-robbing.”

“It is certain that Neville is operating out of the eyes of the public,” Togusa said.  “If any of you have connections with the shadier side of society, there may be much to be gained by looking there.”

Osborn said nothing, but already his mind was working on possible avenues he could use to contact the local underworld.  Next to him, Kavan raised her voice.  “I could try and talk with some of the local prostitutes.  Perhaps I could even put the word out on the street that I might fancy a rendezvous with a pale-eyed man.”

“I can start that rumor, if you’d like,” Lanara said.

“You might want to use a different name than ‘Kavan’,” Autumn suggested.  “Something a bit more feminine?”

“Call me ‘Kay’ for now,” Kavan said.

Arrie looked around the table, gratitude plain on her face.  “Thank you for helping me,” she said.

“There was no need to ask,” Tolly said.  “We have shed blood for each other.”

“I know,” she replied, “but in this… Neville was a bad man.  I’m not the type to say that about anyone, normally, but in this case… it disturbed me to find out that this task is apparently not finished.  Not just because it was a task that I agreed to as a matter of faith, but because he is apparently back to his old atrocities.”

The party began to stand up.  “We can start laying some groundwork tonight, and pick it up again first thing in the morning,” Kavan said, “and meet back here again tomorrow night to compare notes.”

“Agreed,” said Togusa.  “I thank you for your assistance.” He bowed to the group, then turned and addressed Xu.  “Honored Lady,” he said.  “I would be honored if you would sit with me for dinner tonight.  I know of an establishment in town that can prepare food similar to that in our homeland.”

Xu, slightly taken aback at Togusa’s forwardness, nevertheless accepted.  He escorted her out of The Cedar Grove and to a small restaurant on the other side of the city.  After they found a table, Togusa went and spoke briefly with the cook before returning to sit down.

            “Thank you for agreeing to dine with me this evening, Honored Lady,” Togusa said, speaking in the dissonant tones of the Xhintai Empire*. “It is most satisfying to once again be able to converse in a proper, civilized tongue.”

            “Agreed,” replied Xu, as the serving wench sullenly set the teas on the table in front of them. “However, Lord Togusa, it seems to me that you have a specific purpose in mind for this conversation, aside from idle chatter to refresh your memories of home.”

            Togusa winced a bit, but bowed slightly at the waist to his dining companion. “Your flattery places honor where there should be none. I am now neither samurai nor ronin, but some strange place in between. All will become apparent in time. Look, here is food. Let us dine while I enlighten you on past events presently brought to bear.”

            They ate for a few moments in silence; the curry, rice, and noodle dish a stark contrast to the other tables’ steaming heaps of meat, potatoes, and ale. Togusa chewed as he collected his thoughts, then began suddenly. “Some years ago, my Lord’s betrothed was kidnapped. In an apparent fit of rage, my Lord gave me the command to punish the wrongdoers and retrieve his bride, no matter how far I would have to go to track them down.

            “I led several others through the town, leaving our armor behind, making no more noise than the She Who Brings Night as She creeps across the sky. We did find those who had taken my Lord’s betrothed, and slew them all, rescuing the woman. There were complications, though, that prevented me from resting that evening.”

            Togusa paused to sip his tea and clear his throat before continuing. “First, the group’s leader was in the process of burning several documents, and was not able to complete the process. Given, however, that the documents were under my Lord’s hand and seal, the fact that I was able to claim them before any others saw them meant that I did not have to slay my own men.” Xu’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at these statements, but her iron self-control kept her from displaying any other signs that what Togusa was saying was at all interesting.

            “I had also not, until that time, realized that my Lord’s betrothed was the woman that I had loved and courted in my younger years, and still held a special place for in my heart. I could not speak to her of such things, though, that night or ever, for she now belonged to my Lord, and I could not interfere in this affair. Upon reviewing the documents later that evening, though, I discovered that neither could I allow it to continue. For the documents revealed that my Lord had ordered both the kidnapping and the rescue, to increase his standing with his people, and possibly to find a new, slightly richer wife.”

            Togusa dipped into his curry for a few moments, and Xu took the opportunity to speak. “I comprehend your maze," she said. "Your lord ordered you to bring the perpetrators to justice, and you could not disobey that order. But your lord was one of the perpetrators, and you could not bring dishonor to him by exposing him of his crime. I would imagine your exit from this maze has something to do with your presence in these lands.”

            “Most perceptive, Lady. I left my wakizashi with a note for my Lord, advising him that justice was not yet finished, and I would not return for my blade until the time of the final reckoning had passed. I left those lands to follow a slightly looser interpretation of my Lord’s final command to me, in service to the Hound of Justice, neatly solving a complex problem.”

            “Except,” Xu pointed out, gesturing with her teacup, “that the main figure in your tale who deserves punishment still lives, with the respect of his people, and the love of the woman who has your heart.”

            “He does. His time will come. When I am old and gray, and unrecognizable, and all that I have described has been forgotten, I shall return. I will take up the blade that I left, and I shall strike down my Lord with it. The woman I love shall have had a full and happy life; I will have obeyed the orders of my Lord to bring the perpetrators to justice; and the guards will likely slay me shortly thereafter, so I shall die with my secret, an anonymous assassin, and preserve my Lord’s honor.”

            They ate in silence for a few minutes, meditating on the nature of love, honor, and service. Xu finished her tea, and looked across the table at Togusa. “A most informative story. I still do not comprehend, though, how this ties in with me and my past.”

            “Ah, yes. My apologies, Honorable Lady. You see, I recognize you. You were once introduced to my Lord as my Lord’s cousin’s betrothed.” Xu started, a flutter of fear coursing through her veins at the mention of the incident. Togusa’s mouth twitched. “Yes, Hungai the Great is my Lord's cousin.”

            Xu snorted. “Hungai the Girthful, you mean.”

            Togusa shrugged. “Whichever you prefer. He was greatly dishonored when you fled.”

            “I can well imagine.”

            “He has vowed to retrieve you, no matter the cost. He commonly hires those who value gold more than honor or life to conduct his searches. By the time I left, he was beginning to come to the conclusion that you had left the Empire. By now, I suspect he realizes that you have left the continent entirely, as there have been descriptions of you circulating in some of the larger ports of Sargia for some time, now.”

            One of the tipsier patrons came staggering up behind Xu, murmuring something about dancing and blankets. Togusa shot him a look that promised a slow, agonizing death, and the man stumbled off.

            Xu nodded resolutely. “I was certain this day would eventually come. I shall seek out what information I can in this place. Please inform my companions, and send them my apologies. I feel certain that the remainder of them can assist Ariadne, especially with your prowess at their side.”

            Togusa nodded. “Of course, Lady. I felt it only honorable to warn you. I wish you success in your endeavor.”

            “And you in yours.”

----------------------------

* A note regarding the Xhintai Empire.  When we first began this campaign, our DM had no plans to include an Asian-style region on his world.  However, one of the players created Xu Dhii Ngao, an obviously Asian monk.  Up until this very moment, there had been nothing else done to develop Xu's homeland; it didn't even have a name until I originally wrote up this session.  Thus most of the 'details' that emerge about Xhintai are things that were made up on the spot, or added in during the writeup.  Since I don't think our DM has any plans to set adventures there, pretty much the only exposure you should see in this SH to that Empire is Xu, Togusa, and Hungai.


----------



## Delemental

Xu opened the door to her room at The Cedar Grove and saw her roommates sitting together in front of the fireplace.  The large room held five beds as well as the sitting area, and normally each was separated by a screen of cedar panels.  The panels had been moved aside to open up the room.  Arrie sat on one of the couches near the fire, writing a letter.  Kavan sat on the floor, with Lanara perched behind her on a chair trying to comb out her hair.  Lanara looked up at Xu when she walked in.

“Yes, we look like schoolgirls having a slumber party,” she said.  Then she cocked her head to the side.  “Something the matter, Xu?”

“There is something that I think you should know,” Xu said.  The others quickly focused on the monk as she crossed the room and sat in a plush chair.  “Where is Autumn?”

“She went for a walk with Tolly,” Arrie said.  “We can fill her in when she gets back.”

“I thought she was still out with Kyle,” Kavan said.

“No, she got back and then went and asked Tolly to go for a stroll.  You were downstairs at the time, Maddie.”

“Maddie?” Xu asked, curiously.

The elven favored soul grinned.  “It’s short for Madrone.  It’s my new female name.  I came up with it while you were out on your date with Togusa.”

“It was not a ‘date’,” Xu said.  “Neither of us have many opportunities to converse in our own language or hear news of home.”

“Okay, fine, it wasn’t a date.”  Kavan turned away from Xu, but not before flashing a surreptitious wink for Lanara.

“But Xu was just saying that she had something to tell us,” Arrie said.

Xu nodded. “Do you remember some time ago, in that restaurant in Trageon, when I told all of you that I had once been engaged but left when I decided that I did not want to marry?”

Everyone nodded.  “Yeah, during spring break,” Lanara said.

“My account was not entirely accurate.  I described my husband to be as a nobleman; a more proper term might be ‘warlord’.  However, Lord Hungai was a prosperous warlord, and seemed set to rise in station.  My parents, who are merchants, thought it would be wise to establish a connection with Hungai the Great; thus I was offered as a bride.  But upon meeting him, I found him to be a repugnant man with few redeeming qualities.  Despite the shame I knew it would bring to my family, I simply could not stay and be wed to him.  So I ran, and after a time I came here, hoping to elude him.”

“But…” Arrie prompted.

“But Lord Hungai is as persistent as he is vain.  Apparently he has declared that I will be his wife no matter what the cost, and has been searching for me.  Tonight, I learned from Togusa that those hunters have arrived on this continent, and are certain to locate me soon.”

Kavan’s eyes flashed.  “This Hungai can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.  We’ll cut off his balls first.”

The other women in the room heartily agreed.  Although Xu’s intention in telling her story was only to warn her friends of the danger she might bring upon them, and not to plead for assistance, it felt reassuring to know they would side with her against Hungai’s men.  Xu was confident that the men in the next room over would feel the same.

Xu flashed her friends one of her rare smiles.  “Thank you for listening to my story,” she said.  “But in the morning it will be Ariadne who requires your aid, not I.  Unfortunately, there are some matters I must attend to immediately in regard to Hungai’s bounty hunters.  I must endeavor to find out how long they have been in Affon, and how close they may be.  I can do this myself; I see no need yet to ask for your assistance, as the rest of you will need to search for this Neville.  I will leave early in the morning, and return when I have learned all I can.”

The others nodded their agreement.  “Just stay out of trouble,” said Lanara.  Then the cansin yawned loudly.  “Well, Maddie, there’s not much more I can do with your hair until it grows out a little more.”

“Kyle said he might be able to help with that,” said Kavan, who was now Madrone.  “He said something about altering a _prestidigitation _spell.”

“Well, you can talk to him in the morning,” Lanara said.  “Right now I want to go to sleep.”  The bard scrambled into her bed and was snoring within minutes.  The other women began to prepare for bed as well, changing into night-clothes or tying back their hair.

“You coming to bed?” Maddie asked Arrie, who was still sitting up on her bed.

“I’ll wait for Autumn,” she said.  “Go to sleep.”

Arrie sat and tried to finish her letter, but found she couldn’t concentrate.  She folded it up and put it away in her pack, and then sat for a while and stared at the fire, feeling unusually relaxed as she thought about having to hunt down Neville again.  This time, we make sure, she thought.  The thought made her smile inexplicably, as though it were somehow funny.  _I must be more tired than I thought.  I’m feeling loopy.  Tor’s Teeth, I’ve been feeling loopy since dinner._

She stood up suddenly and went to the pitcher of water that sat next to her bed, pouring herself a glass.  “Hurry up, Autumn, or I’ll fall asleep before you get back,” she muttered to herself.  “You’ve got something big going on, and I want to know what it is.”

*            *            *​
            Autumn and Tolly strolled quietly along a wide cobblestone street that ran along one edge of the massive bridge that supported Miracle.  The quiet rush of the water far below them was punctuated occasionally by the shouts of revelers or the occasional burst of music coming from the city’s many taverns and narcotic dens.

            “Disgusting,” Tolly said, as an obviously drug-addled cluster of gnomes stumbled by. “I can hardly believe that people would allow themselves to lose control so readily.”

            Autumn didn’t respond, but walked quietly next to Tolly, keeping her eyes on the stones at her feet.  A cold wind blew in off the river, ruffling the edges of her cloak and causing her to shiver involuntarily.

            “Here, take my cloak as well,” Tolly said, unfastening the clasp around his neck.  But as he began to put it around her shoulders, Autumn held up a hand to stop him.

            “Tolly, I need to talk to you,” she said.

            There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, then Autumn looked up at the Ardaran, reaching out and taking his hand in a comforting grasp.  “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, especially with my recent death.  And… I’ve realized a lot of things that I should have realized sooner.  One of those things was that I had died because I’d put myself in front of Kyle, and died protecting him.”

            “Kyle has always had a disturbing lack of concern for his own personal safety,” Tolly said quickly.  “For one not trained in hand to hand combat, he…”

            Autumn silenced him with a squeeze on his hand.  “I had a lot of choices in that battle.  Arrie had just fallen to that acolyte of the skin, and I could have gone to her aid.  The priest of Fiel had not yet been challenged in combat, and I could have gone to face him.  Instead, I stepped in front of the monstrosity that used to wield the axe I now carry, and…” she let her voice trail off.

            “I thought a lot about that during my recovery,” she continued after a time.  “I chose to go to Kyle’s side; I chose to die defending him.  It made me realize something – that I truly loved him.”

            Tolly made a slightly startled noise in the back of his throat, barely perceptible over the noise of the river and the city around them.  He felt his grip on Autumn’s hand tighten involuntarily.

            “Once, you gave me a token of your affection, Tolly.”  She let go of Tolly with one hand and reached into a pocket, pulling out the cold-forged iron rose that he had made for her on the ship to the Haran Desert.  “I’m not entirely certain what meaning that held for you at the time, though I can guess your intent.  But Tolly, I need to clear the air between us and make sure that we understand one another.  I’m going to be with Kyle, but I wish for us to be friends as we always have been.”

            There was another long silence.  “Oh,” was all Tolly could say for a while.  He turned and looked out over the water, not really finding any solace in it.

            “I wanted you to understand that this wasn’t some rash decision I made,” Autumn said quietly.

            “That’s… good,” Tolly said, with no weight behind the words.  “Um, I…um… this is… unexpected.  But… I’ll recover.”  He turned back to face Autumn, who was holding out the iron rose, offering it back to him.  “Keep the rose,” he said.

            Autumn pulled Tolly close and hugged him, and kissed his cheek.  “Thank you for understanding,” she said, “and I’m sorry.”  She pulled back after holding the embrace for a moment.  “Do you want to walk back to the inn with me?” she asked.

            “No, I think I would like to stay out a little longer,” he said.  “Perhaps walk down by that area over there.”  He pointed off in a vague direction into the city.

            “I understand,” Autumn said.  “Good night, Tolly.”  She slowly turned and walked away, leaving Tolly standing alone.

            When Autumn was out of sight, Tolly walked over and leaned against the stone wall at the edge of the bridge, watching the reflection of the moon dance in the water below.  He stood there, unmoving, for nearly ten minutes as the world went past around him.

            Finally, he stood up straight.  “So be it,” he said out loud to no one in particular, then he turned and strode off down the street, taking the long way back.

*          *            *​
            The next morning, everyone woke up to the sound of Autumn screaming.

            “KAVAN!!”

            Lanara sat straight up in bed, her head wrapped in sheets, and thrashed around trying to get untangled.  In the next bed over, Maddie (who naturally had not yet stopped responding to her old name, especially when shouted at high volume) rolled out of her mattress and quickly ran over to where Autumn stood, white as a sheet, over her sister Arrie’s bed.  A second later, Kyle burst into the room, and came to Autumn’s side after he saw that no one was being attacked.  Osborn was a few steps behind him, and Lanara finally won her battle with the bedsheets and joined the others.  Xu’s neatly made bed indicated that she had already left the inn.

            “She’s… she’s… not breathing!” Autumn stammered.  “Kavan, do something!  Help her!”

            Maddie knelt down next to Arrie, not bothering to correct Autumn now.  Gingerly she felt the warrior’s skin, and noticed that it was cold and pale.  True to Autumn’s word, there was no tell-tale rising and falling of her chest.  She quickly intoned a spell and began examining Arrie under its effects.  Kyle, standing just above Maddie, was also peering intently at Arrie, his eyes sparkling as he activated his ability to see magical auras.

            “Strange,” said Maddie quietly to Kyle.  “Arrie seems to be neither alive nor dead.”  She turned to the sentinel.  “Autumn, how did this happen?”

            “I don’t know,” Autumn sobbed.  “She was sleeping soundly when I got home last night.  This morning I came to wake her up, and I found her like this.”

            Behind them, Tolly came walking in to the room, looking like he’d slept poorly.  “What’s going on?” he said tersely.

            “Something’s wrong with Arrie,” Osborn told him.  “She looks like she’s dead.”

            “There’s an odd aura around her,” Kyle said.  “Very complex, tricky to make out.  It seems to be a mix of necromantic magic and conjuration.  Nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

            Tolly scowled, then cast a _detect magic_ spell of his own and studied the aura as well.  Maddie whispered her own findings to him as he worked.  “Necromancy and conjuration,” he confirmed, then turned to Autumn.  “What is it about your sister that attracts necromancers?” he snapped.  “First someone tries to put her grandfather’s soul in her, then someone makes her ‘dead but not dead’?”

            “She’s not dead?” Autumn said, seemingly oblivious to Tolly’s castigation.

“No.” He stooped and examined Arrie closely before Autumn could respond, lifting her arms and legs and pressing his fingers into her flesh.  “There is no physical reason for her to be dead,” he announced.

            Maddie leaned over and peeled one of Arrie’s eyelids open.  “The eyes are rolled back as if she were asleep, not staring like the eyes of a dead body.”  She stood and looked at Autumn.  “I think we should probably tie her up.”

            “What?  Why?”

            “Just to be safe.  We’ll be gentle, and we won’t hurt her.”

            “I’m not leaving her.”

            “That’s fine,” Maddie said.

            Kyle stepped up and put his arm around the sentinel.  “Autumn, we don’t know what’s happened to Arrie.  The necromancy part of the magic affecting her could be what’s put her in this not quite dead state; maybe it separated her soul from her body. The conjuration could be an attempt to summon something to replace it.”

            “Or the conjuration is a way to keep her soul bound,” Tolly said.

            “Fine,” said Autumn, “but I’m not leaving her.”  She looked at Kyle.  “Isn’t this considered harmful to her?  Wouldn’t the person responsible now be banished from the city?”

            “I don’t think so,” Lanara said.  “Sorry, Autumn, but she technically hasn’t been killed yet, and she hasn’t been hurt otherwise.  The person who did this knows what they’re doing.”

            “We all know who’s responsible,” said Autumn.

            The party began talking rapidly among themselves, suggesting ideas or theories about what to do.  Lanara, who for once had nothing to say, went over to get a mug of water.  She poured some from the nearby pitcher, and raised it to her lips.  Suddenly she stopped, sniffing at the water inside.

            “Hey, guys?  This isn’t so good.”  She extended the mug to the group.  “Someone want to check this out?”

            Both Kyle and Tolly stepped forward, peering at the mug with their active detection spells.

            “Lingering magic,” Tolly confirmed.

            “Necromancy and conjuration,” Kyle agreed.  Then he sniffed the water.  “And something else.  It smells like… apples and metal.  Odd.”  Kyle handed the mug back to Lanara, and then walked out of the room, returning a minute later with his belt.  He pulled out a few alchemical supplies and began working on the tainted water, trying to analyze it.

            Lanara watched him work, a frown curling the edge of her mouth.  Apples and metal… the combination reminded her of something, something she knew she should know but couldn’t get off the tip of her tongue.  Everyone was talking about magic, and spells, and curses… somehow, that didn’t seem right to her.  She mentioned this thought to the others.

            “Huh,” Kyle said, scratching his head, “you’re right, Lanara.  There’s something about that smell that’s familiar.  I can’t place it either.”

            “Perhaps this substance was the carrier for the magic affecting Arrie,” Tolly suggested.

            “Well, that is what Neville’s known for; being able to place powerful spells into potions.”

            Autumn looked over at Kyle. “Didn’t Arrie say that he was killing off members of the original Hunt?”

            “Yes,” answered Tolly, “and one body has disappeared.”

            Autumn clutched her sister’s still form tightly.  “No one’s taking her anywhere.”

            Kyle finished his work on the tainted water.  Although he wasn’t able to identify it, he realized there were two different substances in the mug, besides water; the apple-metal poison, and a sediment of very, very fine crystals.  A quick check of the pitcher next to Arrie’s bed confirmed that the substance was only in the mug.  Kyle handed the mug to Maddie, and asked if she could purify it.  After she complied, he scooped a layer of the crystals off the top and shook them into an empty vial.  He looked at the others, and shook his head.

            “I don’t have enough equipment to figure this out here,” he said.  “But I can take it to an alchemist in the city and have them take a look.”

            Lanara walked over to the trunk at the foot of her bed and pulled out one of her magical instruments.  “Do you think a spell to halt the poison’s progress would help?” she asked.

            Kyle suddenly slapped his forehead.  “That’s it!” he shouted.

            “What?” said several of the party at once.

            “The conjuration portion of the spell!” he said.  “It’s a _delay poison_ spell!  I didn’t recognize it at first because it’s not a typical arcane magic!”  He walked over and picked up the strange-smelling mug.  “Here’s what I think happened.  Whatever poison’s in this mug should have killed Arrie.  But the spell embedded in it is halting the poison’s progress just shy of the point of death.  Neville’s smart enough to know not to kill her, or he’d be banished.”

            “So, she’s in a stasis right now,” Tolly said.

            “Well, then, delaying the poison further can’t hurt,” said Lanara, who put her fingers to her lute.

            “No!” Kyle shouted, grabbing her wrist.  “Don’t.”

            “Why not?” Autumn asked, eyes flashing.

            “Because it might kill her,” Kyle said, trying to sound calm.  “Casting another _delay poison_ might act as a counterspell, not as an enhancer, which would end the protection and kill her.  The other problem is that necromantic magic in there.  It’s tightly interwoven with the conjuration, and they’re in a very delicate balance.  Even if casting another _delay poison_ wouldn’t dispel the effect on Arrie, it would throw the balance off.  I think that the necromantic effect would then take hold and kill her.”

            “Crap,” Lanara said, lowering her lute.

            Kyle shook his head.  “Whoever this Neville is, he’s good… very good. The way he’s set this up, if we try to end the spell she dies, and then it’s our fault, not his, and we end up banished from Miracle.  He’s made the knife and put it to her heart, but we’d be the ones pushing it in.”  Kyle studied the aura again for a minute.  “I can’t tell how long the _delay poison_ will last,” he said.  “I’d guess we have a while, but I can’t say how long for certain.  But most spells like that don’t last forever.”

            “Perhaps a _death ward_?” offered Tolly.

            Kyle shook his head.  “Neville would have thought of that.  I suspect the necromantic magic isn’t a simple death spell.”

            “What if we used a _sleep _spell?” Lanara said.  “Maybe it’ll help slow things down more.”

            “No, a _sleep _spell only works on weaker creatures.  I doubt…” Kyle cut off suddenly, and looked at Lanara.  The two of them lit up at the same time as a thought crossed their minds.

            “Tincture of corundum,” they said in unison.

            “What’s tincture of corundum?” Osborn asked.

            Lanara picked up the poisoned mug.  “It’s a sedative.  A lot of people use it as a sleep aid.”  She smelled the mug again.  “But not this strong.  It’s usually very, very diluted; a vial of it can last a person every night for a month.  That’s why it took us a while to place this metallic apple smell; usually when you use it, it’s too dilute to be noticeable.  There was probably enough in here to drop a horse.”

            “Or kill a human,” Tolly concluded.

            Autumn looked up from Arrie.  “Everyone should check their own water pitchers and mugs.  Neville may be trying to kill all of us.”

            “I suspect that he is targeting Arrie specifically because she was in the original Hunt,” Tolly said.

            Kyle looked worried.  “Maybe someone should go to the church of Tor and check on Togusa.”

            “Right,” said Maddie, “I’ll go.”

            “I’ll go with you,” Lanara said.  “There’s not much else I can do here.”

            They turned to leave, and the instant they turned into the hallway outside their door they ran straight into Togusa.

            “My apologies,” he said to them.  “But Ariadne was to meet me this morning at the church, and did not arrive.  Is everything all right?”

            “Not really,” Maddie said.  “It’s a bit of a mess up here, but I’m glad to see you’re all right.  Come on in.”

            “Wait,” he said, “there is trouble downstairs as well.  Apparently the innkeeper’s teenage son is dying.  His lips are turning blue and he’s not breathing, I heard someone say.  I came up here to get help for them.”

            Maddie and Lanara looked at each other.  “We’ll go.  Get someone in there to fill you in.”

            After the two women left, and Togusa entered the room and was brought up to speed, Tolly turned to Kyle.  “Perhaps we could try casting a…”

            Kyle held up a hand to stop Tolly.  “I don’t think we should do anything.  I don’t want to just start throwing random spells at Arrie and saying ‘maybe this will help’.  Until we can figure out how to dispel this particular spell, I don’t want to risk it.”

            “We need to find out how the water was poisoned in the first place,” Tolly said.  “We should speak with the innkeeper.”

            “Let’s wait until they deal with his kid dying, shall we?” said Osborn.

            “It could be related,” Tolly said.

            “And we’ll find out… later.  Right now we should figure out what to do with Arrie.”

            “Our course is obvious,” Togusa said.  “We must hunt down Neville and force him to give us the cure before we kill him.”

            “I’m not leaving Arrie,” Autumn repeated.

            “But we may need your assistance in capturing Neville,” Tolly said.

            “She didn’t leave my side, I’m not leaving her.”

            “Perhaps she could be left in the care of the church of Tor, or Paccë,” Tolly suggested.

            Togusa shook his head.  “Another one of the bodies of the original Hunt has disappeared.  I would recommend that you not…”

            “She’s not going anywhere,” Autumn snapped.

            “Do you have any way of taking her with you?” Togusa said.

            “The cart?” Osborn suggested.

            “That doesn’t really solve the problem,” Kyle said.

            “What about your _portable hole_?” Tolly asked.

            Autumn glared at Tolly.  “You want me to put my sister in my _portable hole_?”

            “It would make sense,” Tolly said.  “She does not need to breathe while in there, and she would be out of Neville’s reach.  And she would be with you at all times, and we could get to her quickly if needed.  And if she were secure in the hole, then we would not need to bind her up.”

            Autumn sat unmoving for a moment, then finally nodded her head.  She opened the trunk at the foot of her bed, and dug out the folded square of black cloth.  “The weapons and armor we are hoping to sell are still in there,” she said quietly, holding out the cloth.

            Kyle took the _portable hole_ and spread it out on the floor. “We can leave that stuff here.  Come on, guys, help me empty this out.”

            They worked for a few minutes stacking armor and weapons on the far side of the room, then covering the pile with blankets.  Autumn carried Arrie over and placed her inside, bringing a pillow and some blankets to make her as comfortable as possible.  As she finished, Kyle climbed down into the hole holding one of his light globes and a sheet of parchment.  He set both down next to her, the globe glowing softly.

            “In case we fix this while she’s in here, and she wakes up,” Kyle explained.  “The note lets her know where she is and what happened, so she doesn’t freak out.”

            Tolly, standing above them at the edge of the hole, watched the two of them talk for a moment, then unfastened a necklace from around his neck and tossed it down.  “This necklace provides breathable air,” he said.  “Put it on her, just in case.”

            Lanara and Maddid came back into the room, just as Autumn and Kyle climbed out of the hole.  Maddie was holding a wine glass, with a strange red gelatinous lump in the bottom.  “Kyle, we need you to tell us what this is,” Maddie said.

            “What’s going on?” asked Osborn as Kyle took the glass and sat down on a bed.  “How’s the innkeeper’s son?”

            “Alive, barely,” said Lanara.  “We got down there and he looked like he was fighting to stay awake.  He was so sedated his heart and lungs were failing.  I used my _delay poison_ spell from my lute, which seemed to hold things at bay.  They’re sending for a healer now.”

            “We had the family search the inn for anything that smelled like apples and metal, thinking it was that tincture you mentioned,” Maddie continued.  “They found a water pitcher with that smell, and also found this wine glass near the boy’s bed.  We searched the children’s room in the attic, and found this under the boy’s bed.”  Maddie held out a pouch with a single gold coin inside.  “Unusual for a boy his age to have a gold coin, don’t you think?  I think he’s selling drugs, or maybe himself.”

            “Or maybe,” Kyle suggested, “someone came up to him last night and offered him a nice shiny gold coin if he made sure that a particular water pitcher ended up next to Arrie’s bed.”

            Maddie’s eyes widened.  “I hadn’t thought about that.”

            “It was the first thing I thought of,” Osborn commented.

            “The innkeeper’s wife said that the pitcher we found was from last night,” Lanara said, “and would have been replaced with a fresh one this morning.  She had no idea which room it came from, but I think we can guess.”  She glanced over at Arrie’s bedside table.

            “And the wine glass?”  Osborn asked.

            “From last night as well.  Mom thinks that the boy snuck an unfinished glass off to his room last night after serving the dinner guests.”

            “Who else is staying here?” Tolly asked.

            “Besides us, there was a merchant that left this morning, and a young newlywed couple, who are still in their room,” Lanara said.  “The innkeeper was going to check on them, though his wife said that she could… well, hear them last night.”

            Kyle finished his work and looked up.  “It’s a drug,” he said.  “It’s called Dreams of Tedros.  It’s a very mild sedative and hallucinogen, purely recreational.  It’s meant to be mixed with wine, as it doesn’t affect the flavor of the wine or the potency of the drug.  Used properly it’s harmless, but this is a pretty large amount.  If he got hold of that, and then took some tincture of corundum, the effects would multiply.  That’s what’s killing him.”

            “You should go tell the innkeeper’s wife,” Lanara said, “let them know what they should do.”

            Kyle nodded and left the room.

            Togusa turned to the others.  “We should report to the church of Tor to let them know of Araidne’s condition,” he said.

            After spending a few minutes collecting their gear, the party made their way to the church of Tor, picking up Kyle on the way out and handing him his equipment.  As they walked, Togusa turned to the others.

            “Once we report to the church, we can try and find where Neville is,” he said.

            “I learned last night that he has a townhouse here,” Lanara said.  “When he’s in town, he never leaves it.  Sends that orc-touched out to run errands and buy supplies.  They just call him ‘The Brute’.  A lot of people end up disappearing when he’s in town, too.”

            “Some of the prostitutes I talked to yesterday mentioned The Brute,” Maddie added.  “Apparently he’s so foul that there’s only two women in town that will service him.  I spoke to one, she said that his skin is cold and he’s covered in scars.”

            “Do you know where this townhouse is?” Togusa asked Lanara.

            She shook her head.  “Not enough time last night to get that far.”

            “What else did you learn about Neville?” he asked.

            “Not much else. He only leaves or enters the city at night.  He rides in a big carriage, pulled by these strange, twisted horses.  Last time he was here, someone got too close to one of the horses and almost lost a hand.  And he’s been coming here for some time – well before you and Arrie shoved him into that river a few years back.  After that, no one heard from him for about six months, and for another six months after that there were rumors he was around but nothing could be confirmed.  There were confirmed sightings of Neville and The Brute after that.  Seems he now comes into Miracle an average of every seven weeks or so, and stays anywhere from a day to a week.”

            Togusa shook his head.  “That monster has been practicing his trade for that long, and we are only now learning of it?  Shameful.”

“I tried to get an idea of what kinds of things he’s been making,” Kyle said.  “Some of the ingredients The Brute buys are used to make common street drugs, but others can be used for things like poisons, or really nasty stuff like Liquid Pain.”

            “What’s Liquid Pain?” Osborn asked.

            “The distilled life-force of someone who has been tortured to death,” Kyle said.  “It’s used to provide the energy needed to make magic items, so that the creator doesn’t have to use so much of his own.”

            “To make things like magical potions, for example,” Tolly clarified.

            Kyle nodded.  “I tried to get a sense of what kind of spells thus guy can supposedly make into potions, but no one I spoke to knows enough about magic to tell me for sure.  All I can say is be careful what you drink in his house.”

            “I think that we should purify anything we want to eat or drink,” Maddie said.

            “Agreed,” said Kyle, who then turned to address Togusa.  “So, you and Arrie fought Neville and his servants once before.  What can we expect?”

            “Those who serve Neville are usually merely those who have lost their minds and free will to the narcotics that he peddles.  The effects of the drugs make them stronger and faster than normal people, and nearly impervious to pain, but also fairly mindless.  We learned the hard way that magics meant to influence or confuse the mind are useless.”
            “So, they’re kind of like the undead,” Kyle said.

            “Yes, except that they are still living beings, and so a spear to the heart or the severing of an artery will kill them.  Besides them, there are Neville’s creations; animals mutated and crossbred with strange animals.  The horses that pull his carriage are an example.  Though we did not encounter any during our battle with Neville, there is also rumor that he has altered sentient creatures in similar ways.”

            As Togusa talked, Autumn walked up next to Kyle and took his hand, holding it tightly.  He squeezed back reassuringly.

            The party arrived at the temple of Tor, which in reality was a largish townhouse with a large statue of Tor in the front, and a symbol of a hound’s head carved in marble over the doorway.  The party walked inside, and came to a large open room.  A middle-aged man sat at a desk near the back corner.  Most of the party recognized him as a captain in the church; Tolly recognized him as one of Tor’s Judges, who were charged with setting laws and dispensing justice.  It was the Judges who called a Hunt and declared one ended.  Togusa, who obviously also recognized the Judge, bowed.  Lanara, uncomfortable within the walls of a lawful church, stood near the door.

            “Captain Barad,” Togusa said, “new information has come to light in regard to the Hunt for Neville.”

            “Oh?” Captain Barad said, pulling out a sheet of parchment and a pen.  “Continue.”

            Tolly relayed the morning’s events to the captain, who wrote everything down dutifully.  “Rest assured I will include this information in my dispatches to the other temples,” he said.

            “Do you have information as to where we could find Neville?” Togusa asked.

            “We know the district in which he lives, but no more,” Captain Barad informed him.  “From there you could inquire with locals.”

            “That should not be difficult,” Tolly said.  “If it’s a disreputable district, Lanara can usually find a whorehouse and a tavern within two minutes of entering a place.”

            Lanara glared at the back of Tolly’s head.  “They’re great sources of information.”

            “There are many ways to get people to talk,” Togusa said.  “The district will suffice.”

            Captain Barad regarded the group for a moment, then opened a pouch at his side and pulled out a scroll case made of gold.  He pulled out a large sheet of fine vellum that was written in an elegant calligraphy, and began to read.

            “Be it known that upon this day, on the authority of Tor as given through one of His Judges, that the entity known as Neville, among other names and aliases as are given on this document, has been deemed worthy of execution without trial or detainment.  Among his crimes are murder of sentients, torture of sentients not for purposes of information extraction, mutilation of sentients, production and sale of harmful substances without license, production and sale of lethal substances without license, immoral magical experimentation on sentients, and other lesser crimes.  The evidence of these crimes has been deemed by a Judge to be irrefutable.  The entity known as Neville has been further deemed to be without possibility of redemption or reform, and no lesser sentence can be justified or tolerated.  All who hear this declaration are charged with the responsibility of dispensing Tor’s justice, and shall be granted what protection that responsibility entails until such time as the sentence is carried out and its dispensation is confirmed by a Judge of Tor.”

            Togusa bowed as the Judge finished and rolled up the document, while the others looked at each other uncertainly.  It seemed important to Captain Barad that they heard those words, but no one was sure why.  Captain Barad gave them directions to the district where Neville lived, and they walked out into the street.

            “So, that stuff the captain was saying,” Lanara asked.  “Does that mean that we can kill Neville without worrying about disappearing?”

            Togusa shook his head.  “The laws of Miracle still apply; Tor’s power cannot override that of Paccë.  What it means is that we are authorized to kill him, and that it will be known to be a just act.”

            “In other words, we won’t get arrested if we hack him to pieces in the middle of some other city,” Kyle said.

            “Indeed.  A Judge would be able to confirm that you were acting under the authority of Tor.  Also, if we are successful, then the Hunt can be officially declared ended.”

            “So, we will have to drag him out of the city before we kill him,” Tolly said.  “I can accept that.”


----------



## Delemental

They arrived in the district they sought, which was a middle-class neighborhood close to the ‘medicinal’ district.  It consisted of a large open-air market, surrounded by rows of townhouses.  The party split into groups of two and spread out to try and find rumors of Neville’s whereabouts.  With the effort coordinated by Lanara, they were able to pinpoint the townhouse within a couple of hours.  Part of their success was due to Maddie contacting some of the prostitutes in the area and spreading the word that she was looking for a partner who was “big, pale, and rough-looking”.

            “A word of caution,” Tolly said on hearing of Maddie’s strategy.  “If Erito is as thorough in her reshaping as Ardara is on her forge, there may be ramifications should you actually engage in the activities you have been advertising.”

            “First of all, I have no intention of sleeping with The Brute,” Maddie said.  “Other than that, Tolly, you’re being far too obtuse for me to understand what you’re getting at.”

            “Don’t forget that you can get pregnant now,” he said tersely.

            “Oh,” she replied.  “Of course, that’s true.”

            The party arrived outside the gates of Neville’s home.  Lanara had cast a _change self_ spell on herself, trying to look more nondescript.  She reasoned that if rumors of her questions about Neville had gotten back to him, she best not look like “a pink-haired cansin with a purple leather outfit.”

            The house was a long, narrow two-story building, which at first glance looked like every other house on the block.  After fifteen minutes of observation, the party noted that there was no activity of servants either inside or outside, unlike the neighboring houses.  A strong odor emanated from the house, a smell that seemed to bother Rupert greatly.  Kyle sniffed, and wrinkled his nose.

            “If we can smell it from out here, then it’s going to be really foul inside,” he said.

            “Perhaps one of us should retrieve the necklace I gave to Arrie and wear it,” suggested Tolly.  “There is enough air inside the portable hole to last several minutes anyway.”

            Before anyone could respond, they heard Osborn sour sarcastically  “Hey, that’s fun!”

            “What?” Autumn asked.

            “There was a real ugly orc-touched at that window, and he was looking down at us,” Osborn said, pointing.

            “Great,” Lanara said.

            “Looks like we’re expected,” Kyle said.

            “Then we should let ourselves in,” Togusa said.  He and Autumn began to head for the house, followed closely by the others, who scrambled to make what preparations they could in the short walk to the front door.

            “Do we bother knocking?” Lanara asked.

            “Sure,” said Autumn, who proceeded to kick the door down.  Inside the townhouse, they saw two sets of stairs going up to the second floor, one to each side, and a long hallway down the middle leading to various rooms.  Autumn immediately went to the stairs on the right, followed by Tolly.  Togusa and Maddie went to the left, and the others spread out in the entryway.

            There was a commotion upstairs, and the sound of people running.  At the top of the stairs, a group of five humans with glassy-eyed expressions came charging down toward Autumn, brandishing small sticks.  They shoved and stumbled into each other heading down the narrow stairs.  Autumn paused, and then balled her hands into fists and plowed into them, hoping to knock them aside.  But their combined weight pressing forward was too much, and Autumn was knocked back sprawling on the stairs.  The drug-zombie in the lead flailed at her wildly with his stick, but it clanged uselessly off her plate armor.

            Togusa and Maddie prepared to charge up their stairs and go around the landing to help Autumn and Tolly.  But Maddie’s sharp elven ears heard more shouting from a room upstairs, toward the back of the house.

            “There are people heading out the back of the house!” she shouted.

            Kyle immediately turned around and cast a _fly_ spell on himself, heading out the front door and flying up and over the house toward the back.  Osborn, mounted atop Rupert, began to run down the central hall toward the back as well.  Lanara spent a moment to activate one of the many magical instruments she carried, and soon she was surrounded by several identical images of herself that vanished and reappeared at random.

            Togusa decided on a more direct route to the back.  Running to the top of the stairs, he activated his speed-enhancing boots and charged full bore down the long corridor on the second floor, heading for a tall, narrow window on the back wall.  He hurled himself through the window, sending wood and glass flying, and landed in the back yard on his feet.  Maddie, right on his heels, came out the window right behind him, though her landing was less graceful.

            Only Autumn, Tolly, and Lanara were left to deal with the crazed addicts on the stairs.  As Autumn struggled to her feet, Tolly invoked Ardara’s power, and grew to enormous size.  Reaching over Autumn, he was able to keep Neville’s minions at bay with his long arms, giving the sentinel time to regain her feet.  But one of the men managed to get his ‘weapon’ through her armor.  Though the wound was superficial, it was enough; the man vanished instantly, banished for violating Paccë’s peace.  Tolly and Autumn looked at each other.  “Can you handle this?” Tolly asked.

            “Oh yes,” she replied.  With that, Tolly launched himself up the stairs, past Autumn, and barreled through the pack of drug-zombies up the stairs.  For her part, Autumn lowered her arms and stood still, beckoning her enemies to strike her.  Autumn smiled as the men came at her, too crazed from the drugs in their systems to realize what she was doing.  The makeshift weapons they had were too flimsy to cause any significant damage, and within a few seconds Autumn was the only one left on the stairs.  As she heard Tolly charging down the upstairs hallway, she looked back at Lanara.  “Go help the others,” she said to the bard.  “I’m searching the house.”

            Kyle flew into the back yard as Togusa helped Maddie to her feet, and Osborn was emerging from out the back door.  In the far corner of the yard was a carriage house, its doors thrown open.  Inside Kyle could hear movement.  He flew down to the doors quickly, hoping to catch whoever was inside.  Instead, he was thrown back as a large, furry animal launched itself at him.  The creature looked like a dire weasel, but protruding from the side of its head were two large, beetle-like mandibles.  The creature sank its teeth into Kyle’s thigh, locking itself in with the mandibles.  Kyle screamed in pain as blood began to flow freely down his leg.  A second mutated weasel leapt out of the carriage house and launched itself at Maddie.  Togusa ran forward and stabbed at the weasel creature attached to Kyle, wounding it but unable to finish it off.

            Osborn wheeled Rupert around, hoping to get in close to Maddie to help her out.  But then he heard a strange noise behind him, a sort of wet, squelching slap against wood.  He turned to see a set of cellar doors burst open, and a mass of… something burst out.  It looked like nothing less than the bloody intestines of hundreds of creatures, wriggling and swarming out of the ground in a putrescent mass.

            “Oh, great,” Osborn said, as he pulled Rupert around and moved to the far side of the yard.  Daggers would be of little use against something like that.  But the disgusting mass moved surprisingly swiftly, and enveloped Osborn and Maddie.  Nearly overwhelmed by the horrific odor of decaying flesh and fluids, they were unable to ward off the sucking, grasping tubes that struck at them like dozens of enormous leeches.

            Kyle pulled out a wand, and launched _magic missiles_ at the weasel attacking him, killing it.  Unfortunately, the mandibles did not release, and the animal was still firmly attached to his leg.  He looked around, and saw the grotesque mass envelop Osborn and Maddie.  At the same time, he saw a giant-sized Tolly burst out of another window on the second floor and land solidly on the ground.  Then he heard a few screams and commotion from the street behind him, on the other side of the wall surrounding the back yard.  Kyle quickly rose up into the air, trailing the dead creature.  Clearing the wall, he saw people scattering in the street behind him as a lone cloaked figure rode out of the back of the carriage house on a strange horse.  The horse had jagged, sharp teeth, and six legs, and a pair of extra limbs tucked to its side that ended in long claws.  Wincing in disgust, Kyle pointed at the fleeing rider and intoned a spell.  Instantly, a bank of fog rose up all around the horse and rider.  Though the fog obscured them from sight, Kyle knew the vapors were so thick that the horse-thing would be slowed to a crawl.  _That’ll buy us some time_, he thought, then wheeled in midair to observe the scene below.

            Togusa had gone to Maddie’s aid, killing the second mandibled weasel that had dogged her.  The favored soul just managed to get off a _recitation _ spell when the gut-swarm enveloped her again, and she was overcome by the putrid stench.  As she was about to be buried in a mass of intestines, Tolly ran up and picked the elven woman up, carrying her to the shelter of the carriage house.

            “Thank you, Tolly,” she said, quickly recovering, “you can put me down now.”

            As he set Maddie down, Togusa went running past them into the alley.  He tried to plow his way through the _solid fog_, but backed out when he realized it would be impossible to get through it fast enough.  The cloud filled the entire street, and people all around were shouting at the sudden disruption in traffic.  Inside the cloud, Togusa could hear the horse-creature screaming in anger, and the terrified, pain stricken cries of a pedestrian that had been too close and stumbled into the horse’s grasp.  No other noises came out of the cloud.  Running back inside, Togusa went around and began trying to scale the outer wall of Neville’s townhouse, hoping to get high enough that he could jump into the center of the fog and catch the rider unaware.

            Back in the yard, Osborn and Rupert were the only ones left in the open to face the gut-swarm.  It surged forward and tried to envelop the hin, but he just as quickly moved away.  Suddenly the mass seemed to lurch and recoil, and Osborn felt the concussion wave of a _sound burst_ spell going off.  Looking around, he saw Lanara standing in the doorway of the house, pointing a wand at the mass.

            The putrescent swarm began to lurch toward Lanara, and Osborn wheeled around, determined to keep the creature away from the bard even though he knew he couldn’t defeat it.  But then Kyle’s voice rang out above him.

            “Back away from the pile of guts!”

            Osborn pulled up on Rupert’s reins, stopping him just as a ball of flames landed in the yard in the midst of the instestinal mass.  The air was filled with the smell of burning flesh and boiling intestinal fluids.  A second _fireball _ came down, followed by a third.  Lanara also blasted the swarm with few more _sound bursts_, and within moments nothing remained but wet, bloody ash.

            “Come on!” Kyle said.  “I’ve got The Brute pinned down!”  He flew over the solid fog and waited for the others to surround the bank.  A few minutes ticked by as they waited for the vapors to disperse.  When they finally lifted, they saw the horse-creature standing there, the shredded remains of the bystander at its hooves.  The cloaked rider was nowhere to be seen.

            The party dispatched the mutated horse quickly.  As it fell over, Kyle landed and  walked up to the carcass, still dragging the dire weasel behind him, and kicked at the horse, blood splashing onto his boots.

            “Dammit!” he swore.  “Damn you!  Son of a bitch!”

            Maddie ran up and pulled Kyle back by the shoulders.  “Kyle, relax, its all right.”

            “I had him…” Kyle said angrily.  “I thought I had him for sure.”

            “What do you think happened?” Tolly asked him.

            “He could have _teleported_, or _dimension doored_,” Kyle said, “or turned invisible and walked right past us.  I assumed that The Brute was nothing but a meat-head; I didn’t stop to think he might be clever enough to escape.”

            “Let’s search the house,” Maddie suggested.  “Maybe we’ll find something in there.”

            By the time they walked into Neville’s townhouse, most of the bookshelves and desks in the various rooms were bare.  Autumn had opened her _portable hole_ on the floor of the upstairs hallway, and was busy filling it with every scrap of paper she could find.

            “The cure may be in here,” was all she said.

            A further search turned up a hidden lab in the basement.  Going in, they found an elaborate alchemists lab, stocked with supplies.  Rows of shelves held finished products, everything from highly addictive street drugs to vile poisons.  In a separate room, they found a wall of cages containing animals in various stages of transformation.  These were quickly dispatched, but more problematic was the next room, which held similar cages filled with people in similar states of experimentation.  Unable to give them a merciful death due to Miracle’s magical effect, the party decided they would inform the church of Paccë of Neville’s lab immediately and let the priests of the god of peace deal with the matter.

            Unfortunately, nothing in the house revealed the whereabouts of Neville or The Brute.  The party gathered in the back yard when the last book had been packed away.

            “Now what?” Lanara asked.

            “I will tell you,” Togusa said.  “I will return to the church of Tor to retrieve my battle armor and my horse.  In fifteen minutes I will return here, and begin tracking The Brute to whatever hiding place he has found.  If you wish to find Neville, and save Ariadne, I suggest you be here then.”  With that he turned and walked away, heading down the street back toward the church.


----------



## Delemental

_So, this is what death is really like._

            It was the most coherent though Arrie had had in hours.  Or was it days?  It was dark to tell; silence and darkness were the only things in her world.

            She had been waiting for Autumn, she remembered that.  It was late, and Autumn was out with someone.  Tolly, she thought, or was it Kyle?  Or both?  The details were fuzzy in her mind.  She’d been waiting to tell Autumn something important.  Or waiting for Autumn to tell her something.  After that there was nothing.  Silence and darkness.  Time lost meaning for her.  She willed herself to move, shout, breathe, _anything_, to no avail.

            Arrie knew who was responsible for this.  There could be only one suspect.  Neville.

            Suddenly there was… a sound!  A loud, piercing shriek that sounded more beautiful to her than the finest elven choir.  It was Autumn, her dear, sweet sister; she was shouting for someone – for Kavan…

_No, dear, it’s Madrone now…_

            There were footsteps, and more voices, voices she knew and trusted.  But why couldn’t she see anyone?  Why couldn’t she move?  Why did everyone sound so far away?

            They were talking now.  Talking about her.  She heard words that made no sense – “not breathing” –  “cold and pale” – “no pulse”.  There was talk about something in her water – _the water!_ – and of magic.

            There was a sudden flash of light all around her, but only from her right side.  She saw Maddie looking down at her, peering into her face, the elf’s hand right up next to her eye touching her face – _why can’t I feel her hand on my face?_

            “The eyes are rolled back as if she were asleep, not staring like the eyes of a dead body,” she heard Maddie say.

_She’s talking about my eyes.  My body.  My dead body._

            Maddie pulled her hand away – _no no no no don’t shut my eyes don’t take away the light_ and now there was more talk about her, about what Neville had done to her.

_Help me please help I’m still in here._

            There was talk about trying to help her, trying to end whatever held her trapped in her own body.  But she heard Kyle telling them not to try. _ Kyle why won’t you help me?  I thought we were friends._  She heard Autumn refusing to leave her side, heard the anger in her voice.  _Yes, please stay with me._  Then there was more talking, and she didn’t hear Autumn’s voice anymore.

            There was the sound of people moving, of grunting as they lifted something heavy.  Suddenly what sound she could hear began to echo strangely, as if she were inside a very small room.  She heard Kyle and Tolly talking, something about leaving her something in case she woke up while she was still inside.

_Inside?  Inside what?  Where are you putting me?  Don’t leave me alone!_

            Suddenly all the sound ended, and all the light disappeared.  Arrie hadn’t realized before that the silence and darkness she had experienced before was relative; what she now perceived was total.  Absolute silence, absolute darkness.  And there was nothing she could do about it.

            A scream that only she could hear became Arrie’s entire world.

*          *            *​
            Everyone quickly scrambled to get their belongings together as Togusa strode away.  Everyone, that is, except Autumn, who sat down with one of the large tomes she had pilfered from Neville’s townhouse and began reading.

            “What are you doing?” Tolly asked.

            “I’m not here to chase down this necromancer,” Autumn replied tersely.  “I’m here to save my sister’s life.  The answer may be in one of these books.  I’m not going anywhere until I know what to do.”

            Tolly rolled his eyes and walked off, getting ready to return to The Cedar Grove and get his horse.  Kyle came up to Autumn and knelt down beside her.  “Autumn, do you even know what you’re reading?”

            Autumn’s jaw tensed.  “What are you saying, Kyle?”

            “That there’s days worth of reading here,” he said gently, “and you’re not trained as an alchemist or as a wizard, which means it will take you even longer to find the answer even if it’s here.”  He laid a hand tenderly over hers.  “Autumn, we need you with us.  If we can capture Neville, we may be able to force him to tell us about the poison he used on Arrie.  At the very least, he’s bound to have more books wherever he’s hiding.”

            Autumn sat quietly for a moment, letting Kyle’s words sink in.  A tear rolled down one cheek.  “Damn you and your logical thinking,” she said at last.

            He smiled at her.  “I promise not to let it get in the way too often.”

            They both stood at the same time.  “I’ll stay here,” Kyle said.  “I want to go over my own spellbooks before we leave, to prepare better for the next encounter.  Autumn, can you bring my horse?”

            The party, minus Kyle, quickly departed.  They returned within the hour riding their horses, Autumn leading one by the reins.  Togusa also returned around the same time.  Kyle looked up to see that Xu was now with the party, but Kavan, who now went by the name Madrone, was absent.

            “Xu was waiting at the inn when we got back,” Osborn said to the question Kyle was about to ask.  “We’ve filled her in on what’s going on.  But the innkeeper’s son is still not doing well, so Madrone is staying to watch over him.  She says that she would feel responsible if the boy died because of something that someone tried to do against one of us.”

            “I left Neville’s books and papers with her,” Autumn said.  “She agreed to start reading through them while she waited.”

             “Perfect,” Kyle said.  “Now what?”

            “Now we need to determine which direction The Brute took out of the city,” Togusa said.  “There are only two gates, to the west leading into the Steppes, and to the east leading into Medos.  We should divide up and check each gate to see if The Brute has been seen.”

            “Autumn and I can take the west gate,” Kyle said.

            “You two are going to the west gate?” Tolly said.  “I’ll go east.”

            “I’ll go with you two!” Osborn said to Autumn and Kyle.

            Xu and Lanara decided to go with Tolly.  Togusa stated he would wait at the townhouse, which was nearly in the center of the town, and wait for both groups to rendezvous there.  After an hour, Xu ran up to where Togusa waited.

            “What news?” he asked in Xhintai.

            “Lanara’s inquiries at the eastern gate were quite thorough,” Xu replied in the same tongue.  “We are certain The Brute did not go that way.”

            “Then we should go to the western gate,” he said, standing up.

            “The others are already on their way.”

            The entire party met up just outside the western gate, where Osborn was talking with a group of merchants that were waiting to leave Miracle.  They waited as he finished his conversation and returned.

            “I don’t know,” the hin said, “nobody seems to remember The Brute coming through the gate here, and it’s not like he’s easy to miss.  Are we sure he’s even left the city?”

            “Well, I know for a fact he wasn’t at the east gate,” Lanara said.

            “I can hardly imagine the man would remain in the city knowing he was being pursued,” Tolly said.

            The party began to discuss their options.  Lanara, growing bored, wandered over to a cluster of people talking in hushed tones next to a small doorway in the wall flanking the main gate.*  One of the people wore a bright yellow cloak.  As she watched, they went through the door, and a few minutes later she saw a flash of bright yellow from the other side of the gate, walking away from the city.

            “Hey, Osborn,” Lanara said, wandering back to the group.  “You know, there seem to be people leaving the city but not going through the gate.”

            Osborn looked around, and spotted the door that the bard nodded toward.

            “Huh,” he said,  “looks like there’s more than one way out.”

            The party quickly moved toward the gate and emerged on the other side.  They asked around, and a pair of merchants running a roadside fruit stand mentioned that a short while ago, a large hulking figure on a very strange horse ran across a group riding in on a wagon.  The figure had growled, and the people in the wagon had backed off.  The hulking figure had then rode off to the north, riding fast but not in a panic.

            “Well, we know he’s got another one of those weird horses,” Osborn said.

            “Can you track him?” Tolly asked as they moved out in the direction the merchants had pointed.

            Togusa dismounted and examined the ground carefully.  “I believe these tracks are his.  Neville’s horses ride heavy in front.”  He jumped back into the saddle. “I can follow this trail, but not quickly.  With luck The Brute will think he’s avoided pursuit and slow down.”

            The party wheeled their horses around and rode north.  They rode for hours, Togusa stopping every once in a while to pick up the tracks.  They rode along what seemed to be a barely-used trail, leaving the city far behind them.  After three hours or so, Togusa stopped.

            “The tracks are gone,” he said.  “The Brute left the trail some time between here and the last place we stopped.”

            Osborn, squinting at the horizon, suddenly pointed back the way they had come.  “You think he might live there?”

            They all looked.  A distance away, barely visible from the trail, a large manor house stood.  “It’s worth a try, right?” Osborn asked.

            The party approached the home cautiously.  It was a large, two-story manor that had seen better days.  The grounds were overgrown with vines and wild shrubs, which seemed unusually dark and twisted.  Gnarled, sickly trees cast long shadows across the ground.

            “The plants seem… odd here,” Autumn said.

            “Yeah, they’re not supposed to look like that,” Osborn commented.

            “Magical seepage,” Kyle explained.  “It’s not the technical term for it, but basically when a wizard experiments a lot in an area and doesn’t take steps to prevent it, the magic from his or her work will get absorbed into the land and begin to alter how the plants grow.  I’ve heard tell that way back when there used to be bloody conflicts between the various wizard’s guilds and the Druidic Enclaves over this sort of thing.”

            Togusa looked around the ground.  “The horse that The Brute rode came through here,” he announced.

            “Perfect,” said Autumn who began to walk forward until Kyle put a hand on her shoulder.

            “Why don’t we see what’s on the other side of that door before we kick it down?” he suggested.  “Give me a minute.”

            Kyle closed his eyes and concentrated, muttering the words to a spell.  After a while, he frowned and opened his eyes.

            “Nothing much.  The hallway on the other side of the front door is empty except for some strange, hairless saber-toothed rats.  There are footprints in the dust, that I can’t make out clearly enough to say who they belong to.  But at least there’s nothing nasty waiting for us.”

            “Very good,” Togusa said.

            “Perhaps some of us should see if there’s a back door,” suggested Xu.  “After all, they evaded you in that manner last time.”

            “Good idea,” Osborn said, “let’s go, Xu.”

            The two of them moved off around the back of the house.  They passed close to the stables, and heard the sounds of creatures that were almost horses inside.  They debated burning the stables down, but decided that it would attract too much attention.  They also decided that trying to block them in wasn’t worth the effort, as the horse-creatures were freakishly strong and their arm-like appendages would allow them to batter down any obstacle.  They continued on, past a set of kennels that were eerily quiet, and an aviary containing birds whose wings had been replaced with various appendages; tentacles, clawed hands, insect wings, and so on.  Finally, they arrived at the back door.  Osborn slipped his _ring of invisibility_ on, and checked the door, finding it unlocked.  At the same time, Xu, noted a set of cellar doors nearby, with horse tracks leading up to it.  Xu pointed it out to Osborn.

            “Those doors do look big enough for a horse to ride in,” Osborn said.  “Want to check it out?”

            “Do you think it wise to go in alone?”

            Meanwhile, the others had entered the front door, and were looking around in the main hallway.  Togusa had lit a sunrod, and was looking at the tracks in the dust.

            “Several creatures moved through here at various times,” he said.  “Some of Neville’s drug-addicted slaves, and some true undead,” he held up a finger bone as proof.  “I think The Brute has been here, too, but not recently.”

            “Well, let’s head back and get to Osborn and Xu,” Lanara said.

            “I’d suggest looking for them in the basement,” Kyle suggested.  “It’s the best place for a lab to be.”

            They proceeded to walk to the back of the house, Togusa throwing open the back doors.  Xu was standing nearby, looking at a set of cellar doors.  Kyle also nodded to Osborn nearby, being able to see invisible beings.

            “I see you found the way back,” Osborn’s voice said from thin air.
            “I see you found the way down,” Togusa said.  The Xhintai warrior reached down and pulled the doors open, revealing wide steps leading downward.

            The party went down the stairs into a hallway lit by a soft green luminescence, barely enough to see by.  Togusa held his sunrod aloft, lighting their path.  The hallway stretched on for several yards, before opening into a large chamber beyond.

            “Get ready,” Togusa warned.

            Preparatory spells began to fill the air as the party took up their battle formations.  Tolly began to glow brightly, Kyle and Xu suddenly sprouted multiple copies of themselves, and Osborn renewed his invisibility.

            The chamber at the end of the hallway was cluttered with several large cages, and more cages sat in alcoves on the wall.  Some of the cages contained the mutated six-legged horses, while others contained the mandibled dire weasels they’d fought before.  A huge, hideously scarred orc-touched hunched over one table, apparently in the midst of work.  On the far end of the room were two more figures; one was an older, balding man with pale skin and a feral smile, who was conversing with what seemed at first to be a floating boulder.  It turned as the party entered the chamber, peering at them with six eyestalks on top of its head as well as a large eye in the center of the round, fleshy mass.

            “We have unexpected guests, master,” the orb said.

            The bald man peered at the group.  “No specimens worth my time,” he said.  “Dispose of them, gauth.”

            The party tried to rush forward into the room, but a few of the mutated weasels and horses, who were already out of their cages, sprang forward and filled the corridor, blocking the way in.  Kyle managed to get off a single spell, shooting a ray at Neville and enveloping him in a greenish glow.  “You’re not pulling the same trick as your lackey!” he shouted, before having to scramble out of the way of one of the horses.

            Lanara’s song filled the room as the party pressed forward into melee.  Togusa tried to maneuver around the mutated animals to get to Neville, but found his path blocked by the hulking mass of The Brute, swinging a large flail.  The Brute growled and glared menacingly at Tolly as their weapons locked, but the priest only stared back intently.  “May Ardara send you back into the pit from which you crawled,” he said.

Togusa’s blade flashed as he stepped up to challenge The Brute, and they locked in combat.  Neville, in the back of the room, calmly walked behind a large table and turned a metal crank, and the cage doors began to crank open, allowing the other animals to join the battle.  Meanwhile, the gauth casually floated in the corner of the room and fired a pair of eye beams into the melee, missing with one but striking Tolly with the other, tearing at his flesh with negative energy.

Xu, Tolly, and Autumn attacked the weasels and horses, trying to get past them and into the room.  Tolly blasted one of the horses with acid as Xu blocked the beast’s slashing limbs and pummeled it with her fists, and Autumn hacked at it with her greataxe.  For a brief moment there was an opening, but suddenly the gap was filled by a mass of writhing black tentacles that rose up out of the floor.  But the tentacles were no obstacle for Osborn, who moved right through them thanks to his other magical ring.  Still invisible, the hin ran to the far side of the room, preparing his daggers to face Neville.

Kyle shifted and moved forward as well, barely avoiding the slashing mandibles of one of the weasels.  He tried to envelop a trio of animals in a cloud of smoke that would render them senseless, but they were largely unaffected.  Then Tolly focused on the mass of tentacles, and dispelled it, once again making a clear path into the room.

“Go!” he shouted at Autumn, as the other mutant horses and weasels began to close in.

The sentinel ran full-bore into the room, greataxe held high, heading straight for Neville.  But as she came around the large table, Neville raised a hand casually, and another field of tentacles sprang up around Autumn, pulling her off her feet and miring her down.  She screamed in anger as she struggled, but to no avail.  Only a few feet away, Neville tittered at her.  “Perhaps there is something worth my time here after all,” he said to Autumn.  “I wonder how you would look with tentacles of your own.  Yes, my pretty, I think that would be splendid.”

The gauth floated toward the center of the room, still firing rays from its eyestalks.  A pale beam struck Tolly, and suddenly he felt as though he’d just run twenty miles in full armor.  His arms and legs felt like lead, and he couldn’t seem to draw enough breath.  A second ray of fire struck the wall inches from Kyle’s head, and a third was aimed behind the gauth at Autumn, wounding her as she continued to struggle with the tentacles.  Kyle tried to blind it with a _glitterdust _ spell, but the sparkling dust did not get into any of the gauth’s eyes.

Togusa ran The Brute through, smiling with satisfaction as his blade emerged from the back of the hideous orc-touched.  But The Brute only smiled back as he swung back with his flail, smashing Togusa’s ribcage.  Togusa stepped back, pulling his blade free, and noticed there was no blood.

“You are undead!” Togusa said, startled.  The Brute only continued to grin in response.

The monsters continued to press in, still keeping the bulk of the party from getting into the room.  Lanara summoned a large spider with her wand to help, sending it to attack the closest horse.  Xu pointed her _ring of the ram_ at one of the horses, breaking bones as the force-bolt struck it but failing to push it back.  She went back to her trusty feet and fists, but it was a struggle; though her skills meant she could hit the horses and weasels easily, their altered anatomy was foreign enough that the pressure points and weak spots that she normally relied on to inflict serious damage weren’t working.  But the protection afforded by the _mirror image_ spell Kyle had cast on her meant that the animals were having just as much trouble striking her.

Tolly, who had seen Togusa run through The Brute and the results of that attack, stepped back and raised his holy symbol.

“As I said before, vile undead,” he shouted.  “May Ardara send you back into the pit!”

Holy power blasted out of the symbol and struck The Brute full in the chest, blowing straight through and hitting the far wall.  The Brute did not so much die as fall apart, as though he were a rag doll and someone had pulled out all the stitches at once.  As The Brute fell, Togusa saluted Tolly with his blade before wading into the mutant horses.  The Xhintai warrior winced as another beam of negative energy from the gauth hit him.  At the same time, another ray hit Autumn, draining her vitality even as she continued to struggle in the tentacles.  “It’s better if you don’t resist, my pretty,” Neville whispered to her.

Despite his taunting, however, Neville had grown somewhat concerned that the intruders in his home had not yet been dispatched.  The destruction of his servant was also unfortunate.  The master alchemist cast a spell and starting climbing up the wall to the ceiling, out of reach of the intruder’s swords and axes.  But from out of nowhere came a hail of daggers, piercing the necromancer in several places.  Osborn appeared in the middle of the room, grinning at his success.  But the grin faded as he saw that no blood was seeping out of the wounds, and that despite the damage to Neville’s frail form, he seemed to experience no pain.

“Crap,” Osborn said.

Neville fixed the hin with a glare of pure contempt, then pulled a vial from his belt and drank the contents.  Osborn’s six daggers fell to the floor with a clatter as Neville suddenly turned into a fine gray mist, and began drifting slowly away to the far side of the room.

“Crap!” Osborn repeated.  “Hey, Kyle!  Can you _fireball _ this thing?”

            Tolly, hearing Osborn’s distress, glanced up from his fight with the weasels to see Neville turn gaseous.  He threw out his hands and summoned a wall of solid iron, which blocked off the corner that the cloud seemed to be drifting toward.  Tolly wasn’t sure if Neville had some sort of escape route there, or was simply trying to get out of the way; either way, it would take him longer to go around the wall, buying them time.  But with his muscles still aching from exhaustion, it was all he could do to defend himself, let alone break free to aid Osborn.  Tolly glanced back at Kyle.  “Can’t you do something about these creatures?” he complained.

Kyle pulled out a wand and pointed into the room.  Seconds later a _fireball _ erupted behind the cluster of horses and weasels, singing several of them.  The animals scurried around for a moment in confusion, trying to identify the source of the fire.  They settled on Togusa, who was the closest, as the cause, and leapt to attack him.  But the confusion left another opening; without waiting for a comment from Tolly, Kyle hurried through into the larger room.  Looking around, he saw Osborn dodging a _scorching ray_ from the gauth, and return fire with a _searing light_ from his jeweled headband.  He saw the misty form of Neville slowly drifting around an iron wall.  Then he saw a mass of black tentacles on the other side of the room, and Autumn’s gauntleted fist rising up out of the mass, trying to escape.  Gritting his teeth, Kyle summoned up the energies for a dispelling rite, and negated the arcane energy powering the tentacles.

Autumn quickly rose to her feet.  She was exhausted and wounded by the gauth’s eye rays, and the tentacles had dislodged some of the plates of her armor, making it awkward to wear.  She looked for Neville, but couldn’t see where he was.  What she did see, however, was the gauth, hovering a few feet away, its eye stalks swiveling around to target Kyle and Osborn.  Autumn gripped her greataxe tightly, and stepped forward as she brought it up over her head.  One of the gauth’s eyestalks caught movement from behind it, and the aberration swiveled around in time to see the blade of the axe coming down.

Seconds later, a gore-covered Autumn stepped out from between the two halves of the gauth, a smile of grim satisfaction on her face.

Togusa, still pinned down by the mutated horses and weasels, growled in frustration as he saw Neville floating away, just out of reach.  He swung his katana around him, shouting in rage, and brought down the last two horses.  With a path clear, Togusa turned to charge at Neville, activating his speed-enhancing boots, but suddenly he screamed in pain as one of the weasels finally got past his adamantine armor and sank its mandibles into his leg.  With effort, Togusa turned and addressed Xu in his native tongue.

“A little help with the rodent?”

Xu met her countryman’s request, running up and kicking the back of its neck, causing it to go limp.  The mandibles, however, did not detach, but remained locked in Togusa’s thigh.  Ignoring the pain, Togusa turned and ran across the room, dragging the dead weasel behind him.  Blood trailed behind him as he picked up speed.  Using an overturned workbench as a launching platform, Togusa leapt into the air, sword gleaming even in the dim light of the basement.  The katana’s blade passed through the cloud that Neville had transformed himself into, ripping through the vapors.  The entire cloud seemed to jerk and twitch violently, as if struck by a sudden air current, and then the vapors dissipated, emitting a foul odor as they vanished.

The last two weasels were dispatched by Tolly and Xu; even Lanara contributed, hitting one of the weasels with her whip.  As the din of battle died, the party gathered around Togusa, who was standing quietly staring at the spot where Neville had been.

“What happened?” Autumn asked.  “Where’s Neville?”

Slowly, Togusa extended his right hand, palm up, and uncurled his fingers.  The hounds-head mark in his palm slowly faded and disappeared as they watched.

“It is done,” he said quietly.  “He is defeated at last.”

“No!” shouted Autumn.  “What about my sister!  What about Arrie!  We have to save her!  We need Neville to tell us how!”

“Autumn.” Kyle called out to her from across the room.

The sentinel turned, eyes bright with fatigue and grief, and looked at Kyle, who was standing behind Neville’s desk.  Kyle opened a drawer and withdrew a large, black tome.

“We don’t need Neville to tell us anything,” he said.  “He already has.”

*          *            *​
            It was nearly dawn by the time Kyle had finished brewing the antidote.  Autumn had brought Arrie out of the _portable hole_, and laid her out on the floor on top of blankets, inside a protective circle that Kyle had drawn in chalk.  The others had gone about either ransacking the manor, or dispatching the remainder of Neville’s monstrosities.  They studiously avoided the basement; Kyle had said that the antidote was complex, involving both magic and alchemy, and wanted to avoid any accidental disturbances.  Most of the others were now asleep in upstairs rooms.

            Kyle came up to the two sisters, holding four vials.  “Are you ready?” he asked, kneeling down next to them.

            Autumn nodded.  “Kyle, if this doesn’t work, I want you to know that…”

            Kyle silenced her by placing his fingertips on her lips.  “It will work.”

            Autumn closed her eyes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.  She kissed Kyle’s fingers before he pulled them away.  Kyle gently placed three of the vials in front of Autumn in a row, setting the fourth down next to his knees.  Then he pulled a funnel out of a pocket and placed it in Arrie’s mouth.

            “When I start the spell, I’ll pause three times in the middle.  Don’t concentrate on what I’m saying, it’ll just sound like magic mumbo-jumbo to you.  Listen for the pauses.  Each time, you need to pour one of these into Arrie’s mouth, in order from left to right.  After you pour the third one in, pull the funnel out.  Got it?”

            She nodded.  “What’s the fourth one for?” she asked, pointing at the vial next to Kyle.

            “That one’s for me.”

            “For you?  I don’t…”

            “It’s part of the ritual to bring her back.  It’s called the Breath of Life.  You’ll… you’ll see when I get to that part.”

            Kyle shifted into a more comfortable position, and laid his hands on Arrie’s body, just above her heart.  He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and began.

            The entire ritual took ten minutes, though to Autumn it felt like an eternity.  Fears crept into her mind; what if the antidote wasn’t as reliable as Kyle believed?  What if there were risks Kyle wasn’t telling her about?  She pushed the doubts aside, though, and focused on her task, pouring the vials down Arrie’s throat each time Kyle paused in his incantation.

            After the third vial had gone in and Autumn had withdrawn the funnel, Kyle continued to intone the ritual for several seconds.  Then, in one rapid motion he picked up the vial next to his leg and drank it in one gulp.  Thick, light blue smoke immediately began to pour out of his mouth and nostrils.  He inhaled deeply, sucking the vapors back in, and then suddenly bent down and placed his mouth over Arrie’s, exhaling even as he reached up and pinched her nostrils shut with his free hand.  Autumn watched Arrie’s chest rise as her lungs filled with the blue vapors, then drop as she exhaled sharply.  Kyle broke away from Arrie, stumbling back out of the magic circle, looking as though he were choking.  Autumn began to stand up to help him, but Kyle thrust out a hand warning her to stop.  She watched as he struggled for a few minutes, then with a sickening cough spit out a black stone the size of a sling bullet.  As Kyle gasped for air, the stone clattered on the cold stone floor, shattered, and vanished in a puff of black smoke.

            Autumn watched, wanting to go and help Kyle but fearing to move.  But after a moment he regained his composure, and crawled back into the circle.  “Sorry,” he said, a little hoarse, “The ritual said I’d have to do that.  I didn’t expect it to be the size of a turkey egg.”

            “I could have helped you, you know.”

            “I know, but I didn’t want to chance you being exposed to that stuff before it dissolved. But I think you’re getting distracted from something a little more important here.”  Kyle gestured at Arrie, whose skin had become flush and pink, and whose chest now rose and fell steadily.

            Kyle put out an arm to hold Autumn back as she was about to pick up her sister and embrace her.  “She’ll be waking up any second,” he warned, his tone strangely dire.  “This all could be… a little disturbing to her.  Wait a minute and let’s see how she reacts.”  He withdrew his arm, and from another pocket pulled out a small flask, which he uncorked.  Autumn caught the faint scent of apples and metal, and looked at him questioningly.  “Tincture of corundum,” he confirmed, “a safe dose.  In case she freaks out a little on us.”

            Arrie’s eyes opened rather suddenly.  She looked around the room, seeming as though she were in shock.  Then, as her eyes focused on Autumn and Kyle hovering over her, her face became strangely serene.

            “Welcome back, Arrie,” Kyle said.  “Rest for now.  You’ll wake up soon, and we’ll explain everything.”

            As Arrie closed her eyes, Kyle stood up and offered a hand to Autumn.   Autumn went over and grabbed a blanket, laying it over her sister.  “Will she really be all right?” she asked.

            “She’ll be fine, she just needs to rest a little.  Probably will be up in an hour or so; after all, in a sense she’s been sleeping all day.”  He started to smile, then it faded.  “Um, wow, that didn’t come out very well.  What I meant was…”

            His explanation was halted as Autumn ran up and kissed him, throwing her arms around the wizard in a passionate, tender embrace.

            “It’s all right, Kyle,” she said as she pulled away, laughing.  “It’s very much all right.”

*          *            *​
            “So, he was undead, huh?”  Arrie gulped down another ale, waiting for Kyle to answer her question.

The party had returned to Miracle four days ago, and was busy with last-minute affairs.  They’d found the deed to Neville’s townhouse among the alchemist’s personal papers, and had decided to keep it for their own use.  Maddie and Lanara had been out selling a few odd items of treasure to raise money to pay back taxes and to pay a staff, and were also searching for a diamond to replace the one Tolly had used to raise Autumn from the dead.  Tolly had been tasked with filing the proper papers with the city, paying any taxes or fees, and making sure there ware no legal complications, and Autumn had been placed in charge of searching out suitable candidates for a steward to handle affairs once the party left.  Osborn was assigned the task of spreading the word through Miracle’s underworld that Neville’s townhouse was no longer a narcotics den or a place to bring corpses for quick cash.  Xu served a somewhat similar function, staying hear the townhouse and ‘re-educating’ those who wandered by looking for Neville’s drugs or illicit potions.

Kyle had been working inside the townhouse itself, using a combination of magic and muscle to clean out the building and grounds and make needed repairs.  Tolly was also helping in that regard, sanctifying the grounds to help remove the necromantic taint.  That had left Arrie alone most of the time to rest, though she received frequent visits, especially from her sister.  But this evening Arrie had insisted on taking Kyle out drinking, to which he readily agreed.  But unlike the last time they’d gone out for ales, this time it was Arrie’s side of the table that held the majority of the empty mugs.

The wizard set down his own mug.  “Seems that way.  Maddie read about it in his personal journal while we were gone.  Seems that back before the first Hunt, Neville was trying to make an Elixir of Life.”  At Arrie’s curious look, he explained, “old alchemist’s legend, supposed to make you immortal.  Well, he thought it hadn’t worked, but actually it did, sort of.  It just turned him undead after he drowned in that river.  So, you guys really did kill him on that first Hunt, he just… recovered.”

“I’ll be damned.”  Arrie set down her empty mug next to the others, then waved down the barmaid.  Then she opened up her right hand and looked at the palm.  “I’m glad that Mark is gone for good,” she said.

“So was Togusa.”

“How’s the old boy doing?” Arrie asked.

“Good.  He left the city yesterday, said he was heading for Sargia.  He gave Xu a scroll before he left, something in their native language.  Xu says that it basically means ‘The Dreamer sees and approves’.  Apparently, though, it has a lot of different meanings depending on how you read it.”

The barmaid came by the table, already holding two mugs of ale.  She moved around Kyle, brushing against his back as she went, and crossed to Arrie’s side of the table before setting the mugs down, careful to lean toward Kyle as she did so, exposing her cleavage to him.  The barmaid departed with a smile and wink at Kyle.

“Damn, Kyle,” Arrie said, picking up one of the fresh mugs.  “It looks like you’ve got an open invitation there.”

He shook his head.  “I don’t think so, Arrie.”

“Oh, come on, Kyle!  She practically sat in your lap and pressed her breasts into your face!  Even you can’t be that socially clueless.  Look, I’ll clear out of here, you can pitch a little woo.  The rooms in the basement of the townhouse are soundproof, so you don’t have to worry about…”

“Arrie,” Kyle said, interrupting her, “I’m with Autumn now.”

She stopped and stared at him for a minute.  “Since when?”

“The night before you were poisoned.  Autumn never had a chance to tell you then, and then with finding Neville, and dealing with the townhouse, there hasn’t been time.  Heck, even Autumn and I haven’t seen much of each other lately.”

Arrie smiled.  “It’s about gods-damned time.  Does Tolly know?”

Kyle nodded.  “He’s been a bit snippy to me and Autumn recently, but he seems to be handling it well so far.”

“Good.”  Arrie leaned back, and looked at Kyle for a while longer.  Then a wicked grin spread across her face.  “So, does Autumn sit in your lap and press her…”

“Arrie!”

The warrior began laughing hysterically, leaning over and falling out of her chair.  Ale splashed onto the sawdust-covered floor as she sprawled under the table, laughing until she turned red.  Gaining a little control, she pulled herself back up to her chair, sitting down unsteadily.  “Forgive me, Kyle.  And don’t tell Autumn I said that.  She’d kill me.”

Kyle looked at Arrie, and glanced at the numerous empty mugs on her side of the table.  “I think maybe you’ve had enough, Arrie.”

Her response was to smile, and grab the full mug from Kyle’s side of the table and begin drinking it.

Kyle watched her down the ale, studying her face carefully.  “You know, that was an interesting spell that Neville used on you.”

Arrie seemed not to pay attention at first, but the rate at which she was swallowing slowed drastically.

“For all his faults, he was good at what he did.  I found it especially clever how the spell was designed to trap your soul inside your own body.  And how it allowed the victim to be aware of their surroundings.”

Arrie set the mug down.

“Yup, it’d probably be pretty terrible, trapped, able to hear everything going on around you but not able to do anything, hearing people talk about you like you were dead… maybe wondering if you’d ever come out of it, if they’d end up burying you like that… I’d imagine that’d really do a number on a person’s mind.  Maybe drive them to drink.  Or worse.”

Arrie’s only response was a strange, wistful smile.

Kyle sighed, then reached across the table and took one of Arrie’s hands, squeezing it.  “Of course, that’s just me thinking out loud about boring old wizard stuff.  Nothing I feel that anyone else would be interested in hearing about… if I don’t ever have a reason to bring it up.” Kyle looked at her intently.  “I won’t have a reason, will I, Ariadne?”

Arrie looked down at her hand in Kyle’s for a minute, then squeezed his hand back firmly.  “No, I don’t think you will.”

“Glad to hear it.”  Kyle pulled a few coins out of his pocket and slapped them on the table, then stood up, still holding Arrie’s hand.  “Come on.  I’m pretty sure you’re going to need help getting up.”

Kyle pulled Arrie to her feet, and they left the tavern, Arrie leaning heavily on Kyle.  She leaned her head on his shoulder for a moment.  “You’re a good man, Kyle Goodson,” she said.

He laughed.  “Too late to trade up now, Arrie.  You’re stuck with the crown prince of Tlaxan for a husband.”

Arrie laughed and punched Kyle in the ribs playfully.  They walked back to the townhouse in silence for a while, letting the sounds of Miracle drift by.

“So,” Arrie said, when they were almost home, “when can I expect my first nephew or niece?”

This time it was Kyle’s turn to fall down.


------------------------------------------

* One of the hazards of playing in a world in development is that certain details become mutable.  Observant readers will note that when the party first came to Miracle, it was described as not having an outer wall or gate.  Apparently, one was built overnight.    Most of the little inconsistencies like this I've managed to cover up over time - one of the advantages of posting these stories several months after they were played.  This one got by me, and I just let it go.


----------



## Delemental

*Stone's Blood*

She paused at the edge of the platform that dropped down to the ship.

            “You know what?  No.  Forget it.”

            The rest of the party turned and looked at Lanara.  “What do you mean, ‘forget it’?” Kyle asked.

            “The boat.  Forget it.  No more boats for me.”

            Tolly rolled his eyes, and the others looked uncomfortable.  “Lanara,” Arrie began, “we’re already here, and…”

            “And the rest of you can go.  I’m taking my horse and leaving.  I can get to M’Dos by land as easily as taking a ship.”

            “But we have already purchased your passage on this ship,” Tolly said testily.

            “So, shove your gear in my bunk and give yourselves more room!  Qin-Chu’s toes, Tolly, for someone who just had his eighteenth birthday party yesterday, you’re pretty grumpy.”

            “You do realize that it’ll take you longer to get to M’Dos overland than it will take us by sea, right?” Arrie asked.

            “Not that much longer.  By myself I can make better time.”

            There was an awkward pause.  “Was it something we did?” Maddie asked.

            “No, dear, I’m just not fond of boats, and in this case I have a choice.”

            “Well,” said Kyle after another awkward silence, “should some of us come with you?”

            “Stars and planets above, no!” she exclaimed.  Seeing the hurt look on Kyle’s face, she smiled gently.  “It’s nothing personal, folks.  Just see no need to inconvenience everyone.  Medos is a relatively safe country to travel in, and I’ll be on major roads with lots of traffic.  Besides, it’ll be good to get a little private time.  I can practice some of those songs that Tolly won’t ever let me play.”

            “Okay, then,” Autumn said.  “I guess we should help get your horse out from the hold and see you off.”

            Though the captain wasn’t particularly pleased at having to unload one of the horses, he didn’t argue much.  Since the ship was still taking on cargo, they were able to get the horse off without too much incident, and within an hour Lanara was on her way, riding off through the wide streets of the river-port district headed east.  The others gathered onto the platform, which slowly lowered itself on study chains down through the bottom of the bridge that Miracle rested on and onto the merchant galley moored directly below.

            Another hour passed before the ship lifted anchor and cast off.  As the party watched the enormous span of Miracle slowly recede behind them as the galley made its way downriver to the ocean, Arrie sighed and smiled.

            “I’m so glad to be out of that city,” she said.  “I don’t think I ever want to come back.”

            “Me either,” Osborn said.  “That city sucked.”

            Kyle turned to the hin.  “I understand why she wouldn’t like it here, but why you?”

            “Because, I couldn’t poke anything there.”

            Kyle grinned.  “Actually, Osborn, there were a number of prostitutes in Miracle.”

            Everyone stared at Kyle, who looked around and shrugged.  “What?  Someone has to fill in for Lanara until she gets back.”

            Autumn came up and put her arm around Kyle’s waist.  “Let someone else do it, Kyle.”

*          *            *​
            It was an uneventful voyage.  The spring rains set in the day after they set sail, and continued all the way to M’Dos.  The party, having paid full passage and thus not expected to work, spent most of their time in their cabins.  They had been on the road almost constantly for the past year, and were looking forward to finally arriving in M’Dos and fulfilling Tolly’s quest.  The party had decided to stay in the capital city for a few weeks, giving everyone a chance to rest and catch their breath, but also giving Tolly and Kyle a chance to work on some magical items.  Their arrival in M’Dos would also mark two significant events; Madrone’s birthday, and the one-year anniversary of the party meeting for the first time back at The Tower.

            The party gathered at the ship’s railing as they came within sight of M’Dos.  The city was built on one side of an large island, and spread out all the way to the shoreline.  As they drew closer, Maddie began to point out details.

            “That’s the government ward,” she said.  “The large building in the middle is where the heads of the eighteen churches gather to make laws for Medos.”

            “So, every church gets a voice?” Autumn asked, “even ones like Fiel and Grabâkh?”

            “Every one,” Maddie confirmed.  “You’ll find temples to every god or goddess in M’Dos, right out in the open.  Qin-Chu’s temple is hidden, actually, but that’s more because of their nature than anything.”

            “What keeps the evil churches from wreaking havoc?” Kyle asked.

            “Or the chaotic ones?” Tolly asked.

            “It’s a balance sort of thing.  All the churches keep an eye on each other, and no one wants to risk getting in enough trouble to get kicked off the Divinity Council and possibly out of Medos.  This is the only place a lot of the less savory deities can have a public face.”

            Maddie began to point out other buildings.  “The really tall building that looks like a giant unicorn horn?  That’s Erito’s temple, the Infinite Spire. Over there is Ardara’s church, the Cathedral of Eminent Order.”

            “Where?” Osborn asked, “on top of that big mound of granite?”

            “The Cathedral _is_ that big mound of granite,” Maddie replied.  “As you might guess, the one with the giant pillar of flame on top is Grabâkh’s, the Temple of the Flaming Eye, and the one out there off shore that looks like it’s halfway submerged is Krûsh’s – The Citadel of Tides.  Feesha’s is called The Eyrie, and it’s the one with all the thin spires and towers.”

            Maddie spent the next few minutes pointing out what other temples she could identify from the ship to her friends.  She pointed out the locations of the market wards, and the hospitality wards.  Then she pointed to another section of the city.
            “And that’s where I spent most of my days as a young man,” she said.  “In the entertainer’s ward.”

            “You going to be all right?” Arrie asked.

            “Fine, actually.  As Madrone I have far more freedom to move around in the city than I would as Kavan.  I may even find out what my father’s been up to this whole time.”

            “Well, if you’re up for it I’d love a tour in a few days,” Kyle said.

            “Certainly,” Maddie beamed.

            The ship made it to port, and the party disembarked, following Maddie’s lead into the city to find a suitable inn.  They settled on a cozy place called the Whistling Mermaid.  Kyle and Autumn caused a bit of a flutter when they quietly announced that they were going to be sharing a room, but the news was not wholly unexpected.  Kyle also paid for an extra room in which to work on magic items, alchemy, and on translating and transcribing the spells from Neville’s spellbooks.  Tolly only stopped long enough to drop his pack off in the room we was sharing with Osborn before announcing that he was going to the Cathedral of Eminent Order to deliver his diamonds to Archprelate Jerome.

            “I’ll go with you,” Autumn said.

            It was a brisk thirty-minute walk up to the Cathedral.  As they entered through the massive gold-plated doors, Tolly paused.

            “What is it?” Autumn asked.

            “It’s just… a good feeling knowing that this quest will soon be behind me.” Tolly switched his warhammer to his other shoulder before continuing.

            “Why did you bring that?” the sentinel asked.

            “The hammer is a relic of my church, Autumn.  Though it has served me well, I feel it is time that I return back to their care, and forge a weapon of my own to continue Ardara’s work in this world.”  Tolly looked at Autumn.  “I should warn you that this could take some time.  Getting in to see the Archprelate is not something done quickly.”

            “I’ll wait with you,” was Autumn’s reply.

            The two approached a large marble-topped desk, manned by a middle-aged dwarf in heavy plate armor.  “Greetings, and the blessing of the Lady upon you, Brother,” the dwarf intoned.

            “Greetings and blessings to you as well,” Tolly said.  “I am Brother Tolly Nightsleaving, of Trageon, accompanied by Lady Autumn Verahannen of Merlion.  I was sent upon a holy mission by Archprelate Jerome, and have come here to complete that mission.  I wish to have a message sent to the Archprelate informing him of my arrival and requesting an appointment to meet with him.”  Tolly crossed his hands behind his back as he finished, waiting.

            The dwarf peered at him with bright, but narrow eyes.  “I will direct you to the Office of the Archprelate,” he said.  “You may deliver your request to his secretary there, Brother.”  He proceeded to give Tolly a set of long, complex directions, which the young priest dutifully wrote down using a sheet of parchment and inkpen sitting on the desk.  Then they set out.  They went up several flights of stairs, heading for the top of the mountain-temple.

            “Is Jerome at the very top?” Autumn asked as they reached another set of stairs.

            “Nearly so.  The very top of the Cathedral would be set aside for very important ceremonies.”

            They finally came to a large set of doors seemingly carved of solid marble.  The doors pushed open easily, however, to reveal a large, well-appointed antechamber.  A large desk dominated one wall, and several people in Ardaran garb sat in wooden chairs around the room.  Some looked as though they had been there for a while.

            “How long did you say this would take, Tolly?” Autumn asked.

            “Once, just before I entered the Tower, I was sent to see the Prelate in charge of Trageon.  I waited in his offices for three days.”

            Tolly and Autumn walked up to the desk, behind which sat another dwarf.  Unlike the one at the main entrance, however, this dwarf clearly outranked Tolly.  After making the proper obeisance, Tolly repeated his purpose and request.

            The dwarf started to flip through a large appointment book.  “Do you have written orders from Archprelate Jerome?”

            “No,” Tolly replied.  “They were verbal.  This task was given to me after the Archprelate brought me back from the dead, exactly ten months and one day ago.  I was in a small logging village in the southwestern corner of Tlaxan, close to Aleppi.”

            “Ah, yes, that little side trip he took.  A moment.”  The dwarf flipped the book over several pages, and perused an entry there.  Then he slammed the book closed.  “Yes, we were left instructions for your arrival.” The dwarf looked at Tolly for a moment, shaking his head.  “It would be best if Frelarr attends to you directly.  Wait over there, Brother Nightsleaving, and when the current appointment comes out, you may go right in.”

            There was a bit of grumbling from some of the human priests in the room as Tolly and Autumn sat down.  “Wow, Tolly,” Autumn said, “you get priority.”

            “Well, sometimes when you do missions for your superiors, they do not make you wait quite so long.  Still, it appears there will be some wait.  I am seeing this Frelarr, not Jerome.”

            After a while, the inner doors to the office opened, and to dwarves came out.  One walked away out of the room, while the second addressed the dwarf at the desk.

            “Who’s next?” the dwarf said.

            “Actually, sir, you have a priority… from Jerome.”

            The dwarf at the desk opened his appointment book and showed an entry to the other dwarf, who nodded.  “Oh, yes, the diamond thing.”  The second dwarf motioned to Tolly.  “Well, come on then.”

            Tolly stood and began to make the formal bows to one of higher station, but the dwarf waved him off.  “Enough of that,” he said.  “Come in, come in.”

            Tolly and Autumn entered an enormous office, with windows overlooking the city.  At first glance, it seemed as though the office was being shared; the décor in half the room was dramatically different from the other half.  One half was designed in a more traditional dwarven style; sparse and utilitarian. The rest was more ornate, with large carpets and upholstered chairs.  The dwarf sat behind the desk and motioned for them to take seats as well.  They remained standing.

            “So, you’re Brother Nightsleaving, correct?  And this is?”

            “This is Lady Autumn Verahannen…” Tolly trailed off for a moment, realizing he didn’t know this man’s position in the church.  He settled for a generic “… sir.”

            “Pleasure,” he said, nodding to her, then he turned back to Tolly.  “Wife?”

            “No, sir,” he said, his voice remaining steady. “Friend and companion in battle.  Am I correct in assuming that you are Frelarr?”

            “That’s correct,” the dwarf said.

            “I have come here to meet with Archprelate Jerome,” Tolly explained.  “I was sent to obtain diamonds to replace those used in a resurrection ritual.  The Archprelate instructed me to return and speak with him when I had completed this quest.”

            “Yes, the diamonds.  May I see them?”

            Tolly handed Frelarr a small sack.  Frelarr reached in and pulled out a large diamond, holding it up to the light from the window.  He examined it for a moment, then replaced it in the bag.  “Very nice,” he said.  “Well done.”  Leaving the bag on the desk, he looked at Tolly with a level eye.  “You’ve been away for a while, correct?  You haven’t been in touch with the church recently?”

            “Today was my first opportunity, sir,” Tolly said.

            “Then you wouldn’t know.  Archprelate Jerome died about a week ago.”

            “Oh dear,” Autumn exclaimed.  Tolly remained silent.

            “Why don’t you have a seat?” Frelarr suggested.  Both of them took the dwarf’s offer this time.

            “This is unexpected,” Tolly said.  “I know that the Archprelate was getting on in years, but…”

            “He was a human,” Frelarr said.  “Their lives are sadly brief.”  Frelarr held his hands out in a helpless gesture.  “I’m Archprelate Frelarr, by the way.”

            Tolly turned slightly pale, and immediately dropped to one knee.  “I beg forgiveness from the Hand of the Earth, the foundation upon which Ardara builds…”

            “Enough, enough,” Frelarr said, waving his arms in irritation.  “Get up and have a seat, Brother Nightsleaving.  First of all, I’m not officially Archprelate yet.  Second, I’m not one for all this ceremony.  I’m thinking of initiating a few reforms.”

            Tolly sat back down, still slightly flustered.  “What manner of reforms?”

            Frelarr sighed.  “All this ceremony is nice, but it gets in the way of work.”

            Tolly frowned.  “True, but without ceremony sometimes the feel of order is lost.”

            “A good point.  That’s why I’ll look at it for a while before I decide anything.”

“Did… the former Archprelate leave any instructions for me?” Tolly asked.

            “Not that we’ve seen.  Just a note that he was expecting you soon.”  Frelarr sighed.  “Of course, Jerome left a lot of loose ends.”

            Tolly frowned at this.  The Archprelates were usually not ones to leave ‘loose ends’.  Though an Archprelate, once elected by the Council of Prelates, served for life, they usually would carefully choose and train their successor, and when they were ready to assume the mantle of leadership, the old Archprelate would commit ritual suicide to ensure an orderly transfer of power.  “His death was unexpected?”

            “Sadly, yes.  One day he was healthy, the next he was dead.  But he was eighty-three.”

            “Were the circumstances at all suspicious?”

            Archprelate Frelarr shrugged.  “To be honest, I wasn’t even around when it happened.  I’d come down on pilgrimage from the Confederates, and when I arrived I was told that I’d been chosen as Archprelate.  They were fitting me for robes that same day.”

            Tolly shook his head.  This was all feeling so… chaotic.  “Will there be an investigation into his death?”

            “Yes, I believe the Inquisitors are looking into it.”

            Tolly leaned forward.  “Archprelate, I would like to speak with the Inquisition.  I may have information useful to them.  We have recently encountered forces in the world that have not been seen on the face of the planet for some time.  Psionicists are back, which I am not certain means much to you.”

            Frelarr shook his head to indicate that it did not.  “Why don’t you compile a full report, Brother Nightsleaving,” he suggested.  “Leave it on my secretary’s desk.  I can have the Inquisition look at it and contact you.” Frelarr stood up.  “I’m sorry, but as you might imagine I’ve got a lot of people to see.”

            As they stood, Autumn spoke up.  “Pardon me for speaking out of turn, Archprelate, but I wanted you to know that Tolly has been a very hard-working advocate for Ardara throughout our travels, and wanted to say as someone who is not a member of this church that he is very much a servant of Ardara.”

            Frelarr nodded.  “It’s good to know that our priests are doing their duty to Ardara.  Thank you for coming.”

            Frelarr escorted them to the door and saw them out.  On the way down the stairs, Tolly began to think out loud.

            “The situation seems suspicious,” he said.  “Ardaran Archprelates do not just die unexpectedly.  Jerome was a vigorous man.  Yes, he was human, and our lives are short compared to dwarves, but the Hand of the Earth just falling without warning?  It creates too much disorder in the church.”

            “So you suspect he was assassinated,” Autumn said, “and you suspect the psions are behind it.”

            “It would be congruous with other actions we have seen the psions take,” he replied.  “They seem interested in subverting existing power structures on the surface.  Their efforts to unite the orc clans is an example, as is their attempt to gain influence over the Imperial Family of Tlaxan.”

            Tolly continued to muse silently for several minutes, until he reached the main foyer of the Cathedral.  He turned abruptly away from the exit and headed for the same clerk he’d spoken with on their arrival.

            “Greetings, brother,” said the clerk.  “How may I be of service?”

            “I need to know where I can find the offices of the Inquisition,” Tolly said.

            The clerk turned white as a sheet.  “You… want to go there?”

            “I have information that the Archprelate has told me to report to the Inquisition.”

            “You… you’ve told this to Archprelate Frelarr?”

            “Yes.”

            “I… I think they’ll probably contact you,” the clerk said nervously.  “Please, Brother, just wait for them to come to you.”

            “Very well,” Tolly said, “then give me directions to the forges.”

            Tolly turned and headed back for the exit after the clerk gave him instructions to reach the forges under the Cathedral.  At Autumn’s questioning look, he said, “The Ardaran Inquisition has something of a reputation, even outside the church, but especially within it.”

            Autumn looked a bit green.  “I hope they’re only contacting you, then.”

            Tolly shrugged.  “They hardly ever torture anyone to death these days.”

            It was a quieter walk back to the Whistling Mermaid.  Once there, Autumn shared the details with the group of Jerome’s death, Frelarr’s appointment, and Tolly’s suspicions.

            “I may be contacted in the next few days by a slightly suspicious seeming character,” Tolly said.  “Do not concern yourself too much; it’s probably just the Inquisition.”  Tolly paused for a minute, then shook his head sadly.  “Just the Inquisition.  Did I say that?”  When others confirmed that he had, he shook his head again.  “You know, traveling with you people has really… changed me.  I never would have looked at the Inquisition without fear before.”

            “Is it fair to assume that the church might have done a divination or two on the matter?” Kyle asked.

            “That is why I expect the Inquisition to contact me.  They may not know of psionics and thus would not know what to look for.”

            “Or, it could just be a really good assassin,” Arrie pointed out.  “Psionics aren’t to blame for everything, you know.”

            “True,” Tolly said.

            “Do you know this new Archprelate well enough to know what policy changes might be instigated, and who they might benefit?” Arrie asked.

            “Archprelate Frelarr did mention some reforms he is considering.  He apparently does not hold to ceremony as much as Jerome did.  But he intends to take a long look at it; changes in the church are not easy to make.”

            “Right, I forgot we were talking about Ardara.  The more things stay the same, the more they stay the same.”

            “It sounds like we won’t know much until the Inquisition shows up,” Kyle said.

            “So, it seems that what we thought was going to be a leisurely time in M’Dos…” Autumn commented.

            “Oh, it still could be.  We could hop on a ferry, then ride away from this as fast as we can,” Arrie said.  “But I can see the vein in Tolly’s forehead throbbing when I say that.”

            “But it’s worth pointing out that we did come here to take a break after Tolly’s quest ended,” Kyle said.  “And the city’s just chock full of very powerful clerics and holy warriors.  We don’t have to solve every problem, you know.”

            Tolly sighed.  “Until I’m satisfied there was no foul play, I cannot picture leaving.”

            “Can we at least wait until your Inquisition asks for our help before jumping in the midst of all this?” Arrie asked.

            “That would be wise.  The Inquisition does not take kindly to outside interference.”

            “Right, then,” Arrie said, standing up.  “Let’s get busy selling all this collected treasure so we can start relaxing properly.”

*          *            *​
            Several days passed.  After selling their goods and dividing up the money, the party went their separate ways.  Tolly spent his days at the Ardaran forges; he was still tasked with creating a silvered greatsword for the hound archon Alexriel, and was also making a new weapon for himself.  Kyle produced a number of alchemical items for Autumn, then set about creating some magical items for Osborn and Arrie, and generally was not seen much outside of either his makeshift lab or the room he shared with Autumn.  Autumn visited the temple of her own god Bail; a resplendent structure that looked more like a palace than a church.  The church elders asked about the oathbond dagger she had recovered in the Dwarven Confederates, and then lost to Marreck; she reported that she had not yet been able to track it down.  She asked about Archprelate Jerome, and learned that there was no suspicion of assassination among the clergy in the city.  Osborn, checking underworld information sources, learned that there was no talk of a plot again Jerome; he then went to the temple of Ladta and spent his days gambling.  Maddie and Arrie seemed to find an instant bond in their pursuit of debauchery, and were seen together frequently.  Xu, however, mostly stayed in her room; even more so when Osborn commented on seeing a number of people in the city from Xhintai.

            “I also saw a bunch of people that looked kind of like you,” Osborn told her, “but their eyes were a bit different.  They wore loose clothing, with lots of flowers and plants in them.”

            “Those are natives of the Red Archipelago,” Xu explained.  “Their islands lie north of Affon.”

            “Neat,” Osborn said, before heading back to the dice tables.

            It was several days before anyone saw Kyle for more than a few minutes, other than Autumn.  He emerged from his makeshift lab every few days when he’d completed a piece of work; he presented Osborn with a new knife vest that held several dozen daggers at once, and Arrie with an extradimensional bag to hold a collection of orcish shotputs.  It was over a week before he came down to the common room to find Madrone, who was sitting with Arrie discussing local news.

            “I need a couple days off,” he said, sitting down at their table.  “My next project is a long one, so I thought it’d be better if I took it easy and actually enjoyed some of our vacation.”

            “A very wise decision, Kyle,” said Maddie.

            “So, I’m ready for that tour we talked about,” he said to the elf.

            “Wonderful!” she said, clapping in glee.  “I know just the place to start.  There’s a parlor with the most amazing acrobatic dancers.  One of them has a very impressive routine involving a pole in the ground.”

            “Um, that wasn’t the kind of tour I was expecting,” Kyle said.  “I thought you’d be showing me all the temples and such.”

            “Temples?” Maddie asked, sounding thoroughly perplexed as to why anyone would want to see temples.

            “I want one of your tours!” Arrie said, jumping up.  “Let’s go!”

            “Hey, wait…” Kyle protested, as Maddie and Arrie hooked a hand under each arm and pulled him out the door.  They were gone several hours, and when they returned Kyle was considerably more subdued.  In fact, he looked somewhat dazed, though the hint of a grin kept creeping onto his face. All three were slightly unsteady on their feet.

            “Good tour, Maddie,” was all he said before he went up the stairs to his room.

            Maddie looked over at Arrie cheerfully.  “Think we should tell Autumn?”

            “Nah, more fun to watch him squirm later.  Besides, it’s harmless fun.  Now, you still have that bottle we bought?”

            Maddie laughed.  “Which one?”

            It was late into the next day before Maddie and Arrie were seen again.  They came down the stairs together, and were surprised to see Lanara walk in.  Both women ran up and greeted the cansin.

            “Hi there,” Lanara replied, rather listlessly.  “Thanks for leaving word with the ferry-master for me.”

            “Lanara, what’s wrong?” Arrie asked.

            “I’m just… tired,” the bard answered.  “It was a long trip.”

            “If we try to cheer you up, will that make you happy?”

            Maddie pulled out a half-empty bottle of liquor.  “Perhaps this?”

            Lanara smiled, though it wasn’t very convincing.  “I appreciate the thought, but I think I’m just tired and need rest.  It wasn’t a very good trip for me.  Which room is ours?’

            After getting instructions, Lanara walked slowly to the stairs.  Maddie frowned and shook her head as the bard walked away.

            “That’s odd,” she said.

            “What’s odd?”

            Maddie pointed to Lanara’s waist.  Hanging from a belt was a rapier, worn as though it had been there all along.

            “A weapon?” Arrie said, mystified.  “Lanara with an actual weapon that could hurt someone?  Something has to have happened while she was gone.”

            “Well, you know Lanara,” Maddie said.  “If she doesn’t want to talk about it, she won’t.  Let’s give her time to rest and see how she is in the morning.”

            As they spoke, Kyle came down the stairs.  He stopped when he saw Arrie and Maddie standing near the door.

            “Hello, Kyle!” Arrie shouted.  “Ready for another tour?  I think there’s a couple of dancers in M’Dos who would love to see you again today!”

            Kyle turned and went back up the stairs, followed by the laughter of two women.


----------



## Delemental

*We interrupt this SH for an important message...*

Just thought I would keep you, the faithful reader(s), appraised of current events in our game.

Our DM has informed our group that he wishes to take a few months hiatus from the campaign.  Among other reasons, we have just ended Part Two of the campaign, and he needs the time to prepare for the next major segment.  Thus, as of last week, we're on break.

What does this mean for you, dear reader?  For now, not much at all.

Allow me to give you insight into how things work.  I actually write my stories for the game between sessions every week, and post them to our group's private website.  I deliberately waited a few months to start posting them here, so that I'd have a good cushion of time between the actual game and posting the sessions here, just so I wouldn't have the double pressure of trying to write for my group and ENWorld.  The adventure that I just posted a couple of days ago was played in March of this year.  Thus I have months of adventures already written out, ready to cut and paste.

So, things here will continue as normal, at least for a while.  Depending on how things go, it is possible that I could run out of prewritten material before the D&D campaign starts again, in which case I'd have to pause this Story Hour.  I may also decide to slow down updates for a bit at some point in the future, just to maintain a bit of that time cushion.  We'll see.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't entirely necessary for me to say all that now, but I assume at least a couple of people are following this story, and figured it was worth mentioning so that people know that the SH hasn't died if I suddenly slow down or stop posting for a while.  If I do have to stop, of course, I'll mention it so people know I haven't disappeared.

That's all.  Thanks for reading.


----------



## Delemental

That night, Tolly had a visitor.

            He awoke to the feel of a gauntleted hand shaking him.  When he opened his eyes, the room was dark, and he could see the silhouetted form of an armored person standing over him, features hidden by the darkness.  One the other side of the room, he heard Osborn and Rupert breathing deeply as they slept.

            “No shouts, no sudden movements, speak only when you are spoken to,” said a deep male voice.  Tolly nodded.

            “You wished to speak with us,” the man stated flatly.

            “Yes,” Tolly said.  “You are aware, I presume, of the re-emergence of psionics in Aelfenn?”

            “What we know is not your place to ask,” the inquisitor said.  “Continue.”

            “I can give you fragments of psionic weaponry and psionically-imbued items that I have not yet disposed of properly.  They are in my pack in the south corner – I know better than to try and rise to get them for you.”

            “You are wise, Brother Nightsleaving.  Is this why you wish to speak with us?”

            “That, and because of certain patterns I have observed.  We have encountered psions two or three times in the past year.  In each case they appeared to either be trying to eliminate a leader or take one under their control.”

            “Explain.”

            Tolly laid out the party’s encounters in detail.  He told the inquisitor about Marreck and the theft of the Bailite oathbond dagger.  He spoke of Xerxes and how he had tried to abduct Princess Aralda.  He talked about Sun-Harrow and Takar and how they had corrupted the orcish warchief Orth.  He spoke of their strange dream-encounter with Lord Momuus, and of the meeting with Aran that happened later.  He told him everything that Aran had said about psionics, and the alternate version of history they had heard, and about Kristyan and the two alleged factions within the psionic community.  He even mentioned Kyle’s staff and its apparent ability to detect psionic auras.  The inquisitor listened to every detail, never making a sound.

            “Archprelate Jerome’s sudden death makes me suspicious,” Tolly concluded.  “The Hand of the Earth does not just suddenly die.”

            “It has happened, Brother,” said the inquisitor, “and Jerome was not a young man.  But there are enough irregularities into his death that we have begun an investigation.”

            “He resurrected me,” Tolly said.  “If there is anything I can do…”

            “We will contact you.”

            “I suspect Archprelate Jerome may have had some knowledge of this,” Tolly added.  “It was he who sent me to the desert where we encountered Takar and Sun-Harrow.  Ardara’s Hand works in mysterious ways.”

            Tolly suddenly felt a hand press firmly, but not painfully, into his chest just below his throat.  “How far do you trust your friends?” The inquisitor asked.

            Tolly swallowed nervously.  “The sentinel Autumn I would trust with my life.  The hin Osborn I would trust with my life, but not my money.  The monk Xu I am not certain of; she is too guarded with her past.  The bard Lanara… is a cansin.  I know not what to think of her.  The priestess of Erito, Ka… Madrone, I definitely trust.  The warrior, Ariadne, while spontaneous, also seems trustworthy.  The wizard, Kyle… I trust him.”

            The hand moved up to Tolly’s throat and the pressure increased.  “Be careful who you trust,” the inquisitor said darkly.  There was a moment of blackness, and then the armored figure was gone.

            After a few minutes, Tolly stood up and checked on Osborn.  The hin was snoring deeply, and did not respond when shaken.  There was the barest fragrance in the air around him, which Tolly assumed was a sedative of some kind.  With a sigh, Tolly laid back down, though sleep did not return easily.

*          *            *​
            When the party came down for breakfast the next morning, they were shocked to see Lanara was already downstairs, eating a large bowl of porridge.  Arrie and Maddie looked at each other questioningly; Lanara was normally a notoriously late sleeper.

            “So, Lanara, how was your trip?” Kyle asked when he sat down.

            Lanara leveled a stare at him.  “You really want all the gory details?”  Kyle faltered a bit.

            “Did something happen that would require gory details?” Autumn asked.

            The bard sighed.  “Bandits aren’t the most fun people to travel with,” she said.

            “Why were you traveling with bandits?” Autumn asked.

            “It wasn’t voluntary.”

            Maddie’s eyes flashed.  “If you were violated, Lanara, we’re going to go find them, and…”

            “They’ve been dealt with,” Lanara said, in a tone that said the subject was now closed.

            There was an awkward silence for a while, until Lanara said, “So, what has everyone been up to?”

            “We found out that Archprelate Jerome is dead,” Autumn began.

            “And we went on a tour of the city,” Arrie said, putting her arm around Maddie, “right, Kyle?”

            Kyle looked at Arrie, then glanced over at Autumn sitting next to him.  “I’ve been crafting magic items,” he said quickly.

            Lanara’s brow raised a bit.  “You spoke up awfully quickly there, Kyle.”  She was just about ready to launch into the poor wizard, when she suddenly turned back to Autumn.  “Wait a minute, Jerome’s dead?  Tolly doesn’t still have those damn diamonds, does he?”

            “No, he gave them to their new Archprelate, Frelarr.  Tolly suspects foul play.  He’s waiting for the Inquisition to contact him to see if they suspect the same thing.”

            “Actually,” Tolly said, “they came to me last night.”

            “Really?” Osborn said, surprised.  “When?”

            “What did they say?” Autumn asked.

            “I cannot say much, other than I gave them the information I had, and they were not surprised.”

            Maddie frowned.  “You know, Tolly, it’s hard to hear you say you ‘can’t say much’ when we’ve put our lives on the line for your cause.”

            “This is agreed,” Tolly said, “but the Inquisition has ways of making it clear they do not wish this discussed too freely.” Tolly unconsciously rubbed at his neck as he spoke.  “All I know is that they have some suspicions, and share some of my opinions.  Whether they can use the information I gave them remains to be seen.  They will contact me if they need more.”

            “Well, if they want us to help, they’ll have to give us more information,” Autumn said.

            “I am sure they will contact us if that is what they want,” Tolly replied.  “Until then I suggest we go about our business normally.”

            Arrie glanced down at the floor near Tolly’s chair, and saw a battered warhammer sitting there, with old dwarven runes carved into the head.  “What’s with the hammer?” she asked.

            “It was loaned to me by the church while I complete work on my new weapon,” he said.

            “Oh,” she took a closer look at the runes on the side.  “Property of the Church of Ardara,” she read.  “So, Tolly, are you going to have that tattooed on your chest?”

            Tolly looked blankly at Arrie, unamused.  “Ariadne, I think you need to spend more time with your sister.”

            Arrie looked over at Autumn, who at the moment was giving Kyle a quick kiss.  “Ugh, I don’t go in for that sort of thing,” she said.

            “Not that sort of time,” Tolly said, exasperated.  “You’ve become far less restrained recently, Arrie.”

            “So?” said Osborn and Lanara at the same time.

“Actually, Tolly,” Xu said, “Araidne has begun practicing meditation in the morning.”
            “If anyone thinks that my behavior has become a problem,” Arrie said, “please tell me.  But Tolly, my powers of concentration are not diminished, I simply choose not to exercise them.”

            “It’s called ‘relaxing’, Tolly,” Lanara said.  “You should try it.”

            “Yes, perhaps you could come with us on a tour of the city,” Maddie said.  “It’s a lot of fun, right Kyle?”

            Kyle tried very hard to focus on his breakfast.

            “Nothing wrong with having a good time,” Osborn said.

            Tolly sighed again, then stood.  “I am going to the forge now,” he announced, shouldering his borrowed warhammer before departing.

            Autumn looked around at the others after he left.  “Try not to provoke the poor man,” she said.

            “But it’s such fun, and so easy,” Lanara argued.

            “The man’s spiritual leader just died,” the sentinel pointed out.

            Arrie nodded.  “There’s a trick I’ve learned recently,” she said.  “I’ll just try to apply it whenever he talks.”

            “What do you do, listen to the voices in your head?” Osborn asked.

            “Actually, it’s more like not listening to anything at all,” she explained.

            “I thought you might be referring to that pole trick we saw the other day,” Maddie said with a grin and a glance toward Kyle.

            “Oh, no!  That’s much different, and not for Tolly’s consumption.”  Arrie leaned over the table toward Kyle.  “Wouldn’t you agree?”

            “What pole trick?” Osborn asked, saving Kyle from having to answer.

            “We can show you,” Maddie said.  “We should all go.  Their matinee show is even more impressive.”

            “That sounds good to me,”

            “Yeah, I’d like to see this show you’re talking about, Maddie,” said Kyle quickly.

            Autumn looked at Kyle curiously.  “You said that awfully fast, Kyle.  What’s up?”

            He shook his head, quickly stuffing more food in his mouth.

            Eventually the entire group decided to go, except for Tolly.  Even Autumn came along, walking hand in hand with Kyle, who had the look of a condemned man on his face.  Xu was also looking very nervous.

            “What’s wrong, Xu?” Arrie asked, when the monk jumped at a merchant who suddenly shouted nearby.  “I’ve never seen you this agitated.  Normally you’re very centered.”

            “It’s… nothing,” Xu said.  “It is related to the problems I have mentioned before.  Being out here, so publicly, and having been in one city for so long…”

            “Well, if it helps, Xu,” Kyle said, “I’ve noticed that there are a number of people in this city from Xhintai.  I wouldn’t say they’re common, but you don’t stick out in M’Dos quite as much as normal.”

            “The larger number of people from my country is also a source of concern,” Xu said.  “Any of them could be Hungai’s bounty hunters.”

“You know,” Arrie said, “Maddie has already undergone a drastic change in appearance, so to speak, in order to hide.  I don’t see why you couldn’t as well.”

            “Yeah,” Maddie said, “we could help!”

            “Lanara could help, too, if she’s up to it,” Arrie added.

            “Sure,” the bard said, not terribly enthusiastically.

            Arrie, Maddie, and Lanara began discussing ideas for clothing and hairstyle changes on the way to the dance parlor Maddie had discovered.  The afternoon act was indeed more impressive; it featured two dancers, one a gnomish woman whose routine utilized a gnomish double spear set into the ground.  While watching the performance, Xu suddenly felt something pressed into her hand.    She looked around, but there were too many people around her to identify anyone.  Very quietly, Xu rose and went across the room to where the light was better, and looked at the paper in her hand.  It was actually two sheets of very thin, translucent rice paper.  There were markings on each piece that were lined up to create characters in the Xhintai language.  Xu saw that if separated, the marks would look like random lines, completely illegible. 



The Dreamlord Aran proclaims that those like him did not end the Earthlord.



Xu quickly pocketed the note and returned to the others.  After a while they emerged from the parlor.  Kyle was very studiously avoiding meeting Autumn’s eyes.  When Arrie glanced over at Autumn, however, the sentinel flashed her sister a wink that said _I’m not mad at him, but I’m going to make him squirm for a while, too._

When the party crossed through a rather empty alley on the way back through the city, Xu stopped the others and showed them the note, explaining how she got it and what it meant.  All of them remembered that Aran had mentioned that he would keep in touch through underlings.

“The note says ‘those like him’,” Arrie said.  “Does that mean like him in abilities, or like him in attitude?”

“I’d guess the former,” Kyle said.  “If Kristyan’s faction was involved, I think Aran would tell us.”

“If he knows,” Osborn pointed out.

“Well, if there has been any brain-tampering, Kyle’s staff will tell us,” Arrie said.

“So, should we go find Tolly at the forge and tell him about this?” Autumn asked.

“No, I don’t think we should announce this for everyone in Ardara’s church to hear,” she replied.  “Let’s wait until he gets home.  For now, though, we still need to buy some new clothes for Xu.  Can we show you some ideas we had?”

The women went off to the tailors, while Kyle and Osborn headed to a tavern.  They returned to the Whistling Mermaid around the same time as the women, quite intoxicated.  Xu was now dressed in flowing, brightly colored clothes, and had ribbons braided into her hair.  “We went with the idea that the hunters won’t think that a monk trying to hide will make herself more visible,” Arrie said.

Tolly returned home later that night.  He looked at Xu’s new wardrobe.

“Interesting,” Tolly said.  “Is this how you spend your days?”

“Sometimes,” Arrie said.  “Come upstairs with us and we’ll show you what else we do during the day.”

“I am not certain I wish to know,” he replied.

Suddenly he was picked up by Arrie and Autumn, with Lanara, Xu, and Maddie right behind him.  “No, we insist you come with us upstairs right now,” Arrie said as they went up the stairs.  Behind them, the other patrons of the inn cheered at Tolly’s apparent good fortune in going upstairs with five attractive women.  Once he had been shoved into the women’s room and the door was closed, he turned to them.

“You know,” Tolly said, “if word of this behavior ever got back to my brothers at the church…”

“You’d be a hero,” Lanara interrupted.  “‘Rocks and steel, such tempering and endurance’, they’ll say.”

Tolly then noticed that Kyle and Osborn were also in the room.  Xu handed Tolly the note, and translated it for him, as well as their uncertainty of Aran’s exact meeting.

“We could also attempt to use a _commune_,” Kyle suggested.  “The relic that Maddie has should still work.  Maybe Erito would know for sure.”

“Or Ardara,” Tolly said.  “I can commune with her in the morning as well.”

“Why not both?” Arrie suggested.

“Good idea,” Kyle said.  “How about we discuss what questions to ask, and plan to contact Ardara and Erito in the morning?”

The party spent the next hour refining their questions.  They decided to focus most of the questions regarding Jerome’s death to Ardara, and ask Erito about other matters.  After they finished, conversation lagged a bit, until Arrie spoke again.

“So, who wants to braid Tolly’s hair while he’s asleep?”

            “Did you say ‘braid’ or ‘shave’?” Maddie asked with a grin.

            “Ooh!  Let’s do both!”

            Tolly shook his head.  “I think I’ll sleep at the Cathedral tonight.”

            “Chicken,” Lanara said.

*          *            *​
            Lanara opened the door to Kyle’s lab.  After their conversation had broken up, Kyle had gone into his room to check up on a few works in progress.  He was sitting behind a desk when she came in.

            “Autumn said you wanted to see me?”

            Kyle nodded.  “Come in.”

            Lanara walked in, looking around at all the glass tubing and containers in the room.  “Shouldn’t you be playing with Autumn instead of all this stuff?” she asked.  “Surely those dancers put some ideas in your head.”

            Kyle ignored her.  “I have a spare tanglefoot bag for you.  I heard you say a while ago that you were out, and I’m not using it.”  He held out a leather bundle in one hand.  “I can always make more of these if you want, you know.”

            “I’ll keep that in mind,” Lanara said as she reached for the bag.  But Kyle withdrew it as her hand was about to close around the strap.

            “First,” he said, “you tell me what really happened out on the road.”

            Lanara stared at Kyle for a moment, then turned on her heel to leave.  Kyle gestured with his free hand, and the door swung closed in front of her.

            “You’ve been sullen and moody since you returned,” he said.  “You’ve said nothing about your trip, which isn’t like you.  You were up early this morning, which also isn’t like you.  And you’re carrying a sword, which definitely isn’t like you.”  He leveled a glare to match Lanara’s.  “I’m socially awkward, Lanara.  I’m not stupid.”

            Lanara continued to stare at Kyle for a while.  Then, unexpectedly, a tear rolled down her cheek.  The sight was so unnerving that the fire completely left Kyle’s eyes, and he was left looking blankly at her.

            “Tomorrow,” she snapped.  “Noon.  The Flaming Cauldron.  You and me, alone.”  Her voice suddenly softened, and behind the hard exterior there was a twinge of sadness, and fear.  “We have to talk.”


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*grr...*

yeap, loyal reader, and proud lurker...I will await all updates, and for the game to restart if need be...thanks for the heads up...still lovin it.


----------



## Delemental

It took several drinks before the cansin started talking.

            The Flaming Cauldron was located, not unexpectedly, near Grabâkh’s Temple of the Flaming Eye, and catered to the orcish patrons in the region with a variety of spicy dishes.  The proprietors, however, offered milder versions of orcish favorites that were more palatable to non-orcs.  It was over two plates of such cuisine, as well as a few glasses of potent greenish liquor, that Kyle and Lanara sat.  Most of the meal had passed in relative silence, which in itself was very odd for the cansin bard.  But it was oddities such as these that had brought them there in the first place.

            When she finally started, it was obvious that she intended to speak without interruption, without questions.

            “I left the docks, and turned my horse east into Medos,” Lanara began.  “That much you know.  But after a few days, I found I had a sudden urge to visit my father.  Though I haven’t seen him in years, I knew that I might be able to find him in the area.  My father has been a wanderer my whole life –I think he’s still looking for my mother, in some ways – and we’d spent our lives with the various hin clans in the Steppes.  But as Dad got on in years, he began to spend more time on the Medos side of the Great River; it’s a bit safer there.  So, I went off the main road, and began asking some of the hin clans in the area about him.”

            Lanara paused to empty her glass before continuing.  “It was about four days out of Miracle that I ran into the bandits.  There were a lot more of them than I knew I could handle, even if I were Arrie.  But I’ve traveled alone plenty of times in my life, and there’s more than one way to get around bandits.  So, I pulled out every trick I knew.  Figured that once they ‘understood’ that I was a friend, they’d let me go.  It’s always worked before.”  She stared out past Kyle’s shoulder into the crowd at the restaurant.  “It’s always worked before.”

            Lanara swallowed heavily.  “I don’t know how they did it, but none of my abilities even seemed to faze them.  It’s almost like they were ready for me.  When I realized that it wasn’t working, I went for one of my wands – figured I could blast a couple to confuse them, then take off.  But as I reached back for my haversack, it suddenly wasn’t there, and suddenly I was being pulled off my horse.

            “They took me back to their ‘hideout’ – the kind of place I’d never be caught dead in, worse than any two-copper dive in any dock ward in Aelfenn.  What happened after that…” Lanara took a deep, shaky breath.  “To be honest, I don’t remember much.  This coming from someone whose livelihood depends on remembering details.  I’ll spare you the details of what I do remember, though if you tell this story to the others later you can assure Maddie that I wasn’t violated.  I think that would have broken me.  And I think they knew that, and they needed me somewhat sane.”

            “I was tortured, Kyle.  In more ways than I care to think about, and for how long I don’t know.  But what I do remember is that they were asking questions about the party; about us.  Where were we going, why were we going there, what had we been doing lately.  I don’t remember the details, and I don’t remember what I told them.  Past, present, future – it all became a blur to me.  The only thing I know for sure I didn’t say was about Kavan becoming Madrone.  It was like… there was something blocking me from saying that, from revealing her secret.  So there’s something else you can tell Maddie to reassure her.”

            Lanara picked up her glass, which had been refilled while she talked, and drained it in one swallow, wincing as the potent liquor flowed down her throat.  “I don’t know how I escaped.  Maybe a guard fell asleep, maybe they forgot to lock the door – maybe they just let me go because they were through with me.  I managed to grab most of my gear, as well as this,” she pulled the rapier at her side halfway out of its scabbard, then let it fall back in, “and a couple other odds and ends, then grabbed a horse and went.  Not even sure if it was my horse or someone else’s – I’ve never been a good judge of animals.  I just rode and rode until I ran into a merchant caravan on their way to M’Dos.  I gave them a very abbreviated version of the story I just told, and they let me ride with them into the city.  One of them even gave me a little training with this rapier, just in case I was ever in that situation again.  But it wasn’t until that night that I learned the worst part.”

            Lanara set her glass down, her fingers visibly trembling.  “I tried to play a little tune for the merchants – payment for the hospitality.  But I found that I couldn’t remember any of my songs.  The lyrics, the tunes… just gone.  I haven’t been able to recall a single one since.  And what’s worse, since then I find that I can’t stand being around other people.  Can you imagine, Kyle?  A bard who can’t sing and hates people?  It’d be like if you suddenly forgot how to read.”

            Lanara fell silent, and the noise of the Flaming Cauldron was all Kyle heard for the span of a minute or so.

            “The thing I’m afraid of most,” Lanara finally said, very quietly, “is the next time we get ourselves into a situation.  Without my music, I’m useless to you all, and I don’t think suddenly knowing how to poke holes in people is going to be an acceptable substitute.  I don’t know what to do.  I’m too old to learn a new profession.  Should I just leave now?”

            “No,” Kyle said firmly.  “You stay.  You stay, and we find a way to fix this.  And you could never be useless, Lanara.  We just have to find different ways to use you until we get you fixed.”

            Lanara smiled, and chose not to comment on the fact that Kyle’s statement, while meant to be reassuring, made her sound like a service animal or a tool of some sort.  “Thanks, Kyle,” she said.

            “I’ve never heard of any kind of mental blocking like you’re describing,” Kyle said.  “But it seems to me that it’d have to be either magical or psionic.  I’m leaning to the latter, since we know psionics are very efficient at manipulating the mind.  When we get back to the Whistling Mermaid, I’d like to take a close look at you though my staff, see if I can pick up any lingering auras that might explain this.  Unfortunately, even if I find something, I doubt I can fix it, especially if it’s psionic.  But maybe we can find someone who can fix it.”

            “Yeah, that Aran seemed a decent fellow when we met him.  Problem is finding him.”

            “One step at a time.  Let’s figure out what we’re dealing with first.”  Kyle’s brow furrowed.  “You sure you can’t remember anything specific?  A name, a familiar voice, a symbol of any kind?”

            Lanara shook her head.  “I’ve tried, believe me.  It’s maddening.”

            “Well, maybe whatever’s affecting you will fade with time and it’ll get easier.  Let me know if you remember anything.”  Kyle paused to finish the last few bites of his lunch.  “You know that I’m going to have to tell the others,” he said.  “Normally I’d let your personal business be yours to deal with.  But if these bandits were asking about all of us, then everyone should know that.  For all we know, these people could be in the city now.”

            “Tell the others whatever you want,” Lanara said, “if you don’t mind, this is one story I’d rather not recount myself.”  Lanara finished off the last swallows of her drink, then held the glass up to the light, examining it.  “This is pretty good stuff,” she said.  “I may have to get a bottle to take back to the inn.”

            “Allow me,” Kyle said with a smile.

*          *            *​
            The party sat and listened as Kyle relayed Lanara’s tale.  They all sat in the women’s room; Lanara herself had gone downstairs to the common room to nurse her new bottle of alcohol.

            “I tested Lanara when we got back.  There’s no magical or psionic auras on her that I can detect.  Which means that whatever did this to her has done its damage already; it’s not some sort of block.”

            “Or, she’s simply suppressing her memories of whatever happened to her because it was so terrible,” Arrie suggested.  “That may be why she can’t get to her bardic abilities, too.”

            “Well, whatever the reason, now we know we have people after us,” Kyle said.

            “We have always had people after us, Kyle,” Tolly said.

            “Yes, but these people seem to be serious about finding us and knowing everything about us.  Problem is we don’t know who ‘they’ are.”

            “It is probably the psions,” Tolly said.

            “Or the church of Qin-Chu,” Kyle added, “or the church of Fiel, or the church of Estranë, or the church of Grabâkh, or someone associated with Sauroth, or with Neville, or two or three thieves guilds I can think of.”

            “I didn’t think Grabâkh had reason to be displeased with us,” Tolly said.

            “Um, Tolly?” Osborn chimed in, “remember that undead orc warlord we destroyed?  The one that was supposed to be imprisoned in his tomb forever so that he couldn’t go to the afterlife and be in Grabâkh’s presence?”

            “Ah, yes.”

            “Look, we’re not going to figure this out tonight,” Arrie said.  “Besides, we have more pressing concerns.”

            “I agree,” Autumn said.  “For one, no one goes anywhere alone from now on.”

            Everyone nodded their agreement.  They also made some last-minute changes to their list of questions for Erito, to reflect the new situation with Lanara.

“So, Tolly,” said Autumn, “speaking of questions, what did you find out at the forges today?”

            The cleric sighed.  The party had originally planned to attempt communing with Erito and Ardara that morning, but Tolly had asked to wait until he’d spoken to some of the other priests and novitiates at the Cathedral to see what facts were known about Jerome’s death.

            “I learned very little,” he reported.  “There is a rumor that a resurrection was attempted, but that it failed.  No one is certain why.  Beyond that I can get nothing.  That in itself is unusual; the church of Ardara has a very active network of information between its novitiates and lower-echelon priests.”

            “So things are being kept quiet,” Arrie summed up.

            “Indeed.  Unfortunately, it means that I was unable to answer any of the questions we proposed to ask Ardara.  So, we can proceed with the commune rituals.  Though I would ask that we consult Erito first.”

            “Not a problem, Tolly,” Maddie said.  “Someone should go get Lanara, though.”

Just then, the door to the room opened, and three figures strode in.  Two of them were golden-haired elves, who looked exactly alike and had longbows slung over their shoulders.  The third, following behind them, was instantly recognized by everyone.

“Herion?” Arrie gasped.

“Ariadne,” he said, nodding.  “It’s good to see you again.  And all of you, as well.”

            Behind them, Lanara came into the room and sat in the corner.  “I saw we had company,” she said.

            “Herion, what are you doing here?”  Arrie stood and walked over to him, reaching up and lightly touching the mithral laurel on his head that signified his status as the crown prince of Tlaxan.

            “Official state visit,” he said.  “I’m here to extend the sympathies of the Empire of Tlaxan to the Church of Ardara for their recent loss.  And to return this to you.”  He reached into a pocket and retrieved a tiny silver bird statuette, which he gave to Arrie.

            “I wondered why you asked what inn we were staying at in your last letter,” she said as she put the bird away.

            Herion turned and nodded to Autumn.  “A pleasure, as always,” he said to her.

            Autumn smiled and bowed her head in return.  “As always.”

            Kyle smiled.  “Well, at least she’s not trying to deck him this time.”

            Autumn turned her smile to Kyle.  “I haven’t been alone with him yet,” she said, though she clearly meant nothing by it.

            Herion, by this time, had turned to address Maddie.  “I don’t believe we’ve met. I assume you are Madrone?”

            “Oh, right,” Arrie said.  “Herion, this is Madrone, a favored soul of Erito.  She joined us shortly after we lost Kavan.  Madrone, this is Crown Prince Herion of Tlaxan, my husband.”

            “A pleasure to meet you,” Maddie said, bowing her head.  When Herion bowed his in return, Maddie smiled knowingly at Arrie.

            “I was sorry to hear of your recent loss,” Herion said.  “May Kavan’s soul find peace with our Goddess*.”  Herion then turned back to Autumn.  “It may please you to know that news of your own misfortunes has not reached the ears of the Covieres or the Verahannens.  Nor any other news regarding your affairs.”  At this Herion made the slightest of nods to Kyle.

            Herion crossed the room and took an empty chair; his guards remained standing by the door.  “I do hope I’ve not arrived at a bad time,” Herion said.

            “Actually, your Highness,” Tolly said, “we were about to attempt communion with the gods.”

            At Herion’s arched eyebrow, Arrie explained briefly their suspicions regarding the Archprelate’s death.

            “Interesting,” he said.  “Well, I have a few days before I’m expected to attend any official ceremonies.  If there is anything I can do to aid you, please let me know.  I would be remiss were I not to offer aid to a princess of Tlaxan.”

            Arrie blushed a bit at being referred to as a ‘princess’, not because of embarrassment or modesty, but because the title simply seemed ill suited to her.  “Why don’t you stick around and hear what Erito and Ardara have to say?  Another mind on the problem can’t hurt.”

            “Very well, I will stay.”

            “Should I go downstairs and arrange for another room for you, Arrie?” Autumn asked.

            “No, why?  I’m fine here in the room with the rest of you.”

            “I thought perhaps with your husband in town, you might find this room a little crowded.”

            “Oh.  Oh!  Sweet Tor, no!  I mean, we’re not…”

            “I have already obtained lodgings elsewhere,” Herion said, stepping in.  “I see no reason to disrupt your arrangements here.”

            “All right, then,” Autumn said.  “Maddie, I think we’re ready now.”     

Maddie nodded, and got up from the edge of the bed where she had been perched.  She sat cross-legged on the floor in the center of the room, adjusting her headband.  The golden band was one of Erito’s relics, and allowed occasional contact with the goddess for guidance.  This was only the second time the party had utilized it.  Maddie concentrated for a moment, then closed her eyes.   Nearby, Kyle sat at a desk over a sheet of parchment with the questions written on it, ready to record the answers.  With a nod from Herion, the two guards slipped out of the room, closing the door behind them.

“Erito, hear me,” she began.  “I beseech your wisdom.”  Maddie took a deep breath, then asked the first question.

“Is it possible for us to determine the location of the area shown on my back using commonly available maps?”

The answer flowed out of Maddie’s lips as soon as she was finished speaking, seeming to cause the walls to shake even though it was very soft.  NO.

“Is the location depicted on the map on my back on the continent of Affon?”

NO.

“Was the staff that Kyle carries created in pre-Cataclysmic times?”

YES.

“In regard to the message given to Kyle of ‘your family’s staff is older than you realize’, does the word ‘family’ refer to the Goodson family or direct ancestors thereof?”

YES.

“Will the meaning of the message given to Kyle become clearer if our party goes to the location shown on the map on my back?”

YES.

“Is my transformation into a female a permanent change?”

UNCERTAIN.

“Are the bandits that abducted Lanara on her way to M’Dos in any way associated with other enemies of the party?”

YES.

“Is the condition currently affecting Lanara’s abilities able to be repaired or healed?”

YES.

“Are the bounty hunters pursuing Xu currently in the city of M’Dos or within two weeks of arriving?”

UNCLEAR.

            Maddie opened her eyes, and held out a hand.  Kyle gave her the parchment he’d been writing on, and she glanced over it.  In the midst of channeling Erito, she herself had been unable to hear the answers.  Once she read the parchment, she handed it back.  “So, what does it mean?”

            “Well, it means one thing to me,” Kyle said.  “Before this, I was going to say we should go look for that place on Maddie’s back.  But it doesn’t seem likely we’ll find it.”

            “Well, at least not easily,” said Osborn.

            “Perhaps next time we should ask if this location is even on this planet,” Tolly said.

            “If I may,” Herion said, “I have had the opportunity to observe similar communes when my late father consulted with the Imperial Priests.  It was explained to me once that because the connection to the Goddess is imperfect, that only the most literal interpretation of the questions are possible, even if the Goddess would wish it otherwise.”

            “Meaning…?” Lanara asked from the other side of the room.

            “Meaning that wherever this map you refer to leads, it may not be on Affon itself, but could be on an island just off its shores.”

“Or in an underground cavern,” Osborn added.  “Somewhere that wouldn’t necessarily get charted.  So maybe it’s not as far as we think.”

“Well, at least we know that Lanara’s problem has a solution somewhere,” Kyle said.  He grinned at the bard.  “See?  Told you it wasn’t permanent.”

“I was displeased to hear that Erito is not able to tell if the hunters are nearby,” Xu said.

“Well, in a way she did,” Kyle said.  “If there were hunters already in the city, then she’d of answered ‘yes’.  So we know they’re not here now.  Though, they could arrive any day now.”

“Or later this afternoon,” Lanara offered.

“Or they’re in a ship in the harbor right now,” chipped in Arrie.  “I think leaving you in disguise is a good idea.”

“So, what about all those questions about your staff, and your family?” Osborn asked.

Kyle shrugged.  “Not much clearer.  It was a message Maddie gave me from Erito shortly after… we met her.  ‘Your family’s staff is older than you realize,” was all it said.  Well, I knew the staff was old, and I suspected pre-Cataclysm just because of the psionic stuff, so I guess that’s confirmed.  But that doesn’t really make it ‘older than I realized’.  And as far as the family thing, well, at first I thought Erito was speaking more broadly, like ‘family of wizards’.  But it seems like the Goodsons had a spell-slinger in the family tree at one point.  Not that I see what good knowing that does me.  Probably was a waste of questions.”

“I’m still not sure why you didn’t ask about where your family is,” Autumn said.

“Autumn, dearest, we talked about this already.  Those kind of questions are kind of hard to phrase in a ‘yes-no’ format.  And it’d be rude of me to take up questions about that when we only get so many at a time.  Besides, if I took the time I could find them myself.”

“How?” Autumn asked.

“A _scrying _spell,” Kyle answered.

“Well, why haven’t you done it?”

“For one, I don’t have the spell.  And my family's probably still in Targeth, and their sheild blocks divinations.  Also, it requires a really expensive mirror to scry with.”

“How expensive could it be?”

As Kyle was about to answer, Arrie cleared her throat.  “Children, perhaps you could argue about this another time?”

They both nodded and fell quiet.  Arrie shook her head in mock exasperation.  “Lovers,” she sighed.  “Shall we move on, then?  Tolly, are you ready?”

Tolly nodded and took his place where Maddie had been sitting.  Without the benefit of a relic, he had to expend a portion of his own life-force to establish the interplanetary connection to Ardara.

“Was Archprelate Jerome murdered?”

UNCLEAR.

“Were psionics involved in Jerome’s death in any way?”

NO.

“Were other persons involved in the death of Archprelate Jerome?”

INDIRECTLY.

 “Is Jerome’s death related to other instances this party has seen of attempts to take control of powerful groups?”

NO.

“Do the people indirectly involved in Jerome’s death intend to cause harm to other prominent figures within the next month?”

UNCLEAR.

“Was the death of Jerome caused for political gain or an attempt to gain power?”

UNCLEAR.

“Did Archprelate Jerome have information that he wished to pass on to Tolly Nightsleaving, which he was unable to communicate due to his death?”

YES.

“Was the selection of Archprelate Frelarr influenced by powers outside of the Ardaran church itself?”

UNCLEAR.

“Can the Ardaran Inquisition be trusted by the party?”

YES.

            Kyle sighed as Tolly opened his eyes.  “We’ve got to get better at phrasing these questions.”

            “At least we can eliminate the psions as suspects,” Arrie said.  “And it has nothing to do with anything we’ve seen before.”

            “The part about Ardara being ‘unclear’ about Jerome’s murder is not reassuring,” Tolly said.

            “Well, Ardara isn’t omniscient,” Maddie said.  “None of the gods are.  She can’t know the intent of those involved.  Someone may have caused Jerome to die, but was it an accident, or was it intentional?”

            “The fact that so much about his death is uncertain would imply that there is something going on behind the scenes,” Tolly said.  “I think my initial suspicions were correct.”

            “Okay, so, what does that mean?” Lanara asked.

            “Before we go any further,” Kyle said, “I think we need to remind ourselves of something here.  Technically, we came to M’Dos to be on vacation from adventure.  This city’s chock full of priests and holy warriors who the Ardarans can call on.  It’s possible, just possible, that maybe they’ll figure this out all by themselves without our help.  So maybe we should back off, and wait for someone to ask for our help.”

            “Are you implying that I should turn a blind eye to the suspicious death of my Archprelate?” Tolly asked accusingly.

            “I’m implying that your Inquisition is already looking into it, and maybe instead of getting all worked up solving this ourselves, we let them do their job, and if they want our help they can tell us.  We don’t have to fix every problem out there, Tolly.  What you do on your own is your business, but I don’t think this needs to be a group focus until someone steps up with some information and asks us to be involved.”

            “I agree with Kyle,” Lanara said.  “Let them come to us.”

            “Hey, where did Osborn go off to?” Arrie said, looking around.  The hin was nowhere to be seen.

            “He probably got bored,” Lanara said.  “Why don’t we follow his lead and take this up tomorrow?”

            “I will return to the Cathedral tonight,” Tolly said, “and will try again in the morning to learn what I can of Jerome’s death.  The rest of you can do as you wish.”  He stood, and walked out of the room.

            “Okay, then,” Kyle said, standing up and offering his hand to Autumn.  “I think I’ll head to our room.”

            Autumn took his hand and squeezed it, then let go.  “I’m going to stay here for a while longer.”

            “All right, then,” he leaned over and kissed her.  “Don’t be too long, sweet angel.”  He turned and left the room.

            As soon as he left, Arrie turned to Autumn and looked at her curiously.  “And you’re staying here why, exactly?”

            “It would be improper of me not to stay and converse with my sister’s husband and a member of the Imperial Family,” she replied.

            Arrie grinned.  “You know, proper behavior doesn’t keep the bed warm at night,” she said, winking.  She got a pillow thrown at her in response.

            “Well,’ said Herion, brushing an errant goose feather off his shoulder, “perhaps I should return to my own lodgings and allow the two of you to finish this conversation in private.  Ariadne, I would appreciate the chance to spend some time with you, if for no other reason than to catch up in person rather than through letters.  Autumn, you would be invited as well; I have news from Merlion that may interest you.”  Herion then cracked the tiniest of smiles.  “As long as you allow me to stand just outside of the range of ‘that mean right’ that Arrie has told me about.”

            Autumn returned the smile.  “Of course, your Imperial Highness.”

----------------------

* Herion does know that Kavan and Maddie are the same person, he's just playing dumb for the benefit of the guards.


----------



## Delemental

Osborn returned to the inn late that night, having gone out for a bit of fun.  Inthe morning, however, he knocked on Kyle and Autumn’s door.  It was a few minutes before anyone answered.

            “What’s up, Osborn?” Kyle said, opening the door a crack and sticking his head out.

            “You seen Tolly?”

            “He stayed at the Cathedral last night, and he’ll be gone most of the day,” Kyle said.  “Why?”

            “If you see him, let him know I’m looking for him.  I have something that he’ll want to see.”  The hin walked off.

            Osborn finally ran into Tolly at dinner.  Prince Herion had invited the party to dine with him at the private suites that the government of M’Dos had provided for the state visitors arriving for Jerome’s funeral.  Word had been sent to the church of Ardara, and Tolly met the party there.

            After dinner, Osborn pulled a piece of parchment out of a pocket and passed it to Tolly.  “When I came home last night, I found that in my pocket,” he said.  “I know it’s written in Dwarven, but I don’t know that language.”

            Tolly took the note and read it.  “You could have shown this to either Arrie or Kyle.  They both know the dwarven language.”

            “Yeah, but since I have a pretty good idea who it’s from, I thought you should see it first.  You know, in case it like, explodes or something if you’re not Ardaran.”

            “It is a simple message, nothing more,” Tolly said.  “It reads, ‘If you and your companions wish to help, gather in the women’s room tomorrow at midnight.’  If you received this yesterday, then that would mean tonight.”

            Kyle sighed, and set his elbows on the table while resting his chin in his palms.  “This is because I said we shouldn’t do anything until someone asks us, isn’t it?” he said.  Then, in a loud voice, he shouted, “I don’t think we should do anything until someone pays us a million gold pieces!”

            “Each!” Osborn added.

            “Kyle, please refrain from your blasphemy,” Tolly said.  “So, it appears that the Inquisition may have a need for our assistance.  Does anyone object?”

            No one disagreed with Tolly.  Arrie, sitting next to Herion, turned to him suddenly.  “Hey, want to come along?”

            “Arrie,” Tolly said, “I am certain that the prince has more pressing matters to attend to than getting mixed up in our affairs.”

            “Actually, I’d be honored to offer what help I can,” Herion said.  “My guards and I will meet you at your tavern at midnight.”

            “Splendid,” Tolly muttered to himself.

            Several hours after dinner, the party, Herion, and his twin guards gathered in the room shared by the women.  They waited mostly in silence.  Osborn sat in one corner, his back to the wall, watching the door.  Lanara, obviously very fidgety, was in the opposite corner.  Herion’s guards stood at attention, with their bows strung and an arrow resting in the string, alert for trouble.

            Suddenly, Lanara shrieked, and pointed.  Standing near the window, opposite the door, was a figure in heavy armor.  A long scarf was wrapped around his head and face, obscuring his features.  Tolly glanced at the figure's gauntlets, and as expected the left one was a slight shade darker than the right.  The difference was too subtle to be noticed if you didn’t know what to look for.

            “Brother,” Tolly said, nodding.  Across the room, Herion waved down his guards, who were pointing arrows at the intruder.

            The Inquisitor nodded slightly to Herion, a barely acceptable gesture of deference.  Herion did not seem perturbed.  “Prince Herion,” the Inquisitor said.  Tolly recognized the voice as the same man who had visited him the other night.  “Your presence is unexpected, but perhaps fortuitous.”

            The Inquisitor turned to address Tolly.  “Your inquiries, Brother Nightsleaving, have not gone unnoticed.”

            “I am not surprised by that,” he replied.

            “I recall you expressed a desire to aid us, and we find that we can use that aid.  By tradition, the office of the Archprelate has been inured against our seeking.  Anyone who carries the mark of the Left Hand is unable to penetrate the Archprelate’s secrets.  It is an ancient protection established by Ardara Herself to prevent the Inquisition from ever assuming control of the church.  But you, and your companions, suffer under no such limitations.  Thus we would like to… hire you.”

            Tolly nodded.  “I myself require no compensation.”

            “We expected as much.”

            “The Crown also requires no compensation,” Herion said.  Then, with a glance at Arrie, added, “and neither does the Crown’s family.”

            Arrie only pouted a little.

            “I would request, Your Highness, that this matter be kept on the level of a state secret,” the Inquisitor said. “The rest of you may request compensation as you see fit.”

            Tolly leaned over to Kyle.  “Are you satisfied, then?”

            “Hey!  The million gold pieces thing was a joke!  I wasn’t serious!”  Kyle frowned.  “That’s it, I’m never telling another joke again.”

            “Promise?” Tolly asked.

            “Though your cooperation was expected, Brother Nightsleaving, this task falls outside the normal duties of your companions.  Thus it is not unseemly for us to compensate them. We make this offer because you stated to us that you do trust your companions.”

            “What do you wish of us?” Tolly asked.

            “You will go to the Archprelate’s offices this very night, and see what you can learn there.  Archprelate Jerome died while in his offices.  The offices are warded against divinations, so we would require you to locate physical evidence and remove it.”

            “What can you tell us of Jerome’s death that might help us?” Maddie asked.

            “Archprelate Jerome was not murdered, but his death was not natural.”

            “Why was a resurrection not attempted?” Tolly asked.

            “Divinations revealed that Jerome’s spirit did not wish to return,” the Inquisitor replied.

            “Did the Archprelate kill himself?” Herion asked.

            “That is high on our list of theories.  However, the reason why he would do so is unclear.”

            “Perhaps an effect that altered his perceptions,” Tolly said.  “We have encountered an undead creature with psionic abilities known as a Caller in Darkness, whose presence has not been felt on Aelfenn since before the Cataclysm.  This creature had the power to drive a person to suicide.”

            “But we already know that there were no psionics involved in his death,” Kyle said.

            The Inquisitor nodded.  “This was not a line of questioning that had occurred to us, as we are unfamiliar with these psionics.  However, the presence of an undead creature in the Cathedral of Eminent Order would not have gone unnoticed.  Also, given the considerable mental fortitude displayed by those who hold the office of Archprelate, I would rule out any form of mental attack.  However, a sustained assault over time cannot be ruled out.”

            Tolly turned to the others.  “Any objections?”

            Lanara sniffed.  “Can I stand by the door?”

            “If you do not wish to participate, Miss Rahila, the Inquisition does not require you to do so,” the Inquisitor said.  “We only require discretion on who hears of this.”

            “Lanara will come with us,” Kyle said, “won’t you?”

            “Fine,” she sighed.

            The Inquisitor produced a large sack and handed it to Tolly.  “These are the keys and pass-stones you will need to get to the Archprelate’s offices,” he said.  “I believe you know the way.  We expect them all to be returned.”

            “Can we expect guards or other security?” Herion asked.

            “Nothing that the pass-stones will not allow you to circumvent.”

            “I’ll need about fifteen minutes to get ready,” Kyle said.  “Most of my spells are ready, but I’ve left some of my power unshaped.  I can prepare a few spells that might come in useful.”

            “That should be fine,” Tolly said.  “Brother, is there anything else…”

            But the Inquisitor was gone.

            “I have to learn that trick,” Tolly said.

            The party arrived at the Cathedral within the hour.  They proceeded quickly past the guards and locked doors using the keys provided by the Inquisition, and soon were walking down the hall toward the Office of the Archprelate.

            As they stopped outside the large stone doors, Tolly suddenly held up a hand. “There are voices inside,” he said.  Herion, Osborn and Autumn also heard the voices.  Osborn pressed his ear to the seam between the marble slabs.  Kyle stepped back and cast a _message _ cantrip on the party, allowing them to relay whispered messages through him.

            “I can hear two voices,” Osborn said quietly.  “They’re speaking Dwarven, I think.  One’s a male, and sounds like a dwarf.  The other sounds more like a human, or maybe an elf, but the accent’s strange.”

            “Perhaps we should just go inside,” Tolly said.

            “Tolly,” Xu said, “remember we are here to gather information.  Information is not always best obtained directly.”

            “A good point.” Tolly stepped up and took Osborn’s place, listening intently.  “The male is Archprelate Frelarr’s secretary, Brother Siv,” he said after a moment.  “The woman’s voice is unfamiliar to me.”  After about five minutes, he pulled away from the door.  “They are speaking about ways to manipulate the new Archprelate into doing what they want.”

            Kyle relayed this to the others.  “Now what?” Autumn asked.

            “The church likely has prohibitions about simply slaying members of their clergy,” Herion pointed out.

            “Yeah, good thing I’m not subject to their laws,” Osborn said.

            “I should point out that we do have a certain implied level of clearance,” Tolly said, holding up the pass-stone that would allow them to enter the office.  “And a body is certainly physical evidence.”  He stood up.  “I am going in.  The rest of you, try to minimize your presence.  Osborn, if you could…” he looked around and noted that Osborn couldn’t be seen.  “Excellent.”

            “I’ll stay out here and guard the corridor,” Arrie said.  “Anyone tries to come out, I’ll knock them back into play.”

            “Very good.”

            Lanara stepped up, and her form shimmered for a minute.  When it stopped, she looked like an high-ranking Ardaran priestess.  She also cast a _tongues _ spell on herself. “Mind if I tag along?”

            “Not at all.”

            Herion also stepped forward.  “My guards and I will also accompany you,” he said, “the weight of the Crown of Tlaxan behind you may give them pause.”

            “Very well.  Anyone else?”

            “Just let us know when to come in,” Kyle said.

            Tolly reached out and pressed the seal into the door, which swung open silently.  Across the room, two figures sat at the secretary’s desk.  One was Brother Siv, and sitting atop the desk was an elf-touched woman, whose back was to the party.  As Tolly, Lanara, Herion and his guards strode in, Herion’s gaze flickered to the sides of the rooms.  He took a step back, and whispered something to his guards in Elven.

            “May I help you?” Brother Siv said, concern furrowing his brow.  The woman did not turn around, but kept her eyes on the desk she sat on.

            “Is the Archprelate available?” Tolly said.

            “No, he’s sleeping,” Siv said.  “Why are you here?”

            “I have the Crown Prince of Tlaxan with me, and I was escorting him through the Cathedral.  We hoped that Archprelate Frelarr might still be awake.  What are you doing here at this late hour?”

            “I was discussing matters with a consultant,” Siv said.

            “Consultant?”

            “Yes, a funeral consultant, from the church of Erito.”

            “Really?  So, Brother Siv, the question is, why one would ask a funeral director how best to control the current Archprelate.”

            Lanara closed her eyes in frustration.

            “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Siv said, laughing nervously.

            “A nice attempt at deception, but a patent failure,” Tolly said.

            Herion stepped forward.  “It seems things have begun poorly here,” he said, hoping to defuse the situation but knowing it was probably too late.  “The late hour, and all.  I apologize for my escort being so forward.  I had requested a tour of the Cathedral at a time when my presence would not cause too great a disruption.  I asked if I could visit the Archprelate’s office, and he brought me here.  Would that be possible?  I understand it has a view of M’Dos that is nearly unmatched.”

            For the first time, the woman spoke.  “I’m afraid that it would not be possible, Crown Prince,” she said.  She turned around, and everyone in the room drew their breath involuntarily.  The woman’s beauty was unearthly, drawing everyone’s attention toward her.  She wore a light, nearly translucent white tunic, with the holy symbol of Erito dangling low on her chest, just touching her cleavage.   As she spoke, she ran her delicate fingers over the alabaster skin on her bare arms. “You see, only the Archprelate has a key to that office.  And we would hate to disturb the new Archprelate at this late hour.  Mourning for the former Archprelate and accommodating himself to his new duties have surely left him drained.”

            While the conversation was going on, Osborn had moved to the door to the Archprelate’s office, still invisible.  “There’s no lock,” he whispered to Kyle.  “It looks like you can just open it.”

            “It could be warded,” Kyle said.  “Don’t touch it yet.”

            “I am certain that you must have misunderstood our conversation,” the woman was saying.  “we do have several arrangements to make.  The church of Ardara is planning a rather large memorial service, as I’m sure you must realize.  There are a great number of details to plan, and they require us to frequently work late.”

            “Understandable,” Herion said.  “My apologies for the intrusion.”

            Tolly had stood silently while Herion and the woman spoke.  He tried to focus his Talent and detect any auras of goodness in the room, but only a vague aura near the Archprelate’s office door registered to him, which he assumed to be Osborn.  Still, the divination told him little that was useful; the church of Ardara was more focused on the ideal of Law, and Erito’s clergy did not ally themselves with any particular ethical or moral tenet.  The elves would also not be inclined to such, being Erito’s patron race.  It had been the only thing he could do without making it obvious he was scrying the room.

            Lanara was also taking subtle actions, trying to move closer.  She hoped to be able to get close enough to touch them, and cast a _touch of fatigue_ spell on the secretary and the Eritan priestess in order to convince them to turn in early, allowing them to come back later.

            “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know,” Herion said, bowing deeply.  With his head down, he whispered back to Kyle, “I can’t keep this up much longer.”

            Kyle relayed the events to the others.  “Do you need a distraction?” Arrie asked Herion, through Kyle.

            “He says yes,” Kyle said after a moment.

            Arrie suddenly stood up and let out a loud orcish war cry, which echoed down the hall and into the antechamber.  Startled for a moment, the rest of the party moved quickly into the room.  Kyle paused for a moment to throw an _alarm _ spell into the hallway behind them, to warn them if reinforcements were coming.

            The double doors swung wide as the party entered the room.  Each of them paused as they caught sight of the elf-touched woman, momentarily dazzled by her beauty.  Maddie, in particular, found it hard not to stare.  “Maybe I should go to church more often,” she said to herself.  Clearing her head, she cast a spell on herself, Tolly, Lanara, and Herion, giving them the ability to heal battle wounds.

            The elf-touched woman’s charm was slightly muted, however, when Tolly strode up and punched her in the face.  She staggered back behind the desk, arms held up defensively.  “Dear Goddess!  What are you doing?” she cried helplessly.  Tolly paused, suddenly uncertain.  She seemed ill-equipped to handle such a display of violence.  A short distance away, the lack of combat prowess of Brother Siv was put on display, as suddenly eight daggers sprouted from his body.  Siv gurgled, then collapsed with a wet slap against the stone floor.  Osborn, who was now visible, almost looked sheepish.

            Just as the party began to think that perhaps coming in with a full show of force wasn’t the best plan, two human figures appeared out of hiding and leapt at Tolly with kukris dripping with acid.  One of the blades slipped under his armor and drew blood.  Though Tolly’s spiritual training and close bond with the Earth had rendered him resistant to acid, he still felt a slight sting.  At the same time, a pair of small, imp-like creatures appeared close to Osborn, and began to slash at him with claws.

            Kyle finished came into the room, looking for Lanara so he could cast a protective spell on her.  But then his enhanced vision caught something odd, the same thing that Herion had seen when he’d entered the room; there were four figures standing against the walls, two to either side.  All four were wearing full plate and wielding huge double-handed warhammers, and all four were invisible.  The four figures were moving into position to surround and flank the party.  Kyle quickly cast a spell, summoning a whirling sphere of air.  He sent it flying toward the nearest invisible warrior, knocking him to the ground and then sending him flying a short distance into the room.  Everyone else saw the air sphere seem to zoom around to empty space, then heard a loud metallic crashing.

            “What the…” Lanara said, drawing her rapier.

            Their ambush spoiled, the four armored warriors moved to attack.  As they appeared and charged in, Autumn’s eyes went wide.  She recognized the symbols and designs on the armor.  “Corrupters!” she shouted.  There were few non-outsider groups that the Sentinels considered as true enemies; among then were the Corrupters, the antithesis of the Sentinel order, unholy warriors dedicated to evil in its purest form.

            The corrupters waded eagerly into battle.  One came after Herion, advancing even as his guards shot arrow after arrow into him.  Another raised a mailed fist, and thrust it out defiantly.  A burst of negative energy filled the room, and suddenly both Tolly and Maddie felt their connection to their respective goddesses cut off, as if a door had been slammed shut.  Deterred only a moment, both of them drew weapons and attacked.

            The corrupter that had been knocked flat by Kyle’s spell tried to rise.  But Xu was right there, and knocked him backward into the air sphere again using her ring of the ram, battering him and sending the unholy warrior back to the ground.  The last corrupter charged at Autumn, but rather than swinging his maul at the sentinel he reached out with one hand and grasped her arm.  She wrenched away from him and slashed with her greataxe, forcing him back.  She paused for a moment to see if the corrupter had cast a spell on her, but she felt nothing amiss.  Then she summoned her own holy power, and sent out a burst of positive energy.  Across the room, the two quasits that served as the corrupters’ fiendish familiars screeched and rapidly flew to opposite corners of the far wall, trying to get away from the hated aura of goodness.

            Lanara moved forward, rapier at the ready, and began slashing at one of the two kukri-wielding humans, drawing blood.  From behind, Maddie ran up trying to get at the woman on the desk, but her path was blocked and she ended up battling with the other man with the kukri.  “I won’t allow you to profane the name of Erito!” Maddie shouted.  The elf-touched continued to cower, begging for the violence to stop.  And Arrie, still back by the door, scowled as she watched the battle unfold.  “Next time, Xu watches the door,” she muttered.  Then, in a flash of inspiration, she ran into the room, pulling the heavy stone doors closed behind her and barring them.  “No one’s getting out now!” she shouted, hurling a shotput into the melee.  Looking back, Herion sighed and shook his head.  “Keep an eye on the Crown Princess,” he told one of his guards.

            The center of the room became a frenzy of blades and heavy slabs of metal.  Tolly, Lanara, and Maddie were pressed in between the rogues with the kukris and the corrupters.  The others pressed in from behind them, trying to take the pressure off .  Arrows and fiery rays flew through the Archprelate’s antechamber, and the sound of steel rang through the high-ceilinged room.  Autumn, strangely, remained unchallenged.  From the back of the chamber, the elf-touched ‘funeral advisor’ called out plaintively, her voice rising above the din of battle.

            “You!  Please, help me!  Defend me, Sentinel!”

            Autumn heard the words echo in her mind, and realized how much sense that made.  She should be defending the poor, helpless Eritan priestess.  She could get hurt.  Autumn immediately dashed over, and took up a protective stance in front of the woman.  The corrupters nearby stepped back, allowing her to pass unmolested.

            Kyle and Osborn were the only who far enough removed from the battle to notice Autumn move.  Though neither of them had seen any obvious spells cast, they were both experienced enough to know when one of their friends was under an unnatural compulsion.  Osborne tossed a few daggers at the whimpering priestess, and was surprised when she barely seemed to flinch as the blades stuck into her leg, then were pushed out onto the floor as the wounds closed up.

            Kyle’s reaction was a bit more zealous.  “Leave her alone, bitch!” he shouted, and then uttered dark words.  The woman’s deceptively helpless sobs turned into shrieks of agony, accompanied by the sound of snapping bone and tendon as Kyle’s spell began ripping her apart from inside.

            Nearby, Herion and his guards finally felled one of the corrupters, the arrow-filled corpse tumbling stiffly to the ground.  Xu pounded another one into a bloody mess, then turned to assist Arrie with a third.  In the center, blows were traded back and forth evenly, blood dripping onto the stone floor from all combatants.  But with two of their number down, and the ‘priestess’ incapacitated, the party had the advantage of numbers.  This point was driven home when the elf-touched, who no longer looked as bewitchingly beautiful covered with purplish bruises and with limbs flying around at odd angles, suddenly lurched, fell face first on the desk, and vanished.  Just before she disappeared, Osborn saw the false priestesses’ form shift into that of a nude woman with sharp horns, a long barbed tail, and reddish-black bat wings.

            “Yikes!”

            The death of their mistress had a demoralizing effect on several of the enemy.  The quasits simply vanished, returning to their native home rather than wait to be destroyed.  The rogues with the kukris tried to escape, breaking away from the melee skillfully, but were then caught by the party members waiting near the back and eliminated.  Only the two remaining corrupters fought on, turning to attack Autumn as she shook her head to clear her mind from the suggestion.

            “Protect the Duchess!” Herion shouted, and arrows flew at the corrupters, dropping them.

            Silence descended in the room.  After tending to wounds, the party began to move about the antechamber, searching for evidence of the plot against Jerome as well as collecting the bodies of the dead.  Once Osborn described what he had seen before the false priestess had vanished, the party quickly identified her as a succubus, an extraplanetary being of pure Chaos.*

            “Excuse me,” Kyle said to Herion as he walked by, “but what did you mean by ‘protect the Duchess’?”

            “Autumn is a Duchess by virtue of marriage,” he replied.  “Her sister is the Crown Princess, after all.”

            Kyle looked slightly pale.  Autumn, a Duchess?  He wasn’t sure what that meant for her… or for the two of them.

            “I’m going to have to learn to use the little fork at dinner, aren’t I?” he said, mostly to himself.

            “Actually, Kyle,” Tolly said, having overheard, “using a fork in the first place would be a significant improvement.”

*          *            *​
            It was two days after Jerome’s funeral that the door to the Archprelate’s office opened, and Tolly walked in.  Looking up from his desk, Archprelate Frelarr waved the young priest inside, then waited while the door closed behind him.

            “Exalted,” Tolly said, kneeling.

            “Rise, Brother Nightsleaving,” Frelarr said, gesturing for Tolly to stand.  “Thank you for coming.”

            “When the Hand of the Earth calls, I obey,” he said.

            “Of course, of course.  Please, come with me, Tolly.”

            Frelarr turned and crossed the room, heading for a large statue of Ardara on the far side opposite the windows.  The dwarf pulled a white marble pass-stone out from under his robes, and pressed it into a niche in the statue.  With a grinding of stone on stone, the statue slid aside, revealing a staircase going up.  Tolly followed the Archprelate silently up the stairs.

            They emerged into the open air.  Looking around, Tolly realized that they were standing on top of the Cathedral of Eminent Order.  Surrounding them were lush, fragrant trees and flowering shrubs.  Carefully manicured paths cut through the foliage, and stone benches and statuary were scattered about.  From their vantage point, the entire city of M’Dos spread out uninterrupted around them; only the Infinite Spire of Erito’s temple rose higher.

            “The Archprelate’s private gardens,” Frelarr said.  “I was quite pleased when I learned about this particular secret of the office.  In my days as a novitiate, I was tasked with tending the church’s fields.  I never thought I’d look back on those days fondly.”  He shook his head ruefully.

            Frelarr gestured out at the gardens.  “Most people don’t see this side of the church of Ardara, Tolly.  They see the image we project; of cold, unyielding stone and metal, the immutability of Law.  Most don’t stop to think that the Earth is also a source of life, of growth, defining the ways and methods by which that life may flourish.”  Frelarr stopped next to a statue of a wizened female dwarf.  “Archprelate Jovol**,” he said, patting her marble foot.  “She was responsible for reforming the church after the Cataclysm.  She was also the one who put the gardens up here.  I think she placed it on the top of the Cathedral for a reason. Can you guess why, Tolly?”

            Tolly thought for a moment.  “I must admit that I cannot, Exalted.”

            “I think she placed it up here, surrounded by the Air, to remind future Archprelates that we exist in balance with the other aspects of the world, not in conflict with them.”

            “But, Exalted,” Tolly said, “the agents of Chaos that infiltrated the church…”

            “Were serving their purpose, nothing more,” Frelarr said.  “Much as we served our purpose by restoring order.  The results were tragic, but necessary, Brother.  Even Ardara’s church requires change from time to time, else we would stagnate and no longer be relevant in the lives of the people.  It is the church who serves the people, Tolly, not the other way around.  Never forget that.”

            “No, Exalted,” Tolly said.

            The Archprelate sighed.  “I suppose it would be futile to ask you to call me Frelarr, wouldn’t it?”

            “I fear that I am not quite ready for that much change yet, Exalted.”

            “I thought that might be the case.”  Frelarr sat down on a bench next to the statue of Archprelate Jovol, and looked up at Tolly.  “But it is of changes that I wish to speak, Brother Nightsleaving.  Service, and change.  But first, I have something to tell you to pass along to your companions.  I received the Inquisition’s final report on Brother Siv’s treachery.  It’s marked ‘Archprelate’s Eyes Only’, of course.”  Frelarr’s eyes gleamed, and he winked.  “Want to know what it said?”

            Tolly didn’t respond, so Frelarr continued.  “Seems that Siv met the succubus through an acquaintance of his in the Church of Erito, someone by the name of Rek.  That was about eight months ago.  It seems that the succubus slowly corrupted Siv, led him down a path of temptation.  The reports of some of the activities he was engaged in by the end were… disturbing.

            “It seems that the succubus convinced Siv to start lacing Jerome’s drinks with a special form of insanity mist, one that was resistant to the magical wards in place around the Archprelate.  It was slowly starting to eat away at his mind.  But Siv apparently accidentally gave Jerome a dose that was far too potent, and in a fit of delusion he committed suicide.”

            “I see,” said Tolly, “then I am glad we put a stop to him.”

            “There’s more,” Frelarr said.  “After Jerome’s sudden death, it seems Siv was able to manipulate the Prelate Council’s vote, and put in an old friend of his from the backhills of the Confederates as the new Archprelate.  Apparently he thought that his friend would be easier to manipulate than Jerome.”  Frelarr smiled helplessly.  “So far the Prelate Council hasn’t decided to cast a new vote and oust me from the office.  Ardara, it seems, has more confidence in me than Siv did.”

            “I am certain that you will prove that to everyone in time, Exalted.”

            “My thanks, Tolly.  But now, on to other matters.”

            Frelarr leaned back on the bench.  “Word of your exploits has spread far in the church, Tolly.  Farther than perhaps you are aware.  The old gossip network of the novitiates has not suffered from recent upheavals in the church.”  The dwarf grinned.  “Already I have received inquiries from several offices within the church in regard to you, Tolly.  Including one you may be familiar with.  You remember Father Hadar, I assume?”

            Tolly nodded.  Father Hadar was the Tribute in charge of the church in Trageon, where he had been left as an orphan and raised to adulthood.  Hadar was the closest thing to a true father Tolly had ever had.

            “It seems that Father Hadar is getting on in years, and has petitioned the Archprelate’s office for a suitable candidate to succeed him.  What would you think of that, Father Nightsleaving?”

            Tolly tried to remain impassive, despite the flood of emotions that flowed through his bosom.  “I will serve as the Hand directs, of course,” he said.

            “I believe you would.  Which is why I would like to present another offer.”  Frelarr reached into his robes again, this time producing a small, flat box.  Opening it, Frelarr held it up for Tolly to see.  Inside was an adamantine seal emblazoned with the left gauntlet that represented the Inquisition superimposed over the diamond that symbolized the Archprelate’s office.

            “Recent events have demonstrated to me a small but significant flaw in our procedures.  The prohibition against the Inquisition involving itself in the affairs of the Archprelate is still a necessary check to their power, but it also gave the succubus the opportunity she needed to subvert and assassinate Jerome, and hampered the investigation following his death.  I realized that we needed some way to be able to investigate crimes against the Archprelate; thus, with the consent of the Prelate Council, we have created a new office; Inquisitor Primus.”

            Tolly studied the sunlight glinting off the seal as Frelarr continued.  “The office would be filled by one, and only one person.  Though not subject to the same immunity to Inquisitorial proceedings as the Archprelate is, the Inquisitor Primus would not be answerable to the Inquisition for their authority… in fact, would not be answerable to anyone, even the Archprelate themselves.”

            Frelarr paused to let the gravity of this sink in.  “The Inquisitor Primus’ one and only job would be to protect the sanctity of the Archprelate from corruption or subversion, whether from within or without.  That would include full access to the Archprelate’s offices, private chambers, and even private gardens.”  He smiled again.  “No need to make the job too tedious, right?”  Frelarr fixed Tolly with a level stare.  “The person who fills this office would have to be a person of impeccable character, who is beyond reproach.  Brother Nightsleaving, I offer this position to you.”

            Tolly was stunned into silence, and his knees nearly buckled.  “Exalted,” he stammered, “please, I am not worthy…”

            “The fact that you don’t want this job only proves that you are well-suited for it,” Frelarr said.  Before Tolly could speak again, the Archprelate held up a hand.  “But there is one complication that we must consider, first.  Or, to be more accurate, seven complications.  And a dog, I believe.”

            “My companions,” Tolly said.

            “Yes.  You have an obligation to them, as well.  And I suspect a great deal of respect and friendship, else you would not have been with them this long.”

            Tolly could only nod his agreement.

            Frelarr stood up, snapping the case closed.  “Tolly, I am not ordering you to accept this position.  You would have to want it, without reservation.  I wish for you to return to your friends for now, and think about this.  Think, and pray for guidance.”

            “I will, Exalted,” Tolly said, kneeling.

            “That is all I can ask, Brother.”


------------------------------------

* Though it's been mentioned before, it's worth reminding readers that in this campaign world, demons are 'always Chaotic', not 'always chaotic evil'.

** For fans of Sepulchrave... yes, I did steal the name.  And I'll do it again!


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*good going...*

another great update. one guestion, is the Inq...a PrC or just RP Fluff?


----------



## Delemental

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> another great update. one guestion, is the Inq...a PrC or just RP Fluff?




There is an Inquisitor prestige class (Complete Divine, I think?), and Tolly does end up taking the class.  At this point in the story, though, the job of Inquisitor Primus is just fluff, a title and position that I made up.  The metagame reason for this job offer will become apparent within the next update or two.


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*yeah...*

it is from ComDiv, I was wondering if you were going to use that, I have not seen the PrC in play anywhere yet.

I do have to a say that it was a very very creative way of getting Tolly into that PrC IMHO.

djordje


----------



## Delemental

*Farewells*

This update's a bit on the longish side, but it works better IMO if it's not split apart.

----------------------------

            The Church of Ardara expected to garner a lot of attention during the Earthturning festival.  After all, they were Ardara’s holy days.  Preparations had been underway for months at the Cathedral of Eminent Order to handle all the expected visitors.

            With the funeral for Archprelate Jerome being held during this particular Earthturning festival, the Church of Ardara was nearly overwhelmed.  But, true to her nature, the Church did not bend or yield, but weathered the storm of dignitaries, mourners, and merrymakers with stoic calm.

            The party stood with Prince Herion inside the large canopied area that had been set aside for the Tlaxan delegation for the funeral ceremony.  Unable to accommodate everyone at once, even inside the massive Cathedral, the church had decided to hold it in the city’s parade grounds, hastily building the necessary structures to contain the crowds.

The prince stood quietly, surrounded by aides and advisors all adorned in traditional mourning white.  The party, some distance from Herion, had the luxury of being able to converse quietly during lulls in the benedictions and eulogies.  Tolly was noticeably absent, as he had joined the other clergy in the open field just in front of where Jerome was being displayed.   The party looked around at the other delegations gathered there; there were envoys from Targeth, the Dwarven Confederates, the Peca Provinces, Sargia, the Red Archipelago, and smaller groups from the cities of Freeport and Miracle.  There was even a trio of diplomats from Xhintai present.  On a balcony overlooking the stone dais where Jerome’s body lay, the party could see the heads of the other churches sitting, watching the proceedings.  Even the head of the church of Erito, the reclusive woman known only as The Serenity, was present, her white mourning robes in stark contrast to the long cloak of black raven feathers on her shoulders.

“Who’s that?” Osborn whispered to Autumn, pointing at a masked figure on the far end of the line of high priests.

“That is Master of Serpents Giova Maceré,” she replied quietly.  “Head of the church of Qin-Chu.”

Osborn frowned.  “What good is wearing a mask if everyone knows your name?” he asked.

“All of the Masters are named Giova Maceré,” Maddie said, leaning in to join the conversation.  “It was the name of their first Master of Serpents, supposedly, though who knows if that was even his, or her, real name either.  Anyone who ascends to the highest rank of Qin-Chu’s church, man or woman, takes Giova’s name as their own.”

Osborn nodded.  “You know a lot about the church of Qin-Chu.”

Maddie frowned.  “It’s a subject I have a mild interest in.”  There was little doubt that her interest revolved more around her bastard son Marrek than around the Master of Serpents.

The sun was well below the horizon by the time the funeral ended.  “Well, that’s another Earthturning gone to waste,” Lanara complained as they walked home.

“There’s still tomorrow,” Arrie said.  “And my birthday’s coming up three days after that.”

“Hooray!” shouted Maddie, “another excuse for mayhem!”

“Are we expecting Tolly back tonight?” Kyle asked.

“No, he’ll be at the Cathedral the next two nights,” Autumn said.

“So, exactly like the past few weeks,” Lanara observed.

“He’s got some big projects he’s working on,” Kyle said.

“So do you, and I occasionally see your face, though it’s usually attached to Autumn’s.”

Kyle smiled and only flushed a little.  “Making a maul’s a little more time-consuming than writing scrolls, you know.”

“And the recent unpleasantness with the succubus must have set him behind, too,” Arrie pointed out.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s getting a hand cramp signing autographs for the neophytes,” Lanara huffed, but then let the subject drop.

“So, when are we all leaving?” Osborn asked a short time later.

“On the tenth,” Arrie said.  “That’s when Herion’s leaving, and he’s offered to take us across the channel to the mainland on his ship.  From there we’re going… where, again?”

            “To Stacks,” Maddie said, “it’s about two days north of the harbor town where we’ll be landing.”

            Osborn sighed.  “I can’t believe they actually named a library city ‘Stacks’.”

            “It technically has another name,” Maddie said, “but it’s been called by that nickname for so long that even the Eritan priests who live there call it by that name.”

            “Well, whatever its name, it’s the best shot we have at figuring out where Erito’s secret spot is,” Kyle said.

            “And it will kill some time until Maddie can use that headband again,” Arrie added, “so that we can ask Erito about how to fix our broken bard.”

            “Wonderful,” sighed Osborn, “we get to sit in a library.”

            “They’re not so bad,” Lanara said, “if you know the right books to read.”

*          *            *​
            The day before they were to set sail, Tolly changed everything.

            The party was seated around their usual table for breakfast, talking in an animated fashion as they ate.  Arrie and Maddie were discussing plans to squeeze in one more night of revelry before hitting the road again.  Autumn was also trying to participate in the conversation, but kept getting interrupted by an amorous Kyle, whose behaviors prompted the hurling of muffins on more than one occasion.  Lanara sat at the far end of the table, scowling into her mug of watered-down wine and wishing that the inn started serving ale before ten bells.  Xu, on the other end of the table, was also quiet, though this was nothing unusual for her and so did not draw attention.  Osborn simply interjected himself into whatever conversations he could, and when he couldn’t he ate bacon and petted Rupert.  Tolly’s seat was empty; as expected, he’d gone to the Cathedral early that morning for services and breakfast with the priests.  Thus everyone was quite surprised when he walked into the Whistling Mermaid and stood quietly behind his chair, waiting patiently.

            “Good morning, Tolly!” Arrie said when she saw him.  “Didn’t expect to see you!”  When she saw the serious look on his face, though, she dropped what she was going to say and fell quiet.  The others soon followed suit.

            “I have something to tell you all,” he said.  “A few days ago, the Archprelate offered me a new position within the Church.  I have decided to accept it.  Thus, though I have enjoyed my time with you all, I will no longer be traveling with you.”

            For a while, no one moved or spoke.  Then Lanara spoke.  “Gee, there goes all the fun and games.”  A second later, she yelped as Kyle smacked her in the shoulder with his open hand.

            “Kyle,” Tolly said, looking down at the wizard, “violence?”

            “It’s been known to happen,” Lanara answered for him, rubbing the sore spot on her shoulder.

            “What sort of position?” Arrie asked.

            “I am going to be serving as an… aide, you might say, for the Archprelate.  I have already begun some of my training – it was felt that even if I declined the position, the skills would serve me well.”

            Autumn looked at Tolly, her eyes locking with his.  “Tolly, did you decide to accept this position because of the conversation you and I had in Miracle?”

            Tolly stiffened for a moment.  “Not entirely,” he admitted.  “It is a position of great responsibility, and I believe I can do more good for the church here than I can traveling.”

            “Damn, he sounds full of himself,” Lanara muttered to herself, but not too quietly.

            “If you feel you can reach greater spiritual enlightenment upon this path, Tolly,” Xu said, “then I support your decision.”

            “Thank you,” Tolly said.  He looked around at the others.  “If you need anything, just send word and I’ll see what I can do.  But otherwise, this is where we part ways.  I will miss you all.”

            There were murmurs and shouts of agreement around the table.  Only Lanara was silent.

            “I wish to impart a few items to you before I go,” Tolly said.  “I would like to give this to Madrone.”

            He walked over and placed a small green feather in front of Maddie; she recognized it as a magical _feather token_, identical to the one he’d used to place an oak tree in the yard of their townhouse in Miracle.  “Now you can have a second treehouse wherever you may wish,” he said to her.

            Maddie stood up, threw her arms around Tolly, and kissed him on the cheek.  “Thank you!” she said, voice a mix of joy and sadness.

            Next Tolly moved to Kyle, and handed him two pearls.  “_Pearls of power_,” he explained.  “I found that I never had a use for them.  I assume you will not have that problem.”

            “Wow, Tolly, thanks,” Kyle said, fingering the two pearls.  “I feel kind of bad that I don’t have anything for you.  Tell you what; next psionic item we find, I’ll smash it and send you the pieces.”

            Tolly smirked.  “I will try to remember that fondly, Kyle.  I will try.”  Next he moved to Arrie, but she held up a hand before he could say anything.

            “The best gift you can give to me, Tolly, is to continue to be a moral compass to guide me should I need you.”

            Tolly nodded.  “I shall do my best.”  Next he went to Lanara, who seemed somewhat surprised he was standing in front of her at all.  “I have another _feather token_ for you,” he said, setting it on the table in front of her.  “It creates a boat.  Just in case.”

            Lanara stared down at the tiny feather in front of her.  “How appropriate,” she sneered.  “And here I was going to buy the last round.”  She looked up at him.  “I’d say you’re a good man, Tolly, but you’re barely old enough to qualify.”

            “That’s probably true,” Tolly said, not rising to the bait.  But as he moved on down the table, Kyle scowled at her.  “You’re nastier than normal today,” he said.  “What’s the matter with you?”

            She shrugged at him and turned to watch Tolly walk up to Osborn.  “I have nothing tangible to give you, Osborn,” he said.  “Little of what I find useful would interest you.  But my new position does give me certain privileges.  From this day on, present yourself at any church of Ardara in Affon, and you may receive a rack of bacon from them.  Just be sure to give them enough time to procure it.”

            “Well, gosh,” Osborn said.  “I guess you’ll want this back, then.”  He held out Tolly’s coin purse, smiling.

            “I thought you said you weren’t a thief,” Lanara said.

            “I’m not.  It doesn’t mean I don’t know how.  I’ve only had it for about a minute, anyway.”  He tossed the purse to Tolly.  “You know how us hin are, you know.”

            Tolly half-smiled, half-scowled.  “The Inquisition is teaching me all of your tricks,” he said.

            “Yeah, unfortunately you still won’t be as good as me,” the hin replied.

            “Probably not.”

            Tolly next went to Xu.  “I know better than to present you with material gifts,” he told her.  “But I offer this; should you ever wish to return home, the church of Ardara will pay your expenses for the voyage.  My gift to you is hope; hope that one day you will be free to make that voyage without fear.”

            Xu bowed in gratitude.  “Many thanks to you, Tolly,” she said.

            Finally, Tolly came around to Autumn.  He untied a large mace from his belt, and presented it to her.  “Since you never did return the old mace that I loaned to you, I assume that you need a spare weapon of some kind.  This one should serve you well, especially against the forces of Chaos.  Hopefully you will use it from time to time, and remember that we once stood together.”

            Autumn looked straight at Tolly for a long time.  Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, kissing him quickly on the cheek as Maddie had done.  Then she turned and went upstairs to her room, not running but definitely moving quickly.

            Arrie began to rise to follow, but Kyle waved her down.  “I’ll go see,” he said, getting up and following Autumn upstairs.

            “Well, then,” Tolly said.  “I will be returning to the church to oversee the preparation of my new offices.  Again, it has been an honor knowing all of you.  May Ardara’s grace bring you strength in adversity.”  With that, he turned and walked to the door.  He turned back just as he reached the arch of the door.  “I almost forgot.  Yesterday an elf with a bow was at the Cathedral.  He bore documentation from the church of Erito, and he was looking for Madrone.  I told him you can be found here.”

            With that, he stepped through the door, and was gone.

            Tolly looked around at the street outside, at the people going about their business.  _So much to do, _ he thought.  _I am not even officially Inquisitor Primus, and already there is so much.  I must hurry back to the Cathedral.  There will be time for grief later._

            He was halfway down the street when he heard his name being called.  Turning, he saw Lanara standing a short distance behind him.  The Ardaran and the cansin stood looking at each other for a while, neither speaking.  Finally, Lanara reached into a belt pouch, and handed a flask to Tolly.  Looking at it, he saw it was the flask of stonebreaker acid she had always carried.

            “I figured you’d have more use for it than me,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes.  “You know, if you needed to etch something, or build a wall, or whatever you do for fun.”

            “Thank you,” Tolly said, closing his hand around the flask.

            “Yeah, well…” 

            The two of them stood awkwardly in front of each other, neither sure of what to say.  Finally, Tolly put the acid away.  “Goodbye, Lanara.”

            “Goodbye, Tolly.”

*          *            *​
            The rest of the day was far more subdued than anyone had anticipated.  Kyle and Autumn returned downstairs after a few minutes; Kyle would later confide to Arrie that Autumn had been upset by the thought that her rejection of his suit had been a factor in his decision to leave the party.  That evening they stayed at the inn, sharing stories of their time with the straight-laced Ardaran.

            As they sat quietly around their table, a lone figure approached, making no move to hide his approach or his interest in the party.  He was a tall elf, with long black hair and a composite bow strung across his shoulder.  His armor and clothing had the look of someone who had been in the wilderness a very, very long time.  Piercing green eyes looked the group over as he came to the table, finally resting on the other elf at the table.

            “Well, hello there,” he said, his voice heavy with the accent of a man who has spent much of his time far away from the cities.  “You a favored soul, church of Erito, name of Madrone?”

            Everyone grew quiet, and several hands dropped out of sight below the table.  “And who wants to know?” Maddie asked calmly.

            “Name’s Razael Fletcher,” the elf said.  “Been looking all over this city for you.  There was this young priest who told me that you’d be at an inn, and he told me where the inn was….”

            “Uppity guy in plate mail?” Lanara asked.

            “That’d be him.  He don’t know the city well, does he?”  Razael looked around at the others, then pointed at Autumn.  “You’d be… Duchess of something or other, I forget what they told me.”  Then he looked over at Arrie.  “And ain’t you the lass who’s married to the Crown Prince?”

            When Arrie nodded, he grinned.  “Good, I found the right group.”  Razael promptly sat down at the table, and flagged the waitress down.  “Next round’s on me,” he called out.  “How y’all doing?”

            “I like him,” Lanara said.

            “Um, do you have some… documentation for me?” Maddie asked.

            “Oh, sure, you want to see the scroll?”  Razael pulled a scroll tube out of one of his many pockets, and handed it to Maddie.

            “We’ve had… trouble with strangers recently, you understand,” Maddie said as she broke the seal on the tube and pushed out the parchment inside.

            “We could at least drink his first round before we check his credentials,” Lanara said.

            Maddie read through the scroll, frowned, and rolled it back up.  “So,” she said, putting the scroll down, “why does the church feel I need a bodyguard?”

            Everyone looked at Maddie, then at Razael, then back to Maddie.

            “Because you’re so damn sexy now!” Lanara said at last.

            Razael himself only shrugged.  “I don’t know.  They sent me out, because I was volunteered for it.”

            “Everyone else stepped back, eh?” Maddie said.

            “Something like that.”

            From somewhere on Razael’s back came a noise, and a black raven’s head popped out from under the flap on the elf’s knapsack.  As the bird popped up and landed on Razael’s shoulder, Kyle’s familiar Violet flapped her wings and cawed.

            “You match our wizard!” Arrie said.  “His name’s Kyle Goodson, by the way.”

            “Nice to meet you, Kyle,” Razael said, nodding.

            Arrie continued the introductions.  “This is Lanara,”

            Razael looked the cansin over.  “You’re cute,” he said.

            “You’re not so bad yourself,” came the reply.

            “And that’s Osborn,” Arrie went on.

            “A hin?” Razael seemed somewhat surprised.  “Herion never mentioned the hin.”  He turned back to Arrie.  “Do you not write about him?”  Shortly after he said it, Razael clamped his lips shut as though he’d said something foolish.  “Oh, I’m not supposed to talk about that, am I?”

            Arrie ignored the elf.  “And the silent one is Xu.”

            “Wow,” he said, seeing the monk for the first time, “didn’t even see her.”

            “As was previously mentioned,” Xu said, “trouble with strangers.”

            “Well, maybe that’s why they sent me.”

            “Basically,” Arrie said, pointing back to Xu and Osborn, “it’s ‘unobtrusive and hits people’ and ‘unobtrusive and hits people’.”

            “And ‘obtrusive and hits people’,” Kyle added, pointing to both Arrie and Autumn.

            Maddie looked over at Osborn.  “Yes, he hated it in Miracle.”

            “I’ll bet,” Razael drawled.  “I hated Miracle when I was there, about two hundred years ago.”

            Maddie looked confused.  “Miracle hasn’t been around that long.”

            The confusion spread to Razael’s face.  “Really?  It hasn’t?  I could’ve sworn…”  He shook his head.  “You lose the years.”

            “No, the city was created within my lifetime, and I’m not that old.”

            “Well, what are you, about two hundred?  Two hundred ten?”

            “I fairly recently turned one hundred and four,” she replied.

            “You are?”  Razael looked Maddie over again, this time with a different look in his eye.  “You’re barely an adult,” he said quietly.

            “I’ve had an excess of experience in my short years,” she replied.

            Arrie broke in.  “All right, so… you’re going to just follow Maddie, and…?”
            “You know, the church just threw some money at me and said ‘Go escort our newest Favored, because Erito has commanded us to send someone’.  So they sent me.”

            “I’m still trying to find this money that gets thrown at people,” Osborn joked.  In response, Kyle tossed a silver coin at the hin, hitting him on the forehead.  “Thanks,” Osborn said sarcastically, rubbing his head as he pocketed the coin.

            “Trust me, it was spent well before I got here,” Razael said.  “I got to remember to keep my eye on the shell with the ball better next time.”

            “No,” Osborn said, “you keep your eye on theirs.”

            “Why’s that, boy?” Razael asked.

            “Because if you’re not watching them, they’re trying to figure out how to steal your coin purse.”

            “Good advice,” Razael agreed.  “So, what’re you all up to?”

            “Well, actually,” Kyle began, “we’re…”

            “I think it’s time for a girl-orgy upstairs!” Arrie announced suddenly, pulling Autum to her feet.  Maddie and Xu began to rise as well, but Lanara was still sitting, admiring Razael’s lean frame.

            “Lanara, girl orgy upstairs!” Arrie repeated.

            Razael turned to Kyle as Lanara got up.  “How often does this happen?”

            “Often enough to make you wonder,” Lanara said slyly as she sauntered by on her way to the stairs.

            “Too often,” Kyle said as the women left.  “They’re going upstairs to talk.  They’re _always _ going upstairs to talk.”

            “You get used to it,” Osborn sighed.

            Upstairs, the women gathered in their room.  “Maddie,” Arrie said, “it’s not that we don’t think it’s great that Erito wants to protect you, but how do we know this Razael is legit?”

            “The parchment he gave me,” she replied.  “The message contained code-words and certain turns of phrases that my church uses in communications to verify them as genuine.  A forger wouldn’t know them.”

            “So, if he was sent by both the church of Erito and my husband, I suppose we’re bringing him along, aren’t we?”

            “Pretty much, yes.  It’s kind of hard to tell the church ‘thanks, but no thanks’.”

            “All right,” Arrie sighed, “I just wanted to make sure.  So, girl orgy over?”

            “Not quite,” Lanara said, holding up a pillow.

            As the women came downstairs a short while after leaving, Razael looked at Kyle curiously.  “Why do they all have goose feathers on them?”

            Kyle sighed.  “They do it on purpose because they think they’re playing with our heads,” he said.  “I haven’t got the heart to tell them the effect wears thin after the twentieth time.  And the worst part is that they’ll make me use _mending _ to fix it.”

            “What are we doing on purpose?” Lanara asked.

            “I refuse to comment.”

            “But you already did, Kyle,” Arrie pointed out.

            “I refuse to comment further.”

            “You know, Kyle,” Razael said, “you could always just not prepare that spell.”

            “Autumn has other means,” Lanara said.

            “This is true,” Arrie agreed.  “My sister can be very, very persuasive.”

            Autumn grinned at Arrie and at Kyle, but Razael just stared back and forth between the wizard and the sentinel.  “You’re sleeping with the Duchess?” he said to Kyle.

            No one reacted for a moment.  “Wow, and I thought I was bold,” Lanara commented.

            “Autumn and I are together, yes,” Kyle said.

            “Good for you,” Razael said, grinning and winking at Kyle.

*          *            *​
            They spent the rest of the evening getting to know Maddie’s new protector.  They learned that he was a tracker, and had served as a bounty hunter most of his life as part of Tlaxan's Imperial Huntsmen.  Herion had recommended him to the church for the job of guarding Maddie.  It was late by the time Razael retired to his own inn, but he was back bright and early, packed and ready to go the next day.  It was the day they were leaving M’Dos.

            The party stood at the railing, watching the many ships berthed at the harbor coming and going.  Behind them, elves were moving quickly across the deck of the Imperial galleon _Intrepid_, readying it to get underway.  The voyage to the mainland would take a day, and then the ship would turn north and return to Tlaxan.  Herion was below decks, in his private cabin, conversing with the captain.

            “You know,” said Maddie, “the last time I left M’Dos, it was as a runaway prostitute with a head full of fear and bad memories.  It’s nice that this time I can look back at the city with a smile on my face.”

            “Did you ever look for your father?” Kyle asked.

            Maddie shook her head.  “I found that I couldn’t really see the point.”

            Farther down the railing, Xu’s eyes suddenly went wide, and she bolted away, dashing across the deck and disappearing below decks.  The others looked at other in confusion, and tried to figure out what had spooked her, but all they saw were rows of ships in the harbor.  Autumn went downstairs to look for Xu.  She found the door to her cabin slightly ajar, but upon going inside found it empty.  Just as she was about to leave, she heard a slight noise above her, and looked up.  Xu was there, wedged between the ceiling beams, ready to drop on anyone who came into the room.

            “What’s wrong, Xu?” Autumn asked.  “I’ve never seen you react like that.”

            Xu swallowed, still looking quite pale.  “One of the ships in the harbor bears the markings of the man who would be my husband, Lord Hungai.  The sight affected me more deeply than I expected.”

            “Well, then, it’s good that we’re leaving.”

            “Indeed.  But to know that he is so close…”

            “Do you think Hungai himself is on that ship?”

            She shook her head.  “Difficult to say.  It is unlikely, but not impossible.”

            “Will you be all right?”

            “Yes, thank you.  But please, allow me to remain here alone for a few minutes.  I will need to find my center again.”

            “Of course,” Autumn said, and stepped out of the room.  She went back up to the deck, where the others waited expectantly.

            “Is it about… what we think it is?” Kyle asked, flicking his eyes toward Razael as he asked the question.  Though the party had agreed to let him accompany them, they had decided not to necessarily reveal everything that was going on all at once.  Razael, for his part, seemed to understand this and said nothing about it.

            Autumn nodded to confirm their suspicions.  “One of the ships in the harbor has his markings.”

            “Really? Did she say which one?” Kyle looked back out across the water.

            “No, she didn’t.”

            “Guess that means you’ll have to _fireball _ them all, right Kyle?” Lanara said with a smile.

            “What exactly kind of trouble do you all get into?” Razael asked.  “I’ve never seen a monk just take off like that.  What exactly is it that y’all are involved in?”

            “Oh, it’s more of a personal issue for Xu,” Maddie said, “one we’re choosing to avoid for now.”

            The ship was setting sail less than an hour later.  They reached the mainland well after dark, pulling in to a berth on the northern end of the harbor.  The town where they made port had no name of its own, and was considered part of M’Dos; its sole reason for existing was to transfer people and goods coming from the rest of Medos and Affon to the island, and vice versa.  There were few amenities, and the few inns were all full by the time the _Intrepid _ made port.  So the party ended up sleeping aboard the ship with the crew, much to Lanara’s consternation, and disembarked in the morning just before they cast off again.

            “Thank Feesha,” Lanara said as soon as they reached the end of the dock and were touching dry land.  “Please, no more boats for a while.”

            “No, now it’s back to horses and tents,” Arrie said, leading Ghost by the reins off the dock.  “Where are we headed, Maddie?”

            “Stacks is north-northwest of here, two days’ ride, in the foothills of the mountains that mark the border between Medos and the Confederates,” she said.  “It’s still the slow season, so we should be able to get right in.”

            “I thought every day was the slow season for a library,” Osborn muttered to himself.

            An uneventful two days later, they rode into Stacks.  The city itself was a fairly typical walled fortress-town, with the library itself housed in the old castle in the center.  Maddie told them that everything above the castle’s main floor was devoted to storing books and scrolls.  Riding through town, the party saw that most of the businesses in town catered to the needs of a library; book-binders, scribes, paper-makers, calligraphers, cartographers.

            “No exotic dancers here, I take it,” Arrie said.  Maddie shook her head in reply.

            They made arrangements to stay at a no-frills inn called the Dry Inkpot, and then Maddie led them to the library.  As the favored soul had promised, they were able to access the books immediately.  They paid a few extra coins to reserve a private chamber within the library.

            “So, now what?” Arrie asked.

            “Well, now we really need to make a copy of Maddie’s map,” Kyle said.  “I’m afraid the original is a bit difficult to reference.”

            “Well, why is that?” Razael asked.  “I’ve heard you folks talk about this map that Maddie has, but I haven’t seen it.  What’s the story there?”

            In response, Maddie pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it aside, grabbing her long hair in one hand and pulling it forward.  Razael stared in amazement.

            “Um, Razael?” Arrie said, “The map is on this side.”

            The tracker crossed the room and looked at Maddie’s back, studying the map etched there by Erito’s power.  “That’s a pretty intricate map,” he said.  “Where is it?”

            “That’s what we’re here to find out,” Maddie replied.  “But if you don’t need the map any more, can I have my shirt back?  This castle is a little cold.”

            “Obviously,” Kyle said.  When he got a sharp look from Autumn, he threw his hands in the air.  “What?  She has goosebumps!”

            “Yeah, at least two,” Lanara quipped.

            Once Maddie was dressed again, they continued their discussion.  “Well, one of us is going to have to do the work,” Autumn said.  “We can’t exactly take Maddie to any old cartographer and lay her across a table.”

            “Too many questions,” Osborn agreed, “and even if that wasn’t a problem, we probably shouldn’t let this map get out in public.”

            “So, who here has any cartography skills?” Arrie asked.  When no one spoke, she tried again.  “Okay, how about just drawing?”

            “If I were working in metal, stone, or wood, I’d be fine,” Kyle said.  “But drawing?  That’s a pretty intricate map.  I wouldn’t trust myself to get it right.”

            “I have some practice at calligraphy,” Xu said, “but I am no artisan.  Like Kyle, I would feel insufficient to the task.”

            “Can’t we just cover my back with ink and I can roll on a piece of paper?” Maddie asked.

            “That sounds like a great idea,” Razael commented.  But Kyle shook his head.  “No.  Too much distortion, too much smudging.”

            “Well, Kyle, why can’t you use wood?” Razael asked.  “I mean, stone and metal would take too long, but I know there are paper mills outside the city, so we could get wood.  A few thin boards, and you could carve it in sections, then just put them together like a puzzle.”

            “I don’t know,” he said.  “It’s been a while since I did any serious work with wood.”

            Autumn put her arms around Kyle’s shoulders.  “I know you can do it, Kyle.”

            “All right, I’ll give it a shot.  Let’s go pick out the wood.  But I don’t want to start until tomorrow – I have a couple of spells I can prepare that’ll help.”

            “Okay, so Autumn, Kyle, and Osborn can go take care of that,” Arrie said.  “The rest of us can stay here and try to get a head-start on the research – get the right books out and such.”

            They split up and went about their various tasks.  Back at the inn that evening, Kyle prepared the boards they had selected, planing and sanding them smooth, and making sure they were uniform in size and thickness.  Then he spent an hour having Maddie lie on her stomach on her cot, while he studied the lines of her map carefully.  Autumn sat in the room with him, doing her embroidery and keeping them both company while they worked.

            The next morning, Kyle and Maddie went into the room alone.  “This shouldn’t take long,” he told the others.  “I’m using magic to speed things up.  So either I get it right the first time, and we’re set, or I don’t get it right, and we’re going out to buy more wood today.”

            After a few minutes of silence, there was a flash from inside the room, and a moment later Kyle walked out, smiling.  “Got it.”

            They took their new map to the library immediately.  They were able to spread it out on the table in the room they had reserved, and because the map wasn’t made of parchment, they could set books and maps directly on top of it without fear of tearing it.  Kyle and Lanara immediately sat down and began looking through the books they had already gathered.  The others took turns helping out as they could, looking for more books, having obscure passages translated, or even just offering comfort and support.

            Though Kyle would have preferred a slow, methodical search, they were forced to be somewhat hasty.  Xu pointed out that Hungai’s men had arrived in M’Dos the day they had left, and thus were not far from her trail.  So they worked as fast as they could, from sunup to sundown.  By the second day, Kyle had confirmed that what he referred to as ‘Erito’s secret spot’ was nowhere on or under the continent of Affon.  The next two days were less productive, as they were unable to even eliminate any areas on other continents in order to narrow their search.

            On the fifth day, they had a breakthrough.  Kyle suddenly realized that the formations on Maddie’s map that they had assumed were stone were actually ice.  They then discovered an old journal and exploratory maps from a century and a half ago, when some dwarven explorers from the Confederates sailed to the planet’s southern pole.  The explorers had discovered a series of ice caves, and one of the maps of the caves appeared to connect to an area that looked very much like what was on their wooden map.  Kyle and Lanara’s shouts of excitement brought several people running.

            That afternoon, they presented their findings to the rest of the group.  “We copied down everything we could,” Kyle said.  “Maps, descriptions of creatures, you name it.”

            “What kind of creatures?” Arrie asked.

            “Polar worms, remorhaz and frost giants were the worst they reported,” Lanara said.  “Other than that it was what you’d expect – polar bears and seals.”

            “One of the dwarves reported seeing an ice dragon,” Kyle added, “but it was during a blizzard, in near whiteout conditions, so it was probably a polar worm.”

            “Well, now we know where,” Arrie said.

            “Yeah, but getting there will be the trick,” Kyle said.  “Not like we can just hop the closest trading vessel.”

            “We’ll have to commission our own ship,” Autumn said.

            “Commission?  We’ll probably have to have one built and hire our own crew!” Osborn said.

            “And if we go, we should go in summer, when it’s warmest,” Maddie said.  “Least chance of blizzards.”

            “Well, we have the money, we’d just need the ship,” Kyle said.

            “Then I say we head to Tlaxan,” Autumn said.

            Everyone looked at her in surprise.  “I didn’t think you were all that eager to go back so soon,” Kyle said.

            “Not really.  But there are ships there, and crew to hire, and we have connections with the Imperial family that will make it easy.  Besides, I should really get this whole ‘Duchess’ thing settled.”

            “Tlaxan’s on the other side of the Confederates,” Arrie said.  “It’ll take a while to get there.”

            “Perhaps we could send word ahead to Herion to help lay the groundwork,” Autumn suggested, looking at Arrie meaningfully.

            “I’ll see what I can do,” she sighed.

            “Well,” Kyle said, “maybe as long as we’re going there, it’ll give us time to work on Lanara’s problem.”

            Razael turned to the cansin.  “What problem?  You look fine to me.”

            “I’ll let someone else tell you,” Lanara said.

            It was Autumn who answered.  “Let’s just say that Lanara used to have a beautiful singing voice, and she wants it back.”

            “I had a couple of ideas,” Kyle said.  “The first would be to try another _commune _ with Erito, but we’ve got a while to wait before that headband of Maddie’s charges up again.  But since we’re here in a holy site for Erito, maybe we could convince one of the priests to do a _divination _ in order to maybe give us a direction to turn.  Or, if we could get a _sending_, maybe we could contact Aran.”

            “An acquaintance of ours,” Autumn said to Razael.  They definitely weren’t ready to explain the issue of psionics to the tracker yet.

            “I doubt Aran would respond to a _sending_, Kyle,” Arrie said.  “If he’s under as much scrutiny as he claims, then contacting us that directly would make us targets.”

            “Then the _divination_?” Kyle asked.

            “Erito does have a number of seers and loremasters,” Arrie said, “it’s worth a shot.”

            They went back to the castle, and after a few inquiries and several donations, they found a loremaster that was available to perform divinatory spells.  After Arrie explained their need and made another donation to cover the costs of the spell, the priest agreed to cast the _divination_.

            Sitting down, the priest invited the others to sit around him in a circle.  “What question shall I pose to receive Erito’s wisdom?” he asked.

            “How may we restore the bardic abilities of Lanara Rahila?” Arrie stated.

            After several minutes of chanting and burning incense, the answer came.

_“The same way that you may restore clarity to the perfect diamond.”_
            “Wow, that was clear as mud that’s been walked through,” Lanara complained.  “I’m glad it was your money, Arrie.”

            “The answer is truth,” the loremaster said, “even if it’s meaning cannot yet be understood.”

            “Thank you,” said Arrie.  “We will contemplate the answer further.”  But as soon as they left the room, Arrie shouted in frustration.  “Gah!”

            “On the surface, it would imply that there really isn’t anything wrong with Lanara at all,” Kyle said, “since a perfect diamond already has clarity.”

            “Unless the diamond were covered, or dirty,” Arrie suggested.

            “Ooh! I’ll give Lanara a bath!” Maddie offered.

            “Thanks, but I think you’ll have to fight this guy for the privilege,” Lanara said, pointing to Razael.

            “Okay, look, we’re not figuring this out today,” Kyle said.  “Why don’t we sleep, and get on the road to Tlaxan tomorrow.  We can mull the diamond thing over on the road.  In a few days we can try another commune and see if this time we might get lucky and get answers we can use.”

            “Anything beats staying in a library city,” Osborn said, as he walked off toward the Dry Inkpot.

            When he was out of earshot, Arrie leaned over to Autumn.  “So, when should we tell him that the road back to Tlaxan from here will take us through Laeshir again?”

            Autumn shook her head.  “Not for a while, Arrie.  Not for quite a while.”


--------------------

So, here's the real reason that Tolly got offered the Inquisitor Primus job - it provided a good rationale for his leaving the party.  His player had mentioned feeling that Tolly's mindset was becoming increasingly divorced from the rest of the party - he's definitely very much Lawful, while the rest of us lean strongly toward Chaotic.  Our attitude toward him had, admittedly, become less respectful over time, so in balance it was a good decision on his part.  His new character, Razael, definitely turns out to be less... restricted.


----------



## Delemental

*Let the Punishment Fit the Crime*

A double update for you today, just in time for Christmas!  

First, we have "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime", a short bit of fiction I wrote on behalf of Razael to explain how he came to be a part of our merry band.

The next post will be the continuation of the regular campaign, with the adventure "Final Answer".

-------------------------

           “Enter,” Herion said, at the knock on his door.

            Razael Fletcher came in and stood before Herion’s desk, quiet and impassive.  As usual, he was dressed in his forest garb, which was covered with a healthy layer of dirt.  Bits of dry moss flaked off and fell onto the thick rugs on the floor.

            “Huntsman Fletcher, do you know why I’ve called you in here?”

            The old elf paused, and the corner of his mouth twitched with what was almost a smile.  “I’m sure I don’t, Your Highness,” he replied.

_He’s clever enough not to incriminate himself, at least_.  “I’ve just spoken with Marquis Arovnen of Malachor.  Would you like to know what we discussed?”

            Razael did not respond.

            “We discussed his lovely young daughter, Lilliana.  He states that someone sullied her honor two nights ago – someone from the Order of Huntsmen.  Do you know who he might have mentioned, specifically?”

            “I can’t say as I’m privilege to your conversations with the nobility of Tlaxan, Your Highness,” Razael said, “though from what I understand, Lilliana’s honor was sullied long before this Huntsman you mention came along, and is likely to be sullied again at some point in the future.  Why, even her own cousins…”

            Herion slammed his open hand down on the desk.  “Dammit, Razael!  Her one-hundredth birthday* was only a week away!  And you are older than her father!  How do justify that?”

            This time, the twitch at Razael’s mouth inched upward into a half-grin.  “Early birthday present, Your Highness?”

            Herion just stared at Razael for a while.  Then he leaned back and sighed, rubbing his temples with his fingertips.  “You place me in a difficult situation, Razael.  Marquis Arovnen has threatened to bring this matter before the Emperor.  Unless I’m able to come up with a solution first.”

            Razael casually reached back and withdrew one of his arrows from his quiver.  He fingered the razor-sharp head while spinning the shaft slowly.  “Do you want the Marquis scared or silenced?” he asked.

            “That is not the type of solution I’m talking about,” Herion said flatly.  Razael shrugged and put his arrow away.

            “This is not the first time you and I have had this conversation, Razael,” Herion said, standing up and slowly walking around the room.  “Your… preferences in regard to the ages of the women you consort with have always been a problem.  How many times have you been discharged from duty for that, Razael?”

            “Thirty-seven,” he answered.  “That the Court is aware of.”

            “Thirty-seven,” repeated Herion, “and of course, one that we will not speak of here.  I fail to see why you could not simply wait until these women have come of age.  At least then these incidents would be merely scandalous instead of criminal.”

            “I’ve never claimed patience was one of my virtues,” Razael said.

            “Nor is discretion, apparently.  Really, Razael, you’re an Imperial Huntsman.  How is it that you are caught so frequently?”

            “Believe me, Your Highness, I was not the one who gave away my position.  Many of these young women are somewhat unrestrained.”

            Herion held up a hand.  “To borrow a phrase from my wife, there are details which I do not wish to know.”  Herion sat back down at his desk.  “But improper chaperonage is really the least of the problems, even if it is the most frequent one.  There is also the matter of a few untimely deaths, isn’t there?”

            Razael shrugged again.  “I’m a Huntsman, Your Highness.  Huntsmen kill.”

            “Yes, unfortunately that has included some rather prominent people.  Such as the Baron of Joxan.”

            “He attacked me first, Your Highness.”

            “The Countess of Nal Dashia?”

            “Again, self-defense.  She was casting a spell at me.”

            “And Lord Yothran from Targeth?”

            Razael remained silent.

            “Yes, well,” Herion said, “of course, you were exiled for those incidents, as I recall, though later divinations proved you innocent… or at least, innocent enough that the exile could be revoked.”

            “If my presence in the Empire has become too burdensome, Your Highness, then feel free to send me away again, or punish me as you see fit. You are the Master Huntsman.”

            “That’s the problem.  Whippings don’t seem to discourage you, nor does being removed from your post.  As for exile, well, somehow the thought of you wandering Affon completely unsupervised is more worrisome to me than the thought of the remainder of our Empire’s young women falling under your ministrations.”  Herion sighed again.  “And, despite the problems you create, the truth is that your skills are too valuable to waste.”

            “You’re too kind, Your Highness,” Razael said.

            “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Razael,” Herion said.  “I have yet to decide what to do with you.”  Herion grabbed a sheet of parchment off a stack on his desk and quickly signed it.  “Tomorrow I must go and represent the Empire at the funeral of Archprelate Jerome of the Ardaran church.  I’m ordering you suspended from duty and placed under house arrest here at the palace.  I am hoping that the Marquis will be satisfied if I explain that I must attend to affairs of state before I can resolve the situation with you.”

            “Buying yourself some time,” Razael said, “very clever, Your Highness.”

            “The guards who brought you to me will escort you to your room, where you will remain until I return from Medos.  Your meals and other needs will be brought to you – by male servants.  If you are seen outside your chamber, you will be shot on sight.  Is this understood?”

            “Right.  Couple of weeks being waited on hand and foot in a comfy room in the palace until you get back and give me my comeuppance.”

            “Try not to take such glee in your punishment where others can hear you,” Herion warned.  “You’ve made this situation difficult enough as is without spreading rumors that I’m going easy on you.  This is merely the most expedient way I have of keeping you contained until I can deal with you.”

            “Of course, Your Highness.”  Razael bowed, and then turned and walked out of Herion’s office.

            Once the door was closed, Herion closed his eyes and tried unsuccessfully to will away the headache that had been building all day, ever since his audience with the Marquis this morning.  He was as aware of young Lady Lilliana’s reputation as Razael; she, like the other thirty-six young women, (that the Court is aware of, he reminded himself) were not exactly unwilling recipients of the old tracker’s attentions.  But that was beside the point.  His station as Crown Prince also made him Master of the Huntsmen, and thus he was responsible for their conduct.

            Herion wasn’t sure what to do with Razael.  The refugee from the Western Expanse was skilled, but his attitudes were most… un-elven.  For a moment he wished that his wife Ariadne was here; her outlook on life was decidedly different from his, and she might be able to suggest something suitable as a punishment for Razael.

            Opening his eyes, Herion looked at the stack of parchments on his desk; more work to attend to before he left in the morning.  Grabbing the top sheet, he unfolded it and started to skim through its contents, hoping it was something routine and mundane he could just sign and be done with.  But he stopped after only a few lines, and read more carefully.

_Imperial Crown Prince Herion,

Greetings.

I am High Loremistress Galadrel of Erito’s temple in the city of Noxolt.  Forgive the informality of this letter, but the matter I bring before you is not one I wish to present through official channels.

            We have recently become aware of the emergence of a new Favored Soul of Erito upon the continent of Affon.  As you may well imagine, the discovery of any of Erito’s Favored is a cause for great joy among those of our mutual faith, as the Favored are the closest mortal link to the Will of our Lady.  However, in this particular case, we have been advised by communion with Erito Herself that this particular Favored, a young elf woman named Madrone, is of particular importance to Her designs.  We have been charged with seeing to the welfare of Madrone.

            The reason that I have brought this matter to your attention, Your Highness, is that you yourself are familiar with Madrone’s current traveling companions.  They include your spouse, the Crown Princess Ariadne Verahannen, and her sister, the Duchess Autumn Verahannen.  It is also my understanding that you will be making an official state visit to Medos to represent our nation at the funeral ceremonies for the Ardaran Archprelate, and thus might be in a position to rendezvous with them while in M’Dos, as our divinations indicate that this is where Madrone and her companions are located.

            I would consider it a great favor if you could provide some manner of protection to Madrone.  Though I do not doubt the skills of your wife or sister-in-law, or their companions, we feel that having someone with them who was more invested in Madrone’s personal well being would be advantageous.  I would advise no more than one person be assigned this task; having Madrone followed everywhere by a squadron of Tlaxan infantry would draw too much attention, and Erito advises us that discretion is Madrone’s greatest defense.  We have sent along with this letter a sealed scroll, which the person you choose for this assignment may present to Madrone to certify his or her legitimacy.  Of course, whatever other authorities you wish to bestow upon this guardian, official or otherwise, are at your discretion.

            May Her blessings be upon you._


            For one of the few times in his long life, Herion laughed out loud to himself.  _Blessings, indeed!_

            For a moment, Herion considered if his idea was wise.  Certainly, it would meet the church’s needs, and would neatly solve his other dilemma.  But would he be creating a bigger problem?  No, he decided.  Had he not just been thinking that his wife would be the one most capable of dealing with this problem?  While he watched this Madrone, they could watch him.  And even if he did get out of line, whatever Razael did outside the borders of Tlaxan was not the concern of the Imperial Court.

            Herion waved his hand over the small glass globe on his desk, which summoned his personal secretary to his office.  The sharply dressed elf came through his door only a minute later.

            “How may I serve you, Highness?” he said, bowing.

            “Halifer, please send word to Huntsman Razael Fletcher.  He is currently being detained in the south wing.  Tell him that he is to be aboard my ship first thing in the morning before I depart for M’Dos.”

            “And if he inquires about the reason, Highness?”

            “Tell him…” this time it was the corners of Herion’s mouth that curled upward.  “Tell him that he is to learn how to properly chaperone a young woman.”

------------------------

* Elves are considered adults at the age of one hundred.


----------



## Delemental

*Final Answer*

Maddie’s eyes flickered open as she came out of trance.  She glanced around the dark room, her eyes taking in the room despite the pre-dawn darkness.  She saw Arrie, Lanara and Xu laying on their cots nearby, huddled under blankets to ward off the morning chill.  Maddie laid still for a few minutes more, then quietly rose and got dressed.

            She walked quietly down the hallway, carrying her boots in her hands so as not to make noise.  The walls in the Dry Inkpot were fairly thin, and sound traveled.  As she passed the door to Kyle and Autumn’s room, Maddie smiled and shook her head.  _Sometimes sound travels a bit more than some people realize,_ she thought.  But perhaps it was her own keen elven hearing that was the problem in this case, rather than a lack of discretion on their part.

            As her thoughts turned to ‘keen elven hearing’, Maddie slowed down even further as she passed the next door, tiptoeing past.  She had no doubt that Razael, her new bodyguard, was also out of trance and awake in his room.  She only hoped that Rupert’s snoring from the room next door was enough to mask the sound of her own footfalls.  It wasn’t that she begrudged the tracker’s desire to do his duty; she only wanted a few minutes alone for a morning walk.  Besides, then she wouldn’t have to worry about the way Razael looked at her.  Maddie had noticed a distinct change in the way she was looked at by others after her transformation, a change she found both refreshing and unsettling.  Razael’s gaze, in particular, was one of desire for a young, attractive elf maiden.  Which was flattering, in some ways, even though Razael was centuries older than her.  Maddie still had yet to decide how she wanted to respond to those looks.  Of course, those looks could easily change if and when Razael found out about who she used to be.  She smiled again; well, even if he did have a problem with that, he could always turn his attentions to Lanara, who seemed only too happy to return Razael’s looks of appraisal.

            Once out of the hallway and out the front door of the inn, Maddie pulled on her boots and headed for the wall.  She had already learned that the town’s militia would permit her to climb up and walk along the outer wall of Stacks; likely a combination of her status as one of Erito’s Favored and the desire of the young guards for an interesting change of scenery.  Sure enough, she walked past the guard at the bottom of the stairs without challenge, and was soon strolling along the wall, nodding greetings to the occasional watchman on patrol.

            She stopped near the center of the southern wall, just over the gate, leaning on her elbows and looking out at the hills surrounding them.  Within a few hours they’d be leaving Stacks, on their way north to Tlaxan and Merlion, where among other things they intended to purchase a ship to take them to the planet’s southern pole.  Maddie rolled her shoulders, feeling the skin on her back move and the lines and ridges of Erito’s map move with it.  She would be glad when they finally reached this oasis that her goddess had pointed her to, and perhaps they would all understand more of their purpose.

            Something odd caught her eye out in the darkness, just as one of the guards came walking by behind her.  She stared out into the gloom, then waved the guard over.

            “Do you see anything odd?” she asked the young man.

            “Um, no ma’am, I don’t,” came the reply.  “It’s still too dark to see anything.”

            Maddie frowned.  _Why don’t they have any elves up on the walls at night?_  “Out there,” she said, pointing, “about fifty yards from the gate.  It looks like…” she trailed off and stared hard, eyes darting about.  The color slowly drained from her face.  “Go get your captain,” she said to the guard.  “Quickly.  And quietly.”

            “Why?”

            “Just go!”  she barked.

            The young guard swallowed nervously, then saluted, nearly dropping his spear.  He then ran off down the wall.  Maddie staying in place, trying to make out any details she could.  As the tiniest glimmer of the sunrise touched the sky to the east, Maddie’s eyes were able to make out a few more details.  Straining to see, she caught the barest glimpse of something familiar.

            “Oh, dear,” she said to herself.

*          *            *​
            Autumn rolled over and poked Kyle in the ribs as the knocking at the door continued, pulling the blanket over her head.  Sighing, Kyle rolled out of bed and grabbed his robes, draped over a chair.

            “One of these days I’m going to turn you into a morning person,” he said.  Her only response was to wave her hand in the general direction of the door before disappearing under the blankets again.

            Walking over and opening the door a crack, Kyle was somewhat surprised to see Maddie standing in the hallway.  Taking a moment to make sure he was decent, Kyle then stuck his head out the door.  “What is it, Maddie?”

            “Kyle, how big would something have to be before you considered it an army?”

            Kyle frowned.  He didn’t like where that question was leading.  “Well, it’s pretty relative, but I’d say at least a hundred soldiers.”

            “Oh, good.  Then there’s definitely not an army camped outside the city.”

            “Oh, really.”  Kyle rubbed sleep from his eyes.  “And how close are we to having an army camped outside the city?”

            “I’d say it’s more like half an army.   I wouldn’t have mentioned it, except that it looks like they’re flying Lord Hungai’s flag.  I think they found us.”

            Kyle leaned heavily against the doorframe.  “Looks like it,” he sighed.  “Why don’t you go wake the others, I’ll get Autumn up.  What time is it?”

            “An hour before sunrise.  I wanted to catch you before you started preparing your spells for the day.”

            “I appreciate it.  Now, please go get the others, Maddie.”

            “I’ll wake Xu last,” she said, before heading down the hall to Osborn and Razael’s room.

            Kyle turned and finished pulling his robes on before walking over to the bed.  He sat down gently next to Autumn and began running his fingers through her golden hair.

            “Autumn, sweetie?”

            “Yes?” she moaned after a while.

            “Time to wake up, dear.  We have to go fight an army.”

            A single blue eye poked out from under the covers.  “What army?”

            “The one that’s come for Xu, sugar dumpling,” he said.  When he saw the eye widen in alarm, he amended, “not ‘you’ you, the monk Xu.”

            The eye disappeared, and Kyle heard a sigh from under the blanket.  “F*ck,” she said.

            Kyle stood up.  “Not now, dear, I have to prepare spells.”  He walked over to retrieve his spellbooks, pretending he didn’t notice the pillow thrown at him.

            The party was gathered in the common room a half-hour later.  Xu was still upstairs, asleep; they’d decided to give her a few more minutes of peace before breaking the news.

            “Okay, so, we haven’t got long before Xu wakes up on her own for her morning exercises,” Arrie said, “so what’s the plan?”

            “The town militia has already been alerted,” said Maddie.  “They’re already rousing their extra men and getting ready.  Loremaster Fezhoth has also been alerted.  They’re trying to prepare as quietly as possible to not raise a panic, and so that hopefully Hungai’s men don’t know we’re on to them yet.”

            “It’s light enough now that even a human would be able to see the tents,” Autumn said, “so that ruse won’t hold long.  Obviously, Hungai the Great isn’t worried about the people of Stacks knowing he’s here.”

            “What do you think of the town’s defenses?” Maddie asked Arrie.

            “Well, the wall’s in good shape, and the library should still serve as a fortress if needed.  The water comes from a well to an underground river, so we could hold out a while.  But their militia’s mostly volunteer and not experienced.  And with all the paper and glue in here, this place will go up like kindling to the first volley of fire arrows.”

            “I don’t understand how they found us,” Razael said.  “Ever since you said that one of you was being followed our of M’Dos, I’ve been covering our trail.”  The tracker scowled.  “They must’ve cheated.”

            “I saw about two dozen people at the south gate,” Maddie said, “and someone told me there were that many more at the north gate.  There are also archers at the east and west walls.”

            “Any sign of a command tent?” Razael asked.

            “Not on the south side,” Maddie said.

            “Well, I’m going to go check the north, see what I can see,” Razael stood and walked out the door, grabbing his bow.  Osborn went with him.  After crossing the town and climbing up the stone stairs to the top of the north wall, the two could see a small force gathering on the road leading to the north gate.  The force was comprised half of pikemen, and half of men with maces and heavy shields.  Further from the town, near the treeline, sat a large tent flying several colorful flags.

            “There’s your command tent,” said Osborn.

            “Bet I could set it on fire from here,” Razael commented.

            Osborn turned to one of the local militia.  “They made any demands yet?”

            The soldier shook his head.  “Maybe when the sun rises fully, sir,” he said.  “So far, nothing.”

            “Yeah, we think they may be after one of the people in our group,” Razael said casually, still eyeing the distance to the command tent.

            “Um, Razael?  Maybe we should check back in with the others before we go shooting the bad guys?”

            “Well, sure.” Razael shouldered his bow and followed Osborn back to the inn, where they gave a full report of everything they’d seen.

            “So, Kyle,” Autumn said, “you’re used to annihilating armies, right?”

            “Oh, sure,” he said sarcastically.  “Used to do it all the time back on the farm.”

            By this time Xu had awoken, and come downstairs, somewhat surprised to see everyone else waiting for her, fully armed.  When told what was happening outside the town walls, Xu only panicked for a few seconds before regaining her composure.

            “So, what do we do?” Razael asked.  “Drop a fire arrow on Hungai’s tent?” 

            “You know,” Kyle said, “I’m pretty sure I know what the response to this is going to be, but I’d like to point out that technically they haven’t done anything yet.”

            “They’ve barricaded and laid siege to the city,” Autumn said.

            “Have they?  I didn’t hear anything about catapults being readied or battering rams being deployed.  And no one’s tried to leave, how do we know that Hungai’s men will stop them?”

            “I could sneak outside the city, past those archers,” Razael mused.  “So could the hin, I suppose.  But that wouldn’t do Madrone a lot of good.  I assume you’re not so good at sneaking out of the city?”

            Maddie shook her head to confirm Razael’s suspicion.

            Autumn turned to Arrie.  “This will be the first time we’ve taken on an army,” she said with a gleam in her eye.  Arrie nodded in agreement.

            “How many you think you can account for?” Razael asked Arrie.

            “Well, I have to get up to them first,” she said.

            “Maybe,” Kyle said loudly, “there’s a way to do this without killing everything we see?”
            “Why else would they be here,” Maddie asked, “if not for us to kill?”

            “Look, I’m just trying desperately to cling to the shred of morals I have left,” Kyle complained.

            “Kyle, I’m not making it the point of my day to go out and kill people,” Arrie said, “but they are an army, and odds are that they’re here to fight.  It would be very rude of me not to oblige them.  If they’ll parley, that’s great, but I doubt they will.”

            Kyle sighed and shook his head, but didn’t say anything.

            “Well, parleying might be difficult anyway,” Osborn said.  “Xu’s the only one who speaks their language, and I doubt we’re sending her out to talk.”

            “Can’t you cast translation spells?” Autumn asked Kyle.

            “Yes, but I didn’t prepare those spells,” he replied.  “What about you, Lanara?”

            “Not anymore, I can’t,” the cansin snapped.

            “I think the first thing we should do is talk to the town leaders and see what they want to do,” Arrie said.  “It is their town, and we should get their input before we have our fun.”

            The party went and requested to meet with Loremaster Fezhoth, the same man they had seen just the day before to request a divination regarding Lanara’s unusual condition.  Once inside the loremaster’s chambers, Kyle laid everything out bluntly.

            “Loremaster, we’d like to help with the current situation, as it’s likely that we’re the reason there is a situation.”

            The old elf arched a brow.  “Please, do explain.”

            “We have reason to believe that the men camped outside may be looking for one of us,” Kyle continued.  “Honestly, we didn’t expect this many people coming for her, but the banners they’re flying are familiar.”

            “I see.”

            “Obviously, since this is our mess, we’d like to help clean it up,” Kyle finished.

            Loremaster Fezhoth stroked his chin.  “Well, first, they haven’t done anything… yet.  So I would like to see what they do first, especially as we are in a position of defense.  If they attack, we will retaliate in kind.  But if they wish to talk, we can negotiate.  I have already sent word to M’Dos of our situation and am awaiting a response.  So, what can you offer our defenses?”

            “Well, he certainly didn’t put his tent far enough away,” Razael commented.

            “We have a degree of combat experience,” Kyle said.

            “We put sharp things into soft things that scream and bleed,” Arrie clarified.

            “Frequently,” Autumn added.

Kyle shook his head.  “I’m a wizard, and can lend my arcane skills.  I’ve prepared spells in anticipation of a large-scale battle.  We also have people skilled in stealth and reconnaissance.  Probably the best thing to do is once Hungai makes his demands is to let the eight of us work together and do our thing.”

Fezthoth nodded.  “We will notify you when you are needed.”

Just then, they heard a commotion outside.  Stepping out, they saw people running about; when asked, one of the townsfolk said that the enemy army was sending someone to present demands.  As he spoke, they heard a horn sound from the north.

            The party walked quickly to the north gate and ascended the stairs.  Outside, a single figure was walking down the road, a horn in one hand and a spear with a white cloth tied to the end in another.  Stopping about a hundred feet from the gate, the man began to speak.

            “I could shoot him from here,” Razael said.

            “Don’t shoot the messenger,” Arrie said.  “Just listen.”

            The messenger began to speak in a loud, clear voice.  “Citizens of the town of Stacks, the Great Lord Hungai demands that you send out the monk known as Xu Dhii Ngao.  If  you do not do this, we will enter your town and burn it to the ground.  There will be nothing but ashes and corpses remaining. You have until high sun to meet his demands.”  The messenger turned and walked away.  As the guards began to mutter to themselves, the party quietly returned to the Dry Inkpot to talk.

            “High sun is in five hours,” Xu said calmly.  “That is not much time to prepare.”

            “It’s enough,” Razael said.  “Osborn, how about you and me go see what we can see in a bit?”

            “Sounds good to me,” Osborn said.

            “Well, this is a pretty pickle,” Kyle said.  “How do we get rid of Hungai without endangering Stacks?”

            “Assuming that Loremaster Fezthoth doesn’t just kick us out of the city,” Maddie said.

            “It would be the smart thing for him to do,” Kyle said.

            “Why don’t I go talk to the loremaster and see what they want to do,” Arrie offered.  “Osborn and Razael can do their thing while I’m gone.”

            “Maybe we can talk to this Hungai,” Osborn said.  “Tell him that Xu doesn’t want to marry him, and tell him to piss off.  In a nice way, of course.”

            “Lord Hungai already knows my feelings,” Xu said.  “He does not care.”

            “Well, then, maybe a single combat?  Our best against their best.  If we win, he leaves her alone, if he wins, she goes with him.”

            “No,” Autumn said flatly.

            “I am not willing to gamble on such a proposition,” Xu said.

            “Because they’ll cheat,” Autumn said.

            “Whether they cheat or not, if for some reason fortune favored Hungai, then I would be honor-bound to accept the terms and return to Xhintai with him.  I cannot accept that fate.”

            Osborn shrugged.  “Well, then, let’s kill him.”

            “My thoughts exactly,” Razael said.

            “Any way to lure the army away from the city?” Kyle asked.

            “Not without punching through them,” Razael said.

            “Do you have any illusions you could use?” Lanara asked Kyle.

            “Not really.  Most of the spells I know come out of necromancer’s grimoires, and most necromancers don’t get too heavy into the illusion spells.”

            “I could disguise myself as Xu,” Lanara offered.

            “For what purpose?” Maddie said.  “It doesn’t get the army away, and simply puts you in their hands, which gives them another bargaining chip.”

            “I could get close enough to do something to Hungai,” Lanara protested.

            “But we don’t even know for sure that Hungai himself is out there,” Kyle pointed out.  “For all we know he’s sitting back in Xhintai, and this is just one of his men leading this force.”

            “And even if you could,” Arrie added, “then what?”

            “You guys come to save me?” Lanara said, knowing that her plan wasn’t panning out.

            “Yeah, that puts us in a worse place than now.” Kyle said.

            “I suppose just giving her up is out of the question,” Razael said.

            “No,” said Autumn and Arrie at the same time.

            “You saying the same thing?” Razael asked Maddie.

            She nodded her head in agreement.  “I will not allow Xu to be violated.”

            “We could see if we could push our way through the southern force,” Xu offered.  “They do not appear to have horses.”

            “Neither do I,” said Razael.  “But don’t worry about that.  I can catch up to you folks later.”

            “But that might not prevent Hungai from taking his anger out on the town if we run,” Maddie said.  “And if we are separated, Razael, then you’re not performing your duty to protect me very well.”

            “You’ve got a point there,” the tracker said.

            “Let me go talk to Fezhoth,” Arrie said.  “We can at least eliminate some guesses about what they’re going to do.”  Arrie stood and walked out of the inn, returning to the library-church.  This time she was let right in to see the loremaster.

            “Loremaster,” Arrie said, bowing her head.

            “Princess,” Fezhoth replied, bowing in turn.  “You are no doubt here to see if I’m about to order you and your companions out of the city.”

            “Something like that.  I understand you have priorities in this situation that we don’t necessarily share.”

            “Admittedly, it would seem to be the solution most in our favor,” the loremaster said, “but things are rarely as they seem on the surface.  After all, there is no guarantee that these men will hold to their word.  What are your intentions?”

            “Well, basically these people want to take our friend back to a person who wants to make her his wife against her wishes.  If it comes to it, we will make a stand on her behalf.”  Arrie paused.  “I’m wondering if you will be entering into a negotiation with them.”

“I was about to perform an _augury _ to determine if surrendering you and your monk friend would be the wise course.  If you would like to wait…” he gestured to a small sofa on one wall of his office.

            Arrie went and sat down while Fezhoth pulled a small bronze brazier out of his desk drawer and filled it with incense.  After several minutes of staring into the whorls of smoke coming from the brazier, he leaned back.  “The _augury _ indicates that giving up your friend will bring great misfortune,” the loremaster said.  “Therefore, we will not do that.”

            Arrie smiled.  “I’m not unhappy to hear that.”

            Arrie went back and filled the rest of the group in.  For their part, the group had been discussing tactics.  Lanara was still offering to disguise herself as Xu to sow confusion if they decided to meet the enemy head-on.

            “It’ll decrease the chance that they get their hands on the real Xu,” the bard protested.

            “I appreciate what you are trying to do for me,” Xu said.  “But in order for the ruse to work, I would either be forced to remain out of the battle and do nothing, or you would be forced to fight as I do.  Neither are options I believe we are willing to take.”

            “Ironically, the more we look at it, it seems the safest option we have is to rush out and attack,” Maddie commented.

            “Well, maybe we don’t have to,” Osborn said.  “I mean, Hungai’s basically declaring war on Medos.  Maybe we could threaten these guys with that, see if they’re prepared for the consequences.”

            “We could,” Arrie said, “but it might be better if that came from Loremaster Fezhoth rather than us.”

            “You know,” Autumn said sadly, “Tolly would have loved this.”

            “Yeah, smiting people disrupting order,” Osborn agreed.

            “Okay, so, do you want me on the north wall or the south wall?” Kyle asked.

            “Let’s wait and see what the town wants us to do,” Arrie said.  “They haven’t even had a chance to say ‘no’ yet.”

            “The question is, how emphatic of a ‘no’ do they want?” Kyle said.

            Just then, a messenger came to the inn.  “Fezhoth would like to speak with all of you, if you please,” the young page said.

            The group assembled a few minutes later in the loremaster’s office.  “I don’t know who this Hungai is, or what business he has here other than your monk friend,” Fezhoth said, “but he has made a grave mistake in attacking a sovereign nation.”

            “That’s what I thought,” Osborn said.

            “I have received a message back from M’Dos,” Fezhoth said.  “They are sending the army to deal with this incursion into Medos’ territory.  They will arrive in two days.”  The loremaster thought for a moment.  “Can you and your people help us fend off these attackers for that long until they can be properly chastized?”

            “Absolutely,” said Arrie.

            “A thought occurs to me,” the loremaster said.  “We don’t know if they have reinforcements in the woods.”

            “I can find out,” Razael said.

            “Me too,” Osborn chimed in.

            “Very good,” Fezhoth said.  “I believe I will station your group at the southern gate, and move most of the militia to the north gate.  We still have preparations to make, and so we will wait until just before the deadline at high sun to make our answer known to them.  Until then, do as you will.”

            The group made their way to the south wall, while Osborn and Razael went to the east to get over the wall and scout out the enemy.  Osborn donned his ring of invisibility, while Razael lowered a magical rope.  Both made it over without being spotted by Hungai’s archers.  They circled around and made their way into the trees, heading north toward where the command tent lay.  As they drew close, they heard a strange noise coming from the woods a short distance from the clearing.  Heading that direction, both Osborn and Razael were surprised to see a large creature tethered to a thick pine tree.  The gray-skinned quadruped was twice as tall as Razael, and had two large, floppy ears, a pair of white tusks, and a long, prehensile appendage where its nose should have been.

            “It’s an elephant,” whispered the invisible Osborn.

            “A what now?”

            “An elephant.  They’re not native to Affon.  One of the hin circuses in the Steppes had one, years ago when I was a boy.  Our boss, Billyup, tried to buy it from them, but they wouldn’t sell.”

            Osborn and Razael noted that the elephant wore a rather large saddle on its back.  “It’s not an ogre-sized saddle,” whispered Razael, “although this critter could carry one.  Looks human size, but for an awful big human.”  Razael glanced around.  “Osborn, why don’t you go take a look at the tent?  I’ll stay here and see what I can find.”

            “You’re going to steal the elephant, aren’t you?”

            Razael made a show of looking around, as if unsure who was talking to him.  “Who asked that?  Was that my conscience?  Haven’t heard from you in a long time.”

            Shaking his head in amusement, Osborn slipped off to investigate the command tent.  He was able to slip under the tent wall with little difficulty, and looked around.  Inside he could make out a pair of figures in another chamber talking; one of the voices was very deep and sounded like it was coming from much higher up.  Osborn poked an eye through the wall of silk separating the two parts of the tent, but could only make out two pairs of feet.  Lying falt on his back and wriggling under the bottom of the wall, the hin was able to see more.

            Two figures stood talking in a strange tongue, which Osborn assumed was Zhintai.  Both men were tall, but one in particular was massive; his head almost touched the top of the tent.  Osborn estimated that the man was almost eight feet tall.  The massively-muscled behemoth wore plate armor that seemed to not quite fit; it was patched in places with sections of chain mail.  Osborn saw a third figure nearby, lying on a cot, but he was unable to make out details other than the person’s presence.  Unable to understand what was being said, and unable to move further into the room without risking being spotted, Osborn slid out of the room and retreated out the back of the tent.

            Just as Osborn retreated into the trees and his invisibility wore off, he heard a loud trumpeting sound, one he hadn’t heard since he was a boy.  A moment later, he felt the ground shake as the elephant jogged by, with Razael on his back.  The elf was trying to spur the elephant to run, but the massive creature was cheerfully ignoring him, snatching leaves off of nearby trees with its nose as it sauntered by.  Behind them, Osborn saw the smaller of the two men who had been talking in the tent emerge, shouting something at Razael.  The tracker fired an arrow in response; the shot was wide, but was enough to send the man diving for cover.  Osborn quickly slipped away, reactivating his ring, and returned to Stacks, scaling quietly up the wall.  Several minutes later, Razael appeared at the top of the wall, covered in dust and dry leaves.

            “Ran it off into the woods a ways,” Razael said.  “That ought to delay them a bit.”  The tracker pointed, and sure enough a pair of archers from both the east and west flanks suddenly broke off of their unit and went running toward the command tent and the woods where the elephant had been.  He didn’t share the fact that the elephant had stopped walking after only a few minutes, and in order to get it moving again he’d had to shoot it in the rear end with an arrow.

            Osborn had, by this time, informed the rest of the group of what he’d seen in the tent.  Xu confirmed that the very large man was probably Lord Hungai the Great himself.  She had no idea who the other soldier and the person on the cot could be.

            “You’re filthy,” Kyle said, noting the layer of dust on Razael.

            “Yeah, the elephant decided it wanted to take a dust bath with me still on its back.”

            “You… want me to take care of that?” Kyle pulled out his wand of prestidigitation.

            “Nah, I’m fine, thanks.”  Razael walked away, trailing dirt, and missed Lanara and Kyle looking at each other and wrinkling their noses.

            The situation became a waiting game.  Despite their convictions that the elephant-knapping would trigger an immediate attack, Hungai’s forces seemed content to wait.  When the high sun deadline passed, the archers began shooting sporadically at the town, but the volleys were neither well coordinated nor particularly accurate.  Razael, Arrie, and Osborn took to the east wall to return fire.  Razael strung a pair of arrows to his bow, while Arrie loaded arrows on both strings of her double bow.  The tracker’s shots hit their mark, severely wounding one of the archers, while Arrie’s shots were short.  The warrior shrugged and stepped back.  Then Osborn stepped up, swinging a sling over his head.  Razael’s brow arched questioningly at the hin, but he said nothing as Osborn wound up and fired.  The bullet sailed out across the battlefield, and struck the already wounded archer in the head, dropping him.

            Osborn grinned at Razael’s appreciative nod.  “I’m pretty good with these,” he said, holding out a dagger,” “but I grew up with this before I was ever allowed to touch a blade.”  He twirled the sling in his other hand with pride.  

            The archers moved back father after Osborn’s shot, trying to get out of range.  They retreated behind a low ridge and fell flat, keeping the party from shooting at them.  In response, Lanara used a wand to summon a fiendish viper behind the enemy lines.  As archers jumped up out of their defensive positions to avoid the serpent, Arrie and Razael wounded a few more.

            As the commotion settled down, the party regrouped at the south wall.  Kyle and Autumn sat in the shelter of the crenellations, looking bored.

            “Did you want to help out?” Arrie asked.

            Kyle looked up at her.  “Am I allowed to help?”

            “Well, of course you are,” Arrie said, looking confused.

            “I just wanted to make sure.  Seems like every time I’ve wanted to look for a peaceful solution, everyone's ready to kill, but when I suggest getting aggressive, someone has a problem with it.”

            “Well, they are shooting at us now, you know.”

            “So, the gloves are off?”

            “Absolutely!”

            Kyle stood up and brushed dirt off his robes, then helped Autumn to her feet.  He walked up to the edge of the wall, and glanced down at the massed ranks of pikemen and shield-bearers below at the gate.  Upon seeing someone, they immediately began shouting and beating their maces against their shields.

            Kyle threw up his hands and chanted a spell.  Instantly, a cloud of sickly yellowish vapors rose up around the enemy soldiers.  There were shouts of panic inside that were quickly cut off.  The cloud slowly drifted south, down the road.  As it moved away from where it was summoned, everyone saw the dead, twisted bodies of Hungai’s troops laying scattered on the road, their eyes bulging and their necks bloody from where they had tried to claw their own throats out.

            Dropping his hands, Kyle started to walk away.  “The southern front is safe,” he said.

            “That… was impressive,” Razael said.

            “I… guess that they know we’re serious now,” Osborn said.

            The party crossed the city and went to the northern wall to survey the scene, reporting to the militia commander about the decimation of the enemy on the other side of the town.  Razael finally got what he wanted, and was allowed to launch a flaming arrow at Hungai’s command tent.  The arrow pierced the tent, and the party waited to see what would happen.  But after a few minutes had passed, they saw no flames or smoke rising from the tent.  Several minutes after that, they saw a single figure emerge from the tent.  Judging from his size, it could only be Lord Hungai.

            “I have taken your measure now!” he shouted at the town, though it was clear he was speaking to the party.  “I will be back for you later, Xu Dhii Ngao!”

            “That’s what you think!” Lanara shouted back at him.

            Hungai ignored the bard.  “And I will also see then about restoring the pink-haired one to you!”

            The last comment caused the party to exchange looks of concern.  “But… I’m right here!” said Lanara.

            There were three short blasts on a horn, and the remains of Hungai’s forces began to withdraw.  The command tent was quickly taken down and packed away as the troops marched away, to the cheers and shouts of Stacks’ defenders.  The party was less cheerful.

            “Do you think that Hungai could have stolen Lanara’s abilities?” Autumn asked.

            “Could be,” Maddie replied.

            “Can I kill him now?” the sentinel asked.

            “I think we have to catch him first,” Lanara pointed out.

            “No problem, he’s big.”

            “I think that Razael will be able to easily follow a man leading half an army and an elephant,” Xu observed.

            “You want to follow him?” the elf asked.

            Everyone turned and looked at Arrie.  “Why is it that whenever people want an impetuous answer, they look at me?”  She grinned.  “Of course we’re going to follow him!”

            The party wasn’t able to leave the town right away, as Loremaster Fezhoth had ordered the gates barred until Hungai’s forces were well out of sight.

            “You know,” Arrie said as she saddled up Ghost, “Herion’s not going to be happy that I’m chasing after this guy.”

            “You can tell him it was my idea,” Autumn said.

            “And what makes you think he’ll believe you?” commented Maddie.  “Your reputation precedes you, Arrie.”

            “Herion,” Razael said, shaking his head.  “He’s going to have my hide again.”

            Arrie, Maddie, and Autumn looked at each other as the tracker walked off.  “Again?” Arrie whispered.

            The party gathered at the north gate waiting for them to open.  Kyle moved his horse back and forth, eager to get moving.

            “You all right, Kyle?” Autumn asked.

            “I just want to get the bastard,” the wizard replied.

            “You’re getting into this, aren’t you Kyle?” Arrie said.

            “I just want it over with,” he growled.  “We have better things to do than deal with Hungai.  But now it sounds like he might know something about what happened to Lanara.  Between that, and giving Xu some peace of mind, I’m ready to dish out what this guy has coming.”

            The gates of Stacks finally swung open, and the party spurred their horses to a gallop, raising a cloud of dust as they went off in pursuit of Hungai.


----------



## Delemental

The trail was remarkably easy to follow; the path of an elephant through a dense forest wasn’t easy to hide.  After studying the trail for a minute, Razael declared that they were no more than half an hour behind Hungai’s forces.

            “They seem to be sticking together,” he said, “making their way almost due north toward the mountains.”  He scratched at his head, sending bits of dirt tumbling out of his hair.  “I would’ve split off a few folks in this situation, circled them around behind us to pin us down.”

            “They may not have enough people left to do that,” Autumn said.

            “And let’s consider that they’re not well-rested, and we are,” Arrie added.

            “And the factor of having watched half their army get decimated,” Razael observed.  “Good point.”  He stood up.  “I suggest we put on some speed.  I’m not going to lose the trail, and right now we’re moving at the same speed.  Unless we hustle, we’ll never catch them.”

            The party remounted and rode off following Hungai’s forces.  Slowly, they gained ground on the mercenary army.  After about thirty minutes, they noticed that the trees were thinning out.  From some distance away, they heard the sound of running water.  They brought their mounts to a stop and secured them to trees, then proceeded on foot, spreading out slightly as they moved.

            The trees gave way to a field of long grasses, gently sloping downward away from them.  About fifty yards away, a large river flowed east, separating the forest from the more distant mountains marking the boundary between Medos and the Dwarven Confederates.  A pair of shallow-bottomed ships were anchored at the closest shore, with ramps extending off their decks onto the riverbank.  Hungai’s elephant was being carefully maneuvered onto one of the ships, while the remains of the soldiers that had laid siege to Stacks were boarding the other ship.  Hungai himself could be seen on the ship where his elephant was being loaded, standing a full head over everyone else, shouting orders. On the shore, guarding their retreat, two units of five mounted samurai stood vigilantly, scanning the open field for any disturbance.

            Arrie looked intently at the samurai.  “These do not appear to be hin outriders,” she said mockingly.

            A voice suddenly rang out behind and above the party.  “Xu Dhii Ngao.”

            Everyone turned to see a man perched in a pine tree behind them.  He wore the garb of a Xhintai monk, though the colors and patterns of the fabric were different from those worn by Xu.  The man had short, white hair, despite looking not much older than Xu herself.  The man said a few words to Xu in Xhintai; she responded in kind.

            “I hate it when they don’t speak Common,” Autumn complained.

            “Well, technically, for them it is Common,” Kyle pointed out.

            “Hey, when in Affon…” Lanara interjected.

            Xu turned to her companions.  “This man belongs to an order in opposition to my own.  He has challenged me to a duel.  I must accept.”

            “What, now?” Autumn said.

            “Yes.  I will return.”  With that, Xu and the other monk suddenly sprang off into the forest, leaping between trees and exchanging blows.  They quickly moved out of sight.

            The rest of the party looked at each other, perplexed.  “Well,” said Kyle, “I guess we take care of Xu’s problem without her.”

            “Oh, that’s nice,” Lanara snapped, “leave us to deal with the problem.”

            “Well, Hungai did say something about ‘the pink-haired one’,” Kyle observed.

            “And again, I’m right here,” Lanara responded.

            “But he said something about ‘restoring the pink-haired one’.”

            “Well, that would be nice,” Lanara admitted.

            “So lets go find out about that,” Osborn said.

            “Well then, let’s go sink those ships,” Autumn said.

            “Well, I don’t have any ‘boat-sinking’ spells,” Kyle said.  “Other than _fireball_, and I don’t think incinerating them is a good idea, especially before we find out what he knows about Lanara.”

            “So, we have the obstacle of ships that we want to keep from moving,” Arrie said pensively.  “How do we do that?”

            “I say we just take out whatever pathetic defenses they have, and storm the ships,” Autumn said.

            “What about throwing something big into the river to block them?” Arrie said.

            Razael peered across the field.  “Nothing we’ve got is big enough, and by the time we cut down a tree to do it, they’ll be long gone.”

            “So, it’s a frontal assault, then?” Arrie sighed.

            “Fine with me,” Razael said.

            “Perhaps we should just let the rest of them go, and make sure Hungai stays,” Arrie said.  “After all, we only have a quarrel with him.”

            “Well, he’s already on the ship,” Autumn said, “and the only thing that’s going to get him off is Xu.”

            “Unfortunately, she went off that way,” Maddie said, pointing back into the forest.

            “But, Hungai doesn’t know that,” Arrie said.  “All we need is someone who looks like her.”  Arrie looked meaningfully at Lanara.

            “I can do that,” she said.  A moment of concentration later, Lanara looked remarkably like Xu.  “Fortunately I can still use my Talent*.”

            The disguised Lanara walked out into the field, well in sight of Hungai and his men.  Osborn used his ring to turn invisible and stand next to Lanara for protection.  Razael crawled out through the long grass, taking up a position flanking them.

            “Hungai!” Lanara shouted at the ships, “You dishonorable dog!  Will you not at give me the opportunity to free my spirit from the burden of your taint through open combat?”

            Hungai looked out across the field.  Then, with a loud belly laugh, he waved his samurai forward.  They spurred their horses and began to gallop across the field toward Xu.

            “Coward!” the fake Xu shouted at Hungai.  “You fear to face a woman yourself?”

            The party quickly prepared for battle.  Kyle cast a few spells on himself, then, smiling, he slapped Autumn on the rear end.  She turned to protest, but then the reflex-boosting spell he’d cast on her took hold, and she found herself too eager to leap into battle to properly chastise him.

            “Ladies,” Kyle said, addressing Autumn and Arrie with mock formality, “would you be so kind as to deal with the left flank?”

            “But of course,” Autumn said.  “Arrie, care to join me?”

            Arrie hefted one of her orcish shotputs.  “Absolutely.”

As she waited for the samurai to draw closer, Autumn looked at her sister.  She crouched in the bushes, eyes closed, slowly rotating her shotput in her hands.  She seemed unusually calm and reserved, quietly waiting when one would have expected her to be chomping at the bit to get to the approaching horsemen.  As Autumn wondered how Arrie could be so serene with the enemy approaching, when she herself was so edgy (_it must be Kyle’s spell_, she thought), Autumn realized that she had preparations of her own to make.  She concentrated for a moment, and moments later a silver-furred wolverine appeared by her side, teeth bared in anticipation.   Meanwhile, Kyle pointed a wand at the samurai on the right flank, and sent a bead of fire shooting across the field.  It exploded in their midst, and sent men flying off horses that were suddenly flash-fried.  They quickly regained their feet, and continued to march across the field, their armor still smoking.

            “Persistent little buggers,” Razael said, as he drew back his bow and began shooting arrows into the lead samurai.

            Autumn and her celestial companion charged out into the open, ready to meet their charge.  She swung her greataxe as they rode by, converging in to strike at the sentinel and then spreading out again as they galloped by.  When they passed, Autumn and the wolverine were covered with several large cuts, though one of the horses was also bleeding from a large wound.  Arrie, surprisingly, did not charge out with her sister, but held fast, slowly rotating her shotput in her hands, waiting for the samurai to get closer.

            Kyle launched another _fireball _ at the samurai on the left flank, then turned his attention to the other side, sighing as he saw Autumn rush after the samurai who were wheeling around.  Arrie was also emerging from her hiding place in the forest, aiming at one of the samurai on the end.  As he considered what he could do to keep his love from being skewered, he heard Maddie chanting behind him, and a sudden blast of sound erupted amidst the enemy unit, sending several of them crashing to the ground and breaking their momentum.  Autumn took advantage of the opening and charged one of the fallen samurai, while the wounded wolverine leapt upon one of the horses that was still standing, snarling and frothing as it attacked.

            Across the field, Hungai shouted more orders, and suddenly a hound-like creature leapt over the railing of the ship and began running at high speed through the air toward the combat.  The thin, black-furred canine had an almost human-like visage, though the mouth was filled with many sharp teeth.  As the flying beast approached, both Kyle and Maddie recognized it as an extraplanetary creature known as a yeth hound.  _But why is it here now?_ Maddie wondered.  _Yeth hounds only come out at night!  What kind of trick is this?_**

But Maddie had little time to ponder this unusual event, as suddenly a creature appeared out of thin air and slashed at her with a wicked-looking glaive.  The weapon bit deep into her shoulder, hitting a major artery and sending blood spraying into the nearby branches.  The horned, winged, bearded creature wielding the glaive shrieked in triumph.  Maddie staggered back, then gritted her teeth and summoned up divine power, ruching forward and striking the devil in the chest.  The triumphant scream turned to one of pain, as most of its life-force was torn away by Erito’s power.  The devil hissed, then noticed that Razael was also closing in fast, and a few of his arrows embedded themselves in its scaled skin; though its infernal metabolism allowed it to ignore the magical cold, it still felt the bite of the arrow.  The yeth hound tried to leap at the tracker and bring him down, but the elf slipped out of its grasp. With a leer at Maddie, the devil growled something in Infernal and then vanished, deciding its bargain of service was not worth its life.

            The invisible Osborn had been slowly moving around behind the samurai, and signaled to Kyle, whose enhanced vision allowed the wizard to see the hin.  Osborn and Kyle peppered the samurai on the right flank; Kyle with _magic missiles_ and Osborn with daggers.  Osborn’s blades proved far more effective, and the five warriors were moving noticeably slower now.  On the other side of the field, Arrie and Autumn were locked in desperate melee with the other unit of samurai.  Glancing around to appraise the situation, Lanara vanished from where she was standing, reappearing near the samurai that Arrie and Autumn were fighting.  Dropping the illusion that made her look like Xu, Lanara began singing, the notes of her bardic music drifting over the field.

            Osborn waved and signaled at Kyle, telling him to launch another _fireball _ at the group of samurai, which were now starting to converge on him.  Kyle shook his head and signaled back; _you’re too close_.  Scowling, Osborn repeated the ‘fireball’ signal more emphatically, as if to say _I don’t care!  Do it anyway!_  Fortunately, the dilemma was resolved, as the samurai paused in their advance, giving Osborn the chance to dive out of the way and giving Kyle the opening he needed to launch a third _fireball _ from his wand, which caught the yeth hound in its radius as well.  As the flames vanished, Osborn sent another flurry of daggers into the samurai, and three of them fell.

              Maddie, still bleeding from the devil’s wounds, ran toward the left flank and cast a _mass lesser vigor_ on herself, the Verahannen sisters, and the celestial wolverine. Meanwhile, Lanara casually wandered around the periphery of the battle between Arrie, Autumn, and the samurai, coming around to where a severely injured wolverine was still tearing at horseflesh and samurai flesh, and with a swift movement plunged her rapier into the creature’s side.

            “What are you doing?” shrieked Autumn.  The shout was enough to draw everyone’s attention, and they saw as Lanara flashed a wicked smile at Autumn as she continued to stab her celestial companion.  Suddenly, everything clicked into place – Lanara had used a _dimension door_, when she claimed she had no magic.  She was singing a bardic song, when she had claimed she could not use her music.  And they noticed that the music had done nothing to inspire them; in fact, it was the enemy that seemed to fight harder and better now.

            Lanara was now the enemy.

            The wolverine, blind with rage, lashed out at Lanara, scoring her armor with its claws.  The wolverine’s lunges at the bard gave her an opening, and her rapier slid between the animal’s shoulder blades.  The wolverine vanished in a flash of white light. Autumn also attempted to get at Lanara, but her way was blocked.  Lanara’s smile only broadened, and her song grew louder.

            Suddenly, another song filled the air.  The sound seemed to weave through Lanara’s song, flattening the notes and obscuring the words.  Scowling, Lanara cut her now-useless song off mid-stanza, looking around for the source of the interference.  Across the field, a figure in a heavy cloak stood watching the battle, its own song fading as Lanara ended hers.

            “You stupid bitch,” Lanara muttered at the cloaked form.

            At the same time, on the other side of the clearing, Xu and the other monk burst out of the forest.  Their duel had been evenly matched to that point; while Xu was more maneuverable on the ground, the monks of the Verdant Path were at home in dense forests, and her opponent, who had introduced himself as Zhen Thao, was able to leap agilely from tree to tree to avoid her.  The answer, of course, was to leave the forest.  The two monks exchanged another series of blows, their ki flowing back and forth and nullifying each other’s special maneuvers.  Suddenly, Zhen Thao stepped back, and bowed.

            “We are of equal measure, and further conflict is pointless.  We shall meet again, Xu Dhii Ngao.”

            Xu returned the bow, and Zhen Thao ran quickly toward the ships, which had finished loading and was starting to cast off.  Xu took a moment to study the scene, unsure of what had transpired since her duel had begun.

            Autumn screamed and slammed her greataxe into a samurai, taking his head off.  Arrie whipped her chain around and wounded another one.  The lone mounted samurai wheeled around and began charging toward the cloaked figure.  Autumn, desperate to get at Lanara, grudgingly broke off to give chase to the mounted warrior, not wanting to risk their mysterious benefactor.

            Razael loaded a pair of arrows and shot the yeth hound, piercing its throat and causing it to vanish in a cloud of sulfurous smoke.  He then turned and ran to catch up to the woman he was supposed to be protecting, who had moved to help Arrie and Autumn.  Maddie did take the time to heal her wounds, which gave Razael some comfort.  Osborn closed with the last two samurai on the right flank and attacked, getting past their flashing swords and burying daggers in their chests.  With no enemies left on the right flank, Kyle turned and cast a spell toward the other side.  Rubbery black tentacles erupted from the ground, enveloping the last two samurai and Lanara in a vice-like grip.

            The cloaked figure yelped as the samurai charged her, slashing with his katana and drawing blood.  In response, the mysterious figure vanished.  Autumn, who was closing in on the samurai, saw the tall grass parting by itself in a trail away from the warrior, and surmised that their ally was now invisible.  She returned her attention to the samurai, and with a swipe of her axe took out the horse’s legs.  Osborn ran up to help, and within a few moments the two of them had hacked the lone samurai into tiny pieces.

            Razael and Kyle looked around, and saw that all of their enemies were dead or incapacitated.  Then they saw the ships had pulled away from the riverbank and were beginning to unfurl their sails.  Razael fired a single arrow at Hungai, who was still on the deck; the arrow stuck in the mast a few inches from the warlord’s head.  For his part, Kyle pulled out his metamagic rod and channeled a _scintillating sphere_ through it, blasting the deck of Hungai’s ship with an electric firestorm.  Soldiers and crew fell dead all around the large man, tumbling out of the rigging and dropping off the side into the river.  Hungai stood unmoving in the midst of the spell, looking displeased, and as the remaining crew scrambled to keep the ship under control, he pulled Razael’s arrow out of the mast and crushed it between his fingers.

            “And stay out!” Kyle shouted at the retreating ships.

            “I wanted the elephant,” Razael grumbled.

            As Hungai’s ships vanished around the bend of the river, the party converged on the field of tentacles, which were slowly crushing the last three opponents.  Kyle ended the spell, and the party rushed forward to subdue their prisoners.  The two samurai surrendered their weapons without struggle, and were docile as Arrie bound them to a nearby tree.  Lanara struggled fiercely, and had to be held tightly by Autumn and Maddie.  The cansin spat curses at everyone, until finally Xu tore a strip of cloth off one of the dead samurai’s clothes and gagged her.

            A short distance away, the cloaked figure reappeared, and slowly walked toward the party.  As the group watched, the figure pulled back the hood, revealing a very familiar face.

            “Lanara?” Autumn and Osborn gasped.

            “Yeah, it’s me,” Lanara said.  “I’m claiming the right to loot her.”  She pointed at the struggling cansin.

            Lanara didn’t look much like the person they were used to.  She looked like she hadn’t slept or eaten well in weeks, and instead of her trademark skin-tight leathers she was dressed in an old, baggy shirt and trousers, as well as the worn grey cloak.

            Razael looked back and forth between the two pink-haired women.  “Is some of the stuff she has yours?” he asked.

            “All of it’s mine,” Lanara snapped.  “And who in blazes are you?”

            “Name’s Razael Fletcher, pleased to meet you.”

            Lanara decided to wait a bit to sort that bit out.  “Well, I think you’ve all met my sister.  I’m the real deal.”

            “Sister?” Kyle and Autumn said in unison.

            “Yeah, evidently Dad forgot to mention one or two things,” Lanara said.

            “And you thought our family was dysfunctional,” Arrie said to Autumn.

The sentinel looked levelly at her sister.  “We are.”

“Her name’s Aranal, evidently,” Lanara continued.  “Mom was terribly original, huh?  Seems she took off with her when she left Dad and me.  Don’t really know what happened to her after that, other than she fell in with Hungai at some point.  Bitch.”

Aranal began to struggle more, trying to shout more profanity through the gag.

“Kyle, is there something you can do to keep her quiet?” Lanara asked.

“Sure.”  Kyle walked up and clubbed Aranal in the back of the head with his staff, knocking her unconscious.

“Works for me,” Lanara said, and she quickly began stripping the unconscious Aranal of her possessions.

“Lanara, where have you been all this time?” Autumn asked.

“With them,” Lanara pointed out where Hungai’s ships had disappeared.

“How did you escape?”

“They were kind of busy,” Lanara said, “looking for Xu, trying to get everyone on the ship, avoiding arrows and spells.  Then they had a mysterious outbreak of rats.”  She smiled.  “Plus I sweet-talked one of the guards.” She hooked a thumb in her baggy shirt and held it out.  “_Tongues _ comes in so handy,” she said, her grin widening into a mischievous smirk.  “Huh, Kyle?”

“Yeah, that’s the real Lanara,” Kyle said, “I can tell because I know no matter how I answer that, I end up looking bad.”

“So,” Razael said, “you’re the one that we thought that one was, that’s been traveling with us ever since I met you all.”

“You’re quick,” Lanara said, “and dirty.”

“You get used to it,” Osborn said.

“There’s only two or three layers on me right now,” Razael protested.

Lanara gestured, and instantly the dirt and grime covering the tracker fell away.

“Now, what’d you go and do that for?” Razael said.

“I wanted to see what you really look like,” Lanara replied casually.  “If it bothers you, get more dirt.”

“It’s not like there’s a shortage,” Maddie said.

Lanara finished stripping her sister, and left her lying naked in the grass as she gathered up her belongings and walked into the woods.  A few minutes later, she emerged, now dressed in her own clothes, and tossed her borrowed escape outfit onto the ground next to Aranal.

“She can have those, if someone would do me a favor and get her dressed.”  She looked over at Razael, who was looking back and forth between Aranal and Lanara. “And don’t get any ideas.”

Maddie and Xu carried Aranal off to get her dressed and then tie her up.  “Lanara,” Autumn asked, “What are we going to do with your evil twin?”

“Whatever you like,” Lanara replied.  “I have all my things back, thank you.  I have no family attachment to the woman, and she wasn’t terribly nice, especially during the ambush.”

“We should probably take all three prisoners back to Stacks for now,” Arrie said.  “And I suggest we do it soon, or I’m going to get yelled at, a lot.”

“By whom?” Autumn asked.

“Herion.  See, when we were in the city this morning, I sort of sent him a little message.”  She held up her hand to show everyone the large diamond ring on her finger that Herion had given her when they were together in M’Dos.  “The gist of it was, ‘In Stacks, about to start a war, will be in touch’.  His response was, ‘wait there, I’m coming’.”

Autumn smiled.  “I don’t think your husband will approve of the crown princess chasing off after the enemy army.”

“What of the dead?” Xu asked.  “They fought and died with honor, and were not evil men, even if their master is.  The custom in Xhintai is for fallen samurai to be buried with their weapons and armor.”

“That’s going to take a while,” Autumn said.

“In this case, a mass grave would be sufficient, if not entirely proper,” Xu said.  “With the great fortune I have had today in once again avoiding Hungai’s grasp, I would not wish to ruin my karma by acting improperly.”

“Just to put in a word for Erito,” Maddie said, “I think that as the goddess of death, she’d want me to observe proper burial customs.”

“You sure?” Razael said, “some of that stuff looks valuable.”

“But is it worth the trouble?” Kyle said.  “We don’t have to loot every corpse we run across, you know.”

“Why not?”

In the end, they voted and decided by a narrow margin to bury the dead samurai.  The work went swiftly in the soft earth of the meadow, and they were able to return to Stacks before sunset.  As the prisoners were led away by the town guard to the jail, the party gathered in the Dry Inkpot to celebrate Lanara’s return, and to fill her in on all that had transpired while she was gone.  Lanara took the news that they planned to buy a ship and sail to the south pole rather hard, but a glass of wine or two helped ease the pain.

“I’m glad to have you back,” Kyle said.  “Your sister was terribly grumpy.”

“And boozy,” Maddie added.  “Lots of fun, though.”

“Well, I’d imagine hanging out with you all would turn anyone to drink,” Lanara said with a wink.  “I’m sure she was fun for you all, though.”

Razael suddenly turned a slight shade of pink, more noticeable now that the obscuring layers of dirt were gone.  “What?” Lanara asked, “why in the world would you be embarrassed?”

“Nothing,” Razael said, too fast and without looking the bard in the eye.

Autumn’s eyes widened.  “Razael, did you sleep with Aranal?”

“No, no, no!  Well, maybe.”

Lanara looked at Razael.  “We’ll have to talk sometime, you and I.”

“Razael’s recreational activities aside,” Arrie said, “we still need to decide what to do with Aranal.”

“Well, actually,” Razael said, “I did have one idea, which I think might work out well…”

*          *            *​
            Aranal woke up slowly.  Her head was pounding, and her mouth was dry.  She looked around, unsure of where she was.  She was indoors, and it felt like she was deep underground.  She was lying with her head on a cold, granite desk, and all around her were stacks of papers.  Two of the walls were comprised of drawers going from floor to ceiling.

_Qin-Chu’s toes!  Where did that wench of a sister dump me off?_  Aranal groaned as she sat up and took stock of her surroundings.  Hungai had screwed up.  What was he thinking, with that ‘I might restore the pink-haired one’ crap?  Like that hadn’t given the whole thing away.  She’d been forced to switch sides far too early.  With the Ardaran gone, she’d had the rest fooled.  The elven tracker hadn’t been much of a challenge to win over, and she was just about ready to make her next move, though she hadn’t decided whether to seduce the favored soul or the wizard next.  She’d been leaning toward the wizard; she wanted to watch the sparks fly between him and the sentinel.

            She stood up, and looked down at her clothes.  She was wearing a simple brown robe, embroidered with dwarven runes.  With her headache, it took her a minute to place the style.  _What in the world?  Why am I wearing these robes?  These are robes for an acolyte of…_
            Her train of thought was interrupted when the door opened, and Tolly Nightsleaving walked in.  The Ardaran was dressed in his usual plate armor, though it was brightly polished, and a adamantine symbol had been grafted to the breastplate.  A large maul was strapped to his back.

            “You are awake,” Tolly said.  “Good.  There is much to do.  I suggest you get to work.”

            “What are you talking about, Tolly?  It’s me, Lanara.  I was attacked…”

            “Save it.” Tolly snapped.  “I know who you are.”  He crossed the room, and put a gauntleted hand on top of one of the stacks of paper.  “Start with these, and then work your way around the room clockwise.  A proper acolyte would be able to finish in two weeks, but I expect that with the adjustment you’ll need to make, it will take you longer.”

            “What will take me longer?” Aranal sneered.

            “Filing, of course.  You’ll be given the morning to do that, and then in the afternoon I will need you to copy some documentation from the archives.  Which will have to be filed later, of course.”

            “Yeah, right.  You can shove your documents up your ass, Ardaran.”  Aranal walked toward the door, pushing her way past Tolly.  But when she reached the door, she found she couldn’t open it.  It wasn’t that it was locked; in fact the door was still open a crack.  She simply couldn’t make herself push the door open to leave.

            “Sit down, you naïve child,” Tolly reprimanded.  Aranal found herself turning around and sitting, even though part of her mind screamed at her to stop.

            “As I said before, I know who you are, and I know your nature,” Tolly said.  “My former adventuring companions were certain to fill me in on the details.  You, Miss Aranal Rahila, are currently _geased _ to serve as my personal assistant.  Let me assure you that the enchantment was placed by one of the Prelate Council, and will be renewed regularly.  And the wording is very carefully chosen, so do not expect to find a loophole any time soon.”

            “I have powers of my own, you know,” Aranal said, eyes blazing.  “I can do the same to you if I want.”

            Tolly spread his arms wide, as if opening himself to attack.  “Please, feel free.”

            Aranal opened her mouth, ready to sing an ensorcelling song that would soon have this upstart crawling on his knees begging to do whatever she asked.  But the words wouldn’t come.

            Tolly almost smiled.  “As I said, very carefully chosen.”

            Aranal’s look of smug confidence began to waver.  “Why me?  Why this?”

            “Why you is because of what you tried to do to my friends.  Why this is because I found it might be useful in my new position to have someone close at hand who knew the mind of Chaos.”

            “I’ll find a way to get out,” she said, but it was only a whisper.

            “Perhaps,” Tolly said, “but not before you finish my filing.”

            Tolly turned to leave, but stopped and turned in the doorway.  “Oh, and you’ll be pleased to know that I made good use of the stonebreaker acid you gave to me.”  He pointed to the stone arch above the door.  Etched there in the stone was a short phrase in Common.

            ORDER IS ETERNAL.

            “Good morning to you, Acolyte Rahila,” Tolly said.  “I will see you this afternoon.”

            Tolly closed the door to Aranal’s screams.  She picked up the stack of papers on her desk, holding them up over her head as if she were about to throw them at the door after Tolly.  But tears sprung from her eyes as she realized she couldn’t make herself throw the papers.

            Because, part of her own mind told her, that would get them all out of order.


----------



## Delemental

Well, looks like I have a bit of catching up to do...

I'll go ahead and post all the missing stuff en masse, without editing - which means no italics, or colored fonts, and perhaps a few minor typos or discrepancies that I normally take care of when posting here.


----------



## Delemental

*Boiling Point*

It took the party two and a half weeks to make the trip up from Stacks to the city of M’ioch, which stood at the end of the pass between Medos and the Dwarven Confederates.  From there it would only be a short journey to M’ioch’s sister city in the Confederates, Krek, and from there north through Laeshir, along the Lassh River to Aleppi, and then east to Merlion.  The party again found themselves having to adjust to life on the trail after a month spent living at the inns of M’dos.  Among the adjustments were the campsite arrangements; there were Kyle and Autumn, of course, who now shared a tent, and Osborn also now packed a small tent of his own, having decided after Tolly’s departure that he preferred having space to himself.  Razael tended to sleep outside, deigning to seek shelter only in the worst of weather.  Lanara, Xu, Arrie, and Maddie debated whether or not they would change their own sleeping arrangements, but decided for the time being to remain in their large four-person tent.

            As the party drew closer to M’ioch, they noticed an unusual amount of traffic on the road.  Soon things had slowed to a crawl, with several horses, wagons, and people jostling for position.

            “What’s the holdup?” Lanara called out to a drover nearby, who shrugged.  Others nearby gave the same answer.

            “Why don’t I ride ahead to the gate and see what I can find out?” Osborn offered.  He turned Rupert out of the pack, and circled around outside the crowd, heading for the city gates.

            It was about an hour before he came back.  “There’s a major problem,” Osborn said, “the pass into the Confederates is blocked.”

            “Blocked?”  Arrie said, somewhat surprised.  “Blocked how?”

            “Landslide, I think, I couldn’t tell for sure.  Up at the gate they’re telling folks it’ll be a month before it’s cleared.”

            “A month?” Lanara groaned.  “We’re stuck in M’ioch for a month?”

            “What’s wrong with M’ioch?” Kyle asked.

            “It’s an Ardaran strongpoint, that’s what’s wrong,” the cansin replied.  “It’s not that different from Laeshir.  Fewer dwarves, that’s all.”

            The party all shook their heads.  They’d spent a month in Laeshir the last time they’d been through the Confederates, as Tolly had needed time to finish working on his armor.    The only thing that had kept their stay from becoming unbearably tedious was the Midsummer festival, although even that was marred when Maddie’s bastard son Marrek had framed Lanara for a crime in the city.

            “I’m surprised they’re not sending riders out from the city to tell people what’s going on,” Arrie mused.

            “They’re working on it, I think,” Osborn said.  “Sounds like they’re trying to get things organized inside the city first.”

            Osborn began spreading the word among the other travelers and merchants near them, and the news spread quickly.  Several of the smaller caravans and groups began to extricate themselves from the line, turning around to head for another city.  Later, as messengers from M’ioch began to arrive and relay the news officially, others also chose to depart.  Some of the larger merchant caravans were directed off the main road and led in toward the open fields surrounding the city; M’ioch itself wasn’t large enough to accommodate everyone for an entire month, so campsites were being established outside the walls where the merchants could wait for the pass to reopen.  Thus by the time the party reached M’ioch, they were still able to find lodging, at rates only moderately higher than normal.

            They spent the better part of the next day getting supplies.  Details of the landslide that had blocked the pass were beginning to circulate through the city.  Apparently, the children of a  clan of stone giants that lived near the pass had been out playing, and had accidentally triggered the slide.  The giants were helping with clearing the pass, as were crews from both Krek and M’ioch, but the slide was immense.   Though most of the essential goods were going to the crews helping with the pass, but fortunately the party was already fairly well supplied with the basics, and were only seeking a few esoteric goods.

            That night, they discussed their options.  “So, we agree that no one wants to wait out the month here,” Arrie said, “so what can we do?”

            “There are old tunnels that extend under the mountains,” Maddie said.  “I heard someone else talking about them.  Apparently it’s how the dwarves got goods in and out of their lands before the passes were secured.  Not much use to a big caravan, but smaller groups would be fine.  Problem is, they’re not patrolled any more like they used to be, so no one’s sure what’s down there.”

            “I’ve had enough danger and uncertainty for a while, thanks,” Lanara said, wrinkling her nose.  “What else?”

            “Well, the pass to the Peca Provinces is still open,” Arrie observed.  “Northeast to the Plingold River, then sail down into the Provinces to the coast, and take a gnomish galleon to Tlaxan.”

            “Yargh, more boats?” Lanara complained.

            “Well, missy, could be we just follow the Plingold rather than sail it,” Razael offered, “and instead of going all the way to the coast, we can cut across and go through Tengolt.”

            “I like that better,” the bard admitted, “but why not just find another pass through the Confederates?  There can’t be only one.”

            “No, likely there’s other ways of getting across the mountains,” Razael mused.

            “But how is that any better than the tunnels?” Kyle asked.  “Just as likely to be dangerous, plus we have to worry about finding the pass and crossing it while dealing with the elements.”

            “I’ll give you that.  But you got any better ideas, now’s the time, boy,” Razael said.

            “Well, I could try to teleport us.”

            Autumn looked at Kyle.  “Since when do you know that spell?”

            “I don’t.  But it’s not an uncommon spell, I could probably find it here.”

            You’re saying you could teleport us to Krek?” Arrie asked.

            “No, actually, I’d aim for Laeshir.  I’ve never been to Krek, but we spent a month in Laeshir.”  Kyle fell silent for a moment.  “Actually, I’m pretty sure I could get us all the way to Noxolt from here.”

            “Pretty sure?” Razael asked.  “How many times you done this, boy?”

            “Well, none.  But it’s simple in theory.  It’d take a couple of trips, of course.  I’m assuming that we aren’t getting Defiance or Ghost into Autumn’s portable hole.”

            Razael sniffed.  “Ain’t worth going somewhere if you can’t walk.  And I’m not sure we can trust your ‘theories’ anyhow.”

            Kyle frowned, and shrugged.  “Fine.  We wanted to get to Tlaxan; I made a suggestion.  Sorry that you find it so objectionable.”

            Razael leaned over to Arrie.  “Is he always getting his feelings hurt like this, Princess?”  Arrie only shrugged in response.

            “Okay, then,” Kyle said, “how about this?  There’s a blocked pass, right?  Sounds like they need help clearing it, right?  And we’re supposed to be helping people, right?  Why not go help with the pass?  It might not open the pass any faster, but we stay busy and do something useful.”

            “I agree with that,” Autumn said.  “We’re not above common labor.”

            “Some of us aren’t as good at that common labor,” Lanara pointed out.  “And why should we clean up their mess?”
            “Yeah, what am I supposed to do?” Razael added.

            “Well, I’m sure the workers could use some entertainment, or some rousing songs to help them work.  And I’ll bet they’ll need help hunting to feed all those workers.”

            “Yeah, well, the problem with working with giants is they tend to forget you’re there,” Razael said.

            “Yeah, I agree,” Osborn said.  “Getting stepped on?  No thanks.”

            The others failed to be inspired by the idea of clearing rubble, so the idea was dropped.  “What do you think, Arrie?” Autumn asked.

            “Well, it doesn’t really matter to me.  While I’m not in a huge hurry to be in Tlaxan, since I’m going to have plenty of time to enjoy it later…”

            “It’s not like we’re going to Tlaxan to live,” Kyle snapped.  “We’re there long enough for Autumn to get this Duchess thing squared away, find ourselves a ship, and we’re gone.”

            “I know, I know,” Arrie said, “it’s just a mental thing for me.”

            “I’d prefer to take the pass to the Provinces, myself,” Razael said.  “I’m not too fond of being underground.”

            “Well, if we can avoid any boats, then I’m up for that,” Lanara said.  “I’ve never been to the Provinces.”

            “Anyone opposed?” Arrie asked.  When no one spoke up, she nodded.  “Peca it is then.  We can head out in the morning.”

            As everyone got up and went on with their night, Autumn grabbed onto Kyle’s arm gently.  “Are you all right?  You seem to be in a bad mood.”

            “It’s nothing.”

            “I don’t believe you.  Earlier today you were up in our room alone for over an hour, and after that you were testy.  What’s going on?”

            “I said it’s nothing.  I don’t want to talk about it.”

            Autumn frowned.  “Kyle…”

            Kyle sighed.  “Look, really, it’s just a mood.  I was working on something upstairs earlier, and it didn’t… work out like I thought it would.  But I really haven’t had time to figure it out yet, and I don’t want to get all worked up over something that’s probably a simple mistake.  Once we get to Tlaxan, I can spend a little more time on the problem.  I was kind of hoping people would go for the teleporting idea just to speed things up a bit.  I think that Razael’s comment about not trusting me just rubbed me the wrong way.”

            Autumn looked up at Kyle for a while.  “All right, then.  You usually tell me when something’s wrong, so I guess I can trust you when you say this is just a mood.”  She smiled at him.  “Now, why don’t you come to bed?  I can help take your mind off the day.”

            “Now there’s an offer I don’t need to think twice about.”

            But even as he walked back to the rear of the inn, Autumn’s arm in his, Kyle’s mind couldn’t help but pick at his ‘failed’ experiment.  I had to have made a mistake somewhere, he thought, or I’m forgetting something simple.  It never was my strongest area of study at the Tower.  Because it just doesn’t make sense.



*          *            *



            It was a week out of M’ioch before they reached the head of the Plingold River.  They had to explain several times to the baffled gnomes that they weren’t going to be taking a ship downriver, but would be riding their horses.  After a while the gnomes, who couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t take a boat, ended up just shrugging and waving a friendly goodbye.

            The trail was thin in places, but navigable.  The party saw no other travelers as they rode; presumably those others who had also chosen to head into the Provinces from M’ioch were taking gnomish riverboats.  As they rode, Razael frequently doubled back and obscured their trail, still wary after their experiences with Hungai and Aranal.  At one point the river split in two, and the party was forced to follow the smaller branch, as the more navigable portion fed into a sheer ravine that allowed no trail for the horses.  The gnomish guides they had consulted indicated that the branch would rejoin the main river when they were nearly out of the mountains, and that they’d find a few small fishing towns along the way.

The party rode for another three days before they saw signs of civilization.  On the morning of the third day, the river valley opened up into a natural caldera, and the river fed into a decent sized lake, with a town sitting on the southern shore.  They could see steam rising off the lake, and occasionally the water would ripple as an air bubble rose and broke the surface.

            “Hot springs?” Xu asked Razael.  When he nodded, Lanara grinned.  “Wonderful!”  Beside her, Maddie was also smiling from ear to ear.

            Kyle sighed.  “Looks like we’re here for another month.”

            “Something’s wrong,” Osborn said.  “The gates are closed, and no one’s moving inside.”

            “And what’s that over there?” Arrie asked, pointing.  Further south, well outside the town walls, they saw a tent city set up, just before the caldera began to climb back into mountains.

            “I hope it’s not another siege,” groaned Autumn.

            “We can go around,” Razael observed.

            “Or,” Osborn said quickly, “we could go see what’s wrong.”  Razael and Lanara both rolled their eyes.

            “I can go talk to them,” Arrie said.

            “I’ll go with you,” Autumn said.  “Anyone else?”

            Lanara and Xu volunteered to go down as well.  Razael turned to Maddie.  “What are you doing?”

            “I’m going down to talk to the gnomes.”

            He sighed.  “Then I guess I’m going with you.”

            “I’ll stay here, just in case,” Osborn said.

            “Me too,” Kyle said, “just wave if it’s okay to come down.”

            The party, minus Kyle and Osborn, made their way down the trail toward the town, splitting off once they reached the bottom of the road to head for the tent city.  They were greeted just outside the tents by a small cluster of friendly, if slightly haggard gnomes.

            “Welcome, strangers,” one of the gnomes said.  “I’m sorry we don’t have much in the way of hospitality to offer you, but please, if you need a place to rest, feel free to join us.  I must warn you to stay away from the lake, however.  It’s become quite a bit more dangerous as of late.”

            “Yes, we were kind of wondering why you were all out here,” Arrie said.

            “If you’d like to come have breakfast with us, we can explain.  Your friends can come down too, if they want.”  The gnome pointed past the party to where Kyle and Osborn sat watching.

            “Breakfast sounds good,” Lanara said.  She waved at Kyle and Osborn, who started down the slope toward the tents.

            The party was led into the middle of the tent city.  Looking around, they could see that the gnomes were barely getting by.  They caught glimpses of families boiling roots in iron pots, or trying to stitch up threadbare tents.  The party was offered a breakfast of thin, watery soup and dry bread; they ate sparingly, not because they weren’t hungry but because they felt awkward eating what were obviously very thin supplies.

            When they finished, the gnome that had greeted them introduced himself as Zander.  “It all started about the onset of spring or so,” Zander said.  “Or what passes for spring up here.  We’re pretty prosperous up here, even in the winter, since the lake is heated from below.  It’s a… it’s a… oh, there’s a word for it that the smart folks use.  Starts with a G.”

            “Geothermal?” Razael offered.

            “That’s the one.  Anyway, we exist mainly on the fish here; we salt and smoke them and sell them to the Confederates and the rest of the Provinces.  The fish are adapted to the water here, and it gives them an unusual flavor, so we have a market for our fish even down by the coast where fish are plentiful.  We also sell scrimshaw.  It’s enough to get by, even way out here.”

            “So what happened in the spring?” Kyle asked.

            “Well, we’d started our spring fishing run,” Zander began, “and about a week into it some of our boats were attacked by these big lobster-like creatures.  Kind of like a cross between a lobster and a snail, actually, with these dangly tentacles on their mouth.”

            The party looked around at each other, seeing if any of them recognized the creature by its description.  Arrie and Razael seemed to recognize it; Arrie turned to the others and quietly mouthed the word “Chuul” so as not to interrupt.

            “They’d attack the ships, dump the people overboard, and grabbed them.  We weren’t able to recover some of the bodies.  Some of the survivors report seeing sharks under the water along with the lobster creatures.  But this is a fresh-water lake, so it must have been something else.  Besides, in certain areas this lake is hot enough to boil.  The native fish are fine, but anything not adapted to it would boil alive.”

            “That is unusual,” Arrie said.  “Is it possible that the lake is…” she struggled to choose words that Zander might understand better, “is it possible that the lake is of purer water than normal?”
            “I don’t know,” Zander admitted.  “We don’t swim in the lake a lot.  It’s cool enough near the shore, but further out and you run the risk of swimming into spots that’ll scald the skin off your bones.”

            “I just wonder if it might be more elemental water,” Arrie explained, “something that might have affected these creatures.”

            “Oh,” Zander said, but then shrugged his shoulders.  “I don’t think so.”

            “How long has this been going on?” Maddie asked.

            “About three months,” Zander said.  “The reason we came out here is that shortly after the lobster creature attacks started, people started disappearing from town.  We decided to leave the town to protect ourselves.  The disappearances have stopped, but if we can’t get back into our town we may have to abandon it and move away.”  Zander’s face fell as he considered the option of leaving his home.

            “Did any strangers arrive in town around that time?” Maddie asked.

            “No, just us.  We don’t get many travelers, so new people would have been noticed.”

            “Chuul are somewhat intelligent,” Razael pointed out.

            “And amphibious,” Arrie added.  “They could have come into town.”

            “I don’t see how,” Zander said.  “We never found a trace of the people who vanished or who took them, and those lobster… chuul are big and crab-like.”

            “It seems pretty horrible for you guys,” Arrie said, “would you mind if we took a look around?”

            “That would be wonderful!  Is there anything we can do to help?”

            Razael sighed heavily.  “I thought we were trying to get to Tlaxan.”  Next to him, Lanara muttered her agreement.”  Kyle, sitting next to them both, leaned over and tapped the Tower graduation tattoo on the back of the Lanara’s hand.

            “This means that you should expect frequent delays,” he said to them quietly.  Razael held up his own hand, showing that he didn’t have a tattoo.

            “But she does,” Kyle said, nodding toward Maddie.

            Arrie had continued speaking with Zander, asking for information about the layout of the town, and to speak with survivors of the chuul attacks.  She suggested to Razael that as long as they were staying, the tracker could try and hunt down some game so that the town had better than root stew for dinner.  Instead, Razael decided to take a few of the younger gnomes out into the wilds and help them identify a few more edible roots and plants to supplement their diet.

            “If nothing else, we can help tide them over and make things a little more comfortable,” Arrie said.  “Kind of like that first exercise we did at the Tower.”

            “I’d like to take a peek at the lake,” Kyle said.

            “Why don’t we check out the town?” Osborn suggested.  “See if the chuul are still coming into the town now that the people are gone.”

            The party spent more time questioning the townsfolk before heading for the town later that afternoon.  The gnomes seemed to respond well to Autumn, sensing a kindred spirit in the aasimar, and opened up to her easily.  They learned that all the people taken lived close to the lake, and were taken without sounds or signs of struggle.  All the disappearances happened at night.  The description of the chuul attacks indicated that they didn’t seem to be bothered by the heat of the lake, at times swimming right through patches of boiling water.  A few survivors did describe seeing sharks or shark-like creatures swimming well below the water.  A couple of the fishermen noted that on the occasions when a local priest of Krûsh or one of the town’s holy warriors was on the lake, their boat would be attacked first.

By the time Razael had returned, the party was ready to investigate the town in person.  They talked as they walked to the town gates.

“So, we have chuuls that are immune to fire, and seem to target priests and holy warriors,” Arrie observed.

“Sounds like fiendish creatures to me,” Kyle said.

“It’d make a lot of sense,” Arrie agreed, “and might explain the sharks.  If one of them was a sort of unholy warrior or priest, then they could be summoning the sharks.”

“Okay, then,” Kyle said, “so we dangle Autumn from a rope in the middle of the lake, and when the chuul come we blast them.”  When everyone looked at Kyle, he threw up his hands.  “Oh, come on!  You know I’m joking!”

“You know, Kyle, I think it would work,” Razael said.  “In that armor she kind of looks like a lobster.”

“I was joking,” Kyle said again.

“We are not boiling my sister,” Arrie said.

Autumn was looking down at herself.  “I don’t look like a lobster,” she pouted.

“Of course you don’t.  You look just fine in your armor,” Kyle said, putting an arm around her.

“Thank you, sweetie,” she said.

“Yeah, but he thinks you look better out of your armor,” Lanara quipped.

Kyle grinned and shrugged, as if to say ‘I can’t argue with that’.  “Well, before we do anything with whatever’s under that lake, I’ll want to take a day to prepare new spells.  Sonic spells are really best for underwater use.”

“A thought occurs to me…” Arrie said.

“Is that what that noise was?” Lanara quipped.

“Thank you, Lanara,” Arrie said mockingly.

“Sorry, Arrie.”

“We may have to help teach these gnomes to defend themselves,” Arrie continued.  “We don’t know how big the problem is.  Kyle, is there any way to whip up some thunderstones or similar items for the gnomes to use?”

“Can’t really say.  Depends on what they have in the town.”

“What if we poisoned the lake to get rid of them?” Maddie asked.

“Then that kind of screws the gnomes too, doesn’t it?” Lanara pointed out.

“And anyone downstream,” Razael added.

“We can’t just deal with whatever’s down there now,” Autumn said.  “We need to find and eliminate the source of this incursion.”

“Well, the lake is hot…” Arrie said.

“Yes, so?”

“So, whose element is fire?”

Autumn sighed.  “Grabâkh.  So you think the rift is under the lake.”

“The lake’s been hot for a while, so I don’t think that’s the entire story,” Arrie mused.  “Maybe something happened recently to change things.  An earthquake exposed some sort of planetary portal or something.  Once we get to the town, we can look at the lake and see if we spot any glaring abysses of evil.  But for now, dealing with chuul are bad enough.  From what I remember from classes at the Tower, because I did occasionally pay attention,” the last part she said particularly loudly in Autumn’s direction, “is that chuul are incredibly strong, and they have some sort of paralyzing substance on their tentacles.  They’re also more intelligent than they look.  If these chuul are enhanced by fiendish energies as well, then this could be ugly.”

The party arrived in town, and began looking around.  Osborn and Razael slipped off to see what they could find, trying to stay hidden in case they were being watched.  The rest of the party meandered through the streets, not seeing anything unusual other than the fact that they were the only souls present.

They finally made it to the edge of the lake, and looked around, but saw nothing but empty fishing boats bobbing at their piers.  A couple of the boats had chunks missing from the sides.  Razael and Osborn came back a few minutes later.

“No sign of chuul tracks,” Razael said.  “Just what you’d expect to see.  I’d say they haven’t been in the town since the gnomes packed up and left.”

“No sense going to the market if the stalls are empty,” Lanara said.

“Well, something’s been through here,” Osborn said.  “I checked out a few of the homes, and it looks like they’ve been tossed by thieves.  Jewelry and valuables missing, stuff like that.”

“Thieves passing through?” Maddie asked, but Osborn shook his head.  “Zander said they haven’t had any strangers in town for months.  Even from where they are now, there’s no way they could miss people coming into this valley from either end.”

“One of their own, then, sneaking in at night to help themselves to their neighbor’s goods?” Razael asked.

“Doesn’t make sense.  It’s not in the nature of gnomes to steal from one another like that, and besides, where would a thief stash all that stuff?  In his tent?”  Osborn looked out across the lake.  “No, they’re all too terrified of the chuul for one of them to get the nerve to sneak back in here for that.”

Osborn noticed that Kyle was staring out across the water intently.  “Hey, pal!  What’s up?”

Kyle continued to look out across the water.  “Well, I’ll be.”

“What?” Autumn asked.

“The lake… there’s a Node out there somewhere.”

“Are you sure?”

Kyle nodded.  “I can’t tell what kind it is from here.  A Water Node is the most obvious, but in this situation I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a Fire Node.”

“A Fire Node would explain the heat, and the evil,” Arrie said.

Razael wandered off a short distance while the others discussed the Node.  He’d run across a few Nodes in his lifetime, and he didn’t see what the big deal was.  Arcanists seemed to go nuts over them, though.  “I’m going to check out the shoreline outside of town a bit,” he called out.  “Make sure those chuul haven’t thought to start exploring the rest of the valley looking for food.  Y’all stay put.”

It was about an hour before Razael came back, and the sun was already halfway below the edge of the mountains that surrounded them.  “I saw something I can’t make heads or tails of,” he said to the others.

“What was it?” Arrie asked.

“Well, down that way, I saw a set of tracks coming out of the water.  They were bipedal, like a man, and I’d say about the same size and weight as Kyle there.  But they had long, webbed toes – about three times as long as a human’s toes.”

“That is strange,” agreed Kyle.

“It gets better.  About ten paces from the edge of the lake, the tracks change into wolf tracks, and go off into the mountains.  I tracked them a bit, but lost the trail.”

“What on this earth would come out of the water and turn into a wolf?” Osborn asked.

“Were-duck?” Kyle said quietly.

“Yeah, you may be right there,” Razael said sarcastically.

“You said the tracks were humanoid?” Arrie said.

“Well, other than the webbed feet, yeah, the tracks look like what something shaped like a person would leave.  Before they turn into wolf tracks, that is.”

“Sounds like a druid,” Arrie said.  “They can turn into wild animals.”

“Yeah, but there ain’t no animals that leave webbed-feet tracks like that.”

“I think the webbed feet might be its natural form, Razael.”

“So,” Kyle said, “we’ve got an aquatic humanoid creature, probably evil, that can turn into other animals.  Osborn, didn’t you say that those houses looked like they’d been gone through deliberately?”

“Sure did.  Nothing professional by any means, but whoever did it knew what they wanted – jewelry boxes flipped, mattresses cut open, that kind of thing.”

“I’d suspect a water-touched druid,” Arrie said, “but stuff like this would be against their nature.  I have trouble picturing an evil water-touched.”

“It’s not impossible, though,” Kyle said.  “being Touched doesn’t automatically mean you follow the morals of your outsider ancestors.” Kyle hooked a thumb at Autumn.  “I’m sure there are a few evil aasimar out there.”

“There was that fire-touched tavern owner, Grog, from Dagger Rock,” Osborn said.  “He seemed a decent fellow.”

“And water-touched still look mainly human,” Kyle said, “not big webbed toes.”

“So, something extraplanetary?” Arrie asked.

“Well, any outsider with feet like that would probably come from Chelesta,” Kyle said.  “Krûsh’s planet is the only one that would require that.  And if they’re coming from there, then it really is impossible for them to be behind the chuul attacks or the burglaries.  Krûsh’s minions are good by nature.”

“What about kuo-toa?” Razael asked.  “They seem to fit the bill.  Didn’t think about them at first, seeing as the fish-men pretty much stay in the ocean.”

The others thought about Razael’s theory, and nodded.  “Kuo-toa do make sense,” Arrie agreed.  “Their priests do practice nature magic.  But why all the way up here?”

“Well, we could just feed the gnomes for another day, then head on out and send someone else to look at it.”

“No, I think we should investigate further,” Arrie said.  “I’m just saying that the theories we’re coming up with are…”

“Out there?” Razael finished for her.  “Not worth bothering with?”

Arrie sighed.  “Look at it this way, Razael.  The bigger name you make for yourself as a philanthropist out here…”

Razael interrupted.  “A what now?”

“A goody two-shoes,” Lanara said.

“The bigger reputation you make, the better chance you have of getting to return home to Tlaxan of your own choice and staying.”

 “Ain’t likely, Princess,” Razael said.  “I get in trouble there without even trying.  At least your husband only banishes me.  His father liked to have me whipped.”

There was an awkward moment of silence.  “So, thoughts?” Autumn asked at last.

“I think the kuo-toa theory is the best one we have,” Kyle said.  “The chuul could be acting as their allies, or their slaves.”

“It might explain the sharks, too,” Maddie said.  “The sharks could have been the kuo-toa druids watching the chuul to make sure nothing went wrong.”

“And coming into the town to steal,” Osborn said.  “Kuo-toa are pretty greedy.”

“Does anyone have any valuables?” Maddie said suddenly.

“Yes, but not that I’m giving to the fish-men,” Osborn said.

“No, I’m thinking that we bait whoever’s behind this.  They’re coming into town looking for jewelry and stuff, right?  So we set up a ‘shiny shrine’ and then hit them when they come to check it out.”

“An ambush?” Razael said, “sounds good.  We could set up a false camp with a few items scattered about, make it look like we’re scavengers or something.  Then we could just watch and see what happens.”

The others agreed to the plan.  They quickly went about setting up a camp, trying to make it look like it was being used.  Razael and Osborn took up positions to observe the camp while the others wandered about the town “exploring”.  It was morning by the time everyone came back to the camp, which had obviously been searched.

“Well, we called it right,” Razael said, “it’s the kuo-toa.  They came and looted the camp last night.  There were two of them, but I didn’t see any chuul.  I followed them back to the lake, and when I saw them swimming away I noticed that they were weaving and dodging back and forth.  I think they’ve figured out where the hotter parts of the lake are and have learned to avoid them.”

            Autumn sighed.  “Well, at least we know for sure what’s behind this.  Any sign they had fiendish blood?”

            Osborn shook his head.  “As far as I can tell, they were normal.  For fish-people, that is.”

            The party spent a few minutes reviewing what they remembered from their classes at the Tower about the kuo-toa, or what Razael remembered from his experiences.  Little of it explained why the amphibious creatures would be here, in a mountain lake so far from the ocean.

            “So, now what?” Arrie asked.

            “Well, for all we know there’s a whole colony of those fish-men down there,” Razael said.

            “So the gnomes should move,” Lanara suggested.

            “You may have it right, missy,” Razael agreed.  “We could send word to the government, let them know there’s an infestation up here.  That way we could leave.”

            “I like the way he thinks,” Lanara said.

            Kyle, however, scowled at the suggestion, and Xu shook her head.  “But where is the glory in that?  The honor?”

            “If you want glory, I can write a song,” Lanara said.

            “You know, you humans are just too absorbed in this glory concept.  I’ve been around for five hundred years, and it don’t matter what glory you’ve got.”

            “That’s because you have any,” Autumn said.

            “I don’t agree with that, and I’m not human,” Maddie said.

            “Me either,” Osborn chimed in.

            “You’re young,” Razael said to Maddie, “you’ll learn.”

            “Oh, thanks Daddy,” Maddie said sarcastically.

            “The thing is,” Kyle said, “we don’t know how extensive the problem really is.  It seems early to be talking about leaving and handing this mess off to someone else.”

            “Well, we can assume at least two monitors and a whip,” Razael said, using the kuo-toan titles for their monks and druids, “plus the chuul.”

            “I wonder if the chuul are treated as equals, or slaves.” Arrie mused.  “Maybe it’s a colony of kuo-toa and a separate colony of chuul.”

            “That seems a bit much,” Osborn said.

            “Here’s a crazy idea,” Lanara said, “why don’t we take this information to the gnomes, and let whoever’s in charge decide what they want to do?”

            “Well, that does make sense,” Autumn said.  “We can go back to them now and ask what they want us to do to help.”

            “Oh, goody,” Lanara said, “just in time for more root stew.”

            The party returned to the tent city and found Zander, who helped them locate the town’s mayor, a bright-eyed old gnomish woman by the name of Magladeena.  The party filled her in on the chuul and the kuo-toa, and what had been happening in the town since they had left.

            “Hmm,” Magladeena said, “this is disturbing.”

            “Well, at least the kuo-toa won’t bother you in the day,” Razael pointed out, “they can’t see.”

            “Yes, but the chuul can, have, and do,” the mayor pointed out.

            “Well, I’m just telling you, is all.”

            “Swell.  So, it’s move or die?”

            “That’s kind of what it sounds like,” Lanara said.

            “You could fight,” Maddie suggested.

            Magladeena scoffed.  “We can’t fight that,” she said, “none of us are strong enough.”

            “Do you have an army?” Xu asked.

            “Sort of.  The Provinces never needed a large army; were surrounded on all sides by the Dwarven Confederates.  What army we have is usually on the northern border, helping fight the goblins in the mountains.  Most of our military is in our navy, really, and even that isn’t large.  We gnomes are not an aggressive people, and we have few quarrels with anyone.”

            “Can you send to your capital for aid?” Maddie suggested.

            “Never been to Peca, have you?” Magladeena asked.  “We don’t have a capital.  We have a wandering monarch whose court travels all around from province to province.  But he’s more concerned with things pertaining to the nation as a whole; each province is self-governing.”

            “Do you want us to see if there’s anything we can do to clear up the problem?” Autumn asked.

“If you can do what you can, it would be appreciated,” Magladeena said.  “This is all we have.  If we leave here, we’re nothing but homeless beggars.”

            Behind her, Lanara slapped her forehead, and Razael sighed loudly.  Kyle, sitting next to Autumn, turned around and glared.

            “You know, if the two of you would like to leave, the river goes out that way,” he growled, pointing east.

            “Well, I can’t,” Razael said, glancing at Maddie.

            “That’s right,” the favored soul said to him.

            “Like it or not,” Kyle continued, “this is what we do.  If you don’t like it, then you have a choice to leave.”

            “The last time I went off by myself, it didn’t turn out too well,” Lanara observed.  “So I’ll stay.  I just don’t relish fighting fish-men.”

            “I’ve been doing things I don’t like since before you were born, Kyle,” Razael said, “so I can put up with it a bit more.”

            The party wandered out of the gnome’s tent city to discuss their plans.  “I suggest the following,” Arrie said.  “We’ve got one shot at surprise.  The kuo-toa are clever enough to figure things out once we give away that we’re here.  And obviously going down underwater where they have the advantage isn’t the best way to use that surprise.”

            “Remember that ambush we did once with the rope trick?” Maddie said.

            “Yeah, when I was pretending to be Aralda,” Lanara said.

            “When was this?” Razael asked.  “From what I heard, that was all before you met these folks, Madrone.”

            “Oh, did I say ‘we’?” Maddie blushed a little.  “I didn’t mean to include myself in that.  Of course I wasn’t there.”

            “I do remember,” Xu said.  “We used the rope trick to spring an ambush on some thieves.  Such a tactic might work again.”

            “Sure.  We set up the camp again, and then hit them when they come back,” Maddie said.

            “They probably will start bringing more people with them,” Arrie said thoughtfully, “since they already know that someone else is in the town too.”

            “I suggest we move the camp,” Razael said.  “The kuo-toa didn’t try to hide the fact that they’d been through our first camp, so if we set up again like nothing happened they’re bound to get suspicious.  So make it look like we moved somewhere safer.”

            “Good idea,” Arrie said.

            “What can we use against them to lure them out of the water otherwise?” Osborn asked.

            “Do they have a strong sense of community?”  Maddie wondered aloud.

            “Or an overdeveloped pride?” Kyle added.

            Razael shook his head.  “The fish-men tend to pretty much be out for themselves.  No real strong social bond, but sensible enough to stick together when things are rough.”

            “So, even if the ambush works and we take out a few,” Kyle said, “there’s no guarantee that having people missing will bring the rest of them up to find out what happened.”

            “Maybe not right away,” Madie said, “but in a couple of days, maybe.  They might not care about the missing people, but they will care that there aren’t any more valuables coming down to them.”

            “I think we should restock our campsite with some ‘shiny stuff’,” Osborn said, “just to make it look like we’re still working on scavenging and found a few more items.”

            “Okay, let’s take a look at the town and decide how to set this ambush up,” Arrie said.



*          *            *



            They were ready by afternoon.  They moved their ‘camp’ to the courtyard of a small inn, which gave only one access point to the area.  Razael took up a position on a distant rooftop overlooking the camp, while Xu and Lanara took up positions on the inn’s roof.  Kyle, Autumn, and Maddie chose to use Kyle’s rope trick to hide at the center of camp, while Arrie waited closer to the alley the kuo-toa would come through, hidden in a pile of rags and holding very still.  Osborn took up a position flanking the camp, near where Arrie was hiding.

            It was only a short time after sunset that Osborn heard the wet flapping of feet on the cobblestones.  The party watched as four figures emerged from the alley leading to the inn, looking around carefully as they approached the camp.  Two of the kuo-toa held spears and carried small shields on their arms.  The other two carried a pair of foot-long iron rods with large crossguards, a weapon that Xu had called ‘sai’.  The two with the sai, presumably the monitors, hung back near the alley while the two whips moved forward to explore the camp.

            Within seconds, it was over.  Arrows slammed into one of the monitors from several blocks away, and daggers perforated one of the whips.  Arrie rose up to menace the kuo-toa, as did Xu, leaping down from the roof.  The real impact, however, came from Autumn, who came down on top of one of the whips from the rope trick with her greataxe over her head, bringing it down and splitting the fish-man open.  Her momentum hardly spent, she continued the swing around in a circle as she stepped over to the second whip.  Already reeling from Osborn’s daggers, the whip wasn’t even able to bring an arm up to defend himself, and moments later the two halves of the whip hit the wall of the inn with a wet smack.

            The monitors tried to turn tail and run, as they were pelted with Arrie’s chain, Maddie’s quarterstaff, Razael’s arrows and Kyle’s spells.  They got about halfway down the alley before a shout spell from Kyle blasted one senseless, and Xu caught and killed the second with little effort.  Kyle quickly placed a resilient sphere around the lone remaining kuo-toa, and the party circled around it as they decided what to do.

            “Are we going to kill it?” Razael asked, as he walked up.

            “Let’s question him first,” Kyle said.  “Lanara?”

            “On it.”  The bard cast tongues on herself, then waited for Kyle to drop his spell.

            The kuo-toa did not resist when freed from the sphere, surrounded as he was by eight menacing figures.  Lanara tried a couple of times to charm the monitor in order to make interrogation easier, but the fish-man’s mind was as slippery as its body.  Finally, Lanara pulled out her fiddle and began to play, singing an entrancing song that wore away the kuo-toa’s resistance and made him amenable to influence.

            “I think that you should go back to the ocean after we talk to you, and take your friends with you.” Lanara told the monitor through her song.

            “I will do that,” gurgled the kuo-toa, “but the others will not like that.”

            “What others?” Kyle asked after Lanara translated, “how many?”

            Lanara relayed the question musically.  “When I leave, there will be four, plus The Claw, and his pets.”

            “Pets?”

            “You call them chuul.”

            “Define ‘The Claw’,” Lanara asked.

            “He is the leader, the Mighty Whip.  He says he came to us from the sun, and led us here from the ocean.”

            “Why did The Claw bring them here?” Kyle asked.

            “Easy prey,” came the answer.

            “Well, at least he gets points for being honest,” Autumn said.  “Ask what The Claw looks like.”

            “He is one of us, of course,” said the kuo-toa, “but his scales have been blackened by living in the sun.  He has a crown of horns on his head.  He also has… other limbs on his back, like those of the sky-swimmers.”

            “Wings,” Lanara interpreted.

            “Definitely fiendish,” Kyle said, “I’d go so far as to say a half-blood, or at least a quarter, if he really did ‘come from the sun’.”

            Autumn frowned.  “The direct spawn of the devils can be as formidable as their fiendish parent.”

            “Don’t forget,” Osborn said, “we’ve run into other people who’ve claimed they were ‘from the sun’ who really weren’t.  Remember Sun-Harrow and Takar?”

            “True,” said Arrie, “but Sun-Harrow and Takar were trying to subvert a clan of Grabâkh- worshipping orcs, so saying that made sense.  Since kuo-toa hate sunlight, it seems that claiming to be from the sun wouldn’t be a good selling point to claim leadership if it weren’t true.”

            “What else should I ask?” Lanara asked. 

            The kuo-toa relayed that besides The Claw, there were two more whips and two monitors, and a pair of chuul.  It was uncertain if the others would come up to the town once it was obvious that the four that had been sent tonight were not coming back.  The monitor said that they were living in a forgotten temple under the lakebed.  It told how The Claw was able to swim through the hottest part of the lake unharmed and tell the others what places to avoid, further cementing the idea that The Claw was a half-fiend.

            “What do you plan to do when the ‘food’ runs out?” Kyle asked.

            “I do not know.  The Claw will decide.”

            “Why did The Claw bring you here, in particular?” Lanara asked.

            “Easy prey,” the kuo-toa repeated.  “They have food, they have wealth; it is easy to take.”

            “So, basically your leader is lazy and is making you do all his work for him.”

            The monitor shrugged, as well as a fish-person could shrug.  “He finds us easy meat.  He finds us wealth.  We take it because we are strong enough to take it, and those who have it are not strong enough to keep it.”

            “Are we done with him?” Razael asked.

            No one could think of any other questions.  After a moment’s quiet discussion, Osborn stepped up and quickly  put a dagger into the kuo-toan’s spine, killing it painlessly.  Though Lanara’s suggestion would have caused it to leave as promised, the party surmised that it would likely have reported back to The Claw before going, ruining any element of surprise they had remaining.

            “Well, I say we wait a couple of days,” Razael suggested.  “See if any of the rest of them come up to see what’s happened.  I mean, the only other way they can find out what happened is through divination.” He turned to Kyle.  “In your experience, most of the time that divination stuff doesn’t sit well with those evil types, does it?  I mean, they don’t do it much, right?”

            “Oh, they do,” Kyle said.  “There’s nothing about being evil that prevents them from being smart.  But kuo-toa practice nature magic, and I don’t think nature magic is too strong in the area of divination.  Of course, The Claw could be a priest of Grabâkh, and he might have some things he could do.”

            “I agree with Razael,” Autumn said.  “Let’s wait a day or two and see what happens.”

            “After that, we can consider storming the water,” Razael said, “though I don’t relish that idea.”

            “Should we leave the bodies where they can be found?” Maddie asked.

            “Or throw them into the lake,” Xu suggested.

            “I don’t think so,” Kyle said.  “Let’s not tip our hand right away.”

            “Okay, then,” Arrie said, “let’s get to work on setting up a camp in town – a real one, somewhere safe and hidden.  And then, we can wait.”

*          *            *

            After two days of waiting, the group decided they needed a new plan.

            The remaining kuo-toa, as far as anyone could tell, had not come into the gnomish fishing town to look for their missing men.  The party spent their days sleeping and exploring the town, except for Razael, who would go out hunting in the surrounding mountains to provide food for the gnomes.  They quietly observed Xu’s 21st birthday the day after the ambush, promising her a more elaborate celebration later even as she insisted that it was unnecessary.  They found that the town had already been fairly thoroughly looted by the kuo-toa, and the local temple of Krûsh had been defiled.

            “So, it looks like we might have to goad them a bit,” Kyle observed.  The party was sitting in their hidden campsite, waiting for Razael to get back from a hunting trip.  The tracker had been seen little in the last two days; he stood both the first and last watches, and was out most of the day.  “Maybe write some offensive graffiti on a rock and throw it in the lake?”

            “What kind of graffiti would be offensive to a fiendish kuo-toa?” Osborn asked.

            “I don’t know… pictures of happy dolphins beating up fish people, sunny days, that kind of thing.”

            Razael walked into the small storage building they’d commandeered and sat down.  “Found something interesting,” he said.

            “What?” asked several people at once.

            “You remember those tracks I found a couple days ago, the webbed feet that turned into wolf tracks?”

            “Yeah, the kuo-toan druids that were shifting into wolves,” Arrie remembered.

            “Well, I spotted a new set of those tracks, fresh from last night.  Seems it was out looking for something.  There was another set like that in another spot on the beach, probably from two nights ago.”

            “So they are coming up, just not into the town,” Arrie said.  “Why?  Is there anything in this area they’d be interested in?”

            Everyone shook their head indicating that they had not heard of anything significant being in this area.  “Of course, that Node’s here,” Kyle mentioned, “and no one knew about that.”

            “Can’t you wizards get control of those Nodes?” Razael asked.

            “Yes, but not from here.  I think this is a pretty low-powered Fire Node, so I’d have to be right on top of it to control it.”

            “Okay, then,” Razael said, “we tie a rope around your waist and a rock to your ankle, and send you down.”

            Autumn glared at the old elf to indicate she didn’t approve of his plan.

            “I have a question,” Arrie said, “if the kuo-toa can come up out of the lake pretty much anywhere, how far can they get away from the water?”

            “As far as they like, I’d guess, especially if they’re shifted into the shapes of land animals,” Kyle said.

            “Well, then, should we be leaving the gnomes unprotected?”

            “That’s a good point,” Osborn said.  “Even if the kuo-toa don’t try anything, there’s other dangerous stuff in the mountains out there, and those gnomes aren’t in a very safe spot right now.”

            “Maybe a couple of us should go back to the camp and stay there, just in case,” Kyle said.

            They ended up drawing straws to see who would go, and Autumn and Osborn were chosen.  Osborn mentioned as they packed up to leave that it would be nice to spend a little time around some properly sized people.

            “I can start patrolling the shore at night,” Razael offered after Autumn and Osborn left.  “See if I can pick up one of their trails and figure out what they’re looking for out there.”

            “Sounds good to me,” Kyle said.

            The others agreed to the plan as well.  Razael went outside the town at sunset, and began walking up and down the shore of the lake, watching steam rise as the air over the water cooled.  As near as he could figure, the fish-men were coming onto land at random spots.  He’d have to be lucky to run across tracks that were fresh enough to be useful for his purpose.

            As it happened, Ladta smiled upon him.  He came across a new set of the changing prints in the pebbly sand surrounding the lake, no more than fifteen minutes old.  Razael quickly studied the tracks carefully, memorizing the details in the prints as well as calling on his Talent to allow him to pick up the subtleties of the druid’s scent.

            He followed the ‘wolf’, staying apace of it but not catching up, as he didn’t want to alert the kuo-toa to his presence.  He noted that once it reached the foothills, the wolf began moving about randomly, looking like it was searching for something.  Eventually the wolf turned and started heading back to the lake.  Razael tried to speed up to catch the druid, but by the time he got to the lake he saw the kuo-toa as a dark shadow in the water, swimming away.

The next morning Razael returned to relay his findings.  “Hey, sexy,” Lanara called out to him as he came inside.

“Love you too, darling,” he replied.

Kyle looked at the two of them.  “Are the two of you going to need a tent of your own soon, or something?”

“Nah, just need a new playmate,” Lanara said.  “Some things aren’t as much fun with Maddie as they were with Kavan.”

“Maybe you should try it sometime and see if that’s true,” Maddie said, smiling.

“Okay, I think Razael wants to tell us about his night, doesn’t he?” Arrie said, a little too loudly.

“Yeah, well, I got lucky, ran across the trail of one of those kuo-toan whips, out wandering around in the mountains.  It seems they aren’t interested in the gnomes, at least for now.”

            “So, what could they be looking for?” Kyle wondered.

            “Actually, come to think of it, it wasn’t like it was looking for something,” Razael said, “more like someone.  But someone that wasn’t there.”

            “So, it’s crazy,” Arrie said.

            “No, I’d guess it was looking for the ones we killed,” Razael said.  “So, should I give them a toe?”

            “Don’t you need all of yours?” Lanara asked.

            “I was thinking of the fish-men’s toes, thanks.”

            “Isn’t it kind of odd that they’re looking for them way out there, when up until now the kuo-toa have been coming into the town?” Kyle asked.

            “It don’t make a lot of sense to me, either,” Razael admitted.

            “Maybe they think that the missing ones found some really sparkly bit of treasure and they ran off with it instead of bringing it back to The Claw,” Maddie suggested.

            “That makes sense, actually,” Arrie said.  “Kuo-toa are pretty greedy and don’t have a huge sense of loyalty.”

            “But they probably need those missing people back,” Maddie continued, “because now there’s not enough of them left to threaten the town.”

            Kyle thought for a while, but then sighed.  “That won’t work,” he said.

            “What, Kyle?” Arrie asked.

            “Well, I was thinking that we could try and disguise ourselves as the missing kuo-toa in order to get close enough to take them out.  But it’d have to be a magical disguise, and the only spell I know that would come close to doing that is alter self. But there’s limits on how far away I can get from ‘human’ with that spell, and ‘kuo-toa’ is too much of a change.”

            “Well, we could always let Maddie skin the dead ones we have, and we could disguise ourselves that way,” Arrie suggested.

            They all looked at Arrie, and then at Maddie, whose expression did not indicate whether she was offended or excited by this proposition.

            “You know, I’ve done that before,” Razael said, “and it worked pretty well.  But that was with a mammal.  I don’t know how well it would work with scales.”

            “Um, I probably should go ahead and lodge my official protest against the idea of mutilating corpses and defiling the dead,” Kyle said, “seeing as I’m apparently the only one here now with any morals.”

             Maddie gave a slight shrug, as did Razael.  Arrie, Xu, and Lanara said nothing.  “Look, Kyle, I understand your point,” Razael said, “but at this point, what use do the kuo-toa have for it?”

            “I’m just saying, that’s all,” Kyle said.

            “Well, if you’ve got an alternative, I’d love to hear it,” the tracked said.  “I ain’t too keen on getting inside a fish-man skin.”

            Kyle sighed.  “Nothing off the top of my head.”

            But nearby, Maddie and Arrie were whispering excitedly to themselves.  “Hey, Kyle?” Arrie said.

            “Yeah?”

            “Come with us,” Maddie insisted.



*          *            *



            Kyle, Osborn, and Razael looked up at the three story house, and then, despite knowing that the town was abandoned, still looked up and down the street out of habit before walking in.

            The home had once belonged to a gnomish illusionist named Bilkin, who was one of the kidnapping victims when the kuo-toa had first started raiding the town.  Maddie and Arrie had come across the house yesterday while wandering around, and though they saw nothing of interest, they could tell the home belonged to a mage of some sort.  They had managed to track down the illusionist’s apprentice, a gnomish woman named Okam, who confirmed her master’s abduction.

            “I was out with… a gentleman that night,” she explained.  “Master Bilkin was gone when I came home the next morning.”

            “Do you know where he kept his spellbooks?” Kyle asked.

            “In his study on the third floor,” Okam said.  “Though I don’t know beyond that.  The master never let me into the study.  I do know that you have to turn the knob twice to the left and once to the right to open it.”  She thought for a moment.  “Or was it once to the left and twice to the right?”

            “Mind if we take a look?” Kyle asked.  “Your master may have had spells that would be useful to us to help save the town.”

            “I don’t see why not.  It’s not like he’s using it any more.”

            Osborn studied the knob on the study door while Kyle and Razael stood nearby.  Then the hin reached out and turned the knob once, pushing the door open.

            “Seems as though Bilkin liked to play tricks on his apprentice,” Osborn said.  “Nothing unusual with the door at all.”

            They stepped into a small, slightly dusty room.  Gnome-sized bookshelves lined the walls, and a desk sat in the middle on top of a brightly colored rug.

            “Wow,” Kyle said, looking around.

            “What’s the big deal?” Razael said, “they’re just… books.”

            “There’s a lot of magical auras in here,” Kyle said.  “Mostly illusion.  I’d guess most of them are false auras.  Kind of a little obvious, really – if it were me, I’d just hit a few odd items in the room with the fake enchantments.  When you cover everything in magic, you know it can’t all be real.”

            Kyle tried to hit the room with an area dispel to clear out the numerous decoy auras, but the spells were well-established and didn’t respond to his attempt to disrupt them.  Kyle went about the slow process of hunting for Bilkin’s spellbooks, while Osborn and Razael sat back and waited.  Besides the books on arcane theory, there were several philosophical texts about the nature of reality and the meaning of life.  Razael picked up a book and started reading.

            Eventually, Kyle found two spellbooks.  Pulling them out, Kyle sat down on the floor and started reading, as the desk was far too small for him to sit at.

            “You know, you can just take those with you,” Razael said.

            “Oh, sorry,” Kyle said.  “You guys don’t need to stay here.  I’ll be a while.”

            “No, I mean, you can take those with you,” Razael repeated.

            “But… they’re not mine.”

            Razael just stared at Kyle.  “The illusionist is dead.”

            “So, these should stay here and go to his kin, or to Okam, if she wants them.  I just need to borrow them to see if there’s any illusion spells I can use.”

            “We could just tell Okam we didn’t find the books,” the elf suggested.

            “Yeah,” Kyle said, “but there’s that whole ‘morals’ thing I mentioned before.”

            Razael shook his head.  “Whatever makes you feel better.”

            It took Kyle the rest of the next day to decipher the spellbook.  He found an illusion spell that would help him create the image of four living, breathing kuo-toans that could be used to fool The Claw’s minions.  At first it was suggested that they have the illusion swim back to the underwater temple, with the ‘dead’ party in tow, but that proved too logistically problematic.  Then Maddie suggested that they instead place the illusion somewhere in the mountains, and have the kuo-toa act as if celebrating.

            “The ones that are searching for them think they’ve run off, right?” the favored soul said, “so we make it look like that’s what happened.  Lure them to the cave, and then jump them.”

            It took another day to find a suitable location in a shallow cave, and set up the ambush.  Razael created a very faint scent trail to the cave using what remained of the dead kuo-toa, then sat on the trail leading up to the cave and acted as a sentry in order to give Kyle enough notice to cast his spell.  Autumn and Osborn were pulled in from their guard duty, and they sat back and waited.  Luck was with them, and about an hour after sunset a lone wolf approached the cave, saw the illusion of the dancing kuo-toa, and shifted back into its natural form.

            The ambush they had staged several nights ago had been a bloodbath when it was eight against four.  At eight against one, it was almost a non-event.

            They staged a successful second ambush against another kuo-toan whip the next night (with the illusion appropriately adjusted to include five of the fish-men).  No other scouts came for the next two nights, lending credence to the claims of their former captive that only two whips had remained among The Claw’s forces.
            “Well, looks like we have to go down there and get him,” Arrie said in the morning after they returned from their last night at the cave.

            “Problem is that we don’t exactly know where ‘down there’ is,” Lanara said.

            “I could summon a celestial companion that could swim down and find this temple,” Autumn offered.

            “What about the heat?” Arrie asked.

            “I can take care of that,” Kyle said.  “I’ve had a resist energy ready to go since the first day we started dealing with this.”

            The party walked to the edge of the lake, where Autumn summoned a celestial dolphin and Kyle cast his spell on the animal.  The dolphin swam away, returning two hours later.  The dolphin sat at the lake’s edge, looking up at Autumn, then began chattering.

            “What’s it say?” Razael asked.

            “The link between us is mostly empathic,” Autumn explained, “so I don’t know what he’s actually ‘saying’.  But he’s fairly intelligent, smart enough to know what we’re looking for.  I think…” she paused a moment.  “Yes, I can sense where he’s been.  The temple’s at the bottom of the lake, almost right in the middle.”  She paused for another moment.  “There’s a few dangerously hot areas between here and the temple.  I can’t get a sense of exactly where they are, but we’ll have to watch out for them.”  She paused one more time, then smiled.  “And he wants some fish now.”

            After feeding the dolphin a few fish they’d found in a cold storage warehouse in town, it promptly vanished.  “Looks like we have some planning to do,” Arrie said.  “Let’s go discuss what to do, and we can get some sleep tonight.  May as well plan our attack for the next morning, when the kuo-toa will be sleepy.”

            The next morning, they were ready.  The party elected to have Autumn and Osborn remain with the gnomes again, just in case things went poorly below and they needed to help protect the townsfolk against attack.  Leaving two people behind also extended the time for Kyle’s water breathing spell by nearly an hour, which they figured would give them enough time to get down and back.

            They eased into the warm water.  Arrie and Xu, who were stronger swimmers, stayed close to Razael and Lanara to help them along.  Kyle used a spell that changed him into a shapeless, ooze-like mass that was able to swim easily through the water, and he stayed close to Maddie to help her.  It was slow going; they swam almost straight down, and then followed the lakebed.  Several times they had to pull up short to avoid a geothermal vent; though scalding water scorched several of them, none of them were seriously burned.

            They finally reached the temple, a squat, solid structure half buried in muck.  Bubbles rose from several spots on the roof, and the water surrounding the temple was quite warm, even by the lake’s standards. They located a set of stairs at the bottom of the mound of muck leading up into the temple.  A few steps up, they broke through the surface of the water and found the temple was filled with air.

            “Odd,” Arrie said, coming up out of the water.

            “The kuo-toa did say that there was air in the temple,” Kyle said.

            “Yeah, but I thought he meant a couple of stale bubbles of air in a corner somewhere.”

            “Any reason you can think of why this air is here, Kyle?” Lanara asked.

            He shrugged as he started passing out light globes to the party.  “Could be a lot of things.  Interaction between the Fire Node and the lake water, maybe.  Maybe the whips created this air pocket on purpose.  Maybe…”

            Suddenly, both Maddie and Razael hissed “Quiet!” and pointed to the left, down a corridor at the end of the stairs.  Pausing, everyone heard the rapid approach of scuttling, chitin-covered feet.

            Arrie and Xu ran forward just as the first chuul came up to the stairs, lashing out with its claws and tentacles. Unlike most creatures of its kind, this one was covered in blackened chitinous armor, which betrayed its fiendish nature. A second one was right behind it, but was unable to crawl past its companion, and was forced to wait.  The two women were able to ward off the chuul’s initial attacks, striking back in return, but the creature’s hard carapace resisted their blows.  Maddie enveloped everyone with the power of a lesser vigor before stepping up to combat the creature, while Kyle tried to blast it with magic missiles, but the bolts of energy dissipated harmlessly, disrupted by the chuul’s magical resistance.

            Razael stepped forward, it between the chuul and Maddie.  “What’re you doing up here, woman?” he shouted.  He turned to fire arrows at the chuul, but had to get close in order to get a good shot, and was quickly snatched up by a large claw and stuffed into the chuul’s tentacle-ringed maw.  Lanara, in a panic, dropped a sound burst into the midst of the melee, which hurt everyone except the chuul.

            Xu ran up, and with a well-placed series of kicks, caused the chuul to drop Razael.  Razael stood and staggered away as Xu continued her assault, felling the fiendish creature.  Maddie came up and healed the tracker even as he fired a shot at the second chuul, which was already advancing on the group.

            More magic missiles flew through the air, this time penetrating the chuul’s natural resistance.  Arrie also lashed out at the chuul, first hurling a shotput then lashing out with her spiked chain.  The aquatic creature fought back, striking both Xu and Razael again, requiring Maddie to expend more healing energy on the old elf.

            “Who’s protecting who, again?” Kyle said quietly to Lanara.

            “I was just wondering that myself,” she replied.

            “As long as I’m taking it, she’s not!” Razael said through gritted teeth, even as Kyle sent more magic missiles at the chuul.  “Don’t you have anything better than a magic missile?”

            “Yes, but why would I waste them on these things?” Kyle replied.

            By this time the chuul had decided it disliked being repeatedly struck in the head and body.  Unfortunately, the room in which their master had ordered them to wait and attack any intruders had no other exits, and so retreat was impossible.  Moments later, the battle was over.

            Lanara walked up and pressed a vial into Razael’s hand, even as Maddie poured more divine energy into healing his wounds.  “Here.  It’s a healing potion.  Are you going to be all stupid and not take it?”

            “Well, I’ve stopped bleeding,” he said.  “I’ll probably just put it in my pouch for now.”

            “Drink it!” Lanara snapped.  “Arrie’s our stupid one, drink the damn thing!”  Lanara started to stomp off.  “Sorry, Arrie!” she called back.

            Razael looked at Arrie, who shrugged.  “I haven’t needed a healing potion for a really long time.”

            Kyle walked up, and winked at Arrie.  “Gee, think that there’s something more to Lanara’s grumpiness toward Razael than meets the eye?”

            The party spent a few moments preparing themselves before moving on, casting spells on themselves.  Then they moved down the corridor to their right, Arrie in the lead.  They came to a T intersection, and split up when they saw that each hallway turned again a short distance away.  Arrie went to look around the right corner; Xu went to the left, while the rest of the party waited in the middle.

            “I can’t see the end of my corridor,” Arrie said.

            “I see a door, perhaps forty feet down on the opposite wall,” Xu said.

            They decided to check the door first.  Opening the door, they saw it led to a short, twenty-foot long corridor that ended in another door.  Kyle noted that the doors were made of a blackened, petrified wood.  On the other side of the door was a chamber they could only assume was a kuo-toan bedroom.  A pile of wet rags was in the center of the room, and they saw several large, black scales on the floor.  Gnomish bones littered the floor, and in one corner a gnomish head sat, some flesh still clinging to the skull.  After a cursory search, the party backed up and went back around to the corridor Arrie had looked down.  About a hundred feet down, they came to another door.  On the other side of the door, they could hear a low rushing sound, like a raging bonfire.  The door was very warm.

            “I think we’ve found the Node, Kyle,” Arrie said.  “Think The Claw will be in here?”

            “Probably,” he said.  “Especially if he knows we’re here.”

            Everyone got ready, casting their last-minute preparatory spells and readying their weapons.  Then, with a sharp blow from Arrie’s boot, the door burst open and they rushed inside.

            The hallway on the other side continued for a few feet before turning to the left.  Stairs let up into a small chamber, where two kuo-toans waited at the top, each bearing a pair of sai.  The center of the room was filled with what looked like a pit of leaping flames, extending at least five feet into the air and filling the air with a visible heat shimmer.  Standing in the back corner of the room, obscured by the flames, was a large kuo-toan with black scales and large wings.  Sharp claws extended from each hand.

            “Oh, good,” Razael said.  “They have the fire pit ready for an old-fashioned fish fry.”

            The kuo-toan in the back, who could only be The Claw, pointed at the party and burbled something in their native tongue.  Everyone glanced at Lanara, who had cast a tongues spell.  “He said, ‘Get them!’” she said.  “Come on, did you really need me to tell you that?”

            The party rushed forward even as the two monitors braced for the assault.  Lanara’s bardic music echoed through the small chamber as Arrie and Xu moved up to engage the two monks.  The monitors attempted to disarm Arrie’s spiked chain, but despite their speed and precision, she managed to keep her grip on the weapon.  Xu slammed a fist into one of the monitor’s heads as she moved past quickly, tumbling inside the room.

            The others crowded forward, waiting for an opening into the room.  Kyle used magic to try and improve his aim, and then fired a dimensional anchor at The Claw.  Unfortunately, even with his enhanced accuracy the leaping flames made it difficult to see, and the green ray hit the back wall of the room with no effect.  Razael also fired at The Claw, and although he managed to hit, most of the arrows bounced off its magically toughened scales.  Only one lodged in the kuo-toan’s chest, piercing his lung.  In response The Claw gestured, and blasted the party with a flame strike, missing only the ever-cautious Lanara, who was outside the pillar of flame, and Razael, who managed to dodge out of the way just in time.

            Arrie and Xu forced an opening, and the party began to push through.  Between the assault of Xu’s fists, Arrie’s chain, and a searing light from Maddie, one of the monitors fell in a bloody heap, its blood sizzling against the hot stones in the floor.  This gave them the opening they needed to get to The Claw himself.  Xu punched and kicked at the fiendish kuo-toa, finding her blows were nearly ineffective against his stone-hard flesh.

As more arrows also flew in at him from Razael, The Claw spat out more orders, and the remaining monitor concentrated its attacks on the tracker, whittling down his vitality with a combination of magical fire and cold damage from his sai.  Maddie stepped up to help, bashing the monitor with her quarterstaff.  Razael, irritated that he was not only being hit once again but also that Maddie was again putting herself in harm’s way, snarled as he shot the monitor at point-blank range, killing it.

            Kyle moved forward and tried another spell, one meant to blind The Claw.  The spell managed to penetrate his fiendish resistances, and overcome his formidable constitution, and The Claw’s eyes turned white as his sight was stolen from him.  The Claw roared in rage and swung wildly with its claws in the air.  A moment later, he regained his composure and summoned a fire elemental next to him.  The elemental surged forward and swung a flaming appendage at Kyle, badly burning him.

            “I’ll keep this thing busy!” Kyle shouted, as he conjured up a lance of force and began jabbing the elemental, “You go after The Claw!”

            Xu jumped over the Fire Node, easily clearing the leaping flames to get to the other side of the room where she would be safe from attacks from the elemental.  She punched at The Claw, hoping to stun him, but wasn’t able to land her blow in the right spot.  Arrie stepped up behind Xu, swinging her chain over Xu’s head.  From across the room, Lanara launched magic missiles from a wand, though they did not penetrate The Claw’s resistances.  Arrie managed to wrap her chain around The Claw’s feet, and pulled the blind kuo-toan whip off his feet.  Now under serious pressure, The Claw uttered words of magic and gestured out into the room, and suddenly the room was filled with a storm of fist-sized hail that pounded down on everyone.

            It was an act of futility.  By that time Arrie and Xu had established a steady rhythm of knocking The Claw off his feet, then pounding him while down.  Razael would shoot more arrows into him when he did rise.  Soon they managed to overcome the stoneskin spell protecting the fiendish kuo-toa, and that spelled a quick end for The Claw.  As he collapsed, the fire elemental vanished in a burst of heat and ash.

            They spent another hour looking through the temple, collecting valuables.  Most of the back portion of the temple was flooded, and appeared to be where the lesser kuo-toa had slept.  There was far too much for them to gather it all up and get it back to the surface before their water breathing spell expired, so they decided to come back the next day, taking with them only the personal possessions of the kuo-toa, as well as the corpse of The Claw and one of the chuul to show the gnomes that it was safe to return home.

            That evening, the party was treated to a celebration, hastily thrown together by the gnomes as they returned to their town.  There would be much work ahead for the gnomes to rebuild and catch up on their lost months of fishing, but tonight that was a distant consideration for everyone.  Kyle returned Bilkin’s spellbooks to Okam, though she said that he was free to copy anything he’d like before they left.

            The next day was spent in hauling treasure up from the temple and sorting through it.  Autumn and Osborn volunteered to go down to recover the valuables, not only because neither of them had been able to see the temple before, but because Autumn’s portable hole and Osborn’s skills at searching for hidden stashes of goods would make the job easier.  They would have been ready to depart by the next morning, but they decided to stay one more day, mostly because the next day, the 28th of Canith, was Autumn’s twentieth birthday.

            It was a simple celebration, with the town having little to offer in the way of amenities and the party having had no chance to prepare or buy gifts.  Autumn insisted that none of it was necessary, that all she wanted was to be with her friends and family.  The one gift she did accept from the party, however, was when they offered to let her and Kyle spend the afternoon and evening together alone.  Kyle borrowed one of the gnomish fishing boats, and the two of them sailed out across the lake, heading for the far shore.

            They returned much later, as the sun was starting to disappear behind the mountains.  They walked back into the inn where they’d been put up by the gnomes (the same inn that they’d used to stage their ambush of the kuo-toa in the town), walking with their arms around each other and smiling.

            “Have a good time?” Arrie asked when they walked in.
            Lanara stood and walked over to them, and plucked a blade of the long, thin grass that grew near the shore of the lake out of Autumn’s hair.  “I’d say they did,” she said.

            “So, what else did you two do?” Maddie asked.

            “Oh, I just gave Autumn her birthday present,” Kyle said.

            “We know that, Kyle,” Lanara said, “we asked what else you did.”

            A small smile crept onto Arrie’s face.  “So, what did you get, Sis?”

            Grinning ear to ear, Autumn held out her left hand.  Sitting on her finger was a large, sparkling sapphire ring.

            “We’re engaged,” she said.


----------



## Delemental

*Storm of Chaos*

It only took a day for the party to exit the mountains and reach the wide, fertile plains of the Peca Provinces.   The branch of the river they had followed rejoined the Plingold, and they followed the north bank, intending to cut north in another week and aim for the city of Tengolt, where they could use the tunnels dug under the Confederates to reach Tlaxan.  With the weather fair, they expected to reach Noxolt in a little over a month, close to Midsummer.

During their travels, Arrie made use of the sending enchantment in her wedding ring to communicate with Herion, giving him the specifics on the ship they would need to make their journey to the southern pole.  Though trying to impart so much information at twenty-five words a day was frustrating, the party hoped that by the time they reached Noxolt, some of the groundwork might have been laid so that they could start their voyage as quickly as possible.

            About three days after leaving the mountains, the party saw a rather large ship coming toward them, traveling on the Plingold heading upstream at an unusually rapid pace.

            “Can you see who it is?” Arrie shouted at Maddie and Razael, who had both walked to a higher spot to get a better look at the approaching vessel.

            “They’re flying a flag,” Razael said.  “Yellow, with blue symbols.”

            “Those are government banners,” Lanara said to everyone.  “Probably the provincial governor.”  She called up to the two elves, “Can you see what the symbols are?  Every governor has a different symbol.”

            “I thought you said you’d never been in the Provinces,” Kyle said to Lanara.

            “I’m a bard.  It’s my job to know things.”  She shouted out again.  “Anything?”

            “Just a minute,” Maddie called back.  “The wind’s shifting a bit, so we’ll get a better look… yes, there it is.  Looks like two dolphins circling a star with several points, not quite twenty, I’d say.”

            Lanara blinked in surprise.  “Are you sure?”

            “That’s what I see, too,” Razael said.  “What’s the big deal?”

            Lanara smiled.  “It’s the Overgovernor.”

            The cansin’s assertions were confirmed about thirty minutes later, when two small gnomish craft flying the same yellow and blue banner sailed up the river and approached the group.  Uniformed sailors on the deck informed them that Overgovernor Garlen had requested the honor of meeting them, and had dropped anchor a short distance away.  As they followed the ships back downstream from the bank, Lanara and Arrie explained politics in the Provinces.

            “Every province has a governor, of course,” Arrie said, “and for the most part they’re in charge of affairs in their territory.  The governors elect an Overgovernor to represent the nation as a whole, to coordinate the military, and so on.  They serve for ten years.”

            “Unless he’s voted out by two-thirds of the governors,” Lanara added.  “They only do that if the Overgovernor goes crazy, or senile or something.”

            “So, where does the Overgovernor, well, govern?” Kyle asked.

            “Well, they couldn’t really decide where to put a capital city,” Lanara explained.  “Thought it wouldn’t be fair for one province to have that kind of clout.  So, the Overgovernor just travels with his court all over the place.  Sails up and down the coast and the two main rivers.  Rather than people going to the Overgovernor when there’s trouble, he comes to them.”

            “Interesting way of doing things,” Maddie said.

            “It works for the gnomes,” Arrie said.  “Of course, I can’t see where governing a race that tends toward decent behavior and fairness would be terribly difficult.”

            The party made their way to the Overgovernor’s vessel. The massive ship had lowered a ramp onto the north bank, and a number of people had disembarked to greet them.   Several people in smaller ships surrounding the Overgovernor’s vessel sailed by to wave at the visitors.  Most were gnomish, with several water-touched, a few aasimar, and a scattering of other races, though orcs and orc-touched were notably absent.  The Overgovernor’s ship itself was larger than any other vessel they’d ever seen, with sails that seemed to be spun out of fine silk rather than sailcloth.  Despite its size, it seemed to just barely rest in the water, betraying the fact that the ship was enhanced with powerful enchantments.

After dismounting, the horses were led to a hastily assembled canvas shelter to be cared for.  The party was offered a few moments to freshen up in more tents erected for privacy, before being escorted on board.  They were led to the rear of the ship, and taken down into the lower decks, where they were stopped in front of a plain-looking door flanked by two gnomish guards.

            “The Honorable Overgovernor Garlen awaits inside,” one of the guards announced.

            “This is it?” Razael whispered to Arrie.  “We get to cram into the cabin with the king of the gnomes?”

            “Yes, Razael,” Arrie whispered back, “and if one of your snide comments that you think no one else hears reaches his ears, I won’t wait for Herion’s permission to have you flogged and executed.”

            Razael smiled at her.  “You know, at times you remind me of Herion’s dad.”

            The party cautiously opened the door, wondering if they’d all fit or if they’d have to take turns.  By their best guess, the room beyond was only about ten feet from the outer hull.

Going through the door, they each stepped into an enormous indoor courtyard, surrounded by fountains.  Flowering plants all around them were home to dozens of tiny songbirds flitting about.

            “Extradimensional,” Kyle said, looking around, “makes perfect sense.  Opulent enough for a head of state, but portable.”

            “And makes it darned hard for the enemy to figure out what part of my ship to shoot,” said a jolly voice.  The party turned to see a throne appear suddenly at one end of the courtyard, supported by a small, shallow dais.  Sitting in the throne was a wrinkled old gnome with bright eyes and a snow-white mustache that matched his hair.  A crown of coral and pearls sat on his head.

            “And I assure you that we do have them,” the gnome said.  “Enemies, that is.  Does tend to make governing a bit… terribly difficult at times.”  He glanced quickly at Arrie as he spoke his last comment.

            Arrie bowed, and turned a little red.  “You Honor, I assure you that I…”

            “Psh!” Garlen said, waving Arrie down.  “There’s far worse been said about me and my country, Princess.  The truth is that we gnomes aren’t a hard lot to please as long as you know how to listen to them.”  He smiled.  “And I do know how to listen.”  Garlen plucked the coral crown off his head and set it aside.  “Forgive the pomp.  My advisors insist I need to make an impression on visitors, look as impressive as the kings and emperors that run the other countries.”

            There were a series of quick bows and introductions.  “May we ask why we’ve been invited, Your Honor?” Autumn asked.

            “Of course you may, Duchess,” the Overgovernor said, then added, “well, officially I should say almost-Duchess, right?”

            “Of course, Your Honor.”  There were a few moments of awkward silence before Autumn spoke again.  “Excuse me, Your Honor?”

            “Yes?”

            “You haven’t answered my question.”

            “Of course I did, dear.  You asked if you could ask why you were invited to see me, and I gave you permission to ask.”  He winked at her.  “First rule of being in charge, almost-Duchess.  Choose your words carefully.”  Garlen looked over to Kyle.  “You’d best pay attention to this too, you know.  From what I hear you’re an almost-almost-Duke yourself.  Congratulations, by the way, though I don’t envy you the conversation with her parents.  No offence to either of you, I hope,” he said, nodding toward Arrie and Autumn.

            “None taken,” Arrie said.  “So, Your Honor, why have we been invited to see you?”

            “Oh, well, I just wanted to extend my personal thanks to you for your assistance in helping my people with that kuo-toa incursion.  We were coming out this way anyway – seems with the slide in the pass between M’ioch and Krek, there’s been a lot more traffic coming down the Plingold, and the provincial governor’s asked for assistance with supplies and logistics and such.  Since my ship was close, and I heard you were heading this way, I decided to make a stop.”

            “You honor us, Your Honor,” Lanara said.

            “Please, it’s nothing,” Overgovernor Garlen said.  “I’m especially pleased to meet you, Lanara Rahila.  I’ve heard that you’ve made quite an impression on Tlaxan’s Imperial Court.  Of course, I’d expect someone who possessed one of the True Instruments to do great things.”  The Overgovernor pointed at the fiddle strapped to Lanara’s back, and then lovingly rested his hand on a magnificent harp resting near his throne.

            “You’re a bard?” Lanara asked.

            “Many of Peca’s Overgovernors have been bards,” Garlen replied.  “Bards make the best leaders, you know; very knowledgeable, very persuasive, know how to entertain, and know how to find things out.  Plus, I save a fortune by not having to hire entertainers.”  He grinned and winked again.  “Oh, and by the way, what you did with her twin sister?  I loved that.  Very ironic.”

            The party looked at each other, slightly uncertain.  “Your Honor,” Lanara said, “we appreciate your compliments.  You certainly seem… very well informed about us.”

            “Of course I am!  It’s my job to know things, especially when they pertain to my kingdom!  I’m a bard, remember?  And a pretty good one, too, so I know how to find things out.  Besides, it wasn’t as hard as you might think.  You bunch are better known that you realize, I think.”

            Overgovernor Garlen waved a hand in the air, as if swatting something away.  “Well, enough stroking your egos.  Vain adventurers quickly become useless adventurers, if you ask my opinion.  And I know you didn’t, but you get to hear it anyway.  It’s good to be in charge.”  Garlen laughed at his own joke before continuing.  “Anyway, rest assured that the plight of the town you just saved hasn’t gone unnoticed.  I’m sending a few people up that way to assist with the rebuilding, and I’ll be advising the provincial governor to post a small garrison up there.  After all, we can’t have our nation’s natural resources being tampered with.”

            The tone in Garlen’s voice told the party that when he said ‘resources’, he wasn’t talking about exotic fish or scrimshaw.  Now doubt the garrison would be there to secure the newly rediscovered Fire Node.

            “As for the lot of you, well, I’d like to give you a little token of appreciation.”  He pulled an object out of a pocket, and tossed it to Lanara.  It was a disk made of a bluish crystal, about the width of a gnome’s palm, with the royal symbol carved into one side.  Small white pearls were embedded into the crystal at each of the star’s eighteen points.

            “It’s a Mark of Passage,” Garlen explained.  “It gives you access to all roads and waterways in the Provinces free of tolls or taxes, and exempts you from any fees for entering any settlement in the Provinces.  Hopefully you’ll consider coming through here from time to time in the future.”

            “Thank you, Your Honor,” Lanara said, bowing.

            “Not at all.  Now, I’m afraid I’ll have to cut things short – we really do need to be on our way upriver.  Good luck and good journey to you all.”

            A few moments later two liveried servants came through the door and offered to escort the party back to their horses.  After they left, another gnome approached the throne from the other side of the courtyard.

            “How did it go, Your Honor?” the gnome asked.

            “Oh, fine, fine, Pench.  Short and sweet.”

            The one called Pench nodded.  “And did you get a chance to see the one you wanted to see?”

            Overgovernor Garlen nodded.  “Yes, but not nearly as long as I would have liked.  Couldn’t even ask any questions, more’s the pity.  But we’re in a hurry, they’re in a hurry – to stall them any longer would have made them impatient, even suspicious.”

            “Well, there’s always the Mark,” Pench said.

            “Very true.  Hopefully they don’t decide to sell it.”

            Pench’s eyes widened.  “Your Honor, you don’t think they would, do you?”

            “Probably not, Pench, but they are adventurers.  They can be a funny lot.”



*          *          *



            The party arrived in Noxolt on the third day of Midsummer.  The streets were crowded with people milling about, going from shop to shop visiting with their favorite vendors and gossiping.  Several of the adults wore crowns of flowers that had been given to them by their children to commemorate the day.  The weather had done little to suppress the festive mood; there had been rain and a nearly constant cloud cover over Tlaxan for the past two weeks, but even today, when there was no rain but the humidity had made the heat oppressive, people were smiling and laughing.  A number of the city folk, seeing the party ride by along with the Imperial honor guard that had met them at the gate, stopped what they were doing to run up and wave or cheer.  Young elven children scampered up and tugged at their cloaks, while blushing maidens batted their eyelashes from behind decorative fans.  Razael grinned and almost stopped his horse to talk to some of the young women, until a questioning look from Maddie pulled him away.

            In the courtyard just in front of the gate marking the entrance to the Imperial Palace itself, a new structure had been erected.  It was a simple glassteel box, about ten feet square.  Inside the box, a lone ghoul paced back and forth, occasionally slamming itself into the transparent walls or clawing at them as people went by.  A small plaque was mounted to one wall, which Lanara rode up to read.

            “Does that ghoul look familiar to anyone else?” Maddie asked as it hissed at her and slapped its long tongue against the glassteel wall.

            “It should,” Lanara said, “this is the assassin that killed the Emperor’s son last fall.”

            The party remembered that day well.  They had been guests of the Palace then, shortly after the previous Emperor had died.  It was while investigating the mysterious death of Haxtha’s young son that they first encountered the strange being known as Xerxes, and the party had taken its first step into the hidden world of the psionic races.

            “It says that his sentence is to remain caged here until the time it would be expected that his victim would have died naturally.”

            The party nodded.  Haxtha’s son had been ten years old when he was killed; the assassin’s ghoul would be inside the cage for centuries to come.

            They rode through the gates to the palace complex, and a few minutes later were dismounting in front of the grand stone stairs that led to the great hall of the palace proper.  Herion was there, dressed in formal garb, along with a bevy of officials, courtesans, and servants.  A large crowd of onlookers had also gathered.  The party climbed the stairs, but stopped when they realized they would have to endure a formal welcoming ceremony.  About an hour later, they were allowed to go inside, all of them sweating profusely.

            The party was shown to their rooms in the palace, and that evening enjoyed an informal dinner with Herion and his sister Aralda.

            “While you were traveling,” Herion said during dinner, “I have undertaken to find a suitable ship for you, based on what my wife has told me you would need.  A ship has been found, and for expediency I purchased the ship from the Imperial treasury.  All you will need to do is reimburse the treasury for the cost.  Hopefully with the weight of the crown behind it, the sale price was slightly less that what you might have paid on your own.”

            “That’s handy,” Lanara said.

            “It was not clear, however, if you would require a crew,” Herion added.  “I presumed you would, but I have found that my presumptions in regard to the eight of you are often inaccurate.”

            “Well, I know how to sail a ship,” Kyle said.

            “Great!” Osborn said, “That’s one!”

            “Yeah, one person does not a crew make,” Razael said.

            “I’m just saying…”

            “Well then, it seems you will need a crew,” Herion said.  “Word can be sent out after the end of Midsummer.”

            “Make sure they’re cute!” Lanara said.

            “They’re… sailors,” Osborn said.  “The two ideas really don’t go together.”

            “I spend as little time as possible on boats,” Lanara said.  “How would I know there are no cute sailors?  Can the cook be cute?”

            “The cooks are usually big and fat,” Osborn said.

            “At least the good ones are,” Kyle commented. “If it’s that important to you, Lanara, then hire yourself a cabin boy for the voyage.”

            The cansin’s eyes lit up.  “Ooh!  Good idea!  Say, Arrie, want to help me pick out a cabin boy?”

            “So, anyway,” Kyle said, “how much do we owe for the ship, Herion?”

            “The price was fifteen thousand gold,” Herion replied.  “It was a bit more than usual for a vessel of its size, but you did have some unusual specifications.  We have also bought some cold weather gear for you, which unsurprisingly was relatively inexpensive in the middle of summer.”

            “Okay, well, we have enough stashed away in our shared pool for that,” Kyle said.

            “When should we meet with your financiers, Herion?” Autumn asked.

            “I’ll take the money to them,” Razael offered.

            “No,” Autumn replied.

            “Why not?”

            Herion looked at Razael, and almost smiled.  Almost.  “I think perhaps they are not yet willing to trust you with that much coin, Razael, since we seem unable to trust you with more… valuable goods.”

            Razael threw up his hands.  “It’s never my fault,” he cried.  “I don’t chase.”

            “Which is an unusual trait in a Huntsman,” Aralda interjected.

            “Yeah, he’s over five hundred,” quipped Osborn quietly.  “He might break a hip.”

            “What was that?” Razael asked, looking at the hin.  Osborn declined to repeat his comment, so Razael grumbled quietly to himself but let the matter drop.

            “I’ve also taken the liberty,” Herion began, but then he paused.  “No, let me rephrase that.  I was going to take the liberty of locating scholars familiar with the southern polar region, but by fortune two such men arrived here on their own.  They said that they knew you were coming and knew you would need their advice.  They’d like to meet with you tomorrow, if so inclined.”

            “Research is always good,” Lanara said.

            Talk around the table moved on to other topics.  Herion’s older brother, the Emperor Haxtha, had taken a new consort, and the birth of a new heir was expected within the next two years.  They spoke of affairs at court and major news from the rest of Affon, generally catching up on the world at large.  The group also provided tales of their travels since leaving M’Dos, via Lanara and her music.

            “So, what’s going to happen with Autumn?” Kyle asked after a while.

            “My brother will put you through a formal ceremony the day after tomorrow at noon,” Herion said to the aasimar.  “Tomorrow being the Midsummer Day of Mourning, of course, it would be in poor taste to do it then.”

            “What if she says no?” Lanara asked.

            “Abdicating her title is a decision she could make.  She would still be royalty by relation, but she wouldn’t have responsibilities here in Tlaxan, and there would be a loss of status as well as the security of land and income.”

            “See, Autumn?” Lanara said, “you can roam around the world with your wizard all you like.”

            “But I can do that anyway,” Autumn said, “I just have to come back from time to time.”

            Razael glanced down at the ring on Autumn’s finger, flashing and sparking even in the dim candlelight thanks to the mild enchantment Kyle had placed in it.  “Okay, Kyle,” Razael said, leaning in toward the wizard, “I’ve got to know.  Where did you steal that from?”

            “I didn’t steal it,” Kyle said, “I made it myself.”

            “Oh, come on,” Razael scoffed.

            “No, really!  I bought the gems and metal in M’Dos!”

            “Since when do you know how to make jewelry?” Lanara asked.

            “I’ve known how for a long time,” Kyle protested, “I’ve just never had the chance.”

            “You bought that rock?” Razael asked, looking at the sizable sapphire in the center of Autumn’s ring.  “Now I know you’re pulling my leg.”

            “I have just as much money as the rest of you, you know,” Kyle said.  “I saved it up.”

            “All right, enough teasing the wizard,” Arrie said.  “I think we should get some rest for the ceremony tomorrow.  Autumn, you know our parents will probably be coming for that.  Which means they’ll be here.  In person.  To see you.”  She glanced over at Kyle, “and your friends.”

            “We plan on speaking with them after the ceremony,” Autumn said.  “We’ll inform them of our engagement then.  That way there are no surprises.”



*          *          *



            The next day dawned stormy and overcast, casting a shadow over the whole city.  Razael, looking out across the sky from a balcony, was slightly disturbed, though he couldn’t say why.  The city was fairly quiet, as people marked the Day of Mourning and remembered lost relatives and friends.  The Imperial Palace was adorned with ivy garlands at every entry, to mark their observance of the deaths of the previous Emperor and the current Emperor’s young son less than a year ago.  Maddie was seen only briefly in the morning, wearing funerary white vestments as she went to the temple of Erito in the city to observe the day.  Many of the other elves in the palace, including the Imperial Family, wore white as well

            There was a loud knock at the door to Autumn and Kyle’s rooms at dawn the day of Autumn’s investiture ceremony.  Autumn responded to the sound by shoving Kyle at the shoulder, pushing him out of the bed.

            “Ow!” he complained, rubbing his side where he’d hit the floor.  “You’re darned lucky there’s a rug on this floor, you know.”

            Autumn’s had stuck out of the covers and she waved in the general direction of the sitting room, where the knocking continued.

            Grumbling, Kyle crossed the bedroom and began pulling on clothes.  “I’ll make a morning person of you yet, Autumn,” he said.  There was mumbling from under the covers.

             Kyle walked out of the bedroom and into the sitting area.  He crossed the room to the door leading out into the hall, glancing out the windows as he walked.

            Gods, it’s dark this morning, Kyle thought.  He assumed the knocking was a servant who hadn’t gotten word that they wanted to sleep late this morning.  He swung the outer door open, and looked straight into the face of Lord Zanich and Lady Auror.

            Kyle just stared for a moment, turning white.  Zanich tried to look anywhere but directly at Kyle, while Auror just stared coldly, a vein on her temple throbbing.

            “I see the servants must have given us poor directions,” Auror said.  “Do you know where Autumn’s chambers are located?”

            “Well,” Kyle said after a long pause, “actually, she’s here.  If you’ll come inside, I’ll go get her.”  Kyle stepped back and let Zanich and Auror inside.  “Um, if you’d like to have a seat…”

            “I think we will stand, thank you,” Auror said flatly.  “You go fetch her now.”

            Kyle hurried back to the bedroom, and gently started shaking Autumn’s shoulder.

            “What?” she moaned.

            “Um…”

            “Don’t tell me they want me to start getting ready now,” Autumn complained.

            “No,” Kyle said, “you… have a visitor.  Two, actually.”

            “Who?”

            “Your parents.”

            Autumn looked at Kyle, then looked at the door leading into the sitting room, then peeked under her own blankets, confirming the fact that she was wearing nothing underneath them.  “Oh, no.”

            Autumn jumped out of bed and threw open her wardrobe.  “Why don’t you go out and entertain them while I make myself presentable,” she said, trying to force calm into her voice.

            “You’re kidding, right?”

            “Do you see another choice here, Kyle?”

            “Yes.  I think I have a reasonable chance of dimension dooring both of us out of here.”

            “That will only make things worse,” Autumn said, pulling a shift over her head.  “Go.  Go do something!”

            Kyle walked out of the room, trying not to panic.  He approached Autumn’s parents.  “Lady Auror, Lord Zanich,” he said, bowing slightly, “it’s good to see you again.  Autumn is getting dr… she will be out shortly.  Can I get you anything?”

            “We have already broken our fast,” Lady Auror announced.  “We will await the arrival of our daughter.”

            “Sure, sure,” Kyle said.  “Are you sure you won’t sit down?”

            “Quite,” Auror said tersely.

            “So, Kyle,” Zanich said, “I understand…” he faltered as his wife shot him a withering look, “… that you’ve… been… places.”

            “Oh.  Oh!  Yes, of course!  All over the continent!”  Kyle began talking rapidly about their travels in the Haran Desert, then across the Khag Steppes.  “We were in Miracle in a while,” he said.  “Lovely place, what with the not being able to hurt people.  We bought a house there, you know.  Well, actually, we just obtained the house from an undead necromancer who we destroyed.”

            “Fascinating,” Auror said, in a tone that made it clear that it wasn’t.

            “And then… well, we were in M’Dos for a while, and then… we came here.”  Kyle was desperate, having run out of conversation pieces.

            Fortunately, Autumn emerged from the bedroom at that moment, and quickly crossed the room to greet her parents.

            “Ah, Autumn, you are here.” Lady Auror turned to Kyle.  “Thank you.  You are dismissed.”

            Kyle’s jaw clenched, and he turned to look at Auror squarely.  “Actually,” he said slowly, “this is my room, too.”  He sat down on the end of one of the couches.  Inwardly, Kyle fumed.

            Auror stared at Kyle, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop.  Outside, thunder rolled across the sky.

            Autumn sat down next to Kyle, resting her hand on his.  “Mother, father,” she said, “Kyle and I are engaged.”

            There was a long, stony silence.  “I would have thought better of you,” Auror said, and then she turned and walked out of the room.  Zanich stood unmoving for a moment longer, and then with an ‘I’ll talk to her’ gesture to Autumn, he smiled weakly, nodded to both of them, and followed his wife out of the room.”

            The two of them sat there for a while longer, holding each other’s hand tightly.  “I guess we can cancel our dinner plans with the folks, eh?” Kyle said.

            “Yeah, I think so.”  Autumn sighed.  “I don’t think I’m in the mood for breakfast.”

            “Yeah,” Kyle agreed, then after a while he said, “I’m sorry.”

            “For what?  That’s just her way.”

            “I just don’t like the fact that I’m making this harder just by being me,” he said.

            Autumn squeezed his hand.  “I don’t think any man would have been good enough for her,” she said, “but you’re good enough for me.”

             Autumn and Kyle spent the remainder of the morning studiously avoiding Auror and Zanich.  They got a sympathetic look from Arrie when they passed by her in the hall, who had just finished visiting with their parents.  By eleven Autumn was escorted away to prepare for her investiture, and Kyle joined the other members of the party in the audience.

            The ceremony itself was mercifully brief.  Even so, the hot, oppressively humid weather had put everyone on edge.  The entire morning had that feel as though a storm were just about to break, though it never did.  Autumn was able to tolerate the ceremony only thanks to the endure elements spell Kyle had given her that morning.  She noted that her mother, standing nearby on the dais, never even looked at her, and when her gaze did wander to where her friends sat, she seemed to look right through Kyle.  Throughout the event, Razael continued to glance at the sky uneasily, though he couldn’t put words to why the weather unnerved him so.

            After the ceremony and a brief reception in Autumn’s honor (which Auror and Zanich left very early), the party was escorted to the library to meet the scholars.  Outside, the storm had still not broken, but lightning and thunder flashed and rolled across the sky so frequently and loudly that conversation was difficult.  They were led to what would normally be a very quiet and secluded wing of the building, but today there were an unusual number of people milling about, a number of them women.  When the party exited the shelves and came to an open area with a large table, they had a good idea why.

            Seated at one end of the table were two elves.  One was very tall and thin, almost gaunt, with very dark skin and hair that looked as though it had been bleached by the sun.  He was dressed in fine, but unpretentious clothing, and wore dark lenses over his eyes that hid his pupils.  By contrast, the other elf was just as tall, but appeared sturdier in build, though that might have been due to the many layers of rich, extravagant clothing he wore.  His skin was tanned, though not as dark as his companion, and he had platinum blonde hair and sky blue eyes.  Both exuded a presence that was magnetic, almost entrancing, and their every gesture seemed to draw attention.  Several library staff and patrons were going out of their way to walk by frequently to catch a glimpse of the two scholars.

            “Welcome,” said the more opulent of the two.  “Please, sit down.”

            The party took seats around the table.  Lanara, who sat next to the opulently dressed scholar, felt a brief chill, as if the room had suddenly become slightly colder, but the sensation passed.  Introductions were made; the gaunt elf introduced himself as Tiranel, and the extravagant elf gave his name as AnAnduriel.

            “So, what can you tell us about where we’re going?” Autumn asked.

            “What do you want to know?” Tiranel asked.

            “Everything.”

            “Is there a way to get there without using a damn boat?” Lanara asked.

            “Not unless you can fly,” AnAnduriel interjected.  “Next question?”

            “How far would we have to fly?” Lanara persisted.  “Can we buy something that will do it?”
            “It depends on what you use, and who is flying,” Tiranel said.  “And whether your transport has wings, will need to rest or can sleep while flying…”

            “It’s longer than you can flap your arms, let’s put it that way,” AnAnduriel said.  “I’d rule that idea out if I were you.”

            “Damn,” Lanara said.

            “What kind of dangers should we expect?” Autumn asked.

            “Big, icy ones,” Lanara suggested.

            “That’s a fine answer,” Anduriel said.  “I’d also worry about the living dead.”

            “I’m not so sure you’re going to be getting around to facing any of the dangers there, living or dead,” Tiranel interjected, “unless your boat is really, really nicely outfitted.”

            “Herion bought it for us,” Lanara said.

            “Yes, but there are limits to what even a kingdom’s treasury can reach,” Tiranel said.  “It’s the arctic, after all, and I doubt any of Tlaxan’s shipbuilders have even an inkling of what is required.  You are going to need assistance.”

            “So, you guys are coming?” Lanara asked.

            Tiranel shook his head.  “I can’t.  I study, I don’t work.”

            “Would it possible for you to inspect the ship we have,” Kyle asked, “and make suggestions for modifications that might improve our chances?”

            “I could,” Tiranel agreed, “I can also provide you with some trinkets that might be useful in getting past the natural harsh habitat so that you can perish at the hands of the living dead or whatever other horrible things my associate thinks are going to be there.”

            “So, have either of you ever actually been there?” Lanara asked.

            “Once,” Anduriel said.

            “Both of you?” Razael asked.

            “I study,” Tiranel repeated, “I don’t work.”

            “So, how’d you get the tan?” Lanara asked the gaunt scholar.

            “Studying outside.”

            “What…  why would there be so many undead?” Kyle asked.  “My understanding was that the southern pole would be deserted.  Nothing there to make undead from or to sustain them.”

            “Well, it kind of makes sense,” Arrie said, “The cold won’t bother them.”

            “Yes, but why are they there in the first place?”

            “Imagine you found something,” Tiranel said slowly, “that you didn’t think anyone else in the entire world should have.  Where would you put it, and what would you set to guard it?”

            “I’d put it in the sun, and let Grabâkh do it,” Razael said.

            “Right.  Problem is that the gods aren’t usually willing to just… do that because you tell them to.  You’re going to have to do it yourself, and so the best alternative on this planet are the poles.”

            “We’re looking for pre-Cataclysmic stuff here, right?” Osborn said.  “Maybe before the Cataclysm, where this stuff is wasn’t the pole.”

            “Before we get too far off track,” Anduriel said, “I don’t know how much you’ve read about the polar region already, but let me share a few concepts with you, like… undead frost giants.”  The richly dressed scholar looked around the table for their reactions.  “Just an example.”

            “We can go around,” Lanara said.

            “I don’t know how much you’ve read about the polar region,” Anduriel repeated, a little condescendingly, “but it is the ‘around’.”

            “Are you saying the world is round?” Razael said.

            “No,” Anduriel said, barely suppressing a smirk, “there are some things you need to discover for yourself.”

            “I assume that would be implied in calling it a ‘pole’,” Tiranel said, “rather than the ‘hub’ or the ‘edge’.”

            “You’re assuming he would know the difference,” Lanara said.

            “I make no assumptions about your knowledge,” Tiranel stated.  “That’s why I’m speaking to you like you were three years old.”

            The party bristled a bit at the implication.  “So, we can expect lots of undead,” Kyle said, steering the conversation back on track, “and I assume lots of creatures that thrive in the cold, like polar worms.”

            “Yes,” Anduriel said.

            “Dragons?” Razael asked.

            “As a matter of fact,” Anduriel nodded, “that’s the reason you should be interested in what we’re saying.”

            “They should be interested?” Tiranel said to his companion.  “I don’t know about you, but I’d find that somewhat dissuasive myself.”

            “That’s because you don’t work, you study,” Razael said.

            “All right,” Tiranel said to him, “if you want to go down and challenge a dragon, more power to you.  As I said, I do have some trinkets that might help you in that respect, but…”

            “It’s not my choice,” Razael said, pointing to Maddie, “It’s hers.”

            “Wait, wait, wait,” Kyle interrupted.  “So, there is a dragon down there?”

            “Yes,” Anduriel replied.

            “Interesting,” Kyle said.

            “What?” Autumn asked, “Would it be an undead dragon?”

            “No,” Anduriel said slowly, “though the lines blur a bit.”

            “That’s an amazing leap of logic,” Tiranel said, “I’m proud of you.”

            “Well, here’s the interesting thing about dragons,” Kyle said.  “According to legend, the dragons were placed on the world for a reason.”

            “Indeed,” Anduriel agreed.

            “There’s speculation on what that reason is.  Some say they guard locations of elemental power, or protect the balance of magic in the world.  The concerning myth is the idea that the dragons are here so that if the world ever becomes out of balance again, as it did during the Cataclysm, they can help remake the world anew.”

            “In other words, eat everyone and start over,” Tiranel said.

            “Right.  Given the possible nature of the information that may be down there,” Kyle continued, “I find it interesting that there’s a dragon down there as well, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.  I also think that means there’s going to be no chance of us avoiding a confrontation with this dragon.”

            “Did you actually see the dragon?” Autumn asked Anduriel.

            “No.”

            “Then how do you know it’s there?” Razael asked.

            “Trust me,” Anduriel said, “I know.”

            “Can they be charmed?” Lanara asked.

            “No, they can’t,” Tiranel said testily.

            “Have you ever tried?”

            “No,” he said again, “study, not work.”

            “Trust me,” Anduriel said, “on a practical level, I can personally assure you it is not possible to charm a dragon.”

            “But can you assure us that it’s there?” Razael said.

            “Yes.”

            “How?”

            “Trust me,” Anduriel said slowly, “I know.”

            “There’s not a trust here,” Razael said.  “How do you know?”

            “I know more than you,” Anduriel said, “and I know it’s there.”

            “If you know so much, you can describe how you know.”

            “I could,” Anduriel said, “but there are certain things that you don’t need to know, and how I know there’s a dragon there is one of them.  It’s there.”

            “He’s lying,” Razael said.

            “Look at it this way,” Tiranel interrupted, “if there’s no dragon there, you have nothing to worry about.  But if it is there, you’re prepared.  Either way, what’s the difference?  The point is that you need to be prepared.”

            Razael stood up, and walked away from the table, muttering.

            “Let’s start over at the beginning,” Arrie said after an awkward pause.  “What do we need to equip ourselves and our ship with to deal with the environment?”

            “I’ll defer to my esteemed colleague on this subject,” Anduriel said.

            “Your ship needs to be bound in metal, with a wooden hull underneath.  It needs to have a special ram, extending in front of the ship at least nine feet, which is wedge-shaped and constructed of a very solid metal; preferably adamantium, though other steel alloys will suffice.  You need to make sure that the ship can be rowed as well as sailed, because you cannot count on the wind being there, or blowing in the right direction.  Cross-sailing is not always possible.  The oars should be reinforced; most military-grade oars are strong enough for this.  You need to be able to pull down the entire mast, so that it doesn’t just snap off when the storms start.  You need to be able to set up some sort of cover over the deck, so that the ship is not weighed down with snow and ice.  You will need to pack several barrels of coarse salt to melt the ice that does build up.  You will need to keep the room in which you store your fresh water heated so that it doesn’t freeze.  In short, you must prepare for conditions the like of which none of you have ever seen.”

            “That’s great,” Lanara snapped.  “That ought to be easy enough.  ‘We have no idea what we need, and we’ve never seen it before, so can you outfit the ship for that?’”

            “But, he just told us,” Arrie said.

            “Yes, but we have to describe this to other people,” Lanara pointed out.  “I hope you’re taking notes, Kyle.”

            “Would you be able to describe these things to the shipbuilder?” Autumn asked.

            “Certainly,” Tiranel said, “though I don’t know if he’ll be especially receptive to my comments.  I’ve noted that there is little respect among those who work for those who study.”

            “Having done a fair bit of both,” Kyle said, “I think I can translate for you.”

            “I actually have everything you will need written down here.”  Tiranel withdrew a large roll of parchment from a shoulder bag, and handed it to Kyle, who unrolled it long enough to peruse the notes and schematics before putting them away.

            “There are other minor items I have that might make the trip survivable, if not pleasant,” Tiranel continued.  “I have logs that will burst into flame on command, regardless of the surrounding conditions.  I have rings that will afford some protection from the elements as well.”

            “What about people such as myself, who wear heavier armor in battle?” Autumn asked.

            “Be prepared to be very cold,” Tiranel said.  “You’re an aasimar, and so have some natural resistance to extreme cold.  It will not be enough.  Wear thick, absorbent material underneath your armor.  Or obtain magical items that protect against the cold.  Better yet, do both.  That goes for all of you.”

            “Stick to the subject of environment and travel for now,” Anduriel said.  “I can field questions about personal items, weapons, and tactics later.”

            “What about navigation?” Kyle said.  “Once we’re there, I’m assuming steering by landmark is out, or by stars.”

            “I still have that wand that tells us which way is north,” Lanara reminded him.
            “That’s a good resource,” Tiranel agreed.

            “Okay, what about travel hazards, other than the obvious things like blizzards?” Kyle asked.

            “You mean, like sinking into the snow?” Tiranel asked.  “That far down, the snow pack is firm enough that it shouldn’t be a concern, but you’ll want to take snowshoes just in case.  Watch for crevasses, which you should be able to go around or cross using ropes and ice picks.  You’re leaving soon, I take it?”

            “We hope to get there by late summer,” Xu said.

            “Good, then you’ll avoid the worst of the weather.  If you find yourself delayed, do not try to make the journey in the winter.  Wait a year.”  Tiranel dug into a pocket, closing his hand around something inside.  “Here’s something that will aid you, but whoever takes it should treat it with care.  It’s rather fragile.”  He pulled out what looked like a small snow-globe and set it on the table.  “If you shake it, it will create an area into which wind and snow can’t penetrate.  It only lasts about an hour, and it takes twenty-four hours to recharge.  But if you’re caught in a blizzard, it will protect you long enough that you can set up actual shelters.”

            “Osborn, can you carry it?” Autumn asked.

            “Sure,” he said, picking up the globe and putting it away.

            “That is most of the information I had to share,” Tiranel said.  “My associate can answer more questions now.”

            “Does somebody want to go find Razael?” Maddie asked.  “He should probably hear the stuff about weapons and tactics.”

            “I’ll go,” Kyle said.  The wizard rose and walked toward the nearest balcony, assuming that the tracker would have gone outside.

“How many of you are going on this expedition?” Tiranel asked, as Kyle left.

            “Well, all of us,” Autumn said, “all eight.”

            “Well, then,” Tiranel said, “I can provide you all with rings that will help – you’ll still be cold, but it will keep your body temperature from dropping.  Those are all the trinkets I can provide.”  Tiranel dug into a pocket and put eight rings on the table.  “I’ll have the firewood I mentioned left at the palace for you.”

            “Your help is appreciated,” Autumn said,  “Thank you.”

            Just then Kyle and Razael returned, looked somewhat disturbed.

            “There’s a magestorm coming,” Kyle said.  “Razael thinks it’ll hit us in about two hours, maybe less.”

            “A magestorm?” Autumn asked.

            “It’s a brief surge of wild magic that manifests as a violent storm,” Kyle explained.  “They happen all the time, but usually in unpopulated areas, or over the ocean.  Magestorms over cities are rare.”

            “Do we need to go back to the palace?” Autumn asked.

            “I don’t think so,” Kyle said,  “There was a messenger outside.  They’re going to be raising the palace’s anti-magic shields in about thirty minutes.  That should keep us safe here.  If anyone has anything they need stored in any sort of extra-dimensional space, though, you’d better get it out now.  All our magical items aren’t going to work when the shields go up.”

            “How long will the storm last?” Xu asked.

            “Well, it’s kind of hard to predict, just based on the nature of a magestorm,” Kyle explained.  “Most last a couple of hours, but some only last minutes, while others can stretch out for days.”

            As the party took a moment to talk about what they wanted to do, Tiranel and Anduriel looked at each other, and then suddenly stood up.  “Unfortunately,” Anduriel said quickly, “I think my colleague and I will have to adjourn for the day.”

            “You’ll have to excuse us.  Goodbye.” Tiranel said, and walked away.

            “If you need anything,” Anduriel said, “I’ll be available whenever the magestorm passes.  Good day.”  Anduriel also beat a hasty exit.

            “Okay,” Kyle said slowly, after they left.

            “Well, that was abrupt,” Razael said.  He glanced over and saw that Tiranel’s eight rings were still laying on the table.

            “Well, some people do get freaked out by magestorms,” Kyle said.

            “It seems our schedule for the rest of the day has been cleared,” Autumn said.  “I, for one, would like to get out of this corset as soon as possible.”

            “Hey, Kyle, I saw that Lord Zanich and Lady Auror were here,” Razael said.  “Maybe you could go spend some time with them.”

            Kyle shook his head.  “I think I’ll go back to our room with Autumn for a while instead.”

“Okay, we know where Kyle and Autumn are heading,” Arrie said.  “I should probably go see my husband, too, now that I have some time.”

            “I’m going to go spend some time with Aralda,” Lanara said.  “Maddie, want to come?”

            “I would,” Maddie said, “but I should go to the High Temple.  Not everyone in the city will be protected by the shields.”

            “You know,” Xu said quietly, “it seems odd that those two scholars left so quickly.  They did not seem the type to panic over a magestorm, especially knowing that the palace would be protected by anti-magic.”
            “Yeah,” Osborn said, “it’s almost like they were more worried after they heard about the shields.  Maybe we should go see where they went.”

            “I’ll come with you, too,” Razael said.  “All of the people I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on are going places safer than here, anyway.”

            Everyone separated, and Razael, Osborn and Xu went off in search of Tiranel and Anduriel.  They asked a few people still at the library, and sure enough several people had noted their departure.  “I think they went that way,” one scribe said, “toward the palace kitchens.”

            The trio of adventurers made their way to the large building that housed the kitchens.  There were few people about, most having left after hearing about the impending magestorm.  Even so, there were enough people around who had noticed a tall, gaunt elf accompanied by a richly-dressed elf that they were able to track the scholars down as far as the pantries in the basement.

            They walked through the labyrinth of vast chambers, were enormous quantities of food were stored.  “I had no idea they had an entire room just for beans,” Razael commented.

            “I want to find the bacon room,” Osborn said.

            “That would be dangerous knowledge in your hands, Osborn,” Xu commented.

            “Ooh!  That reminds me!” Osborn pulled out the pig statuette that Kyle had given him long ago, and rubbed it, summoning a pound of fresh bacon.  “Better get it now before the shields go up,” he said.

            A few minutes of searching went by before they felt the strange pressure of the anti-magic shields going up.  They took a few minutes to adjust their gear, which now sat heavier on their bodies, and continued looking.  After another several minutes, Osborn noted a set of footprints in a fine layer of flour on the floor.

            “These shoes look too fancy to belong to a cook,” Osborn said.  “Looks like they split up; one heads off into that room, the other into that room.”

            “I say the left door first,” Razael said.  “I think those stuck-up know-it-alls can delay their snacking long enough to give us a few straight answers.”

            They opened up the door, throwing it wide in the hopes of startling whichever scholar had holed up in that room.  The chamber beyond was large, but was now mostly filled – not with food, but with something alive.

            Xu, Osborn, and Razael stared up, white-faced, at the creature that stared at them.  Glistening red scales covered a long, thin body, and a pair of leathery wings scraped the ceiling.  Burning eyes regarded them with a mix of disdain and irritation, and it bared large, razor sharp teeth.  Waves of heat rolled out of the room and washed over the three adventurers.

            Very slowly, Osborn reached into his pouch and withdrew the pound of bacon he’d created earlier.  He extended it out toward the massive creature.

            “Bacon?”

            The dragon opened his mouth, and the world turned into flame.



*          *          *



            Autumn and Kyle walked back to their suite, conversing intimately with each other.  As they reached the palace, they felt a strange snap in the air as the anti-magic fields activated.  The ambient light in the palace dimmed, as the magical lights winked out, having been hastily supplemented by more mundane illumination.

            “Wow,” said Kyle, as the shields went up, “that’s an odd sensation.  I never realized how different it feels not to have any magic at all.  It’s a little unnerving, really.”

            “Well, it’s not like you’ll need your magic to deal with anything in the palace,” Autumn observed.

            “Except maybe your mother.”

            “Kyle!” Autumn mock-punched him in the shoulder.

            “I know, I know.”  Kyle sighed.  “I should probably at least make an attempt to talk to her in a couple of days, shouldn’t I?”

            “Yes,” agreed Autumn, “but don’t expect too much.”

            “I won’t.  But I’ll talk to her just the same.  Maybe she doesn’t like it, but we’re getting married regardless of what she thinks.  Maybe I’ll never be treated like a son, but at least she can stop treating me like a servant.”

            “You know I’ll be behind you, no matter what,” Autumn said.

            “I know.”

            They walked a little further, climbing stairs up to the wing where their rooms awaited them.  “You know,” Autumn commented, “it would be nice if we could have both sides of the family at the wedding.”

            Kyle sighed.  “I’m working on it, really.  I’ve tried scrying for my father a couple of times, but I’m getting… odd results.  I think maybe there’s some sort of interference from Targeth’s barriers.  After we get back from the south pole, maybe we can arrange a trip back into Targeth and I can try again then.  Even if that does the trick, it’s going to be a slow process finding everyone.”

            “I can wait,” Autumn said.

            “I’m not so sure I can.  Besides, even if I find Pa and my brothers and sisters, there’s not much chance they’d be able to come to the wedding.  I doubt any of them married nobles, so they can’t just pick up and be gone for weeks just for a wedding.  Common folk gather for weddings that are the next village over, not the next country over.”

            “Well, they’re still getting invited, if you find them,” Autumn said.  “I at least want to meet your family once.”

            “Like I said, I’m working on it.  But can we leave off talking about weddings and family for a while?”

            “Not yet,” Autumn said, “we have some letters to write to announce the engagement, and you have better penmanship than I do.  You can write by candlelight as well as you can with magical light.”

            “Fine,” Kyle sighed, “but do we have to start doing that as soon as we get back?”  He put his arm around Autumn’s waist.  “You did say you wanted out of that corset, right?”

            Autumn pulled close to Kyle.  “Well…”

            They reached the door to their suite a minute later.  They paused for a while, listening to the fury of the magestorm outside, which shook the palace even though the shields were up and they were deep in the interior of the building.  Finally, they went into their chambers, which is when they were attacked.

            Two men clad head to toe in black jumped out of the shadows and grabbed Kyle and Autumn from behind, wrenching them apart and throwing them to the floor.  Their assailants quickly and expertly immobilized them, and pressed cloths onto their faces.  Foul vapors drifted into their lungs, and they both felt themselves getting light-headed.

            Kyle managed to pull the hand away from his face with brute strength, and began shouting for help even as he struggled to break free.  But they had closed the door on the way in, so the sound didn’t carry very far out into the hall.  Kyle was twisted so that he couldn’t even see where Autumn was, and thus couldn’t see that she was in a similar predicament.  The man attacking Kyle seemed somewhat surprised that a wizard was able to put up such a fight, and reacted by punching him hard in the ribs.  There was an audible snap, and the breath exploded out of his lungs.  The attacker used the opening to press the cloth on Kyle’s face again.

            Autumn was having similar problems.  Though she was able to pull her face free from the drugged cloth as well, she couldn’t breathe well in her corset, and it kept her from twisting around at the torso to grab her assailant back.  With the cloth off her face, Autumn’s attacker also resorted to brute force, slamming a fist into Autumn’s face. Blood sprayed onto the carpet, and she felt herself swooning.  She was dimly aware that the blows were very precisely aimed at pressure points, much as she had seen Xu do when in battle.  Briefly Autumn wondered if these might be monks sent by Hungai to kidnap Xu, when she heard another hard blow next to her, another snap of bone, and Kyle’s shouts were suddenly silenced.

            Outside in the hallway, Arrie approached her sister’s suite.  She’d gone to find Herion, but he was gone, working on securing the palace from the magestorm.  So instead she’d gone to her own rooms and changed out of her formal clothes into her armor and weapons.  She hoped Autumn might be up for a bit of exercise, to work out some of the frustration she must be feeling after her morning encounter with their parents.  As she drew up to the door, she heard a commotion behind it; the sound of people struggling, and Autumn shouting in rage.

            Arrie kicked open the door to see her sister sprawled on the floor, held down by a large man wearing black clothing and a mask.  Blood flowed from her nose, and she looked as though she were gasping for breath.  The man punched her in the back of the head, and she went limp.  A second masked assailant had picked up an unconscious Kyle, slinging him over one shoulder like a sack of flour.

            Arrie whipped out a set of bolas and hurled them at the man carrying Kyle, who casually batted them out of the air.  But he was now faced with trying to get past Arrie, who blocked the only exit from the interior suites, her spiked chain already in hand.  The man moved forward, and suddenly hurled Kyle’s body at Arrie.  She managed to spin and avoid the wizard’s bulk, turning to face the black-clad attacker again and Kyle landed heavily in the hall outside.  Arrie waited patiently for the would-be kidnappers to make the first move, at the same time shouting for guards through the now open door.  The man who’d had Kyle tried to roll past Arrie, but she was ready, and lashed him with her chain.  In response, he punched and kicked at her, landing a few telling blows.

            “Oh, you really want to fight, do you?” Arrie growled, as she whipped her chain around again.  With blood dripping from several wounds, the man again tried to spring past Arrie, this time slipping through and fleeing down the hallway.  The other kidnapper, who had made certain that Autumn would not be getting up, stood and circled near the center of the room, wary of the reach of Arrie’s weapon.

            “You may as well surrender now,” Arrie said, “the guards are no doubt already on their way.”  She repeated the warning in a few languages, but got no response.  The masked man suddenly leaped, trying to get past Arrie rather than face her.  She tried to get her chain around his feet to pull him down, but he danced out of it, and began running very quickly down the hall.  Arrie threw her second set of bolas at him, and managed to snare his knees.  The man fell, but was wriggling out of the cords and standing even as Arrie ran up.  She was able to get off one last parting blow before the kidnapper ran off again, too fast for her to follow.  Moments later a squad of guards ran up, and Arrie ordered them to capture the two kidnappers, pointing out the blood trails.

            “Secure the palace,” she ordered, “Bring all my companions to my sister’s chambers immediately.”  As the guards ran off, Arrie rushed back to Autumn and Kyle.  She pulled Kyle back into the room, laying him down next to Autumn before rolling her sister over.  Both were deeply unconscious, and a lingering foul odor surrounded them.  Arrie inspected the wounds as best she could, cursing the fact that she had no skills as a healer.  Autumn’s nose was still bleeding, and possibly broken, and she had several bruises and minor scrapes, but otherwise she seemed intact.  Arrie cut her sister out of her corset with a knife, allowing her to breathe more deeply, then inspected Kyle.  He looked far worse off; his face was covered in blood and bruises, and his jaw sat at a strange angle.  She could feel a rib move inside his chest when she pressed gently on his torso.

            After a few minutes, Autumn began to stir, coughing weakly.  “What happened?” she asked.

            “You were attacked, but they’re gone now.”  Arrie gently stroked Autumn’s hair to reassure her.  “The guards are looking for them now.”

            “Kyle?” Autumn said, a slight panic in her voice.

            “He’s here, but still out cold.  Looks like they were a little rougher with him than you.”

            “Don’t think… they expected to be out-muscled by a wizard,” Autumn laughed weakly.

            “I think you’re right.”

            “Arrie,” Autumn said, “do you think it was Hungai again?  Those two fought like Xu does.”

            “Hopefully we can capture one of them, and find out,” Arrie said.  “But why attack the two of you if they were after Xu?”

            Kyle took another ten minutes to wake up.  He opened his eyes, and saw Arrie and Autumn looking back at him.

            “Don’t try to talk,” Arrie said quickly.  “Your jaw…”

            Nodding, Kyle reached up and felt along his jawline. After a moment of exploration, Kyle placed the heel of his left hand against his jaw, and with a hard shove over and down popped the jaw back in.

            “Kyle!” Autumn cried, “be careful!”

            “I know what I’m doing,” Kyle said slowly, after working his jaw back and forth a couple of times.  “Us farm boys can’t always nip off to the cleric’s every time we get hurt, so you learn a thing or two.  Dislocated joints are easy.”  Feeling down along his ribcage, he winced as he felt the sting of his broken rib.  “This will take a bit more effort.”

            “We’ll get the healers,” Arrie said, “once the storm passes you’ll be good as new.”

            “What was that stuff they were trying to force us to breathe?” Autumn asked.

            “Insanity mist, I think.  It’s nasty stuff, and not cheap.  Fortunately neither of us got a very big dose, or we’d be drooling idiots for a while.”

            “Who do you think did this?” Arrie asked.

            “No idea.  Could be old enemies, could be people trying to kidnap and ransom some nobles.”

            “They certainly caught us at our weakest point,” Autumn said.  “Do you think they planned their attack to coincide with the magestorm?”

            “Impossible,” Kyle said.  “No one can predict a magestorm.  They were just lucky on their timing.”

            “Okay, no more talking for a while,” Arrie said.  “Everyone should be showing up here soon.  I’m going to help you both up into bed.”

            It was some time before anyone else reached the room.  Lanara was the first to arrive, looking peeved.  “What’s this all about, Arrie?  I was having a perfectly good time with Aralda, and suddenly I’m chased out of her rooms by guards and escorted here.  What’s the…?” Lanara then saw Kyle and Autumn laying in their bed.  “Oh.”

            Maddie came a short while later, and saw Lanara cleaning up Kyle and Autumn’s wounds while Arrie paced.  Guards were coming in giving regular reports; the attackers had not yet been found, but the search was narrowing.

            “So, no one else got attacked by angry men in black pajamas?” Arrie asked.  Lanara and Maddie shook their heads.

            “Where are the others?” Maddie asked.

            “They went off to find the scholars, last I knew,” Lanara said.  “Haven’t seen them since.”

            Thunder from the magestorm rumbled through the walls, causing the room to shake, and the lamps flickered as though a breeze had blown through the room.

            Just then, Razael, Osborn and Xu burst into the room, panting from exertion.

            “What’s wrong?” Arrie asked.  Their clothing and hair was slightly singed, and all three looked as though they’d run non-stop all the way across the palace complex.

            “Did you just fight with men in black pajamas?” Maddie asked.

            “No,” panted Razael, “there weren’t black pajamas, and they weren’t men.  And we weren’t fighting.”

            “We… we just saw a dragon,” Osborn gasped.

            “A what?” Kyle said, almost forgetting not to sit up.

            “A dragon!” Razael confirmed.

            “Yeah, right.” Lanara said. “The kind that comes out of a bottle?”

            “No, it was the scholars.  Anduriel and Tiranel.  They’re dragons.”

            “Yeah, they’re in the pantry,” Osborn said.

            “Now I know you’re pulling my leg,” Lanara said.

            “Lanara,” Xu said, “have you ever know me to lie?”

            “No.”

            “There was a dragon.”

            “Yeah, a big red one!” Osborn said.

            “I thought there were two dragons,” Autumn said.

            “We didn’t see the other one,” Razael admitted.  “We were too busy running.”

            “If you didn’t see the dragon, how do you know it was there?” Kyle said, not bothering to hide a slight grin as he mimicked Razael’s earlier conversation with Anduriel.

            “We tracked down Anduriel and Tiranel to the pantries,” Osborn said. “Their trail split up and stopped at two doors, and the red dragon was behind one of them.”  The hin’s face suddenly broke into a grin.  “It was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.  I offered him some bacon!”

            “Well, I guess that explains why those two had to leave so suddenly,” Kyle said.  “Shape changing is a magical ability.”

            “I don’t think I’ve ever run like that from anything,” Razael said.

            “That would have been what I did,” Maddie commented.

            “I don’t think so,” the tracker retorted.  “The way you act, I think you would have run up and brandished a stick at it.”

            “Well, at least she wouldn’t have egged it on like you did,” Osborn said.

            “He probably didn’t hear me,” Razael said.

            “I’m pretty sure he did,” Osborn countered.  “You ran off screaming ‘I know how you know there’s a dragon at the pole, ass!’”

            “All right,” Maddie said, “can we get a coherent explanation of everything that’s happened?”

            The group spent a few minutes getting their facts straight.  Just after they finished, a squad of guards came into the room.  Two of the guards were dragging one of the black-clad attackers behind them, the body leaving bloody streaks on the floor from several spear wounds.

            “Excellent!” Arrie said.  “Good job!”

            “We thought you’d want to see the body,” the guard said.  “The other one escaped.”

            “That’s one of the ones that attacked us,” Autumn confirmed.

            The guard pulled off the mask, revealing an unremarkable elf.  “The only marking we found was this.”  He pulled up one of the dead man’s sleeves, revealing a symbol branded into the forearm.  It was a vaguely diamond shape, with lines radiating upward from the lateral corners. It was vaguely shaped like bird’s beet.  Kyle looked at the symbol, turned white, and passed out.

            “Why did that just break Kyle?” Arrie asked.

            “Your Highness, shall we take the body away to be cremated?” the guard asked.

            “Why don’t we have him interrogated by a priest first?” Arrie suggested.  “Leave the body here for now and send someone to pick it up later.”

            “Of course, Your Highness,” the guard saluted, and they exited the room.

            Once the guards were gone, Autumn shook Kyle awake.  “What happened?” she asked as his eyes fluttered open.  “Why did you faint?”

            “What… what does he have on him?” Kyle asked.

            “Let’s find out,” Razael said.  He began going over the body, pulling off a belt stuffed with vials.  He opened one, sniffed it, and winced.  “Damn, that’s foul.  Mind if I keep this?”

            “Does he have a knife of any kind?”

            “Nope, unless he’s smuggling one in,” Razael said.  “I can search him more… thoroughly if you want.”

            “No, the kind of blade I’m looking for wouldn’t work for that,” Kyle said.

            “So, what’s the deal?” Razael asked.

            “I’ve… seen that symbol before,” Kyle admitted.

            “Where?” the tracker asked.

            “It was months ago, last fall when we were in Tlaxan last time,” he began.  “Actually, it was during that brief stay in Merlion at you parent’s castle.  Remember the day you went out to investigate those goblin attacks on caravans, and I wasn’t around?”

            “I remember,” Arrie said.

            “I don’t,” Maddie was sure to say, “I wasn’t there.”

            Kyle nodded, knowing that Kavan had been there, but that Maddie was only trying to firmly separate the two identities.  “Well, it turns out that I have a cousin that lives in the village surrounding the castle, one of my uncle Seamus’ sons named Kevin.  Found him quite by accident, when his wife Elsie mistook me for Kevin’s brother.  See, Kevin had been expecting a visit from his brother – adopted brother, actually – Nicholas, who was a merchant.  But Nicholas was overdue, and I volunteered to go up to the next town to see if he’d been through – the town, Balnad’s Ford was supposed to be his last stop on his trade route, and it’s only a couple days ride from Castle Verahannen.  I went because I could get away more easily than Kevin or his wife, who both work at the castle, and because I could use magic and make the trip in a day.

            “Well, I made it to Balnad’s Ford fine, and found out that Nicholas had been there several days ago, and was seen heading toward the castle, so should have been there by then.  But I also found out that there had been other men looking for Nicholas too… men who carried disemboweling knives.  So, I backtracked on the road to about where I figured these men would have caught up to Nicholas, and looked around.”

            Kyle paused, swallowing to wet his throat.  “Well, I found him, or what was left of him, in a ruined house just off the road.  It wasn’t pretty.  He’d been killed… ritually killed.  Magical diagrams were scribed in blood all around him, I’m assuming in his blood.  His eyes had been cut out, and so had his tongue, his kidneys, and his heart, and he’d been castrated.  Every bone in all his fingers had been broken.  Two iron nails were driven into his ears.  Most of it was done while he was still alive.  As far as I can tell, the purpose of the ritual was not only to make sure he was dead, but that his soul was destroyed as well.  Not trapped, or sent to the Shadow Plane, but eradicated.”

            Autumn leaned over the other side of the bed and threw up.

            “I have no idea if the ritual really worked,” Kyle continued when his fiancée had recovered, “that’s just what it was intended to do.  The only other thing I saw was that symbol painted on the wall in blood.” Kyle pointed at the diamond-mark on the dead elf’s arm.  “It wasn’t part of the ritual, I know that.  I never really said anything at the time about it.  I figured it was a small cult of Fiel; the symbol on the wall was rather crude, and it sort of resembles a spider.  And honestly, out in remote rural areas, little cults like that spring up all the time.  A farmer has a couple of bad harvests, a shepherd loses his flock to disease, they get desperate and start blaming others for their misfortune.  Most of those kind of cults don’t to anything worse that sit in someone’s barn wearing black robes and burning candles, maybe killing a chicken.  The worst will kill one or two people, and then they’re rounded up by the sheriff and are hung.  At the time we were in a hurry to get up to Noxolt because the previous Emperor was dying, and I figured it was worth bothering all of you with something that the local law could probably handle.”

            “Well, I don’t know if they ever were caught,” Lanara said, “and I don’t know what it has to do with anything, but that symbol is pretty old, and it has something to do with magic and preservation, though for the life of me I have no idea how the two ideas are connected.”

            “Well, you know more than I did,” Kyle said.  “I looked for a reference to that symbol in the library here, but found nothing other than it probably wasn’t a symbol of Fiel.  I let it go, honestly; I figured it was a random thing, they probably picked Nicholas out of the crowd.  I didn’t think I’d ever deal with it again.  But to see it now, here, after someone attacked my fiancée…”

            “And you, too,” Autumn reminded him.

            “It was a little unsettling,” Kyle admitted.  “I guess with everything else today it was just a little too much.  And now, once again, this comes up when we’re pressed for time again.”

            Thunder shook the palace again, startling everyone.  However, they noticed that it seemed to be lessening in intensity.

            “Can someone get me a pen and parchment?” Kyle asked.  “I want to copy that symbol down.”

            “We could just cut it off for you,” Maddie offered.

            “Paper’s fine, thanks,” Kyle said.

            After making a copy of the symbol, Kyle rolled up the parchment, and then slowly started to rise out of bed.

            “You shouldn’t be doing that,” Maddie said.

            “I’m fine, I’ll just walk slow,” he replied.

            “Kyle, the man’s not going anywhere,” Maddie said, pointing at the man who’d attacked them.

            “I’m not worried about him.”

            “Kyle, lay down and rest tonight,” Lanara said.  “There’s not much you can do with this storm going.”

            “Where did you say the dragons were?” Kyle asked, seeming to ignore Lanara.

            “In the pantry,” Osborn said, “basement of the kitchen.”

            “Kyle,” Arrie said slowly, “if the dragons tried to immolate them…” She pointed at Xu, Osborn, and Razael.

            “Well, clearly with the shields up I’m not a threat,” Kyle said.

            “I don’t think the dragons thought these three were a threat either,” Maddie countered, “and look what happened.”

            “I don’t think he was really trying to immolate us,” Osborn said, “because he would have if he wanted to.”

            There was another blast of thunder outside, which abruptly cut out mid-tremor.  The torches and lamps flickered, and then seemed to steady, and the light seemed somehow cleaner.  Razael left the room, and returned a minute later.  “Magestorm’s gone,” he said.  “Not a cloud in the sky now.”

            “Which means that they’ll drop the shields soon,” Autumn said, with the message for Kyle clear; and the dragons might see you as a threat now.

            “Fine,” Kyle said, “I’ll stay.”  He settled back down into the bed.  “But promise me one thing.  I assume we’re going to meet the scholars tomorrow?”

            “Assuming they don’t leave tonight,” Arrie said.

            ‘Well, if we do, can we not play that awkward game where everyone pretends they don’t know that Anduriel and Tiranel are dragons?  I kind of wanted to go now to avoid the whole issue.”

            “I think we can agree to that, Kyle,” Arrie said.

            Fifteen minutes later the anti-magic shields were dropped.  “Oh, good,” said Razael, “Now those two can get some help.”

“Hey!” Lanara protested, “I’m the one that stopped their bleeding!”

“Oh, yeah, that,” Razael said, shrugging.

“I can’t offer healing to Autumn,” Maddie said, “because she’s not one of Erito’s flock.  But I can do nice things for Kyle.”

“Yes, you could,” quipped Lanara, “but wouldn’t that require Autumn’s permission or cooperation?”

After a laugh, Maddie healed Kyle while Autumn accepted a potion from Osborn.  After a while, Arrie summoned some guards, and had the body of the elven assailant dragged out of the room and placed under guard until an Eritan priest could speak with the body.  They continued to discuss the night’s events, until they heard a loud knock at their door.

            “Now what?” Arrie asked, heading to the door.  “Is everyone decent?”

            “As decent as we get,” said Lanara.

            Arrie opened the door and saw Tiranel and Anduriel standing in the hall, looking just as they did when the party had first met them.  Razael, who could see who was at the door from his angle, quickly looked around, and seeing that Kyle and Autumn’s suite had no windows, he dove into a closet.

            The two ‘elves’ quickly pushed their way into the room.  “Okay, everyone,” Anduriel said, “sit down.  This isn’t a request.”  Anduriel walked over to the closet, and pulled Razael out, setting him down on the end of a couch.

            “So, do you actually live at the south pole?” Kyle asked Anduriel.

            “No.”

            “But you know who does, right?”

            “Right.  Okay, since it seems the mage is a little incapacitated…”

            “Can you do something about that?” Lanara interrupted.

            “No.”  Anduriel pulled a large, leather-bound tome from his robes and handed it to Arrie.  “Allow me to summarize the contents of that book.  At the southern pole, you will find an insanely angry, insanely powerful dragon.  This is of concern to me, because this dragon is not doing what he’s supposed to be doing.”

            “Does he have anything that belongs to you,” Lanara asked, “or would like to own?”

            “Irrelevant,” Anduriel spat.  “Essentially, because this dragon isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing, it no longer enjoys it’s membership in ‘the club’, if you will.”  Anduriel turned to look at Autumn.  “In answer to your question about armor; I would either wear as little as possible and maximize your protection in other ways, or I would get as many thick, heavy furs as I could, and try to get them large enough to go on outside the armor.”

            “Or you could wear the rings I gave you,” Tiranel muttered quietly.

            “In regard to threats you’ll find,” Anduriel continued, as if he hadn’t heard his companion, “there are a lot of undead, as I said before.  These undead are unhappy with their state of existence, and they’ll take it out on anything living they can find.”  The dragon-elf gestured at the party.

            “Are you sure we have to go there this summer?” Lanara asked.

            Anduriel scowled, clearly irritated by the cansin’s constant interruptions.  “Don’t talk,” he said to her, his words clearly laced with the power of a suggestion spell.  Lanara was actually able to slip off the draconic enchantment, but decided not to talk anyway, just to avoid more confrontations.

            “As I was saying,” Anduriel continued, “Have you faced the undead before?”  The party voiced their assertion that they had. 

            “Then you know what’s effective against them,” Anduriel said.  “Positive energy, disruption weapons, anti-undead magic.  I can tell you that the dragon at the pole has delved so far into the realm of undeath, that although he’s not actually undead himself, it’s speculated that he’s close enough to it that some of these same weapons might affect him in the same way.  I’d at least give it a try.  I strongly recommend against using negative energy of any kind.”

            “What about sonic energy?” Lanara asked, breaking her silence.

            Anduriel looked irritated that the bard wasn’t obeying his suggestion.   “Go wait in the closet,” he snapped, though this time there was no sorcery behind it.

            “It’s a legitimate question,” Lanara stated calmly.

            “You’ll have to forgive him,” Tiranel said, stepping up, “elemental energies are not his forte.  Beyond the obvious reasons for avoiding cold energy, try not to rely on electrical attacks too heavily.  There may be constructs down there reinforcing the undead that are immune to electrical damage.  Sonic and acidic energies should be fine.  And although I may have a bias, I would say that fire is best.”

            “Well, at least we know which one it was,” Razael whispered to Osborn.

            “Hope you enjoyed the bacon!” Osborn said to Tiranel.

            “Are there any questions?” Anduriel asked.

            “Well, since you’ve pretty much told us to shut up and listen to you…” Lanara grumbled.

            “I have an unrelated question,” Kyle said, “so I’ll wait for others to ask things related to the south pole first.”

            “That’s fine,” Anduriel said, “ask your question.”

            Kyle unrolled the parchment that he’d copied the symbol on.  “Do either of you know what this is?”

            Both dragons peered at the parchment.  “No idea,” Tiranel said.

            “A human glyph of some sort?” Anduriel offered.

            “I thought that since you’re scholars, you might have an idea,” Kyle said.

            “I don’t spend much time with humans,” Tiranel said.

            “I’m not real sure it is human in origin,” Kyle said, “but never mind.  If you don’t know, you don’t know.”  He rolled the parchment back up.

            Anduriel looked around at the party.  “I apologize for the heavy-handedness.  We try to move in much less overt circles normally.”

            “So, why aren’t you taking care of this upstart dragon yourself?” Razael asked.

            “Yes, would not dragons wish to deal with draconic affairs?” Xu added.

            “There are a few reasons,” Anduriel said.  “It would be in my capacity to do this, certainly.”

            “It wouldn’t be for me,” Tiranel admitted.  “The environment is contrary to my very nature.  I’d be at too much of a disdvantage.”

            “For me,” Anduriel said, “I have other things to worry about, honestly.  My role is not simply to ‘deal with draconic affairs’.  I have other responsibilities, and my presence at the pole or my absence elsewhere could have grave effects in other areas.”

            “So, it’s like the same reason the Emperor of Tlaxan doesn’t personally deal with every trade dispute or border conflict,” Kyle said.

            “Exactly.  The reason we’re trusting this to the eight of you is that you’re relatively high-profile, and you’re reasonably competent.  I’d hoped we could have convinced you to deal with our friend down there without being so direct about our interest in the matter, but through no fault of your own, it’s happened.”

            “How is it ‘no fault of their own’?” Tiranel asked.

            “Well, they didn’t summon the magestorm, did they?”

            “No, but they did come snooping around the pantry looking for us.”

            “Well, never mind that.  Any other questions?”

            “How long will you be in the city?” Autumn asked.

            “Not much longer, I’m afraid.  But if any of you absolutely needs to speak with me, here.”  Anduriel produced a platinum ring embossed with a golden dragon, and gave it to Autumn.  “Concentrate on the ring, and I’ll do what I can to help.”

            “You already have what help I can give,” Tiranel said.  “When you return, I’ll find you to get back what I’ve loaned you.”

            “Thank you,” Autumn said in Draconic.  “We appreciate your help.”

            Both Tiranel and Anduriel nodded.  “You’re welcome,” Anduriel said.  “Good luck to you.”  With that, they both turned and walked out of the room.

            The party milled about for a bit, still absorbing all the information they’d heard.  Looming largest in their minds was that not only had they met two dragons, the most powerful and legendary creatures on the planet, but they were preparing to set off for the ends of the earth to challenge a third.

            Kyle broke the silence first.  “Hey, Arrie?  Can I have that book they gave you?  With everything that’s happened today, I don’t think I’m going to sleep much anyway.”



*          *          *



            Tiranel and Anduriel walked side by side, down the wide road leading away from the Imperial Palace.  They conversed quietly in Draconic.

            “Ten thousand gold says they don’t make it past the first guardian,” Anduriel said.

            “I’m not a betting creature,” Tiranel replied.  “Besides, I have at least that much invested in them just in the magic I’ve loaned them.  If they die, you can fly down there and get it from them.”  Tiranel snorted.  “Besides, what happened to ‘reasonably competent’?”

            “They are,” Anduriel admitted, “but they’re still only humanoid.”

            “Be that as it may, they’re all we have right now.  If this doesn’t work, it will make things complicated for all of us.”

            “I know that,” Anduriel snapped, then sighed.  “I’m sorry.  I’m just hungry.  I could use a few sheep right about now.”  The extravagantly garbed scholar glared at Tiranel.  “You could have at least shared the hin’s bacon.”

            “It was obviously a burnt offering to me,” Tiranel said.

            “But you burned it!”
            “Details, details,” he waved the accusation away.  “But it’s nice to see that some humanoids still have the sense to know how to show proper respect to a dragon.”  Tiranel thought for a moment.  “I should go to the temple of Erito, and donate some money and ask for a special blessing for the hin.”


----------



## Delemental

*Preparing for Trouble*

The party gathered early the next morning down in one of the palace’s underground meeting rooms, awaiting the arrival of a priest of Erito and the body of the elf that had tried to kidnap Kyle and Autumn.  Only Arrie was absent; Herion had been sent on a diplomatic mission to the Red Archipelago that morning, and had requested Arrie go with him, as the people of the island kingdom held a deep reverence for family, and Herion thought that going there as a married couple might help the mission proceed more smoothly.

            Kyle and Autumn were both looking better after a night of rest and magical healing, though Kyle still had a few bruises around his jaw.  Kyle sat quietly, reading the book that Anduriel had given them, while Autumn joined in the small talk around the table.

            About thirty minutes later, two guards carried in the body of the elf on a litter, setting it on the table.  They were followed by a short, skinny axani wearing ceremonial Eritan robes.  The priest stood at the end of the table, near the elf’s head.

            “I am Vaxnor,” he said.  “I have been instructed by the Church to perform the rite that will allow communication with these remains.  You will be able to ask three questions before the magic expires.  Are your questions prepared?”

            “We’ve got ‘em,” Lanara said.

            “Who will be the designated questioner?”

            Kyle closed his book and stood up.  “I guess that’s me.”

            “Please stand here, at my left.  Do you speak the Elvish tongue?”

            “Yes,”

            “Very good,” said Vaxnor, “as the remains will most likely communicate in their former native language.  A translator will not be required.”  He looked around the room.  “Does anyone know the deceased’s patron deity?”

            “Off the top of my head, probably not Paccë,” Lanara said.

            When the others in the room indicated that no one knew, Vaxnor nodded.  “Then I must advise you before I begin that if the deceased’s patron is not Erito, the lingering animus in the remains will recognize the dissonance in the ritual’s divine signature and may resist the compulsion to answer.”

            “Kyle, I think we require a translator after all,” Lanara said.

            “He means that the body can tell who’s casting the spell, and if he doesn’t like them he can try to not answer questions.”

            Kyle took his designated spot, and waited while Vaxnor intoned the words to the ritual.  Several minutes later, the body of the elf suddenly jerked, and the eyes began to dart about as the mouth opened and closed slightly.  Vaxnor produced a tall, thin hourglass from under his robe, and set it running on the table.

            “The ritual is complete,” Vaxnor said.  “You may proceed with your first question.  There will be some brief time available to you after each answer for translation and discussion, but the magic will expire when the sand runs out.”

            “All right,” Kyle said, then leaned over to the body.  “What was it you intended to do with the people you assaulted and attempted to abduct in the palace?”

            The jaw began to move faster and wider, and an eerie, whispering voice spilled out of his dry lips.  “Purify him.”

            After the translation from Elvish, Autumn frowned.  “He only answered half the question,” she said.  “I thought he was supposed to be truthful, but he only said what he was going to do to Kyle.”

            “I think he did answer the whole question,” Osborn said.  “He didn’t intend to do anything with you.”

            “They probably would have left you unconscious on the floor,” Kyle said.  “They were after me.”  He looked a little unsteady on his feet.

            “You?  Why you?” Autumn demanded.  “And what does ‘purify’ mean?”

            “This is just a guess,” Razael said, “but I think Kyle’s cousin might have been ‘purified’.”

            Autumn was about to say something else, but Kyle held up a hand.  “Lets finish the questions first.”  He leaned over to the body again.  “What does the symbol branded on your left arm represent?”

            The ethereal voice again echoed in the room.  “It is the mark of our Order.”

            Kyle scowled.  “Damn.  I meant to phrase that differently.  I was flustered by the last question.”

            “Well, it tells us that there’s some sort of organization behind this,” Maddie offered.

            “Great, so I have a whole group of people out to kill me,” Kyle snapped.

            “Kyle, do you need to take a break?” Autumn asked.  “Someone else can ask the last question.”

            “No,” Vaxnor said, “He has been designated as the questioner.  The designation cannot be altered mid-ritual.  The wizard must ask the third question.”

            “I’m fine,” Kyle said, though he didn’t look it.  “Who gave the order for this attack to be carried out?” he said to the corpse, rather loudly.

            “The Suelamach,” the body whispered, and then it stopped moving.

            “The what?”  Kyle said, his voice rising.  “Who in blazes is that?”  Kyle looked at Lanara, who shrugged.  Then he turned to Vaxnor.

            “Cast the spell again,” Kyle said, “I have more questions.”

            “I cannot,” Vaxnor replied.  “I have only prepared that ritual once today.”

            “Tomorrow, then,” he snapped.

            Again, Vaxnor shook his head.  “The lingering animus has been depleted.  It will take a week before it is sufficiently robust enough to endure another communication ritual.”

            “Fine,” Kyle growled.  “A week, then.”  Kyle cast a spell of his own, and the body glowed slightly for a moment.  “Tell the guards to put that somewhere safe for a week,” he barked, “when Vaxnor here can come back and do this again.”

            “I’m afraid I cannot guarantee my availability to you six days hence…” Vaxnor began.  But Kyle had already come around the table, and snatched up his book.

            “Maddie,” Kyle said, pointing at Vaxnor, “clear this up.  Him or someone else, I don’t care.”  He began to walk toward the door.

            “Where are you going?” Autumn asked, rising from her chair.

            “Praxos,” Kyle said, “I have a ship to rebuild.”  He walked out of the room, letting the door slam behind him.

            Stunned, Autumn hesitated for a moment, then walked out of the room in pursuit of her fiancée.  The others sat silently until Vaxnor had collected his belongings and bid the party a good morning.

            “Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the sentinel,” Razael said.

            “Well, you’d probably be grumpy too if you found out someone was hunting you down and trying to kill you,” Osborn said.

            The tracker shrugged.  “It’s not so bad once you’re used to the idea.”

            “Well, Kyle’s not ‘used to the idea’,” Osborn said.  “I can see why people would want to hunt you down.  But Kyle?”

            “He’s got a point,” Lanara said.  “I mean, we’ve got plenty of folks out there who want us dead as a group, but Kyle specifically?  The man couldn’t make enemies if he tried.”

            “Tell that to Lady Auror,” Razael observed.

            “I don’t think we’re going to figure this out any time soon,” Maddie said.  “I’ll go to the church and arrange for another priest in a week.  Maybe some more questions will help.  For the time being, though, I think we should avoid the subject around Kyle.”



*          *            *



            The next few days were extremely busy.  Kyle’s mood improved quickly, but he was still seen rarely by the others.  The party had been given permission to use the palace’s teleportation circle to the port city of Praxos to facilitate the work on their ship and the hiring of crew for the voyage.  Kyle was at the shipyards from sunrise to sunset, directing workers to make the modifications that Tiranel had specified to their ship.  He did a significant portion of the work himself, using magic to fashion armor plating quickly or to speed up modifications that might have taken weeks otherwise.  At night, he would return to the palace and start reading Anduriel’s book again, staying up late into the night.  When Autumn expressed her concern, Kyle tried to reassure her that he was just trying to get everything done as fast as he could and that he’d ease up once the ship was finished.  Autumn wasn’t entirely convinced, but she and Lanara were busy trying to recruit a crew, so she had little time to ponder it.

            The others kept busy as well.  Razael was placed in charge of consumables, and he decided to go out hunting, and prepare fresh jerky for the voyage.  Osborn was given the task of obtaining dry goods and supplies, and Maddie was charged with gathering the equipment they’d need to survive in the arctic climate.  Xu was not given any specific task, but was left free to help whoever needed it most from day to day.  The monk did make one important contribution on her own; she had saved up quite a bit of money, having no need to spend it on herself, and used the money to purchase an extradimensional trunk for the ship, which eased the cargo burden considerably.

            The party met in the evening of the fifth day, the night before the church of Erito was sending another priest to perform a second speak with dead rite.  They each reported on their progress; Kyle said that the armor plating was half done, and the framework for the collapsible mast was complete, and the ice ram would be delivered tomorrow.  Razael had arranged for delivery of all the non-meat foodstuffs, taking advantage of his former connections in the capital, and had a healthy stock of jerky being smoked.  Osborn was also well on his way to getting all the supplies they would need, and Maddie had been able to get several cold-weather outfits and tents at very reasonable prices.

            “We have the crew pretty much hired,” Autumn reported, “including an… extra hand or two.”

            “Hey,” said Lanara, “if I’m going to be forced to be on a boat for two months there and two months back, I’ll need to relax.  I see no problem with having my own masseuse.  You’ve got someone to rub your shoulders already.”  Lanara grinned at Maddie and Xu.  “But I’m willing to share of anyone’s interested.”

            “So, all we need are the captain and mates,” Autumn continued.

            “Duchess, if I may,” Razael said, “I’d suggest skipping the captain, and just getting us a really good first mate.”

            “Why is that?” she asked.

            “Well, I’ve put in a bit of time on ships in my time,” he said.  “Spent two years on a free trader coaster, and stints here and there in the Imperial Navy, or other… unaligned naval powers.  Why, there was one time we was running from this band of pirates, and there was a storm…”

“Raz?” Maddie said, gently laying a hand on his arm.  In their short time with the old tracker, the party had noticed that he would sometimes ramble a bit about his past.

“Oh, right.  Anyway, in my experience, the captain of the ship ain’t always the one who knows the most about the ship.  They’re just the ones with the money or the family to run a ship.  It’s the first mate who runs the show.  Besides, the rule at sea is that the captain has the final say over anything on the ship, even over the owners.  We don’t need a captain going against our orders.”

“I have to admit, he makes sense,” Osborn said.

“True,” Autumn agreed, “but no crew will accept eight captains.  We’d have to pick one of us.”

“Count me out,” Lanara said.

“Me too,” Razael said.  “It’s not my cup of ale.”

“Well,” Kyle said slowly, “I do know a little bit about sailing, so I wouldn’t be completely incompetent.  And I will know the ship pretty well by the time we set sail.  So I guess I could do it.”

Lanara slapped her hand on the table.  “Captain Goodson it is, then.”

Autumn smiled at Kyle.  “Would you like me to get you a nice captain’s hat?”

“I’d say get a parrot, too, but then Violet might get jealous,” Maddie offered.

“I can teach you to dance a jig and drink rum!” Lanara added.

“All right, all right,” Kyle said, “enough of that.  Look, I think I might actually turn in early tonight.  Tomorrow’s going to be a long day, what with the ram coming in, and of course the…” he paused for a half-second, “… thing in the morning.”

Autumn laid a hand over Kyle’s.  “Are you going to be all right at the ritual tomorrow?”

“I will,” he said, “I promise.  I just got a little freaked out last time.  But it’s better I know as much as I can now.”

“All right,” Autumn said, “but if you change your mind, tell me.”

Kyle nodded, then stood.  “Well, see you all downstairs in the morning.”  He walked to the door, and then stopped halfway to the door.  “Autumn?  If you’re not busy, I’d like a little company tonight.  I’m not in the mood to read.”

“All right, Kyle,” Autumn said, “in a little while.”

Kyle left, and the rest of the party sat quietly.  Autumn glanced around the room, then at the door, then fiddled with the waistband of her dress a bit, looked at the door again, and then at everyone else.

“Oh, for Ladta’s sake!” Lanara said, “Go!”

Autumn stood up, mumbled a quick “thanks,” and then left.  As she went out the door, Lanara sighed and rolled her eyes.

“That’s why I have no use for decorum,” she said.



*          *            *



            They had taken up positions nearly identical to where they were last week as the priest came to perform the ritual.  This time it was a red-haired elf-touched priestess who came, who introduced herself as Anika.  Kyle again chose to ask the questions, reassuring Autumn that he was fine.

            As the corpse began to twitch and the mouth opened, Kyle leaned in.  “What is the name of your order?”

            The body whispered a phrase in Elvish, and Kyle’s brow furrowed.  “Scion-Watchers?”

            “Psion-Watchers?” Autumn said, “Is that what he said?  I couldn’t hear. Which group of psionicists do you think they’re part of?”

            “No, no,” Kyle said, “it’s s-c-i-o-n, not p-s-i-o-n.  They sound the same in Common but not in Elvish.  I have no idea what a Scion is, though.”

            “It’s another term for a descendant or heir,” Razael said.

            “I meant that I don’t know what it means in this context,” Kyle explained.  “I’ve never heard of a group called the Scion-Watchers.  Lanara?”

            “Sorry, Kyle,” the bard said.

            “Okay, then.” Kyle turned his attention back to the corpse.  “How was the one you were after impure?”

            “His bloodline made him so.”

            “My bloodline?” Kyle said, “but that makes no sense.  My family…” he stopped, and took a breath.  “It’ll wait until after the last question.”  He leaned in for the third and final time.  “What does your order hope to accomplish or prevent with these purifications?”

            “To ensure the bloodline remains pure,” the body gasped, before falling still once again.  Anika bid the party farewell and left shortly thereafter.

            “What’s going on here?” Kyle said after she left, clearly irritated.  “That all makes no sense.  If my bloodline makes me impure, then how will killing me purify it?  And why is my bloodline impure?  My family is nothing but farmers and laborers!”

            “Except for you,” Maddie said.

            “And didn’t you say that the cousin that was killed was a merchant?” Lanara asked.

            “Yes, but he was adopted into the family.  He’s not a Goodson by birth.”

            “Maybe these people didn’t know that,” Lanara said.

            “And you have at least one mage somewhere in your lineage,” Autumn reminded him.  “Remember, it is your ‘family’s staff’.”

            “Do you want to ask more questions?” Maddie asked.  “I could try and get another priest.”

            Kyle thought for a moment.  “No,” he said.  “I don’t think this guy is high enough in their order to be able to answer the kinds of questions I would have.  All it would do is get me more worried about my family.”

            “Your family,” Autumn gasped.  “Kyle, do you think they’re safe?”

            “I don’t know,” he replied.  “But what can I do?  I have no idea where they are.  Targeth’s shield keeps me from scrying them.  I’d have to be inside the shield to try, and even then it will take a lot of time to find them.  And we have no time for me to go there right now.”

            “We could put the voyage off…” Autumn offered.

            “No, we can’t.  We’ve come too far to back out.  Besides, the stuff that’s down there is important for us to know.  As much as I hate to say it, the world kind of takes precedence over an old farmer and his five kids right now.  I just have to hope that these Scion-Watchers have as much trouble finding my family as I have.”  Kyle swallowed.  “Still, if and when we get back, I’d appreciate it if we could plan a trip to Targeth if nothing more pressing comes up.”

            “Absolutely,” Osborn said.

            “It might be a good idea anyway,” Maddie said.  “We could go to The Tower.  They have huge libraries there.  Maybe you can find some reference to these Scion-Watchers, or why they might be interested in you or your family.”

            “I’ve never been to Targeth,” Razael said.  “They’d never let me in.”

            “I can’t imagine why,” Autumn said.

            “Tlaxan wanted to have at least one major nation on the continent they weren’t at war with because of Raz,” Kyle said, half-joking.

            “I have never started a war,” Razael protested.  “Not while you’ve been alive, anyway.”

            Kyle shook his head.  “I should get to Praxos,” Kyle said.  “The ram’s probably already at the shipyards waiting.”

            “I have a question first,” Razael said.  “What in the blazes is a psion – the p-s-i-o-n one - and why does the word seem to make everyone’s hair stand up on end?”

            The party all looked around at each other.  “I do need to go,” Kyle said, “but maybe it’s about time we let Raz here know why exactly we’re going to the south pole, and what we’ve been doing.”



*          *            *



            Another week and a half passed.  Kyle finished the work on the ship, ahead of schedule, and was able to spend a couple of days in Noxolt buying new spells.  He also stocked up on raw materials to create some magical and alchemical items aboard the ship.  The mates were hired and took charge of loading the cargo on the ship, leaving Autumn free to make arrangements for the care of the party’s animals with Aralda.  Herion and Arrie returned from their mission; Arrie’s skin was noticeably tanned, and she wore necklaces made from brightly colored flowers.  The prince and the warrior were caught up on the events of the past several days.

            Three days before the ship was set to sail, Kyle was sitting in his room, reading Anduriel’s book, when Autumn walked in.  She moved slowly, and looked pale.

            “What’s wrong?” Kyle asked, jumping up and helping her to sit down.

            “Herion…” She swallowed heavily, “Prince Herion has bestowed my duchy on me.”

            It was something they’d expected.  The investiture ceremony had granted Autumn official status as a Duchess within the Empire, but Herion had said that the Emperor would take longer to decide where her lands would be located.

            “So, I take it you didn’t get some remote little area in northern Tlaxan like we’d thought,” Kyle said.  “They didn’t put you close to Merlion, did they?”

            Autumn shook her head.  “They gave me Vargas.”

            Kyle’s jaw dropped.  Vargas was a major trade city on the Lassh River, Tlaxan’s western border.  “You’re kidding.”

            “No, I’m not.”

            “But… we’re leaving in three days.”

            “Apparently the Emperor has informed the former Lord Mayor’s steward of the situation.  He will manage the city and my estate in my absence.”

            “The former Lord Mayor?  They didn’t fire him, did they?”

            “You don’t ‘fire’ a Lord Mayor, Kyle.  They’re nobility.  No, apparently Duke Marniel fell ill and passed away a few days ago, and he had no heirs – none that are recognized by the Crown.  The rumor around court is that it was the very lifestyle that produced so many illegitimate heirs that finally caught up with him and did him in.”  Autumn laughed bitterly.  “How fortunate they were that there was a lady of sufficient title to take on the mantle of leadership so soon after his parting.”

            “I see,” Kyle said.  “So… what now?”

            “Now we sail to the south pole,” Autumn said, “and on the way there and back I’ll have a lot to think about.  When we get back, I should probably visit my new duchy and set affairs in order there.  I should at least meet the man who’s running it for me.”

            “Well, you know I’ll help where I can,” Kyle said.

            “Thank you, Kyle.”  Autumn snuggled up next to him.  “Of course, you know that once we’re married, you’ll be Duke of Vargas, and it’ll be just as much your problem as mine.”

            “Don’t remind me,” Kyle groaned.  “I’m having enough trouble adjusting to ‘Captain Goodson’.”

            The last three days were a whirlwind of frenzied last-minute preparations.  All thoughts of assassin cults or noble titles were pushed aside as the party rushed to meet their deadline.  Summer was passing them by quickly, and if they were too slow in starting their voyage, they would arrive at the pole in the middle of winter, which would make the already dangerous mission nearly impossible.  It was a close thing, but they barely finished their work within the window of opportunity.

            They gathered at the docks in Praxos, having said their farewells to the Imperial Family in Noxolt that morning.  They spent a few moments regarding their heavily modified ship.  The squat, ironclad vessel sat low in the water, its wedge-shaped ram making it look very front-heavy.  The mast had been pulled down; the ship would need to be rowed out of harbor anyway, and the first mate wanted the crew to practice assembling and dismantling the mast a few times while they were relatively close to port.

            “Damn, that’s an ugly ship,” Lanara said.

            “At least you can tell it apart from all the others,” Arrie offered.

            “Ugly or not, that’s our home for the next six months,” Kyle said.  “Shall we?”

            The party began to move toward the gangplank.  “Wait!” Maddie said suddenly, and she ran off down the docks into the city.

            “Where’s she off to?” Razael cursed, and followed after her.

            The party waited around for a little while, until Maddie came back, Razael still behind her.  She held a large bottle of wine in one hand.

            “We haven’t given the ship a name yet,” she said.  “She needs a name.  It’s bad luck to sail without one.”

            “It’s bad luck to be on a boat, period,” Lanara said quietly to herself.

            Maddie handed the wine bottle to Kyle.  “Since he’s captain, I say he gets the honors.”

            Kyle looked at the bottle.  “Well, one idea comes to mind, but you won’t like it.”

            “How do you know until you tell us?” Arrie said.

            Kyle told them his idea.  The party looked at each other for a moment, and then each of them nodded their approval.  Kyle grinned.  “Okay, then, I hereby christen this ship… the Armadillo.”

            Kyle smashed the bottle on the hull.  Several sailors who’d been standing near the railing cheered.

            “Okay, folks,” Arrie said.  “Let’s go.”

            With that, the party boarded their ship, and prepared to meet their destiny.


----------



## Delemental

*Slow Boat*

Destiny, as it turned out, took a long time to get out of the harbor.

            Their iron-shod ship was heavy and cumbersome, and the entire crew had to man the oars to get it moving.  The fact that a ship of the Armadillo’s size wasn’t built to accommodate oars didn’t help, as the angle of the oars wasn’t optimal.  In their favor was the fact that few other ships wanted to get in the way of their metal monstrosity, and the party was given right-of-way.

            Two hours later, they were out in open water, and the crew was starting to raise the main mast and tie up the rigging.  By noon, they were under sail and heading south along the Tlaxan coast.

            “Never, ever make me do that again, Kyle,” Lanara said, rubbing her aching shoulders.  “It’s a good thing I thought ahead and brought a masseur.”

            The voyage settled into routine quickly.  With a full crew, the party had little they had to do to help sail.  Even Kyle was free from spending a great deal of his time being captain, though he had to spend it making magic and alchemical items instead, as well as absorbing the information from Andariel’s book.

            “It’s a biography,” Kyle told the party one night, after he’d finished reading the book through thoroughly.  “It’s about the spirit dragon Auxariel.”

            “Spirit dragon?” Razael asked.

            “It’s how they describe white dragons sometimes,” Kyle explained.  “See, it turns out that the reason scholars can’t agree on what it is dragons are supposed to be doing in the world is that they have lots of different jobs.  White dragons are in charge of regulating the flow of negative energy back to Erito so that she can continue to create magic.”

            “I take it this Auxariel isn’t doing such a great job,” Osborn commented.

            “No.  Apparently he’s been purposely hoarding the energy for about the last century.  Whoever wrote the book thinks that Auxariel was adapted by Erito to the cold because he’s supposed to be regulating the death cycle for arctic creatures.”

            “So, why should we care?” Razael said.

            “We should care because without negative energy flowing back to Erito, magic will decline, and the entire life and death cycle could be thrown out of whack,” Kyle explained.

            “Right now?” Razael asked.

            “No, not right now,” Kyle said.  “But eventually yes.”

            “So, again, why should we care?  It’s not going to affect us.”

            “Because we can stop it before it gets to that point,” Autumn said sternly.

            “Well, if you still think you can kill a dragon, that’s your own bit of craziness to deal with,” Razael stated.

            “If you’d like, we can put in at the next port,” Kyle said, “and we’ll send you on your way.”

            “Not while she’s here, no,” Razael said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder to Maddie.

            “Then stop griping about it,” Autumn said.  “If we can find a way to stop this dragon without fighting it, we will.  But we have to get there first.”

            Three and a half weeks after setting sail, the Armadillo caught the last glimpse of the continent, marking the farthest any of them (save Xu) had ever been from home.  Maddie marked the occasion by announcing a special dinner for the party.

            “Maddie, we appreciate the thought,” Kyle said, “but the supplies are pretty tight.  And, to be quite honest, you’ve never been the best cook.”

            “Well, none of us are, really,” Arrie pointed out.

            Maddie smiled.  “I’m not the one doing the cooking tonight.”  Maddie unfolded a fine-looking white tablecloth, and unfurled it on the long table in the captain’s cabin.  The instant the cloth settled on the surface, a large quantity of food appeared.

            “It’s not exactly gourmet,” Maddie explained, “but it beats sea rations.”

            “Where did you get this?” Kyle asked.

            “I made it.  You’re not the only one who knows how, you know.  I bought a few scrolls of create food and water to make it with while you were getting the ship ready.  It only works once a day, but I figured that will get us by when we leave the ship and head out over the ice.”

            “Wow, great thinking, Maddie!” Arrie said.

            “Yeah, wonderful!” agreed Autumn.

            “No bacon?” asked Osborn.

            After three more days, the ship turned to head southwest.  Directly below Affon was the Great Southern Reef, which they would have to go around to avoid running around on the coral.  Though it added weeks to their travel time, it was unavoidable; no one had charted the reef, and so a direct route was out of the question.

            Another week passed before anything else happened.  The lookout called down to the first mate, a grizzled human named Parkes who was missing his left ear.

            “Ship ahoy! Seventy degrees to port!”

            The crew moved to look for the ship, with some climbing into the rigging, including Razael.  The rest of the party waited on deck.

            “What’s a ship doing this far out here?” Osborn asked.

            “I don’t know,” Arrie said, “but it’s usually not for good reasons.”

            “She’s bearing this way, sir,” the lookout called down.  “Gaining fast.”

            “There’s a huge surprise,” Lanara said.

            “Has anyone see their colors?” Kyle asked.

            “Nay, captain,” Parkes said, “she’s too far out yet.  Could be one of the elves will spot them afore long.”

            “This is why I wanted a ballista,” Razael grumbled.  A few moments later, as the ship came into view to the rest of the crew, he squinted and shouted out to the crew.  “She’s flying a black flag.  White skull, with two crossed kukri’s behind it.”

            A fearful murmur began to ripple through the crew, and Parkes quickly went to work getting them back in line.  “That’s not good,” Lanara said.

            “Please, explain before my crew starts jumping overboard,” Kyle said.

            “Those are the colors of the pirate captain Starke.  He sails the Youth’s Vengeance.  He’s well known in these waters.  He’s known for being a decent fellow, as pirates go, as long as you’re not flying a Medosian flag.  Those ships he leaves with no survivors.  The big concern is his crew.  They say he used to have a human crew, but not any more.”

            “Who’s his crew now?” Osborn asked.

            “The stories vary.  Some say celestials, other demons.  There are stories of the undead, of shapeshifters, of half-humans, and other fantastical beasts.”

            “Well, we’re not going to outrun him or avoid him in this tub,” Arrie said.

            “He’s sailing out of the Southern Reef,” Kyle observed.  “I wonder how he did that?”

            “I say that we should just make a show of looking competent,” Arrie said, “and hope they decide we’re not worth it.”

            “This is why I wanted a ballista,” Razael repeated, this time out loud.

            They continued on course as the other ship approached, pausing occasionally to get another ‘pep talk’ from Parkes or to check on their preparedness.  Maddie went below, and returned a few minutes later.  Osborn used his ring and turned invisible.  The other ship came up behind the Armadillo, crossing through her wake and up along side.  As it approached to within hailing distance, they all saw the name painted on the vessel’s bow; Youth’s Vengeance.

            Their attention did not stay on the ship’s bow for long, as they got a good look at the crew.  They noted that the helm appeared unmanned, though there were sailors manning the rigging.  A blue-skinned ogre mage was on deck, as was a large, gruff-looking minotaur.  Looking up at their main mast, Razael saw a flash of orange fur.  He removed his goggles, rubbed his eyes, and looked again.

            “Well, I’ll be,” he said.  “I haven’t seen one of those in forever.”

            “What?” Lanara asked.

            “It’s an orangutan.”

            “You’ve actually seen one before?”

            “In five hundred years, you see a lot of things.”  Razael strung his bow, and placed a pair of arrows on the string.

            As the Youth’s Vengeance came up on the Armadillo from the starboard side (putting the reef to port, Kyle observed), a handsome, well-dressed man leaned out from the rigging, apparently supported only his feet.  There could be no doubt that this was Captain Starke.

            “Ahoy!” Kyle shouted.

            “Ah, good day, sir!” Captain Starke shouted back.  “And welcome to my waters!”

            “Your waters?” Lanara asked.

            “Why, yes.”

            “So, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Arrie asked.

            “Well, I do like to know who’s traveling through my waters, of course.”

            Lanara cast a quick glibness spell, and was ready to feed Captain Starke a line about their purpose so far south.  But as she started to open her mouth, Captain Starke interrupted.

            “No, no, dear,” he said, waggling a finger at her like he would a child, “No fair.  I know that trick, I’m afraid.”

            Lanara shrugged.  “You can’t blame a girl for trying, right?”

            “I suppose not.  So,” Captain Starke said, clapping his hands together gleefully, “who are you, and what are you doing here?”

            “We’re travelers, and we’re going south,” Lanara said.

            “Actually, you’re heading southwest right now,” Captain Starke observed.  “You’re not very good travelers, are you?”

            “Reefs are not our favorite method of stopping a boat,” Arrie said.  “It’s effective, but not if you want the boat back.”

            “That I can understand.  Still, it doesn’t really answer either of my questions, does it?”

            “We’re on a exploration mission to the south pole,” Kyle said quickly.  “You know, look at ice.”

            “Oh, how terribly exciting,” Captain Starke said.

            “Well, no, not really.”

            “No, not really at all.  Well, sir, in exchange for safe passage through my waters, my crew and I do require a few trifling items from you; things like food, and water, and perhaps some of your handsome young men.” The captain’s brow arched as he spoke.

            “Yeah, my ass,” Razael grumbled.  Lanara elbowed the tracker and glared at him.

            “Well, captain,” Kyle explained, “I’m afraid that due to the size of our ship, we’ve barely been able to stock enough provisions to make the voyage to the pole and back.”

            “In other words,  off,” Razael muttered again, this time drawing dark looks from both Lanara and Arrie.

            “Perhaps we could make other arrangements here,” Kyle offered, “or if safe passage is a problem, then you could inform us of the extent of your waters and we’ll simply sail around and no longer intrude on your territory.”

            “Well, perhaps an arrangement can be made,” Captain Starke said.  “But tell me, oh handsome young man, who am I dealing with?”

            “My name’s Kyle Goodson.” Kyle said.  Behind him, Razael muttered another ‘quiet’ epithet, which drew stares from Autumn and Arrie and a backhand slap on the arm from Lanara.

            “Did you say Kyle Goodson?” Captain Starke asked.

            “Yes,” Kyle said, suddenly very nervous.  After all, the last people who’d known him specifically were the Scion-Watchers, who had wanted to kill him.

            “Ye gods, man, you’re famous!  Don’t you know that?  You’re part of The Legacy!”

            The party looked at each other in confusion.  The Legacy?

            Captain Starke was very excited by this time.  “Are all of you aboard?  Ariadne, and Madrone, and Autumn?  Tolly and Lanara… you know, The Legacy!”

            “Well,” Kyle said cautiously, “Tolly’s not with us anymore.  He’s moved on to other things.”

            “Damn,” Starke swore, “I never get to defrock the priests.”  The look of disappointment vanished from his face, and he addressed Kyle again, sweeping his large hat off his head in a brand bow.  “Say no more.  Allow me to offer my sincerest apologies.  May I come aboard as a friend?”

            Razael pulled the arrows in his bow back farther in response, but Arrie gently lowered his aim.  Kyle waved Captain Starke over.  One of Starke’s crew tossed him a grapple and line, which the captain then tossed into the Armadillo’s rigging.  He swung over, and landed on the deck with a flourish of his cloak.

            “Thank you, thank you ever so much,” Captain Starke said, enthusiastically running up and shaking Kyle’s hand.  “I do apologize again.  Had I known who you were I never would have tried to rob you or swindle you.”  He moved around to each of the party, grasping their hands and greeting them warmly.  He seemed genuinely thrilled to meet each and every one of them.  He even offered a cordial tip of his hat to Razael, who was still standing with an arrow strung on his bow.

            “Forgive my rather abrupt demands earlier,” Captain Starke said, “however, the reason I made them is that my crew is in fact running low on food and water.”

            “Have you ever tried just purchasing supplies?” Lanara asked.

            “Well, we wouldn’t be very good pirates if we did that, now would we?” he replied with a smile.

            “I thought pirates were after loot,” Lanara said.

            “Booty,” Starke corrected, “the word is booty for us.”  To emphasize his point, Captain Starke suddenly reached out and grabbed the nearest behind, which turned out to be Kyle’s.  “Booty.”

            “Yes, I’m familiar with the word,” Lanara said, “and its many meanings.”

            “You know,” Razael said, “if we shot him, then his crew would have food for at least a day or two.”

            “But we’re not going to do that,” Arrie said to him quietly.

            “Well, I appreciate your honesty and sympathize with your plight, Captain Starke,” Kyle said, “but what I said before is true.  Our ship only barely holds enough to get us where we’re going and back.”

            Maddie cleared her throat to get Kyle’s attention.  When he looked over, she pulled a corner of her new magical tablecloth out of her pack, reminding him that they did in fact have extra food.

            “Oh!” Kyle said, “I’d forgotten!”  He turned back to Captain Starke.  “Actually, we might be able to provide you with a small amount of food after all.  Not enough for all your crew, I’m afraid.”

            “Well, some of my crew can fend… a moment, if you please?”  Captain Starke leaned over the railing between the two ships.  “Edgar!” he shouted, “have you found anything yet?”

            There was a splashing noise below, then the sound of something climbing up the metal hull.  Flopping over the rail came a very large, very wet otter, roughly as long as a human was tall.  Razael immediately spun his aim toward the new creature, though again Lanara discouraged an immediate attack.  The otter chattered at Captain Starke.

            “Ah, good, he found a little something after all,” the captain said.

            “Great Feesha, where did you find that?” Lanara asked.

            “Oh, he found me.”

            “You have quite an interesting crew,” Kyle commented.

            “Yes, I do, don’t I?”  Starke grinned.

            “Is that really an orangutan?” Lanara asked, pointing.

            “Oh, up there in the nest?  Yes, that’s Sebastian.  His brother Harold takes the night shift.”

            “Wow.”  Lanara turned to Razael.  “Hey, Raz, they’ve got two orangutans!”

            “I have enough arrows,” the elf muttered.

            “You’ll have to forgive Raz,” Lanara said to Captain Starke, “we traded Tolly in for him, but not by choice.”

            “I see.”  Starke turned back to Kyle.  “So, you say you’re heading for the southern pole, correct?  Well, as you might imagine, I have much better maps of the reef than you.  In exchange for the food you can provide, I would be willing to guide you through.  It would shave significant time off your voyage.”

            Kyle nodded thoughtfully.  “It’s an interesting offer.  If you’ll give me a moment to confer with my friends and officers?”

            “Of course,” Captain Starke said, bowing, “I will withdraw to my own ship.”  He reached up and grasped the rope he’d used to swing over, and made the return trip effortlessly.

            “So,” Kyle said as the party gathered together on deck.  “So how bad does this reek of an ambush?”

            Razael held his hand up to about nose level.

            “Actually,” Lanara said, “I think he’s being honest.  He talks like someone who’s used to laying it on pretty thick all the time.  It’s almost like he’s so used to lying that when he does tell the truth it still sounds like a tale, but less polished.”

            “He’s an ass, and deserves to be shot,” Razael said.

            “Sometimes, so do you,” Lanara retorted.

            Razael shrugged.  “Good point.”

            “So, what’s his reputation?” Kyle asked.

            “He keeps his word,” Lanara said.  “If he says he’s not going to kill, he tries his hardest not to kill.  I’d describe him as ‘famous’ rather than ‘infamous’.”

            “That’s not to say he won’t try to squeeze as much opportunity out of a situation as he can,” Arrie commented.

            “And if you’re a Medosian ship, all bets are off,” Lanara added.

            “Why is that?” Kyle asked.

            Lanara shrugged.  “Probably best we not ask, in case it’s a sore spot.”

            “I wouldn’t trust him any father than I could shoot him,” Razael said.

            “You can shoot a long way,” Maddie said, “so you trust him a long way?”

            “No, I trust him as long as he’s in bow range.”

            “You make no sense,” Maddie complained.

            “Well, let’s look at the situation here,” Kyle said.  “If he wanted to ambush us, we’d be ambushed already.  We can’t outrun him or outsail him in this ship.  He could have brought in several ships and attacked on the open ocean.”

            “But if he wants the ship,” Razael said, “the best thing would be to drag us onto a reef and immobilize us.”

            Kyle shook his head.  “That makes no sense.  This ship is a pig in water.  A pirate wouldn’t be caught dead in the Armadillo.  They want fast, maneuverable ships, not armored barges.”

            “Could we just make them a tablecloth of their own?” Lanara asked Maddie.

            “No,” the favored soul replied.  “I don’t actually know the spell you need to make it.  I had to buy scrolls to make the one we have.”

            “What if we gave him something to buy food with?” Lanara offered.  “I have that set of goblets somewhere in my bag still.”

            “I doubt he’d accept,” Arrie said, “he needs food now, and the nearest port is weeks away.”

            “Besides,” Kyle said, “we’ve already established that we’re on an exploration mission, and we haven’t got anything to spare.  Suddenly, we’re dragging out valuables?  He might start getting suspicious of us.”

            “Just an idea,” Lanara said.

            “I could just start shooting,” Razael offered.

            “But we have no reason to,” Kyle said, suppressing a sigh of frustration.  The tracker’s apparent complete lack of altruism or trust was becoming tiresome.

            “So, the simple choice is this,” Kyle continued.  “We could say no now, and sail away.  If Captain Starke wants to get us, he’ll get us later.  We can’t avoid that.  If we take his offer, then maybe he does something sneaky.  But we can be ready for it, and if they’re leading us through then they have to be ahead of us, which tactically is our advantage.”

            “And this ship should be able to take running aground on coral better than most,” Autumn pointed out.

            “We have to deal with him one way or another,” Arrie pointed out, “and I’d rather do it on friendly terms.”

            “You know, he kind of seemed in awe of us,” Maddie said.

            “Yeah, I want to know more about what he called us,” Arrie said, “The Legacy, was it?”

            “Why?” Razael asked.

            “Because some of us enjoy the company of others, and have curiosities,” Arrie replied.

            “So, let’s take him up on his offer, then,” Kyle said.  Stepping out of the circle, Kyle hailed the Youth’s Vengeance.  “Ahoy, captain!”

            “Yes?” Captain Starke called back.

            “We accept your offer,” Kyle said, “guide us through the reefs, and we’ll share what provisions we can.”

            “Most excellent!”  Captain Starke turned to his own crew.  “Eddie!  Freddie!  Come about!”

            At the helm, two dire weasels suddenly rose up from the deck, each of them taking one side of the wheel and starting to turn away from the Armadillo as the rest of crew began to put their ship to sail.

            “All right, then,” Kyle said.  “Parkes!  Set sail and follow that ship!”



*          *            *



            The Youth’s Vengeance and the Armadillo sailed through the Great Southern Reef for the next two weeks, winding through sometimes narrow corridors between coral banks.  During that time, the party was invited onto Captain Starke’s ship several times, and vice versa.  Only Razael declined the offers of dining with the famous pirate captain and his equally famous crew.

            The party met the crew, which consisted of a handful of humans and a variety of strange beings and awakened animals – the latter were on board thanks to a pair of merfolk druids in Starke’s crew.  There was Nhura, the water naga that helped control the weather for the ship, who spent much of her time swimming alongside the Youth’s Vengeance.  The minotaur Andrios stated that he was originally from the Tauric Kingdoms, a far away land where the ruling class was comprised of those beings with a mix of animal and humanoid traits.  When asked about his own history, however, Andrios would only say that he was a criminal in his homeland, and discouraged further questions by glaring.  The ogre mage introduced himself as Ulao.

            Some of Starke’s crew were beings that no one in the party had ever seen, that the captain explained were from lands closer to the Tauric Kingdoms that to Affon.  There was a humanoid with large feathered wings and bird-like features named Kiar, who referred to himself as a raptoran.  A pair of humanoids, two huge men with rough, dark skin and bony protrusions all over, were introduced by the other crew as Click and Clack; the pair were unable to introduce themselves, as their tongues had been cut out some time before joining Starke’s crew.  No one aboard knew the name of their race.  They also saw, though they never formally met, ‘Hank the Tank’, a being that looked like a bear with hands and armor that one of the crew described as an ‘urskan’.  It quickly became apparent how the legends of Starke’s crew came to be.

            The party also found out why Captain Starke had referred to them as ‘The Legacy’.  Tales of the party’s adventures had been slowly spreading throughout Affon, stories being shared by those they had helped over the past year.  The group had never chosen to name themselves; it seemed that “The Legacy” was the name that had been given to them by the storytellers.

            By the time they reached the southern edge of the reef, the temperature was noticeably colder, though not the bitter cold the party had prepared for.  The two ships pulled alongside each other and dropped anchor while the crew of the Youth’s Vengeance began transferring food and water over.

            “Oy, captain!” Sebastian called down from the crow’s nest to Captain Starke, who was on the deck saying his farewells to The Legacy, “there’s another ship heading this way!”

            Starke and the party walked over to the railing.  “Another ship?  All the way out here?” the captain said.

            The other ship soon came into view.  Razael, who was coaxed aboard Starke’s ship when he was told of the new vessel approaching, described the ship as it drew near.

            “It’s a bit smaller than ours, I’d reckon,” he said.  “Look’s like she’s sitting pretty shallow in the water.”

            “She’s built for speed, not cargo,” Captain Starke said, looking at the other ship through a spyglass.  “She’s come from somewhere near here.  There’s people aboard – I see five, maybe ten on deck.”

            “She’s not flying any colors,” Razael said.  “And it looks strange to me.  The ship’s not right, but I can’t say what it is.”

            “The shape of the hull’s wrong,” Starke said, “and the rigging’s not set like I’d expect for its speed.”

            As they studied the strange ship, they all heard a message – inside their heads.

            Surrender the Mind-Killers, and you will go free.  Fail, and there will be no survivors.

            Captain Starke looked around at his crew, confused at both the message and the method of delivery.  The party, however, had a pretty good idea what was going on.

            “They’re after us,” Kyle explained.  “We’re the Mind-Killers.”

            “I see,” said Captain Starke, “I must say I rather prefer The Legacy.”

            “Well,” Kyle said, turning to the party, “shall we respond?”

            “Most definitely,” Arrie said.  “Captain Starke, those people want to pick a fight with us.  If you wish to participate, you may.”

            “We will discuss it,” Captain Starke said.

            The Legacy returned to the Armadillo.  “So,” Lanara said, “are we sailing over there to meet them?  Are we going to ram them?”

            “No,” Kyle said, “I see no reason to risk the lives of my men.  We can take the fight to them.”

            “How so?” Arrie asked.

            Kyle cast a spell, and suddenly everyone in the party was buoyed by the power of flight.  “We go over there and give them our answer.”

            “Kyle, you’re the best brother in law ever,” Arrie said, grinning.

            After casting a second fly spell on Razael to allow him to separate from the group if he wanted, Kyle began flying toward the strange ship, the others spreading out around him.  The ship was still several hundred yards away.  As they gained altitude, they saw what had made the ship look so odd.  There were several crystal protrusions all along the hull, which seemed to glow slightly.  There were a few people on the deck, as Captain Starke had said, but none of them seemed to be manning the ship itself.  They could also see five figures being towed behind the ship by ropes, skimming along the surface of the water.  The five people were very large, and wearing full plate armor.

            “Are those some of them rocky people, like Click and Clack?” Razael shouted up to Kyle.

            He shook his head.  “Half-giants.  I’ll explain later.  Just don’t get close enough to let them hit you.”

            “Not a problem there,” Razael said, loading his bow.

            The party closed with the ship.  The psions made the first move, launching balls of energy onto the air and blasting the party with electricity.  Singed but alive, Kyle quickly cast a spell to protect the party from further electrical attacks.  The psions responded with blasts of fire and cold.  Lanara tried to respond with a fireball from her wand, and after a few fizzled attempts a moderate-sized fireball blossomed on the deck.  Kyle also cast a spell, channeling it through his metamagic rod to create a much larger explosion.

            “Showoff,” Lanara said.

            The psions switched to defense.  A bank of fog rose up in front of the party, and a wind gusted behind them, pushing them into the cloud.  Strange tentacles made of solid cloudstuff battered those who were unable to fly out of the way.  Maddie had to fly back and forth among the party, using her healing wand to repair injuries to herself and other members of her party.

            Finally, they came within a few hundred feet of the psionic ship, and started descending rapidly.  Lanara cast a spell with the aid of a new magical mandolin she’d picked up, accompanied by her inspiring music.  Several of the people on deck had gone below, apparently tired of being hit with fireballs.  The half-giants had pulled themselves in, and were climbing onto the deck.  Razael, who had been firing a few test arrows at the crystal protrusions to see how fragile they were, aimed at the armored foes on deck.  Kyle cast another spell, and summoned a defenestrating sphere, though he found that the half-giants were too massive to be flung overboard by the ball of wind.  Xu, who was toward the front of their formation, pushed her speed and leapt onto the deck, delivering a flying kick to one of the half-giants.

            From the stairs at the rear of the ship, two robed figures emerged.  One of them pointed, and Arrie was suddenly hit with a blast of frigid air, sending her flying backward.  The other one sent out another ball of cold into the party members still flying up to the ship.  The half-giants closed around Xu, even as Lanara blasted a few of them with a sound burst.

            “Kyle!” Arrie shouted, “what happens if I get out of range?”  The wizard had warned them on the way over that the mass fly spell would end for anyone who got farther than ten yards from another person.

            You’ll fall!” Kyle warned, as he finished casting a haste spell, “but slowly at first!”

            “Fabulous,” Arrie said, and she immediately flew as fast as she could toward the rear of the ship.  She felt the magic keeping her aloft fail, but it dwindled slowly, and her momentum carried her over the railing and onto the deck.  She whipped her spiked chain out and pulled one of the psions off his feet.  Razael put a few arrows into the other psion, which seemed to have trouble penetrating his skin, although the psion winced at the sting of both cold and fire energy.  Xu tumbled out of the cluster of armored half-giants, aided by the fact that she could still fly, and ran to the back of the ship to assist Arrie in assailing the psions.  But suddenly, there was a shimmer in the air, and a cluster of daggers flew at each of the psions, killing them outright.  The now visible Osborn, floating in midair, smiled and waved.

            Kyle, seeing an opportunity as the half-giants that had been attacking Xu were looking for new targets, swooped down directly in their midst and released a blast of force that pushed them all back.  Unfortunately, the blast was not quite strong enough to push any of them overboard, though it was a close thing.  As he flew up and out of the range of the half-giant’s claws, he was smacked in the back of the head by Autumn.

            “What happened to ‘don’t get close enough to let them hit you’?” she said, before flying down to attack the half-giants herself.  Maddie also flew down to attack them, and even Lanara lent a direct hand, jabbing at one with her rapier.

            A battle cry echoed out from the hold, and a half-dozen people came up, each with a pair of energy blades in their hands.  They tumbled and leapt about, surrounding Arrie and Xu.

            “Soulknives!” cried out Kyle from his aerial vantage point, recognizing the blades the men wielded.  Maddie broke away from her combat with the half giants and dropped a sound burst into their midst.  The close confines of the ship’s deck meant that the soulknives were packed closely together, and several succumbed to the sonic blast.  Xu’s quick strikes rendered two more senseless, and then she and Arrie began using the same tactic that had served them so well against the two psions, knocking them off their feet to keep their enemies from mounting an effective offense.

            Razael, high above the ship, was still raining arrows down on the half giants closest to Maddie when a movement on the water caught his eye.  Looking down, he saw two merfolk climb out of the water and up the side of the psion’s ship.  The pair leapt over the railing into the midst of the soulknives, transforming into large wolves as they landed.  The two wolves began savagely tearing into one of the psionic warriors.  Glancing over his shoulder, Razael saw that the Youth’s Vengeance was approaching rapidly, and several of her crew stood ready with grapples.

            By the time Captain Starke’s crew boarded the other ship, however, the battle was mostly over.  Over half the soulknives had been killed, and only two half giants remained, one of whom was now missing his armor due to a metal melt spell from Kyle.  The party did get to witness some of the unusual combat maneuvers of the famous pirate crew, such as when Andrios grabbed Nhura by the tail and flung her over to the other ship, where she wrapped herself around one of the soulknives and began savaging him.

            “Well, well,” said Captain Starke, swinging over to the ship as the last opponents fell.  “It seems that your reputations are well deserved.”  He glanced around the ship.  “I say, this is rather an unusual ship, isn’t it?  What purpose do those crystals serve, I wonder?”

            “It, er… is some kind of magic, I’m sure,” Kyle said, not wanting to get too involved in explaining psionics.

            Starke raised an eyebrow.  “I’m sure.  Well, what do you plan to do with her?”

            “Captain, perhaps I could suggest something?” Arrie said.  Both Kyle and Starke turned to her.

            “We obviously can’t take this ship with us on our expedition; we can’t spare the crew, and even if we tow it, the ship would probably be smashed on the ice.  What if we allowed Captain Starke to take possession of it for now?  Even if those crystals can’t be made to work for them, the ship itself might suit his needs.  On our return trip, we could meet up with Captain Starke again to discuss either reclaiming the ship or being compensated for it.”

            “That sounds fine to me,” Kyle said, “if you’re agreeable.”

            “Oh, most certainly,” Captain Starke said, clasping Kyle’s hand to seal the bargain – though he held Kyle’s grasp perhaps a bit longer than was necessary.

            “Captain!” shouted Sebastian, “one of these large fellows is still breathing!”

            “Well, correct the problem, then,” Starke said casually.

            “Wait!” said Autumn, “we need information!  We have no idea who sent this ship after us, or if they know why we’re out here.”

            “She’s right,” Kyle said.  “Captain, have your men bring the living one over to the Armadillo.  After we’ve questioned him, we’ll get you the rest of the supplies I promised.”

            “A fair arrangement,” Captain Starke said.  “Very well.”

            The members of The Legacy watched as the limp body of the half-giant was carried on board by Click and Clack.  All of them had the same thought; now was a poor time for interference from the psions.  But was that interference intentional?  Did the psions somehow know why they were here?

            Either way, the message to The Legacy was clear; their enemies were no longer content to sit back and wait.


----------



## Delemental

*Frozen Heart*

“Kyle, can I talk to you for a minute?”

            Kyle looked up from the sea charts he was studying.  They had taken careful notes while crossing through the Great Southern Reef, led by the famous pirate Captain Starke, and hoped to use the same passage on the way home, as it had shaved nearly two weeks off their travel time.

            “Sure, Raz, come on in.”

            The tracker came into the cabin and shut the door.  “We done interrogating that half-giant yet?”

            “Arrie and Xu are in with him now.  I don’t think it’ll be too much longer, why?”

            “We’ll be killing him, right?”

            Kyle sighed.  “Yes, we will.  As much as I hate the idea, there’s no way we can keep him contained.  Even if we could, what would we do with him?”

            Razael scratched at the side of his head.  “Well, if you could just hold off on cutting his throat for a bit, I’ve made an arrangement for disposing of the body that’ll help out one of Starke’s crew.”

            “I’m surprised to hear you wanting to help out Starke’s crew, considering you’ve spent the last two weeks just a hair shy of shooting them.”

            “I guess I have to admit that they didn’t cross us like I expected,” Razael admitted, “and besides, this is sort of a mutual benefit arrangement between myself and Nhura.”

            “Nhura?  The naga?  What’s she have to do with this?”

            “She wants the half-giant for herself.  She says someone his size will keep her from being hungry for weeks.”

            Kyle turned pale.  “You… offered to let Nhura eat the half-giant?”

            Razael shrugged again.  “Throwing him in the ocean’s a waste of good meat.”

            Kyle buried his face in his hands, shaking his head slowly.  “Please, please tell me that it’ll at least be a quick death.”

            “That was my understanding,” Razael said, “she said that a fresh kill was best.”

            “And do I want to know what she’s giving you in exchange?”

            “Probably not, I’d wager.”

            Kyle uncovered his face and leaned back in his chair.  “I’m going to end up in the Shadow Plane for this,” he said to himself.  “Why come to me?  Why not just talk to Arrie?”

            “Well, you are the captain,” Razael said, “and since you seem to be intent on being the moral watchdog for this group…”  He left out the part about secretly enjoying watching the wizard squirm.

            “The only reason I’m agreeing to this is that we were going to kill him anyway, and it will help out Starke,” Kyle said.  “I’ll tell Arrie to turn him over to you when they’re done.”

            As Razael turned to leave, Kyle spoke again.  “You know, I’d kind of hoped you being with Lanara now would have given you a better perspective on your fellow humanoids.”

            “Takes more’n a few days of sex to reverse five hundred years of experience,” Razael said.  “But I didn’t know you knew about the two of us.”

            “Raz, everyone knows,” Kyle said.  “If I’d had an inkling that the two of you were going to be so… boisterous, I’d have iron-plated the interior walls too.”

            “You’re one to talk,” Razael said.

            “Out,” Kyle scowled.



*          *          *



            The half-giant, who identified himself as ‘Wave-Dancer’, held little information.  This was somewhat expected; the party would have preferred interrogating one of the psions, or a soulknife, but they decided that it was too dangerous to let any of them regain consciousness.  Wave-Dancer had revealed that they had been sent by none other than Xerxes to eliminate the ‘Mind-Killers’.  They learned that they had been located by psions known as ‘seers’, and that the two psions that had been in command were ‘kineticists’ and they were the ones propelling the ship.  As far as they could tell, Xerxes did not know why the party was so far south.

            After delivering the last of the supplies to the Youth’s Vengeance (including a very large, lumpy bundle carried straight to Nhura’s quarters), the party and crew of the Armadillo bare farewell to Captain Starke, and continued their voyage south.

            Two days later, there was another knock at Kyle’s cabin door.  Arrie opened in and poked her head in.  “Are you all finished in here?” she asked.

            “Just wrapping up,” Maddie said, taking off her headband and rubbing her temples.  The rest of the party sat around the room, surrounding the favored soul.  Kyle was at the desk, writing.

            “Great.”  Arrie came in and sat down.  “So, what did Erito have to say?”

            “Well, if you’d been here in the first place, you’d already know,” Autumn chided.

            “It’s all right, Autumn,” Kyle said, “no harm done.  It’s not like she has to be sitting here for the commune to work.”  Kyle handed Arrie a sheet of parchment.  As she took the paper from him, they exchanged a knowing look.

            Arrie scanned the contents of the parchment.  Kyle had written down the questions they had posed during the commune, and the answers they received.  The first nine questions she had already seen; they were asked last month, when Maddie had last used her headband of communion.



1. Is the information in the book given to us by the dragon Andariel in regard to the dragon Auxariel hoarding negative energy accurate?   YES

2. If Auxariel continues his current activities, will the consequences result in harm to living beings elsewhere in the world?  YES

3.  Does Erito want Auxariel to be destroyed?  YES AND NO

4. Can Auxariel be stopped from continuing his current activities  through means other than destroying him?  YES

5. Are there psionicists aiding Auxariel in any way?  NO

6. Is Auxariel’s lair at or very near the location shown on the map on Madrone’s back?  YES

7. Will the information found at this location reveal what truly happened during the Cataclysm?  YES AND NO

8. Will the information found at this location reveal the meaning of the term ‘Scion’?  UNCLEAR

9. Will the information found at this location aid us in defeating psionicists or foiling their plans?  UNKNOWN



1. Is Auxariel using a device or object to hoard negative energy?  NO

2. If this device is destroyed, will it stop Auxariel without unduly harming people, other than the members of The Legacy?

2. Is the oathbond dagger of Bail that was stolen by Marrek somehow important to their plans?  UNCLEAR

3.Would Erito prefer that The Legacy deals with Auxariel without destroying him?  YES

4. Is the group known as the Scion-Watchers attempting to keep Autumn’s bloodline pure?  NO

5. Will the information found at the location shown on Madrone’s back reveal facts about Kyle’s ancestry?  YES

6. Does Erito intend for The Legacy to remove any physical objects from this location?  NO

7. Is Auxariel currently aware that The Legacy is coming?  NO

8. Is there information at the location shown on Madrone’s back about psionics in general?  YES

9. Have any members of Kyle’s immediate family been ‘purified’ by the Scion-Watchers?  NO

            Arrie handed the parchment back to Kyle.  “I told you the Scion-Watchers were after your family, Kyle,” she said.

            “I know, I know,” Kyle said sadly.  “I was grasping at straws.  When Lanara suggested that it was Autumn’s bloodline that they were trying to keep pure, not mine, well…”

            Arrie put a reassuring hand on Kyle’s shoulder.  “Well, at least you know they haven’t found anyone else in your family.”

            “For now.  But it’ll be three months before we’re back in Affon, and who knows how long after that before I find them myself.”

            Arrie let Autumn take her place by Kyle’s side, then picked up the parchment again.  “So, we’re supposed to try not to kill Auxariel, I see.”

            “Yeah,” Razael drawled, “and I’d like to know exactly how we’re supposed to fix this problem without killing the dragon.”

            “We don’t know,” said Autumn.  “Maybe something will present itself when we get there.  I say we do our best to solve this diplomatically, but if that fails we’ll have no choice but to try and destroy him.”

            Maddie looked up at Razael.  “At least you’re not still saying that this is all a conspiracy to get us to do the dirty work for the other dragons,” she said.

            “I’m still not convinced it isn’t,” he replied, “but Erito seems to want the same thing, and the Goddess is one of the few people that has never steered me wrong, even if I don’t always know where she’s headed.  Why else do you think I’m here watching your butt?”

            “Well, at least we won’t have to drag you into this kicking and screaming,” Maddie said.  “For me, although I doubt we’ll be able to end this problem without violence, I will do my Goddesses’ will.  I won’t try and kill Auxariel if we can help it.”

            “How long before we get there?” Osborne asked.

            “We’ve got another two weeks of sailing before we reach the edge of the ice,” Kyle said.  “From there I’m guessing at least two or three weeks on foot to get to the actual pole.”

            “Well, super,” Lanara said, standing up.  “That’s two more weeks with my cabin boy.”

            “And your masseur, too,” Osborn observed, holding back a smile and glancing at Razael.

            “Yeah,” Lanara winked, “him too.”



*          *          *



            The Armadillo made icefall two weeks later, just as predicted.  The ship carved through the thick ice easily, until they reached the point where they could go no further.  The crew dropped grapples and pikes into the hard ice, and the party made their way down the ramp once the ship was secure.  All of them, save Maddie, were heavily bundled.  The favored soul wore close to her normal traveling clothes.

            “Forget something, Maddie?” Arrie asked.

            “Erito has graced me with an immunity to deadly cold,” Maddie explained.  “I’m quite comfortable, actually.”

            They set off due south, using Lanara’s wand of know direction to locate true north, then going in the opposite direction.  The eight adventurers trudged along steadily through the snow, pausing occasionally to marvel at the continuous presence of the sun in the middle of the night, or to gaze upon the unearthly colors of the southern aurora.  Within a few days, they came upon what could only be described as an ice desert; drifting snow and ice piled up into dunes like sand, and the air was bone-dry.  They made their way across the desert, shuffling across the blowing snow with snowshoes.

            A day or so into the ‘desert’ crossing, Razael and Osborn motioned for everyone to hold still and be quiet.  In the distance, they both heard the sound of approaching footsteps carrying in the wind.

            “Mix of biped and four-legged,” Razael hissed, “coming this way, but doesn’t sound like they’re hurrying this direction, either.  I don’t think we’ve been spotted.”

            “Quick,” Osborn said, “everyone lay down.”

            The elf and the hin quickly threw snow over the top of the rest of their companions, burying them to hide their location.  Then the two of them waited for whatever was coming to appear.

            They didn’t have long to wait before two figures appeared over the top of an ice-dune.  One was a tall frost giant carrying an enormous scythe, the other was a winter wolf.  The giant slowed as he saw the two strangers, but continued their way.  Neither Osborn nor Razael could read the giant’s intent, although the tracker could tell that the wolf was hungry, but would obey the giant.

            The giant stopped a safe distance away and bellowed out a greeting in a language neither of them understood.  When Osborn shrugged to indicate they didn’t understand, the giant switched to Common.

            “Greetings, small ones,” he said.  “What brings you so far out here?”

            “Exploring,” Osborn said.

            “Looking for anything in particular?”

            “Just having a look around,” Razael said, “heard some rumors.”

            The giant studied them for a moment.  “Well, let me give you two pieces of advice for fellow travelers.  First, you will want to avoid my clan.”  The giant pointed with his scythe to the west.  “They’re about two days that way as I walk, so I imagine it’d be three or four for you.  My clan is unwelcoming of strangers.”

            “Got it,” Osborn said, “and the second?”

            “There’s a blizzard coming in about twelve hours,” he said.  “I’d suggest you find some shelter.  I can tell by the way your breath steams that you’re not accustomed to this climate.”

            Razael glanced up at the clear sky, then nodded.  “Much obliged.”

            “Farewell, travelers,” the giant said, before walking off.  The winter wolf whined at the smell of a meal, but followed his master anyway.  Razael and Osborn walked off in the opposite direction, circling back after a few minutes to unbury their companions.

            “About time,” Lanara complained, as snow fell out of her pink hair.

            The party marched for another six hours before they found a suitable site to make camp.  The first wispy clouds heralding the storm had appeared overhead as Lanara conjured a tiny hut to use as the foundation for a shelter.  They spent the next few hours building and stacking blocks of hard-packed snow just inside the magical hemisphere, as the wind started to pick up and the temperature dropped.  Two hours into construction, they saw a huge bank of clouds roll in off the horizon, seeming to head straight for them.  With the first flurries starting to fall, the party entered the igloo and settled in.  The temperature inside soon dropped to barely below freezing, which was still much higher than the air outside.  With the use of one of Tiranel’s sure-burning logs, the interior quickly became as cozy as they could expect under the circumstances.

            A few hours into the storm, as the fatigue from their travel began to set in and the party started to discuss sleeping arrangements (with Razael encouraging both Lanara and Maddie to stay close to him for warmth), Kyle suddenly cried out.  Everyone turned and saw him sitting next to one of the walls, with a clawed, ghostly hand protruding from his chest.

            “That’s not right,” he said, blood draining from his face.

            The next few minutes were very harrowing, seeming to stretch into eternity.  Autumn was also struck by a surprise attack through the walls of the igloo, the unnaturally cold touch of the undead sapping her vitality as it had Kyle’s.  The creatures darted in and out of the shelter, seemingly unfazed by the raging blizzard, swiping at those too close to the edge.  It would be several months later, after the party had returned to Affon, that they would learn that these beings were known as rimewraiths.  For now, they were simply an enemy.  The party quickly gathered in a defensive cluster near the center of their shelter, forcing their assailants to fully enter the chamber to strike.  Fortunately, they had prepared well for just such an attack; Kyle had spent some of his time during the voyage south making flasks of ghost oil.  With their weapons so enhanced, the party soon ended the menace of the undead.

            But long after the battle was over, long after they had removed their armor and settled in under heavy blankets, Lanara remained awake, staring up at the white ceiling, listening to the wind howling outside.  Something… odd had happened to her, when the rimewraiths attacked, something she wasn’t ready to share yet.  When she’d begun playing her bardic music to help her friends in battle, she’d felt something stirring in her mind… no, in her soul.  She could sense it was coming from the bardic instrument she was using, her Fuirmach Fiddle.  Or, to be more precise, the Fuirmach Fiddle.  Lanara had come to possess three of the fabled True Instruments, the legendary pieces created long ago by the masters of the long-vanished Bardic Colleges.  Though copies of those magical instruments were not uncommon, it was a rarity for even a world-famous bard to ever find more than one.  Lanara had often wondered what the effects might be of carrying three of them, as rumors had it that the True Instruments held their own spirit, an animus that gave true life to the music they created.  She had felt some of that spirit today, urging her to keep playing, to keep the song alive.  It had been difficult to put the instrument down, even after the last rimewraith had been felled. 

            It took the storm two days to blow over, which in one sense was fortunate, as it allowed Autumn and Kyle a chance to rest and recover their stolen strength.  When they saw light filtering down through their roof once again, they punched their way up through it, as the igloo had been completely buried.  After getting their bearings, the party continued south.

            Thirteen days passed in the dull monotony of walking ever forward in a field of unending white.  The days began to blur in their minds, until checking their progress with Lanara’s wand almost seemed a pointless exercise.  But fortunately, they overcame their ennui enough to keep up the routine.  Still when the day came when the wand simply spun around in a circle without settling on a single direction, it took them all a few moments to realize what it meant.

            A search of the area around the south pole soon revealed an ice cavern nearby, the opening yawning into darkness.  Kyle took a moment to cast spells on the party that granted everyone darkvision as well as extra protection from cold before the party descended into the cave.  They chose to travel in darkness, relying on Kyle’s spell for vision, in the hopes of not alerting any denizens of the caverns.  Occasionally they would spare a miniscule amount of light to consult the copies of the maps they’d made, both of Maddie’s back and of the surrounding area that had been discovered long ago by dwarven explorers.  Soon there was no doubt that the areas matched.

            The caverns descended rapidly, and within an hour of travel, the party noticed that they had gone from compacted ice to bedrock.  They found nothing living in the caves, though once or twice they did stumble across a small cluster of mindless skeletons or zombies that were quickly dispatched.

            After another hour and a half, they reached an area just outside where Maddie’s map revealed a massive cavern.  There were no exits from the chamber beyond.

            “That has to be it,” Kyle whispered.

            “Auxariel’s lair,” Arrie said just as quietly.  “So, now what?”

            The party took a few moments to cast a few preparatory spells, just in case.  Once they were done, they came back to Arrie’s question.

            “Well,” Kyle said, “it’s safe to assume that Auxariel knows we’re here, right?”  When everyone nodded, Kyle cast another spell, and suddenly the air around him was swarming with several magical ‘eyes’.  Kyle began directing them into the cavern beyond, instructing some to fly along the left wall, some along the right, others up to the ceiling looking down, and so forth.  The magical eyes darted off into the cavern, and a minute later returned, relaying what they’d seen to Kyle.  He frowned.

            “Auxariel’s in there,” he said, “at the back of the cave.  He looks like he’s asleep, though I wouldn’t believe it for a minute.  Behind him, on the back wall of the cavern, there’s a big, swirling portal.  Between him and us there are three small skeletal dragons.”

            “How small?” Razael asked.

            “About the size of Rupert.  There’s also a kobold off in the corner to the right, who looks like he’s doing menial labor.  It’s strange, though.  I got a good look at the skeletal dragons as well as Auxariel.  Judging on the age of the bones, certain similarities in appearance, and whatnot, I’d guess that all four dragons in there are from the same brood.”

            “What?” said several people at once.

            “It looks like they’re siblings,” Kyle repeated.

            “So, you reckon Auxariel turned his brothers and sisters into undead?” Razael asked.

            “I doubt it. Those skeletons are of very young dragons, almost hatchlings.  Auxariel would have been the same age when it happened, and somehow I don’t think he came out of the egg that powerful.  More likely it was done by something else.”

            “Maybe that’s why Auxariel’s doing this,” Autumn said, “trying to restore true life to his family.”

            “It could be an angle we could use,” Kyle said, “find out what happened.”

            “What about the swirly thing?” Osborn asked.

            “Not sure, really.  It could be something that Auxariel’s created with the negative energy he stole.”

            “So, do we want to go in polite?” Razael asked.

            “Well, we are going to try not to kill him,” Maddie reminded them.

            “We have our ambassadors,” Kyle said, gesturing to Lanara and Autumn.

            “We should announce ourselves,” Autumn said, “so as not to start off on the wrong foot if we’re trying diplomacy first.”

            The party walked forward, with Autumn and Lanara in the lead, with Osborn walking invisibly between them.  Arrie, Xu, and Kyle came in behind, and Razael and Maddie brought up the rear.  They spread out as far as they could, wary of the dragon’s breath,  though even the cavern’s wide opening did not afford as much space as they would have liked.

            As soon as they came within sight of the great white dragon, a loud voice rang out..

            “Foolish mortals!  Why have you wandered into the lair of Auxuariel?”

            The dragon spoke in its native language, which fortunately both Autumn and Lanara could understand.  Kyle translated quietly for those in the group who couldn’t speak Draconic.

            “Great Auxariel!” Autumn began, also speaking in Draconic, “we wish to speak with you on Erito’s behalf.”

            There was a low growl.  “I do not care to hear it.  Be gone or be dead.”

            “Erito would like to avoid your death,” Lanara continued, “even where others would actively seek it.”

            “You are trying my patience,” Auxariel said, hissing.

            “Surely a being as long lived as you would have immeasurable patience,” Lanara said, “surely you could hear us out, at least?”

            “ENOUGH!!”

            The dragon Auxariel began to rise.



*          *          *



            Razael handed a waterskin to Maddie, who sat with her back on a cold rock.  She took it and took a large swallow, realizing suddenly that this particular waterskin didn’t hold water.  She smiled as the warmth spread from her belly into her limbs.

            “Feeling better, lass?” Razael said.

            “Much better, thank you,” she replied.  “Though my life-force is still diminished.”

            “It’ll pass,” Kyle said, who was leaning on the wall nearby.  “Osborn’s already feeling more like himself.”

            “That’s ‘Osborn Wyrmslayer’ to you,” the hin said proudly.

            “Oh, I forgot, you killed the dragon,” Lanara said, walking up to Maddie and taking the waterskin from her.  “Of course, all the arrows and fireballs and spiked chain hits before that had nothing to do with it.”

            “Lanara,” chided Osborn, “you of all people should know it’s all in how you tell the story.”

            “Speaking of stories,” the cansin said, “I’m curious, Kyle.  How exactly did you figure out that the kobold was the real Auxariel?”

            “I didn’t, really,” Kyle admitted.  “I just guessed lucky.  When that big dragon in the back stood up and all its skin fell off, something didn’t sit right with me.  Andariel and Tiranel had said that Auxariel wasn’t undead himself, so when that skin came away and there was nothing but a huge skeleton, I started to wonder.  When it charged and attacked by biting and clawing, I got more suspicious.  Why not blast us with his breath?  Or use a spell?  Then I realized that the kobold was just plain out of place.  Why would Auxariel have a kobold all the way down here?  It’d freeze to death.  So, I took a chance, and sent the kobold a message telling him that we could still stop the fighting and hear what he had to say.”

            “Yeah, unfortunately what he had to say was ‘I’m going to change back into a dragon now and breathe negative energy on you.’” Arrie observed.  She chuckled a little, then stopped abruptly, grasping her ribs and wincing.  “Or that damned force blast of his.”

            “Yeah, and our side’s blasting seemed to start up a little late,” Autumn chided.

            “I wanted to wall off that portal first,” Kyle said.  “I didn’t want anything coming in or out of it.”

            “You know I’m kidding,” Autumn said.  “I’m just upset that I wasted so much time attacking the fake Auxariel.”

            “Just because it was a false dragon, do not discount the threat posed by the large skeleton,” Xu said.  “I fell victim to those teeth and claws, if you recall.  I might have died had Autumn not healed me.”

            “Yeah, I know how you feel,” Maddie said.  “I thought I was a goner when Auxariel bit me.  Next thing I knew, there was Lanara standing over me.”  Maddie scowled a little.  “And stepping on my clothes to keep me from getting up.”

            “Someone had to keep you from just running right back into the fight,” Lanara said.  “Sometimes I think Raz is right when he says you have a secret death wish.  If I hadn’t held you down, Raz probably would have been forced to come get you, instead of shooting the dragon.”  Secretly, Lanara was glad she’d even been able to come to Maddie’s aid; she’d felt the instruments trying to prevent her from stopping her bardic music again.

            “And I’m a fair sight better with a bow than I am with a blade,” Razael said, “so the longer I can keep shooting, the better.”

            “I’ll have to admit,” Arrie said, as she finished tying off the last bandage on her sister’s arm, “I was impressed by how many of your shots got through his hide.  It almost makes up for your personality.”  She grinned at him, and he tipped his cap in return.

Razael spat onto the hard stone ground.  “I tell you what, though, that Auxariel turned out not to be as large as I’d expected.”

            “Yeah, I thought dragons got bigger as they got older,” Osborn said.  “Auxariel was about half the size of his fake.”

            Kyle shrugged.  “Who knows?  Maybe the myth about a dragon’s size showing how powerful he is was just that – a myth.  Not like we can ask him.”

            “Yes, it’s too bad we couldn’t talk to him openly, and spare him for Erito’s sake,” Maddie said sadly.  “But, he didn’t give us much of a choice.”

            “No, he didn’t,” Osborn said.  “I almost get the idea that dragons aren’t as smart as everyone thinks.”

            “I’m just glad we all made it through that fight alive,” Autumn said.  “But now what?”

            “Well, we came here to find this knowledge Erito wants us to have,” Lanara said, “but I don’t really see any books around here.”

            “The place we’re going may be through that portal,” Kyle said, pointing with his staff toward the swirling disc on the far wall that gently illuminated the cavern.

            “Don’t forget we got us a dragon to carve up,” Razael said.  “The cold should keep the good parts from spoiling before we get back to the ship.”

            Kyle shook his head.  “I’m torn between my general dislike of desecrating corpses, and knowing that there’s a lot of value in dragon bits.”

            “And aren’t dragons supposed to have big treasure hoards?” Lanara asked.

            “Not necessarily,” Arrie warned, “that could just be a human myth.  I can’t see how Auxariel would be able to find anything to hoard all the way down here, anyway.”

            “Well, in that case,” Razael said, “best we get to the skinning and gutting now.  Care to lend a hand, Maddie?”

            “Of course,” she replied, and the two elves walked over to where the body of Auxariel lay, drawing their daggers.

            “It’s almost too adorable,” Lanara said, watching the two of them walk away, “it’s like a father-daughter picnic held by the church of Fiel.”

            The group had a hearty laugh at the image, then busied themselves with packing away their gear and cleaning up the last of their wounds.  A minute later, however, Maddie’s voice called out.

            “Hey, everyone!  Can you please come over here?  Now?”

            They all dropped what they were doing and walked over, curious at what was so important.  Maddie and Razael stood over the still form of the dragon.  Both of their daggers were still unbloodied.

            “Auxariel,” Maddie said quietly, “is still alive.”

*          *          *

           The party stood around the still form of Auxariel, which they could now all see was slowly rising and falling as it breathed.  Almost in unison, everyone turned to look at Kyle.

            “What are you looking at me for?” he cried out.

            “Because you have the big brain!” Osborn said.

            “And that moral compunction not to just kill the thing,” Lanara added.

            “I think it has more to do with Erito’s moral compunctions,” Arrie said.

            “That’s true,” Razael observed.  “Erito did tell us that she’d rather we not kill this dragon if’n we can avoid it.  Personally, I say we start pulling scales off until we figure out how many it needs to live, and stop just before that.”

            Maddie was closely examining Auxariel.  “I think he’ll be out for at least a day,” she said.

            “Look, I know what Erito wants,” Kyle said, “and like I said before, I was willing to give it a shot just because she’s helping us out by showing us where this place is.  But I’m not sure of our ability to contain a cranky dragon long enough to teach it some manners.”

            “Maybe we should try and figure out what it was doing first,” Arrie suggested.  “That might help us know what to do.  Let’s try looking around for a while.”

            The party spread out through the cavern, searching thoroughly.  Unfortunately, they found little of interest other than the portal – no records, no indications of what Auxariel might have been doing with the negative energy he was hoarding.  During the search, Kyle noticed Osborn crouched down, staring intently at the floor.

            “What’s up?” Kyle asked.

            “Something’s odd under the floor here,” he said.  “Can I get some light?”

            “Sure.”  Kyle fished out one of his light-globes.  They’d been working mostly in the dark, thanks to Kyle’s mass darkvision spell.  When he activated the light, he easily saw what Osborn had seen.

            Just under the hard, icy surface of the floor, coins and gems sparkled in the bright light.  They had found Auxariel’s hoard.  The others soon noticed it as well.

            “So, how to we get it out?” Maddie asked.

            “Fireball!” Lanara shouted, starting to pull out her wand.  Kyle put a hand on her arm to stop her.

            “A fireball’s too fast to melt the ice,” he said.  “Something longer-lasting would work better.  Like flaming sphere.”

            “We also have ice picks,” Autumn pointed out.

            “Either way, it’s a job that should wait until after we deal with Auxariel,” Maddie said.  “Digging all that out could take days.”

            “We also have that to reckon with,” Razael said, pointing at the blowing blue portal on the far wall.  “So, you think that’s a portal to this place Erito’s sending us?”

            “That’s my guess,” Kyle said, “but I haven’t really taken a good look at it yet.”

            “Is there any way to test the portal without risking sending someone through?” Lanara asked.

            “Not really.  We’ll just have to tie a rope to someone and pull them back in.”
            “I’ll go,” Arrie volunteered.

            “No,” said Osborn, “because if something happens to you, we’ll have elves made at us.”

            “I’ll go,” Arrie repeated.  The rest of the party muttered their reservations.

            “Come on!” she said.  “I’ve been really moderate so far.  Amazingly moderate for me.”

            “She has,” Autumn admitted.

            “And it’s good to see that kind of control in a future peer of the realm,” Razael drawled.

            “But then, maybe she should get all those wild impulses out now,” Kyle said, “so that when she does have to go back she’ll be controlled.”

            “No,” said Razael, “I want her controlled now, so that later she’ll make Herion’s life miserable.”

            “Since when has she not done that anyway?” Autumn asked.

            “Let’s finish looking around first,” Kyle suggested.

            They went about searching the cavern again, with Arrie waiting relatively patiently by the portal and Autumn waiting close by her.  Osborn’s attention remained on a large diamond he spotted under the ice, and he had to be dissuaded a couple of times from trying to chip it out with one of his daggers. After a while, they gave up on the search and gathered around the blue circle of energy.

            “I have an idea,” Lanara said, “why not tie a string to one of Raz’s arrows, shoot it in, and see if we can pull it out?”

            “Because if there’s a guardian on the other side, I’d hit it, and make it mad,” Razael said.

            “Or what if there’s a kindly old man sitting there, waiting to answer all our questions?” Kyle added.

            “Okay,” Lanara said, “how about we throw a rock in?”

            While they talked, Arrie was slowly reaching toward the portal.  Autumn glared at her, but then realized that they would probably be arguing about how to deal with the portal for some time, and there was no way her sister would wait that long.  With a sigh, Autumn decided to get it over with.

            She walked into the portal herself.  Just as Arrie let out a cry of surprise and moved to follow her, Autumn walked through the energy curtain and smacked into the wall behind it.

            Kyle was by her side immediately.  “Are you all right?”

            “Fine,” she said.

            “Well, that’s going to make for a less than inspiring song,” Lanara said.

            “So much for that!” Osborn said, “let’s dig the stuff out of the floor!”

            “There’s got to be a way to activate it,” Kyle said.  “Some sort of key or something.”

            Arrie looked over at Maddie.  “Why don’t you try touching it?” she suggested.

            The favored soul slowly approached the portal, and touched it.  From where her fingers met the energy, a wave of color spread throughout the portal, turning it purple in color.

            “Look!” Arrie said gleefully, “I found the key!”

            “Shall we go in?” Maddie said.  “We could be letting cold air in.”

            “Why don’t you try going in and coming right back out?” Osborn suggested.

            Autumn stepped forward through the gate.  Arrie was immediately behind her, and Xu followed as well.

            They emerged into another cavern, which was pitch dark, though their darkvision allowed them to see that there was a tunnel leading off ahead of them.

            “Should we go further?” Autumn asked.

            “Let’s wait here a minute,” Arrie said.

            A few moments later, they saw a light approaching from far off in the tunnel.  As it drew closer, they realized that the light was actually a rainbow-hued sphere, about four feet wide, floating in mid-air.  When it was only a few feet away, it stopped, and coalesced into the form of a radiant figure.  The figure resembled a tall, thin elf, with dark blue hair and violet eyes, and wore dark robes.  He radiated an iridescent aura of both power and calmness.  Autumn recognized the figure as a tulani eladrin, one of Erito’s most powerful servants.

            “Good evening,” Autumn said, bowing.  The other two followed her lead.

            “Welcome,” the tulani said, nodding his head slightly toward them.  “You have been expected.  Where are the others?”

            “We were uncertain what lay beyond the portal,” Autumn explained.  “The others are waiting on the other side for us to return and report.”

            “I see.  Would you please have them join you now?  It would be most appreciated.”

            Arrie immediately turned and went back through the portal, stepping out in front of the others.  They all blinked in surprise.

            “That was quick,” Kyle commented.

            “There’s a dark-haired, elf-like being with a rainbow aura on the other side,” Arrie explained, “all kinds of power flowing off him.  He’d like us to come in.”

            The others looked at each other, shrugged, and stepped through.



*          *            *



            “If you will follow me,” the tulani said, after the whole party was together (apparently again seeming to come through the portal at the exact moment that Arrie had gone out), “The Librarian wishes to see you.  He has things to discuss with you first.”

            The group traveled down the rough cavern passage, which slowly gave way to worked stone.  Autumn made conversation with the tulani in Celestial as they walked (though she knew that Celestial was the language of the archons, not the eladrin; no one knew what language Erito’s servants spoke or even if they had their own tongue).

            They soon came to a large, brightly-lit hallway, flanked on either side by statues of elves.  Each statue had a name carved on the base, but they all noted right away that none of the names seemed very elvish in nature.  They also noticed that some of the statues were blank, with no name and indistinct features, as if they were still waiting to be sculpted.

            “Any idea who they are?” Osborn asked Lanara.

            “No clue,” the bard admitted.

            “Something’s not right about these elves,” Razael said.  “They’re too stocky, and the ears are too long.  They look more like fey ears.”

            “I beg your pardon,” Arrie said to the tulani, “but these statues are obviously of important personages, but their significance is lost on us.”

            The tulani paused before answering, and his words almost seemed strained.  “They are both exemplars and warnings,” he said, “but it is not my place to reveal more.  The Librarian will be here shortly and can answer your questions.  I must take my leave of you now.”

            “Thank you,” Arrie said.

            Nodding to the party, the tulani changed back into a ball of energy and quickly flew off down a side passage.  After a few minutes, they saw a figure emerge from between two of the statues further down the hall and start toward them.  The figure was an albino, and had the same stocky build and extended points on his ears that the statues possessed.  As he drew closer, they also saw that instead of eyes, the man’s sockets were filled with a lightless void.  The figure stopped in front of the party, regarding each of them, not seeming to have any trouble seeing them.  His gaze was hypnotic, and they felt compelled to listen to whatever he had to say.  There was a palpable aura of power surrounding him, yet there was no otherworldly feel to him, as they had perceived with the tulani or with other potent outsiders they had encountered.

            “Hello,” Autumn said.

            “Greetings,” the figure said.  “I am the Librarian.  This is Erito’s Library of Ages.  You have come here seeking information, and information we have in abundance.  But it is information that cannot leave this place.  Before I can allow you access to the Library, I must have all of you… all of you… submit to a geas that what you learn here will not be communicated to any other being, in life or in death, ever.  If you cannot accept this, then you may not go further.”

            “So, this would prevent the knowledge from being taken from our spirits in death?” Arrie asked.

            “Yes.  It is more than a compulsion of the mind.  The magic will also suffuse your very soul.”

            “We’ll still be able to talk about it amongst ourselves, won’t we?” Osborn asked.

            “Yes.  The geas will not apply to those who share the knowledge you gain here.”

            “How will we know who else has the information?” Autumn inquired.

            “Simple.  You will be able to speak of it with them.”

            Most of the party, after a moment’s consideration, nodded their willingness to accept the Librarian’s terms.  Lanara, however, seemed torn.  Xu sensed her conflict.

            “For one whose purpose is the sharing of information, such a vow must represent a great conflict of interest,” the monk commented.

            “Yes, it does,” Lanara admitted.

            “But if’n you don’t take the vow, you won’t learn anything to share anyhow,” Razael pointed out.  “And if’n you know it, you can act on it, and ain’t nothing says you can’t tell everyone about what you did.”

            “What you stand to learn here is earth-shattering in scope. I mean this in a very literal sense.” the Librarian told her.

            The bard sighed.  “I suppose you’re right.  No fun being on the outside looking in.”

            When everyone agreed to the vow, the Librarian began to recite words in a language that none of them understood, even when Lanara cast a tongues spell.  The words seemed laced with power… no, they seemed to be power.  Each of them felt the words seep into their minds and spirits.

            “Follow me, please,” the Librarian said, switching back to Common.  “Do not stray from my lead, or you will not find your way out again.”

            The party followed the Librarian down the great hall.  As they walked, Autumn stepped forward to address their guide.

            “Excuse me,” she said, “but might I ask what race you are?”

            “Of course,” he replied. “”No question is forbidden here.  I am of the leShay.”

            The others looked at each other blankly.  “Where do you hail from?” Autumn asked.

            “The leShay are the results of an unfortunate twist of cosmic fate,” the Librarian replied.  “There are few of my kind, though it is possible to create more.  In some respects, we are much like yourself and your cansin friend.  The leShay are what happens when the servants of Erito interbreed with humans.”

            “You mean the eladrin?”

            “Yes.  Those who choose to favor their human parentage become the leShay.  But for reasons no one fully understands, a leShay inherits a much greater portion of their eladrin parent’s power than most outsider-touched, such as yourself.  But our human natures separate us from the natural limits that the gods place on their servants.”

            “What do you mean by limits?” Kyle asked.

            “All outsiders are restricted in their functions by their natures,” the Librarian explained.  “An archon must be Lawful, a devil must be Evil, and so forth.  They exist in a balance.  An eladrin is dedicated to the idea of neutrality, of maintaining that balance.  But like the other Touched races, a leShay only has an inclination to follow their outsider’s nature, rather than a mandate.  You, Autumn, as an aasimar have a proclivity towards goodness, but nothing would stop you from becoming evil if you chose that path.  This is the danger that the leShay present.  If they choose to stray from absolute neutrality, then the balance of power between the philosophies is shifted.  A single leShay is powerful enough that their destruction would require many decades to accomplish and cost hundreds, if not thousands of lives.”

            “So, that’s why the leShay aren’t seen in the world,” Autumn concluded.

            “Correct.  A nascent leShay is hunted down by the eladrin, and either killed or removed from the Prime before they realize their potential.  Outside of the Prime, the ethical and moral choices an individual leShay might make have less impact on the overall balance.  This is how I came to be here.”

            “So, you said that more leShay could be made,” Kyle said.  “Why would the eladrin take that risk?”

            “In the beginning, many leShay were created, simply because no one knew that the results of unions between eladrin and humans would be so dire.  Since then, most of Erito’s servants practice abstinence.  But an eladrin is no less susceptible to temptation than a demon, or an angel, or an archon.  Some succumb to their lusts, or to more noble emotions.  Others are bound by mortal arcanists and forced to breed.  Thus new leShay do come into being, perhaps one in a century at most.”

            About halfway down the great hall, the Librarian turned left and walked through another violet portal.  On the other side, the party walked into the bottom of what looked like a huge amphitheater, but instead of rows of seats a single pathway spiraled upward as far as they could see.  All along the path, large black globes were set on pedestals.  Inside each of the globes they could make out a humanoid form, wrapped as if they had been mummified.

            “Who’s in the globes?” Kyle asked, after they had looked around in awe for a while.

            “These are the Serenities of Erito,” the Librarian said.  “Every one of them, since the beginning.  Here, at the bottom, is the first Serenity.’

            Everyone looked around the room again with renewed awe.  The thought of being in the presence of every high priest of Erito that had ever existed was staggering, and somewhat intimidating.

            “If you wish to communicate with them,” the Librarian continued, “simply place your hand on a globe and they will awaken.  Each newly-arrived Serenity shares what they know with the others, but it is best to speak with the Serenity who has the knowledge first-hand if you have specific questions.  Also bear in mind that the last Serenity arrived nearly two and a half centuries ago, so their knowledge of current events is nonexistent.”

            “Are they being punished?” Razael asked.

            “No, this is their reward.  Here they will stay, asleep and unaware, until their knowledge is needed, until the end of time.”  The Librarian looked straight at Razael with twin pools of darkness.  “This is part of the knowledge that cannot be shared outside this Library.”

            “I can thing of things I’d rather be doing with my afterlife,” Razael said, shivering.

            Lanara, meanwhile, had wandered over to the first globe.  The figure inside was very old, and looked like it had decayed significantly.  Still, she could tell he was a human.  At first it struck her as odd that the first Serenity wouldn’t be an elf, but then she thought about it and realized it made sense; elves didn’t even exist until after the Cataclysm.

            Gently, she put a hand on the globe, and thought, who are you?

            They all heard the response in their minds, in what they each perceived as their native tongue.  I am Errial, first Serenity of Erito, and the third human to walk on Aelfenn.

            “The third human?” Arrie asked.

            Erito created first a female in her own image, and then a male in the image of her own Consort.  Then, from their union, I was created to be Her first priest.

            Everyone was startled by the reply.  None of them had ever heard anything about Erito ever having a consort.  “Can you tell us about this Consort?” Arrie asked.

            It was he who helped shape this world.  It was he who impregnated Erito, and she gave birth to The Four, and then The Many.

            Now they were in shock.  Not only had this Consort apparently existed, but he seemed to be Erito’s peer, and had an equal hand in the creation of the universe.

            “What happened to him?” Lanara asked.

            It is my understanding that he was destroyed by his creations, the psions.

            It was several minutes before anyone else spoke.

“Okay,” said Lanara, “I’m officially at a loss for words here.”

“Why did Erito allow the psions to kill her Consort?” Autumn asked.

That is something you would have to ask Erito herself.  I could not presume to know Her mind or Her will.  But even Erito is not omniscient, not omnipotent.

“We already know that the gods apparently had trouble defending against psionics,” Kyle said, “Maybe she couldn’t stop them.”

“Tell us more about the Consort,” Lanara said.  “What was his name?”

I cannot.  The knowledge does not exist.  He does not exist, and has never existed.

“But… you just said…”

It is difficult for me to explain.  There is another Serenity who can help you understand, who was there when the Consort was destroyed.  Seek him out.

The figure inside the sphere closed his eyes, and seemed to fall still.

“Great,” Lanara said, “how do we know who to ask?”

“We should be able to figure it out,” Kyle said.  “Remember how Aran told us that the Cataclysm was really caused by the psions killing a god?”

“Yeah, but he said it was one of the Many,” Osborn said, “not Erito’s boyfriend.”

“Okay, so there are inconsistencies.  Anyway, it’s safe to assume that the Cataclysm was really the result of the Consort’s destruction.  We also know that the elves and other non-human races didn’t get created until after the Cataclysm.”  Kyle pointed up the spiraling path.  “So, we go up until we see a Serenity that’s an elf, and we know that’s post-Cataclysm.  Then all we have to do is backtrack a bit to talk to the Serenities that were around during the Cataclysm.”

“Okay, I’ll go find it,” Razael said, proceeding up the spiral.  “If any of y’all want to talk to these others along the way, go ahead.”

Autumn looked at the Librarian.  “How much time do we have here?”

“There is nothing but time here.  While in the Library, you will not have need of rest, or sustenance.  You will emerge from the Library at the same moment you left it.  To anyone who would have been waiting outside the portal for you, it would be as if no time had passed, even if you spent months or years in here.”

The party slowly spread out among the globes, speaking to people who had been dead for millennia.  The vast majority were human, though there were a scattering of various element-touched and planet-touched races, though obviously no elf-touched or orc-touched.  Most of the bodies were in far better condition than Errial; when asked, the Librarian explained that the state of the body in the globe matched its state when it was committed to its final rest on Aelfenn; Errial’s body had been lost for some time before it was found and consecrated.

 Their questions were wide-ranging, from general queries about ancient history, to advice on spiritual matters, to knowledge about psionics.  The psions had apparently practiced openly in the days before the Cataclysm, so many of the Serenities were quite familiar with their abilities.  Eventually, they caught up with Razael, who was leaning against the wall next to a globe containing the mummified body of a female elf.

“This here’s Kertalla,” he said, “the first elven Serenity of Erito.  The first elf, actually.”

“Ooh!” Lanara said, immediately putting her hand on the globe to talk to her.

“Okay,” Kyle said, “so let’s go back about five globes.”

As they walked back, they noticed that the Serenities in the globes appeared to have old wounds, as if they had died by violence.  One even had her head separated from her body, floating nearby.

            It took a bit of trial and error to find the right globe; many of the Serenities just before Kertalla reigned during the violent aftermath of the Cataclysm, and thus their service was very brief.  One Serenity had held the office for only a few weeks before being killed.  The party ended up going back about fifteen globes before finding the person they thought they needed.

            The Serenity inside the globe was a human male, with black hair.  He wore the traditional white robes of Erito, trimmed with dark blue.  From speaking with other Serenities, they knew that this signified a priest that had arcane training as well as divine.

            Kyle put his hand on the globe.  “Hello.  May I ask your name?”

            The figure opened his eyes, and regarded Kyle with blue-gray pupils that matched his own.  I am Justin Godscion, he said.  Welcome to the Library, my descendant.



*          *            *



            Kyle’s hand jerked back as though the globe had grown hot.  Autumn quickly reached over, grabbed his hand, and slapped it back up on the smooth surface.

            “Now is not the time,” she said quietly to him.  “You need to know this.”

            Kyle swallowed, and nodded.  “Sorry,” he said to Justin.  “So, you were the Serenity just prior to the Cataclysm?”

            I was witness to the events that led to it, yes, Justin said.  He glanced over at the staff in Kyle’s hand.  I see my staff has found its way to you.  It assisted me in hunting down and slaying psions.  I see you have unlocked some of its powers – with knowledge you will unlock more.

            Autumn could feel that Kyle’s hand underneath hers was trembling.

            “Okay, then,” Kyle said, “tell us about…well, tell us about the events leading up to the Cataclysm.”

            A band of very powerful psions, led by a being who had learned to survive using only the energy of his mind, were becoming tyrants.  They were speaking out against the gods, saying that they were not needed, that all that was needed was the self.  They were garnering followers, and they claimed they would prove their claims.  No one knew how they would do this, until it was too late.  They banded together to slay their creator.

            “Erito’s Consort,” Kyle said.

            “What was the consort’s name?” Razael asked.

            We cannot speak it.

            “Why?” asked Autumn.

            He was not just killed; he was eradicated, made as though he never existed.

            “So you can’t speak the name because it never existed,” Razael said.

            Exactly.

            “But if he never existed, but you know there was a Consort…” Lanara shook her head.  “This makes my brain hurt.”

            “No, I can see how it works,” Kyle said.  “Sometimes the absence of a thing can be as big an indication as its presence.  It’s kind of like using an invisibility spell underwater; you’re technically invisible, but there’s a person-shaped space in the water – you know someone’s there, you just can’t tell who. In this case, there’s a hole in reality where the Consort was.  You don’t know what’s supposed to fill that hole, but its there.”

            Justin nodded in approval.  It is difficult to fill a deity-sized ‘hole’.

            “There is a group out there,” said Autumn, “Known as the Scion-Watchers.  Does this mean anything to you?”

            Justin’s body seemed to sag a little, as if recalling something very sad.  When I failed to prevent Erito’s Consort from being slain, my descendants – my scions – were cursed.  For seven times seventy generations, magic would not touch them.  You are the first Godscion to be free of that curse.  The Scion-Watchers were a sect of Erito’s church, charged with monitoring my descendants to ensure the curse was maintained.  I have learned from other Serenities that have come here after me that the Scion-Watchers are no longer officially recognized by the church, and have become a splinter cult.

            “If that’s the case, why are they still hunting Kyle?” Autumn asked.

            I would assume that they have lost track of time, and believe that he should still be without magic.  They have lost much knowledge since their founding.

            “How to we rectify the situation?” Lanara asked.

            “Eradicate them,” Razael replied immediately.

            There are many possibilities.  Which one you choose is your lot to decide.

            “Maybe I can find this ‘Arcanamach’ person,” Kyle said, “and get them to see where they messed up.”

            The Arcanamach was the title of the sect’s leader, Justin explained.

            “Why would they have tried to kidnap both Kyle and I?” Autumn asked.

            Most likely they were going to attempt to cleanse him of magic, and were only acting against you to prevent your interference.

            “Cleansing?” Lanara asked, “One of them mentioned cleansing.  Do you mean cleansing like with his adopted cousin?”

            “He was killed, quite brutally,” Kyle explained to Justin. “They may not have known he wasn’t a blood relative.”

            The cleansing ritual is not meant to be lethal, Justin said, though it is unpleasant.  However, as I said the Scion-Watchers have lost much knowledge, and the cleansing ritual may have become perverted.

            “So, they’d be out to ‘cleanse’ anyone in my family… our family,” Kyle said.

            Possibly.  It depends on how much information they have.

            “And we can’t even tell ‘em they’re wrong,” Razael said.  “Thanks to that vow we took.”

            “It’s not like most fanatical cults listen when their victims try to tell them they’ve made a mistake, anyway,” Arrie observed.

            “So, where will Kyle find the knowledge to work this staff to its fullest potential?” Lanara asked.

            The knowledge lies within himself.  By arriving here, some of what he needs to know will become available to him.

            Kyle sighed.  “Given your position, you’re probably very familiar with the workings of psionics.”

            Yes.  It was much more common in my time, and practiced openly.

            “Is Kyle going to end up psionic?” Lanara asked.

            No.  Our family’s talents lie in the arcane, not in psionics.

            “This being that could exist on pure thought,” Kyle continued, “the one who led the attack on the Consort.  Who was he?”

            His name was Silko.

            For about the hundredth time since they had arrived, eight jaws dropped to the floor.

            “The Hero?” Razael asked, incredulously.

            “The Paragon that remained on Aelfenn when the others ascended?” Lanara added.

            Yes.  To many at the time he was a hero.  He had many followers.

            “Were the other Paragons also psions?” Kyle asked.

            No.

            “Were they even real people?”

            I do not know for certain.  The myths of the Paragons were created after the Cataclysm.  Whether they were based on real people or not, I know no better than you.

            “But Silko was real.”

            Yes.

            “Is he still around?” Razael asked.

            Justin seemed to sigh.  I don’t know.  What I saw before I died was that Silko’s body was destroyed.  However, one of the powers he had developed was the ability to shed his physical form and exist purely as mind.

            “Kind of like a spirit.” Autumn said.

            Similar, but not exactly.  He did not shift to a transitive plane like the Ethereal or the Shadow.  Perhaps it was another coterminous plane we are not aware of.  Or perhaps on this plane but unable to interact with it.  He had trained others in this power, but he alone possessed the skill to be able to manifest it in less time than the blink of an eye.  When the Consort was destroyed, an eye-blink was all anyone present had.  Regardless, when he did shed his form, his ability to affect this world was greatly diminished.  Thus it would not surprise me if he were still in existence, but unable to affect the world around him.

            “So, he’d have to find some other means of working in this world,” Lanara said.

            He would still be able to communicate, Justin said.

            “And train others,” Kyle said.

            “If he had someone collecting energy for him,” Lanara asked, “would that bring him back?”

            My knowledge of psionics is academic, and therefore flawed.  So I don’t know all the nuances of their abilities.  However, in order to interact with the world, Silko would need to re-corporate into a physical body.  It’s possible that the energy released upon the Consort’s destruction had the same effect on Silko’s body that it did on the Consort’s entire being.  Thus he may be unable to restore his physical form.

            “Would any of the other psions that were with Silko when he destroyed the Consort still be alive?” Autumn asked.

            No.  They were obliterated with the Consort.  As I said before, only Silko was skilled enough to shed his body fast enough to avoid that fate.

            “Is there anyone in the world today who would possess the knowledge of what Silko might be doing?” Lanara asked.

            If the knowledge exists, it would be among the psions themselves.

            “Do you have knowledge of the psion named Aran?”

            Oh, yes.  He and I were good friends, actually.  He did not agree with Silko with the direction that Silko was taking.  He believed that the gods were necessary, but not for everyone.  Silko felt that the god’s usefulness had ended at the creation of the universe. Because of who he was, he could not join with either side in the brewing conflict.  Aran served as a messenger between the two sides, and I came to know him very well.

            “Well,” said Kyle, “we’d offer to say hello for you the next time we see him, but we won’t be able to thanks to the geas.”

            It is my understanding of the vow that it does not preclude you from speaking openly to those who also have the knowledge contained in this Library, even if it didn’t come from the Library directly.  If Aran is still alive, then he is old enough to know these things firsthand.

            “Can Aran be trusted if he communicates with us again?” Lanara asked.

            I know that he could be trusted.  It has been many thousands of years since I knew him, though.

            “Do you know the name Xerxes?” Lanara asked.

            Justin shook his head.

            “What about Kristyan?” Razael asked.  “That was one of the names you guys mentioned, right?”

            If I remember correctly, Kristyan was a psionic acolyte who had just entered Silko’s service at the time of the Cataclysm, Justin said.

            “Damn, we’re dealing with some old people here,” Kyle muttered.

            The energy that sustains their bodies without food or rest also alters their physical selves so they do not age, Justin explained.  Essentially, they become another race, known as the élan.  It is a race that one cannot be born into; you must be transformed into it by unlocking the potential within – much as this young woman here has done.  Justin’s hand pointed down toward Arrie.

            The others turned to look at a red-faced Arrie, gasping.  Only Kyle didn’t stare.  Instead, he just shook his head sadly, saying to himself, “Well, now I know that putting your foot in your mouth runs in the family.”

            Your companions did not know of your talents?  My apologies.

            “When were you going to tell me about this, sister?” Autumn said, eyes flashing.

            Arrie ignored the question, instead addressing Justin.  “I’m curious.  Since the Consort is no more, and the Consort was apparently the creator of the psions… my understanding is that when someone dies, their soul is taken by the god they worshipped to their planet.  What happens to those who have no god?”

            Death still releases the energy that Erito requires to keep magic in the world, Justin said to her, upon death, all souls go first to the Shadow Plane.  Those of the faithful are collected by their deity’s servants.  Those without a divine patron remain on the Shadow, and either discorporate and merge with the essence of the plane, or if their will is strong enough, they will become undead.

            “So, for a psion whose creator is now gone,” Razael concluded, “the choice is either achieve perfection or disappear.”

            Yes.

            “Are there any gods that will accept a psionic being as a follower?” Kyle asked.     

            None.  All the gods now hate and fear psionics, and none will accept it into their fold.

            Kyle scowled deeply.  “So, regardless of who they are, just because they were born with an ability they have no control over?”

            They were born with a Talent, like all others, but it is psionic rather that magical.  In truth, many who live today have Talents which are psionic in origin, but with the decline of psionics in open practice, the ability to discern psionic Talents from magical ones has been lost – though my staff is capable of it.  Those who do not develop their abilities beyond this point are still accepted by the gods.  Only those who choose to develop their powers beyond what they possess at birth are rejected.

            “That’s incredibly unfair,” Kyle said angrily.

            “Okay,” Lanara said, sensing that Kyle might be ready to start an argument with his distant ancestor, “jumping topics again, is there anything you recommend we do about Silko if he’s still out there?”

            If the destruction of the Consort has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is permanent.  That which is done can be undone.  Whether it wants to be undone, or whether it should be undone, is a different matter.  Silko proved that destroying a god can be done; should he have done it?  I leave that to others to debate.

            Kyle looked up slowly.  “But by extension, if something can be undone, then it could be restored.”

            “Like the Consort,” Razael said.

            Or Silko, Justin observed.  That may be what his followers seek to do.

            “Or maybe they’re going the opposite direction,” Arrie said.  “In order to have some hope of an afterlife, maybe they’re wanting to undo what Silko did.  But in a way that would make the new Consort more agreeable to them.”

            “With enough negative energy, could Erito be destroyed?” Lanara asked.

            Erito is positive and negative energy.  It cannot harm her.

            “Yes, but if enough negative energy were hoarded to disrupt the balance, would it disrupt her?  The dragon that was guarding the portal here has been hoarding negative energy.”

            It would take more energy than a single being, even a dragon, could possibly garner.

            “But maybe he wasn’t trying to destroy Erito,” Razael said.  “If’n he was helping the psions, maybe they were just trying to disrupt magic.  After all, if there’s no magic, what’s there to stop the psions?”

            “But we already know from the communes that Auxariel wasn’t getting help from the psions,” Kyle said.

            “But Erito’s not omniscient,” Razael pointed out.

            “And it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t helping them,” Lanara added.  “Those communes are very literal.”

            “I still don’t buy it,” Kyle said.  “If Auxariel was in leaguer with the psions to pull off something that big, he would have been better defended.  And besides…”

Do you have further questions for me? Justin interrupted.  The longer I remain awake, the more of my essence is drained.

Everyone immediately turned their attention back to the former Serenity.  “Sorry,” Kyle and Lanara both said.

“I do,” Autumn said.  “Would a dagger consecrated by Bail have significance to the psions in regard to what we’ve been discussing?”

It would carry a portion of His divine essence.  A miniscule portion, to be sure, but a portion nonetheless.

“Could such an item be used to destroy a god?” Lanara asked.

Unlikely.

“But it is a connection that could be used to contact or locate that god,” Kyle said.

Indeed.  Why do you ask about this item?

“I had located such a dagger,” Autumn explained, “and it was stolen by a priest of Qin-Chu named Marrek, whom we know to be working for the psions.”

This could be a problem, especially if they are attempting to gather similar items from all the gods.

“Could we stop them from doing it?” asked Lanara.

There are probably hundreds of such consecrated items in the world for each god.  They would only need one.

There were a few exchanged glances, but they had run out of questions.  “I think we can let you sleep again,” Autumn said, “thank you.”

I am only performing my duty to my goddess.  But if you wish to express your gratitude, allow me to speak to my descendant privately.

Autumn looked at Kyle.  “Are you going to be all right?”

“I’ll be fine.  Like you said, I need to know this.”

The sentinel smiled at him.  “I had no idea you had such a prestigious lineage.”

Kyle smiled back.  “Neither did I.”

“Yeah,” Lanara commented, “I think the spelling of your last name has changed a bit.  It’s just too bad you won’t be able to tell Auror about your ancestry.”

“She wouldn’t believe me anyway.”  Kyle looked up at Justin.  “I’m ready to talk.”

Excellent.  I would suggest that the rest of you continue to interview the Serenities that preceded me for information about psionics.  Their knowledge of the subject is far greater than those who came after the Cataclysm, when the psions went underground.

Time lost all meaning, not that time existed in the Library of the Ages.  Dozens of Serenities were interviewed, on a wide variety of subjects.  Kyle spoke at length with Justin Godscion, then spent a good deal of time with Errial before moving on to others.  Lanara ended up speaking to randomly chosen high priests throughout the Library, adding to her store of eclectic knowledge.  She also asked about the strange effects she’d noticed recently from her Bardic Instruments, hoping to learn a way to counteract them.  Autumn concentrated on techniques for combating psions and the psionic races.  Arrie focused her efforts on learning all she could about the Consort.

Razael, in contrast to the others, spent most of his time speaking with the Librarian, after finding that his subject of interest was not well known by the Serenities – dragons.  Razael learned that Auxariel had been one of the children of the previous spirit dragon guardian, thus accounting for the fact that he was not as old or powerful as they would have expected.  The Librarian explained that the spirit dragon that guarded the southern pole had two tasks; guard the entrance to the Library, and regulate the birth and death cycle for living beings in the area.  Auxariel, who had apparently been twisted from an early age, had arranged the deaths of his siblings (who he later raised as skeletal guardians), and when he assumed his mother’s mantle of power after her death, he soon began to neglect the birth cycle.  Fertility among the arctic creatures had dropped to dangerously low levels.

Finally, they met together, compared notes, and realized they had gathered all the information they could use at this time.  They knew it was time to return to Aelfenn.  Immediately upon reaching their decision, the Librarian walked in to the room they were meeting in, with a ghaele eladrin next to him.

“I can escort you to the portal to Auxariel’s cavern,” he said.  “But Madrone’s presence has been requested by the eladrin.  She should only be gone a few minutes.”

Maddie nodded, and walked over to the ghaele eladrin, bowing.  The two of them walked away down a corridor.

“I was wondering something,” Razael said to the Librarian after they left, “we’ve still got Auxariel to deal with when we get back.  Now, Erito said she’d prefer if we didn’t kill him, but I don’t think we can keep him still long enough to give him a good talking to.  But if we could bring him in here, it wouldn’t matter how long it took to straighten him out.”

“The dragon cannot enter the Library,” the Librarian said.  “Spirit dragons cannot leave the Material plane; their connection to the spirit world would be cut off and they would die.”

“Well, so much for that idea,” Razael said.  “But I’ve got another one.  There’s no good way to say this, but is there any way we can borrow an eladrin?”

“What for?” the Librarian asked

“To take out there with us, to help us decide if it’s worth trying to save him, and if so, maybe be willing to pitch in.  We don’t have the time to re-educate Auxariel, but an eladrin would.”

“I can make inquiries,” the Librarian said, “though my request may not be well received.  Though the leShay and the eladrin have a cordial relationship now, many of them bear the scars from the days when we first arrived in this world, and were seen as abominations.  We did slay a great deal of their number.”

“Maybe if you had Madrone do the asking, it’d go over better,” Razael suggested.

“Perhaps.  Wait here, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Much later, the Librarian returned, along with another ghaele eladrin.  “Ghyndall here will accompany you out of the library and observe your interactions with Auxariel, and advise you as to Erito’s will.  Madrone must remain here for a time, though from your perspective she will emerge from the portal immediately after you.”

They followed the Librarian out of the room and through the twisting corridors and halls, going thorough two portals before coming to the cavern where they had first entered the Library.  They stepped through, and immediately felt the snap of cold air around them.  A second later, Maddie stepped out of the portal.

“What was all that about?” Kyle asked.

“Nothing, really,” Maddie said.  “I had a decision to make, and I made it.”

“Okay, then,” Arrie said, “good to have you back, then.  So, let’s deal with Auxariel, shall we?”



*          *            *



            The party busied themselves chipping or melting things out of the ice.  The eladrin Ghyndall stood vigil over the dragon.  At one point Autumn approached him and asked if he ever associated with his peers among the other gods, such as the archons or angels.

            “My function is to interact with them in a violent manner,” he said.  “We do not speak to each other otherwise.”

            “You fight against angels?” Autumn asked.

            “They embody an extreme philosophy, and upset the balance,” Ghyndall replied.  “That you find their philosophy more appealing than others is irrelevant.”

            The hours dragged on.  After almost a day, it seemed that Auxariel still had not stirred.

            “You think we could speed this up, Maddie?” Razael asked.

            They gathered around the dragon, with Autumn standing ready with her axe just behind Auxariel’s head.  Maddie reached down and touched the dragon, sending healing energy into him.  Auxariel immediately stopped breathing.

            “Damn!” she swore, and quickly invoked another rite, drawing on her own essence to pull Auzariel’s spirit back into his body.  “I forgot that he’s infused with negative energy,” she said by way of explanation.  “Positive energy will hurt him like it would undead.”

            “So,” Lanara asked, “do you use negative energy instead?”

            “I’m not sure,” Maddie admitted, “I don’t know if Auxariel was so infused that it would respond to negative energy like an undead being.  Besides, the only rite I know of that nature is rather potent, and I’m assuming we want to keep him relatively weak.”

            “Let’s just wait for him to wake up on his own,” Arrie suggested.

            Hours later, Auxariel began to stir.  They took up their positions around him, careful not to stand directly in front of his mouth.  Auxariel’s eyes opened, and immediately narrowed as his vision focused.  A low growl rumbled in his throat.

            “You might want to suppress your anger just a bit for a couple of minutes,” Arrie said quietly.

            The dragon took a moment to take in his surroundings.  “Since I am not slain, I assume that you want something,” he snarled.

            “Indeed,” Arrie said.  “It seems that Erito, with whom you have had some recent disagreements, has expressed a desire for you not to be destroyed.  Personally, I don’t care one way or the other.”

            “Erito is not here,” Auxariel snapped.  “You are.  What do you want?”

            “Well, Osborn wants that diamond over there,” Lanara said.

            The dragon’s eyes flicked over to the cansin.  “I am powerless to prevent it,” he said.

            “Well, really all we want is for things to go back to the way they should be,” Lanara continued.

            “They can.  Leave here, and all will be as it should.”

            “As they should be from Erito’s view, not yours,” Lanara snapped.

            The hint of a smirk curled Auxariel’s lips.  “If you destroy me, I will return more powerful than before.”

            Lanara blinked, unsure if Auxariel was sincere or not.  Then she returned the smile.  “Not powerful enough to avoid us.”

            Autumn glanced over at the eladrin, who had been silently observing the exchange.  “It has no reverence for divine will,” he said.  “End it.”

            Autumn’s axe fell, and Auxariel was no more.

            There was a moment of awkward silence, as everyone backed away to avoid being covered in the dragon’s blood.  “Sorry, Kyle,” Lanara said.

            “Don’t apologize to me,” he said.  “Like I said before, it was worth a shot, but I’m not particularly obliged to carry out Erito’s will.”  As the others moved away, he added under his breath “especially now.”

            “I will report what has happened here,” Ghyndall said.  “Another guardian will be appointed.  Your efforts to redeem Auxariel are noted.”  The eladrin turned and walked back through the portal, which turned back to its original blue as soon as he went through it.

            “Well,” Razael said, pulling out a long knife, “no sense letting the parts go to waste.”  The tracker walked up to Auxariel’s corpse and began cutting into it.

            “Now that we’re back here,” Arrie said, “does anyone want to see some psionic powers being manifested?”

            “Sure,” Osborn said, and others readily agreed.  Arrie did a brief demonstration of her abilities, explaining how she called upon her powers, and allowing everyone to experience the signs of psionic manifestations, explaining how she had suppressed these side effects up until now.

            “How did this happen?” Autumn asked.

            “You remember in Miracle, when I was in that near-death state because of Neville?  Well, I was… aware of my surroundings during all of that.”

            “Wow,” Lanara said after a pause, “then the portable hole must have really sucked for you.”

            Arrie nodded.  “I… almost didn’t make it.  But then Aran visited me, and helped me realize the truth and awaken my potential.  For a wilder like myself, our experiences shape our developing abilities.”

            “What truth are you talking about?” Autumn asked.

            “I’ve always known I was different,” she said.  “You know my Talent to detect poisons?”  Arrie held up a beaded bracelet.  “Our father gave me this when I was young to simulate that.  I actually don’t have a Talent.”

            “Sure you do,” Lanara said, “you have a talent for putting sharp things in soft things.”

            Arrie smiled.  “Thanks, Lanara.”

            “And you kept it a secret all this time?” Osborn asked her.

            “Well, it’s not exactly something you want known.  Tolly was still with us at the time, remember?  And Haxtha’s never been fond of me, so giving him an excuse wasn’t something I wanted to do.  So other than Aran and Kyle, no one knew until now.”

            “Wait,” Autumn said, “Kyle?”  She turned to look at her fiancé.  “You knew?”

            “I figured it out,” Kyle said sheepishly.

            “Look, it’s not a big deal,” Arrie said.  “You all know now, and I know you can all be trusted.  We should be looking at what to do now.  Raz and I were talking, and we think we should make an effort to kill as many undead as we can on the way out.  You know, kind of help restore the life-death balance a little.”

            “Or we could have Lanara go to the frost giants and play a few romantic ballads,” Kyle quipped, “You know, get the birth rate going again?”

            “How long are we thinking about taking to kill undead?” Lanara asked apprehensively.

            “Not long, just whatever we can find or attract on the way to the ship,” Arrie said.  “We need to get back to Affon as soon as we can, because our enemies aren’t waiting for us to get home.”

            “I agree,” Autumn said, casting one last look around the cavern.  “Let’s go home.”



*          *            *



            The stars shone brightly in a clear night sky.  Only the lapping of waves against the Armadillo’s iron hull and the creak of rigging interrupted the stillness.  Though still chilly, they were now well outside the area of deadly cold that marked the southern pole.

            Kyle stood at the prow of the ship, watching the waves dance in the light of Aelfenn’s moons.  There were only two out tonight, making it a relatively dark night.  Kyle glanced up to see which two they were – Dathel and Shakar, the divine realms of Paccë and Tor.  Peace and justice.  Kyle had a sense of neither.

            His gaze wandered back to the star he’d been staring at the whole time he’d been out here; the northern star, one of Silko’s Eyes.  It wasn’t hard to find, considering it was setting their course home.  For him, and for his friends, the significance of that star and its southern twin had been altered forever.  Now, instead of comfort, it brought a sense of unease.

            His head swam with the information he’d take from the Library, especially what his ancestor Justin Godscion had imparted to him.  Some of it would take him months, maybe even years to fully sort out and understand.  But none of it would ease the doubt that now gnawed at his mind and soul.

            Kyle reached under the neck of his tunic, and withdrew a small silver pendant.  He unhooked the clasp, and then held the pendant in his palm.  The image of a raven in flight stood in stark contrast against the smooth silver circle.  He remembered when he was given this by Kavan, after he’d chosen to name Erito as his patron deity rather than Bles.  It had marked a transition for him, a time when he came to accept that we was no longer a simple farmer or carpenter, but a true wizard.

            But now more change was on the horizon.  Kavan was no longer Kavan, but Madrone (and now, as she told it, permanently so), and Kyle faced another transition, a new definition of his self that he found difficult to accept.  But it was there, waiting for him.

            Kyle let the pendant drop out of his palm, catching the chain with his thumb and forefinger so it dangled free, swaying and spinning.  He slowly stretched his arm out until it was over the railing of the ship, and the pendant spun and flashed in empty air, with the cold ocean below, waiting hungrily for its prize.

            He stood there like that, still as a corpse, for what seemed an eternity.  Then, slowly, he brought his arm back in, dropped the pendant into the palm of his other hand, and after another long moment placed the pendant in a pocket.

            The moment his hand left his pocket, he saw that Autumn was walking up behind him.  She approached and encircled her arms around him as he turned to face her, pressing close to him.  It was as much an expression of affection as it was an effort to ward off the night’s chill for both of them.

            “What were you doing?” she asked.

            “Nothing,” he lied, hating the words as soon as he said them.  It wasn’t his intent to deceive her, but he simply wasn’t ready to explain his troubled thoughts to anyone.  He could barely understand them himself.

            “I’m worried about you,” she said, “you haven’t been sleeping well since the Library.”

            “Too much on my mind,” he said; that much was true enough.  “Hopefully with time it’ll go away.”

            Autumn turned her head upward and began a row of soft kisses against Kyle’s neck, at the same time tightening her embrace.

            “You’re affectionate tonight,” he said.  “Not that I’m complaining.”  Autumn’s sense of decorum usually made her leery of any displays of affection outside of the bedchamber; Kyle didn’t think he’d been that successful in breaking her of that trait.

            “I don’t know,” she sighed, “maybe it’s just that I feel like we’re running out of time to just be us.  Out here, I’m still just Autumn, and you’re still just Kyle.  When we make port, I’m going to be Duchess Autumn, and you’ll be the Scion Reborn.”

            “Autumn, please stop calling me that.”  It was a title that Lanara had made up as a joke while they were walking back to the ship from the Library.  Unfortunately, it seemed to keep popping up despite his efforts to squash it.

            “Sorry,” she said, “but you know what I mean.”  She reached up and placed one hand behind his head, and pressed her lips to his.  It was a soft, yet passionate kiss, far more intense than Kyle had expected.  He was suddenly acutely aware of her warmth, of the tantalizing feel of her even through the layers of heavy clothes they both wore.  For the first time in days, the maelstrom in Kyle’s mind subsided.

            Slowly, gently, Autumn pulled away, then laid her head on Kyle’s chest, sighing.  “I know I shouldn’t say this to you, but I do wish you could come with me when I go to Vargas.”

            “I know,” he said, stroking her hair, “but I can’t put off finding my family any more, not with what I know about the Scion-Watchers.  And you don’t need me to tell you how to run your city.  Besides, these plans are all just ‘maybes’.  Who knows what’s going to be waiting for us when we get back to Affon?”

            “That’s what’s been keeping me up at night,” Autumn admitted.

            Kyle smiled.  “Well, if neither of us is sleeping anyway…”

            Autumn jabbed him playfully in the ribs.  “Kyle!  You’re incorrigible!”

            “What, you plant a kiss on me like that and expect otherwise?”

            Autumn laughed.  “All right, guilty as charged.  Shall we retire, then?”

            “An excellent suggestion, Your Grace,” Kyle said, stepping out of her arms and giving her a mock bow.

            “Keep it up, Kyle, and you’ll sleep alone,” Autumn said as they walked back toward the stairs.

            “You forget, I’m the captain.  I can have you thrown overboard, you know.”

            They laughed and joked their way down to their cabin, leaving the cold night behind.


END OF PART TWO


----------



## Delemental

*Homecoming*

There was a grand reception awaiting the Armadillo in Praxos as they sailed into the harbor.  Other ships of all sizes crowded the harbor, their crews waving and cheering as the ironclad ship lumbered toward port.

            The response to their arrival back in Tlaxan, after being gone nearly four and a half months, was understandable.  After all, they had recovered one of the country’s most important treasures – the ceremonial courtblade from Emperor Jhoxan’s coronation – from the clutches of a dragon.

            As the members of the Legacy stood on the deck, watching the commotion, several of them had to suppress smiles.  Finding the courtblade in Auxariel’s hoard had been a fluke, an unexpected twist of fate.  But after a few sendings between Arrie and Herion, it quickly became public knowledge that recovering the sword had been the ‘real’ intent of their voyage.  It not only helped Herion justify the money that the Court had put up for the expedition, but it gave the Legacy a safe story, so that they wouldn’t be pressed for details on why they had gone.

            Of course, the real discovery in the dragon’s hoard was still safely tucked away in Autumn’s portable hole, waiting until the party could decide what to do with it.  Some argued that it should be dismantled and the components sold off; others were just as firm in their opinion that it should be preserved whole.  No one was sure who they should try and give it to – only that simply keeping it seemed foolish.  They’d finally agreed to put that particular item aside, and take care of other business before picking up the discussion again.

            After making port, securing the ship, and bidding farewell to their loyal crew, the party made their way to the Imperial Manor in Praxos, where they took a teleportation circle to the Palace in Noxolt.  Here, again, a crowd of excited citizens awaited their arrival.  The Legacy was escorted to the entrance to the main palace by an honor guard, where they were greeted by all three members of the Imperial Family.  For weeks afterward, people in the crowd would talk about the reverent hush that fell over the courtyard, as the Princess Ariadne ascended the steps and formally presented Jhoxan’s coronation blade to his eldest son, the Emperor Haxtha.

            The party spent another week in Noxolt, though very little of that time was actually spent at the Palace.  There were treasures to appraise, preserved portions of draconic anatomy to sell to eager collectors and arcanists, and a few generous donations make to the churches of Krûsh, Dakotha, and Rovenor by Lanara in gratitude for not being capsized in a storm or lost at sea.  But for some of them, the activity was more a way to postpone the day that came all too soon – the day they had to go their separate ways.

            Autumn could no longer put off officially visiting her new duchy in the city of Vargas, in order to cement her rule there.  Arrie went with her, of course, not only for moral support but to lend the weight of the Crown to her arrival.  Autumn had also asked Osborn to accompany her.

            “I may not be experienced at governing,” she told him, “but I know that the centers of power in any city are not always the obvious ones.  Since I won’t be able to personally oversee Vargas most of the time, I’d like to at least have a sense of the… well, the…”

            “The ‘less savory’ part of town?” Osborn finished for her, cracking a smile.

            “Yes.  Not only to find out who I should be watching, but also to make sure that whatever balance of power has been reached between the law and the underworld is maintained for now.  The last thing I need is for my reign to herald in a sharp rise in the crime rate.”

            “Some of that’s unavoidable,” Osborn said.  “Change is always an uncertain time, and some will always take advantage of that.  But I get your point; make sure they know not to push it too far, so you won’t have to push back harder.”

            “Exactly.”

            “Of course,” Osborn said, affecting an innocent look, “one thing that could help ease the transition would be some sort of big celebration.  You know, like a wedding or something.”

            Autumn sighed heavily, clearly aware of the hin’s hidden message.  “I know, Osborn.  I wish it was that simple.  But I haven’t even been able to sit down with Kyle and discuss wedding plans, ever since the Library.”

            “Eh, he just needs time for things to settle down a bit,” Osbon said.  “We all do.”

            “You’re probably right.”

            Osborn looked up at Autumn, his head cocked to one side.  “You mad at him for not going with you?”

            “No… yes, a little.  But I can’t ask him to put off trying to find his family.  Besides, if he goes to Vargas with me he’ll feel useless.  It’s going to be nothing but meetings, official receptions, formal dinners…”

            “Am I invited to the dinners?” Osborn asked.

            “Of course,” Autumn laughed.  “I have to have my advisors close at hand, don’t I?”

            There was a pause in the conversation as Autumn finished signing a letter she’d been writing while talking to Osborn.  When she put the pen down, Osborn cleared his throat to get her attention.

            “There will be bacon at these dinners, right?”



*          *            *



            Kyle, Lanara, Razael and Xu sped southwest from Noxolt, heading for Aleppi and the gateway through Targeth’s magical barrier.  Indistinct, gray landscape flitted by them as they walked in the Shadow Plane, occasionally interrupted by a wandering undead spirit that they quickly left behind under the spell’s power.

            Razael couldn’t help but feel nervous.  Not only because they were now technically walking through the land of lost souls, but because Madrone was now hundreds of miles behind him.  Whatever else was said about him, he took his job seriously, especially when the orders came from Erito’s church.  To be so far away from the woman he was supposed to be guarding was unsettling.  He had to remind himself that Maddie was staying at the main temple of Erito in Noxolt, undergoing a spiritual exercise, and that he’d been directed by the high priestess of the temple that he could stand down from his duties while she was there.  As to his secondary mission of watching over the Crown Princess and the Duchess, well, when Arrie gave him a direct order to accompany Kyle to Targeth rather than follow them to Vargas, he decided he’d let her hash it out with Herion.  In truth, he was glad; Vargas was going to be nothing but politics and courtly nonsense; this promised to be much more entertaining.

            As his mind drifted into the subject of entertainment, Razael’s gaze wandered over to Lanara, who walked next to him, also eyeing the surroundings with a mix of curiosity, awe, and apprehension.  He took a few moments to study her curves, which he found helped distract him from everything else around him; he imagined that the bard had that effect on most men.  Though he’d not expected to be spending his nights with the bard (his tastes were usually for his own race, though this wasn’t the first time he’d sampled the delicacies of other cultures), he found it an enjoyable pastime.  The cansin was youthful enough to appeal to his attraction to that kind of innocent energy (though truthfully, from his perspective all humans and human-bloods were ‘youthful’) but seasoned enough to be able to give as good as she got.

            Lanara caught Razael staring at her, and grinned, shimmying her hips a little as they walked.  His lips curled into a return smile.  Given her capriciousness and his cynicism, he wondered which of them would tire of the other first.  Given that he expected to be around her for a long time afterward thanks to his assignment, Razael reminded himself to try and make the split amicable.

            “Slow down,” Kyle called out suddenly.  “We’re getting close to Aleppi.”

            “Can’t we just walk through the gateway like this?” Lanara asked.  “It’s only been about six hours since we left Noxolt.”

            “No,” he replied.  “The barrier extends into the Shadow as well.  And this spell may be fast, but it isn’t terribly accurate, because it’s too hard to tell where you really are in relation to the real world.  I’ll need to end the spell well outside of Aleppi so that we don’t risk slamming into the barrier.”

            Lanara nodded, swallowing at the thought.  Contact with Targeth’s barrier from the outside meant instant disintegration.

            “Besides,” Kyle said, “I want to stop in Fingol for a day or two once we cross the river.  Once we’re inside the barrier, I can try scrying my family again.”

            A few minutes later the four travelers seemed to step out of nowhere, in an empty field just east of Aleppi.  They walked the rest of the way in, and after reporting to the border guards, booked passage on one of the many ferries going across the Lassh River to Aleppi’s sister city in Targeth, Fingol.  It was early evening by the time they found an inn, so they retired early in order to get an early start in the morning.

            Kyle was already up by the time Lanara and Razael came to his room; Xu was also awake, but going through her morning exercises.  Kyle sat cross-legged on the floor, sitting in front of a large silver mirror.

            “What’s the story?” Razael asked.

            “I’m trying to find my father, Rufus,” Kyle said, speaking slowly so as not to break his concentration.

            “Any luck?”  Lanara asked.

            He shook his head.  “It takes an hour to invoke this spell, I’m only about half finished.  But I expect this to fail anyway.”

            “Why?” Razael asked.

            “Because my father is one generation before me,” he said.  “If my generation is the first to be free of Erito’s curse, then he should still be under it, which means magic can’t touch him.  But I need to confirm that.  After this I’ll try my brothers and sisters.”

            “Well, we can start asking questions around here, to see if there are any Goodsons in the area,” Lanara offered.

            “You and Xu go ahead without me,” said Razael.  “Someone should stay and keep an eye on Kyle, just in case any of those Scion-Watchers are close by.”

            ‘Thanks,” Kyle said, “but it’s going to be pretty dull here.”

            “No worse than having to watch Madrone watch you work on the ship,” he replied.

            Lanara left the room, leaving Kyle and Razael alone.  About twenty minutes later, just as he predicted, Kyle finished the spell to locate his father, and nothing happened.  Sighing, he reset his components and began the long ritual again, this time focused on his oldest brother Angar.

            An hour later, the image in the mirror shifted and wavered.  Razael glanced over and saw the image of a large man, with black hair and olive-colored skin like Kyle’s, but with a full beard and wearing dirty laborer’s clothing.  The man was holding a wood rasp, carving a few simple details into a cabinet.

            “That your brother?” Razael asked.

            “Yes,” Kyle said, very quietly.  “That’s Angar.”

            It was several minutes before Kyle could speak again.  Razael knelt down to watch Angar working.  “So, can you tell where he is?”

            “Not really.  The spell only lets me see a person and their immediate surroundings.  If I were going to try and find him, I’d have to cast this spell over and over again, hoping that he’d walk close to something I’d recognize.  I’m just doing this to see if they’re still alive.”

            “Well, could you send him a message?  Or just do one of your teleports?”

            “I don’t know the teleport spell, remember?  I was going to buy it in M’ioch to get us through the pass, but no one seemed very keen on the idea, so I never did.  As for a message… well, I have something that might work, but it’s only a fifty-fifty shot.  Besides, Angar hasn’t seen me since I was eleven, and he has no idea that I’m a wizard.  How would you feel if you were going about your day when all of a sudden a strange voice whispered to you, saying it know your name, that it was looking for you, and asking you to tell it where you lived?”

            “I’d likely think I was either crazy or haunted,” Razael said.

            “Exactly.  Besides, from everything I can tell, Angar’s safe for now.  Better to check on the other three first.”

            Kyle sat watching his brother work until the spell ended, and then began casting a third scrying.  Lanara and Xu came back to check in as he was casting, and decided to wait around for a while.  Kyle finished his spell, paused, and then scowled.

            “What’s wrong?” Lanara asked.

            “Nothing,” he said.  “When I try to find my older sister Varda, I get nothing.”

            “What does that mean?” the bard asked, though she had some idea already.

            “The most likely explanation is that she’s dead,” he said.  “You can’t scry a corpse.  But it doesn’t tell me how she died.  She could have been killed by the Scion-Watchers…”

            “…or been run over by a hay wagon six years ago,” Razael finished for him.

            “Right.  The other possibility is that she’s in an anti-magic area, but that seems unlikely.”

            “Is it possible she simply resisted your spell?” Lanara asked.

            “It’s possible, but not likely.  Given that she’s my sister, it’d be pretty hard for me not to find her.  And I’d be able to tell the difference if she’d just willed away the sensor.”

            Kyle abruptly scooped up his materials and stood up.  “I need a break,” he announced.  “I’ll start again in a while.”

            It had started to snow lightly by the time Kyle resumed his efforts that afternoon.  Lanara resumed her efforts, knowing that the snow would drive people indoors.  This time Xu stayed with Kyle, sitting patiently and quietly.

            Her meditation was broken by the sound of Kyle cursing.  The monk opened her eyes, and saw Kyle staring at the mirror.

            “What is wrong?” she asked.

            “Stupid.  I’m an idiot.”  He waved his hand at the mirror.

            “I see nothing.  Has this attempt failed as well?”

            “No, it’s working,” Kyle snapped.  “But wherever by little brother Bryant is, it’s dark – too dark to see him.  I forgot to prepare a vision-enhancing spell before I started this.”

            “I could try and locate Lanara for you,” Xu offered, “she can see even in total darkness.”

            “It won’t work,” Kyle said.  “The sensor operates based on my sensory abilities, not on whoever’s looking in the mirror.”

“Perhaps he is resting in a darkened room?” Xu offered.

            Kyle shook his head.  “Goodson’s don’t nap in the middle of the afternoon.  Besides, even if he were, there’d be enough light around him that I could see him.  When was the last time you were in a truly pitch-dark room?”

            “I see.  Then you fear something more sinister?”

            “I don’t know what to think yet.  Let me try Bryant’s twin sister Pella now.”

            Kyle’s final attempt at the spell produced results similar to what he’d seen with Bryant; wherever Pella was, it was too dark to see.  He explained the results to everyone over dinner.

            “Now I’m worried,” he said.  “Both of them in lightless rooms?”

            “Could they be in prison?” Razael asked.  “In an oubliette?”

            “Both of them at the same time?  What are the odds?  And what could they have done to deserve that?  Goodsons aren’t criminals.”

            “Goodsons aren’t wizards, either,” Lanara pointed out, jabbing him with a finger to emphasize her point.

            “Well, there’s nothing I can do until tomorrow, when I can cast a darkvision spell before scrying,” he said.

            “Well, nothing promising turned up here,” Lanara said.  “No one in Fingol knows any Goodsons, so it seems none of your family settled here.”

            Kyle sighed.  “Tomorrow we can start heading up to Farmer’s Circle, where we were born.  It might be easier to track my family down from there.  My spells can wait until the afternoon.”

            “You sure about that?” Razael asked.  “If they’re in trouble…”

            “Then I can’t do anything about it, because I still don’t know where they are,” he snapped.  Kyle pushed himself away from the table and left, his meal hardly touched.

            They set out the next day, walking north.  Kyle decided to forgo the shadow walk spell, trading speed of travel for the chance to stop at smaller towns along the way to ask about his family.  They made camp early to give Kyle a chance to set up his scrying mirror.

            Kyle cast the spell, this time under the effects of darkvision.  As he completed the ritual, and the image in the mirror wavered and changed, he let out a cry of shock and anger.

            “What is it?” Lanara asked, coming over next to him.  Looking into the mirror’s surface, she saw an image of a stone room with no windows.  A heavy wooden door, banded with iron, was on the far wall.  Lying in the middle of the room was a man, who had obviously been severely beaten and tortured.  His arms and legs were bound tightly behind him, the ropes cutting deeply into his flesh.  A gag made of a thick piece of wood and leather cord was jammed into his mouth, and a heavy blindfold covered his eyes.  The scene brought back painful memories for her of the time she spent as a captive of her sister Aranal, and she gasped.

            Xu and Razael, who had also come over to see what was happening, saw the same image.  Lanara turned and buried her face in Razael’s tunic, not really thinking about what she was doing.

            “Can you tell where he is?” Razael asked.

            “In a dark stone room somewhere in Targeth,” Kyle snapped.  “I told you, the spell doesn’t reveal where they are unless I see something I recognize.”

            Lanara looked down at Kyle, having composed herself.  “What kind of stone is it?  Maybe that will give you a clue as to what part of Targeth they’re in.”

            In response, Kyle gestured at the image.  The scene was filtered through Kyle’s darkvision, which only allowed viewing in shades of gray.  It would be impossible to get the detail they would need to identify the type of stone.

            “Can you send him a message?” Razael said, “Maybe rouse him into telling you where he is?”

            Kyle shook his head, clearly frustrated at his helplessness.  “There’s only one communication spell that will work through the scrying, and he has to be able to speak to respond.  He’s gagged.”

            “What about that teleport?” Razael asked.

            “I don’t know that spell!” Kyle shouted.  “If I did, I’d go now!”

            Razael remained calm.  “What if we went back to Fingol and got the spell for you?”

            Kyle paused.  “Yes, that would work.”

            “Now, I don’t much care for the idea of teleportation,” Razael said, “but if it’s going to get your family out of there, then we’ll do it.  I’ll take Lanara and go back to town, and get the spell for you.  You should stay here with Xu, and use your mirror to check up on your sister.”

            Kyle nodded.  “I should spend more time scrying the room.  The better I know where I’m going, the better chance the teleport has of working right.”

            “You do that.”  Razael turned to Lanara.  “You ready?”

            “But we just stopped for the night!” she complained.  “I want to help, but I’m not going to make it all night without sleep!  And I’m not exactly in the habit of long-distance running.”

            The old elf sighed, and pulled out some rope.  “You got them levitating boots, right?  Well, tie this around your waist and turn those boots on.”

            After Razael and Lanara had packed up their belongings and left, Kyle cast his spell again to find Pella.  He found her in much the same state as her twin brother Bryant.  Pella’s room was slightly lower, and about three inches of fetid water sat on the floor, presumably to keep her from sleeping.  After studying the image in the mirror for several minutes, she rolled over, and Kyle saw that Pella was not gagged.  He quickly cast another spell.

            “Pella,” he whispered, “please, listen to me.”

            The young woman in the mirror jerked and splashed around, as if she were looking for the source of the voice.  “Leave me alone!” she cried out.  “I don’t know anything about magic!”

            Kyle’s jaw set.  His worst fear was coming true.

            “Pella, please.  This is your brother, Kyle.  There’s too much to explain right now.  Please, just tell me where you are.”

            Pella continued to thrash around weakly, clearly terrified.  “I already told you everything I know!  I don’t know what you want!”

            Kyle swore, and for the millionth time in his life cursed his clumsy, wooden tongue.  He wasn’t getting through to her, and time was running out.  “Pella, just tell me anything you can, please.”

            “All right!  Just don’t beat me!  You came and took me in the night from the farm.  When I woke up, I was here.”

            “Where, Pella?  Where’s your farm?”

            “Our farm outside of Delgan!”

            Kyle swore again.  Delgan was a city in western Targeth, on the other side of the country.  Forcing himself to calm down, Kyle tried to think of how he could calm Pella down.  An idea hit him.

            “Pella,” he whispered softly, “do you remember when you were seven, during that really hot summer?  We were swimming in the creek one day, just after Midsummer, and I dumped those leeches down your shirt?  Remember how Pa was supposed to punish me, but he got to laughing so hard over it that Ma got mad at him too, and we both had to sleep in the barn?”

            Pella’s panicked thrashing stopped.  “Kyle?” she whispered, “is that really you?  But… how?”

            “I’ll explain later,” he said.  “But I’m coming to get you soon.”

            “Please hurry,” she pleaded.

            “Don’t worry,” Kyle said, “I’ll be there as fast as I can.  What can you tell me about…”

            Kyle’s question was cut off as the scrying ended.

            “!  Son of a bitch!”  Kyle stood up, and turned to talk to Xu.  He saw the monk standing patiently, the campsite already packed up.

            “I assumed after hearing your interaction with your sister that you might wish to catch up to Razael and Lanara rather than wait for them here,” she said.

            “I do,” Kyle admitted, “but Razael runs faster than I do.  I know you could catch him easily, but I can’t, and I don’t have any spells prepared that would make me faster.”

            Xu picked up her pack, which was sitting on the ground next to her, and held it out by the strap.  “Put this on,” she said, “and I will carry you.”

            “Carry me?  That’s ridiculous.  I’m twice your size, Xu.”

            The monk only smiled.  “I am stronger than I appear.”



*          *            *



            The four of them reached Fingol at the crack of dawn.  Kyle paid for the first room he could find, allowing an exhausted Razael and Xu to rest, and then went with Lanara to ask about scroll-makers.  There were several in town, but most people suggested Magrum, who was a mage of advanced years that tended to open earlier than most of the others.

            Kyle and Lanara entered Magrum’s shop, which appeared little more than four walls and a desk.  A row of pull-strings hung from the ceiling behind the desk, seemingly attached to nothing.  Magrum sat at the desk, wrinkled and stooped.  He peered at his two customers through spectacles.

            “Oh, my,” he said, standing slowly.  “Don’t usually get customers this early.”

            “We’re in a bit of a rush,” Lanara explained.

            “I’m looking for a teleport scroll,” Kyle said.

            “Ah, teleport, yes.  Well, let me see if I have that spell on hand.”  The old man shuffled to the back of the shop, and contemplated the pull-strings for a while before grabbing one and tugging.  From an extradimensional space in the ceiling, a long strip of cloth dropped down, with several dozen pockets sewn into it.  Parchment rolls were stuffed into each pocket.

            “Let’s see here,” Magrum said to himself.  “T… T… Tenser?  No…”

            The wizard poked through the scrolls at what seemed a snail’s pace, occasionally pulling one out, reading it, then putting it back.  Kyle paced back and forth in the tiny shop as Magrum pulled down another row of scrolls.

            “Can we help you look?” Lanara offered.

            “No, no, I have a system,” Magrum said.  “I look until I find it.  Was it Terra Cotta Warrior?”

            “No,” Kyle said through clenched teeth, “teleport.”

            “Aha!” Magrum said, pulling out a roll of parchment, “here it is!”  He shuffled back to the desk, unrolling the scroll and laying it down long enough for Kyle to confirm it was the correct spell.  He then rolled it back up and dropped it into a simple bamboo tube.

            “I don’t suppose you’re having a sale?” Lanara asked.  “We’re rather short on funds, you see.”  She had launched into her usual routine out of habit, unaware that Kyle was looking impatiently at the back of her head, not wanting to waste time haggling.

            “Well, I do charge the standard fees, plus a little to make a living on,” crooned Magrum.  “After all, making scrolls does take more than my time.  I’m willing to discuss a price, if you like.”

            “Look,” Kyle said, “if it helps, we’re going to be using the spell to go eradicate a bunch of magic-hating cultists.”

            “Really?” Magrum asked, peering at Kyle over his spectacles.  “Well, in that case, I can offer it to you for one thousand gold.”

            “Done.”  Kyle reached into his belt, pulled out a sack, and slapped a handful of coins onto the desk.  Kyle snatched up the scroll as Magrum scooped the coins into his robes.  “Thank you.”

            “Pleasure doing business with you,” Magrum said as they went out the door.

            They met up with Razael and Xu a few minutes later.  “So, we need to do anything special to get ready?” Razael asked.

            “Just stay close,” Kyle said, as he started to unroll the scroll.  Then he paused, looked around, and let the parchment close.  “This isn’t right,” he said.  “I’m letting my feelings run away with me.”

            “But you saw your sister in the hands of those Scion-Watchers,” Razael said.  “Now you don’t want to go?”

            “Of course I do!  But I have no idea what to expect once we’re there.  And we’ve all been up all night, and you two have been running that whole time.  Are you seriously telling me you’re ready to jump into battle?  And all I have prepared for spells are divinations and such.  I loaded up all my higher valances with scrying spells.  Not to mention that I haven’t even used most of them, which means I don’t have a good sense of where to teleport us to.”

            “All right, Kyle,” Lanara said, “so now what?”

            “Now, we rest for a day,” he said.  “I finish using up my scrying spells on Pella, to study our arrival point.  I can also use the time to actually learn teleport rather than just use the scroll, so that I don’t have to lay out another thousand gold the next time I want to do this.  Then I can sleep, prepare new spells, and then we go.  If the Scion-Watchers try anything with Pella before then, I’ll know about it, and we can go early if we have to.”
            “That’s fine, Kyle,” Lanara said.  “It’s your decision.  We’ll go tomorrow.”

            The four of them spent the day resting and making other preparations while Kyle studied spells and cast scryings.  After a night of fitful sleep, he awoke, spent an hour going over his spellbook, and then joined his companions, who were armed and ready.

            “Look, before we go,” Kyle said.  “I want you all to know that I appreciate your help.”

            “Think nothing of it, Kyle,” Razael said.  “Like I said back at the Library, the only way to deal with fanatics is to eradicate them.”

            Kyle nodded his understanding.  “I still hope that I can find another way, but I understand where you’re coming from.  Now, everyone hold hands and get ready.”

            Kyle summoned up arcane energy as the others linked hands.  “And I’m sorry if I end up killing us all in a horrible Ethereal Plane accident,” Kyle said.

            A look of alarm crossed Razael’s face.  Now wait just a…”



*          *            *

            They appeared in darkness.  Lanara, who could still see, looked around and quickly spotted the bound form of Pella, huddled against a wall laying in fetid water.  She moved quickly to her side and started untying her even as Kyle summoned up a faint light.  Pella squirmed against the wall at first, startled by the strange noise of the teleportation and then the sounds of people approaching.  The sight of a strange, pink-haired woman hovering over her didn’t help.  It wasn’t until Kyle came over and knelt down next to Lanara that she stopped struggling.

            “Kyle?” she gasped, “is it really you?”  Her eyes went wide at the sight of a brother she hadn’t seen in fifteen years.  A mix of emotions played across her face, as she took in the sight of Kyle, his strange companions, the expensive-looking robes he wore, the glimmering ball of light in his hand…

            Pella’s hands, now freed from their bonds, clutched protectively across her chest.  Her clothing was ripped and soiled, barely covering her.  Razael quickly produced one of his spare camouflage outfits and draped it across her shoulders.

            “Who… how…”

            Kyle took Pella’s hand and squeezed it tightly.  “I’ll explain, Pella, I promise.  But not now.  We have to find out way out of here.  Have you seen Bryant?”

            “Bryant?” Pella looked around at everyone.  “No, I haven’t.  Is he here?  Oh, dear Bles, I hope they don’t have him too.”

            “We’ll get him out, I promise,” Kyle said.  “What about Angar or Varda? Do you know where they live?  What about Pa?”

            Pella shook her head.  “Kyle, why are they doing this?”

            Kyle opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.  He was unable to speak, not only because of the vow he’d taken at the Library, but because of the sheer enormity of what he would have to tell her.  “I can’t explain it,” he said at last, “but it’s not because of anything you’ve done.  If anything, it’s because of me.”

            Kyle stood, helping Pella to her feet, as Razael came back from checking the door.  “It’s unlocked,” he said.  “Seems they weren’t too afraid of the little gal escaping.”

            “I suggest we leave quietly, find Bryant, and get them out of here before dealing with the Scion-Watchers,” Kyle said.

            Nodding, Razael went to the door and opened it, hoping to take a quick glance outside.  Standing just outside the door were a pair of skeletons, one on each side.  Razael had been listening for guard earlier, but hadn’t counted on undead guards.  Nevertheless, his reactions were much faster than the undead guardians, and within seconds had smashed both into bone powder.

            “I didn’t make a lot of noise,” he said.  “I think we’re safe.”

            The party moved out into the hallway, Kyle supporting Pella.  They found themselves in a short corridor, with several doors and side passages in view.  Torches flickered on the walls in sconces, providing dim light.  Razael moved over to the left, and peered inside a doorway that looked similar to Pella’s cell.  Inside, he saw stacks of supplies, perhaps enough to provide for a large family for a summer.  He glanced at the piles of cloth, rope, and dry wood.

            “Hey, Kyle,” the tracker whispered, “want a distraction?”

            Kyle came over and looked at the supplies.  “Good idea,” he said, “but wait until we have Bryant and are on our way out.  No sense ‘distracting’ them right to where we’re standing.”

            Meanwhile, Lanara had gone to check another door to the right, set in the opposite wall.  Opening it a crack, she saw light spilling out.  The room beyond was relatively posh, with thick carpeting on the floor and a fire crackling in the fireplace. Though she couldn’t see anyone inside, she heard someone moving as though they were lying on a bed or couch, and she heard the sound of pages being turned.

            The bard must have lingered for a moment too long, for suddenly a female voice called out, “Hello?  Is someone there?”

            Lanara froze.  She hadn’t expected to attract attention.  While she weighed her options, the voice called out again.

            “Ixara, is that you?”

            Lanara swallowed, said a quick prayer to Feesha and Ladta, and answered.  “Yeah.”  A lack of response now would have certainly given the woman cause to come to the door to investigate.

            “Come in, come in.”

            Biting her lower lip, Lanara stepped into the room.  Laying on the bed, propped up, was a human woman reading a book.  A suit of plate armor and a morningstar hung from a stand in the corner.

            There was a brief pause.  “You’re up early,”

            “I was just heading to the kitchen.”  It was a ridiculous thing to say, but so was anything else she might have uttered.

            Another pause.  “Come here.”

            “You know, I have things I need to do,” Lanara said loudly, starting to inch toward the door.  Outside, Kyle and Razael heard her.

            “I think we need that distraction now, Raz,” Kyle said.

            “I’m sure you do,” the woman on the bed said, “but you’re going to approach, instead.”

            Lanara felt the energy of a spell try to seep into her mind at the word approach.  She shook it off, and the urge to walk right up to the woman on the bed faded.

            “No, really, I have to leave now.”

            In response, the woman gestured, and a pillar of flame dropped on Lanara’s head.

            Xu, who was in the hall near the door, jumped back as flames shot out of the doorway.  Pella screamed, and Kyle pushed her back into the cell and told her to remain quiet, casting a displacement spell on her just to be safe.  Razael emerged from the supply room, black smoke already starting to trickle out.  He notched a trio of arrows and began scanning the hallways.  A door opened, and a goblin head poked out.  Razael fired, but the goblin was quick, and ducked back into the room, leaving Razael’s three arrows buried in the wooden doorframe.  Then the goblin charged out as Razael reloaded, a rapier in hand.  The goblin went after Razael with gusto, giving him a few minor cuts.

            Meanwhile, Kyle and Xu waited outside the door as Lanara came running out, singed but not as badly hurt as she might have been.  While the bard ducked back inside the cell with Pella to guard her, Xu and Kyle waited for whoever was inside to emerge.  When no one came out, Kyle charged in.  He saw the woman in the corner of the room, a robe draped over her shoulders and a helmet on her head, with a morningstar gripped in both hands.

            “I hear you’re looking for Goodsons!” Kyle snarled, and launched a beam of negative energy at her.  The ray hit her full in the chest, and the woman screamed as her life-force was ripped away.  In response, the woman summoned up a beam of white light, which scorched Kyle’s stomach and hip.  As the light from her spell faded away, Xu leapt into the room and began pounding on the woman, sending her off-balance and reeling.

            “Back up!” Kyle shouted, unleashing a web spell as soon as the monk tumbled away.  The sticky strands enveloped the cleric, trapping her.  She struggled against the webbing, but it held fast.

            “What should we do with her?” Xu asked.

            “Watch her, make sure she doesn’t get out.  I’m going after my brother.”

            As Kyle dashed off, Xu watched as the woman thrashed against the web.  The monk could see that she had a chance of breaking out, though a small one.

            “Hold still,” Xu growled, but the cleric continued to struggle.  Finally, Xu waded into the webbing, her magical ring keeping her from being entangled, and landed several solid blows into the woman’s ribs and stomach until she stopped struggling.

            “You were warned,” Xu said.

            “Why?” the woman said.  “Why do you help him?  Why do you aid that abomination, that foul practitioner of magic?  Why not strike down one who would defy Erito’s will?”

            Xu tried to respond, but felt the magic of her vow bind her words.  There was nothing she could say to explain how wrong this woman was.  Xu felt a cold fury well up inside her, anger at seeing such arrogance, such blindness be the cause of so much suffering.  Willing her magical bracers to sheathe her hands in electricity, Xu allowed her anger to express itself.

            Razael’s battle with the goblin was going well.  Though the creature was nimble, and skilled with the rapier, he had yet to land a serious blow.  Several arrows stuck out of the goblin’s body, and he was bleeding heavily.  Lanara had also come out of hiding, and was using her whip to good effect, knocking the goblin off his feet to keep his rapier from opening more holes in Razael.  Finally, with a yelp, the goblin dashed off down the hall.

            “We’ve got a runner!” he shouted.  At first he was content to let the little cretin go, so he could help with whoever was behind the other door, but then a thought struck him; the goblin might be going to kill the prisoners.  Cursing, Razael ran off after him.  Rounding the corner, he barely caught sight of the goblin, well ahead and running for all he was worth.

            Kyle emerged from the room, and gave a nod to Lanara, who was helping Pella out of her cell again.  He turned and began heading the opposite direction that he had last seen Razael, assuming the elf could account for himself, and still needing to find his brother and deal with any other Scion-Watchers.  Lanara and Pella followed right behind; Pella somewhat disoriented by the fact that the pink-haired woman kept talking to her as if she was four feet away from where she was actually standing.

            Kyle came to an intersection, and looked around, trying to decide which of the several doors to try first.  Then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see a goblin run into another intersection at the far end of the hallway.  The goblin had several of Razael’s arrows sticking out of it, and as he watched another one landed in the goblin’s shoulder.  Ignoring the injuries, the goblin opened a nearby door and dashed inside.  Kyle wondered for a moment why the goblin would choose to trap itself in a room, but then had the same shocking flash of realization as Razael had.  Kyle turned and bolted down the corridor, slamming his shoulder into the door just before it closed.  The room inside was dark, and the goblin stood in one corner.  In the other was a bound form, gagged and blindfolded.  Kyle quickly interposed himself between the two.

            The goblin sneered at him, still bleeding heavily.  Suddenly, the door burst open again, and Razael came through, bow drawn.  Several things happened at once.  The goblin launched himself forward, spinning close past Razael.  The move forced the elf to take a step back to fire, which caused his arm to slam into the frame of the door.  The arrows skittered uselessly off the far wall.  Then the goblin changed direction suddenly and launched himself at Kyle.  The wizard grabbed for him, but at the last second he shoulder-rolled out of his grasp and came up next to the bound form on the floor.  Drawing his rapier, the goblin screeched triumphantly, a gleam of religious fervor in his eye.

            “For the Cleansing!”

            The point of the rapier came down, piercing Bryant Goodson’s heart.  He stiffened, then went limp.

            For Kyle, it was as if the world stopped for the space of a heartbeat.  All reason was shattered.  The goblin could have escaped.  He could have fled.  Instead, he chose… this.  All the doubt and uncertainties that had been plaguing Kyle for weeks suddenly melted away into insignificance, replaced by a red haze.

            Screaming, Kyle pointed at the goblin and spat words of power.  The goblin’s form vanished, reduced to a fine powder.  Kyle was unaware that Lanara and Pella had come into the room right behind him.  Pella gave out a cry as she saw her twin’s body on the floor.  Lanara began to move to comfort Kyle, but then heard a noise coming from the hallway behind her.  Turning, she saw a goblin trying to sneak up on them, a pair of daggers in his hands.  Lanara dashed out of the room and struck at the goblin with her rapier.

            “I need some help!” she called out, as the goblin slashed back at her.

            Razael heard the call, and looked at Kyle, who was still staring at the spot where the goblin once stood.

            “Help her,” Kyle said in a low voice.  “I will deal with the rest.”

            Razael nodded, and ran out of the room.  Kyle looked at his sister, who was still just inside the door.  He walked up to her, and pressed a dagger into her hand.

            “Stay here,” he said.  “Cut him loose.”  With that, he stalked off, turning down another hallway.

            Between Razael and Lanara, they made short work of the goblin, who was nowhere near as skilled a combatant as the first.  Razael turned to the bard.

            “Go back and get Pella, take her back to where Xu is.  I’ll find Kyle.”

            The tracker went off, backtracking to the room where Kyle’s brother had been killed.  He glanced in quickly to see Lanara helping Pella cut the ropes on the body.  Then he went down the other hall, knowing it was the only way Kyle could have gone.

            He came across the first goblin just around the corner, burned until it was nearly unrecognizable.  The second was only a few yards further on.  The pitiful creature was writhing on the floor as if its blood were on fire.

            “Help me,” the goblin screeched.  “Please, make it stop!”

            Razael stepped past the goblin and moved on.  He turned two more corners before he finally saw Kyle.    He was about to call out to the wizard when he saw another goblin charge out of a door behind Kyle, a curved dagger in his hand.  Kyle turned toward the screaming goblin, but made no move to avoid its attack.  Instead, he caught the goblin by the throat as it charged in, slamming it against the wall.  The goblin’s blade sliced into Kyle’s arm, but he seemed not to notice.  Razael heard Kyle intoning a spell, and suddenly the hand around the goblin’s throat was limned in an electrical field.  The goblin screeched and began twitching, but Kyle’s grip never wavered.

            Razael decided to backtrack and rejoin the others about the time that smoke started to seep out of the goblin’s ears.  He found everyone in the room where Lanara had been hit with the flame strike.  A woman trapped in a web was slumped over, unconscious, and Xu stood nearby.  Lanara was helping Pella lay Bryant’s body on the bed.

            “What happened to her?” Razael asked, nodding toward the woman.

            “She was warned to remain quiet,” was all Xu said.

            “Too bad,” snorted Lanara.  “She owes me.”

            “No,” Razael said, “she owes Kyle.”



*          *            *



            The interrogation of the woman was brief.  Lanara led the questioning, with Kyle watching.  They’d already pulled everything valuable or useful they could out of the complex, which turned out to be an abandoned Targethian military outpost.  Among the items rescued were several carrier pigeons, which were apparently used to send messages to other cells of the Scion-Watchers.

            The leader of this particular cell gave them useful information.  She revealed that she was one of several cells of the order, and that they operated independently, sending reports to each other.  She didn’t know where any of the other cells were, nor did she know the location or identity of the Arcanamach.  She also revealed that to her knowledge, none of the other Goodsons had been found.  She was also completely unremorseful over the death of Bryant, and made it clear she would gladly see both Pella and Kyle dead as well.  No one asked the priestess her name; it was deemed an irrelevant detail.

            “Well,” Razael said, when they had asked their last questions, “the only thing left to decide, Kyle, is how slow do you want her to die, and do you want to watch?”

            Kyle stood silently, glaring down at the woman.  He was torn, but not in the way he expected.  There was no question that he wanted her dead, that he wanted her to suffer.  But alive, she could serve a greater use.  Kyle contemplated the dilemma while his mind regarded one of the spells he had prepared.  A dark spell, gleaned from the spellbook of the necromancer Neville.  One that would bring death to this woman, certainly, but would also carry that death to others of her sect.

            Razael interpreted Kyle’s silence as uncertainty.  “I’ve skinned people before, you know,” he said.  “It’s quick… but it doesn’t have to be.”  He was about to say more, when he felt a tugging at his back.  He turned in time to see Pella running toward the woman, one of his arrows in her hand.  Razael caught her and held her back as she screamed.

            “Let me go!  I want to kill her!  I want to hurt her!”

            “Easy now, girl,” Razael said, pulling the arrow gently out of her grasp.  “You don’t want to do it like that.”  Glancing at the arrow, and noticing the dark stain on the head, he added, “especially not with that arrow.”

            Razael knelt down, helping Pella down as well.  He pulled out a very thin blade.  “Now, if’n you want her to suffer, you want to start here.”  Razael grabbed the cleric’s bare foot, and slid the blade under her large toenail.  Blood poured out of the wound, and the woman screamed.  Lanara just looked Razael, and Xu observed the woman, both of their expressions unreadable.

            Kyle heard the woman’s agony.  He saw as Razael began to slowly twist the blade.  He saw the eager gleam in Pella’s eyes.

            Kyle reached into a pocket and pulled out a wand, blasting the priestess with magic missiles.  Razael and Pella jumped back as the woman tried to rise, then slumped to the earth.

            “Why?” she said weakly, looking up at Kyle.  “Why do you defy Her will?”

            “Ask Her yourself,” Kyle said, and then unleashed another barrage of missiles, until she stopped moving.

            “Aw,” Razael said, standing up and putting away his blade.  “What fun was that?”

            Kyle grabbed Razael’s arm.  “I will not have my sister turned into a monster,” he hissed, then loosened his grip and stalked off.

            Razael was about to call after him, to tell him he was being naïve, that a cruel world demanded cruel choices.  But then he felt another hand on his arm.

            “Don’t,” Lanara said, her eyes unusually hard and insistent.  “Don’t even try it.”



*          *            *



            Lanara woke up the next day, far too early for her tastes.  Of course, by her tastes, waking up any time before the sun crossed the midpoint of the sky was ‘too early’.

            She lay huddled under heavy blankets, warding off the cold air of winter.  After their trek to the south pole, she never wanted to be cold again.  Despite the fact that a Targethian winter was no comparison to the frigid polar environment, Lanara still felt like she couldn’t stop shivering.

            She heard the tent flap open, and felt a cold wind creep inside the tent and shoot straight under her blankets.

            “Shut the door!” she shouted.

            She heard the flap close, and felt someone lay down next to her.  “Are you cold this morning, lass?”

            “Freezing,” she said, “shouldn’t you be doing something about that?”

            “Might be I could help,” Razael said, “with the proper persuasion.”

            Lanara normally would have instantly risen to the bait and matched his banter, but this morning didn’t feel like wasting the time.  She decided to go straight for his weakness.

            Lanara rolled over in her bedding, while concentrating on her Talent.  When she looked up at Razael, she looked like a very youthful, golden-haired elven maiden.  She noticed that Razael had already disrobed before laying next to her.  So much for hard-to-get.

            “Persuasive enough?” she asked.

            “Aye, lass,” he said with a grin, “you drive a hard bargain.”

            Lanara looked Razael up and down, and couldn’t resist one bit of hackneyed banter.  “Looks like you do, too.”

            Afterward, as they lay together, blankets pushed off into the far corner of the tent, Lanara rolled over next to Razael.  His presence was reassuring, in a way.  Pushing strands of pink hair out of her face (her ‘nubile elf maiden’ guise having faded long before), she raised herself up on one elbow to look at him.

            “So, I take it Kyle’s gone, then?”

            Razael laughed.  “Well, if it was Kyle you wanted warming your bed this morning, you should have said something earlier.”

            “Hmm, tempting,” Lanara said, “but I don’t want the last thing I see in this world to be the head of a greataxe, if you catch my drift.”

            “Aye, lass.”

            “Besides, you know what I mean.”

            “He left with Xu and Pella this morning before sunrise,” Razael said.  “They took Bryant’s body, too.  He’ll try to get their families to go with him back to Vargas, to protect them from the Scion-Watchers.”

            “Think he’ll have any luck?” Lanara asked.

            “Maybe,” the elf said, “but it’s a rough trail, to be sure.  Kyle’s family, but family they’ve not seen in fifteen years.  And farm folk can be plenty stubborn when it comes to leaving their homes.”

            “Maybe I should have gone with him,” Lanara mused.

            “I think it was something he was wanting to do on his own,” Razael said.  “At any rate, no matter what he’ll take his brother’s body back to Vargas to try and get him raised there, and to get the others to come here to help.”

            “And what do we do?” Lanara asked.

            “Other than keep each other warm?  We keep an eye on that outpost, see if any of the other cells come to see what happened here.  We go through the papers we pulled out of the cell leader’s chambers, to see if they lead us anywhere.  We intercept any messenger pigeons replying to Kyle’s message.”

            Lanara reached over to her pile of belongings and snatched up a piece of parchment near the top.  She unfolded it and read it again.



To the ignorant fanatics known as the Scion-Watchers;



This message contains three things – some helpful information, a request, and a warning.  The information is that there is indeed a Goodson that practices arcane magic – me.  I am the only one in my family so gifted.  Of course, if any of you had the sense Erito granted a swamp rat, you would already know this.  Clearly, the goblins are the intellect driving this little sect.

            The request I ask is this: all cells of the Scion-Watchers are to immediately disband, and its members report to the nearest church of Erito to seek forgiveness for their deeds.  The Arcanamach is to seek me out, and offer a personal apology on their knees for the pain and suffering they have caused my family.  The Arcanamach is then to relinquish the title and spend the rest of their lives tending to diseased swine.

            Finally, my warning.  If you do not comply with my request, and continue to pursue those of my blood needlessly, then your fate will be the same as those who I found here.

                                                            - Kyle Goodson, Wizard



            She smiled as she read it.  “I still can’t believe he had it in him,” she said.

            “You saw how he sealed them before he sent the pigeons off, right?” Razael asked.

            “No, how?”

            “He sealed each one with wax using that priestess’ signet ring, just like she probably did,” he said.  “Then he put his own mark right over the top of that with magic.”

            Lanara cackled with glee.  “Beautiful,” she said, “nice touch.  Think it’ll work?”

            “Well, let’s see.  He just told a fanatical cult that he’s destroyed one of their cells, that he has no respect for their beliefs, and basically told them to go  themselves.  Yeah, I think it’ll work.”

            Lanara’s tone became serious.  “Think we can handle it?”

            Razael paused before answering. “Yup.”

            “Think he can handle it?”

            This time, the pause was longer.  “We’ll see.”

            The cansin sighed, then shivered as she felt the cold winter air begin to creep back into the tent.  “It’s going to be a cold winter,” she said.

            “Aye, lass,” Razael said.  “Colder for some than for others.”


----------



## Delemental

*Uneasy Lies the Head*

Okay, now that I'm all caught up from the crash, here's a brand-new update for you.

----------------------------

            Xu Dhii Ngao sat outside the simple wattle and daub home, and sought a place of inner calm.  A calm she knew did not exist inside.

            Smoke curled from the chimney of the small building, wafting off into the sky on the wind.  Occasionally, the cold winter wind would gust, sending the smoke flying off.  Xu noted the cold, though it hardly seemed to bother her.  At her feet, chickens scrabbled for tiny specks of grain and seed, and the smell of manure mingled with the smoke.

            The sound and smells around her reminded Xu of her time at the monastery, back in Xhintai.  _Revered spirits,_ she thought, _the monastery…I am so far from there now, in many ways._

            The hardships of life at the monastery had been  a far cry from the relative comfort she enjoyed before that, as the daughter of a prominent merchant.  Not quite as opulent as what Ariadne and Autumn knew as children, but decadent as opposed to the humble farm where she was now.

            Comfortable, yes, but a life that held its own troubles.  She could attest to that personally – in a land where the power of the merchant class was rising, and where social advancement by marriage was still in practice, Xu was as much a commodity as the silks and spices her father traded in.  But silks and spices never sneak out of the house the night before their wedding, never to be seen again.

            Xu allowed her thoughts to wander as they wished – clearly obtaining a state of tranquil nothingness was eluding her.  Her mind went briefly to Lord Hungai, the warlord who apparently was willing to pursue her to the ends of the earth.  She wondered how his absence from their homeland would affect his reputation with the Emperor.  Poorly enough, she hoped, that he might be persuaded to give up his search for her and return home.  The thought brought her a measure of peace, but it was tempered by the knowledge that if Hungai had been persistent enough to follow her here, then it would never be safe for her to return to Xhintai.  And her family’s fate…

            A small tear trickled down Xu’s cheek.  It would have been an unforgivable lapse in discipline had her companions been present, but she was currently alone; the only other member of their group was inside, trying to explain to people he had never met how their husband and father had died, and why they must now abandon what little they had in this world in order to protect their own lives.

            The monk’s concentration was broken by the sound of hoofbeats in the distance.  Focusing on the sound, she began to pick up details.  A single rider, coming toward the farm.  Riding fast, but not at a gallop.  It was a large horse, bearing a heavy load.

            Xu remained still.  If it was an enemy, let them think she was oblivious to their approach.  But it seemed unlikely – if they were to be attacked here, surely their enemies would have sent greater numbers, or made an effort to conceal their approach.  Unless the one approaching was puissant enough to need neither numbers or stealth to defeat them.

            The winter sun glinted off of heavy armor, reflecting cold light toward Xu.  Studying the approaching figure, she noted that the rider’s shape was odd, yet familiar.  When the rider reached the low fence surrounding the farmland, he spurred his steed to jump over it.  As they came down, the metal plates in the armor flared and bounced, and Xu realized why she’d had the impression she did – the armor was styled like that of her homeland.  Once the rider came close enough that she could tell that the metal plates of the armor were forged from adamantium, she identified the rider.

            The armored man slowed his horse to a walk as he came close to the house.  Seeing Xu, he directed the mount toward her, stopping a few feet away.  He pulled the helmet off his head, and they looked at each other for a few moments silently.

            “Greetings, Xu Dhii Ngao,” the man said in Xhintai.

            Xu nodded.  “Greetings, Togusa.”

*          *          *​
Kyle sat in the far corner of the single-room home, trying to give the others in the room space to talk quietly.   His sister-in-law, a red-haired woman named Felia, sat stone-faced, the dried tracks of tears running like scars down her dirt-stained cheeks.  Across from her was Pella Goodson, (_Stovich_, Kyle reminded himself, _it’s Pella Stovich now.  She’s been married five years._) who spoke quietly with Felia, her burned and scarred hands resting gently on top of Felia’s calloused ones.  At their feet, two children played; Felia’s three year old son, Connor, and Pella’s two year old daughter, Anjele.  Felia and Bryant’s other two children were outside, tending to their chores, while Pella and Vigo’s three older progeny waited with their father in the wagon outside.  Pella talked to Felia, comforting her while at the same time urging her to come with them to safety.  His sister had a gift with words he lacked, which almost seemed to defy the usual Goodson tendencies toward social awkwardness.

As he waited, Kyle reflected on the past few days.  On meeting nephews and nieces that he hadn’t known he existed until then, except in the occasional story told by their parents about their own childhood.  But those children didn’t look on him as ‘Uncle Kyle’.  They didn’t see the familiar dark hair, the piercing blue-gray eyes that marked him as one of their kin.  Instead they saw blue robes, expensive rings, a staff with a glowing crystal.  They saw a wizard; someone to respect, and to fear.  Even Pella’s eyes showed the same reverent caution when she looked at him.  They hadn’t spoken much, since she had been rescued from the Scion-Watchers – Kyle hadn’t pressed the issue.  What did you say to a sister you hadn’t seen since you were eleven, especially when you come back as something completely outside of her realm of understanding?

He was so deep in thought that at first he didn’t notice that Pella and Felia had stopped talking, and were looking at him.  When he did see them, the first thing he noticed was that they were both waiting for him, not daring to disturb him.  If it had been anyone else in the family, he reflected, they would’ve knocked them on the head with a wooden spoon for woolgathering.

“I’ve spoken with Felia, Kyle,” Pella said.  “She sees the danger that this cult would bring on her children.  She’s agreed to come with us to Tlaxan.”

Kyle smiled.  “I’m glad to hear it.”  He’d been worried that either Pella or Bryant’s families would refuse to leave.  Farmers, especially farmers with their own land, could be defiantly stubborn when it came to abandoning that land.  “We can leave as soon as you’re ready.  Once we’re in Vargas, I’ll see to getting you somewhere to stay until something more permanent can be arranged.  I’ll see that Bryant’s taken care of, too.”

Felia looked at Kyle, tears rimming her eyes again.  “I still can’t believe… you really think you can bring him back?”

“Not me,” Kyle said.  He’d tried to explain it before, but people like Felia were only exposed to the most minor of magics, and didn’t understand enough to differentiate between arcane and divine powers.  “But I can arrange for someone else to try it.  I can’t guarantee it’ll work, Felia, but the least I can do is make it possible.  I’m sure that my fiancée will be able to have everything ready by the time we get there.”

“You mean Lady Autumn?” Pella asked.  “You’re really marrying a duchess, Kyle?”

“Yes, well, as soon as I can, yes,” he stammered, “and she wasn’t a duchess when we met, you know.”

Pella just stared at him for a moment, as if she still couldn’t believe the idea of a Goodson marrying into nobility.  “I’ll stay here and help Felia get her things together,” she said eventually.  “why don’t you go tell Vigo and the kids what’s going on, and see if the kids will come in later to help us fix something for dinner?”

Kyle nodded, and stood up.  He ducked his head as he walked out to avoid hitting the doorframe.  He stood just inside the entry, adjusting to the cold outside, and took a long look around the farm.

This was no longer his world.  It hadn’t been for some time, now.

Walking around toward the wagon, Kyle spotted two figures kneeling in the dirt, facing each other.  He recognized both, but one surprised him.

“Togusa?”

The Xhintai warrior, nodded, and stood.  “Greetings, Kyle Goodson,” he said.  “Allow me to express my sorrow at the loss of your brother.  Xu has been telling me of your unfortunate encounter with this cult.  Know that should I encounter any of their cells elsewhere, I will be certain to investigate them thoroughly and administer justice if needed.”

“Thanks, Togusa,” Kyle said.  “But what brings you way out here?  If we were in a city, I’d chalk it up to coincidence, but Bryant’s farm isn’t even near the main road.”

“Indeed, my arrival here is with purpose,” Togusa announced.  “I was given a missive to deliver a message to this place at this time.  Though I was not told who the recipient of the message would be, when I saw Xu sitting in meditation here, I knew the message must be intended for The Legacy.”

“What message?  Who sent you?”

Xu stood up and handed Kyle a scroll.  “It’s from the Dreamlord,” she said.

“Aran,” Kyle said, naming the ever more mysterious psion that had taken an interest in them.  He unrolled the scroll, and saw unfamiliar symbols on the page.

“It is written in Xhintai,” Xu said.  “I believe that Aran uses our native language in his communications to us as a protection, knowing that I can read it, but that few who might intercept the message could do the same.”

“What’s it say?” Kyle asked.

Xu took the scroll from Kyle and scanned it.  “Honorable Warriors and Sages of The Legacy, upon whom the Thousand Blessings of the Myriad Spirits Descend, from the Dreamlord, Master of All that is Unseen, I send…”

“Can you just sum it up for me?” Kyle said testily.

“Of course,” Xu said, “Understand that in Xhintai it is difficult to be ‘brief’.”  She rolled up the scroll and tucked it in her belt.  “It is a request from Aran, asking for our help.  Apparently, there is a councilman in the nearby city of Delgan, a man by the name of Gil Mendes.  Within the next week, without further intervention, it will be revealed by another party that Councilman Mendes is a…” she hesitated as she glanced at Togusa, who was not privy to their knowledge of psionics, and was also loyal to the church of Tor.   “Very damaging information will be revealed that will unjustly place the councilman’s life in danger.  Aran wishes to protect this man, but has no loyal operatives nearby in a position to intervene.   He states that we are not under any obligation to help this man, but promises an exchange of favors at a later date should we accept.”

“I was informed,” Togusa said, “that I should remain here and see if you might require my assistance.  If this councilman is a just man, and these accusations false, then it would be in Tor’s interest for me to aid you.”

Kyle looked back and forth at Xu and Togusa.  “You know, this is really bad timing.”

“Trouble seldom waits until a convenient moment,” Xu said.  “But perhaps there is an unseen benefit.  This councilman may need to be relocated or hidden, and will certainly owe us an obligation.  Perhaps your family could be hidden with him, or he could be persuaded to help protect your family from harm.”

Kyle sighed.  “I need a minute to think.”  He turned and walked a short distance away, leaning on the railing of the corral.  He ended up taking several minutes before returning.

“All right,” Kyle said.  “Let’s do it.  I need to protect my family, but I also need a chance to talk to Aran again, and this might be the only way I can arrange it.  We’ll have to find some place to keep Bryant’s body in the city until we can get to Vargas.”

“We may be able to contact a priest in the city who can attempt to raise your brother from the dead,” Xu offered.

“Maybe.  At any rate, we’ll need to go get Lanara and Razael.”  Kyle turned to Togusa.  “You said you’re willing to help?”

“How may I be of service?” the samurai asked.

“Will you remain here and protect my family while Xu and I go get out other companions and bring them back?” he asked.  “After that, we’d like you to come with us to Delgan.”

“I understand,” Togusa said.  “I have never been to Delgan, but I understand it is a lawless city.”

“It’s the armpit of Targeth,” Kyle said.

*          *          *​
            Xu and Kyle made it back to the old outpost that the Scion-Watchers had occupied within half a day.  There had been no activity at the site, other than scavengers, and the records pulled out of the outpost had proven remarkably information-free.  Xu explained the message from Aran, and that they’d decided to help.  Though it took some effort to convince Razael why doing a favor for Aran was in their interest, soon all four were speeding back to Bryant’s farm.

            Everyone was ready to go the next day.  They were forced to travel at a normal speed, thanks to the wagon and the fact that Kyle didn’t think his younger nieces and nephews would appreciate a trip through the Shadow Plane.  Fortunately, Bryant’s farm was close to the city.  Kyle rented out an entire inn on the outskirts of town, the Stag and Boar, for his family to stay in, making sure everyone would stay warm and well fed.  Lanara went straight to the town hall, and made an appointment to see Councilman Mendes later that afternoon (thanks to her considerable charms, she wasn’t even required to pay the standard ten silver bribe to the clerk). Togusa again offered to guard Kyle’s family, while the rest of the party went off in search of the local clergy.

            A few inquiries told them that the only church in town large enough to have priests capable of meeting their needs was the Halls of Fortune, the temple of Ladta.   The temple was near the center of town, and was unusually well kept and free of refuse compared to surrounding buildings.

            An acolyte greeted the party at the entrance.  “How may Ladta change your fortunes this day?” the young man said brightly.

            Kyle sighed at the heavy dose of naïve religious enthusiasm, while Lanara stepped forward.  “We’d like a chance to speak with your high priest,” she said.  “It’s a most urgent matter requiring divine intercession at the highest levels.”

            “Oh, I see,” said the acolyte.  “Well, if you wish to speak with the Fatemaster, he’s over there, practicing his juggling.”

            The acolyte pointed across the vestibule at a middle-aged cansin with a slight paunch and bright green skin, who was smiling as he juggled nine razor-sharp chakram for a small crowd.  He did not break his rhythm as the party approached him, but smiled warmly.

            “Welcome to the Halls of Fortune,” he said.  “I am Fatemaster Zhul.  How may Ladta change your fortunes?”

            “Good morning, Fatemaster,” Lanara said.  “My name is Lanara Rahila, and this is…”

            “You’re The Legacy, I know,” Zhul said.  “Rumors that you were looking for a priest to perform a raising reached us about half an hour ago.”

            “Oh, I see,” Lanara said.  “So, can you do it?”

            “Well, tell me about the person you need raised,” the Fatemaster asked.  He caught the chakram he was juggling and put them away, them clasped his hands in front of him reverently.  “One of your group?”

            “No,” Kyle said, “my brother.”

            “Is he an adventurer, too?”

            “He’s a farmer, actually,” Kyle admitted.

            “Oh, I see.  That does complicate things a bit.  You see, normally I don’t question too much when adventurers come to us requesting one of their companions be brought back – as long as they can make a suitable donation, of course.  You see, I do have to keep the interests of my goddess in mind.  But I figure that anyone who makes a living as an adventurer has to rely on luck quite a bit, so I don’t think Ladta would object to intervening on their behalf.  But a farmer?  Well, not much luck in their lives, wouldn’t you agree?”

            Kyle’s jaw clenched.  “Are you saying you won’t do it?”

            “No, no,” Zhul said, holding up his hands.  “It’s not that I’m unwilling.  But it’s Ladta that has to agree to intervene with Erito on your brother’s behalf.  And she has her own interests to look out for.  One could say that by bringing your brother back from the dead, he would be denying fate.  It would go against everything she represents.  I wouldn’t want to take your hard-won gold to perform the ceremony, only to have Ladta deny you.

            “Now, if your brother died due to some occurrence of gross misfortune, then it could be said that he died due to an imbalance of fortune, which would need to be corrected.  How did your brother die?  Was he struck by lightning?  Hit by a meteor?”

            “He was stabbed in the heart with a rapier,” Kyle said grimly.  He was beginning to get tired of dealing with priests.

            “Hmm.  Certainly not an ordinary thing for a farmer, but sadly, getting killed with a sword isn’t all that unusual in this world.”

            Lanara chimed in. “Would it help to know that he was unjustly killed by fanatical cultists who mistook him for something he wasn’t?”

            Zhul thought for a moment, then shook his head.  “Slightly more unusual, I admit, but cults do spring up from time to time.  And whether his death was just or not isn’t my domain – you want to seek out Tor to settle that question.”

            Lanara thought for a moment.  “Isn’t there any other way to appease Ladta?  Perhaps with a more generous donation…”

            Zhul scratched at his chin, contemplating the request.  “I have an idea,” he said.  “Perhaps there is a way.  If you’re willing, we can let Ladta decide how much will appease her.  Do you play dice?”

            “Occasionally,” Lanara said.  “Would I get to use my own dice?”

            The Fatemaster smiled.  “No.”

            “What about his?” Lanara asked, pointing at Razael.  Again the Fatemaster shook his head.

            “Hmm, then we’re at an impasse,” Lanara said.  “Because I’m not sure I trust you to use your own dice, either.”

            Zhul frowned.  “Maybe you’re not familiar with our faith,” he said, “but it’s considered a serious sin for us to cheat.  Cheating is denying fate.”

            Lanara thought about it, then nodded.  It did make sense.  “Okay, then,” she said, “your dice, then.  What’s the game?”

            “Follow me.”  Zhul led them into the temple, and had them wait in a small room with a long table.  While he was gone, Kyle turned to Lanara.

            “I’m not comfortable with the idea of gambling for my brother’s life,” Kyle said.

            “Relax, Kyle.  We’ll bring him back, one way or another.  Let’s at least hear this guy out.”

            Fatemaster Zhul returned a few minutes later with another priest, a coffer, and a small bag.  He opened the bag and spilled out several dice carved from ivory, and then opened the chest, revealing a large number of platinum coins.

            “You’ll need two players,” Zhul said, “who will dice for you?”

            Lanara and Xu volunteered, and sat down opposite the two priests, who were dividing up the coins and the dice.  “I usually request a donation of at least six thousand gold for raising the dead,” the Fatemaster explained.  “Most of that to cover the cost of the diamonds you need, plus extra for the church itself.  But we’re going to game to see how much Ladta wishes you to pay for this privilege.  If she favors you, then your brother returns for a much lower donation.  If she doesn’t, then you will pay more.  Before we begin, I must ask you to swear an oath to Ladta that no matter the results of this contest, you will pay what is asked for the ritual.  You aren’t truly submitting to fate if you simply choose to walk away from the table if things go badly for you.”

            Kyle leaned over to Lanara.  “Are you sure about this?”

            “No,” she admitted, “but Zhul’s the only priest in town that can bring Bryant back.  Otherwise you have to wait gods-knows how long to get to another city.”  She smiled and patted Kyle on the cheek.  “Don’t worry.  If it goes bad for us, I’ll help pay for it.”

            Kyle sighed.  “All right.”

            Each player was given three hundred platinum pieces to gamble with.  The game ended up being somewhat similar to a card game, but with dice.  Each player bid on who would roll the highest total, with each hand using increasing numbers of dice.  There was also a side pool that players could add to, that would be won at the end of the game by the person with the highest overall total.  Kyle paid rapt attention to the game even though he wasn’t playing, nervously watching.  Razael leaned his chair in a corner and napped.  The dicing and betting went back and forth, but late in the game Xu seemed to pull ahead.  By the time the last hand was played and the totals calculated, the party ended up ahead over two thousand gold.

            “Well,” Fatemaster  Zhul said, as his priest scooped all the platinum coins back into the coffer, “it seems that you have enough luck on your side to spill over to your brother’s benefit.  Very well.  Return tomorrow with his body, and I will perform the ceremony.  Thank you for allowing us this time of worship.”  Bowing, the Fatemaster left the room with the coffer, instructing the lesser priest to escort the party out when they were ready.

            A very happy group of adventurers left the Halls of Fortune and returned to the Stag and Boar.  A couple of hours later, Lanara went for her appointment with Councilman Gil Mendes.

            The councilman turned out to be a rather unassuming, plain-looking human, with a thin nose and a balding pate.  He met with Lanara in an equally unremarkable office with a tiny window too far up on one wall to be useful, a complement to the tiny wood stove in the corner that was too old and decrepit to give off much heat.

            “What is it I can do for you, Miss… Rahila?  I see you’re new in town.”

            “Well, my companions and I have business to attend to here in Delgan,” she began.  “Your name was given to us as someone to talk to, someone who could understand when a person has a dream.”

            “I see,” Gil said.  “Well, if you’re looking to open a business here, I could assist you in finding suitable properties, and guide you through the various licenses and permits you’ll need.”

            Lanara chewed her lower lip.  He hadn’t picked up the subtle hints she dropped.  She’d have to try again.  “Well, that does sound like a good start.  But I hope I’m not asking too much of you, I wouldn’t want you to be… exposed to any danger of losing your position.  Surely a man of your… talents would want to remain here at his job.”

            “I assure you that I’m not overstepping my bounds here,” the councilman said.  “Attracting new business to Delgan is part of my responsibility.”

            Lanara almost sighed aloud.  _Aren’t politicians supposed to be better at innuendo than this?  Or maybe that’s only with their mistresses._  “I would like to know one thing.  If my friends and I needed to discuss something privately with someone in town, perhaps that we don’t want to get out into public, would you recommend arranging a meeting here at the town hall?”

            The light of comprehension finally seemed to dawn in Gil’s eyes.  “Well, I don’t think I could recommend a government building for any private discussions.  I’m afraid you’ll have to find another place to hold your meetings.”  While he talked, Gil pulled a scrap of parchment from a pile on his desk and quickly scrawled a message:  _Crocodile’s Eyeball – Nine bells_.

            Lanara nodded slightly, acknowledging his note.  “Well, every town has it’s own rules.  I’ll arrange another meeting with you when we have our plans ready.”

            “I look forward to it, Miss Rahila,” Gil said, extending his hand to her.  They shook hands, and as Lanara left she saw Gil toss the scrap of parchment into the stove.

            Lanara returned to the Boar and Stag to report her progress.  The party agreed to go together to the Crocodile’s Eyeball, in case there was trouble.  Upon arrival, they were glad they had.  The tavern in question was deep inside the worst part of Delgan.  Most of the people surrounding them in the streets were orcs or orc-touched, the descendants of refugees from the last war between Targeth and the tribes of the Haran Desert.  The party made their way to a dark table (one of several in the tavern) and glowered until its occupants left.  While Xu kept an eye on the clientele, the others waited for the councilman to arrive.

            Shortly after nine bells, a man with shaggy blonde hair and moustache approached their table, and asked if he could share the space.

            Razael looked up at the man.  “Nice disguise,” he muttered.  He was elbowed by Lanara.

            Gil sat down nervously.  “Thank you for meeting with me here,” he said.  “The council hall’s not safe.  Now, what were you trying to talk to me about earlier?”

            “It’s been brought to our attention that you’re in a… special group of people that would prefer that your presence not be known about,” Lanara said, “and it’s also been brought to our attention that you are about to be revealed.”

            “How did you get this information?” Gil asked.

            “Through a mutual friend,” she replied, “or at least someone with an interest in keeping you safe.”

            Gil regarded the party, as if he were sizing them up.  Though it was obvious he was worried, Razael and Lanara could tell that he’d been under a great deal of stress for some time. The droop of his shoulders and the dark circles under his eyes spoke of many sleepless nights.

            “Do you know,” Gil said at last, “the name Barrai?”  Everyone shook their head.  Xu thought the name was vaguely familiar, as if someone had mentioned it in conversation during their schooling at The Tower, but she couldn’t place it.

            “He is a… person of influence in the region,” Gil said, his tone indicating that his ‘influence’ was of the illicit variety.  “In regard to the… personal information of which you speak, Barrai has somehow learned about it, and has been blackmailing me for some time.  I’ve had to cast votes in his favor, restructure guard patrols around his schedule, things like that.  And, of course, plenty of bribes. At this point, I’m out of money, and I have no more political favors I can do for him.  His next payment is due in a week.”

            Everyone looked at each other, nodding silent approval.  “We have several routes we could take,” Lanara explained.  “We could eliminate him.  We could pay him for you and hold you in our debt.  Or, we could remove you from the situation.”

            “Or we could just kill this one and be done with the whole thing,” muttered Razael.

            Gil’s eyes started to widen upon hearing the comment, but Lanara put a reassuring hand on his arm.  “Pay no attention to him,” Lanara said.

            Kyle leaned over to Razael.  “You’re going to have to accept it, Raz,” he whispered in an unfriendly tone, “we’re always going to do the opposite of what you want.”

            Councilman Mendes looked around the table.  “Is this all of you, or are there others?”

            “We have one more waiting for us back at our inn,” Kyle said.

            Gil shook his head.  “Then I doubt you have the numbers you’d need to eliminate Barrai.  He’s well established in Delgan, and in a city ruled by criminals, one has to be careful to be successful. You’d have to go through his entire organization to get to him, and the collateral damage would destroy several legitimate businesses and likely decimate the economy.  Besides, Barrai’s death would leave a power vacuum in the region, and I shudder at the thought of those who would be most likely to fill that vacuum.  Barrai is a vile man, but not the most vile.”

            “Okay, so elimination seems the least attractive option,” Lanara said.  “Though if necessary, I think we can do it without all the devastation you fear.”

            “What are your preferences in this matter?” Xu asked.

            “If I had my choice,” the councilman said, “I’d prefer to have my own status in the community unchanged.  I recognize that may not be possible.  If you’re here to help me, then the choice of how to do that is yours, as it’ll be your lives on the line.  While I enjoy the power I have in this city, power is meaningless to the dead.”

            Lanara nodded.  “Well, paying the bribe for you is only a temporary fix, and doesn’t solve the problem.  And even though we’re probably more forgiving than Barrai, all that would do is shift the burden of your debt from him to us.”

            “Let me ask you this,” Kyle said suddenly.  “You’re in this position because Barrai has information about you.  What if we could render this information useless?”

            “How do you mean?” Gil asked.

            “Either by providing you with equally damaging information on him, or by making the truth of his words seem questionable,” the wizard replied.

            Gil sighed.  “Barrai’s followers wouldn’t doubt his word,” he said, “and from there they could easily incite the populace.  A mob doesn’t have to be right to be effective.”

            “You underestimate our bard here,” Razael said, patting Lanara on the shoulder.  “I reckon she could convince Barrai’s men that he was their own mother.”

            Lanara smiled wickedly.  “I’d be willing to bet your next payment to Barrai that I can out-rumor him.”

            “Gold is one thing,” Gil said, “being burned at the stake is quite another.”

            “How credible do you think the populace would find Barrai if they thought he’d gone mad?” Lanara asked.  “If they believed him to be unhinged?”

            Gil considered the idea for a moment. “If that’s the sort of thing you can manufacture,” he said slowly, “that could work quite nicely.  It’s one thing to try and convince people that Barrai is lying.  But if they thought him insane… his lieutenants would probably start carving up his empire for themselves.  As far as I know, Barrai is the only one who knows about me.  He might have told his lieutenants, though.”

            “Do you know where his base of operations is?” Lanara asked.

            “I can tell you it’s in the southwest section of town, but that’s it,” Gil said.  “No one outside of Barrai’s inner circle knows where he is.  I do know what his guild’s tattoo looks like, though.”

            “Useful information,” Lanara said.  “Can you copy the symbol for us?” She pulled a page out of her journal and laid it on the table.  She was about to retrieve a pen when Gil pointed a finger and concentrated, and a drop of his own blood extruded from the fingertip.  He calmly inscribed a V with a dot at the base.  “It’s usually tattooed on the back of the left hand, in gray ink.  They usually keep their hands dirty, so that the mark blends in.”

            “Thank you,” Lanara said, tucking the paper away.  “We should probably go and make plans for how to approach your problem.  We’ll be in touch.”

            “Thank you,” Gil said, standing up.  “If you succeed, I’ll be in your debt.”  With that, he left the table and walked out of the tavern.

            The party followed suit several minutes later, and briefed Togusa on the meeting, careful to filter out any information about psionics.  Togusa agreed to help, though he admitted his skills lent themselves more toward open confrontation than to spreading rumors questioning a person’s sanity.  But when Razael suggested that they enhance their ruse by trying to increase Barrai’s paranoia, Togusa offered to start spreading information that the church of Tor was ‘interested’ in him.

            “We also shouldn’t discount the possibility of driving Barrai into the open with all this,” Lanara said, “in which case you might get to deal with him in your more traditional way, Togusa.  I can go see if he has any official warrants that you could enforce.”

            “Well, we have the tools at our disposal to pull this off,” Kyle said.  “All we have to do it put it together.”

            “Excellent,” Lanara said.  “This is my kind of operation.  No monsters, no blood.”

            “The week is young,” Razael quipped.

*          *          *​
            Autumn stood in the courtyard for quite a while after Kyle and the others had left, even though there was nothing to see; no shrinking figures on horseback riding toward the horizon, no vaporous after-image.  There had been only a moment of darkness, then nothing.  She wished she had gone with them, too.

            “Be safe,” she whispered.

            A young page walked up to Autumn as she stood in the courtyard, and bowed.  “Your Grace?”

            Slowly, Autumn turned, knowing what the page would say but dreading it nonetheless.  “Yes?”

            “The Emperor requests your presence in the main audience chamber.”

            The sentinel sighed.  “Very well.  I will be there shortly.”

            The page bowed again and departed.  A minute later, Autumn followed the same path out of the courtyard and began the long walk to the main palace.

_Why, Bail?_ she asked, the same question she’d been asking for months now without an answer.  _Why did he choose me for this? _ When she’d been made a duchess, Autumn knew the title would come with lands and responsibilities.  But she’d assumed she would be granted some small, unimportant domain where her presence or absence would not make much of a difference.  Haxtha’s dislike of her sister Arrie was no great secret, and Autumn had assumed that fact, combined with her own obvious complete disinterest in worldly power, would result in a ‘dead-end’ vassalage that would keep everyone happy.

            Instead, she’d been given dominion over Vargex, one of the empire’s largest duchies.

            Autumn dreaded to think what rulership of Vargex would entail.  Would she be forced to give up her adventuring career, and take over the city full-time?  No, it couldn’t be that way.  Her role with the Legacy was too important, especially now that they knew the psions could be plotting to destroy more of the gods.  Beyond even that, sitting in permanent dominion of a city was a violation of her vows as a Sentinel; her pledge was to seek out the workings of devils wherever they surfaced, not to sit in one place and hope the workings of devils might happen to show up in her own town, preferably within her estate, and could you make an appointment so the Duchess could smite you between meetings, please?

            But voicing her concerns to the Emperor now was pointless.  He knew full well what her obligations were.  Whether he had chosen to honor them or ignore them, she could not change his mind now.  She would simply have to act as she saw fit, and deal with the consequences of her choice.  She’d known she couldn’t delay the moment of truth any longer – it was the reason she’d asked Arrie and Osborn to stay with her.

            Halfway to the audience chamber, Autumn was joined by the very two people she’d been thinking of.  “Have you been summoned, too?” she asked them.

            “Of course,” Arrie said, “Haxtha wouldn’t pass up a chance to flaunt his superiority in front of me.”

            “I’m just glad Razael’s not around,” Osborn said.  “You may not like the Emperor either, Arrie, but at least you have the sense to keep your mouth shut about it when you’re in the same room with him.”

            “Maddie is still at the temple, I take it?” Autumn said, on the mention of her divinely-mandated bodyguard.

            “Yes, they’ve got her locked up tight,” Arrie said.  “Seems they’re unwilling to risk her outside their grounds without Razael present.  Besides, they’re not done ‘communing with the goddess’ yet.”  The warrior smiled.  “As you can imagine, I haven’t exactly been eager to walk into the middle of Erito’s temple to see how she’s doing.”

            At last they arrived at the main audience chamber.  The large, gilded mahogany doors were pulled open by two Imperial Guardsmen, and they walked up a plush crimson carpet toward the throne.  It was placed on a raised marble dais, with a skylight above bringing a column of sunlight straight down on it (Osborn, from earlier explorations, knew that there were a series of mirrors and focusing lenses on the roof to make sure the sunlight was properly reflected).  The throne itself looked as though it were carved from one solid piece of clear crystal.  It was a widely held belief that the throne was carved from the same stone that the palace’s Crystal Chime was made from, the bell that sounded only upon the birth or death of a member of the Imperial Family.  Legend stated that the original crystal had been a sliver chipped from Erito’s own weapon, the Staff of Measuring, and given to the elves as a sign of her favor when the race first appeared on Aelfenn.  Sunlight from above refracted through the throne’s crystal facets, causing it to flash and sparkle like a brilliant diamond.  Seated on a cushion of deep purple velvet, regarding their approach, Haxtha sat in his full imperial regalia.  Courtiers and advisors were gathered around the edges of the room, observing.

            The three adventurers stopped at the proscribed place before the throne, and bowed deeply, Autumn kneeling in front of Arrie and Osborn.

            “You may rise, Autumn Verahannen, Duchess of Vargex, Lady Mayor of Vargas, and associates,” Haxtha said, making a slight gesture.  The Emperor’s gaze flicked over to Arrie as he said the word _associates_.

            They stood and looked up at the Emperor.  “What is your bidding, Your Imperial Majesty?” Autumn asked.

            “On the morrow,” Haxtha said, “you will go to Vargas and assume your rightful place in your appointed domain.  We have been hearing troubling reports from the city, and we wish for you to restore order, now that you are available to do your duty to your Emperor.”

_If you hadn’t been off gallivanting gods-knows-where for the past five months in a ship my brother helped you acquire_, Autumn heard the unspoken rebuke in Haxtha’s tone.  She bowed again.  “I will serve as best I may, Majesty.”

            “We will provide you an escort of Imperial Guardsman, as well as an advisor,” Haxtha said, “My Guardsmen’s orders will be simple; protect the Duchess of Vargex, restore order to the Emperor’s city, and protect the Imperial Princess of Tlaxan.” Haxtha nodded toward Arrie.  “We would not wish to insult Princess Ariadne by suggesting she could not adequately defend herself in a base physical altercation.”

            Both sisters did well to hide any trace of scorn or insult as they nodded; Arrie for the obvious slight at her martial temperament, Autumn at the implication that she was somehow less capable of defending herself.

            “If I may, Your Majesty,” Autumn said, “what reports have you received from Vargas?”

            “For some time now, there seems to have been a marked increase in the crime rate.  There are even reports of an assassin’s guild in the city.  We have not had word from the former Lord Mayor, Count Robar, in several months.  The city requires strong leadership; that is what we require of you.  You are dismissed.”

            Autumn, Arrie, and Osborn bowed again, then turned and walked out of the audience chamber.  As the doors closed, Osborn hurried to keep up; both Arrie and Autumn were walking unusually fast.  He looked up at them, ready to complain, but then he saw the hard look in their eyes.

            “Um, I think I need to be somewhere else right now,” he said, and quietly slipped off.

            The next morning, Autumn emerged from her chambers, dressed in a simple but elegant riding dress in the Verahannen colors.  She wore the tiara that Herion had presented to her when she was first informed that she would granted the title of duchess.  Waiting outside her door were four elves; three males in the uniforms of the Imperial Guard, and one female elf in less assuming garb.

            “Good morning, Your Grace,” the woman said.  “I am Shoshone, and I have been appointed to act as your advisor and liaison to the Emperor.  This is Captain Doriam, Captain Imrahil, and Captain Shirazal.”

            Each of the Guardsmen nodded as they were introduced.

            “A pleasure to meet you,” Autumn said.

            “We are ready to depart, if it pleases you, Your Grace,” Shirazal said.  “Your companions, Princess Ariadne and Master Greenbottle are already in the courtyard, with the rest of your entourage.”

            “Entourage?” Autumn asked.  “The Emperor told me only of an escort and an advisor.”

            “Indeed, the four of us are the only notable additions to the typical retinue of a lady of your standing,” Doriam said.

            Flummoxed, Autumn went to a nearby window that overlooked the courtyard.  Below, she saw dozens of people waiting in the courtyard.  There were two dozen regular soldiers in formation, and perhaps forty liveried servants milling about.  Several wagons were lined up near the rear; Autumn saw that most were for supplies, but noted a passenger carriage where about a half-dozen ladies-in-waiting stood, giggling and laughing with a small figure that she first assumed was a young page or squire, but on closer inspection realized was Osborn.  She spotted Arrie up toward the front of the line, mounted on her horse Ghost, looking very bored.  Scattered throughout the crowd were elves carrying Verahannen and Imperial banners.  Autumn just gaped.

            Shoshone leaned out the window, looked down at the sea of people below, then grinned at Autumn, slapping her on the back.

            “Welcome to the Empire,” she said.

*          *          *​
            Had they been traveling alone, the Legacy could have made the trip from Noxolt to Vargas in a little over a week.  As it was, the trip took about two weeks.  Doriam, Imrahil, and Shirazal did their best to remain inconspicuous, but their sheer devotion to duty made that impossible.  Shoshone was much better at it, and only appeared when Autumn wanted to know something about Vargas or other events in Tlaxan.  Osborn spent much of the first few days with Autumn’s ladies-in-waiting, while Arrie stayed with Autumn to help keep her from going insane from all the pomp and circumstance.

            After their first night away from the capital, Autumn and Osborn awoke to find that Arrie was already up and dressed, quietly poking at one of the cooking fires.  As servants moved to secure their belongings and collapse the tents, and the Guardsmen were ordering the regular soldiers to their patrol assignments, Arrie motioned the other two over.

            “I’ve been contacted by Aran,” she said quietly.  “Last night.  He would like to speak with us… all of us.”

            “When and where?” Osborne asked.

            “When it’s convenient.”

            “Convenient for us, or for him?” Autumn asked.

            Arrie shrugged.  “I don’t control these things.  He only seems to come to me when I’m having nightmares, so I’m kind of hoping he doesn’t come back to clarify.”

            Autumn frowned.  “What kind of nightmares?”

            Arrie grew a little more subdued.  “I… dreamt I was trying to kill myself.  Aran came and stopped me.”

            A few days passed on the road.  The entourage passed through several small towns and villages.  Each time, loud trumpets and soldiers marching in formation around the Duchess heralded their arrival.  After the fifth such event, Autumn gathered her Guardsmen and advisor into a meeting.

            “When we arrive at Vargas,” she said, “I do not wish to enter the city with an entourage, at first.  I wish to get my impression of the city before they know who I am.”

            “Of course, Your Grace,” Doriam said, “we can surely accommodate your wishes.”

            “Indeed,” Imrahil agreed, “we will maintain a distance of ten paces.”

            Autumn scowled.  “That is not what I meant.  I want you fifty paces behind at minimum, and not make it obvious that you are Imperial Guardsmen.”

            The three Guardmen looked at each other.  “With all due respect, Your Grace,” Doriam said, “our orders from the Emperor are very clear, and we serve the Emperor.  Vargas is mired in lawlessness.  Ten paces, and we will be armed as befits our function.”

            “Why can’t you defend me from a distance?” Autumn asked, her temper rising a bit.

            “Because we are Imperial Guardsmen,” Imrahil said, “not the Imperial Order of the Bow.  Had His Imperial Majesty wished to assign you a guard with those skills, he would have done so.”

            Autumn was about to argue with the elf further, when Arrie put a hand on her forearm.  “Let me play devil’s advocate for a moment… if you’ll pardon the expression, Autumn.  These three men won’t leave your side until Haxtha calls them back.  For all their skills, none of them are what I’d call ‘stealthy’.  And they’re trained as close combatants, not as archers.  Trying to force them to be something they’re not isn’t going to work, no matter how much you’d prefer it the other way.”

            “And let’s face it, Your Grace,” Shoshone said, “you don’t exactly blend in to a crowd yourself.  You’ve got what they call in my line of work ‘the curse of a famous face’.”  She gestured over to Osborn, who was sitting on a cushion eating bacon.  “If you desire information about the city, I’d suggest talking to your hin companion.”

            “While you’re making your grand entrance into the city,” Arrie suggested, “why don’t Osborn, Shoshone and I enter Vargas ahead of you and scope things out?  We can really get a sense of what the people think of you. People are most likely to show their true sentiments in a crowd.”

            “That might work,” Shoshone said.  “Easier than trying to keep these four inconspicuous.”  She gestured at Autumn and the Guard again.

            Autumn sighed, and looked at Arrie.  “Sometimes I think Haxtha is punishing me to punish you,” she said.

            “No,” Arrie replied, “He could be punishing you to punish you.”

            “I don’t see how having an honor guard is a punishment, Your Highness.” Imrahil said.  “And you did ask for the job.”

            “No, I didn’t!” Autumn shouted, causing Osborn to slide off his cushion.

            “Wow,” the hin said, picking himself up.  “I think I’ll go see how the ladies are doing.”

            After Osborn left, the three Guardsmen stood as well.  “We will depart as well,” said Shirazal, “I’m sure that the Duchess wishes some time to prepare her speech before her arrival.”

            As the Guard left, they stoically ignored Autumn’s scream.

            “Speech?!?”

*          *          *​
            The entourage drew closer to Vargas.  Three days before they arrived, Arrie, Osborn and Shoshone rode ahead, approaching the city incognito.  The three of them decided to don the guise of a merchant and her bodyguards.

            Shoshone put the last touches on her disguise, and walked out of the inn they’d taken a room in.  Her work with Imperial Intelligence had brought her into the city several times, though she hadn’t been in Vargas since the old Lord Mayor stopped sending messages.  She hoped none of her contacts had been lost to the criminals that now seemed to run unchecked through the streets.  On their way in, they’d seen bodies lying tucked away in alleys, pickpockets operating almost openly in the markets, and even watched a middle-aged gnome picking the lock on the back door of a shop without so much as a blink from the rogue.  The few city watchmen they saw seemed oblivious to the crime all around them.

            They walked into the market district, Arrie and Osborn walking behind Shoshone, who told them to address her as ‘Eslavez’.  She went into a fishmonger’s shop, instructing her two ‘guards’ to wait outside.

            A rotund water-touched man rose up from behind a display case lined with ice and large sturgeon.  “Eslavez!” he exclaimed, smiling broadly.  “It’s been a long time, old friend!”

            “Indeed,” Shoshone said, “it’s good to see you again, Karn.”  Shoshone knew that Karn was a smuggler as well as a fish merchant, and a useful source of information.

            “Are you in the market for fish today?  Or a deeper catch?” Karn asked.

            “Well, I guess you could say I’m fishing,” Shoshone said.  “But then again, isn’t that generally what we discuss?”

            “Indeed, indeed.  Come with me to my office.  It smells of fish guts in here.”

            Shoshone followed Karn back to a small office, littered with papers.  Karn sat down in a large chair, that creaked under his weight.  “Fishing in these parts has been odd recently,” he said to her, gesturing for her to take a seat at another chair.  “A lot of muck has risen from the bottom.”

            “Anything I should be cautious of when I’m casting my lines?” she asked.

            “There’s a large barracuda swimming about that you might want to be careful of,” Karn said.  “A slippery fellow, I’m told.  The fishermen call him ‘The One That Got Away’ or ‘The Big Head’.”

            “I see,” Shoshone nodded.  Karn’s meaning was clear to her; the ‘barracuda’ was the former Lord Mayor.  Apparently trying out a new line of work.

            “I hear that there’s been some new species coming into the waters here,” she continued.  “The kind you don’t normally see.  I hear sometimes introducing new fish into the pond can be dangerous for the natives, and sometimes you have to clear out the new fish.”

            “That’s true,” Karn agreed, “three or four new schools, from what I hear.  But it’s a task easier said than done.  You’ll need a big net.”

            “Know of any fishermen looking for work?” she asked.

            “No, they’re pretty much all in it for themselves,” Karn said.  “Lots of boats on the river these days, Eslavez.  Makes for a lot of accidents.”

            “Any safe harbors out there?”

            Karn shook his head.

            “Well, I appreciate the advice,” Shoshone said, standing up and offering her hand.  “Good luck.”

            Karn grasped her hand, and there was a nearly inaudible clinking of coins.  Shoshone left the office and emerged into the street.

            “So?” Osborn asked, looking at Shoshone.

            “Not good,” she said.  “I’ll fill you in back at the inn.  I suggest that we split up after this, though.  Some of my other contacts in Vargas won’t appreciate onlookers, and I think that you, Master Greenbottle, may have some other connections you could pursue.  Princess, I’d suggest you mingle with the populace, get to know their mind.  I’ve discovered that word of the Duchess arriving has not yet reached the city – it may be in our interest to start preparing the populace.”

            They spent the rest of the day and all of the next learning what they could.  Osborn found that there were no less that three thieves’ guilds and two assassin’s guilds vying for control of Vargas’ underworld.  His old guild, the Shadow Hand, had sent operatives to see if establishing control there would be viable, but the hin learned from them that the Hand saw Vargas as too unruly to be profitable.  He was able to get the names of the guilds; the two assassin guilds were the Night Blade and the Poisoned Edge.  The Silent Foot was an interloping thieves’ guild, comprised mostly of dwarves, gnomes, and hin, and the Night Whispers were the other new guild.  The city’s previous resident guild, the Black Hand, was fighting to maintain control of their old territory.

            Shoshone gathered a good deal of information about the former Lord Mayor, Count Robar.  Robar had been appointed by the former Duke to administer the city a few years ago; the Duke’s own health was poor and he’d been unable to oversee it himself.  She learned that last spring, Robar had started acting strangely; former servants reported that he was more irritable, and prone to angry outbursts.  Around the same time, the watch started to become more lax in enforcing the laws, often outright ignoring crimes happening right under their noses.  The Lord Mayor had vanished about five months ago, which coincided with the Night Blade guild suddenly coming into prominence (and, Shoshone noted, also coincided with the Emperor appointing Duchess Autumn to rule Vargas).  The other new guilds came into Vargas about a month after that.  After four months of guild wars, the police were too scared to be effective, and even if they wanted to intervene, no longer had the manpower or resources to make a dent in the crime waves.

            The next morning, Duchess Autumn arrived in the city.  Soldiers arranged in a phalanx marched through the streets, with banners waving and trumpets blaring.  It was slow going, as the citizens of Vargas had only recently heard rumors of her arrival, and thus had not prepared for her entourage to enter the city.  But after a while, a few city watchmen started clearing the streets, allowing the new Duchess to proceed unhampered toward her estate.  Autumn noted that several people were pointing and smiling as she rode by.  She looked over at Shoshone, who has slipped back into the entourage quietly just outside the city gates.  Shoshone only smiled.  There was no sign of Osborn or Arrie, though Shoshone assured her quietly that both were well, and would appear later.

            The procession arrived at the gates of the mayoral mansion.  The iron bars are overgrown with ivy, and graffiti marred the six-foot stone walls.  The first thing Autumn noticed was that the servants, who she had sent ahead to prepare the house for her arrival, were still standing outside the gates.

            “What’s going on?” Autumn asked the chamberlain, who had come running up.  She had to think for a moment before recalling his name – Theodren.

            “A thousand apologies, Your Grace,” Theodren said, bowing stiffly, “but the gates are locked.  We’ve been trying to locate someone on the grounds, but no one is answering our calls.”

            Autumn glared at the iron barrier.  “Open the gate,” she said.

            “Of course, Your Grace, as soon as a key can be…”

            “Open the gate now,” she said, cutting the chamberlain off.

            The three Guardsman looked at each other, nodded, and started moving toward the gate, drawing their enormous courtblades as they approached.

            “There’s no need for that,” said a voice, and suddenly Osborn appeared standing in front of the bars.  “I have a key right here.”  With a wink to Autumn, Osborn turned and proceeded to unlock the gate.  Servants pushed the doors open with a loud, grating screech, and the entourage moved forward.

            Guardsman Imrahil turned to the crowd gathered behind Autumn’s entourage.  “Her Grace, Duchess Autumn, Lady Mayor of Vargas, will address her subjects at sunset,” he said loudly.  “Until then, the Duchess will not entertain any guests or city business.” 

            The outside of the mansion looked as run-down as the outer wall.  Refuse was scattered everywhere, the grounds were wild and unkempt, and a few windows were cracked.  The front doors were ajar, swing open in the breeze.  Servants moved quickly to pick up what they could, as if they were somehow at fault.  With rising ire, Autumn stormed into the mansion.  Inside, dust and cobwebs covered every surface, though there was little for it to cling to.  It seemed as though everything that wasn’t nailed down had been removed.  The plants and flowers were dead and wilted, and a smell of sewage permeated the house.

            “Search the house,” Autumn growled, “see if anything remains.  Find whatever is left of the former Lord Mayor’s staff and bring them before me.”

            The soldiers began searching the house, while the servants set to work cleaning up as best they could, under Theodren’s frantic orders.  Autumn moved to a parlor to await the arrival of Lord Mayor Robar’s staff.  Guardsman Imrahil stood sentry at the front door along with a pair of soldiers, while Doriam and Shirazal remained with Autumn.  Shirazal posted another pair of guards at the servant’s entrance.

            Within an hour, Autumn was looking over a motley group of about fifteen men and women, all quite terrified.  Many of them were drunk, and several looked as though they had dressed very quickly.  None of them wore their servant’s livery.  Autumn noted fresh lipstick marks on the neck of one of the male servants that matched the shade being worn by a female maid.  She also noted that he was casting a leering eye at her, apparently oblivious to the presence of two heavily armed Imperial Guardsmen on either side of her.  She wished she’d chosen to ride into town in her armor instead of in a dress.

            “Theodren,” Autumn said, “who is in charge of this rabble?”

            Theodren glared at the assembled staff.  “Who is in charge here?  Where is your chamberlain?”

            The servants exchanged awkward, uncertain glances.  Finally, one of them, the young man with the lipstick on his neck, stepped forward.  “Begging your pardon, but we’ve not seen the chamberlain for three months.”

            “And yet you remained here?” Theodren asked.

            “We were still receiving our wages,” the young man said.  “Delivered to our homes every month, as usual.  Even though we’d stopped caring for the house for some time.”  He smiled and licked his lips.  “Not many people get paid to do nothing.”

            “What is your name?” Autumn asked, leaning forward.

            “Rudy, ma’am.  I was the doorman.”

            “You will address the Duchess as ‘Your Grace’!” snapped Theodren.

            “D…Duchess?” Rudy stammered.

            “I see that despite receiving your wages for doing nothing, several of you felt in necessary to enhance your income by taking items from the Lord Mayor’s estate… my estate.”

            “I… I don’t know anything about that,” Rudy said unconvincingly.

            Autumn slowly stood, and walked to within a few paces of Rudy.  He was white as a sheet now, trembling, and definitely no longer harboring illicit thoughts about her.  “Did you know, Rudy, that in addition to being your new sovereign lord, I also belong to the Order of Sentinels?  Do you know what the Sentinels do, Rudy?  We root evil and corruption out of this world.”  She began to circle him slowly.  “They say that a sentinel can look into the heart of a man, see his very soul.”  She stopped in front of him, and glared into his beady eyes.  “I don’t appreciate being lied to, Rudy.”

            Rudy nodded, unable to speak.

            “Why did you lie to me, Rudy?”

            “Because you terrify me, ma… Your Grace,” he said, “and I was afraid to say anything that would upset you.”

            Autumn smiled.  “Then I think our relationship is exactly where it needs to be.”  She returned to her seat and let the silence settle in for a few moments.  “Who sent your wages?” she asked.

            “I don’t know,” Rudy said, “I assume that the chamberlain did, or perhaps Count Robar’s steward.  All I know is that our pay arrives at our home on the first of the month, delivered by a bonded courier.”

            “Your Grace, if I may,” Shoshone said.  She looked at the crowd of servants.  “Since it seems that you have received three months salary without having performed your assigned duties, the Duchess would not be remiss in requiring three months unpaid service from each of you.”

            The servants shifted their feet uncomfortably.

            “Or you could be fired now, and owe the estate three month’s salary, plus a suitable fine,” Shoshone continued.

            “Or,” Osborn said, “we could just treat them as common criminals.  What is the penalty for theft in Vargas?”

            “I’m not certain, Master Greenbottle,” Shoshone said.  “Of course, the new Lady Mayor may need to review the current laws, as they hardly seem to be a deterrent.”  Shoshone looked over the servants again.  “You may return here on the last day of the year and give us your decision – work for free, be indebted to the Duchess, or be arrested.”

            “You are dismissed,” Theodren barked.

            “Find out who is still paying these people,” Autumn said to Theodren as the room cleared, “make sure it stops, and that whoever is responsible doesn’t have any further access to my accounts.”

            “At once, Your Grace,” Theodren said, bowing and quickly leaving the room.

            Autumn looked at Shoshone.  “I don’t want to have any of those people back in my house,” she said.

            “Don’t worry,” Shoshone said, “not a one of them will still be in the city by tomorrow morning.  I’m afraid you’re out some gold, Your Grace, but you never would have recovered it anyway, and right now I’m not sure I’d trust the city watch to enforce any sentences.”

            Autumn sighed.  “The money isn’t a problem, though I hadn’t expected to spend it cleaning my own estate.  But I need reliable people working for me, Shoshone.”

            “I understand, Your Grace.  One problem at a time.  First you have to curb the lawlessness.”  Shoshone and Osborn gave Autumn a full report of everything they had learned about the city, including the suspiciously-timed disappearance of Count Robar.

            “There are several theories,” Shoshone concluded.  “Robar could have been blackmailed by one of the crime guilds, which might explain his sudden change in personality.  Or he could have been in league with one of the guilds, and was under pressure because of the encroachment of rival guilds.  We can’t rule out mind control, or poisoning, either.  Robar could have fled, he could have been killed, or he could have gone underground.  So far, I haven’t been able to find out what happened to him.”

            “I have a feeling we’ll learn the truth quickly once we start trying to root out these guilds,” Autumn said.  “Have someone bring the Captain of the Watch.”

            “I will go, Your Grace,” Shirazal said, bowing as he took his leave.

            “So, Shoshone, what do you advise?” Autumn said after he left.

            “I’d suggest that you make it known quickly that now that you’re here, things like random disappearances of notable townspeople will no longer be tolerated.  I’d advise contacting the local garrison of the Imperial Army and requisitioning troops to augment the city watch.   I’d advise implementing a curfew as soon as those reinforcements arrive.  I’d advise trusting no one.”

            Autumn looked forlornly around the mansion.  “I wish Arrie were here,” she said.

            “She’ll be here soon, I’m sure,” Osborn said.  “She said she wanted to wait until you were settled in.”

            Meanwhile, Guardsman Shirazal found the barracks of the city watch, and strode in past the two sentries at the door.  He stopped in front of a desk where another watchman sat.  The watchman looked up, annoyed at first, but blanched when he saw the Imperial seal emblazoned on the visitor’s scabbard.

            “Who’s in charge here?” Shirazal demanded.

            The watchman at the desk pointed down the hall to a doorway.  Shirazal turned and headed down the hall without another word.  Behind him, he could hear the sound of several people bolting for the door.

            Shirazal threw open the door and stepped in unannounced.  An elf, perhaps middle-aged, was sitting behind a large desk, leaning back, with his eyes closed.  At the sound of the door opening, the man opened his eyes.

            “What the… oh, cr*p!”  The man quickly say up straight, but remained in his chair pulling up close to the desk.

            “You are the Captain of the Watch?” Shirazal asked.

            “Yes… yes, I am.”

            “You will attend the new Lady Mayor, Duchess Autumn, immediately,” he said.

            “The new… oh, yes, of course.”  The captain looked at Shirazal, then looked around the room.  “I’ll need a few minutes to get ready.”

            “Of course,” Shirazal said, not moving.

            “Er, could I have a few moments of privacy?”

            Shirazal caught a slight movement near the floor, and looked.  A set of toes poked out from under the edge of the desk, twitching slightly.  They were obviously not the captain’s toes.

            Shirazal looked levelly at the captain.  “No.”

            The captain sighed, and pushed away from his desk, standing to fasten his trousers.  As he did so, a young elven boy, no more than a hundred and twenty, peeked out from behind the desk.  At the sight of the Imperial Guard, he ducked back down.

            “Where are we going?” the captain asked as he strapped on his sword.

            “The mayor’s estate,” Shirazal said, and escorted him back to where Autumn waited.  By this time the servants had cleaned out an office enough to be usable, and so Autumn met with the Captain of the Watch there, sitting at a oak desk that had seen better days.

            “Captain, please give me a report of the past several months,” Autumn said, once introductions were done.

            The captain’s report was less than stellar.  He confirmed that crime had increased sharply after the disappearance of the former Lord Mayor, and though he had tried to curb it, the watchmen that he sent out came back dead or worse.  Eventually, he decided that rather than risk their lives in a futile effort, he would have his men wait out the chaos and hope for help from Noxolt.

            “Do you have any idea what happened to the former Lord Mayor?” Autumn asked.

            “His disappearance was investigated,” the captain said, “there are reports on file at the barracks.  I’m not familiar with their conclusions.”

            “Tell me, captain,” Autumn said, “you say your losses were too great trying to combat these new guilds.  Why then do I hear reports that the watch is not acting to prevent any crime at all?  Surely pickpocketing and vandalism can be dealt with without fear.”

            “I don’t know,” the captain said.  “they should be doing that, at least.  If the watch isn’t doing their duty, I’ll have to have words with them.”

            Guardsman Shirazal leaned down and whispered into Autumn’s ear.  She nodded, then stared at the captain of the watch for a while.

            “Captain,” she said slowly, “if you wish to keep your job, things are going to change.  The whore under your desk will no longer be tolerated.  That applies to all your men.  I expect to see the crimes that the Watch is supposed to be dealing with be dealt with.  If I don’t see this happening, you will be replaced.  Do you understand?”

            “I understand,” he said, “and it’s not something I’m willing to risk my life over.”  He unbuckled his sword and scabbard and laid it on the desk in front of Autumn.  “It’s on your head, not mine.”  Bowing, he turned and left.

            “Follow him,” Shoshone whispered to Osborn.  “See where he goes, and who he talks to.”

            Osborn nodded, turned invisible, and left the room.

            “If it pleases Your Grace,” Guardsman Shirazal said, stepping forward and bowing, “I would be willing to take on the duties of the Captain of the Watch until a suitable replacement can be found.”

            “That would be most appreciated, Guardsman,” Autumn said.  “I hereby name you Captain of the Watch of Vargas.  Your first order is to find those files your predecessor mentioned on Count Robar and bring them to me.  After that, I’m sure you know what needs to be done.”

            Shirazal bowed and left the mansion to report back to the barracks.  Later that afternoon, Osborn returned to report that the former captain had gone home, packed his things, and left the city without talking to anyone.

            “Left behind a nice house,” Osborn said.  “Nice furniture.”

            “Well, at least we can start refurnishing the Duchess’ estate,” Guardsman Doriam said.

            “Heck, no!” Osborn said, grinning. “It’s my house, now!  Everything’s a bit big, but the bed’s perfect!”

            Autumn waved at Doriam to indicate that everything was fine.  “I suppose I should work on my speech,” she said.  “Any advice?”

            There was silence, and then Guardsman Doriam spoke.  “There are still decent people in this city, Your Grace.  They need to hear that their city can be safe again.  They need to know they don’t have to live in fear.  They need to be inspired by you, Your Grace.”

            “Thank you, Guardsman,” Autumn said, “I appreciate the advice.”

            Autumn secluded herself in her office for the next two hours, trying to come up with a speech.  She wished that Lanara was there to help her, or Arrie, or even Kyle; he could at least help her decide what to say, even if he couldn’t say it himself.  As she contemplated the task before her, the room seemed to get smaller.

            About thirty minutes before sunset, a young elf-touched woman named Aleria knocked at the door.  Aleria had been appointed as Autumn’s valet.

            “It’s nearly time, Your Grace,” Aleria said, “is there anything you need?”

            “No… yes.  Have my armor brought to me, please, and someone to assist me with it.”

            “I can help with the armor, Your Grace,” Aleria said, “I have received the proper instruction.”

            “Very well, Aleria.  Thank you.”

            Once the armor was brought, and her valet began helping her strap in on, Autumn felt somewhat more comfortable.  She was at least in more a more familiar outfit.  It still didn’t change the fact that she had nothing prepared, but at least she wouldn’t have to try and speak wearing a corset.

            At the appointed time, Autumn stepped out onto the terrace overlooking the courtyard.  The gates had been opened, and the city folk allowed to gather around the mansion, though a wall of guards stood between the crowd and the door.  Torch stands had been brought out and lit, illuminating the large crowd below.  One of the other servants, a bard of moderate talent who’d been assign as the court entertainer, stepped up behind Autumn and discreetly cast a spell that would amplify her voice.  At the same time, a few of the other staff whose Talents allowed them to create light focused their power on the terrace, illuminating Autumn in her shining suit of mithral.  She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

_ Bail, help me._

            “Good people, I stand here, newly arrived in your city, and I look upon troubled faces enduring troubled times.  I see mothers afraid to let their children play in the streets, I see fathers whose businesses have endured unending difficulties, I see sons and daughters forced to make terrible choices to survive.  I see a city torn apart by corruption, infected with rot both from within and from without.  I see a city whose leaders have abandoned their people when they are most in need.

            “I come before you now to tell you that your prayers have been heard, your whispered pleas for succor have been answered.  For the Emperor knows that Vargas can still be a shining jewel in the Empire, that she can rise above the rabble which now infest her like a plague.  I come before you now not as a noblewoman, here to suck the marrow from the bones of the city while vultures circle overhead.  I come to you as a warrior, and I give to you a warrior’s vow; I will cut out the disease that has overtaken your city… our city.”

            Autumn drew her greataxe from the scabbard on her back, and held it aloft for a moment.  “For those who would oppose the dominion of peace and order, this will be the only law they will know.  No mercy will be shown those who have given none, or who have allowed the corrupt to reign unchallenged.  Those of you who believe in decency and truth – and I believe that there are a great many more of you in our city than you know – will have no reason to fear me.  Indeed, it is through your will alone that I rule, not by the words of any document, or soldier, or even of the Emperor himself.  You have lived here all your lives; you deserve to have your city ruled as you would wish your own homes to be ruled; with a firm but fair hand.”

            Autumn pulled the gauntlet off her right hand, then held it aloft.  “This is the hand with which I would rule Vargas.”  She then dropped her right and held up her mailed left fist.  “Not this.  Order without justice is meaningless; stability without mercy an empty promise.  Today you, the people of Vargas have none of these things.  Tomorrow will bring change.”

            Autumn slowly took a half step back, and waited.  She heard a ripple of sound run through the crowd below, and then she heard a few people start to applaud.  The applause spread quickly, and soon everyone in the crowd below was cheering and clapping madly.  There were shouts of “Long live Duchess Autumn!” and “the Angel of Mercy has come to save us!”

            Autumn smiled broadly at the crowd, and it took everything she had not to burst into tears.  _Kyle, I wish you could have been here to see this._

            There was a sudden disturbance in the crowd, starting from the back.  Autumn watched as the crowd began to part, allowing a single rider to approach.  The rider was astride a magnificent gray-white horse, and the Imperial seal gleamed off the saddle.  The rider wore an elegant gown, and was arrayed in fine jewelry.  Her chestnut brown hair was arranged in the latest court fashion.  Upon reaching the inner courtyard, the woman dismounted, and walked to within a few paces of the main doors.  She looked up at Autumn, and bowed her head.

            “Duchess Autumn, Lady Mayor of Vargas,” she called up, “I am Crown Princess Ariadne of Noxolt.  I humbly request your permission to enter the city.”

            A ripple went through the crowd as Arrie identified herself.  Now tears really did start trickling down Autumn’s cheeks.

            “Permission granted, Princess Ariadne,” she said, trying to keep her voice from wavering, “and welcome to my city.”


----------



## Delemental

“So, any idea how we’re going to pull this off?”

            Lanara propped herself up on one elbow, looking at Razael as she asked her question.  It was early in the morning still, though the noise from the rooms across the hall told her that Kyle and his family had been up for quite some time.  The cansin had commented about the relative sanity of the Goodson family when she’d first heard them stirring just before dawn.

            Razael turned and looked at her.  “I’d reckoned you had that part figured out already, seeing as you’re the expert in getting people to believe what you want them to believe.”

            “True,” Lanara said, “but I’ve never done it on this scale before.  And with only a week.”

            “Well, if’n you need more time, we can always pay off this Barrai for a couple of weeks.  I reckon we can get it back from him, one way or another.  All else fails, we take it off the man’s body.”

            “Raz, we’re not supposed to kill him, remember?  Gil said all that stuff about a power vacuum in the city being worse that leaving him alone… or were you too busy ogling that whore at the Crocodile’s Eyeball?”

            Razael cocked an eyebrow.  “Jealous?”
            “Just questioning your taste.”

            “Well, what that Gil said was that carving through his men to get to Barrai would be bad.  If we could get a shot at just him…”

            Lanara shook her head.  “I don’t think we’ll get that chance, but we’ll see.  Kyle and I are going to talk to Gil again to get a little more information.”

            “I thought Kyle would be going back to the temple of Ladta today with his family.”

            “He will, but they aren’t starting the ceremony until midday.”

            “Ah.  Well then, let me know what you need from me.  I have a couple things I need to look into this morning.”

            Now it was Lanara’s turn to raise a brow.  “What kind of things?”

            He grinned.  “Let’s just say I’m glad Kyle’s going with you and not me.”

            Lanara nodded.  “Poisons.”

            “Drugs,” he corrected.  “If’n we’re wanting folks to think Barrai’s off his rocker, slipping something in his ale would do the trick.  Best be prepared if’n we get the chance.”

            “Whatever,” Lanara said, pushing strands of pink hair out of her eyes.  “Just try not to get arrested, okay?”

            There was a loud knock at their door.  “Hurry up, you two,” Kyle shouted from the other side of the door.  “We haven’t got all day.  You can finish whatever you’re doing later.”

            Razael sat up in bed.  “Ah, you’re just jealous because your woman’s off sleeping between silk sheets while you’re stuck here wondering if she’s found someone else to warm your side of the bed!”

            There was silence, then the sounds of Kyle’s heavy boots walking off.  Lanara slugged Razael in the arm.

            “Ow, woman!  Watch the rings!”

            “You don’t have to say every little thing that comes into your head, you know,” Lanara scolded.

            “Ah, he knows I’m kidding with him.  Autumn would probably burst into flames or something if she even thought about being unfaithful.”

            “I know that, and so does he, but for Feesha’s sake, Raz…”

            “All right, all right,” he said, holding up his hands in a pacifying gesture.  “I get the point.  Best we move along, then.”

            Lanara, Kyle, and Xu ended up going to meet Gil again, first stopping into his office to drop hints about a meeting, then rendezvousing with a newly disguised councilman in a small park.

            “First of all,” Lanara said, “we need to know how Barrai knows about you.”

            Gil sighed.  “A few weeks back, I made a vote in council that Barrai apparently wasn’t crazy about.  He sent a couple of assassins after me.  They caught me alone, and unarmed, so…” He looked around at each of them.  “How… familiar are you with my abilities?”

            “We’ve had more than our fair share of encounters with people like yourself,” Lanara said.  “We’re very familiar.”

            Gil looked quite surprised.  “Well, then, I summoned a mindblade to dispatch the assassins.  Unfortunately, one of Barrai’s lieutenants was apparently watching, making sure the job went all right.”

            “So, at least one of his lieutenants knows,” Kyle said.

            “I’m not sure.  That particular lieutenant seems to have vanished soon after he learned my secret.  So he’s either dead or in hiding.”

            Kyle frowned.  “Gil, are you sure that these blackmail threats are coming directly from Barrai?”

            “Yes, I’m sure,” Gil said.  “Barrai came to my office in person two days after the assassination attempt.”

            “Oh, okay,” said Kyle, “I just wondered if maybe this lieutenant was just using Barrai’s name to scare you into paying him directly.”

            “But you have seen Barrai,” Lanara said, “can you describe him?”

            “Of course,” Gil said, “it’s well known what he looks like.  But he rarely leaves his stronghold because his face is so familiar.  When he does go out in public, people tend to give him a wide berth.  He’s a dwarf, looks like he’s in his late forties to human eyes.  Short hair, short beard, blond.  Has a scar that runs from his left ear to just short of his left eye.”

            “Anything else you can tell us about his organization?” Kyle asked.

            “Not a lot,” Gil said.  “I do know that his lieutenants tend to divide responsibility more along type of activity rather than geographically.  One’s in charge of narcotics, one runs the prostitution rings, and so on.  Barrai controls a lot of territory in Delgan, and even outside the walls.  He even owns an iron mine west of here.  Could be just a side business for him, or used as a hideout.”

            “We could have someone check that mine out, just to see,” Lanara said.  “Tell us what you can about Barrai.”

            After getting what they could from Gil, the party returned to the Stag and Boar.  Kyle left with his family to go to the Halls of Fortune for the raising, while Lanara asked Razael to go check out the iron mine.  Then Lanara and Xu decided to get started on their plan.  They’d agreed on the walk back to the inn to make their effort two-pronged; half their time would be spent spreading rumors to the general populace that Barrai was no longer sane, the other half would be spent learning about Barrai’s criminal empire in an attempt to infiltrate it.  The two women donned disguises – Xu went as Lanara’s elven bodyguard, while Lanara went for a more generic ‘trollopy dancing girl’ ensemble – and went back to the Crocodile’s Eyeball.  It was still early in the afternoon when they arrived; most of the patrons were only moderately drunk, and no one had been stabbed yet.  They wandered around the tavern for a while, and spotted two men with Barrai’s guild tattoo on their left hands; a human and an orc-touched.

            Lanara approached the barkeep, a large, sweaty human with a bald head and an eye patch.  “I see you don’t have any entertainment here,” she said to him.

            The barkeep leered.  “The girls don’t start until nine bells,” he said, clearly not looking her in the eyes.

            “I meant music.”  Lanara wasn’t bothered by the direction of his gaze, and even leaned forward a bit more.  The more people looked at her breasts instead of her face, the easier it would be to remain anonymous.

            He shrugged, and spit into a mug.  “Only music we get here is the sound of bar fights.”

            “Well, would you mind if I sing a few songs?  Maybe some good ‘take a wench to bed’ songs so they’re ready for the girls at nine bells?”

            “Long as I get half the take.”

            “Fine with me.”  Lanara moved away from the bar, and pulled out her fiddle.  She began to wander around the tables, mostly playing songs about drinking and carousing and deftly avoiding the hands of others.  When she came near the tables of Barrai’s men, she invoked her bardic magic to infiltrate their minds, holding their attention rapt.  She focused most of her power on the human, lacing her songs with a magical compulsion for him to want to speak with her openly and honestly about his work.

            When she was done playing, the human kicked his companions out of the table and beckoned for Lanara to sit.  She and Xu approached and sat down.

            The human, named Udan, turned out to be one of Barrai’s drug sellers.  Lanara posed as someone interested in getting into the business, and started asking questions.  Though he did not know how to find Barrai or any of his lieutenants, Udan did tell Lanara how to find his supplier, who was working his normal area a few blocks away.  Udan was more than eager to explain that his supplier most likely reported to either one of Barrai’s lieutenants or a sub-lieutenant.

            “Can you tell us where to find him?” Lanara asked.

            “Sure,” Udan said, and he proceeded to give directions.  Then he looked both Xu and Lanara up and down.  “A lot can happen to a couple of lovely women in a couple of blocks,” he said.  “Would you like an escort?”

            In response, Xu held up both of her empty hands, and clenched her fists tightly, causing her knuckles to crack loudly.

            “So, that’s a maybe?” Udan said, with a crooked smile.

            Xu stood up.  “I find I need what passes for fresh air in this city.”

            The two women left the Crocodile’s Eyeball, and after taking a moment to disparage men in general, followed the thug’s directions to his supplier.  He wasn’t hard to find; as Udan had said, he spent his days posing as a beggar, and there was only one beggar on the street.  Lanara and Xu observed the man from a safe distance, trying to learn what they could.  Xu observed that occasionally passers-by would drop entire sacks of coins into the beggar’s bowl, rather than just individual coins, and the ‘beggar’ would stop the person to return their ‘purse’.  Xu saw that the pouch handed back to the person was not the same one they had dropped.  After several hours, the man stood up and collected his things, then began walking away.  Xu and Lanara tried to follow, but lost him in the crowds in the market.

            The two women returned to the Stag and Boar to a small celebration.  Bryant Goodson, weak and bedridden but very much alive, was surrounded by his jubilant family.  The room was crowded; Bryant’s four children sat on the edge of his bed, while their mother Felia sat nearby, holding his hand, unable to stop tears from running down her cheeks.  Pella and Vigo’s three children ran around the room noisily, bursting with energy; had the party not rented out the entire inn, surely other patrons would have complained.  What drew Lanara’s attention, however, was that Kyle was standing on the other side of the room, seeming quite alone, even though he was obviously very happy.  A quick observation of body language told Lanara that it was the rest of the Goodson clan that was avoiding him, not the other way around.  Kyle saw her looking in at them, and gave her a knowing nod.  _I see it too,_ the nod said, _but now is not the time to worry about it._

            Lanara came in to offer her congratulations to Bryant before retiring to her room.  She found that Razael was there, and they enjoyed each other’s company for a while before Xu, Togusa and Kyle came by to discuss the day’s events.  Lanara and Xu talked about their exploits at the Crocodile’s Eyeball.

            “What’d you find, Raz?” Lanara asked.

            “Not much,” he said.  “The mine’s out there, like Gil said.  Lots of guards, including some mages.  There is mining going on, about half slave labor and half undead.”

            “Slavery is illegal in Targeth,” Togusa said. “And undead labor must be licensed.”

            “Well, I didn’t think to ask any of the zombies for their papers,” Razael said.  “I couldn’t get very far in to see what else is going on, but something’s up down there.  There’s way too many guards for just an iron mine.  I stayed for a few hours to see if anything would happen, but it stayed quiet.”

            “Maybe something we can check out later if we have time,” Kyle said.  “In case we need some leverage.”

            “What about this drug supplier fellow you watched this afternoon?” Razael asked.  “You need him followed tomorrow?”

            “Sure,” Lanara said, “it’d be good to know where he takes his profits.”

            “If you get a location, I can try and scope it out magically,” Kyle said.

            “I could also question him,” Togusa said.

            “Thanks, Togusa, but remember we’re going for subtle,” Kyle said.  “You’re… not.”

            “I see.  I am not accustomed to dealing with criminals in this fashion.”

            “Patience,” Lanara said.  “So, I think tomorrow I’ll hit the markets with Xu and start spreading rumors of insane dwarven crime lords.”

            “I’ll check up on this fellow you saw today,” Razael said.

            “I’ll wait here,” Kyle said.  “I’ll load up on divinations, enchantments, and illusions.  Let me know where you need me, and I can help, but probably better I don’t try to initiate anything on my own.”

            “And you have a family to tend to,” Xu said.

            “That’s true.  One thing I’d suggest, Lanara, is make sure it’s known in vague terms that Barrai has some sort of grudge against Gil.  That way, if we’re successful in the insanity campaign, people will ‘know’ why Barrai’s delusional rantings are directed at him.”

            “Good plan,” Lanara said.  “Well, that’s all for tomorrow.  Let’s get some dinner and turn in.  I have a feeling I have some late nights ahead.”

            They ended up spending three weeks on the rumor spreading, paying Gil’s bribe to give themselves more time.  Lanara went out every night, sometimes alone, sometimes with one of the others, working the crowds in markets, taverns, and festhalls.  She was particularly busy during the New Year’s festival, working the crowds furiously.  Razael focused most of his efforts on tracking people that Lanara identified as members of Barrai’s gang; they were able to scope out the outer layers of his guild, but the inner circle remained disturbingly out of their grasp.  Kyle used magic where he could, scrying a particular thug or pimp here, creating an illusion to support one of Lanara’s rumors there.  The efforts seemed to be paying off; Lanara reported she was hearing many of the tales she’d spread coming back to her.  What really told them they were successful, however, was when they tried to kidnap Lanara.

            Xu and Lanara came rushing back to the Stag and Boar one afternnon shortly before sunset, both flushed with exertion.  Xu was carrying two unconscious forms.  Kyle, Togusa, and Razael helped them back to their rooms.  A quick examination of their left hands revealed a gray arrow-and-dot tattoo.

            “There were six of them that jumped me,” Lanara said, sipping on a glass of wine as she tried to calm herself.  The experience had been a little too reminiscent of her abduction by her sister Aranal and Hungai’s men.  “Good thing Xu was there, watching my back.  Four of them escaped, but not these two.”

            “Wake them,” Togusa said.  “I will find out what they know.”

            Togusa was good to his word, getting the thugs to spill their guts without even threatening them.  The men, named Grant and Turik, told the party that they had no idea why they’d been told to kidnap the woman; they got orders to kidnap someone when someone needed kidnapping.  They revealed the source of their orders as someone named ‘Edwin’.

            “How do you find Edwin?” Lanara asked.

            “He finds us,” Turik squealed.  “He tells us to meet him somewhere, then gives us our target and a rendezvous point.  The others have probably gone back there already.”

            “Where?” Togusa glowered.

            “Corner of Back Street and Dwarftoss Alley,” Grant said.

            The two thugs knew little more of value.  After knocking them senseless again, Lanara and Kyle hit upon a plan to disguise themselves as the two men and meeting this Edwin, in the hopes of infiltrating the guild.  Xu and Razael agreed to follow and watch them.

            “I’ll leave it up to you two to decide what to do with those two scum,” Lanara said to Razael and Togusa.

            “That’s easy,” Razael said, drawing his bow.  As he reached for an arrow, though, Togusa’s sword was out of its scabbard in a flash, cutting the bowstring in two.

            “Don’t,” Togusa said, leveling a stare at the tracker.  “I will deal with them.”

            “This is how we deal with thieves in the frontier,” Razael said, as he started to restring his bow.

            “This is not the frontier, and you are not in Tlaxan, Huntsman,” Togusa said.  “You have no authority to dispense justice here.  I will deal with them.”

            “My way’s better,” Razael argued.

            “Try ‘your way’ again, and my sword will strike your bow, not the string.”

            “Your loss,” Razael sighed.  “Let’s go.”

            Lanara and Kyle left in their disguises, followed in silence by Xu and Razael.  They arrived at the street corner in question, and stood quietly in a shadowed area, assuming that real thugs would not stand in the open.  Xu took up position above them on the rooftops, while Razael hid down an alley.  As he got into position, Razael almost immediately noticed an unusual pile at the far end.  Examining it, he blinked, then crept over and tugged on Lanara’s sleeve.

            “Come here,” he whispered.

            She followed him into the alley, where he showed her the bodies.  “Any of them look familiar?”

            “Yeah,” she said, “those are the other four who jumped me.”

            “Thought so.  They’ve been stabbed, I’ll bet by Edwin or people with him.  Probably because they didn’t bring you back.”

            “I’ll tell Kyle,” Lanara said quietly.  “And we’ll be careful.”

            As Lanara was returning, though, she saw Xu had come down from her position.  “I saw someone signaling,” the monk said, “a few rooftops away.  They stood against the setting sun to silhouette themselves, and made hand motions.  At first I thought the person was casting a spell, but now it seems more likely to be some sort of silent code.  The person ducked down after that.”

            Lanara quickly relayed the news about the bodies, and asked Xu to tell Razael about the signals.  Then she leaned in to talk to Kyle.

            “You think this is still a good idea?”

            “Not as much,” Kyle admitted, “but we need information, and we know to expect we might get attacked even if they think we’re these two thugs.”

            Just then, a fairly large human with dirty blond hair and scars on his cheeks walked up to Lanara and Kyle.  “Grant, Turik, you’re late,” he growled.  “Let’s go.”

            Kyle and Lanara looked at each other.  “Right,” Lanara said, and they followed Edwin down the street.

            Edwin led them to a decrepit warehouse on the far side of town.  Opening up a surprisingly sturdy-looking door, Edwin motioned inside.

            ‘Grant’ and ‘Turik’ looked at each other, then walked inside.  As the door swung closed behind them, Razael cursed silently, and began looking for a way down from the rooftop he’d been watching them from.  They’d had little choice, of course; it was either go inside or blow their cover.  But the whole setup stank of ambush.

            Climbing down the side of a building, Razael approached the warehouse.  Gently testing the door, he found it locked, which hardly surprised him.  He was about to circle around when Xu stepped around the corner.

            “The other doors are also secure,” she said, “and there are no windows.”

            “I’ll try the roof,” Razael said quietly.  “You go around back and wait for the signal, then bust in.  This door here looks like it’d stop a charging stonebreather.”

            “What is the signal?” Xu asked.

            Razael smirked.  “When Kyle gets going, he tends to be pretty loud.”

            The tracker sprinted around the building and found an iron ladder up to the roof.  At the top, he looked for any sign of a skylight or a rooftop hatch, but found none.  Then, on a hunch, he pressed his ear to the wooden slats of the rooftop.  It was silent for a while, but then he heard people talking.

            “Please, no sudden moves, whoever you are,” said an unfamiliar male voice, “it would be a shame to have to perforate you with crossbow bolts.”  The voice had an echo to it, suggesting the warehouse was mostly empty… no easy cover for Lanara and Kyle.

            “Now,” the voice continued, “we know who you aren’t… you aren’t the people whose faces you now wear.  What we want to know is who you are, and who you work for.”

            “We work for ourselves.”  The voice was male, but Razael knew it as the disguised voice of Lanara.

            “If that’s so, what particular vendetta do you have against us and ours?”

            “That depends on who you and yours are,” Lanara answered.

            “Oh, please,” the man snapped.  “We’re not ignorant.”

            “I see no bodies,” Lanara said, “no bodies generally means no brains.”

            “Well, it’s dark in here, isn’t it?” the man said, the condescension obvious in his voice.

            “Then lighten things up a bit,” Lanara suggested.

            “I think not.”

            At that, Razael stood up and began searching again for another way into the building.  Inside, Kyle and Lanara stood in the center of the warehouse, next to a small table.  The only light was coming from a pair of candelabras on the table.  The echoes of the empty warehouse made it difficult to tell which direction the speaker was from them.

            “Well,” Kyle said, “we just don’t take it too kindly when good folks get jumped in the street.”

            “We don’t take it too kindly,” the man shot back, “when people start a campaign of lies and slander against our leader.”

            “And who would…” Lanara began, feigning ignorance, but she was quickly cut off.

            “Don’t even try it,” the man snapped.

            “Well, your leader seems to be doing that to a perfectly innocent council member,” Lanara said in response.

            “Ah.  So, you work for Gil Mendes.”

            “No, we work for ourselves,” Lanara stated.  “Gil did not hire us.  After your blackmail, he has nothing to pay us with anyway.”

            “Oh, of course he does,” the man said, chuckling.  “He may not have money, but he’s an influential man with access to many resources and many friends.  He’s got many ways to pay.”

            Lanara shrugged.  “Not anything around here we particularly want.  Your taverns certainly leave much to be desired.”

            “If there’s nothing you want here, then leave.”

            Lanara glanced at Kyle.  “Well, we’ve certainly dealt with braver people.  They wouldn’t be hiding in the shadows otherwise.”

            “In our line of work, brave equals dead.”

            “So, Barrai runs a company of chickens?” Lanara’s heart was pounding a bit as she spoke, but she pressed on.  Whoever was speaking to them seemed easy to rile with a few verbal jabs, and as long as he was trading barbs with her, he wasn’t ordering his men to shoot.  It was a delicate game, though.

            “He runs a company of intelligent, profitable people,” came the reply.

            “I suppose intellect is in the eye of the beholder,” Lanara sighed.  “You haven’t even figured out who we are.”

            “We don’t know your names,” the man said, “but we know where you’re staying.  We know you have ties with some of those lovely children I bet the orc tribes would love to get their hands on.”

            Lanara glanced over at Kyle, unsure of how he would react.  She saw his hands ball up into fists for a moment, then slowly relax.  _Good,_ Lanara thought, _he knows getting angry now won’t get us out of here._  Besides, they’d have to get through Togusa first.

            “The orcs?” Kyle said, trying to keep the same casual tone in his voice.  “We’ve been to the orcs.  I’ll bet we could get those kids back without a problem.  They’d probably give us parting gifts.”

            When there was no reply, Kyle looked around in the darkness.  “So, this is getting kind of boring.”

            “Yeah,” Lanara interjected, “we have other things to do.”

            “So, can we kind of get to the point?” Kyle concluded.

            “Certainly.  You have 24 hours to leave the city.”

            “And if we don’t?” Lanara asked.

            “The usual.  Death, torture, slavery.”

            “Assuming you could catch us, of course.  Your first try didn’t work too well.”

            Suddenly they heard someone pounding on the outside of the door through which they had entered.  The noise continued on for several seconds.

            “Someone’s at your door,” Lanara called out to the darkness, but there was no response.  The knocking continued.

            “Fine, I’ll get it.”  Lanara walked to the door, followed by Kyle.  She heard someone continue to knock on the outside. Examining the door, she saw it was solid, and secured with a double-locked bar – a key was required no matter which side you were on.

            Lanara and Kyle looked at each other.  If they hadn’t been shot at yet, they probably weren’t going to be.  Kyle raised his arms, and tried to blast the door off its hinges, but it held fast.  He sighed.

            “I really wanted to break something before we left,” he said.

            “We could carve our initials in the wood,” Lanara suggested.

            “Nah, let’s just leave.”  Kyle pulled out a scroll, and a second later he and Lanara appeared outside the door.  They turned and saw Razael at the door, kicking at it with his boot while keeping an arrow notched.

            “Hi!” Lanara said.

            Razael whirled around, and almost put an arrow in Lanara’s eye.  She pushed it away as soon as he relaxed his draw.  “Nice reflexes.”  She looked up at the warehouse.  “Well, that was kind of fruitless.”

            “It seems we’ve been discovered,” Kyle said.

            “Yeah, I got that.”

            Razael’s animal companion, the raven Kraw, circled down out of the night sky and landed on Razael’s shoulder.

            “He was looking for signs of anyone leaving the building,” Razael explained, “since he’s not cawing his fool head off, he must not have seen anything.”

            “Well, unfortunately,” Kyle said, “since they now know Gil’s involved,” Kyle glanced at Lanara, “we’ll need to go get him.”

            “Is there a way to open the door?” Razael asked, pointing at the warehouse.

            “Do we want to go in there and scare them, or try and save Gil’s butt?” Lanara asked.

            “Go ahead and get Gil,” Razael said.  “As far as I can tell, no one’s come out of here, which means the exit must be inside, unless they’re using magic.  I want to look around.”

            “Well, I’m not so good at kicking in walls,” Lanara sulked.

            “Let’s find Xu,” Razael said.

            They all moved around to the other side of the warehouse, looking for their monk companion.  As they ran, Kyle looked at Razael.

            “Well, Raz, I guess I owe you an apology.  We should have just tried to kill them all from the start.”

            Razael blinked, then nodded.  “Accepted.  You feeling all right?”

            Kyle’s jaw clenched.  “They know about the kids.”

            They found Xu furiously punching a side door, splintering the wood.  She looked up as the rest of the party rounded the corner.  “I heard a commotion, and assumed it was ‘the signal’.”

            “Keep going,” Razael said, as he pulled out his short sword to help.

            They hacked at the door for a few moments, until they felt it giving way.  Razael switched back to his bow and stood ready as Xu kicked the door into kindling.  They went in quickly, ready for a fight, but no one opposed their entry.  As Kyle summoned up light, they saw that the warehouse appeared empty.

            “I’m going to see what I can find here,” Razael said.  “Lanara, you run and fetch Gil, bring him back to the inn.  Xu, head for the inn and let Togusa know what’s going on.  Kyle, you stay here and watch in case any trouble comes.”

            The party split up to their various tasks.  About two minutes after Lanara and Xu had left, however, the heavily-armored figure of Togusa appeared in the smashed doorway.

            “Kyle!”

            “Togusa?”  Kyle said, his heart skipping a beat.  “What are you…”

            The samurai ran forward, and bowed.  “I bring unpleasant tidings,” he said.  “I was searching for you when I encountered Xu Dhii Ngao, who told me where to find you.  She has continued on to the Boar and Stag.”

            “What is it?” Kyle asked, already fearing the answer.

            “A large number of men assaulted the inn,” Togusa said.  “Though many of them are now among the dead, there were far too many for me to protect your family.”  He hung his head in shame.  “I have failed you.”

            “How many?” Razael asked.

            “Many dozens,” Togusa said.

            “Find Lanara,” Razael said to Kyle.  “Get everyone back to the inn.  I give it ten to one that they’re at the mine.  If they are, I’ll send the raven.”

            “Here, take Violet with you,” Kyle said.  “She’ll be able to reach me faster than Kraw will.”

            Razael nodded, and stepped outside.  Pulling his magical cloak around himself, he transformed into a raven himself, and then he, Kraw, and Violet flew off into the night.

“Kyle,” Togusa said, “I apologize that I could not defend your family adequately.”

”It’s not your fault,” Kyle said.  “We didn’t know that they knew what we were doing.”

“I did not expect that they would send so many,” Togusa said.  “This Barrai appears to have a great many bodies to throw about.  But the situation will be rectified.”
            “Yes, it will,” Kyle said, his eyes flashing angrily.  “But first I should find Lanara, and then Gil.  And I’ll need time to prepare new spells – I’m now prepared for what I’ll need to do.”

“Will you allow me to make right my failure?” Togusa asked.

“Your help is definitely appreciated.” Kyle said.  Looking over the samurai, Kyle saw a deep gash in his left arm.  He pulled a potion out of his belt.  “You’re wounded.  Drink this, then return to the inn to help Xu and wait for us to get back.”

Togusa bowed, and then they split up.  Kyle caught up to Lanara at Gil’s office at the town hall, where she was arguing with him over leaving with her.

“I’m a professional mistruster, you realize,” he was saying.

“I’m used to people not trusting me unless I’m making them,” Lanara said, “but this is not the time.”  When she spotted Kyle, she pointed at him.  “See?  Would he have come to help me drag you off if it wasn’t serious?”

“They’ve hit the inn already,” Kyle said, “They took three of the kids.”

“Crap,” Lanara swore.

“Have you told him what happened?”

“Of course.  I told him that Barrai knows about us, and threatened us and your family.  I didn’t know they’d already attacked the inn.”

Kyle looked at Gil.  “Does he know that Barrai knows about him, too?”

Gil’s eyes widened.  “I see.  That makes more sense.  Wait one minute.”  Gil went inside his office, and was heard blowing out candles and putting away papers.

“You didn’t tell him that you told Barrai’s men about him?” Kyle asked.

“I implied it.  I thought he’d get the hint.”

Gil emerged a moment later wearing a long cloak.  “Lead the way.”

The three returned to the inn several minutes later, and found a grisly sight.  Blood stained the floor and walls in the inn, and broken furniture was everywhere.  Going back to the rooms, they found Xu tending to the remainder of Kyle’s family, who were all unconscious.  Togusa remained on guard just outside the door.

“The innkeeper fled when the attack started,” Togusa said.  “I tried to get your family to leave with me, but I could not wake them.”

“Poison,” Xu said, pointing at the remains of the family’s dinner dishes.  “They will sleep for several more hours, but will be fine.  The children will sleep longer.  I assume that Togusa was able to resist the poison’s effects.”

“Who’s missing, Kyle?” Lanara asked.

Kyle scanned the room.  “Connor, Anjele, and Sariah,” he said, grimacing.  “The three youngest.”  He looked at everyone.  “Everyone should get some rest.  I’m going to use a scrying to make sure the kids are all right, then I’ll need to sleep so we can get the kids back.”  Kyle looked at Xu.  “When they wake up, come get me.  I’ll need to tell them what happened.”


----------



## Delemental

Violet returned in the night to report that Razael was almost certain the children had been brought to the mine.  There were recent tracks of people carrying burdens heading for the mine, and the guards had been greatly increased and were now more alert.  Razael said he would wait there for the rest of them.  Kyle’s spell revealed all three children, asleep in the same cell.  In the morning, Kyle gathered the adult members of his family together and told them what had happened.  He saw panic in their faces, but it was far less than he would have expected.

            “I know you’ll get them back, Kyle,” his sister Pella said.  “After all, you brought Bryant back from the dead, this will be easy.”

            The others nodded their agreement with Pella’s sentiment.  Kyle had to fight the urge to scream.  Instead, he handed a large sack of coins to Pella.

            “Take this,” he said.  “Buy horses and wagons, and supplies.  Don’t haggle, just get what you need quickly and leave town.  Take the main road to Trageon.  If we can, we’ll catch up to you.  Otherwise, keep going east to Fingol, then cross to Aleppi, and go north from there to Vargas.  Present yourselves at the home of Duchess Autumn Verahannen, tell them who you are, and what’s happened.  She’ll take care of you.”

            The party, along with Togusa and Gil, left shortly afterward, heading for the mine.  When they were within a half-hour of the location, Xu ran ahead of the group to tell Razael they were coming.

            The tracker spotted the monk approaching, and motioned her over.  “How far behind are the others?”

            “Twenty minutes,” Xu said.

            Razael nodded toward the cave entrance, which Xu could barely see through the tall grass.  “There’s ten sentries patrolling the area.  Two stay near the entrance, the others stay within sight of each other in pairs.  They don’t come out this far, so we’re safe here.  You wait here for everyone else – I’m going to go clear out the guards before they get here.”

            Razael crept around the perimeter of the patrol area, until he was crouched atop the entrance to the iron mine.  Two of Barrai’s guards waited below, scanning the clearing around them.  He pulled out a cluster of arrows, and examined the dark stain on the tips.  Ten arrows, ten sentries.  It’d be close, but then again, dragon bile was very effective.  Too bad it would be difficult to find more to replace it.

            Notching an arrow, Razael suddenly stood up, aiming for the back of one of the sentry’s neck.  He let loose just as a cry went out from the other sentry, which was cut short by Razael’s second arrow.  As the other guards began to rush back to the mine, Razael let his arrows fly.

            By the time the rest of the group arrived, Razael was sitting outside the mine entrance, with ten dead sentries scattered at his feet, the broken stumps of arrows still protruding from their bodies, and their throats slit open.

            “Thought I’d warm up a bit before you came along,” Razael said.

            Everyone prepared spells and weapons for the upcoming assault.  Razael went in first, taking about a thirty-second lead in order to scout the opposition.  Gil seemed to fade out of view as soon as the group entered the mine, blending in with the surrounding stone.

            The only opposition they encountered through the top levels of the mine was the undead workers Razael had described before, and the old elf dispatched most of them before the rest of the party even saw them.  Those he didn’t kill, he slipped by quietly, leaving them for either Togusa or Xu to tear apart.  The group caught up to Razael about five minutes in, waiting in a corridor just before a bend.

            “This is about as far as I got the last time,” he whispered as the party gathered around.  “Around the bend it opens up into a chamber – roundish, about fifty or sixty feet across, thirty foot ceiling at the center, with a big iron door on the other side.  Last time there was an ogre guarding the door.  I just checked, and the ogre’s been joined by a couple of thugs and a couple of mages.”

            “We will want to take them out quickly,” Togusa said, “before they can raise an alarm or flee through the door.”

            “It’s a big door,” Razael said.  “I reckon it’d take that ogre to pull it open.”

            Kyle turned to Lanara.  “I know you can manipulate sound with magic.  Could you mask the sound of the fight?”

            “For one side or the other, but not both,” Lanara said.  “Anyone on the other side of that door would hear something not right.”

            “I can take care of the door problem, then,” Kyle said, “no one will go through it, and no one on the other side will hear what we’re doing.”

            “Great,” Razael said, “then on three everyone pick something to kill.”
            The party rushed around the corner, startling the guards in the chamber.  Kyle put a _wall of force_ across the door, sealing it off.  Razael put a poisoned arrow into the ogre, while Togusa moved to the center of the room and took up a fighting stance, offering a silent challenge. Xu dashed around the room toward one of the thugs, stopping short to avoid overextending herself.  The guards quickly overcame their surprise and responded; one of the mages tried to entrap Razael in a _resilient sphere_, but the elf was able to dive out of the way just in time.  The other mage tried to inflict fear into Razael, Togusa, and Xu, but his spell was similarly ineffective.  The ogre roared and began to lumber forward, but his charge was arrested when Kyle blasted it with a _lightning bolt_ that also caught one of the mages.  The stroke of lightning seemed to fill the room with a shockwave of force that threw the mage to the floor, a smoking hole in his chest, and caused the ogre to stagger back.

The thug closest to Xu moved in to attack the monk, but spent the rest of his life regretting that decision.  Fortunately, it was only three or four seconds.  The other thug fired arrows at Kyle, but they were deflected by his protective spells.  Gil seemed to almost step out of the rough stone walls of the chamber and impale the second mage from across the room with a thrown blade of energy.  Togusa felled the ogre with two swift strokes.  The remaining guard quickly surrendered.

Lanara stepped up to the trembling guard, with Togusa glowering behind her.  “What’s behind the door?”

“It’s our secret base!” the man screeched.

“Not so secret any more,” Razael commented.

“Where are the children?” Lanara continued.

“They would have been taken in there!” the rogue said, whimpering, “I don’t know where… probably the holding cells!”

“What else is down there?”

“Lots of people?”

“How many are dangerous to us?”
            “Well, besides the slaves, a lot.”

“Give us numbers, you worthless slime!” Lanara shouted.

“I don’t know!  I’m just a door guard!  I don’t go down there much!  Anywhere from twenty to a hundred, I’d guess!”

“What do they do down there?” Togusa asked.

“Lots of things.  There’s alchemical equipment down there, beakers and tubes and stuff, and there’s the forges. I guess they make weapons for the guild down there from the iron we mine here.”

“Does Barrai come down here?”
            “Sometimes.”

Razael came over to Lanara and Togusa.  “We’re wasting time here.”
            Lanara looked at Razael, nodded, and walked away.  Togusa drew his katana.

“For the crimes of attempted murder and conspiracy, I find you guilty.  The sentence is death.”

Togusa came over to the iron doors a moment later, and brought his adamantine weapon down between the narrow crack between them, slicing through the double bars holding it closed.  They heard large sections of the locking mechanism fall away on the other side of the door with a loud crash.  The party quickly pulled the doors open and stepped through.

They were hit with a wave of intense heat as soon as they stepped into the next room, and the smell of charcoal and sulphur burned their nostrils.  The light had a reddish tone, and the air shimmered from heat.  They were at the top of a cylindrical vertical shaft, which dropped forty feet to an area where several people were toiling.  There was a pool of molten metal in the center of the room, with spigots leading off the cauldron.  The workers were filling molds with the spigots, then taking them to be pressed and tempered.  The molds produced several hollow metal tubes, about three feet long and the width of a table leg.  A ramp went down from the door to the floor of the forge, spiraling down about three-quarters of the way around.  They caught a glimpse of another door at the bottom, similar to the one they had just come through.  Most of the workers seemed oblivious to their presence, but a couple of guards seemed to have heard the noise of the door being broken open, and were starting to collect together to investigate.

Razael used his cloak to transform himself into a raven, and began to fly down to scout out the bottom levels.  As a squad of four guards began to march up the ramp, Xu also scrambled down the wall to get to the bottom.  Togusa looked down, and took a step back.

“We should make sure that we discourage anyone from going for more help,” he said.

Kyle remembered the last time they’d seen Togusa, in the city of Miracle when he’d jumped through a second-story window trying to capture Neville’s assistant.  He quickly cast a spell and touched Togusa on the shoulder as the samurai began his run.  The magic enhanced his jump, and Togusa landed safely, if heavily, at the bottom of the room.

The guards began to move quickly up the ramp, seeing that there were definitely intruders.  Down below, three more heavily armed men approached Togusa and Xu.  Togusa and two of the warriors exchanged blows for a while before the samurai got the upper hand and cut one of them down, while Xu simply stunned her opponent with a quick nerve strike.  Lanara tossed a thunderstone into the approaching squad, blasting them and causing them to stumble a bit before proceeding.  Kyle did one better, summoning a _defenestrating sphere_ that flung one of the warriors over the side of the ramp to land on the hard floor below.

Down below, Togusa was dealing with the second warrior, while Razael turned back into an elf and shot the man Xu was fighting, helping her dispatch him.  The monk then began to run up the ramp, while Razael kept a watchful eye on the guard who’d fallen off the ramp and was beginning to rise.  Lanara, who was singing, stepped back through the iron door as the squad of three warriors approached and took a swing at her, and Gil, who’d stabbed at the lead guard with his mindblade and was now visible, also withdrew, his cloak swirling around him.  Kyle, now facing down three warriors alone, quickly blasted the closest one with _magic missiles_ while moving his _defenestrating sphere_ on top of him as well, pushing the guard back and blocking their progress, though this time the whirling ball of air did not push the guard off the side.  By this time Togusa and Razael had dispatched the remaining opposition at the ground level.

“Perhaps you could oblige us and send more down?” Togusa called out.

“Working on it!” Kyle shouted back, as he moved the air sphere into another guard and slammed him against the outside wall, causing him to bounce over to the edge of the ramp.  Lanara cast a spell and paralyzed one of the other warriors, while Xu, running up from behind, caught the last one and knocked him senseless.  Gil helped Kyle dispatch the last guard, and the battle was over.

Collecting themselves at the bottom, they tried to question the workers, who were huddled in a far corner.  But they seemed to know little of the complex beyond the next set of doors, and were not even certain if Kyle’s nephew and nieces had been brought through there.  After being threatened by Togusa to remain where they were, the party pressed forward, allowing the samurai to again carve through the door’s locks with his adamantine blade.

They entered a series of rough tunnels, which seemed to be used mostly for storage.  They encountered some token resistance here that was swiftly removed.  Many of the tunnels had rooms off of them, with a variety of materials.  One small side chamber contained more of the strange metal tubes, as well as a much larger tube constructed from a hollowed-out log reinforced with iron bands.  The room also contained several small casks.  Razael was almost tempted to open a cask, but was reminded by an increasingly agitated Kyle that they could spend all the time they wanted looking at the thieves’ stuff after his nieces and nephews were safe.

            The tunnels led deeper underground, and they noticed that the air had become moist.  They stopped at another set of the large doors, though these were made of wood rather than iron.

            “What’s that sound?”  Lanara asked.  “It sounds like the ocean.”

            “Air currents, maybe,” Kyle said, clearly getting impatient.  “Are we going through?”

            Expecting more resistance beyond the door, Kyle and Lanara renewed their defensive spells, and then Togusa opened the door with a single downward stroke. The samurai and Razael kicked it open, ready for whatever lay beyond.

            Well, almost ready.  What they saw beyond the doors gave them a moment’s pause, which may have been why they weren’t able to react quickly enough to the men waiting for them.

            A line of four armored men stood on a platform at the end of a long wooden dock leading out over an underground lake.  Two lightly-armored men and two mages stood right behind them.  Each of the four armored men was pointing one of the strange metal tubes at the party, which looked as though they’d been mounted to a crossbow stock.  As soon as they stepped into the room, there was a tremendous noise and flash, and white smoke blasted out of the hollow ends of the tubes.  Togusa and Razael felt something hit them in the chest; small lumps of iron that seemed like sling stones but hit much, much harder.  However, the metal lumps seemed to just bounce off Togusa’s adamantine armor, and Razael’s enchanted leather defelcted most of the impact.  When the smoke cleared, there was little clear effect.

            “What the…?” was all Razael said, before drawing his bow and planting arrows into one of the mages.

            All Kyle said was to shout out a few arcane phrases, and a _fireball _detonated in the midst of the enemy group.  Like the lightning bolt before, the spell seemed to carry an unusually strong concussive force, and several people were knocked to their feet.  Both of the mages were burned to a crisp, and several others were severely burned.

            “I’m unimpressed with your technology!” Kyle shouted.

            The battle was joined.  Xu slipped quietly into the water, hoping to come up behind and surprise the enemy.  Togusa moved up to engage the armored men, who were dropping the tubes and drawing swords.  One of the lightly-armored rogues pulled out a fist-sized metal ball and twisted it, then threw it at Togusa and Razael.  The sparking ball hit the dock, bounced, and then exploded, shooting flames everywhere and scorching both of them.  In response, Kyle killed one of the warriors with _scorching rays_, while Lanara cast a _hold person_ on the rogue throwing the metal balls, freezing him in place.

            All in all, it was a brief battle.  The enemy was quickly overwhelmed, and the held rogue questioned briefly just to confirm that the children had been taken exactly where they thought they had.

            The party turned to regard the structure that had first caught their attention.  At the very end of the dock was anchored one of the largest ships they’d ever seen.  The ship was unusually tall, and the sides were festooned with small openings.  Sticking out from the openings were dozens of the hollow logs they’d seen in the storage room.

            “What in blazes does Barrai expect to do with that thing?” Gil asked, speaking to no one in particular.

            “Who cares?” Lanara said, “I’m not going anywhere near it.”

            “Fine,” Kyle said, “I am.  Gil, stay with Lanara.  Razael, find the children.  Togusa, break things, kill thieves.  Xu and I will find Barrai.”

            Kyle, Xu, and Togusa proceeded up the dock toward the gangplank, with Lanara and Gil remaining back close to the entrance to the cavern.  Razael turned into a raven again, and flew in through one of the holes in the side of the ship.  Two guards at the top of the gangplank proved barely a distraction.

            They separated and began searching the strange ship.  Most of the people on board fled rather than confront the party; those who did quickly perished.  Togusa spent most of his time on the outer decks, slicing through the large hollow logs.

            Razael proceeded into the inner portions of the ship.  He presumed that, even with its odd design, that the brig of the ship would be located roughly where it was on a normal galleon.  Sure enough, he came upon a guarded area, and after dispatching the sentries, he began searching the cells.  Toward the end of the row, he heard the distinct sound of crying children.

            Razael unlocked the door, and found three children huddling in the corner; Connor, Anjele, and Sariah.  Throwing the door open wide, he went over and knelt down in front of them.  The children, finally recognizing the elf, scrambled to get to their feet and clutch onto him, crying.

            “Shh,” he said, surprisingly gently.  “You’re safe now, younglings.  Let’s get you back to your folks.”

            Meanwhile, Xu and Kyle proceeded to climb up to what they presumed was the captain’s cabin.  Xu kicked open the door, and they saw a dozen people in the room, all heavily armed.  Standing behind them was a sour-looking dwarf that could only be Barrai.

            “So,” Barrai growled, “you must be the ones behind the lies.  Well, I don’t know how you made it this close to me, but you’ll get no closer.  These are my personal bodyguards.  This will prove a minor setback at most – soon I’ll have enough weapons to arm the populace and begin the uprising!”

            “Are you referring to those metal tubes?” Xu asked.  “We found them to be an ineffective deterrent at best.”

            “You mock me!” Barrai shouted.  “I’ll have you killed slowly!”

            “I’m tired of this banter,” Kyle growled.  “You threatened my family.  No one.  Threatens. My. Family.”  Kyle glanced at Xu.  “Kill them.”

            The monk exploded into motion before anyone had a chance to blink.  In mere moments, two of Barrai’s bodyguard were down, clutching their smashed throats, while a third gasped for air, holding his stomach.  The bodyguards drew their weapons and charged, but their progress was halted when rubbery black tentacles erupted out of the floor and ensnared them.  Seeing this, Barrai retreated through a back door along with four of his men.

            “You got this?” Kyle asked Xu, nodding toward the remaining bodyguards.

            “Go.”  Xu was making good use of the tentacles, grabbing people and carrying them into the spell’s area.  Her magical ring rendered her immune to the tentacle’s grasp.

            Kyle proceeded past the melee and through the door, walking down a small corridor before coming to another door.  He used a _mage hand_ to pull the door open, and was unsurprised when crossbow bolts came flying out.  The bolts scattered against his protective spells.  Casting another spell, Kyle walked in.

            A few moments later, as Xu dispatched the last of the bodyguard, she saw Kyle walk out of the door.  “Is everything all right?” she asked.

            “I’m fine,” Kyle said.  “I’m going to go find the others.  Just to warn you, the four guards are still alive back there.  But I think that once they can move, they might not have much fight left in them.”

            Xu turned toward the back door, curious, as Kyle exited.  She walked down the corridor and pushed open the door.

            Inside, she saw the four guards, weapons drawn as if about to charge the door.  Two crossbows had been dropped to the floor nearby.  The four men seemed frozen in place; not magically paralyzed, as Lanara had done to the other rogue outside, but somehow held rigid with cold fear, unwilling to move a single muscle.  There was no sign of Barrai at first, but then Xu saw something sticking out from behind a desk in the back of the room.  She walked back, and took a look.  Lying on the floor was the desiccated corpse of a dwarf, still spasming slightly.  Xu regarded the body for a moment, then walked out of the room.

*          *          *​
            It was another two days before the party left Delgan.  With Barrai dead, Gil was able to return to his position without fear.  He was also able to use information gathered from Barrai’s secret lair to incriminate several other members of the guild, spreading some of the information to the city watch, and some to rival guilds.  With his reputation secure with both the public and the underworld, Gil felt confident that within three years he’d be elected mayor of Delgan.

            The information about Barrai that was not made public was far more unnerving.  Barrai had wanted nothing less than to lead a revolution against the leaders of Targeth and their archmages.  They’d discovered that the underground lake fed into a river that emerged onto the surface several miles away from Delgan, into a larger river that led straight to Trageon. They had been developing the strange explosive weapons to counteract the effectiveness of arcane magic on the field of battle, trying to even the playing field.  Though the smaller, personal versions (which were called ‘muskets’) were still rather crude and inefficient, the larger ship-mounted ‘cannons’ seemed capable of causing a great deal of structural damage.  The party found copies of the plans for the weapons, and formulas to create the explosive powder used.  They’d brought along a cask of the powder, a bag of shot, and one of the muskets; a gift for Arrie.

            It took almost a month for the party to reach the other side of Targeth in order to make the crossing into Tlaxan; while escorting Kyle’s family, they didn’t have the option of using magic to enhance their speed.  Kyle spent as much time as he could with his family, trying to catch up on old times and get any clues he could about the whereabouts of his remaining family.  Lanara noticed that in some ways, Pella and Bryant were able to pick up with their older brother as if no time at all had passed; in other ways, there was an unseen, insurmountable wall between them.  Kyle had evolved nearly beyond their capacity to accept; they were used to wizards being in charge, not to inviting wizards over for a Festival banquet and to check out the new foals.  Pella seemed a little more comfortable around him, but not completely.  With the in-laws, it was worse; Bryant’s wife Felia looked on him with something close to awe (Kyle had given up trying to explain that he, personally, had not brought her husband back from the dead), while Vigo, Pella’s husband, regarded Kyle with narrow-eyed mistrust.  Thus Lanara was not very surprised to see a look resembling relief cross Kyle’s face as their ferry passed under Targeth’s barrier and they crossed into Tlaxan.

            “How long until Vargas?” Pella asked, as they were unloading their wagons in Aleppi.

            “About ten days,” Razael said.  He looked down at the children at Pella’s feet, and saw that their faces were streaked with soot.  He was about to say something harsh when he suddenly realized what day it was.  Today was the first day of the Time of Burning, Grabâkh’s festival; the children were observing the Blessing of Ash*.  He’d been living in Tlaxan so long that he’d forgotten that people observed this particular holiday, but realized it made sense for Pella and her family.  They lived in western Targeth, much closer to the border to the Haran and the Western Expanse, and so naturally orcish traditions would have seeped into human cultures there.

            “What blessing did you ask for?” Razael asked Nathan, the oldest.

            “That we find a safe home, and that no one will try and hurt Mommy or Uncle Bryant again,” he said.

            Razael found he had no words for a reply.  _I hope you get your wish, youngling, I really do.  I just don’t think you will._

            His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a silver speck in the sky, which was growing in size rapidly as it descended straight toward them.  As he watched, the speck became a bird shaped object, and as it slowed and landed on Kyle’s shoulder, he saw it was a silver raven.  A familiar one.

            “What is that, Kyle?” Felia asked, pointing at the silver raven that now sat on Kyle’s left shoulder, opposite Violet.  “Is it some sort of message from Erito?”

            “No, Felia,” Kyle said, almost able to keep the sigh out of his voice.  “It’s a message, but not from Erito.  She’s not really in the habit of writing me.”

            “Kyle, blasphemy!” Pella scolded, covering Nathan’s ears.

            Kyle shook his head and smiled a little.  “I’ll have to introduce you to Tolly one of these days.”  He plucked the silver raven off his shoulder.  “No, this is a magical device, one used to send messages long distances.  Like a carrier pigeon, except you can send it anywhere you want.  And you don’t have to feed it.”

            Kyle held the raven in both hands, and pressed the latch on the back that opened its message compartment.  He removed the neatly folded parchment inside and shook it open, reading it quickly.

            “It’s from Arrie, of course,” he said to his companions.  “It says, ‘Everyone, glad you made it back safe.  Kyle, hope you found what you were looking for.  Please get to Vargas as fast as you can.  Autumn needs our help.  City’s in bad shape.”

            “You think she’s in danger?” Razael asked.

            “I don’t think so,” Kyle said.  “If she was, Arrie would have done more than have her raven parked in Aleppi waiting for us to get back.”

            “Any chance we can get there faster that ten days?” Lanara asked.

            “Not with these people along,” Razael said, jerking a thumb back at Kyle’s relatives.

            “Kyle,” Bryant said, “if we’re slowing you down, then go with your friends.  We’ll catch up.”

            “No,” Kyle said flatly, “I’m not leaving you undefended.”

            “But Kyle,” whispered Lanara, “We’re out of Targeth now.  Isn’t that safe enough?”

            “My cousin was killed in Tlaxan,” he hissed back.  “Autumn and I were attacked in the damned Imperial Palace.  At best, Tlaxan is safer only because the Scion-Watchers won’t expect the Goodsons to leave Targeth.  But it’s not safe.  And there are threats out there besides Scion-Watchers.”

            “So, then, I guess we do our best and hope Arrie understands,” Lanara sighed.

            “Not quite.”  Kyle motioned for everyone to come in closer so they could talk.  “Okay, I’m not going to just leave my family behind.  End of story.  But what I can do is get some of you there faster.  I have my _shadow walk_ spell ready; I can put my family up in an inn here in Aleppi for the night, and get the rest of you to Vargas in about half a day.  Then I’ll _shadow walk_ myself back and bring my family in overland.”

            “Kyle,” Togusa said, “allow me to remain here to protect your family, and then escort you to Vargas.”

            “Sure, Togusa,” Kyle said.  “I’d appreciate it.”

            “I would like to remain as well,” Xu said.  “In Delgan, we erred in underestimating our enemy’s resolve and willingness to sacrifice so many lives to strike at us.  That will not happen again.”

            “Well, I’ll go to Vargas,” Lanara said.  “I’ll probably be more use up there than I would here anyway.”

            “I’ll go with the lass,” Razael said.  “I do still have a duty to watch over the princess and the duchess, and if Arrie’s calling everyone in, chances are Madrone’ll be showing up at Vargas any day now.”

            “All right, then,” Kyle said, “let’s get moving, then.  I, for one, am ready to put Targeth and the Scion-Watchers behind me for a while.  I never thought I’d say it, but in some ways I’m looking forward to just dealing with some simple politics for a while.”

 ---------------------------------

* Since Grabakh is an evil god, most people outside of the orcs are reluctant to honor him directly.  However, the Time of Burning comes in the middle of winter, and since Grabakh is a god of fire, many people tend to emphasize his elemental nature over his moral stance.  The fact that Grabakh's planetary domain lies within the system's sun also gives him a leg up with the public.

The Blessing of Ash is a ritual where a person writes down their hopes and wishes for the coming year on a piece of parchment (or has it written for them if they aren't literate).  The parchment is burned, and the ash spread on your face - the orcs tend to paint elaborate designs with the ash, but other races don't go to that much trouble.  You are supposed to wear the ash markings for the entire two-day festival, and by doing so your desires are supposed to be granted.


----------



## Delemental

*Statutory Crimes*

This adventure is actually one that I ran as a guest DM to give our regular DM a break.  So, in advance, I should probably apologize.  

----------------------------

           Malick Bardossa ran for his life.

            Panting, he rounded the corner to the alley, not even daring to pause to look behind him.  He could hear the shouts of his pursuers, somewhere behind him, still too close.  As if to accentuate the point, the bolt from a crossbow suddenly struck the wall near his shoulder, jamming itself into the wood.

_Damn these Night Blades!_ he thought, panicked.  _Why me?_

            It wasn’t just him, though, and he knew it.  The Black Hand was being slowly wiped out by these interloper guilds.  Four of them… four! had come into the city since old Robar had vanished, and their first order of business had been to uproot the old guard.  In the past five months, he’d fought off attacks from not only the nut jobs with the Night Blade, but the Poisoned Edge and their toxins, the Night Whispers with all their damned animals, and the runts from the Silent Foot.  But still, he’d always figured that eventually things would settle down, and they’d all find their place.  That was the way things worked.

            But it had gotten worse ever since than blond bitch, the new Duchess, had arrived and announced she was going to be cleaning up the city.  With an actual effective government in Vargas, there was only going to be room for so many criminal guilds, and they were all trying to make sure they stayed on the top of the heap.

  Malick had been alive longer than most for one reason only; as a two-stick man*, he had a bit more of an arsenal than most.  But that wasn’t helping him now.  Now he was out of scrolls, out of potions, and not a wand on him.  With the Black Hand scattered like it was, he just couldn’t get his hands on magical supplies like he used to.  He still had his personal stash, though… if he could get to it.

            His hopes started to rise as he heard the sound of the river lapping up against the docks.  His bolt-hole was close.  His pounding heart sang when he saw the nondescript fishing shack come into sight.  With barely a moment to spare, he jumped through the door and quickly set the latch.  It would only delay his pursuers a second or two, but seconds counted in this business.

            Dashing to the corner, Malick threw open the trapdoor in the floor, then slid down the ladder, making sure to pull the trapdoor shut behind him.  He dropped into a pitch-black room, and immediately turned and walked down a corridor.  He navigated by pure memory, turning left and right at just the right places.  It was only when he came into a much larger room that he stopped to take out a small enchanted light-stone.

            The light revealed bare walls, and a few crude shelves.  Malick went to the shelves and began scooping things into his bag, stuffing a couple of wands into his belt and grabbing a fistful of scrolls.  After cleaning out everything he could, he turned his light off and began to make his way to another tunnel, which led to an underground cavern that had been undercut by the river.  From there he could emerge further down in the docks and disappear.

            He stopped when he heard shouts from his pursuers.  It was hard to pinpoint, but they were definitely coming from in front of him, not behind.  _Damn!  They found the caves!_

            Malick doubled back to his storage room, and heard shouts coming from the tunnel he’d come in from.  Panic set in, and Malick turned and ran down another corridor off the room, one he never used because it went nowhere.  He figured his only hope was to hide and hope they didn’t search too hard for him.

            He came around a corner, and dashed to the end of the corridor.  Unfortunately, Malick wasn’t as familiar with this tunnel as the ones he normally used, and he overestimated the length.  Stars flashed in Malick’s vision as his head rammed into the stone wall.  He almost fell backward, but caught himself.  As he rubbed his forehead, and felt blood trickling from a cut on his scalp, Malick was surprised to hear the sound of loose stone falling, and a sudden waft of stale air hit his face.  Surprised, Malick reached out to feel the wall.  Some of the stone had fallen away, and there was now a small gap.

            Malick felt the hole, had a sudden idea, paused to contemplate it.  A sudden, louder shout from one of the Night Blade assassins made up his mind.  Malick rammed his shoulder into the wall, widening the gap just enough to slip through.  After forcing his way past the opening, Malick dropped to one knee and lit up his magic stone again.  He pulled out the sheaf of scrolls and went through them quickly, tossing them on the ground as he searched for the one he wanted.  Finally, he pulled a single sheet of parchment out, and began intoning the arcane words.  Seconds later, the loose stone around the wall began to fill in, until a second later there was no sign of disturbance.

            Malick waited, holding his breath.  He heard his pursuers reach the end of the tunnel.  He heard loud voices arguing, though he couldn’t make out the words.  After a few minutes, the voices seemed to recede.  He let his breath out slowly, and stood up.  There was little to do now, except see where he was.  The Night Blade would be watching his place for hours to see if he came out.  But he might be able to find another exit, and if not he was sure he could break down the wall again.

            Shining his light around, the first thing Malick noticed was the carvings on the wall.  Ornate carvings, like the kind found in the fancy stone houses in the northern part of the city.  Dust lay thick all over, and Malick rubbed at his nose to keep from sneezing, feeling the scar there from when he’d had the end bitten off by that wolf the Night Whispers had sent to attack him three months ago.

            Following the passageway, Malick soon came to another large room.  Dominating the center of the room was a large sarcophagus.  Nervous, Malick approached the stone slab.  He’d heard his share of vampire stories, of course, though there were no reports of recent vampire attacks.  But the sarcophagus was large, and well-crafted, the kind of thing where people got buried with a lot of valuables.

            Peering at the stone lid, Malick blew dust off the surface and read the epitaph:


_            HERE LIES PARIOS, DUKE OF VARGEX, LORD MAYOR OF VARGAS_


            Malick thought for a moment, but couldn’t remember a Duke Parios. _Must not have been a popular Duke, if you didn’t end up in the catacombs beneath the Ducal Manor.  Still, never look a gift horse…_

            Pulling a small crowbar from his bag, Malick began working on opening the sarcophagus.  It was slow work with only one, but Malick had time to kill.  Eventually, he was able to slide it away far enough to see inside.  His light immediately picked up the glint of gold and gems.  Malick began pulling valuables off the Duke’s corpse, rather irreverently tossing aside old bones that interfered with his work.  He pocketed a gem-studded circlet, and an amulet, and then pulled a large ring off the finger.  Looking at the ring, Malick saw that it bore the ducal seal.

            “Oh, I think I can find a use for you,” he said quietly to himself.  He’d forgotten that Dukes were always buried with a copy of the signet ring.  Though no expert in forgery himself, he figured that someone would pay handsomely for this ring.  On a whim, he stuck it on his finger, and started to return to his looting.

            Suddenly, Malick’s mind was filled with images.  He could see… no, feel his awareness expand outside the room, into the city.  His mind focused on eight different spots in Vargas, on some of the many statues of Kythrian Varges.  In his mind, he felt the presence of these statues, and realized they were more than just blocks of stone.  He felt the ring searching for something within him, some key element that would trigger the magic.  Almost instinctively, Malick began the exercises in mental subterfuge designed to confound magical auras, to allow him to unlock an item’s secrets just as a box man used tools to fool a lock into opening.  It was tricky, as the ring didn’t seem to be looking for the traditional components; a certain faith, a particular moral outlook, a certain body of knowledge.  But finally, Malick’s ever-shifting mind managed to confound the probing magic enough, and he felt the sudden surge of power as the ring connected to him.  Imperfectly, to be sure, but connected nonetheless.

            In his mind, he felt the eight statues of Kythrian suddenly become aware of him.  And he heard eight identical voices in his mind.

_Command us, master._

            Malick smiled, and laughter filled the tomb.

            Oh, he could _definitely _find a use for this ring.

*          *          *​
            Out in the courtyard, Arrie waited impatiently, pacing back and forth along the cobblestones.  Several of the most severely damaged ones had been repaired in the past two months, and the overgrown ivy had been trimmed back, making the footing steadier than it had been (several visitors to the manor had ended up nursing twisted ankles in the first two weeks).

            She had no idea why she was edgy today.  She felt as though she were expecting something to happen, though she honestly couldn’t say what that ‘something’ would be.  Life in Vargas had become almost routine, as much as it could when you were helping your sister try and rule a crime-riddled city.  Arrie had spent most of her time responding to the messages that had started coming in from the various baronies and counties that were part of the Duchy of Vargex, trying to defer their requests for a visit from Autumn as long as she could without directly admitting that Vargas was in too rough a shape for her to leave it.

            She saw a patrol of the city watch go by the main gate of the manor, and sighed.  Autumn had made a request to the local Imperial garrison for aid, but the request was apparently tied up in bureaucratic issues, and no soldiers had been sent.  Arrie had no doubt they could thank Emperor Haxtha for the ‘bureaucratic issues’.  Fortunately, they had been able to recruit a few more citizens for the watch, and purge some of the more corrupt ones from the roster, and so in general the city was safe enough in the day.  Nights were still a problem, though.

            Autumn spent most of her days meeting with those who still had some influence and power in the city; the heads of guilds, wealthy upper-class citizens, land owners.  She’d held a reception at the manor about two weeks after the new year, which was very lightly attended.  Since then, there’d been no time to plan a second event.  She was aided a great deal by Shoshone, the advisor that Haxtha had sent with them; Arrie had no doubt that Shoshone was one of the Emperor’s intelligence agents, though Shoshone herself never admitted to as much.  Her presence in the city had been the one favor Haxtha had done for Autumn (oh, there were the three Imperial Guardsmen, too; she couldn’t forget about them), and her aid to the new Duchess had been invaluable.  Arrie couldn’t help but wonder if Haxtha had deliberately sent a tiefling agent just to annoy her aasimar sister; fortunately, the racial differences had never caused any problems.

            As for Osborn, he hadn’t been seen for days.  Some of their initial information about the five criminal guilds in the city indicated that one of the newest ones, the Silent Foot, was comprised entirely of gnomes, dwarves, and hin, and they seemed to have some sort of bias against the taller races.  Osborn had offered to try and infiltrate the Silent Foot, going deep undercover to ferret out the guild’s secrets.  No one had seen him since then; the only reason they knew he was okay was that every other day a blank piece of paper was found stuck to the front gate that smelled strongly of bacon.

            Arrie realized suddenly that she had started to pace, and forced herself to stop, instead sitting down on the corner of the marble statue in the center of the courtyard.  The statue was of Kythrian Vargex, the first Duke of Vargex and founder of the city.  There were over a dozen statues of Kythrian all around Vargas, including the one that Arrie was now using as a chair.  They’d made a few jokes in private about the vanity of the man when they’d learned how many of these identical statues were in the city, but it seemed that Kythrian was still very highly thought of by the populace, and seemed to be regarded as the city’s protector.  To be sure, all of the statues of Kythrian had been positioned to look at the ducal manor, as if watching over the ruler for any sign of corruption.  Every one of the statues held the same pose; a regal elf dressed in plate armor, decorated with runes, who stood in serene vigil, no weapon in hand.

            “Where were you six months ago?” Arrie asked the statue.  Clearly, the previous steward of Vargas, Count Robar, would not have lived up to Kythrian’s standards.  Now, if only they could find out what had happened to him…

_One problem at a time_, Arrie warned herself.  The problem was, it was hard to decide which problem to tackle first.  Maybe that was what had her on edge; their inability to make a decisive move.  Or perhaps she was just bored; of all of them, her days had much more free time.  She’d offered to do more, but Shoshone had asked her to refrain, saying that they didn’t want it to appear like the Imperial Princess – and by extension, the Emperor – was ‘carrying’ the new Duchess.  So, for the most part, she played the role of ‘distinguished visitor’, lending a hand only where it wouldn’t be obvious, such as writing letters that Autumn could then sign and seal, or helping to entertain guests.

            Under normal circumstances, the arrival of the silver raven might have caught Arrie off guard as she sat gathering her thoughts.  But her developing psionic abilities had enhanced her innate sense of her surroundings, keeping her at least somewhat cognizant of what was happening around her even when her mind was occupied.  When she saw the metallic construct descending into the courtyard, she had to suppress the urge to jump with glee.  Its return could only mean one thing; her message had been received.  Arrie eagerly popped open the raven’s message compartment as soon as it landed, and extracted the note inside.



_Arrie – We arrived in Aleppi today, got your message.  We can’t all get there as fast as you’d like, but some of us will be coming to help via the Kyle Express.  If you’re reading this, we’ve just landed in Vargas, and will be at Autumn’s house in twenty minutes.  Please make sure the guards don’t shoot us. – Lanara_



            Grinning, Arrie stuffed the note into a pocket and walked down to the main gate.  The guards posted there snapped to attention as soon as the Imperial Princess appeared.

            “There will be visitors arriving within the next half an hour,” Arrie said.  “They’re to be let in immediately and brought up to the house.”

            “Of course, Your Highness,” said one of the guards, saluting.  “How many visitors, and how will we know them?”

            Arrie paused.  The letter hadn’t said who was coming.  “I’m not certain of the exact number,” she said, “but look for a cansin woman with pink hair.”

            “Very good, Your Highness,” the guard said, and returned to his duties as Arrie went up to the house to tell everyone.

            When Lanara, Kyle, and Razael walked up to the gate fifteen minutes later, the guards took one look at them – specifically, at Lanara – and opened the gates immediately.  “You’re all expected by Her Grace, the Duchess of Vargex, and Her Highness, the Imperial Princess of Tlaxan,” the guards said.

            Autumn and Arrie were waiting out in the courtyard when they walked up.  Arrie ran up and gave Kyle a big bear hug, which he returned, and then she did the same for Lanara, nearly lifting the cansin off her feet.  Razael stood nearby, silently, as they greeted each other.

            Autumn walked up to Lanara, embracing her, and laughing at something the bard whispered in her ear.  Then she let go, and turned to Kyle, who was waiting for her.

            “Hey, guys,” Arrie said, seeing what was happening, “I’ve really been dying to show you all this section of wall way over here.”

            “Oh, wow!” Lanara said, walking away with Arrie, “is that stone?”  She paused only long enough to grab Razael’s arm and drag him along with them.

            For a while, neither of them said a word to each other.  Though they had only been separated two months, both of them wore the mantles of heavy burdens, a heavy look in the eyes that spoke of a decade’s worth of troubles, sorrows, and worries.

            “I can’t stay,” Kyle said at last, though it seemed to take an enormous effort for the words to come out.

            Autumn made no effort to disguise her disappointment.  “Why?”

            “I found some of my family.  They’re in Aleppi now, with Xu and Togusa.  I have to go back to make sure they get here safely.”

            Autumn grasped Kyle’s hands.  “Kyle, that’s wonderful!  I can’t wait to meet them!”

            “They’re excited to see you, too,” he said, cracking a slight smile.  “If for no other reason that to meet a real duchess.”

            Her face drooped a little.  “Don’t remind me,” she said.  “It’s been miserable, Kyle.  I know I shouldn’t say that to you now, you have your own worries, but…”

            “I understand.  Believe me, I do.  We’ll… we’ll need to talk when we have more time.”

            Autumn nodded slowly.  “I agree.  There’s too much to start now.”

            There was another long moment of silence, and then they kissed.  A slow, lingering kiss that spoke of nothing more than a desire to be close to one another.

            Their lips parted, reluctantly.  “How long can you stay?” Autumn asked.

            “An hour, I figure,” Kyle said.  “That’ll get me back to Aleppi in time to get on the road first thing in the morning.”

            “So soon…”

            “I could stay longer, lose a little sleep…”

            “No… no.  Better if you just get back to me as fast as you can.  I’ll arrange something for your family.”  Autumn pulled back, reluctantly.  “We should go catch up to the others.  They’ve spent enough time pretending to be busy for our sake, don’t you think?”

            Kyle sighed.  “Sure, sure.”

            The couple caught up to Arrie, Razael, and Lanara just as the three of them finished a quick look around the grounds.  “So, what do you think of Arrie’s house?”

            “Nice, except that it’s in the city,” Razael sniffed.  “I’d prefer something out in the country myself.”

            “But it is the highest point in the city,” Lanara pointed out.  “I’ll bet you could shoot people really well from those windows up there.”

            “You know, it disturbs me how you can always find a silver lining for him,” Arrie said.

            “So, you called us.” Razael asked.

            “We just need a little help everywhere, it seems,” Autumn sighed.  “Crime and corruption are rampant in the city, and the Empire’s not providing much in the way of substantial help.”

            “You mean Haxtha’s not providing much,” Razael spat.  “You ask me, the best thing would be to put an arrow in Haxtha’s brain and put Herion on the throne.”

            “Except that would turn Princess Ariadne into Empress Ariadne,” Kyle said, “and I’d be willing to bet that she wouldn’t get her remaining five years of freedom** if that happened.  I’d rather keep her around longer.”

            “As would I,” Autumn said.  “And Razael, I’d appreciate you not voicing sedition out loud where others can hear you.”

            “Who’s here to listen?” Razael said.

            “You’d be surprised,” said a familiar voice above them.

            Descending from the sky as if walking on the air itself, Madrone descended into their midst.  She was immediately greeted with embraces and shouts of glee.  As they looked at their friend, they noticed several changes in her.  Her raven-feather cloak, a symbol of her faith and her standing in the church of Erito, was now much longer, and woven in with the many black feathers were a few pure white ones.  In addition, Maddie now wore a single earring from which hung a very large, white feather, the length of her forearm.  Razael stared closely at the feather for a long time.

            “That’s a raven feather,” he said.  “I’m sure of it.  But it shouldn’t be that color, or that size.  Where did you get it?”

            “I’ll explain another time,” she said, smiling.  “For now, suffice it to say I was on a pilgrimage.”

            “Without me?” Razael said.

            “Yes.  Your presence would have… complicated things.  The pilgrimage was given to me by the Serenity herself.  But it’s over now, and I’m back with friends.  Let’s open up a few bottles of Autumn’s wine and catch up.”

            “I’ll have to join you later,” Autumn said.  “I have to meet with my advisors about my outing.”

            “Outing?” Lanara asked.

            “My advisors have planned a luncheon and reception for me to attend in two days, right after the end of the Time of Burning,” the sentinel said.  “At some place called the Medusa’s Lair.”

            “Seems they want to show everyone that it’s safe to be out in public again,” Arrie said.  “Apparently the Lord Mayor’s usually fairly accessible to the people.  They’re trying to show that Autumn’s making an effort to get out in public again.”

            “That doesn’t sound so bad,” Maddie said.

            “It’s several hours of toasts, speeches, and talking with a bunch of stuffy people I’d just as soon punch in the face as spend five minutes in the same room with,” Autumn complained.

            “Sounds like a lovely party,” Kyle said, “glad I’m missing it.”

            “You’ll get your share of them soon enough, Kyle,” Autumn smirked.

            Kyle moaned.  “Why must you be so cruel?”

            “It’s necessary,” said Shoshone, who came walking up at that point.  After introductions were made, Shoshone turned to Kyle.  “I didn’t mean that being cruel to you was necessary, of course.  What the two of you do in private is not my concern.  I meant that the reception is necessary.  There have been certain rumors circulating about the Duchess that we need to quell.”

            “What kind of rumors?” Lanara asked.

            “The usual,” Shoshone said, waving a hand dismissively.  “She’s not fit to rule, she’s not even an elf so how can she rule elves, that sort of thing.  At any rate, our concern is to combat these more recent rumors of being ‘the wrong woman for the job’.  By initiating this reception outside of the manor, we can show the people that you’re returning the city to more traditional ways, when the Lord Mayor walked openly in the city.”

            “Well, that’s two days away still,” Autumn said.  “Right now, I think we should go inside and open that wine Maddie talked about, and catch up with each other before Kyle has to leave.”

            Maddie smiled.  “Keep making decisions like that, Your Grace, and I don’t think you’ll have any trouble winning the people over.”

*          *          *​
            Two days passed.  Kyle was long gone, now escorting his family north to the city.  Shoshone had briefed the others on the situation in Vargas; she also made sure that three more guests were added to the list at the Medusa’s Lair.  There was a brief argument between Autumn and Shoshone; Autumn wanted to wear her armor, while Shoshone pointed out a dress would be more appropriate.  In the end, Autumn agreed to the dress, though Shoshone did find a way to make sure the sentinel’s greataxe was nearby, draping a tabard over it and disguising it as a banner.  Razael agreed to play the part of banner-bearer at the social; it not only avoided the concerns that the presence of an Imperial Huntsman might raise, but allowed Razael to be present without having to socialize.

            Autumn and her entourage arrived at the Medusa’s Lair a little after three bells.  It was a large, two-story structure, which appeared very elegant and clean.  A doorman waited at the entrance, bowing as he opened the door.  The establishment faced a modest courtyard, which featured one of the many statues of Kythrian Vargex.  Maddie pointed out the painted steel plate that was bolted onto the statue’s chest, bearing Autumn’s personal heraldry.

            “What’s that for?” she asked.

            “Tradition, apparently,” Autumn said.  “There’s one on every statue in the city now.”

            Inside, the Medusa’s Lair appeared like many other taverns, though much nicer than many that the party had been in.  Several stone statues were placed around the room, and seemed to comprise the theme of the décor.  Ivy grew up some of the statues and around the ceiling beams, and white marble was used in several places.  Autumn’s party was directed up a set of curving stairs to the second level, which was set up as more of a restaurant than a tavern.  The entire floor had been reserved for the reception, and one long table dominated the room, with elegant setting and centerpieces.  Several people were already sitting at the table, who rose to greet the duchess as she arrived.  Autumn recognized most of the people there, as she’d met with most of them more formally in the past two months.  There were the heads of guilds, landed gentry, and wealthy families.  Autumn greeted them, and stood patiently during the obligatory introductions, toasts, and invocations.  Thirty minutes later, they all say down.

            Lanara tugged on Shoshone’s sleeve, and when the tiefling leaned over, she drew her attention to a man sitting in the corner, playing a harp.  “Shoshone, send him away,” she said. “I want to play.”

            “I can’t,” she replied quietly.  “He’s not our bard, he’s been hired by the house.  Besides, I don’t think we should go dismissing the local talent if we want the locals to start liking us more.”

            The meal was very good, although Autumn and Arrie barely got to taste theirs, as they spent most of their time exchanging pleasantries with the other guests.  Even Lanara and Madrone were forced to engage in more mealtime conversation than they would have liked.

            “It’s times like these,” Arrie whispered to Autumn at one point, “that I wish we were dwarves.”***  The comment prompted a chuckle out of Autumn.

            After the meal, there was a long speech by the head of the brewer’s guild, and then another by the head of the brewer’s guild.  After the speeches, Shsoshone slipped over and whispered into Autumn’s ear.

            “The owner of the establishment, Lashonne, would like an introduction,” she said.  “Shall I send for her?”

            “Of course.”

            Shoshone motioned, and one of the servants with the Lair went downstairs.  A minute later, the owner came up, and her entrance caught everyone’s attention.

            She was a lovely, pale-skinned woman, with a slender build.  She wore a light green, diaphanous wrap that left her shoulders bare, and allowed glimpses of flesh to peek though in other places.  But that was not what drew attention.  Lashonne’s hair was a mass of bright green snakes, and from the waist down she had the body of a serpent.  Lashonne glided up the stairs, and slid over to where Autumn sat.

            “A pleasure, Your Grace,” Lashonne said, bowing.  “It’s an honor to meet you.”

            “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Lashonne,” Autumn said, trying hard not to react to their host’s strange appearance.

            “Thank you.  We’ve entertained many important people here over the years, but it’s been some time since our old Duke or the former Lord Mayor came.  I’m glad to see you’ve decided to get out of the manor.”

            “Well, I want to make sure the people know that I have no intention of hiding from my subjects.  Vargas has a long tradition of mutual respect between the people and their leaders, which should be honored.”

            “Indeed,” Lashonne said, nodding.  “And speaking of honors, would Your Grace be offended if I were to ask your associate to favor us with a few songs?” Lashonne nodded toward Lanara.  “It would be a privilege to have a bard of her reputation play here.”

            “I would not be at all offended,” Autumn said, smiling.  “I’m sure Lanara would relish the opportunity.”

            During the exchange, Razael watched Lashonne with narrow eyes.  No one seemed alarmed that a medusa was within arm’s reach of the Duchess, but he could hardly remain complacent.  But as he watched the woman carefully for signs of an attack, he realized that her snake hair was not nearly as lively as he would have suspected.  Looking closer, he realized that the snakes were actually stuffed, with glass beads for eyes.  Her serpentine body appeared genuine, but she was no true medusa.  Once he realized the deception, Razael relaxed.

            Lanara went and played for the assembled guests, taking the place of the Lair’s bard, who graciously stepped aside for her.  She sang a ballad written about one of the party’s old exploits, one that featured Autumn in a particularly dramatic and heroic fashion.  Cheers and applause greeted her when she finished.

            Arrie was about to request another song, when there was a sudden loud noise from downstairs, a metallic crash.  Everyone in the room jumped, save for the party members, who were seasoned adventurers, and Shoshone, who never seemed surprised by anything.  Guards immediately surrounded both Autumn and Arrie, and Lashonne immediately went downstairs to find the source of the noise.  Autumn turned to look at her friends.

            “I’ll go,” Maddie said, turning and heading down the stairs.  Razael followed right behind her, pulling the tabard off of Autumn’s greataxe and tossing it to the Duchess on his way out.

            People downstairs in the tavern were similarly perplexed by the noise, looking around uncertainly as Maddie and Razael came down the stairs.  A crowd seemed to be gathering just outside the front door, however, and so they went there, Razael pressing his way through the people as Maddie stayed just inside, using a magical ring she’d recently acquired to peer through the walls and see what was going on.

            The focus of attention was obvious.  Buried into the wall just above the door, a metal plate jutted out, still shivering slightly.  The plate bore the colors and heraldry of Autumn Verahannen, the new Lady Mayor and Duchess of Vargex.  Several people were also milling about near the statue of Kythrian, but no one seemed willing to get too close.  The plate had obviously come off the statue.

            “It threw it,” said one man close to Razael’s shoulder.  “I swear by Bles’ bountiful bosom, I saw Kythrian tear the plate off and throw it at the door.”

            “She’s in there, isn’t she?” said a woman nearby.  “The new duchess?”

            “Yeah, I think so.  Looks like what they’re saying about her is true.”

            Razael immediately moved to the statue, and began searching for tracks.  Maddie stayed by the entrance and tried to calm people down.  Shortly after that, both Arrie and Autumn came down, surrounded by guards, with Lanara just behind them.  Shoshone remained in the room, spinning a few tales to calm the other guests.

            Everyone came outside, and saw the damage.  Hearing some of the whispers around them, especially with the new Duchess now present, Lanara began quietly working the crowd, not only trying to find out what people saw, but trying to sow uncertainty so that the rumors wouldn’t spread.

            Razael came up to Autumn.  “Whoever did this either used magic, or set it up a while ago,” he said.  “I can’t find any recent tracks of people coming up to that statue, though a lot of folks have walked through this here courtyard.”

            Suddenly, there was a screeching noise from across the courtyard.  Everyone turned to see an elderly human woman, standing in the midst of the square, pointing a crooked finger directly at Autumn.

            “See!” the woman shouted hoarsely.  “The signs are true!  Kythrian’s spirit is angry!  Go home, usurper!  Reject the new Duchess!”

            Razael glanced at Autumn questioningly.  Autumn shook her head slightly.  The woman shouted for another moment, then was quickly bustled off by a middle-aged woman.

            Shoshone appeared at Autumn’s side, apparently having heard everything.  “We’re going inside, now,” she said.  Turning to Razael, she whispered, “Follow the woman.”

            The party, minus Razael, quickly returned upstairs.  The incident was explained away as a simple act of vandalism, surely a sign that the new Duchess had the criminal element nervous.  Guards started escorting the guests home, while Autumn and her friends returned to the manor.  Shoshone ordered men to repair the damaged statue, and then went herself to check some of the others in the city.  Autumn gave some gold to Lashonne to help pay for the damages before leaving.

            They waited until Razael and Shsoshone got back before comparing notes.  “There are three other altered statues,” Shoshone said.  “All in the southern part of town.  One had your crest pulled off, though thankfully not thrown anywhere, and the other two appear to have been turned around to look like they have their backs to the manor.”

            “I looked for magical auras in the area once things calmed down,” Maddie said.  “I didn’t get much, just a trace of illusion on the statue itself and a trace of transmutation on the steel plate.”

            “Well, a few people in the courtyard were actually watching,” Lanara said, “and they swear that the statue reached in, pulled the plate off its own chest, and then chucked it at the Medusa’s Lair like a discus.  I think was able to catch most of the ‘me too’ crowd.”

            “Razael, what about the old woman?” Shoshone asked.

            “Following her was no problem,” the tracker said.  “She wasn’t trying to hide or run.  The gal who got her out of there was her daughter, apparently.  Along the way I heard them arguing – the old woman believes there’s some sort of prophecy that says old Kythrian isn’t taking a shine to Autumn and is coming back to restore his throne.  She mentioned a name – Madame LeFou.  That’s who she heard the rumor from.”

            “Well, let’s see here,” Autumn said.  “How many people don’t like me, and have the capability of doing this?  All of them, I think?”

            “Too early to tell who’s behind this,” Arrie said.  “We’ll need to look into it.”

            “I can look up this Madame LeFou tomorrow,” Lanara said.

            “I have contacts I can check,” Shoshone said.  “I’ll work those to see what I can dig up.”

            “What can I do?” Autumn asked.

            “For now, nothing.  Go about your normal business.  If this is a plot, then we shouldn’t make it easy for them by sending you out into the city.”

            Autumn nodded, but the frustration was evident on her face.  She wasn’t the type who liked to sit around and wait for something to happen.

            Shoshone was out the rest of the night and well into the morning.  Her initial inquiries pointed her toward the Poisoned Blade assassin’s guild, as apparently the guild dealt in ‘character assassination’ as well as the more physical kind.  She arranged a meeting with one of their members.  After the exchange of a fair number of drinks and even more coins, the man told her that his own guild wasn’t behind the recent disturbances.

            “Now, I could probably dig around, and find a name,” the man said.  “That’d be worth something to you?”

            “It’s not what it’s worth to me,” Shoshone said, “it’s what it’s worth to my employer.  We understand that information gathering is part of doing business, and certain resources have been allocated toward that.  Some of those resources could find their way to you… if your information is accurate.”

            “Then perhaps we should discuss how many of those ‘resources’ are going to end up in my pocket tonight.”

            There was a brief negotiation.

            “Word on the street is that this started with the Black Hand,” the grizzled old rogue said.  “Who exactly we don’t know.  The Hand’s not got a lot of people left under their banner these days, if you take my meaning.  Whoever it is seems to have a halfway decent idea in his head, decent enough to risk stepping into our territory.  With a little time, and a little more grease, I could get a name, like I said.”

            “Why don’t you give us a chance to check out what you’ve shared so far,” Shoshone said.  “If it’s accurate, and I wish to have you look further into the matter, then I’ll leave a ‘gift’ for you with the barkeep here.”

            “Agreed.”

            Shoshone departed the small tavern, and after making sure she wasn’t being followed, made her way back to the manor.

            The next day, Lanara set out to find Madame LeFou, disguising herself as a common house servant.  She was given directions after only a few minutes of asking around, and later that morning found herself in the southeastern part of Vargas, not far from the Straight Road.  Madame LeFou’s business was a tiny storefront, no doubt with an apartment attached in the rear.  A faded sign over the door depicted a crystal ball between two feminine eyes.

            Opening the door, Lanara was assaulted by the scent of incense and cheap perfume.  A bell hung by the door chimed merrily as the door swung open.  Pushing through heavy curtains, she came upon a small table, draped with a heavy cloth, with a crystal sphere in the middle.  The curtains hung all the way around the room, and braziers in each corner wafted scented smoke into the air.

            A moment later, the curtains on the far side of the room parted, and a middle-aged elf-touched woman stepped through.  She wore heavy makeup, and gaudy, loose clothing, accentuated by costume jewelry.

            “Come in, come in!” fluttered Madame LeFou, gesturing toward an empty chair even as she settled into the other.  “Read your fortune, consult the spirits, divine your future?”

            “Well, it’s not so much my own future,” Lanara said, sitting down.  “I’m more worried about our new Duchess.  There were some terrible portents last night.”

            “Yes, I have heard.  The spirits have spoken to me.”

            “What were they saying?  Should we protect ourselves?  Flee the city?”

            Madame LeFou shook her head.  “It seems that the spirit of Kythrian, our founder and eternal protector, has become angry at this outsider, this usurper who has come.”

            “But… but… Princess Ariadne is here, too.  I thought the Crown was favorable toward…”

            “Do not question the spirits!” Madame LeFou interjected suddenly.

            “I’m… not questioning them,” Lanara said, trying hard not to laugh out loud.

            “I am not here to interpret their will, young lady,” LeFou said reproachfully.  “I am merely a conduit to the beyond.”

            “Okay, then, can I talk to him?”

            “Talk to who, dear?”

            “Kythrian.”

            Madame LeFou blinked for a moment.  “Such a communion would be difficult, young lady.  Kythrian’s spirit is potent.  I cannot predict the risks.”

            “Oh, please,” Lanara said, putting on her best ‘naïve girl’ routine.  “I’ve been saving up my salary for a reading.”  She pulled out a small coin purse, heavy with coins.  Pocket change for her, but probably three day’s earnings for Madame LeFou.  Predictably, the fortuneteller’s eyes widened.

            “Well, perhaps we can try, since it is so important to you,” she said.  “Please, sit quietly.  I must have absolute silence while I attempt to connect with Kythrian’s spirit.”

            Lanara had traveled all over Affon, and had seen her share of fortuneteller acts in hin circuses, carnivals, and festivals.  Madame LeFou’s performance was average at best, though she at least affected a passable male falsetto when ‘channeling’ Kythrian.  Lanara figured the only thing that kept most of her customers from catching on was the fact that all the incense burning in the tiny room was making her a little light-headed.  Predictably, when Lanara asked ‘Kythrian’ some challenging questions, such as why exactly he was angry at Autumn, the ‘contact’ was suddenly broken.  Lanara decided to turn the tables on Madame LeFou.

            “I’m… I’m sorry, dear,” LeFou was saying, her eyelids fluttering, “maintaining the connection with the spirit world is always difficult.”

            “It seems like you still have a connection,” Lanara said, pointing.

            Madame LeFou opened her eyes to see her crystal ball floating a foot off the table, slowly drifting toward her face.  She seemed slightly alarmed by this.

            “I… I think perhaps you’ve angered the spirits, young lady,” LeFou stammered.  “Perhaps you should be on your way.”

            “If they’re mad at me, why is the ball coming toward you?” Lanara asked innocently.  As if to prove her point, the crystal ball suddenly came up to within a few inches of the fortuneteller’s face.  LeFou’s eyes darted around the room, as the ball inched closer.  Finally, as the ball came within a hair’s breadth of her nose, a ghostly, sinister face suddenly materialized inside it.

            With a shriek, Madame LeFou bolted for the back door, knocking her chair over and nearly toppling one of the braziers.  As the door slammed shut, Lanara sighed, and ended her _mage hand_ spell, letting the ball drop onto the table.  Then she pulled out her lute and began to play a calming, yet entrancing tune.  Sure enough, within a few minutes an enthralled Madame LeFou came back into the room and calmly sat down after righting her chair.

            “Now,” said Lanara, dropping the act of innocence, “why don’t you tell me all about the ‘spirits’ that gave you this rumor about the Duchess?”

-------------------

* in underworld parlance, a "two-stick man" is a rogue who has specialized in the Use Magic Device skill (originating from the idea of 'rubbing two sticks together to make fire').

** Recall that Arrie was given a ten-year span after marrying Herion to explore the world before she would be obligated to return to Tlaxan and join the Imperial Court full time.  She has now used up a little over five years.

*** Dwarven custom dictates that no one speaks during meals, or for a period of time afterward, as it is thought to upset the digestion.


----------



## Delemental

“Marquis Mysterio.”

            “Who?” Razael asked, looking up at Lanara.

            “That’s who started the rumor,” she replied.

            Razael rolled his eyes.  “For Erito’s sake, do they all have such stupid names?”

            “Was it a deliberate plant?” Shoshone said.  The others in the room waited with interest for the cansin’s answer.

            Lanara shook her head.  “It’s a credibility thing in the profession.”  Seeing curious looks, she continued.  “Osborn would probably know this.  The most important thing for a fortuneteller is credibility, that people believe you have the powers you say you do.  In a circus or carnival, you just plant a few rubes in the crowd who swear that their fortunes came true.  In a city, that doesn’t work so well – people would get suspicious seeing the same people touting the fortuneteller’s powers.  Instead, they have sort of an informal network.”

            “Like a guild?” Autumn asked.

            “Nothing so organized.  Most soothsayers don’t join guilds.  They’d love to be members of the wizard’s guild, of course, but there’s no chance of that.  The only guild that would take them would be the entertainer’s guild, and no fortuneteller is going to be caught dead being described as merely an ‘entertainer’.”

            “So, how does this network operate?” Arrie asked.

            “Simple.  They figure that if once in a while they all start ‘predicting’ the same thing, it makes it look like they’re really getting some sort of message from the spirits.  So, in any city there’s one or two in the profession who are informally recognized as the top man or woman.  So, when word gets out that this person’s made some sort of grand prediction, everyone else jumps on the bandwagon.”

            “So this Mysterio fellow is that guy in this town, eh?” Razael asked.  “When do we kill him?”

            “We don’t,” Shoshone said.  “In case you haven’t noticed, Huntsman, we’re trying to reduce the murder rate in Vargas.”

            “If you kill all the murderers, then the rate goes down,” Razael pointed out.

            “Marquis Mysterio is not a murderer,” Shoshone countered.  “He’s a man who is spreading an unfavorable rumor about his liege lord.  And executing a man for sedition borders on tyranny.  Nothing wrong with it if that’s your style, but Autumn wishes to rule in a more… amiable fashion.”

            “I still say it would have been a better way to go about it,” Razael said.  “But I’m not in charge.”

            “And I thank the gods every day that is not the case.”

            “My plan,” Lanara said, interrupting the exchange between the tracker and the tiefling, “is to go see this Mysterio and see what he knows.”

            “Maybe we could bring him back here and question him,” Razael said.  “Let Shoshone have a crack at him.”

            “I’ve been awake for more than thirty hours,” Shoshone said wearily, “and I’m still having the information double-checked about the Black Hand.  Perhaps tomorrow?”
            “Good enough,” Lanara said.  “I’ll take Razael with me tomorrow.  We’ll pretend to be newlyweds looking for advice.”

            “What’s that, lass?” Razael said.  “I’m not sure about that.”

            “Why not?  What could you…” Lanara’s eyes widened, then narrowed as she realized what Razael’s objection was.  “Oh, for Feesha’s sake, no!  Please, you’re cute and all, but… no!”

            “All right,” Autumn said, “tomorrow, then.  Now, I need to meet with Captain Shirazal.  I’m going to have him start organizing the populace into community watch patrols to help ease the burden on the regular Watch.”

            Early the next day Razael and Lanara went to find Marquis Mysterio.  The day before, Razael had gone to the sites of the other altered statues to look for tracks, and though he’d found traces of a bootprint with a similar pattern, the prints had been too old to follow.  Before entering the Marquis’ business, Razael looked for the same bootprint without success.

            Mysterio’s place was much larger and better appointed that LeFou’s, located more toward the center of the city.  A young elven woman at a desk greeted Razael and Lanara inside the door.

            “Good morning,” she said.  “Do you have an appointment?”

            “No,” Lanara said.  “I wasn’t aware we needed one.”

            “No, no, an appointment isn’t required,” the young girl said brightly.  “But some of the Marquis’ patrons do like to schedule ahead.”  The girl consulted an appointment ledger on the table.  “The Marquis is consulting with someone now, but there’s no one scheduled after him.  Please, have a seat.”

            They waited for about five minutes, declining offers of tea or pastries.  Razael stayed standing up, looking around the room for tracks.

            “Is there something I can help you with?” the receptionist asked, after watching Razael slowly circling the room.

            “No,” he replied flatly.

            They continued to wait, with the receptionist making small talk.  Lanara could tell the receptionist was trying to ferret out what they were here to ask about, no doubt to feed that information to Mysterio so he could amaze them with his ‘prescience’.  Her efforts were passably effective, and Lanara allowed her to pick up a few ‘hints’.  Soon a balding, middle-aged human man came out from the back, and a minute later the young elven woman asked them to step through the curtains.

            They walked through to a room similar to the one Lanara had seen at LeFou’s.  The décor here was a bit classier, however, and the burning incense not nearly as oppressive.  The table was larger, and looked like it could accommodate several people for a séance.  Lanara sat down at one of the chairs, while Razael remained standing.  Lanara tried to converse further with Razael, dropping more hints that they were here to ask about Duke Kythrian, as she assumed that Mysterio was listening in on them now.  For his part, Razael at least tried to play along, and almost kept the sarcasm from dripping off his tongue as he spoke.

            A minute later, there was a sudden puff of colored smoke at the far end of the room, and when it cleared, a man was standing before them (both Razael and Lanara’s eyes, accustomed to looking for danger, had spotted him step from behind a curtain, but acted suitably impressed nonetheless).  He was a tall, thin human, and relatively young, no more than thirty-five.  He wore flashy, colorful clothes, better quality than what LeFou wore but still nothing to be seen in public wearing.  He had a turban wrapped around his head, adorned with a large blue jewel.

            “Welcome,” he said.  “I am Marquis Mysterio.  I sense that you are here to speak with the spirits.  Perhaps you worry about the fate of our city under our new Duchess?”

            “Yes, we are!” Lanara exclaimed.  “We’ve been hearing such horrible things!  Someone told us that they’d heard all about it from you first!”

            “Indeed, I am often blessed with the earliest premonitions and warnings from the spirit world,” Mysterio said.  “Among those who have passed beyond, I command a measure of respect.”  Mysterio gestured toward Razael, then to an empty chair.  “Please, sit down.”

            Razael shook his head.

            “He’s… a little funny about this,” Lanara said, smiling.

            “I understand,” Mysterio said, smiling and bowing.  “Dealing  with the forces of the supernatural can be unnerving for some.  By all means, remain where you are, though to be fair I should warn you that if you remain outside the circle of power,” Mysterio pointed to a circle painted on the floor in gold paint around the table, with squiggly runes running along the inside, “your ability to perceive the spirits will be diminished.”

            “Sure, whatever,” Razael said, wanting to just put an arrow in the man’s eye.

            Mysterio sat down opposite Lanara, and with a flourish produced a small brazier from a fold in his sleeve.  He set it down in front of him, and lit the contents.  Soon a light, citrus-scented smoke began to waft around the table.

            “Let us begin,” he said.

            The ceremony took several minutes.  Lanara noted that Mysterio’s performance was far superior to LeFou’s; he had obviously invested in numerous props to enhance the experience.  The crystal ball in the center of the table actually rose of its own accord, hovering in midair, and there was the occasional odd sound or flash of color.  But as time wore on, Lanara suddenly began to realize that she was seeing and hearing things she couldn’t easily explain.  These glimmers and whispers certainly seemed to be influenced by Mysterio’s commands.  Maybe, just maybe, Lanara thought, this guy was for real.  But that didn’t make sense – he was just a charlatan, a fake…

            Razael, standing back from the table, had caught the scent of the incense, and it had triggered a memory.  He’d spent the last few minutes trying to place it, all the time listening in on Mysterio’s spiel.  The old elf had to give the guy credit for thinking fast on his feet; he was covering the obvious flaws in his story that what Lanara had described with the other old bat.  But as the minutes wore on, Mysterio’s ‘channeling’ began to meander, going far afield on tangents before returning to the question of Kythrian’s anger toward Autumn.  Occasionally he would just say something that made no sense at all.  But it wasn’t until he noticed Lanara’s dazed expression, and how she was genuinely hanging on every word Mysterio said, that the memory connected with the current moment.

            “Nava root,” he muttered.  It was a rare mild hallucinogen, noted for making whoever used it more open to suggestion.  Not addictive unless you were exposed to a lot of it.  Razael crossed over next to where Mysterio sat, who by this time was lost in a near stupor.  He picked up the brazier in front of the fortuneteller and pitched it off the table.  It hit the wall with a loud clatter, sparks flying out of the container and singing the curtains.  It took Mysterio a long time to react, but when he did, his first reaction was to fall out of his chair and try to start scooping the burning nava root back into the brazier.

            Razael stepped over and grabbed Mysterio by the front of his robes, intending to question him while he was still fog-headed.  But Lanara, now no longer breathing in the nava root fumes, was able to clear her senses enough to see the tracker menacing the fortuneteller.  She just had the clarity to cast a spell, and Mysterio went rigid.  Razael shook him a few times, then scowled.

            “You know, when he’s like this, I can’t question him.”

            The elf dropped Mysterio unceremoniously to the floor, and then began searching him and the room.  He pulled a small vial out of one of Mysterio’s pockets and tossed it to Lanara.

            “Drink that,” he said.  “It kills the effects of the nava root.”

            “He was burning nava root in there?” Lanara asked, after drinking the contents of the vial and feeling it take effect.  “Qin-Chu’s toes, no wonder people think he’s the best.”

            “Yeah, and he’s probably got the addiction to go with it.  Probably kept the antidote on hand so he could drink it after each session, so’s he was clear enough to send his addled customers on their way.  Most people think you can avoid nava root addiction by taking the antidote every time, but that’s hogwash.”

            A search of the room, and Mysterio’s flat behind it, turned up nothing useful except parlor tricks and his fortune telling equipment.  They couldn’t even find any more nava root.  But Razael did spot something interesting; a boot print in the corner that matched the one he’d seen near the statues. They ended up wrapping Mysterio in a rug, and dropping him in the alley in back.  Then Razael and Lanara walked out of the front, saying farewell to the receptionist on their way out, before looping around to pick up the rug.  They then carried the rug up to the manor, and ended up depositing a delirious Mysterio in front of Shoshone.

            “All yours,” Razael said.

            “I’ll have him taken somewhere private to talk,” Shoshone said.  “But first, I need to make sure Princess Ariadne is ready.”

            “Ready for what?” Lanara asked.

            “While you were gone, I decided to try and have the princess walk with one of our Imperial Guardsmen around the city, to see what kind of reaction they get.  A calculated risk.”

            “A risk that Herion would approve?” Lanara asked.

            Shoshone smiled.  “Probably not.  But he’s not here, and Ariadne has agreed to the task.  Besides, my orders are from the Emperor, and as you’ve no doubt heard, the princess’s welfare is below that of the city and the duchess as far as he is concerned.”

            Arrie departed from the manor within the hour, accompanied by Guard Captain Imrahil.  Arrie wore her adventuring gear and weaponry, and made sure that Imrahil understood that if there was trouble, he could assist, but not interfere.  They walked along the Ring Court, the large road that ran just inside the city’s wall, stopping frequently to peruse local goods and try and listen in on local gossip.  As was expected, crime was the biggest topic of conversation.  Arrie was somewhat heartened to hear a few people comment about feeling safer in the streets, but those comments became fewer and farther between as they made their way south.  A number of people were discussing the recent ‘portents’ of Duke Kythrian’s spirit being angry with Duchess Autumn, and the rumors that his spirit was bringing the statues to life.  Many people discounted the tales as preposterous, but just as many seemed to take them to heart.

            Arrie continued on her way, hoping she might find something useful.  As they made their way toward the southwestern part of town, the number of people who recognized Arrie dwindled – or at least, if they did recognize her, they did a better job of not showing it.  Imrahil began to walk closer to Arrie as they came into the rougher part of town, until he was nearly on top of her.

            “Captain,” Arrie finally said, “if you get any closer to me, you’ll be inside my armor with me.  And I don’t think I or my husband would appreciate that much.”

            “My apologies, Highness,” he said, bowing and taking a step back.  “Habit.”

            They came upon an open plaza, where one of the city’s markets was held.  The first thing that drew their attention was the large crowd that was gathered in the middle of the plaza, watching or listening to something instead of shopping.  They were too far away to tell what it was, but the focal point of their attention was obvious; it was one of the statues of Kythrian.

            “Let’s move in closer,” Arrie said.  “See what’s going on.  We’ll make our way up through the crowd.”  She glanced at Imharil, who had his hand on the hilt of his courtblade.  “Politely,” she added.

            Arrie and Imrahil began to make their way through the crowd.  At first there was little resistance, and most of the people on the outer edges were more curious than attentive, and most moved away after a few moments.  Soon, Arrie could tell that they were listening to someone speaking.  Closer in, the people were more persistent, but the sight of a heavily-armed woman next to an Imperial Guardsman persuaded most.  They were most of the way through the crowd when Arrie finally saw the speaker.

            He was a filthy, bedraggled man, standing up on the pedestal of the statue.  He was shouting an incoherent diatribe against Duchess Autumn, exhorting the crowd to drag her out of her home and execute her.  Most of his speech was rambling and laced with gross distortions.  Looking around, Arrie could see that most of the crowd was listening more for amusement than out of agreement with his sentiments, though she spotted a few that were nodding as the man raved.

            The man paused, and then picked up something off the ground.  It was a nearly life-size rag doll, decorated in a gaudy party dress, with yellow yarn for hair.  It was clearly meant to be an effigy of Autumn.  The man picked up the rag doll and shook it violently, causing bits of yarn and straw to fall away, as he screamed nonsensical threats and promises of divine vengeance.

            Just as Arrie was about to make her way out of the crowd, she caught a glimmer in the air around the man.  As she watched, she saw the rag doll suddenly change, becoming a realistic portrayal of Autumn.  It now looked like the insane man was shaking a limp Duchess around.  All around her, people gasped as they saw the change take place as well.

            The gasps turned to screams as the statue of Kythrian Vargex suddenly stepped forward and brought a pair of heavy stone fists down on the man’s shoulders.  Blood sprayed into the crowd as both the man’s arms were torn out at the sockets, and he collapsed in a pool of gore.

            Both Arrie and Imrahil drew their weapons as the crowd ran screaming.  Imrahil tried to scan the crowd to spot anyone standing nearby who might be admiring their work, but the crowds were too thick.  Arrie, meanwhile, kept a close eye on the statue, which was now standing protectively next to the limp rag doll, also scanning the area.

            The statue, Arrie, and Imrahil remained motionless for a while, each seeming to wait for the other to make the first move.  Then, a young man darted out of the crowd, and made an attempt to pull the insane man to safety.  The statue whirled around, and raised its fists as if to strike.  As Arrie began to step forward to protect the man, however, the statue paused, looked intently at the interloper, then looked again at the ‘Duchess’, which now looked like a rag doll again.  As they all watched, the statue turned, stepped back onto the pedestal, and resumed its original pose.

            Imrahil and Arrie approached warily as the young would-be rescuer ran off screaming.  After a few moments, Arrie turned to Imrahil.

            “We need someone who can sense magical auras,” she said.

            “That would be Madrone,” he replied.

            “Send for her.”

            Imrahil turned and pointed at a bystander.  “You, citizen!” he barked.  “Come here!”

            A trembling elf stepped forward.  “You will go to the Ducal Manor,” Imrahil said.  “You will ask for a woman named Madrone.  Tell her what has happened, and that she needs to come here.  Do this, and you will be suitably compensated.”

            “Yes, sir!” he said, before dashing off.

            A surprisingly short time later, Madrone arrived, along with Razael, Lanara, and Autumn, as well as the man Imrahil recruited.  As the Guardsman paid the man, Arrie filled the others in on what had happened.  By this time the city watch had come and was blocking off the area, keeping people from getting close.  Maddie cast a spell, and looked around.

            “Odd,” she said.  “I see the traces of illusion on that effigy, but nothing on the statue.”

            “Nothing?” Arrie said, “That is strange.”

            “Would your spell detect the presence of something like a solar or pit fiend controlling the statue?” Razael asked.

            “Probably not,” Maddie admitted.  “Other spells would, but nothing I can use.”

            “I’m going to look for tracks outside the immediate area,” Razael said, shouldering his bow and walking away.

            Maddie knelt down next to the dead man.  “Let me try and speak with him, see what ke knows.”

            Maddie invoked the ceremony to speak with the dead, and after a few moments the man’s jaw began to move of its own accord, signaling that the spell had worked.

            “What was behind your diatribe against the Duchess?” Maddie asked.

            The man made a high-pitched noise from the back of his throat, and then words began spilling out in a jumble.  “People!  People told me to tell, to tell people, tell about Duchess.  Tell the people, the people, yes yes yes!  Everybody, Duchess bad!”

            “Who told you to tell everyone the Duchess was bad?”
            “Friend!” the man spat.  “Friend, friend Malick, yes!  Give me pretty doll, yes, tell people, yes yes!”
            “If I wanted to talk to Malick, where could I find him?”

            “Hmm,” the man said, and seemed to stop responding for a while before bursting out with “Southwest!  Yes yes, southwest Malick find you, give you things.  Give me things, find me, give me things to make voices go away, nasty voices!”

            “Apparently,” Maddie said to the others, “Malick is his… doctor, so to speak.  He gives him things to ‘make the voices go away’.  But Malick always finds him, in the slums.”

            “Where the other statues Shoshone saw were,” Autumn said.  She found herself feeling almost naked without her armor on, especially since everyone else was properly attired.  At least she’d had time to grab her greataxe.

            “What does Malick look like?” Maddie asked the dead man.

            “Small man, pointy ears,” he babbled.  “Little points, little, not big points.  Little, yes yes.  Small man.  Nose… nose gone.  Half gone, bye bye.  Gone away.  Two-stick man, yes, yes.”

            “What’s a ‘two-stick man?” Arrie asked.

            “It’s underworld slang,” Lanara said.  “it means someone who’s trained to use magical devices as a specialty.  Comes from ‘rubbing two sticks together to make fire’, since they tend to use a lot of wands.”

            “Little points on the ears,” Maddie said, “sounds like an elf-touched.”

            “With half his nose missing,” Arrie added.

            “I have one more question,” Maddie said.  “Any suggestions?”
            “Ask him why he came here,” Autumn said.

            Maddie asked the question, and the man’s eyes rolled around in his head.  “Like it here, yes yes.  Nice people, give shiny coins and bread, bread bread.  Like the muffins.  Good market.”

            Maddie shrugged as the man stopped moving again.  There was a brief discussion about possible theories, until Razael came running up.

            “I found some prints,” he said, “they match ones I’ve seen at the other statues.  Someone who was standing nearby watching. I think I can follow them.”

            “Let’s go,” Arrie said.

            Razael was able to locate the tracks again, and began following them, the rest of the party close behind.  It was difficult at first, with very few good prints left on the ground.  But as they moved into less populated areas, Razael was able to find more prints.  The trail led them southwest, toward the river.  After a while, Razael noticed that the man leaving the tracks had started to move more cautiously, weaving around from hiding spot to hiding spot, as though taking precautions against pursuit.  Razael was able to keep pace with him, though.

            Eventually they arrived at a ramshackle storage building not far from the docks.  There was no one around that they could see.

            “Now what, Duchess?” Razael asked.

            “We should come back,” she said.  “We’re too obvious right now.”

            “But by then the man might have escaped,” Razael said.

            Yeah, if we come back, we’ll lose him,” Lanara agreed.

            “It would seem, Your Grace,” Imrahil said, “that the time is now or never.”

            Autumn sighed.  “You’re right.  Very well, let’s get inside quickly.”

            Razael approached the door first, and found it locked.  “Anyone got something to open doors with?” he asked.

            When everyone shrugged, Autumn sighed, lifted up her skirts, and kicked the door in, sending wood flying everywhere.  Lanara whistled as she smoothed her skirts down.

            “Kyle’s going to be so upset he wasn’t here to see that,” she said.

            Arrie had opened up her weapons case, and withdrew a new item for her collection; a huge, two-handed mace.  She rushed in as soon as the door opened, followed quickly by Autumn, Imrahil, and Razael.  Lanara went around to make sure no one was sneaking out the back, while Maddie and watched outside for surprises.  The small structure was nearly bare, with a few tiny shelves on one wall and a crate the seemed to serve as a table.

            Razael scanned the room.  “The tracks go over here to the corner, and stop,” he said.

            As they expected, a concealed trap door was found in the corner.  “Anyone know how to find traps?” Razael asked.

“Open the door?” Maddie offered.

Razael thought for a moment.  “Guardsman!  Open the door!”

Once Imrahil had opened the trapdoor, they saw a metal ladder descended down into darkness.

            “Does one of you have a spell that creates light?” Inrahil asked, peering down the hole.

            “I do,” Lanara said.

            Imrahil had Maddie cast the spell on a coin, and then he dropped it down the trapdoor shaft, giving him enough light to see the bottom.  There were no signs of movement below.

            “I’ll go first,” Razael said, “so I can pick up the tracks at the bottom.”

            The ladder dropped Razael into a small chamber, with a single corridor leading out.  The walls were rough-hewn stone, and slick with moisture from the nearby river.  Razael moved into the tunnel as Imrahil and the others began to descend.  The faint light from the enchanted coin the Guardsman had dropped gave Razael enough light to see a set of recent prints, with a familiar notch in the right sole.

            “Follow me,” the tracker whispered to Imrahil, “Stay a few paces back.  From the looks of these tracks, this guy doesn’t know he was followed.”

            The corridor wound around through the earth, sometimes branching off.  Razael was easily able to follow the tracks, and was even able to avoid a crossbow trap when he noticed that the prints shuffled around in one spot for no apparent reason.  Finally, as he came around a corner, Razael started to hear voices from the passage beyond.  Signaling for everyone to remain quiet, he crept forward.

            The tunnel opened up into a larger room, lit with torches.  On the far end of the room, a man was busying himself at a set of crude shelves, taking items out of his bag and putting them away.  Nearby, four other people lounged around, sitting on rough chairs or standing.  One of them was wearing a breastplate emblazoned with a hyena’s head – the totem animal of Shesh.  Another was unarmored and had the look of a mage.  The other two looked like street thugs.

            “How’d it go, Malick?” the unarmored man asked the one by the shelves.

            “Better than expected,” Malick said.  As he spoke, he turned, and Razael could see that a large chunk of the man’s nose was bitten off.  “Poor Roy left a suitable impression on the crowd with his demise.  Best of all, the whole thing was seen by none other than the Imperial Princess herself.”

            As Malick and the others in the room chuckled, Razael quietly slipped through the dark shadows cast under the torch sconces, until he was within arm’s reach of one of the thugs.

            “I tell you, another week or two of this and they’ll be running her out of town,” Malick said gleefully.

            “Run WHO out of town?” Razael said, standing up and hurling a flash pellet at the sorcerer.

            Chaos erupted into the room.  The party rushed in to engage Malick and his gang, who scrambled to defend themselves.  The thug next to Razael tried to slash at him with a rapier, barely missing, while his counterpart whispered a command word that wreathed his weapon in flames.  The mage blasted the incoming party with lightning, but the worst of it was mitigated by the dampness of the room, which drew off most of the bolt’s power.  The priest tried to hit Autumn with an _inflict serious wounds_, but even without her armor Autumn was able to avoid the touch.  Maddie stepped into the room and began to pronounce Erito’s doom on Malick’s men, causing them to shiver with the fear of divine retribution even as the favored soul’s allies were inspired by her words.

            When Malick saw Autumn in the room, swinging her greataxe at the priest, he smiled.  “You’ve made things so much easier, Duchess,” he shouted.  He then held aloft a large gold ring.  Those who could see Malick recognized the ring; Autumn was wearing an exact copy of it.  The ring flashed for a moment, and then suddenly the hulking from of one of Kythrian’s statues appeared next to Malick.

            “Guardian!” Malick shouted, pointing at Autumn,  “Attack my enemies!”

            The statue began to step forward toward Autumn.  Instantly, Imrahil interposed himself in its path, courtblade gripped in both hands.  But then the statue seemed to pause, looking at Autumn and the Guardsman.  Autumn could almost swear the statue was confused.  Distracted by the sight, Autumn left herself open, and the rogue with the flaming rapier sliced her arm.

            The rogue only lived for a few seconds more, as Arrie stepped up and neatly decapitated him with her chain.  “How about you don’t touch my sister?” she shouted.

            Just then, one of Razael’s arrows struck Malick.  As the rogue screamed in pain, the statue took a step backward, interposing itself between Razael and Malick to block his shots.  Imrahil, seeing an opportunity, moved in closer to strike at the statue.  Chips of stone flew away, but seemed to fill in again almost instantly.  In response, the statue swung a fist at the Guardsman, crunching into bone.  But the attack gave Razael another opening, and soon another one of his arrows was blossoming from Malick’s chest.  Malick tried to dig through his belongings for a scroll or wand to help himself, but he’d put away most of the gear he was carrying.    Thus he was left relatively defenseless, and the guardian statue could not be everywhere at once.  Malick tried to flee out of another corridor, but a last shot from Razael felled him.

            The rest of the opposition gave only a token resistance; the priest and sorcerer were killed in short order, and the last surviving thug surrendered.  As Razael tied up the prisoner, the others cautiously approached the statue, which hadn’t moved since Malick dropped.

            “Try and command it,” Arrie suggested to Autumn.

            The sentinel slowly stepped forward.  “Cease your attacks!” she shouted.  “Take no hostile actions!”
            The statue showed no sign that it had understood or even heard Autumn’s command.  She looked at the others and shrugged.

            “Try and get that ring,” Maddie suggested.

            Autumn approached Malick’s still form.  Slowly, she bent down and pulled the signet ring off his finger, pausing as it slid off to see if the statue reacted.  Then she stood up, and slid the ring on her own finger.

            The ring flashed, and Autumn closed her eyes as images suddenly flooded through her mind.  She opened them in time to see her friends rushing to help her, and she held out a hand to stop them.

            “It’s all right,” she said, and a small smile crossed her face.  “I’m fine.”

            The sentinel looked up at the statue, still motionless.  “Guardian, stand down,” she said.  The statue straightened up, bowed, and returned to the pose they’d seen in all the statues in town.

            Autumn’s grin broadened as she met the curious stares of the others.  “I think that Kythrian no longer disapproves of me.”

*          *          *​
            “So, Kythrian really did build all those statues?” Maddie asked.

            Autumn nodded.  “It took a while to find the records in archives, but apparently he left them as a defense for his heirs.  He really did want to have them be able to walk in the city without guards, but have help close at hand.  They’re not all guardians, though – only eight of them.  The others are decoys.”

            They were all sitting in the parlor at the ducal manor, the day after they’d killed Malick and ended his plot to disgrace Autumn by invoking ‘the spirit of Kythrian’.  Autumn had ended up being escorted by the guardian-statue all the way back to the manor, with throngs of people watching – they’d been sure to return via very large, public streets.  Seeing ‘Kythrian’ acting as an honor guard to Autumn had effectively quelled most lingering rumors of whether or not she was fit to rule.  Shoshone’s propaganda machine had seen to the rest.

            “But this Duke Parios, the one whose tomb we found just off Malick’s hideout, he had the ring buried with him?”

            “Yes,” Shoshone said.  “From what I gather from the archives, Duke Parios was…”

            “A jerk?” Razael offered.

            “Very.  The decision not to bury him in the ducal crypts below the manor was made mere minutes after his death.  But no one knew about the ring until now.”

            “Well, I for one am glad for some good news in this city,” Arrie said.  “Hopefully there aren’t any more lost artifacts out there waiting to cause trouble.”

            “Yeah, now all we have to worry about is the rampant crime, the bureaucratic delays from the Emperor, and bringing back all the nobles and merchants,” Lanara said.

            Arrie patted her sister reassuringly on the back, as Autumn groaned and buried her face in her hands.  “One problem at a time, Autumn.  One at a time.”


------------------------

For the curious, the statues of Kythrian were based off the Runic Guardians in MM2, with the original ducal singet ring as the control device.  Unlike true Runic Guardians, the statues don't function outside the city of Vargas (so it's not cheap muscle for Autumn when she's out adventuring).


----------



## Delemental

*Negotiations*

Yes, that's right, two updates for the price of one!  Everything must go!

--------------------------

            “You’re doing what?”

            The Imperial Messenger looked impassively at Autumn.  “I have been sent to recall the Imperial Guardsmen and advisor that our Emperor permitted you to make use of during your transition into your domain.  Guardsman Imrahil will continue to be assigned to you until such time as the Emperor has need of his services.”

            Autumn closed her eyes.  The loss of the two Guardsman wasn’t too difficult to accept, although Shirazal had been serving as her Lord Constable.  But Shoshone’s help had been invaluable.  Autumn was sure that Haxtha realized this.

            “Is it possible to have Guardsman Shirazal remain instead of Guardman Imrahil?” she asked.  “Both have served well, but I have Shirazal assigned to a rather critical task at the moment.”

            “My orders are explicit, Your Grace.  I am certain that Guardsman Imrahil can adequately replace Guardsman Shirazal.”

            Autumn nodded, but in her mind had doubts.  Shirazal had displayed a reasonable competence in the administrative end of his job as head of the Watch, skills she knew Imrahil lacked.

            “Very well,” Autumn said, keeping the sigh out of her voice.  “I will inform Shoshone and the Guardsmen that they are to prepare to leave in the morning.  My chamberlain will show you to a room where you may stay until then.”

            Autumn sat in her audience chamber until the Messenger and her chamberlain had left, then she walked to another door and left, heading down the hallway and opening a door.  Two of her servants followed her a respectable distance away, and two more of the house staff sat in chairs just outside the door, standing and bowing as Autumn approached.  With a brief nod to them, Autumn stepped into the room, leaving the four servants in the hall.

            The sound of steel rang through the room.  It was a large, spartan space, adorned with weapon racks and practice dummies.  In the center of the room, her sister Arrie sat in the midst of eight wooden pillars, with gourds planted atop each one.  Arrie twirled her spiked chain around her body in a rhythmic, almost hypnotic pattern, before suddenly lashing out at one of the gourds, curling the deadly chain around it and turning it into a pulpy mass.

            “I take it that the messenger wasn’t bringing flowers from Kyle,” Arrie said, returning to her meditative battle-dance.

            “Haxtha’s recalling all his people,” Autumn said, “except Imrahil.”

            “He must be getting soft,” Arrie commented.  “I was expecting him to take them all.”

            “I know,” Autumn agreed.  “I knew it would happen, but I was hoping for another month at least.  We still know so little about these guilds, and with the neighborhood citizen patrols just starting up…” she sighed.

            “Kyle and Xu should be here in a few more days,” Arrie said, then paused to shred another gourd.  “Maybe you can persuade Togusa to stick around too and help out.  I just got the raven back from them this morning – Kyle says he’s looking for some farmland for sale outside the city on the way up, so he can settle his family in something they’re a little more accustomed to.”

            “And so he doesn’t have to bring them into the city to get robbed and murdered,” Autumn scowled.

            “Give yourself a break, sis,” Arrie said.  “You’ve done a lot so far.”

            “I know, but…”

            Arrie cracked a tiny smile.  “Still want the city cleaned up before the wedding, don’t you?”

            “Well, I’d like my guests to feel like it’s actually safe to attend, you know.”

            “I know.  But four months doesn’t give us a lot of time.”  Arrie lashed out quickly, this time pulping two of the gourds in quick succession.  “But hey, we’re the Legacy, right?  Once we’re all together again, I’ll bet we’ll have those criminals run out of town with two weeks.  Three, tops.”

            Autumn smiled.  “Thanks, Arrie.”

            “No problem.  Hey, how’d you know I’d be here?”

            “I didn’t.  It’s the only room in the manor that the servants won’t follow us into.   I was coming here to smash things for a while.”

            Arrie laughed out loud.  “Well then, grab a weapon off the wall.  There’s still four gourds left.”

*          *          *​
             Just as Arrie had said, a few days later Kyle, Xu, and Togusa arrived at the gates of Autumn’s manor.  After a joyful reunion (minus Osborn, who was still working undercover in the Silent Foot), Autumn met privately with Togusa, who agreed to take over as Lord Constable of the Watch until a suitable replacement could be found.  He also agreed to contact the church of Tor on Autumn’s behalf to present them an offer; if the church would send men to help reinforce Vargas’ watch, then the Duchess was willing to grant land in the city to the church for a new temple.

            A day later, another Imperial Messenger arrived, accompanied by a squad of five archers from the Order of the Eldritch Arrow.  The messenger had been sent by Herion, who explained that he was sending the archers to Autumn as a more discreet personal guard.  Between the archers, and the runic guardian statues in the city, it was felt that Autumn was well protected. This freed up Guardsman Imrahil to take over the security of the estate, and meant that Autumn no longer had to be escorted anywhere if she didn’t wish it.

            Other messengers were arriving as well, bringing letters and gifts from Autumn’s vassals.  The Duchy of Vargex held dominion over three baronies and five counties, and they were all now sending word of their continued loyalty to the duchy.  Baron Guilford sent two bottles of Whelpwhiskey, which was the finest and most expensive of the many liquors produced by the baron’s distilleries.  Razael tried unsuccessfully to convince Autumn to open a bottle immediately; besides being a fine whiskey in its own right, Whelpwhiskey was known to temporarily chase away the infirmities and physical deteriorations of old age.  A letter also came from Count Carfex Alexos, who promised to send militia troops to help stabilize the city.

            Not all of the news was good.  Despite the vows of loyalty, none of Autumn’s vassals had offered to come personally to Vargas to swear fealty.  Kyle contacted the local mage’s guild, and was told that they were still not convinced the city was safe enough for them to publicly back the new Duchess.  And it seemed that some plots might have started against the duchess and her friends; Lanara learned one morning that she was supposed to be performing at three separate places in the city at the same time, none of which she had arranged herself.  Suspecting a plot, Lanara decided to go incognito for a few days to try and ferret out who was behind the plan.

            About a week after the messenger had come to recall Shoshone and the Guardsmen, the group was sitting in the dining hall enjoying breakfast.  The conversation came to a sudden halt when they realized that Osborn had pulled up a chair at one end and was piling fruit on a plate.

            “Morning,” he said, reaching for a basket of hard-boiled eggs.

            “Good morning,” Razael said.  “Want some bacon?”

            “I had some earlier this morning,” the hin said.

            Kyle grinned.  “Yeah, but… do you want some bacon?”

            “Sure.”

            “Well, at least we know it’s really him,” Razael said as he passed the platter of bacon to Osborn.

            “So, can we go shopping later?” Osborn asked.  “I need furnishing for my new house.”  Everyone knew he was referring to the house that had previously been occupied by the Lord Constable that had been in the city when Autumn arrived, who had fled rather than help the new duchess enforce the laws in the city.

            They continued the charade for a few more minutes, conversing casually as if nothing unusual had happened, before they finally broke down and welcomed Osborn back, filling him in on what had happened in the past several days.

            “So, what to know what I found out, or should we go back to discussing meaningless crap?” Osborn asked.

            “Maybe you should take a bath first,” Maddie said.  Osborn was, in fact quite grimy.

            “What?”

            “Osborn,” Maddie said, “I’m not sure what animal that came from,” she pointed at a dark smudge on his armor, “but I think it needs to go.”

            Razael looked at the stain and sniffed.  “I’d say horse.”

            Kyle zapped Osborn with a _prestidigitation _spell, instantly dissolving the muck.  “So, continue, please,” he said.

            “Well, I didn’t get a lot of really deep information,” Osborn admitted, “being at the bottom of the ladder and all.  But I can tell you that the Silent Foot is composed entirely of the short races – dwarves, gnomes and hin.  They won’t let any other race in.  A very lovely gnomish woman named Abraxas leads the guild.  She doesn’t like ‘tall people’ at all, but she tells a good story.  Quite inspirational, really.  And if you’re not inclined to listen to what she has to say, she has the largest dwarf I’ve ever seen backing her up.  I swear he was five feet tall and just as broad.  I never caught his name – he doesn’t talk much.”

            “Shouldn’t be hard to miss him, then,” Razael said.

            “From what I can gather,” Osborn continued, “Abraxas’ agenda in the city seems to be the ruination of all tall folk.  Her plan seems to be to wait until caravan season opens up, and then she has two objectives; first, to plunder any caravans run by humans, elves, or the like, and second, to offer protection to any caravans run by the short folk… for a small fee, of course.”

            “You know,” Kyle said, “it’s probably ‘small’ jokes like that that pushed Abraxas over the edge in the first place.”

            “I wasn’t making a joke,” Osborn said.

            “Really?  I could’ve sworn… oh, never mind.”
            “Anyway” Osborn said, “as far as how the Silent Foot gets along with the other guilds, I learned that they don’t see the Black Hand as much of a threat, but apparently there’s not many of them left anyway.  The Night Whisperers tend to run in the outskirts of the city and outside the walls, so they don’t interfere much with the Silent Foot right now.  Once Abraxas starts her caravan scheme, though, that could change.”

            “Why would a thieves’ guild like the Night Whisperers stay outside the city?” Autumn asked.

            “Not sure, but I hear they have a lot of druids and rangers,” Osborn said.  Then he looked at Razael.  “Hey, maybe it’s something you could check out.”

            “Could be,” Razael said.

            Osborn went on, talking between mouthfuls of bacon.  “Right now Abraxas is more worried about the assassin’s guilds.  She’s afraid that if they figure out that her guild is made up of nothing but short folk, they might start targeting them.  But there have apparently been meetings, and it seems like the Silent Foot is more interested in working with the Night Blades than the Poisoned Edge.”

            “Surprising,” Kyle said.  “Given how persuasive you’ve said Abraxas is, you’d think she’d find the Poisoned Edge more appealing.  They’re the ones that specialize in character assassinations.”

            “Who knows?” Osborn shrugged.  “But the most recent bit of news is the most troubling.  It seems that with popular support starting to swing your way, and with rumors of more troops arriving soon, Abraxas has been saying that something big will need to happen.  What she’s planning, I don’t know, but I get the feeling it will happen soon.”

            “I appreciate the information, Osborn,” Autumn said.

            “Yeah, good job,” Kyle added.

            “Now we need to find out about these other guilds,” Razael said.  “I could look into what these Night Whisperers are doing outside the city.  As an Imperial Huntsman, I should be watching out for poachers anyway.  I’d need a writ of authority from you as the Duchess, giving me permission to enforce the laws, so that when bodies start showing up I have an excuse.  Or, I could ask for a letter from Herion, since he is technically in charge of all Hunstmen.”

            “Why don’t you ask Herion for that writ,” Autumn said.  “I’m a little… uncomfortable giving you that much leeway under my name.”

            “I can head out today and put my ear to the street,” Osborn offered, “maybe find out if there’s a particular area the Whisperers can be found.”

            “Well, as for the Black Hand,” Kyle said, “didn’t you just get a message from them last night?”

            “What’s this?” Osborn asked.

            “I did,” Autumn confirmed.  “We were just discussing it when you arrived, Osborn.  The leadership of the Black Hand wishes to meet with me this evening to negotiate.”

            “It’s a trap,” Osborn said automatically.

            “Normally, I’d agree,” Autumn said.  “But they’re willing to meet here, at my manor.  Kind of puts them at a disadvantage, doesn’t it?”

            “We’ve heard from multiple sources that the Black Hand has been hit pretty hard,” Kyle pointed out.  “They may be desperate.”

            “I think they are afraid of getting wiped out,” Osborn agreed.

            “It could be an opportunity,” Kyle said.  “You know that you can’t completely eliminate crime in the city, and despite what you may think of them, thieves’ guilds do serve a purpose – they keep the underworld under control.”

“There is wisdom here,” Xu said, “Better a guild that you know about and can possibly exert some control over.”

“You can at least hear what they have to say,” Osborn said.

            “I know, and I agree,” Autumn said.  “I’ll agree to the meeting tonight.  Anyone who wants to be there is welcome.”

            They decided to hold the meeting in Autumn’s study; they contemplated the audience chamber, but chose the study because they didn’t want to give the meeting with the Black Hand the air of ‘official duchy business’.  Autumn sat behind a large desk, wearing her plate armor with her axe by her side.  Kyle stood behind her chair, with a message spell already active in order to speak quietly with Autumn and others in the room, and a detect thoughts ready to give them a split-second warning if the Black Hand attacked.  Razael stood in a back corner, his bow ready.  Osborn was waiting in another corner, invisble.  Maddie, Xu, and Arrie were also in the room, arrayed evenly about the room.  Several defensive spells had been placed on Autumn by Kyle and Maddie.

            The servants escorted in five individuals.  Each wore full red robes, and black face masks.  All five looked to be exactly the same height and build.  They wore black leather gloves.  As the servants left, the robed figures stood in a line in front of Autumn’s desk, a respectful distance away.

            “Illusion,” Kyle whispered to Autumn, explaining the uniform appearance.

            “Your Grace,” said the one in the middle, bowing.  The voice was neither male nor female, and carried no distinctive accent.  “We five are all that remains of the Black Hand guild.  We have come to offer you a bargain.  We have information on the remaining four guilds in your city.  We will give you this information for a price.”

            Razael slowly started to draw arrows from his quiver.  The rogue on the far left spoke with a voice identical to the first.

            “If your Huntsman continues to pull arrows, we will turn around and leave now.”

            Autumn shot a warning look at Razael, who sighed and put the arrows away.  Then she returned her attention to the five rogues.  After a while, she said, “Forgive the pause, but I’m unaccustomed to negotiating with your kind.  What kind of price do you seek?”

            “At the very least, we would want ducal pardons for any crimes that we may or may not have committed prior to this evening,” the rogue on the middle right said.  “We would also want a guarantee that we would be allowed to leave the city unharmed and not followed by ducal agents… or Imperial ones.” The speaker turned his head slightly to indicate Razael.  “Beyond that is open to negotiation.”

            “And you say you have information on every other guild?” Autumn asked.
            “Every one,” the middle rogue confirmed.  “Information that we feel is not only useful to you, but of personal interest.”

            “Is it fear or revenge?” Razael asked.

            “Some of both,” said the rogue on the far left.

            “An honest answer,” Razael said.

            Autumn looked at the Black Hand, choosing to focus on the middle one.  “Do you wish to remain in Vargas, or do you wish to leave?”

            “Staying would be preferable,” said the one on the middle left, “but in order to do so, the other guilds would have to be eliminated.  If you feel you could accomplish this, we would remain here.”

            “It will be done,” Autumn asserted.  “But what do you feel your information is worth?”

            “We have information on guild strengths,” the middle one replied.  “Numbers, locations of hideouts, general composition of members, and leadership.  Rather a lot, we would say.”

            “Are you seeking gold?” Autumn asked.

            “Favors,” the one on the far left said.  “Things within your power to grant, such as the aforementioned pardons, and safe passage.  Coin can be had easily enough.”

“Perhaps,” Xu said, “you could offer to let them remain and rebuild their ranks, as long as they maintained a dialogue with you concerning their activities.”

            “A possibility we had hoped would be amenable toward,” said the Black Hand on the middle right.  “Certainly, we feel our guild’s agenda in Vargas is more ‘pure’, in a manner of speaking, than that of the other guilds.  We only seek to profit from our activities.”

            “I will not tolerate murder and rape in my city,” Autumn said.

            “We do not rape and murder,” said the rogue on the middle left.  “Such crimes are bad for business.  If we kill, we kill those who have broken our rules and endangered the guild.”

            “It’s true,” Osborn whispered to Kyle from his hiding place who relayed it to Autumn, “thieves don’t usually do that kind of stuff.”

            “Perhaps what we need to agree upon,” Kyle said, “is that should we allow the Black Hand to operate as the ‘official’ thieves’ guild in Vargas, that certain types of crimes should be discouraged.  Violent crimes of course, but also protection rackets, and at least a decrease in burglaries.  We’re trying to get the merchants to return to Vargas.”

            The rogue in the middle held up a hand.  “I believe we understand your intention.  We can certainly negotiate details later, but for now, will it suffice to say that the Black Hand will not do anything that would potentially drive people or money out of the city?  Certainly, that would not be advantageous to either side.”

            “Sounds reasonable,” Kyle said.  “We’ll just call those the ‘unapproved’ crimes for now.”

            “Agreed,” said the middle rogue.  “If your intent is to allow the Black Hand to rebuild under these conditions, however, we will need an environment in which to recruit and train new members.  We would need reduced watch presence in the slums for a period of six months after the elimination of the other guilds.  With your watch currently undermanned, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to arrange this.”

            Autumn thought for a moment before speaking.  “Very well.  I will grant you each a full pardon for any alleged crimes committed up until this day.  I will ensure that you receive protection from retaliation from the other guilds should you choose to remain in the city.  I will guarantee that you will not be molested or watched by any civil authority should you choose to leave the city.   I will eliminate the four competing guilds in the city.  I will permit you to rebuild the Black Hand within Vargas after the other four guilds are eliminated, which will include adjusting the watch patrols in the southwestern portion of the city so that you may adequately recruit and train your guild. In exchange, you will provide me with the promised information on the other four guilds – should the information prove inaccurate, our arrangement will be null and void. Your presence in the city will be tolerated only so long as your members do not engage in what we are currently terming ‘unapproved crimes’, and make a reasonable effort to curb such crimes from those not in your guild.  Your leadership will also agree to meet with me or my appointed seneschal every three months in order to maintain an open dialogue and to ensure that both sides are keeping their end of the bargain.”

            There was a similar short pause from the Black Hand.  “We agree to these terms,” said the rogue on the middle right at last.  “We will give you the information.”

            “Let us start,” said the middle rogue, “with the most vital piece of information.  We have found your predecessor.”

            “Count Robar?” Autumn asked.

            “Yes.  He is the head of the Night Blades assassin’s guild.”

            “The head of it?” Autumn said.  “Interesting.”

            “The Night Blades are a small guild,” the middle rogue continued.  “No more than fifteen or twenty members.  But they seem to be very potent, and are backed by dark magics of some kind.”

            “The Poisoned Edge,” said the rogue on the far right, “is a much larger guild, but their clientele tends to be more diverse.  Perhaps as many as thirty members, who are as well versed in the social arts as they are in assassination.”

            “We’d heard that they specialize in character assassinations,” Kyle said.

            “This is accurate, though they are no less willing to engage in traditional killing. Their leader has had some bardic training, which should come as little surprise.  He has a number of disguises and personas he uses.  At least one of them is a well-to-do grain exporter, who keeps offices by the river.”

            “The Silent Foot is the most numerous guild,” said the rogue on the middle left.  “We admit that exact numbers have been difficult to obtain.  There are perhaps as many as a hundred, most of them comprised of hin and gnomes.  Given that this number of the short fold moving in to the city should have been noticed, but wasn’t, we suspect they have contacts among the native elves and humans that allow them to move freely in the city.  Their leader is a gnomish woman named Abraxas, who has also been trained as a bard.”

            “Please, continue,” Autumn said, giving no sign that they’d already learned about the Silent Foot and Abraxas from Osborn earlier than morning.

            “The Night Whisperers,” said the middle right rogue, “seem to be more like brigands that thieves, as they operate mostly outside of the city.  They number around forty, not including the animals that always seem to accompany them.  Some are skilled riders and well trained in mounted combat, others have trained animals such as bears and wolverines for brute strength.  Those who operate in the city tend to have smaller animals or those that don’t look out of place in an urban environment, such as dogs or rats.  The leader of the Night Whispers appears to be an elven druid of some skill.  We don’t know if he has a grudge against this particular city, or cities in general, or even civilization as a whole.  He may be using his people to poke holes in the weak places of society.”

            “That’s okay,” Kyle commented.  “We have Razael, who’s good at poking holes in the weak places of people.”

            “Very good, thanks,” Razael said.

            “Is there anything else you wish to impart?”

            “The rest we will impart to your seneschal,” the rogue in the middle said, gesturing to Kyle.        The rogue on the far left stepped forward and pulled a large bundle of documents out of his robes, setting them on the desk in front of him.  “There is far too much information to relay verbally in one evening,” the middle rogue said as his companion stepped back.  “These documents will provide you with most of the mundane details.”

            “We will be in touch when you have eliminated the guilds,” the rogue on the left said.  The five rogues inclined their heads in unison to Autumn, and then turned and filed out of the room.  As soon as they left, everyone exhaled and relaxed.

            “That was weird,” Maddie said.  “Listening to all five of them gave me a headache.”

            “They probably didn’t want us to identify one of them as the ‘leader’ or the ‘one with all the information’,” said Kyle.  He picked up the sheaf of papers on the desk.  “Well, I can read through this tonight.”

            Autumn turned around and smiled at Kyle.  “So, seneschal, eh?”

            Kyle shot her a dark look.  “Don’t you dare,” he said.

*          *          *​

            Early the next morning, before the sun had even crested the city’s outer wall, there was a knock on Autumn’s bedroom door.  She rolled over at the sound, and pushed on Kyle’s shoulder.  He got out of bed and threw on his robes before answering the door.  Autumn’s valet Aleria stood at the door.

            “Sir, there’s a messenger here for the Duchess from Count Helaku,” she said, curtseying.

            “Count Helaku?  Who’s that?”

            “He controls the vast majority of the grazing land in the duchy, sir,” Aleria said.  “His cattle and horses provide us with the majority of our internal income.”

            “Okay, then,” Kyle said.  “Does the messenger need to see the Duchess personally, or can I take the message?”

            “I believe you could take the message, sir,” Aleria said.

            “Okay.  Have the messenger wait downstairs while I get dressed.”

            A door down the hall opened, and Razael’s head poked out.  “You want me to go, Kyle?  I’ve been up and dressed for a while, and you and Autumn were up pretty late last night.”

            “No, Raz,” Kyle said.  “I’d better start learning to do this myself.”

“Yeah, that’s what seneschals are for, after all,” Razael chuckled.  As the tracker’s door closed, Kyle muttered to himself. “We’ve got to get him a room further away.”

            A few minutes later Kyle came down to greet a young elf standing patiently in the audience chamber.  He was still slightly sweaty, as if he’d ridden hard.  Kyle almost sat down in Autumn’s raised seat, paused, and then remained standing, stepping down off the dais.  “I understand you have a message?  The Duchess is currently… performing her morning devotionals.”

            “I have been sent to inform Her Grace, Lady Autumn Verahannen, Duchess of Vargex, Lady Mayor of Vargas, that my lord, Count Helaku, will be arriving shortly to swear fealty to his liege lord as is custom.  He and his entourage should be arriving here by midday.”

            “Midday?  Wonderful.  Why not in five minutes?”  Kyle suddenly realized what he was saying, and blushed.  “I mean, we’ll be delighted to have Count Helaku here, I’m sure.  We will prepare for his arrival.”

            The messenger bowed.  “Of course, sir.  If I may ask where I might rest and freshen up?  I have run for a day and a half without stop in order to arrive here before my lord.”

            “Sure, sure, I’ll… have someone who knows where everything is show you where to go.”

            Kyle dashed back upstairs to his bedroom to rouse Autumn and inform her of Count Helaku’s arrival.  Autumn quickly roused her servants to begin preparing a large lunch in anticipation of the visit.  The messenger told them that Helaku’s entourage consisted of eight people, including the count, with no horses.  Apparently the count preferred to travel by foot.

            “Given the situation in the city,” Kyle said, “should we send a few people to meet the count outside the city, and escort him in?  Sort of an honor guard.”

            “Do you want me to go?” Razael said.

            “As long as you can be courteous,” Autumn said sternly.

            “Haxtha never had me killed,” Razael replied.  “I reckon that proves I can do it once in a while.”

            Xu and Guardsman Imrahil ended up going out with Razael to meet Count Helaku, though Imrahil waited near the gates, as he could not run as fast as either the tracker or the monk.  Within a few minutes, they spotted a party of eight elves running up the road.  They all wore light armor and carried longspears, and they had black hair, which distinguished them from the light brown to blond hair that most elves sported. The elf in the middle of the group was much older and weathered than the others, appearing to be close to Razael’s age.  Other than that, the only difference between the elves in the party was that Helaku’s spear was of finer quality than the others, and he also wore a gold chain about his neck.

            Razael and Xu approached the group, offering them greetings from the Duchess and an offer of escort into the city.  They were certain to state that no trouble was expected.

            “Excellent,” said Count Helaku.  “The courtesy, and the foresight are noted.”

            The group began the walk toward the city.  Razael made his way over to converse with the count.

            “So, Razael, you’re back in Vargex, I see,” Helaku said.

            “Yeah, Herion found a new assignment for me,” Razael sighed.

            “I can’t imagine why he’d want you here.”

            “I’m bodyguarding.  Where they go, I go.”

            “Ah.”

            “By the way, you haven’t seen Arovnen in the area recently, have you?”

            Helaku smiled.  “The Marquis of Malachor?  Can’t say that I have.  Nor his daughter Lilliana.  She turned one hundred just a few months ago, as I recall.  There was some sort of to-do just before her birthday, I think.  Did you hear about it?”

            “I’m sure I was somewhere else at the time, my lord,” Razael replied smoothly.

            “That’s good to hear, Huntsman,” Helaku said, “and given what I know of your reputation, please make sure that ‘somewhere else’ is nowhere near my lands or my daughters.”

            “You have daughters?”

            “Yes, and if you wish to lose a few limbs…”

            Razael held up a hand.  “Should the Duchess decide to visit your estates at some point, I will have to accompany her, of course.  But the ones I am guarding have one of their own watching me.  They don’t want me exiled again.”

            “The Huntsman finds himself trapped?” Helaku said wryly.  “Herion had more wisdom in him than I thought.”

            “Wait until you meet his wife.”

            Meanwhile, preparations were still underway at the manor.  Kyle went up and walked into the bedroom, where Aleria was helping Autumn get dressed.

            “So, refresh my memory about this Count Helaku,” Kyle said, sitting on the bed, watching as Aleria was lacing up Autumn’s corset.

            “He’s an elf, and has been in his position for about two hundred years now,” Autumn said.  “His herds are responsible for the majority of Vargex’s internally generated income.  He’s known to be a down to earth person.  He spends most of his time out with his people tending the herds.  He’s relatively straightforward and direct, and isn’t terribly impressed by titles or fineries.  He’s here to find out if I can do the job.”

            “Huh.”

            Autumn turned around.  “What?”
            “Well, it’s just a thought,” Kyle said, “but if I were you, I’d wear your armor.  If he wants to know if you can handle cleaning up Vargas, and he’s not into frippery, then I’d think mithral would make a better impression than satin.”

            Autumn thought for a moment, then grinned.  “Aleria, please get rid of this damned corset, and unpack my armor.”

            Several minutes later, Autumn and Kyle came out of the room, walking toward the stairs.  Arrie was hanging out in the hallway near Autumn’s audience chamber, also dressed in her armor.  As Autumn walked by, Arrie leaned over to her.

            “I’ll see you in the dining room later,” she whispered. Arrie walked away and disappeared through one of the doors, but not before giving Kyle a wink and playful punch on the shoulder.  Autumn understood the reason for her vanishing act; she always avoided being seen with Autumn during any official business, so that no one would think that the Imperial Princess, or by extension the Empire, was unduly influencing or aiding the new Duchess.

            Razael preceded the count’s party into the manor by a minute to announce his arrival. “And if I may suggest, Duchess, a few glasses of that Whelpwhiskey might be welcome as a greeting.  Count Helaku’s pushing close to my age.”

            Servants went to retrieve one of the bottles at Autumn’s nod of approval.  Moments later, the main doors to the audience chamber opened, and Count Helaku and his men entered in a spearhead formation.  They all walked about halfway to the throne, and then threw their spears high into the air.  The spears arced almost to the ceiling, and came down to land in a precise eight-pointed star formation, with the butt of Helaku’s spear pointing directly toward Autumn.  Al eight elves then dropped to one knee.  Razael, whose hand had automatically reached back to his quiver the moment the spears had gone up into the air, exhaled slowly and relaxed.

            “Welcome,” said Autumn, gesturing for them to rise.  “Please, have a seat.  Would you like some refreshments?”

            Count Helaku shook his head.  “We will stand until our business is concluded.”  Helaku’s eyes swept the room.  “Word has reached my ears that you have taken to cleaning house here in Vargas,” he said.

            “Yes,” Autumn replied.

            “I take it by the fact that I needed an additional escort into the city, that the housecleaning is not yet finished.”

            “That is correct.”

            “It’s a pretty messy house,” Kyle interjected.

            Autumn tensed slightly, unsure how the Count would react to his comment.  But the weathered old elf just smiled.  “The fact that no obvious crime was seen on the way here does speak of certain improvements.”

Helaku’s gaze took in the others in the room again.  “I also understand that you have been associated with Huntsman Fletcher for longer than you have been Duchess.”

“Again, you are correct,” Autumn replied.

“You have my sympathies,” Count Helaku said.

“Thank you.”

In the corner, Razael scowled.

“But you also have my congratulations.  Razael is one of the finest Huntsman the Empire has to offer.  You could certainly do worse than to have him at your side.”

Count Helaku looked intently at Autumn for a moment, and then seemed to suddenly come to a decision.  “With that, I have come to offer you my fealty.  Will you accept?”

“I will,” Autumn said, managing to keep her elation down to a warm and radiant smile.

The Count approached Autumn’s dais, and presented her with the formal declaration of fealty.  He and Autumn then exchanged oaths, and sealed the ceremony with a kiss.  At the conclusion of the ceremony, Helaku’s seven men erupted in cheers, and the others in the room applauded.

“We’ll take those chairs now, and those refreshments,” Helaku said.  “We’ve been running for a couple of days.”

Autumn escorted the Count into the dining room, where a light lunch had been laid out.  Pitchers of water and wine were plentiful, and as the guests sat down, they were offered a glass of Whelpwhiskey, which was accepted gratefully.  Autumn tried to place Helaku at her right and Kyle at her left, as would be customary since they were not yet married, but the Count chased Kyle out of the chair and made him sit on Autumn’s right side.

“Far as I’m concerned, that’s your seat, and you’d better get used to sitting in it,” he said to Kyle.  “I don’t need a piece of parchment or a priests’ blessing to make it ‘official’.”  Helaku then gave a nod to Arrie, who sat two seats down.  “Princess,” he said, “how are you?”

“Very well, thank you,” Arrie replied, nodding as the other members of Helaku’s party rose and bowed to her.  “And yourself?”

“Can’t complain.  Well, I can, but no one listens to old men who complain.  How’s that young husband of yours?”

Arrie smiled at the thought of a ‘young husband’ who was nearly six times older than her.  “He’s good.  I’ll let him know you asked about him.”

“You do that.  I tell you, I was beside myself when I heard that his father had passed away.  I considered Jhoxan a kindred spirit, I did.”

“What about his son, Haxtha?” Kyle asked.

Count Helaku scratched at his chin.  “I’m going to give the young fellow a few more years at the job before I make up my mind,” he said.  He turned back to Autumn.  “So, Your Grace, introduce me to your companions among the Legacy.  The ones I don’t already know, I mean.”

Autumn went around the table, skipping over Arrie and Razael.  “This is Osborn Greenbottle, a knife-thrower from the Amazing Traveling Circus in the Khag Steppes.  Xu Dhii Ngao, a monk from the Xhintai Empire.  And Madrone, Erito’s favored soul, from Medos.  Our other friend, the bard Lanara Rahila, could not be here today, I’m afraid.”

“Pity, I heard she was quite the performer.  Easy on the eyes, too, I hear.”

“Indeed,” Razael commented.

Helaku arched an eyebrow.  “She’s a little old for you, isn’t she, Fletcher?” he said, grinning.  Razael shrugged, but said nothing else.

“So, you’re all graduates of that Tower, right?  Well, except Fletcher here, of course.”

“Yes, we are,” Autumn said.

“Good.  Good school, even if it is in a country full of stuck-up xenophobes.  But you forgot one introduction, Your Grace.”

“I was only saving him for last,” Autumn replied.  “Count Helaku, this is Kyle Goodson, my fiancée, a wizard from Targeth.”

Helaku eyed Kyle for a while.  “Well, congratulations.  When’s the wedding?”

“In four months, on the tenth of Lutros,” Autumn said.  “Your invitation should be arriving soon.”

“Excellent.  So, we should expect children about this time next year, then?”

Kyle dropped his fork onto his plate.  Autumn only smiled.  “That’s quite possible,” she replied.  Kyle seemed to have a little more trouble picking his fork back up.

Helaku eyed Kyle again.  “So, you’re from Targeth,” he said.  “You one of those stuck-up xenophobes?”

“No, sir,” Kyle said.  “I’m a farmer from the Circle.”

“A farmer, eh?  So I suppose you noticed all those barley fields south of the city, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes, although they were wheat, not barley.  At first I thought they were planting way too early, honestly, but then I found out that most of the crops grown here in Vargex are for producing grain alcohol.  So the early planting makes sense, since you want the wheat to mature at the same time as your hops and barley.  Gives you a thinner crop, of course, but it’s the price you pay.  Now, do you have any other questions designed to test if I really was a farmer, or should I ask you what breed of cow produces the best mutton?”

Count Helaku stared at Kyle for a moment, and then broke out in a loud guffaw that quickly caught on at the table.  “I like him, Your Grace.  Teach him how to hold on to his silverware and he’ll be just about perfect.”

“I’ll work on that,” Autumn said, smiling.

            The rest of the meal was spent in talking about the forecasts for the upcoming year, including more details about foaling and calving than Autumn wanted to hear during a meal.  Helaku ended up directing most of the conversation to Kyle, who understood the subject far better than anyone else in the room.

            “Is there anything we can do to help you?” Autumn asked.

            “Not right now,” Helaku said.  “It’s quiet on my lands at the moment.”

            “Well, you and your entourage are welcome to stay here as long as you wish.”

            “I think we can stay about a week.  After that, we’ll need to get back to help protect the herds from rustlers.”

            “I should go check on his daughters while he’s away,” Razael muttered to himself.

            The Count turned toward Razael.  “If you think my ears aren’t as sharp as yours, Huntsman, you’d best think again.”

            Razael sighed.  “I’ve gotten used to humans.”

            “Your Grace,” Helaku said, returning his attention to Autumn, “is there anything you need from me?”

            “Well, I can always use men to help bring the city under control,” she said.  “If you have anyone you can spare.”

            “I’ll be honest, Your Grace, my men aren’t used to working in enclosed spaces like Vargas,” Helaku replied.  “Even the towns in my county have streets about three times as wide as your main thoroughfare.”

            “Well, then I have a possibility,” Autumn said.  “One of the guilds that infests my city is actually based outside the city, in the surrounding countryside.”

            “Druids and rangers playing bandit,” Razael said.

            “Huh.  That we can help with.  But it’s still a bit early for caravan season yet.  Give me some time to collect some volunteers, and I’ll send them your way.”

            “Your help is most appreciated,” Autumn said.

            “And certainly, we’d send them back to you in time to help with the herds when you needed them,” Kyle added.

            “My hope is to eliminate the threat posed by these brigands before the caravans arrive,” Autumn commented.

            “A good thought,” Helaku said.  “You’ve got about a month before the roads harden up enough for a wagon.  You might get a few merchants coming in with a pack train before that, but if you lose a couple of them to bandits there shouldn’t be much economic impact.  And the caravan companies expect to lose a couple every year – cost of doing business.  If they want a caravan to get through, they’ll hire more caravan guards.”

            At this comment, Kyle’s eyes lit up with a sudden idea, but he kept his mouth closed.

            The meal concluded with a discussion of news in the Empire and in Affon in general, and the sharing of a few of the Legacy’s exploits.  Razael also managed to slip in a few mentions of some of the Legacy’s enemies, advising Helaku to keep an eye out for them.  Then the Count and his men were shown upstairs to the guest quarters.  As the servants began clearing plates off the table, Autumn turned to Kyle.

            “Okay, spill it,” she said.

            “Spill what?”

            “Whatever idea you had when Helaku was talking about caravans.  I know that look.”

            “Well,” Kyle said, “when he talked about hiring caravan guards, I just had a memory of when we all graduated from the Tower.  You remember our first assignment, where we were recruited by that little logging village in exchange for paying off part of our school debts?”

            “I remember that,” Osborn said.  “Canyon Camp.  That was when we met Sauroth for the first time.”

            “And the shadar-kai,” Autumn said.  It had been a long time since she’d thought about the dark fey that lived in the forests of southern Tlaxan.  She reminded herself to write her stepfather Zanich to ask if he’d heard anything about them.  “But go on.”

            “Well, it occurs to me, why can’t we do the same?  Contact the Tower and ask them to send us some graduates to do things like guard incoming caravans, or help investigate some of these crimes that our own watch can’t get to, or eliminate some of the lower ranks of the guilds?  Plus, if we give Vargas a reputation for being friendly to adventurers, then that brings in a lot of extra cash and goods, because the adventurers will start coming here to buy and sell their stuff.  That will make the merchants happy, and probably the mages and priests too, because they’ll be able to sell magic items and healing.”

            “Kyle, that’s brilliant,” Autumn said, hugging him.

            “And being on good terms with that Tower of yours can’t be a bad thing,” Razael pointed out.

            “And hey, we can always inspire the younger generations,” Kyle said, “sort of a ‘look where you can end up’ thing.”

            “I’ll write the Tower tomorrow,” Autumn said.  “But graduation’s not for a couple of months, and I want something done about these guilds well before that.”

            “Okay, then,” Kyle said.  “We’ve already decided to have Razael check out the Night Whisperers outside the city.”

            “I’d suggest we start with the assassin’s guilds,” Maddie said.  “The sooner we get rid of people who can kill us in our sleep, the better.  I don’t like getting killed in my sleep.”

            “Maybe we should eliminate the Night Blade first, then,” Kyle said.  “They’re the smallest guild.”

            “Taking down Robar will do us good,” Razael pointed out.  “I reckon he knows a fair sight more about this city than should make us comfortable.”

            “And exposing and eliminating Robar would help cement your rule,” Arrie added.

            “It makes sense,” Autumn said.  “Let’s go over the information we have, and plan to strike at the Night Blade in a week, after Count Helaku leaves.”

            No one was opposed, and so the matter was settled.  Everyone left the table and went their separate ways.  Autumn sighed in contentment as she walked to her room on Kyle’s arm, and she leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment.  It felt good to know they were taking decisive action at last.  With the Night Blades gone, things would start to turn around, and by the time she and Kyle were married the city would be in a position where she could comfortably leave it in the hands of a steward.

_One week,_ she thought, _one week and we can be rid of Robar’s assassins.  With all the intelligence we have, it should be easy._


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

And the key words are?

A: Should be.


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> And the key words are?
> 
> A: Should be.




What?  Are you implying that this mission may not be as simple as Autumn believes?  That there could be some unforeseeen complication?

Like that would ever happen.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

Delemental said:
			
		

> Like that would ever happen.



And pigs fly when?


----------



## Delemental

*The Price of Victory*

So, you may have noticed a slightly increased update schedule recently.  This is because it seems that our DM's seven month hiatus may be coming to a close soon, and so in preparation I'm trying to work through what I have left from before we stopped.  The forthcoming story actually spurred a number of players to write their own side-stories, which I will post here after this (not necessarily today, though).

-----------------------------------

            “Autumn, we’re ready when you are.”

            Autumn looked up from her desk, and nodded at Kyle, who was standing in the doorway.

            “I’ll be right there.”

            She looked down at the sheet of parchment in front of her, still mostly blank.  She’d woken up early this morning to write a letter to her father, Zanich.  She’d used up most of her spare time writing out the wedding invitations in the last week, and hadn’t had the time for a more personal letter.  But she’d found there was so much to say that she was having trouble starting the letter.  She was also distracted by the task ahead of them today.  Finally, she capped off her ink vial, and closed up her desk.  She could always write the letter after they got back.

            Autumn stood, and picked up her greataxe, which was leaning against the desk.  She joined Kyle out in the hallway, and they proceeded down the hall toward Autumn’s offices.

            “Finish the letter?” Kyle asked.

            She shook her head.  “When we get back.  Did you send the invitation to my other father?”

            Kyle also shook his head.  “When we get back.  I figured you’d want to be there if Phanuel gives me an immediate answer.”

            Autumn nodded.  Phanuel was the celestial who had sired her during a love affair with her real mother, Lysanne Coviere.  He was a planetar and a servitor of Krûsh, and thus sending him a traditional written invitation was at best impractical.  Kyle had obtained the _sending _spell in a magical trade with the local wizard’s guild, and intended to contact Phanuel with it in order to invite him to the upcoming wedding.

            They entered the office, where the rest of the Legacy was already waiting.  Autumn turned to Lanara.  “Well, I’m glad to see you’re back.  How did it go?”  Lanara had been away from the manor for several days, after learning that she was booked to appear in three different places in Vargas at the same time, and she’d arranged none of them herself.

            Lanara snorted.  “Turns out it was impersonators.  Bad ones, too.  Can you imagine?  Good thing I caught wind of it, or who knows what they might of done to my reputation!”

            Kyle shrugged.  “Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

            Lanara smirked.  “I’d prefer gifts and candy, myself.”

            Autumn sank into the chair behind her desk.  “All right then, on to the plan?”

            Kyle cleared his throat.  “We know the Night Blades are small, about fifteen to twenty members total.  Their leader, of course, is Count Robar, the former steward of Vargas.  Over half of the guild is just plain thugs, and the rest is leadership and the actual assassins.  They seem pretty weak in the area of arcane magic, so we shouldn’t expect fireballs or anything.  They may have some divine magic on their side, though.”

            Kyle pointed at the map of Vargas on the wall.  “They have three different safehouses in the city, here, here, and here.  They’re connected by underground tunnels that lead into the sewers, which is how they move about.”

            “We’re hitting those two, right?” Lanara asked, pointing at the map.

            “That’s right. This safehouse, the one that’s a few blocks from here, is in the upper class part of town, and most people believe it’s the residence of a wealthy spice merchant.  We figured it would look bad to kick in his door and start swinging.  But the information we got from the Black Hand tells us that more than likely the grunts are hanging out here, in a warehouse in the merchant district.  The higher-ups will be closer to this one, an abandoned shack in the slums.”

            “So Togusa, Xu and I will hit the warehouse,” Raxael drawled.  “We keep the riff-raff busy, while the rest of you hit Robar.”

            “I’ll remain here at the manor,” Maddie said.  “That way I can be available to whichever group needs me.  Plus, if something else comes up in the city while Autumn’s gone, I can deal with it until you get back.”

“And,” Lanara added, “if you’re not out there in danger, then Raz will relax and concentrate on killing assassins.”

            “Excellent,” Autumn said, standing up and putting her greataxe over her shoulder.  “If there’s nothing else, then let’s go.”  She stopped, and looked around the room.  “I just realized something.  Where’s Imrahil?”

            “Oh, we distracted him,” Lanara said.  “Figured you’d enjoy an afternoon of mayhem without an Imperial Guardsman drooling down your neck.”

            Autumn smiled.

            Razael and Xu left first, on their way to rendezvous with Togusa and a small squad of the city watch near the warehouse.  Autumn and her companions left about a half-hour later.  They made their way down the streets of Vargas toward the slums in the southwest.  People in the streets made themselves scarce as the party came through; after months of living in fear, they knew when trouble was about to erupt.

            They finally came to the safehouse, a ramshackle building that listed slightly to the left.  Osborn made a quick inspection of the door, and pronounced it safe before slipping on his ring and vanishing.

            Arrie pulled out her enormous war mace and handed it to Autumn.  “Would you like to do the honors?”

            Autumn grabbed the war mace and swung it as hard as she could.  The door shattered, sending bits of wood flying everywhere.  But just as Autumn handed the mace back to Arrie, they saw that the cloud in the doorway was not composed of dust and wood slivers as they’d thought, but of a bluish-white mist that was rapidly coalescing into a fearsome visage.  Standing just inside the doorway, the skeletal creature was bipedal, and stood about nine feet tall.  A scorpion-like tail swung menacingly over its shoulder.  Glowing blue eyes leered out of its skull-like head.

            “It’s a bone devil!” Osborn’s voice came out of thin air.

            Arrie and Autumn immediately rushed forward into the house to engage the devil, enduring the creature’s vicious claws and teeth.  Arrie was struck in the shoulder by the barbed tail, but fortunately pulled free before it could inject its venom.  Screeching in fury even as its wounds closed over, the devil gestured, and a sheet of ice appeared across the door, blocking Kyle and Lanara from entering the house.  But it hadn’t been fast enough to prevent Osborn from getting in, and moments later the hin struck, stabbing the devil from behind with his short sword and piercing its entrails.

            The bone devil lashed out furiously at its enemies with teeth, tail, and claws, inflicting fearsome damage.  The ice wall suddenly cracked and shattered as Lanara blasted it with a _shout _spell, clearing the way for Kyle to send a black tentacle through the doorway that snapped at the devil with a trio of snake-like heads.  The biting heads seemed to do little to harm the outsider, however, and with a scowl Kyle ended the spell.

            Autumn grew tired of toying with the devil, and summoned divine power, infusing her greataxe with holy energy before laying into her enemy again.  Blue-black ichors spilled from the devil’s side as her axe bit deeply into its torso, and it screamed in pain as the holy energy burned its infernal flesh.  The bone devil reeled, nearly senseless, and was quickly finished off with a sweep of Osborn’s sword.

            “Wow,” Lanara said, stepping through the doorway and looking down at the dissolving corpse of the outsider, “When they say ‘no visitors’, they really mean it, don’t they?”

            “I think it was a magical summoning trap,” Osborn said.  “Hard to find those.”

            “I thought you said they didn’t have a lot of magic, Kyle,” Arrie said.

            “They don’t have a lot of arcane magic.  Summonings can be done by priests as well as mages.”

            “Summoning a osyluth is no small feat,” Autumn pointed out.

            “Well, at any rate, here’s the trapdoor,” Osborn said.  He pointed to the rather obvious seams in the floorboards.  Lanara’s shout had shaken the house so badly that all the grime and dust concealing the door had been knocked loose.  After a quick inspection, Osborn pronounced the door safe to open, although this time Kyle opened it with a _mage hand_ just to be safe.  The door opened to a short ladder leading to a tunnel.  The acrid stench of sewage wafted out of the opening.

            “I’ll scout ahead,” Osborn said.  He activated the magic in his armor that allowed him to sense his surroundings rather than see them, and dropped into the tunnel below.  Arrie, Autumn, Kyle and Lanara followed after him.

            The tunnel led to a series of passages, which interconnected with the city sewers.  Not having any idea of where the Night Blades might go, Osborn navigated by pure instinct, trying to second-guess which direction an assassin might go in the maze of tunnels.  He figured that once he started finding more traps, he would know he was getting closer.

            Osborn did find traps, but not quite in the way he’d hoped.  About an hour after they had entered the tunnels, he hit a tripwire submerged in rancid water, and was sprayed with a fine mist.  Coughing and sputtering, Osborn stumbled back toward the party.

            “Insanity mist,” Kyle said, recognizing the smell from when the Scion-Watchers had attacked Autumn and himself at the Imperial Palace.  “Fortunately, it looks like you managed to hold your breath in time.”

            “How can you tell?” Osborn asked.

            “Because you still have enough brains left to carry on a conversation with me,” he replied.

            “Okay, then, let’s move on, this time with Osborn being more careful,” Arrie said.

            Unfortunately, he wasn’t careful enough.  Another twenty minutes further on, Osborn failed to notice a line of arcane runes scratched into the wall, and when he walked past them, there was a sudden burst of colored light that hit them all.  Kyle felt a toxic venom force itself into his veins, weakening him.  Arrie was blasted with an electrical jolt, Autumn barely resisted being petrified, and Lanara was scorched slightly.  As the party got their bearings, they noticed that Osborn was laying face down in the sewage.  Arrie was the first one to his side.

            “He’s… dead,” she said quietly, feeling for a pulse and finding none.  “They broke him.”

            Kyle came over and examined Osborn’s body.  “Poison,” he said.  “Like what hit me, but he got it worse.”

            “Poison?” Arrie asked.  “From what?  That light?”

            “It was a _prismatic spray_,” Kyle said.  “Powerful spell, more than what I can manage.”

            Autumn grabbed Kyle’s shoulder and spun him around.  “I thought you said they didn’t have powerful magic, Kyle!” She said angrily.  “What do you call this?”

            Kyle stood up and stared at Autumn.  “Now,” he said slowly, “is not the time.  I need to go quickly.”  Kyle bent over and picked Osborn up, heaving the dead hin over his shoulder.  “I’ll be back in a while.  Don’t move from this spot.”  Kyle spoke a few arcane syllables, and reality bent around him.  A second later, he and Osborn had vanished, and there was a splash as the murky water rushed in to fill the holes left by Kyle’s boots.

            The three women waited in the dark tunnel for over an hour. They barely even spoke to each other – partly out of fear of giving away their position, but mostly out of worry for their friend Osborn.  Eventually, they heard the sound of splashing water, and soon Kyle came out of the tunnel.  Guardsman Imrahil was following close behind him.

            “Osborn’s fine now,” he answered the unspoken question.  “I brought him to Maddie and she restored his spirit.  But he’s very weak, and needs to rest.  Fortunately, he seems to be on very friendly terms with a few of the women on your staff, Autumn, so I think he’ll be well cared for.  I was about to leave when Imrahil here found me.  He was unhappy that we’d snuck off without him, so I told him he could come with us to help.  Figured with Osborn gone, we’d need the muscle.”

            “How did you find us?” Autumn asked.  “I have no idea where we are.”

            “_Locate object_ spell,” he said.  “I keep one on a scroll for emergencies.”

            “What object?” Lanara asked.

            “Autumn’s wedding ring,” Kyle said.  “It’s not just for keeping eligible noblemen from hitting on her, you know.”

            “All right,” Arrie said.  “Are we sure we want to keep going?  Without Osborn, we have no chance of finding any other traps, or really of even knowing where to go.”

            “We probably should,” Autumn sighed. “No doubt the Night Blades are aware that someone is down here setting off their traps.  If we give up now, by tomorrow they’ll have hidden themselves and we’ll never get them out of the city.  They probably expect the prismatic spray trap finished us off, so we may have some element of surprise left still.”

            “Okay, then,” Arrie shrugged.  “Let’s go.”

            “I’ll take the lead, Your Highness,” Imrahil said.

            As they began to walk down the tunnel again, Autumn fell back next to Kyle.  “Kyle, when I yelled before, I wasn’t…”

            “Angry at me, I know,” Kyle said.  “It was the situation.  And to be honest, I think we underestimated how much the guild is willing to spend on their defense.  A trap like that would probably cost about fifty thousand gold to create.  I just hope they can’t keep this up too much longer.”

            Without Osborn leading the way, the search for the Night Blades took far longer.  Their trek through the sewers became an exercise in random decisions.  After a couple of hours, they realized that they were going the wrong direction, mostly because they had not encountered any more traps.  After an hour of backtracking to the location of the prismatic spray trap and choosing a new passage to explore, a few minutes later Arrie triggered a fusillade of poisoned darts, none of which penetrated her armor.

            “That’s it?” Arrie said, plucking darts out of her clothing.  “That’s the pansy-ass thing they have to follow the ‘multiple rays of doom’ trap?”

            “No, I think that this ‘pansy-ass thing’ was supposed to precede the prismatic spray,” Kyle said.  “I think the guild figured that intruders would come through here, spring the darts, and anything tough enough to handle them would be dealt with by the spell trap later on.”  Kyle pointed down another tunnel.  “Which means that I think we should head that way now.”

            The party slogged through sewage for another twenty minutes or so, before Imrahil signaled for a quick stop.

            “Faint light, up ahead,” he whispered.  “The tunnel opens into a larger area there.”

            “After you, dear sister,” Autumn said.  Arrie unfurled her spiked chain and started to ready herself to charge in.

            Kyle put a hand on Arrie’s shoulder.  “Wait a minute.  Let’s be smart about this.”  He cast a spell, and was suddenly surrounded by over a dozen floating eyeballs.  “Spread out into the illuminated room ahead,” he told them.  “Examine everything you can without being seen by any living creatures in the room.”  The eyeballs flew off down the hallway, twirling and spinning as they vanished into the gloom.

            “Kyle, that’s really creepy,” Arrie said.  “Welcome to the family.”

            The eyes returned a few moments later, and Kyle stood silently while he absorbed the images from the magical sensors.

            “It’s a four-way junction,” he said, “about fifty feet across.  There are four people waiting in the center of the room.  Two of them are orc-touched, with a pair of axes each, and the other two are elf-touched with pairs of short swords.”

            “A welcoming committee,” Lanara said.  “And here I forgot to wear my best hat.”

            “Do you want me to soften them up a little first?” Kyle asked.

            “Please do,” Autumn said.

            “Okay.  Rush in when you hear the bang.”

            Kyle cast a _shatterfloor _into the center of the junction.  There were cries of surprise and pain as the floor shifted and collapsed, and the concussion sent a wave of foul water rushing out through all the corridors, washing sewage over the party up to their waist.

            Arrie was the first into the room, water spraying onto the walls as she ran.  But as she entered the junction, she slowed her advance, suddenly wary of any further deceptions by the Night Blades.  She took a moment to call upon her psionic powers to bolster her fortitude, pouring her feelings of rage and fury into her powers to further amplify them.

Imrahil tried to take up a defensive stance in the tunnel to keep anyone from getting at the duchess, but Autumn shouldered past him to join her sister, who was being charged by the assassins.  With a grunt of frustration, Imrahil ran up to stand beside them.  Behind them, Lanara’s battle song echoed through the stone passageways, and Kyle threw out a spell that enveloped the five of them in flickering blue flames that seemed to leap out at anyone who swung a weapon at them, pulling the heat out of their limbs.

            At first, the battle seemed to be going in the party’s favor.  Autumn smote one of the orc-touched, felling it, and although the other orc-touched flew into a frenzy, he seemed unable to land a telling blow on Arrie.   What they failed to notice was that the two elf-touched combatants had been subtly drawing the attention of the party toward the outer edges of the combat, maneuvering to the sides.  Within moments, the center of the room was open and unobserved.

            There was a flicker in the air, and a shrouded figure suddenly appeared next to Arrie.  His attack was timed to strike a split-second after a flurry of axe swings from the orc-touched, and so Arrie was not in a position to block the dagger or move out of its way.  The blade slipped in under Arrie’s chin, and neatly severed the artery in her neck.  Arrie twitched, and went slack, falling face first into the filth.

            Autumn saw her sister fall, and had to suppress a scream.  She managed to get a look at Arrie’s attacker, and saw that it was Count Robar, recognizing him from an old oil painting that had been in the manor.  But this Robar had a strange, wild look in his eyes, and she could feel a palpable aura of malice emanating from him that she’d never felt from any mortal foe.  Her eyes blazing with rage, Autumn stepped forward to attack Robar, heedless of the fact that she had placed herself in the midst of her enemies.  Her axe bit deeply into the Count’s body, but amazingly he seemed heedless of the injury.  He glared at Autumn, and spat out a strange hissing scream at her.

            Kyle, who had also seen Arrie fall, rushed through the middle of the combat to her side.  He knew that if Arrie had any chance at all or surviving, he would have to act quickly.  He knelt down in the filthy water and pulled her up into his lap, and tried to staunch the bleeding, but the blood was flowing too fast, and his hands were too slick to apply the proper pressure.  Suddenly a shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see the orc-touched looming over him.  The axes came down, and Kyle knew only a moment of pain, then darkness.  But with the orc-touched’s attention diverted, Imrahil was able to dart in and force-feed a healing potion to Arrie, enduring an blow from an electrically-charged short sword while he worked.  The wound closed up, and Arrie started to breathe again, though she did not regain consciousness.

            Lanara used a _dimension door_ spell to move to the other side of the junction, and then unleashed a bolt of sonic energy at Robar, but the master assassin leapt nimbly out of the way, and the bolt impacted the wall, leaving a sizable crater.  Weaving back into the fray, Robar slashed at Autumn with another poisoned dagger.  The wound howled with agony as infernal power poured through the blade, searing her flesh and spirit, and she felt the venom on the blade sapping her strength.  He then danced back out of the reach of Autumn’s axe, grinning wickedly, and vanished again.

            Autumn looked around the chamber, and for the first time saw that Kyle had fallen next to Arrie.  Still believing her sister had been killed, she focused on her fiancé, and saw he was breathing shallowly.  She quickly moved to his side to help him, but realized that she would leave herself vulnerable to attack.  Though one of the elf-touched assassins had broken off and was slowly approaching Lanara, the other elf-touched and orc-touched were nearby, and Imrahil had just taken a near mortal wound from the berserker.  She also knew that Robar was still out there somewhere, waiting to strike again.  She decided they needed help, and started to concentrate.

            There was a sudden slight breeze as the empty air near Autumn was suddenly filled with hard granite, and the huge form of Duke Kythrian stood guard over her.  The elf-touched tried to get past the guardian to get at Autumn, and was rewarded by a pair of stone fists hammering down that shattered both his shoulders.  In the back of the room, Lanara managed to fire off a _dispel magic_ before the elf-touched closed in on her, sending a burst of anti-magic into the center of the room.  The spell stripped Imrahil’s _fire shield_, but it also had the intended effect; Count Robar’s invisibility was dispelled.

            Autumn barely had time to get the healing potion into Kyle before Robar leapt at her.  He endured attacks from both Imrahil and the guardian to strike, seemingly unconcerned with his own safety.  Muttering strange arcane words as he struck, his dagger seemed to shimmer and become insubstantial the moment before he struck.  The blade went through her plate armor as if it weren’t there, and she felt the sting of his corrupt power lance through her again.  She came to her feet, and started to advance on Robar, but suddenly the room was plunged into darkness.  With an angry wave of her hand, she dispelled the field of darkness with divine light, and saw that the Count was moving toward one of the other tunnels to escape.  She looked around long enough to see Imrahil hack the last orc-touched in half, and to see Lanara warding off the elf-touched with her rapier, before she began the pursuit.

            Robar saw her closing, and leered.  “Before I leave this world, sentinel,” he hissed, in a voice that was clearly not entirely his own, “I will see everything you love destroyed!”

            He pointed at Autumn, and a bolt of pure malice coalesced and launched itself at her, seeming to ooze through the air.  The bolt struck her in the chest, and Autumn felt the chill of pure evil tearing through her soul.  But strangely, the vile energy seemed to dissipate harmlessly.

            “You’ll have to do better than that, devil!” She swung at Robar again, severing his arm at the elbow.  He seemed unconcerned, and even started to laugh manically.  He turned again to flee, but in the corridor behind him, there was a sudden noise, and Kyle was standing there, blocking his path.  His breath came in ragged gasps, but he held his ground, gripping his staff in white knuckles.

            “We’re not finished with you yet,” Kyle growled.  He knew that Robar had to be stopped, perhaps more than Autumn realized.  He had seen the spell that the Count had used, and remembered reading about it in the spellbooks of Sauroth and Neville.  He knew why Autumn hadn’t been hurt by the spell.

            Robar’s laughter grew louder, and he raised his hand to blast the upstart mage.  But he lurched as Autumn brought her greataxe around in an arc, burying it in the former mayor’s chest nearly six inches deep.  She pulled her weapon free, and was ready to swing again, but then stopped.

            A foul red light was spilling out of the massive wound left by Autumn’s axe.  The light intensified, and started to pour out of Robar’s other wounds, as well as his eyes, mouth, and ears.  With a massive explosion that knocked both Autumn and Kyle to their feet, Robar’s body was torn apart into large chunks of flesh.  Standing where Robar had once been was a huge, grotesque creature, covered with greenish-black scales.  Huge leathery wings flexed as it leered at Autumn.  The creature quickly stepped forward and planted a clawed foot on Autumn’s arm, preventing her from standing or raising her weapon.  The fanged, horned head leaned in close to hers.

            “You have removed one tool, sentinel,” it said in a mocking whisper.  “But there are so many more, so many willing tools.  You will never know what face I wear when I come for you.”

            Then the devil’s forked tongue snaked out, and lapped at the side of Autumn’s face.  It was a rough, degrading gesture, a sign of the creature’s contempt.  It considered her little more than an object, an annoyance to be dealt with and discarded. Its aura assaulted Autumn with every foul emotion she could imagine; malice, lust, cruelty.  Then, in an instant, it was gone.

            Kyle rushed over to help Autumn up, though he was barely standing himself.  The last assassin attacking Lanara had fled down another tunnel.  “Goat-raping bastard!” the bard shouted after him, “don’t come back or you’ll get more of the same!”  The guardian, with no more enemies near the Duchess, stood inert, and Imrahil fell to his knees, nearly ready to collapse from exhaustion and blood loss.

            “What was that thing?” Lanara asked.

            “A cornugon,” Autumn said.  “A very powerful and foul devil.”

            “Very foul,” Kyle said quietly.  He couldn’t bear to tell Autumn about the spell yet.  There were more immediate concerns.

            Autumn fell to her knees, suddenly overcome by both grief and fatigue.  “My sister…”

            “Is alive,” Imrahil said weakly.  “She will need more healing, but the Imperial Princess is not dead.”

            Autumn let out a cry of joy, and tears rolled down her cheeks.  “Thank you, Bail!  Thank you!”  She grabbed Kyle and pulled him down into a hug, sobbing with relief.  Kyle embraced her, saying nothing.  Lanara caught the strange look in the wizard’s eyes, and cast a curious glance at him.

            Kyle, still saying nothing, only held Autumn tighter.

 *          *          *​
            Autumn blinked as the curtains to her room were thrown open, letting sunlight pour into the room.  She looked up at Aleria, who was crossing the room heading for the washbasin.

            “Is it morning already?” she asked groggily.

            “Afternoon, actually, Your Grace,” she said filling the basin with warm water. Your windows face west.  And I should let you know now that you have slept for two days; it’s the twenty-fourth.”

            “Oh.”

            It had been almost sunset by the time they had returned to the manor.  Autumn had carried Arrie’s unconscious body back herself, followed by Kyle, Lanara, and Imrahil.  Razael and Xu had already returned, having successfully completed their part of the mission.  Togusa had gone back to the Watch barracks with the remainder of his squad.  Autumn had paused at the gate only long enough to have a pike brought out to her, upon which she mounted Robar’s head.  She had left instructions that a sign be placed underneath it:



Robar, former Lord Mayor of Vargas, has been found guilty of Treason, Conspiracy, Consorting with Fiends, Murder, and has been identified as the leader of the former assassin’s guild, the Night Blades.  He has been stripped of all noble titles and lands, and has been executed for his crimes by order of Autumn Verahannen, Duchess of Vargex, Lady Mayor of Vargas.



            It wasn’t until she had made sure that Arrie and all of her friends had been seen by the healers that she consented to be treated herself.  She was quickly rushed off to her bedroom, and was quickly overcome by fatigue.  She had fallen into a deep sleep, disturbed occasionally by vague dreams of being struck by the cornugon’s vile spell, and hearing a far-off cry of pain.

            “Where’s Kyle?” Autumn asked, noticing the empty spot in bed next to her.

            “I’m not sure, Your Grace,” Aleria said.  “He has been by your side since you returned, though he was scarcely well himself.  But I’ve not seen him since this morning.”

            “And the others?”

            “The Imperial Princess has fully recovered, thanks be to Erito for that, as has Guardsman Imrahil.  The others only suffered relatively minor injuries.  Your friend Osborn will take a few more days to recover, I’m told.  He’s been moved to his house, though I understand that a few of the ladies among the staff are going to check up on him regularly.”

            “I’m sure they are,” Autumn smiled.  “And what of the city?”

            “Word has spread far and wide of your assault on the assassin’s guild and the treachery of Robar,” Aleria said.  “The city has been very peaceful since then.”

            Autumn nodded her approval, especially on hearing Aleria describe the leader of the Night Blade as ‘Robar’ and not ‘Count Robar’ – she was certain that Lanara had been hard at work while she had slept.

            “Well then, perhaps I can use the time to catch up on my correspondence,” Autumn said.  She sat up in bed, propping herself up with pillows.  “Aleria, would you bring me my lap-desk with pen and ink?  And there’s an unfinished letter on my desk, please.”

            “Of course, Your Grace.”

            She was halfway through her letter when Kyle came into the room, followed by Arrie.  She noticed that Kyle was dressed in his adventuring gear, staff in hand, but that Arrie was in normal clothing.

            “Good afternoon,” Kyle said, sitting on the edge of the bed and giving her a quick kiss.  “Feeling better?”

            “Much better,” she replied.  “You two?”

            “Still hurts to talk a little,” Arrie said, rubbing her throat, “but considering the alternative…” she shrugged.

            “No problems here,” Kyle said.

            Autumn actually thought he looked a little pale, but said nothing.  “So, are you going somewhere, Kyle?”

            “Yes, actually.  I’ll be gone for a few days.  Something I need to take care of while I have a chance, before we go after the next guild.”

            “Anything serious?”

            “No, just tying up some loose ends from a while back.  More of a personal thing.”  Kyle reached over and grasped Autumn’s hand.  “But I’m glad that you woke up before I left.  I was hoping I’d get to talk to both of you.”

            Autumn looked up at Arrie, curious.

            “Don’t ask me,” Arrie said.  “He found me in the hall and asked me to come with him.  I’d figured he’d want a little more privacy.”  Arrie looked at Kyle, and winked.  “You do know that I don’t go in for this kind of thing, right?”

            When Kyle didn’t even crack a smile, Arrie’s face also went somber.  “Oh, it’s one of _those _kind of ‘we need to talk’ moments.”

            “Kyle, you’re scaring me a little,” Autumn said.

            “And I wish I could tell you that what I have to say isn’t going to be scary, but I can’t.”  Kyle waited for Arrie to sit down in a chair near the bed before continuing.  “Do you remember the spell that the cornugon cast on you, Autumn?  The bolt of corruption?”

            “Yes, I do,” Autumn said, and in her mind she replayed the strange dream she’d had of a far-off dying scream.  “I think I should be grateful the spell failed to have any effect.”

            “That’s the problem,” Kyle said.  “It did.”

            “Oh.  Well, is it like the defiling touch of the Corrupters?”  Autumn had experienced that touch personally, back in M’Dos.  They had left a stain on her soul that, left to fester, might have caused her to abandon the cause of good, but fortunately it was detected and expunged from her spirit early.

            “No,” Kyle said, shaking his head.  “The spell is known as _love’s pain_.  I’ve seen references to it in some of the spellbooks I’ve collected.  It’s a horrible, depraved spell.”

            “What does it do?” Arrie asked.

            “It enters the mind and spirit of whoever it is cast on.  It doesn’t harm them, but it finds the person to who you have the strongest emotional bond, the person who means the most to you, and it hurts them.  Badly.”

            The color drained from both sister’s faces.  “But Kyle,” Autumn said, “you’re fine, and so is Arrie.  Who else…”

            “I wondered that myself at first,” Kyle said.  “I would have guessed the spell would have struck one of us.  But there’s a lot of different kinds of love, you know.”  He squeezed Autumn’s hand tightly.  “It’s not going to be a very long list, though.”

            Arrie suddenly gasped.  “Father!”

            Kyle nodded.  “Could be.  Or your brother, Aiden.  Or Autumn’s natural father, Phanuel.  Or even Auror – for all her faults, she’s still your mother.”

            “But Kyle,” Autumn said, as she felt her heart starting to hammer in her chest, “we would have heard something by now if something had happened.”

            “Would we?  If something happened to your family, it’d take at least a week for a messenger to arrive with the news, or possibly longer.  If it hits Phanuel, we’d probably never find out about it, though given his nature I doubt the spell would cause any serious damage.  And to be honest, I don’t know how the spell works, or how long it takes.  For all I know, even Arrie and I aren’t safe yet.”

            “But there’s something you can do, right?” Arrie prompted.

            Kyle shook his head.  “No, there isn’t.  The spell will run its course, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.  There’s no way to even tell for sure who it will strike.  Right now, all we can do is wait.  But you should prepare yourself for the worst.”

            “The worst?” Autumn said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.  “You mean…”

            “Whoever is afflicted with the _love’s pain_ spell is probably going to die.”

            Autumn felt tears falling down her face.  Looking over, she saw her sister struggling furiously to keep her own tears under control.

            “That son of a bitch,” Autumn said, with an eerily calm voice.  “When I catch up to that cornugon, he’ll pay for what he’s done.”

            “I know he will,” Kyle said.  “But for now, you should try and rest.  I’ll be back in a few days.”

            Autumn felt a pang of sorrow and sudden loneliness, but nodded.  “Hurry back.”

            Kyle stood and crossed to the door.  Arrie, who had been sitting quietly for a while, suddenly stood and followed him out.  She caught up to him a short distance down the hall.  Grabbing him by the shoulder, she spun him around and stepped up close, jabbing a finger into his chest.  The handful of servants in the hallway found other things to do.

            “Wait a minute,” she said, her voice calm but with an edge of restrained fury.  “What, exactly, do you think you’re doing leaving Autumn at a time like this?”

            “I’m not leaving her, Arrie,” Kyle said calmly.  “I’m going away for a little while to take care of some things.  By the time any news arrives, I’ll be back, I promise you.”  He tried to step back, but Arrie kept in step with him, until his back was against the wall.  It was rather more forceful than Kyle was used to seeing Arrie act.

            “Why now?  What is so gods-damned important to you?”

            “Why now?” Kyle repeated.  “Because the world does not revolve around us, Arrie.  It moves on whether or not our friends and relatives are killed, whether by evil spells or the blade of a cultist, and we can’t just sit here and hope everything turns out all right.” He paused long enough to let his words sink in a little before continuing.  “Because I made a promise to myself, long ago, that for the first time in my life I’m able to fulfill, and now may be the only chance I have to do it before we are mired so deep in preventing the second Cataclysm that we’re barely able to come up for air.  And because I have faith that Autumn is strong enough to handle this whether I’m at her side or a thousand miles away, because she knows that I will always be with her.”

            There was a long silence between the two.  Then Kyle looked down at Arrie’s finger, still pushing into his chest.  “Are you going to put that away, or do I have to make you?”

            A little of the fire left Arrie’s eyes, and she withdrew her hand.  “Sorry,” she said, “But really, Kyle, don’t be ridiculous.  There’s no way you could…”

            Kyle barked out a few short arcane syllables, and his hands flexed at his sides.  It took Arrie a half-second to realize what was happening, not expecting anything like this from Kyle.  She called on her mental reserves to bolster her willpower, but she felt the spell slipping through, stronger than she expected.  Arrie tried to jump back, but suddenly found she couldn’t move.  Gently, Kyle reached out, lifted Arrie’s rigid body a few inches, and set her down slightly farther back, so that he could more easily move away from the wall.

            “First of all, I’m sorry about this,” Kyle said.  “But I needed to make a point.  The time has long passed when we can solve every problem with brute force or think our opponents are going to do or be exactly what we expect.  The battle with Robar should have proven that.  Our battles now require a different set of skills.  In many ways, Arrie, you’ve already begun to adapt.  But sometimes the best thing we can do is just wait, and I think that’s where you have problems.  That is what we have to do now, Arrie.  Wait.  Wait for Osborn to heal.  Wait for the cornugon to reappear.  Wait for Aran to contact us again.  Wait to find out who dies, and what we can do about it when it happens.”  Kyle leaned in close, and whispered, “The trick, Arrie, is knowing that ‘waiting’ doesn’t have to mean ‘doing nothing’.”

            Kyle took a step back from Arrie, and a faint smile appeared on his face.  “You should go back to your sister now,” he said.  “I’m sure she’s going to want to rewrite that letter she’s sending to Zanich, and I’m sure she’d appreciate some support.  You know I’m never any good at knowing what to say.”  He leaned in and kissed Arrie on the forehead.  “Goodbye, Arrie.  I’ll see you soon.  We’ll get a drink together when I get back – I have the feeling you and I should catch up.”  With that, he turned and walked down the hall.  By the time Arrie was able to move again, a few seconds later, she knew he was gone.

            She stood in the hallway for a moment, looking down the hall in the direction Kyle had left, and then slowly turned and made her way back to Autumn’s room.


--------------------------------

Yeah, a pretty dismal night, this was.  Especially Osborn, who not only missed every Search check, but missed the save against the prismatic spray.  As I recall, at one point both Arrie and Kyle were at negative hit points (Arrie was one point away from death), Imrahil was at single digits, and Autumn was in the twenties or thirties.  Not having Razael or Xu there didn't help matters much, either.  The vile spell was just insult to injury.

For the sake of full disclosure, I should say that the final conversation between Arrie and Kyle never actually happened in game.  If he'd actually cast _hold person_ on her while we were at the table, she probably would have had an attack of opportunity, and had a good chance of resisting the spell.  But in my version Kyle wins, so I like it better. 

(Love ya, Ariadne!)


----------



## Delemental

*Dreamtime*

The first of three pieces of fiction that were written following the "Price of Victory" adventure, this one comes from Lanara's player.

-------------------------------

            Lanara woke to an empty bed and moonlight shining in her window, setting the room faintly aglow.  It still annoyed her sometimes that Razael, like all other elves, didn't need to sleep.  It would have been comforting to have him here right now to hold her, to banter with her, to take her nind off the dream she'd just had. 

            But this wasn't about her and Razael.  And it wasn't the first time she'd had this particular dream either.  Lanara thought for a minute, trying to remember the first time the dream had manifested.  It seemed to her that must have been after the dreadful battle with the Ravagers so long ago, after she'd truly realized the romantic tension between Tolly, Kyle and Autumn.  Yes, that was it.  That was when she'd begun having dreams of Autumn's wedding.   

            At first they'd been normal images of pomp and frivolity.  Well, as frivolous as she could imagine Autumn being, anyway.  Some of the dreams had been pretty hilarious, picturing Arrie in various monstrosities of gowns denoting "maid of honor," for Lanara knew at the core of her being that Autumn would choose no other for that precious role.  When Lanara thought about it in her waking hours, she still found the idea of Arrie in wedding attendant garb something to snicker about.  While the two so very different suitors had still been vying for first place in the sentinel's heart, the wedding had taken on varying degrees of amusement value as well.  When she dreamed Kyle was the groom, he did everything from stuttering over the vows to showing up in his old school robes covered with dirt, to showing up late wearing nothing at all.  In the dreams where Tolly had won out, things were much more somber and highly dignified, even when, at his insistence on keeping with Ardaran tradition, the priest and guests all tossed dirt at the happy couple. 

            After Autumn had made her choice clear back in Miracle, the dreams had taken a different turn.  Things like Tolly showing up at the wedding and pelting Kyle with stones, or causing the earth to swallow the wizard before the couple could complete their vows and throwing Autumn over his shoulder and hauling her off to some Ardaran stronghold.  At first Lanara had ascribed this to some of what she knew about teenaged boys and the generalities of jealousy for jilted lovers.  However, the feelings of a wedding doomed did not let up even after Tolly had chosen to leave the party to join the Ardaran Church in M'dos. 

            Lanara rolled over in her bed, eyes searching the surroundings of her room at the ducal manor in Vargas. Thinking back on the dreams like this made her wonder whether or not she was just jealous herself.  It would be a simple explanation for the earlier dreams, the ones that were so amusing.  Simple female jealousy over something that she didn't have for herself.  But then when she thought harder about it, she realized that wasn't the case.  At least when Autumn did marry, she would never (legally) have to answer to Auror for anything ever again, and after having met the woman Lanara could not begrudge Autumn that particular freedom.

            Sighing heavily, Lanara gathered the comforter around her body and went to sit in a chair by the window.  For a moment, she wondered where the tracker might be, then realized that it didn't really matter at the moment.  Raz would probably just shrug it off as some female vapors or undigested vegetables or something and persuade her back into bed.  But she liked that about him...no deep emotional ties involved, and if they called things off tomorrow, they could still be friends, she was sure of it.  Not that either of them were incapable of deep emotions, they were just very careful where they spent that kind of energy.  Lanara, for example, dearly loved her father, but since she hadn't seen or even heard from him in so long she didn't really even think about him much.  And Raz could clearly be deadly in his devotion to any chosen target.  But for both of them, their lives of wandering had taught them to let things and people be, if not disposable, at least leavable as necessity demanded.  Although given the reaction to her instruments lately, Lanara wasn't sure she could choose to leave them any more.  Bu that was another problem entirely...

            Back to the problem at hand.  The dream.  After the excursion to the South Pole (cursed, cursed boat!), after the party had found out about the thrice-bedamned Scion-watchers her dreams of the upcoming nuptials had indeed become disturbing.  How could one look forward to a wedding that ended in the death of the groom?  Lanara shuddered, but did not try to fool herself into thinking it was a chill from the window.  The events had worsened in her dreams, to the point where she was almost willing to call them nightmares.  Autumn in a black gown, crying bitterly, a church full of mourners,  a solemn priest, a funeral pyre.  Blood staining the bride's hands, Arrie in full armor, Madrone leading farewell prayers for Kyle's soul.  Razael and Tolly at the head of the Verahannen guards and Kyle's relatives acting as pallbearers.  And in the shadows of the gathering lurked beings as varied as their enemies: Marrek, Xerxes, Auxariel, the leader of the Scion-watchers' cell they had destroyed, Aranal, Hungai, Neville, the ex-count Robar who kept shifting into the cornugon who had taken over his body, the orc who had slain Autumn, countless, faceless, nameless others.  Above it all, drowing out the funeral dirge and the eulogy, a blaring of trumpets.  It was one of these horrors that had filled her with such trepidation tonight.  Only months to the wedding, weeks really and though the situation in Vargas was coming under control, there were so many loose ends to be tied up! 

            Lanara threw the comforter off and stood to pace the room.  Again she wished that Raz were here to distract her, and suddenly the room they frequently shared was far too confining for the magnitude of her musings.  Grabbing her dressing gown, she left the room and wandered the halls of the mansion the party currently called home.  Candles flickered in the sconces outside each door, making it easy for the cansin to navigate quietly.  There was no getting past the elven guard posted at the door to Autumn's suite unseen, but she assured him that she was simply restless and bid him good watch.  She made a complete circuit of the interior of the manor, wondering to herself how many times the others had done the same thing on other sleepless nights. 

            After assuring herself that there was nothing that needed anyone's attention, let alone hers, Lanara let her feet carry her back to her own room.  Instead of crawling back into bed or curling up in the chair by the window again, she pulled another chair up to her desk.  The familiarity of the items on the desk was reassuring to her - inkwell, pens, her journal, and a variety of parchments including her copy of Kyle and Autumn's wedding invitation.  A frown crossed her face as she re-read the invite, and she rolled it back up and placed it in one of the desk drawers.  After a moment, she pulled her journal close and started flipping through the pages.  She grinned at some of her more sarcastic entries and grew misty-eyed at others.  It was a sizable tome, and dated to her graduation from the Tower.  It spent a lot of time in her haversack, but when she had the leisure she was faithfully recording the Legacy's adventures from her own perspective.  Thanks to her bardic training, both on the road with the hin and in the more formal classrooms of the Tower, she had a very accurate memory, and a trick of shorthand she had developed to save space in the  book.  She didn't know where she might be when she finally ran out of pages, and she didn't want some of her observations to be deciphered if someone unauthorized ever got hold of it.  After wincing through some early versions of some of her now-renowned works, she decided that if nothing else, writing about these damned dreams might help her get some sort of peace tonight, at least.  Uncapping her inkwell, she selected a pen and began to write...



The Bride Wore Black 



Regal she stood

Bravely facing the altar

Willing her body and heart

Not to falter.



Clutching the rose    

That she held in her hand

A thorn pricked her skin

Blood stained the gold band.



She swallowed her tears

When the trumpeters blew

The fanfare announcing

The man she loved true.



All heads turned

As he entered the hall

A friend to those gathered

And hero to all.



She watched him approaching

Her eyes glowing bright

While relections from torches

Cast flickering light.



Priests began chanting

As the groom was brought near

The lady was trembling

With ill-controlled fear.



The prayers were said

And final vows made

Tears wiped away

and fond farewells bade.



His body was laid

On the funeral pyre

With the rose as we cried

For the love lost to fire.​ 

            So many things could still go wrong!  She had hoped that after Kyle's family had been made safe and Vargas began to come fully under Autumn's control that these dreams would subside.  Obviously not.  Something still lurked beyond the edges of what the Legacy could influence, waited to disrupt their plans yet again.  Lanara capped the inkwell and placed the pen back in the holder.  She left the journal open so the ink could dry, and with a final glance at the now-setting moon, climbed back into bed and fell into an exhausted sleep.


----------



## Delemental

*Promises to Keep*

Promises to Keep is the second player-written piece of fiction to follow "Price of Victory", written by yours truly.

Those who read some of the other popular Story Hours here in addition to mine (and you really should - there's a lot of them far better than mine) will note that I've blatantly ripped off some names for this piece, notably from Sepulchrave and Piratecat.  I should probably mutter some platitude here about sincerest form of flattery and all that.  

--------------------------------------------

            People were giving Kyle funny looks as he walked into the Uncut Emerald in Laeshir.  Most likely because he had suddenly appeared in the middle of the street not three seconds ago.  Kyle crossed the common room and approached a rotund dwarf with graying hair and beard.

            “Good afternoon, Burbark Hammerhand,” Kyle said.  “I was wondering if you have any rooms for the night.”

            “Ayup,” said the portly dwarf, scratching his beard.  “With or without bath?”

            “Without,” Kyle said.

            “I got three you can pick from,” Burbark said.  “The suite, that’s two gold.  Two separate chambers, has its own privy too.   The second room’s six silver, single room, shared privy down the hall.  Or you can have the Stinker for four silver.”

            “The Stinker?” Kyle asked.

            “Room’s a little larger than most of my single rooms.  But a couple of years back, some wizard rented it out for a couple months and used it as an alchemy lab.  Never have been able to get the smell out since.  Annoying, but not unbearable.”

            Kyle suppressed a smile.  “How unfortunate.  I think the suite will be fine.”  Kyle reached out and handed a platinum coin to Burbark.  “I’d like my meals brought up tonight and in the morning,” he said.  “And a pitcher of wine.  The rest…” Kyle was interrupted by a spasm of coughing.

            “Everything all right, sir?” Burbark asked.

            “Fine,” Kyle said, getting the cough under control.  “Getting used to the altitude, that’s all.  I was going to sat that the rest of that is for you and your staff.”

            “Thank you, sir,” Burbark said, pocketing the coin.  “Anything else?”

            “Just see that I’m not disturbed.  I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, Burbark.  Now, I need to go meet someone; I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

            “Sure thing, sir,” Burbark said.  Kyle turned and made his way to the door.

            “Hey!” Burbark called out, “how’d you know my name, anyway?  We ever met before?”

            “Some friends of mine stayed here once, a while ago.”

            “Ah.  Well then, good afternoon to you, sir!”

            Kyle left the Uncut Emerald and proceeded to the underground portion of the city.  He paused briefly outside an abandoned old house, looking at two weathered statues of lions at the front gates, before continuing on down the road.  He stopped at a more modest home, and knocked on the door.  A liveried dwarf answered the door.

            “Kyle Goodson to see Myndrila Feyborn,” Kyle said.

            The dwarf nodded.  “This way.”

            The servant led him into a drawing room, where a fire blazed.  There was a window in the far wall, no doubt enchanted, as it appeared to look out on a sunny green meadow.  The dwarf offered Kyle a seat, and a glass of wine before departing.  A few minutes later, the doors opened again, and a woman walked through.  It was difficult to say whether she was young or old; her face had a timeless quality to it.  She appeared elven at first due to her pointed ears, but she lacked the almond shaped eyes of that race; hers were large, round, and sparkling.  She moved gracefully to a chair opposite Kyle and sat down.

            “Welcome to my home, Wizard Goodson,” she said in a light, melodic voice.

            “Thank you for agreeing to see me, Wizardess Feyborn.”

            The woman smiled.  “Please, can we move on to ‘Kyle’ and ‘Myndrila’?”

            “Of course, Myndrila.  So, how’s retirement?”

            “Boring,” she said.  “But that’s the problem with having a grandmother who’s a nymph.  Everything gets boring far too quickly.  I honestly don’t know how full-blooded fey stand it.”

            “Sorry to hear that,” Kyle said.

            “Oh, it’s not that bad, Kyle.  It keeps me motivated, from getting complacent.”  She poured herself a glass of wine from the decanter nearby. “So, have you spoken to Professor Vorsha lately?  Let her know how her little prodigy is doing?”

            “Not for a while,” Kyle admitted.  “I’ve been… busy.”

            Myndrila laughed.  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Kyle.  It’s expected, really.  The way most wizards lead their lives, it’s sometimes years before we get around to personal correspondence, unless we want something.”  She set down her glass.  “Speaking of which…”

            “No sense beating about the bush, is there?” Kyle said, grinning.

            “Getting contacted by one of my former students at the Tower out of the blue, requesting a meeting at my home?  It’s usually only one of two things.”  She leveled a gaze at Kyle.  “Please tell me that you’re not here in the hopes of playing out some sort of ‘teacher-student seduction’ fantasy.”

            “No!” Kyle exclaimed, turning a little red.

            “Thank Erito for that.  It happens far too often, you understand.  The nymph blood, and all.”  Myndrila paused, and looked at Kyle.  “Although, I must say you present yourself far better these days than you did at the Tower…” she looked at him for another moment, then shook her head as if clearing it.  “Well, you’re not here for that.  Which means you want something I own.  What is it?”

            “Jovol’s Codex,” Kyle answered.

            Myndrila laughed for a moment, sweetly and lightly.  “No.”

            “But you own three copies of the Codex,” Kyle said.  “I rebuilt the shelves in your office, remember?”

            “And I obtained each of those copies at great personal expense,” Myndrila said.  “There are only four in existence, each enchanted to resist transcription.  And don’t bother looking for the fourth – its owner is even more intractable than I am.”

            “You haven’t even heard my offer, Myndrila,” Kyle said.

            “I doubt you could have anything I’m interested in.  You’re an adventurer, not a researcher.  I’m sure you’ve come across a lot in your travels, but most adventurers tend to collect more… mundane enchantments.  Any books they find tend to end up as kindling.”

            “Myndrila…” Kyle scolded.

            She held up her hands in a pacifying gesture.  “All right, all right, an unfair generalization, I’ll admit.”  She sighed.  “Very well.  Make your offer, Kyle.  Don’t get your hopes up on the Codex, but if what you have piques my interest, perhaps I might consider trading some lesser items.”

            Kyle reached into his magical belt and extracted a large tome, bound in the skin of some unidentifiable creature.  He set the tome on his lap, flipped it open, and searched for a few moments before passing the book to Myndrila.  With a bored expression, she glanced down at the page.  Then she squinted, and looked harder, following a line with her finger.  She turned the page, and scanned the contents of that as well.

            When she looked up, her expression was no longer bored.

            “I’d expected you to open with some lesser trinket, and we’d negotiate up from there.”

            “I don’t enjoy haggling.”

            “Who wrote this?”

            “The necromancer and master alchemist Neville.”

            Myndrila shook her head.  “Neville was killed by the church of Tor years ago, and his possessions destroyed.”

            “He survived, thanks in large part to the information you have in front of you now.  My friends and I made his second exit from the world more permanent.”  Kyle smiled.  “I was sure to pull that book out of the kindling pile.”

            “He certainly seems to have invested a lot of time into this,” Myndrila said, turning another page.

            “I’m no expert, but near as I can tell he’s come closer than anyone else.  It would only take a few more years of research, I think.”

            Myndrila looked at the book a little longer before turning her sparkling eyes on Kyle.  “This is dangerous knowledge, you know.  Neville was a foul monster.  The fact that you even own this book would get you censured by the church of Erito.”

            Kyle shrugged.  “I’m not terribly concerned what Erito thinks of me these days,” he replied.

            Myndrila looked as though she was about to say something else, but chose not to.  “Still, in the wrong hands, these formulas…”

            “But I’m not putting them in the wrong hands, am I?”  Another bout of coughing interrupted him.  Myndrila sat quietly until it subsided.

            “You do realize,” Mydrila said, slowly closing the book, “that my interests are neither in necromancy nor alchemy.”

            “No, they aren’t.  But Professor Imbrindarl’s interests are.”

            Myndrila’s eyebrows arched, but she said nothing.

            “As I recall from that day when I was assigned to rebuild your shelves – the day I noticed you have three copies of a particular book – you were in your office lamenting to Professor Vax about how you’d been trying to obtain a certain item from Professor Imbrindarl; an orrery with unique properties.  I remember you mentioning your frustration that the orrery was nearly useless to him, but extremely valuable to you.  You cursed him quite elegantly for his ‘sentimental attachments’.”

            “You heard all that?” Myndrila asked.

            Kyle smiled.  “Professor Feyborn, you are by no means the only instructor at the Tower who assumed that because I was just a laborer that I didn’t have ears to hear what was said or a mind to understand it.”

            Myndrila scowled.  “Damn you, Vorsha.”  She picked up her neglected wine glass and drained it.  “So, why not take this book to Imbrindarl and trade for the orrery yourself?”

            “Because it’s not the orrery I want, and my time is limited.  I figured I’d give you the pleasure of negotiating with him.”

            Myndrila sat for a while, looking down at the book, then up at Kyle, then at the book again.  She uncrossed and uncrossed her legs, and then started tapping her finger against the table next to her chair.

            “I have a number of items that might interest you,” she said at last.  “Perhaps a ring that will…”

            Kyle shook his head.  “The Codex.”

            “I’ve researched a number of unique spells, you know.  Very useful for your line of…”

            Again, Kyle shook his head.

            Sighing heavily, Myndrila stood up.  She retrieved a tiny chest from a pocket, and spoke a few words.  Instantly, a large, ornate chest appeared in the room between Myndrila and Kyle.  After deactivating several wards, Myndrila opened the chest and pulled out a large tome, twice as large as the one Kyle had given her.  Its cover was made of a strange, shimmering metal that seemed to amplify the light reflecting off it.  Slowly, she handed the tome to Kyle.

            “You have no idea how much this hurts,” Myndrila said.

            Kyle smiled.  “I’m sure the orrery will look lovely in your study.”

            “It had better.”

            Kyle stood up, placing his copy of Jovol’s Codex in his belt.  He then took the hand that Myndrila offered, and kissed the back of it.  “I’m eternally grateful, Professor Feyborn.”

            “Your manners have improved,” she commented.  “You’ve been getting lessons?”

            “Every day,” he grinned.  “From an excellent teacher.”

            “Would you care to stay?  I have a guest room you could use.”

            “Thanks for the offer, but I have a room in town, and I’ll need to leave early tomorrow.  I’ve already imposed on your hospitality enough.  Perhaps the next time I’m in Laeshir?”

            “I doubt I’ll be living her much longer, honestly,” Myndrila said.  “The boredom, and all.”

            “Well, then, I guess it’s until we meet again.  Good evening to you, Myndrila Feyborn.”

            “And to you, Kyle Goodson.  My servant can show you out.”

            Kyle was only a few steps from the door when Myndrila spoke.  “I’m curious, Kyle.  Why such an intense interest in planar and planetary metaphysics?  Jovol’s Codex isn’t exactly introductory reading, and I’d had you figured as an artificer.”

            “My interests have evolved,” he said, “and there’s a rather important project I have in mind.  If I had the time, I’d tell you more, and probably ask for your help.  As it stands, I have to hope Jovol here will give me what I need.”

            “Well, let me know how it goes, if you get the chance.”

            “Trust me,” Kyle said, “if it works, you’ll know about it.”

*          *            *​
            “Gotcha!”

            Hulli squealed and fell over, rolling around in the dirt.  Standing above him, Johan laughed out loud.

            “Get up,” he said, offering a hand.

            Hulli pulled himself up, and brushed dirt off his clothes.  “I slipped,” he said defensively.

            Johan laughed again.  “Some dwarf you are.  Come on, then, say it.”

            “Do I have to?” Hulli whined.

            “You’re the one who wanted to play ‘Goblin in the Gully’,” Johan said.  “No fair backing out now just because you got caught.”

            Hulli pouted, but nodded all the same.  It was hard to argue with Johan; of all the children in Lisk, he had earned the most Honor Stones.  His seven stones hung from the leather cord around his neck, proudly displayed.  In only a few more years, his beard would start to come in, and soon after that he’d be breaking his cord and becoming an adult.

            “Quit stalling, hin-breath,” Johan said, reminding Hulli that that day had not yet arrived.

            Hulli grit his teeth, and then in a loud voice began to sing.

_         “I’m a greasy goblin,
            With not much in my head!
            I’ve got worms in my ale,
            And fleas in my bed!

            This noble dwarf has caught me,
            So now I must obey!
            I must do what he asks of me,
            Or he’ll chase me away!”_

            After he finished reciting the rhyme, Hulli looked at Johan.  “Al right, what are you going to make me do?”

            Johan thought for a moment, rubbing his chin.  “You have to go give Belga Copperthumbs a kiss.  On the mouth.”

            “What?  Eww!  No way!”

            Johan looked sternly at Hulli.  “Would you rather be exiled, then?”

            Hulli scowled and pouted.  Now he was in a bind.  The rules for Goblin in the Gully were clear; if caught, he had to either perform one task, or he would be ‘exiled’, which in the context of the game meant that none of his friends would speak to him or play with him for a week.  At the thought of kissing a girl, though, Hulli started to wonder if exile was really that bad.

            “Come on, what’s taking so long?”

            “I’m thinking!”

            “Oh, come on, how hard can it be?  Everyone knows you want to kiss Belga anyway.”

            “I do not!”

            “Do too!”

            “Do not!”

            Grinning, Johan stepped back and began to chant.  “Belga and Hulli, sitting in the dirt!  He’s trying to look up her skirt!”

            “Shut up!”  Hulli reached down and picked up a rock, and threw it at Johan.  It bounced off his head.

            “Ow!” he said, rubbing his head.  “You’re gonna get it now!”

            Hulli turned and began running up the hill, followed by Johan.  Though Johan was older by a half-year, both boys were roughly equal size, so Hulli managed to keep ahead of his friend.  Near the top of the hill, Hulli jumped over a low fence, Johan right on his heels.  The younger boy heard a scrabbling in the dirt as his friend snatched up a loose stone.  Hulli kept running; Johan may have been older, but he wasn’t as good at throwing stones.  He knew that he wouldn’t try a throw while running, which meant he could get to where he was going safely.

            Cresting the hill, Hulli half ran, half slid to his destination.  Just beyond the top was the town’s cemetery, littered with squat stone markers engraved with runes detailing the memory of Lisk’s former residents.  Hulli ran past several markers, weaving back and forth, until he came to a halt.  Behind him, he heard Johan slow down, and then stop, panting heavily.

            Hulli stood amidst a crowd of several statues of dwarven men and women.  The statues wore mining clothes, and some held pickaxes and shovels.  Others looked as though they were running; one was sprawled on the ground, his hand held up in front of his face as if to ward something off.  All of them wore expressions of surprise and fear.

            “No fair!” Johan shouted at him.  Hulli stuck his tongue out in response.

            Red-faced, Johan pitched the rock he carried at Hulli.  The throw went wide, and the stone struck one of the statues on the head.  Small chips of stone fell onto the ground.

            Hulli looked wide-eyed at the statue, then at Johan.  “You hit my Dad!” he shouted.

            “You made me throw it!  You shouldn’t have run in there!  When I tell everyone, you’re going to have to kiss Belga _and _get exiled!”

            “Won’t be near as bad as what they do to you when they find out you threw a rock at one of the Lost!” Hulli yelled back.  “They’ll probably take away your Honor Stones!”

            “You little…” the rest of Johan’s curse was lost, as he rushed at Hulli and tackled him.  The two dwarven boys wrestled around on the ground, punching and kicking each other.  They rolled over as Hulli tried to throw Johan off, and the two boys slammed into the feet of another statue.  The stone figure towering over them began to wobble, and then fall toward the two boys, who were too startled to move.  They squeezed their eyes shut before the bone-crushing weight of the statue dropped on them.

            It took them a while to realize that the bone crushing hadn’t occurred.

            Slowly, each of them opened one eye.  The statue still loomed over them, leaning over their heads at an angle that should have been impossible.  But it hung motionless in mid-topple.

            “You boys should be more careful,” said a strange voice in the Common tongue.

            Both boys turned their heads to see who had spoken.  Standing a short distance away was a tall human, of average build (it would be many years later before either of the boys realized that he was actually rather large and stocky for a human; they were used to dwarves, and so to their young eyes he looked merely average).  He had black hair that was long and straight, pulled back with a silver ring.  He wore long robes that were midnight blue, and in one hand he held a staff made of some strange silvery wood, with a crystal sphere on top that flashed and sparkled with many different colors.  His other hand was pointed at the dwarven boys and the statue.  He looked a little pale, and the hand that was pointing out trembled very slightly.

            “If you don’t mind,” the human said, this time speaking in Dwarven, “I’d appreciate it if you would move.”

            Both boys looked at each other, and then quickly released their grip on each other’s tunics and scrambled out of the way.  Once they were clear, the human wiggled his finger a little, and the statue picked itself up and righted itself.

            “Magic,” Johan whispered to Hulli.

            “No kidding, goblin-brains,” Hulli whispered back.

            The human looked at them, and smiled.  “You’re welcome, by the way.”

            Johan and Hulli looked at each other sheepishly.  “Thanks,” they said in unison.

            Meanwhile, the human in the robes had begun looking around at the statues, poking at them and shaking his head.  “They left them outside,” he said to himself, muttering in Common again. “How careless.  I thought dwarves would know better.”

            Hulli and Johan exchanged looks again, uncertain of what to do.  On the one hand, the human was a stranger, and speaking to strangers without an adult was forbidden.  At the same time, he had just saved their lives, which automatically demanded respect.  Plus, he was new and different, and therefore interesting.

            “You’re not supposed to touch those!” Hulli shouted, as the human bent over and picked up a chunk of stone ear that had fallen off one of the statues.

            “Really?  Why not?”

            “Because they’re the honored dead!  They’re the Lost Miners!”

            “Dead?  Who said they were dead?”

            “Everybody,” Johan answered.  “They were killed two years ago by a stonebreather.  The town moved them out to the cemetery to honor them.”

            “And they were blocking the mine,” Hulli added, for which he received an elbow in the ribs.

            “Really? What happened to the stonebreather?” the human asked.

            “Some adventurers came in and killed it,” Johan said.  “but in the fight two of them were turned to stone.  Ardara had sent some magical ointment to Brother Durkoth to help bring back our people, but because these adventurers had fought on our behalf, we were honor bound to restore them first.”

            “I see,” said the human.  “Very noble of you.”  He suddenly doubled over, wracked with a fit of coughing.  Greenish phlegm sprayed onto the ground.  When he stood, both boys noticed that a thin sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead.

            “Are you sick?” Hulli asked.

            “Just a little,” the man croaked.  He wiped his forehead with a sleeve.  “It’s hot today.”

            The two boys looked at each other.  It wasn’t even early spring yet, and they were in the mountains.  It was anything but hot.

            “So,” said the human, “did Ardara ever send any more ointment?”

            “No, she didn’t,” Hulli said.  “Brother Durkoth told us that the church didn’t have any more.  It was after that they moved the statues here.”

            “Well then, it seems like those adventurers you talked about didn’t really finish the job, did they?”

            Both boys looked a little uncomfortable.  “It’s not honorable to speak ill of those who have done a service for you,” Hulli said.

            “Spoken like a true dwarf,” the human said.  “But how do you really feel?”  He walked over and rested a hand on one of the statues.  “I think I heard one of you say this was your father?”

            “Yes, sir, he’s mine,” Hulli said.

            “You miss him, don’t you?”

            “Yes, sir.”

            “Of course you do.  No one should have to lose a father.”  The human looked very sad for a moment before he continued.  “You don’t think it’s very fair that those adventurers got to live and your father didn’t, do you?”

            For a while, Hulli said nothing.  Then, slowly, he shook his head.

            The human smiled, and nodded.  “You know something?  I think you’re right.”

            He looked down at the statue of Hulli’s father, and spoke a few strange words neither of the boys could understand.  The hand atop the statue began to glow slightly.  Instantly, the little cracks and chips in the stone began to fill in.  Johan watched as the dent he’d made earlier with his stone filled in.

            “That’s better,” the man said, as the glow on his hand faded.  “May as well make sure all the pieces are there before I start.”

            “Um, sir?” Johan asked timidly.  “Start what?”

            “This.”  The man spoke a few more of the strange words, more than he’d spoken before.  As he spoke, he reached down and picked up a pinch of loose soil, and then with a tiny knife he pulled out of his belt, made a shallow cut on his finger.  He let the blood and dirt mix together, and then smeared in on the top of the statue’s head.  He stopped speaking as soon as the reddish mud touched the stone.

            As the two young boys watched, the reddish tint in the glob of dirt slowly began to spread downward into the stone.  The smooth, uniform gray was replaced by browns and pinks, and hard unyielding rock vanished in favor of warm flesh and soft fabric.  In the blink of an eye, instead of a statue, there was a real, live dwarf standing before them.  As if to prove the point, the dwarf suddenly inhaled sharply, then stumbled backward, dropping the shovel he’d been holding.

            “What… where…” the dwarf sputtered, looking around wildly.  “How did I… I was in the mine… I saw…”  He looked up at the human, who was standing above him smiling, and then looked over at the two young boys nearby.

            “Hulli?” the dwarf asked.

            Johan fainted.

            “Dad!” Hulli shouted, as he ran up and leapt into his father’s arms.  “Dad!  I can’t believe you’re alive!”

            “Alive?” he said, returning the embrace.  “What are you talking about?  I was just at work, and there was…”  he looked around suddenly.  “Why am I outside?  In the cemetery?”  He looked at Hulli.  “And you’re taller than you were when I left.”  He hooked a finger around the leather cord on Hulli’s neck.  “Five Stones?  You only had three this morning when I left for the mine, and…” then he looked up into the sky.  “But it’s morning now.  How can that…”  Finally, he looked up at the human.  “What’s going on here?”

            “It’s a little hard to explain, at least not before a few ales.  Let’s go back to town, and I’ll tell you.  I’m pretty sure everyone there will be very excited to see you.  You bring your son, and I’ll get the other boy.”

            The dwarven miner slowly stood, as Hulli clung tightly to him, sobbing with joy.  “Who are you, and why are you here?” he asked.

            “My name’s Kyle Goodson,” the human said.  “I’m here to finish a job I started two years ago.”

*          *            *​
            It took Kyle three more days to restore all of the Lost Miners; after all, it was a difficult spell.  His work was hampered by his steadily worsening illness.  By the third day he was pale and trembling, having bouts of fever and chills, and his body ached everywhere.  Brother Durkoth, the Ardaran priest that served the town, was away on a trip to Laeshir to buy supplies for the town, and wasn’t expected back for another week or two at least.  Kyle refused all demands by the town’s women that he rest, saying that it was nothing serious and he’d be fine (though he knew this was a lie; what he truly feared was that if he didn’t get finished restoring the miners quickly, he’d become too ill to keep going).  Instead, he smiled at them and shooed them away, judiciously hiding the mucus-filled rags that were now starting to show spots of blood.

            Finally, on the afternoon of the fourth day, Kyle said his farewells to the people of Lisk.  The mayor presented him with an honorary copper plaque, and promises of food and shelter whenever he and the other members of the Legacy might return.  Kyle mostly smiled and said little during the proceedings, mostly because he was sucking on a chunk of camphor root to control his coughing, and because everyone around him was spinning a little too much for him to focus on them.

            At the end of the ceremony, he was presented with a rather odd-looking copper mug, with two openings.  Tulli, the dwarven miner who’d been the first one Kyle had saved, presented it.

            “What is it?” Kyle asked, not sure if he was simply too delirious to understand its function.

            “A dwarven wedding flagon,” Tulli said.  “You told us that you’re getting married soon, right?  On your wedding night, in the bedchamber, you fill it with your finest spirits, and you and your mate have to drink the whole thing to have a happy marriage.”

            “Maybe I’m not understanding something here,” Kyle croaked.  “From the looks of this thing, it seems like most of the ale would just dump out all over each other.”

            “Of course it will, lad!  That’s why you wait until you’re in the bedroom!  You don’t drink all the ale out of the mug!”  There was a chorus of loud laughter from everyone in the crowd.  Tulli nudged Kyle with an elbow.  “Can’t have a happy marriage without a happy beginning, eh?”  Then he leaned in and whispered to Kyle.  “Truth be told, I recommend one of those fruity spirits the gnomes favor.  Less of a kick, but a sweeter finish, if you catch my meaning.”

            “Tulli,” Kyle said, “I think even the dimmest goblin in the deepest cave in Aelfenn could catch your meaning.”

            Once he’d put away his wedding flagon, Kyle gestured for everyone to step back, even though there was no real risk to the dwarves from a simple _teleport _spell.

            “Just another few seconds,” he muttered to himself, “and I’ll be back in Vargas, where I can go straight to bed and get chewed out by Autumn for letting myself get this sick.”

            He spoke the words to the spell, and vanished.

            At first, Kyle thought he’d done something wrong.  He was surrounded by darkness, and couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.  There was a foul odor in the air, and a strange echoing all around him..

            “Damn,” he said to himself, “must have landed in the wine cellar.”  He reached into his belt, and produced one of his light globes, willing it to a dim glow as he held it aloft.

            The light revealed that he was in an enormous cavern, stalactites hanging from the ceiling above.  The cave was roughly oval, perhaps five hundred feet long and three-quarters that distance in width.  Of more pressing concern, however, were the hundreds of lean, snarling goblins that surrounded Kyle.

            “Oh, crap.”

            The air was filled with the sound of several dozen weapons being drawn.  Kyle immediately willed his light globe to full strength, causing the goblins nearest him to shriek and cover their eyes.

_More space,_ he thought, _I need more space._

            He cast a spell, and a globe of electrical force erupted all around him.  By sheer force of will, he tried to bend the sphere’s energies to leave a safe pocket for himself, but his spinning head caused him to misjudge, and he winced as a jolt of lightning went up his arm.  More importantly, however, several goblins fell all around him, dead and smoking.  Their allies simply started stepping over the bodies.

            Kyle began casting again, this time to envelop himself in a _resilient sphere_ so he would have time to think of a plan.  But as he was about to finish the spell, he was hit with another spasm of coughing, and he felt the spell slipping out of its valence, the energy wasted.

            A goblin leapt at him, and he was forced to bat it aside with his staff, knocking it to the floor.  He quickly uttered another spell as more charged in, throwing them away with a burst of telekinetic force.  Then, spying a small plateau a short distance away, he cast again, and an instant later appeared on top of the plateau.  The sides were steep and smooth, which helped slow down the horde.  Kyle took a moment to blast the two goblins already on top of the plateau with _magic missiles_ from his wand, then looked around again for an exit.

            Pain shot up his leg as an arrow stuck into his calf.  Wincing, Kyle called up the words for a spell to protect himself from missiles, but a sudden wave of nausea caused him to lose focus, and that spell faded from his mind as well.  Cursing, Kyle put up what defensive spells he had left.  Several more arrows were flying his direction now, and though most were wide of the mark, simple random chance said that wouldn’t go on forever.  And the goblins below were making slow but steady progress on climbing up the walls of the plateau.

            “Damn,” Kyle said, with a sigh.  “Looks like Autumn won’t get a chance to say ‘I told you so’.”

            “Then I’ll have to say it for her,” a voice above him said.

            The perimeter of the plateau was suddenly ringed with fire, scorching the goblins who were just reaching the top.  Flying down from the top of the cavern came a familiar face.

            “Myndrila?” Kyle gasped.

            “Of course,” she said, landing next to Kyle.  “You didn’t really think I’d let you walk out of my home with one of my most treasured possessions without keeping an eye on you for a few days, do you?”  She punctuated her question by gesturing and sending a fireball into the midst of some of the goblin archers.

            “I guess I hadn’t thought about it,” Kyle admitted, coughing.

            “Really, Kyle, a wizard in an adventuring group of your notoriety should really be giving more thought to anti-divinatory magic.  What if I’d been an enemy instead of an ally?”

            “Then I wouldn’t be much worse off than I am now, would I?”  He pointed and blasted some of the goblins with concussive force, ripping them to pieces.

            “I suppose not.”  Myndrila handed Kyle three vials.  “The pink one will cure the disease, the two blue ones should repair the damage it’s caused.”  She shook her head even as she cast another spell.  A multicolored vortex opened up in the cavern, and dozens of shrieking goblins were sucked up into it.  “Really, Kyle.  Running around all over eastern Aelfenn with a case of filth fever?  You’re as stubborn as you were in school.”

            “Well, it’s not like I knew I had filth fever when I left,” Kyle said, drinking the pink potion.  “By the way, what was that spell?”

            “Reality maelstrom,” she replied.  “Opens an unstable portal to a random extra-planetary location.”

            “Impressive,” Kyle said.  “Maybe I should have traded spells with you after all.”  He quaffed the two blue potions, tossing the vials aside.  He felt his head clearing up as the filth fever was eradicated.

            “That spell is beyond your abilities, I’m afraid.  Another time, perhaps?”  Myndrila gestured, and a large earth elemental sprung out of the ground and began pulverizing goblins left and right.  “Right now, we should discuss what you owe me for saving your life and getting you out of here.”

            Kyle groaned, even as he felt his strength returning.  “Please don’t ask me to give you back the Codex,” he said.

            “No, no, a deal’s a deal.  The Codex is yours.  What I want to know is what you’re doing with it.”

            “I told you what I’m doing.”

            “No, you hinted at it in vague terms.  I want details.”

            “What, now?”

            “Do you have something better to do?” Myndrila asked sweetly.

            “Actually, yes!” Kyle said, pointing and hitting a few goblin archers with magic missiles.

            “Oh, the goblins?  Well, if that’s a distraction…” Myndrila cast another spell, and suddenly she and Kyle were surrounded in an impenetrable globe.  Outside the sphere, goblins were rushing up and pounding on the sides to no avail.

             “Now,” Myndrila said, turning to Kyle with her arms crossed.  “The details, if you please?”

            Kyle sighed.  “I have to warn you ahead of time,” he said, “there are certain elements that I _can’t _share, but I think I can give you the idea without them.”

            Myndrila nodded.  “Very well, then, Kyle.  Do your best.”

            Kyle told Mydrila what he was planning.

            “You’re insane,” was the first thing she said.

            “No, just desperate and willing to take a risk,” he said.

            “Same thing.  You do realize that such an act would defy some of the basic metaphysical principles on which our reality is founded, don’t you?  I doubt the gods will just look the other way.”

            “Actually, I eventually hope to get their approval.  If I don’t, well, it’ll just take a bit longer to set up some security.”

            “They’ll decide the Shadow Plane’s too good for you,” Myndrila said.  “They’ll create a whole new race of beings to torment you for eternity, because they’ll be afraid the devils would go too easy on you.”

            “Your vote of confidence is overwhelming,” Kyle said irritably.

            “Well, be reasonable!  Besides, it’s probably impossible.”

            “That’s why I need the Codex – to find out if it’s impossible or not, and how to do it if it’s not impossible.”

            Myndrila shook her head.  “I should do you a favor and disintegrate you right now.”

            “You could,” Kyle said, “but then you’d have a bunch of very upset adventurers to deal with.  Autumn can be rather intractable when she’s mad.”  Kyle flashed an odd smile at Myndrila.  “Besides, I think deep down you’re intrigued by the idea.”

            “On a purely theoretical level, nothing more,” she insisted.

            “Well, I’d certainly be willing to share my notes and calculations with you, in exchange for some expert advice… on a purely theoretical level, of course.”

            Myndrila stood quietly for a moment, thinking.  “I’m going to end up in the Shadow for this,” she said at last.  “All right.”

            “Thank you, Myndrila,” Kyle said.

            “But if you start to get into trouble for what you’re doing, leave my name out of it.  Otherwise I’ll tell your wife that we’ve been having a torrid love affair this whole time.”

            “You wouldn’t,” Kyle said.

            “It’s either that or tell her we’ve been engaging in cosmic-scale blasphemy by attempting to change the universe to our whims,” she said.

            “I’m not sure which she’d take worse.”

            Myndrila smiled.  “Then we have an understanding.  Now, shall we get out of here?  The smell is horrendous.”

            “Absolutely,” Kyle agreed.

            “Do you have any teleports left?”

            “None,” he admitted.  Myndrila shook her head reproachfully.

            “I suppose you want a lift home?”

            “Back to Laeshir would be fine, Myndrila.  I can get myself to Vargas tomorrow morning.”

            “Very well, but this time you’ll stay as my guest.  I can give you some pointers on deciphering Jovol’s work.”

            “Thanks again,” Kyle said.  He noticed that the force walls of the sphere were starting to waver a bit.  “Shall we?”

            “Yes,” she said, and a moment later they were gone.

*          *            *​
            It was late the next day before Kyle arrived back in Vargas; he chose to _shadow walk_ back, being less confident about his ability to target a teleport into a place he’d only lived in two weeks, as opposed to the month they’d spent at the Uncut Emerald in Laeshir.  It also afforded him the chance to drop in on his family and see how they were doing.

             The sun was just dipping below the city walls when he walked through the gates of the manor.  Halfway up the stairs to the second floor, he ran into Arrie.

            “Welcome back,” she said.

            “Thanks.  Am I late?”

            Arrie caught the meaning behind the question; _Did any news about your family arrive?_  “No, you’re on time.”

            “Good, I tried to hurry back.”

            “Did you do everything you wanted?” Arrie asked.

            “I think so,” Kyle replied.  “I’ll tell you all about it later.  Perhaps over that drink we discussed before I left?”

            “It wasn’t much of a discussion, Kyle – you had me paralyzed, remember?”

            “Oh, right.  About that…”

            “Yes, about that.”  Arrie folded her arms.  “I want you to keep doing it.”

            “What?”

            “Keep trying to cast spells on me.  Not just _hold person_, either; whatever you’ve got.  Nothing that’ll burn down the town, of course, or make me drop dead in the street.”

            Kyle blinked.  “Are you sure about this?”

            “I’ve thought about what you said, about doing the unexpected and adapting.  But mostly I’ve been thinking that I should’ve been able to resist that spell.  But I was too slow in using my…” she looked around to make certain no one was nearby, “gifts to fend you off.  I don’t want to be caught like that again, because next time it might not be so friendly.  I need to be able to defend myself at a moment’s notice – or less, maybe – and the best way I can learn to do that is with training.” She winked at him. “Like you say, as long as we have to wait, I might as well make the time productive.”

            “Well, okay,” Kyle said.  “We can discuss that at the tavern.”

            “Good.  I’d say tonight, but I’m sure your plans include spending time with women other than me.”  Arrie grinned.  “She’s in her offices.”

            Kyle passed Arrie on the stairs and headed for Autumn’s office.  He quietly cracked the door open after nodding at the guard posted outside, and looked in on her.  Autumn sat at her desk, signing several documents by the light of a single lamp.  She wore a simple, practical dress that nonetheless complemented her form; though Kyle had to admit to himself that he’d never seen her wear anything that didn’t look good on her.  The simple image of her sitting there, looking very serene and lady-like even at mundane tasks, was enough to cause Kyle to wait at the door for a while, simply watching her.

            Finally, Autumn noticed the door was ajar, and looked up.  “Kyle!” she said, her face beaming.  She rose from the desk as he walked in, and met him halfway, throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a deep, passionate kiss.  Before he knew it, Kyle felt himself being pulled to the floor, and she spent the next several minutes being neither serene nor lady-like.

            “That was some welcome back,” Kyle said after catching his breath.

            “What, I’m not allowed to be spontaneous on occasion?” Autumn said, laughing.  “Besides, I missed you.”

            “I missed you too.  And spontaneity is always welcome.  But aren’t you worried about how the guard outside might react to this kind of… disturbance in your office?”

            She shrugged, causing loose blonde hair to cascade over her shoulders.  “He didn’t do anything yesterday when the stable boy was here, why would he today?”  Autumn yelped as Kyle pinched her in a sensitive area.

            “Boy, I leave for a week and you turn into a saucy tart,” he chided playfully.  “Has Lanara been coaching you?”

            “I’m just in a mood, I guess,” Autumn said, as she stood up and began to put herself back together,  “Giddy, maybe.  I don’t get a lot of chances these days to just be happy and carefree – I just got caught up in the moment.”

             Kyle nodded.  “I’m sorry I left in the middle of things like I did,” he said, “and without really explaining myself.”

            “Will you tell me about it tonight?” she asked.

            “Every detail.”

            Autumn extended her hand, helping Kyle stand up.  Then she pulled him into another embrace, this one more tender than passionate.

            “Kyle,” she said, “will you promise me something?”

            “What’s that?”

            “Promise me you’ll stay with me here, at least until the wedding.  I know that our lives won’t allow us to be with each other all the time, but… until the wedding, please?”

            “Until the wedding,” Kyle repeated, “and as much as possible after that.  I promise.”


----------



## Delemental

*Meanwhile...*

This is the final story of the three, written by Razael's player, about someone we haven't seen for a while.  After this, we'll get back to regular (and shorter!) updates.

-----------------------------------

          " And there shall be rejoicing, for in the Law of the World the Weak may find succor, and the Strong purpose."

          Tolly sighed, and closed the Book of Ardara. This ritual of nightly reading was a great help to his state of mind.  Without it, he wasn't sure he would be able to go on with the mission set before him. When he had accepted the position of Inquisitor Primus, he had expected challenge and sometimes strife, but the constant politicking of the city of M'dos was, at best, a major (he inwardly cringed at the only term his mind said was suitable) pain in the ass. There was more danger in a luncheon with the Church of Estrane than there was in facing the orcs in the desert naked at noon. Even less to his liking, the constant striving for favor was slowly replacing true worship. Even the Prelate Council was beginning act more like a landbound government than a grouping of religious leaders. Archprelate Frelarr was doing his best to reverse that, but a place on the council was for life. It would take many years to undo the damage of greed and selfishness.

          A tapping of long fingernails on the stone surface of a table drew his attention. His secretary still stood there, delicate fingers beating a staccato pattern. He smiled, knowing that the tapping was one of the only chaotic patterns allowed in her life as his _geased _secretary.

          "Yes, Aranal?"

          " Are you finished for the night? May I have leave to exit your august presence, o mighty Inquisitor?" The sarcasm in her tone offended him, but not overmuch. After all, the cansin had only been his secretary for not quite a year--it took longer to order certain growing things. A garden could be made one of two ways--either you clear a patch and plant only what you wish, and it will be as you want it the next year, or you could carefully trim and tend what is already growing to conform it to your expectations. It took years longer, but, on some levels, was far more satisfying. Aranal did not take to the pattern of Ardaran life yet, but he had years to work on that. Tolly templed his fingers, and stared at the cansin. Even in an acolyte's robe, she was pleasant to gaze upon, though not as much of a presence as her twin sister.

          "Aranal, is it truly so offensive to you to be here listening as I read from the Book of Ardara? Does my voice rasp upon your ears?"

          "No, Inquisitor, it does not." Sweat started to run down her face as she fought the geas forcing her to tell the truth to the young man in front of her. " But I find the teachings you read to be not of my liking, and frankly, they feel childish and too innocent to be real. Please, caring for the weak?"

          "Ah. Then you may be excused for the evening. Perhaps a reading on your own would be better for you?"

          "Please, Inquisitor, please ...don't make me do that again!" The look on the cansin's face was a mixture of loathing and boredom.

          "Be at the files by second bell then, dear, and you may have tonight to do as we have outlined previously as the limitations for your free hours."

          "Good night Inquisitor." The relief was palpable in the secretary's voice. She quickly left, fleeing her prison and the man who held her life in his hands. Once she had learned the system of filing he preferred, she had actually been remarkably quick at catching his files up. Now, she served as his right hand, much in the same way as he served the Hand of the Earth. It was dangerous, but he had few worries. He did not deal in the secrets dire when she was nearby, and his files were written in a code that contained a magical cypher. She would be exceedingly lucky to decipher it without aid, and near the Inquisitor Primus was nowhere a creature of Chaos could easily be.

          Tolly leaned back in the chair, the discomfort of its rigid stone back was a comfort to his mind and soul, if not to his physical form. He regarded a letter on his desk, still unsure of how to reply. _Sweet Autumn_, he contemplated, _still so careful to not be offensive, and yet so caring_. Ever since Miracle, she had been treading softly near him, as though he would explode if she showed too much emotion for Kyle around him, or gave him too much hope, or worried that he would react with anger. She would not have been wholly inaccurate in that assessment when they were still traveling to M'Dos, but he had long since cooled. His feelings for her were more mature now. He realized what he had lost, but was willing to let it evolve into friendship. His feelings for the entire group were mostly ones of loss now. He was serving a necessary post, but would it not be better to revolve a select group through it, so that corruption did not set into any one of them? The Exalted (even a year later, Tolly could not unbend himself enough to refer to the Archprelate, even in his own mind, as merely _Frelarr_) and he had discussed this very subject many times in the last few months. Tolly was of the opinion that the post should be given to their best and brightest as a way of preparing them for later involvement in the Church. One could not be in the post for long without learning at least a basic sense of diplomacy. Tolly was still blunt, but was much more likely to couch it in terms that his listener was not instantly offended by. He had even managed to dine with the head of the Estrane order, and found him to be a satisfying tablemate, and they had since become friends, though not the best of. He still ribbed Tolly about his comments to the ArchPriest of Laeshir.

          He admitted to himself that he probably favored the post being changeable in that it would allow him some freedom again. This constant wrangling within the Divine Government was an irritant he could do without. He was of the firm belief that the current government would spend two to three weeks debating whether they should break for the privy, and explode in the process. The Exalted was welcome to it. Also, it would give him the freedom to learn more about the Psions who were re-emerging all over Affon. His vehement views, shaped by the lead of the Hound Archon he had met in the desert, had been tempered by two things--the Exalted and a child. The child, a girl of perhaps eight years of age, was rescued from a mob led by a Priest of Stok, who claimed that the child was responsible for the murder of her parents by forbidden magics. The intervention of the Inquisitor Primus had proven that the Priest was trying to finish what he had started--the annihilation of a line responsible for the murder of his wife some forty years earlier. The use of his Inquisitorial powers and privileges had revealed this, and quelled the bloodlust of the mob. It did not, however, stay the hand of the Priest. The old man did not survive his insistence on slaying the child.

          Upon further investigation, Tolly found that the child was also a Psion--she showed all of the same forms of abilities he had seen in Aran those times that they had met--but she was also the brightest star he had ever had the opportunity to teach. Her mind was quick, and he found that she grasped what he was teaching almost as quickly as he could pass the information to her. She was a near perfect child, and she was anathema.

          The Exalted was also quick to cool his temper. "You are to be a scalpel, Ardara said" he admonished Tolly. "Not a butcher. This is no infection. This is a wildflower. You must open your heart--the races are not black and white as the Archons and Celestials. We are blends, greys with differing shades. Ardara grasps this--her underservants may not. They have not the capacity. They are Law incarnate--there is no room for change. Now, the Earth Mother herself, while she may not welcome these children, would not wish you to destroy them out of hand. What will you slay next, young Tolly? The old and infirm? The weak? Those who cross against the flow of traffic in a plaza? Think, my child, and then react."

          He was raising Iria himself now, and it was with her that he spent his mornings as Aranal organized the day's work in his offices. The cansin was allowed nowhere near the child. He would not have her corrupt the spirit whose presence was a balm to the wound left by Autumn's rejection, as careful as it had been. He almost wished he could speak with Aran again, to have some way of helping Iria learn her abilities, but he also feared that the Dreamlord would take her from him, so he did not try to contact him.

          He had also learned, through judicious use of his _commune _and _ally _abilities, that there was no place on any of the Planets for the Psions. No god or goddess would take the souls of those who expended psionic energies willingly, dooming them to a brief existence as spirits on the Shadow Plane before dissolution. The Exalted was using his position to argue for Tolly, using the example of Iria as why this was not a lawful conclusion, as no law should be applied to those unaware and unable to comply. Her powers emerged as way of defending herself--was it right to condemn her to no afterlife? Even as she took to the teachings of Ardara and Krush with fervor, favoring (so far) a rich combination of them both, she was not clean enough for an afterlife? Tolly could not reconcile the two, and the Exalted agreed. So far, however, Ardara did not. In the back of his mind, he knew that Kyle would be arguing the same way, but he wasn't sure he ever wanted to admit that to the wizard; they had not parted on the best of terms. Perhaps he should go to the wedding--if nothing else, to clear the air with the wizard, and see how the rest were doing.

          He stood from the table and left for the Archprelate's offices. It was the Exalted's pleasure to discuss the doings of the day with his Inquisitor, and sit in the garden, regardless of weather, before retiring for the night. Most times, Tolly found it pleasant enough, and it was no trouble to spend his evenings with the frank and practical Archprelate. He even allowed himself one abuse of his power--he would take Iria with him most times to play as the two adults talked. Tonight, though, she was already asleep. He had spent more time sitting in his office than he thought. He tucked the blanket under her chin, and kissed her forehead. Pulling the door shut behind him, he made his way to the gardens, to find the Exalted seated in the center watching the stars.

          "Late night, Inquisitor Primus?"

          Tolly dropped to a knee reflexively. "My apologies, Exalted. I was woolgathering, and lost track of time."

          "Still not sure if you are going to the wedding or not?" Tolly started as he stood.

          "Someday, Exalted, you are going to cease surprising me with your ability to read me."

          "Perhaps, but after nine months of listening to your concerns, I believe I have your character well in my grasp, and while another may have trouble, you will be easy for me to read unless you change drastically tomorrow." The Archprelate smiled. "Come, let us speak of your leaving. I believe I have finally found the right person to take your place for the next year or so."

          "Argent?"

          "Good job, my boy. Is that who you had in mind as well?"

          "Actually, yes. He is older than I am chronologically, but not so emotionally. He needs a challenge, and feels...untouchable... to me."

          "He is a Favored Soul, lad, much as your friend was."

          Tolly nodded. He missed Kavan/Madrone--the wry wisdom of the elf was a welcome balance to the impatience of Ariadne and Autumn within the group when he traveled with them. "I believe I must go to the wedding, Exalted. There are things left unspoken which should be brought to light. But first, I believe I will go for a walk. The air looks crisp and clean tonight."

          "You realize, of course, that this use of the _air walk_ spell by an Ardaran priest is uncanny, Tolly?"

          "I do, Exalted, but quite simply--I love the feeling of flight." Tolly cast the spell, encasing his feet in energies drawn from the ground, and walked upwards into the night. He needed to get a cloak or boots of some sort that allowed him to truly fly--perhaps a mount? Would a pegasus deign to transport him?  As he walked upon the air, he remembered the last time he had been walking like this--he had ended up with the title Meteor of Medos for it.

          Walking above the streets, he had spotted a young man being menaced by ruffians, his guards already down, and surrounded. Tolly had called upon Ardara's power to increase his size, imbued his form with holy light and descended from the sky at full speed, only activating his _ring of feather fall_ at the last instant. The ruffians broke and ran before he had even hit the ground. Afterwards was when he had found that the young man was a new recruit--a Favored Soul by the name of Argent Simaldus, and that he was here specifically at the request of a Prelate. They were quickly friends--and allies against the hidebound Prelates on the Council. Tolly bestowed his _Belt of Bail_ upon his new friend, as its gold weave offset his blonde hair, and it would be more useful to him. It was the second item he had gathered in his travels to be given away, but the first was not to a friend.

          To alleviate his own misgivings, he had arranged for a meeting with the Archpriest of Grabakh in the city, and had, after some discussion, given his _bracers of mastery_ and a not-insignificant amount of gold to their Church, as a token of apology for the Legacy's release of the Nameless in the desert. He was still not sure it was enough, but the motion had not gone unnoticed. He now bore a small disc of wood, with a lizard on one side, and the holy symbol of Grabakh on the other, that would allow him to trade for water with any tribe that feared the Sun God, on its own authority. He never planned on going back, but it could be useful nonetheless.

          Tolly glanced up from his musings. A storm was coming--he'd best get back inside. Storms were Feesha's work, and no help could be had for the Ardaran caught in her realm at such a time.

          ..............................................................................................................

           "Aranal, would you bring me the records from seventeen years ago? I think I see a pattern developing here." Tolly was attempting to track down who had first allowed the Succubus into the Church of Ardara such that she was able to get so close to the Undersecretary. He had found that it appeared to start with an acolyte who was thrown out of the Church for heresy some fifteen years earlier, but he kept finding that whenever he thought that this must be the first, it was, indeed, not. The same Succubus would interfere with affairs between 3 and 12 years, always corrupting a higher level underling, and working her way to the Archprelate. It felt like someone playing chess, and he suspected that he knew who it was. The Archons he had conversed with had warned him that most of the Servants treated these interferences as one large game under Erito's eye, despite the damage and cost in humanity.

          A sheaf of papers slapped down on the desk in front of him. Aranal stepped back, and crossed her arms.

          "Are you going to stop for dinner, Inquisitor, or do you plan on starving me as well as working me to the bone?" Tolly raised an eyebrow at her vehement request, and glanced at the waterclock he had purchased some time ago to prevent his losing track of time. It was well past the hour he normally paused for dinner. He stood, his back crackling as he stretched.

          "I think we are done for the evening, Acolyte. You may retire for the evening meal as usual. We'll see you tomorrow morning. Don't do anything I would not." He saw the cansin grimace--she had found that particular statement severely limited her ability to find things to entertain herself. He watched her retreat from the room.

          Tolly left quickly, sealing the room's magical locks behind him. He needed to move quickly to catch Iria still at her meal. He walked into the main dining area for the upper level priests to find she was already at his table--and so was an Inquisitor. Tolly paused, taking a breath to prepare himself.

          "Brother." Tolly sat, and an acolyte brought him a selection of the main dishes for the evening. Unlike some of the diners here, Tolly never tried to ask for special meals. The acolytes who served here knew that all he desired was a selection of whatever the cooks had seen fit for the acolytes and underpriests--it would be hearty, strengthening, and simple, yet well-cooked. The staff here knew how to cook, which is why Tolly was not picky. He had eaten meals cooked by a wizard over an alchemical fire, and those prepared by an aristocratic woman with no experience on a rock heated to glowing. Nothing here, with these competent cooks, could be bad compared to that.

          Iria was sipping hot chocolate, her meal already done. He could tell she was bursting to tell him something, but he knew not what. She knew, however, that he still followed the Dwarven custom of not talking as one ate. Apparently, the Inquisitor knew this as well, for he had grimaced when the acolyte brought a plate of food so quickly, and now settled himself to wait, face stern and arms crossed. Tolly did not rush, but did not linger either. He could sense the tension of the priests around him, and the nervousness as they ate quickly and left. By the time he was finished, the room was empty save for the Inquisitor, Iria, and himself. An acolyte brought him a cup of tea, as was his custom, and he waited for the Inquisitor to speak, quelling Iria with a look indicating she should be patient.

          "Brother Tolly. We need to discuss a certain item within your care." The Left Hand brother set his hands on the table, one finger pointing to Iria.

          "What could we possibly have to speak of, Brother?"

          "We know that you have this item mostly by accident, and that it is not pure. It should be expunged."

          Tolly darkened perceptibly, and Iria looked concerned. She had not seen her benefactor ever seem this angry before. It frightened her, and she started to shake as she drew back in her chair.

          "If the Inquisition seeks to do as they speak of, it could have dire consequences. The Hand of the Earth has decreed that there is no danger, and that the item is to be treated with the care and love that is its due." Speaking of Iria in the third person as an object strengthened his anger. "And if the Left Hand wishes to cross the Inquisitor Primus in this, one would hope that they are prepared to accept the consequences of the act, as they would have the two things they should fear angry with them. Now get out."

          "Brother, do not take this tone. We are not amused."

          "Nor am I, Brother. Remember, I know your secrets. There is no small number of sins and heresies that you conceal from the rest of the church, and claim that as Ardara has not told you to stop, she must not be concerned. I know better. She is not all-seeing, and her Will is not always easy to decipher. I think the item is NOT accidentally in my possession. I believe it is a stepping stone to a better understanding, and an acceptance by Her of that which now she shuns, in spite of Her Servants. They reckon not the cost, which is why we as Her priests exist--to exercise Her will without the constraints of the rigidity their nature demands."

          "Brother, I warn..."

          "Silence. Leave. Say nothing more, for it will lead to your downfall. I wear a Periapt of Her Will, and it grows warm with approval as I care for the item of which we speak. Decipher that as you try to interfere with me. This meeting is over." The Inquisitor stood, radiating anger--but it was matched equally in the heat flowing off of Tolly, and he left without incident.

          Tolly slumped back into his chair, eyes dropping shut. _Which one warned them_, he wondered. The Inquisition had a reputation for knowing what was happening in the Church, but it was built mainly on having informants in the staff, and their close relationship with the Archons who served Ardara. For a Left Hand to know Iria was a Psion meant that one of the Archons with whom he was arguing had decided to bypass Tolly and go about eliminating the perceived threat clandestinely. He would have to speak with the Exalted tonight. This would never be acceptable. He would die before giving up the child, and he was strong enough now that it would be no easy task to kill him.

          "Brother Tolly?" The tentative question drew him back to the world. He drew a deep breath, and slowly released it.

          "Yes, child?"

          "Was the Inquisitor mad at me? He pointed at me, and you got all mad feeling. And then he got mad, and it was so nasty feeling, like he hates me."

          "No, Iria. The Inquisitor was trying to say something that is not true, and he is misled to the point that he was willing to make me angry rather than admit to his being wrong." Tolly smiled wryly. "I think I could have handled that better."

          "I thought I could hear you think _protect _as he thought _destroy_. Does he want to kill me? Like the other priest?"

          "He may, child." The young Inquisitor Primus turned grim. "But the cost to do so is not one that I believe they can afford. No-one will ever harm you again while I live, Iria. I swear it, by the Four and the One, so help me Ardara. Come along, you had something to tell me before we were interrupted by this gentleman, and you can tell me as we go to the garden."

          "Oh...oh yeah! I saw a butterfly today! It came in the window at the classes..." The chatter of a little girl could be heard as they followed the hall.

           .................................................................................................................

          "Something troubles you, my young friend." The Exalted was seated on one of the benches in the Garden when Tolly returned from putting Iria to bed. "That look you wear bodes ill for someone."

          "Her Left Hand threatened Iria today, Exalted. Somewhere, an Archon must have felt it appropriate to tell an Inquisitor what she was, so that she could be expunged. I believe I should probably let someone else take the place as your Primus, because this could become a war--and we cannot have such in the office. The office of Inquisitor Primus must remain apart from such things." Tolly sank to the bench across from the Archprelate. "Only nine months, and already a failure in the office created for..."

          "Inquisitor! You will cease such talk immediately!" Tolly's head shot up at the tone in the Exalted's voice. "Compassion and the urge to protect is NOT a failure. I will personally speak to the head of our Left Hand, and remind him of what he is, and that is not a child-killer. We do not have such in the Church." The Archprelate's voice grew soft.

          "Go get some rest, my son. You must be alert to watch over your charge."

          Tolly nodded, stood, bowed to the Exalted, and left quietly.

          .................................................................................................................


          The Prelate Council ended later than Tolly had hoped, but still early enough that he would be able to spend a good amount of time with his charge before her bedtime. He had taken a chance this morning and let Argent follow him to see how he handled the demands. The lad was proving to be an asset the Church would do well to train as hard as they could. The Favored Soul was a diplomat without peer, charismatic and blessed with a fine mind for intrigue. He had already today uncovered plots that it hadn't even occurred to Tolly could exist. He would be a worthy successor, and by having this office rotating through their best, it would both train and familiarize those in the office with the best and worst they could encounter. Soon, he could hand the glove with its adamant bear's head to the Favored Soul, and let him protect the Hand of the Earth for a time.

          Tolly turned the corner and broke into a run. Down the hall, in front of his door, was an Inquisitor holding Iria--and she wasn't moving. Rage inflamed Tolly instantly, and he charged down the corridor. The Inquisitor froze for a moment, and it cost him dearly. Tolly paused for a moment, and chanting words painful to hear, grasped the man's shoulder. Red and green energies coruscated across the Inquisitor's body, and life fled before the Ardaran's wrath. As he slumped to the ground, Tolly grabbed Iria. Thankfully, she was alive, but held tightly in magical bonds. Tolly asked Ardara for assistance, and dispeled the energies holding her still. He kept her in his arms, and marched straight to the Archprelate's office. A summoned Earth Elemental brought the corpse.

          The Archprelate's secretary took one look at the scene before her and called out that the Exalted had visitors. Frelarr emerged to the room from his bedchamber, and took it all in in a single glance.

          "I warned them. Tolly, come here with that. It is time to find out what this is all about..."

          ..................................................................................................................

          "So, that is what this is all about," Archprelate Frelarr grunted, and leaned back in the chair he favored. "All because one Inquisitor feels that discussion of the Law is insignificant--that knowing Law is sufficient. And now, I have an entire branch of the Church mortified that one of their number attacked the charge of the Inquisitor Primus, and half of them more mortified that the same man killed an Inquisitor in defense of that charge."

          The Prelate Council was assembled in the private chamber they held aside for discussions such as these--where the common priest was never admitted, as it would possibly compromise their workings. To the Archprelate's left sat Tolly, and to his right the Favored Soul named Argent.

          "So, to cool these proceedings, we are going to temporarily replace Tolly with Argent, as a new face will quell the feelings of rebellion from our Left. Tolly has been invited to a wedding, and is planning on leaving soon for Vargas to attend. He will take his young charge with him, and leave his acolyte here to aid in the transition of powers. Note that we are not stripping Tolly of his powers--we are merely appointing a replacement while he travels and carries out both Ardara's will and mine. For now, Argent is Primus, and Tolly is Primus, and I care not if that does not make sense to you. It is Our will today. Are We understood?"

          The Council stood as one, nodded, and then left the room, all in silence, as befitted a council such as this one. None of them were comfortable with the concept of a war with the Left Hand within the Church--they would just as soon see the young priest off until things had cooled down. There were no objections, so why speak at all?

          "That went rather well, Exalted." Argent smiled and stood, stretching his back and arms. "Am I really ready for this? I don't feel ready."

          "No-one who deserves to do the job ever feels prepared for it, Argent," commented Tolly. "If you want it, you aren't what we want, and if you feel like you can handle it, you will fall before the task is complete. Now, if you both will excuse me, I must get Iria ready for travel. She has never before left M'dos, and I need to find a saddle that will hold the both of us."

          Tolly bowed, and left the room.

          "Do you think he'll be okay, Exalted?" The worry in Argent's tone was obvious.

          "If anyone can be out there, Tolly Nightsleaving will. He is a fine specimen of Ardaran faith, Argent, and will never fail in what he tries. He may be killed before he does it, but he won't fail. Do you understand the difference?"

          "I think so, Exalted, but I will pray for him nonetheless."

          "As will I," Frelaar sighed deeply. "As will I."

          ..................................................................................................................

          The ride through Medos was not ideal, but weather did not bother Tolly nearly as much as it would have to have fought his way through. He stopped overnight at Stacks with his young charge, and spent a good deal of the eveninbg discussing his old friends with the ranking priestess. Her admiration of their competence had him smiling, and he slept well, dreaming of old times.

          The trip into the mountains was a bit more severe. The pair was traveling alone, and the heavy war horse Tolly rode was not loaded down, so their pace was very quick. Tolly also had no qualms about using clerical magic to assist, but for the main part he wished to ride just for the sake of spending quality time with Iria. The long talks and odd little games they would play as they rode were better for his soul than any number of fasting days in prayer could have been after the opposition of the Inquisition.

          They entered the Dwarven Confederates well ahead of schedule, and Tolly took them directly to Laeshir. They stopped briefly at the Ardaran Church, and then followed the streets to an inn. Tolly slipped a few coppers to the human youth working in the stables to the side.

          "Give a good rubdown, lad, and a warm mash. He has had a fairly ride, and deserves a bit of rest." The lad tipped his hat and led the horse into the back. Tolly took Iria's hand, and they walked into the inn proper.

          "What does the sign say, Brother Tolly? Those pictures don't look like words."

          "Those are dwarven runes, Iria. They each represent words. This is the Uncut Emerald, and the innkeeper has a selection of the best dwarven ales I have ever tasted." Tolly spoke this just as the stepped up to the long counter. The old dwarf behind turned and rested his hands on his large belly.

          "Now lad, those are the kinds of words an adventurer says when he wants a deal. You lookin' for a cheap room?"

          "No, Burbark, I have no need of inexpensive anymore. Do you have any rooms to let?"

          "Well, if you give us a few hours, we can have the suite cleaned up for ye. It just emptied out. We had a young wizard type in it for a day or so, and we haven't had the time to clear it these last few days. We have the Stinker as well, but I doubt you'd want the little one in there."

          "The Stinker, Burbark?" Tolly raised an eyebrow, remembering no such room when last he was here.

          "Yeah, it was a room that we had a wizard type use for an alchemy lab, and it has a funny smell to it that we've never gotten out."

          "Ah, Kyle's lab. I remember now. Hmm. I may be able to help with that, seeing as it was my friend that did it."

          The dwarf looked more closely at Tolly's face. "Hey! You're that young cleric as what told off the head of the Church of Estrane, aren't you? You were here with that pink-haired bard, and the sisters!"

          "Yes." Tolly grimaced. "But I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't mention that...occasion...anymore. I have had enough grief about it from the Head of Estrane's Order when I was in M'Dos. Now, while I deal with your...Stinker room, why don't you have someone clear the suite, so that the young lady and I have somewhere to sleep tonight? We'll need it for 2 days and nights, althought I will be gone tomorrow, as I have a quick trip to make."

          "It will be done, young master. Just let us know when you are done."

          Tolly gathered himself, and he and Iria went upstairs to the room Burbark had called 'the Stinker'. Tolly could detect several common components in the air still. He began by asking for spells whose energies he had not collected that day. This could take a while.

          ..................................................................................................................

          He came downstairs to find the staff watching him worriedly. He glanced from face to face, and raised an eyebrow.

          "Is something the matter?" He waited for the response.

          "Wellanow, that depends on whether I still have a room up there, young master. It sounded like you were tearing walls out." Tolly laughed, understanding the apprehension.

          "Burbark, as a matter of fact, I was, or more precisely an elemental was. I had to remove some of the boards that had chemicals spilled on them, and then replace them magically. I believe, however, that I got all of them removed and replaced. The room should be fine now. What is for dinner this evening?"

          "Well, that would be mutton tonight, with a fine side of fresh mushrooms and warm apple bread from the baker down the street."

          "Marla's? You have Marla's applebread? Find us a table Iria--you'll love this bread." The girl looked up at him.

          "Not if I have to eat mushrooms. Bleck!" Tolly looked down at her face, screwed up in disgust.

          "Tonight, you don't have to. We're on vacation."

          "Yay!" She smiled at him. Tolly knew that he was wrapped around the little girl's finger, and surprisingly, he was very comfortable with it. He returned her smile as she led him to a table by the east wall. Would a child of his own be any more precious to him than his foundling?
          .....................................................................................................................

          The next morning found Tolly and Iria in a gaseous form floating rapicly to the small mining village of Lisk. He had several bottles in his pouch that needed to be used there. An old debt to pay that wore on Tolly's conscience, the miners had used their stone salve on Autumn and Kyle instead of their own. That situation required change.

          They floated into the village, and materialized just at the borders. They walked into the town to find a celebration going on. The commons of the village had several tables filled with food, and there was a group dance going on in the center. Tolly tapped an older dwarven woman on the shoulder.

          "Mother, what does this celebrate?"

          "The return of the Lost Miners, Brother of Ardara. The wizard returned and returned them to flesh!"

          "He did? A robust young man with a silver staff?" Tolly was unsure as to whether he was annoyed or relieved. He was glad to know he was not the only one who remembered, but jealous that Kyle had beated him to the task. Again, he proved quicker than Tolly in assuming control of a situation.

          "Aye! A bit sick he seemed, but he said he was fine. You just missed him. He left a moment ago."

          "Really? Which route did he take, so that I may catch up to him?"

          "He just vanished from the center of the square, young master."

          "Ah." _He has learned to teleport,_ thought Tolly. _A useful ability_. "Welladay, then, mother. We shall be on our way now." He grasped Iria's hand, and walked out of town, slowly shifting back into gaseous form and floating away.

 .....................................................................................................................

          "Why are you so grumpy, Brother Tolly?" Iria spoke directly to him from where she sat in the saddle. "You've been all meanish since that little town."

          Tolly considered the child's question seriously, as he tried to do with anything she asked of him. "I am not sure, Iria. I expected to do something that would be gratifying to myself and the people of the town, and found that I had been preempted--that means someone got there first, child--and I don't think I like it. And that in itself is a character flaw that I don't care for. I had hoped that I was above such petty feelings."

          "Maybe it is like that passage you quoted at the acolytes when they were teasing the fat one. You know, _the sword,while polished, will not do Ardara's work any better than the woodcutter's axe if there are trees to be fallen, and, in fact, are less suitable to the task_." She looked at him seriously. He sighed, and marveled at the intellect of the child he was raising.

          "Maybe, child. Maybe I am looking at the condition of my soul, and expecting a sparkling platinum mirror, only to find a few spots where the artist missed a spot while he was polishing. That is never comfortable for a priest, as we are supposed to be able to hold ourselves up as examples."

          "Maybe it is better, though. If you have flaws, then mightn't you seem realer to the pari...parisher..."

          "Parishioner, Iria. And it is would not, not mightn't, and you say more real, not realer. And you may be right child, but while it may be true that flawed work can draw more eyes than perfection, the piece itself will always prefer to be real, and without those eye-catching traits. Now, we must work on how you greet nobility--we are almost to the capitol of Merlion, and we are paying a visit to Princess Ariadne and Duchess Autumn's parents. Her mother is somewhat prim, and her father is a joy to be around, but in order to enjoy our time here, we must impress her mother with our manners and how important we are, so that she does not consider us too common to talk to."

          "So you gonna tell her you are the Inquisitor Primus, the Arch-perlate's right hand?"

          "That is Prelate, Iria, and I am his left hand, not right. His right is the Council. And I am going to mention it, and let her draw her own conclusion as to whether it is important. If she has been watching the news from M'Dos, she will know what I have become. However, Zanich is a warm comforting man, and pads the edges of his wife's humors very nicely. You will like him, Iria. Now, we are at the gate, so be on your best behavior."

          "Yes, Brother Tolly."

_Now, that is odd_, Tolly thought to himself. _I wonder who passed away that they have the wreaths on the gate. I hope it isn't anyone I know_. The pair rode slowly up to the gate and called to the guards.

          "Ho, the keep!"


----------



## Delemental

*Bad Tidings*

Osborn’s recovery from his death in the sewers of Vargas took a full ten days, though by the fifth day he was well enough to begin buying hin-sized furniture for the house he’d appropriated from the former head of the Watch (though he kept the very large, human-sized bed).  Kyle disappeared the day after they party had returned with Count Robar’s head, and wasn’t seen again for a week.  There were rumors in the manor of an altercation between the Duchess’ fiancé and Princess Ariadne, but when he came back their relationship seemed none the worse for wear.  Autumn, however, did have some choice words for the wizard when he admitted that during his excursion he’d almost died from an untreated case of filth fever he’d contracted in the sewers.

            Time moved in strange ways for the Legacy after the defeat of the Night Blades.  Though the individual days were packed with so many events, visitors, and activities that it seemed that the sun was setting almost immediately after they started their day, the weeks and months were passing at a crawl.  They attributed this unusual phenomenon to two things; the first was the unusual lack of news regarding the effects of the _love’s pain_ spell that had been cast on Autumn.  Though there was much speculation and uncertainty about what injury the spell would finally bring about, as time passed it became clear that neither Arrie nor Kyle had been affected, and no news came from Merlion.  Autumn thought about sending another message, but her days were now so busy that she barely had time to breathe.  Besides, how would one even begin such a letter?  _Hello, just writing to see if anyone I care about is dead…_

            The other event that had time seeming to pass at a snail’s pace was, of course, the upcoming wedding of Kyle and Autumn.

            At first, of course, the wedding was barely considered.  The date was set for the tenth of Lutros, a little over three months away, and there was still a lot to do to clean up the city.  Two crime guilds had been dealt with, but three remained.  However, it seemed that Fate was finally willing to give the new Duchess a break*.  The remainder of Autumn’s vassal lords followed Count Helaku’s lead, and made an appearance in the city to swear fealty and offer aid.  This, combined with the arrival of a small contingent of the Imperial army, finally gave Autumn and Togusa the manpower they needed to get the city under control.  Count Helaku’s soldiers were assigned to guarding caravans just outside the city, and proved an effective deterrent to the predations of both the Night Whisperers and the Silent Foot.  Razael continued his tracking and harassment of the Night Whisperers, this time with the help of the Imperial troops.  Though unable to pin them down or eliminate a significant number of them, Razael’s constant pressure forced the druidic thieves guild to relocate their base of operations several times, keeping them from organizing any larger schemes.  With the arrival of several new adventuring groups from the Tower in early spring, the pressure only intensified.  Autumn tasked many of the neophyte adventurers with ‘bandit hunting’ and ‘caravan guarding’ missions, further guaranteeing that commerce flowed freely in the city.

            There was an attempt on Autumn’s life made by the Poisoned Edge, just before the caravan season began in earnest.  Her evening meal was laced with a deadly toxin, that would have felled a normal person in seconds.  But Autumn’s constitution was bolstered by divine grace, and so all the poison did was give her a stomachache and make her irritable for a day or so.  This turned out to be unfortunate for the Poisoned Edge, as the next day the Legacy assaulted one of the guild’s safehouses and obliterated it.  Within the next month, the entire assassin’s guild seemed to leave the city, as no one heard anything more about them after that.

            The Silent Foot remained elusive, but it seemed they were having no more luck than anyone else.  The rumors from the streets indicated that whatever grand scheme Osborn had overheard the guild discussing during his undercover work was apparently put into motion, and was successful for a time.  But increased pressure from both the City Watch and random adventuring groups caused the plan to fall apart.  In addition, Autumn was contacted by the leadership of the Black Hand, indicating that they would begin recruiting and training new members in the slums, and that once the training was complete they would begin a ‘silent war’ against the Silent Foot.  The Black Hand assured Autumn there would be no killing in the streets, or wholesale slaughter of all short races, but a meticulous, surgical strike against known guild members.  With pressure from all sides, the Silent Foot faded into obscurity.

            There were other significant events.  A contingent from the church of Tor arrived in the city, and Autumn negotiated with them to provide land in the city for a church in exchange for the clergy aiding in the administration of justice.  Autumn was also able to complete work on a shrine to Bail within the manor itself, which seemed to lift a considerable weight off her shoulders when it was finally consecrated.  The wizard’s guild finally came out in support of the Duchess, no doubt in large part to the influx of adventurers into the city, bringing their loose cash and love of all things magical.  With things settling in the city, Autumn was finally able to send people out to the communities in the rest of her lands, to check on their status.  There were rumors of lizardfolk starting to raid ships and caravans that passed through the swampy regions of Vargex, but this was an annual occurrence, and no more or less severe than usual, so Autumn was not forced to address the issue directly.

            Slowly, the focus of Autumn’s attention shifted to the upcoming nuptials.  Autumn’s daily meetings started to include more caterers and tailors than merchants and nobles.  Lanara took up the task of keeping the people working on the wedding ceremony on task and up to speed, using liberal doses of both charm and threats.  Arrie spent most of her time by Autumn’s side, helping her make decisions.  Kyle, keeping up with the fine tradition of all grooms, offered what input he could, but mostly realized the wisdom of staying out of the way.  Much of his time was spent in his new lab.

The event was turning out far larger than they had expected; Autumn’s own vassals were attending, of course, but she had also received responses from the Grand Duke of Mypos, the King of Erumian, and the Prince of Telluria, all indicating they would be in attendance.  Prince Herion and Princess Aralda also announced they were coming, which was no surprise, though Emperor Haxtha excused himself from the ceremony, which was also no surprise.  The only notable silence was coming from the small kingdom of Merlion.

Autumn had sent of a quick note to her brother, Aiden Verahannen, who served as seneschal to the twin rulers of Merlion.  In her letter she implored him to ask the twins to come to the wedding without an escort.  Although Damen and Corissane Coviere knew the secret of Autumn’s birth, as did Aiden, she did not relish the idea of some of the twin’s guards or servants seeing her.  Autumn as an adult was nearly identical in appearance to her birth mother, Lysanne Coviere, the former Queen of Merlion and the mother of Damen and Corissane.  The similarity was sure to generate rumors that Autumn didn’t want to have to answer for.  She only hoped that her unusual request hadn’t so upset her half-siblings that they were now refusing to attend her wedding.  Other, more terrible reasons for the silence out of Merlion came to her mind, but Autumn forced herself to ignore them.  After all, if something had happened, someone would have sent word.

Finally, three weeks before the wedding, word did come.  A messenger arrived bearing the seal of Merlion.  The message was simple; expect visitors from the Kingdom to arrive tomorrow.

“Visitors?” Kyle asked, when Autumn passed on the message.  “But who?  The Verahannens?  The Covieres?”
            “I don’t know,” Autumn frowned.  “It’s very strange.”

The next day, in the early afternoon, the arrival of a party from Merlion was announced.  Autumn, Arrie and Kyle waited in the audience chamber; Lanara was also nearby, though not with the others, and the rest of the party was off on their own business, assuming that they would have the chance to meet the visitors later at dinner.  Through the bay windows looking out over the main courtyard (a recent addition to the manor; Imperial Guardsman Imrahil had opposed the installation, saying it was too risky to expose the Duchess like that, but everyone else agreed that the windows made the room much more open and friendly) they could see two columns of five longspears approaching over the top of the manor wall.  Each of the spears had a black banner flying from it.

“Something’s wrong,” Autumn and Arrie said in unison, and quickly left their seats to head for the front courtyard, followed closely by Kyle.

The guards stopped just outside the gate, which after a moment’s delay opened.  Three riders came through the gate; the first was Aiden, who was dressed in much finer clothing than usual; the next was Auror, dressed in black; and the third rider was someone they hadn’t expected to see at all.  Tolly Nightsleaving sat astride the third horse, his armor gleaming with the symbol of the Ardaran Inquisitor Primus set into the breastplate.  Sitting in front of him on the saddle was a young girl, no more than eight or nine.

It was Auror that drew everyone’s attention, though; her black garb, combined with the conspicuous absence of the man they would have expected to be with her, spoke volumes.  Auror’s face was pale, her cheeks sunken.  She looked at though she had been in poor health for months.

Ashen-faced, Autumn stepped forward to greet her family.  Aiden returned the greeting somberly, but Auror only nodded slightly.

“What’s happened?” Autumn asked, already knowing the answer.  Auror did not respond, and when Autumn looked at Aiden he shook his head.

“We’ll discuss it inside,” he said.

Arrie helped her mother off her horse, while Autumn did the same for Aiden and Kyle helped Tolly and the young girl.  As he handed the girl down, Tolly muttered a quick spell, and sent a _message _to Arrie; _Careful – Auror is fragile_.

“Where’d she come from?” Lanara asked, who had circled around behind to get a better look at the girl.

“She’s a foundling,” Tolly said.  “Her name’s Iria.”

“That lady looks like your secretary, Tolly!” Iria said, pointing at Lanara.

Tolly nodded.  “Lanara is Aranal’s sister, Iria.”

Lanara smiled and winked.  “But I’m nicer than her, and lots more fun.  Just ask Tolly.”

With a grimace, Tolly led Iria into the manor.

Once inside, Arrie took Auror down to the solarium, while everyone else gathered in a sitting room.  Autumn looked at Aiden as he sat down.

“I received word a few months ago,” Aiden said.  “Father died.  They were in bed together, when apparently all the blood in his body just… escaped, all at once.  Everything was covered in blood – the bed, the walls… and Mother.”  Aiden sighed heavily.  “She’s doing much better than she was, thanks in no small part to Brother Nightsleaving.” Aiden gestured to Tolly, who was helping Iria pick the lettuce out of a small sandwich.  “She’s now eating on her own.”

Lanara leaned over to Tolly.  “Do you think music would help her, Tolly?”

He frowned.  “We haven’t tried it, but it couldn’t hurt.”  He looked at the cansin.  “Avoid dirges.”

With an eye roll, Lanara left the sitting room to find Auror and Arrie.

By this time Autumn was crying, squeezing Kyle’s hand for comfort.  “Why?” she asked.  “Why didn’t someone tell me?  Why didn’t someone send word to Arrie and I?”
            Tolly leaned forward.  “Your mother… didn’t want word sent out.  She felt it was too… personal.  It’s taken us this long to get her to agree to come here.”

“I would have come myself, or sent word,” Aiden said, “but with Father gone, I was forced to assume his title.  I had to locate a new seneschal for our sovereigns, travel to Noxolt for the Emperor’s blessing and seal, then return to Castle Verahannen to set affairs in order.  Mother was in… no state to help.  There simply hasn’t been time, I’m sorry.”

In some way, Autumn could understand this; her own experience as Duchess of Vargex during a time of upheaval had left her no time for personal affairs.  Still…

Autumn suddenly stood, releasing Kyle’s hand, and left the room.  It was not difficult to guess where she was going.  Kyle, now suddenly in the position of being the only ‘official’ representative of the household, swallowed and decided to make the best of it.  Fortunately, his job was made easier by the arrival of Osborn, who immediately introduced himself to Aiden and struck up a conversation.

“How long have you been with the Verahannens, Tolly?” he asked.

“About three months now.  I arrived shortly after you were in Laeshir – thank you, by the way, for completing that little task in Lisk, though I was annoyed that you beat me to it by only a few days.  Zanich had died not too much before then; they were hanging wreaths on the gates when I arrived.”

“Yes, on the twenty-second, I know.”

Tolly arched an eyebrow.  “You knew when Zanich died?  Then why…”

Kyle held up a hand.  “Have you ever heard of the spell _love’s pain_?”

“I have,” the Ardaran said, his eyes darkening.

Kyle quickly and quietly explained the attack on Autumn by the cornugon several months ago, and how they had been expecting news such as this for some time. 

Osborn wandered over and greeted Tolly.  “Who’s your friend?” he asked, looking at Iria.

Tolly introduced the young girl.  “I picked her up during an incident about eight months ago.  She was being pursued by a mob led by a priest of Stok, and I intervened.  The mob calmed down when I discovered that the pretense the priest had used to gather them was false.  The priest tried to kill her anyway, and didn’t survive the experience.”

“Why would a mob chase an eight year old girl?” Kyle asked.  “What did they think she did?”

“The priest was blaming her for killing her parents,” Tolly said, “and of using unnatural magics.”

“A nascent sorcerer?” Kyle said.  “That’s not that unusual.  I’m surprised that…”

“She’s a psion, Kyle.”

There were several seconds of silence.  “Interesting,” Kyle said at last.

“It has been,” Tolly sighed.  “It has been.”

*          *            *​
            Aiden and Tolly were shown to rooms, and Kyle made sure that the Verahannen escort was provided with space as well.  Osborn took Iria out to the yard to play with Rupert.  When Kyle returned, he went looking for Autumn.  The solarium was empty, however, and she was not in their bedroom or in her study either.  He did, however, run into Lanara in the hallway.

            “Have you seen Autumn?”

            Lanara shook her head.  “Not since the fight.”

            “Fight?”

            “Autumn came into the solarium a few minutes after I arrived.  I was sitting in the back corner, playing, so I didn’t hear much.  But I saw Autumn kneel down in front of Auror and say something to her, and then Arrie pulled her up to her feet.  They had a very angry conversation, though they whispered it – I think to avoid upsetting Auror more, and then Autumn stormed off.  Arrie took Auror to a room shortly after that.”

            “Wonderful,” Kyle said.  In his experience, neither Arrie nor Autumn handled death very well.  Up until now, however, they’d only had to deal with one of the sisters at a time; Arrie, when Autumn was killed by the Ravagers, and Autumn, when Arrie was placed into the near-death coma by Neville.

            “Need help looking?” Lanara offered.

            “No thanks.  I think I know where she is now.”

            “Okay.  Well, I was planning on sort of just wandering the halls, playing a little soothing music.  People seem to be on edge tonight.”

            “Tell me about it,” Kyle said, as he walked down the hall toward the new shrine to Bail.

            In another part of the manor, Maddie had just arrived from the city, and saw Osborn and Rupert out playing with a little girl.  She got the story of the arrival of the Verahannens and Tolly from the hin, and after staying a while to play with Iria, she went in search of the Ardaran priest.  She found him sitting in the manor’s library, though in truth calling the room a ‘library’ was charitable at best, since there had not been time to stock the shelves with very many books.  It would have been more accurate to call it a ‘trophy room’, as currently most of the shelves held mementos from the Legacy’s adventures.  Tolly was examining one item in particular when Maddie walked in.

            “Hello, Tolly,” Maddie said, giving him an affectionate squeeze on the arm. “How have you been?”

            “Very well, thank you.  And you, Kavan?”

            “I’m fine, thanks.  And it’s Madrone, now and forever.”

            Tolly sighed.  “Of course, forgive me.  I haven’t been around you enough to get used to you as a woman.”

            “There are times when I’m not used to being a woman.  The moonsblood sucks.”

            “I’ll take your word for it,” Tolly said, slightly taken aback.  He’d forgotten how frank the favored soul could be.  “Thankfully it’s something I’ve never experienced.  But it will probably be something that I have to discuss one day, now that I have a daughter.”

            Madrone smiled.  “So the orphan takes in a foundling of his own.”

            Tolly cracked a smile.  “I’d considered bringing Aranal with us, but I wasn’t sure how you would all react to the site of the two of us coming here with a child.  Besides, I won’t let Iria anywhere near Aranal.”

            “Lanara would probably be glad to hear that,” Maddie said.

            “So,” said Tolly, “back in M’Dos, when I left, there was an elf that was looking for you.  What did he want?”

            “Razael?  Oh, the church and Herion assigned him to be my bodyguard.  Bit of a pain in the ass, if you must know.”

“The situation, or Razael himself?” Tolly asked.

“Yes.  Especially the way he would look at me sometimes.”  Maddie shuddered.  “Thank Erito he ended up jumping into bed with Lanara.”

Tolly’s eyebrows arched, but he said nothing.

“Fortunately, he’s been kept pretty busy lately hunting bandits in the woods, so I don’t see him a lot.”  Maddie sighed.  “It’s not his fault, really – he’s just doing his job.  It’s the implication that I can’t defend myself that always rubbed me wrong.”  She turned and looked at Tolly.  “So, how is your church treating you?”

“The church itself is treating me fine.  The Prelate Council, on the other hand…” Tolly shook his head.  “Do you remember the time when the buckles on the lower half of my plate armor got stuck, and it took two days to pry them free?”

            “Yes, I do.  That was unpleasant.”

            “Dealing with the Council is like that, but for weeks on end.  If the Council had to take a vote on whether to go to the privy, they’d explode before they reached a decision.”
            Maddie laughed out loud.  “I never would have expected such a comment out of a priest of the goddess of Law,” she said.

            “Archprelate Frelarr told me once that people who enjoy sausage and the law should not watch either being made.  I understand what he meant.”

            “Well, that does sound like the nature of bureaucracy,” Maddie said.

            “It does.  So, we’ve decided to rotate who holds the position of Inquisitor Primus.  The church will now fill the position with those who they consider their most promising, the rising stars of the faith.  The job will help temper them, but at the same time the influx of fresh ideas and enthusiasm will keep the drearier parts of the job from crushing the spirit of the Primus.”

            “So, you’re unemployed, then?”

            Tolly nodded his head.  “For a while.  The Archprelate has not removed any of my powers yet.  There are effectively two Inquisitor Primus’s now.  You should meet Argent some time.  He’s the Favored of Ardara that is succeeding me.  He’s young, and naïve.  He reminds me of myself, when we graduated.  But more diplomatic, and less worried about everything.”

            Maddie frowned.  “You’re not making some sort of…” she paused for a moment, then waved her hands.  “Never mind.”

            “I’m not matchmaking, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Tolly said.

            “Thank you,” Maddie sighed.

            “I wouldn’t do that to Argent,” Tolly added with a grin.

            Maddie was about to reply when Kyle came walking by, looking grim.  He glanced into the library, nodding curtly at the two people in the room.

            “Looking for someone?”  Maddie asked.

            “Arrie,” Kyle said.  “Probably in her room, though.”

            “Something wrong?” Tolly asked.

            “Nothing more than there was,” he said.  “I just need to… clarify some things.”  He walked off, heading for Arrie’s room.

            “He doesn’t look like he’s having a good day,” Maddie commented.

            “I don’t think anyone is.  You heard about Zanich?”

            “Osborn told me, yes.  Poor Autumn, finding out only a week before her birthday.”

            Tolly looked surprised.  “Oh, it is, isn’t it?”

            Maddie turned slightly pink.  “Oh, Tolly, I didn’t mean to bring up…”

            Tolly held up a hand.  “It’s all right, Maddie.  As they say in my church, even the hottest forge will cool with time.  I’ve come to terms with how things turned out.  I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

            “Good point.”

            “So,” said Tolly, changing the subject, “I have yet to see Xu.  Where is she?”

            “Probably with Togusa.  He’s been in the city for a few months, running Autumn’s watch.  They spend a lot of time together.”  She shook her head at Tolly’s inquisitive glance.  “Not like that.  More like how you naturally gravitate toward someone from your home town when traveling in a strange place.”
            “I see.”  Tolly’s gaze wandered back to the object he had been looking at before Maddie arrived.  “This is an impressive piece,” he said.  “What is it?”

            “Oh, that’s the crown of the king of the orcish empire,” she said.

            Tolly’s eyes bulged.  “This crown is worth a fortune,” he said.  “And you just have it sitting here on the shelf?”

            “No, Tolly.  This is just a replica.  The real crown’s stashed in Autumn’s _portable hole_.  We never could decide what to do with it, and then we got busy and kind of forgot about it.”

            “You _forgot _about a priceless artifact of Affon’s history**,” Tolly said, shaking his head.  “Frelarr was right.  Adventurers are some of the most jaded people on the planet.”

            “Hey, at least we didn’t pull it apart and sell the pieces so we could buy ale and whores,” Maddie countered.

            “I doubt you could have drunk that much ale, or… never mind.”  Tolly gestured around the room.  “I recognize most of the other items in this room, but not all of them.  You’ll have to tell me what you’ve been doing since M’Dos.”

            Maddie spent the next hour telling Tolly stories of their adventures since he’d left the Legacy.  Finally, when the servants started to come around and light the lamps in the halls, Tolly took his leave and made his way to the room he’d been given.  He hoped that Iria might already be asleep in the room, but with Osborn looking after her, and no doubt Lanara as well, it was far more likely she was currently in the kitchens, eating something that was both too sweet and too sticky.  _Oh well_, he thought. _ We’re on vacation._

            He passed by Kyle and Autumn’s room, and noticed the door was slightly ajar.  The flickering light of a fire came from inside, and Tolly could hear Kyle muttering to himself inside.  Peeking in, he saw the wizard sitting in front of the fireplace, holding a nearly empty glass of spirits.  A half-empty decanter was on the table next to him.

            Tolly went into the room and gently put the stopper on the decanter.  “I think half a decanter is enough for one night,” he said.

            Kyle grunted.  “Remind me,” he said, slurring a little, “that the next time someone dies, I need to stay as far away as possible from those two.”

            “Things went poorly with Arrie, then?”

            “Right now, Tolly, I think that Aiden is the only Verahannen that still likes me.”

            Tolly gave Kyle a reassuring pat on the shoulder.  “Things will be better in the morning, Kyle.”

            Tolly walked out of the room, taking the decanter and setting it back in the open cabinet on the wall.  Kyle watched him leave.

            “Better in the morning,” he muttered.  “That’ll take a miracle.”

*          *            *​
            Sleep, when it came to Autumn, was fitful and unsatisfying.

            Her dreams were haunted by images of her father, dying in agony. Her mother, dressed in black and covered in blood, shrieking as her mind broke.  Her sister, her brother… all of them looking at her accusingly.

            She barely remembered going to the solarium.  Her memories seemed distant, as if she’d only been watching everything from a distance.  When she knelt in front of her mother and confessed her role in Zanich’s death, she felt like she was hearing herself say the words instead of actually saying them.  She saw herself draw the dagger and beg Auror to kill her in revenge, but couldn’t remember the feel of the blade in her hand.  She felt hands pulling her away, a voice in her ear – Arrie’s voice.

_I won’t let you do that to my mother!_

            My mother… not our mother.  _I’ve lost a father, and now I’ve lost a mother too._

            There were other images – were they real, or just dreams?  Kyle sprawled dead on the floor, Arrie standing over him, her chain still bloody.  Arrie running into the church of Tor, striking down the priest with psionic power and then being overwhelmed by a cascade of angry archons.  Aiden leaping from the tallest tower at Castle Verahannen.  Phyros, the head of the Order of Sentinels, rebuking Autumn and casting her out of the Order.  The city of Vargas in flames.  And behind it all, the wicked laughter of a cornugon.

            She felt a hand on her shoulder, rousing her from sleep.  Wearily, she opened her puffy, bloodshot eyes, squinting against the light.  It took her a moment to realize that she was still in the shrine, draped over the altar.  It took her another minute to realize that the candles she had lit should have burned out hours ago, and it shouldn’t be this bright in here.

            She turned slowly to see a strange figure standing behind her.  He was large, well over nine feet tall, and his skin was a brilliant emerald green.  He wore a simple white tunic, which matched the large, feathery wings that emerged from his back.

            “Messages have been passed among the Servants,” the planetar said.  “I heard that my daughter was in need.  So I have come.”

            Autumn looked up at the celestial for a long moment, and then was overcome with a wave of emotion.  She broke down, sobbing hysterically.  A moment later, she felt the comforting embrace of a pair of strong arms… and strong wings that smelled like the ocean.

*          *            *​
            Kyle sighed, and tried not to go cross-eyed.

            He’d woken up that morning to find that he’d spent the night alone.  Not particularly in the mood to find Autumn just yet, he had dressed and come downstairs.  He was stopped on the stairs by Autumn’s valet, Aleria.

            “I was just coming to inform you that the florists will be here shortly,” she said.

            “Wonderful,” he moaned.  “Have you seen the Duchess this morning?”

            “Not yet, my lord.  Is she still in her chambers?”

            “No, she’s not.  She’s in her shrine.”

            “I see.  Shall I go and get her?”

            Kyle thought for a moment.  “No.  Bring her some breakfast and leave it outside the door.  You might mention the florists, but don’t wait for an answer.  If she comes, she comes.  If not…” Kyle looked back up the stairs.  “Have you seen Princess Ariadne up and about?”

            “I’m afraid not, my lord.  But Master Greenbottle is here, at the breakfast table.”

            “Of course he is.”  Osborn never missed breakfast at the manor.  “Tell him not to wait for me – I’m not particularly hungry this morning.”

            “He’s already started his meal, my lord.”

            Kyle half sighed, half chuckled.  “I should have known.  Do we have any court business today?”

            “None I know of, my lord,” Aleria said.

            “Then we’ll have the florists set up in the audience chamber.  Have someone bring in some chairs and tables.”

            “Very good, my lord,” Aleria said, curtseying before she proceeded up the stairs.

            Kyle decided to go outside and walk around the grounds for a while.  He’d need a clear head if he ended up picking all of the flowers for the wedding by himself.

            However, when he returned and went to the audience chamber, he saw that Arrie, Xu, Maddie and Lanara were all sitting in the room, watching as the florists set up their displays.

            “We figured you’d need some help,” Lanara said.

            “Someone with a discerning eye for color and form,” Xu added.

            “Your confidence in me is overwhelming,” Kyle said, sitting down at the end of the table.  “But thanks.  No Autumn, I take it?”

            “Raz went to go get her,” Lanara said.  “I thought about telling him not to, but it’s not like he listens anyway.”

            Osborn came walking by the room, and poked his head in.  “What’s going on in here?”

            “Florists,” Arrie said.  “Come on in.  We could use your opinion.”

            “Gee, thanks!” Osborn said, walking in and pulling up a chair.

            “Yeah, thanks,” Kyle huffed.

            Arrie flashed Kyle a slight smile, which he returned.  Volumes were spoken in those two glances.

            “I’d go with mostly white,” Arrie said, “accented by blue.  Many people will tell you that too much white will wash out the bride, but in this case that’s not going to be a problem.  And since the wedding’s outdoors, you’ll have a natural green background to offset it.”  Arrie pointed at a small bunch of small blue flowers.  “Those are her favorites.”

            “I know,” Kyle said.

             They were just beginning to discuss what types of ivy to use on the trellis over the altar when Razael walked in.  He was looking very clean, which meant that Lanara had gone after him recently with a _prestidigitation _spell.

            “No greataxe wounds,” Maddie commented, looking Razael over.  “Autumn must be feeling better.”

            “She’s probably not coming,” Razael said.  “She’s busy with her father right now.”  He jerked his head back to indicate where he’d just come from.  “Her other father, I mean.  The one with wings.”

            Everyone just looked at Razael for a while, processing this bit of news.  Then Osborn jumped off his chair.

            “A celestial?  Wow!”  He went running out of the room.  Lanara moved to stand up, but Arrie caught her eyes and shook her head.

            “Please wait,” she said.

            “Yeah, what’s the big deal?” Razael said.  “It’s just a planetar.”  He shook his head.  “Don’t even see why Lysanne fell for him in the first place.”

            “Shouldn’t you be out in the field playing with the cows?” Lanara asked.

            “They’d run away from me,” Razael said, pointing out his newly cleaned garb.  “I don’t smell like them any more.”

            Kyle produced a wand, and reversed Lanara’s earlier _prestidigitation_.  “Go,” he said.  Razael smirked, and then walked off, leaving a little bit of dirt on the floor behind him.

            After a while, the people remaining in the audience chamber noticed an unusual buzz of excitement coming from the house staff outside the room.  The florists, who were starting to present their ideas for the bridal bouquet, looked past the party to the hallway outside, and stopped suddenly, staring.  Arrie looked at the florists, then over her shoulder to see what they were looking at.  When she saw, she stood up.

            “I’ll let you take it from here, Kyle,” Arrie said, nodding to the florists as she walked out through a door on the other side of the room.

            Kyle understood.  As a psionic being, Arrie was considered anathema to the gods.  Their servants were under strict orders to destroy any psions they encountered.

            Autumn walked into the chamber, followed by a tall, green-skinned celestial.  The florists and servants in the room bowed deeply, as Kyle, Lanara, Xu, and Maddie stood and gave Autumn’s father a courteous nod.  Osborn walked in behind Autumn and the planetar, grinning from ear to ear.

            Xu turned to the florists, who were still gaping.  “Perhaps you could return this afternoon?  We have dignitaries to attend to.”

            Nodding, the florists quickly gathered their things and left, their minds reeling at the fact that the Duchess and her companions were referring to an angel as a ‘dignitary’.

            Autumn introduced each of her friends, stopping at Kyle last.  “This is my fiancé, Kyle Goodson.  Kyle, this is my father, Phanuel.”

            Phanuel reached out and placed one massive hand over Kyle’s head.  There was a moment of stillness in the room as the planetar concentrated.  Suddenly, Kyle felt a wave of positive energy pass through Phanuel’s hands and into him, and he knew that he’d just received the blessing of Autumn’s father.

            Phanuel stepped back, and smiled.  “There.  Now I can distinguish you from the other mortals here, see you as you are.  It is good to meet you, Kyle.”

            “Likewise.”

            Phanuel turned to Autumn.  “And what of your sister?  Or, the one that you call your sister; is not related by blood, as I understand it, but a sister of the heart.”

            “Oh, yes, Arrie,” Autumn wanted Arrie to meet her father, but also knew that such a meeting would be difficult to arrange.  “I should go and get Aiden, and probably Mother too… my adopted mother, Auror, not…”

            Phanuel motioned for Autumn to remain still.  “Let us make this simple.  Close your eyes and think of those you love.”

            The planetar reached out and touched Autumn on the forehead.  She felt a burst of energy travel through her and out of her.  She knew somehow that that energy had traveled out to those she cared about, touching them as she had been.  The party members in the room felt a sudden surge of bliss that seemed to come out of nowhere.

            “There,” Phanuel said, dropping his arm.  “Now I have touched them through you.  I will know them now.”  He smiled at his daughter.

            “What brought you to visit Autumn today?” Kyle asked.

            “Her prayers to Bail were received by one of his servants, the trumpet archon Urial.  When he sensed her need, he passed a message to me through the channels that the angels maintain with the archons.”

            Autumn looked around.  “Where’s Tolly?”
            “I haven’t seen him,” Kyle said.

            “He probably found a church to pray in,” Lanara said.

            “He is a man of faith, this Tolly?” Phanuel asked.

            “He’s a priest of Ardara,” Lanara said.  “Very high up in his church.”

            “Then I will be sure to recognize him when I see him.”

            Maddie, Lanara and Xu took their leave, so that Autumn, Kyle, and Phanuel had time to get acquainted.  After they left, they were pulled into another room, where Arrie and Razael were talking about some secret plan.  Meanwhile, Autumn took her father on a tour of the manor and grounds, with Kyle accompanying them both.  In order to prevent the commotion that had followed them from the shrine, Phanuel altered his form, condensing his massive frame into a more human visage.  Kyle noted that Autumn seemed none the worse for wear this morning, despite being close to insane the night before.

            “Are you happy here?” Phanuel asked, as they stood in the stables with Autumn’s horse Defiance.

            “Yes,” Autumn admitted, “though there is much to do.  We have a… quest to complete.”

            “I hope that the journey will mean as much to you as the completion of your quest,” Phanuel said.  “I plan to stay until your wedding, with your permission.”

            “Of course,” Autumn said, smiling.

            “If you have need of me while I am here, you need only call my name.  But in the meanwhile, I think I will go and observe the people here at your home.  I will need to reacquaint myself with human mannerisms.”  With that, Phanuel vanished.  Kyle could see that the angel had turned invisible, and was now following one of the serving girls back to the house.

            By the time Kyle and Autumn returned to the manor, Arrie was in her traveling clothes.  Razael and Maddie were standing next to her.

            “We’ll be back in a couple of days!” Arrie announced brightly.

            “Who’s ‘we’,” Autumn asked, “and where are you going?”

            Maddie answered.  “Me, and Arrie, and Raz, and Tolly and Iria.  As for where we’re going, it’s a secret.”

            “Yeah, and ye shouldn’t be asking so many questions this close to your wedding,” Razael said.

            “I want to see Tolly before you leave,” Autumn said.

            “I’ll go find him,” Razael sighed.  He walked into the manor and bellowed the priest’s name.

            “_I_ could have done that,” Autumn said, rolling her eyes.

            “I’m so glad that I’m too old for him,” Maddie added.

            After a while, Tolly and Iria came outside.  “You bellowed?”

            “I just wanted to thank you for coming,” Autumn said.  She stepped forward and embraced the Ardaran.  After a brief moment of uncertainty, he returned the hug.

            “You’re welcome, Autumn.”

            The sentinel smiled.  “And you haven’t yet introduced me to the young woman you brought with you.”

            “Oh, of course.”  He looked down at Iria, who was standing next to his leg.  “Iria, curtsy to the lady.”

            As Iria dipped into an awkward little girl curtsy, Tolly made the introductions.  “Autumn, this is Iria, my ward.  Iria, this is Duchess Autumn.”

            “It’s very nice to meet you, Iria,” Autumn said.

            “Nice to meet you too,” she replied.  “You’re very pretty.”  Iria smiled.  “Tolly thinks you’re pretty too.”

            Lanara laughed.  “That’s a lovely shade of pink you’re turning, Tolly.”

            “Iria,” Tolly said, “there are times when you shouldn’t make certain comments.  We’ll talk later.”

            Arrie leaned down and said in a loud whisper, clearly meant to be overheard, “Iria, I’ll teach you how to say those things without getting into trouble.”

            “I think perhaps we’d better go,” Tolly said.

            “But I wanted you to meet my father,” Autumn said.

            “The angel?  Yes, I’d heard.”  Tolly looked around the courtyard.  “Perhaps when we get back, so I can arrange for Iria to be elsewhere when I meet him.”

            Autumn looked puzzled by this, until Kyle stepped forward.  “Iria is a very special little girl, Autumn.  Special, like how Aran and your sister are special.”

            “Oh,” she said, understanding.  Then her eyes widened as she realized who was caring for the girl.  “Oh, really?”

            “It’s good to know that you remembered that, Kyle,” Tolly said.

            “I remember more than most people realize,” he replied.

            Razael emerged from the manor again, and moments later the four travelers were off, borne on the wind by Maddie’s magic.  As Kyle and Autumn waved, Autumn spotted the florists slowly walking up to the manor from the gate.

            “Oh, good,” she said.  “The florists are here.  Kyle, you can help me pick things out.”

            “But we covered most of this already,” Kyle said.

            “Well, I haven’t, and it’s my wedding,” Autumn said.  “So, let’s have them set up inside again.”

            Kyle sighed.  “All right.”

            As they walked into the manor and entered the audience chamber, they were surprised to see Auror sitting in one of the chairs, looking out the large picture windows.

            “Oh, Autumn,” she said, smiling just a little.  “I had the strangest dream.  Are you all right?”

            “I am now,” Autumn said, tears glistening in her eyes.  “Are you okay?”

            “I’m… not yet,” Auror admitted.  “But I know I will be, eventually.  May I sit and help you with your flower arrangements?”

            “Of course, Mother,” Autumn looked at Kyle, happy to see Auror but uncertain how it came to be.  Kyle briefly touched his index finger to Autumn’s forehead.

            Nodding, Autumn understood.  She had her father to thank for this, as well.

-------------------------

* In other words, the players and DM agreed that we didn't really want to spend the next three months of game time fighting thieves and assassins, so the elimination of the rest of Vargas' criminal element was neatly summarized in narrative form.

** The Crown of the Orcish King is the 'real discovery' that the Legacy found in Auxariel's hoard, mentioned briefly at the beginning of this post. It was literally listed on our treasure sheet as 'priceless'.  It's not magical, but just a very important status symbol.  To this day, we're still carrying it, unsure of what to do.  It's too big a cultural artifact to consider selling it off in pieces, so we would want to sell it whole.  Problem is, there are very few who could afford to pay even close to a reasonable price (none of us players are naive enough to think that the DM would hand over millions of gold pieces for it - we were thinking more along the lines of services and favors in payment) and we're even leery of that, because anyone who could pay for it would probably use it in unfavorable ways.  We are definitely leery about giving it back to the orcs, because it could very well lead to the formation of a new orcish nation, which would probably be a bad thing.  So, eventually I figure we'll think of a way to make use of the crown, but until then it continues to sit in the _portable hole_.


----------



## Delemental

We officially restarted the campaign last Friday, so looks like there won't be the lag in updates as I had originally feared.  I'll make a note at the point where we ended (back in November 2005) and where it picks up again.

------------------------------

           Arrie, Tolly, Razael and Maddie came back in two days as promised.  The day after they returned, Kyle found a small bunch of flowers in his room, along with a note penned in Arrie’s hand:

_Kyle, preserve these.  It’s a courting custom._

            The small white flowers glowed faintly, and smelled slightly of the swamp.  Next to the flowers was a bottle of a thick, syrupy wine that smelled very sweet.  Next to it was another note:

_They like it.  Trust me, they like it. –R_

            Kyle smiled to himself.  It seemed his new dwarven wedding flagon might get some use after all.

            Now, when all they wanted was more time, the days seemed to rush by.  Visitors and dignitaries began to arrive in Vargas over the next two weeks, and the manor was crowded with guests.  Fortunately, many of Autumn’s vassals maintained homes in the city, otherwise the burden would have stretched the large mansion to bursting.  Word finally arrived from Merlion that Damen and Corissane Coviere would be attending… alone.  Relieved at having one less thing to worry about, Autumn made sure to send a proper escort to the co-monarchs.

The arrival of Osborn’s family, as well as the rest of the Amazing Traveling Circus also threatened to throw the proceedings into chaos, until Boss Billyup made it clear that they intended to camp outside the city to provide entertainment to the masses and be part of the festivities leading up to the wedding.

There was time during the arrival of the dignitaries for one event that actually eased tensions among the group.  Tolly and Kyle sat down together one night at the Medusa’s Lair for an ale, and discussed a lot of things; their past differences over psionics, their mutual pursuit of Autumn, and the arguments and ill feelings that had arisen from those conflicts.  It took several hours; Tolly was doing his best to explain how his views had changed without actually admitting he was wrong, while Kyle was struggling with trying to respect where Tolly had been coming from in the first place without showing that he currently held little respect for the gods because of their attitudes toward psionics.  Both managed to succeed, and came away from the evening as better friends.

            The rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding went fairly well.  The fish was a little undercooked, and one of the butlers dropped a tray, but other than that it was nerve-wracking for Autumn and Kyle.  No one went to bed that night expecting to sleep much, but they all quickly dropped into a deep slumber.

            They awoke standing inside a stone castle, looking out over a balcony at the ocean, with a gray sky overhead.  They all wore simple garb.  All of the party was there, as was Tolly, and surprisingly, Iria was there too.  Tolly looked around, and immediately grabbed on to Iria’s hand.

            “All right,” Lanara said, “where’s Aran?”

            They turned at a chittering sound behind them, and saw the dromite, Tek, standing in the archway leading inside the castle.  Razael, who had never experienced a meeting with the Dreamlord personally but had been told about it, looked nervous, especially once he realized he was unarmed.

            Arrie walked over to Tek, and bent over to allow his antennae to touch her forehead.  “What’s going on, Tek?” she asked.

_The Dreamlord wishes to meet with you.  It has been some time, and the seers have told us of a great event coming soon for you._

            “Okay, show us the way.”  Arrie passed the message from Tek to the others.

            As they walked inside, Autumn glared at Kyle.  “You’re not supposed to see me, dammit.”

            “It’s not like I had a choice,” Kyle protested.  “Besides, it’s your dress I’m not supposed to see.”

            They walked into a large, airy sitting room.  Unlike last time, when the stone room was rather sparsely furnished, this time Aran seemed to have taken care to appoint his reality with comfortable furniture and rugs.  A fire burned in the firepit in the center of the room, and though it didn’t feel like a real fire, there was a sense of warmth coming from the hearth; it was almost like their minds knew a fire _should _be warm, and so it was warm here.  Aran was standing in the center of the room near the fire.

            “Hello, everyone,” he said.  “Welcome back.”

            “Hello,” Osborn said.

            “You have impeccable timing, Aran,” Autumn said.

            “Yes, I know.  It comes with the territory.  Please sit, I’ll have some refreshments brought.”

            “You do know,” Lanara asked, as she sat down, “that we have a wedding to do today?”
            “Oh!” Aran said, seeming surprised.  “That’s today?  I’m sorry.  That must be the ‘momentous event’ that the seers told me about.”  He grinned sheepishly.  “Well, congratulations, you two.”

            “Thank you,” Autumn said.

            “But, we’re already here,” Kyle said, taking a seat himself, “and we know we’ll be done before morning…”

            “Indeed.”  Aran found a seat close to the fire pit.  “Mostly I brought you here to discover what you’ve learned, and exchange information.  And to welcome new arrivals.”

            Aran gestured toward Razael, and then toward Iria.  Tolly instinctively stepped between the young girl and Aran.  Though Tolly had considered trying to contact the Dreamlord about Iria, he had always feared that Aran might try to take the girl from him.

            Aran seemed to sense Tolly’s worries.  “Tolly, I am a teacher, not a parent,” he said.  “One day I may ask to train the young girl, but that day is not today.”

            Tolly visibly relaxed.  “Good.  But any advice you can give on dealing with uncontrolled manifestations would be appreciated.  You can send me a book.”

            “A book?  Hmm, no.”

            Tolly looked at Aran, puzzled.  “You can write, yes?”

            “Yes, but there are no such books in existence, and I’m not about to set down pen to paper on the subject of psionics.  If you wish, I can place some temporary blocks on her powers that will contain them for about a year.  She’ll miss them; it will be much like asking her to wear a blindfold for that time.”

            “I’ll consider it,” Tolly said.

            Arrie walked over next to Iria.  “Iria,” she said, “this is our friend Aran.  Aran, this is Iria.”

            Iria looked at Aran, and suddenly her eyes grew wide as saucers.  “I remember you!”

            “Okay,” Arrie said, standing up.  “That’s kind of creepy.”

            “She… remembers you?” Tolly asked.

            “I do occasionally peek into the dreams of others.  It’s part of my job – how I know what is happening.  I must have been in one of her dreams once, and as a psion, she was aware of my presence.”  Aran looked up from Iria at the others.  “What else have you learned?”

            Most of the party looked around awkwardly.  “There is a great deal that we could discuss with you,” Kyle said at last, “but there are certain… complications in imparting that to you.”

            “Oh?” Aran said curiously.

            “Well, there’s one easy way to fix the problem.” Kyle turned to Tolly.  “Tolly, I know this is going to sound strange, and if I could explain it to you, I would.  But we need for you and Iria to leave this room.”

            Tolly looked around, and saw the others nodding their agreement.  Aran pointed toward one of the archways.  “There is a library through there that you may find interesting,” Aran said.

            “All right,” Tolly said, taking Iria’s hand and walking through the archway.

            When they were sure he was gone, the party turned back to Aran.  “We’ve been to Erito’s Library,” Kyle said.  “Justin Godscion sends his greetings.”

            Aran looked taken aback for a moment, then composed himself, and shook his head sadly.  “I’d ask you to return the greeting to Justin, but I hope you’ll never have to go back there.”

            “I ain’t never going back,” Razael said.

            “I’m not getting on another boat for that long,” added Lanara.

            “Well then,” Aran said.  “If you have been to the Library, then you now know what has happened, our perspective on things, and why we psions do what we do.”

            “Yes,” said Arrie, “but why did you tell us that it was one of the Many who was destroyed in our first meeting?  Why not tell us about the Consort?”

            “Because the Consort’s existence has been erased from the universe,” Aran said.  “It is only by virtue of the fact that you have been to Erito’s Library, which exists outside of time, which allows you to even be aware of his previous existence.  I know of him because I was alive before he was destroyed.  Had I told you about the Consort in our first meeting, your minds simply would have been unable to accept it.  The knowledge would simply fail to take hold in your minds. It’s somewhat like your experiences with my former apprentice, Momuus, on that island; while you are here, in Dream, you remember it fully.  In the waking world, the knowledge becomes… fuzzy.  So I chose instead to tell you a modified truth, one that would still convey the magnitude of what the Cataclysm was.

            “So, now that you know, what, if anything, do you intend to do?  Having knowledge doesn’t require you to act on it.”

            Everyone looked around uncertainly at each other.  Certianly, they hadn’t planned on sitting back and letting things take their course, but it had been so long since they’d thought about the subject…

            “I plan to eat, drink, and kill things that piss me off,” Razael finally said.

            “I think the answer depends,” Kyle said, “on whether you are referring to each of us individually, or as a group.  I’m assuming the latter.”

            Aran nodded.

            “I think the first thing we’ll need to do is find out exactly what Kristyan’s faction is up to,” Kyle continued, “learn their ultimate goal.”

            “I can tell you this,” Aran said.  “They’ve been gathering relics from all of the gods.  They don’t have one from every deity, but besides the oathbond blade of Bail you already know about, they have a sickle from Bles, an hourglass from Erito, a dagger from Fiel, an everburning torch from Grabâkh, a circlet from Paccë, a statuette from Tor, and – this is rather disgusting – a mummified tongue from Qin-Chu.”

            “Disgusting, but appropriate,” Lanara commented.

            “What possible use could they have for these items?” Xu asked.

            “We’d guessed that one thing they might be trying to do is replicate the assassination of the Consort on a grander scale,” Kyle said.

            “That was my initial guess as well,” Aran said.  “But in order to accomplish that, they would require the power of fifteen or twenty psions like Silko, and they simply do not possess that much power – if they did, we would know it.  But another possibility is that they’re trying to re-incorporate Silko.”

            “Gathering enough divine energy to reverse his destruction?” Arris asked.

            “Yes, drawing the particles of his form together into a coherent whole.”

            “Well, if they’re trying that,” Razael asked, “could be they’re taking it a step further and trying to bring back the Consort.  He was your god, after all.”

            “It could be,” Aran admitted.  “It’s a possibility I hadn’t considered.”

            “If’n it were true, then I think we’d be hard pressed not to help,” Razael said.

            “But it seems unlikely,” Xu commented.  “Given what we know of their natures, such a benevolent act seems dissonant.”

            “Yet if they are fanatical followers of the Consort,” Aran mused, “then it could very well be a case in their minds of the ends justifying the means.  I will have this theory looked into.  Thank you.”

            “So, once we can figure our their plan,” Kyle said, “it’s a matter of identifying leaders, and key elements, and then interfering if we need to.  I think we can agree that none of us want to see any more gods destroyed, or for Silko to return.”

            “Maybe the first thing we could do is track down some of these people looking for the rest of the relics and stop them,” suggested Maddie.

            “The only problem with that is that there are a great number of divine relics out there,” Aran said.  “Hundreds of them.”

            “But we could also track ‘em back to where they’re coming from,” Razael suggested.

            “If you pursue that tactic,” Aran advised, “then you should know that the relic that they will have the greatest trouble securing will be that of Shesh.  This is because the Miser God is known to have only created a single relic.”

            “Where is it?” Osborn asked.

            “I don’t know.  As you can imagine, Shesh’s priests guard the secret of its location carefully.  I’m almost certain it’s on Affon, however.  The relic itself is a small metal cage, perhaps three inches square.  I don’t know its function.  If you wish to block Kristyan’s faction from getting a relic from every deity, that would be a sure way to go about it.”

            Aran stood up, straightening his tunic.  “Would any of you like to have a private conversation?”

            “Yes, I would,” Kyle said.  Arrie also signaled that she wanted a private conversation.  Seeing this, Kyle spoke again.

            “This may be related to what Arrie is going to talk to you about, but we currently have a rather potent celestial in our midst.  Any advice on protecting Arrie and Iria’s secret?”
            “The simplest way is not to manifest powers in their presence.  The servants of the gods have no special ability to identify a psion by sight.  At most, they can tell that the deity they serve is not your patron, but the natural assumption will be that you have a different divine patron, not that you have no patron at all.”

            “What about Iria?” Lanara asked.  “She’s not exactly in control.”

            “Like I said, I can place blocks on her powers for a year,” Aran said.

            “Can’t you do anything less than a year?” Lanara asked.  “I’m pretty sure that Phanuel will be gone by this time tomorrow.”

            “I could possibly reduce it to about six months,” Aran said.  “Any less would risk making the blocks too weak.”

            “I just want to get her through until the danger has passed,” the cansin said.  “Can you remove the blocks after you set them?”

            “But when will the danger pass?” Arrie asked.  “She’s living with Tolly.  I’m not worried about him, because he obviously loves her, but the people around him.”

            “And would it be wise to leave Iria defenseless?”  Kyle asked.  “Maybe Tolly could just keep an eye on her and make sure she behaves herself.”

            “But what if that’s not enough?  I don’t want to have Phanuel smiting Iria in the middle of the wedding.  It’s not fair to put Tolly in that position.”

            “Well,” said Kyle thoughtfully,  “if things get to that point, then we may have to face some hard choices.  I’m not going to let Iria get hurt, but I’m not going to hurt Phanuel either.”

            “Can we bind Phanuel somehow to keep him from doing anything?” Lanara asked.

            “No one is binding my father to do anything,” Autumn said.

            “And doing that would tip him off that something’s up,” Maddie added.

            “I suggest that the blocks be set,” Aran said, “and if we can remove them early, so be it.  It will be easier for me to contact her than it is for me to gather all of you together.”

            “Why don’t we bring Tolly and Iria back from the library,” Autumn said.  “I think we’re done discussing anything ‘secret’.”

            “I will bring them back,” Aran said. He didn’t move, but concentrated for a moment.  As they waited, Kyle suddenly slapped his forehead.

            “I’m an idiot,” he said.

            “What is it?” Autumn asked.

            Kyle looked around at the others.  “_We_ are under compulsion not to reveal what we learned at the Library to Tolly.”  Kyle pointed at Aran.  “_He_ isn’t.”

            Aran smiled.  “Would you like me to fill him in?”

            “That would be lovely,” Lanara said.

            Tolly and Iria came into the room, led by… Aran.  Tolly looked and saw Aran standing in the middle of the room, and at Aran standing next to him, and shook his head.

            “I’ll never get used to that.”

            “Tolly,” said the Aran in the room, “with your permission, I’d like to take Iria and place the blocks we discussed.”

            Though he looked unhappy about it, Tolly let go of Iria’s hand and allowed the other Aran to lead her away down another passage.

            “There are things I also need to discuss with you, Tolly,” Aran said, “Though you can remain here this time.”

            Tolly found a seat and looked up at Aran, who took a chair next to the priest.

            “How inclined you are to trust me is going to affect how likely you are to believe what I’m going to tell you.  Your companions are unable to share certain information with you because of a magical compulsion that is woven into their souls by Erito.  Because I have lived through the events, however, I can share them.”

            Tolly nodded.  “I have heard of Ardara placing similar compulsions in the past,” he said.  “I assume that once I know what you’re about to impart, then they will be free to discuss it with me?”

            When Aran indicated this was true, Tolly nodded.  “Then I can certainly allow you to impart what knowledge you feel is appropriate.”

            “Very well.  First, you should know that your companions in the Legacy have been to Erito’s Library.  This is where they gained the knowledge, and where the compulsion was laid.”

            “Erito has a Library?” Tolly asked.  Aran nodded.

            “They have learned much which is not known to people today.  For example, you probably did not know that Erito once had a Consort.”

            “A what?”

            “A Consort.  A husband.  A male counterpart.”

            Tolly shook his head.  “No.  There is only Erito.  It’s the One, not the Two.  You’re mistaken.”

            The rest of the party began to roll their eyes and grumble, but Aran held up a hand.  “This is not unexpected, and it’s not Tolly’s noted adherence to his principles at work.  Tolly’s mind is resisting the assimilation of knowledge about the Consort.”  Aran returned his attention to Tolly.  “I was hoping that being here would shelter you from that.  I’ll have to impart the knowledge in a different way.”

            Aran looked intently at Tolly, and Tolly felt the psion connect with his mind.  Suddenly, there was a rush of images and mental constructs in his brain.  Within the space of a few seconds, Aran imparted it all; the Consort, Silko, the Cataclysm.  Tolly noted that the presentation of the information was… odd, and it took him a moment to realize that they were all coming from Aran’s point of view.  The Dreamlord wasn’t simply relaying information, he was sharing memories.  Reflecting on this, Tolly realized that among the memories were vivid impressions of what it felt like to be a psionic being, and to manifest powers.  Curiously, Tolly found it to feel very similar to when he called on Ardara’s power, but in this case reaching inward.

            “That was… interesting.”

            “So,” Aran said, “about the Consort…”
            “Yes, the Consort,” Tolly nodded.  Everyone else sighed in relief.  “Well, you were correct in assuming that I didn’t know that before.”

            “The Consort was the god of my people,” Aran explained.  “When he was destroyed, the only deity who accepted our kind into his realm vanished.  In fact, the very capability of the gods to do so was destroyed.”

            “So, that’s why Ardara argues that she can’t take them,” Tolly said.  “This will change the tone of the discussions.”

            “Indeed.  It’s not that the gods don’t wish to accept us – though some of them don’t.  It’s that a basic law of the universe has been altered.”

            Listening to the exchange, Kyle sat silently, but his mind reeled.  The gods _couldn’t _take psions into the afterlife?  That was very different from how it had been told in the Library; there they’d been told that the gods simply refused to accept them, out of what Kyle had assumed was some juvenile sense of paranoid fear.  But to hear that some of the gods were willing, but simply didn’t have the option… that changed everything.

            “I should let you know, Tolly,” Aran was saying, “that although you’re able to keep track of my memories while you’re here, once you wake up, they’re going to get a bit… jumbled.  It may take a few days for you to sort them out again.  There are about two millennia worth of memories in there.”  Aran stood up again.  “But I believe that both Ariadne and Kyle wished to speak with me.  I’m almost finished with Iria; as soon as I’m done, I’ll bring her back to Tolly, and then I’ll speak to each of you privately.  Oh, and Tolly?  Some day soon I’ll send someone to train Iria.”

            A minute or so later, the second Aran brought Iria back to the sitting room.  She looked unhappy, but none the worse for wear.  She immediately jumped into Tolly’s lap.

            “Iria,” Aran said, “I know you don’t like what I did very much.  But the big green man that you’ve seen around Autumn’s house might try to hurt you if you try and look in his head.  This will keep you from doing that.”

            “But why would he want to hurt me?” Iria asked.

            “Because he doesn’t understand some things,” Aran said.  “Like the people who were chasing you when you met Tolly.”

            “Oh.  But, if the green man tried to hurt me, Tolly would hurt him, right?” Iria’s face brightened for a moment, then she frowned.  “But then he might hurt Tolly back.”  She thought for a while.  “Okay, then, I won’t look into his head, then.”

            “That’s good, Iria.”  Aran smiled.  He turned and walked with Arrie into another room, while the second Aran took Kyle off into another room.  “We shouldn’t be long,” the second Aran said.  “Feel free to discuss whatever you’d like, have something to eat, or look around – but don’t try to leave the castle, or enter any rooms with doors.”

            “I feel funny,” Iria complained, after Aran left.

            “I know, Iria,” Tolly said, stroking her hair.  “I hope you won’t have to feel that way very long.”

            “Is this how you feel all the time, Tolly?” she asked.

            “I suppose it is, child.”

            Iria looked sadly at Tolly.  “I’m sorry.”

*          *            *​
            Autumn walked down the hallway, peeking through archways.  She came across one archway with a door set in it, and though tempted to peek inside, she remembered Aran’s warning and refrained.  Finally, however, she heard voices coming from a room toward the end of the hallway, and walked toward it.

            Kyle and Aran were standing in a fairly barren room, studying a large diagram etched into the wall.  To Autumn, it looked like a bunch of random lines and shapes, with several lines written in a language she didn’t recognize.  Aran was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

            “I suppose it’s possible,” he was saying, “but current arcane theory as I understand it doesn’t support what you’re talking about.”

            “But I would think that Torvald’s Theorem of Reciprocity would apply here,” Kyle argued, pointing at one of the squiggles on the wall.

            “Torvald’s Theorem isn’t meant for situations like these,” Aran said.

            “That’s only because no one’s ever tried to apply it in this situation.  Like you said, it’s unexplored territory, magically speaking.”

            It was a bit disconcerting for Autumn to listen to Kyle sounding so… intellectual.  But then, remembering her purpose, she stepped forward into the room.

            Both Kyle and Aran turned at her approach, looking startled.  This in itself was surprising to Autumn; she wouldn’t have expected Aran to be surprised, especially in his own home.  He must have been quite involved in the conversation.

            “What is it?” Kyle asked.

            “You’ve been gone a while, Kyle,” Autumn said.  “And you do have plans tomorrow.”

            “It hasn’t been that long,” Kyle said.  “Besides, Arrie’s not back yet either.”

            “Actually, she is,” Autumn retorted.  “For about an hour now.”

            “Really?” Aran said, perplexed.  “I’m sure I…” he paused for a moment.  “Oh, I see.  It has been rather a long time, hasn’t it?”

            “Just a few more minutes, Autumn, I promise,” Kyle said.  “I just have…”

            “No, Kyle.  We have a wedding to go to tomorrow afternoon.  Perhaps you remember it?  It’s ours.”

            “But,” he protested, “if we’re all still here, it means it’s not time to wake up yet, right?”

            Autumn looked squarely at Kyle.  “I’m not going to have you going through the whole day exhausted because you were up discussing… whatever you were talking about.  Come on, it’s time to go.”  She turned to Aran.  “Aran, thank you for the information, and your hospitality, but we need to be getting back now.”

            “Of course, Duchess,” Aran said, bowing.  “Until we meet again.”

            Autumn grabbed on to Kyle’s arm, and began pulling him out of the room.  “Come on, Kyle.  It’s time to go.”

            “But… but… we haven’t even discussed the applications of Magrathea’s three Laws of Metaphysical Reconstruction yet!” he moped, as they walked out into the hallway.

            After they left, Tek walked into the room.  _Is everything all right, master?  I heard voices raised.
_
_Just fine, Tek.  The arcanist wasn’t quite ready to end the discussion we were having, but he has other pressing business in the waking world. That’s all._

            Tek’s antennae twitched.  _What were you discussing with him, master?_

            Aran frowned.  _Something… rather dangerous, I’m afraid.  Exciting, but dangerous._


----------



## mother1219

I just wanted to say that I recently found and have now completely read this SH. It is fantastic. It has some of the best character detail and interaction of any story I've read. The depth of the Kyle and Tolly characters in particular is impressive. Well done. Please keep going on this one. It's one of the best on this site.


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## Delemental

mother1219 said:
			
		

> I just wanted to say that I recently found and have now completely read this SH. It is fantastic. It has some of the best character detail and interaction of any story I've read. The depth of the Kyle and Tolly characters in particular is impressive. Well done. Please keep going on this one. It's one of the best on this site.




Thank you.  I do appreciate the praise, and knowing that others are finding this worth reading.  And don't worry, the game's still going, so there will be plenty of updates, though I will likely have to slow down from my current accelerated update schedule soon.

I also see your comments as a challenge, however.  It's fairly easy for me to add detail and depth to Kyle, because he's my character, thus I have full and immediate access to his inner being. In fact, one of my constant struggles in writing this SH is to not overdo it, and make this seem like the "Kyle and Those People He Hangs Out With Story Hour" (a bit harder to do recently, since the current storylines revolve around Kyle and Autumn, so by necessity they get more attention).

Tolly is the character of my good friend, and we discuss him a lot, so I also have a pretty good grasp on him.  But as much as I'm able to do it, I want all the characters to come alive.  It's harder with some than others - Xu and Madrone are both played by more casual gamers, so there's a bit less raw material to work with, and Razael was intentionally sort of two-dimensional.  But I hope that they come across as real, because they are all played as very dynamic characters.


----------



## Ed Gentry

Originally posted by Delemental:


> also see your comments as a challenge, however.




(I'm the poster previosuly known as Mother1219, I just made a new login)

I hope I did not offend. When I spoke of character interaction, I really was alluding to all of the characters. When I started the SH I was certain I wouldn't get far in it because I was convinced it was trying to follow too many characters. I am pleased to have been mistaken. All the characters are more than engaging enough to follow and be interested in. 

Besides, challenges are good things, right?   

It's a great read. Thanks again for writing it up for us to enjoy.


----------



## Delemental

*The Wedding*

So, filled with glee at discovering a new reader, I bring you an update.  Although I feel like I've overwhelmed you recently with extra-long posts (especially the fiction pieces that came after "Price of Victory"), this one really works best as a whole, and it's not that long.

-------------------------------------------

            The footsteps of the two men echoed off the stone walls of the enormous hallway, making it sound like the approach of a squadron of men.  Each of them carried a large golden urn in their arms, their muscles straining with their weight.

            The two men walked up to a large iron-shod door, which was opened by one of two guards standing outside.  The two walked straight to the middle of the room, where a large golden basin sat waist-high on a marble pedestal.  Two other figures stood near the basin, waiting.

            Slowly, one of the two men with the urns approached, and bowed his head to the two already at the basin.  After a slight answering nod from the taller of the figures, the man upended the urn slowly into the basin.  A thick, silvery liquid splashed into the basin.

            “Carefully,” the shorter figure said.  “We mustn’t waste any.”

            As the last drops ran into the basin, the servant withdrew, and his companion took his place, repeating the same procedure.  When he finished, the silvery liquid came right up to the rim of the basin.  After a wave of dismissal from the taller figure, the two servants left, and the guards outside pulled the doors closed.  The short man walked over and barred the door from the inside.

            “Are you ready?” the shorter man asked, looking up at his companion.

            “I am.  Thank you for assisting me in this.  I expect it will take several hours.”

            “I am here to serve, as always.  But I am curious…”

            “Speak.”

            “It’s more a curiosity than a concern, as I said,” the shorter man said.  “Why do this now, on this day?  Surely observing them at a time when we might study their tactics, their resourcefulness…”

            The tall man smiled, showing the barest hint of white teeth through thin lips.  “There will be plenty of time for that.  It’s moments like these that are much more rare for those of their profession.  You can learn as much about a person by watching their actions in times of peace as you can in times of war.”

            “Very wise,” the shorter man said, nodding in approval.

            “I had a wise teacher,” the other replied.  Then, turning his attention back to the basin, he waved his hand over the smooth silvery surface and concentrated.  Ripples appeared in the quicksilver, spreading out in concentric rings as if a pebble had been dropped in the center.  Despite the disturbance, however, none of the liquid spilled from the basin.  The ripples increased in frequency and intensity, and slowly the silver was replaced by color and motion, and sounds began to echo in the small stone room as the scene unfolded before the two men.*

*          *          *​
            Spots swam before Xu’s eyes as the maids behind her yanked on the strings of her corset, cinching it tightly across her torso.  The monk gripped the bedpost she was leaning against for support as the servants tied off the corset.

            Xu looked around the room.  Autumn, Arrie, Maddie, and Lanara were there, arranged all around the room, along with a bevy of female servants.  The five adventuring women were arrayed in corsets and frilly undergarments, awaiting the arrival of their dresses.  None of them looked very comfortable.

            “I cannot see how you can stand this,” Xu complained to Autumn, who was sitting in an upholstered chair by the window.  “I can barely breathe.”

            Autumn smiled.  “I guess I’ve just become used to it by now,” she said.  She withheld the real reason for her lack of discomfort.  That morning, when she’d awoken, there had been a silk-wrapped package on the bed next to her where Kyle usually slept.  Inside had been a new corset, along with a note from Kyle – _Try it on before you think bad things about me_.  Autumn had discovered to her delight that Kyle must have magically altered the garment, because when she did don it, it seemed that no matter how hard her valet had pulled, it didn’t feel at all constraining or painful, even though she could see it was performing its function.

            “That is well for you,” Xu said, “but if there is trouble at the ceremony, this garment will render me nearly incapable of fighting.”

            Arrie and Autumn looked at each other.  “Should we let her in on the secret?” Arrie asked, winking.

            “I think so,” Autumn said.  She looked over at her valet.  “Please give us a few minutes alone, Aleria.  You may return when the seamstresses bring the dresses up.”

            “Of course, Your Grace,” Aleria said, bowing.  She ushered the other handmaids out of the room, shutting the door behind her.  As soon as the servants were gone, Arrie walked over to Xu, turned her around, and untied the corset.  Giving the monk a few moments to gasp for air, she then retied the corset so it was much less constraining.

            “This is how you get through a day wearing a corset,” Arrie said.

            The women spent a few minutes adjusting each other’s corsets, except for Autumn, who politely declined.  Then they sat down and nibbled at plates of sweet breads while waiting for the seamstresses.

            “So,” Maddie said, “do you think Kyle’s gone insane yet with having all those servants getting him ready for the wedding?”

            “Well, I haven’t heard any explosions in the manor,” Autumn said, “so I guess he’s holding up.”

            Lanara chortled at the thought of Kyle chasing away servants, flailing a wand at them.  “I hope Tolly has those _dispels _ready like he talked about.  By the time Kyle gets to the reception he might snap and try to _disintegrate _the ambassador from Targeth and start a war.”

            Autumn suddenly became very quiet, nibbling at a honey bun.

            “Hey, I was kidding,” Lanara said.  “I’m sure it’ll be nothing more than a minor border skirmish.”

            “Oh, I know,” Autumn said.  “I was just feeling a little sorry for Kyle for a moment.  He’s going to spend the whole reception feeling out of place.”

            “Well, he’s got his family here,” Arrie pointed out, “and Osborn’s family too.  And really, if he puts his mind to it he does fine.  I’m sure he’s handling the whole thing better than we think.”

            On the other side of the manor, a loud groan emanated from one of the guest rooms.

            “I can’t believe I’m going to be a Duke,” Kyle said, staring up at the ceiling.  He was in the room he’d appropriated to sleep in the night before the wedding, in order to respect the Bailite custom that the groom not see each the bride in her wedding garb before the ceremony.  Tolly and Osborn were in the room with him.  The hin was sitting on the floor, playing with a small puppy.  The puppy, which had been sired by Osborn’s dog Rupert, had been given to Kyle and Autumn as a wedding gift.

            Tolly looked up from where he was sitting, going over Kyle’s formal robes looking for loose threads.  “Well, actually, you’re going to be a Duke-Consort.  It’s not quite the same thing.”

            Osborn looked puzzled.  “I thought you got over this whole being uncomfortable with nobility thing,” he said, fending off a licking attack from the puppy.

            “Dealing with them, yes.  Being one, no.  I mean, my brother and sister are going to be sitting across the aisle from Prince Herion and the Serenity of Erito!  I mean, what are they supposed to say to each other at the reception?  ‘Hi there, I’m the Imperial Prince.  I noticed that the buttons on my tunic cost more than you made on your farm last year’.”

            “Uh huh,” said Osborn, “because Herion’s just the kind of oaf who would rub your family’s faces in his prosperity at your wedding.”

            “Hey, it’s my wedding,” Kyle said.  “I’m allowed occasional lapses of blind, unreasoning panic.  You try getting married and see what kind of thoughts run through your head.”

            “Get married?” Osborn scoffed.  “No thanks!  I’d have to disappoint too many of your chambermaids if I did that!”

            “Though I’m not as opposed to the idea of matrimony as Osborn,” Tolly said, “unfortunately my best prospect in recent memory was stolen out from under my nose by an upstart wizard who was toying with forbidden powers.”

            Kyle smiled.  There was no malice in Tolly’s comment; they’d resolved those issues a few weeks ago.  “Okay, fine, I know I’m overreacting.  I’m just off-balance right now.  I’m not used to having other people shave me, cut my hair, and trim my nails.”

            “You should just be glad the Royal Wiper was sick this morning,” Osborn joked.

            “That’s disgusting,” Kyle said, laughing.  He sat up on the bed.  “All right, then, panic over.  What’s next?”

            “Now, you put this on,” Tolly said, tossing him the robe, “and we call the servants back in and they spend another hour or so in a desperate but ultimately futile effort to make you look presentable.  Then we go stand in a field for a couple of hours, surrounded by the best and brightest souls on the face of Affon – as well as all the gathered nobles and ambassadors – so we can listen to you and Autumn say what we already know; that you love each other and will be together for the rest of your lives.”

            Kyle grinned.  “Sounds good to me.”

*          *          *​
_From the Imperial Archives in Noxolt, as dutifully committed to memory-crystal by Loremaster Wexlen, archived under ‘Notable Social/Political Events in Reign of Emperor Haxtha, Years 1-50’:_

            The ceremony marking the marriage of Autumn Verahannen – Duchess of Vargex, Lady Mayor of Vargas; bearer of the title of Vigilant in the Order of Sentinels – to Kyle Goodson, wizard from Targeth, took place on the tenth day of Lutros in the third year of Emperor Haxtha’s reign.  The ceremony began at the second bell past midday, and was held in the open country just outside the city of Vargas.  It was a traditional Bailite wedding ceremony, officiated by the ranking cleric of Bail in the duchy of Vargex, High Priest Brom Unthwe.

Serving as maid of honor was Princess Ariadne Verahannen, wife to Imperial Prince Herion and ward-sister to Duchess Autumn.  Also in attendance to the bride were Lanara Rahila, whose skills as a bard have already been noted by the Imperial Court; Madrone, a Favored of Erito; and Xu Dhii Ngao, of the Xhintai Empire. Phanuel, planetar in the service of Krûsh, escorted the bride to the altar as proxy to Zanich Verahannen, the bride’s ward-father.

Serving as best man was Osborn Greenbottle, hin from the Khag Steppes and member of the performing troupe known as the Amazing Traveling Circus.  Also in attendance to the groom were Tolly Nightsleaving, Inquisitor Primus of Ardara; Bryant Goodson, brother of the groom; and Togusa, also of the Xhintai Empire.  Pella Stovich, sister of the groom, escorted the groom to the altar as proxy to Anjele Goodson, the groom’s mother.

            A number of dignitaries were in attendance as well; their presence is noted so that the scope of this event may be properly reflected.  Representing the Imperial Family was Imperial Prince Herion, who was accompanied by Imperial Princess Aralda, as his spouse was serving as maid of honor.  Also in attendance as representatives of the Empire were Vernys, Grand Duke of Mypos; Tanach, King of Erumian; Sorene, Princess of Telluria; and Damen and Lysanne Coviere, King and Queen of Merlion.  Representing the vassal lords of the Duchy of Vargex were Baron Guilford, Baron Per'ani, Baroness Estia, Count Carfex Alexos, Count Achall, Countess Nalad, Count At-kal, and Count Helaku.  Representing the Verahannen family was Aiden Verahannen, ward-brother to Autumn and current lord of the Verahannen estate; and Auror Verahannen, ward-mother to Autumn and widow of Zanich Verahannen.

Representing the spiritual community, aside from the aforementioned Bailite High Priest Unthwe and the Ardaran Inquisitor Primus Nightsleaving, were the Serenity of Erito; Tolarray, a Marshall of Tor who has recently been appointed the Marshall of Vargas; and Erkonne, the High Mother of Bles in Vargex.

            A number of foreign ambassadors were also in attendance.  From the Empire of Targeth came Ambassador Dohne, an instructor of conjuration at The Tower in Trageon.  From the Peca Provinces came Ambassador Nissa, and the Dwarven Confederates sent Ambassador Kektor on their behalf.  The Theocracy of Medos was represented by Ambassador Ohn, Exalted of Paccë, while the Kingdoms of the Red Archipelago were represented by Prince Mu’ara, son of King Bali.  The Xhintai Empire, though they did not send an official ambassador, was nonetheless represented in the person of Lord Hungai…

*          *          *​
            As soon as they saw him approaching, everyone in the Legacy stiffened.

            “What is he doing here?” Autumn hissed to Kyle.  They’d been standing for several hours after the ceremony, officially greeting their guests and receiving their well wishes.  The ordeal had been dull, but necessary, and there were occasional highlights.  Like when the Princess of Telluria, a wizened old gnomish woman, had grasped Kyle firmly by the buttocks and then proclaimed loudly that he’d be a good husband because he was obviously ‘a man who doesn’t sit on his duff all day’.  Autumn’s mirth had changed to shock when she received a similar groping from the old gnome, who had then announced that she’d make a good wife because she had ‘good birthing hips’.

            Kyle was about to shrug his ignorance, when the herald made the next announcement.

            “Representing the Eternal Empire of Xhintai, Lord Hungai!”

            It was difficult for the party to remain composed.  They were all assembled on the wooden platform that had been set up for them to stand on as they received their guests at the celebration after the wedding.  Only Maddie was absent; when the Serenity had come through to offer congratulations and some advice, she had requested to speak to Madrone and Razael privately.  The three of them were still talking on the other side of the pavilion tents.  Xu immediately stepped to the back of the group, trying to stay out of sight; Arrie immediately stepped in front of her to help hide her.

            Kyle leaned over to Autumn.  “Be polite,” he whispered.  “Personal problems aside, you can’t attack a foreign ambassador in front of every other noble and dignitary in Affon.”

            “Since when do you give advice on diplomacy?” she whispered back, but she knew he was right.  Glancing around, she saw that the rest of the party was straining to remain composed.  As Hungai approached, Autumn plastered her best gracious smile on her face.  It was an expression she’d mastered in the past several months dealing with the politics of Vargas.

            Hungai walked up the short steps to the platform, the wooden stairs creaking under the weight of the massive warlord.  He was accompanied by a young elf-touched woman, obviously an escort of some sort as she had not been announced by the herald.  The woman’s features seemed familiar to the party, but difficult to place; only Osborn was able to place the face, and his eyes grew huge with the realization, though he didn’t have time to share his insight with the others.

            The Xhintai warlord and his escort stopped in front of Autumn and Kyle at a respectful distance, and bowed.  “My congratulations to both of you,” Hungai said.  “May you have as much success in your marriage as I have in mine.”  Hungai’s eyes flicked up to take in Xu’s pale face, and then without further delay he left the platform and made his way to where the other guests were mingling.

            Tolly leaned over to Kyle.  “Why would he say that?”

            “He’s referring to his ‘marriage’ to Xu,” Kyle said.

            “Ah.”

            Osborn’s gaze followed Hungai’s escort as she walked next to the warlord.

            “I think our hin friend knows something,” Lanara said, “and he’d better spill it before his eyes pop out of his head.”

            “That woman,” he said, “it’s Marrek.”

            Everyone stared at Osborn, and then turned to stare at the elf-touched woman on Hungai’s arm.

            “I’m really glad,” Kyle said at last, “that Maddie wasn’t here to find that out.”

*          *          *​
_Overheard at the Midsummer Ball in Vargas, from Verda Mohere, the wife of Tazlin Mohere, Master of the Guild of Magic:_


            “Well, of _course _we were there for the wedding!  It was only the social event of the year, you know.  And of course they simply _had _to invite my dear Tazzie and I, seeing at his guild was _so _vital in the security for the event.  He was the one who came up with the idea of having those extra-dimensional holes over the heads of the audience as hiding places should something go wrong, you know!

            “What’s that, dear?  Oh, you’d heard that it was the Duke-Consort’s idea?  Well, dear, I’m never one to gossip, you know, but I’ve met the man, and I can tell you he’s _not _our sort of people, you know?  I’d hardly expect something so ingenious from _him_.  I mean, Duchess Autumn’s a dear woman, believe me, but if you ask me she’s simply gone too far in living out her adolescent ‘burly stable-hand’ fantasies in marrying him.  I mean, other that a few minutes he spent talking with Prince Herion, I think that Duke-Consort Kyle spent the evening hanging about with his sharecropping relatives and those… circus hin.  Passed up a perfectly good opportunity to better himself by conversing with some people of quality such as you or I.  Why, I could almost swear he was deliberately avoiding me at the celebration!

            “But goodness!  There I go, off the subject again!  Anyway, we were mingling in the crowd; after all, it’s not every day we get to spend time with the Serenity of Erito or with Prince Herion.  Let me tell you, it was _quite _the evening.  I’d never known until that night how much both Princess Ariadne and Princess Aralda enjoy their spirits, if you take my meaning.  I’m sure they’ll make _quite _the pair once Princess Ariadne decides to settle down and head back to Noxolt with her husband like she should.  Honestly, why Herion tolerates such willfulness… it’s beyond me.  And I noticed that the Duchess was spending _quite _a bit of time talking to Prince Mu’ara from the Archipelago.    Oh, I know what you’re going to say – two holy warriors, why wouldn’t they have something in common… well, be that as it may, I’m sure that our Duchess is well aware of the, well, let’s say _casual _attitude toward fidelity in the island kingdom.  After all, her sister Princess Ariadne was there herself not too long ago.  I won’t say any more, but I wouldn’t be _terribly _surprised if we see the Duchess make a sudden ‘diplomatic’ trip up to the Archipelago, perhaps without a certain Duke-Consort?

            “Oh, we really _must _stop this wicked talk, you know.  After all, the Duchess and Duke-Consort weren’t the only ones acting scandalously.  That Ardaran priest that was there, the Inquisitor Primus?  Well, he apparently had some words for the Xhintai ambassador and his escort for the evening.  He and that bard with the pink hair – you know, the one that Princess Aralda dotes on so?  Well, _apparently _they took offense at something the ambassador said to the bride and groom, and without even a _hint _of decorum they challenged him about it right in the middle of the reception!  At least they had the decency to keep their voices down.  I wasn’t close enough to hear it all – it was some sort of dispute over someone in the Duchesses’ adventuring group, that the ambassador apparently knows; something to do with her citizenship, or her marital status.  But what really caught my attention was when the Inquisitor Primus referred to the ambassador’s escort as an _animal_!  To her face!  I mean, I have no idea who she was – some lovely young elf-touched I’ve never seen before – but the audacity!  At least the ambassador and his escort had the class to keep their composure, although from the size of the Xhintai ambassador, I’d say that Ardaran would have been in a tough spot if things had gotten violent.  Fortunately, he and the bard walked away from the whole thing.  The last I saw of them, the Ardaran was chasing guests out of the bushes, and the bard was going home with Prince Mu’ara – I suppose she was trading up from that Imperial Huntsman she’s been sleeping with.

            “Well, despite the scandal, it really was a _lovely _event.  But let me tell you, when it came time for the speeches and gifts…”

*          *          *​
            Lanara stood and tapped on a glass with a fork to get the crowd’s attention, but the conversations going on under the wide pavilion tent were too noisy.  Lanara frowned, then summoned up a little bardic magic.  This time, when she hit the glass, the crystalline sound rang much louder, catching everyone’s attention.

            “It’s time for those of us who know the new couple best with their gifts and words of wisdom.  Or, as close to wisdom as some of us can manage after a few glasses of Baron Guilford’s best.”  There were a few laughs and many shouts of approval as Lanara tipped her own glass to the baron.

            “But first,” Lanara said, holding the glass high now, “a toast, to Kyle and Autumn Goodson, the happy couple.  May the Ten Paragons watch over you both.”

            There was the briefest of pauses before the audience cheered and raised their glasses.  After all, the cansin had gotten the traditional opening toast wrong; she was supposed to say ‘may the Eleven Paragons watch over you’.  For the most part, however, the audience simply assumed she had misspoke.  Lanara, and her fellows in the Legacy, knew better.  Ever since they’d learned the truth about the eleventh ‘Paragon’, Silko, they’d had a bit more trouble invoking his name for good fortune.

            Lanara turned to Autumn and Kyle.  “I’m getting my gift out of the way first,” she said.  She handed them a small bundle wrapped in colored paper.  Opening it, they saw it was a leatherbound book.

            “It’s a collection of poems I’ve written about our travels and adventures,” Lanara said.  “To remind you of how you came to be where you are today, and to inspire you wherever you end up tomorrow.”

            “Thank you, Lanara,” Kyle said.

            “Yes, thank you,” Autumn repeated.

            Osborn was the next to rise, though in order to be seen and heard over the crowd he had to sit on his mother’s shoulders.  “A few years ago,” he began, “we all got together as a group. Or, to be more accurate, a man named Shilsen Brandovich put us all in the same class, and we kind of stuck together.  Well, except for that druid fellow, but that’s another story.  After many adventures, these two young folk here found they liked each other’s company maybe just a little bit more than the others.  They had their ups and downs, of course, and for a while it looked like maybe things wouldn’t work out between them.  But there’s something about a crazed, foaming Ravager with a greataxe that tends to give one perspective on a few things, I guess.  Now, they’ve made it official, and thrown a great party to boot. So, here’s to you, Kyle and Autumn, and as my grandpa used to say, ‘May there be a road’.”

            There were cheers and more drinks.  Then, getting off his mother’s shoulders, Osborn walked up and presented Autumn with a long, narrow box.

            “I had to give Kyle his gift earlier today,” Osborn explained.  “It was a puppy, sired by my own dog Rupert.  I’m afraid he wouldn’t have lasted in a box all night.”  When the titters of laughter died down, Osborn opened the box.  Inside was an ornate mithral dagger, stamped with the symbol of Bail.  “It’s been blessed by High Priest Unthwe,” he said.  “I know it’s not quite the same as the one that was stolen from you,” Osborn flicked an accusatory gaze at Marrek, whose expression didn’t change, “but I hope you like it.”

            Autumn bent down and hugged Osborn, and gave the hin a kiss on the cheek.  After he sat down, Arrie got to her feet.

            “For centuries, House Verahannen have been the guardians of the throne and people of Merlion through skill at arms and diplomacy. As a child, Autumn came to live with us and was adopted into our home. She has excelled in all the qualities that make the house great. She is more than any parent could hope for in a child, perfect and humble. She is more than any sibling could hope for, accepting of any fault and capable of counterfeiting faults to keep Aiden and I from looking too flawed in comparison. What more could one hope for in a sister or friend?”

Arrie gave her sister a graceful bow.  “And so, what is my wish for Autumn? Happiness, prosperity and love. These are the things that I desire for the woman who means so much to me. This is why I am full of joy today. Autumn has found a companion in Kyle who compliments her strengths and excels in those qualities and tasks where she is less than her usual, spectacular self. I wish you both almost everything you desire from life. If you got everything then things would get boring and we all know I’m the last person to endorse a boring existence.”

            As the applause died down, Arrie gave a small ring box to Kyle, and a larger box to Autumn.  “The meaning behind these gifts will be obvious to Kyle and Autumn,” she said, “so I won’t bore everyone else with the details.  But in addition to this, I’ve been in touch with Count Helaku, and in your stables you will find two new horses, the finest in his herd.  I hope they’ll remind you of the importance of getting away from it all from time to time.”

            Arrie exchanged hugs with both Autumn and Kyle, whispering something in Kyle’s ear before sitting down which made him smile.  Then Bryant, Kyle’s brother, rose.

            “Pa couldn’t be here, and all,” Bryant said, “so I guess I’ll have to say a few words on his behalf.  I suppose he’d say something along the lines of, oh… these two are a good couple, and, well, may they…” he paused, searching for the right words.

            “Plow many furrows?” Lanara suggested loudly.  There were a few laughs, and Autumn looked slightly shocked.  Bryant, however, grinned.

            “That’s better’n what I was thinking of.  Nastier, but better.  I’ll go with what she said.  May you plow the furrow, and get a good crop.”

            There were several loud hoots and laughter, and Autumn turned beet red.

            Autumn’s father, Phanuel, was next to rise, and he kept rising.  Dropping his _polymorph_, he resumed his natural form, which caused the audience to grow very quiet.

            “This is my daughter, with whom I am well pleased.  And this is now my son, with whom I am also well pleased.  My benevolence is upon them, as will be my watchful eye.  From when the sun rises to when it sets, and when it rises again, until the stars fade from the sky, this long will I watch over them.”

            As Phanuel sat down, resuming his human form, the audience sat, stunned into silence, until someone start a loud, slow clapping.  Everyone looked up to see Tolly, standing near the front, clapping loudly until everyone broke out of their awestruck state to join in.  In the rear of the area, Ambassador Dohne from Targeth grumbled and barely acknowledged the speech; since he was a tiefling, this was hardly a surprise.

            Maddie was the next to stand.  “I’m afraid that I have been forced to bring a note of melancholy to this day of joy.  I have been asked by the Serenity to continue Erito’s work in Medos, and thus I will soon have to say goodbye to my dear friends among the Legacy.  Because of this, I will keep my gift to you private for now, and give it to you at a more appropriate time.  For now, I would extend to you Erito’s blessings of a long life together.  I will rest easier knowing that you, and the rest of the Legacy, will carry on to do what needs to be done.” As Osborn had before, Maddie flicked the briefest glance at Marrek, making it clear what ‘needed to be done’.  This time, Marrek smiled sweetly at the look.

            Xu was the next to rise.  “In my homeland, there is a saying,” she began.  “It is, ‘Love cannot be written; it must be sung’.  This is meant to remind us that true affection, true companionship, cannot be forced by custom or law or tradition,” Xu’s gaze also flickered to the audience, though this time it fell on Marrek’s ‘date’, Warlord Hungai.  “In the two of you, I see a song that the angels will sing when they are asked what love is.”  Xu stood silently while the audience applauded her words; Hungai did not clap.  “As for a gift, I fear that in the Xhintai Empire our customs are different, and I was not prepared as are my friends with an offering to present.  My apologies to you both.”

            “No need, Xu,” Autumn said.  “your words were gift enough for us.”

            Xu leaned over to Autumn before sitting down.  “To tell the truth, I did purchase a garment for you to wear this evening.  However, I did not wish to present it to you here; it leaves little to the imagination.”

            Autumn’s eyes widened a little.  “Xu?”

            She smiled.  “I am a monk, Autumn, but I am still a woman.  There is no harm in wearing something that will stir your husband’s blood on occasion.”

            Lanara leaned in as well.  “I’ve seen what she got, Autumn,” the bard said.  “It’s going to stir more than Kyle’s blood, I promise you.”

            “Is it that bad?” Autumn asked, getting a little flustered.

            “Let me put it this way,” Lanara said, “if I saw you wearing this thing, _I’d _probably sleep with you.”

            Tolly was the last to rise.  “Forgive me if I’m both brief and direct,” he said, “but those who know me know to expect this.  I was honored and gladdened when I received the invitation to the wedding of two of my dearest friends, who I can honestly say were meant to be together.  For their love to have blossomed out of the adversity we have faced, there could be no other explanation.

            “I hope that Kyle and Autumn will forgive me, for I have no gift to give either.  I think they understand that circumstances recently have left me little time to contemplate such things.  But I do have something to offer; not only to Kyle and Autumn, but to the Legacy as a whole.  When we parted company, there were many things I needed to discover about myself, and about the world we live in.  Among those was the fact that when it came to how others see the world, ‘different’ is not always ‘wrong’.  It can be a difficult lesson for an Ardaran to learn… for anyone to learn.  It’s a lesson I am only beginning to understand.  In doing so, I have discovered that rather than striving to be right, it’s better to strive instead to make a difference.  I believe that the Legacy is doing just this.  If they would accept me, I would be honored to count myself among them again.”

            There was a long silence throughout the audience.  Then, slowly, Kyle stood up, and walked over to Tolly.  They stood facing each other for a few moments, and then Kyle put his hands on Tolly’s shoulders.

            “Tolly,” he said, smiling, “you never left us.”

            As Kyle and Tolly embraced, the audience erupted into the loudest cheers of the night.**

*          *          *​
            The two men continued to watch scenes unfold before them in the golden basin.  Both seemed alert, despite the fact that several hours had gone by.  The scenes in the basin flicked back and forth between numerous people, many of whom seemed to be dancing.

            “Who is Princess Aralda dancing with?” the short man asked.

            The tall man smiled.  “Prince Mu’ara of the Red Archipelago.  Prince Herion must be having fits.”

            “Do you think that they will…”

            “No.  Mu’ara will spend the night with the bard, Lanara.  Aralda will pass out in about an hour and be taken discreetly back to her chambers in the ducal manor.”  The tall man scanned the shifting scenes again.  “Wait,” he said, “I wish to hear that conversation.”

            The silvery liquid in the bowl rippled, and showed Autumn and Tolly dancing together.  Tolly was looking slightly nervous.

            “So, Tolly,” Autumn was saying, “we have to have a conversation.”

            “About what?”

            “About that dance you taught me in the desert,” Autumn said.

            “What would you want to discuss?” Tolly asked.

            “Do you remember what you told me that dance was?” she asked.

            “Can I lie and say no?”

            Just then, Kyle and Arrie whirled by, enjoying their own dance.  “You could, Tolly,” Kyle said, “but you would make Ardara cry.”

            Tolly turned red as Kyle and Arrie twirled off, laughing.  Autumn just looked at Tolly, amused.

            “It was the Dwarven Ale Toss,” Tolly said at last.

            “And it’s not women that you’re supposed to be tossing, is it?” she pressed.

            “No,” he admitted.  “You toss barrels of ale.”

            “So, you were comparing me to a barrel, then?”

            “No!” Tolly said, blushing again.  “I was only…”

            Autumn laughed.  “Relax, Tolly.  I’m only having a little fun.”

             Many leagues away, the short man sighed, as the liquid rippled again and the images on the surface began to flicker again. “Not quite as interesting as you’d hoped, I’d guess.”

            “Patience.  In an event like this, there will be a lot of chaff and very little wheat.  And eavesdropping on those two was not entirely without reward.”

            The short man shook his head, unsure what value there was in knowing that two people once shared a traditional dwarven dance.  “What about those _rope tricks_ they conjured for security?  I’ve seen a number of people sneaking into those for more personal use.”

            The tall man shook his head.  “I can’t penetrate a dimensional boundary, even with the basin.  Besides, I doubt there is much conversation taking place in those spaces.”

            They watched for another hour.  They would frequently stop to observe conversations that various members of the Legacy were having with the wedding guests.  They watched as Prince Mu’ara gave Lanara directions to his suite.  They listened intently as various ambassadors approached Autumn; Ambassador Kektor, an ancient earth-touched man from the Confederates, offered her advice on keeping peace in the city at night.  Dohne, the tiefling conjurer from Targeth, briefly hinted to the Duchess that he knew about a certain cornugon.  Both the men watching the basin took careful note of this conversation.  They also listened carefully when Kyle spoke with Prince Herion, asking if the prince would look for a particular spell scroll when he returned to Noxolt.  They watched as Tolly carried a sleepy Iria back to the manor, as she complained that she wanted the “green man” to leave so that her “head didn’t have to feel funny any more”.

            After a fireworks show, and more music and dancing, the observers saw that storm clouds were rolling in rapidly, and that the guests were beginning to gather their things and head inside.  Storms in western Tlaxan tended to be quite severe and formed rapidly; most blamed the proximity of Targeth’s shield for this.  As servants scrambled to gather up decorations and flowers in the growing wind, the two men focused their basin on Arrie, who was conversing with the Grand Duke of Mypos about a recent visit he’d made to Sargia.

            “I was rather surprised that the Sargian ambassador didn’t attend,” the stately old elf was saying.

            “None of us have ever been to Sargia,” Arrie explained.  “They’d have no reason to know who the Legacy is, at least directly.”

            “Still, it would have been seemly for them to attend,” he said.  “After all, your group has never been to the Red Archipelago, and yet Prince Mu’ara…”

            Arrie suddenly held up her hand, silencing the Grand Duke.  She cocked her head to one side, as if listening for something, and then slowly turned her head, a puzzled look on her face, until she was looking straight up through the surface of the silver liquid in the basin, as if she could see the two men watching her.

            The tall man waved a hand over the basin, and the image of Arrie’s face disappeared, as the rippling liquid suddenly became dead calm.  Then, suddenly, it seemed to evaporate rapidly, turning from a liquid into a few ounces of a dry, silvery powder in the space of a few heartbeats.  The tall man carefully brushed the powder into a leather pouch, and tucked it away inside his belt.

            “She knew,” said the short man.  “How did she know?”

            The tall man shook his head.  “She doesn’t know.  She sensed something, yes, but Ariadne is too clever to have given herself away like that if she had known what was going on.”

            “Do we begin again?”

            “No.  There will be little else to see this evening of any value, and I am too drained to continue much longer.  We can discuss what we’ve observed in the morning.”

            The two men walked to the door, and slid open the bar.  The two guards outside, different men from the ones who had been there that morning, snapped to attention and fell into step behind the two robed men.

            Far away, Grand Duke Vernys looked at Arrie.  “Is everything all right, dear?”

            Arrie looked around again.  She could have sworn there was someone standing right next to her, but no one was around.

            “Nothing, nothing,” she said.  “The wine’s just going to my head, that’s all.”

            “Well, nothing wrong with that from time to time, especially on special occasions.  Now, what were we talking about?”

            Arrie looked at the old elf.  “Nothing important, I’m sure.  I shouldn’t keep you any longer; you and your wife should go inside before it rains.”

            “You’re probably right, dear.  Thank you, and give our congratulations to the bride and groom again.”

            “I will.”

            Arrie watched the old elf shuffle away, then started searching for her sister in the crowd.  _Autumn Goodson_, she thought, _it’s going to take me a while to get used to that_.  She finally spotted Autumn with their cousins, Damen and Lysanne Coveire, who were being introduced to Autumn’s father, Phanuel.  _Something else I need to get used to_.

            “Copper for your thoughts?” Kyle said, coming up behind her.

            “Oh, the usual melancholy crap people do at weddings,” she said.  “Just remembering that my own wedding was held in one of the chapels in the Imperial Palace, and was attended by about a dozen people.  And Autumn wasn’t one of them.”

            “Well, if you’re starting to have regrets about the whole marriage thing,” Kyle said, “I might be able to pick him off from here.”  He pointed a finger at Herion, who was on the other side of the pavilion, and squinted as if aiming.  “You’d have to do the ‘grieving widow’ thing for a while, but…”

            Arrie gave Kyle a playful slug on the shoulder.  “Knock it off,” she said, grinning.  “You know what I meant.”

            “So, is this where I’m supposed to chime in with the ‘you’re not losing a sister, you’re gaining a brother’ platitudes?”

            “Something like that.”  Arrie put her arms around Kyle and squeezed.  “Welcome to the family, Kyle.”

            “Thanks, Arrie,” he said, returning the hug.  “For what it’s worth, though, I’ve thought of you as a sister for a long time before today.”

            “I know.  Same here.”

            They held the embrace for a while, before Kyle let go.  “Wouldn’t want to start any rumors,” he said with a grin.

            “Who’d start a rumor like that?” Arrie asked.

            “Clearly, you’ve never met the wife of the master of the Vargas Mage’s Guild.”  He wrinkled his nose.  “Awful woman.  I’d rather deal with a room full of angry mindblades.”

            “Careful,” Arrie said, “you may get your wish soon enough.”

            “I know,” Kyle said.  Then he grinned.  “I can’t wait, can you?”

            “Nope.”


-------------------------------------------

* Okay, I'm sure you're asking right about now, "Who the hell are these two guys?"  The answer is "I don't know".  I made them up simply for the purpose of being able to have an outside perspective on the event.  Maybe they're powerful psionic seers, maybe they're archmages, maybe they're the high priests of some forgotten cult.

** Just to make it clear, yes, Maddie is leaving the party, and Tolly is coming back, but they aren't played by the same person.  Tolly's player brought in Razael to take a break from Tolly (because roleplay-wise, there was no way he could have stayed with us - he would have ended up turning against the Legacy the way things were going, but Tolly going off to be Inquisitor Primus for a while gave him a chance to gain a perspective and a tolerance he couldn't have justified as an active party member).  So yes, this means that Razael will be going away soon, too.  No.  Please.  No tears.

Maddie's player wasn't able to attend games regularly any more, and wasn't having fun always feeling like she was behind everyone else in terms of the plot and events.  This is the reason for Maddie's retirement.  It's just a coincidence that her announcement came on the same night as Tolly's - though in a way fortuitous, because it gave us an easy explanation for Razael's exit.


----------



## Delemental

*Wedding*

Here's yet another piece of fiction written by one of the players, in this case Arrie's player.  You'll note that in this piece, the character is referred to as 'Ari' rather than 'Arrie'.  'Ari' is how the player of the actual character spells it, but when I first started writing I went with 'Arrie', and by the time I learned the correct spelling the habit was too ingrained to break.  And, she says she doesn't mind anyway.

-------------------------------------------------

Ari walked along with Aralda and Herion, the young elfmaid between the human and the older elf. Aralda had enough grace not to stumble, but her idea of walking in a straight line left much to be desired so their progress was slow. A trio of Aralda's hunting hounds, who had been waiting patiently for their mistress, had met them halfway and were now trailing behind them in an impromptu parade.

The wedding celebration had devolved into aimless little knots of drinking and debauchery. Aralda had argued that she should be allowed to stay, but she had been vetoed by her older brother and threatened by her sister-in-law. It wasn't very dignified for an imperial princess to be picked up by another imperial princess, tossed over her shoulder like a sack of turnips and hauled away. They had settled on an escort and luckily few people were inebriated enough to try to interfere. Especially since the prince's twin archer bodyguards had been lurking around during the reception. They reached the house that they had rented for the duration of the festivities and Herion dismissed the archers with a wave of his hand.

"Please, enjoy what remains of the evening as you will. We will be staying in the rest of the evening."

The twins gave the prince a pair of nearly identical nods and slipped back out the door. Herion urged his unsteady crew towards the stairs. Aralda said something that made Ari burst into giggles, which in turn sent Aralda into gales of helpless laughter. Herion shook his head.

"I cannot carry you both up the stairs. And even if I did, you would go up over my shoulder. Behave just a little bit longer." His voice was stern, but not totally humorless.

Ari and Aralda stifled their laughter, managing to keep it down to only an occasional snicker as they ascended the stairs and navigated to the suite of rooms that Aralda had claimed for herself.

There was a great deal of fuss as Herion tried to coax his younger sister into bed. Ari started laughing again, managing to steer the prince to the door as he sternly tried to lecture Aralda on the benefits of putting on her nightgown. "Herion, Let me give it a try, ok?"

The elf gave her a skeptical frown. "You're just as bad-off as she is. In fact, I think you've had more to drink than her, you just hold it better."

Ari grinned. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright. Her steps were a little unsteady. She flashed Herion a wink and straightened. The flush paled a little and her eyes gleamed with only mischief. "Maybe. But maybe I'm not as drunk as you think I am."

Herion's left eyebrow twitched. "Then by all means, have your turn." Ari went to her sister-in-law, putting her arm around the young elf's shoulders and exchanging conspiratorial whispers. There was more giggling, but Aralda did disappear behind the dressing screen and come back out dressed in her nightgown. Aralda climbed into the bed and her hounds followed, laying on the blankets in front of and behind the elven princess, effectively tucking her into bed. Ari whispered one last comment that made Aralda blush a little. She waved goodnight to her brother and turned over, throwing and arm over one of her hounds. Ari weaved back to the door and closed it behind herself.

"Well? And what was that about? Are you pretending to be intoxicated or are you really intoxicated?" Herion looked her over. He could smell the sweetness of mead and a few other wines on her breath and he had seen her drinking with his sister, ostensibly to keep her out of trouble. But once again, out of sight of his sister, she seemed far from drunk.

Ari grinned. "Well, either I'm drunk and very good at pretending to be sober or I'm sober and very good at pretending to be drunk. Hung-gai was at the reception with a little viper from our past. I stopped drinking when I saw them. I figured it would be easier to keep Aralda under a modicum of control if she didn't feel like I was being stuffy, so I pretended to match her drink for drink. Really, I managed to shuffle quite a few glasses around and only had enough to keep myself pleasantly warm and a little giggly."

Herion gave a soft laugh of his own. "Actually, that's not a bad plan. I'm glad that you were looking out for her. I just hope that the presence of the xin-tai ambassador and my sister's state of drunkenness didn't spoil your enjoyment of your sister's wedding."

Ari shook her head. "Autumn is happy. That's all that matters. I got to dance with a bevy of handsome males and no one needed their head broken."

Herion gave her a half-bow. "Speaking of dancing, I believe that you still owe me a dance. You went slinking off the tiefling wizard instead of dancing with me."

Ari blushed a little. "Well, however wretched and evil he may be, he is a good dancer and he knew the real dance that's done to the Bolero of Lambent Flame." Herion made a wry face. "I'm aware. As are half the guests. I'm quite sure your dancing is seared into the retinas of many of the men at the reception. You are not as wrigglesome and fey as your bard friend, not as exotic as your xin-tai friend and not the ethereal beauty of your sister. However, I do not doubt that there are quite a few men who will be dreaming of you and that dance this evening and for many nights hereafter."

Ari gave a little shrug. "I didn't do anything wrong. No clothing came off and the dresses Autumn picked out are certainly modest. I'm sure that no more than a quarter of the men present even saw me dancing and those who did no doubt felt you glaring at them. I'm sorry if it made you angry. I didn't think about it before I agreed to dance with him. A fact that I'm sure gave him a little perverse pleasure." Ari gave a derisive little snort. "But in the end nothing really scandalous happened."

Herion nodded. It was true that she had danced only in the way the dance was supposed to be executed. It was the dance itself that was provocative, most of it taking place with the partners touching only hands while their bodies were pressed provocatively close and yet not actually touching. The motions were graceful, like the twining of flame, and meant to evoke images of much more private activities. But Ari's dress was fairly modest and she had opted not to add a few of the most suggestive flourishes to her movements. Herion held out his hand to her and swirled her down the hall when she took it. They danced to the absence of music until Ari was spending half her time with her head resting on Herion's shoulder, yawning. The elf stopped dancing, putting his arms around her.

"You should go to bed now. You'll need to sleep."

Ari gave a drowsy nod. "I should" She didn't try to move anything other than her head.

Herion laughed. "You're not going to get anywhere nearer bed if you stand here with your head on my shoulder."

Ari gave a shrug. "But its nice here. The blankets are going to be cold when I get to bed and if I stop moving the world is going to start spinning as punishment for me being up so late and drinking."

Herion gave a slight nod and put his hands on her waist, steadying her as he took a step back. Ari looked up, mildly upset to have her resting spot taken away. Without further preamble, Herion picked her up and started down the hall to her rooms. Their similar height made the going a little awkward at first, but Herion was very fit and had years of physical as well as magical training. For her part, Ari put her arms around his neck and did her best not to giggle. She hadn't been carried by anyone since she was a little girl and even then she had insisted from a few months after she began to walk that she could get anywhere on her own two feet, thank you. The novelty of being an adult and uninjured and being held thus made her oddly weak in the knees. She shook it off as silliness and let the moment flow as it would.

The door wasn't hard to manage, even with Herion's hands full. A softly-spoken word released a small spell that instantly opened the door and popped it open about an inch. He nudged it with his toe and it swung further. He carried Ari all the way to the edge of her bed and set her down on the edge. She smiled at him. "Thank you for the lift. I might just sleep in my clothes rather than try to get to the dressing screen and back." She stifled a yawn behind her fist and eyed the pillows thoughtfully.

Herion shook his head. "That can't be comfortable. I'll help you." He knelt down and removed her slippers, noting that rather than laugh when he touched her feet like most women, she simply sighed and closed her eyes in pleasure. He experimented a little. "You're not ticklish? How is that possible, I thought that all women turned into little girls if you touched their feet."

Ari shook her head. "Never been ticklish. Feels good when you do that though." Herion grinned and took off his shoes, climbing up on the bed behind her to work on the fastenings of her dress.

Ari started to remove her bracelet and got "tsked" into stillness. "Don't worry about it. I'll help you with it in a minute. Whoever tied this knot should be hung by it though." With a few gestures, he summoned a bevy of magical servants. Still sitting behind her, he directed the servants with his will and helped get Ari to her feet as she was disrobed. He contemplated having one fetch her nightgown, but Ari drooped against his shoulder. He shook his head. "Jewelry off and then I'm putting you to bed. Can you stay awake that long?"

Ari gave a drowsy little nod and only swayed a little on her feet as Herion helped her remove her necklace, bracelet and ring. The invisible servants bore the jewelry away and put it back into its cases. Ari was nowhere near as difficult to get into the bed and beneath the blankets as Aralda had been. On the other hand, Herion found it difficult for other reasons to tuck her in. He chastely tucked the blankets up under her chin, relieved that the temptation of her slip-clad form was now out of sight.

Ari reached out and caught his hand. She blushed a little as she spoke. "I was wondering if you'd indulge me a little?"

Herion gave the barest hint of a nod. "Ask."

She sat up and looked at a point somewhere on his shoulder shyly. "I'm not up for anything... athletic or anything, but I was wondering if you might stay a little bit with me?""

Herion thought a moment. Due mainly to circumstance and in small part to shyness on both their parts, he continued to wait to enjoy certain aspects of their marriage. Thus his reluctance to simply tuck Ari into bed when spending the evening with her gave him the urge to carry her to his bed and keep her awake a few more hours. Obviously the internal argument took longer than he realized because Ari let go of his hand.

"No. Never mind. I realize that's not a very fair request. Thank you for taking care of me and thank you for dancing with me. I had a wonderful evening." Herion shook his head and took off his jacket and belt, folding them neatly and climbing onto the bed next to Ari.

"No. Its not unfair. You ask because it will make you happy and I say yes because it will make me happy. At least we can enjoy each other's company this way and if such moments lead to other things being more comfortable between us then it is time doubly well spent.""

Ari helped him beneath the blankets and curled against his side once he was settled.

Her voice was very soft when she spoke. ""Thank you. I don't have such strange dreams when you're beside me."

Herion let the remark pass without questioning it, though he was slowly becoming more and more curious about the dreams that his wife had that seemed to disturb her so much. He idly caressed her hand where it lay over his heart as she drifted off to sleep. He watched and when she began to dream he spoke quietly to her of inconsequential things. It seemed to soothe her, drawing a few mumbled words from her. He picked out the phrase, "Just a little longer." Herion nodded. "I can be patient. I have waited more than three centuries for you. What are a few more days or months or years to me?"


----------



## Pyske

Hi Del.  I'm working my way slowly through your backlog, and enjoying the story a lot.  I hope you have been pruning the comments, because it would be a shame if you only got the occasional comment... the writing has been excellent!

But at least you know you have some loyal readers... I found the story b/c it had 4700 views or so.  And hey, now you have one more; I subscribed Saturday.  Keep up the good work.


----------



## Delemental

Pyske said:
			
		

> Hi Del.  I'm working my way slowly through your backlog, and enjoying the story a lot.  I hope you have been pruning the comments, because it would be a shame if you only got the occasional comment... the writing has been excellent!
> 
> But at least you know you have some loyal readers... I found the story b/c it had 4700 views or so.  And hey, now you have one more; I subscribed Saturday.  Keep up the good work.




Thanks for the compliment.  To be honest, I haven't been doing any pruning - what you see is what you get.  Though I admit I like the feedback, in the end it's not a huge thing.  Some stories here get loads of comments, other don't.  At least all of the comments I have had are positive ones - though I'd even accept criticism, because it could lead to improvement, and I'm not vain enough to think that everyone's going to like this story.


----------



## Delemental

*Trouble in Paradise*

Maddie held out the envelope to Autumn and Kyle, a smile on her face.

            “What is it?” Autumn asked, taking the envelope.

            “Your wedding present,” Maddie said.  “Open it and see what it says.  But keep in mind that when I wrote this, I was planning on having you read it aloud at your wedding.  But when the Serenity told me that I would be going to Medos, well… I decided I wanted to make this more private.”

            Autumn held on to the envelope for a while, briefly overcome with sadness.  Last night, at the celebration of her wedding to Kyle, Maddie had told them that the Serenity, the head of the church of Erito, had requested that she return to Medos for a “special mission” for the church.  It was the kind of request that couldn’t be refused.  The Serenity had told her few details, other than the mission was such that her friends in the Legacy couldn’t accompany her.  Only her appointed guardian, Razael Fletcher, was permitted to come along.  Autumn wasn’t sure what made her more sad; the fact that Maddie was leaving, or the fact that the favored soul would have to continue to endure the company of that nihilistic old elf.

            “No matter how long you hold it,” Maddie prompted, “it’s not going to tell you what’s written inside.”

            Smiling, Autumn opened the envelope, as Kyle craned his neck to see.  Inside was a short note, penned in Maddie’s neat hand:


_          Autumn and Kyle,



          My gift to you is a gift of beginnings – a proper beginning to your life together.  I have arranged a trip for the both of you to stay in the Red Archipelago for the next two months, as guests of King Bali.  You will depart with Prince Mu’ara on his vessel three days after your wedding.

          While you are away, Autumn, I will serve as your steward and ensure that your duchy remains safe, secure, and prosperous. Kyle, rest assured that I will watch over your family as well. Thus you may truly leave all your cares behind, save for the caring you bring for each other.

                                                                   Love, Madrone_


            Kyle and Autumn looked up at Maddie.  “Maddie,” Kyle began, “this is really…”

            Maddie held up a hand.  “Actually, the offer has changed a little.”

            Autumn’s smile faded a little.  “You can’t stay.”

            “No, no,” Maddie corrected her.  “I told the Serenity what I had planned, and she agreed to let me stay here two more months to serve as steward.  But I’ve spoken with Prince Mu’ara, and he’s given me permission to extend the invitation to all of you.”  She smiled.  “You two, of course, will still get special accommodations for your privacy.”

            “All of us?” Autumn gaped.  “That must have cost a fortune!”

            “I can’t think of a better way to spend my gold,” Maddie replied.

            “But we could have paid our own way… made arrangements…”

            “Yes, and if you had done it yourself, Autumn, then it would have been an ‘official state visit’, and not a vacation.  Much less fun.  Accept the gift, Autumn, and say thank you.”

            “Thank you, Maddie,” Autumn said.

            “But Maddie,” Kyle said, “we can’t go without you!”

            “Yes, Maddie, come with us!”

            Maddie shook her head.  “Thank you for saying so, and really, part of me does want to go.  But you need someone here you can trust to look after things.  And I’d rather part ways with you knowing that you’re all surrounded by beauty.  That’s how I want to remember you.”

            Maddie spread her arms wide, and embraced the two newlyweds.

            “Besides,” she said with a chuckle, “if I come, then Razael would be there too.”

*          *            *​
            Three days later, the party found themselves at the port city of Erum, along with Prince Mu’ara and his entourage.  Rupert and Iria pranced around, chasing gulls, while Lanara eyed the ships in the harbor nervously.

            “There,” said Mu’ara, pointing.  “My father’s ship, the _Coral Crown_.”

            At first, the ship he was pointing to looked like a gigantic raft with a sail.  Looking closer, they could see that it was actually a very large catamaran.  The twin hulls were each the size of schooners, and supported a deck that was probably forty feet wide.  Near the rear of the deck, behind the main mast, a structure sat that looked like a row of single-story dwellings.  Most of the ship appeared to be constructed of reeds woven together tightly.

            “You’ve got to be kidding…” Lanara muttered, already turning green.

            “Your Highness,” Arrie said, turning to the prince, “Forgive me for asking, but I’m not familiar with the design of your ship.  It seems as though there’s not much room on board for a great deal of crew or cargo.”

            “Indeed,” Mu’ara replied.  “The ships of my homeland are designed to be sailed by a very small crew.  Their quarters are housed in the hulls on either side, while I and those I travel with stay on the deck.  Most of our sailing is done between the islands of the Archipelago, and so there is little need for a great deal of cargo, though we can lash a great number of crates onto the deck if need be.  Truth be told, our ships would fare poorly in an extended voyage; if one is required, we usually make the three day voyage to this port, and negotiate passage on one of your Empire’s single-hulled ships.”  Mu’ara looked at his ship, and then at the party, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  “Come to think of it, the accommodations aboard the _Coral Crown_ may be quite cramped with all of you.  But it’s only a four day journey.”

            “I thought you said three days,” Lanara said.

            “It’s three days to get from my homeland to Erum,” Prince Mu’ara said, “but going back we’ll be sailing against the winds and currents, so it takes four days.”

            Lanara moaned.

            “Excuse me, Your Highness,” Kyle said, “but we have the means to transport ourselves to your island without taking your ship.  I can transport everyone through the Shadow plane.”

            “I can also help,” Tolly offered.  “I can use a _wind walk_ spell.”

            “An Ardaran priest willing to be borne upon Feesha’s winds?” Mu’ara asked incredulously.  Tolly only shrugged.

            “It’s a personal quirk, Your Highness.”

            Mu’ara’s young eyes sparkled.  “Inquisitor Primus Nightsleaving, forgive my presumption in asking this, but… I would very much enjoy traveling with you via your spell.  Priests of great potency are very rare in the Red Archipelago, and wizards even more so; those we do have guard their power carefully.”

            “I’d be honored, Your Highness,” Tolly said, but then frowned.  “However, at best I can transport nine beings.  With the seven of us, plus yourself, Rupert, and Iria…”

            “I can take everyone,” Kyle offered.

            “My thanks for your offer, Duke-Consort,” Prince Mu’ara said, nodding, “but please forgive me when I say that I’d rather not enter the realm of the dead.”

            “Perhaps a joint effort?” Xu suggested.

“That sounds good,” Tolly said.  “I can take myself, Iria, and the Prince…”

            “Me too!” Lanara said, waving her hands in the air.

            “… and Lanara via a _wind walk_, while you bring the others via _shadow walk_?”

            “That should work,” Kyle said.  “I’m guessing about four hours for the whole trip.  I’ll be about thirty or forty minutes behind you.”

            “That sounds good to me,” Lanara said.  “It means no boats.”

            “Then I’ll inform my crew,” Mu’ara said.  He started to walk toward the Coral Crown, then stopped.  “Wait.  I’m forgetting myself here.  My father, King Bali, is not expecting us for four days.  I would be a poor host if we arrived unannounced so far ahead of schedule, before they’ve had time to prepare.”  He started to look disappointed.

            “Your Highness,” Tolly said, “how long would your father need to prepare for us?”

            “No more than four or five hours,” he said.

            “Well, then, everyone,” Tolly said, “you have an hour to do as you please before we leave.”  Setting down his pack, Tolly began casting a spell.  “What do you wish to say to King Bali?” he asked.  "In twenty-five words or less, please."

*          *            *​
            It was easy to tell where they were supposed to land; a large carpet of brightly colored flowers had been laid out on the beach.  As the _wind walking_ travelers came in low over the ocean, they were flanked by a dozen bronze-skinned men carrying lances, riding on the backs of celestial dolphins.  The men were dressed in a loose wrap of bright, floral print cloth, as well as breastplates and arm greaves that looked to be made of woven reeds and shells.  As they alighted in the piles of flowers and resumed their solid form, they immediately felt a wave of heat and humidity wash over them.  Tolly started to sweat immediately in his plate armor.

            Prince Mu’ara led Tolly, Lanara, and Iria across the carpet of flowers, toward a tall, dark-skinned man standing near the edge of the jungle. His hair was graying at the temples, but otherwise looked very much like the prince.  He wore a partial suit of scale mail, covering one arm and from his waist to his knees, and held a gold-tipped spear.  On his head was a crown that looked as though it had been grown naturally from pink coral.

            “Very nice,” Lanara said quietly to herself.  She recognized the crown, of course; it was one of the Seven Treasures of Tul-Antha.  Tul-Antha was the ancient king of the Archipelago, and he possessed seven items of power.  It was his bloody campaign to eradicate the sea hags and sahuagin who had previously ruled the islands that had given them the name of the “Red” Archipelago, an ironic moniker for what was now one of the most benevolent and peaceful places on Aelfenn.  But it was said that no mortal, save King Tul-Antha himself, could possess all Seven Treasures without being overcome.  When he died, his sons feuded over who would possess the Seven Treasures and rule, until finally Tul-Antha returned from beyond, and gave each son one of the Treasures, and dominion over one of the Archipelago’s seven major islands, and told them that from them on they would rule the kingdom together in harmony.  As Lanara bowed before the man in the crown, she reflected on the story. _ I’m certainly familiar with the idea of being overwhelmed by magical artifacts,_ she thought, thinking of her three Instruments of the Bards and how they’d tried to ensnare her mind recently.

            “Honored guests,” Prince Mu’ara said, bowing, “this is my father, King Bali.  Father, this is Inquisitor Primus Tolly Nightsleaving of the church of Ardara, Lanara Rahila, a bard of no small repute, and Iria, the ward of Inquisitor Nightsleaving.”

            “Welcome,” he said in a broad, deep voice.  “And welcome back, my son.” The king turned to Tolly.  “I trust you are not here in an official capacity, Inquisitor?”

“Not this time,” Tolly said.  “My station is concerned primarily for the welfare of our church’s leader, the Archprelate.  As he is not currently here…”

“Indeed,” nodded the king. “But are there not others?  Where are the new Duchess and her mate?”

            “They will be arriving shortly, father,” Mu’ara said.  “Within the hour.”

            “We shall await their arrival, then,” King Bali said.  “But I will have time to introduce you to the rest of my family.  Come.”

            King Bali turned and began walking into the jungle, following a narrow path.  The others fell into step behind him.  On either side, in the jungle, they could hear leaves rustling as a few guards began to follow their king from the flanks.

            “My younger son, Aruna, you will have to meet later this evening,” the king was saying.  “He was among the dolphin riders who greeted you on your arrival.  But my daughters are at my home preparing lunch.”

            After a few minutes they entered a clearing and walked through a village.  The houses were slightly raised off the ground on sturdy poles, and made of reeds and broad-leafed plants.  The windows were large, and lacked glass, though there were shutters on both sides.  King Bali led them to his ‘palace’, which was a house overlooking the rest of the village that was slightly larger than the others, but not by much.  Inside, they noted that the king’s wall hangings and furnishings were also nicer.  They also noted a lack of servants.

            King Bali led them back to the kitchen.  The room was large and airy, and several gourds of varying sizes hung on the walls.  On one side of the room was a large hearth made of volcanic rock, the only stone they’d seen in the entire building.  Two young women were bent over in front of the fire, apparently putting a large fish over the flames to cook.

            “Lajila, Nidru,” the king said, “come and meet our guests.”

            The two women stood up and turned around.  They looked to be around sixteen, and were nearly identical in appearance, with one slightly taller than the other.  Both wore the colorful sarongs around their waists that they had seen many other people on the island wear, but were topless, their dark skin flushed from the heat of the fire.  Both of them smiled and greeted the three guests, but when they came to Tolly their eyes were riveted to the young Ardaran.

            “You look quite uncomfortable in your armor,” said the taller one, Lajila.  “We would be pleased to assist you in removing it.”

            “I’m not sure if Tolly brought any clothing appropriate to the climate,” Lanara said, barely suppressing a smile.

            “I’m certain we can find something for you,” Mu’ara said.  “Visitors to our islands from the southlands often overdress.  But it’s also acceptable to go unclothed while here.”

            “I’m sure I can find something to wear,” Tolly said, tight-lipped.  He was trying very hard to maintain eye contact with Lajila and Nidru, especially with Iria standing next to him.

            Iria suddenly spoke up, pointing at the king’s daughters.  “Can I have a dress like theirs, Tolly?” she asked.  “They’re pretty.”

            Lanara knelt down to Iria.  “I’m sure we can find something perfect for you to wear, sweetie.  And I’m sure that Tolly thinks they’re pretty, too.  All four of them.”

            Iria looked confused.  “Aunt Lanara, there’s only two girls there.”

            Lanara laughed.  “You’re right, of course, dear.  Silly me.”  Lanara stood up.  “Would you like me to watch Iria while you and Bali’s daughters find you something to wear… or not?”

            “No,” Tolly said calmly, “I can manage, thank you.  We should be getting down to the beach to meet the others.”

             “Ah, yes, you’re right,” said the king.  “Come, let us receive them with open arms.  We will eat when we return.”

            Everyone was shown to a room where they could wash up, and change into some native clothing if they wished.  The two women opted for colorful sarongs, Lanara choosing to wear hers in a surprisingly modest fashion to avoid getting glares from Tolly all day.  The king, Prince Mu’ara, Tolly, Lanara, and Iria then made their way to the beach.  Fresh flowers had replaced those that had been strewn about by Tolly’s magical wind, and several people were starting to gather.

            A few minutes passed, and then, with a strange cracking sound, a black rift opened up in the middle of the air in the midst of the flowers.  The tear widened, and several figures jumped through.  As the rift closed, several of the flowers around the feet of the new arrivals immediately withered and turned grey.  The new arrivals blinked and rubbed their eyes in the sudden brightness.

            Introductions were made, and the party was invited back to the king’s home for lunch.  “Guest houses are being prepared for all of you,” the king explained.  “They will be ready after lunch.  Duchess, you and your husband will be placed in our newlywed house, of course.”

            “You have a house just for newlyweds?” Kyle asked.

            “Yes.  Many people come to our islands to celebrate their unions.  The people of the island know that those who stay there are here for each other, and are not to be disturbed.”

            “You mean, propositioned?” Arrie asked.

            “That is one way to say it, I suppose.  My people will not approach either of you with romantic intentions while you are here, unless you invite it yourselves.  When away from your house, you will be given a crown of white flowers to wear, which will signal your status to anyone who sees you.”

            Both Autumn and Kyle stepped back next to Arrie.  “Is there something that you haven’t told us about this place?” Kyle asked.

            “Well, the people of the Archipelago don’t really hold the same views as most of us,” Arrie explained with a grin.  “They’re a little fuzzy on concepts like ‘fidelity’ or ‘monogamy’.  It’s just not part of their way of life.”

            “Wow,” Autumn said.  “It’s going to take a while to get used to that idea.”

            “Just keep those white flowers on your head, dear sister, and you won’t have to worry about it too much.”

            Autumn nodded, and then looked at Kyle, who’d been listening in.  “That goes for you, too,” Autumn said to him, jabbing him in the chest with her finger.  She ignored the soft whip-crack sound that Lanara made as she turned her attention back to the jungle trail.

            Lunch consisted of baked fish and fried banana, and was served sitting on the floor on a long woven straw mat, along with fermented coconut milk.  Lajila and Nidru sat on either side of Tolly, and insisted on feeding him morsels while asking him about his church, his home, and repeated mentions of how hot his armor must be, and how he would be more comfortable without it. Arrie was the only other member of the party who had opted not to change into native garb; everyone else was now wearing bright fabrics in various states of modesty.  Xu, surprisingly enough to most of them, had gone the most “native”, choosing to cover only her lower body.

            “The climate here is not unlike parts of my homeland,” the monk explained, “and there, as here, the traditions concerning dress are somewhat less... traditional.”

            Lanara, upon seeing Xu’s clothing, had gone and adjusted her own outfit to reveal more skin, though she wasn’t quite up to going bare-breasted on her first day on the island.  “Tolly can’t very well yell at me for immodesty with Xu out there,” the cansin said to herself.  But Tolly made no comment on Xu’s choice when he first saw her, which flummoxed the bard.

            That evening, a celebration was held for their guests, and most of the people in the village came.  There was a feast of roast boar, fish, and game birds, as well as more of the fermented coconut drinks.  Many of the people in the village, especially the young men and women, were wearing flowers tucked behind their ears.  A number of people in the party were wearing flowers as well.  Autumn and Kyle were in their white flower crowns, of course, and Xu, and Osborn had bright blue and purple flowers in their hair as well, while Lanara sported a bright red orchid in her pink hair.  King Bali had explained to them during lunch that traditionally someone who was ‘available’ would wear a flower to signal prospective partners.  Red, pink, and yellow flowers signified that one was seeking out a particular person, while blues and purples indicated a broader interest.  The king did warn them that a lack of any flowers would not prevent some inquiries, as the group learned at one point when Autumn, who had removed her crown to show Iria how it was woven together, had been approached by a tall young man who boldly offered to escort her to his home for the evening.

            After nightfall, there was a performance of a traditional island dance, an homage to Krûsh called the Dance of Fire and Water.  A large trench was dug in the sand in a ring shape, and filled with seawater.  Then a large bonfire was lit in the middle.  The village warriors would then dance around the area, leaping between the edge of the fire and water.  Prince Mu’ara, who had been getting cozy with Lanara after the feast, explained that the purpose of the dance was to show they had no fear of the evil flames, as their souls were filled with Krûsh’s power.  A very intoxicated Lanara insisted on learning the dance, and a few minutes later was leaping over the trench, laughing gaily, with Mu’ara dancing next to her.  Autumn, who had also consumed a large amount of fermented coconut milk, went to dance as well.  Arrie tried to dissuade her, fearing she was too drunk to manage the dance, but she was insistent, and even managed to convince most of the others in the party to try it.  Even Tolly attempted the dance, though the villagers insisted that he first remove his armor, which made the king’s daughters very happy.  In the end, only Arrie and Kyle were left to watch the others dance.

            “I really wish you’d helped me stop her,” Arrie said to Kyle, who was watching Autumn dancing close to the bonfire.  She was trying hard not to acknowledge the fact that the sentinel was actually doing very well.

            “Why?  She’s a big girl, and burns can be healed.  How often does she get the chance to really let go and relax?”

            “Yes, but she’s drawing an awful lot of attention to herself,” Arrie pointed out, nodding toward several young men who were watching the aasimar with obvious lust, and irritation on seeing her white flower crown.

            Kyle shrugged.  “I’m not going to question my wife’s ability to handle any improper advances,” he said.  “Now, if she starts asking me to magic her flowers so they turn blue, then I’ll agree that she’s too drunk, and I’ll help you get her back to our house.”

            As the moons rose over the jungle, the village parents began to send their children to bed.  Tolly carried a sleeping Iria back to their shared home, declining offers of an escort from Lajila and Nidru. Lanara wandered off with Prince Mu’ara back to the king’s estate, and Osborn escorted both a water-touched woman and a gnomish woman back to his hut.  Soon most of the villagers were breaking off into groups of twos or occasionally threes, either wandering back to homes, or off into the jungle, or down along the beach.  Xu joined one of the village dolphin riders on a shoreline walk, while everyone else retired to their own homes, after enjoying their first night in paradise.


----------



## Pyske

Well, it took me six more days to finish off the rest of the story hour, and I'm still loving it.  Very gratified to have Tolly back, as well. 

I love your DM's world... the cosmology in particular.  The blending of the elemental planes, the dieties, and the outer planes are all brilliant.  Any chance that there's more setting info in published form somewhere?

you really do write this exceptionally well, as well as Sepulchrave or Spyscribe.  Several times I found myself just pausing to contemplate the latest story development, and what I'd do if I was a player.  Very nicely done.

Oh, and one thought to share:  if you don't want the Orcs forming a new kingdom, perhaps the crown would best be given to the church of Feesha...


----------



## Delemental

Pyske said:
			
		

> Well, it took me six more days to finish off the rest of the story hour, and I'm still loving it.  Very gratified to have Tolly back, as well.
> 
> I love your DM's world... the cosmology in particular.  The blending of the elemental planes, the dieties, and the outer planes are all brilliant.  Any chance that there's more setting info in published form somewhere?
> 
> you really do write this exceptionally well, as well as Sepulchrave or Spyscribe.  Several times I found myself just pausing to contemplate the latest story development, and what I'd do if I was a player.  Very nicely done.
> 
> Oh, and one thought to share:  if you don't want the Orcs forming a new kingdom, perhaps the crown would best be given to the church of Feesha...




Unfortunately, there's no published material for our campaign, other than what we've collected on our campaign website (and I won't give the URL out, because it's not meant as a public site - among other reasons, I've 'borrowed' a few pictures found online for characters, and I have at least enough respect for intellectual property rights to not make those available for public viewing).

As far as the crown, current events in the campaign may give us a reason to pull the crown out of the bag (or hole, as the case may be) soon.

And if you like story developments... well, you'll enjoy the next few updates.


----------



## Delemental

Early the next morning, each of the party members was awoken by a loud knock on their doors.

            Osborn sighed, and jumped off the side of his bed, tiptoeing past the sprawled forms of several natives who had decided to continue the evening’s celebrations in his hut.  He opened the door to see two men standing there.  Both men carried spears and wore headdresses made of long grasses, and wore sarongs of a darker material printed with grass and leaf patterns rather than the floral patterns he’d seen last night.

            “His Majesty, King Bali, requests that you meet with him at his home,” one of the warriors said.  “He apologizes for the intrusion into your time of rest, but he has need of your aid.”

            “Sure, no problem,” Osborn walked back and grabbed his clothes and belongings, and a minute later was following one of the warriors up to Bali’s home.  On the way, they met up with other members of the party, also being escorted by Bali’s men.

            They were led to the dining room, where a breakfast of fruits was laid out on the floor.  King Bali sat at the center of the table, with his son Aruna on his right.  Lanara was already at the table, sitting on the other side of the king.  The others sat down as they arrived, until only Xu was missing.  It was several minutes later before she came in.

            “My apologies,” she said to King Bali, sitting down, “I was not in my hut when your men came this morning.”

            “My apologies to you, as well.” the king said.  “I didn’t wish to trouble you with this, but something has happened that is very unusual, and truly is beyond our ability to deal with.  This place has been a paradise for so long that when trouble comes that is outside of our usual concerns we scarcely know to handle it.”  King Bali sighed.  “One of our villages on the other side of the island has been destroyed, down to the foundations.  Not a single person left alive, not a single home left standing.”

            The party looked at each other.  “Well, everyone,” Tolly said, clapping his hands together, “back to work.”

            “Were this not such a drastic issue, I wouldn’t bring it to you,” the king continued.  “But several of our people have been found not only dead, but partially eaten.”

            “Ew!” Lanara said, voicing her initial gut reaction.

            “Sahuagin?” Tolly inquired.  “Kuo-toa?”

            “Possibly,” the king said, “but I haven’t been there myself.  And my people are accustomed to the occasional sahuagin raid.  This was different.”

            “Then, shall we be off?” Tolly asked.

            “My son Aruna will accompany you,” Bali said, “so that my people will know that their king watches over them.”

            The party returned to their huts to gather their gear.  Tolly brought Iria up to the king’s home, and asked Bali if someone could watch her.  His two daughters immediately agreed.  The party then set out through the jungle, with Aruna leading the way.  Two hours later, they merged onto the beach, into a scene of carnage.

            The village had been small, no more than half a dozen huts, and sat on the beach above the high tide mark.  Several warriors were patrolling the jungle perimeter to ward off scavengers, and a few dolphin riders could be seen just off shore.  The huts were smashed into kindling, and several corpses lay scattered on the sand.  The party immediately began to spread out and gather what information they could, while Aruna went to speak with the warriors along the perimeter.

            “I found something!” Autumn called out after about twenty minutes.

            “Me too!” Osborn said.  “Can you bring yours over?”

            “Not really,” she replied.

            “I’ll come to you then.”

            The party gathered around Autumn, who was poking at a patch of greenish-gray slime that was just above the high tide mark.  The slime was very sticky, adhering to the stick and lifting off the ground when she pulled it up.  Sand stuck to the underside of the patch.

            “Anyone recognize this stuff?” she asked.

            No one could place it.  “It’s similar to the stuff they pack in a tanglefoot bag,” Kyle said.  “It probably has a similar purpose.”

            “It sort of looks like the trail a slug leaves,” Tolly said.

            “Well, what about this?” Osborn asked.  He held out the severed end of a finger, pale and puffy.  They all bent to examine it.

            “It wasn’t cut or pulled off,” Osborn said, “it looks more like it just fell off.  And it’s been underwater.”

            “For a while, I’d say,” Kyle said.  “Whoever this came from died a long time ago, and has been underwater most of that time.  Drowning victim, maybe?”
            Arrie looked around.  “What else have we figured out?”

            “Most of the villagers died from blunt force wounds,” Tolly said.  “There were remains of one that had been eaten.  From what I can tell, he was being eaten before he died.  The creature has a large bite radius, larger than human sized, and nothing but sharp teeth – no molars or incisors as far as I can tell.”

            “The huts look like they were smashed by a large force,” Kyle added.  “Some look like a huge weight was dropped on them from above, others look like they were hit from the side and knocked off their support poles.”

            Arrie thought for a moment.  “Tolly, are there flesh-eating zombies?”

            “Not really,” Tolly replied, “ghouls tend to be the most common flesh-eating undead.”

            “Do they drop fingers?” Autumn asked.

            “No, they don’t.”  Tolly picked up the finger that Osborn had found.  “You know, whatever ate these villagers was large, and the smashed huts also suggest a large creature.  This finger could have been the remnants of an old meal that fell out of its mouth during this attack.”

            “You mean, like it was stuck in its teeth?” Arrie asked.  “But it looks like it fell off, not like it was severed.  So unless this thing has the rest of the hand still in its jaw…”

            “That’s a good point,” Tolly admitted.  “Kyle, is there any lingering magic in the area?”

            “None.”

            Autumn concentrated for a moment.  “There is a lingering evil in the village.”

            Arrie looked up and down the shore.  “You know, it’d actually be handy to have Razael around right now.”

            “Well, whatever it was probably came from the ocean,” Kyle said.  “We’d have seen evidence if it had come out of the jungle.  And it looks like the villagers that were eaten are all closer to the water, which means that whatever it was got full before it got to the village.  If the creature had flown in, the eaten ones would be in the middle of the village.”

            “Well, we could send a few people down to look,” Arrie said.

            “I did pray for a _water breathing_ spell,” Tolly said.  “Perhaps Osborn, Kyle, and myself?”

            As the party talked, a dolphin rider came in close to shore and leapt from his mount, running through the surf to where Aruna was standing.  After speaking to the rider in rapid tones, the king’s son ran up to the party.

            “I’ve just received word,” Aruna said.  “The dolphins tell us that another village is being attacked.  There are things coming out of the water.”

            “Where?” Tolly asked, getting to his feet.

            “That way,” Aruna pointed, down the shore.  “About half a mile.”

            “Let’s go,” Autumn said, and she began to run.  But her plate armor slowed her down in the sand.

            “I have a better way,” Kyle called out.  He cast a spell, and a rift to the Shadow Plane opened.  “Sorry, Aruna,” Kyle said, grabbing the king’s son by the shoulder, “unlike your brother, this time you don’t get a choice.”

*          *            *​
            They emerged in the middle of the beach, close to the shore.  Villagers were running about everywhere, screaming, as three zombie-like creatures shambled up and smashed into them with club-like fists, instantly snapping spines and crushing skulls.  The zombies had the same waterlogged appearance as the finger they’d found, and the three had obviously just emerged from the ocean, still dripping seawater.

            As the party stepped back into the land of the living, they immediately noticed an odd pressure on their lungs, as though they’d come out under the ocean surface instead of on the beach.  The villagers seemed to be experiencing the same sensation, as they gasped for air and clutched their throats even as they ran.

            Osborn immediately stepped up behind one of the sea-zombies, and planted a half-dozen daggers in its back.  The undead creature seemed to barely notice.

            “That’s not right,” Osborn said, watching as a pair of Arrie’s shotputs bounced off the sea-zombie’s head.

            Tolly raised his holy symbol and tried to destroy the undead, but they seemed unperturbed by the waves of positive energy being emitted by the priest.  Instead, one of them broke off from attacking villagers and ran over to land a solid blow on Tolly’s chest.

            “These are not normal zombies!” he called out.

            “What was your first hint?” Osborn shouted back, as a pair of fists from the zombie he’d attacked, who’d turned and advanced on the hin far faster than he’d expected, hammered him.  Autumn, who had cut into the third zombie, was also being pummeled, despite landing several solid blows with her greataxe that rang with peals of thunderous energy.

            “Are we this out of practice?” Arrie said, as she unfurled her spiked chain and went to help Osborn.

            “Hardly,” Kyle said.  “If they go faster than we expect, then we should return the favor.” He wizard stepped into the midst of his companions and cast a _haste _spell.  At the same time, Lanara’s inspirational song began, bolstered not only by the power of the True Instruments but by her own magic as well.

            Brimming with potency, Xu leapt into battle with the sea-zombie that had struck Autumn.  Having fought undead many times in her career, she knew that there were no organs to burst, no blood vessels to collapse, no nerve clusters to overload.  Instead, she focused on simply battering the corpse into a mangled, fleshy pulp.  Fists and feet flashed, lightning fast, and the sea-zombie withered under the assault.  Autumn’s follow-up attack, infused with divine power, was an extreme example of overkill.

            The second zombie was torn apart by combined efforts from Osborn and Arrie, while the last was brought down by Kyle’s _scorching rays_ and Tolly’s enormous maul.  The instant the last undead was destroyed, they all felt the pressure lift from their lungs, like a heavy fog lifting in the sun.  They all gasped for air as if they’d just emerged from a long dive.

            “That was odd,” Kyle remarked.  The rest of the party was moving around among the villagers, healing their wounds.

            “What are these things?” Lanara asked, poking at one of the waterlogged corpses.

            “That,” Autumn replied, “is what we’re going to find out.”

            “Indeed,” Tolly said.  “This isn’t over.  These undead didn’t make the bite marks I saw.”

            “We should report back to the king,” Autumn said, “let him know what we’ve found.”

            “Well, let’s start back,” said Osborn, noting that the island’s warriors were starting to arrive, and were tending to the villagers.

            “Autumn, will you take my armor?” Arrie said.  “I’d like to swim out and talk to the dolphin riders.  See if they can keep an eye out for anything odd.  I’ll see if I can get a ride back to Bali’s village with them.”

            “All right,” Autumn said.  “We’ll meet you back there.  But hurry – we have a monster to hunt.”

             The party, minus Arrie, made their way through the jungle.  Aruna had also stayed behind, to provide leadership and comfort to the terrified villagers.  They followed a trail the king’s son had pointed out, a barely visible meandering track through the jungle.  It took longer than they expected, but eventually they emerged into the clearing when the island’s largest village lay.  The party went immediately to see Bali; fortunately, on this island, gaining an audience with the king was as simple as going to his home and shouting his name.

            “We’ve identified at least some of the attackers,” Kyle said.  “They’re undead, like zombies, but much faster and stronger.”

            “And they make you feel like you’re underwater even on the land,” Lanara added.

            “I’m familiar with them,” King Bali said.  “They are the Drowned; bodies of those who died at sea.  They bring their fate onto land with them so that others may share it.”

            “There was another creature that attacked,” Kyle continued.  “Either in conjunction with the Drowned, or at the same time by coincidence…”

            “Or it was commanding them,” offered Tolly.  “It had a bite radius of about a foot and a half, all incisors.”

            “We believe it produces some sort of sticky slime,” Xu commented.

            Tolly nodded to confirm the monk’s report.  “We also think it’s capable of destroying a hut in a single blow.”

            Bali frowned.  “If the creature is large enough to do this, then it seems the bite radius is too small.  Unless they are different creatures.”

            “That’s what I was thinking,” Tolly said.

            “This is disturbing,” Bali said, still frowning.  “The Drowned normally stay far out to sea.  They harass our ships and dolphin riders on occasion, but they don’t approach the island.  I don’t understand this.”

            “I suspect they are under the command of something else,” Tolly said.

            “Either that,” Kyle suggested, “or they’re being driven this way by something worse down there.  About the only way we’re going to find out for sure is to take a look.  As far as that goes, I’m not well prepared for that right now.  If we could avoid any more Drowned attacks for the day, then tomorrow…”

            “I have a _water breathing_ spell prepared now,” Tolly said.  “We could go now.”

            “Go where?” asked Arrie, who suddenly came up behind them.  She was soaking wet, but seemed unfazed by it.

            “You’re back already?” Autumn asked, impressed.

            “I got a ride from the dolphins,” she explained, before turning back to the rest of the group.  “I learned a few things, too.”

            Everyone turned to listen to Arrie.  “There are a lot of places that whatever is responsible for this could be, because there’s a lot of sea-caves down there.  So, fun times there.   But the paladins said something else.  You know how animals on land start acting weird before a big storm?  They either flee or act strangely?  The same thing happens in the sea, just before a storm, or a hurricane, or a tidal wave.  Well, the riders and dolphins have noticed the same thing recently, even though there are no storms that have been spotted.  And it’s not just the fish – things as big as sea drakes, and even a few sea hags have been seen acting jittery.”

            “What on Aelfenn could be creepy enough to make a sea drake nervous?” Lanra asked, “or a sea hag, for that matter?  I’m not really up on my aquatic lore.”

            “Well, sea drakes are about as smart as a human child,” Arrie pointed out, “so they’re not stupid.  And sea hags, of course, are usually smarter than adult humans.  Whatever could be disturbing them has to be something pretty awful.”

            “Then we should find whatever it is quickly, before more people die,” Tolly said.

            “But we don’t even know where to start looking!” Osborn said.  “You heard Arrie say there’s a ton of caves under the ocean.”

            The party began to argue over what their best course of action was.  Lanara, however, remained silent, thinking.  Though her phobia of open water had given her a distinct lack of interest in learning many tales and legends involving ships or the ocean, there was one story she remembered hearing years ago…

            “Tishalullé!” Lanara said suddenly.

            “Bless you,” said Osborn.

            “No, the sea hag Tishalullé.  She lives not far from here, not more than a couple of miles.”

            “You think this hag is responsible for the attacks?” Tolly said.

            “No, Tishalullé is a seer,” Lanara explained.  “Those willing to pay the price go to her for information.”

            “What’s her price?” Arrie asked.

            Lanara frowned.  “That’s the problem.  No one who’s ever gone to see Tishalullé has ever spoken of the price they paid.  I’d guess it’s not gold, and I’d guess it is something unpleasant.  She is a hag, after all.  But the stories say that what she tells those who pay the price is always very accurate.”

            Tolly frowned.  “I’m not sure I approve of the idea of dealing with a hag.”

            “I’m not so sure myself,” agreed Autumn.

            “Well, we could always try and talk to the sea drakes,” Arrie suggested, “but that conversation will be quite a bit… simpler, I think.”  She turned to Kyle.  “What do you think?”

            “I think we’d benefit more from an intelligent answer to this problem,” Kyle said.  “I say we find this Tishalullé.  If we don’t like the price, we can always say no.”

            “Should we go now, then, or wait?” Tolly asked.  “Perhaps we should wait a day or so and see if there are more attacks.”

            “That may be well, Inquisitor Nightsleaving,” said King Bali, “but I don’t wish to put any more of my people in danger.  I would ask that you do what you can quickly so that these attacks can be stopped.”

            “Do you have extra soldiers you can call on?” Lanara asked.

            “I will send messengers to the smaller islands surrounding this one, and order everyone to come to the main island.  They will be easier to protect that way.”

            “Sounds good.  No sense protecting a bunch of huts that can be rebuilt.”

            “The stormy season frequently destroys our dwellings,” King Bali explained.  “We have learned not to become too attached to them.  They are built to be easy to reassemble when knocked over.”

            Tolly nodded.  “The homes here do seem a bit unstable for my tastes.  I would rather live higher up on the mountain, and dig into the rock.”

            “We have no metal tools capable of digging into rock,” the king said.  “But that is neither here nor there.  Right now, I need to protect my people from danger, not debate architecture.”

            “Osborn and I will stay on the island,” Autumn said.  “In case of another Drowned attack.  And having me along in a meeting with a sea hag might not go over well anyway.”

            “Well then,” Kyle said.  “Looks like all we need is a boat.”


----------



## 147

Kudos to you Delemental.  This story hour has kept me riveted for the past week as I tried to catch up.  Now I join the many waiting for the next update.

After reading some of your comments, I believe you do give equal time and spotlight to the different characters.  I understand that you can give Kyle a bit more persona, but still, all in all I think you do justice to the entire party.

I'm glad that Tolly is back, I've enjoyed the 'friction' between the characters - it allows for development.

This SH is now on my shortlist.  Thanks again for the quality and quantity of writing.


----------



## Delemental

147 said:
			
		

> Kudos to you Delemental.  This story hour has kept me riveted for the past week as I tried to catch up.  Now I join the many waiting for the next update.
> 
> After reading some of your comments, I believe you do give equal time and spotlight to the different characters.  I understand that you can give Kyle a bit more persona, but still, all in all I think you do justice to the entire party.
> 
> I'm glad that Tolly is back, I've enjoyed the 'friction' between the characters - it allows for development.
> 
> This SH is now on my shortlist.  Thanks again for the quality and quantity of writing.




Thanks for the comment.  I'm glad it seems like I'm giving fairly equal treatment to everyone.  And I'm glad Tolly's back, too.  

And speaking of updates...


----------



## Delemental

Soon the party was skimming along the ocean waves in a small catamaran, sea spray flying in their faces.  Kyle pulled at the ropes, familiarizing himself with the unusual craft, while Lanara laid in the center of the deck, trying not to move or open her eyes.

            It was only an hour before they reached the place that Lanara identified as Tishalullé’s lair.  Four spires of black rock jutted out from the ocean, looking like a clawed hand ready to clutch a passing ship and pull it under.  Kyle brought their ship into the center of the rocks, then brought it into the wind to empty the sails and stop it.

            “Okay, now what?” he asked.

            “I’m not sure,” Lanara said, still quite queasy after the boat ride.  “Either she comes to us, or more likely we go to her.  I say wait here a few minutes to see if anything happens.  If not, then we probably have to get wet.”

            The Legacy waited on their ship, listening to the waves lap against the hulls and against the four monoliths around them.  As Lanara expected, nothing happened.  She even tried singing a song announcing their presence and asking Tishalullé to see them.

            “I can cast _water breathing_ now,” Tolly said.  “We’ll have about three hours.”

            “Maybe we should wait,” Arrie said.

            “We are going down there, aren’t we?” the priest asked.

            “Yes, but maybe we should see if we can get down there without it,” she explained.  “Your spell is the only one we have available to us today, and we don’t know what else we’ll need to do.  Tishalullé’s price may involve going somewhere else in the ocean.  Or we may have to fight more Drowned, or even whatever is causing these disturbances.”

            “Then maybe a couple of you could check it out first?” suggested Lanara.  “Wake me up when you get back.”  With that, she laid down on the deck and closed her eyes.

            Arrie and Xu dove off the side, and went down.  A few minutes later, they surfaced.

            “Looks like we’ll need your spell, Tolly,” Arrie said.  “It’s too deep to hold your breath.”

            One spell later, the entire group was diving into the ocean.  They swam for several minutes, until they finally spotted a cave entrance on the ocean floor.   After procuring a few light sources, they swam into the cave, which went almost straight down for several yards until it suddenly bent and turned upward again, leading into a large underwater cavern.  The cavern floor sloped gently upward, leading to a ledge at the back where they could see a pocket of air.  Inside the air pocket was what looked to be a laboratory of some sort. At the far end of the cave, sitting underwater on a throne carved of black basalt, was a hideous, green skinned woman.

            “Welcome,” the hag said, in heavily accented Common. “So, what brings the land-dwellers to the abode of Tishalullé?”

            “We have questions,” Tolly said, “and we have heard that you are a source of answers that can generally be trusted.”

            “The spirits never guide Tishalullé wrong,” she replied.

            “The ocean dwellers have been very edgy of late,” Tolly began.

            “Tishalullé knows this,” the hag said.  “What do you wish to know?”

            “We have friends among those who live on the islands,” Lanara said.  “They have been subjected to attacks lately.  We believe that the force that is causing these attacks is the same that is causing the disturbance among the sea life, and if so, we wish to know what that is and how to stop it.”

            “The spirits demand a price that is high for answers that search so far,” Tishalullé said.

            “And what happens if we don’t wish to pay their price?” Lanara asked.

            The hag smiled, showing off jagged, crooked teeth.  “Then your question goes unanswered, land-dweller, as do many of the great questions of this life.”

            “What price do the spirits ask for the information we seek?” Arrie asked.

            “The spirit’s business is the spirit’s own,” Tishalullé said.  “Their first price is secrecy.  You must not tell anyone what they ask of you.”

            The group nodded.  They’d been expecting this, and it wasn’t as though they were unaccustomed to promises not to reveal information.

            “The spirits can count on our discretion,” Arrie said.

            “Tishalullé knows this.”  The hag inhaled deeply, seeming to almost fall asleep for a brief moment.  Then she opened her black, soulless eyes.  “The spirits need one of their own returned to them.  The spirit has drifted from where they belong, into the realm of the spirits of the dead.  You must find a spirit of the living in the land of the dead, and return it to its proper place.  Do this, and then return to see Tishalullé.  Then the spirits will answer your questions.”

            “Is there a time limit on this?” Lanara asked.

            “Only if your questions have one,” Tishalullé said.

            “Okay, then,” Lanara said.  “As soon as possible then.  Kyle, let’s go home and take a nap.”

            Kyle tried hard to suppress a grin and almost succeeded.  “Gosh, Lanara, Autumn would be awfully upset…”

            “Not with me, you moron!” Lanara blurted.  “I’m interested in someone else!”

            “Besides, she is pursuing a prince, not a mere duke,” Xu said, getting into the spirit.

            “I’m not quite a duke,” Kyle corrected.

            “That’s right, ‘Duke-Consort’,” Arrie quipped.

            “While this conversation is fascinating, land-dwellers,” Tishalullé sighed, “it would be better if you held it somewhere else.”

            Tolly turned to the hag.  “You have no idea how many times I’ve tried to say that.”  He paused.  “Actually, you might.”

            Tishalullé smiled at Tolly, which seemed to be intended as charming, though the effect was more terrifying.

            Their return trip to the island was uneventful, other than the fact that Kyle ended up sailing in the wrong direction for an hour before the party noted that the sun should really be ahead of them, not behind them.  As they’d decided not to discuss the hag’s terms until they could present it to everyone, the ride back was also mostly silent.  Lanara slept again on the tight netting between the hulls, until they were just about to slide onto the beach, when Tolly reached over and startled her awake, shouting about how the boat was capsizing.  A moment later the cansin, her face covered with sand, jumped back up onto the catamaran and shoved Tolly off the other side.

            The party reunited with Autumn and Osborn, and told them of Tishalullé’s bargain.  They agreed that on the surface, the price seemed acceptable, though some niggling questions remained.

            “What kind of spirit?” Autumn asked.

            “I think more important than ‘what’ is ‘how’,” Osborn said.  “Any idea how you find an unborn spirit on the Shadow plane and get it back?”

            Everyone looked at Kyle, who shrugged.  “No idea.  If we were somewhere with a library, I could look it up, but…” he gestured to the palm trees and grass huts surrounding them.

            “Let me ask around,” Lanara said.  “Someone on this island might know something.”

            As it turned out, Lanara was right.  She learned that there was a hermit who lived on the top of the mountain peak, who was called simply ‘the wise man’.  It was suggested that he was very knowledgeable about mystical matters.  Lanara, Arrie, Xu and Osborn decided to make the journey, leaving Tolly, Autumn and Kyle behind to rest up for tomorrow’s journey and to help if there were any more attacks on the island.

            The sun was low in the sky by the time the four adventurers made their way up the mountain to the peak.  Once there, they were surprised to see that the peak was somewhat flat, and torches had been set all around the mountain.  Two other features stood out; the first was an enormous tree, whose trunk was so large that the four of them, linking hands, would not have been able to reach even halfway around.  The other was a man, who was sitting on a rock looking north.  His hair and long beard were wild and unkempt, and his skin was dark and weathered.  He wore simple clothing made of hemp, without any of the bright colors or patterns seen in the native garb.  Cautiously, the adventurers approached.

            “Hello,” said the wise man in a dry, yet deep voice.  “Have you come to watch the storm?”  His eyes were deep set, but piercing; Lanara immediately noticed that one of his eyes was ocean blue, the other bright green, much like her own.

            “We weren’t aware there was a storm,” Lanara said.

            The wise man pointed north.  They all looked, but could see nothing but blue sky and ocean.

            “A storm is coming,” the wise man said, “A very unusual storm.” Then he turned his gaze onto the group.  “But you didn’t come to ask me about a storm.”

            Looking out over the ocean, Arrie was suddenly not so sure they shouldn’t be asking about it.  She recalled the magestorm they’d endured in Noxolt, when Kyle and Autumn had been attacked by the Scion-Watchers, and they’d met the two dragons Anduriel and Tiranel.  Arrie wondered if this ‘unusual’ storm was another one like it.  But without being able to see anything herself, there was no way to even guess what made the supposed storm so odd to the wise man.

            “We have come to ask your help in a quest we’ve been given,” Lanara said.  “You seem to be our best bet for getting the information we need.”

            “What kind of information?”

            “We need to find a spirit that belongs on the Ethereal Plane and return it there, but it’s currently on the Shadow,” Lanara explained.  “We’re not certain how to accomplish this.”

            “You seek life and death,” the wise man said.  “How ironic.  Most seek neither, as they already possess the one, and the other will come to find them in due time.”

            “So, any suggestions?”  Lanara was hoping this wouldn’t be one of those ‘wise men’ that dispensed knowledge in indecipherable mumbo-jumbo or obtuse prophecy.

            “Death abhors life,” the wise man said, “and therefore will try to hunt it and subsume it.  In the realm of death, watch for those who live there.  Wherever they go, you will find the life you seek.  This is the cycle.  Death feeds on life, life feeds on death.”

            “Okay,” Lanara said.  It was surprisingly straightforward advice, but the bard felt it wasn’t quite enough.  They knew how to find the spirit, but how to get it back?  “I don’t suppose you have anything of more… tangible assistance to us?  The advice and knowledge is insightful, but getting the spirit back where it belongs is beyond our capability.”

            The wise man looked at Lanara for a moment, and then suddenly stood up, jumped off his rock, and walked over to the large tree.  Transforming himself into a monkey, he climbed up to the highest branches.  He returned carrying a branch, which bore leaves and a few small, unripe fruits which none of them recognized.  Turning back into a human, the wise man looked the group over for a moment, and then handed the branch to Xu.

            “This is a key,” the wise man said.  “It opens the door between death and life.  It will only work once, so use it wisely.”

            “Thank you,” Xu said, bowing.

            “There is a price,” the wise man said.  “This tree marks a place of power, a place where the cycle of Erito takes form*.  By taking this key to the Shadow, you empower the realm of death, ever so slightly, until the key is used.  To take this key, you must provide a counterbalance to the realm of life.”

            “Okay,” Lanara said, “how do we do that?”

            “One of you must remain here, close to the tree, until the key is used,” the wise man explained.  “The realm of life will draw upon your own living spirit to balance the power.  Whoever stays will not be harmed by this.”

            The four climbers looked at each other.  “I’ll stay,” Osborn offered.  “If you guys are going to the Shadow plane, you’ll probably end up fighting undead, and that’s not really my strong point anyway.”  The hin drew his short sword and held it out, pommel first.  “This sword’s enchanted to really hurt undead.  If someone wants to borrow it, they can.”

            “Thanks, Osborn,” Lanara said, taking the sword and sliding it in her pack.  “We’ll hurry back.”

            “Don’t worry about it,” Osborn said.  “I can hang out up here for a while.  I’ll get some rest, watch the storm coming in, climb the tree…”

            “Do not climb the tree,” the wise man said.

            “Okay, then, I won’t do that.”  But he turned and flashed a big wink to Arrie.

*          *          *​
            The next morning, the party assembled on the beach, ready to go.

            “Oh, wonderful,” Arrie sighed.  “Another trip to the land of the dead.”

            “At least it’s not involuntary,” Tolly offered.

            “Yeah, because the last time I was placed involuntarily into a near-death state it was a laugh riot,” Arrie griped.

            “And you could have out-drank a dwarf afterward,” Tolly said.

            “I had a lot of living to catch up on.”

            “I’m not sure I would consider that ‘living’.”

            “The presence of sensation was all I needed,” Arrie said.  “Even the hangover was enjoyable.”

            “I’ve had mornings like that,” Lanara said.

            “Anyway,” Kyle said, “are we ready?”  Besides wanting to get started, Kyle didn’t want Arrie to keep dwelling on her experiences in Miracle too much.  She’d have a hard enough time having to be in the Shadow plane at all.

            Kyle cast his spell, and soon they all found themselves in the gray, featureless expanse of the Shadow plane.  They looked around at the landscape, a distorted mirror image of the real world.  Sound was muted, and color almost nonexistent.  Everyone shuddered and pulled their cloaks tightly around their shoulders as the chill of the plane set in.

            “Anyone have an idea where we should start?” Lanara asked.  “I don’t see any ethereal spirits around here.”

            “Hold on,” Kyle said.  He cast a spell, and suddenly a large number of eyeballs appeared around him.  He concentrated for a moment, and then the eyes zoomed off in all directions.

            “That’s a disturbing spell, Kyle,” Tolly said.

            “I’ve instructed them to return when they see a large group of creatures besides us,” Kyle said.  If it’s within a mile, we should be able to spot them.”

            The party waited on the gray beach near the gray ocean, watching as barely-audible gray waves crashed at their feet.  After about forty-five minutes, one of the eyes zipped back.  Kyle held it in his hand for a while, his eyes closed, and then the eye vanished with a pop.

            “I’ve got it,” he said.  “They’re out by where Tishalullé lives.  There’s a white ghost-like spirit being pursued by several shadowy black creatures.  There seems to be an energy or essence leaking out of the white spirit.  They’re all coming this way.”

            “Let’s go,” said Tolly, drawing his maul.

            “No need,” Kyle said.  “Things travel faster on the Shadow.  They’ll be on top of us in a minute or so.  Get ready.”

            The party made their preparations, casting a bevy of protective spells.  Lanara’s bardic song was already underway when the mob reached them.

            The saw the white ghostly form, hazy and indistinct, racing straight toward them.  Behind it was a half-dozen of the black forms, which looked like shadows, though larger and more… shadowy than ones they’d seen before.  Xu immediately ran forward, and with her natural foot speed enhanced by Kyle’s _haste _spell, she was able to close with the lead shadow in mere moments.  Unfortunately, her very solid fist passed right through the insubstantial shadow.  Xu felt numbing cold spreading up to her shoulder before she withdrew her arm.

            Arrie was the next to move in, running right past the spirit and into the largest cluster of shadows.  She swung her chain wide, and connected with all four as they tried to pass her.  All four recoiled as the metal chain ripped through them; it had been enchanted to deal with insubstantial creatures such as they.  Ignoring their prize, the four shadows converged on Arrie, a situation that seemed to suit the warrior just fine.

            Tolly moved up to assist Arrie, ready to bathe the area with celestial brilliance.  But as the spirit floated by, he paused.  Though indistinct, the spirit’s features were definitely hag-like.

_No wonder Tishalullé wanted this spirit saved_, he thought.  He was about to release his spell, but again hesitated.  The spell damaged evil creatures; it would hurt the shadows, but what about the unborn soul of a hag?  He focused for a moment on the spirit, using his training as an Inquisitor to read the hag’s aura.  As he expected, there was a strong taint of evil.  Sighing, he abandoned his spell, knowing that he risked destroying the spirit they’d come to rescue.

            Autumn charged the one shadow that had slipped past the others, laying into it with her axe but failing to connect with the insubstantial shadow.  Kyle launched an immense sphere of electricity into the group around Arrie, bending his spell through sheer will to create a hole in the blast around his friend.  Two of the shadows were unharmed, but one vaporized, and another appeared to diminish.

            Lanara looked to see where she could help out.  She saw the shadow attacking Autumn connect, drawing the sentinel’s strength away, and decided to come to her aid.  She started to release the strings of her lute so she could hurl a whip _feather token_ at the shadow, but suddenly a compulsion seized her, and she realized she didn’t want to stop playing.  _Qin-Chu’s Toes!_ she swore to herself, realizing that for the first time since she’d begun collecting and merging the True Instruments, she had failed to maintain control over them.  All she could do was keep playing, and hope it would end soon.

            Arrie swung her chain again, ripping through shadows, while nearby Xu pounded her target with fists and feet, connecting enough times to batter the undead creature senseless.  Autumn and her shadow were also locked in combat, the sentinel’s greataxe flashing despite the oppressive gloom of the plane.  The hag-spirit floated past Kyle, in the rear of the battle, who immediately stepped toward it.

            “Wait!” he called out, “we’re here to help you!  We can get you home!”
            When the spirit paused, Kyle reached out and cast a spell, covering the spirit in a shroud of negative energy that hid it from the shadow’s senses.  The spirit, seeing that the shadows were no longer trying to break away from combat to pursue it, stopped running and turned to Kyle.

            “You… help me?” it asked in an ephemeral voice.

            Tolly lent his aid to Autumn, blasting her shadow with _deific vengeance_, even as Arrie finished off two more shadows and Xu destroyed hers as well.  The two remaining shadows tried to break away and run, but the party converged on them and destroyed them.

            As the party wound down from the frenzy of battle, they immediately noticed that Lanara was still singing.  “Um, Lanara?” Arrie ventured.

            Lanara looked at the warrior.  Her face strained with a sudden effort, and a trickle of sweat ran down her forehead.  Abruptly, the bard stopped singing, and with a sigh put her instrument away.  “Yes?” she asked.

            “Don’t you normally do more in battle while singing?” Tolly asked.

            “Shut up!” the cansin snapped.  “You know not of what you speak!  Be quiet!”  Tolly shrugged and turned away.

            They all gathered around the hag-spirit next, who seemed weak and frail.  Its essence was still trailing off into the Shadow, though not as rapidly.  “You… help me… out….”

“Sure,” Lanara said, “we’re the good guys.”

“Actually, in this case that would normally be an impediment,” said Arrie, “but sure, we’ll help.”

 “Door…” the hag-spirit said, pointing with a bony, withered finger toward the center of the island, indicating the top of the mountain.

“Door it is, then,” said Kyle, and they floated off.

It took only a few minutes for the party to close the distance to the island’s peak.  The first thing they noticed at the top was that the enormous tree that they’d seen there was also present in the Shadow plane.  This was unusual enough, since most of the time living plants and animals in the material world were not reflected in the Shadow, but what made it stand out more was that the tree was a deep, lightless black, that seemed to absorb what little light there was.

“Door…” the hag-spirit said, pointing at the tree.

“Looks like we have a ‘tree of life’ thing going here,” Lanara said.  “Xu, you stil got that stick?”

The monk produced the branch.  “But if this is the key, where is the lock?” she asked.

Most of the party started searching the tree, while Arrie and Tolly kept an eye out for undead.  Finally, Xu found a spot on the bark that was loose, and when she moved it aside, a bean of white light shot out across the plane.

“I think that’s it,” Lanara said.

The party and the spirit gathered around as Xu placed the end of the stick against the beam.  The light spread up and down in a thin line, and then began to widen, giving a visual impression of someone opening a set of double doors into a brightly lit room.  When the light had reached about ten feet across and about twenty high, it stopped, and there was an audible click, which sounded clear despite the sound-muting properties of the Shadow plane.  Suddenly, there was an enormous rushing of force toward the doorway, as though they had opened into a vacuum and air was rushing in.  The hag-spirit rushed through the door without hesitation, while the party resisted the pull.  Unfortunately, the pull was very strong, and moments later Kyle, Autumn, Xu, and Lanara were sucked through the doorway and vanished.

“We should go after them!” Tolly shouted over the maelstrom.

Arrie hesitated.  She had no idea if going to the Ethereal plane would cause problems for her as a psionic being.  She’d never even considered bringing the subject up to Aran, or even Kyle.

Tolly sensed her uncertainty.  “Think of it as a rebirth!” he yelled, offering her his hand.
_
Well, better the plane of the unborn than the plane of the dead,_ she thought, and took Tolly’s hand and let herself be pulled through the door just as it slammed shut.

*          *          *​
            Literally a world away, but not as far as he thought, Osborn had grown bored.  He’d spent the night up on the mountain, and initially had enjoyed exploring, climbing around the mountain, and watching for the alleged storm to the north that never materialized.  But the wise man proved a limited conversationalist, and he soon ran out of entertaining things to throw rocks at.  When he awoke the next morning, he decided he was going to climb the big tree.

            Osborn looked in on the wise man, and saw that he was sitting in meditation, his eyes closed.  Quietly, he slipped away and approached the enormous tree.  Try as he might, Osborn couldn’t even begin to guess what kind of tree it was, or how old.  But the bark was rough, and there were a lot of sturdy branches, so the tree was practically begging to be climbed.

            He made his way up into the foliage, scampering up nearly as fast as the wise man had yesterday while in the form of a monkey.  Surprisingly, he saw no signs of insects, or birds nesting in the branches.  The leaves were very dense, and Osborn only caught the occasional glimpse of sunlight peeking through.

            He decided he would try and find the spot where the wise man had broken off the branch he’d given to Xu.  It took several minutes of guesswork and climbing, but finally he was able to locate a tiny knothole in one of the highest branches.  Examining the hole, Osborn was surprised to see that it didn’t look like that branch had been cut off, nor broken off.  It had simply detached and fallen off in the wise man’s hands.  The wood showing through the small round hole was white, and felt slightly springy.  As he considered this, he noticed a slight sparkling near the knothole.  As he watched, the sparkling coalesced into a faint white light that seemed to emanate from under the bark.  Curious, Osborn poked at the hole with a finger to see if it was warm to the touch.  As soon as he did, however, his finger stuck fast as if glued in place.  As Osborn pulled at his hand to free it, the light began to spread up his finger toward his wrist.  The light was warm and pleasant feeling, but still unnerving to Osborn, who tried desperately to break free.  The light spread quickly up his arm and shoulder, and enveloped his chest.  Within moments, it had covered his entire body.  With a cry of surprise, Osborn vanished into thin air, and the light disappeared.  Where Osborn’s finger had been stuck, a small branch laden with immature fruits now protruded.

            A short distance away, the wise man opened his eyes.  “I told him not to climb the tree,” he said to no one in particular, and then turned into a seagull and flew off.

*          *          *​
            The Ethereal plane is the realm of the unborn.  It is also the realm of possibility, of potential.  Like its opposite, the Shadow, the surface of Aelfenn is reflected in the Ethereal, though here the images of living things can be seen as well.  Unlike the Shadow, everything is shrouded in white, and there is an explosion of life and vitality there.  Looking skyward, one sees not only the weather as it is, but in every possible combination.  Thus clear skies coexist with hurricanes, gentle rain showers, even snowstorms.  Plant and animal life of every variety bursts from the ground, overlapping each other.  Here a desert cactus crowds out a fern, there a family of squirrels rides on the back of an elasmosaurus.

            The party found themselves marveling at these sights, as they stood at the base of the only non-mutable object in the area; the tree atop the mountain, which was now pure white in color.  Nearby, the hag-spirit stood, absorbing the energy of its home plane.  Once Kyle had dispelled the shroud of negative energy around it, the spirit had begun to grow and heal, the rents in its form closing even as it grew from a shriveled form the size of a human to its full, nine-foot height.

            The hag-spirit regarded the party.  “This… will not be forgotten.”  Then the hag turned and floated off rapidly.

            “Say hello to Tishalullé for us!” Lanara called out.

            “So, I take it that was the spirit you had to rescue?” Osborn asked.

            Everyone turned at once.  “What are you doing here?” Arrie said, shocked.

            Osborn explained his tree-climbing adventure and what had happened to him.  After the party filled him in on the rescue, Tolly looked around.

            “So, are we ready to go back?” he asked.

            “Shouldn’t we get closer to the village, so we don’t have to climb down the mountain?” Kyle asked.

            Tolly shook his head.  “The _plane shift_ spell is inaccurate, much like your _shadow walk_ over long distances,” he said.  “In fact, I can guarantee that we’ll be off target.  Which reminds me…” Tolly cast a spell, and touched everyone in the group.  “That will keep you from sinking.”

            “How far off the mark will this land us?” Lanara asked.

            “Anywhere from one league to about a hundred and fifty leagues,” Tolly said.  Noting the looks he was getting, he added,  “our other choice is to look for another ‘door’ like this one, but even then we have no key.  And the natives here aren’t necessarily friendly.”

            “So, we’re getting wet,” Kyle said.  “Well, let’s just hope for the best.”

            The party joined hands, and Tolly cast his spell.  Moments later, they had vanished.

*          *          *​
            High in the sky, the wise man circled in the thermal currents above the island.  He looked all around him as he flew, but paused as he glanced northeast.

_Odd,_ he thought to himself, _why would seven people choose to stand in the middle of the ocean?_

-----------------------------------

* Recall that in this setting, Erito is the goddess of magic as well as life and death.  She transforms the energy of life and death into magic - whenever a soul leaves the Ethereal to be born as a new being, or when a being dies and their soul goes to the Shadow, a little bit of the energy used in that transition bleeds off and gets used by Erito.

This is the reason that characters who are raised lose a level; it's called 'Erito's Tithe', and is the payment that a raised soul has to make to compensate for the energy that Erito loses.  In the case of a _true resurrection_, the assumption is that the cleric casting the spell is in such high standing with their deity that the deity pays the Tithe for the raised soul (or, if the cleric is a priest of Erito, she just foregoes the Tithe).


----------



## Delemental

“Where in Feesha’s name are we?”

            The seven adventurers found themselves in the middle of the ocean, with waves rolling underfoot.  The party bobbed up and down on the surface, looking around to see if they could spot anything they recognized.

            “We’re on Aelfenn,” Tolly said to Lanara’s question.  “Close to the islands.  Unfortunately, I can’t really say how far, or in what direction.  Shifting between planes is an imprecise process.”

            “You can say that again,” Lanara said, turning green as another wave rolled under her feet and lifted her into the air.  She had a sudden newfound respect for boats.

            “Well, we know that way is north, at least,” Xu said, pointing across the horizon after checking the position of the sun.

            “Hey,” Kyle said, “what is that?”  He was staring at the northern horizon, squinting against the sun glaring off the ocean.  Everyone turned to look, and eventually they were able to make out something just barely visible, a faint darkish line.

            “Land?” Arrie suggested.

            “Could be.  But didn’t you say that guy on the mountain was talking about a storm to the north?”

            “That doesn’t look like a storm to me,” Autumn said.

            “No, but that does,” said Osborn, pointing east.  Sure enough, on the eastern horizon a line of gray clouds was forming.

            “Well then,” Tolly said, “I can _wind walk_ us out of here.”

            “Yeah, but which way?” Arrie said. “If we go the wrong way, we’re in no better shape than we were before.”

            “Maybe we should head north, for that land mass,” Kyle suggested.  “Once we’re there, then we can get our bearings.”

            “Do you still have that _feather token_, Tolly?” Lanara asked.

            “The boat token?  Yes, but there’s no need to waste it now.”

            Lanara was about to protest, when Osborn pointed again, this time at Autumn.  “Hey, what’s that?”

            Looking down, Autumn saw that there was a faint blue glow coming from one of her belt pouches.  Opening it up, she extracted a gold and platinum ring that bore the likeness of a dragon.  The ring was glowing brightly.

            “Hey!” she said, “I’d almost forgotten about this!”

            “Where did you get that ring?” Tolly asked.

            “I’ve had this for a long time, actually,” Autumn said.

            “A dragon gave it to her,” Kyle said.  “Anduriel.”

            Autumn removed one of the rings she was already wearing, and slipped on the dragon ring.  She waited for a moment, but nothing happened.

            “Turn around,” Kyle said.  “Maybe it gets brighter when it points a certain direction.”

            She turned as Kyle asked, but there was no change in the glow.  “Do you remember what you were supposed to do with that ring?” Lanara asked.

            Autumn thought for a moment.  “He said, ‘If your need to speak with me is great, concentrate on this ring and I will help you if I can.’”

            “Okay, so, why not ask Anduriel which way we should go?” Lanara suggested.

            Kyle coughed.  “You’re going to bother a dragon to ask it for directions?”

            “I agree,” Tolly said.  “We shouldn’t bother it.  Dragons are too busy for something like this.”

            “Although,” Kyle said suddenly, “we are still carrying around all of that magical gear that the dragon loaned us for our south pole expedition.  If we called him and offered to give it back…”

            “No, no, that was the other one,” said Anduriel, whose enormous head had popped up out of the ocean.

            After the initial shock, Osborn was the first to react.  “Hi!” he said gleefully.

            “Hello,” Autumn offered, “how are you?”

            “Considerably better than you, I’d say,” Anduriel said.

            “We’re not drowning,” Tolly pointed out.

            “Not yet.  But whatever magic is holding you up won’t last forever; and if not drowning, dying of thirst is also very unpleasant.”

            “Well, what can we do for you?” Tolly asked.

            “Actually, it’s more what can I do for you?”

            “Get us back to the islands?” Lanara asked.

            “Certainly,” Anduriel said.  “Least I can do after your help with that Auxariel mess.”

            “We’d greatly appreciate your assistance,” Autumn said.

            “Very well.  I was going to do some further investigation on that fleet over there,” he said, craning his neck northward, “but…”

            “Fleet?” said Tolly.

            “Fleet?” said Kyle.

            “Fleet?” said Autumn.  

            “Fleet?” said Lanara.

            “Yes.  Come on.  Hop on the back, and I’ll tell you about it on the way back.”

            Everyone quickly climbed aboard the dragon’s large back as soon as he swam around under them.  “This is so neat!” Osborn squealed, practically jumping up and down with joy.

            “By the way,” Anduriel said, as everyone found a place to sit, “if you tell anyone about this, I’ll wait until your grandchildren are alive, and then hunt them down and kill them.”

            “Tell anyone that we’ve met you?” Tolly asked.

            “No, that you’re riding me.  I’d never live it down.”

            Anduriel suddenly surged forward through the ocean, tucking his legs against his body and using his wings like giant scoops to propel himself through the water.  As white spray flew back, soaking everyone, the bronze dragon called back to them.

            “So, how did you all end up out here?” he asked.

            “Plane shifting,” Tolly said in Draconic.  Anduriel nodded, needing no further explanation.  Kyle, Arrie and Autumn all nodded in understanding.  Lanara quickly cast a _tongues _ spell on herself, and then, realizing that Tolly would likely not think to speak in a language they would all understand, cast the same spell on Xu and Osborn as well.

            “Just in case something happens,” Anduriel was saying, “you’re about fifteen miles northeast of the Archipelago.  You’ll get back if you keep going this direction.”

            “Thank you.  Now, you were going to tell us about this fleet?” Autumn prompted.

            “Ah, yes.  Apparently, there’s a very large fleet of ships coming in.  They seem to be flying the flags of the Tauric Empire.”

            “The what?” Autumn and Tolly asked.

            “Remember Captain Starke?” Kyle said to Autumn.  “A good part of his crew was from there.  It’s where normal humans are slaves, and the ruling class is made of  monsters who are half animal, half human, or what wizards usually call ‘tauric’ creatures.  Thus, the Tauric Empire.”

            “Are they coming for slaves?” Autumn asked.

            “I don’t know, “Anduriel admitted.  “It’s a big raid if they are.”

            “How many ships, did you say?” Lanara asked.

            “All of them, I think,” the dragon said.

            “Oh, no,” Autumn moaned.

            “We could be in deep trouble,” Lanara said.

            “Considering that their Empire is twice the size of your entire continent, I’d say that was accurate,” the dragon opined.

            Autumn turned to Kyle.  “When did this become the honeymoon from Uros?” *

            “I’d say about two hours past dawn yesterday,” Tolly offered.

            “I’m actually starting to feel like Fate had it in for us the day I proposed,” Kyle said sadly.

            “So, the Tauric Empire,” Tolly asked Anduriel, “isn’t it possible that this is a peaceful fleet?”
            “From what I’ve seen, all of the Empire’s ships are out there.  Doesn’t seem peaceful to me.”

            “All of them?” Tolly asked, just to make sure he’d heard right.

            Anduriel nodded.  “They’ve got a lot of people on those ships, too.”

            “There hasn’t been any sort of disaster in the Tauric Empire recently, has there?” Osborn asked.

            “I don’t know.  That’s part of what I was going over there to investigate.”

            “Well, what say we ask them, if we can find someone willing to parley,” Lanara said.

            “First we should get back, and warn King Bali,” Kyle said.

            “We should send some messengers to the Peca Provinces,” Tolly said.  “If we’re facing a naval invasion, then we’ll need the help of the gnomes.”

            “Is the Tauric fleet heading for Affon, or for the Archipelago?” Kyle asked.

            “Hard to say at this point,” Anduriel said, “but they have enough ships to simply overwhelm the islands and continue on to the continent.  I suggest you advise the Seven Kings to evacuate the Red Archipelago.”

            Kyle shook his head.  “They’ll never let us come back for a second honeymoon after this.”

            “That assumes that there are islands to come back to,” Anduriel said.

            Tolly looked north toward the strange dark line on the horizon that they all now knew was not land.  “I’d forgotten how interesting it was to travel with all of you,” he said.  “I need to get Iria back to Medos.”

*          *            *​
            Anduriel stopped well short of the islands, not wanting to alarm the locals with the arrival of a dragon.  The party jumped off his back after Autumn summoned a celestial dolphin and Tolly summoned a celestial orca whale to use as transport.  They watched as the bronze dragon dove, and then shot up into the air, spreading his wings and flying north.

            They talked about everything that needed to be done, or could be done; issuing _sendings _ to the heads of the six major nations and the five major churches in Affon (though they were unsure whether to bother contacting the Emperor of Targeth, assuming that the xenophobic country would simply hide behind their impenetrable shield and offer no help).  Kyle wanted to return to the Tlaxan’s capital city to research everything he could about the Tauric Empire, in an effort to figure out what their purpose might be.  Lanara still advocated diplomacy, though she admitted that without knowing more about the Tauric Empire’s intent, sending an emissary would be fruitless.  The one thing they all agreed on, however, was that the first order of business was to get the people of the Red Archipelago off the islands.

            As soon as they made landfall, the party made haste to get to King Bali’s home, ignoring the stares of the villagers on the beach who were pointing at the celestial dolphin who was happily swimming away, and the whale that was vanishing with a sparkle of light.

            When Bali heard the news that the party delivered, his reaction was not quite what they had expected.

            “Understand that it’s not that I don’t believe what you’re saying,” the king said, “it’s that getting the other six kings to gather all their people and flee our homes in the face of this ‘Tauric Empire invasion’ will require something more in the way of proof than the word of some honeymooners who’ve been out enjoying the ocean all day.”

            “Send some dolphin riders out about a hundred and fifty miles north,” Tolly demanded.  “When they come back, then we can proceed with the evacuation.”

            “We will look into it,” King Bali reassured them.  “I will also issue an invitation to the other six kings to join us tonight… for a feast in honor of the Princess of Tlaxan and Duchess of Vargex.  We can discuss the matter then.”

            “King Bali,” Tolly said evenly, “I am Inquisitor Primus of the Church of Ardara.  I would not, to put it into more earthly terms, bullsh*t you on this.”

            “I know you would not,” Bali said.  “But I am one of the Seven Kings of the Red Archipelago, bearer of Tul-Antha’s Crown.  You are asking me, and my six peers, to abandon our homes based on something that you have seen from a great distance… which you yourselves could not identify until you were told of its nature by this dragon you met in the midst of the ocean.  I will confirm your words before I act.”

            “So telling them that a dragon warned us won’t help?” Lanara asked.

            “If anything, such a claim will only hurt your cause,” the king said.  “It begins to sound like the wild tale a child would tell to cover up a small lie.”

            “Confirm it, then,” Tolly said, “but confirm it quickly.”

            Dolphin riders were sent out to the other six major islands of the Archipelago within the hour, amidst great fanfare and cheer.  The distraction this provided allowed a small, sleek catamaran to set out unnoticed and head north.  King Bali informed the Legacy that this ship was powered by a pair of water elementals that were bound into the twin hulls, a gift from a visiting wizard many decades ago.  Only meant for use during extreme emergencies, the king wanted to keep its deployment a secret, so as not to raise alarm.

            “Hopefully this convinces you of the trust I place in your word,” he said.  “Sending dolphins or regular ships as far out as you say would take days.”

            In the hours leading up to the feast, Lanara spent time with Prince Mu’ara, telling him what they’d learned and trying to persuade him to advocate for them should the need arise.  The others tried to guess how long it would take before the Tauric fleet arrived; Kyle, who was the only one with practical nautical experience, guessed it would be about a week, give or take a day.

            “That storm coming in from the east may slow them down,” Kyle said, “but it may not.”

            With little else to do, the party pitched in to help Bali’s daughters prepare the feast.  Lajila and Nidru were grateful for the help, as they were quite busy – too busy to even take advantage of Tolly’s presence.

            As the sun dipped toward the western ocean, warriors blew on conch shells to announce the arrival of the other kings.  As their ships arrived, and they were greeted at the shore by King Bali and Prince Mu’ara, the king’s younger son Aruna remained with the party, informing them who was who as each one came forward.

            “That is King Keleko,” Aruna said, “he is the bearer of Tul-Antha’s Spear.” The man on the beach was very tall, and carried a golden spear much like the one King Bali carried, but much larger and made of coral.

“Next is his twin sister, Queen Kelana,” Aruna said, indicating the tall, striking woman behind Keleko. She wore a cloak that looked like it was made from flowers.  “Bearer of Tul-Antha’s Mantle,” Aruna explained.

Next came a unusually slender, pale man, obviously air-touched, carrying a pearl-encrusted rod. “King Peleke, bearer of Tul-Antha’s Scepter.”

Aruna pointed out the next king, who was just jumping down from his ship.  Strangely, he kept his grasp on his oar, which was made from a rich, dark wood.  Aruna was quick to explain.  “King Kai-Nui, bearer of Tul-Antha’s Oar.”

            “One of the seven treasures of Tul-Antha is an oar?” Osborn asked.

            “When one rules a kingdom of islands, the oar can be as much a symbol of power as a spear,” Aruna explained.  He then pointed out into the bay, where two more ships were maneuvering into place.  “That is the ship of Queen Akoni,” he said.  “bearer of Tul-Antha’s Horn.  And that is the ship of King Iepi, bearer of Tul-Antha’s Net.”

            The party looked, and saw a short but regal gnomish woman standing on the deck of the ship, cradling a large conch shell.  The other ship bore a rotund man carrying a mahogany box, which Aruna explained was where Tul-Antha’s Net was stored.

            Once the official greetings were made, the Seven Kings made their way up to Bali’s home, where the Legacy was formally introduced.  Then the Kings and their entourages were led to the feast area.  Unlike the celebration two nights ago, this time long tables had been set up, laden with a variety of food and drink.  After the guests were seated and the feast had begun, King Bali also summoned the entertainment for the evening.  Several scantily clad dancers, both men and women, who jumped and cavorted about to the rhythm of large drums, while they twirled large bamboo poles in the air.  The bamboo had been cut with several grooves and holes, which caused them to emit a haunting drone which varied in pitch as the poles were spun faster or slower.  Though impressive, the festivities did little to mollify the party, who noted that King Bali did not seem to be speaking with his peers about the approaching armada.

            About an hour into the feast, a tan elf with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes walked into the village.  He sat down in the midst of the party, draping his expensive robes over his legs.  “What are we having?” he asked.

            “Roast pig, crab, and more fish than you can shake a harpoon at,” Lanara replied.

            “Roast pig!  Excellent.  I get tired of fish.”

            Tolly looked at the elf.  “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

            Autumn was about to correct Tolly, when she realized that the Ardaran had not been with them when they’d gone to Noxolt to prepare for their voyage to the south pole.  “Tolly, this is Anduriel.  This is how he appeared to us when we first met him.”

            Tolly studied the newcomer.  “Ah.  Polymorphing, of course.  Welcome back.”

            “What news do you bring?” Autumn asked.

            “I have good news, bad news, and worse news,” Anduriel said.  “Which do you want first?”

            Autumn sighed.  “Let’s have the good news first.”

            “The good news is that the storm to the east will definitely delay the Tauric fleet,” the dragon said, talking through bites of roasted boar.  “They won’t arrive here for a week and a half.”

            “Hooray!” Osborn said.

            “The bad news?” Tolly asked.

            “The bad news is that the fleet is definitely hostile.”

            “How do you know?” asked Kyle.

            “I flew over their armada, trying to count their banners.  I didn’t get a good look at the crew – I saw mostly centaurs, and of course the humanoid slave rowers.  When I banked in for a better look, they fired on me.  Spells, ballista, even manticores!  Can you imagine?  The young races have no respect.”

            “What about the worse news?” Tolly and Autumn said in unison.

            “That storm I mentioned?  It’ll hit the Archipelago tonight, and probably last for the next two days.”

            The party was so inured to bad news by this point that they barely reacted.  Instead, Tolly stood up and crossed over to where King Bali sat.  The priest whispered in Bali’s ear, and the king frowned.  He waved over one of his warriors, gave him instructions, and sat back as the young man dashed off.  A few minutes later, the warrior reappeared and signaled his king.  Bali stood up and held his arms in the air.  Almost immediately, the drumming and dancing stopped, and everyone looked at him.

            “Our guest, Inquisitor Nightsleaving of Ardara, has important news that we all must hear,” he shouted.  Bali then turned to Tolly.  “Warn them of the storm only,” he cautioned.  “No mention of dragons, or warships yet.”

            “A great storm is coming from the east,” Tolly said loudly.  “The gods have spoken to me and revealed this.” _It’s not really a lie_, he said to himself, _dragons are the emissaries of the gods_.  “You may wish to consult with your own diviners, but I am told that the storm will reach here late this evening.”

            King Keleko stood up.  “If King Bali says your warnings are accurate, then I accept them as true,” he said.  “If a storm is coming, then we must bring this celebration to a close.  My apologies to Bali’s honored guests, but the Seven Kings must return to their domains to look after their subjects.”

            The other kings queens nodded, and soon everyone was standing up and preparing to leave.  Tolly turned to Bali.

            “What about the ships from the Tauric Empire?” he asked.

            “There was no time to tell them,” he replied.  “And now they will be too concerned about the storm to listen.  The scout ship will not return until tomorrow.”

            Tolly threw his arms up in the air.  “Then these islands are doomed,” he said, exasperated.

            Suddenly, Lanara put her hand on Tolly’s arm.  “Wait, Tolly,” she said.  “I think I can get through to them.”

            “How?”

            The bard turned toward the crowd, some of whom were already starting to head toward the beach where the ships were waiting.  She closed her eyes, concentrating for a moment, and then she started to speak.  Lanara’s voice rang out clearly across the entire village, instantly stopping everyone and drawing their attention to her.  She spoke plainly, without embellishment or poetics, though her words were no less compelling for it. She told everyone about the armada from the Tauric Empire, and how its existence had been confirmed by one of Krûsh’s own servants, the bronze dragon Anduriel, though she did not reveal his presence among the crowd.  Each word seemed to carry the weight of unequivocal Truth; one could not help but believe what Lanara said.  When she finished, there was a long silence, until finally King Peleke spoke.

            “When the storm passes,” he said, “we shall send messengers to that we may plan how best to bring our people to safety.”

            “Your people are welcome in the Duchy of Vargex,” Autumn said.  “I will contact my steward to make preparations.”

            “We are honored, Duchess,” said Queen Kelana.  “But we must now depart to see our people through this first storm, before we deal with the second.”

            As everyone hurried to their ships, Tolly went over to Lanara.  “That was… impressive,” he said to the cansin.  “More persuasive than I could had managed.”

            “It takes a lot of effort,” Lanara admitted.  “I had to pull out all the stops to do it.  It’s not something I care to do very often.”

            Meanwhile, King Bali approached Arrie, Autumn and Kyle.  “I must ask for another favor,” he began.

            “Tell us,” said Arrie.

            “I would like your help evacuating one of my kingdom’s outlying islands to the main island before the storm hits,” he said.  “The island is in the same area as the Drowned have been attacking, and I fear with the storm stirring up the ocean that those undead monsters may be stirred to strike.”

            “Not a problem,” Autumn said, “glad to help.”

            It was almost an hour before they were ready to depart.  King Bali sent the party, along with his own men, on a large, single-hulled cargo ship that had been commandeered to transport evacuees.  By the time they left, the wind was starting to pick up, and when they arrived, the winds were whipping furiously all around them, and they could hear the peal of thunder not too far away.  The wind and blowing sand made things hard enough, but poor Osborn was nearly knocked over and blown away by the winds, until he borrowed a pair of magical boots from Arrie that helped steady him.

            The party formed a defensive line on the beach, flanking either side of the villager’s escape route.  The rescue ship had stopped close to shore, and dropped a gangplank onto the sand just above the water line.  Now frightened men, women and children were running down the beach, toward the ramp, while the party waited on either side.

            They didn’t have long to wait.  A flash of lightning illuminated the small island, and in that brief flash they saw the shuffling approach of the Drowned, dripping as they emerged from the ocean.

            Arrie was first to react, hurling a shotput at one of the undead.  The wind pulled everything off target, but Arrie had compensated, and the shotput landed solidly against the skull of the Drowned.  It hardly seemed to notice, however, and it advanced on the warrior, even as its companions moved in on the rest of the party.  Tolly threw up a wall of whirling blades that arced from the gangplank and cut across the sand, blocking off half of the beach and carving deep gashes into two of the Drowned.  On the other side of the beach, Autumn, Xu and Osborn turned to face the Drowned menacing them.  Lanara tried to sing, but the strong winds ripped the notes from her lips as she sang, and she could only be heard a few feet away.  Kyle zapped one of the Drowned, but stayed further up the beach to help the villagers flee back to their huts.

            Sand whipped past the heroes, cutting into their exposed skin as they fought the undead monsters.  Despite their hardiness, the party knew from past experience that the Drowned were relatively simple to defeat.  Though the undead were landing solid blows that snapped ribs and tore flesh, their tactics were as simple and straightforward as any other mindless undead, and it would only be a matter of time before the party had the upper hand.  That, of course, was why the other creatures had to emerge from the sea as well.

            Two enormous forms rose up from the ocean, coming up from under the ship to land on the beach.  They appeared like two large slugs, covered with millions of tiny cilia.  Both Kyle and Tolly recognized the creatures from their past studies as seryulin.  They tried to shout warnings to their companions that the creatures used a pain-inducing poison, but the wind carried their words away.  One of the creatures turned and lashed at Autumn with a pseudopod, knocking her to her knees, while the other reversed course and began bashing into the ship, gnawing at the hull in an effort to get at the islanders already packed inside.  The party couldn’t help but notice that the slugs had toothy maws about the same size as the bite wounds on the corpses they’d seen recently.

            “I think we’ve found out what attacked the villages!” shouted Osborn.

            “But these things aren’t big enough to crush a hut from above!” Autumn shouted back.  “There has to be something else, too!”

            “I could have gone without knowing that!” Osborn yelled, as he was clubbed by one of the Drowned.  He’d been forced into melee, since the strong winds would have carried his daggers off target.

            Tolly summoned divine power, and suddenly the beach was as bright as day, as he called upon the same celestial light that surrounded powerful angels.  The light seemed to singe and burn the waterlogged flesh of the Drowned, but had no noticeable effect on the seryulin.  He then took a moment to imbue himself with divine power, growing to immense size.  Nearby, Lanara released a bolt of sonic energy at one of the slugs, shearing off a large chunk of greenish flesh.  Kyle surrounded the fleeing villagers with an illusion, making them look like sand-crabs as they fled in the hopes that the enemy wouldn’t bother trying to make a meal of them.

            Arrie managed to finish off the Drowned attacking her, and turned to deal with the seryulin that was bashing through the ship’s hull.  She halted her advance when she saw that the slug had suddenly stopped moving.  Glancing over her shoulder, she waved to Kyle, and then turned to help Tolly bring his Drowned opponent down.  Xu traded blows with the other seryulin, though the monk came out far worse in the exchange, and was nearly killed when a pseudopod slammed into her head.  She was forced to fall back, taking a moment to focus her inner power so that she could ignore the pain of some of her wounds.  Xu’s attack did give Autumn the opening she needed to withdraw and drink a healing potion as well.  Kyle, seeing that his wife was on her last legs, rushed forward and blasted the Drowned that had been attacking with fiery rays, burning it to a crisp. Unfortunately, the seryulin that he’d _held _ managed to shake off the spell, and lashed out with pseudopods at Arrie and Tolly.

            In the fury of battle, no one noticed that far off shore to the west, the turbulent ocean began to heave and froth as something began to surface.  But as it broke the surface of the water with a roar, everyone stopped to stare.  The creature was immense, and looked somewhat like a giant kuo-toa.

            “Okay,” Osborn said, mostly to himself in the howling winds, “_that _ is big enough to crush a hut.”  He slipped on his _ring of invisibility_ and vanished, hoping to buy some time to think.  Unfortunately, the seryulin close to him seemed able to sense his presence somehow, and battered him with a pseudopod.  Its other tentacle bashed Arrie, while its razor sharp teeth found Kyle’s shoulder.  The party regained a faint glimmer of hope when Xu, leaping nimbly back and forth to avoid another battering from the seryulin, managed to fell the last Drowned, immediately relieving the feeling of being underwater.

            Tolly swung his maul into one of the slug-creatures, sending greenish ichor spraying everywhere as the head penetrated its rubbery skin.  Lanara pulled out a wand and launched a _fireball _ at the monstrosity off shore, but incredibly it ducked out of the way, and the spell burst harmlessly over its head.  Kyle, hoping to take care of two enemies at once, rushed up to the closest seryulin, and avoiding the lashing tentacles, cast a quick spell and touched the slug-creature.  Kyle suddenly vanished, but nothing seemed to happen to the seryulin.

            “Where’s Kyle?” Autumn shouted.

            “No idea!” Arrie called back.  She didn’t like the way things were shaping up.  Autumn and Xu were badly wounded, Osborn’s invisibility seemed to be doing him little good, and she knew that Tolly, Kyle, and Lanara had to be running low on magical power between the morning’s trip to the Shadow plane and this evening’s fight, and now the wizard had vanished entirely.  _We’re in trouble…_

            Nearly three hundred yards over their heads, Kyle suddenly appeared, slightly woozy after his _dimension door_.  The first thing he noticed was that there wasn’t a fifteen-foot long slug in the air beside him. _ It resisted?  Cr*p!_

            The next thing he observed was the fact that he was falling, which wasn’t a huge surprise to him.  But the winds from the storm were pushing him laterally in the air, causing him to drift back over the beach.  He’d tried to transport the seryulin directly over the head of the surfacing aquatic monster, hoping the impact would kill them both.  Obviously, he’d need another plan.

            “First things first,” he said to himself.  “Which pocket did I put that _feather fall_ scroll in?”

            Far below Kyle, the attack continued unabated.  Arrie and Tolly concentrated on the seryulin closest to the ship, while Autumn, Xu, and Osborn dealt with the other one.  It was now the hin bearing the brunt of the giant slug’s attention, as both Xu and Autumn had been forced to withdraw and heal themselves.  “Osborn, come to me!” Autumn shouted, as her healing potion closed her wounds.  She then summoned forth her inner power and blasted the seryulin with a beam of white light from her eyes, scorching its side.  Osborn decided that this looked like a good tactic, and used his own _circlet of blasting_ while tumbling away from the lashing tentacles.

            Lanara, slightly further back from the main combat, decided to try and soften up the new combatant first, as it lunged onto shore and swiped at Osborn with a claw.  She recognized the massive beast as a leviathan, and she knew the hin’s invisibility would do him little good against it.  She pulled a wand out and blasted the leviathan with a _sound burst_. The spell seemed to have minimal effect, which frustrated the bard.  The only thing that cheered her up was noticing that the leviathan seemed to be reacting to Tolly’s _celestial brilliance_.

            Tolly released a burst of positive energy, healing the wounds of himself, Arrie, and Autumn before returning his attention back to the seryulin.  Between the two of them, they rent great gaping holes in the slug’s glistening flesh, until it finally collapsed on the sand, twitching and oozing ichor.  From high in the air, Kyle tried to create an illusion of a squad of dolphin riders swimming in to attack the leviathan, but the monstrous creature ignored them.  It was impossible to tell whether it was because the beast could sense their unreality, or simply because making a convincing illusion while tumbling in free fall is a difficult task.

            Osborn tried to fall back to Autumn as Arrie and Tolly ran up to engage the second seryulin.  The loose, wet sand near the water line made it difficult to run, though, and one of the leviathan’s long tentacles whipped out and snared Osborn around the ankle before he could leap clear.  The hin was pulled high into the air by the leviathan, who seemed to be bringing him closer to its gaping maw.  Xu and Autumn began to rush forward, intent on saving their friend, when suddenly Osborn twisted and slipped out of the tentacle’s grasp, landing with a dull thud on the wet sand.

            “Are you all right?” Autumn asked, coming to his side as Xu leapt in and punched the leviathan in the side, momentarily stunning it.

            “Fine.  Thought I was a goner until I remembered that I had this baby on.” He pointed to the glittering ring on his finger that prevented him from being restrained in any way.**

            “Well, let’s back in there and…” Autumn stopped talking suddenly, and her eyes went wide as she looked toward the other side of the battlefield.

            Kyle had been plummeting for several seconds, but had held off using his _feather fall_ scroll.  The high winds were pushing him away from the battle, and he knew that if he cast it too soon he’d end up in the ocean.  He tried to time his spell, but a sudden unexpected downdraft threw off his count, and he was forced to activate the scroll early.  But as he drifted to the ground, Kyle noticed he was being pushed across the island just as fast – and straight toward the _blade barrier_ that Tolly had put up at the beginning of the battle.  Kyle flailed, and initially thought to dispel the barrier.  But he quickly changed his mind, and dispelled his own _feather fall_ instead, falling hard to the ground just a few feet away from the whirling blades.

            Once Autumn saw Kyle stand up, she was able to return her attention to the battle.  The second seryulin had been killed, and now everyone was concentrating on the leviathan.  Xu was leaping in and out, Tolly and Arrie were swinging their weapons hard and fast, and Osborn was slashing with his short sword as fast as he could.  Lanara had used a wand to summon a large crocodile that was snapping at the leviathan from the ocean, and was now pelting it with _magic missiles_ from another wand.

            Roaring in pain and rage, the leviathan lashed out and wrapped a tentacle around Tolly’s midsection, lifiting him in the air despite his magically increased size.  Moments later, the Ardaran had been stuffed into the sea creature’s gullet. Another heavy tentacle battered Osborn in the side of the head, forcing him to pull back to heal, and Arrie was punctured by the leviathan’s teeth.  Osborn switched to his sling, hurling glass bullets filled with alchemist’s fire, but Arrie kept slashing with her spiked chain, using it to knock away tentacles as they flew toward her.

            Kyle came running up to Autumn, handing her a few potion bottles.  “You’re not getting out of your honeymoon that easy,” he said, noting her wounds.

            “I could say the same for you,” she replied. “You ready?”

            Kyle cast a spell, and a energy lance appeared in his hand.  “Let’s go get Tolly back.”

            But neither of them had the chance to enter the battle.  Bleeding from several wounds, the leviathan decided that it had had enough trouble, and began to slide into the water again.  Once submerged, it began to glide away swiftly.  Xu backed up a few feet and ran across the sand, leaping into the air just before hitting the high tide line.  She sailed through the air, and landed on top of the beast’s rapidly vanishing head.  She had cocked her fist back mid-jump, and used the momentum of her landing as she slammed it into the leviathan’s skull.  The creature shuddered, and spasmed in the water, though it was obviously still trying to swim out to deep water.

            With a grim look on her face, Lanara pointed at the levithan with a wand.  “You slimy bastard!” she shouted, “Give us back our cleric!”  She shot a quartet of _magic missiles_ at the creature, and as they hit there was a sudden explosion of blood and foam in the ocean, and the leviathan stopped moving.  A few moments later, a slime-covered Tolly pulled himself out of the creature’s mouth.

            “Are you all right?” Xu called out.

            “I’m fine,” he shouted back. “Just go get me Autumn’s axe, please.”

            “Why?” Xu asked.

            “Because we should have some sort of trophy to present to King Bali when we get back,” he said.

*          *            *​
            It took another hour to get the rest of the villagers on the ship, get the leviathan’s head lashed to the deck, and to sail to Bali’s main island.  Once there, the villagers took refuge in mountainside caves, which were already well stocked with provisions.  Obviously the procedure for weathering a severe storm was very familiar to the island natives.

            The group gathered in the back of one of the caves, cleaning and stowing their gear as they prepared to sleep.  Lanara was the last to join the group; she’d been wandering through the tunnels, playing soothing tunes for the children as the storm raged outside.

            “I’ve spoken to King Bali,” Tolly said.  “He still refuses to act until the scout ship comes back.”

            “It’s not like he can do much in this storm anyway, Tolly,” Arrie said.  “When does he expect the scouts to return?”

            “Another day,” he said.  “He apparently isn’t too worried about them navigating the storm.”

            “With an elemental-powered craft, probably not,” said Kyle.

            “The Seven Kings can take care of their own people, now that they know the danger,” Autumn said.  “We need to focus on the rest of Affon.”

            “I’ve already issued a _sending _ to the Archprelate,” Tolly said.  “He will likely inform those leaders he has close contacts with, such as the heads of the Dwarven Confederates and the heads of the other churches through the Divinity Council.”

            “I can contact Herion and warn him,” Arrie said, tapping her wedding ring.  “I have a feeling Haxtha might not respond as well to a direct message from us.”

            “We need to notify the Peca Provinces as soon as we can,” Tolly said.  “The gnome’s naval power will be vital to our defense, and their ships could help the Archipeligans evacuate.”

            “I can do that in the morning,” Kyle said.  “We met Overgovernor Garlen once, so he may recognize my voice when he hears the _sending_.”
            “Good point.  I can warn Maddie back in Vargas, and tell her to prepare for refugees from the Archipelago.”

            “Can you send a message to Warchief Keth, too?” Osborn asked.  “I want to make sure my clan brothers know.”

            “Sure thing, Osborn,” Kyle said.

            “And what about Targeth?” Osborn asked.

            “They’ll probably sit behind their wall and ignore the whole thing,” Kyle said.

            “Probably, but we should warn them, too.  You never know.  Besides, even if they don’t have troops, they might have useful information in the Tower.”

            “Good points.  But the shields interfere with magical communication, and we don’t really know anyone in the government anyway.”

            “We’ll have to send a physical messenger then,” Tolly said.  “Perhaps Maddie can send a rider?”

            “If you return me to the mainland, I will go,” said Xu.  “I run faster than any horse.”

            “True,” said Kyle, “but the government doesn’t know who you are.  I doubt you’d get in to see anyone.  I think that if anyone should go, it should be Arrie, Tolly or Autumn.  Or maybe all three.”

            “What about you, Kyle?” Autumn asked.

            “I’m going to the libraries in Noxolt,” Kyle said.  “We need to learn everything we can about the Tauric Empire.  Maybe I can find what would be motivating them to mount this attack.”

            “Good idea,” Lanara said.  “I can help you.”

            “As can I,” Tolly said.

            “Don’t forget that we still need to go back to Tishalullé and get our question answered,” Arrie reminded them.  “Since we now know what was causing the disturbances in the ocean, we could use that question to find out about the armada.”

            “Hold on,” Osborn interjected.  “We’re starting to spread ourselves pretty thin here.”

            “He’s right,” Lanara said.  “I think we’re all too tired and wounded to make good plans.”

            “Speaking of which,” Autumn said, “I think we need to take a good look at our healing situation.  I know that I had to withdraw from the battle a few times, and so did others.  Our first opportunity, we should restock our potions, and invest in some wands.  I know I can use a healing wand, and so can Lanara, but we don’t carry them.”

            “I’m starting to get more practice in with manipulating magic items, too,” said Osborn.  “With time I could manage a wand myself.”

            “Right,” said Kyle, “the problem isn’t capability, it’s resources.”

            “Well, none of this is happening tonight,” Lanara said with a yawn.  “I say we sleep like the dead, then in the morning Tolly and Kyle can pester the heads of state of Affon, and then we’ll figure out who is going where and when.”

            The rest of the party agreed, and started to turn in.  Tolly, who had healed his wounds and wasn’t quite ready to sleep, decided to take another walk through the caves before bedding down.  He was about to head back when he saw King Bali approach him.

            “Inquisitor Nightsleaving,” he said in low tones, “May I have a word?”

            “Of course,” Tolly said.

            “I’m afraid I must ask one more favor of you, Inquisitor,” the king said.

            “What is it?”

            “Take my daughters with you.”

            Tolly blinked, surprised at the request.

            “I know you will all be leaving in the morning,” the king said.  “You have the capability to leave before the storm breaks, and an obligation to warn others of the armada.  And there is little more that you can do here that I and my fellow kings cannot.  My sons and I must stay to help our people, and defend them if need be.  But if we fall, Lajila and Nidru will be all that’s left of my line.”

            Tolly sighed, then nodded.  “We will take Lajila and Nidru with us.”

            Bali smiled broadly.  “Thank you.  I am in your debt, and I will find a way to repay you one day.”

            As the king left, Tolly wandered over to the mouth of the cave, and stood out in the torrential rain for a moment, looking north.

_We need to live through this first_, he thought.

---------------------------------------

*Uros is the moon-plane of the god Fiel, god of murder and assassinations.  In other words, not a fun place.

** Osborn has forgotten about this ring on more than one occasion, leading to the occasional retcon in the middle of combat.  Kind of amusing, really.


----------



## Pyske

Great update, as always. 

Getting rough, with the number of encounters in a row.  And is Tolly getting himself a couple new cohorts?


----------



## Delemental

Pyske said:
			
		

> Great update, as always.
> 
> Getting rough, with the number of encounters in a row.  And is Tolly getting himself a couple new cohorts?




Yeah, we were scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of resources.  We'd prepped most of our spells and such for the journey to the Shadow Plane and rescuing the spirit, so the leviathan combat caught us a little short in that area.  Plus, those Drowned hit _hard_...

As far as Tolly goes, I will say that yes, he did take the Leadership feat.  But Lajila and Nidru are not his cohorts, just a little eye candy for our poor, upstanding Ardaran priest.  And he was very upstanding, IYKWIMAITYD.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

Delemental, That's messed up.... Having Tolly be baited like that.

[sblock]Go for it, Tolly. Go for it!![/sblock]


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> Delemental, That's messed up.... Having Tolly be baited like that.




Heh.  He does seem to have a talent for ending up in the company of attractive women.  Aranal, Lajila, Nidru... and the trend continues, as you will see.



> [sblock]Go for it, Tolly. Go for it!![/sblock]




Hey, I guess he deserves it, since the upstart wizard who deals in forbidden powers snatched away his first girlfriend.  

Playing Kyle and Tolly off against each other is always fun.  Toned down considerably from where it was, but still fun.  Especially since 'where it was' was leading quickly to bloodshed.  We talked about it one day, and figured that had Tolly not taken a break from the Legacy in Medos, then he and Kyle probably would have come to blows in Erito's Library.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> Delemental, That's messed up.... Having Tolly be baited like that.
> 
> [sblock]Go for it, Tolly. Go for it!![/sblock]



 Oh, he does, don't you worry...

For a priest of a church that is loosely based on the Lutheran Orthodox Church, Tolly gathers quite the harem.

That sexy Inquisitor...


----------



## Delemental

*The Hornet's Nest*

The next morning, the air around the party was thick with evocation magic, as multiple _sendings _were issued, and replies were received.

_Exalted, Tauric Empire on move.  Intentions unknown.  Dragon implies entire population on ships.  Probably hostile.  Please put diviners to watch.  Assistance necessary.  Notify Divine Council.

            Madrone: prepare Vargas for refugees.  Tauric invasion imminent.  Contact Herion.  Notify city of Erum ships are en route.  Will contact again.

            Overgovernor Garlen, from Kyle Goodson of Legacy.  Massive Tauric armada approaching Affon.  Archipelago evacuating, assistance needed.  Please send ships, notify navy.

            Herion, whole Tauric Empire is coming.  Evacuating the Archipelago to Erum as first step.  We’re distributing information.  More to follow.

            Warchief Keth, a warning from clan brother Osborn*.  Massive Tauric Empire fleet approaching from north.  Sufficient forces to threaten Haran.  Be alert.

            Message received, Tolly.  Will notify Council.  Please keep advised of situation as more develops.

            What? Oh, sh*t.  Wait, Tolly?  There’s a couple of people here to see you, they kind of look alike, one’s from the Church and the

            Will notify King of Erumian, please advise number of refugees.  Distribution patterns will follow.  Mobilize army?

            Greetings to our clan brother.  Information received.  Threat too remote to act now.  Will notify Gell to turn Grabâkh’s Eye north.
_
            In a surprisingly short amount of time, the party had contacted everyone they could think who was most important to reach.  The rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

            An hour after sunrise, the party was gathered at the mouth of the cave in the side of the mountain, though it was still very dark outside thanks to the howling storm outside.  Iria was with the party, as were Lajila and Nidru, all three young women clustered around Tolly.  King Bali and Prince Mu’ara were there as well, saying their farewells.

            “Once the storm lifts, tell your ships to head for Erum,” Arrie told the king.  “Your people will be guided from there.”

            “I hope that Erum will be ready,” King Bali said.  “There are over a million people who live in the Archipelago.”

            “That many?” Kyle asked.  “I never would have thought it.”

            “There are dozens of islands in the Seven Kingdoms,” Mu’ara explained, “and this one is by no means the largest.  Most of our warriors will remain here to challenge the approaching armada, but most of our people will be sailing for Erum.”

            “We’ll advise the leaders of Tlaxan as soon as we can,” Arrie reassured the king.  “But we need to leave now.  There’s much we still need to do to prepare.”

            “Of course.  Safe journey to you all.”

            Bali and Mu’ara stepped back as Kyle intoned a spell, and soon the ten travelers were shrouded in shadow and vanished.

            Twenty minutes later, the group was hovering over a shadowy ocean, near the phantom images of four claw-like pillars of rock protruding out of the storm-tossed waves.

            “Ready, Tolly?” Kyle asked.

            “Of course.”  He began casting a _water breathing_ spell on the party.

            “Where are we going?” Lajila asked Tolly as he placed the spell on her. “I thought we were going to Tlaxan.  Why are we near the lair of Tishalullé?”

            “We need to consult the sea hag,” Tolly explained.  “My companions will go in to see her – I will remain outside her cave, with Iria, you, and your sister.”

            Kyle guided the _shadow walking_ group under the waves, which initially produced a strange sensation as they saw water all around them, but weren’t getting wet.  They descended to the ocean floor, and Tolly and his charges split off as Kyle ended his spell, waiting near the base of one of the rock pillars as the rest of the party swam toward Tishalullé’s cavern.

            The old sea hag was sitting in her stone throne as the party approached.  “You have returned,” she cackled.  “But you do not bring the bearded lobster.  Tishalullé is sad.”

            “He’s otherwise occupied,” Lanara said, stifling a chuckle.

            “So, what question do you have for Tishalullé?”

            “We’d like to know why the ships of the Tauric Empire are sailing south toward Affon,” Kyle said.

            Tishalullé nodded, grinning with jagged yellow teeth.  “It will be a few minutes while I consult the spirits.”

            Rising, the sea hag swam up to the portion of her cave out of the water, and walked to a crude shelf on the cavern wall.  She mixed the contents of two vials in a bowl, and then drank it, rivulets of a yellowish-green fluid trickling down the sides of her mouth.  Suddenly, Tishalullé stiffened, and fell over backward.  She laid unmoving for a few minutes, and then the water surged up onto the dry land and swept underneath her, rising up until it formed a watery dais upon which the hag’s body lay.  Tishalullé’s mouth began to move, and then the cavern echoed with the sound of a voice that was both hers and… not hers.  The voice echoed outside the cavern, so that even Tolly and the three women could hear it.

That which had fallen has risen again – as a rock thrown into a hornet’s nest.

            The water dais under Tishalullé receded, and a moment later she opened her eyes.  “The spirits have given you your answer,” she said, in a tone that indicated that their visit was over.

            The party emerged from the cave and rejoined Tolly. Reality shifted around them as Kyle returned them to the Shadow Plane.  “I think we need to kidnap someone,” Arrie said immediately.

            “Who?” Lanara asked.

            “Someone from the Tauric fleet, to tell us what’s going on.”

            “We still haven’t done any research,” Kyle pointed out.  “That might help us figure out the message.”

            “Why can’t we do both?” Arrie countered.  “Go now and do the research, and when the fleet gets closer, we go out and grab someone.”

            “Sounds like a plan,” Lanara said.  “But let’s get back to land first.”

            They continued to talk as they rose out of the midst of the shadow-ocean.  “The divination spoke of ‘that which had fallen’,” Tolly said.  “That suggests the psions.  Perhaps it refers to the rebirth of Silko?”

            “I doubt that,” Arrie said.  “Silko didn’t so much ‘fall’ as ‘cease to exist’.  Besides, Aran would have told us if they were that close to bringing him back.”

            “This could refer to something specific to the Taurics,” Kyle suggested.  “Something that we could find in books.”

            “I agree,” Tolly said, “I just want to consider all possibilities.”

            “It could refer to a mountain that the gods threw into the sea, and is now rising up again,” Arrie said.  “Or their emperor is a lich, and returned from the dead.”

            “Or, someone the Taurics defeated long ago has risen up,” Lanara suggested.  “Perhaps a slave uprising?”

            “Could be.” Arrie said.

            “Well, we have a library to get to, right, Kyle?” Lanara said.

            “On our way,” the wizard said.

            “I know we have a lot to do when we reach shore,” Arrie said, “but when we go our separate ways to get it done, perhaps we should beg or bribe any scholarly types we run into to do some research for us.”

            “I’ve saved one _sending _for the Archprelate today,” Tolly said.  “I wanted to be able to report the results of Tishalullé’s visions to him.”

            “Great,” said Arrie, “he’ll have access to a lot of information.”

            “You should get my sister to look it up,” Lanara said.

            “Well, I’m not in charge of Aranal any more,” Tolly said.

            “Wow,” Arrie said suddenly.  “Do you realize that I just spouted off a plan, and everyone listened to me?”

            “It was a good plan,” Tolly pointed out.

             Two hours later, the party arrived just outside the gates of the Imperial Palace in Noxolt.  Emerging from a shadowy alleyway, the party quickly made their way to the gate.  The guards outside stiffened and saluted as Arrie approached.

            “Your Highness,” said the lead guard.  “We weren’t informed you would be arriving.”

            “This is an unexpected trip,” she explained, “and I’m not staying.  But I would like for my companions, Kyle and Lanara, to be admitted to the palace as my guests.  Please inform my husband… and _only _my husband that they are here.”

            “Of course, Your Highness,” said the guard.  “I already recognized Mistress Lanara from her previous visits.”  He gave a few orders, and soon Kyle and Lanara were being escorted inside.  The rest of the party remained outside.

            “Well then,” said Arrie, “let’s be off.”

            With that, Tolly cast a spell, and soon the remainder of the party was speeding toward Vargas, borne by magical winds.

            The two heroes remaining in the capital made their way immediately to the palace’s library.  Once there, they went immediately to a prim looking elven woman wearing the robes of an Imperial Archivist.

            “I need to do some research about the Tauric Empire, Hielda,” Kyle said.  “Can you please show us where we might find the pertinent volumes?”

            “Of course,” she replied.  “Follow me.”  Hielda turned and led them through the labyrinth of bookshelves and low tables.

            “Is this in relation to your previous research?” the archivist asked.

            “Excuse me?”

            “The last time you were here, I recall you were researching religious iconography.  Is this related?”

            “Oh, no,” Kyle said. At Lanara’s curious look, Kyle explained, “the Scion-Watcher symbol.”

            They arrived at a section of the library that obviously saw less use than others.  As Hielda led them to a set of table and chairs, they were surprised to see Herion sitting there, waiting for them.  The librarian bowed as he rose and made his way over to her.

            “I can show them what they need, Hielda,” Herion said.  “Return to your duties.  And I would appreciate a little discretion in discussing the fact that I’m here, and who I’m here to meet.”

            “Of course, Your Highness,” Hielda said, and shuffled off.

            Herion looked up at Kyle and Lanara.  “Forgive the unusual welcome,” Herion said.  “But I’d rather that the Emperor not know you’re here.  Were my brother to find out, given the current situation, he might decide to recruit you as a resource.  I will do my best to cover for you until you leave.”

            “I understand,” Kyle said.  “If you can just cover today, by tomorrow I should be able to take care of keeping us out of Haxtha’s notice.”

            “Very well.  So, did Ariadne come with you?”

            “I’m sorry, but she left,” Lanara explained.  “She’s gone with some of our friends to Trageon, in order to try and meet with the Ministers to warn them about the armada.”

            “Of course,” Herion said.  “Their shield would make a _sending _impossible.  But do you really think a nation as insular as Targeth will do anything beside hide behind their barrier?”

            “It’s worth a shot,” Kyle said.

            “Indeed.  But I assume you two were sent here to research the Tauric Empire.”

            “That’s the idea,” Lanara said.  “Any clue we can find as to why they’re doing this.”

            “Well, our section on the Taurics isn’t very extensive, I’m afraid,” Herion admitted.  “Our collection is what you see here.” He gestured to nearby shelves.

            “So, just this section of shelves?” Kyle asked.

            “Actually, just this shelf,” Herion said.  “Or, to be more accurate, the top half of that shelf.”

            Crestfallen, Kyle and Lanara looked at the meager selection of lore.  They could see that most of the books on the shelves were map folios.

            “I don’t think we need to worry about Haxtha finding out about us,” Kyle sighed. “It looks like we’ll be done before lunch.”

*          *          *​
            Meanwhile, the rest of the party touched down in the courtyard on the ducal manor of Vargas, surrounded by wary guards with crossbows.  As the party rematerialized, the guards recognized their Duchess, and lowered their weapons.  Razael, who was standing closest to the main door, scowled.

            “If’n you don’t mind, a word of warning would be best next time,” he groused.

            “Sorry, Raz,” said Autumn.  “We’re a little pressed for time.  Where’s Maddie?”

            “Inside, in your office.  She’s waiting for you.”

            “Thanks.  Let the guards know that I’ll be staying here, but the rest will be leaving within an hour.”  Autumn walked into her manor, followed by the others.  They found Maddie sitting behind the desk in Autumn’s office, looking over papers.  She immediately jumped up when Autumn came in, and embraced everyone before sitting down again in one of the room’s other chairs, leaving the desk seat for the Duchess.

            “Welcome back,” Maddie said, “even if it is about one month and 28 days too early.”

            “Well, what they did have of their honeymoon was nice,” Arrie said.

            “The whole one day,” Osborn commented.

            “And part of a night,” Tolly added.  “Oh, and Maddie, this is Lajila and Nidru, King Bali’s daughters.  Lajila and Nidru, this is Madrone, Favored of Erito and Duchess Autumn’s temporary steward.”

            After a round of greetings, servants showed the king’s daughters to another room so they could relax before the next leg of their journey.  When they left, Maddie looked back at Autumn.  “I understand there are preparations to be made.  I’ve started a few things, but I didn’t have a lot of information to go on, and didn’t want to do too much too early.”

            Autumn explained to Maddie about their time in the Archipelago, and the approaching fleet from the Tauric Empire, and how the population of the islands would soon be arriving in the mainland.  She also relayed the cryptic message they’d received from Tishalullé.

            “If you’d like, I can commune with Erito,” Maddie said, tapping her headband to indicate the holy relic she carried.

            “That may be good,” Tolly said.  “Arrie, Osborn and I will be heading to Trageon to try and warn them of the approaching armada.  But we have a little time before we have to leave, so where are these visitors you mentioned?”

            “Well, one is an axani** from the Church of Ardara,” said Maddie, “and the other is an earth-touched, apparently Iria’s tutor.  They’re dressed alike, so at first I thought they were both sisters of Ardara’s church.  I’ve put them up in rooms in the manor.  Who do you want to meet first?”

            “Let’s meet the tutor first,” Tolly said.  “If she was sent by who I think, then I don’t want someone from the Church following us around when we meet her.”

            They all went down the hall to one of the guest rooms, except for Osborn, who made his way to the kitchens in order to ‘get a little something for the road’ as well as to spend a few minutes with Rupert.  Maddie knocked on the door when they arrived.  “Yes?” called a female voice from the other side.

            “Tolly and Iria have returned,” Maddie said.  “They’re here to meet you.”

            “Excellent.  Send them in, please.”

            The door opened, and everyone filed in.  A tall, brown-haired woman sat on the far side of the room, a book in her lap.  At first she looked like an earth-touched, as her skin sparkled and flashed as if she were covered in diamond dust.  But Tolly, who had been around many earth-touched in the Ardaran church, realized that this wasn’t quite right.  He suddenly realized that she was a maenad, one of the psionic races that had been exiled below the surface.  One of Aran’s integrated memories came floating to the surface of Tolly’s mind, informing him that maenads often posed as earth-touched in order to blend in with the surface races.  Looking around, Tolly saw that Osborn had correctly identified her race as well.

            “You are a lot more than just Tolly and Iria,” the woman said.

            “Indeed,” Tolly said, as he closed the door.  “Well, judging by your race, I can assume that Aran sent you.  But just so I’m certain, can you describe the view from his balcony?”

            The woman frowned.  “I’m afraid I’ve never been to Aran’s home.  But he did mention to me that you wield a ‘mean banister’?”

            Tolly nodded.  “You’re genuine.”

            The woman rose.  “I am Elianora Lonja.  I am a seer.”

            “A pleasure to meet you, Elianora,” Tolly said.  “Iria, introduce yourself to the nice lady.  She’s going to be your tutor.  Aran sent her.”

            Iria stepped forward and curtseyed.  “Hello, Elianora.”

            “Hello, Iria,” Elianora smiled.  “I think we’re going to get along quite well.”

            “Iria, why don’t you stay here and get to know your new tutor,” Tolly said.  “I’m going to go have a chat with the other visitor.”

            “I’ll stay here, too,” said Arrie.

            Tolly, Xu, and Autumn left the room, and followed Maddie down the hall to another door.  This time Tolly was the one who knocked.

            “Who is it?” called a female voice.

            “Inquisitor Primus Nightsleaving,” he said.

            “One moment, please.”

            The door opened, and immediately everyone could see why Maddie had thought that both Elianora and this woman were Ardarans.  She was dressed in acolyte’s robes from the church of Ardara, which looked very similar to the simple scholar’s robes the maenad waor. They were also approximately the same height, and had similar facial features.  The resemblance ended there, though; this woman’s skin did not sparkle like gems, but she had the slightly metallic sheen and absolutely symmetrical features of an axani.

            “My name is Crystal,” she said, stepping back to let everyone into the room.

            “And what can I do for you, Sister Crystal?” Tolly asked.

            “I have orders here for you, from the Archprelate,” she replied, reaching into a pack hung on the end of her bed and producing a scroll.

            Tolly took the scroll and opened it, breaking the wax seal with the imprint of the Office of the Archprelate.  Inside was a simple note:

_  Tolly, found you an apprentice.  Good luck with her.  Frelarr._

             Sighing, Tolly rolled up the parchment and then crumpled it in his fist.

            “Tolly, I recognize that sigh,” Autumn said.  “What’s going on?”

            “It seems that I have a new follower,” Tolly said.

            “Who would that be?” Crystal asked.

            “That would be you, Crystal.”

            “Oh.  Oh!”

            “The Archprelate says that you are to follow and learn from me,” Tolly explained.  He took a few moments to introduce Autumn and Xu, and to tell her about the rest of the Legacy.  As she bowed to greet Autumn, Crystal’s robes shifted, and Tolly caught a glimpse of the Inquisition’s seal imprinted on the leather armor she wore under the vestments.  Crystal was looking slightly dazed.

            “Excuse me, sir,” she said to Tolly, “May I have a few minutes of privacy?”

            “Of course.  But use some of those minutes to pack.  We’re leaving Vargas in thirty minutes.”

            Tolly, Autumn and Xu exited the room, closing the door behind them.  A moment later, they heard a muffled scream, as though someone were shouting into a pillow.

            “I think you may have overwhelmed her,” Xu commented.

            “I think she’ll be lucky if she gets through the day feeling no worse than ‘overwhelmed’,” Tolly replied.

------------------------

* Part of Osborn's reward from Keth for helping in his battle against the other warchief was to be named a clan-brother, so in their eyes he is not an outsider.

** A planetouched humanoid from a lawful outsider, for those who are unfamiliar.


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*Thank you!*

Well, after my last comment I took a break from reading this SH as you had stated at the break, six (6) days ago I logged on and printed everything out from that point to take with me on a short vacation...

...wow...over two hundred (200) pages...read half (1/2) on the flight there, half (1/2) on the way back...

Didn't mind the fact that the trip was ending for the sole fact I could read the other half (1/2) of the stack.  Also, enjoyed the other players input, please keep up the good work.

Really sounds like you guys have a good group, both IC as well as OC.

Any chance for some stats, agian?

Keep it going!
djordje


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## Delemental

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> Well, after my last comment I took a break from reading this SH as you had stated at the break, six (6) days ago I logged on and printed everything out from that point to take with me on a short vacation...
> 
> ...wow...over two hundred (200) pages...read half (1/2) on the flight there, half (1/2) on the way back...
> 
> Didn't mind the fact that the trip was ending for the sole fact I could read the other half (1/2) of the stack.  Also, enjoyed the other players input, please keep up the good work.
> 
> Really sounds like you guys have a good group, both IC as well as OC.
> 
> Any chance for some stats, agian?
> 
> Keep it going!
> djordje





200 pages?!?  D*mn... I'm wordy.  

We are rapidly coming up on the point where the campaign went on hiatus - in fact, the update I just posted is the beginning of the last adventure we had before the break.  We're back to playing, although we now split between two campaigns - the Aelfenn game is still the primary game, but I've been running a Mutants and Masterminds game during our break, and plan to continue it.  Since I still hope to update this SH weekly, it could lead to a situation where I "catch up" and this ends up being updated in 'real time'; ie, the weekly update will represent that week's session.  

As far as stats, I'll see if I can get everyone to send me their characters.  What will probably be easiest is to wait for a while, and then post our current stats when we hit the post-hiatus point.  Currently in the SH, our characters are around 12th level, nearing 13th on average; when we resumed the campaign our DM had up bump up to 15th (as you'll see soon, in the three months game time that went by during the break, our characters had plenty of opportunities to gain xp...)


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## Eltharon

Just finished the whole thing (took me a week). Great job, really great job. (waits for next update)


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## Delemental

Eltharon said:
			
		

> Just finished the whole thing (took me a week). Great job, really great job. (waits for next update)




Thank you.

I try to update toward the end of the week (Friday/Saturday), so you won't have to wait too long.


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## Sarabian1

Hey folks. It's the DM here. Finally got my lazy butt in gear and made a login. So, here I am.

I appreciate the praise for the setting very much. The world I'd created had always intended to be a work in progress, which accounts for some of the discrepencies. As well, TSR keeps publishing books with new material that gets dropped into the campaign world (example: the various "Complete" class books) which allow for varied retcons. 

For those who are hungry for more material - I've been considering getting this campaign setting published as a book, and as I'm not sure of any legal intricacies involved, I'm hesitant to just toss whatever up on the forum. If you want specific details on certain things, however, feel free to ask!


----------



## Pyske

Sarabian1 said:
			
		

> For those who are hungry for more material - I've been considering getting this campaign setting published as a book, and as I'm not sure of any legal intricacies involved, I'm hesitant to just toss whatever up on the forum. If you want specific details on certain things, however, feel free to ask!




Well, one of the things I liked so much was the parallelism of the races: one elemental-touched race, one demihuman race, one servitor race (i.e. demons, eladrin), etc. for each of the gods / planes / etc.  Got me thinking about what the parallel "elemental" race to the elves would be; the best I was able to come up with were the fey or the lycanthropes.  Have you given any thought to that?

Another thing that might be nice to see would be a map, if you have one...


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## Delemental

Pyske said:
			
		

> Well, one of the things I liked so much was the parallelism of the races: one elemental-touched race, one demihuman race, one servitor race (i.e. demons, eladrin), etc. for each of the gods / planes / etc.  Got me thinking about what the parallel "elemental" race to the elves would be; the best I was able to come up with were the fey or the lycanthropes.  Have you given any thought to that?




Though our DM can answer the first question more authoritatively than I, I believe that if Erito (the patron deity of the elves) has an 'elemental' servitor, we've never encountered them (Erito's servitors in general are fairly mysterious, and no one really knows which planet/plane is her domain - some say it's Aelfenn itself, others say it's another planet that's hidden to mortal eyes).  If anything, since Erito controls the life-death-magic cycle, then I suppose one would consider her 'element' to be positive and negative energy.




> Another thing that might be nice to see would be a map, if you have one...




This one, I can handle...

... err, or maybe not.  Was going to download the map files we have on our website, but they're too big.  Lemme monkey around with them a bit to reduce the file size, and then I'll post them into this reply.

EDIT: Okay, here we go.  I've posted two maps; one of the entire world of Aelfenn, and one of the continent of Affon.  Bear in mind that the world map is still very rough, and may not be entirely accurate - for one thing, the Tauric Empire should be more due north of Affon.


----------



## Sarabian1

On Erito's "elemental" servitors - Erito is such a powerful diety (the only Greater God in the pantheon) that I've deliberately attempted to keep as much about her as mysterious as possible. Plus, there's this - if her home planes are the Ethereal and Shadow, then her elemental servitors are undead and positive/negative energons. If, however, her home plan is Aelfenn itself, then the humans may be considered her elemental servitors. 

I like to engender philosophical discussion - if everyone knew everything, well gosh, that's no fun!


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## Delemental

Sarabian1 said:
			
		

> If, however, her home plan is Aelfenn itself, then the humans may be considered her elemental servitors.




Ooh, ooh!  Does that mean I can take levels in the Elemental Savant prestige class, and instead of choosing fire or earth or any of those, I can pick 'human'?  Then I could be...

...wait for it...

more human than human!    

(I'd have to change my character's name to Rob, though...)

(And the best part is, he has to wait until tomorrow night to throw things at me for that!)


----------



## Delemental

Autumn remained in Vargas to prepare for the influx of refugees from the Archipelago.  Her mother Auror was still staying in the manor, and was eager to offer her expertise on emergency planning.  Xu also remained behind, foreseeing that Autumn might have need of a swift messenger.  And with Iria staying at the manor with Elianora, Tolly now only had three women to worry about; King Bali’s daughters, and his new apprentice Crystal.

            It was nearing sunset by the time the remaining members of the Legacy cleared the gate at Aleppi and _wind walked_ their way to Trageon.  They saw the Tower long before they arrived at the city, its dark surface jutting upward like a scar on the afternoon sky.  When they arrived, Arrie went to the Tower to try and convince the scholars there to begin collecting what information they had about the Tauric Empire, while the others proceeded to the church of Ardara in Trageon.

            “We will make our request for an audience with the prime minister through Tribute Hadar,” Tolly said.  “As an established spiritual authority in the city, I imagine Father Hadar will have enough clout to get our foot in the door.  After that, we should be able to drop enough names to get their attention.  Osborn, if you want to…”

            Tolly turned to see that the hin was nowhere to be found.  Tolly scanned the crowds for a moment, and then shrugged and went on his way.  If there had been trouble, either Osborn or Rupert would have raised an alarm.  Osborn knew where they were heading, and knew the city well.  Besides that, the hin had mentioned having contacts in town that could help.  Tolly had every confidence that Osborn could take care of himself.

            Tolly walked into the church and swept past the acolytes with hardly a second glance, as the three women with him hurried to keep up.  Tolly had made sure that the seal of the Inquisitor Primus was plainly visible before approaching the temple, and had instructed Crystal to unveil her own Inquisitorial trappings.  This had the desired result; no one challenged their passage into the temple’s inner chambers or their presenting at the offices of the Tribute.

            Father Hadar was an old man, though he still appeared robust.  It was no secret that he was ready to retire; the office of the Tribute in Trageon had been presented as an option to Tolly months ago by Archprelate Frelarr, before he was offered the job of Inquisitor Primus.  Seeing his old mentor for the first time in three years, Tolly could not help but notice how much he seemed to have aged.

            “Brother Nightsleaving?” Hadar exclaimed, as Tolly walked into his office.  Smiling, the old man rose and crossed the room, embracing Tolly like a lost son.

            “You’ve come up quite a way since we last spoke, my boy!” he said, beaming.  “In more ways than one.  I used to be taller than you.  Either you’ve grown, or I’ve shrunk.”

            “I am a bit taller, Father,” said Tolly.

            “And more popular too, I see,” Hadar said, glancing at the women behind him.

            “Oh, of course.  This is Lajila and Nidru, daughters of King Bali of the Red Archipelago, who are currently under my protection.  And this is Crystal, one of our own sisters, now apprenticed to me.  This is Hadar, Tribute of Ardara.”

            The three women bowed respectfully, a gesture that Hadar returned.  “I take it that you’re here on official business, then?”

            “I’m afraid it has to be.  I need to get in to see the prime minister as soon as possible.”

            “I see.  Unfortunately, he’s a rather busy man.  I’ll see what I can do, but…”

            “What I need to inform him about,” Tolly said, “is a possible invasion fleet from the Tauric Empire.  The fleet will reach and overwhelm the Red Archipelago within two weeks, and then continue on to Affon.  Their numbers appear sufficient to completely blockade Targeth if they chose.”

            Hadar turned pale.  “I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises.”

            “Feel free to invoke the office of the Inquisitor Primus if you need to,” Tolly said.  “I’m also here with Ariadne Verahannen, Imperial Princess of Tlaxan.”

            “I’ll drop the appropriate names,” Hadar grinned.

            “Excellent,” Tolly said.  “Now, while I’m waiting, where are the kitchens?”

            “Right where they’ve always been,” said Hadar.  “You remember washing all those dishes, right?”

            “I do,” admitted Tolly.  “I just wanted to say hello to the cooks.  I’ve also got to find a tailor to get some proper attire for these women.”

            “Picking out women’s clothing?” Father Hadar gasped as he shuffled toward the door.  “My goodness, Tolly, you have changed.”  Before leaving, Hadar looked at Tolly again, his expression grave.  “Is it really that bad, Tolly?”

            “The only description we have for the number of ships approaching from the Tauric Empire is ‘all of them’,” Tolly said.  “Even if they aren’t hostile, it’s not going to be pretty.”

*          *          *​
            Osborn knew he’d made contact with the Shadow Hand when someone tried to pick his pocket.

            “Hey!” he said, grabbing hold of the pickpocket’s wrist. It belonged to a young human boy, no more than fourteen, who squirmed and wriggled to get free, but couldn’t break the hin’s grasp.

            “That’s not how you do that!” Osborn chided, and he pulled the protesting youth off to a dark alley nearby.  Pulling off his gloves, Osborn held out his hands, clearly revealing the network of faint tattoos on his right hand that made it appear slightly darker than the left.  Seeing this, the boy relaxed.

            Osborn gave the young boy a few quick tips on his craft, then looked at the boy sternly.  “I need to speak to the Guild master,” he said.

            “The master?” said the boy.  “No one sees the master.”

            “Go to one of the lieutenants,” Osborn said.  “Tell them Slip is back in town.  They’ll see me.”

            The boy ran off, while Osborn and Rupert waited in the alley.  He spent several minutes preparing himself mentally for the upcoming meeting; he hadn’t been ‘Slip’ in years, and he didn’t particularly enjoy the experience the first time.  But it had served a higher purpose then, just as it would now.

            Osborn knew he was being watched, and sensed someone approaching, even though he couldn’t see anyone.

            “Good to see you, Slip,” said a voice.

            “Been a long time, Noose,” he replied.

            A tiefling stepped out from behind a pile of refuse.  He was an older tiefling, perhaps in his sixties.  They clasped hands, and immediately slipped into a casual banter about politics and the weather that hid their true conversation.

            “I need to see the boss,” Osborn said.

            “Sure,” said Noose.  “Follow me.”  They left the alley and began walking down the street, heading for the tunnels that led into the Undercity.  “You haven’t been around for a while.”

            “I’ve been traveling,” Osborn said.  “I got into the Tower for a while, and after that ended up joining an adventuring party.  You may have heard of them – the Legacy?”

            “Sounds vaguely familiar, but we don’t get a lot of news from the outside world that doesn’t pertain to the profession.”

            “Well, I have some information that the boss can use.  I was recently in the Red Archipelago…”

            Noose grinned.  “I’ve had some good vacations there.  Any time you get to bed a paladin, makes you feel like you got away with something.”

            “Well, I would have had a good time, if it wasn’t for some trouble heading this way.”

            Noose’s smile quickly inverted.  “Do the other lieutenants need in on this, too?”

            “Yeah, probably.”

            They finally arrived at the guild house.  Osborn, of course, had known where it was the whole time, but also knew better than to approach uninvited.  He and Noose walked in, and Osborn was shown to a small room.

            “Wait here,” the tiefling said.  “I’ll come get you when he’s ready.”  Noose looked down at Osborn.  “Good to see you back, Slip.  Wasn’t the same around here after that botched job that you and Darkglove were on.  I’m glad you didn’t get offed like he did.”

            “Me too, Noose,” grinned Osborn.  Of course, Osborn didn’t mention the one part of that tale that no one but he and one of the city guard knew; that Osborn himself had been the one who killed Darkglove, retribution for a robbery of the circus he’d grown up in.  ‘Slip’s’ standing in the guild would worsen considerably if that news ever came out; Darkglove had been one of the master’s favorite lieutenants.

            Osborn waited another twenty minutes before Noose came to get him.  He was led deep into the guildhall, to a dark room dominated by a V-shaped table.  Osborn stood in the middle, between the two arms of the V, while the Shadow Hand’s lieutenants flanked him on either side.  At the vertex of the table, shrouded in shadow, was the master.  No one ever saw the master, or even knew his (or her?) name.  Osborn knew that the guild master of the Shadow Hand was warded with potent magic protecting his identity.

            “You have your meeting,” said Noose, taking his seat at the table.  “What news do you have?”

            Osborn related the information that they’d learned about the approaching armada from the Tauric Empire.  He was careful to gloss over certain details (he figured that claiming to have spoken to a dragon would get him laughed out of the room), but also careful to explain exactly who and what the Tauric Empire was.  After all, the majority of people in Affon had no idea that a large continent ruled by animal-human hybrids even existed, much less only a few hundred miles north.

            “So, what is it you want from us?” asked the master, in a voice that was neither male nor female, neither familiar nor unfamiliar.

            “I want us to get the word out to our outlying guilds, especially in the Expanse,” Osborn said.

            One of the lieutenants, a fire-touched known as Cinder, scoffed.  “Sounds awfully charitable.  What’s in it for us, Slip?”

            Osborn knew he had to tread carefully.  After all, he was dealing with a thieves’ guild, not a group of altruistic do-gooders.  “Well, for one thing, even though we’re safe behind the shield here in Targeth, they aren’t.  No sense losing good people in a surprise attack.  Besides, if we tell the other guilds, and they make the proper preparations…”

            “Wartime profiteering?” the master finished.  “A lucrative business, especially if you can get the inside track before anyone knows there’s a problem.”

            “Exactly,” Osborn agreed.

            “Very well,” the master said.  “We’ll notify the branch guildmasters of the impending attack.  The information is appreciated.”  Although Osborn couldn’t see the master’s face, he felt like the head of the Shadow Hand was staring at him intently.  “Will you be returning to the fold, then, Slip?”

            “I’m afraid not,” Osborn said.  “If I came back now, it would raise too many questions – more trouble than it would be worth to the guild.”

            “Questioners can be dealt with,” said Noose.

            “The questioners are both persistent, and highly placed,” Osborn explained.  “Hardly worth the effort just to bring back one hin with sticky fingers.  I’ll be glad to help train some of the new blood while I’m here.  The pickpockets seem a little sloppy.”

            Filch, the lieutenant who was in charge of what the Shadow Hand referred to as ‘back alley jobs’ like pickpockets and muggings, scowled.  The others chuckled.

            “Anything else, Slip?” the master asked.

            “Just this.” Osborn produced a good-sized diamond from a pocket, and set it on the table close to the guildmaster.  “This should cover the dues I’ve missed while I was away,” he said.

            “And then some,” the master replied, reaching out with a gloved hand and pocketing the gem.  “You may go about your business, Master Greenbottle.”

            Osborn quickly left the room, suppressing his smile until he was out of the guild house and well on his way back to the temple of Ardara.  In informing the outlying guilds of the impending attack, those guildmasters would be certain to pass the news on to their government contacts, and from there it would go to the militias and the populace.  Under the guise of promoting ‘war profiteering’, the Shadow Hand would effectively spread the news of the armada far more quickly than they ever could alone.  It never ceased to amaze Osborn how simple it was sometimes to get people to do the right thing, even if they only thought they were doing the right thing for themselves.

            Now, as the sun set behind the massive bulk of the Tower, and the floating crystalline islands that comprised the Upper City began to reflect the lights of the Middle City, Osborn hoped it would be enough.

*          *          *​
            Arrie, Tolly, and Osborn painted a suitably horrific impression on the Prime Minister.  The Minister, a human as old as Father Hadar but much more feeble, at first listened impassively, and began to recite rote answers about the impenetrability of Targeth’s arcane barriers, and how the Empire was not obligated to see to the well-being of its neighbors.  But then Arrie began to vividly describe the effects of several months of complete blockades on Targeth, and how eventually the Taurics could mass their forces and overwhelm the nation’s armies at the three gateways.  Then Tolly pointed out that the Tauric Empire’s capabilities were unknown, but since their population was much greater than Affon’s, it stood to reason that they might have enough arcanists of sufficient power to negate the shields entirely.  That got the Minister’s attention.

            “I’ll pass this information on the appropriate sub-bureaus,” he said.

            Tolly and Arrie sighed, but knew that when dealing with Targeth’s bureaucracy, this was about the best result they could hope for.  “Thank you, Prime Minister,” said Tolly, bowing.

            As they left, Arrie looked around at the chunks of the Upper City floating nearby.  “I managed to bribe enough people in the Tower that they agreed to collect the material they have on the Taurics for us.  I’ve reserved a room there we can use.”

            “Excellent.  Let me get Lajila and Nidru back to the temple, and then Crystal and I will join you.”

            “I’ll have to pass,” Osborn said.  “I made some promises to people in order to help get the word out about the fleet.  I’ll be busy for a couple of days.”

            “So,” Arrie said, “we’ve told everyone we can possibly think of about the Tauric armada, we’ve started preparations to evacuate the Red Archipelago, and we’ve even got a nice, cryptic prophecy to mull over.  The question is, what do we do now?”

            “I wish I knew, Arrie,” Tolly sighed.  “I wish I knew.”

*          *          *​

             It was a few more days before everyone met again in Vargas.  It was less than a cheerful reunion.

            “We don’t know much more than when we started,” Kyle said, clearly unhappy.  “The Tauric Empire has a strict caste system.  Tauric creatures, like centaurs, minotaurs, wemics, harpies, and the like, form the ruling class.  The empire’s police and military forces are composed of lycanthropes.  The majority of the citizens are the slaves – various humanoid races.”

            “How big a majority?” Autumn asked.

            “Conservative estimates place the Tauric Empire’s population at about 300 million,” said Tolly.  Like Kyle and Lanara, their own research at the Tower had turned up woefully little information.  “Of that, it’s thought that two or three percent are taurics, and an additional five percent or so are lycanthropes.”

            “Three hundred million,” sighed Arrie, shaking her head.  “The whole population of Affon’s less than sixty million.”

            “And far less organized,” Kyle observed.  “The Tauric fleet is presumably all under one chain of command.  We’ve got six sovereign nations, plus the Steppes, the Expanse, and the Haran Desert.”

            “Anything else?” asked Xu.

            “They do practice arcane magic,” Kyle said, “and there are far more practitioners of nature magic there than there are here.  They do have clerics, but only for the One and the Four; they consider the Many too weak, and too humanoid in nature to deserve worship.”

            “Well, while you were doing that,” Autumn said, “the refugees from the Red Archipelago have been arriving.  A fleet from the Peca Provinces arrived to help transport most of them.  My duchy is currently hosting about a hundred and fifty thousand, many of them from King Bali’s islands.”

            “Lajila and Nidru should rejoin their people as soon as possible,” Tolly said.  “They’ll need the reassurance of seeing some form of leadership among them.  I’m assuming, of course, that the king and his sons remained behind.”

            Autumn nodded.  “About a hundred thousand stayed behind to challenge the Tauric fleet,” Autumn said.

            “Any word on where the fleet is?” asked Lanara.

            “When we left, we were guessing about ten days until the fleet reached the islands,” Osborn said.  “So they’ll get there in the next two or three days.”

            “So, unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to plan our kidnapping,” Arrie said, referring to their plan of abducting a Tauric officer for information on why they were invading.  “Until they’ve stopped at the Archipelago, it’s going to be impossible to set up anything.”

            “Well, Tolly and I can try and keep an eye on things from here,” Kyle said.  “We can also consult Erito through Maddie’s relic at some point.  Anything else anyone wants to do before our doom arrives?”

             “We’re not doomed yet,” Autumn said.  “The good news is that the leaders of Affon are meeting to organize a response.  Merlion is hosting the conference.  The bad news is that it’ll be about ten more days before everyone can arrive.”

            “Mother must be thrilled,” Arrie said.  “She finally gets to play hostess to the whole world.”

            “Even Targeth is coming?” said Osborn, surprised.

            “Yes, as are the hin clans from the Steppes and the orc clans from the Haran.”

            “I’m surprised about Targeth,” Osborn commented.  “I half expected them to send an envoy to the Taurics instead.”

            “You know,” said Tolly, “I’m not so sure we shouldn’t be going out there and negotiating with the Tauric Empire as the Legacy.”

            “Ooh!  I’ll try it!” said Lanara.

            “I like the idea,” said Kyle, “but the leaders of Affon’s nations will need to decide if they want to parley, and who they want to do it.  It does little good if we go out there; even if by some miracle we made a deal, the nations are under no obligation to honor it.”

            “I agree with Kyle,” Autumn said.  “We need to let the leaders do their job.  The strategic defense of Affon is out of our hands.”

            “There are better ways to apply our expertise,” Kyle said.  “There’s the kidnapping, of course.  But we could also look into what caused the Tauric Empire to come sailing south looking for trouble in the first place, and put a stop to it.  Remember Tishalullé’s vision?  ‘That which had fallen has risen again – as a rock thrown into a hornet’s nest’.  If we can find out what it is that’s ‘risen’, we might be able to affect it.  I was hoping for some sort of clue in our research, but we’ve got nothing on the Empire’s history.”

            “I still say it’s a slave revolt,” Lanara said.  “They came here because they lost control of their country.”  

            “It’s possible,” Arrie said.  “As are a lot of other things.  But what Tolly said about negotiating got me thinking.  There is a chance that we actually will be chosen to represent Affon in parley, because of our political connections.  If that happens, it’ll look bad if a few days earlier we kidnapped one of their admirals.  Maybe we ought to reconsider the abduction plan.”

            “Hold on,” Tolly said.  “Let’s settle this question.”  He pulled out a few items, and performed a brief ritual.  “Ardara,” Tolly intoned, “will attempting to abduct a citizen of the Tauric Empire for information bring us weal or woe?”

            He tossed a set of polished stones into a marble bowl, and then looked at how the stones landed.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an augury come back with that strong of a ‘woe’,” he said.

            “What if we try infiltrating them?” Lanara asked.  “I could probably do it.”

            “Lanara, you’re a talented performer and a skilled liar, and I’m sure with magical help you’d do a great job, but we know nothing about their culture,” Arrie said.  “We don’t even know if they speak Common.  We’d get caught.”

            “I suppose you’re right,” Lanara sighed.

            “We don’t need to decide everything now,” Autumn said.  “Let’s wait and watch a few days.”

            “And just hope it’s not a few days too late,” Kyle sighed.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Hurray! A GM made his appearance! Now we just need to drag the rest of the crew here. It is good to see that people are reading the story hour. We keep telling him he is doing really well, and now he is finally starting to believe us.

'Tolly'


----------



## Delemental

Three days later, the Tauric armada reached the Red Archipelago.  Two days after that, the survivors arrived in the port city of Erum.

            There were less than fifty.

            The intelligence gathered from the surviving warriors was less than heartening.  The phrase ‘uncountable enemies’ saw frequent use.  No one knew the fate of the Seven Kings, and they were presumed lost, as were the Seven Treasures of Tul-Antha.  One slim ray of hope was that the Empire’s many ships appeared to have taken a severe beating from the recent storm, and so it appeared the fleet would remain at the Archipelago for several days, stripping the islands for wood, food, and fresh water.  From what the party gathered, an attempt to kidnap a Tauric officer would be futile; there were so many Imperial soldiers crammed into the ships and on the islands that any surprise attackers would be quickly overwhelmed.

            Hoping to learn more about the fate of the islands’ leaders, the party attempted to _scry _on those they’d met.  Tolly tried to see the old hermit wizard who lived near the Tree of Life and Death, but his spell was resisted, and he saw nothing.

            “As least we know he’s alive to resist it,” Lanara observed.

            When Kyle tried to _scry _on King Bali, the results were even more strange.  Kyle completed the spell, and felt himself make contact with the King.  Then there was a sudden flash of blinding white light, so intense it could be seen for miles outside the walls of Vargas Manor.  Then the spell ended, and Kyle’s scrying mirror shattered.  He blinked away the spots from his eyes as Autumn went to his aid.

            “What happened?” she asked.

            “I’m not sure,” he said.

            “Anti-divination magic?” Tolly suggested, as he came over and healed a few minor abrasions.

            “Maybe,” he said, “but I made contact with him, briefly, before the energy surge.  Usually, wards would keep me from getting even that far.”

            “An energy surge?” Autumn asked.  “Could it be that you connected with Bali’s soul in the afterlife?”

            “No, it wouldn’t work like that,” Tolly said.  “Psionics?”

            “I’m not sure,” Kyle admitted.

            “What about that artifact?” Lanara asked.  “The Crown of Tul-Antha?”

            “It could have interfered,” Kyle said, “but I don’t think…”

            “What about all of the artifacts?” asked Autumn.  “It’s possible that they brought them all together out of desperation.”

            “And set off some sort of magical chain reaction,” mused Tolly.
            “So I technically did reach King Bali,” Kyle concluded, “but he may not exactly be ‘King Bali’ any more.”

            They all looked at each other.  “I suggest we not tell that to Lajila and Nidru,” Tolly said.

            “But they owe me a new mirror,” Kyle said.  When all he got were stares, he threw up his hands.  “I was kidding, people!  A little levity in the face of certain doom, all right?”

            The party’s other attempts at divinations were not much more useful.  None of their other _scrying _attempts were successful, and all their _divination _questions seemed to return vague, generic answers.  They even asked Iria’s tutor, Elianora, if she could help, but the seeress declined, telling them that her most potent powers required her to utilize her own life-force, a price she was unwilling to pay for people she’d known less than two weeks.

            Finally, the party approached Maddie in order to _commune _with Erito.  Everyone was clearly getting nervous and a little desperate; the most obvious sign was that Arrie remained in the room while Maddie performed the ceremony, rather than leave to avoid unnecessary divine attention.

            Kyle was chosen as the group’s speaker*.  “Was the Tauric invasion instigated by a caste uprising?” he asked.

NO.

            “So much for my theory,” Lanara pouted.

            “Do the psions have any role in the Tauric invasion?”

UNCLEAR.

            “Well, I think we expected that answer,” Arrie commented.  They’d long ago realized that because the gods were unable to clearly perceive psionic beings, any _commune _question regarding them would come back as ‘unclear’.

            “It was still worth asking,” Lanara commented.

            Kyle continued.  “Can the invasion be halted if appropriate action is taken within the borders of the Tauric Empire?”

NO.

            “Damn.  Sorry, Kyle,” Autumn said.

            He shook his head, but said nothing, so as not to disrupt the spell.  He asked his next question, even though he knew the answer already.  “Is it within the current capability of the Legacy to affect events within the borders of the Tauric Empire enough to halt the invasion?”

NO.

            Kyle sighed.  “Does the Tauric fleet intend to conquer all of Affon?”

YES.

            “Well, there goes the last shred of hope that maybe they’re just here for a friendly visit,” said Osborn.

            “Was the Tauric invasion instigated by one of the gods?” Kyle asked.

NO.

            Kyle looked at his companions.  Of the nine questions they were allotted, they’d left the last three open, to respond to the answers from the previous six.

            “Is there anything that will turn the Tauric Empire back?” Arrie suggested.  Kyle nodded, and repeated the question.

YES.

            “Vague,” said Arrie, “but at least we know it’s possible.”

            “Why don’t we ask if negotiating will do any good?” Lanara suggested.

            “Good idea,” agreed Autumn.  “Ask that.”

            “Can direct diplomatic negotiation with the Tauric Empire be effective?” he asked.

YES.

            “Encouraging,” Tolly commented, “but I’m sure it depends on the skill of the negotiators, and what’s offered.  Erito could be saying that negotiation will work, as long as Affon surrenders.”

            “Very true,” said Autumn, “but at least we know that the Taurics aren’t dead set on eradicating us.”

            “I think we should ask if it would be possible to persuade the Xhintai Empire to ally with Affon,” Tolly said.

            Upon hearing the agreement of the others, Kyle asked their last question.  “Can the Xhintai Empire be persuaded to ally with Affon against the Tauric Empire?”

YES.

            The spell ended, and Kyle quickly filled Maddie in on the responses while the others talked.  “So Xhintai might help us,” Arrie said, “but who knows what price they’ll ask for their help?”
            “Given that Hungai is fairly prominently placed in their military,” Lanara said, “I can imagine what at least one demand would be.” The bard nodded toward Xu.

            “All good things to know, but little we can act on,” Autumn said.  “Tolly, do you want to try a _commune _with Ardara?”

            Tolly shook his head.  “I’m not going to attempt it.”

            “Don’t you think the destruction of Affon is worth it?”

            “I do, but I doubt it would produce much in the way of useful information,” Tolly explained.  “Ardara is one of The Four, and thus less powerful and less aware of things outside her realm.  And some of the information can be gained through other, less costly divinations.  Besides, I’ve been trying to get away from riding Ardara’s coat-tails.”

            “Right,” said Kyle, “we’re falling back into the trap of trying to single-handedly determine the course of Affon’s strategy against the Taurics.  We know now that going physically to the Empire won’t do any good, so staying here is our best bet.  And we know they can be stopped… somehow.  I can’t help but think that knowing what it was that was fallen, and has risen again will help.”

            “So, then what should we do?” Lanara asked.

            Kyle sighed heavily.  “I have no idea.”

            There was a long, uncomfortable silence.  “I think,” Tolly said slowly, “that we need to recruit the psions.”

            “Are you feeling all right, Tolly?” Lanara asked.

            “If we can get Aran’s group to help, it may be our only choice,” Tolly said.  “It certainly doesn’t help their cause if Affon is overrun.”

            “It’s a good idea,” Kyle said, “and I think we should ask.  But Aran has to counter Kristyan.  He might not be able to help us; it would be helping stop one disaster only to cause another.”

            “Let’s go talk to Elianora,” Tolly said.  “See if she can get a message to Aran.”

            The party left the sitting room where they’d held the commune, and went upstairs to where the maenad’s room was.  She called for them to enter when they knocked.  Stepping inside, they say Elianora sitting on her bed, talking with Aran.

            “Well, that makes things easy,” Autumn said.

            “I felt that I needed to apologize to you in person,” Aran said, slowly rising.  The old psion looked weary, as if he’d been working hard for several days.

            “Apologize for what?” Arrie asked.

            “For an oversight on my part,” Aran said.  “I’d always assumed that Kristyan’s faction was primarily working on this continent.  They weren’t.”

            Everyone was stunned for a moment.  “But… Erito said…” Lanara protested.

            “She said, ‘unclear’,” Tolly reminded her.  “She always says ‘unclear’ when psionics are involved.”  Tolly turned to Aran.  “So, are we going to have to face Kristyan directly in order to stop this?”

            “I believe he is mind-controlling certain high-ranking officials within the Empire,” Aran said.  “I have also been to the Empire itself.  It’s a wasteland.  There is nothing growing or living there for as far as the eye can see.”

            For several minutes, none of them could speak.  Finally, Lanara managed to ask, “Any signs of Silko?  We got this odd prophecy from a sea hag.”

            Aran shook his head, and Kyle commented, “The part about something falling and rising again probably refers to Silko’s followers as a whole, not the man himself.”

            “It may also refer to Kristyan and his followers emerging from the Underdark, razing the land and forcing the Taurics to leave their lands in search of others.” Aran suggested.

            “Wait,” Autumn asked, “it was _Kristyan _who destroyed the Empire?”

            Aran nodded.

            “Which means there’s no way to convince them to return home,” Kyle said weakly.

            “Their entire Empire really _is_ on those ships,” said Autumn quietly.

            “Well, the druids could repair the damage eventually,” Tolly suggested.

            “Yeah, _eventually_,” snapped Lanara.  “But how many druids do you know?”

            “So, it seems like the best strategy would be to convince the Taurics that Xhintai is a much more suitable homeland than Affon,” Kyle said.

            Autumn looked shocked. “Kyle!”

            “I was joking!” Kyle said, laughing a little too loudly.  “Levity in the face of certain doom, remember?”

            “It’s not certain doom,” said Aran sternly.  “At this point, most of the high-ranking officials within the Empire are not going to be open to negotiation because they’re coming from a devastated landscape, and they’re being mind-controlled.  If you can remove at least one of those factors, then you have a shot at opening a dialogue.”

            “Can you point out where Kristyan is?” Tolly asked.  “It’s difficult to mind-control anyone if you’re dead.”

            “True,” said Aran, “but bear in mind that Kristyan isn’t working alone.  He has the majority of his people with him at this point.  Not just telepaths, but others as well.”

            “Like Xerxes,” Lanara said.

            “”Sounds like we’d have a better shot at attacking the Tauric Empire,” Kyle said bitterly.

            “I’m going to state what I think is pretty obvious,” Arrie interjected.  “Tell me if I’m seeing this right.  We have two options; fix the Empire’s lands, or eliminate the telepaths controlling the leadership.  From our conversation with… the powerful person we just spoke with, we know that our going to the Empire won’t do any good.  In fact, we know that no one going to the Empire will stop the invasion.  So it seems our only course of action is to eliminate the mind control.”

            “Right,” said Lanara.

            “Are Kristyan’s people aboard the ships?” Kyle asked.

            “Yes.  Kristyan has at least one person with telepathic abilities on each ship, in order to influence the captain.  Not every captain is under direct control; some are just charmed.”

            “Is Marrek among them?” asked Lanara.

            “I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.  He’s a priest of Qin-Chu – he’d stand out amongst the Taurics.”

            “Maybe the idea of infiltrating them isn’t such a bad idea after all,” suggested Lanara.

            “No, I think it is,” Arrie said.  “We still don’t know enough to pull the ruse off long enough to get any decent intelligence.”

            “It’d be suicide,” Autumn agreed.

            “Okay, then, how would we find the psions on the ship?” Lanara asked.

            “Well, once we’re aboard, Kyle can see them with his staff,” Tolly said.

            “But my range is limited,” Kyle said, “and we’d have to wade through hordes of Tauric soldiers to get to the telepath.  I’d prefer to be able to just target the psions before we even board.”  Kyle thought for a moment.  “It’s possible to use a _detect magic_ spell through a _scrying _sometimes.  I’ve never tried it in conjunction with my staff to detect psionics.”

            “Aran, can you give us enough information about Kristyan or the other telepaths for Kyle to attempt a _scrying_?” Lanara asked.

            “Possibly,” Aran said, “and remember that you’ve met Xerxes.”

            “But remember that Kyle’s staff only detects active psionic powers,” Arrie said.  “If they’re not using powers, then nothing shows up.”

            “This is true,” Aran agreed.  “The mind control only needs to be re-established occasionally.  And the charmed and dominated people will also register as actively psionic.”

            “Yes, but we know they’re controlling the leaders, who are all going to be tauric creatures,” argued Kyle.  “So we can rule out any active psionics on a tauric.  And the psions might have other powers active, or some psionically imbued items.”

            “It’d still be a scatter-shot trying to find them,” Lanara said.

            “Exactly,” Arrie said.  “If they aren’t using powers, they don’t show up.”

            “But come to think of it,” Aran mused, “among my kind, a certain sense of healthy paranoia always exists when dealing with surface folk.  And since magic is incapable of detecting psionic powers, with the exception of Kyle, Kristyan’s people wouldn’t be so worried about being detected.  They may very well be maintaining some defensive powers at all times.”

            “But there’s an entire fleet coming our way,” Arrie pointed out.  “And Kyle’s the only one who can do this.  We can’t exactly pull individual ships from the armada and pick them off one by one.  Sooner or later they’ll figure out what’s happening and come get us.”

            “We could eliminate the scout ships,” Tolly said.  “They’ll be isolated.”

            “Okay, so, we get the scouts,” Arrie said.  “Big deal.”

            “It’s a start.”

            “Arrie’s got a point, though,” Kyle said.  “The biggest problem is that whether I pick out the psions through _scrying_, which I don’t even know will work, or whether we go to these ships and I do it in person, it’s only a matter of time before they figure it out.   In order for this to work, we’d have to hit almost every ship.”

            “Or find Kristyan,” Tolly pointed out.  “Losing their leader could demoralize them.”

            “He’s probably with whoever’s the primary commander of the armada,” Lanara observed.  “He’d want to make sure he stays under control.”

            “I don’t think he’s going to be that obvious,” Arrie said.

            “Well, then, what do you propose we do?” Kyle snapped.

            The people in the room fell to bickering, arguing about various plans and why they would or wouldn’t work.  Throughout it all, Aran sat quietly, thinking.

            “Kyle,” he said at last, in a quiet voice that nonetheless caught everyone’s attention, “if you have some time for spell research…I will aid you in developing a _detect psionics_ spell.”

            Everyone was silent for a moment.  “I really hate to do this,” Aran said, sighing, “but this looks to be an endgame situation.  I don’t have a choice.  I can only hope that after this, it won’t matter.”

            “I don’t understand,” said Maddie, who up until then had remained out of the discussion.  “Why is it such a big deal?  I thought Kyle could already detect psionics.”

            “I can, with my staff,” said Kyle.  “But I’m the only one.  But a spell can be passed along to other wizards, other adventurers.”

            “Allowing them to aid you in attacking Kristyan’s forces,” said Aran.  “And, should they so choose, to hunt down my people as well.”  He looked at the party, a somber look on his face.  “Understand that what I’m offering now is something that I refused to do even at the height of the war with Silko and his faction.  Of course, back then I was more of a neutral party than I am now.”  Aran winked at Kyle.  “Justin would be jealous of you, son.”

            “I’ll try not to let it go to my head,” Kyle said.

            Aran stood up.  “I understand that the leaders of Affon are having a conference in a week,” he said.  “I think that I should attend.  I’d like you to introduce me – I have information they need.”

            “I’d be happy to,” said Lanara.

            “You’re more than welcome to stay here, Aran,” said Autumn.

            Arrie began chuckling to herself.  “Looks like I’ll be coming out of the closet sooner than I’d thought.”

            “Why?” asked Autumn.

            “Better to out myself than have someone else do it.  It’s not a question of if, but when.  The only thing I can’t predict is how others will react.”

            “Whatever it is,” Tolly said, “you have our support.”

            “Violent, bloody support, if need be,” added Kyle.  “But support.”

            “Thanks,” grinned Arrie.

            “I’ll need to spend tomorrow casting a few _sendings_,” Tolly said.  “I’ll need to consult with Frelarr.”  Tolly suddenly frowned, then chuckled.  “I actually called him Frelarr.  The world must be ending.”



END OF PART THREE



---------------------------

* You'll note that Kyle often ends up being the one asking questions when we use a _commune_.  That's mostly because I'm usually the first person to suggest using these kind of divination spells, but mostly because I'm the only one that writes the questions down and encourages people to think of the questions in the first place.  Sigh... maybe I should have played the cleric.


----------



## Delemental

*INTERMISSION (Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby...)*

And so, this marks the end of the second act of the campaign (the DM has said the campaign metaplot has four acts, plus an epilogue).  This also marks the point where we had our hiatus; this session was played on November 4, 2005, and the next time we picked up the dice to play in Aelfenn, it was June 23, 2006.

Our characters were close to 13th level at this point, but when Part Three starts, we'll be at 15th.  Hopefully in the next few days, I'll start posting the character stats here for the 15th level versions of the Legacy.  This time, though, I'll put links in to the characters on the first post in this SH, so that they can be found again easily (and I can just go back and edit the existing posts as we advance).

I'm also going to be changing the title of the Story Hour.  When I started writing this, we didn't have a name for our group, and I had to call the Story Hour _something_.  So I put in the first thing I could think of.  Unfortunately, 'Company of Vagabonds' never really fit our party, and has become even less fitting with time.  So, from now on the Story Hour will be called 'Tales of the Legacy'.  I'll leave a reference to the old title in for a while, just so people don't get confused and think their subscription link has been messed up.

Thanks for reading!


----------



## Delemental

*Kyle Goodson*

Okay, may as well start with my own character...



		Code:
	

KYLE GOODSON
Human male wizard 15
NG Medium humanoid
[B]Init[/B] +3; [B]Senses[/B] Darkvision 60’, permanent [I]detect magic[/I], permanent [I]see invisibility[/I], Listen +4, Spot +4
[B]Languages[/B] Common, Celestial, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Hin, permanant [I]tongues[/I]
--------------------------------------------------
[B]AC[/B] 21, touch 17, flat-footed 18
[B]hp[/B] 112 (15 HD)
[B]Fort[/B] +13, [B]Ref[/B] +12, [B]Will[/B] +17
------------------------------------------------
[B]Speed[/B] 30 ft (6 squares)
[B]Melee[/B] [I]scion’s staff[/I] +10/+5 (1d6+5) or silver dagger +9/+4 (1d4+1/19-20) or
[B]Ranged[/B] silver dagger +10 (1d4+1/19-20)
[B]Base Atk[/B] +7; [B]Grp[/B] +8
[B]Combat Gear[/B] [I]lesser metamagic rod of empower, ring of theurgy, potion of cure serious wounds x5, potion of remove curse, potion of break enchantment, scroll of dimensional anchor, scroll of dispel magic[/I] (caster level 9), [I]scroll of haste[/I] (caster level 8), [I]wand of magic missiles[/I] (caster level 7, 45 charges), [I]wand of fireball[/I] (caster level 7, 3 charges), [I]war wizard cloak[/I]
[B]Spells Prepared[/B] (CL 15th):
                8th – varies (DC 27, 2/day)
                7th – varies (DC 26, 3/day)
                6th – varies (DC 25, 4/day)
                5th – varies (DC 24, 6/day)
                4th – varies (DC 23, 6/day)
                3rd – varies (DC 22, 6/day)
                2nd – varies (DC 21, 6/day)
                1st – varies (DC 20, 7/day)
                0 – varies (DC 19, 4/day)
[B]Spell-Like Abilities[/B] (CL 15th):
                1/day [I]unseen servant[/I]
                [I]war wizard cloak[/I] (CL 9th):
                        At will [I]darkvision, feather fall, endure elements[/I]
                        1/day [I]dimension door, lesser ironguard, protection from arrows, sending[/I]
-----------------------------------------------------------
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 15, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 26, Wis 14, Cha 10
[B]SQ[/B] familiar, scry on familiar, share spells, can use Knowledge skills untrained
[B]Feats[/B] Alertness* (if familiar is within 5 feet), Empower Spell*, Energy Substitution (electricity)*, Eschew Materials, Extraordinary Spell Aim, Greater Spell Penetration, Iron Will, Maximize Spell, Scribe Scroll*, Spellcasting Prodigy, Spell Penetration, Spellstrike*
* - bonus feats
[B]Skills[/B] Appraise +11, Bluff +3, Concentration +22, Craft (Alchemy) +15, Craft (Blacksmithing) +11, Craft (Carpentry) +12, Craft (Jewelrymaking) +14, Craft (Stonemasonry) +11, Decipher Script +11, Diplomacy +2, Heal +4, Intimidate +2, Knowledge (Arcana) +25, Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering) +13, Knowledge (Geography) +12, Knowledge (History) +9, Knowledge (Nature) +5, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +10, Knowledge (Psionics) +13, Knowledge (Religion) +11, Knowledge (The Planes) +12, Listen +4, Profession (Farmer) +3, Profession (Sailor) +5, Ride +4, Search +10, Spellcraft +28, Spot +4, Swim +3
[B]Possessions[/B] Combat gear plus [I]scion’s staff, amulet of health +2, belt of many pockets, blessed book, bracers of armor +2, darkwood buckler +1, glove of far reaching, glove of storing, headband of intellect +6, dusty rose ioun stone, pearl of power x2[/I] (1st), [I]pearl of power[/I] (2nd), [I]ring of protection +3, ring of research, steadfast boots, vest of resistance +4, wand of prestidigitation[/I] (22 charges)

[B]Spellbook[/B]
[B]0[/B] – [I]acid splash, arcane mark, dancing lights, daze, detect magic, detect poison, disrupt undead, electric jolt, flare, ghost sound, launch bolt, light, mage hand, mending, message, open/close, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, repair minor damage, resistance, silent portal, sonic snap, touch of fatigue[/I]
[B]1st[/B] – [I]alarm, animate rope, burning hands, cause fear, charm person, chill touch, comprehend languages, detect secret doors, detect undead, disguise self, endure elements, enlarge person, erase, expeditious retreat, feather fall, floating disk, grease, hold portal, hypnotism, identify, ironguts, jump, mage armor, magecraft, magic missile, magic weapon, mount, negative energy ray, nerveskitter, obscuring mist, persistent blade, protection from chaos, protection from evil, protection from good, protection from law, ray of enfeeblement, reduce person, shield, shocking grasp, sleep, spirit worm, summon monster I, summon undead I, true strike, unseen servant, ventriloquism[/I]
[B]2nd[/B] – [I]acid arrow, alter self, bear’s endurance, blindness/deafness, blur, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, cloud of bewilderment, command undead, continual flame, darkvision, death armor, detect thoughts, eagle’s splendor, false life, fiery furnace, flaming sphere, fox’s cunning, ghoul touch, glitterdust, invisibility, levitate, life bolt, locate object, magic mouth, malevolent miasma, mirror image, obscure object, owl’s wisdom, phantom trap, protection from arrows, quick potion, resist energy, rope trick, scare, scorching ray, see invisibility, shatter, shroud of undeath, spectral hand, spider climb, summon undead II, toothed tentacle, touch of idiocy, web[/I]
[B]3rd[/B] – [I]amorphous form, clairaudience/clairvoyance, dispel magic, displacement, fireball, flame arrow, fly, gaseous form, gentle repose, glowing orb, handfang, haste, healing touch, heroism, hold person, lightning bolt, major image, phantom steed, ray of exhaustion, scintillating sphere, servant horde, shatterfloor, shrink item, skull watch, spider poison, stinking cloud, suggestion, summon undead III, tiny hut, tongues, undead lieutenant, undead torch, vampiric touch, water breathing[/I]
[B]4th[/B] – [I]animate dead, arcane eye, assay spell resistance, bestow curse, black tentacles, burning blood, contagion, darkvision (mass), defenestrating sphere, dimension door, dimensional anchor, enervation, fear, forcewave, globe of invulnerability (lesser), invisibility (greater), metal melt, mindfrost, mnemonic enhancer, plague carrier, remove curse, resilient sphere, resist energy (mass), scrying, shout, sinsabur’s baleful bolt, solid fog, summon undead IV, thunderlance[/I]
[B]5th[/B] – [I]blight, break enchantment, cloudkill, cone of cold, dismissal, dream, fabricate, fire shield (mass), fly (mass), gutsnake, hold monster, magic jar, secret cheat, sending, shroud of flame, summon undead V, symbol of pain, telekinesis, telepathic bond, teleport, wall of force, wall of stone, waves of fatigue[/I]
[B]6th[/B] – [I]acid fog, analyze dweomer, anticipate teleportation (greater), antimagic field, bear’s endurance (mass), chain lightning, circle of death, disintegrate, dispel magic (greater), flesh to stone, fleshshiver, freezing glance, legend lore, shadow walk, starmantle, stone to flesh, suggestion (mass), transformation, veil, wall of iron[/I]
[B]7th[/B] – [I]banishment, finger of death, kiss of the vampire, mage’s magnificent mansion, mage’s sword, prismatic spray, reverse gravity, teleport (greater)[/I]
[B]8th[/B] – [I]charm monster (mass), horrid wilting, polar ray, screen[/I]


So, you might notice that Kyle's feats are somewhat different than the last time I posted him; specifically, the lack of item creation feats.  The DM allowed us to make changes to our characters (a la the PHB II rules).  Having been advised that the campaign in general was going to involve a lot of travel and not much downtime, I decided to switch to metamagic (that and IMO item creation gets less productive at higher levels - too much gp and xp for what you get... and let's not even talk about epic items).

The Spellstrike feat is custom, and gives Kyle a +2 bonus to Concentration checks against violent movement, and allows him to apply the Concussive Spell template (also homebrew - add some material and somatic components to a damage-dealing spell, and the spell knocks targets prone).

The _glove of far reaching_ is a custom-made item that Kyle created.  It allows the use of _mage hand_ at will, and once per day he can cast _spectral hand_.

And the _potion of break enchantment_ comes from the master alchemist Neville (they can make potions out of higher-level spells).  You might see a couple of these "illegal" potions floating around on other chracters as well.

Oh, and because I know you're all curious about it...

Scion's staff: _+2/+2 psibane quarterstaff_, with the following special abilities:
   * Can convert any _detect magic_, _identify_, or _dispel magic_ arcane spell into _detect psionics_, _psionic identify_, or _dispel psionics_, respectively
   * Can restore up to 4d6 levels of depleted spell slots by inflicting an equal amount of ability burn damage on the wielder's CON, STR, and DEX.
   * Gain a +2 bonus on caster level checks to penetrate a psionic creature's SR, increases save DC of spells cast on psionic creatures by +1.
   * Wielder gains the benefit of the Force of Will and Closed Mind feats.

Note that Kyle didn't get all these powers at once; they are revealing themselves gradually, and Kyle's had to expend XP to activate several of the powers.


----------



## Delemental

*Tolly Nightsleaving*

And now for everyone's favorite rock star...



		Code:
	

TOLLY NIGHTSLEAVING (MULHOLLAND)                                                                                                                                                                                              
Human male cleric 3/church inquisitor 7/contemplative 5
LG Medium humanoid
[B]Init[/B] +3; [B]Senses[/B] earth sense 20’, Listen +7, Spot +8 (+12 vs disguises)
[B]Languages[/B] Common, Abyssal, Aquan, Celestial, Dwarven, Infernal, Elven, Terran, Draconic
------------------------------------------------
[B]AC[/B] 28, touch 13, flat-footed 25
[B]hp [/B]141 (15 HD)
[B]Immune[/B] charms, compulsions, disease, poisons
[B]Resist[/B] Slippery Mind, Pierce Illusion
[B]Fort[/B] +12, [B]Ref[/B] +10, [B]Will[/B] +19
-------------------------------------------------
[B]Speed[/B] 40 ft (8 squares)
[B]Melee[/B] [I]+2 sizing holy resounding mau[/I]l +18/+13 (1d10+8/x3) (+1 damage if both are touching ground, +2d6 damage if target evil)
[B]Base[/B] Atk +9; [B]Grp[/B] +15
[B]Special Actions[/B] turn undead 6/day (+5, 2d6+8, 3rd), spontaneous casting (heal spells), Divine Vigor (+10’ base move, +30 hp for 3 min), Divine Wholeness (20 hp), turn air creatures and/or rebuke, command, or bolster earth creatures 6/day (+3, 2d6+8, 3rd)
[B]Combat Gear[/B] [I]wand of cure moderate wounds[/I] (50 charges)[B]
Spells Prepared[/B] (CL 15th):
                [B]8th[/B] – varies (DC 22, 1+1/day)
                [B]7th[/B] – varies (DC 21, 2+1/day)
                [B]6th[/B] – varies (DC 20, 3+1/day)
                [B]5th[/B] – varies (DC 19, 4+1/day)
                [B]4th[/B] – varies (DC 18, 5+1/day)
                [B]3rd[/B] – varies (DC 17, 6+1/day)
                [B]2nd[/B] – varies (DC 16, 6+1/day)
                [B]1st[/B] – varies (DC 15, 6+1/day)
                [B]0[/B] – varies (DC 14, 6/day)
                [B]Deity[/B]: Ardara.  [I]Domains[/I]: Earth, Inquisition, Metal, Strength
[B]Spell-Like Abilities[/B] (CL 15th):
                1/day [I]detect good[/I]
                at will [I]detect evil[/I]
-------------------------------------------
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 22, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 16
[B]SQ[/B] can use Knowledge skills untrained, Force Shapechange, Pierce Disguise (+4 to Spot checks vs disguises), Divine Body, Divine Health, Slippery Mind, +4 on dispel checks (Inquisition domain), Feat of Strength +3 (Strength domain)
[B]Feats[/B] Divine Vigor, Earth Adept, Earth Sense, Extend Spell, Improved Cohort, Leadership, Persistent Spell, Weapon Focus (maul)*
* bonus feat
[B]Skills[/B] Balance +1, Bluff +8, Climb +4, Concentration +9, Craft (armorsmithing) +12, Craft (blacksmithing) +10, Craft (weaponsmithing) +12, Diplomacy +15, Escape Artist +1, Gather Information +8, Hide +8, Heal +9, Intimidate +14, Jump +4, Knowledge (arcane) +14, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +9, Knowledge (psionics) +8, Knowledge (religion) +14, Knowledge (the planes) +14, Listen +7, Move Silently +8, Perform (dance) +5, Ride +5, Search +5, Sense Motive +15, Spellcraft +12, Spot +8, Swim +2
[B]Possessions[/B] Combat gear plus [I]+2 sizing holy resounding maul, +3 glamered shadow silent moves full plate, phylactery of faithfulness, necklace of adaptation, vest of resistance +3, bracers of maximized healing x2, ring of feather falling, ring of force shield, belt of priestly might, Rovenor’s boots, figurine of wondrous power[/I] (bronze griffin), [I]figurine of wondrous power [/I](silver raven), [I]bag of holding[/I] (type I), [I]feather token[/I] (swan boat), Book of Ardara, [I]continual flame[/I] lantern
[B]Notes[/B] [I]Earth Adept[/I] - +1 weapon damage if both Tolly and target are touching the ground
[I]Earth Sense[/I] – sense any creatures touching the ground within 20’ as a move action
[I]Force Shapechange[/I] – at will, make a melee touch attack, then a dispel check to force natural or magical shapechanger back to normal form for 1d6 rounds
[I]Divine Body[/I] – immune to all poisons
[I]Divine Health[/I] – immune to all diseases
[I]Divine Wholeness[/I] – heal up to 4 times contemplative level in hp per day
[I]Feat of Strength[/I] – gain bonus to Strength equal to cleric level for 1 round as a free action once/day[I]
Pierce Illusion[/I] – can make immediate Will save when viewing any illusion or disguise spell


Tolly is also significantly different from previous incarnations, again due to the changes the DM allowed us post-hiatus.  Most significant is the loss of all levels of Elemental Savant, replaced by Contemplative and Church Inquisitor.


----------



## Delemental

*Crystal*

These are the stats for Crystal, Tolly's new cohort:



		Code:
	

CRYSTAL
Axani female cleric 5/rogue 8
LN Medium humanoid (native outsider)
[B]Init[/B] +8; [B]Senses[/B] darkvision 60’, trap sense +2, stonecunning, Listen +10, Spot +12 (Quick Reconnoiter)
[B]Languages [/B]Common, Anarchic, Axiomatic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, Terran
------------------------------------------------------
[B]AC[/B] 25, touch 16, flat-footed 25
[B]hp[/B] 82 (13 HD)
[B]Resist[/B] cold resistance 5, sonic resistance 5, evasion, improved uncanny dodge
[B]Fort[/B] +9, [B]Ref[/B] +13, [B]Will[/B] +10
-----------------------------------------------------
[B]Speed[/B] 30 ft (6 squares)
[B]Melee[/B] +2 rapier +17/+12 (1d6+2/15-20) or dagger +15/+10 (1d4+2/19-20) or
[B]Ranged[/B] dagger +15 (1d4+2/19-20)
[B]Base Atk[/B] +9; [B]Grp[/B] +11
[B]Atk Options[/B] sneak attack +4d6, Telling Blow
[B]Special Actions[/B] turn undead 6/day (+7, 2d6+8, 5th), spontaneous casting (heal spells)
[B]Combat Gear[/B] tanglefoot bag x3
[B]Spells Prepared[/B] (CL 9th, 10th for Lawful spells):
                [B]3rd[/B] – [I]meld into stone[/I] (D), [I]obscure object, suppress glyph[/I] (DC 16)
                [B]2nd[/B] – [I]darkness[/I] (D), [I]delay poison, divine insight, find traps [/I](DC 15)
                [B]1st[/B] – [I]detect secret doors[/I] (D), [I]dispel ward, obscuring mist, resurgence, sanctuary[/I] (DC 14)
                [B]0[/B] – [I]amanuensis, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, resistance[/I]  (DC 13)
                (D) = Domain spell
                [B]Deity[/B]: Ardara.  [I]Domains[/I]: Cavern, Law
[B]Spell-Like Abilities[/B] (CL 13th):
                1/day [I]calm emotions[/I] (DC 15)
---------------------------------------------------
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 14, Dex 22, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 17, Cha 17
[B]SQ[/B] aura of law, trap finding
[B]Feats[/B] Improved Critical (rapier), Practiced Spellcaster (cleric), Quick Reconnoiter, Telling Blow, Weapon Finesse
[B]Skills[/B] Appraise +12, Balance +15, Bluff +10, Climb +9 (+11 with rope), Concentration +7, Diplomacy +12, Disbale Device +18, Disguise +10 (+12 to act in-character), Escape Artist +17 (+19 vs. rope), Forgery +12, Hide +22, Intimidate +5, Jump +11, Knowledge (history) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10, Listen +10, Move Silently +22, Open Lock +19, Search +16, Spellcraft +10, Spot +12, Tumble +15, Use Rope +13 (+15 when binding)
[B]Possessions[/B] Combat gear plus +2 mithral shirt, +2 light mithral shield, +2 rapier, cloak of elvenkind, boots of elvenkind, masterwork thieves’ tools, dagger x4
[B]Notes[/B] [I]Quick Reconnoiter[/I] – allows a Listen and Spot check to be made as a free action once/round, +2 initiative
[I]Telling Blow[/I] – whenever a critical hit is made, add sneak attack dice to damage done


----------



## Sarabian1

> And so, this marks the end of the second act of the campaign (the DM has said the campaign metaplot has four acts, plus an epilogue).




Actually, this marks the end of the third act. The players are just now embarking on the fourth. My "acts" tend to start slow, and end with a modicum of resolution, and enough unanswered questions to take one into the next act.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

Now I want to see Kyle cast a _limited wish_ or _wish_ spell. That would be funny.


----------



## Delemental

Sarabian1 said:
			
		

> Actually, this marks the end of the third act. The players are just now embarking on the fourth. My "acts" tend to start slow, and end with a modicum of resolution, and enough unanswered questions to take one into the next act.



 Okay, I'm a little confused now.  According to what I have...

Act One was from the beginning of the campaign until the first meeting with Aran.

Act Two was from the tomb of the _karrak_ to the discovery of the Tauric fleet.

That puts us at the start of Act Three.  Where did I miss an act?


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> Now I want to see Kyle cast a _limited wish_ or _wish_ spell. That would be funny.



 Well, we'll see.  Though it obviously hasn't come up yet, I believe that our DM has some house rules about the _wish_ spell which could affect whether Kyle ever does cast one (it's not really high on his 'must-have' list anyway).

And getting the spell would be a problem for Kyle, since it's not a Necromancy spell; we only ever seem to kill wizards who are necromancers (Kyle's spellbook is chock full of spells he'll never cast because they're icky).  The non-necromancer mages either get away, or are sorcerers.

Oh well, it's not like Kyle's had difficulty getting spells when he really wants them.

But I'm curious - why do you think it would be funny?  Funny ha-ha, or funny 'Oh my God look how badly he screwed up the universe'?


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

'Oh my God look how badly he screwed up the universe' = LOL!



On a serious note, with a _wish_ spell, Kyle could use it to give himself spell-like abilities and other nifty tricks.


----------



## Sarabian1

> Act Two was from the tomb of the karrak to the discovery of the Tauric fleet.
> 
> That puts us at the start of Act Three. Where did I miss an act?




Act Two ended at Erito's Library. Act Three ended just before the start of the war (yes yes, faithful readers, it's coming.)


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> On a serious note, with a _wish_ spell, Kyle could use it to give himself spell-like abilities and other nifty tricks.




Yikes!  Kyle can barely handle the responsibility of being able to cast _unseen servant_ once per day!  

Seriously, one never know what the future could hold.  I suppose it's not out of the question, but as I said, _wish _isn't a spell that Kyle will be actively seeking (_time stop_ and _shapechange_ are another story).  What Kyle, or what any of us would do with a _wish _if we got hold of one is anyone's guess.

Probably something boring like an inherent stat raise, though.


----------



## Delemental

Sarabian1 said:
			
		

> Act Two ended at Erito's Library. Act Three ended just before the start of the war (yes yes, faithful readers, it's coming.)



 Ah, okay, I can see that.  I've edited the story in the proper places to reflect this.  So Act Four it is, then!


----------



## Delemental

*As If It Were Yesterday*

“What’s going on? It feels like we’ve been waiting here forever.” *

            “Patience, Osborn,” Tolly said.  “The diplomats will announce their decisions soon.  It has only been seven hours.”

            “Feels like seven months,” Osborn muttered.

            The seven members of the Legacy sat together in a small room high up in one of the towers of Castle Coviere in Merlion, where the international conference to address the oncoming menace from the Tauric Empire had been convened.  It had been several hours since the diplomats from all over Affon had ended their meeting and withdrawn to their chambers to mull over the information and consult with their colleagues in their home nations.  The members of the party had done their best to make the ambassadors understand the threat posed by the Taurics in the control of psions, meeting with representatives from five of Affon’s seven sovereign nations (the remnants of the Red Archipelago were being represented by the Tlaxan ambassador, and although Sargia had sent a representative, the party did not speak with her, as they’d never been to that nation and thus had no special connection they could exploit).  They also spoke with representatives from the orc and hin clans, trying to impress upon them the importance of unifying and working with the other races.  It remained to be seen how persuasive they had been.  Lanara had worked the hardest of them all, often sitting in on the most important discussions and trying to bend the stubborn diplomats to see the truth of the matter.  She had only returned to the group’s room a few minutes ago.

            Autumn looked down from the window at the courtyard below, and the grounds spreading out beyond that.  She’d only been to Castle Coviere a handful of times as a young girl – her adopted parents, Zanich and Auror, hadn’t wanted to risk exposing the young aasimar to potential scandal if information about her parentage were ever revealed.  Now, as an adult, the same fears kept her bound to the modest rooms that had been given to the party.  She was the spitting image of the former queen, and if she were seen in public her relationship to Damen and Corissane, the current rulers of the small kingdom, would be difficult to dispute.  Autumn had enough trouble with her own duchy; she did not relish the idea of getting into a tumult over the succession in Merlion.

            “Has anyone heard from Aran?” she asked, to no one in particular.

            “Not a word,” replied her sister Arrie.  “Not since his private conversation with the Targethi ambassador.”

            The biggest stir in the entire conference had come when Aran had presented himself and explained exactly who he was, and what he knew of the imminent invasion.  To their credit, the diplomats in attendance took the news that there were practitioners of powers forbidden since the Cataclysm alive and well in the depths of Aelfenn rather well.  Aran made a more personal impression on the ambassador from Targeth, when in an effort to demonstrate how that nation’s magical barrier would not be a deterrent to a psionic being, teleported himself and the ambassador to the top of The Tower in Trageon.  It was hoped among the party that Targeth, contrary to popular wisdom when the conference began, would now take an active role in the defense of the continent.

            “He may not even be here any more,” Kyle commented.  “I hardly think he’d feel comfortable hanging out with surface people, and there’s much he can do back with his people to find out what Kristyan and his people are doing now.”

            “Well, I’m feeling all kinds of useless right now,” Arrie complained.  “Isn’t there something we could be doing?”

            “Patience, Ariadne,” said Xu Dhii Ngao, mirroring Tolly’s earlier admonition to Osborn.  “We must not waste our efforts on fruitless activity.  The wind howls, and leaves scatter, but a single drop of water splits the stone.”

            “You’ve been saying weird stuff like that a lot, Xu,” Osborn said, looking up from the game of chess he was playing with Tolly, “what’s that about?”

            “Our recent experiences have led me to the brink of a deeper understanding of some of the mysteries of my order,” Xu explained.  “I have recently been contemplating the holy texts.  I feel I am on the verge of a momentous shift in my very being.”

            “Well, if these people don’t decide to band together,” Arrie complained, “then we all might be experiencing a momentous shift soon – right off this continent at the ends of Tauric polearms.”

            There was a long silence as each of them contemplated that fate befalling the people they cared about.  Tolly and Autumn each spoke a quiet prayer to their respective deities.

            “I think we need some music, Lanara,” Kyle said.  The bard, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet in the last hour, nodded and unslung her harp.  Soon the soft tones of Lanara’s voice filled the emptiness, and their spirits lifted a little.

            Just as the last notes faded, there was a knock on the door.  A page’s voice announced, “All dignitaries are asked to attend the main audience chamber at four bells.”

            “About damn time,” Lanara said, putting away her harp.

            “You’re one to talk,” Osborn said, “you’ve only been here fifteen minutes.”

            “Fifteen minutes of waiting is an eternity to a cansin,” Lanara said.  “Let’s just hope it’s good news.”

*          *          *​
            It was, more or less.

            There was general agreement among the assembled body that the Tauric invasion did represent a clear threat to all of them.  Tlaxan, the Dwarven Confederates, the Peca Provinces, and Medos announced an alliance for their common defense.  The hin clans of the Khag Steppes also agreed to fight, though they insisted on their own autonomy.  The orcs of the Haran Desert and Sargia maintained that the threat was still too remote for them to mobilize, though the orcs did agree to curtail their raids into Sargia and the Steppes to free up troops from those nations, and Sargia agreed to remain in contact with the alliance.

            Targeth, sadly, did not rise above the expectation.  There was a lot of talk of ‘moral support’ and of ‘monitoring the situation’, but when the ambassador demurred on questions of troop levels or tactical support, everyone knew that despite their warnings, the archmages of Targeth had decided to sit behind their barrier and wait it out.

            Prince Herion, who had been appointed to lead the conference, went over several items crucial to the new alliance; command responsibilities, resources, and the signing of documents allowing foreign troops to cross national borders.

            “Finally,” said Herion, “we have agreed to send an envoy to the Eternal Empire of Xhintai, to request the assistance of the Emperor in our current conflict.  We are hoping that their government will recognize the fact that if the Taurics are successful in their conquest of Aelfenn, that our lands will not long sustain their population, and they might very well set their sights eastward across the sea.”

            The party nodded with approval.  Approaching Xhintai had been one of their ideas.

            “Who will be a part of this delegation?” asked the Medosi ambassador.

            “Overgovernor Garlen of the Peca Provinces has offered to send his own advisor, Pench,” Herion replied.  “He is both a skilled negotiator and a capable navigator, which will be of great use on the voyage.  From the orcish Warchief Keth, we have been offered the services of Gell, a priestess of Grabâkh.”

            There was a slight muttering in the crowd.  “The gnomes and the orcs have no great fondness for each other,” someone was heard to comment.

            “This is known,” Herion said, “but I have assurances from both Garlen and Keth that their people are more than capable of putting aside their differences for a greater need.  It is hoped that the presence of two beings of such contrary natures working together will impress upon the Xhintai Emperor the gravity of our situation.”

            “Who else will go?” asked the Medosi ambassador.

            “We are hoping to keep the envoy small, so as to speed negotiations,” Herion said.  “And because, quite honestly, we have more need of able-bodied men and women here.  But there is one who I hope to persuade to join the delegation – the monk Xu Dhii Ngao, of the adventuring group The Legacy, to act as a cultural advisor and liaison.”

            There was a general outcry of approval, from everywhere except from the party.  Arrie activated her ring that allowed her to deliver _sendings _to Herion, and fired off a quick message.  _What the…?  Were you planning on telling us?_

_Hasn’t been time,_ came the reply.  _Eleventh hour decision.  Sorry, but it was either her or Hungai._

            Arrie opened her mouth, then shut it, scowling.  Her response would have to wait.

            Meanwhile, Tolly had turned to Xu.  “Did you know about this?”

            “A little,” the monk admitted.  “I was approached several times by various diplomats, seeking my input on how best to approach the Eternal Emperor.  I finally suggested they should find a Xhintai native to accompany them.”  Xu sighed.  “I had thought they would approach Togusa.”

            There were other plans announced, and promises of details to be worked out, although by this time the party scarcely heard them.  Then the meeting ended, and people began to wander about.  Herion walked over and spoke with Xu quietly, and then led her off into another room along with Overgovernor Garlen and Warchief Keth and a few other officials.  Lanara was asked to join another group of diplomats, who were going to be discussing the finer points of the alliance; it was hoped her talents might keep the meeting from ending with weapons drawn.

            “Now what?” Arrie asked.

            “Now, we wait.  Again.” Kyle replied.

            It was only three more hours before Xu emerged from the meeting room.  The rest of the party had gone about their business, and were just finishing up supper when the monk returned.

            She did not delay in giving them the news.  “I am going.”

            Several people began to speak at once, gesturing and getting out of their seats.  Xu held up her hands to silence them.

            “Believe me, I would not choose to leave you all like this.  But I believe it is for a greater purpose.  Togusa’s past would make him a poor choice as an envoy, as he would feel honor-bound to repay his blood debt to his former master.  The only other likely candidate to approach would be Lord Hungai, and it is felt that he would attempt to work the situation to his advantage.  I have Affon’s interests at heart, and will guide the efforts of the diplomats to that end.  Overgovernor Garlen informs me that soon his ships will be patrolling the waters, and will prevent all foreign ships from leaving Aelfenn.  Thus even if Hungai learns I have returned to Xhintai, he will not be allowed to pursue me.”  Xu gave each of them a warm smile.  “And, in addition, I have been meditating on this decision, and I believe that fortune is guiding me to this path.  I have mentioned that I feel as though a transformation is upon me, and I think that the gods have given me this opportunity to return to my birth-land and return to my monastery, where I may pursue enlightenment.  I cannot deny Fate.”

            There was a long silence.  Then Autumn spoke.  “Do we at least get to throw you a goodbye party?”

            Xu’s smile widened.  “I would enjoy that very much.”

*          *          *​
            The Tauric Empire landed on the same day that Xu boarded her ship.  Within two weeks, they had conquered most of northern Tlaxan.  The Grand Duchy of Mypos and the Kingdom of Erumian were completely overrun, leaving the elven empire with only one major seaport in Praxos.  The smoke from untold numbers of enemy campfires stung the eyes of the people who had run to Noxolt for sanctuary.

            The navy of the Peca Provinces had set sail en masse on the day after the conference, heading north.  Since then, no one had heard word from a single ship.  Whether the navy had been destroyed utterly, or had encountered some other problem in the midst of the ocean, no one knew.  Even divinations proved unreliable on the matter, as they were being blocked.

            In another two weeks, the Taurics might have overrun Tlaxan completely, and begun assaulting the passes into the Confederates, except for two fortuitous events.  First, the armies of the Dwarven Confederates had finally made their way to the front lines, supported by Medosi troops and clerics.  The dwarves halted the headlong advance of the Taurics, and forced them to dig in; they were still gaining ground on Affon, but the progress was now measured in feet rather than miles.

            The second, and entirely unexpected event that helped forestall the grim advance of the Taurics was the arrival of a fleet of Targeth’s airships, which helped break up several major engagements with a battery of arcane firepower.

            Still, the Taurics kept coming.  Wave upon wave of humanoid slaves were thrown into battle, some only to provide cover for the lycanthropic shock troops that comprised the army’s elite fighting force.  The Tauric Empire was also not lax in their study of arcane magic, and though only clerics of the One and Four were found among their forces (Taurics believing that the Many are too weak to deserve worship), they were clearly superior in the use of nature magic.  And, of course, there were the psions, lurking in the shadows of the battlefield, whose powers could not be countered at all.

            The departure of Xu’s ship was the last time the members of the Legacy were all together for many weeks.  Each went their separate ways to do what they could.  Tolly and his apprentice Crystal returned to M’dos, and came back leading a phalanx of Ardaran troops.  He also took Iria and her tutor, the maenad Elianora Lonja, out of Autumn’s manor house in Vargas and moved them to the townhouse in Miracle.  Though Elianora was understandably discomfited at the idea of living in a city that existed purely by divine will, she agreed that it was probably the safest place in Affon currently.  Tolly also made arrangements for others to stay in the townhouse’s many rooms; he knew that before long the city would be filled with those escaping the war, and by blending Iria and Elianora in among the ‘refugees’, no one would question their presence in the Legacy’s home. 

Autumn returned to Vargex, whose northern border was now a war zone, to coordinate the defense of her duchy and deal with the swarms of displaced people.  Kyle and Arrie went with her, though both departed about three weeks into the war, as Autumn had things well in hand at the front.  Arrie was also at the front lines, though further east, having been sent with the legions stationed in Noxolt with Herion’s blessing and a promise that she would “leave some of the enemy for the other soldiers to kill”. Kyle, conversely, traveled from place to place along the entire war zone, having assigned himself to the task for which he was most eminently qualified; psion-hunter.

Lanara put her skills to good use in counterintelligence operations, spying on the enemy and falsifying orders to disrupt their battle plans.  She also lent a hand rallying the weary troops, encouraging them to keep fighting.  Though her work took place well behind the front lines (on both sides), her contributions were no less valuable, and hundreds of lives were spared when planned Tauric assaults were called off at the last minute due to ‘urgent new orders’ sending their forces off into the wilderness, or when the alliance forces received useful information about the Tauric battle plans.

But Osborn was perhaps the busiest of them all – not only did he lead several bands of hin warriors on missions against the Taurics, but he also continued to coordinate the underground information and supply chains through the various thieves’ guilds of Affon.  It wasn’t long before many alliance soldiers had heard tales of the ‘Shadow General’, though few knew the General was a hin, and fewer still knew his name.  But the troops who received desperately needed supplies that their own quartermasters had been unable to procure gave no thought to the race of their benefactor, and the towns whose people had been saved by the timely arrival of hin outriders and warslingers did not disparage the Shadow General’s anonymity.

*          *          *​
            The Targethi airship floated silently overhead, watching the battle unfold.  The ship was a small, unarmed scouting sloop, not one of the massive sky galleons, and so the ship was only observing, not participating.  The captain of the ship walked over to the railing, where a wizard was looking down, scanning the battle.

            “I don’t know how you expect to find who you’re looking for down there,” she said to him.  “It’s pure chaos.”

            The wizard smiled.  “Chaos?  Well, he won’t put up with that for long.”

            A moment later, there was a sudden noise from the battle, a single word audible even from this height over the din of steel clashing and the screams of the dying.  Though the utterance could not be made out, its effects were obvious, as a large swath of the battlefield suddenly cleared as soldiers fell.  Standing in the midst of the new clearing was a armored figure, who towered head and shoulders over everyone else.

            “There he is.” The wizard turned to the captain.  “Thanks for your assistance, Captain.  I’ll be fine from here.”  With that, he vanished.

            The captain, who was used to wizards, turned and shouted orders to her crew.  Within moments, the sloop was coming about and rising above the cloud layer.

            Tolly scanned the area, gauging when the next wave of enemies would reach him.  He smiled grimly; the enemy was obviously weakening, and he felt that his men would be victorious at this battle, but it came after a string of defeats and withdrawals that made their triumph almost hollow.  The Taurics would withdraw today, but they would come back tomorrow.

            Tolly felt a presence behind him suddenly, and whirled, bringing his maul around in a wide circle.  Drops of lycanthropic blood sprayed out in an arc from the silvery head of his weapon, spattering on the robes of the figure standing about twelve feet away.  The rush of air from the maul’s passage ruffled the man’s hair.

            “Hello, Tolly,” Kyle said.

            “Hello yourself,” he replied, bringing his weapon around and scanning the area.  The enemy troops had halted their advance with the arrival of this new person.  “You might have warned me before you showed up.”

            “Why do you think I’m standing this far back?” he replied, eyeing the Tauric forces.

            “I could have used a spell to deal with you,” Tolly pointed out.

            “True, but you’ve always been more of an up close and personal type.  As the present situation demonstrates.”  Kyle gestured, and a bank of poisonous gas rolled out toward the enemy.  “Do you think you maybe forgot to bring something with you out here?  Like, an army?”

            “My men are that way,” Tolly said, gesturing with his maul to the west even as he cast a spell and caused wounds to open up on a cluster of Tauric slave-warriors.  “They are dealing with the main assault.  I came to support the right flank.”

            “It looks like you _are _the right flank,” Kyle observed.  Tolly only shrugged in reply.

            “Are you here for a reason,” Tolly asked, “or did you just want to wish me a happy Festival of the Rains?”

            “I have two reasons for being here,” Kyle said.  “First, I wanted to let you know that Herion is requesting that the Legacy return to the Imperial Palace as soon as possible.  They have a mission for us.”

            “It will take me a few days to extricate myself from my command,” Tolly said.

            “It’s expected.  It’ll probably take Arrie a few days to reach Autumn and get her out, too.  Lanara’s already there, of course, and I’ve done a _sending _to Osborn, and he says he’ll be there, but I have no idea where he is right now.”

            “Very well.”  Tolly looked at the enemy, who had halted their advance altogether.  They knew he was more than capable of handling them in melee, and now they knew he possessed enough divine magic to threaten them from a distance.  The arrival of a wizard was also staying their hand.  But there was a commotion in the main body of the Tauric troops, as if something were happening.

            “You said you had two reasons to be here,” Tolly said.  “What was the second?”

            Kyle was watching the disturbance in the lines as well, though he was observing the scene through the crystal sphere on his staff.  Tolly noted that the sphere had detached itself from the shaft, and was hovering a few inches above, as though attached by an invisible thread.

            “This,” he replied, and suddenly strode forward toward the enemy.  “Psion!” he shouted out.  “You cannot hide from me! Come and face me!”

            A single figure emerged from the crowd.  He looked human, though his eyes blazed with energy.  He was bald, and his bare flesh was covered in strange tattoos.  A chunk of crystal sat on his shoulder, supported by spindly ectoplasmic legs.

            “You dare challenge me, arcanist?” the psion called out.  “You have no understanding of my power!”  The glow in the psion’s eyes intensified, and Tolly heard a low chime in his mind that told him that a psionic power was being used on Kyle.  Kyle’s eyes closed, and then he smiled as the glow faded in the psion’s eyes.  The psion looked perplexed.

            Kyle gestured and spoke words of power, and a rainbow beam shot from his fingertips, enveloping the psion and several people behind him.  There were screams as people burst into flame, or dissolved, or turned to stone, or simply vanished.  The psion clutched at his throat, gasping, and then collapsed.  Kyle walked up to him.

            “It can’t be…” the psion gasped.  “It’s impossible…”

            “You know, you’re the fourth one I’ve killed that said the same thing.”

            As the glow started to vanish from the psion’s eyes, Kyle picked up the skittering psicrystal that was scurrying along the ground.  When the psion died, the legs disappeared, and Kyle pocketed the inert stone as the rest of the Tauric army broke and ran.

            “I could have dealt with the psion myself,” Tolly commented as Kyle walked by.

            “I know, but you’ve been working hard all day.  See you in a few days.”  With that, Kyle vanished.

            Tolly sighed, shouldered his maul, and began the long march back to where his troops were celebrating the rout of the enemy.

*          *          *​
            Most of them only saw their death coming as a blur of motion and the rattle of a chain.

            It was a small force, Arrie knew, only two thousand troops.  The main Tauric army was still miles away.  This was a probing attack, designed to test the defenses of Vargex.  Arrie had come upon the battle while riding in, and she had quickly dismounted and rushed in, burgeoning herself with psionic power before hitting the enemy like a tornado.

Arrie moved through the enemy ranks, leaving behind her a trail of gore.  She finally emerged from the press of slave-warriors and their lycanthropic commanders, and almost immediately fell into a similar mass of elven and human alliance soldiers.  But here she was not challenged, and after getting her bearings she made her way through to the back of the line of troops, arriving at the command tent.  Autumn was standing in front of the tent, her greataxe resting on the ground with her hands crossed over the pommel.

            “Hey sis,” Arrie called out.

            They embraced briefly, the awkward sort of hug that is all that can be managed by two fully armored people.  Then Autumn returned her attention to the battle lines.  “What are you doing here?”

            “I’ve come to get you,” Arrie said.

            “You know, you could have come from that direction,” Autumn said, nodding toward the rear of her own line.  “A little bit easier.”

            “Where’s the fun in that?” Arrie asked.

            “You have a point.  Why are you coming to get me?”

            “Herion’s got a mission for us, wants the Legacy to come back to Noxolt.”

            Autumn frowned.  “I’ll have to turn command over to Togusa,” she said.

            “Is that a problem?”

            “No, but it will take time.”

            “Well, why not start now?”

            “In a moment,” Autumn said.  “I’m waiting for something.”

            “For what?” Arrie asked, looking at the battle a few yards away.

            “For that,” Autumn replied, pointing.  From out of the middle of the enemy came a large minotaur whose skin was black and scaly, and who sported two sets of horns; the large, curled horns natural to the race that protruded from the sides of its head, and a second, smaller set of horns that emerged from the front.

            Autumn smiled and shook her head.  “I don’t think they even try to gather intelligence before they attack.”

            “What do you mean?” Arrie asked.

            “You’ll see.  Care to join the fun?”

            “Of course.”

            The two sisters strode down toward the battle, heading straight for the minotaur.  The creature bellowed, and gestured, and suddenly a dozen chain devils appeared around them.

            “Summoner?” Arrie asked.

            “Acolyte of the Skin summoner,” Autumn confirmed.

            “You’re right.  They don’t even try.  I’ll take these six.”

            Autumn and Arrie made short work of the kytons.  Autumn’s axe sliced through their diabolic flesh like butter, and Arrie made the devils look like amateurs with their own chains.  In all, it took less than a minute.  Next the minotaur summoned a pair of barbed devils, which took even less time to defeat.  Finally, they were within a few paces of the minotaur, who was preparing for a charge.

            “Careful, sis,” Arrie said.  “The last time we fought an Acolyte of the Skin, things didn’t go so well.”

            The minotaur charged straight at Autumn, brandishing a huge spiked mace.  She held her ground, and then at the last moment turned and brought her greataxe around, its edge blazing with holy power.  The axe sliced through the minotaur’s forearm, then continued around and bit through its neck.  As the beast collapsed, its head rolling away into the trampled grass as black ichor sprayed from its body, Autumn turned to look at Arrie.

            “You were saying?”**

*          *          *​
            Osborn walked into the opulent conference room in the Imperial Palace.  The room was empty, except for the single figure sitting at the far end of the room, dressed in a low-cut bodice and skirt and sporting a shock of pink hair.  He crossed the marble floor, his footsteps so soft that his passage made hardly any noise, even in the cavernous stone room.  He climbed into a seat next to the other person, unclasping his cloak and draping it across the back of the chair.  His left arm was in a sling.

            Lanara eyed him as he settled in.  “Good to see you, General,” she said.

            “Excuse me?” Osborn said.

            “I am in the presence of the dreaded Shadow General, am I not?” she asked.

            “How did you find out?”

            “Please.  I know all, I see all.”  She paused for a while, then grinned lopsidedly.  “Okay, educated guess.  I’ve heard reports about the Shadow General, and did some checking around.  I was pretty sure it was either you or that guy the hin sent to the conference.”

            “Yeah, I hear he gets that a lot,” Osborn commented.  “Have you told anyone here?”

            “Nope,” she replied, “and I don’t intend to.  Figure you can do your job better if you’re not being pestered by the alliance commanders.  I wasn’t even planning on telling the rest of the Legacy about you.”

            Osborn shrugged.  “Fine by me, but they’ll find out eventually.”

            “Sure, but it’s more fun when it’s a surprise.  I knew about Kyle, Tolly, and Autumn’s little love triangle way before they did.  That turned out to be quite enjoyable to watch, though I was hoping for a little more bloodshed.  Oh, well.”

            Osborn grinned.  “I guess it will be fun to have a secret for a while.  I was starting to get a little bored of just being ‘the guy with the daggers’.”

            “War does bring out all sorts of different sides to people,” Lanara said.  “Some good, some bad.”  She looked a little sad for a moment, but it quickly passed.

            “Anyway, you have been busy, Osborn.  I’m dying to know where you found the arrows to re-supply our troops on the eastern front.  We’ve had fletchers working like crazy but still can’t keep up.”

            “Sargia.  They’ve been stockpiling ever since the conference.”

            “Qin-Chu’s toes!  I knew it!  The next time one of their diplomats tells me they don’t have any equipment to spare, I’m going to shove one of their arrows up his nose.”

            “Just don’t break it.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to acquire any more through my channels for a while.”

            “Good to know.”

            “Speaking of channels,” Osborn said, “my sources tell me that you’ve almost got the leaders of Freeport ready to sign on with the alliance.  You get Freeport, and most of the Expanse will come with them.”

            ‘Thanks.  I practically had to sleep with the entire City Council to even get that far.” Lanara noticed Osborn’s emerging smile.  “I said _practically _had to sleep with them, not actually.  I haven’t been forced to rely on that particular negotiating tactic yet.”

            “Tolly would be so proud of you,” Osborn joked.

            Lanara stuck her tongue out at the hin.  “To change the subject, I heard about how your warslingers held off that excursion force long enough to evacuate Haedal’s Crossing a few days ago.”

            “Yeah, by the skin of our teeth,” Osborn said.  “We didn’t even know they were heading that direction until it was almost too late.  That’s where I got this.”  He held up the arm in the sling.  “Our Feeshan cleric was out of healing magic by the time he got to me, so I went with the old-fashioned method.  Just a sprain, really.  I should be fine in a day or two.”

            “About that,” Lanara said sheepishly, “that was my fault.  Sorry.”

            “What do you mean?  My arm?”

            “No, the battle.  That excursion force was supposed to head southeast toward Macendi.  But the alliance had a supply train crossing through there, which would have been vulnerable.  I diverted them with false intelligence to Haedal’s Crossing.”

            “Why there?”

            “I didn’t particularly enjoy doing it,” Lanara snapped, “but I had to send them _somewhere_.  I tried to get General Ironbeard to send some troops there, but he couldn’t get there in time.”

            “I understand,” the hin said.  “I’ve had to make some unpleasant choices myself.”

            Lanara’s face softened.  “I’m sure you have.”  She sighed.  “When did being the good guys come to mean getting to decide which group of innocent people gets slaughtered?”

            “About the time a bunch of ships from the Tauric Empire landed on the beaches of Tlaxan,” Osborn said.

            There was a long silence.  “So, are the others here yet?” Osborn asked.

            “Autumn and Arrie arrived yesterday.  Arrie and Herion have been spending a lot of time together, so I’ve been keeping Autumn company until Kyle gets here.  Tolly and Crystal came in about an hour before you, but I haven’t seen them yet.”

            Just then, the doors opened again, and Tolly walked through the door, followed closely by the axani Crystal, the Ardaran Inquisitor who had been assigned to Tolly as a new apprentice to train.  Lanara, like the rest of the party, knew little about Crystal, as she had arrived when the news of the Tauric invasion had first come to light, and she seemed somewhat shy, barely speaking to anyone besides Tolly.  Lanara still held a lingering mistrust – perhaps in part because of her race, which was in direct opposition to Lanara’s own, but mostly because she was an Inquisitor, and Lanara knew that some in the Inquisition did not look favorably upon Tolly’s position in regard to psionics.  Still, she had to trust that Archprelate Frelarr was a friend to Tolly, and would not knowingly send him someone who posed a threat.  And from the battle reports she’d seen, Crystal had been a faithful aide to the Inquisitor Primus.

            “What’s this, Tolly?” Lanara called out.  “Only one woman in your retinue today?  Either she’s very good, or you’re slipping.”

            Tolly barely reacted at all to her taunt, but Crystal blushed slightly.  _I ought to tease her more often_, Lanara thought, _she looks good with a little color in her cheeks.  Maybe if I rile her up enough, she might say more than two words around us, too._

            “Lanara, I’ve truly missed you,” Tolly said, “but my aim is improving.”

            Lanara gasped.  “Why, Tolly, such threats! Don’t you know I’m a woman?”

            “Yes, Lanara I do, though it’s not hard for anyone in view of your cleavage to determine that.  If you were demonstrating your gender any more blatantly, I’d mistake you for a native of the Red Archipelago.”

            Lanara flashed Tolly a grin, although she did pull up on her bodice a little.

            “Aww, darn,” said Osborn. “I was enjoying the view.”

            “What view is that?” Arrie said, as she walked into the room, with Autumn walking beside her.  “Is Lanara covering up her breasts again?”

            Lanara’s grin turned to a scowl.  “Okay, now you’re making me sound sleazy.”

            The party took seats around the table, engaged in idle chatter.  “How are things in Vargas, Autumn?” Osborn asked.

            “As well as can be expected,” she replied.  “There was an attempt by one of our former magistrates to usurp power just after the war started, but it was dealt with.” Autumn flashed a smile at Arrie.  “The main Tauric force hasn’t progressed more than a few miles into our northern border, though they occasionally send smaller forces to harass us.”

            “The bulk of the opposition is just north of us,” Lanara explained.  “Most likely they hope to seize Noxolt.  Once they can do that, Autumn, I’d expect you’ll see a lot more action on your front, because the Taurics will likely want to push south through Vargex to get to Aleppi and access one of the gateways through Targeth’s shield.”

            “You make it sound like the sack of Noxolt is inevitable,” Osborn said.

            “If nothing changes, Osborn, it is.” Tolly said.  “It might take a year, but they’ll get here.”

            “Well, that’s what we’re here for, right?” Osborn said.  “To change things.”

            “Almost all here,” Arrie said.  “Where is that husband of yours, Autumn?”

            “I have no idea,” the sentinel admitted.  “I haven’t heard much from him since you and he left Vargas.”

            “I saw him a few days ago,” Tolly said.  “I thought he was heading here after that, but I admit that was only an assumption.”

            “It’s not like him to be late for anything,” Osborn commented.

            It was several minutes more before Kyle came into the room, walking rapidly.  “Sorry,” he said, collapsing into a chair next to Autumn.  The aasimar immediately took his hand.

            “You cut your hair,” she noticed.  His dark hair, normally worn long and bound in back, was now cropped short against the back of his head.

            “Yeah, it was getting hot,” Kyle said.

            Osborn craned his head to look at Kyle.  “He didn’t cut it off,” Osborn said, “it was burned off.”

            Everyone looked at Kyle.  “Like I said, it was getting hot.  I just neglected to mention that it was because of a pyrokineticist I ran into the day before yesterday.”

            “Kyle,” Lanara chided, “you’ve got to find new friends to hang out with.”

            “We can compare scars later,” Kyle said.  “Is Herion coming soon?”

            “I thought so,” Arrie said.  “He didn’t say much about it to me when we were together earlier.  Only told me to wait until everyone was together.”

            “So, how is Herion, Arrie?” Kyle asked.

            Arrie smiled at him.  “A little better than before, thanks for asking.”

            The door to the conference room opened, and a page stepped in.  “His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor Haxtha.”

            The party looked at each other in bewilderment for a moment, and then quickly scrambled to get to their feet as Haxtha walked into the room and sat down at the head of the table.

            “You may sit,” Haxtha said.  Slowly, the Legacy took their seats.

            “Your Majesty,” Tolly said, “we are honored by your presence.  I’m sure that we can begin as soon as Herion arrives.”

            “Prince Herion is not attending this meeting,” Haxtha said curtly.  “I summoned you here.  I felt it was worth reminding all of you that I am Emperor of Tlaxan, not my brother.”

            “The messenger that was sent to me said that Herion wanted to meet the Legacy here in Noxolt,” Arrie said, carefully controlling her voice.

            “Indeed.  I invoked my brother’s name so that you would not be tempted to drag your feet in getting here.  He was also under orders not to discuss the matter with you before this meeting.  I felt he also needed a reminder of who controls the military assets of this empire.”

            The party sat without giving a response.  Osborn surreptitiously scribbled something on a scrap of parchment, and slipped it into Lanara’s palm.  She quietly unfolded the note.


_ How soon before the Tauric army can get here?_

 ----------------------------

* This line is funnier when there's been seven months between stories, instead of a week.

** Yes, this section and the one before it can basically be summed up as "The Legacy unzips, takes it out, and waves it around."


----------



## Delemental

*Autumn Goodson*

And now, the stats for Kyle's better half, Violet Autumn.



		Code:
	

AUTUMN GOODSON (VERAHANNEN)                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Aasimar female sentinel 14
NG Medium humanoid (native outsider)
[B]Init[/B] +3; [B]Senses[/B] darkvision 60’, Listen +10, Spot +14
[B]Languages[/B] Common, Celestial, Draconic, Elven
--------------------------------------------
[B]AC[/B] 34, touch 17, flat-footed 31
[B]hp[/B] 151 (14 HD)
[B]Immune[/B] fear
[B]Resist[/B] acid resistance 5, cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, Resist Fiendish Lure, Celestial Fortitude
[B]Fort[/B] +18, Ref +12, Will +12
--------------------------------------------
[B]Speed[/B] 40 ft (8 squares)
[B]Melee[/B] [I]+2 thundering blessed crazed greataxe[/I] +21/+16/+11 (1d12+11/19-20 x3) or [I]+1 axiomatic heavy mace[/I] +20/+15/+10 (1d8+8) or
[B]Ranged[/B] light crossbow +17 (1d8/19-20)
[B]Base Atk[/B] +14; [B]Grp[/B] +19
[B]Atk Options[/B] Power Attack, Smite Evil 4/day
[B]Special Actions[/B] Turn Outsider 8/day (+5, 2d6+16, 11th), Summon Celestial Minion
[B]Combat Gear[/B] [I]wand of cure moderate wounds[/I] (47 charges), holy water x2, tanglefoot bag, alchemist’s fire x4, smokestick, [I]bead of force[/I], [I]potion of dimension doo[/I]r, vicious bleeder x9
[B]Spells Prepared[/B] (CL 7th):
                [B]3rd[/B] – varies (DC 16, 2/day)
                [B]2nd[/B] – varies (DC 15, 2/day)
                [B]1st[/B] – varies (DC 14, 4/day)
                [B]Deity[/B]: Bail. 
[B]Spell-Like Abilities[/B] (CL 14th):
                1/day [I]cure light wounds, hold portal, resistance, light, protection from evil, searing light[/I]
                2/day [I]dispel evil[/I]
                3/day [I]bless[/I]
                at will [I]detect evil[/I]
--------------------------------------------------------
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 21, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 20
[B]SQ[/B] can use Knowledge skills untrained, Divine Grace, Aura of Good, Aura of Courage
[B]Feats[/B] Celestial Bloodline, Extra Smiting, Eyes of Light, Improved Critical (greataxe), Leadership, Power Attack
[B]Skills[/B] Appraise +13, Concentration +10, Diplomacy +22, Gather Information +16, Knowledge (religion) +5, Knowledge (the planes) +5, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +6, Knowledge (psionics) +7, Listen +10, Ride +4, Search +4, Sense Motive +20, Spot +14, Survival +5
[B]Possessions[/B] Combat gear plus [I]+2 mithral full plate, ring of force shield, ring of protection +2, tiara of judgment, traveler’s cloak, belt of giant strength +4, Rovenor’s boots, portable hole, phylactery of faithfulness, stone salve, ring of minor cold resistance, incandescent blue ioun stone, dusty rose ioun stone, pink and green ioun stone, potion of cure serious wounds[/I] x5, large steel shield, heavy warhorse
[B]Notes[/B] [I]Resist Fiendish Lure[/I] - +4 sacred bonus to all saving throws against mind-affecting effects from evil outsiders
[I]Celestial Fortitude[/I] - +2 sacred bonus to all Fortitude saving throws against effects from evil outsiders and spells with the evil descriptor. Additionally, if she makes a successful Fortitude saving throw against such an effect that normally deals half damage, or has partial effects on a successful save, she instead takes no damage and suffers no partial effects.
[I]Summon Celestial Minion[/I] - A sentinel gains the ability to summon a Medium or smaller size celestial animal (with the celestial creature template) as a standard action once per day. The celestial minion carries the same responsibilities as a paladin’s special mount and gains the same bonuses to its HD, natural armor, Strength, Intelligence, and other special abilities that a paladin’s special mount gains as the sentinel increases in level. Unlike the paladin’s special mount, the celestial minion only remains for 1 hour/level before returning to the outer plane from whence it came.


----------



## Pyske

I keep seeing unfamiliar weapon mods, like _sizing_ and _crazed_.  Which books are legal for your campaign?


----------



## Delemental

Pyske said:
			
		

> I keep seeing unfamiliar weapon mods, like _sizing_ and _crazed_.  Which books are legal for your campaign?




Core rules (including PHB II and DMG II), the Complete series, Spell Compendium, some of the Races series, a bit of the Environment series when appropriate (such as using Frostburn when we were in the South Pole), and then the Forgotten Realms material.

I don't recall where Sizing comes from, but it basically allows the weapon to change sizes to accomodate the wielder (so it becomes a Small maul for a Small character, a Medium maul for a Medium character, etc).  Tolly put that enchantment on it because he likes to use that one clerical spell that makes you bigger (can't recall the name, too lazy to pull up d20srd.org) and doesn't want to worry about size penalties.

Crazed is a holdover from the Arms and Equipment Guide, and it lets you invoke a limited form of barbarian rage (smaller bonuses, but more control).


----------



## Delemental

*Lanara Rahila*

Here comes the party's moral support...



		Code:
	

LANARA RAHILA                                                                                                             
Cansin female bard 9/virtuoso 5
CG Medium humanoid (native outsider)
[B]Init[/B] +6; [B]Senses [/B]darkvision 60’, Listen +10, Spot +3
[B]Languages [/B]Common, Anarchic, Elven, Goblin, Hin, Orcish
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[B]AC[/B] 29, touch 14, flat-footed 20; Dodge, +2 insight bonus to AC when performing
[B]hp[/B] 85 (14 HD)
[B]Resist[/B] acid resistance 5, fire resistance 5
[B]Fort [/B]+7, [B]Ref [/B]+13, [B]Will [/B]+13
--------------------------------------------------------
[B]Speed[/B] 30 ft (6 squares); fly 60 ft (good)
[B]Melee[/B] [I]+1 keen rapier[/I] +15/+10 (1d6+1/15-20) or [I]+1 whip-dagger[/I] +15/+10 (1d6+1/19-20) or [I]+1 dagger[/I] +15/+10 (1d4+1/19-20) or
[B]Ranged [/B][I]+1 dagger[/I] +15/+10 (1d4+1/19-20) or light crossbow +14 (1d8/19-20) or sling +14 (special)
[B]Base Atk[/B] +8; [B]Grp [/B]+8
[B]Atk Options[/B] Weapon Finesse
[B]Special Actions[/B] bardic music 13/day – countersong, fascinate, inspire courage (+3), inspire competence, suggestion, inspire greatness (two subjects); virtuoso performance 5/day – Persuasive Song, Sustaining Song, Jarring Song
[B]Combat Gear[/B] [I]Fuirmach fiddle, Doss lute, Rhingalade’s harp, mandolin of the inspiring muse, Canaith mandolin, instrument of the winds, wand of fireball[/I] (caster level 5, 22 charges), [I]wand of magic missile[/I] x2 (caster level 7 for both, 11 and 16 charges), [I]wand of sound burst[/I] (17 charges), [I]wand of summon monster I[/I] (30 charges, spiders only), [I]wand of summon monster II[/I] (34 charges), [I]wand of cure moderate wounds[/I] (50 charges)
[B]Spells Known[/B] (CL 14th):
                [B]5th[/B] – [I]body harmonic, mass reflective disguise[/I] (DC 21, 4/day)
                [B]4th[/B] – [I]delver’s fortune, resonating bolt, ruin, shout[/I] (DC 20, 5/day)
                [B]3rd[/B] – [I]charm monster, glibness, sculpt sound, unluck[/I] (DC 19, 5/day)
                [B]2nd[/B] – [I]blur, hold person, invisibility, tongues[/I] (DC 18, 6/day)
                [B]1st[/B] – [I]comprehend language, cure light wounds, hideous laughter, inspirational boost[/I] (DC 17, 6/day)
                [B]0[/B] – [I]daze, light, mage hand, message, prestidigitation, summon instrument[/I] (DC 16, 6/day)
[B]Spell-Like Abilities[/B] (CL 14th):
                1/day [I]blindness/deafness, change self, entropic shield, protection from law[/I]
                3/day [I]read magic[/I]
                [I]mandolin of the inspiring muse[/I] (CL 9)
                                1/day [I]levitate, magic circle against evil, dominate person, good hope, crushing despair[/I]
                [I]instrument of the winds[/I] (CL 11)
                                1/day [I]summon monster VI[/I] (Large air elemental)
                [I]Rhingalade’s harp[/I] (CL 6)
                                1/day [I]blink [/I]and [I]mirror image [/I](simultaneous)
                [I]Fuirmach fiddle[/I] (CL 3)
                                1/day [I]cure light wounds, mage armor, sleep[/I]
                [I]Doss lute[/I] (CL 5)
                                1/day [I]delay poison, hold person, mirror image[/I]
                [I]Canaith mandolin[/I] (CL 8)
                                1/day [I]cure serious wounds, dispel magic, summon monster III[/I]
-----------------------------------------------------------
[B]Abilities [/B]Str 11, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 22
[B]SQ[/B] can use Knowledge skills untrained, Bardic Knowledge +16, Lure of the Instruments +2
[B]Feats[/B] Anarchic Bloodline, Dodge, Extra Music, Lyric Music, Mobile Spellcasting, Weapon Finesse, Whirl of Chaos
[B]Skills[/B] Balance +13, Bluff +20, Concentration +16, Decipher Script +10, Diplomacy +20, Disguise +15, Escape Artist +16, Forgery +7, Gather Information +20, Hide +17, Intimidate +10, Jump +2, Knowledge (history) +12, Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +10, Knowledge (Tlaxan local) +8, Knowledge (religion) +10, Knowledge (dragons) +6, Listen +10, Move Silently +21, Perform (stringed) +18, Perform (dance) +18, Perform (wind instruments) +18, Profession (warsinger) +10, Profession (storyteller) +10, Sense Motive +17, Sleight of Hand +13, Swim +1, Tumble +23, Use Magic Device +10, Use Rope +15
[B]Possessions[/B] Combat gear plus [I]+1 keen rapier, +1 whip-dagger, +1 dagger, celestial armor, cloak of charisma +2, choker of eloquence, circlet of persuasion, belt of lions, hat of disguise, tunic of steady spellcasting, winged mask, boots of levitation, gloves of dexterity +6, stylus of the masterful hand, wand of know direction[/I] (40 charges), spiked gorget, light crossbow, 20 bolts, sling, 10 holy water bullets, 10 flaming oil bullets
[B]Notes[/B] [I]Lure of the Instruments[/I] – when using any of the Instruments of the Bards (Fuirmach fiddle, Doss lute, or Canaith mandolin), increase the bonus granted by the Inspire Courage ability by +2.  But for each round the Instrument is played, make a Will save at DC 20 +1 per round spent playing; if the save is failed, the bard can do nothing but continue to play until the save is made.
[I]Virtuoso Performance[/I] – a virtuoso can use these performances a number of times up to their class level per day, or may expend 2 uses of bardic music for a single performance.
[I]Persuasive Song[/I] – can use Perform check in place of Diplomacy check to influence NPC attitudes in a crowd.  Must play for at least 10 consecutive rounds.
[I]Sustaining Song[/I] – each round of song, allies within 30’ stabilize if dying, or gain 1 hit point if in negative hit points.  Can play for up to 5 minutes.
[I]Jarring Song[/I] – Any enemy within 30’ attempting to cast a spell must make a Concentration check vs. the Perform check result or lose the spell.  Can play for up to 10 rounds.


----------



## Krafus

Hi! I've been reading this story hour (backwards) for a few days now, and I'm enjoying it. Lanara _does_ seem to be a sleaze, btw. 

However, a question has occurred to me: How big is the Tauric invasion force? I'd find it extremely hard to believe that the Taurics had managed to build enough ships to transport 360 million people at once. (And that figure seems really, really high - unless there are species among the Taurics who breed as fast as rabbits.)


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Hi! I've been reading this story hour (backwards) for a few days now, and I'm enjoying it. Lanara _does_ seem to be a sleaze, btw.




Well, she would say she's an 'opportunist' - of course, the kinds of opportunities she seeks...

Lanara's rather uninhibited, but I wouldn't go so far as to call her sleazy.  She knows what attracts attention, and since her whole profession revolves around getting attention, she's not afraid to use the tools she was given.  I'd call her more of a flirt than anything.  Her 'exploits' most likely come off sounding worse than they are, because she receives a lot of good-natured ribbing both in and out of character.



> However, a question has occurred to me: How big is the Tauric invasion force? I'd find it extremely hard to believe that the Taurics had managed to build enough ships to transport 360 million people at once. (And that figure seems really, really high - unless there are species among the Taurics who breed as fast as rabbits.)




Well, I'll let our GM talk specifics about numbers, should he happen to see this question.  I don't think he goes by strict DMG population guidelines, recognizing that in a world with arcane and divine magic and psionics, especially one like Aelfenn where they are very prevalent, there are just going to be more people, cities will be bigger, and so on (I'd make the same argument about the Realms).

However, I will admit that I was rather surprised by the population figures we started getting.    I don't think we really challenged it, because when it comes down to it we were focused on the concept of the invasion rather than the versimillitude (when one is running in a campaign world still very much in development, one learns to accept that some details will be fuzzy, or change over time).

As far as getting all those Taurics over, bear in mind that they probably loaded up anything that could float, and packed people in like sardines (the bulk of their population are humanoid slaves, so who cares if they have no room to move?)  And, there's no guarantee that all 360 milllion people made it over; I could easily see a few hundred thousand slaves being left behind to die when the ships filled up.  There is also the possibility that there really aren't that many Taurics; the population figure we have was a guess based on what little information there was about the Empire available.

But yes, I can see where the concept of loading up the population of the US onto boats to invade Australia might stretch credulity a bit.  Like I said, I'll let the DM answer this if he sees it.  Who knows?  I could end up editing those numbers down.


----------



## Sarabian1

To avoid giving away too much of the metaplot, I'll answer with a few questions.

Gee, that does seem like kind of a lot of folks, doesn't it? Remarkable, too, how vast their military forces are, isn't it?

*grin* In short - yes, there's a reason there are a lot a lot a lot of folks coming in. No, you don't get to know why yet. Certainly not before the players themselves do.


----------



## Krafus

Ah, a bit of mystery, eh? I can wait...

Also, if Delemental's theory about the Taurics basically pressing into service anything that could float, then I wonder what a force 4 or 5 hurricane would have done to that fleet, especially the less well-maintained ship... Did the PCs try to come up with ideas for giving the Taurics large-scale trouble before they even landed?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Ah, a bit of mystery, eh? I can wait...
> 
> Also, if Delemental's theory about the Taurics basically pressing into service anything that could float, then I wonder what a force 4 or 5 hurricane would have done to that fleet, especially the less well-maintained ship... Did the PCs try to come up with ideas for giving the Taurics large-scale trouble before they even landed?




Recall that there was a storm that the fleet ran into on the way to Affon, which did significantly delay their arrival probably for that very reason, and also forced the Taurics to stop in the Red Archipelago before hitting the mainland.  If not for that storm, the Taurics would have hit the islands while our group was still there, and probably just plowed through them on their way inland.

All told, however, we had relatively little warning.  Prior to the invasion there was no communication or traffic between the nations of Affon and the Tauric Empire - so nobody was looking in their direction when they started coming.  Our group really doesn't have connections to the kinds of people who could create the large-scale oceanic disturbances you are talking about - the only druid we know is Princess Aralda, and she's hardly capable of conjuring hurricanes; and we don't know anyone high up in the churches of either Feesha (air) or Krush (water).  By the time the right people were aware of the problem, the Taurics had landed.

And don't forget that the Taurics have just as many high level wizards and clerics as Affon (probably more), and definitely a lot more druids.  Any magical weather nastiness we could have sent probably would be countered.  Heck, it's probably the reason their fleet made it all the way to Affon in the first place - I'm willing to bet that a significant portion of their fleet is made up of boats not meant for transoceanic travel.


----------



## Delemental

*Argent Needs*

Okay, I'm going to try and work on posting shorter updates.  I think that I've allowed the posts to get longer than they need to be, and that makes them too unwieldy for some readers.  Besides, with long posts, I'll end up catching up with the current game that much faster, and I'd like to preserve my 'cushion' as long as I can (I used to have 7+ months, now it's about two, and will probably catch up rapidly since we alternate with my M&M game).

----------------------------------------------

            There was a long, uncomfortable silence around the table as Emperor Haxtha regarded each of them in turn.

            “I am well aware that you do not care much for me,” Haxtha said at last.  “But I have greater concerns than whether or not one group of adventurers, even ones as notable as yourselves, finds me agreeable.  If I seem particularly heavy-handed now, it is because my empire is the one being invaded, and I must use every resource available in the most efficient manner possible.  So you will forgive me if I choose not to coddle you as Herion has done.”

            “Prince Herion has never coddled us,” Arrie said, straining to remain calm.

            “No?  I am well aware of how much assistance he has given you over the past three years.  Some of that is understandable – I would expect him to be supportive of his wife and protect her from harm.  But I have seen the reports myself from the treasury – gold sent to shipwrights, to artificers, to weaponsmiths, as well as items of power removed from our vaults.  I have spoken with the head of the Church of Erito as well as the sub-commanders of the Imperial Huntsmen.”

            “If His Imperial Majesty feels that we are unworthy of the gifts which your brother has granted us,” Tolly said, “I am sure we will be happy to return what we can, and compensate you for the rest.”

            Cold panic shot into Kyle’s stomach.  His staff – the Scion’s Staff – had come from the Tlaxan vaults, an overlooked curiosity at the time which had been gladly given as a reward since it appeared to have only a minor enchantment.  At the time, no one knew its origins, or its true potential – potential Kyle knew wasn’t even fully realized yet.  The staff had become too valuable to him to just give it up.

            Haxtha’s response was an almost dismissive wave.  “Again, I see you assume the worst of me.” He turned to look at Autumn.  “Tell me, Duchess, do you think that if I truly believed you unworthy of my brother’s support, that I would have granted you dominion over one of the largest domains in my empire?  One far larger and more vital than the one you would have inherited had you chosen to become Autumn Coviere instead of Autumn Verahannen.”

            Autumn looked at the Emperor without expression.

            “And Princess, do you think that if I did not have faith in your personal ability on the field of battle, as well as that of your companions, that I would have allowed you to wander about the face of Affon all this time without a permanent escort of Imperial Guardsmen and Initiates of the Order?  Do you think I would have allowed a bard from the wilds of the Steppes to assume such a critical role in the formation of the alliance as well as the coordination of my empire’s counterintelligence if I did not think her eminently qualified for the task?  Do you think I would have allowed a Targethi wizard to walk out of my vaults with an artifact of enormous power if I did not believe that he was the one destined to wield it?”

            Haxtha leveled a gaze at each of them.  “I have been hard, because I know that you are capable of meeting any challenge you are presented with.  I have shifted much of the burden of this war onto your shoulders, perhaps more than you realize, because lesser beings would break under the pressure.  I have been cold and harsh because I know I can be cold and harsh with you, that you could carry on despite a bruised ego, something so many in this palace are incapable of doing.  I need not waste my time wooing you with honeyed words and empty promises – I know that when I say ‘do this thing’, it will be done.  And do not think that I am not grateful for what you have done for my empire, and for what you have done for me personally when my son…” Haxtha swallowed and closed his eyes briefly, then continued as if nothing had happened.  “My brother rewards you with gold and magic.  So be it.  My reward to you is my faith and trust in you.”

            There was another long, uncomfortable silence, though the feeling in the room was very different from just a minute or two earlier.  It was the Emperor who once again broke the stillness.

            “I have called you together for an important mission,” Haxtha said, as he pulled a roll of parchment out of his cloak and laid it out on the table, revealing a map of Tlaxan and some of the surrounding lands.  He pointed at a spot on the map. “In the southern mountains between my empire and the lands of the Dwarven Confederates, here, there is a large silver mine.  As it lies on the border, our two nations reached an agreement where both would profit; the Confederates mined the ore and refined the silver, and then our Empire would export the metal and sell it.  The dwarves who worked the mine were driven off several years ago by a group of stone giants, who now live in the mine.  At the time, the expense of mounting an expedition to liberate the mine was considered too prohibitive, and so the giants were not rooted out.  But now, we are faced with an enemy that makes heavy use of lycanthropic shock troops.  We need the silver to construct weapons capable of counteracting this threat, and as a source of revenue with which to pay mercenaries.  Apparently, the threat of death or slavery is not enough to entice some groups to act.”

            “What do we know about the giants in the mine?” Arrie asked.

            “Annoying little.  No one has been there for years, and the scout we sent to gather some intelligence did not return.  We couldn’t spare another scout, so no more attempts were made.”

            “Stone giants in general are at least as intelligent as humans, and also like humans don’t tend toward any particular moral or ethical outlook,” Kyle said.  “They are especially skilled at rock throwing, and prefer that to melee fighting when they can.  They are usually about 12 feet tall fully grown, and their gray skin makes them hard to see in rocky or mountainous terrain.  They’re fairly long-lived, averaging about 700 years or so.  Some of their elders develop abilities to manipulate earth and stone magically, and a rare few develop into true sorcerers.  It’s likely they’ve set up some sort of defenses in the mine, and if they captured or killed the scout, they could be more wary now.”

            “Wow, Kyle,” Lanara said, “next thing we know, you’ll be spouting off the official Draconic classification from The Big Book of Humanoids.”

            “Oh, you mean _aliomagnus silicis_?  And it’s Librus Alicus, volume four of E_ncyclopaedia Animus Vitae_.”

            Lanara turned to Autumn and said sarcastically, “Boy, I bet it gets you all hot and bothered when he starts up with the obscure intellectual stuff, doesn’t it?”  Autumn only smiled in response.

            “If there are no other questions,” Haxtha said sharply, “then you are to depart with all haste and attempt to liberate the silver mine.  You are free to retain possession of any valuables you may find, to do with as you please, save for the silver ore, any mining equipment remaining, or any refined silver within the mine.  It is possible that the giants have been smelting ore since taking possession of the mine; they have the intellect to achieve it, if they have been able to build the proper equipment or adapt what the dwarves left behind to their size.”

            “We will need a day, perhaps two to prepare, your Majesty, before we can depart,” Autumn said.  “Most of us are currently provisioned for war, not adventuring.”

            “This is understandable.  You will be given rooms in the Imperial Palace, and servants will be put at your disposal to gather what resources you need.”  Haxtha stepped back from the table.  “I will leave you to your plans.  I must meet with the Admiral of the Targeth Imperial Air Fleet and discuss the deployment of their sky galleons.”  With a swirl of his royal purple cloak, the Emperor turned and left the room, getting swallowed up immediately outside the doors by a cloud of advisors and aides.

            The Legacy looked at each other for a long time.  Finally, Arrie said, “So, leaving tomorrow morning, then?”

            “Make it the morning after,” Kyle said.  “I haven’t seen my wife in over three months.  The silver mine can wait one more day.”

*          *          *​
            The landscape rolled by under their feet, many yards below, as the party rushed south toward the mountains, borne by Tolly’s _wind walk_ spell.  They’d considered using shadow walk, since Kyle could bring the seven of them along with one spell, rather than the two castings that Tolly required, but Kyle had warned them that with the war so close, the Shadow Plane near Tlaxan was teeming with the spirits of the dead, and that the trip might be problematic.  The party decided that they would stop in the mountains a short distance from the mine, and then camp for the night to rest and regain their strength before going in.

_ Stop._

            They each heard the telepathic command, given in a voice that was firm but not hostile.  Autumn recognized the voice immediately.

            As they halted in mid-air, there was an emerald-hued shimmer in the air in front of them, and suddenly the planetar Phanuel appeared, arms and wings outspread.  Arrie took a half-step back.

            “Greetings, daughter, and greetings to her companions as well,” Phanuel said.

            “Hello, father,” Autumn replied, wanting to embrace him but feeling uncertain how he would respond.  “How are you?”

            “I am well, and pleased to find you here together unharmed.  These are dark times in the mortal world, child.  You face great peril from these invaders from across the sea, as well as the abominations that have brought them to your lands.”

            To their credit, no one reacted to the use of the word ‘abomination’.

            “I would see my only daughter, child of my beloved Lysanne, as safe from harm as is within my domain to grant.  Though my service to Krûsh does not permit me to walk by your side, I have been granted leave to provide each of you some aid, as you are with my daughter far more than I can be.”

            Autumn bowed her head.  “We’re grateful for any help you choose to give us, father, but I and my friends are capable warriors.”

            Phanuel smiled.  “I know this, but can a father not dote upon his daughter?”

            “I suppose he can,” Autumn said with a matching smile.

            “As none of you are patrons of Krûsh, or his servitors Emoh or Ladta, save for the hin, the gifts I can grant are somewhat limited, though perhaps it could be claimed that all adventurers worship the Mistress of Fate in their own way.”  He turned first to Tolly, and handed him a scroll.  “A sanctified invocation, servant of Ardara,” Phanuel explained.  “May it aid you in your fight against evil.”

            “Thank you, I shall do my best.” Tolly replied.

            Next he turned to Lanara.  “For you, daughter of Chaos, a wand containing a spell normally only given to those who follow the path of the Troubadour of Stars.  May it inspire your companions to great works.”

            “Thanks, Phanuel, I appreciate it.”

            Phanuel turned to regard Arrie.  “You are a soul-sister to Autumn, and I would see you remain with her as long as your mortal life permits.”  He reached out and touched Arrie’s armor, even though she reflexively flinched away from the celestial’s touch.  Her armor glistened and took on an iridescent sheen.  “You armor will give you some measure of protection against those magics that attack your life-force directly,” he said.

            Arrie, still a little nervous, mumbled a brief thanks and withdrew.

            Then Phanuel regarded Kyle.  “You love my daughter as I loved her mother, and would die before seeing her harmed.  This pleases me.  Your book of spells, please.”  The planetar extended a hand, and Kyle gave him his spellbook.  Phanuel closed his eyes for a moment, then handed the book back.  When he opened it, Kyle saw a new spell scribed in small, delicate letters on the page, compressed into what seemed an impossibly small amount of space.

            “The number of arcanists outside of Krûsh’s direct service who know that spell likely do not outnumber your group,” he said.  “Guard it well.  Use it well.”  Then Phanuel reached into his robe, and withdrew a small greenish pearl.  “There is this, as well,” he said, and then looked into Kyle’s eyes.  There was a brief glimmer in the wizard’s eyes that said he was receiving a personal telepathic message.  When the glimmer faded, Kyle nodded and put the bead and his spellbook away.

            Next Phanuel looked at Osborn.  “You have been a true friend to Autumn, and I see that you have a true friend of your own.  Thus I can think of no better gift than this.” Phanuel reached out and touched Rupert on the forehead.  Instantly, the mastiff’s eyes turned silver, and his fur shone like gold.  He seemed to stand slightly taller, and the spark of greater intellect suffused him.

            “Wow!” Osborn said excitedly, as he knelt to greet his newly-empowered companion.  “Thanks!”

            Finally, Phanuel regarded his daughter.  “Your axe, please, Autumn,” he said.  Autumn handed the greataxe to him, and he placed it down at his feet, where it stayed when he let go despite being hundreds of feet in midair.  Phanuel moved his hands over the blade, and a golden liquid seemed to flow from his palms and absorb into the metal.  The axe retained a slight golden color when he returned it.  “Your weapon will now be a devastating force against evil,” he said.  “I know you will put it to good use.”

            “Of course, father,” Autumn said.  “And again, thank you.”

            “I must depart,” Phanuel said, “as must you, I sense.  Fortune smile upon you in your journey, and may we see each other again in better times.”

            Phanuel turned, and his great wings flapped, carrying him away from the party and flying east toward the sea.  He was out of sight a moment later.

            “So,” said Osborn, after a while, “when we were all in the Tower, chasing simulated kobolds out of a fake copper mine, did any of you think that one day we’d be accepting gifts from powerful angels who just happened to drop by on us as we were flying over the Tlaxan Empire on our way to root giants out of a mine in order to support an intercontinental war effort?”

            “I can’t say I did,” admitted Lanara.  “Mostly I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life after graduation.”

            “Heck,” said Kyle, “I didn’t even think I was going to graduate.”

*          *          *​ 
            The main shaft of the mine led downward into the mountain at a noticeable angle, two hundred feet or so straight through the rock.  The grooves in the floor for the mine carts were still there, though they looked as though they hadn’t been used in years.  There had been no sign of sentries, or any traps or other defenses.  The party was immediately wary.  They were now proceeding down the shaft, communicating silently thanks to the _telepathic bond_ spell that Kyle had acquired from a War Wizard of Targeth.  Arrie, as the only person in the group that lacked enhanced vision (either through birth, some form of magic, or, as she chided Tolly, “from turning into some sort of weird rock creature”*), chose to act as rearguard, holding her magical lantern. Osborn and Crystal were well ahead, scouting the passage.  Initially Crystal had expressed concerns when Tolly had ordered her to assist Osborn.

            “I don’t wish to interfere with your standard procedures, Inquisitor Primus,” she had said.  Kyle’s spell could only encompass six of them, so Crystal wasn’t able to utilize the _telepathic bond_.

            “If you get in the way, I’m sure that they’ll tell you,” Tolly had said to her.  “There’s no lack of communication in this party with dissatisfaction.”

            “In other words, Tolly thinks we’re bitchy,” Arrie quipped.

            “Ariadne, I’ve never said such a thing.”

            “No, but you think it.”

            “Remember, she’s the one with psychic powers,” Kyle said.

            Arrie grinned.  “Maybe I’m reading your mind right now, Tolly.”

            “Can’t be,” Tolly said.  “You’re not blushing.”

            “It takes a lot to make me blush.”

            Crystal took in the exchange, looking decidedly uncomfortable.  Tolly had informed Crystal of Arrie’s psionic abilities, knowing that if she couldn’t accept this then she could not serve as his apprentice.  Crystal was not pleased by the news, but made it clear that she was instructed to obey Tolly, and that if he commanded that she accept that Arrie was a wilder, she would deal with it.

            Osborn’s voice came to the party over the bond**.  “There’s something on the ceiling up here, where it looks like there used to be an intersection.  Some sort of greenish slime, but not the usual sort you see underground.  It’s moving on it’s own a little, and there are little flickers of energy running through it.”

“Any idea what it is?” Kyle asked.

“No clue.  Want to take a look?”

“I’ll go,” Tolly said.  “Wait here.”

            Tolly came forward, and upon reaching Crystal (Osborn was nowhere to be seen, though this hardly surprised Tolly), saw the slime for himself.

“It’s an arcane ooze,” Tolly said to the others, “Kyle and Lanara, stay back.”

“What does it do?” Autumn asked.

“It feeds on arcane energies.  They’re immune to all magic, and would absorb Kyle and Lanara’s power.  I think I can seal it up without having to fight it.”

“Go for it,” Autumn agreed.

            Tolly cast a _stone shape_ spell, and warped the ceiling around the ooze, sealing it inside a shallow dome of rock.

“Thanks, Tolly,” said Kyle and Lanara in unison.

            Meanwhile, Osborn had crept ahead while Tolly dealt with the ooze.  As the sounds of Tolly’s invocation echoed down the shaft, Osborn heard a sudden shuffling from further down, just around a corner, as well as the clatter of metal.  Osborn, who was navigating with the blindsense he had from his armor, continued forward, having already turned invisible to both normal sight and darkvision and moving as silently as a ghost.  As he came to an intersection, he heard the noises again from his left, and could sense the passageway widened just beyond.

“Something’s moving up here, to the left about sixty feet from where the ooze is,” the hin reported.

“Do you want me to come up?” Tolly asked.

“No, stay there.”

            Osborn moved around the corner to get a better view.  As the magical emanation from his armor began to make out details, he sensed three humanoids standing in the middle of a wide chamber, either made of metal or wearing large amounts of it, holding large weapons.  All three were poised and ready to strike, no doubt having heard Tolly’s chanting.  What surprised Osborn was when the figure in the middle raised his weapon and charged straight at him.

            Fortunately, Osborn had trained himself long ago to respond to surprise with action rather than uncertainty.  Daggers flew from his hands and struck the charging creature, hitting several major organs.  Despite the sudden flow of blood from the many wounds, the creature kept charging, breaking into a maniacal roar as its weapon, a large pick of some sort, swung around and buried itself deep into Osborn’s stomach.

            As Osborn staggered back, still throwing daggers, he saw his companions rounding the corner to assist him.  Tolly locked weapons with the creature that had charged him, and Crystal tumbled past him to assist.  Kyle and Lanara appeared at the back of the corridor, and Autumn also moved forward, ready to strike.  When Arrie ran into the room with her lantern, they all got a good look at their foes.

            “Grimlocks!” Kyle shouted, seeing the ugly gray-skinned people with smooth flesh were their eyes should be.

            There was a rumbling from the back of the room in a language none of them understood, and then suddenly a hulking form came forward out of the gloom.  It stood over ten feet tall, and was encased in plate armor like the grimlocks.  The giant held a boulder in both hands, and hurled it at Tolly, striking him in the chest with it.  The giant then pulled out a smooth stone club and bellowed a challenge.

            Autumn immediately ran forward, axe raised, but one of the three grimlocks was ready, and rushed into her, swinging his weapon and forcing the sentinel to break off her assault on the giant.  But the giant, with its long arms, was able to swing over the grimlock’s head and land a solid blow on Autumn that sent her flying into the wall with a crash.

            Kyle attempted to _hold _the giant, but the spell failed.  Tolly dispatched one of the grimlocks with a _harm _spell, and Osborn and Arrie finished off another.  The party moved in to menace the other two enemies as Autumn rose slowly to her feet.  They heard the giant begin to grunt and snarl, the tell-tale signs of a creature about to enter a barbaric rage.

            “Oh, no you don’t!” Kyle said, and cast a _reverse gravity_ spell.  As the giant flew up and slammed into the ceiling, Kyle glowered.  “You can stay up there until you’ve calmed down.”

            The party quickly dispatched the last grimlock, but the giant did not give up without a fight.  He managed to get to his feet (on the ceiling), and jumped off, reaching out and striking Crystal with his club.  After that, however, the party kept their distance, bringing the giant down with spells and long-range weapons.

            After Kyle brought the giant’s body down from the ceiling, the bodies were stripped and their gear stowed in the _portable hole_.  The giant’s armor turned out to be mithral.  “Which way now?” Kyle asked.

“There’s two choices,” Arrie said, “let’s go right.”

“Don’t bother,” Osborn interjected, coming up to the party from the very passageway Arrie had mentioned.  “It just leads to a storage area.  Broken down equipment, nothing of any real interest.”  He was jabbing himself with a healing wand, closing up the injuries he’d received in the battle.

“All right, then,” said Tolly, “we go that way.”

            The party moved toward the other opening in the chamber.  Osborn attempted to move ahead to scout, but Autumn remained close behind him, wanting to keep watch over the hin.  He’d been severely injured in the attack, and the party had been too far away to come to his aid.  Seeing the sentinel looming over him, Osborn sighed, slipped into a nearby outcropping to escape her watchful gaze, and then crept silently forward, sneaking along the wall into the chamber beyond.

            He’d only gone a few feet into the room, enough to tell it was a large chamber with a tall ceiling, when he heard an ominous click sound from behind him.  Turning back, he came upon Autumn, looking slightly alarmed.  She was standing still, her foot planted on the slight depression caused by the pressure plate underneath it.

“Osborn?” she thought, as the hin came into view.  “Help.”

            “Hold still,” he said, speaking out loud so that Crystal was alerted as well.  Osborn bent down to examine the device.  Whatever it had activated had not gone off yet, so it was obviously some sort of delayed trigger.  He’d missed the pressure plate on the way in because he’d hugged the wall, whereas Autumn had stepped into the middle of the entrance.  A thorough search revealed a second plate high up on the wall, which would deactivate the floor plate.  A giant would easily be able to reach up and press the upper plate on their way through.  Osborn looked up at Autumn.  Kyle and Arrie were standing next to her, and the rest of the party lingered behind in the previous chamber.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t do anything here,” he said.  “It’ll trigger something in the next chamber, but I don’t know what.  Not much I can do about it now, I’m afraid.  But you can step off the plate.”

            Gingerly, Autumn removed her foot.  There was an ominous click as the pressure plate popped up again, but nothing happened.

“Let’s keep going,” Arrie said.  “No sense hanging out here.”

“I agree,” said Tolly.  “Being coy and shy about things has never served us.”

“We’ll go slowly,” Kyle said.  “Whatever was triggered is probably timed on the assumption that the person wouldn’t know it, and would be walking along normally.”

            The party crept slowly forward.  Osborn, hidden again, moved to the right, followed by Crystal.  Autumn and Kyle moved to the left, and Tolly stepped out into the midst of the cavernous room.  Lanara and Arrie hung back in the previous chamber; Arrie didn’t want to bring her light in yet and alert anything to their presence, while Lanara simply didn’t want to be in the middle of whatever trap awaited them.

            Fortunately for the bard’s nerves, it was a short wait.  A large, heavy net dropped from the ceiling of the large room, falling on Tolly’s head.  The Ardaran priest tried to move out, but was caught by the heavy strands.  Autumn immediately moved forward, axe in hand to try and cut him free, when they all heard the flap of huge leathery wings.  Then they heard an ear-splitting screech, two forms flapped by in the darkness high above them.  The creatures were barely at the limits of darkvision.

            “Ythrak!” shouted Tolly from under the net.  “Watch for their sonic beams!”

            “They can’t see if they can’t hear!” Kyle added quickly, as he saw Lanara and Arrie step out into the chamber.  Lanara cast a spell and hit one of the creatures with a _resonating bolt_, having decided that turnabout was indeed fair play.

            The two ythrak swooped around, far out of reach, and craned their heads toward the party.  One of them screeched, and a lance of sonic energy flicked out and slammed into Lanara, rattling her teeth.  Kyle quickly threw up a spell to protect everyone from sonic energy.

            “You couldn’t have done that two seconds ago?” Lanara complained, as the ythrak circled overhead.  Another sonic lance struck the ground in front of Kyle, showering the wizard and Autumn in shards of razor-sharp rock.  Scowling, Autumn summoned up a bright celestial light, clearly illuminating their foes.

            The ythrak seemed content to circle overhead in the large chamber and fire upon the party from a safe distance, so the party switched to ranged weapons.  Arrows and _fireballs_ flew, and more sonic lances rained down.  Crystal, who had no ranged weapons, was relegated to keeping an eye on the chamber beyond in case their battle attracted attention.

            Tolly struggled to free himself from the net he was trapped in.  Autumn swung her greataxe around in an attempt to sever some of the strands, but her attention was diverted by a nearby explosion of rock, and she misjudged, her axe biting deeply into Tolly’s midsection.  Tolly howled in pain and surprise.  Autumn stood stunned for a moment as a bleeding Tolly finally shrugged off the net, but was shocked back to reality when she felt a pair of arms attempting to grab at her.  She shook off the hold violently and whirled to face a grim-faced Crystal, who was stepping up to attempt to grasp her again.

            Meanwhile, the rest of the party was getting the upper hand on the ythrak.  One of them had finally come in low, attempting to bite at Osborn, and was rewarded by getting several of the hin’s daggers in its wings and chest.  The other one was blasted by _magic missiles_ and more arrows until it finally fell.  The battle ended just in time for everyone to see Autumn slam Crystal on the side of her head with the broad, flat head of her axe.

            Arrie quickly ran over.  “For the love of… focus!” she hissed at both of them.

            “She tried to grab me!” Autumn protested.

            “Autumn,” Tolly said calmly, “you hit me with your axe.”

Crystal looked honestly perplexed, though she still glared at Autumn.  “I assumed you were under some sort of magical compulsion.  I was only trying to restrain you until the compulsion could be removed.”

There was a long silence in the cavern, though telepathic messages were flying about.

“All right,” Kyle said, rolling his eyes, “Autumn, apologize to Tolly for hitting him.”

“I already did,” she protested.

“So Crystal can hear you,” Kyle explained.

“Tolly,” Autumn said in a loud whisper, “I didn’t mean to strike you.  I was trying to sever the ropes on the net.  I apologize.”  Then Autumn turned to look at Crystal.  “Try to grab me in battle again,” the sentinel snarled, “and next time I won’t use the flat.”

            “Why don’t we argue about this later,” Osborn snapped.  “We have a mine to clear, remember?”

             As the party moved down toward the far end of the room, Crystal stepped up to Tolly.  “Did I err, brother?” she asked quietly in Terran.

            “No, sister, you did not,” Tolly replied in low tones.  “You acted properly under the circumstances.  Autumn is… temperamental.  Should the situation arise in the future, act as you will, and I will deal with her.”

            A short distance away, Lanara was complaining to Kyle as she healed herself with one of the party’s wands.  “Why in the name of Feesha’s left teat would the giants keep ythrak in here?”

            “For mining,” he replied.  He gestured with his staff to a spot on the wall where one of the ythrak’s sonic lances had shattered the stone.  “More efficient than traditional picks and shovels.”

            The party stopped at the mouth of a long passageway that extended as far as any of them could see.  By the echoes they heard of their own footsteps, they could tell it was very long.  The shaft descended at a gentle slope.

            “Any way to tell how far it goes?” Arrie asked.

            “I have an idea,” Kyle said.  He produced one of his light globes, and willed it to a faint glow.  He then brought his familiar Violet out of his magical belt.

            “Violet,” he said, “take this light and fly down the passageway until you reach the end, then return.  If you see anything living, return immediately.  If there are side passages, try and see if there’s anything obvious of interest, but don’t leave the main passage.”

            There was a brief exchange between Kyle and Violet in a chittering language none of them could understand, and then Violet cawed, picked up the globe in her talons, and flew off.

            “I thought that Violet could speak Common,” Arrie asked.

            “Oh, she can,” Kyle said, “she just thinks it’s beneath her.”

            After a long wait, Kyle suddenly looked perplexed.  “She’s coming back,” he said, “I could feel she was getting close to the limit of our bond, but I didn’t get the sense that she’s reached the bottom.”

            “What is your range?” Arrie asked.

            “A mile.”

            Lanara sighed.  “I guess we can’t accuse the dwarves of being lazy.”

            Eventually, Violet returned and perched on Kyle’s shoulder after dropping the globe in his hand.  She chattered at him for a while, then flapped back down and slipped into her extradimensional home.

            “She says that the main shaft keeps going, well past a mile,” Kyle reported.  “There are some side chambers, places where the miners followed a vein of ore.  She didn’t see any signs of anything living.”

            “Well, standing here isn’t going to get us to the bottom any faster,” Arrie said, opening up the doors on her lantern.

            It took about two hours to get to where Violet had turned back.  Though the main shaft descended into the earth as straight as an arrow, there were several side corridors and tunnels that had to be checked to make sure there was nothing there that could come out behind them and trap them.  When they were almost a mile down, Kyle sent Violet out again, who returned much sooner.

            “She says it’s about another half-mile to the end,” Kyle reported.  The _telepathic bond_ had ended about thirty minutes ago, and so he was forced to speak aloud.  “The tunnel opens into a large cavern, and she could hear what sounded like running water.  She didn’t see anything moving, but didn’t go into the cave.”

            “All right, then, let’s get there,” Autumn said.

            After another twenty minutes or so, the party came to the chamber Violet had described.  The large, irregular cavern was pock-marked with several large craters, obviously spots where the ythrak had concentrated their sonic lances to dig up ore.  Water gushed from a hole on the nearby wall, and flowed into a shallow pool before flowing across the chamber and disappearing down another rift in the floor.  A pair of buckets lay at the edge of the pool.

            “Must’ve tapped an underground spring,” Osborn commented as he examined the pool.  He was scouting several feet ahead of the rest of the group. He waded through the small stream, and began to explore a side passage while the others crossed.  As he turned the corner, he noted that the rough, irregular walls of the mine gave way to smooth, square worked stone.  A corridor angled off to the right, and then split into two branches.  From the left branch, he could hear a slow, rhythmic noise that sounded like two rocks scraping together.

            Osborn waited for the others to catch up.  “Sounds like we have rocks grinding ahead,” he said.  “Wait here a minute.”

            He came back a moment later.  “It’s another one of those stone giants,” he reported.  “Sleeping and snoring.  He’s wearing the same mithral plate armor that the last one had.”

            “So, who wants the honor?” Lanara asked.  “Not me.”

            “Well,” Tolly said, “it’s not exactly fair, but…”

            “Would you like me to join you, Tolly?” Autumn asked.

            Tolly looked around, and saw Osborn give him a look.  “Let Osborn do it,” he said.  “We’ll wake the giant up before we get close.”

            Osborn pulled out a dagger.  “Okay, sounds good.  Wait here until you hear the snoring stop.”

            The hin crept forward to the corner where he’d spied the giant.  Satisfied that it was still asleep, Osborn stepped out into the intersection to make his way down the hall.  As soon as he did, glowing red runes flared up all around the floor and walls, and a large fire elemental appeared in a blast of heat and light.  As Osborn backed up, he noticed that the snoring had stopped.

            Kyle was the first one to run up.  He uttered a few arcane words, and shouted a code-phrase to Osborn that told him to get out of the way.  The hin rolled past the elemental to the far side of the intersection, putting the summoned creature between himself and Kyle’s spell.  A blast of frigid air and ice filled the intersection, and when it ended, the elemental was gone.

            “I knew we kept you around for a reason,” Tolly said, as he ran up to join Tolly.  He’d cast a _divine vigor_ spell on himself, and now his granite-textured skin glistened with Ardara’s power.

            It was a brief, bloody battle.  The giant managed to get in a few good shots on the party, but there were far too many enemies opening up far too many wounds.  As the weapon blows rained down in time to Lanara’s battle song, the giant staggered and fell to his knees before Autumn neatly decapitated him.

            “Well, that’s sure to bring everyone else in the place on top of us,” Arrie said grimly.

            “Then we’d better get ready,” Tolly said.  “There may be more summoning wards further one as well.”

            “Or other traps,” Osborn added.

            “Kyle?” Autumn said, who noticed the wizard was staring off into space.  “What is it?”

            “There’s a Node here,” he said.

            “A Node?” Tolly said, nodding.  “Interesting.”

            “A Node,” Autumn echoed, not nearly as enthusiastic.  Her own experiences with Nodes were not pleasant.  The Ravager band that had caused her own death were led by an Acolyte of the Skin warlock who was attuned to a Node.

            “What kind is it?” Osborn asked.

            “It’s a Fire Node,” Kyle said, squinting as his magically enhanced vision picked up the telltale flow of elemental energy in the air around them.  “Fairly potent, I’d say a third tier Node.  But there’s something else… something that’s mixed with the Fire Node… I can’t quite tell, but the elemental fire energy isn’t pure.  There’s some other faint influence.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

            “Should we be looking to destroy it, Kyle?” Autumn asked.

            Tolly shook his head.  “Nodes are very difficult to destroy.”

            “He’s right, and besides, if we can liberate the mine then the Node can be used by the alliance as well as the silver.”

            “Seems like it would make smelting really easy,” Arrie commented.

            “Very true,” replied Kyle.  “If one of the giants has opened themselves to the Node, they could be using it to make weapons or armor.”

            “Well, let’s get moving, then,” said Arrie.  “Osborn, will you take point again?”

            “Sure thing,” said the hin, but no sooner had the words left his mouth that a bright white light filled the cavern, and standing before them was Phanuel.

            “My apologies,” said the planetar.  “I did not expect to see you again so soon.  But we have need of Osborn’s resources.  Immediately.”  With that, Phanuel reached out, touched Osborn on the head, and in a flash of light both beings vanished.  Rupert flashed out of existence a split second later.

            “People come and go so quickly here,” Arrie said after the initial shock had worn off.

            Kyle looked at the spot where Osborn had been, and then looked at Autumn.  “Now I know where you get it from,” he said.

            “Where I get what from?  What are you talking about?”

            “Please, Autumn, there are giants near,” Kyle said.  “Let’s focus.”  He turned in time to hide his smirk from his wife.

            Autumn fumed behind him.  “I’m going to beat him when we get home,” she murmured.

            “If you do,” Tolly interjected, “just be sure to use the flat of your axe this time.”

---------------------------------------------

* Tolly has levels in the Elemental Savant prestige class (earth focus, obviously), and has been slowly transforming into an elemental.  But stay tuned...

** It seems silly now, but you wouldn't believe how long it took me to decide how I was going to depict conversation over the _telepathic bond_.  I didn't want to go with straight italics, because that's what I use for internal thinking and _sendings_.  I also didn't want to just leave it plain, because I wanted to make it clear when things are said out loud and when they're thought.  But up until now I've only used color text to depict speech from deities or other very powerful beings.  And then there was the debate over using quote marks vs not using them, and of course I have to use something that shows up clearly not only on a plain white background (ie, paper) but also on ENWorld's black background.

Just a little glimpse into the crafting of a Story Hour.  I'm sure you're all weeping over my ordeal.


----------



## Krafus

Yeah, I'm all teary-eyed over here. 

I guess the Osborn-snatching was meant to explain that player's absence from the game that night. Out of curiosity, have the players considered letting another player use their character for a night if they can't make it? And has the DM had to adjust encounters because a party member left suddenly?


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## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Yeah, I'm all teary-eyed over here.
> 
> I guess the Osborn-snatching was meant to explain that player's absence from the game that night. Out of curiosity, have the players considered letting another player use their character for a night if they can't make it? And has the DM had to adjust encounters because a party member left suddenly?




You are right, Osborn's kidnapping was due to his player being absent.

How we handle these situations largely depends on the circumstances.  In this case, Osborn's player kind of no-showed without warning, and no one had his character sheet, so he was simply pulled out of the scene (the player is being asked to write up what Osborn was doing in his absence in order to earn full XP, so hopefully we'll see that in the near future).  In other cases, where we know in advance that someone's going to be out, or if it's a session where knowing stats isn't that important (no combats, for example), someone else will play the character.

As to whether the encounters have been adjusted for character absences, I couldn't say for sure.  I'm sure some have, and others haven't.  There was probably less of that when we had more players; losing one out of eight isn't a huge impact, losing one out of six can be.

I've actually used the request for character stats made here as an excuse to get all the players to give me a copy of their characters (we always play at my house).  That way if someone can't make it, their character is still available.


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## Delemental

Just so people are aware, I haven't forgotten about posting stats for all the characters.  But I haven't received copies of Arrie or Osborn yet, so I'm waiting on those.  And Xu's player had to leave the game due to work/life conflicts (he's actually been absent for months, since before the hiatus - the upcoming war simply gave us an easy exit for Xu).  So I won't be able to post Xu, or Madrone for that matter, since she's been gone even longer.


----------



## Delemental

Crystal ended up acting as the party’s scout.  They passed through another corridor that led past another large chamber, this one filled with bedding and the personal belongings of the giants, but nothing of interest.  Moving on, they began to see a dull reddish glow ahead.  They moved forward quietly when Crystal signaled it was safe to proceed.

            They came to the entrance of a very large chamber, roughly circular.  The center of the chamber was dominated by a large open pool of magma, churning and boiling just a few inches below the floor.  On the far side of the pool, a short, thick bridge of stone spanned the magma pool, leading to a small island in the middle.  The island was dominated by a large spike of stone, jutting toward the ceiling and seemingly oblivious to the proximity of so much melted rock around it.  The stalagmite sparkled and glimmered slightly, like a rough gemstone reflecting light.  On the far side of the chamber, two tunnels cut into the rock – one straight across from them, the other just to the right.

            “Crystal says that there are fire elementals in the magma,” Tolly whispered as they approached.

            “That’s it!” Kyle said, almost too loudly.  He pointed at the lone stalagmite.  “The spike is an Earth Node.  It’s weaker than the Fire Node below, maybe only a first tier Node… but that explains the taint I saw.”  Kyle studied the chamber for a while.  “I’ve never even heard of two Nodes being so close to each other.”

            “Can we sneak past the elementals?” Lanara asked.

            “I will make the attempt, sir, if you wish,” Crystal said.

            Tolly nodded, and Crystal slipped off, crouching into the shadows cast by the fiery magma.  She returned to the party about a minute later.

            “They are somewhat on guard, sir,” Crystal reported.  “I do not believe they were able to spot me, but one did appear to hear my passage and look in my direction.”

            “Tolly,” Kyle asked, “do you still have a _stone shape_ spell?”

            “Yes, why?”

            “Could you cover up the magma pit?”

            Tolly scratched at his beard, his earth-infused flesh making a sound like sandstone rubbing together.  “Possibly, but it would be a thin cover at best, no more than a few inches.  It might just annoy them.”

            “Well, we could try and go through the chamber to the other side,” Kyle suggested.  “It’s possible the elementals are just here because of the Node and have nothing to do with the giants, and won’t really care if we’re here.  It’s more likely they’ll come after us.  If the elementals start climbing up after us, then you can seal it off.  It won’t stop them, but might slow them enough for us to get by without facing them.”

            “You may have something there,” Tolly agreed.  “I’ll go first and see how they react.”  Tolly moved forward, trying to be as quiet as he could.  But it was not quiet enough, as Tolly saw one of the elementals begin to turn his way.

            “Ardara’s Teeth,” Tolly swore, and cast his spell.  The open magma pit was immediately sealed off with a sheet of rock, but within moments the stone began to glow a dull red.

            “Quickly, then,” Tolly urged.

            The party dashed quickly across the chamber.  As they neared the tunnel to the right, they began to hear the sounds of rock breaking apart and splashing into the magma.  Everyone turned and ran down the waiting tunnel.

            Just inside, they came upon a large room, where two huge wooden tables sat.  On the far side was a raised platform, which appeared to be functioning as a makeshift altar.  The scorpion totem of Shesh* was displayed prominently on the platform.  Two stone giants stood in this room, turning toward the sudden disturbance.  Both wore the same mithral full plate that the others had been sporting.

            “Oh, crap,” said Lanara.

            “I’d rather play with these two that with those elementals,” Arrie grunted.  She quickly ran forward toward the first giant, drawing on her psionic abilities to boost her foot speed. Ducking under the table for cover, she got ready to lash out with her chain.  In response, however, the giant brought his greatclub down on top of the table, smashing it to splinters and crushing Arrie’s shoulder.  Lanara quickly cast a spell at the giant, which managed to penetrate his resolve.  The giant collapsed in loud guffaws of laughter.**

            Across the room, Kyle attempted to use _telekinesis _to thrust the other table into the second giant, but it bounced off his legs ineffectually.  Arrie and Crystal moved forward to deal with the giant, while Autumn hung back to deal with the laughing giant before he could recover.  Tolly threw up a protective spell on the group even as the giant cast a spell of his own, and a solid curtain of blackness sprang up in the room, separating the party from the giant.

            “We’ve got a priest!” Tolly called out.

            “I’ve got it,” Lanara shouted back, as she pulled out one of her magical instruments and strummed a quick chord, and the wall wavered and faded away.  Arrie, who hadn’t waited for the dispelling, had already dove through and was now seen exchanging blows with the giant priest.  Crystal moved forward to help, and Kyle tried to _disintegrate _the priest, but he avoided the worst of it, only losing a few layers of skin.  The wizard glanced at his spell component pouch, wondering if his materials had gone bad.

            As Autumn continued to hack at the incapacitated giant, having difficulty lining up a good shot because it was rolling around guffawing, the others focused on the standing giant.  Lanara tried to affect him with the same _hideous laughter_ spell, but the giant resisted.  The giant threw up another spell of darkness that wrapped him in a protective layer of shadow, but Tolly dispelled that as well.  It was quickly becoming a battle of attrition.

Kyle readied another spell, but then felt a sudden rush of heat behind him, and ducked just as one of the two enormous fire elementals from the magma pool swung at flaming limb at him.  He quickly whirled and spat out a _banishment_, sending one of the elementals back to Karakor.  Tolly, seeing the wizard in distress, ran up to help, swinging at the second elemental with his maul as Kyle blasted it with electricity.  Tolly was slightly singed by the elemental before dispatching it.

Meanwhile, the giant in the other room, who was getting brutalized by the tag-team work of Arrie and Crystal, suddenly threw down his greatclub and threw up his arms in a gesture of surrender.  He shouted out something in his own tongue, which none of the party spoke, but then switched to Elven.

“Enough.  Please, spare us.  Give me a chance to explain.”

Lanara glared up at the giant.  “Then start explaining, because your friend here can’t.  And can you call off the elementals?”  Autumn, who had barely heard the giant call for surrender over the laughing form in front of her, shouldered her axe, though she was ready to swing again in case this was some sort of trick.

“I cannot control the elementals,” the priest of Shesh said.  “They belong to Tezar.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Kyle, as he and Tolly strolled into the room.

“Who’s Tezar?” Lanara asked.

“He is not of our clan.  He came to us with great power, and forced us to do his bidding.”

“What kind of great power?”

“He has powerful magic,” replied the giant.

“Well, would it be possible at this point for you to persuade the rest of your clan to leave peacefully and let us deal with Tezar?”

“Besides the females, we two are all that remains of our clan.”

“Oh,” said Lanara.  “I see.”

“Allow me to gather our women and leave safely,” said the priest, “and we will not interfere with your battle with Tezar.  He lives in his laboratory down the corridor to the right as you enter the Node chamber from here.  He will not leave peacefully – he has been using the Nodes for some arcane purpose.”

“Would you be willing to help us evict him?” Lanara asked.

“At this time, I must see to the safety of the remains of my clan.  We no longer have the strength to hold this mine against the dwarves or the elves.”

“Would go be willing to offer your services to the Emperor of Tlaxan?” said Lanara suddenly.  “They are currently involved in a war, and could use the talents of those such as yourself.  You would not be hunted, and would be able to provide for your clan more easily.  Perhaps the Emperor would even have you return here to this mine if you wished it, as you are no doubt skilled at finding ore.”

“If this Emperor is willing to discuss the matter with us, then we would consider it.”

“For now, though, we just need to get you out of here.”

The giant nodded.  “We will wait just outside the mine with our women and young.  If you emerge victorious, then we will go with you to the elven Emperor to hear what he has to say.  If you do not, then we will leave and decide our own fate.”

“This is acceptable,” Lanara said.

By this time the other giant had shaken off the effects of the _hideous laughter_ spell, and stood up.  The two giants spoke briefly to each other.  While they spoke, Tolly sent out a burst of positive energy that healed everyone’s wounds, including the two giants.  Shortly after, the two giants walked out of the chamber, heading for the mine exit.

The party followed shortly behind the giants.  They immediately saw a whirling column of blades just outside the room, some of them still smoking slightly from where they had carved into the last elemental.

“Just going to leave that there, Tolly?” Arrie asked.

“Actually, yes.  There’s enough space between the barrier and the mine wall for us to slip by easily, but a giant would have difficulty.  If we need to withdraw, it could aid our escape.”

“Well, why don’t we find out what’s down that way?” Kyle asked.  He cast a spell, and several eyeballs materialized out of thin air.  They went flying off down the corridor that the Sheshian priest had indicated.  The eyeballs came back a surprisingly short time later.

“Damn,” Kyle said.  “There’s some sort of heavy black curtain across the hallway, about twenty feet in.  For some reason, the eyes can’t move past it.”

Trying another tactic, Kyle cast a _greater invisibility_ spell on Crystal, and they sent her ahead to scout.  She returned a short while later to confirm the presence of the curtain, and that there were no traps nearby.  However, Lanara returned from her own foray, reporting that she had approached the curtain while invisible, but that the invisibility had ended when she touched the fabric.  She also noted that the noise of the boiling magma behind her had lessened considerably when she was close to the curtain.

“Could be some sort of anti-magic curtain,” Kyle speculated, “or it dampens energy in general.”

“You know, all this guessing takes time,” Arrie said, “giving him more time to get ready.  I’ll go in now and find out,”

“I would be more comfortable if you were behind me and Tolly, Arrie,” Autumn said.  “If something happens to you, you can’t come back.”

“I’m not planning on dying today,” Arrie said with a grin.

“Yes, but what you plan and what actually happens are two different things.”

“That’s true, but I can influence that a bit.”  Arrie poured psionic energy into her body, charging it with power, and then dove through the curtain.

“Okay, then,” Tolly said, “Autumn, you’re with me.  Crystal, stay back and make sure nothing comes behind us.  Let’s go.”

*          *          *​
            Tezar bent over the crude desk in his cramped quarters, writing down notes from his latest experiment.  He was getting closer to success – he could feel it.  Already he’d successfully transformed the silver from this mine into mithral, and his slaves had worked a great quantity of it into armor.  Now he was close to being able to tap into the power of the dual Nodes to affect an even greater transformation – silver into adamantium.  Once he held that secret, he would be able to supply armies with the nearly indestructible metal – which armies depended on who could pay the most.

            His concentration was disturbed as the heavy velvet curtain stirred a bit, and the noise from the magma pits penetrated into the stillness.  Tezar snarled.  Probably one of the stone giant young, not minding and playing with the curtain that blocked out all exterior noises or other distractions.  He had warned the women to keep their young under control – now he would throw the offending child to the elementals to make sure they understood the consequences.

            He looked up from his writing to see a single figure dash through the curtain.  It was about the size of a stone giant child, but this child wore armor and was spinning a bladed chain around her body.  She was lithe, and had a woman’s shape despite her size.  This was no child, but an adult human female.  Tezar felt a curious mix of anger and amusement.  The stone giants had been more useless than he’d expected, but at the same time, this female had probably expected nothing more than a stone giant chieftain.  She likely had never heard of his own race of eldritch giants, and within moments she would be unable to spread her knowledge beyond this room.

            “Oh, invaders, then!” he bellowed, and as he rose he picked up two items; his bastard sword, and the staff he had taken from the dwarven wizard who had been here when he and his slaves had arrived.  It looked little more than a wand in his massive hand, but that did not diminish its power, especially since he was attuned to the Fire Node outside.

            The lithe female with the chain was soon joined by two others, who pulled aside his curtain as they ran in.  Both were wearing full plate armor, much like the type his slaves now wore.  The pair were a male and a female, another human and some sort of planetouched.  The male bore a maul and his armor was engraved with the trappings of the earth goddess Ardara; the female carried a greataxe and bore the sigils of Bail.  Behind them, in the corridor, Tezar could see others; a human male with a staff and robes, obviously casting a spell, and another planetouched female with pink hair wearing gleaming mail that covered remarkably little of her flesh.

            The heavily armored female with the axe charged in, and Tezar casually swiped at her with his blade, slicing through the metal to the flesh underneath.  In return the axe swung and bit into his calf, a blow that would have decapitated someone her own size but was only a minor annoyance to him.  Looking at his opponents, he could see several potent enchantments on them.  With a flick of a finger, he called up his innate mastery of magic and dispelled several of them at once.

            As the little armored men swarmed around him like vermin, Tezar laughed and swept his blade through their ranks.  He only connected with the Ardaran, but it was a telling blow that sent him reeling, blood flowing freely from a wound in his shoulder.  Then the weapons of the other bit into his flesh, and began to be more than a bit annoying.  The stubborn earth priest got back to his feet and slammed his maul into Tezar’s knee, causing it to buckle.  He decided it was time to move out of the small room into the one beyond, where he would be able to rain death upon these interlopers at his leisure.  He called up his innate talents again, this time to transport himself into the Node chamber.

            Nothing happened.

            He looked around to see the remnants of a greenish ray shot at him by the human mage, which had enveloped him and blocked dimensional travel.  With a snarl, Tezar threw out another dispelling, stripping more protective spells off of his enemies, but failing to remove the _dimensional anchor_.  He slashed at the swarming humans with his blade again, connecting with the Ardaran again and nearly cutting him in half.  The priest was forced to withdraw to heal, but the two females were relentless.  The pink haired planetouched cast a few ineffective spells at him, while the mage conjured a blade of force that floated over to join the other weapons currently assailing the lower half of his body.  Tezar glanced at the floor, and realized that a great deal of the blood on the floor was his own.  Still unable to _dimension door_ away, the eldritch giant decided that he would have to withdraw the old fashioned way.

            Tezar plowed through the mob of humanoids, feeling their weapons slashing and pounding at his legs as he ran out into the Node chamber.  Gesturing with his staff, a sheet of flame engulfed the entire chamber and the corridor beyond, separating him from his enemies.  The wizard was singed, as was a sixth opponent, yet another planetouched wearing lighter armor emblazoned with the bear symbol of Ardara’s church.

            As the giant prepared to dispel the anchor spell, he felt a sharp pain in his groin as the pink-haired one struck him with a beam of sonic energy.  The agony left him unable to respond as the woman with the chain leapt through the flame walls, ignoring her own burns as she lashed out with her chain.

            It was the last thing Tezar ever saw.

*          *          *​
            “Remarkable,” Tolly said, perusing some of the eldritch giant’s notes.  “I never would have though such a transformation of metals to be possible.”

            “Yet another reason to get this mine back in the Alliance’s hands quickly,” said Kyle.

            The Legacy emerged onto the surface again, after a long walk up the mine.  Autumn’s _portable hole_ was filled with the accumulated wealth of the giants and their master, as well as Tezar’s severed head to show the remaining stone giants that they were safe to leave.  It was sunset by the time they came out into the fresh mountain air, and long shadows streaked the rocky ground.  Sitting near the entrance to the mine were the remnants of the stone giant clan, consisting of the two priests of Shesh, about a half-dozen giant women, and four giant children of varying sizes and ages.

            “It’s done,” Lanara said to the priest, gesturing to Autumn as she opened her dimensional storage device and pulled out the head for them to see.  The giant nodded.

            “I will take my clan north to the lands of the elves, and hear what they can offer us in exchange for our help with their war.”

            Lanara handed the giant a roll of parchment.  “Take this,” she said.  “Show it to the Emperor’s soldiers.  It will tell them that you mean them no harm, and your purpose in traveling through Tlaxan.”

            “I thank you for freeing us, humans,” said the priest.  “We will leave you now.  Your bird is waiting for you.”

            “Bird?” Lanara asked, as the giant clan rumbled away.  “What bird?”

            “That bird,” Arrie said, pointing to a silver raven sitting on a rock outcropping nearby.  She walked over and opened the compartment on the device’s chest, pulling out a folded piece of parchment.  “It’s from Herion,” she announced, glancing at the wax seal on the parchment before breaking it open.  Reading it over, she frowned.

            “What’s it say?” Autumn asked.

            “‘Greetings, friends and allies,’” Arrie read aloud.  “‘If this message has found you, then you have no doubt succeeded in the mission which my brother, Emperor Haxtha, has sent you upon.  Upon the wings of that victory for the Alliance, I must now task you with another mission.  Near to the mine where your group now stands lies the domain of Lord Morladim, a potent vampire prince and cousin to Our Imperial family, who claims independence from any nation on Affon.  The Alliance would like to recruit him to our cause, as we believe that he and his charges would be most efficient at leading night raids upon our Tauric enemies.  However, convincing an undead being who has existed for more than two millennia to rouse themselves to any action is a task beyond the abilities of most.  Thus, I call upon you.  Journey to the domain of Lord Morladim, and convince him to join our cause.  Yours, Prince Herion.’”  Arrie looked at the other pages, which included a map of the area, and a listing of what terms the Alliance was willing to offer to Lord Morladim.

            “Fantastic,” Lanara sighed.  “Off to chat with the undead.  At least he’s not a lich, and might actually be pleasant to look at.”

            “If I remember my history lessons,” Autumn said, “Lord Morladim was a powerful sorcerer when he was alive.”

            “Wow, let’s see here – cousin to the Imperial family, sorcery, and necromancy.  It’s Sauroth all over again,” Kyle said.  He glanced over at Arrie.  “Lovely family you’ve married into.”

            Lanara looked at Tolly.  “Try not to die this time, okay?”

            “I think that I can handle a vampire,” Tolly replied, his gauntleted hand tightening around his holy symbol.

            “Nobody is going to ‘handle’ Lord Morladim,” Arrie said, “except for Lanara.  And please, for the love of… don’t make what I just said sound dirty.”

            “Too late,” the cansin grinned.

            “And let’s not forget that we still don’t have Osborn back, or even know where he is,” Kyle said.  “I can try to _scry _him in the morning, maybe even try a few divinations about this Lord Morladim to see if we can learn anything of value.”

            “Yeah, I’m not even sure what I would offer a 2000 year old vampire,” Lanara said, looking over the list of terms that Arrie had handed her.  “I doubt he’d have much interest in most of the traditional enticements.”

            “Let’s camp here for the night,” Tolly said.  “It’s safe, and the mine will give us shelter.  We can set out in the morning.”

            The party began making preparations for camp, hoping for a few hours good sleep before they faced what lay ahead.

------------------------------------

* Shesh is the NE god of greed, acquisition, and misers

** our gaming group, in various incarnations under various DMs, has had more luck with that damn 2nd level spell than anyone has a right.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Delemental said:
			
		

> ** our gaming group, in various incarnations under various DMs, has had more luck with that damn 2nd level spell than anyone has a right.




This is one of the truest statements I have seen from you yet. Remember when I even got it to work on a Mind Flayer? And it almost never works on us--I think that is because we are too cool to be affected.


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> This is one of the truest statements I have seen from you yet. Remember when I even got it to work on a Mind Flayer? And it almost never works on us--I think that is because we are too cool to be affected.



 No, it is because we have forgotten how to laugh...


----------



## Delemental

*Metamorphosis*

For this week's update, I bring you one of a couple of pieces of fiction written by various people.  Apparently we had all this pent-up creativity during our game hiatus.

This piece, "Metamorphosis" was written by yours truly.  When I posted Kyle's stats a while back, I mentioned that our DM had allowed some significant character revisions after the hiatus.  This story is my account of Kyle's changes.  The next story I'll post, which was written by Sinewgrab (Tolly's player), is along the same lines, his account of how Tolly was changed.

--------------------------

       Autumn pulled the tent flap aside and stepped inside, eager to get out of the cold mountain air.  She blinked at the bright light inside, much brighter than the twilight sky she’d just come from.  Kyle was sitting on their bedroll, with one of his light globes floating in the air over his shoulder.  A large book sat on his lap.  The book was a familiar sight to her, as she’d seen her husband reading from it almost daily before they had been separated by the war.  But unlike other times, when he was eagerly turning pages in Jovol’s Codex to learn its secrets, this time he was just staring at the pages, his brow furrowed.  On the far side of their tent, she saw a pile of the magical treasures that they had taken from the giants in the silver mine, items that Kyle had said he would examine tonight to determine what they did.  The pile looked untouched.

                “Help me with my armor?” she asked.

                Kyle didn’t look up, but waved his hands in the air.  An _unseen servant_ appeared, and she felt it move close and start to pull at the straps holding her plate armor.  Autumn was about to snap at Kyle, but then paused.  Normally he was eager to help her get into and out of her armor (more so the latter); this almost dismissive behavior was inexplicably odd.

                Autumn finished shedding her armor, arranging it carefully next to their bed so that in the event of a night attack she could pull on a few crucial pieces before joining battle.  She then pulled off the heavy padding underneath, though she waited until the _unseen servant_ popped out of existence before shedding the rest of her garments; she knew that the servant was nothing but a magical construct with no true will or perception, but she still felt uncomfortable undressing in front of one.

                The aasimar slid into the bedding next to Kyle, glad that the cooling mountain air had not yet penetrated inside the tent.  Normally it wouldn’t have been an issue, as Autumn would have left her smallclothes and padding on in case there was an ambush.  But right now her mind was not on battle readiness.  After all, they’d only been together for two days after being separated during the early stages of the Tauric invasion, and most of that spent traveling or fighting giants.

                “Kyle, can you scratch my back?” For the past two weeks, she’d had an annoying, nearly constant itch between her shoulder blades that hadn’t responded to any of the ointments her valet had bought for her.

                One of Kyle’s hands rose into the air, and he started to mutter something.

                “If you summon a _mage hand_, I will break your fingers.”

                The muttering stopped, and Kyle reached over and began scratching down her spine.  At first, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the temporary relief.  But after a while she grew dissatisfied.  Kyle’s efforts were effective, but half-hearted at best, and she grew acutely aware that his hand had not wandered from its duty in the slightest, something that was usually a persistent problem with her husband.  Briefly, Autumn began to contemplate what Lanara would do in a situation like this, until she realized that the bard had probably never faced the problem of having a man ignore her while she was sitting naked next to them.

                Autumn decided that her usual direct approach was the best.  “Kyle, what’s wrong?”

                “Nothing,” he grunted. He withdrew his hand.

                “‘Nothing’?” she echoed.  “You sound like a petulant child.  Out with it, or you sleep outside tonight.”

                “Fine.  I’ve just spent the last half-hour having my dreams and ambitions crushed, that’s all.”

                She laughed; the statement was so dramatic that at first she thought it was another one of Kyle’s poorly executed jokes.  But she stopped when he didn’t react in kind.

                There was a long, pregnant silence in the tent.  She was about to make another comment, when two things happened that stopped her cold.  She saw his eyes well up with tears – not tears of pain, or guilt, or embarrassment, but of a deeper sadness, the tears of lost hope.  But what truly shocked her was when Kyle slammed the metallic covers of the Codex shut, and then hurled the tome out of the tent with a shout of rage.  She saw the book slam into a nearby rock through the tent flap, and then her view was obscured as Kyle stormed out of the tent himself, heading off into the night.

                Autumn sat there for a moment, stunned.  She had an urge to run after him, but realized that she was still unclothed.  As she began to fumble for her smallclothes, a head poked into the tent.  The sentinel yelped and clutched a blanket up in front of herself.

                “Everything okay, sis?” Arrie asked.  “What’s going on here?  Do I need to go hurt someone?”

                “No!” she shouted, aware that she was shaking a little.  She was replaying the image of Kyle throwing Jovol’s Codex out of the tent.  The book on planar metaphysics was priceless, and irreplaceable, and according to her husband was the key to his ambitions.  Autumn looked at Arrie, who was waiting for more of an explanation.

                “It’s fine, Arrie,” Autumn said hurriedly.  “I mean, it isn’t, but… just let him go, okay?  He’ll come back.”

                “Okay,” Arrie said, sounding unconvinced.  She ducked out for a moment, and then came back into the tent, holding the Codex.  “You want to hold on to this for him?  I know Kyle’s been reading this a lot, I doubt he really wants it to stay outside all night.  I assume it’s important or something.”

_Arrie, you have no idea._  “Yes, please, put it over there.”  She pointed into the corner of the tent.  When Arrie set the Codex down, Autumn saw with relief that it looked none the worse for wear.  She tossed a blanket over it; no sense letting the book be the first thing Kyle saw when he came back.

                “Are you sure you’re all right?” Arrie asked.

                “I will be.  Go back to your watch.”

                “Okay, but if you need to talk…”

                “I know where to find you,” Autumn finished for her.  “But right now I’m feeling a little… exposed, so could you close the tent flap?  And come get me for the next watch – don’t try and take a double watch for my sake.”

                “Yeah, like I’d really miss out on my beauty sleep for your sake,” Arrie teased.  They both knew that if Autumn hadn’t said anything, Arrie probably would have taken both watches.

                Kyle hadn’t returned by the time Autumn was roused for her watch, and didn’t come back until well into the night.  Lanara had received a brief report of the earlier incident from Arrie, and so had let Autumn take the lead on the conversation.  This, of course, had led to a fairly quiet evening.

                Kyle came into the camp and sat down next to Autumn on a rock.  Lanara looked at the two of them.

                “Oh, gee, look at the moons,” Lanara said, glancing up at the overcast sky.  “Time for my long perimeter patrol.”  The cansin stood up and walked away from the fire, pulling her cloak around her shoulders tightly.

                Kyle handed Autumn a handful of scraggly yellow wildflowers.  “Not much to pick from out here,” he said quietly.  “The altitude, you know… and it’s pretty late in the year.”

                “They’re lovely,” Autumn said.  “But I should be the one giving you flowers.  I shouldn’t have laughed.  I was so annoyed that you weren’t paying attention to me that I did the same to you.”

                “I understand,” he replied.

                “Can we be friends again?” she said with a smile.

                “Friends and more,” Kyle laughed, and leaned over to kiss her.

                “So, tell me what you read in the Codex that upset you so much,” Autumn said.  She had the urge to rest Kyle’s head on her shoulder and stroke his hair, but she realized that while wearing full plate it wouldn’t exactly be the comforting gesture she intended.  She settled for holding his hands.

                Kyle sighed.  “I don’t think I’ll be able to do what I had hoped to do.”

                “Why not?  You seemed to think that it was possible, with a little more study…”

                “That was before I started reading tonight.  Actually, I’ve suspected it for a while, but my reading confirms it.”

                “Well, what’s the problem?” Autumn asked.

                “In order to pull off the necessary modifications to the demiplane, I would need to have mastered the manipulation of raw magical energy to a degree I simply can’t manage.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “There are ways to manipulate spells to improve their effects by investing additional energy into them.  You can make them travel farther, affect a larger area, last longer, or change the energies they use.  You can alter the way they are cast so they can be discharged without sound, or gestures, or even with just a single word.  Many mages pursue this knowledge to varying degrees.”  Kyle poked at the fire with the end of his staff.  “I never did.”

                “Why not?  Surely you had a good reason.”

                “I did, or so I thought.  When I first started training as a wizard under Professor Vorsha, I gravitated toward the path of the artificer… making magic items.  It seemed a good fit at the time – I still considered myself more a laborer than a mage, and I was good at working with my hands.  I understood the theories of metamagic, but it seemed so… impractical.  So I never pursued it.”

                “You sound like you wish you’d chosen differently,” Autumn said, “I suppose that’s natural, since it presents an obstacle now, but…”

                “It’s more than just that,” Kyle said.  “Lately I’ve had many reasons to regret the choices I made in my early training.  When I first started following the path of the artificer, I’d assumed I’d end up in some workshop somewhere, making potions and magical trinkets to sell.  But that was when I thought I’d never get very far studying magic, before I realized my true potential.  I’m not that same laborer playing at being a wizard; I haven’t been for some time now.  Artifice just doesn’t hold the same joy for me that it used to; my ambitions have evolved.”

Autumn nodded in understanding.  For years her highest ambition had been to join the Order of the Sentinels and serve them; now she was a duchess in control of a significant portion of the Tlaxan Empire.

“And even if I still enjoyed making magical items as much as I used to, there’s no time for me to create anything worthwhile, either for myself, or us, or for the Alliance.  We just don’t have days to sit around, or the gold to spare on materials – both are resources in short supply, and the more things I create, the more of both I need.  These days, I look at what it would cost to make a wand, and I see the salaries of two thousand mercenary troops.  I think of making an amulet, and I picture a month’s supplies for an entire dwarven battalion.”

                “The war won’t last forever,” Autumn said.

                “I know, but then some other threat will take its place.  If it’s not the Taurics, it’s the psions.  Or fanatic cults, or Xhintai warlords, or scheming devils, or whatever. This is our life Autumn, for better or for worse.”

                “Merciful Bail,” Autumn said, “I had no idea you felt this way.”

                “How could you?” Kyle said with a half-hearted smile.  “We’ve been separated the past few months.  And it wasn’t until I read the Codex today that my fears were really confirmed.”  Kyle looked down at the fire and poked it again.  “I hadn’t realized how much this demiplane idea was keeping me going, keeping my spirits up.”

                “You still have me,” Autumn said, this time giving in to her urge and cradling Kyle’s head to her shoulder.

                “I know, but I need something besides you and the others,” Kyle explained.  “Something that’s just for me, something that lets me know I did everything in my power to leave the world better than I found it.”

                It was a simple, almost naïve wish, made all the more powerful by the fact that Kyle probably had the potential to make it happen.  “Surely there’s another way,” Autumn said.

                Kyle shook his head.  “That’s what I’d hoped.  But you can’t invest metamagic into created items unless you know how to do it in the first place, so I can’t just simulate the knowledge.  Besides which, this task requires a good measure of both careful preparation and spontaneous adjustment; the first is easy, the second is impossible with magical devices.”

                “Well, why can’t you learn this metamagic stuff?  You’re not exactly an old man, you know.”

                “When would I find the time?  Who would teach me?  I’m not an old man, but I'm not an apprentice wizard any more, Autumn, and most mages I know aren’t too keen on taking on a student who exceeds their own ability.  Besides, with the war going on everyone’s too busy.  I even hear the Tower is considering canceling this year’s courses to free up staff for the war effort.  And even if I could, it’s not the same.  People are always better at things they learn early in their profession than with things they learn later.  I’m too used to looking at magic in a particular way for metamagic to come easily to me.”

Kyle snuffed out a loose ember with the end of his staff. “I know, I sound pretty negative right now.  I feel that way.  But I’ve looked at this problem from every angle I can think of, and I just don’t have the skills to pull it off.”  He straightened up, pulling slowly away from Autumn’s embrace.  “Perhaps I should consider returning the Codex to Myndrila.  I’m sure she’ll be pleased to have it back, and who knows?  Maybe she can find someone to complete the project, though Erito knows how she would convince a mage to help psions.”

Autumn watched Kyle stand up and walk slowly toward their tent.  “My watch is almost over,” she called out, “I’ll be in soon.”

Kyle nodded.

“But don’t wait up for me,” she added.  “Try and get some sleep.  Maybe things will look better in the morning.”

“Maybe,” he said, unconvinced.

Autumn’s heart ached to see him so forlorn.  “Sweet dreams,” she called out.  This time he didn’t respond as he ducked into the tent.

Lanara returned a minute later.  “Boy, I’m glad that’s over.  He was starting to get me depressed.”

“Were you listening in?” Autumn asked.

“Of course I was, dear.  Had to make sure nobody did anything stupid.  You’re armed, you know.”

“I see.”

Lanara laughed.  “I’m teasing you, Autumn!  Really, I didn’t hear that much, just kept an ear on the general tone of the conversation.  Wanted to make sure I didn’t walk in at a bad moment.”  She stole a look back at Kyle and Autumn’s tent.  “Think he’ll be okay?  Want me to try talking to him?”

“Not yet,” Autumn said, “we’ll see how it goes.”

*              *                *​
                Kyle was asleep when Autumn came in from her watch.  She pulled her armor off quietly while Lanara went to wake up Tolly and Crystal for their watch, and then laid down next to him.  She was asleep herself within moments, one arm draped over her husband’s body.

                She awoke some time later to a strange, but pleasant sensation.  She opened her eyes to darkness; it wasn’t morning yet, so she couldn’t have been asleep for more than a couple of hours.  She was too tired to properly focus, even with darkvision, and so it took a moment for her to discern what was happening.  The touch of a familiar hand brought her fully awake.

                “Kyle?” she whispered, “what are you doing?”

                “I’m just giving the most beautiful, most wonderful woman in the world the attention she deserves,” he said with a chuckle.

                “But why…?  I thought that…”

                He silenced her with a kiss.  “Because of what you said to me.  It’s sheer genius.  It’s perfect.”

                “I don’t understand, Kyle.  What did I say that…”

                And then Kyle did something else, and at that moment asking questions became a very low priority for Autumn.

*              *                *​
                On the next day’s march through the mountains, Kyle was in high spirits.  He laughed and joked with the rest of the party, and didn’t seem to care when half of the jokes he told fell flat.  And he was affectionate toward Autumn to the point that even Tolly’s normally stoic apprentice Crystal was compelled to comment on it, and by afternoon the party insisted that the two of them walk at opposite ends of their traveling line.  Despite this, he still wouldn’t explain what had so drastically changed his mood, saying that he didn’t want to jinx it.

                By the time they stopped for the night to camp, Kyle seemed almost jittery with excitement.  He rushed through camp preparations, and the evening meal.

                “Well, good night!” he called out suddenly.  He stood up, kissed Autumn on the cheek, and disappeared into his tent.

                The others looked at each other.  There was still a full hour of sunlight remaining.

                Tolly reached over and picked up the skin Kyle had been drinking from. He pulled out the stopper and sniffed.  “Water,” he said, “that’s not it.”

                “And I don’t recall seeing him stop to eat any strange mushrooms or lichens,” Arrie mused.  She turned to Autumn.  “What did you do to him last night?”

                “And are you willing to share your techniques with others?” Lanara added.

                “I didn’t do anything!” the sentinel protested.  “We just talked.”

                “Of course,” Tolly commented, “That’s what I heard from your tent last night.  A lot of deep… conversation.”

                “I swear, we’re going to start sleeping inside a _rope trick_ from now on,” Autumn muttered.

                “Promise?” Arrie asked.

                “I’ll give you some rope!” Lanara added.  “For the spell, of course.”

                “I’m going to go tend to the horses,” Autumn said, standing quickly.

                “We don’t have any horses, Autumn,” Arrie pointed out.

                “Then I’m going to swing my axe around for a while before I turn in,” she said.  “I’m sure you’ll have much more fun speculating on the details of my marriage if I’m not here to interject any reality into the conversation.”

                “Sir,” Crystal asked Tolly as Autumn walked off, “do you always discuss each other’s moments of intimacy so openly?”

                “No, just theirs.”

                “That is good,” Crystal said.  “I feared I would have to swear a vow of celibacy while in your service.”

*              *                *​
                Inside the tent, Kyle dreamed.

                He floated through an alien landscape, his form given purpose and solidity by the spell he’d cast before laying down.  Though he had the sensation of being far from his physical form, he knew that in other ways he wasn’t that far away at all.

                He looked around at the vast, multicolored terrain around him that conformed to no normal geography.  There were dozens of concentrated points of color that Kyle knew represented the dreams of all sorts of myriad creatures, including those of his companions.  He was tempted to peek into some of those dreams, but the spell he was using would not allow him to deviate from his target, and besides which he had no way of determining which of those dreamscapes belonged to which person.  He noted that one of the nearby dream points seemed particularly dense; he would have guessed that one belonged to Arrie, but she had first watch, and was probably still awake.  Kyle had no idea who else would have such intense dreams.

                After a while, Kyle felt a pull on his magically created form, and there was a sudden sensation of movement.  The points representing individual dreams began to flit past like a swarm of dragonflies, appearing and receding all around him.  In the distance, Kyle saw something moving at an odd angle; perhaps another mage using the same spell as him but heading for a different destination, or perhaps some sort of strange dreamscape entity that arcanists could only theorize about.

                Suddenly, there was a shift, and instead of flying along through a kaleidoscopic soup, Kyle found himself walking up a path toward a mansion built atop a sea cliff.  He looked around, but could see no trace of where he’d come from.

                He continued walking until he came to the main door of the mansion.  The place was utterly silent, other than the distant sound of crashing waves.  Kyle knocked on the door, and waited.

                After an hour with no sign of any response, Kyle felt a little discouraged. He could feel his spell urging him to enter the house, knowing the target of his spell was inside.  But he knew there was no way he was getting inside without being let in.

                Sighing, Kyle pulled a pen, ink, and a sheet of parchment out of his pockets.  He sat down in the entryway and scrawled a quick note on the parchment.  He put away the ink and pen and produced a hammer and nail, and with three quick strikes he nailed the parchment to the door.  He stepped back, and then there was a sudden rush of color all around him before he found himself back in his tent, looking up at the ceiling.

                Next to him, Autumn stirred slightly.  “S’okay?” she mumbled.

                “Yes, dear, I’m fine.  Go back to sleep.”  He smiled when he heard her snore in response.

                “I guess that all I can do is wait,” he said quietly to himself, before rolling over and going back to sleep.

*              *                *​
                Kyle got his answer the next night.  He was having a rather bizarre dream where he was playing cards with a hound archon, an astral deva, a bralani eladrin, a succubus, and a kyton.  He was looking at his cards, and realizing that they were blank, when he looked up and realized that the dealer at the table had changed.

                “Hello, Kyle,” Aran said.  He looked around.  “You have interesting dreams.”

                “I’m glad you think so,” Kyle said, as the other five players in the game slowly faded away, “I’m sure you must see plenty of them.”

                “Indeed.  I received your message.”

                “Good, I was wondering about that.”

                “I don’t see how I could have missed it.  Using arcane magic to manipulate the Dreaming is… unsubtle, Kyle.  I would advise against using that method to contact me in the future.”

                “I didn’t see any problems with it,” Kyle protested.

                “And as a wizard, you wouldn’t have.  But to my people, you accomplished the metaphysical equivalent of knocking on my front door with a trebuchet.  Fortunately, at this point your group’s affiliation with me is no great secret, and your message contained no information other than your desire to talk.  So, here I am.”

                “Thank you.  Aran, I need your help in order to complete the demiplane project I told you about just before my wedding.”

                “I sympathize, Kyle, truly I do, and I admire your goals.  But I’ve already explained that I will not divulge the secrets of the Dreaming to you.  The Dreaming is the one metaphysical realm we psions have that is free from both arcane and divine meddling.  I will not relinquish the medium through which I exert my powers.”

                “I know.  That’s not what I want.”

                Aran’s eyebrows arched inquisitively.

                “I know enough about psionics that I know that some of you have the ability to delve deeply into a person’s memories and experiences, and if they’re willing you can even alter those memories to grant a person new knowledge.”

                “You’re referring to the _psychic reformation_ power,” Aran said.  “I possess this ability myself.”

                “Would you use it on me?”

                Aran looked carefully at Kyle.  “For what purpose?”

                “Among other reasons, I will need to be well versed in metamagic in order for the demiplane to have even the slightest chance of working as I want it to,” Kyle explained.

                “Understand,” said Aran, “that I can’t just insert new knowledge and training into your mind.  I have to alter existing knowledge, erase things you know now.”

                “I understand,” replied Kyle.  “I want you to rework all of my training as an artificer.”

                The master psion blinked in surprise.  “I thought that magical artifice was your primary focus of study.”

                “It is… it was.  Things change, and sometimes drastic measures are needed.”

                “This will require a rather extensive change in your psyche…” Aran mused.

                “Then you’ll do it?” Kyle asked.

                Aran gave Kyle a warning look.  “There will be a cost to you.”

                “Nothing I’m not familiar with as an artificer.  I’m prepared to pay.”

                “It is more than that,” he warned.

                “It will cost some of your life force as well,” Kyle said, “I know, and if there’s anything I can do…”

                Aran waved his hand.  “The cost to me is an insignificant matter.  I know that you are doing this for our sake, so I will gladly part with it.  But this procedure will alter a significant part of who you are.  And there are other complications possible.  Your psyche is suffused with arcane power, and as you know magic and psionics do not mix well.  Your heritage, and the artifact you carry, will further complicate matters.  I can’t predict all of the effects.”

                Kyle thought for a moment.  “I’m willing to risk it if you are.”

                “Very well.  I will need to prepare.  I will contact you tomorrow night to begin.  I suggest that you give your companions some warning; the procedure will take several hours to complete, and they will not be able to wake you until I’m finished.”

                “Thank you,” said Kyle, as they both stood up.  “I appreciate this, really I do.”

                “Glad to help where I can.  Good luck to you.”

                “You too,” Kyle said.  “See you tomorrow.”

                Kyle faded from Aran’s sight as the psion exited the wizard’s dreamscape.  He began walking back to his domain through the polychromatic swirls of the Dreaming.  Waiting nearby was his assistant, the dromite Tek.

_ Your meeting went well, master?_ Tek asked.

_Reasonably so,_ Aran replied.  _I will need to return tomorrow for more extensive work._

_Is everything all right, master?  You appear troubled._

                Aran turned back to look at the spot of intensified color that represented Kyle’s dreams.  _The wizard has completed another circuit on his spiral_, Aran replied at last. _ It remains to be seen in what direction that spiral progresses._

*              *                *​
                Autumn woke up early, and was somewhat startled to see that Kyle was still sleeping next to her. Normally he was up and about well before she was, so having him still next to her was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise.

                “Well, you said last night that we wouldn’t be able to wake you up,” she said, after her initial efforts to rouse Kyle produced no results.  “I didn’t realize that it’d last this long.  I hope you wake up soon, because we need to pack up and get going.”

                A moment later, Lanara called out to the couple.  “You two up yet?”

                “I am, but Kyle isn’t,” Autumn called back.

                “Well, then, write some dirty words on his forehead or something.  That’ll teach him to sleep in.”

                Autumn chuckled.  “You should be very grateful that I’m not Lanara,” she said to herself.

                “Why is that?” Kyle asked.

                “Oh! I didn’t realize you were awake.  How are you?”

                “I’m fine, I guess,” he said.  “But who are you?”

                Autumn’s smile faded.  “What?”

                “You seem familiar, ma’am, but I can’t quite put a name to your face,” Kyle replied.  He spoke with a heavy rural accent, which he hadn’t had for years.  “My head feels kinda fuzzy, ma’am.  Did I fall off a roof or somethin’?  You must be a healer.”  He gave her a lopsided grin.  “And a far sight prettier one than Old Dame Gezell back in Potter’s Creek.  ‘Course, that’s not sayin’ much, no offense to you or nothin’.”

                Autumn started to panic.  “Arrie?  Tolly?” she shouted.  “Anyone?  Help!”

                Kyle quickly sat up, looking worried.  “Now now, calm down, ma’am.  There’s no problem here.  I wasn’t trying to…” Kyle looked at Autumn again, who was still dressed only in her smallclothes, and he immediately turned his head and covered his eyes.  “Aw, gee, ma’am, I didn’t realize you weren’t decent.  No wonder you thought I was… are you here for healin’ too?”

                Autumn was about to shout for help again, when she heard a voice in her mind.  _Please, stay calm._ Slowly, Autumn relaxed as she recognized the speaker.

                Kyle, seeing the strange blonde woman suddenly staring off into space, decided to keep quiet for a bit.  He wasn’t sure why he was laying in a tent with a half-dressed woman, but it certainly didn’t seem to be the good situation it normally would be.  Whoever she was, she sounded like she had friends close by.  Not that she needed friends; she looked like she could break him in half on her own.  And if the staff on the ground nearby was any indication, she was a wizard too.  _Probably one of them archmages from Trageon knowing my luck,_ he thought forlornly, _she’ll probably have me thrown off the top of that big Tower they’ve got._

_Forgive me_, Aran continued inside Autumn’s head, _I’d hoped to contact you sooner, but I needed a few moments to rest after the night’s efforts.  I also wanted to contact your companions briefly, to assure them that there was no danger.  Your husband will be fine, and the amnesia will pass relatively quickly. He is in the process of reintegrating his memories.  Did he explain what was happening to him tonight?_

_Not really.  He just said we wouldn’t be able to wake him up._

_Probably trying to spare you from worry, without realizing that by keeping you ignorant, he would create greater worry.  Well, we all have our lapses in judgment._

                Aran explained briefly to Autumn what he had done to Kyle over the course of the night.  T_here may be other effects of the procedure, which I can’t fully predict. I had to draw upon the psychic memories of other mages to make the proper alterations to Kyle’s mind – he may manifest brief personality changes or periods of erratic behavior.  Ideally he would spend the next few days in seclusion while his mind heals, but sadly that’s a luxury you lack.  His talents as a wizard should be unaffected, once he recalls that he has them._

_Is there anything I can do to help him?_ Autumn asked.

_Try not to read too much into what he says or does in the next few days,_ Aran advised.  _And just be supportive.  I will be in touch. _ There was a brief pause.  _I would recommend that Kyle be kept away from any sensitive conversations or negotiations until he fully heals. But given your current location, I assume that is not going to be a problem._

Autumn felt Aran’s presence recede from her mind.  She looked over at Kyle, who was grinning like a fiend as a tiny ball of light hovered an inch off his open palm.

“Looky here!” he said with glee, “I can do magic!”

----------------------------

Of course, the _psychic reformation_ power doesn't actually say anything about after-effects, but I always thought that there would have to be consequences for having a significant chunk of your memory just rewritten.  Thus, this story.  I'd intended to really roleplay this to the hilt for a couple of sessions afterward, but I ended up toning it down, because it would've been too disruptive to everyone else.  No sense spoiling everyone's fun so I can have a few laughs.


----------



## Delemental

*Ariadne Verahannen*

And as a bonus entry for this Friday, the stats for She of the Funky Weapons...



		Code:
	

ARIADNE VERAHANNEN
Human female exoticist 7/exotic weapon master 5/wilder 3
TN Medium humanoid
[B]Init[/B] +9; [B]Senses[/B] Listen +0, Spot +0
[B]Languages [/B]Common, Aquan, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Orcish
------------------------------------------
[B]AC[/B] 21, touch 19, flat-footed 15; Combat Expertise, Dodge
[B]hp[/B] 144 (15 HD)
[B]Fort[/B] +17, [B]Ref[/B] +11, [B]Will[/B] +8 (+4 vs. mind-affecting effects, +4 vs negative energy and death effects)
---------------------------------------------
[B]Speed [/B]30 ft (6 squares)
[B]Melee [/B][I]Strike From Beyond[/I] +26/+21/+16 (2d4+12, 19-20) or [I]Anyweapon[/I] +25/+20/+15 (varies) or [I]+1 jambiya[/I] +25/+20/+15 (1d4+6/19-20)
[B]Ranged[/B] elven double bow +25/+20/+15 (1d8, x3) or elven double bow +23 (1d8+1d8, x3) or masterwork orcish shotput +25 (2d6+11, 19-20/x3) or [I]+1 distance orcish shotput[/I] +26 (2d6+12, 19-20/x3) or [I]+1 impact orcish shotput[/I] +26 (2d6+12, 17-20/x3) or bolas +25 (1d4+8)
[B]Base Atk[/B] +18; [B]Grp [/B]+24
[B]Atk Options[/B] Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise, Strange Strike, Karmic Strike, Standstill
[B]Combat Gear[/B] [I]potion of cure serious wounds[/I] x5, [I]potion of minor glove of invulnerability, oil of bless weapon, oil of magic weapon, crystal mask of dread, evader psicrown[/I]
[B]Powers Known[/B] (ML 3rd. 14 PP):
	1st – [I]empty mind, vigor[/I] (DC 14)
[B]Spell-Like Abilities[/B] (CL 15th):
	1/day [I]detect poison[/I]
-----------------------------------------------
[B]Abilities[/B] Str 22, Dex 21, Con 22, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 16
[B]SQ[/B] can use Knowledge skills untrained, Elude Touch, Wild Surge +2, Psychic Enervation, Full Exotic Proficiency, Exotic Specialization, Exotic Two-Weapon Fighting, Strange Strike
[B]Feats[/B] Improved Initiative, Cosmopolitan (Bluff), Combat Expertise, Standstill, Quick Draw, Karmic Strike, Danger Sense, Improvised Melee Weapons, Improvised Throwing Weapons, Weapon Finesse, Combat Reflexes, Dodge
[B]Skills[/B] Autohypnosis +8, Balance +13, Climb +4, Concentration +12, Craft (bowyer) +3, Escape Artist +17, Intimidate +24, Jump +11, Knowledge (local) +3, Perform (dance) +6, Psicraft +7, Swim +6, Tumble +18
[B]Possessions[/B] Combat gear plus Strike From Beyond ([I]+1 keen ghost touch spiked chain[/I]), [I]+1 impact orcish shotput, +1 distance orcish shotput, +1 jambiya[/I], Anyweapon ([I]+1 sizing metalline morphing weapon[/I]), masterwork orcish shotput, elven double bow, bolas, Herion’s Heart ([I]+1 soulguard  mithral chain shirt[/I]), [I]traveler’s cloak, headband of mental armor, gloves of tripping, figurine of wondrous power [/I](silver raven), [I]belt of giant strength +6, steadfast boots, vest of escape, amulet of health +6, bag of holding[/I] (type I), [I]minor ring of jumping, Ariadne and Herion’s Wedding Band[/I]
[B]Notes[/B]
[I]Anyweapon[/I] – this +1 sizing metalline morphing weapon can take on the form of any melee weapon the wielder desires, and can mimic any exotic metal type (cold iron, adamantium, alchemical silver).  Making any change to the weapon requires a move-equivalent action.
[I]Elven double bow[/I] – This bow can be fired as a normal composite longbow, or alternatively the wielder can string two arrows as a move-equivalent action, and fire both at the same target using a single attack roll.  There is a –2 penalty to this shot.
[I]Strange Strike[/I] – You receive a +1competence bonus to attack rolls against opponents not proficient in the same weapon.
[I]Standstill[/I] – Whenever you could take an attack of opportunity, you can instead attempt to halt your opponent’s movement.  Make an attack roll as normal; if it hits, the opponet must make a Reflex save (DC 10+damage rolled) or halts as if he had used up his movement for the round.
[I]Full Exotic Proficiency[/I] – You are proficient in all exotic weapons.
[I]Exotic Specialization[/I] – Your attacks with exotic weapons gain +2 to all damage rolls.
[I]Exotic Two-Weapon Fighting[/I] – Your penalties to attack rolls when wielding two exotic weapons are reduced by 2.
[I]Improvised Melee Weapons and Improvised Ranged Weapons[/I] – You can turn any reasonably solid object into a melee weapon or a thrown weapon.  Improvised weapons do damage as a club (1d6).  The range increment on improvised thrown weapons is 10 feet.
[I]Herion’s Heart[/I] – This +1 soulguard mithral chain shirt allows any wearer with the Combat Expertise feat to gain +3 to their Armor Class for the first point of BAB sacrificed with the feat (further increases to AC through the feat progress as normal).  The soulguard special ability gives the wearer a +4 sacred bonus to saves vs. death effects and negative energy.
[I]Headband of mental armor[/I] – gives the owner a +4 resistance bonus on all saves vs. mind-affecting effects.
[I]Ariadne and Herion’s Wedding Band[/I] – this ring (one of a matched pair) gives a +2 enhancement bonus to all saves.  When a ring is worn, they can detect the direction and distance to the other ring if the other ring is within a 100 foot radius.  Each ring can issue a sending to the other ring’s wearer once per day.


A note about Arrie's classes - the exoticist is identical to a fighter, except that instead of proficiency in all martial weapons, they get proficiency in four exotic weapons of their choice (which means that Arrie is just fine with an urgrosh, but can't get the hang of a longsword).  They can also choose from a small list of special abilities instead of one of their bonus feats; Strange Strike is one of those abilities (I can't remember the others, but Arrie doesn't have them anyway).

The exotic weapon master is the one that was in the 3.0 splatbook Masters of the Wild, but modified - the rage prereq was dropped, the Exotic Focus ability was dropped, and the Improvised Weapons abilities were changed.


----------



## Krafus

Glad to see that Kyle has his priorities straight! So Artificer just wasn't doing it for him, eh? I wonder what he'll do with that book he did so much to acquire...

Oh, and does Crystal have designs on somebody in the party?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Glad to see that Kyle has his priorities straight! So Artificer just wasn't doing it for him, eh? I wonder what he'll do with that book he did so much to acquire...




It was a personal decision based on both my own opinion of item creation and on the DM's presentation of how the final act of the campaign would progress.

While I have nothing against item creation, and in fact had fun with it for quite a while, the truth is that IMO the return on investment gets less the higher level you go, especially in a setting that is high magic and where common items are relatively easy to acquire.  Sure, you're still saving money by making your own items, but the xp and time costs really start to hurt.  And our DM has told us that a lot of our time in the game from this point forward is going to be used up, with the war, and the psions, and everything else, so the days of being able to kick back for a month to crank out magic goodies is done.  In the end, it seemed like Kyle would never get to use most of his item creation feats, and so I decided to make the switch to metamagic.

(And let's not even discuss epic item creation.  Talk about a resource sinkhole...)

As far as the book, understand that it exists as pure plot device.  Jovol's Codex (and yes, the name Jovol comes straight from Sepulchrave's SH; I make no apologies for my plagarism) was something I created when I wrote my little side story a while back about how Kyle first started pursuing his little 'project'.  I put it in only to get across that his plans have something to do with planar metaphysics, which is what the Codex is about.  And in this most recent story, I used it as a catalyst for Kyle's decision to abandon item creation and pursue metamagic instead.

And what is Kyle's project, you may ask?  Well, it will all come out soon.  Kyle's been trying to keep it secret from everyone, because there are some... controversial aspects to it.  Of course, this probably means that everyone knows about it.  




> Oh, and does Crystal have designs on somebody in the party?




If she does, we don't know about it.  Being relatively new to the party, Crystal hasn't shown much of a personality in game yet.  The ongoing tension between her and Autumn hasn't helped much with getting her out of her shell, either.


----------



## Delemental

*The Forging Anew*

This is the second of three pieces of fiction, this written by Tolly's player Sinewgrab.

Don't worry, there will be actual game updates coming.  These fiction pieces just all happen to occur at this particular point in the story, so here they go.

-----------------------

            "Crystal, keep the crew together, and don't let them get themselves killed before I am back."

            "Sir, I still don't understand what you are doing. Why can't I go with you?" The axani Inquisitor pulled the strap tighter on Tolly's left side. "Your associates don't seem to like me, and I am not comfortable at all alone with them, especially the Duchess. She is less than even-tempered, and now she is stressed because of the wizard."

            "I don't think I entirely know what I am doing either, Crystal. I have been praying nightly for guidance as to what I should be doing next, and I find that I have an inexplicable urge to climb that mountain. When I checked over the maps of the area that we brought from Laeshir, I found that this mountain was once a holy site for Ardara. Somewhere near the top is an open temple for priests to expose themselves to the elements and our Mother. I am going there. Alone." Tolly stared evenly at Crystal, and then grimaced. "I cannot help you with Autumn. She is a woman of strong passions, and somewhat uncontrolled. I suspect in time that Kyle will provide her stability, and help her sister keep her out of trouble--if he can cease his idiotic experiments."

            Tolly shrugged, and hopped slightly to settle his plate armor. His maul he strapped in place on his back, and he finished his preparations by pulling on his armored gauntlets. It was time to go. He could feel it.

            He stopped briefly by Kyle and Autumn's tent, but decided against interrupting them. In the day and a half since Kyle's...transformation...the wizard had been impossible to live with. Tolly suspected that the pressure Kyle had exerted on him to leave was at least partially due to his memories being time-dependent. If he was correct, Kyle was almost to the point where he and Kyle had been less than friendly, due to their mutual admiration of Autumn, and the clash over psionicists. The Servants of Ardara had done him no favors there--but he had learned that were no hard rules to the world. Shades of faith, as the Exalted had told him, were what the world was made of. Like soil, there were rich loams, and hard clays. Both will sustain, but one better than the other.

            He nodded to Arrie as he passed, glad that the group had decided to pause for a day to let Kyle restore himself. She smiled at him and returned to her watch. He ventured into the trees, comfortable in the cool mountain air. His thoughts went to Iria, and he smiled, continuing his steady pace. He hoped she was doing well in Miracle. It had been too long since he had seen her. Once this diplomatic mission to the Vampire Lord was over, he would ask Kyle to take him to Miracle. Tolly missed his ward terribly.

            Some hours later, he was still walking. He had passed the treeline some time back, and was now following a barely visible path, made of worn steps, which in the fading afternoon light were nearly invisible. The Inquisitor Primus could see the temple above him, and it had become tasking to follow the path – he swore that it was practically straight up. Finally, he was at the door – and he could see the old Dwarven runes telling him to follow the path if he was a pilgrim. Unfortunately, they also contained the character that meant deep. He wasn't done walking. Into the darkness he went, it closing behind him as he strode into the bowels of the earth.

            He lost track of time – he was no dwarf to know these things instinctively – but soon came to a room lit by incandescent fungi. There were no other exits, and this room felt absolutely right to him. Every breath brought him comfort, and each moment cleared his mind and eased his weariness. He stripped, and carefully laid out his armor and clothing on a stone shelf. Tolly walked to the center of the room, and knelt. He closed his eyes, and began to pray.

            It may have been an hour, or it may have been a day later. Tolly opened his eyes. A form stood in front of him – one which was familiar, and yet not.

            "Exalted?"

_Good, Tolly. Your mind is still sharp. How are you this day?_

            "I am well, Exalted, though somewhat surprised. I thought you had moved on." Tolly shifted. His knees ached, but it was a familiar ache. Stone was never soft. "To what do I owe this honor?"

            The ghostly form shimmered slightly. _The Holy Mother has determined that you are correct in your suspicions. You are not on the best path to continue Her work in this world. Your absorption of the traits of the Earth does not best prepare you for what is to come. She will help you._

            "I don't think I understand." Tolly stood. "Does the Mother wish for me to change where I am going?"

_No, Tolly. She is going to change where you have been. Brace yourself._

            The room collapsed on Tolly, burying him in the heart of the mountain.

*          *            *​
            Tolly became conscious of his surroundings. He was fully clad in his armor, and everything seemed to be in working order, although he had a splitting headache. A healing orison did nothing to abate it. He felt dehydrated, and he could taste earth on his tongue. He stood, and then realized he could not see. His darkvision was gone, as was the stone-like feel he had become used to in his skin. Memories slowly emerged, of Jerome guiding his mind, splitting off learned knowledge like the slabs from slate, forging him anew in the heat of the Mother's love, with memories gleaned from other of her children. He felt acutely the loss of his knowledge of forging magical arms, but then gained a feel of the earth that he had missed before. He could feel the Mother through the stone. He would never be far from her so long as he could touch the earth.

He prayed briefly, knowledge flowing into his mind. He muttered a prayer, and the room alit with divine light. He breathed in the remaining essence of Ardara's love and approval, and walked out. It was a long walk back to camp, and the sooner started, the sooner ended. He did not look forward to explaining his condition, much less the changes in his physical makeup. First Kyle, now him. Who would change next?


----------



## Ed Gentry

I love this SH. Keep it coming!


----------



## Delemental

*The Bard’s War*



			
				Ed Gentry said:
			
		

> I love this SH. Keep it coming!




Well, if you insist...

This will be the last of the three pieces of fiction written at this point in the campaign, this one authored by Lanara's player.  Pretty much a synopsis of recent events from her perspective.

-------------------------------------------


_Damn, my butt hurts!_ thought Lanara, squirming in her chair at the massive table.  She’d have thought the emperor’s council chambers would have more comfortable seating.  _Maybe elves get calluses on their rears so they can’t feel these gods-be-damned hard stupid chairs._  Lanara sighed.  Maybe Haxtha had uncomfortable chairs to discourage exactly the kinds of crap these “allies” and “negotiators” kept slinging about, with nothing actually being said.  Just imagine, the bard thought, if every session was like this, it would take forever to get anything accomplished in Tlaxan.  Of course, given the average lifespan of an elf, that might not be such a long time to wait.  But the rest of the world had things to do and an invasion to worry about.  Lanara kicked her foot against the leg of the table nearest to her and tried to pay attention to what was being not-said...

 *****

“More orders from the Shadow General,” sighed the aide as he dropped a pile of parchments in front of Lanara.  Their eyes met over the stack of missives from the so-called Shadow General (though Lanara had her suspicions as to who he really was).  Whoever it was, the general was busy.  And clever.  Between the general and the bard, everything from troop movements to supply trains were being confused and delayed for the enemy.  Lanara looked bemusedly at the silver stylus laying on her writing table.  She’d acquired it from an elven fancier of hers, who still hadn’t confessed to his or her identity.  The _stylus of the masterful hand_ had certainly made her forging abilities much better, thereby making it much more fun to mess up the enemy’s tactics.  She winked at her aide and grabbed at the topmost parchment.  “Let’s see what I can do to those bastards this time,” she muttered gleefully, bending over her writing supplies...

*****

Grumbling and whispering chased each other around the conference room the Legacy had commandeered for their own use.  There was talk of individual exploits, near-death experiences, battlefield victories and comparison of tactics.  Lanara sat quietly in one corner, strumming her harp and singing almost as if to herself.  The tension in the room was palpable and she felt a bit left out when it came to fighting words.  As the other members of the Legacy continued their conversations Lanara let her mind drift back a little to her brief, if mostly removed from, experience of the battlefields. 

The hospitals were terrible, even the best of them.  Too many bodies, too much blood, so much pain and so much wasted youth.  Most of these fighters would most likely not see another battle; if they had been easily healed, they would be back with their units and the mobile healers, not here in some poor noble’s house-turned-death ward.  And for many, these appropriated manors would be their place of death, for the healers were as worn out as the mortally wounded who made their way here.  It grieved Lanara greatly that sometimes all she could do was try to ease the passing of these brave souls. 

Her companions in the Legacy would only have had her pink hair and her music to identify her in these halls.  In the hospitals, Lanara donned garb more comforting than revealing, though when the troops were in higher spirits she pulled out the entertainer’s garments she’d had specially made and did her damnedest to make them forget where they were and what condition they were in.  She was actually very glad that the healers separated the men and women, for the healing needs of each varied greatly.  She actually found the borrowed healers’ robes comforting to her own soul, as it was easier to concentrate on her music when the young warriors weren’t gazing longingly at her cleavage before turning their heads to the walls, afraid to be faced with their own incapacitation.  And while Lanara possessed no psionic abilities, it was no real chore to realize that some of these men would never lay with another woman, even if they did make it out of the hospital confines.  Nor was it hard to realize that they knew this too, and that it ate at them. Many of the women glared at her with poorly disguised loathing - whether for her unmarked body or other reasons mattered little. So she covered her femininity as best possible and concentrated on soothing the wounded so that the healers could work what magic they were able.  Lanara played her music so that the battered bodies and souls of the wards could find a modicum of relief, but in the recesses of her own mind she wondered if she would ever sleep again without seeing the weariness, pain, longing and fear on the faces of the men and women she played for.....

*****

_What in the name of Feesha’s left nipple is going on here?_ Lanara wondered.  _First Kyle got all goofed up on us, what with Aran re-doing his memories, and for whatever reason that might have been; now Tolly’s acting all mystic on us, too!  Last time that happened he’d just come back from resurrecting Autumn after he’d been communing with his...by the holy Four and all their servants!_  The cansin slapped her forehead.  _I’ll bet Crystal anything she likes that he’s been in touch with Ardara again, and she’s gone and done something profound to him!  What is it with these Ardarans and their be damned “reforging?”  Wasn’t Tolly insufferable enough without being remade too?  For the planets’ sake, we’re still trying to get Kyle back together..._

            Lanara sighed.  Leaning against the nearest tree, she slid down until she was seated on the ground and rested her head on her arms, which were folded across her knees.  Not very ladylike, no, but who cared at this point?

Lanara shook her head.  _We’re going after a vampire lord, this Lord Morladim, some vampire prince.  What do I know?  Well first off he’s a member of the Tlaxan extended royal family, kinda like that Sauroth creep.  I never could understand necromancers.  Yick.  Rumors are that the fellow is still quite the looker - vain enough to pass up lichdom for vampirism.  I suppose that’s one way to avoid rotting. He used to be a merchant prince, so he’s probably still living in high style in some fine manor house or even a small castle.  Avoiding the lich route means he probably doesn’t like to do things the hard way; I seem to remember he was a sorcerer and not a wizard.  So he’ll want instant gratification from whatever action he decides to take.  He’ll also be slightly limited in his range of spells, but he can cast them as often as he likes.  And while he won’t necessarily have a tome lying around, after however many hundreds of years, he probably has a pretty nasty set of tricks up his sleeve.  Have to be careful not to overreach myself._ 

            Lanara paused in her musings.  A good-looking, most likely very vain ancient sorcerer vampire lord.  What the hell was the group getting into?  What was she getting herself into?  With gods-only-knew what was going to happen with Kyle and Tolly in the long run, she couldn’t necessarily count on them in her planning.  And since this was supposed to be a diplomatic mission, Autumn, duchess or no, was right out.  Big on charisma, that woman, but way too quick-tempered for comfort.  Best to have her and Arrie as bodyguards, in case something corporeal became a threat.  Crystal was a complete unknown, so best to have her stay near Tolly, as she seemed very protective of the stuffy ol’ cleric anyhow.  And where in all the planets was Osborn?  He and Rupert would have been nice to have near, since he was such an excellent scout and strategist.  _I mean, hey, if he could play at being the Shadow General, he could certainly help out with a little old vampire, right?_ Lanara giggled nervously at herself.  Osborn wasn’t here, Kyle was a mess, and who knew what Ardara had done to Tolly this time?  The battle babes could be depended on if it came to a fight, and so, she supposed, could Crystal.  Lanara leaned back against the tree trunk and inhaled deeply.  Who knows? She thought with sarcastic amusement.  Maybe the old neck-biter would be like many of her other conquests.  _I really hope he falls for cleavage and concertos..._


----------



## Delemental

*Interview With The... Well, You Know*

So, enough fiction already!  Let's have a real update!

Another one of my longish ones, I'm afraid... though I doubt you'll mind that much.  

--------------------------------

            The two weeks of travel from the silver mine to Lord Morladim’s domain were far from uneventful.  Though the party could have easily traveled there more quickly, they opted to take the slower overland route, not only because they didn’t want to alarm the Vampire Prince, but because they had no idea when or how Osborn would return to them, and didn’t want to risk leaving him stranded in the mountains with no way of following them.

            On their first night of hiking through the mountains, the tranquility of the camp was broken by some sort of disagreement between Autumn and Kyle which resulted in the wizard storming off for several hours.  Neither of them discussed the reasons for the conflict, but several hours later the rest of the party was again awakened by the apparent resolution of their differences.  Two days later, the party again was disturbed early in the morning when Autumn suddenly called out from the tent she shared with Kyle, shouting for help.

            Arrie and Tolly were halfway to the tent when they heard Aran’s voice in their minds; _Stop, and wait.  There is no danger.  Autumn will explain soon.
_
            Several minutes later, a bewildered looking Kyle was led out of the tent by Autumn, who directed him to a fallen log nearby and handed him a woodcutter’s hatchet, asking him if he would cut some firewood for them while she talked with her friends.  Once he was occupied, Autumn came over to the rest of the group.

            “We don’t need any firewood, you know,” Lanara commented.

            “I know, but it keeps him busy for a while,” Autumn replied.

            “Yeah, what exactly is Kyle’s problem?” Arrie asked.  “He’s looking at us like we’re strangers.”

“Kyle has apparently asked Aran to perform a psionic operation on his mind, altering certain key memories and experiences to allow him to gain a better understanding of certain magical principles at the cost of losing other knowledge,” she explained.  “But the process of reintegrating his memories will take a few days, and until then, Kyle won’t quite be himself.”

“Ardara preserve us,” Tolly muttered, shaking his head.

            “Arrie, I’ll need to share your tent for a few days,” Autumn explained.  “Kyle’s sort of reliving the last four years of his life, in a way.  He doesn’t even remember us, because Aran had to start reworking his memories from the time he first entered the Tower as a student, before he knew any of us.  I think that until he gets to the point where he remembers who I am and that we’re married, I should act as if we’re not husband and wife.  From his perspective, it’d be like a woman he barely knows jumping into bed with him every night.”

            “Oh, I’m sure he’d hate that,” Lanara quipped.

            “I don’t want to cause any unnecessary shocks to his mind,” Autumn replied coolly.

            “Too bad, you’re missing a great opportunity,” the bard said with a smirk.  “By the time you got your hands on Kyle, most of his rough edges were smoothed out.  Now he’s back down to the raw, unblemished farm boy he used to be.  A lot of noblewomen I know go to a lot of trouble to get their hands on one of those.”

            Autumn slapped her hand on her forehead.  “I’m not having this conversation,” she muttered, shaking her head.  “Why are the most intimate details of my personal life always the topic of discussion?” she said as she walked away.

            “Okay, I think that’s enough teasing my sister,” Arrie said.  “We should get moving, and keep an eye on Kyle.  He’s probably going to be a bit unpredictable for a few days.”

            As the party went about breaking camp, Arrie walked over to where Autumn stood.  She was watching as Kyle, dressed in a simple sleeveless shirt and pants instead of his robes, split and corded the old tree.  The sentinel chewed her lower lip thoughtfully as Arrie studied her face for a moment.

            “Autumn,” Arrie said at last, “No.”

            “I was just considering…”

            “No, Autumn.”

            “But…”

            “No.”

            Autumn sighed.  “I know, I know.”

*          *            *​
            Kyle’s recovery went rapidly.  By midday he had remembered enough that the party members were no longer strangers to him, and by that evening recalled being part of an adventuring group with them.  There were some odd moments, such as when Kyle was reliving Tolly’s death at the hands of Sauroth’s flesh golem, or recalling Lanara being framed by Marrek for the theft of the Estranëan relic.  He also seemed to have trouble with the fact that two people he knew should be around were nowhere to be seen*.  And then there were the occasional outbursts that seemed to come from no memory any of the rest of the party shared, words or actions that even seemed to baffle Kyle.  Autumn tried to explain, after an episode where Kyle snapped at Arrie and threatened to “devour her soul”, and then blinked, mumbled an apology, and wandered off.

            “Aran told me that in order to perform the psychic reformation on the memories that Kyle wanted, he had to scan other wizards and sorcerers to get the information he needed,” she said.  “He said that some bits of the personalities of those other mages might come out once in a while, but should ease off soon.”

            “Good,” Arrie said, “because if he threatens to devour anything of mine again, I may have to perform a non-psychic reformation on his teeth.”

            The next day was more difficult.  Kyle was clearly starting to relive his growing affection for Autumn as well as his old conflicts with Tolly over her and over the ‘new’ threat of the psions.  He became cold and gruff toward Tolly, and was practically hovering over Autumn.  At one point, during a break in travel, Tolly and Autumn went off alone to have a private conversation.  Autumn returned from the talk clearly not in a good mood, though she glossed it over when Lanara asked what was the matter.  Kyle, however, stood up, and walked over to where Tolly was walking back into the camp.  The wizard shouted at Tolly for upsetting Autumn, and seemed about ready to strike the priest, until Autumn and Arrie pulled him away and talked to him quietly.  Tolly sat down next to Crystal and Lanara.

            “I think I should leave soon, before things get truly unpleasant,” he said.  “He hasn’t even reached the worst point of our old conflict.”

            Lanara and Crystal both nodded at the mention of Tolly leaving, though the axani seemed less than pleased about it.  Tolly had told the party that he’d been praying to Ardara for guidance for the past several days, and that lately he’d felt a strange compulsion to perform a brief pilgrimage.  Tolly felt it was a message from his goddess.

            “Sir,” Crystal began, “are you certain this is wise?  Under the circumstances, you…”

            “You’ll be fine, Crystal,” Tolly said, cutting off his apprentice.  He knew the reasons for her apprehension.  The strained relations between Crystal and Autumn had not improved over time, as he’d hoped they would; in fact, the discussion he’d just had with Autumn had been about that very fact, and the aasimar had made it very clear that she didn’t trust Crystal and that anything confirming her mistrust would be dealt with aggressively.  Tolly was at a loss to explain the sentinel’s obstinacy, and even Arrie was hard-pressed to explain her sister’s reaction when he’d asked her opinion.  Tolly could only hope that Crystal would continue to tread lightly around the volatile aasimar.  He couldn’t count on Kyle being a calming influence on Autumn, at least not for a few more days yet.

            Eventually everyone came back to the camp, and Kyle mumbled an apology to Tolly.  After a restless night, the party awoke to find that Tolly had left.

            “So that’s Tolly gone, Osborn still not back, and Kyle… not quite up to speed,” sighed Autumn.  “It feels like we’re splintering apart, Arrie.  I don’t like it.”

            “Things are different now,” Arrie said.  “We all have responsibilities and concerns outside the Legacy, things that divide our attention.  You can’t tell me that if you had the chance, you wouldn’t slip off to Vargex right now, just to see how things are.”

            “It’s true,” Autumn admitted.

            “We’ve been apart for four months, and back together for a week.  It’s going to be a bit rough before we get back in our old rhythms again.  But we will.  We did fine against those giants, right?”

            “You’re right,” Autumn sighed.  “I’m just anxious.  We should be entering Lord Morladim’s domain tomorrow, and I hate not being at full strength.”

            As Autumn predicted, the party crossed into the region known as the Dark Hills late the next day.  Though there were no signs or markers at the border, they each felt a sudden inexplicable chill as they moved into Morladim’s domain.  All around them, the shadows seemed darker, the foliage thinner, the wildlife more skittish.  Autumn confirmed the presence of a faint miasma of evil all around them.  Their encounters with packs of mindless undead became more frequent, running into one or sometimes two groups a day.  By the second day of travel they came upon a path, though it was obviously not well used, and started to follow it, assuming it would eventually lead them to the Vampire Prince’s castle.  They began to fly a banner showing Herion’s personal heraldry, to show their intentions were peaceful.

            Tolly returned to the party about five days after he left.  Quietly walking up to the group as they rested near the road, the priest sat down next to Kyle as if he’d been there the whole time.  However, he quickly drew attention.

            “You look different, Tolly,” Lanara said, summing up their thought nicely.  For the past year or so, Tolly had been infusing his own body and spirit with the powers of elemental earth.  As he’d done so, his skin had taken on a hard, rock-like appearance, and the hair on his head and beard had become coarse and wiry.  But now his skin was smooth, though weathered, and his hair was soft and fluttered in the breeze.

            “I have been reforged by Ardara,” he explained.  “The path I had chosen once to serve my goddess was no longer suitable.  I have now gained a deeper understanding of Her will.”

            “Great,” said Lanara, “last time you got ‘reforged’ you were insufferable for weeks.  Are you sure that you two got it right this time?”

            Crystal bristled at the near-blasphemous comment, but Tolly only smiled.  “I’ve learned to accept that in the pursuit of Law, one must often be willing to embrace change,” he replied.  “As to whether we ‘got it right’, I can only say that I am but one of Ardara’s tools in Affon.  As long as the tool is suited to the task, then all is as it should be.  Should the task change, or should a new tool be required, then I will submit to Her needs again if need be.”

            Tolly looked over at Kyle.  “Speaking of change, and of being insufferable, how goes things with you?”

            “Better,” he said.  “My memories are back where they should be, though I’m still struggling with a few personality fragments that surface every once in a while.  So ignore me if I say or do anything weird.  I think I should be fine in a week or less.”

            “Good.  Then we should be on our way.”

            They set off again, following the road to Morladim’s castle.  The path widened and improved gradually into a road, though it was still obviously not used much.  They passed the remnants of a few villages, long deserted, but saw no sign of any living beings, not that this was overly surprising to them.  The oppressive air of the Dark Hills became stronger as they traveled, until Tolly and Autumn reported that the taint in the land was so pervasive that their innate ability to sense it was being overwhelmed.  They were constantly accompanied by a cold, miserable drizzle of rain.

            On the twelfth day since leaving the mine, Kyle suddenly called out a warning.  “Teleporter arriving,” he said**.  “Two travelers, one humanoid, one magically enhanced animal.”  Kyle pointed at the ground in the middle of the party.  “I’m diverting them to there.”

Seconds later, Osborn and Rupert reappeared in their midst without fanfare.  Everyone lowered their weapons.

“Hi there!” Osborn said.  “Miss me?”

“Always,” said Lanara.  “What were you doing?”

“Oh, I just had to stop an assassination attempt on Emperor Haxtha,” the hin replied.  “I’ll tell you about it later.  You guys take care of those giants?”

“Of course,” Arrie replied.

“So, did your goddess touch you too?” Lanara asked.  “Did Ladta ‘reshuffle your deck’ or something like that?”

“Not that I know of,” Osborn said, patting himself down to make sure nothing was out of place.  “Why?  What’s been going on?  Where are we?  Why is it so creepy?  And what’s that sound?”

“Sound?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, sounds like several horses and a wagon or something, coming up the road,” he replied.

A moment later, Crystal nodded to confirm that she heard it too.  Then, from a distant bend in the road, the party saw a black carriage being pulled by four black horses.  The coachman was clad in black plate armor, and two outriders behind the carriage were similarly armored.  One of the outriders carried a pennant with a vaguely familiar device on it; a black sunset over a green field.

“Morladim’s personal crest,” Lanara said.  “Based on the heraldry of the Tlaxan Imperial Family.”

The party stood and waited for the carriage to approach, while Kyle quickly filled Osborn in on the events he’d missed and their current mission.  The carriage pulled up next to the party and stopped, waiting for the horses to settle before the door opened and its occupant stepped out.

She was tall, and slender, and wore an elegant gown that was certainly not contemporary in style, but had a timeless quality that would not have been out of place in any noble court.  The gown was flowing, and adorned with lace.  The black satin of the dress contrasted sharply with the woman’s pale skin, though seemed to almost blend in with her raven-black hair, which cascaded loose and straight down her shoulders.  She appeared human, though there were some small signs of elvish ancestry around her eyes.  On first glance, she appeared no more than seventeen years of age. Reflexively, the party glanced up at the sun in the sky, which was obscured by heavy clouds but still obviously present.  Then they noted other telltale signs – the slight flush to her cheek, the gentle rise and fall of her bosom.

“I am Lady Genevieve,” the woman said, taking in each of the members of the party with sparkling blue eyes.  “Daughter of Morladim, lord of these lands.  I welcome you to his domain.  We have seen the banner you fly from the castle beyond these hills. What business would the Imperial Prince of Tlaxan have with the Dark Hills?”

Autumn stepped forward and bowed.  “My Lady, I am Autumn Goodson, Duchess of Vargex in the Empire of Tlaxan.  This is Imperial Princess Ariadne Verahannen of the Empire, Inquisitor Primus Tolly Nightsleaving of the Church of Ardara, Duke-Consort Kyle Goodson, Lanara Rahila, and Osborn Greenbottle.”  No one commented on the fact that Autumn had left Crystal out of the introductions, though Tolly laid a reassuring hand on his apprentice’s shoulder.  “We comprise the adventuring group known as The Legacy, and have been dispatched at the request of his Imperial Highness, Herion of Tlaxan, as a diplomatic envoy to your lord and father.”

“I do not know if my father has been expecting you specifically,” Genevieve said, “but we have been expecting guests for some time now.  Rooms for ten were already prepared, though I see now that only seven will be required.   I would welcome you to our lands, and invite you to the castle of my lord to share what hospitality we may provide.  If you have been troubled by the mindless undead that wander the outskirts of my father’s domain, we apologize for this, and will make what reparations are necessary.”

“No reparations are required,” Lanara said, “and we gladly accept your invitation.  How far is it to the castle?”

“Only an hour, if you don’t mind setting a brisk pace.  But come, I tire of standing in the rain, as I am sure you do as well.  Shall we be on our way?”

“Lead the way, My Lady,” Lanara replied.

“Would any of you care to join me in my carriage?  There is room for some of you in here.”

Osborn looked down at Rupert, who was whining quietly and inching back from the carriage.  Osborn noted that while Genevieve herself appeared alive, the coachman and outriders almost certainly were not.  “I think I’ll stay out here.  I want to ride.”

            “I appreciate the offer, but I will also remain out here,” Arrie said.  “I don’t mind the rain so much.”

            “I’ll go with you!” Kyle said.  “These frail old bones could use a rest.”  Everyone stopped to look at the tall, broad-shouldered wizard.  He paused, reviewing his words, and then shook his own head in disbelief before moving past Genevieve to enter the carriage.  Autumn, watching as Kyle smiled at Morladim’s daughter as he climbed in, also decided to ride in the carriage. Lanara also accepted the invitation and climbed into the carriage, followed by Genevieve gracefully ascending behind her when no one else approached.

            The carriage went farther down the road until it reached a point wide enough to turn around, and then made its way up the road back the way it came.  Inside the carriage there was some attempt at small talk, with some effort by Lanara to gauge Morladim’s opinions on the war.  They learned that the lord of the Dark Hills hadn’t concerned himself much with the Tauric invasion, as there had been little direct impact on them.  As promised, the ride lasted about an hour before they drew within sight of Lord Morladim’s castle.

            To call it a mere castle hardly did it justice.  The huge walled structure enclosed an area that was easily half as large as the Imperial Palace complex in Noxolt.  The main castle rose far above the complex, its many towers jutting like knives into the overcast sky.  The carriage and the party rode through the massive iron gate in the outer wall unchallenged, and proceeded through a series of inner gates to the main castle.  Several liveried servants, both living and undead, waited outside the carriage when they came to a halt.

            Genevieve turned to the party after they had all gathered in the courtyard.  “The servants will show you to the rooms that have been prepared for you.  Dinner will be served in your rooms this evening, and I will escort you to my father’s throne room for an audience tonight after the sun has set.”  With a swirl of black satin, Genevieve turned and walked into the castle, followed by a few servants.

            “Well then,” Arrie said, “we may as well go in and freshen up for our audience.”

            An old, wizened man shuffled up to the party.  “If you will follow me,” the servant said wearily, “I will show you to your rooms.”

            “Are the rooms all together?” Osborn asked.

            “Yes, they are.  Come with me please.”  The old man began to shuffle off at an uncomfortably slow pace.  Along the way, Autumn pulled Kyle aside.

            “You certainly warmed up to Lady Genevieve quickly,” she commented.

            “She’s charming,” Kyle said.

            “I’m sure,” Autumn replied.  “And pretty too.  You were practically drooling.”

            “I was not,” Kyle said indignantly.

            “Here, you should take this,” Autumn said with a smile, handing him a handkerchief.  “Wouldn’t want you to start drooling again when you see her and end up ruining your robes.”

            Kyle sneered as he grabbed the handkerchief and then put some distance between himself and Autumn.  The sentinel chuckled to herself, and then glanced at Lanara.

            “After all the crap he’s put us through the past few days, I figure he deserves a little grief,” she said.

            Their rooms were spacious, and plush, though somewhat gloomy due to the general lack of windows in the castle.  A roaring fire was already burning in each room.  After cleaning off the dirt of the trail and changing out of their armor and traveling clothes, the party gathered in Lanara’s room to discuss their strategy and pass the time until dinner.

            “So, I’m sure the rest of you have already talked about this,” Osborn said, “but what do we know about this Morladim guy?”

            “He’s a former merchant prince, and an ancestor of the Tlaxan Imperial Family,” Lanara said.  “A cousin, sort of like Sauroth was.  Same interest in necromancy, too, though Morladim was a sorcerer, not a wizard.  If he were alive, Morladim would rank just under Herion in status – you tend to drop a couple of notches in the hierarchy if you become undead.”

            “How’d he become a vampire?” Osborn asked.

            “The stories say it was deliberate on his part,” Lanara answered.  “He sought immortality, but decided against lichdom, as it would not only take decades of study to master the ritual, but the process would ruin his looks.  He’s supposed to be very handsome.  The rumor is that he allowed himself to be seduced by a vampire, but had already arranged for his mistress to be destroyed shortly afterward, so that he wouldn’t be under her thrall.”

            “What do we know about his principality?” the hin asked.

            “Well, first of all, understand that even though people outside the land refer to Morladim as the Vampire Prince, he’s only ever gone by Lord Morladim.  The Dark Hills have never been formally recognized as an independent nation, though their existence has never been challenged either.  So technically it’s not a principality.”

            Lanara continued with her lecture.  “It’s well known that several clerics of Erito serve under Morladim, and several of them have been turned into vampires in exchange for their loyalty.  He’s organized the Dark Hills into a sort of kingdom, with various undead creatures holding lands of their own and serving Morladim as his ‘vassal’.  No one knows for sure how many undead or what kinds live in the Dark Hills, because Morladim keeps a pretty tight control on them and doesn’t let them rampage through nearby towns.  The majority of Morladim’s subjects are intelligent undead – there are relatively few skeletons and zombies, and from what Genevieve said when we met her, I’d guess they see them as much of a nuisance as we do.  Obviously there are some vampires here, as well as a lot of ghosts and wraiths and other incorporeal undead.  I’ve heard there are at least a dozen nightshades that wander around as well.”

            “What are we offering him for an alliance?” Osborn asked.

            “No idea.  He’s not going to be interested in money, land, titles, or any of that stuff.  I figure he knows why we’re here, so we’ll let him name some terms and go from there.”

            A couple of hours later, dinner was served.  The meal was bland and hardly remarkable, but since it was assumed that the castle staff didn’t get much practice in cooking, no one raised much of a fuss.  Later, after the sun had set (or at that was assumed, since no one had a window to check this), there was a knock on each of their doors, and Lady Genevieve greeted them.

            “My father awaits you in his audience chamber,” she said.  “Come, I will escort you.”

            The party followed Genevieve down a labyrinthine series of long hallways, until they came to a set of large bronze and silver doors engraved with Morladim’s crest.  The doors seemed to open of their own accord, allowing them access to an enormous room, at least a hundred yards long.  A thick red carpet ran the length of the room.  Huge marble columns supported a buttressed roof above their heads, upon which was painted a fresco of what at first appeared to be men and women of various races cavorting together.  But when they looked at it closely, they saw that in fact several of the revelers were in fact vampires, feeding on their enraptured victims.  Though the figures showed no sign of discomfort, and there was not a trace of blood or gore, the scene was still disturbing to look upon.

            A large throne, carved from basalt, dominated the far end of the room.  Seated upon the throne was a striking figure in elegant, if somewhat dated clothes.  The elven vampire had black hair, which he wore loose as it tumbled gently across his shoulders and down his back.  Piercing blue eyes were set into a flawless face with high cheekbones and dark, sensuous lips.  Morladim seemed utterly at ease, and utterly in control of himself and all around him.

            Genevieve introduced the party members one by one, and Morladim nodded to each in turn, offering a brief comment or compliment to each.  When his eyes fell on Kyle, the wizard suddenly yelped and hid behind Autumn, but then a second later stepped out, embarrassed, and bowed his head respectfully to Morladim.  When the vampire then acknowledged Autumn, offering her a compliment on her beauty and her skill in battle, the sentinel could only mumble her thanks, as she stared wide-eyed at the stunning man.

            Behind her, Kyle quietly handed Autumn a handkerchief.  She kicked him in the shin.

            “Welcome to my domain, noble emissaries,” Morladim said.  “I hope my servants have seen to your needs while you awaited this audience.”

            “They have, thank you,” Lanara said.  “We appreciate your hospitality.”

            “It is so rare that we have visitors,” Morladim commented.

            “You are a bit out of the way,” Tolly replied.

            “Which is probably one reason.  Tell me, what exactly has brought you all this way, flying the banner of an Imperial Prince?  I am impressed that my cousins have finally sent a delegation to me again after all these years.”

            “From what I understand from your daughter Genevieve, the current war in Tlaxan has not touched you here, am I correct?”

            “Not very much, no.”

            Lanara considered for a moment.  “Would you prefer that we be formal, or honest?”

            Morladim laughed.  “Let’s try honest, and see how it goes.”

            “As you wish,” Lanara said.  “We’re here on a diplomatic mission to negotiate with you concerning the well-being of the continent upon which we all live.  Specifically, the Empire of Tlaxan would like to negotiate for a formal alliance with you to aid them in their war with the Tauric Empire.  The resources at your command would be invaluable in this effort.”

            “So you wish to buy my troops and support,” Morladim said.

            “Essentially, yes.”

            “Well, I do have a considerable amount of resources at my disposal,” Morladim said, smiling.  “Resources that the current government of Tlaxan is sorely lacking.  I can certainly see how it would be advantageous to them in this situation.  However, I have my own concerns.  A few… domestic issues, if you will.”

            Lanara could see where this was going.  “Such is the burden of all who lead, my lord.”

            “I imagine that the Emperor wants to offer me a few concessions, a bit of this or that, a few trinkets,” Morladim continued.  “I really could care less about that.”

            “Then it may be best to simply ask what it is you want,” Tolly said.

            “First, I want to know that the emissaries that have been sent to me are ones who would honor me, not simply flatter me.  I would hope that the Empire would have sent representatives whose talents were reflective of their respect for me and my position.”

_In other words, did they send people who could do a little work on my behalf,_ Lanara thought.  She’d wondered why Herion hadn’t sent a normal diplomatic envoy; she understood now that the prince had probably anticipated Morladim’s needs.

            “Before I will enter into negotiations with the Empire, I have tasks I would ask you to perform on my behalf.”

            “Such as?” Lanara asked.

            “Well, I certainly would not ask you to take care of all my concerns; that would simply be rude.  There are three issues of greatest concern to me currently.  I will name these concerns, and allow you to choose one that you wish to aid me with.  I will then choose one concern of my own that I would have your assistance to rectify.  Once those two tasks are complete, I will negotiate an alliance with you.  I will tell you in advance that I will have but one condition for the Emperor to meet to agree to aid him in this war, which I will reveal to you when negotiations have formally begun.  I assume you have the means to communicate my terms to the Emperor swiftly.”

            “What tasks would you set for us?” Tolly asked.

            “The first task concerns one of my vassalages.  As you know, I run the Dark Hills as a kingdom, though I would not presume to call myself a king.  Among my vassals is the domain of the incorporeal undead – ghosts, wraiths, shadows and the like.  That principality is currently in rebellion.  Their ruler has declared a civil war against me.  As you can imagine, given the nature of these rebels, it is somewhat difficult for the ghouls and vampire thralls under my command to deal with this problem.”

            “A bit hard for them to sink their teeth into the problem,” Tolly summed up.

            “Precisely.  The first task I would offer as a choice is to quell their uprising.  The second task would be to assist me with a unique opportunity to perform something never before attempted in the arcane arts.  I would imagine that you have all heard of, and perhaps even encountered the various elemental and arcane Nodes of Aelfenn.  After centuries of research, I believe it is possible to create a Shadow Node.”

            Behind Autumn, Kyle made a gasping noise.  A moment later, he took the handkerchief back from his wife.

            “My second task would be to assist me in research and gathering materials.  The third task is actually one that would be performed after our negotiations have concluded.  You have all met my daughter Genevieve.  By now you are aware that she has not had the dark gift of vampirism bestowed upon her.  She is, however, a member of the Imperial family through my blood, and deserves to be treated as such.  My third task would be to have you escort Genevieve back to the Imperial Court in Tlaxan, there to receive all of the schooling and benefits entitled her.”

            Morladim smiled at the party.  “Which task will you choose?  You may withdraw and discuss your options privately.”

            The party pulled back a few feet.  “I’m not sure we have the time to embroil ourselves in a civil war,” Tolly said immediately, “but neither do we have time to spend on arcane research.  As for the third task, it seems deceptively simple, but at the same time it seems like something that it would be right and proper to do anyway.”

            “It does seem that way,” Autumn agreed.

            “I am somewhat wary about taking Genevieve back to Noxolt, however, given the proximity of the Tauric army.”

            “Well, the location of the Imperial Palace and the location of the Imperial Court aren’t always the same,” Arrie pointed out.

            “Good point.  I think we should introduce Genevieve to Aralda.”

            Arrie frowned.  “I’m going to be somewhat protective of Aralda here.  We don’t know anything about Genevieve.  I’d like to get to know her a little bit before deciding who to introduce her to.”

            “And their interests may not mesh well,” Kyle pointed out.  “Remember that Aralda’s a druid, and that Genevieve comes from a necromantic background, even if she isn’t undead herself.”

            “Yeah, how does that work exactly?” Osborn asked.  “How can she be his daughter?”

            “A vampire that has gorged themselves on blood can cause some of their bodily functions to begin working again,” Tolly said.  “Lord Morladim very well could have seduced and impregnated a human woman.  Genevieve does bear some elven features.  But putting that aside, I feel that we should choose between the other two tasks, and offer to escort Genevieve to Noxolt regardless.”

            “I see,” said the aasimar, “so it’s either the rebellion or the Node.”

            Tolly snorted.  “I know which one Kyle wants to do, though I can’t imagine why you’d want to spend so much time manipulating Shadow.”

            “I have my reasons,” Kyle said.  “And I’ll admit it, I do want to help with the Node, because I want to know how to do it myself.  I really, really want to know.  But, we’re not here for my needs.  If we choose to help quell the rebellion, then that’s what we choose.”

            “We don’t even know what the civil war is about,” Arrie pointed out.  “Maybe the incorporeals have their reasons for rebelling.”

            “Or maybe the rebellion can be dealt with through diplomacy,” Tolly added.

            “I think we should choose the Node,” Autumn said.  “It seems to involve fewer ethical questions.”

            “If he’s needing items, I might be able to help acquire them,” Osborn said.

            “If you don’t mind my saying so,” Crystal chimed in, “you might consider the ramifications of having an undead necromancer who has control of a Shadow Node.”

            “Ooh, good point,” Lanara said.

            “And we don’t know what his ‘research’ is going to entail, or what ‘materials’ he might need,” Tolly said.  “There could be more ethical problems with the Node than the rebellion.”

            “Why not just choose Genevieve as our task, then?” Lanara asked.  “Then the onus is on Morladim to choose the other task.”

            “Because that one does seem simple,” Osborn said, “and if we choose it then Morladim may think that we’re really not willing to go to any extraordinary effort to prove ourselves to him.”

            “Perhaps we should offer to do all three up front,” Autumn suggested.  “We could split the tasks to get them done faster.”

            Tolly and Lanara shook their heads.  “Do you really want to be split up in the Dark Hills?” Lanara asked.

            “We need to work from a position of strength if we end up dealing with the incorporeal undead.  And retrieving the items for Morladim’s research may require all of us as well.  Remember what it took when I had to go fetch a few diamonds from the desert for Archprelate Jerome.”

            “It seems that we were starting to lean toward the Node,” Arrie said.   “Should we just go ahead and choose that one?”

            The party agreed, and returned to Morladim’s throne.  “We would be honored to assist you in your arcane research, my lord,” Lanara announced.

            “Very well.  Then I would also have you deal with the uprising among the ghosts.  I will ask you to do this first, as once the rebellion is quelled my research can continue uninterrupted.  In addition, there is a gem field in the territory of the ghosts that produces black sapphires, which is one of the items I will require for the Node.  Obtaining them will be much easier when the principality is under control.”

            “May we have a day to prepare, my lord?” Lanara asked.

            “Of course, take your time.”

            “If I may ask,” Tolly said, “what is the reason for the rebellion?”

            Morladim leaned back in his throne.  “Among my subjects, I demand a certain level of self-control.  Many of us feed on mortal misery and suffering to some extent or another, but we have the capacity to control our appetites until they absolutely must be satisfied.  I also maintain strict population controls among those undead who are capable of creating more like themselves.  In this way, I ensure the survival of my kingdom, keeping my subjects from starving, and keeping the living from being terrorized to the point that they either flee, or organize and present a threat to my lands.  The denizens of the incorporeal principality have decided to ignore my laws, and are feeding and reproducing at their whim, gorging themselves like gluttons on the nightmares of nearby settlements.  It is not how a civilized society should behave.  They have dispatched what military forces I had in the area.”

            “Do they have a single leader?” Tolly asked.

            “They do.  He is a ghost, once a goblin warlord, named Baron Rebukkax.  He was notable in life for being the only warlord to lead a successful goblin raid on a major Tlaxan city – Praxos, to be specific.  Rather an impressive feat, since Praxos was and is the home of most of the Empire’s naval strength.  The reason his spirit lingered in this world is anger over the fact that he was never able to finish sacking the city.”

            “Hey,” Arrie said quietly to her sister, “have the Taurics taken Praxos yet?  If they have, I say we go ahead and let this Rebukkax sack it.  It’d be poetic.”

            “No, they haven’t,” Autumn whispered back.  “Unfortunately.”

            “Baron Rebukkax’s rank and file tend to be shadows, with some wraiths and ghosts like himself,” Morladim continued as the two sisters giggled over their private joke. “A handful of cryptchanters, as well.”

            “Any Callers in Darkness?” Tolly asked.

            Morladim frowned.  “No.  Those have not been seen in Aelfenn since before the Cataclysm.  I’m aware that my cousin Sauroth was able to bind one of those, though only the gods know where he found it.  I will admit to knowing very little about the Callers – even I have my limits.”

            The party knew, of course, that the Callers in Darkness possessed psionic abilities, one of the reasons they hadn’t been seen since the Cataclysm.  They decided now wasn’t the best time for a history lesson.

            “If you require assistance, I would be able to send a small force of intelligent undead with you.”

            “That could be more dangerous to them,” Tolly said.  “If it comes to battle, some of our capabilities may not discriminate between sides.”

            “A good point,” Morladim conceded, “though you should know that some of those who have received my dark gift are priests of Erito, and retain their divine abilities.”

            Kyle pulled Tolly aside for a moment.  “It may be worth it,” he said.

            “Why?  We can handle this without the aid of the undead.”

            “But there’s no reason to approach this stupidly.  Morladim’s troops can deal with the lesser undead, leaving us to deal with the leadership.”

            “You have a good point.”  Tolly turned back to Morladim.  “We’d be glad to accept whatever forces you have, and appreciate your generosity.”

            “You are helping me,” Morladim replied, “there is no reason I should not help you.  I will send one of my newer creations with you.  He is still in thrall to me, so there will be no question of obedience.”  Morladim nodded his head toward the party.  “If you will excuse me, there are others I must see this evening.  Tell Genevieve when you are ready to depart for Rebukkax’s lands.”

            “My lord,” Arrie asked, “would Lady Genevieve be available to join us in the evenings?  We’d like the opportunity to converse with her further.”

            “Of course,” he said, and then dismissed them.

            The Legacy bowed, and then turned and walked out of the grand audience chamber.  As they passed the huge doors, they saw a creature there waiting for its chance to address the Vampire Prince.  The creature looked like a rotting, decayed celestial, about ten feet tall.

            “An Angel of Decay,” Tolly said to the unspoken question as soon as they were out of earshot.  “I can’t recall anything about them other than their name, and I have a feeling I don’t really want to know too much about them.”

*          *            *​
            At some point late in the night, Tolly awoke.  The fire had burned down to embers, and with no windows the room was pitch black.  Tolly chanted the words to a simple light orison, and as the pale glow filled the room, he saw Genevieve sitting at the foot of his bed, watching him sleep.

            “Good evening,” Tolly said.

            “It could be,” she said coyly.

            “What can we do for you, my lady?”

            “‘We’?”

            Tolly grimaced.  “When you are in the position I hold in my church, you tend to start talking in ‘we’s.  When you are in a leadership position of the Inquisition, you tend to think of yourself as one among many.”

            Genevieve smiled.  “I’m not here to find out about the Inquisition.  I’m here to find out about you.”

            “What would you like to know?”

            “Tell me about yourself.  Tell me what you enjoy, where have you been, what have you done, who have you known?”

            “I’m relearning,” he said simply.  “I’m a blacksmith by trade, a member of the Legacy by association and a love for them.”

            “Love?” she said, smiling.  “Love can be a very powerful emotion, and can show itself in many ways.  The love between friends and companions in arms is very different from that shared by two lovers.  Tell me, have you experienced that kind of love?”

            Tolly felt a little uncomfortable, but at the same time had a hard time not answering her questions.  His inquisitorial training had inured him to magical compulsions, so he didn’t fear that.  But he couldn’t help but notice that Genevieve’s nightgown was very sheer, and that the plunging neckline was doing a poor job of covering her breasts.

            “Once I felt the way you describe about a woman,” he admitted.  _Don’t think her name,_ he told himself, though at the moment he was having a difficult time conjuring up an image of Autumn’s face.  “But she fell in love with another, who loves her as well.  We are still close, but not in that way.”

            “It must be so difficult for you,” Genevieve said, reaching out and tracing her fingernails across the back of his hand.  “The women in your company are all quite lovely.”

            “Two of them are married,” he said.  “And one is my apprentice.  The other…”

            Genevieve arched her eyebrows.

            “…it would not work well between us.”

            Somehow, Genevieve had moved up closer to Tolly without him realizing it, and was now sitting next to him, leaning over him, brushing his hair out of his eyes with her fingers.  “So difficult.  It needn’t be that difficult… not tonight.”

            Quickly, before his will gave in, Tolly focused on Genevieve’s aura.  She radiated evil, but so did everything in this castle, so it was impossible to tell if it was her own aura he detected or that of the Dark Hills.  The aura was so pervasive it even seemed like he himself was saturated with it.  Normally, Tolly would have considered whether this would have an impact on his own spiritual wholeness, but now he was too busy kissing Genevieve to give the matter the proper attention.

            After a few minutes, Tolly felt a gentle pressure on the nape of his neck, and then a small, sharp pain.  He pulled away.  “I have no wish to share your father’s dark gift, my lady,” he whispered.

            “Nor do I,” she whispered back, “and nor will you.”

            He didn’t detect any evasiveness in her reply, and so relaxed.  She turned her attention back to his neck, and a moment later Tolly felt the sharp pain again.  He was dimly aware of the sensation of Genevieve drawing blood from the wound… and moments later, it was over, and Genevieve’s attentions were in other places, and so were Tolly’s.  He felt a little lightheaded, but he knew he had healing magic that could cure it as soon as she left.

            She would not permit Tolly to bed her that first night, though neither of them ended the encounter unsatisfied.  When they separated, Tolly laid back in his bed, listening to her rise and slip on her nightgown.

            “It would be poor of me to leave you with your question unanswered,” she said from the darkness.  “I would hate for it to ruin your memory of this night.”

            “My question?” Tolly asked.

            “The one you want to ask, but cannot think of how to do so without insulting me,” she laughed.  “The answer is yes, because of my heritage I can feed as my father does, though I do not have to.  And no, I do not carry within myself the ability to inflict the dark gift on anyone.  For me, feeding on blood is more an act of… pleasure than of survival.  I’m glad you were willing to trust me.”

            “I’ve had no reason not to extend that trust,” he said.  “You have been quite… generous.”

            “Perhaps we could further discuss my generosity and yours tomorrow night?” Genevieve said.

            “I could agree to that,” Tolly replied, “but I would also like the chance to actually talk, if I may be so bold.”

            “Of course,” Genevieve laughed.  “Tomorrow night, then?  It will have to be late – my father informs me that I will be having dinner with your companions Ariadne and Autumn.  I look forward to meeting with them… for entirely different reasons, of course.”

            “Of course.”

            “Sleep well, Tolly,” Genevieve said.  And then, a moment later, Tolly heard the door open quietly and close again.

            The Ardaran priest leaned back on his bed, staring into the darkness.  He wondered how he would ever explain this evening to anyone in the church without ending up in front of an Inquisitorial tribunal.  He decided that the Inquisition didn’t need to know everything.***

-------------------------------------

* Maddie/Kavan and Xu, of course.

** Greater Anticipate Teleportation is a wonderful, wonderful spell.  One of the few that Kyle will prepare and use every day.

*** I tape record all our sessions to write this story.  Occasionally, in order to capture important side conversations, the DM will take the recorder with him to another room along with the player(s) involved.  Listening to the DM and Tolly's player trying to roleplay this seduction scene was... amusing.  Let's just say I had to fill in a lot of detail here.


----------



## Sinewgrab

*** I tape record all our sessions to write this story.  Occasionally, in order to capture important side conversations, the DM will take the recorder with him to another room along with the player(s) involved.  Listening to the DM and Tolly's player trying to roleplay this seduction scene was... amusing.  Let's just say I had to fill in a lot of detail here.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that was fun. Nothing like trying to stay in character when all you really want to say is "stop--you are creeping me out". I kept picturing the GM in what he described her clothing to be, and that wasn't pretty.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> Yeah, that was fun. Nothing like trying to stay in character when all you really want to say is "stop--you are creeping me out". I kept picturing the GM in what he described her clothing to be, and that wasn't pretty.



HAHAHAHAHA!!


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## Krafus

Out of curiosity, did Tolly miss a saving throw at some point when Genevieve was trying to seduce him? And did he lose hit points or ability points from her feeding? Oh, and shouldn't he be worried about what loosing her among the Imperial court now that he knows she likes to suck blood and have trysts?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Out of curiosity, did Tolly miss a saving throw at some point when Genevieve was trying to seduce him? And did he lose hit points or ability points from her feeding? Oh, and shouldn't he be worried about what loosing her among the Imperial court now that he knows she likes to suck blood and have trysts?




Because Tolly has levels in the Church Inquisitor prestige class, he's immune to charms and compulsions, so there was no save involved - it was a straight up offer that he accepted.  I'm not joking when I talk about Tolly's harem.

I believe he did lose some Con from the feeding, but he had _restoration_ prepared, so he just healed himself as soon as she left.

As for the Court... let's see, she's an evil bloodsucking vixen with questionable morals and a penchant for manipulation... she'll fit in nicely.


----------



## Krafus

Okay, so she's got the right personality, but one would think that the male members of the court won't appreciate waking up a little weaker after a night with her.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Okay, so she's got the right personality, but one would think that the male members of the court won't appreciate waking up a little weaker after a night with her.




Then I guess one would have to hope that she can show a little restraint.  After all, draining blood isn't necessary for her, so ideally she'd keep her fangs to herself.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Delemental said:
			
		

> Because Tolly has levels in the Church Inquisitor prestige class, he's immune to charms and compulsions, so there was no save involved - it was a straight up offer that he accepted.  I'm not joking when I talk about Tolly's harem.
> QUOTE]
> 
> Yeah, there was no save involved--just the fact that Tolly is the Kirk/Riker of the party. To boldly go...
> 
> And besides, when you get right down to it, she has a legal right to be in the courts, as one does not get excluded to due to death/undeath. And legalities being met is the most important part to Tolly. The fact that she can now wreak havok in a court he finds decadent and unimpressive is just frosting for the cake.


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> Yeah, there was no save involved--just the fact that Tolly is the Kirk/Riker of the party. To boldly go...




... where every man has been before?


----------



## Delemental

The Legacy spent the next three days at Morladim’s castle, learning everything they could about Baron Rebukkax and about the Shadow Node that the Vampire Prince wanted to construct.  They gathered on the second afternoon to discuss what they knew so far.

            “Rebukkax lived about five hundred years ago,” Lanara said, skimming through a dusty tome that one of Morladim’s servants had brought them at the command of its master.  “He was a goblin warlord, and by all reports was both a cunning strategist and a very charismatic leader.  He managed to assemble an army of ten thousand goblins for the assault on Praxos.”

            Arrie whistled.  “That’s a lot of goblins to keep in line.”

            “And how.  They attacked Praxos and overran their defenses pretty handily, since no one expected goblins to fight that well or that organized.  But Rebukkax had his forces withdraw before they finished sacking the city – the prevailing theory is that he felt his troops were getting too much into the looting and were overextending themselves.  He was about to order the army back into the city to finish the job when he was killed – by his own men.”

            “Why?  It seems they had a good thing going,” Kyle asked.

            “Well, simply put the goblins got greedy.  Wanted a bigger share of the spoils.  But after Rebukkax died and wasn’t there to hold the army together, they started fighting amongst themselves, and by the time the Tlaxan army got there they were hardly a challenge.  Rebukkax’s ghost must have formed there where he died and fled back to the mountains.”

            “Where he made his way to the Dark Hills,” Autumn concluded.

            “And pledged his fealty, exactly.  He must still have a lot of the charm he held when he was alive, because he’s attracted all sorts of undead to him – ghosts, of course, and shadows, wraiths, dread wraiths, and spectres, as well as a few of the more esoteric forms of incorporeal undead like cryptchanters.  Some of his subjects have been with him for centuries, so they have a fair bit of life experience… or, well, unlife experience in this case.”

            “So what’s his angle in this rebellion?” Osborn asked.  “Power grab?”

            “Very possible,” Kyle replied, “but bear in mind that Rebukkax and ghosts like him have no need to feed, don’t reproduce, and are pretty rare in any case.  It’s his other subjects that do that.  It is possible that this is some sort of uprising among his own subjects, and he’s either unable to stop it or not wanting to put a lot of effort into stopping it.”

            “I suppose that’s what we’re going to go find out,” Arrie said.  “What does Morladim have to say about it?”

            Everyone looked at Lanara.  It was no great secret that the bard had spent quite a bit of time around the vampire since they had arrived, and seem quite entranced with the handsome lord.  Once they’d confirmed that her interest was not magically influenced, and that there were no bite marks appearing on Lanara’s neck, the rest of the party let her do as she wished.

            “He says that if Rebukkax has demands, and they’re reasonable, then he’ll negotiate.  Otherwise, he says we’re free to discorporate Rebukkax and his ghostly subjects, and any other undead we wish.  The ghosts are the real lynchpin down in that barony, and if they’re out of commission for a few days Morladim should be able to get things under control.  He doesn’t want Rebukkax or the ghosts destroyed, but that’s not really an issue, unless we intend to help him finish sacking Praxos.”

            “Maybe if the Taurics take it,” said Autumn, “for now, though, no.”

            “All right, then,” Tolly said, “what of our other task?”

            Kyle produced a sheet of parchment from a pocket.  “I have the list of the materials that Morladim needs for the Node,” he said.  “There’s a lot of stuff here, from all over Affon.  Some of it’s going to be hard to get our hands on – the black sapphires Morladim already mentioned, a few hundred pounds of silver, virgin darkwood from a tree at least one hundred years old, obsidian glass from the Red Archipelago, stuff like that.  And some of it will be very hard to get – the soul of an archmage, for example.”

            “Well, we don’t have to worry about that until we finish this business with Rebukkax,” Arrie said.  “Then we can probably split up, or something.”

            Osborn snatched the paper from Kyle’s hand.  He picked up a quill pen sitting on a nearby table, and started checking things off.  “I can get that, and that, and that,” he said.  “Probably not that, maybe that, that, that, that’ll take me a few days, that, not that, not that either, that.”

            The hin handed the list back to Kyle, who stared amazed at the number of items checked off.

            “I may need a ride into town, if you don’t mind, Kyle,” he said.

            “Sure, just let me know.”  Kyle folded the paper and put it away.

            Lanara winked at Osborn.  She knew better than any of them how Osborn was able to get his hands on the needed supplies.  “And what about our third task?” the cansin asked.  She was referring to Morladim’s daughter, Genevieve, and their efforts to get a sense of what kind of person she was before springing her on the Tlaxan Imperial Court.

            “Our feeling is that she definitely takes after her father,” Autumn said.  “She certainly isn’t looking after the greater good.”

            “It’s what you’d expect, from someone who’s grown up around here,” Arrie said.  “But she’s young, no more than sixteen, so…”

            “Thirty-five,” interrupted Tolly.

            “What?”

            “She’s about thirty-five, by my guess.  She may look sixteen, but I’d attribute that to her status as a half-vampire.  She acts and speaks like someone who has the experience of at least three decades of life.”

            “I wasn’t aware you’d spent that much time around her to figure that out,” Arrie said.

            Tolly’s ears reddened just a little.  “I’m an Inquisitor.  I’m trained to pick up these sort of little details.”

            “Right,” said Arrie, “details.  Any other observations you’d like to share?”

            “Well,” said Tolly, feeling very much in the spotlight, “she’s definitely been raised with the expectation of living in court, but she lacks experience.  I have admittedly been trying to impart to her some of my own wisdom in these affairs.”

            “Right,” repeated Arrie, “wisdom.”

*          *            *​
            On the evening of the third day of their stay, the party set out for Baron Rebukkax’s manor house.  They had been given horses out of Morladim’s stables (which sat well away from the castle itself, to keep the horses from dying of fright being so close to so many undead predators) as well as a guide and liaison, a vampiric thrall named Marc.  Marc had once been a priest of Erito and an adventurer out of Sargia, until he and his party entered the Dark Hills in search of tombs to plunder about ten years ago.  Their encounter with Morladim and some of his vassals changed everything.

            “It should take about a night and a half before we reach Rebukkax’s lands,” Marc said.  They were traveling at night and resting in the day, not only so Marc could aid them during their journey if needed, but because it was much harder for the Baron’s shadows, spectres, and other light-sensitive minions to ambush the campsite in the middle of the day.  A single horse-drawn wagon pulled Marc’s coffin along with the party as they traveled.  “His territory is almost on the coastline.”

            Along the way, Autumn noticed Arrie staring pensively out into the countryside.  She reined her horse back to draw near her.

            “Silver for your thoughts,” she said to the warrior.

            “You should save your silver for the war effort,” Arrie said.  “Werewolves, you know.”

            “You seem a thousand miles away, Arrie.”

            “Oh, I was just thinking about what it must be like to live only at night, never seeing the sun again,” she said.  “You know, Morladim is kind of fascinating, in a way.”

            Autumn’s eyes narrowed.  “Fascinating in what way?”

            She looked back calmly at the sentinel.  “Oh, you know, in a kind of an ‘I have no afterlife’ sort of way.”

            Autumn’s eyes widened.  “No…”

            “Hey, you have somewhere to go when you die.  I don’t.”*

            “But we’re working on that!” Autumn protested.

            “I didn’t say I made any decisions, I’m just considering my options,” Arrie said.  “We can discuss this later.”  She spurred her horse forward, leaving Autumn trying to stammer a response.

            They encountered no resistance as they rode to Rebukkax’s territory.  Soon they came to the ruins of an old manor house, little more than four crumbling walls, which sat atop a grassy hill in the midst of a forest.  A ruined cobblestone path led up the hill to the archway that once held the front door, though ironically with so many stone dislodged and broken stones, the path was more treacherous than the grassy hill to either side.

            The party dismounted at the bottom of the hill and tied up their horses, and then proceeded up the hill.  Lit torches flickered on the walls of the manor, silhouetting the hulking forms of two dread wraiths standing next to the entrance, each the size of an ogre. As they drew close, a voice emanated from one of the wraiths.

            “…Who comes…?”

            “A diplomatic party,” answered Lanara.

            “…From whom…?”

            “From your lord.”

            “…Rebukkax is inside… who do you serve…?”

            “We are emissaries from Lord Morladim.”

            “…Wait…”

            One of the wraiths floated back through the wall behind him, while the other moved in front of the doorway.  Minutes later, the wraith emerged, accompanied by two other spectral figures.

            One was a goblin, dressed in fine clothes that were ripped and torn.  The goblin himself looked as if he had been torn to pieces by bare hands, with flesh hanging loose and scored with claw marks.  Despite his horrific appearance, Baron Rebukkax seemed to carry himself as a leader, someone who expected to be obeyed.

            The second ghost was an elven female, dressed in the robes of a priestess of Erito.  Her head looked as though it had been severed, hanging on only by the trachea.  Lanara recognized the elven ghost as Deathmistress Elissinara, a priestess of Erito who lived long ago and was executed by her own church for following the Entropic Heresy, the splinter cult of Erito’s faith that held that the power of entropy and decay would eventually overwhelm the world and even Erito’s ability to maintain the cycle of life, death, and magic.  There wasn’t time to relay any of this to her companions, however, because they were awaiting acknowledgment.

            Lanara bowed slightly.  “Baron Rebukkax, Deathmistress Elissinara.  We are honored to meet you.”

            Rebukkax made a snorting noise.  “So this is what he sends.  Tell me, are you here to negotiate, or are you a snack?”

            “We would prefer diplomacy,” Lanara said with a smile.

            Marc spoke up from the back.  “I can confirm that my master did not send them as an offering.  If you have not heard of The Legacy, this is them.”

            Rebukkax looked over the party for a while.  “So, he’s finally decided to come to his senses.  That’s good.  Did he even tell you what our demands are, or did he just send you here on a lark saying ‘go take care of that for me’?”

            “We have come to find out what it is you seek,” Lanara answered.

            “I want independence from that… moron who lives in flesh.  I want my barony to be mine.  I don’t want to report to him, and I don’t want him telling me what’s best for my people.  He needs to get out of our business and let us exist.  If he thinks otherwise, he can come down here himself.”

            “You do realize that all barons have to report to someone,” Lanara mentioned.

            “What can I say?  I like to make history.  I’ve done it before.”

            “I don’t doubt your abilities, Baron.  Is it safe to assume that you don’t wish to settle this amicably?”

            “If he wants to back off, then we’re done,” replied the Baron.  “I don’t really care.  But if he keeps sending his people in here to enforce the status quo, then it won’t be amicable.  He’ll keep losing his people.”

            “Is there anything short of autonomy you would be willing to consider?  An adjustment to the terms of your vassalage, perhaps?”

            Rebukkax scowled.  “I don’t know.”

            “As I understand it,” Lanara continued, “if you allow your subjects to hunt and reproduce without limitations, you’ll soon find you’ve run out of… snacks, as you put it.  Things could get terribly crowded even for the undead.”

            “We do know when to say when,” Rebukkax retorted.  “We just say it much later than Morladim thinks we should.  He keeps my people at a bare subsistence level, in constant starvation.  One feeding a month, and no spawning unless he approves it.  Undeath is unpleasant enough, breather, there is no need to deliberately make it worse.”

            “There are reasons,” Tolly said slowly.

            “Yeah, and they’re not good ones!” Rebukkax shot back.

            “Outside of complete autonomy,” Lanara repeated, “acknowledging that we must all live under some form of rules to prosper, what would you consider a more equitable set of rules?”

            “If you want to get into specifics, then I should be speaking with Morladim directly.  If he wants to come down here and talk, I’ll see him to discuss what can change.”

            “He has authorized us to negotiate on his behalf,” Lanara said.  “What would be a reasonable limit to you?  Feeding once a week?  Twice a month?”

            “At least once a week will keep my people sated,” Rebukkax said.  “It will give them what you would consider a ‘comfortable existence’.  Some of my subjects wish to feed daily, and even I recognize that is too much.”

            “How many lives does once a week represent?” Tolly asked.

            “Depends.  Some mortals have stronger life force than others.  If we were to capture the lot of you, it’d probably take months to finish you off.”

            “But how many of our stature exist in this region?”

            “None,” Rebukkax admitted.  “For most, a single touch from a wraith will destroy them.”

            “That’s why Lord Morladim controls your feeding,” Tolly explained.  “You realize that if you kill too many, the mortals will begin to oppose you, and eventually call in forces you can’t deal with.”

            “I’m well aware of this.  I just think his strictures are far too harsh.”

            “If the feeding limit were raised,” asked Lanara, “could you persuade your people to reinstate the limits on spawning?”

            “I could probably pull that off,” he said.  “Tell them we need to cut down on the competition for food.  They’ll grumble a bit, but they’ll go along.”

            Lanara smiled.  “May we withdraw for a moment to discuss your offer and relay the information back to Lord Morladim?”

            “Sure, take your time.  I’ll go back to what I was doing before.”  With that, the Baron and the Deathmistress floated backward through the walls into the ruined manor.  The party walked down the hill about thirty feet before talking.

            “Well, do we take this to Morladim?” Lanara asked.

            “We can present it to him,” Tolly said.  “In my mind, he is disobeying the orders of his lawful lord.”

            “But is willing to compromise,” Lanara pointed out.

            “Vassals press their liege lord for additional rights and privileges all the time,” Kyle pointed out.

            “We are dealing in mortal lives, you understand,” Tolly said.

            “I know,” said Kyle, “but no matter what we do, the undead of the Dark Hills will continue to feed off the living regardless of what we do here.  I’d rather have some sort of limit on that than none at all.  If we just go in and destroy Rebukkax and his people, then they stay under Morladim’s thumb for a while, but then eventually this whole rebellion starts up again.”

            “I agree that some structure is better than none,” Tolly said.  “And I don’t relish the task of having to obliterate all of them.  There are a few Tauric commanders I’ve met who I’d love to loose the undead upon.”

            “Well, we did come here originally to try and get Morladim to join the war,” Kyle pointed out.  “Why not just tell Rebukkax that if he stays under the current strictures for now, when Morladim joins the war effort, his people can feed off the Taurics?  If they’re hungry, there are thousands… millions of Tauric troops.”

            “That’s an excellent point,” Lanara said.  “Should we present that option to Rebukkax?”

            Arrie frowned. “Are you sure Morladim’s going to be okay with us essentially drafting his subjects?  We would be putting them in harm’s way on a battlefield, incorporeal or not.  We don’t want Morladim angry at us for killing off his people.”

            “True, but often a leader will deal with a rebellious faction in their ranks by sending them elsewhere.  It may be exactly the opportunity Morladim needs.”

            “Well,” said Osborn suddenly, “just so you know, they know what we’re talking about.  One of them is right there.” He pointed at the ground in the center of their circle.**

            “It figures,” Arrie said.

            “So much for being sly,” Lanara sighed.  “Hey, Baron!”

            Baron Rebukkax popped out of the ground, grinning.  “Yes?”

            “Clever trick, Baron.”

            “Great, isn’t it!”

            “Wish I could learn it,” Lanara said, “but I’m still rather enamored with my flesh and blood existence, and all the things that go with it.  Eating, for example.”

            Rebukkax scoffed.

            “So, what do you think of feeding off Tauric invaders?” Lanara asked.

            “You know, the words ‘inexhaustible supply’ are music to my ears,” he said.

            “Would you be willing to agree to strict feeding and population controls once you got back?”

            “I’m sure we could work something out,” Rebukkax said.  “I’m sure that my people will be much more agreeable when they’re glutted.  It’s not the easiest thing to do with a wraith, but it can happen.  And I can even tell them there’s no limit on spawning.  Most of them don’t know this, but for the most part only humanoids can be made into undead spawn.  Things like centaurs and minotaurs won’t rise as wraiths or shadows.”

            “Lycanthropes?” Tolly asked.

            “They will spawn,” Rebukkax admitted, “though they’ll be ‘cured’ of their affliction, so to speak.”

            “Well, I think we have enough to contact Lord Morladim and present him with the option,” Lanara said.  “Kyle, can you issue a _sending _to him?”

            “Sure,” he said, “but I think this one is going to require two of them.”  Kyle thought for a moment, and then began casting.

_Morladim, Rebukkax wanting looser feeding/breeding limits.  Refuses status quo.  However, has been appraised of Tauric invasion, intrigued by unlimited feeding possibility. Continued…

            May be willing to return to strict limits at war’s conclusion.  Rebukkax will meet with you to negotiate specifics.  Will you meet?
_
            As Kyle recited the words, he suddenly heard a hissing from behind him.  One of the dread wraiths that had been at the door stood there, its eyes burning hatefully as it looked at its leader.

            “…Rebukkax… you have betrayed us…your people… we thought you would see to our needs… but you listen to the lies of the breathers…now we shall show you what breeds in darkness…”

            The ground started to rumble.  Rebukkax looked perplexed.

            “Oh, crap,” Lanara said, as she began to lift off the ground in flight.

            All around them, the darkness moved.  Three huge forms erupted out of the night at once; from the cloud-covered night sky came a large, black, bat-like shape.  From out of the trees on the far side of the hill came a hulking black humanoid form with glowing blue eyes.  And erupting from the ground on the opposite side came an enormous black worm, with chitinous black plates.  They were all nearly overwhelmed by a palpable wave of pure evil.

            Nightshades.

            The area erupted in a frenzy.  The various shadows and wraiths that had been slowly gathering in the region began to rush forward, but the vampire Marc, who charged in with fangs bared and chanting prayers to Erito, challenged them, keeping them away from the Legacy.  Lanara, in a panic, shot straight up, trying to get away from the abominations all around her.  The rest of the party seemed momentarily unsure of what to do.

            The nightwing swooped down toward Arrie, barely missing her as its claws raked the air.  In response, she raked it with her chain as it went by, tearing into its black flesh.  She was dismayed to see many of the wounds close up almost immediately.

The nightwalker turned and looked at where Osborn was standing, its eyes glowing brighter for a moment, and suddenly the hin’s mind clouded over, and he started to rave nonsensically.

            Crystal was the first in the party to move, rolling under the nightwing’s claws and quickly cast a healing spell, using it to touch the creature and disrupt the negative energy that suffused the nightwing’s essence.  It shrieked and rose higher, looking to circle around.  Autumn uttered a spell of her own, consecrating the area to Bail, which drove back some of the oppressive evil they felt.  The air seemed to clear even further when Tolly uttered a _holy word_.  The nightwalker reeled, but did not vanish at Tolly had hoped.  The nightcrawler didn’t even flinch.

            Then there was a mighty roar of flame, as Kyle unleashed a massive _fireball _at the nightcrawler.  It was bigger and more powerful than anything they’d ever seen him unleash before.  Black chitin burned to a crisp and dropped away as the monstrosity screeched in pain.  Kyle’s triumph was short-lived, however, because moments later he was caught in a _cone of cold_ from the nightcrawler as it loomed overhead.  Most of the party, save for Lanara and Crystal, were caught in the numbing cold.  He was also struck by a black ray from the nightwalker which sapped his vitality, and moments later was raked by the nightwing.

            The nightcrawler’s gaping maw shot out and crunched into Autumn, picking her up like a rag doll and tossing her about before swallowing the helpless sentinel.  The crawler’s stinging tail pierced Tolly’s armor, though fortunately the cleric’s recent reforging by Ardara had rendered him immune to the venom coating the razor sharp spine.  Both Crystal and Lanara tried to cast spells on the worm, but its innate resistance to magic protected it.  Tolly looked around, to see if the area was clear for his next spell, but saw Kyle was standing too close, looking wounded but still on his feet.  _Sorry, Kyle,_ he thought, and then uttered a _dictum_.  Like the _holy word_ before, neither the nearby nightcrawler nor the nightwalker were affected, but Tolly saw Kyle clasp his hands to his head as blood trickled out of his ears.

            Arrie activated the psicrown she’d recently acquired through Aran, and took off into the air after the nightwalker, who had begun to move around to flank the battle.  She considered that perhaps using some special metal might cause more permanent wounds to nightshades, but she didn’t know what kind.  She drew her morphic weapon, transforming it into a long spear, and also formed the spearhead into cold iron.  _I’ve got one shot in three…_

            Osborn, still unable to control his own actions, looked around the battle wildly.  There were enemies everywhere!  He was surrounded!  He’d have to fight his way out.  From the corner of his eye, he saw a hulking dark shape approaching, and he unleashed his fury, throwing dagger after dagger into the enemy until it stopped moving and collapsed.

            Autumn was being battered about in the nightcrawler’s intestines.  Worse still, she could feel it leaching off her life essence.  Autumn reached into her belt pouch and managed to pull out a potion she’d saved, one of the enhanced potions made by the master alchemist Neville.  Pulling the seal off with her teeth, she drank the contents, and willed herself to Kyle’s side.

            There was a shift, and Autumn was outside again, but standing on uneven ground.  As she stepped back, something moved under her boots, and she looked down to see her husband’s body sprawled on the hillside, with eight of Osborn’s daggers protruding from his body.***

            Meanwhile, the nightwalker snatched the spear out of Arrie’s hands, and clawed her with a contemptuous backhand swipe.  The warrior rolled with the blow, drawing her spiked chain as she did so, and quickly wrapped it around the spear and pulled it free before the nightwalker could crush it.  The nightwing raked at Tolly, Lanara tried to dispel the _confusion _on Osborn but couldn’t break the spell’s grip, and Crystal stabbed at the nightcrawler, though the wound closed up instantly whenever she struck it.  Tolly summoned the energy for a _heal _spell, and used it on the nightwalker, causing it to shriek in agony.

            Autumn stared across the battlefield at Osborn.  Tears streaked the hin’s face, betraying his grief over actions he had no control over.  They shared a brief moment of agony together before Osborn suddenly ran off, screaming at the top of his lungs, and was gone.  The sentinel fought back her own tears, and turned angrily toward the nearest foe, looming over them all.  And then something happened no one expected.

            There was a flash of white light, and erupting from Kyle’s body came a familiar form, surrounded with an aura of holy power, his greatsword gripped tightly in two hands.  Righeous fury blazed in Phanuel’s eyes.

            “Back to the depths with you, abominations!” he shouted, and unleashed a spell, covering Autumn, Tolly, and Arrie in the same blessed aura that enveloped him.  In the confusion of the planetar’s arrival, however, the nightcrawler managed to get a hold of Crystal with its razor-sharp teeth and began lifting her high into the air.  The axani stabbed at the creature’s mouth with her dagger, but the blade couldn’t even get past the thinner chitinous plates around its maw.  Autumn charged in, her axe glowing with holy power and her eyes wild and glazed over, but her blow skittered off the nightcrawler’s hide as well.  Phanuel released a burst of positive energy, simultaneously wounding the nightcrawler and healing Autumn and Crystal.

            Nearby, the nightwing had swooped down over the battle, using one of its innate abilities to speed the movements of both itself and the nightwalker, who was in a fierce exchange with Tolly and Arrie.  Lanara, taking a page from the nightwing, decided to inspire Tolly to greatness with her bardic music.  The nightwalker’s claws raked Tolly, nearly taking his head off; in response the cleric used a _heal _spell on the abomination again, searing its inky black flesh.  Arrie tried to pull the nightwalker off its feet, but the behemoth proved too strong.  She was able to retrieve the spear she’d lost, and used its innate abilities to mimic any material to transform it into adamantium.  The cold iron had failed to do any significant damage earlier.  _Fifty-fifty chance I’m right…
_
            The nightcrawler spat out Crystal, and went after the more dangerous foe; Phanuel.  Its massive mouth locked around the planetar, biting into his emerald flesh; in response Phanuel called down divine fire on the giant worm, though the flames rolled off its back like water.  A far more effective attack came from Autumn, as Crystal used her dagger to pry up one of the crawler’s thick scales and exposed the softer flesh underneath.  Crystal grabbed the edge of the scale and pulled it back.

            “Here!” she cried out to the aasimar.

            The axe bit deep, and the nightcrawler roared in pain as Autumn poured holy power into the wound.  It released Phanuel, and immediately lunged for the sentinel, snatching her off the ground and once again swallowing her.  Just before she vanished into the nightcrawler’s gullet, Crystal tossed Autumn a dagger she would be able to use to cut her way out from inside. Phanuel began swinging his blade at the beast’s head, slicing away chunks of flesh that seemed to grow back as quickly as they fell off.  The nightcrawler tried to dissuade the planetar with a _finger of death_, but although the angel winced as the necromantic energies struck him, he did not fall.

            Arrie’s spear found its mark, and bit deep into the nightwalker’s side.  It roared, and then raked her with both hands, hitting her several times.  As she stumbled back, bleeding heavily, she saw with dismay that the wounds she had inflicted were healing up again.  Nearby, Tolly was also faring poorly.  He had tried to cast another spell, but an attack by the nightwalker forced him to duck, ruining his concentration.  Grimacing, the Ardaran stepped back, and then unleashed _Ardara’s clenched fist_ at the monster, hitting it squarely and forcing it to stumble back.  This gave Arrie enough time to drink a healing potion, which she desperately needed.

            Overhead, there was a brief aerial battle between Lanara and the nightwing.  The flying creature tried several times to rake Lanara, but she dodged its blows.  In response, she blasted it with a _shout _spell, and then hit it with a sling bullet filled with holy water.  From her position high in the air, the bard caught a glimpse of Osborn several hundred feet away, still raving and waving his arms wildly, though occasionally a lone shadow would approach too close, and end up getting shredded by the hin’s short sword.  She wanted to help Osborn, but she had no way to break the powerful enchantment on him.  The best she could to was to begin playing her inspiring music as loudly as she could, hoping her words might reach him somehow and help soothe his troubled mind.

            Deciding to try for an easier target, the nightwing dove down and struck Tolly across the back, though it received a cut on its wing from Arrie for the trouble.  The nightwing attempted to render the warrior immobilized in revenge.  Arrie felt the nightwing’s power trying to overwhelm her, and she had to dig deep into her reserves of psionic power to bolster her will, just barely resisting the spell.  Fortunately for her, Phanuel’s attention was wholly occupied by the nightcrawler, who had tried to bite the angel’s head off after Phanuel had healed the undead worm.  But Arrie had worries of her own, as the nightwalker was still pressing its attack.  It had dispelled Tolly’s _clenched fist_, and was going after both of them with renewed fury.  Just as Arrie began to wonder if either of them would make it out of this battle, Tolly struck the walker with _searing light_, and with a scream of rage the shadow beast dissolved into nothingness.

            “Let’s go!” Tolly shouted, pointing at the nightcrawler.  But Arrie was already most of the way there, using psionic power to speed her flight.  She jabbed at the monster with her spear, even as Phanuel hacked at it with his blade.  Nearby, they heard Lanara unleash another _shout _at the nightwing.  Tolly stopped near the massive worm, and cast a _mass cure serious wounds_, channeling it through the armbands he wore that amplified healing magics.  The spell touched nearly everyone remaining on the battlefield, healing wounds all around.  More importantly, it proved to be the burst of positive energy that finally overwhelmed the nightcrawler, and it dissolved, dropping an ichor-covered Autumn into the deep hole the shadow worm had left in its wake.

            All attention now turned to the nightwing.  Arrie flew up toward the bat-like creature and stabbed at it, even as Phanuel flew up and unleashed a _mass cure_ spell of his own to heal Arrie and hurt the creature.  Seriously wounded, and seeing its brothers had fallen, the nightwing wheeled away and plane shifted back to Shadow.

            The party nearly collapsed to the ground, exhausted, oblivious to whatever else might have been happening around them.  Phanuel flew off to break the spell on Osborn, and Arrie took the opportunity to fly down and retrieve Autumn, putting her back on the ground and ending her psionic flight power before the planetar returned with the hin.

            Osborn immediately fell to his knees in front of Autumn.  “Please,” he said, sobbing, “forgive me, Autumn.  I couldn’t control myself. I…” He broke down into tears.

            Autumn laid a hand on Osborn’s head, her own vision blurry from tears.  “I know, Osborn, I know.  It wasn’t your fault.”

            A short distance away, Arrie approached Tolly.  “So,” she said quietly, “by process of elimination, I assume that nightshades are vulnerable to silver?”

            “Enchanted silver, yes,” replied Tolly.

            “It would have been good to know that,” she commented.  “You know, from someone who knows a lot about the undead and all.”

            “I was busy,” Tolly said curtly.

            “Never mind,” Arrie said.  “We have more important things to worry about.”

            The Ardaran nodded.  “Kyle.  And Rebukkax.”

            “Worse than that,” Arrie said.  “Nightshades come from the Plane of Shadow, right?  Isn’t Morladim building himself a Shadow Node?  We may be seeing these things again sooner than we’d like.”

            Tolly looked grimly at Arrie.  “You have a talent for taking a bad situation and pointing out how much worse it can get.”

            They watched as Phanuel walked over and put his arm around his daughter’s shoulder, whispering words of comfort to her as she knelt over Kyle’s corpse, gently removing the daggers stuck in his body and tossing them aside.  Lanara gathered up the daggers and cleaned them off, intending to return them to Osborn later when his grief was not so fresh.  The hin had walked down to where they had tied up the horses, and was cradling Rupert’s head.

            After a while, Phanuel stood up, leaving Autumn to her mourning.  Arrie and Tolly walked up to the planetar.  “Thank you for your help, Phanuel,” Arrie said. “Pardon my language, but we would have been f*cked if you hadn’t shown up.”

            “No thanks are needed, Ariadne,” Phanuel said.  “It is my sacred duty to combat evil and aid the righteous.  I had given Kyle the means to call me if my daughter was ever in mortal peril.”  He held out his hand, which held a large, greenish pearl, split neatly in two.  “I was somewhat surprised to learn that it was Kyle’s death that triggered the calling, however; the bond between him and Autumn must be very strong.”

            “I’m sure that Kyle will want to thank you in person,” Tolly said.  “I will be petitioning Ardara to have his spirit returned to his body tomorrow after I have rested and prayed.”

            “Save your strength, child of Earth,” Phanuel said.  “For I can return on the morrow as well to perform the rite you speak of, and I will be able to petition my master to pay the Tithe on Kyle’s behalf.  You may need what power Ardara grants you for other purposes, if you intend to tarry here.”

            Phanuel suddenly pulled himself up to his full height, and his eyes blazed.  “And speaking of this place,” he said, in a loud, strong voice, “who is responsible for the binding of these unholy abominations?”

            Slowly, from the edge of the forest, the vampire Marc approached the planetar timidly.  He gestured with one hand, and the two dread wraiths that had been at Rebukkax’s door slid forward, looking as though they were being forced to comply.

            “Bright one, I believe that these two creatures of shadow were responsible for the harvesting of souls required to create the nightshades,” he said, bowing.

            Tolly turned toward the ruined manor.  “Baron!” he shouted angrily.  “Come out here!”

            From a nearby rock, Baron Rebukkax poked his head out.  “Is it safe to come out?” he asked.

            Tolly glared at the goblin ghost.  “You have some explaining to do.  How could you possibly not know what was happening in your own domain?”

            “I’m a busy goblin!” Rebukkax said defensively.  “You look like you’ve led troops before; do you know what every single one of them is doing, every moment of the day?  No!”

            “I would know it if some of them were conjuring nightshades,” Tolly said.  “Unless I were either deliberately blind or a great fool.”

            “Like I’m supposed to know what they were up to!  I don’t ‘do’ spells.”

            “You don’t ‘do’ what is necessary to be a baron,” Tolly retorted.

            Rebukkax snarled and sneered.

            “Judgment has been passed on these two creatures,” Phanuel said solemnly.  “What of the ghost and the vampire?”

            “The vampire is currently an ally,” Tolly explained.

            “Then I suggest you remove him from the area.”

            “Got it,” Marc said.  “Goodbye.”  The vampire spoke a word, and vanished.

            Tolly turned to the goblin ghost.  “Baron Rebukkax,” he said slowly.  “Flee.  Now.”

            Spitting a final curse, Rebukkax also vanished.

            “Those of you who may not be of purest heart, I suggest you also depart,” Phanuel said.  Arrie and Crystal slowly wandered away.  A moment later, they heard the echoes of a _holy word_ rebounding from the trees and rocks.

            “It is done,” Phanuel said, turning to the Legacy.  “I will return on the morrow to help with Kyle.”  He looked at each of them carefully.  “I would not linger long in this place if I were you.”  Then, with a great flapping of wings, the planetar was gone.

            “We need to find that other ghost,” Tolly said after Phanuel had left.  “The Deathmistress.  I have a suspicion that she knows more about all of this than Rebukkax does.  Though I could be wrong.”

            “You admit it?” Lanara asked, “Is the world coming to an end?”

            “Have you seen the north lately?”

            “Well, I have to give you some credit, Tolly.  You may be right.  The legends say that after her death, Elissinara sought out powerful patrons to continue her goals.  She could have seen the Baron’s followers as a means toward an end.  She’s nothing if not patient, though, so if I had to guess she may very well have fled the area and will just look to pick up where she left off somewhere else.”

            “We shall see,” Tolly said.  “But what do we do now?”

            “We should go back to Lord Morladim’s castle,” Arrie said.  “Fortunately, with Marc gone, presumably back to his master’s side, we’ve been left with a convenient wagon and a coffin.”

            “That is a good idea,” Tolly agreed.  “Let’s give Autumn and Osborn a few more minutes, and then we should move.  The area is clear now, but the undead could return, and there are still several hours until dawn.”

            The party quickly made preparations to depart.  After a few minutes, Osborn came over to help, though he didn’t say much.  They were nearly ready to go when Autumn came, carrying Kyle’s body, and placed it into the waiting coffin.

            “Let’s get out of here,” was all she said, as she began to climb on her horse.

            “That may not be the best idea,” Crystal said suddenly, pointing.  “Look.”

            A short distance up the hill, they saw a large bat descending rapidly from the night sky.  It suddenly shifted form, and standing there, looking extremely angry, was Lord Morladim himself, his hands clad in black iron gauntlets.

--------------------------------------------

* Recall that as a being with developed psionic powers, Arrie's soul has nowhere to go when she dies, since the psionics portfolio was destroyed along with the Consort during the Cataclysm.  If she dies, she's doomed to wander the Shadow Plane for a while until she either gets absorbed by the plane, or turns into an undead creature.

** This was definitely one of those "Duh... we am smart adventurers!" moments...

*** A bad day for Kyle... from 112 hp to -24 in less than two rounds.

This was probably one of the hardest battles we've had - Kyle dead, Autumn, Arrie, and Tolly  very wounded (single-digit hp, if I recall), Osborn confused for something like another 20 rounds... it was a blast.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

For some odd reason, I'm begging to remember a certain post about a dream where the wife stood over the coffin but the husband wasn't in sight. Creepy


----------



## Krafus

Now _that_ was a fight! What did Osborn's player do after he was confused? I know I'd be bored out of my mind if I had nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs.

Nightshades really are tough critters.

And now Lord Morladim himself has come... If he's behind the nightshades, he might have decided to finish what his minions started (although if that was the case, I think he'd have come with reinforcements).


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Now _that_ was a fight! What did Osborn's player do after he was confused? I know I'd be bored out of my mind if I had nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs.
> 
> Nightshades really are tough critters.
> 
> And now Lord Morladim himself has come... If he's behind the nightshades, he might have decided to finish what his minions started (although if that was the case, I think he'd have come with reinforcements).




Osborn's player was a little bored, perhaps, but I think was kept interested by the combat as a whole, and he seemed to take some enjoyment out of rolling that confusion result every round (sadly, the first time he got an 'interesting' result, Kyle was the nearest creature...)

And yes, nightshades are tough.  But I like a tough fight.  Combats where you can win without much effort (in terms of resources used, or in terms of strategic thinking) aren't as interesting to me; I'd rather be in situations where I'm having to seriously look over the spells and items I have to figure out how to win, and where I can't just be complacent with "stand and shoot" mentality (one reason I think Kyle got killed so quickly in this combat is that he was standing in the middle of the battle blasting away, rather than moving and putting up his defenses).  Especially in this campaign, where we tend to have 1-2 major fights per adventure rather than 6-8 smaller encounters.


----------



## Sarabian1

And, believe it or don't, there's a reason behind that. Combat, whether narrative or roll-played, takes awhile to run through. It is, quite simply, far less time-consuming to use one large bad-ass than a horde of minions. There's already six PCs (and I am *so* grateful no-one plays a summoner), and I like things to run as smoothly as possible in general. Also, at this stage of the campagin, lesser foes pose little problem. 

I mind me of the passage in Zelazny's Amber novels, where Corwin and Bleys are fighting up Kolvir, slaughtering soldiers, and the writer takes us through it by simply saying of the enemy soldiers, "and they died, and they died." 

Death also poses far less of a challenge now, though the material components are still kind of a pain to get. But alas, I ramble, and I find my drink needs refreshing.


----------



## Krafus

I see. Still, I like to feel powerful once in a while. I don't want every battle to be a potential TPK. One of my biggest thrills when playing a RPG game like the Final Fantasy series is, once I reach high levels, going back to earlier areas and quickly annihilating monsters who gave me trouble the first time around (cackling all the while, of course).


----------



## Delemental

Sarabian1 said:
			
		

> And, believe it or don't, there's a reason behind that. Combat, whether narrative or roll-played, takes awhile to run through. It is, quite simply, far less time-consuming to use one large bad-ass than a horde of minions. There's already six PCs (and I am *so* grateful no-one plays a summoner)




Oh, that reminds me... I have to talk to you about the new spells I want...

Just kidding.  Kyle's not the summoner type.  As he's pointed out in the past, when a cleric summons extraplanar help, they can do it in a friendly, cordial manner where a reasonable arrangemnt can be made between two parties with similar interests.  Wizards, apparently, have no choice but to bully and coerce summoned beings into service by threat and force of will.  Not exactly his cup of tea.



> Death also poses far less of a challenge now, though the material components are still kind of a pain to get. But alas, I ramble, and I find my drink needs refreshing.




Well, death and resurrection magic is a whole different topic, isn't it?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> I see. Still, I like to feel powerful once in a while. I don't want every battle to be a potential TPK. One of my biggest thrills when playing a RPG game like the Final Fantasy series is, once I reach high levels, going back to earlier areas and quickly annihilating monsters who gave me trouble the first time around (cackling all the while, of course).




Admittedly, I used to feel this way, but not as much any more. While I don't necessarily want to stare down the TPK barrel in every fight either, I do like to feel like there is a real possibility that characters could die if we're not putting a good effort into it.

I prefer to have the power and status of high-level PC's come out in other ways, more as background than anything, stuff like:

First Level PC: "I'd like to see the king."
Guard: "No one sees the king.  You can see his under-under-subsecretary."

Fifteenth Level PC: "I'd like to see the king."
Guard: "Certainly, sir.  Follow me to the audience chamber."

Fortieth Level PC: "I'd like to see the king." (casts custom epic spell _summon regent_)
Guard: "Er... here he is now.  Apparently, just sitting down on the privy."

Yes, we could probably wipe out hordes of mooks, but it would be tedious.  Now we can just hand-wave encounters that in the past we would have had to dice out ("You're travelling to the Dark Hills, and you encounter a pack of ghouls... you're on your way again a minute later.").  Also, the fact that we have easy access to _teleport _and _wind walk_ means that we can skip right by all the mooks and get to the heart of the problem.

My thrills in higher-level play are in having both the raw power and the flexibility to be able to deal with situations and challenges that are increasingly complex, and require more initiative and independence from us as players.  Recently, our group has been discussing making the transition from reacting to campaign events to being proactive (actively pursuing major players in the opposition rather than waiting for them to find us, stuff like that).  I feel like at these levels, we should be telling the DM what the next adventure is going to be, not the other way around.


----------



## Krafus

Delemental said:
			
		

> Admittedly, I used to feel this way, but not as much any more. While I don't necessarily want to stare down the TPK barrel in every fight either, I do like to feel like there is a real possibility that characters could die if we're not putting a good effort into it.
> 
> I prefer to have the power and status of high-level PC's come out in other ways, more as background than anything, stuff like:
> 
> First Level PC: "I'd like to see the king."
> Guard: "No one sees the king.  You can see his under-under-subsecretary."
> 
> Fifteenth Level PC: "I'd like to see the king."
> Guard: "Certainly, sir.  Follow me to the audience chamber."
> 
> Fortieth Level PC: "I'd like to see the king." (casts custom epic spell _summon regent_)
> Guard: "Er... here he is now.  Apparently, just sitting down on the privy."




 Heh, nice analogy. Although I can think of a dwarf from a certain popular fantasy series who would've been mighty disappointed if his father had vanished because of that spell in this particular situation...



> My thrills in higher-level play are in having both the raw power and the flexibility to be able to deal with situations and challenges that are increasingly complex, and require more initiative and independence from us as players.  Recently, our group has been discussing making the transition from reacting to campaign events to being proactive (actively pursuing major players in the opposition rather than waiting for them to find us, stuff like that).  I feel like at these levels, we should be telling the DM what the next adventure is going to be, not the other way around.




Telling the DM what to do? So you've turned him into your b1tch! Now _that's_ a sign of power!


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Heh, nice analogy. Although I can think of a dwarf from a certain popular fantasy series who would've been mighty disappointed if his father had vanished because of that spell in this particular situation...




Heh.  Funny you should mention that particular series.  I won't say why at the moment, but it'll come up a couple of updates from now.



> Telling the DM what to do? So you've turned him into your b1tch! Now _that's_ a sign of power!




See?  Who needs to kill hordes of minions?


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

Krafus said:
			
		

> Heh, nice analogy. Although I can think of a dwarf from a certain popular fantasy series who would've been mighty disappointed if his father had vanished because of that spell in this particular situation...



Eh?


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> Eh?




He's referencing George R.R. Martin's _Song of Ice and Fire_ series, specifically the character Tyrion Lannister.


----------



## Delemental

Shorter update this week (See? I can write short ones!).  And we are getting dangerously close to catching up with current events - this session was played on September 1st.

-----------------------------

           Morladim looked all around the site of the recent battle, his eyes burning with anger as he searched for something unseen.  Finally, he turned to the Legacy.

            “I understand there was an unpleasant surprise waiting for you here,” he said with a barely restrained snarl.

            “That would be an understatement, Lord Morladim,” Lanara replied.

            “Tell me, where did that runt of a goblin go off to?”

            “The last we saw of him, he was fleeing that way as the planetar was dealing with the dread wraiths that had been gathering souls to summon those nightshades,” Tolly said, pointing up the hill toward the manor.

            “I have some chastisement to dispense, if you will excuse me,” Morladim said.

            “We would very much like to speak with him again as well,” Tolly agreed.  “I would suggest asking him how involved the Deathmistress was in this plot.  He doesn’t seem intelligent enough for it.”

            “This is true.  Rebukkax is charismatic, and clever for his race, but he is no great intellect.”

            Lord Morladim looked around at the party.  He saw Kyle’s body laid out inside of Marc’s coffin, waiting in the wagon.

            “I would advise you against doing that,” he said, nodding toward the coffin.  “You may not care for the results.”

            “Good point,” Lanara said.

            “I assume you will be performing some manner of resurrection ritual?” the vampire asked.

            “Yes, in the morning,” Tolly said.  “The planetar Phanuel has offered to perform the rite.”

            Morladim frowned.  “I cannot say I approve of such magics being used within my borders, but I’ll not deny you your companion.”  He gestured, and a shimmering doorway appeared in midair.  “This should see to your needs,” he said.  “One of you will need to come to give access to the celestial in the morning.  I will be in the area for the next few days, asking questions, and would ask you to stay close at hand.  I shall return with the Baron shortly.”

            Morladim turned, and transformed himself into a large bat again, flying off toward the manor.  Autumn and Osborn pulled Kyle’s body out of the coffin, and took him inside the extradimensional mansion.  Tolly, Crystal, Lanara, and Arrie decided to wait outside for Morladim’s return.

            He was back about twenty minutes later, this time walking back down the hill.  One of his gauntleted hands was extended out in a claw-like gesture, and the hand shook slightly as if he were holding onto a struggling victim.  Morladim walked down to where the party waited, and glared at the empty air in his fist.

            “You may as well manifest, you pathetic excuse for a vassal,” Morladim hissed.  “I’m sure everyone will want to hear what you have to say.”

            There was a shimmering in the air, and Baron Rebukkax appeared, clenched tightly in Morladim’s grip.

            “I believe you had questions,” the vampire said with a grim smile.

*          *            *​
            Rebukkax was questioned for about an hour.  The goblin revealed that he truly knew nothing about the summoning of the nightshades, that it really had occurred under his very nose.  While Rebukkax couldn’t say for certain that Deathmistress Elissinara was behind the plot, he did suspect her, especially since his majordomo was currently nowhere to be found, and she was normally quite loyal to him.  He also revealed that the two dread wraiths that had been gathering souls were more often in Elissinara’s confidence than his own; he frequently traveled his domain to see to the needs of his subjects, while the Deathmistress remained at the manor.

            They questioned him intently about the nature of the recent uprising among the shadows and wraiths, trying to determine if it had all been a cover for Elissinara’s plot.  But it appeared that neither the Deathmistress or those directly under her were directing the revolt; it was an independent event that provided fortuitous cover for more sinister activities.

            “I will be questioning your subjects in the morning,” Morladim said to Rebukkax.  “I will, of course, require the use of your manor, such as it is.”

            The party looked at each other questioningly.  _In the morning?_

            “Between the remaining walls, and judicious use of _darkness _spells, I should have little difficulty holding audience,” Lord Morladim said to the unspoken question. “The wraiths and shadows will be decidedly discomfited.”  He smiled.  “I noted that there is an area of consecrated ground near the manor.  I think I will have my subjects await me there.”

            “We will pass along your pleasure to Autumn,” Lanara said.  “May I observe the questioning, my lord?”

            Morladim chuckled.  “You would be most welcome, my lady.  You possess a keen wit and cunning mind.  And I will likely weary of questioning at some point, and would welcome a brief respite to enjoy some more… leisurely activities.”

            “My talents are at your disposal, my lord,” Lanara said, bowing, “first thing in the morning, then?”

            “Indeed.”  Morladim turned to the others.  “You should rest yourselves now.  I will spend the rest of the evening attempting to track down Elissinara, though I suspect she has fled my lands entirely.  I will contact you when it is time to return to my castle.”

*          *            *​
            Kyle sighed contentedly as he laid back in the fragrant green grass, looking up at the sapphire sky above.  In the distance, winged eladrins wheeled and spun in the air, too far away to see clearly.

            He didn’t hear the other person approach, but felt the presence nearby.  He glanced over to see she had laid down next to him, mimicking his pose.

“You will have to leave soon, you know,” she said to him.

            “I know,” he said.  “I just wanted a chance to relax before I have to go back.  There’s little chance for rest on Aelfenn in these times.”

“I know,” Erito said sadly.  “And I am sorry that you must endue such times as these.”

            “You could help fix that, you know,” Kyle said.

“I have worshippers among the Taurics too, Kyle,” Erito chided.  “Many more, in fact, than I do in Affon.  I could just as easily argue that I should support them against you.”

            Kyle groaned.  “You know, when even a goddess can’t tell that I’m kidding around, it’s not even worth trying any more.”

            Erito laughed.  “Never stop being yourself, Kyle Goodson, bad jokes and all.  Humanity was never meant to be perfect, or else how could you grow?”  She rolled over onto her side and looked at him.  “Your ancestor and my Serenity, Justin Godscion, was never skilled with humor either.”  She smiled warmly at him.

            Kyle looked at his goddess, for a moment unnerved by the fact that he was speaking so casually to a deity.  If she noticed his discomfort, Erito didn’t show it.  “I came because I sensed you have something you wanted to say to me before you leave.”

            “I did,” he admitted.  “Though I wasn’t sure how I would ask.  I didn’t think stopping a passing eladrin and requesting a personal audience was going to go over so well.  But now that you’re here… well, you’re very easy to talk to.”

“Thank you.  What did you wish to say?”

            “Well, since this could very well be the only chance I get to talk to you for a while… at least, I hope… not that it’s not enjoyable, it’s just I don’t want to repeat how I got here…” Kyle took a deep breath.  “There is a project I’ve been working on, or really getting into the initial stages of researching, that I feel that I need to explain to you, because, well, it really rather directly affects the Cycle.  At some point, I know that I’m either going to need to get your approval for this, or else…” he swallowed, “I’m going to have to defy you over it.”

“Defy me?” Erito said.  “You seem certain about this.”

            “I think it’s important enough that it’s worth the risk, Erito.  I may as well be up front with you.”

            Erito nodded.  “I’m listening.”

            “I wish to create a demiplane.”

“This is hardly a novel exercise in arcane magic, Kyle,” she said.  “A number of archmages have constructed their own demiplanes in the Ethereal.”

            “I’m building mine on the Shadow Plane.”

            Erito frowned.  “An unusual choice.  The Shadow isn’t very hospitable to the living.”

            “It’s not for the living,” Kyle explained.  “I wish to create a demiplane off the realm of Shadow which will act as a sanctuary for the souls of those beings with psionic ability, a haven where they’ll be shielded from the destructive effects of the plane and no longer condemned to oblivion.  I want to give the psions an afterlife, or as much of one as I can.  I intend for it to be open to all psions, regardless of whose side they’re on – I’m hoping that once they have a choice, maybe they won’t have as much interest in Silko’s philosophies…”

“Do not speak that name here!” Erito said, sitting up suddenly, and the sky grew dark.  “You, who should know better!”

            “Okay, I’m sorry!” Kyle cried out, terrified.  Seeing his fear, Erito calmed, and the sky grew light again.

“I am sorry as well, Kyle.  You are not the cause of my sorrow.”

            Kyle looked sadly at Erito.  “You remember him, don’t you? Even though no one else can.”

            She nodded.  “I remember him in perfect detail.”  She settled back down onto the grass, and stared up into the sky, now clear of eladrin.

            They laid in the grass for a long time, silently.  Finally, she turned to him.

“I am willing to let you try,” she said.  “More than that, I can’t say at this time.”

            “Thank you,” he said.  “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give me any hints?”

            She smiled.  “And deny you the thrill of discovery, Kyle?”

            “I can live with disappointment, really I can,” Kyle said.

            Erito rose to her feet in a single fluid motion.  “I’m glad to hear that, because it looks like it is time for you to go.”

            Kyle got to his feet and looked up.  A winged form was descending toward them, but this was not an eladrin.  The astral deva landed, came up within a few feet of Erito and Kyle, and immediately prostrated himself before them.

“Just a moment, Kyle,” Erito said, “there are some formalities we have to get out of the way.”

            “Mistress Erito,” the deva said, “My humblest apologies for my intrusion.  I, who am not worthy to be in your presence, have come at the behest of my lord Krûsh for the soul of Kyle Goodson.”

“He is here,” Erito said.  “What business does Krûsh have with one of my flock?”

            “The planetar Phanuel, who is also in the service of my lord, has performed a rite of resurrection on his behalf.”

            Erito turned to Kyle.  “Do you wish to return to the living world, Kyle Goodson?”

            “I do.”

“This constitutes a disruption in the Cycle.  Who will pay the Tithe?”

            “Krûsh will pay the tithe on behalf of Kyle Goodson,” the deva said, “in recognition of Phanuel’s loyal and devoted service to Good.”

“The Tithe is accepted,” Erito said.  “Kyle Goodson is released from my domain to return to the living world.”  She turned to him, a tiny smile on her lips.  “May he exercise more caution and not have to return until the day of his Final Rest.”

She turned to the deva again.  “You may await him at the gates of my realm.”

            “Yes, Mistress,” the deva said, and vanished.

            Erito turned to Kyle.  “It’s been a pleasure, Kyle.”

            “For me too.  Thank you.”

*          *            *​
            Kyle gasped as his eyes opened.  Blurry at first, his vision quickly cleared.  The first thing he saw was Phanuel’s face looking down on him.

            “Welcome back, my son,” he said.

            Kyle looked around the room. He was laying in a plush bed in a rather opulent room, obviously a _mage’s mansion_. Standing a short distance away was Autumn and Tolly, waiting expectantly.  Osborn was right behind them, a look of hope mixed with trepidation on his face.  He couldn’t see the others, though his line of sight was obscured by a nine-foot planetar.  No one wore weapons or armor.

            “We won, right?” Kyle asked weakly.

            “Indeed you did,” Phanuel said.  He held out a hand, and showed Kyle the shattered remnants of the pearl he’d given the wizard a few weeks ago.  “You no longer carry my gift,” he said.

            Kyle nodded.  “Then I’ll just have to work harder to keep her safe without you.”  He remembered the words that Phanuel had spoken into his mind when he’d been given the pearl.  _You are closest to my daughter in both body and spirit.  I would see her safe from harm.  If her life hangs in the balance, shatter this, and I will come to you._

Phanuel stepped back, and addressed the rest of the Legacy. Kyle could see Crystal in the back of the room, but didn’t see Arrie or Lanara.

            “I cannot tarry,” Phanuel said.  “He will need rest to recover his strength.  You will be safe enough in this place.”  He placed a comforting hand on Autumn’s shoulder, and then walked out of the room, leaving the party alone together.  Shortly after Phanuel departed, Arrie came into the room.

            “Nice to have you back, Kyle,” she said.

            “Nice to be back,” he said.  “What happened?”

            “We destroyed the nightwalker and nightcrawler,” Tolly answered, “and the nightwing fled.  Lord Morladim arrived and has taken Baron Rebukkax captive.  We believe that it was the Deathmistress who was responsible, however.  Morladim and Lanara are interrogating the other incorporeals now.”

            “So obviously I was the only casualty,” Kyle sighed.

            “True,” Tolly replied.  He leaned in close and spoke softly.  “When you’re up to it, you’ll want to talk to Osborn.  He’s feeling somewhat guilt-ridden over his part in your demise.  The confusion spell was potent.”

            The wizard nodded.  “I’ll talk to him.  It wasn’t his fault.”

            Tolly smiled.  “And now I think there’s someone else who wants to see you, so we’ll leave you two.  She’s been awake all night by your side.”

            The rest of the party withdrew, leaving Autumn and Kyle alone.  The aasimar didn’t say a word, but just climbed into the bed next to her husband.

            “Nothing to say?” Kyle asked.  “No lecture?”

            “No lecture,” she said, nuzzling up against Kyle.  “I just want to be close to you.  I know from personal experience that you’re going to be off your feet for a few days, and I intend to spend as much of that time as possible right here.”

            “That’s the best news I’ve had in a while,” Kyle said.


----------



## Delemental

Morladim’s inquiry took two full days, and by nightfall he was ready to return to his own castle.  His interrogations had borne fruit, however; he’d confirmed that the Deathmistress was behind the nightshade plot, though whether she intended to use them for her own purposes or had planned to turn them over to the Baron’s control was never clearly determined.

            “She’s fled my lands, as I suspected,” he told the party later, as they were preparing to leave for the castle.  “I can track her easily enough, though of course destroying her is not an option.  But I will send Marc and some of my other creations to pick up her trail.  They can harry her to the point that she is unable to set down roots and begin her machinations again.”  Morladim looked over his shoulder.  “As for him…”

            The party looked back behind Morladim.  A large spear had been planted on the ground, point upward.  Impaled on the spear was the translucent form of Baron Rebukkax.  The shaft of the obviously magical spear, clearly visible through the goblin, had been forced all the way through until it penetrated through Rebukkax’s skull.  The baron twitched and jerked in obvious discomfort.

            “He will return to my castle,” continued Morladim, “where I can continue to educate him as to the wisdom behind my rule.  His subjects will be quiescent for now, especially since the Baron has committed them to the foreign war effort.”

            The party took in the scene somberly.  Osborn nudged Kyle, who was laying in the wagon next to Marc’s coffin.  “Looks like Lanara might have some competition from Tolly over Morladim.  I think our priest’s in love!”

            “While certainly not a merciful act,” Tolly said, “as an Ardaran I do have an appreciation for an orderly society.”  Tolly left it at that, despite some other comments from the hin.  He was glad to see Osborn in higher spirits, having had a long talk with Kyle yesterday.

            It was an uneventful journey back to the castle.  Morladim, of course, did not accompany them, but went ahead to attend to other business.  They were greeted at the gates by Lady Genevieve, who seemed very pleased to see all of them again, especially Tolly.  After another day of rest, Kyle was up and ready to go, and so he and Tolly joined Lord Morladim in his personal library to help with their other task; the construction of the Shadow Node.  While the party had been dealing with the baron, some of the materials that Osborn had located had started to arrive, and more came in as the days went by.  The two companions put most of their effort into research, while Morladim handled some of the more unpleasant aspects of the construction of the Node.  But both of them came away with a great deal of knowledge; Kyle, in particular, seemed pleased by what he’d accumulated.

            One night, Tolly asked him about it directly.  “Why do you have such an interest in constructing a Shadow Node?”

            “Oh, I don’t,” the wizard replied.  “But I’m hoping that the theories and principles Morladim developed can be used to create it’s opposite – an Ethereal Node.”

            Tolly arched his eyebrows.  “Is such a thing even possible?”

            “A few weeks ago, I would have said no, but now… If I can create it one day, then a Node representing life and possibility is exactly what I’ll need.”

            Tolly decided not to ask what he would need it for – Kyle had taken on the tone he adopted when working on his ‘secret’ project and didn’t want to discuss it.  Everyone in the group knew about it, of course; the details were fuzzy, but Tolly was aware that it had something to do with psions and trying to halt the destruction of their souls when they died.

            Lord Morladim came into the library, holding a large black sapphire in one hand.  “I believe this is the stone I will use,” he said to Tolly.  “But I would ask you to examine it to make sure there are no flaws that I did not perceive."

            Tolly took the fist-sized gemstone from Morladim, and studied it intently.  “There is nothing I can detect,” he said a few moments later, handing the stone back.

            “Excellent,” Morladim said, “now all that remains is to fill the vessel.”

            Tolly and Kyle looked at each other.  They knew that Morladim would need the soul of a powerful wizard, trapped in the sapphire, to act as a catalyst for the Node’s creation.  This would, of course, obliterate the soul in question – they’d tried not to think too hard about that.  The destruction of a soul was the only method by which the Node could be created, according to the research that they had studied, so trying to talk Morladim out of it was futile.

            “Too bad we didn’t have a stone like that when we met Elissinara,” Kyle said, to ease the mood.  “Would’ve made things easier.”

            Tolly saw Morladim’s inquisitive glance.  “A jest, my lord,” he said.  “We had discussed the irony of entrapping the Deathmistress’s spirit within a child’s toy.  Given her views on the eventual triumph of death over all, constantly surrounding her with the beginnings of life would be a particularly fitting sentence.”

            A strange look came over Morladim’s face.  “If you will excuse me, gentlemen,” he said distantly, “I have matters that need my attention.  Please continue with the preparations.”  He turned and walked out of the room as quickly as he had come.

            Meanwhile, the rest of the party entertained themselves as best they could.  Osborn kept busy overseeing the arrival of the exotic materials Morladim needed, and Lanara spent much of her time entertaining Lord Morladim himself, when he was not busy working on the Node.  Arrie and Autumn continued to spend time with Lady Genevieve, trying to feel out how she would fare at the Imperial Court.  They decided that she certainly had the training, and though not practiced at the art of diplomacy, she certainly had her share of experience in manipulation.

            “I’ve been practicing on your priest, you know,” Genevieve confided in the two sisters one afternoon over tea.

            Arrie and Autumn looked at each other.  They’d suspected, but hadn’t really wanted to ask either party for details.  “That must have been a challenge,” Arrie said at last.

            “Not at all.  I just climbed into bed with him, really.  He was not in much of a position to complain about after that.  But he’s strong, and he’s weathering it well.”

            “Tolly does have a fascination with young women,” Arrie sighed.

            “We’ve discussed that,” Genevieve said, smiling wickedly.  “He knows I’m older than he, but not by how much.”

            Several days later, Morladim was ready to create the Node.  He had assembled the final components in a hidden chamber of his castle, which even Genevieve had never seen, and insisted that he would complete the final rituals alone.  As Kyle and Tolly handed over the last of the completed components, they noticed Morladim was holding a large black sapphire, which glowed faintly.

            “I see you found the soul you needed,” Tolly said casually.

            “Yes, and I have you to thank for it,” he said, holding up the sapphire.  “If you wish to pay your last respects to Elissinara, do so now.”

            “The Deathmistress?” Kyle asked.

            “Yes, I determined that even though she is a priestess rather than a wizard, her patronage of the goddess of magic would be sufficient to act as a catalyst.  Perhaps not as fitting an end as you envisioned, but an end that suits my purposes well.  Now, if you will excuse me.”

            It was three more days before they saw Morladim again, and another day before he reported that his ritual had been a success.  He said that it would take time for the Node to stabilize to the point it would be safe to attempt to open himself to it, but he was pleased with the outcome.  That night the meals sent to the party were significantly less bland and overcooked than on previous days.

            The next day, Genevieve went to the Legacy.  “My father requests an audience with you tonight to begin official negotiations with the Empire of Tlaxan,” she said.

The party gathered in Lord Morladim’s audience chamber the next night, eager to nearly be free of their obligations to the Vampire Prince, but wary of what his condition for alliance might be.  Genevieve escorted the party to Morladim’s throne, and then vanished once they had gathered at the foot of his dais.

“You have served me well,” he said to them, “and have fulfilled your obligations to me as promised.  I require nothing further from you.”

“If I may, my lord,” Arrie said, unexpectedly, “we would be honored to also offer escort to Lady Genevieve to Noxolt, without obligation from you, as a token of good will.”

“That will not be necessary,” he replied curtly.  “I have asked two tasks of you, and that is all I require.  And I have also decided that Lady Genevieve will remain her in the Dark Hills for the time being.  It is too soon for her to take her place at court.”

Arrie frowned.  “I had hoped I might persuade you to reconsider.”

“Your arguments are compelling, Princess, but my decision is unchanged.  As to other matters we have discussed, you may feel free to continue that conversation at another time.”

Arrie nodded and stepped back.  Lanara quickly took over.  “It was our understanding that you have only one condition for alliance with the Empire,” she said.  “We would be glad to relay that condition to the Emperor now, if it pleases you.”

“Indeed, I have but one request,” Morladim said.  “If it is met, then my forces will be at Haxtha’s disposal, almost by definition.  I wish for the Dark Hills to join the Empire of Tlaxan as a sovereign kingdom.”

They only hesitated a split second.  “This will be passed on, my lord,” Lanara said.  She turned to Kyle, who was already issuing a _sending_.

_Herion, Morladim wants to join Empire as sovereign nation.  Will Haxtha negotiate these terms?_

The reply came back quickly.  _Will Morladim allow teleportation?_

Kyle looked up.  “Imperial Prince Herion is requesting permission to teleport within your domain, my lord.”

“He may do so,” the vampire replied.

Arrie issued a second _sending_, and got word back that Herion would arrive in an hour. The party withdrew to the back of the audience chamber to wait.  Around the appointed time, Kyle felt the familiar tingle of a _scrying_.  He chose not to resist, and moments later Prince Herion arrived.  After a brief greeting, he walked with the party back to the dais, and bowed to Lord Morladim.

“It is an honor to meet you, great-uncle,” Herion said.  “I thank you for the honor of allowing this audience.  I speak with the full authority of the Empire, and have come to negotiate the terms of alliance with your domain.”

“You are welcome, Prince Herion,” Morladim replied.  He stood and descended from his throne.  “Come, let us meet in private to finalize this alliance.”  He looked over his shoulder at the party.  “You may return to your rooms.  I will send for you when the negotiations are concluded.”

            A day later, Herion came to the party himself.  “Our negotiations are over,” he said, “The Dark Hills will join the Empire, assuming there is an Empire after this.  Thank you for your help in making this possible.”

            “Of course,” Tolly said, “where are we needed next?”

            “We will return to Noxolt now,” Herion said.  “Your next mission requires the use of your ship, the _Armadillo_, which is currently being retrofitted in Erum.  You will have about a week, perhaps, to see to your own affairs.”

            “I’m content to stay in Noxolt,” Lanara said, “especially if you’re going to put me on a damn boat again.”

            “I don’t have any definite plans,” Arrie said, “so I might stay in the city too.  Catch up with Aralda, maybe.”

            “Well, I should see to things in Vargas,” Autumn said.  “Anyone want to come with me?”

            “Can’t,” said Osborn, “I’ve got things to look after elsewhere.”

            “I’m hoping to get down to Miracle,” Tolly said, “I haven’t seen Iria in some time now.  Kyle, would you be willing to teleport me there?”

            “Sure,” he said.  “I may even stay there with you.  I could use a few new spells and such which might be easier to get there.”  The wizrd suddenly turned to Crystal.  “You’re coming with Tolly I assume, right?”

            Crystal looked somewhat taken aback.  “Of course… I mean, with your permission, sir.”

            “Good!” Kyle said, “care to join me for a few drinks while we’re there?”

            Crystal turned white.  She glanced at Tolly, then at Autumn, then back at Kyle.  “What?”

            “Look, it seems like you’re going to be with us for a while,” Kyle said.  “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’d like to get to know you as something besides ‘Tolly’s apprentice’.  So, will you let me?”

            Crystal glanced over at Tolly again.  “If it’s all right with…”

            “No," Kyle said sharply. "I don’t care what _Tolly _thinks.  Do _you _want to?”

            Crystal swallowed.  “I… suppose there’s no harm in it.  Just… just the two of us?”

            “Well, if you’re more comfortable, you can invite someone else to join us, with two exceptions.  You can’t invite Tolly, because that defeats the whole purpose of the outing.  And you can’t invite my wife, either.”

            “And why not?” Autumn asked, staring intently at Kyle.

            “Because to be honest, you haven’t been terribly nice to Crystal, and I don’t want you there scaring her.”

            There was a moment of awkward silence, until Kyle broke it.  “So, off to Noxolt first, then?”

*          *            *​
            Lanara sighed in contentment as she walked into her suite in the Imperial Palace.  They’d taken their leave of Lord Morladim just an hour ago, before Kyle had brought them all back to Noxolt.  It was a good parting, even though Lady Genevieve had not been there to see them off, but all the same Lanara was glad to be out of the Dark Hills.  Her fascination with the Vampire Prince notwithstanding (would be now officially be the Vampire Prince? She wondered), she was glad to be away from so many undead.  Of course, within a few days she’d be on a boat; the living dead might have been preferable.

            “Okay,” she said to the empty room, “first a bath, then new clothes, and then we spend a day of luxury before doing anything productive.”

            She was about to ring for a handmaiden when she felt a sudden lurching sensation from her back.  She looked over her shoulder in alarm to see a pale arm sticking straight up out of one of her _handy haversacks_.  Shrieking, she shed the pack and dropped it to the floor.

            The arm was joined by another, and moments later Genevieve’s head popped out of the opening.  She squirmed her way out of the haversack, emerging as gracefully as one can manage, and stood up, adjusting and smoothing out her dress.

            “Hello,” she said to Lanara.  “This is the Imperial Palace, I presume?”

            “Yes, it is,” Lanara replied.  “Though that’s a rather unorthodox way of getting here.  No wonder Tolly let you into his bed so quickly.”

            Genevieve smiled.  “There’s a surprising amount of room in there, you know, once I took out al those instruments.”

            “You did what, child?” Lanara asked.

            “They’re safe in my chambers back in the castle,” Genevieve said.

            The cansin scowled.  “You’re lucky I can get those back whenever I want*.  So, I assume you didn’t take your father’s decision that you should stay at home too well.”

            “He’s kept me there long enough,” she said.  “I’m not ‘daddy’s little girl’ any more, but he still tries to protect me.  I can handle myself.”

            “Yes, but can you handle his anger when he thinks we kidnapped you?”

            “Oh, I’ve left him a letter explaining that this was my choice.  Besides, I usually only see my father once a week at most, so it will be days before he finds out I’m gone.”

            Lanara smiled.  “Okay, then.  Let’s go find Arrie and Aralda.  But as you get settled in around here, all I ask is that you talk to me before you get to know any of the men at court.  I don’t like to share.”

--------------------------------------------------

* This is because of a misunderstanding that has become something of a house rule.  It was thought that the _summon instrument_ spell allowed you to bring an instrument that belonged to you into your possession, rather than simply creating a normal instrument; essentially we played it as a teleportation spell rather than a summoning spell.  Since the issue has hardly ever arisen anyway, we don't worry about it too much.


----------



## Krafus

Fortunate for Genevieve that she doesn't breathe, eh? I remember our group once planning to use a bag of holding to sneak a few members of our party into a guarded building. Luckily, one of the other players  deduced from the DM's sly smile that something was off. We decided to go over our plan again, and realized we'd quickly consume the air...


----------



## Delemental

*Underdark Adventures: Bug Hunt*

A word of explanation about this update.

Some time back, our group was discussing the flow of the campaign in general.  During the discussion, a few points were brought up about some of the side-effects of being in a long-term, high-level game.  Among those were the fact that there were simply certain types of encounters and challenges that we would never see again, because at 15th+ level they are too easy to defeat or circumvent.  But there can be a lot of enjoyment to be had from those types of adventures, and certainly the bulk of published material is aimed at that magical 4-9 level range we'd passed long ago.  It was also noted that since we are fairly well "locked" into our current characters (both in terms of roleplay, it terms of finishing out story arcs, and mechanically, in terms of accessing resurrection magic relatively easily now), that it would be unlikely that we'd ever get to try out different concepts for characters.

From this came the idea for the Underdark campaign.

We created a set of 6th level characters, presumed to be based out of Aelfenn's Underdark and allied with Aran's faction in the psion wars.  We faced a new set of restrictions, but other options were open to us (notably, we were allowed to create psionic characters, but not permitted to make characters that used divine magic).  The Underdark game is meant to be played very, very occasionally, as sort of a fill in if our DM just doesn't have something ready for our regular characters, or if he (or anyone else in the group) simply has an idea for an adventure that just wouldn't work for our regular characters, either because the CRs are too low, or it would just break continuity of the current campaign story arc too much.

I decided to write up our Underdark sessions in a different style than the one I use for the regular campaign, both for the sake of variety, and because the style is much easier to write because it requires far less tracking of details of combats and dialogue.  We are also far less concerned with consistency with the Underdark game; I carefully track the calendar date for our regular game, but with this one, we really don't care where exactly we are, or how long things take.

So, without further ado:

--------------------------------------------

            Herein lies an accounting of the exploits of certain citizens of the Underdark community of Tal Jashar, set forth with all diligence by Pepin Osred, member in good standing of the Guild of Porters, Valets, and Stewards of the Republic of Sargia.  This accounting is not to be construed as a challenge to the rightful role of the Guild of Scriveners and Recordkeepers, not the Historian’s Guild.  If members of either of those noble guilds were present in Tal Jashar, this author would most certainly defer to their expertise in this matter.  But as neither guild is represented here – indeed, as none of the Sargian guilds maintain a presence here – the task falls to me to undertake to the best of my abilities.

            Though of course all of the citizens of Tal Jashar contribute their fair share to the continued survival of the community, there are times when situations arise that require an extraordinary effort.  For some time, this town has looked to certain individuals in these situations.  I have done what little I can to aid them in these efforts, to tend to the petty and insignificant, yet still necessary details such endeavors create, so that they may devote their energies to the task at hand.  It is now only proper that an accounting of their activities be recorded, so that future generations might be inspired by their willingness to serve.

            Without further delay, I shall introduce these individuals.  First, there is the half-giant named Hodur*, a warrior of fearsome ability and fearsome size.  He, like many in Tal Jashar and other Underdark communities, has developed his psionic abilities to augment his battle prowess.  Hodur is cunning in battle, and although his vocabulary is limited to but a single word – his own name – he can often make his intentions clear enough.  Hodur is often called upon in his daily life to attend to those tasks requiring brute strength.

            Hodur is often found in the company of Northaly, a human telepath, and her brother Animetharusalas**, an arcanist who follows both the path of the warlock and the sorcerer.  It is highly unusual for psionic and arcane abilities to emerge within the same family, and as might be expected these two are unusual siblings.  Animetharulsalas acts as a mediator and negotiator for Tal Jashar, often aided in this latter task by the perceptions of his sister.  The arcanist also dabbles in astrology.

            Gardner, who follows the path of the ardent, and who in times of tranquility employs this humble writer as an assistant, tends to the community’s plants and crops.  He is a somewhat private individual in most cases, and tends to keep to himself, other than his faithful dog.

            The defense of Tal Jashar does not rest solely in Hodur’s massive hands.  For that we also look to Rahlna, a maenad who follows the same discipline as the half-giant, though her style of battle is much more precise and tactical in nature.

            And finally, there is Grar, a wild dromite who, sadly, was raised in the wild after its birth clutch was destroyed, and thus is not accepted into dromite society as it has no caste of its own.  The experience has left Grar somewhat unsettled and unaccustomed to the expectations of society, but it remains an amiable if somewhat unpredictable member of the community.  Grar is named for the fact that, like Hodur, it is capable of only a single vocalization, though unlike Hodur the dromite has the capability of telepathic speech.  Grar has no regular role in the community, other than to wander about and bring news of things happening in the caverns and tunnels surrounding us.

            It was just this sort of event that led to Tal Jashar’s most recent crisis.  Grar had been mentioning to whomever would stop to listen that it smelled a queen nearby, though it could not locate this queen.  This was unusual, as there are no dromite colonies nearby, although recently a diplomatic envoy was sent to the nearest colony to discuss certain trade disputes (a task which I must say was handled admirably by all involved).  Grar, of course, was not included in the envoy, as his presence tends to unnerve other dromites.  It was during our absence that Grar apparently encountered the scent of the ‘queen’ in its wanderings.

            Soon, the town became aware that Grar had not been seen in some time.  This in itself is not unusual, as Grar frequently wanders, and so its departure was hardly noteworthy at the time.  However, when three weeks had passed, some in the community began to notice its absence, as usually Grar returned from its explorations within twelve days or so.

            It was Northaly who first suggested attempting to track down the missing dromite.  She recruited the aid of Animetharusalas and Gardner and went to speak with the town’s children, who are often seen playing with Grar (Grar is surprisingly gentle with the children, referring to them as the ‘soft ones’ – of course, it uses the same phrase to describe all humanoids that do not wear armor regularly).  The children report seeing Grar leaving through the mushroom fields just outside of town, its tattered rucksack under one arm.  Following its most likely path of travel, Gardner discovered that Grar had left a clearly visible trail, quite unusual since the dromite normally leaves no trace of its passage.  Clearly, Grar wished for us to follow.

            I immediately went to gather supplies for the journey, and while in town I informed Rahlna of our discoveries, and she agreed to join the expedition (Hodur, as is his way, was already in the company of Northaly when we had first set out).  Once gathered, the company set out along the trail left by Grar.

            The first day’s travel was uneventful, save for the usual hazards of life in the Underdark.  As the day grew late, it became even more abundantly clear that Grar had intended us to follow him, as Gardner discovered that the dromite had left a trail mark for ‘camp’ near a side cavern, obviously advising us to take our rest.

            After an uneventful night, we set out again along the dromite’s trail.  Within a few hours we came to a wide area within the caverns, where in several places could be seen water dripping from stalactites hanging overhead and collecting in pools on the stone floor.  Unfortunately, this chamber apparently lay atop another similar cavern just below, and in several places the natural erosion had left gaping, crumbling holes in the rock, opening to a precipitous fall into the darkness.  Still, the trail led forward, and so there was no question but the chamber must be crossed.  Gardner mapped out what he believed was the safest path across, and bravely volunteered to lead the way.  Master Gardner moved across the broken floor smoothly (I of course offered what assistance I could), and was able to cross the most treacherous portion of the cavern.  As I went back to assist the next person, I spotted an unusual object nestled into the cavern wall, an object that could not be clearly discerned in the gloom, but was neither stone nor fungal growth.  I mentioned my observation to Animetharusalas, but sadly my own description of the unusual object must have been lacking, for although his own examination was able to find the object I had mentioned, he was unable to further discern its nature.

            Meanwhile, Hodur and Northaly were attempting the crossing, but their attention was quickly diverted when one of the ‘puddles’ near Gardner rose up and menaced him with a glistening brownish-yellow pseudopod.  Much to my own embarrassment, I shouted out that the creature was a reasonstealer, a rare but insidious ooze that feeds upon the intellect of its victims and absorbs their talents.  I should have realized, of course, that a company of beings as astute as these five would already know this.  Indeed, all my exclamation served to do was to cause Mistress Rahlna to lose her footing. Fortunately, her own battle-honed reflexes meant she only suffered a moment’s embarrassment.

            The battle was soon joined.  Though I have no doubt that Master Gardner could have dispatched the mindless ooze single-handedly, it is not in the nature of these brave companions to allow one of their number to face danger unaided.  Hodur and Rahlna joined Gardner in his fight with the reasonstealer, with Animetharusalas and Northaly providing critical tactical support from a distance.

At one point in the battle, Hodur gestured toward a nearby rock outcropping, having spotted something unusual.  It wasn’t until later in the battle, when the reasonstealer had nearly been vanquished, that the object Hodur had spotted was revealed to be a goblin.  The other unusual object I had seen earlier was revealed as a second goblin, who had been hidden in the rocks along with its companion, perhaps hoping to loot the corpses of the reasonstealer’s victims, as is the nature of goblins.  Both of the goblins fled, though Animetharusalas wounded one of them.

Pressing onward, within an hour’s travel we came upon a most unusual sight.  It appeared that someone had attempted to construct a temple or some sort of ceremonial edifice by carving it out of the solid rock walls of the cavern.  With resources always in short supply, and since the deities of Aelfenn have little influence in the Underdark, given the proclivity of its residents toward psionics, such buildings are understandably rare.

            Hodur approached the large double doors, which sat atop a short flight of stairs, while Gardner used his psionic powers to examine the stone portal for any dangerous mechanisms.  Just as Hodur was about to batter the doors down, Northaly discovered that they were not secured, and began to push them open.  To our surprise, they began to swing open fully of their only accord, revealing a foyer filled with most unusual creatures.

            There were seven insect-like humanoids, somewhat like dromites, though they stood the height of elves and had features strongly resembling bees.  Each of them had a pair of tattered, atrophied wings on their back, which twitched spasmodically as they turned to look at the people intruding on their home.  I realized, as I am sure the other did as well, that these beings originated on the surface, not in the Underdark, and that they might well possess some sort of hive-mind.

            Animetharusalas immediately stepped forward and attempted to engage these bee-creatures in a friendly dialogue.  The creatures were obviously in dialogue with each other, though we had no readily available means of understanding them.  Northaly, however, used her powers to link into their thoughts.  She described a sensation of emptiness, as though they did in fact have a hive-mind that was somehow inactive or being suppressed.  She also felt a sense of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and discomfort, as well as curiosity and a sense of sullen anger directed at something other than our group. She then felt another presence within the creature’s consciousness, that detected her and forced her out, while commanding the creatures to attack.

Northaly cried out a warning, but the creatures did not attack; they seemed confused by the order, given our peaceful approach, and were struggling with indecision.  Animetharusalas, who had moved in among the bee-creatures trying to ask about Grar, noted that in an area just beyond the entry, a dart trap had been discharged – evidence that something not familiar with this building had been through recently.  Gardner also noticed small humanoid footprints in the dirt – goblins.  We attempted to offer the creatures food and water, but the overriding command to attack us finally became too much to withstand.  Some of the creatures fell to the floor, writhing in mental agony, while others were on the offensive.  Hodur and Rahlna immediately moved forward to engage the hostile bee-men, with Hodur using his powers to grow to truly fearsome size, while Gardner and Animetharusalas took up a defensive posture since they were surrounded.  One of the creatures in the rear used some sort of natural ability, filling the air with a soporific drone created by its wings, which fortunately we were all able to shake off.

Gardner was scratched by the claws of one creature, while Animetharusalas narrowly avoided injury (I was able to distract one of the creatures long enough for the warlock to avoid its stinger, though I received the injury in his stead and was afflicted by their paralytic venom).  Though we were loath to destroy creatures so obviously not in full control of their own actions, we still had to defend ourselves.  Gardner attempted to aid those creatures who had fallen before the battle began, but his efforts were for naught, as they expired due to some sort of psychic feedback.

Soon the opposition was eliminated, and we were faced with many unanswered questions: who were these strange creatures, and why were they here?  Who or what was the strange presence in their minds?  Were the goblins involved?  And where was Grar?  Clearly, we had no choice but to press forward.

At the far end of the chamber were two large doors set to either side, with no clear way of telling where they might lead.  Northaly took the initiative, opening the right door and striding into the dark chamber beyond.  Two things became immediately apparently to her; that the chamber beyond was vast and relatively unworked, and that several goblins were laying in wait for her.  But as the battle was joined again, it became apparent that these were no ordinary goblins.  For one, they were armed and armored much better than most of their ilk, suggesting a mercenary group of some kind.  More importantly, the goblins did not shirk from combat as they were wounded, as is typically seen with goblinoids, but pressed their attack ferociously, as if being driven.  They even held their ground against Hodur, who was dispatching goblins in a rather messy fashion. 

It was a fierce battle, and several members of the company were wounded, but at last Animetharusalas and Gardner were able to break away and flank the goblins, while Hodur, Rahlna, and Northaly broke through their line and scattered them.  Once their wounds had been tended to, our group proceeded down a short corridor to another area.  Just beyond a partially collapsed passageway stood two of the bee creatures, each guarding a door.  These were larger than the others we had encountered in the foyer, obviously some sort of warrior caste.  They took no note of our approach, even as we came within feet of them.  Once it was confirmed that there was nothing of interest down the collapsed passage, the company began to consider the problem these two warriors presented.  Northaly established mental contact with one of the creatures, and found that its consciousness was being overridden with a single command – guard the door.

After a brief discussion, a plan was formed.  I approached the two bee creatures and attempted to engage them in a conversation, using magic to make myself understood.  They did not react, but their attention was diverted enough for Animetharusalas to slip past them and try one of the doors.  It was locked, but Northaly, standing nearby, heard something moving about on the other side, and realizing that time was of the essence, asked Hodur to approach and force entry.

With a telekinetic squeal of glee, Grar emerged from the darkness, chattering about how it had found a queen as it clutched Hodur’s massive leg..  Moments later, we learned that it spoke the truth, as emerging from the same room came another creature, much like the warrior bee creatures, but nearly twice as large and distinctly female in form, dressed in the tattered remains of once fine clothing.  The queen greeted us telepathically, and then with a glance at her two warriors, ended the compulsion holding them.  The two warriors went to one knee before her, and the queen told us that she would take her remaining vassals and flee, as she had no wish to deal further with The Mindbender***.  With that, the three beings left.  Grar volunteered to escort them away from the area.

(It should be mentioned that after returning from our journey, I researched these creatures and learned that they are known as abeil, a surface-dwelling insectoid race with traits similar to those of the dromites.)

Now we knew what was responsible for the enslavement of these hapless beings, as well as the goblins.  And there was but one door remaining unopened.  After readying ourselves for battle, Hodur burst open the door and we moved forward.  The chamber beyond was bathed in light, unlike the rest of the temple, and at the end of a short corridor was a room dominated by a throne on a raised dais.  Seated upon the throne was a robed and hooded figure.  Animetharusalas was the first to step forward, hoping to engage this being (presumably The Mindbender) in a dialogue and convince him that our group represented some sort of regional authority.  His presentation was marred slightly when Master Animetharusalas was struck by a devious hidden trap that flung a spear into his thigh.  It was surely only the distraction that this provided that caused the warlock’s ruse to falter.  The Mindbender told us that we were not welcome.  He was about to expand further, but Animetharusalas, knowing the danger that a being like The Mindbender could present if allowed to speak, initiated an attack.  The Mindbender was ravaged by Animetharusalas’ eldritch blasts, Hodur’s greataxe, Northaly’s energy bolts, and Rahlna’s whip-dagger.  Even though the damage inflicted was considerable, The Mindbender appeared relatively unfazed.

Which is why it rather surprised all of us when he exploded.

We were all deluged with a burst of foul psionic energy.  I must confess I know little of what happened next, as I was overcome by a blinding pain in my head and lost consciousness briefly.  I was told later that after my collapse, The Mindbender coalesced into a humanoid-formed shape made of light and flew rapidly out of the room, faster than any of us could react.  Gardner explained that there is a theory that some practitioners of psionic disciplines can reach a state where they transcend their physical beings, though they have greater influence in the physical world if they are able to inhabit a host body.  It is a possibility that this Mindbender was just such a being.

With the enemy gone, and our companion recovered, there was little left for the company to do but return home to Tal Jashar, to await what fortune may bring to them.

-----------------------------------

* Remember a while back, when I said that it was ironic that someone had brought up the _Song of Ice and Fire_ series?  This is why.  The Hodur in our game is patterned exactly after the Hodur from the books.  What can I say?  It's not exactly a fully serious campaign.

** In the course of the game, we refer to the character by 'Ani' (much like 'Ariadne' became 'Arrie').  It wouldn't be in Pepin's nature, however, to use an abbreviation, which means I have to write the whole damn name out every time (Thank goodnes for cut n' paste).

*** Just to be clear, this is a name, not a reference to the prestige class (since the mindbender is an arcane prestige class, and The Mindbender is psionic).


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## Sinewgrab

Delemental said:
			
		

> ** In the course of the game, we refer to the character by 'Ani' (much like 'Ariadne' became 'Arrie').  It wouldn't be in Pepin's nature, however, to use an abbreviation, which means I have to write the whole damn name out every time (Thank goodnes for cut n' paste).
> 
> *** Just to be clear, this is a name, not a reference to the prestige class (since the mindbender is an arcane prestige class, and The Mindbender is psionic).




_______________________________
Heh. You didn't mention that you were going to write this up in a new style when I chose that name. I just thought it was a nice pompous Astrologer sort of name.


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## ethandrew

I just finished reading this entirely from start to finish, not in one sitting of course, and I must admit that I was enraptured by the story and the campaign in general. My group is in hiatus at the moment and I found this to be a splendid distraction.


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## Delemental

ethandrew said:
			
		

> I just finished reading this entirely from start to finish, not in one sitting of course, and I must admit that I was enraptured by the story and the campaign in general. My group is in hiatus at the moment and I found this to be a splendid distraction.




Thank you.  And I hope your own gaming resumes soon.


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## ethandrew

Delemental said:
			
		

> Thank you.  And I hope your own gaming resumes soon.




I should give you more kudos than the obligatory "I liked it," so from a writing standpoint, the voice is excellent. You are able to weave an intricate balance of all characters (whom offer you that opportunity) and all their applicable storylines. The development and chemistry between all is superb, even if you have to make some of it up. You are obviously a very skilled writer.

I find this storyhour more enjoyable than the others for some reason, and I can't put my finger on it quite yet. Suffice it to say, I've subscribed and eagerly await all updates. Also, I wouldn't tattle on any copyright infringement if your party's URL was made available, as I'm sure most of your readers would agree.


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## Delemental

ethandrew said:
			
		

> I should give you more kudos than the obligatory "I liked it," so from a writing standpoint, the voice is excellent. You are able to weave an intricate balance of all characters (whom offer you that opportunity) and all their applicable storylines. The development and chemistry between all is superb, even if you have to make some of it up. You are obviously a very skilled writer.




Thanks again, especially for the comment about balance.  As I've said in the past, I do try hard to give everyone a little spotlight time.



> I find this storyhour more enjoyable than the others for some reason, and I can't put my finger on it quite yet.




It's probably the rampant high-level, high magic cheesiness.  That and the sex.  Sex sells.  




> Suffice it to say, I've subscribed and eagerly await all updates. Also, I wouldn't tattle on any copyright infringement if your party's URL was made available, as I'm sure most of your readers would agree.




My reasons for not making our group's site public are more than just concerns about a few pictures.  Our DM does entertain thoughts of publishing his setting, and there is a good deal of information about Aelfenn on the site.  Whether he ever does publish or not, it would be pretty unfair of me to let it all be in the public domain.

And the picture copyright is a concern for me as well - not so much for fear of getting caught, but more an effort to respect the work of those artists whose work I have used for inspiration.  However, it occurs to me that if I could dig up links to the originals, I don't see why I couldn't post links here.  I'll see if I can hunt some of them down.


----------



## Delemental

Delemental said:
			
		

> And the picture copyright is a concern for me as well - not so much for fear of getting caught, but more an effort to respect the work of those artists whose work I have used for inspiration.  However, it occurs to me that if I could dig up links to the originals, I don't see why I couldn't post links here.  I'll see if I can hunt some of them down.




I was able to track down pictures for three of the six current characters.

Autumn - http://www.donatoart.com/ftsy/ash.html

Kyle - http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/fanq/p/e/peters2/nigel.jpg.html

Tolly - http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/y/a/yancey/quinnmain.jpg.html

The other three I won't be able to provide, I'm afraid.  One I have no source for, and the other two were pictures that were colored by one of our players, but the actual pictures were copied out of an art book, and thus are not our player's pictures to release.


----------



## Delemental

*Paths to Immortality*

This adventure, "Paths to Immortality", marks the most recent adventure in our Aelfenn campaign, played on October 20th and 27th of this year.  Why do I mention this?  Because after posting this adventure (this post, and the second half next week), you, dear reader, will officially be experiencing this campaign in 'real time' - in other words, the updates will probably not be weekly as they have been.  Though we schedule for every week, there are times when we play my Mutants and Masterminds game instead of D&D, and of course the days where game just doesn't work out (as you might imagine, we'll be seeing a lot of downtime through the holidays).  I just wanted to mention this so that people following this Story Hour don't think I've vanished if I don't post anything for a couple of weeks.

------------------------------------

            Autumn rubbed sleep from her eyes, then glanced over at the pile of documents on her desk, hoping that this might have somehow made it look smaller.  She sighed when she realized it hadn’t.

            It had been nearly two weeks since the Legacy had returned from the Dark Hills to Noxolt.  They’d gone their separate ways for a while – Kyle had taken Tolly and Crystal to Miracle so that Tolly could visit his ward Iria (and so that Kyle could talk to Crystal and get to know her, although Autumn was doing her best not to think about that part), while Osborn was off doing… whatever it was he did these days.  Both Lanara and Arrie were staying in the Imperial Palace proper, while she had remained in her ducal apartments within the palace complex.  Tolly and Kyle had returned a few days ago, and they were both now staying with her in her suites (Tolly in his own rooms, of course; and Autumn had even offered a room to Crystal, though she’d decided to remain at the local Ardaran church).  The Inquisitor and his apprentice were frequently away on church business, which had given Autumn several deliciously private days with her husband.

            Then, two days ago, Auror arrived.  Her mother had asked to remain in Vargas to help out after her wedding, which Autumn had agreed to. She suspected that initially it was just an excuse to avoid returning to her home in Merlion and the dark memories that lay in wait for her there.  But as time passed, the sentinel had come to realize her mother’s gifts in the management of an estate were easily adaptable to her own much larger domain.  Though of course Autumn couldn’t have appointed Auror as her steward, given her position in another kingdom, she did allow her to work behind the scenes, assisting Togusa in many of the administrative tasks of the duchy, which freed up the samurai to attend to issues of security and public safety, and when the Taurics invaded, to lead the armies of Vargex to war.

            But no matter how skilled a ruler’s assistants may be, there were always matters that required the Duchesses’ personal attention.  Auror was now delivering several crates full of these matters.  Most only required the ducal seal, but a few required a more thorough inspection and response.  It was these documents that had occupied Autumn for the majority of the evening.

            The aasimar stretched, and heard the tiny pops and cracks as her spine straightened.  She then felt the itching again, and began rubbing her shoulder blades against the back of the chair for a few seconds before regaining control and stopping herself.  Scratching didn’t help – nothing had, and the itch was getting steadily worse.  Kyle had told her he couldn’t see any marks on her skin (other than the red lines left when she gave in to the temptation to scratch), so the cause was a mystery to her.  The only thing she could think was that her armor was slightly misaligned along the spine, causing the irritation.  She would have to ask Tolly if he would adjust it for her.

            She looked again at the parchment in front of her, but she almost immediately went cross-eyed, and leaned back, realizing she needed a break. As if on cue, there was a knock at her door.

            A servant poked their head through the doorway.  “A messenger for you, Your Grace.”

            “At this hour?”  Autumn frowned.  “I’m in no mood for more bad news.  Can it wait until morning?”

            “The messenger states that it’s urgent, Your Grace,” the servant replied.

            Autumn sighed.  “Very well, show them in.”

            A moment later an orc-touched wearing the livery of an Imperial Messenger stepped into her office.  Autumn didn’t recognize the man, but there were hundreds of Messengers throughout the Tlaxan Empire.

            “Please, just deliver your message and be on your way.  I’m so tired I can’t think straight.”

            A strange smile crept across the messenger’s face.  “I know.”

*          *            *​
            Tolly was about to head out the door to meet with the commanders of a levy of Ardaran troops camped near the outer walls of the city, when he saw Kyle walking toward him.  The wizard looked perturbed.

            “Have you seen Autumn?” he asked.

            “Not since yesterday,” the priest replied.  “Why?”

            “No one’s seen her since yesterday,” he said.  “She didn’t come down for breakfast, and she’s not in her office.”

            Tolly glanced up at the sun.  It was just past mid-day.  “Where else could she be today?  Have you checked with Auror?  Did any of the servants bring her meals to her this morning?”

            “I don’t know,” Kyle said testily.  “I just asked if they’d seen her, and everyone I asked said no.”

            Tolly resisted the urge to shake his head.  For all his talents, Kyle had no skill in getting information from others.  “Let me see what I can find out,” he said.  “Have you tried contacting her magically?”

            “Not yet,” he said, “I wanted to try the old-fashioned method first.”

            Tolly returned inside, and after sending a page to deliver a message to the Ardaran army camp, began questioning the servants in the ducal household.  An hour later, he tracked down Kyle again.

            “This is odd,” he said.  “There is no sign of Autumn anywhere.  I’ve interviewed most of the house staff, although I have yet to speak to those servants who were on duty last night.”

            “Okay, enough mystery,” Kyle said.  He stepped back and closed his eyes, issuing a _sending_.  _Autumn, where are you?  No one knows where you went._

            A moment later, Kyle’s eyes opened.  “No answer,” he said, looking alarmed.

            “Get your things,” Tolly said.  “We’ll go to the Imperial Palace and check with Arrie, and Osborn if he’s around.”

            “Little chance of that,” Kyle said, “Osborn’s been away for days.”

            “We should get Lanara to assist us as well,” Tolly said.  “Her capacity for obtaining information is far more impressive than my own.”

            They arrived at the palace within minutes.  They were told that Lanara was still in her room, so they went there first, after sending a servant to go find Arrie.

            Kyle knocked gently on Lanara’s door, and heard a slight sound from behind it, an indistinct muttering.

            “Allow me,” Tolly said, and pounded on the door with his armored fist.

            “Go away, Tolly,” came Lanara’s voice, still slightly sleepy.

            “Tell whoever you’re with to make themselves decent, and open the door,” Tolly said.

            “I’m alone, you a$$!” she shouted.  A moment later, a robe-clad Lanara cracked open the door.  “What?”

            “We can’t find Autumn anywhere,” Kyle said.  “Have you seen her?”

            “Well, she’s not in here,” Lanara scowled, throwing open the door fully so they could see inside, “so I don’t see how I could have seen her.”

            “Lanara, seriously,” Kyle said.  “Nobody has seen her since last night, and I can’t reach her with a _sending_.”

            Lanara blinked.  “All right, all right.  Let me get something decent on, and I’ll ask around.”

            “I can go to the servant’s quarters,” Tolly said, “and wake up some of the people who were working last night.”

            Arrie came down the hallway toward them, a slight smile on her face.  “Hi guys, what’s up?”

            Lanara looked Arrie up and down.  “Well, finally!  Congratulations, Arrie.”

            “For what?” Arrie said innocently, still grinning.

            “Obviously you and Herion have overcome whatever hang-ups were preventing you from getting in some serious bedroom time,” the cansin replied with a wink.  “Glad to see he’s good for more than just expensive gifts.”

            There was a long moment where everyone just exchanged glances.  Then Lanara piped up again.  “Well, glad we worked through that.  You guys want to fill in Arrie while I get dressed?”  With that, she closed the door.

            It was another hour before Lanara tracked down the rest of the party, meeting them in an open courtyard near Autumn’s apartments.  “Well, I have good news and bad news,” she said.  “The good news is that someone did see Autumn leaving last night.”

            “Without telling anyone?” Tolly said.  “I know that Autumn is flighty, but that’s a bit much even for her.”

            “Don’t go there,” warned Arrie.

            “Arrie?  I’m Tolly.  I go there.”

            “She was seen walking out of the ducal manor at about two bells,” Lanara continued.  “She was armed and armored, and walking in the company of a female elven servant.  No one I spoke to knew her, and she seemed pretty nondescript.  The last anyone knew, she was walking out of the palace complex toward the mercantile district.”

            “Did she take her horse with her?” Arrie asked.

            Kyle shook his head.  “Defiance is still in the stables.”

            “Then she wasn’t planning on going far,” Arrie said.

            “Assuming she was going under her own free will,” Kyle said.  “What else did you learn?”

            “Just prior to leaving, there was an Imperial Messenger that arrived to speak to Autumn.  He was described as an orc-touched, not much more than that.  Problem is that no one remembers seeing him leave after meeting the Duchess.”

            Tolly scowled, and waved over a commander of the city watch.  “There was an Imperial Messenger that came her last night, an orc-touched.  Find him.  And find the Duchess.”

            “I can put a few men on this sir,” the commander said, “until the Imperial Guard can be briefed and put on the task.  This is their jurisdiction, not ours.”

            Meanwhile, Kyle had pulled a small mirror from his belt, and with a word caused it to grow until it was as tall as himself.  Leaning it against a nearby tree, he began casting a spell.  A short while later, Kyle cursed and kicked the mirror over, sending it clattering on the hard paving stones under their feet.

            “Nothing,” he said.  “My scrying was blocked by something.”

            “All right,” Arrie said, “Lanara, you said she was seen heading toward the mercantile district?”

            “That’s what the guard I spoke to said,” the bard replied.

            “Good,” Kyle said, “then let’s go down there and start burning things until we get some answers.”

            “Or we could just ask questions,” Arrie said.  “But let’s go.”

            Fortune was with them as they started their search.  They caught many of the city’s drunks just as they were waking up for the afternoon, and several of them remembered seeing Autumn walking through the city the night before.  Their questions led them all the way through the mercantile district, and into the slums.  Before long, they came upon an old tenement building where a greasy elf-touched had informed them that Autumn had gone.  The building looked as if it was once quite respectable, but now was marked by broken plaster, smashed windows, and graffiti.  The four-story building housed several dwellings, all facing an inner courtyard dominated by a crumbling, algae-infested fountain.  Tolly started pounding on the outer gate with his mailed fist; on the second blow the gate fell over.

            “I’m assuming Autumn wasn’t here looking for a new summer home,” Lanara said.

            “Stay together,” Arrie said.  “Look, you can see some movement here in the dust toward those stairs.”

            “Too bad Osborn’s not around,” Lanara said.  “I can see someone leaving something not friendly on those steps.”

            “Well, we could send a summoned creature up first,” suggested Kyle.  “I didn’t prepare any summonings, but don’t you have a couple of wands that’ll do the trick, Lanara?”

            “I don’t think they’ll stick around long enough,” Lanara argued.

            “Will you two hurry up?” Tolly called from the top of the stairs.  Arrie had already gone up, followed by the Ardaran.

            The four adventurers climbed up to the second floor, wary for any signs of life.  They spotted more scuff marks in the thick dust, leading them further up to the topmost floor.  The trail seemed to lead to one of the corner dwellings.

            As they moved down the hallway, Arrie suddenly jerked back as two energy bolts flew from across the courtyard and embedded themselves in a crumbling wooden beam.  After quivering there for a moment, the bolts melted away.

            “Mindblades,” said Kyle.

The party looked across the courtyard to see two figures standing at the balcony railing on the second floor below them.  Scowling, the pair turned and began running toward the far end of the tenement.

Arrie launched herself over the railing immediately, even as the other two did the same.  She bolstered her own body with psionic energy to help cushion the fall as she landed hard in the courtyard.  She was about to give chase, when she felt the ground start to shake.  Looking up, she saw Tolly standing at the balcony on the fourth floor, invoking an _earthquake_.

“Brace yourselves,” was all he said.  Lanara replied with a string of curses involving Qin-Chu’s nether regions.

Kyle looked at Tolly, wide-eyed, and then as the building around them began to creak and groan, he grabbed Lanara by the waist and leapt off the side, invoking the _feather fall_ magic in his cloak to bring them both safely to the ground.  Tolly also leapt clear a few moments later as the building collapsed, and the Ardaran seemed to ride down on a cascade of splintered wood and plaster.  The tenement’s ground floor, which was built from stone, appeared to weather the spell much better than the others, and was mostly intact.  The same could not be said for several of the adjacent buildings, which also collapsed or were heavily damaged.  Cries of fear and pain could be heard rising above the noise of the settling debris.

The party looked around.  One of the two people fleeing from them had been caught by the falling debris, and was trapped under a pile of rubble, not moving.  The second was racing toward one of the ground floor doorways, and was joined by a third person, who had apparently been waiting for the other two on the ground floor out of sight of the party.  Lanara pulled out one of her instruments and used it to cast a _hold person_ spell on one of the remaining two, freezing him in place.  The other one fled through the doorway, with Arrie hot on his heels, a bolas in her hands.  Tolly saw the last one touch the stones of the doorway in an odd pattern as he walked through, and then the man vanished into the tenement.  Arrie’s bolas flew in after him, followed a split second later by the warrior.

Meanwhile, Kyle had bent down next to the man under the rubble.  His back was clearly broken, and he did not have long to live.  Kyle grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up with a jerk.

“You can die quickly, or slowly and in pain,” Kyle hissed.  “Talk.”

“Oblivion awaits… either way…” the psion coughed, and then spit a glob of bloody phlegm in Kyle’s face.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Kyle said, “but not for you.”  The wizard then began smashing the psion’s skull into the paving stones until he stopped twitching.

Arrie came out of the tenement.  “The bastard’s gone, and he stole my bolas!”

“Let me see,” Tolly said, and walked into the apartment himself.  Arrie stepped out, and could hear the cries of nearby residents, some calling for help, others cursing the gods, some screaming in panic that the Taurics were attacking the city.

The Ardaran emerged a minute later.  “He was never in the tenement,” Tolly said.  “There is no disturbance in the dust other than what you and I have done.  There are no signs of where your bolas landed inside.  I think he must have activated some sort of teleportation gateway.”

“A psionic portal,” Kyle said, examining the doorway through his staff.

“The man did something when he ran through,” Tolly said, “He touched the doorway in a certain way, probably some sort of activation key.”  Tolly attempted to walk through, repeating the same sequence he saw, but nothing happened.

“I’m going to go talk to him,” Tolly said, jutting his chin out at the held psion near Lanara .  He walked over and dispelled the effects of her instrument, grabbing the mindblade by his shirt.

“You saw your friend die,” Tolly growled.  “I will not be so swift.  Who, where, and how do we find them?  NOW!”

The psion smirked.  “You saw how it worked.  All your answers are through there.”

“Why don’t we double-check them with your answers?” Lanara said.

Suddenly, Arrie shouted at Tolly and Lanara.  “Come on!” she shouted, “Now now now!” The doorway was suffused with a greenish glow, and Kyle was nowhere to be seen.

“Aw,” Lanara said, “I was going to dominate him.”

“Save it for the next one,” Tolly said, and brought his hammer around in a wide arc into the psion’s skull.

*          *            *​
            Moments later, they were all standing in a pitch-black cave, waiting as light sources were procured.  “So, how’d you get it to work?” Lanara asked.

            “You needed to feed the portal a little bit of psionic energy,” Arrie said.  “I tried that touching sequence after Tolly, and pulled Kyle through to here.  The portal was still open, so I went back through to get you two.”

            “That’s great,” the cansin said, blinking as Kyle’s light globes flared to life, “but where is here?”

            Kyle looked around.  “Judging by this rock, I’d say the Deep Underdark.”

            “The where now?” Lanara asked.

            “Far below the surface of Aelfenn,” he explained.  “You see the stone all around us, this strange iridescent volcanic looking stuff?  It’s emanating a strange, shifting magical aura.  It’s known that in the deepest parts of the earth, magic is fused into the rock itself.  Unfortunately, these auras make any sort of divination or teleportation impossible unless you have line of sight to your target.”

            “So we’re not teleporting out of here, right?” Arrie asked.

            Kyle shook his head.  “Even if I had the spell prepared, I couldn’t get us out of here.”

            “I assume that this is equally applicable to divine magic,” Tolly asked.

            “True.”

            “Well, we know the portal’s here,” Arrie said, “and I got it to work before, so there’s our way out.  I’m more interested in what’s beyond this cave.”

            They began to make their way through the cavern.  A half-hour later, they saw a faint light up ahead.  Kyle sent out _prying eyes_, which came back shortly afterward to feed him what they had observed.

            “It’s a very large cavern,” he said, his voice shaking.  “I’d guess big enough to fit a couple of city blocks.  There are some torches, and some glowing crystals providing light.  There are a few passages leading out.  There’s a large dais toward the back of the cavern, unadorned.  There’s a woman standing there, human, tall with long red hair.  Autumn is on the table next to her.  She’s not in her armor, and she’s bound, gagged, and unconscious.”

            “Did she notice the eyes?” Arrie asked.  Kyle shook his head.

            “Then I think we should go talk to her,” Tolly said.  They started to walk into the cavern, Lanara turning invisible as they walked.

            The red-haired woman looked up as they approached, and smiled.  She casually pulled out a dagger, and walked behind the table upon which Autumn lay.  The woman rested her hands on Autumn’s torso, the dagger clasped in one of them.

            “Oh, good!” she said.  “You’re all here… oh, except for the hin.  Well, I suppose I can find him later.”

            “So,” said Lanara from behind her invisibility, “what are you doing here that requires an audience?”

            “Audience?” the woman repeated. “No, no, you’re not my audience.”  She smiled.  “My name is Meeranda.  I am a servant of Kristyan, whose name I know you know.”

            “Indeed,” Tolly said.

            “Now, Kristyan bestows certain favors on those who have done remarkable things for him,” Meeranda continued. As she spoke, Tolly began to hear a low rumbling, which he could tell was not caused by the movement of earth or stone.

            “You see, you’ve been giving the Tauric forces quite a bit of trouble topside, and Kristyan has been… perturbed by this.  So, now you’re down here in my domain with my servants.  Now I’m going to bring you to Kristyan, and he will give me immortality.”

            Arrie and Lanara couldn’t help but snort derisively.

            “You will be coming along quietly,” Meeranda continued, ignoring them and looking at Kyle, “because there will be a knife at your wife’s throat the whole time.”

            “You know what?” Arrie said.  “You’re forgetting one thing.” She pointed at Tolly.  “He’s a priest.  In fact, we know lots of priests.  Autumn isn’t psionic.”  It was a huge bluff; Arrie wasn’t about to risk her sister’s life, even if she could be resurrected.  She hoped the distance between Meeranda and the party would help conceal the slight quiver in her voice.

            “The fact of the matter is,” Tolly continued, “you could kill her now, and we’ll bring her back.”

            Meeranda smiled.  “Did I mention that we craft disintegration daggers?” The blade in her hand wiggled a little.  At the same time, the rumbling grew louder, and suddenly dozens of Tauric troops began pouring out of the side caverns.  At the same time, two humanoid forms rose up out of the ground next to Meeranda, glowing with psionic power.

            “Meeranda,” said Tolly, hefting his maul, “you didn’t bring enough.”

            Her smile hardened.  “I have everything I need.”


----------



## Krafus

Goodie, fighting time! Although I'm a bit sad you've finally so caught up to the campaign's 'real time'. Sigh. Most other story hour authors have the opposite problem, and are sometimes years behind.

Anyway, was Autumn's player absent for that session? I know I wouldn't be happy at having to twiddle my thumbs for hours.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Goodie, fighting time! Although I'm a bit sad you've finally so caught up to the campaign's 'real time'. Sigh. Most other story hour authors have the opposite problem, and are sometimes years behind.
> 
> Anyway, was Autumn's player absent for that session? I know I wouldn't be happy at having to twiddle my thumbs for hours.




Yes, both Autumn and Osborn's players were absent, though they were both there for the actual battle.

When I started writing this Story Hour, I deliberately gave myself about a six-month cushion (I usually write up each session within the week after we play and post it to our group's website; I just waited a while before I started copying them to ENWorld).  I held on to that cushion for a while, but various factors, notably our several months hiatus from this campaign, chipped away at it.


----------



## Delemental

Osborn looked around at the devastation, his mind reeling.  “Dear Ladta,” he whispered.

            He stood in the ruins of the tenement building he’d been to last night.  He had been on his way back to Kyle and Autumn’s residence after a successful mission at the front lines, when he saw Autumn leaving with a strange elven woman dressed as a servant.  But there had been a strange look in Autumn’s eyes, and the woman with her didn’t move or act much like a servant, but more like she was in charge.  Curious and wary, but not sure what was going on, he followed them to the abandoned tenement in the slums, and saw them disappear through the portal.  He tried to follow, but couldn’t get the gateway to work, and he noticed that three people were hidden in the tenement, obviously waiting for something.  Realizing he would need help, he left and started to round up a few of the men secretly under his command.  He also made contact with some of Aran’s people, as he assumed that psionics were involved.

            Once of those psions now spoke to him.  “They’re Kristyan’s people, all right, sir,” he said.  He and his companion had been examining the two bodies they’d found in the courtyard when they’d arrived.  One looked as though the falling debris had paralyzed him, and then his skull had been brutally smashed in.  The telltale signs of Tolly’s maul marked the manner of death of the second.  Osborn recognized them as two of the people left behind.  The third was nowhere to be seen.

            The other psion was examining the doorway that Autumn had vanished through with the elf.  “A psionic portal, as you suspected, General,” she said.  “And recently used.  Only someone trained in our disciplines could activate it.”

            “Arrie,” he concluded.  He turned to address the soldiers and smugglers milling about the courtyard.  “Listen up, men!  You can see around you what kind of people we’re dealing with here.  They were willing to destroy an entire neighborhood of innocent people just to cover their tracks.  Do you think they will show you mercy if you yield?”

            “No sir!” came the simultaneous reply.

            “I want three squads to stay in the area and try to help these people out.  Another two squads will remain here to secure the area.  The rest of you are going in with me.”

            The men moved into position, and Osborn went up to the front as the psions activated the portal.  _Hold on guys,_ he thought, _I’m coming._

*          *            *​
            The dagger rose into the air, the blade glittering in the dim light of the cavern.  Meeranda smiled wickedly.

            Suddenly, Autumn’s bound form vanished, reappearing on the ground next to Arrie.  Kyle was standing above the psion atop the stone dais, his face a rictus of anger.

            “Surprise, bitch,” he said, reaching out with a hand enveloped in writhing black necromantic energy.

            Nearby, the hordes of Tauric soldiers began to charge in, as the chanting of their war bards began to fill the tunnels.  With a few words and a gesture, Tolly raised a _blade barrier_ that nearly bisected the cavern, cutting off half of their opposition.  Lanara rose into the air and flew toward the dais at the far end of the chamber, trying to cast a spell on Meeranda as she flew.  The spell was easily resisted by the psion, even as she backed away from Kyle’s deadly touch.  Kyle was forced to jump back to the other side of the dais, putting the stone table between himself and his three opponents.

            Arrie and Tolly moved to engage the first waves of Taurics. Several of the troops farther back drew bows and fired on Lanara, though only one or two were able to get past the protective spells she had cast earlier. 

            Kyle felt the familiar pressure of a psionic power being manifested nearby, and he steeled himself.  He felt a sudden hard pressure in his chest, and felt his heart skip a beat, but managed to shake off the effect.  At the same time he saw one of Meeranda’s companions erect a _globe of invulnerability_, even as the other one suddenly ran off at an unbelievable rate of speed to engage Tolly, unleashing a flying kick at the priest.  Meeranda herself gave Kyle a contemptuous look, and then vanished, reappearing just behind the blade barrier.

            “Psionic teleportation,” he grumbled, “damn.”

            Several yards back, Tolly traded blows with Meeranda’s monk companion, while Arrie slashed at Taurics.  The warrior managed to sneak in a quick backslash at the ropes binding Autumn, who was beginning to rouse herself and stand.  The sentinel tore out of the ropes, and stood up shakily as blood began to flow back into her legs.  Arrie drew Anyweapon and tossed it into her sister’s hands so she could defend herself.  As Lanara’s own bardic song began to fill the cavern from above and drowned out the Tauric bards, Autumn shifted the weapon into the form of a greataxe and began to hack into a nearby wemic.

            Arrie looked over at Tolly through a sea of Tauric troops.  He had already used divine power to increase his size and strength, and with another spell his flesh took on the appearance of hard iron.  “Isn’t it time for one of your room-clearing spells of indiscriminate destruction?” she shouted.

            “You’re too close!” He shouted back.

            “Since when has that stopped you?”

            “Good point!”  Tolly tried to step back to utter a spell, but had to abandon his plan when the monk pressed his attack.

            Meeranda suddenly appeared near Kyle again, and unleashed a barrage of powers at him.  Kyle found himself covered in sticky ectoplasm even as he felt Meeranda trying to take over his mind.  Kyle fought off the control easily, but before he was able to respond Meeranda vanished again.  Kyle’s scowl turned into a malicious grin when he noticed that Meeranda’s wizard companion had moved out of his _globe of invulnerability_ to target Tolly with an _anti-magic ray_.  Kyle stepped up behind him and unleashed his own spell, draining away the wizard’s life force and channeling it into himself.  The sudden distraction allowed Tolly to resist the wizard’s ray, but the priest’s respite was brief, as another wave of Taurics came at them.  He exchanged worried glances with Autumn and Arrie.

            Suddenly, there was a large commotion from the tunnel behind them.  “Not more,” groaned Arrie, as she wiped blood out of her eyes.  But apprehension soon turned to elation when she saw Osborn run into the room at the head of several dozen men.  A spray of daggers from Osborn took down four Taurics, and his troops rushed forward to support the Legacy, pushing Meeranda’s forces back.  Now able to focus on more dangerous opposition, Tolly and Arrie turned and landed a series of heavy blows on the monk, incapacitating him, and then began to pick out Tauric commanders and some of the larger creatures to take on.

Meeranda appeared close to Kyle again, and unleashed a blast of acid from her mouth, enveloping him.  Kyle felt the acidic liquid seep through his robes, burning his flesh, but he was far more concerned about the rapid assault on his mind.  Meeranda was manifesting powers faster than any other psion he’d faced, and the psychic battery was wearing his resistance down.  Suddenly, he felt a violent, crushing pressure on his psyche, which he could no longer resist…

Perched in relative safety near the ceiling, using various broken stalactites as cover, Lanara was able to survey the entire battle scene.  She had tried to use a variety of spells and abilities against Meeranda, but was unable to effectively target the psion as she jumped from one side of the _blade barrier_ to the other, playing cat and mouse with Kyle.  Lanara saw Meeranda teleport close, blast him with acid, and then continue to glare at him hatefully.  She saw Kyle crumple to the ground, and a moment later the impenetrable barrier of a _resilient sphere_ sprang into being around Kyle’s unmoving form.  Meeranda cackled and moved back to the far side of the whirling blades, among the hordes of Tauric troops still walled off behind them.  Lanara tried to use the power of her anarchic bloodline to inflict the psion with blindness, but again she resisted the power.

Tolly swept his maul around, killing a pair of hobgoblins and wounding a centaur, and then resisted a dispelling by the enemy wizard.  As he turned to start making his way toward the spellcaster, he saw another figure emerge from one of the side tunnels.  She was unarmored, but carried a shield and a bloodied longsword.  More blood had sprayed across her arms and into her golden hair.

“Autumn?”

Tolly turned again and looked.  No, there was Autumn, greataxe in hand, fighting next to Arrie.   Clearly, one was an imposter.  Well, the Inquisition had ways of ferreting out an imposter.

The Ardaran never had a chance to utilize his skills, however, as the two Autumns spotted each other, and with a simultaneous cry of anger they rushed at each other, their blades ringing as they smashed together.  The Autumn with the greataxe tried to disarm the other one, and received a deep slash on the forearm for her trouble.

Osborn’s men had managed to push the Taurics back a little, allowing the hin to move in close to Tolly while giving Arrie the room she needed to break free and start making her way across the room to where Kyle lay inside the _resilient sphere_.

“You see what kind of trouble you guys get into when I’m not around?” Osborn shouted at Tolly.  The former circus performer grinned, but the grin suddenly froze on his face, and his eyes glazed over.  Tolly noticed a similar glazed look on Arrie’s face, although the warrior was able to shake it off quickly and proceed on her mission to get to Kyle.  Osborn, however, was not so fortunate, and Tolly soon found himself on the receiving end of one of Osborn’s storms of thrown daggers.  Fortunately, Tolly was heavily layered in protective magic, and the daggers did little damage.  A moment later, Osborn was able to assert his own will over Meeranda’s domination again.

“You see what kind of trouble we get into when you _are _around?” Tolly said to him, pulling one of the daggers out from between two plates of armor and tossing it back to the hin.

            Pushing her way through the enemy, Arrie emerged on the far side of the room near the stone table, and saw that Kyle’s sphere had been dispelled by the enemy wizard, and that same wizard was now bent over Kyle’s form.  Arrie rushed around the dais to get a clear shot at the wizard, but hesitated for a half-second when she realized that the wizard was binding Kyle’s wounds.  She wondered for a moment if the wizard was betraying Meeranda, but she dismissed that idea.  Arrie suspected that Meeranda was a thrallherd, a telepath that specialized in dominating and controlling large numbers of victims.  The wizard was likely under her control, and not acting of his own free will.  The real answer came to her quickly – _Meeranda wants us all alive_.

            By this time the wizard, seeing the danger he was in, had moved away from Kyle.  Arrie could see that Kyle’s familiar Violet had pulled a healing potion out of his belt, but her efforts to save him were being hampered as the raven was now locked in a vicious struggle with the enemy wizard’s own familiar, a large mole.  The mole scampered off as Arrie ran up and popped open the vial, carefully pouring the liquid down Kyle’s throat.

            Further back, the Taurics had regrouped and were now pressing Osborn’s people backward, and soon the Legacy was back in the midst of chaos.  But this time, Tolly saw, Arrie was further away, well out of range.  Moments later, a _holy word_ rang out, echoing against the cavern walls.  Dozens of Tauric troops fell over dead, went rigid in mid-stride, or began staggering around, clutching their now useless eyes.  Unfortunately, many of Osborn’s men experienced the same fate.

            “Grabâkh’s left testicle!” Osborn swore.  “Those were my men!”

            “I thought they would be of higher moral standing than that,” the Ardaran replied.

            “They’re thieves!”

            Despite the miscalculation, the field of battle was now relatively clear, and Tolly now had a clear line to charge the wizard, an opportunity he did not pass up.  He was caught on the way in by another acidic blast from Meeranda, who had just popped back into view, and for a moment the priest had cause to miss the resistance to caustic substances he once had before his recent reforging.  But the psion’s appearance finally gave Lanara the opportunity she was waiting for, and the cansin swooped down and blasted both Meeranda and the wizard with a _shout_.  Meeranda was only slightly perturbed, but the wizard shrieked and clasped his hands to his ears.  Moments later, as Tolly came within maul range, the wizard uttered the words of a _dimension door_ spell and teleported to safety.  Deprived of a target, Tolly instead took a moment to heal some of the wounds he’d received in battle.

            The two Autumns continued to battle fiercely, exchanging blows at a furious rate.  But finally the longsword-wielding sentinel found an opening and plunged her blade deep into the heart of her twin.  As the second Autumn fell, she shifted and changed into a gray-skinned humanoid with long, spindly limbs.  The other Autumn, apparently the real one, dropped the sword and picked up Anyweapon, already in the form of a greataxe, and then turned to engage Meeranda.  Tolly and Arrie were also closing in on the psion, who blasted all of them with another wave of acid breath, and then used another power on Tolly, transferring all of her own wounds to the priest’s body.  With a final condescending smirk, Meeranda vanished.

            “Damn,” said Arrie, looking around, “what a mess.”

            “Meeranda got away,” growled Autumn.  “She wanted to take us all to Kristyan.”

            “We know,” Tolly said.  “But I don’t think she’ll be getting the reward she was hoping for now.”  Tolly regarded the nearby _blade barrier_.  “Are the Taurics still over there, Lanara?” he called up to the bard, who was just landing.

            “A few, but they seem pretty passive,” the bard said.  “They got to see enough of what we did over on this side, and most of them ran off.  They’re clustered over at that end of the wall.”

            “Let’s get them to surrender and take some prisoners,” Tolly said.  “They may have information.”  He raised his hands and dismissed the wall of magical blades, on the other side, a group of about thirty Tauric soldiers stood pressed against a wall.  Their weapons were out, but the fire had gone out of their eyes.

            “In the name of the Affon Alliance,” Tolly shouted, “I order you to drop your weapons and…”

            Tolly’s speech was interrupted by screams of agony, and the Legacy watched as the entire group shriveled up into a heap of desiccated corpses.  They all turned to see Kyle, eyes flashing, as he completed the _horrid wilting_ spell and then began looking around the cavern wildly.

            “Where is she?” Kyle snarled.  “Where?”

            “Kyle!” Autumn shouted, running up.  “I’m right here!  I’m safe!”

            Kyle seemed not to see his wife standing in front of him.  “Where is that psionic bitch?”

            “Um, she’s gone,” Autumn said, somewhat taken aback.  “She teleported away just a few moments ago.” Autumn pointed toward the spot they had last seen the psion.

            Kyle started to walk toward a tunnel near where Autumn had pointed.  “She has to have gone this way.  She has to have line of sight to teleport down here.  We can find her.  We can destroy her!”

            Tolly put out a hand and caught Kyle by the arm.  “We, or you?”

            “What difference does it make?  We can’t let her just get away!”

            “Kyle,” Tolly said calmly, “you’re barely standing as it is.  Meeranda is long gone.  We can only hope that one day we find her again.”

            Arrie came up quietly behind Kyle, and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  “We’ll get another chance, Kyle, I know it.  Her and Xerxes and Kristyan and the others.”  She reached out and gently pried the Scion’s Staff out of Kyle’s white-knuckled grip.

            Finally, Kyle seemed to relax.  “Another time,” he said slowly.  “Sorry, guys, I thought I could take her.  She was more powerful than I thought, more powerful than the other psions I’ve faced in the war.”

            The party offered Kyle words of reassurance, and then they all went to offer what aid they could to Osborn’s wounded, and to see if there were any Taurics alive to interrogate.   Once they had done what they could, the Legacy made their way back to the psionic portal, and once again emerged into the slums of Noxolt, now teeming with activity as people ran about through the ruins of the nearby buildings, looking for survivors.  Those of Osborn’s people who could walk under their own power had soon vanished into the throngs, leaving the Legacy standing alone in the ruins.

*          *            *​
            Autumn stood atop one of the palace’s highest towers the next night, looking north.  She couldn’t see very far, of course, since Noxolt sat inside of a wide, low valley.  Which made it all the more disconcerting to see the faintest traces of campfire light reflected in the clouds on the northern horizon.

            “They’re getting closer,” Arrie said, walking up to the rail next to her sister.  “But the terrain between there and here will make it hard for them to advance very quickly.  We’ll hold them off for a while yet.”

            “But not forever,” Autumn said.

            “No, not forever.”  Arrie put an arm around Autumn’s shoulder.  “What brings you up here?”

            “I’ve been moved into the Palace proper until the Imperial Guard can complete their investigation of the staff at my apartments, and those of the Emperor’s other vassals, to make sure there aren’t any more doppelganger spies running around.”

            “Or until they load us up on the _Armadillo _for whatever this new secret mission is,” sighted Arrie.

            Autumn answered with a noncommittal sound.  In truth, she’d forgotten all about the fact that they were only in Noxolt long enough for the Tlaxan Navy to outfit their ship.

            “You seen Tolly around?” Arrie asked to change the subject.

            “He’s been spending his time down in the slums, helping the people who were injured or killed when those buildings collapsed.”

            “That’s appropriate, since he’s the one that knocked them over,” Arrie replied.  “Is it just me, or does Tolly seem like he’s become less and less concerned with who is in the way when he sets his mind to something?”

            “None of us are perfect, Arrie,” Autumn said in response.

            “Yeah, but it seems like some of us are moving away from perfection pretty darned fast.  Kyle’s a lot more vicious than he used to be, too.”

            “What can we do, Arrie?” Autumn sighed.  “We’re stuck in this war just like everyone else.”

            “Yeah, but not the way we should be.”  Arrie moved back from the railing.  “I’ve been talking it over with Herion.  After this sea mission, I think we should strike out on our own.  No more missions for the Alliance.  We know what’s really behind this whole invasion, and it’s time we started going after the ones who are responsible.”

            “I agree,” said Autumn, “but you know that doing that is going to bring a lot more people like Meeranda out after us.”

            “Another good reason for the Legacy to be nowhere near any of the Alliance’s cities or her armies,” Arrie said.  “Hopefully that way we’re the only ones affected by the consequences.  Besides, if it does draw people like Meeranda out of hiding, so much the better.”

            Autumn thought about it for a minute.  Then she embraced her sister.  “It sounds perfect,” she said with a smile.

---------------------------------

So, you're now officially caught up.  Our next game is tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have a new entry soon.  Happy Thanksgiving!


----------



## Sarabian1

Hello there. Friendly neighborhood DM here.

Just wanted to give folks a heads-up on a minor retcon that the group has agreed to.

Some background: when I was looking at the Paladin class, I found the idea that there were only lawful good holy warriors a bit odd. Fortunately, at about the time I started the campaign, Dragon Magazine tossed in a couple articles with holy (or unholy) warriors for every alignment. While this was closer to what I was looking for, many of these classes came with some very odd strings attached. But, having no other material, I decided to grit my teeth and move ahead with it.

Cut to a few weeks again, when the Delemental shows me his shiny new book, Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords. And he points out the Crusader class to me, and says, "It's a shame this wasn't available when we started three years ago." And I heartily agree with him - so much so that I pick up my own copy of the book. And I read it. And I think.

And long story short, all the holy warriors are now crusaders from TBo9S. A brief description from the book itself...
*Crusader:* This holy (or unholy) warrior is devoted to the service of a diety or principle. Through exercises of faith and inner strength, she gains the ability to execute spectacular martial maneuvers and confront those foes anathema to her cause.​...which is kinda what I was shooting for in the first place. Each alignment of crusaders will essentially be like a guild or an organization: Autumn is still a Sentinel, that's just not what her class is called anymore. Similarly, the neutral evil crusaders in the Archprelate's antechamber (adventure near the end of the first year) belonged to the Corrupter's Guild, and had mastered a particular martial strike that unlocked the evil hidden in every soul. And so forth.

Since TBo9S is essentially the _wuxia_ book for D&D, you can expect a lot of spectacular stuff out of Autumn in the near future...as well as from her enemies.

Enjoy.


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## Delemental

The retcon shouldn't really change any story details, so don't worry about having to go back and reread everything (unless you want to, of course).

When I got Bo9S, I had actually thought that if it had been out when we started, then Arrie would likely have been built as a Warblade rather than a fighter.  But I also saw the Crusader seemed to fit well (Tolly's player has been grumbling that if he'd had the book only a couple of levels ago, he'd have taken a couple of maneuvers as feats).

I will post an updated Autumn when her players finishes the revamp and can send it my way.


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## Krafus

Damn. A defeat. Well, most people might call it a victory, but when the BBEG gets away, it always counts as a defeat in my eyes. I'd recommend loading up on spells to prevent that.

Plus, I absolutely _cannot_ stand arrogance and condescending smirks on the villain's part. There is no surer way to make me angry and hunt down a villain, no matter what. It's a good thing I'm not playing in this campaign, or after this battle I'd be tunnel-vision locked on Meeranda's annihilation (preferably preceded by copious amounts of fear and pain), and damn the invasion.

If Meeranda doesn't die in an upcoming chapter, I'll be sorely disappointed.


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## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Damn. A defeat. Well, most people might call it a victory, but when the BBEG gets away, it always counts as a defeat in my eyes. I'd recommend loading up on spells to prevent that.




Ah, you mean like _dimensional anchor_, which Kyle had prepared but never got the chance to cast?  Or _greater anticipate teleportation_, a spell which Kyle makes a habit of preparing and casting every single morning... except this one?  Or spells like _web, black tentacles, solid fog_, and other movement-inhibiting spells, all of which Kyle has in his spellbook?  Yeah, those would be good.    

Our session last week actually ended up being a discussion on group tactics and working together better.  As a result, I think Kyle will be putting more focus on battlefield control spells, and let folks like Osborn, Autumn and Arrie handle damage output.



> Plus, I absolutely _cannot_ stand arrogance and condescending smirks on the villain's part. There is no surer way to make me angry and hunt down a villain, no matter what. It's a good thing I'm not playing in this campaign, or after this battle I'd be tunnel-vision locked on Meeranda's annihilation (preferably preceded by copious amounts of fear and pain), and damn the invasion.
> 
> If Meeranda doesn't die in an upcoming chapter, I'll be sorely disappointed.




So will we.


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## Krafus

Delemental said:
			
		

> Ah, you mean like _dimensional anchor_, which Kyle had prepared but never got the chance to cast?  Or _greater anticipate teleportation_, a spell which Kyle makes a habit of preparing and casting every single morning... except this one?  Or spells like _web, black tentacles, solid fog_, and other movement-inhibiting spells, all of which Kyle has in his spellbook?  Yeah, those would be good.




They would indeed. And so would items or spells that would increase the chances of the spells actually working. I've reread that chapter, and noticed that Meeranda resisted pretty much every spell that was thrown at her. That's another thing I really hate about some BBEGs - you can never seem to hit them with your spells, while theirs hit nearly every time, making spellcasting PCs feel pretty much impotent.


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## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> They would indeed. And so would items or spells that would increase the chances of the spells actually working. I've reread that chapter, and noticed that Meeranda resisted pretty much every spell that was thrown at her. That's another thing I really hate about some BBEGs - you can never seem to hit them with your spells, while theirs hit nearly every time, making spellcasting PCs feel pretty much impotent.




Well, to be accurate, Meeranda was resisting all of the spells that Lanara was throwing at her, most of which were coming out of wands or other magic items with a fairly low caster level (Lanara has an eclectic collection of such items, though she is currently working on clearing out some of the less powerful items in exchange for fewer, but more potent ones).  In the case of spells that Lanara was casting herself, well, the majority of the bardic spell list involves Will saves, not the easiest thing to use against a psion.

Kyle himself never got a spell off on Meeranda, thanks to her teleporting antics and battering him down so quickly.  She was throwing out three powers a round (thanks to Quicken Power and the _schism_ power), not to mention a swift action dimension door type effect.  It didn't help that I rolled a one for Kyle's save against _psychic crush_ and one of the other powers she used.  It's the hazard of playing a wizard who never quite got the hang of 'stay in the back'.

No one else really had a chance to target Meeranda, except at the very end when she was already making moves to escape.

The truth is, she was ready for us.  Not terribly surprising, since the Legacy is fairly well known and so it's hard to hide our capabilities.  And we did find the abjurer's spellbook, which included the spell _portal alarm_, so Meeranda knew when we came through the portal and had plenty of time to prep.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> Damn. A defeat. Well, most people might call it a victory, but when the BBEG gets away, it always counts as a defeat in my eyes. I'd recommend loading up on spells to prevent that.
> 
> Plus, I absolutely _cannot_ stand arrogance and condescending smirks on the villain's part. There is no surer way to make me angry and hunt down a villain, no matter what. It's a good thing I'm not playing in this campaign, or after this battle I'd be tunnel-vision locked on Meeranda's annihilation (preferably preceded by copious amounts of fear and pain), and damn the invasion.
> 
> If Meeranda doesn't die in an upcoming chapter, I'll be sorely disappointed.




So will Tolly. Not only is she anathema, but she also threatened his (shouldabeen) girl and laid a whuppin' on his best friend. 

And she smelled like old cheese.


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## Krafus

Good, good. I hope the party is laying down plans to track down the bitch, make her _stay_ in place once they've found her, and make her pay every condescending smirk tenfold.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> They would indeed. And so would items or spells that would increase the chances of the spells actually working. I've reread that chapter, and noticed that Meeranda resisted pretty much every spell that was thrown at her. That's another thing I really hate about some BBEGs - you can never seem to hit them with your spells, while theirs hit nearly every time, making spellcasting PCs feel pretty much impotent.




That why I have a tendency to wade in with Tolly. Resisting the blow of the maul is much harder than resisting a dispel evil, or flame strike. Part of our discussion was my admission that I was not serving the clerical role very well, and an in-character admission that Ardara's shepherd was killing sheep to get the wolves, and was going to try not to do that anymore. So, ladies and gents, no more earthquakes in the ghettoes...(sing it with me _in the ghetto!_ 

Ahem. Sorry.


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## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> Good, good. I hope the party is laying down plans to track down the bitch, make her _stay_ in place once they've found her, and make her pay every condescending smirk tenfold.




Oh yes. We wish to replace _condescending smirk_ with _descending hammer blow_ in triplicate.

And I want to take a moment to thank the various posters in this thread for posting--Delemental knows that the party has his back in his writing, but getting someone not involved in the group to come forward and say "hey, this is well done" has done wonders for his ego--and more importantly, kept him writing. I tend to belabor things and get high-handed when I write, so it is nice to see him keep a level tone that is easy to read yet not childish. Kinda Feist-ish, maybe a bit Eddings-ish. I tend towards Tolkien, Carey, or other 'high' fantasy writers.

Good job, man.


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## Krafus

Well, he's succeeded at attracting me as a reader. I don't post at every update - sometimes I don't notice the thread among the others, at other times I just don't want to come out of lurker mode - but about once a week I make an effort to track it down and see if there's updates, and whether the update has something I'd like to comment on. I also like the metagaming explanations - like the one Delemental just gave about why Kyle hadn't slapped Meeranda with a _dimensional anchor_ or similar spell. (Btw, considering the number of psionic powers the bitch apparently has on her, has the party considered having several characters hitting her with dispels so at least one gets through?)

Oh, and I also like violence and sex.   One thing I look for in story hours is at least acknowledgement of the latter - I've really had enough of fantasy authors who give readers blood and gore by the wagonful but shy away from mentions of sex (David Eddings, I'm looking at you). Thus, Lanara is a draw for me.   (And, probably to the surprise of no one, George R.R. Martin is my favorite author.)


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> Well, he's succeeded at attracting me as a reader. I don't post at every update - sometimes I don't notice the thread among the others, at other times I just don't want to come out of lurker mode - but about once a week I make an effort to track it down and see if there's updates, and whether the update has something I'd like to comment on. I also like the metagaming explanations - like the one Delemental just gave about why Kyle hadn't slapped Meeranda with a _dimensional anchor_ or similar spell. (Btw, considering the number of psionic powers the bitch apparently has on her, has the party considered having several characters hitting her with dispels so at least one gets through?)
> 
> Oh, and I also like violence and sex.   One thing I look for in story hours is at least acknowledgement of the latter - I've really had enough of fantasy authors who give readers blood and gore by the wagonful but shy away from mentions of sex (David Eddings, I'm looking at you). Thus, Lanara is a draw for me.   (And, probably to the surprise of no one, George R.R. Martin is my favorite author.)




Dispels won't work. Our GM uses a modified slightly _psionics is different_ . Magical dispels don't work on psionics, and vice versa. 

And Lanara brings all the boys to the yard. Heh. 
Actually, I should be careful--that is, after all, my own dear wife's character.


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## Pyske

Delemental said:
			
		

> Kyle himself never got a spell off on Meeranda, thanks to her teleporting antics and battering him down so quickly.  She was throwing out three powers a round (thanks to Quicken Power and the _schism_ power), not to mention a swift action dimension door type effect.  It didn't help that I rolled a one for Kyle's save against _psychic crush_ and one of the other powers she used.  It's the hazard of playing a wizard who never quite got the hang of 'stay in the back'.




I'm always a bit confused about the utility of Quicken Power.  It's a full round action to gain psionic focus, and quicken expends the focus... so doesn't that make Quicken Power something of a one-shot deal?  Have I overlooked something?


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> Dispels won't work. Our GM uses a modified slightly _psionics is different_ . Magical dispels don't work on psionics, and vice versa.
> 
> And Lanara brings all the boys to the yard. Heh.
> Actually, I should be careful--that is, after all, my own dear wife's character.




Yeah, in this setting magic and psionics are incompatible.  It would actually be impossible for Kyle to take levels in a psionic class, just as Meeranda couldn't take levels in sorcerer.

And Lanara's player would be quick to point out that she is an _opportunist_, not a _slut_.


----------



## Delemental

Pyske said:
			
		

> I'm always a bit confused about the utility of Quicken Power.  It's a full round action to gain psionic focus, and quicken expends the focus... so doesn't that make Quicken Power something of a one-shot deal?  Have I overlooked something?




Not quite one-shot, but the focus does put a limit on Quicken Power.  There are ways to get around it; the Psicrystal Containment feat lets your psicrystal hold a focus for you, there are other abilities that let you regain focus faster, etc.  And you can attempt to regain focus in combat, you just lose a round of actions and you have to watch out for AoO's.


----------



## Sarabian1

Pyske said:
			
		

> I'm always a bit confused about the utility of Quicken Power.  It's a full round action to gain psionic focus, and quicken expends the focus... so doesn't that make Quicken Power something of a one-shot deal?  Have I overlooked something?



 For those who like to be "in the know", the two powers Meeranda had active going into the fight were Inconstant Location (Complete Psionic, teleport up to your movement speed as a swift action at the start of your turn, if you choose) and Schism (Expanded Psionics Handbook, create a second personality in yourself that can take purely mental actions every round...such as manifesting a power). 

Note that with this strategy, she was essentially going to go for broke - blowing as many powers as she was, as fast as she was, meant she was depleting her psionic strength quite fast, and wasn't planning on an extended combat, or using powers much for the remainder of the day.


----------



## Delemental

For those who are watching, it's looking like there won't be any updates until after the New Year.  We aren't schedeuled for another D&D session until January (I'm running Mutants and Masterminds next week, and then we're off for holidays).  Just didn't want people to think I'd vanished.

Now, I might throw a little something in here before that, but it would be a fiction piece, not a game session.  We'll see how it goes.


----------



## Delemental

*Dark Reflections (a non-continuity tale)*

So, just to be clear, the following story is non-continuity, not part of the campaign storyline.  I wrote it as a diversion because, hey, it was fun.  

---------------------------------------

            The high, strong voice of the High Priestess of Erito echoed throughout the cavernous Temple in Noxolt.  As she spoke, hundreds sat reverently, silent witnesses to the proceedings.

            “We commend your faithful servant, Prince Herion, to your care, blessed goddess, as we honor the Cycle and the memory of the man who has been taken from us.  Let those who would offer their love come forward.”

            The slow procession of mourners began, filing past the dais where Herion’s body lay in state.  Emperor Haxtha was first in line, of course, followed by Princess Aralda.  Shortly behind her was the prince’s widow, Ariadne Verahannen of Merlion, accompanied by the rest of the Legacy.  Kyle was next to Arrie, offering words of support, and then came Autumn, Tolly, Osborn, and Lanara, each stopping to say a few quiet words over Herion’s body.  As they filed out, the mourners gathered in the courtyard just outside the temple, offering their own condolences to the family.  After about an hour, Kyle took Arrie by the arm.

            “Please, everyone,” he said to the nobles gathered around her, “Princess Ariadne has been through a most trying time.  Your support is noted and well received, but I think it would be best if she were to rest now.  If you will excuse her?”  He turned to Arrie.  “May I escort you to your chambers, Your Highness?”

            “Yes, that might be a good idea,” Arrie said.  “Sometimes I think you know me too well, Kyle.  I probably should save my strength.  After all, the war that claimed my dear husband’s life had not ended, and the enemy will not wait for the pain of my grief to subside.”

            Taking Kyle’s arm, they walked away from the crowds, heading toward the palace.  On the way, Arrie exchanged a brief look with Autumn, who was standing next to Tolly and the Eritan High Priestess.  A few minutes later, they were walking down the large main hallway of the palace, which was nearly deserted due to the funeral.

            “Thank you,” Arrie said when they were out of earshot.  “I was starting to think my jaw was going to fall off from all that forced smiling.”

            “Never let it be said that Noxolt can’t turn any event into a social gathering,” Kyle quipped.  “At least when I was growing up, people could go to a funeral and have it be more about the dead person than about who else you might be seen by.”

            “Welcome to life in high society,” Arrie sighed.  “Speaking of which, did you see Lady Genevieve’s dress?  I know this is going to sound rather… Lanara-ish of me, but it’s the kind of thing I’d expect to see someone wearing at a high-class brothel, not a funeral.”

            “I suspect that as the daughter of a vampire, Lady Genevieve’s concept of etiquette around the deceased is a bit different than most,” Kyle replied.

            “You’re probably right,” Arrie laughed.  “You can always make me laugh, Kyle, even at a time like this.”  They walked a little further before Arrie commented, “It was a nice eulogy, though, wasn’t it?”

Kyle nodded.  “High Priestess Madrone did well.”

            They arrived at the rooms that had been provided for Arrie.  Normally she would be staying in her husband’s chambers, of course, but elven custom demanded that the deceased prince’s living quarters remain unoccupied for a month.  A pair of Imperial Guardsmen in full dress uniform stood outside the door.

            “Guardsmen,” Arrie said as they approached, “I don’t think I need an honor guard today.  Please, I wish to be alone.”

            The two Guardsmen exchanged glances, and then looked at Kyle.  “This is highly irregular, Your Highness,” said one of them, tentatively.

            Arrie knew why they hesitated.  Custom demanded that the spouse or consort of a deceased member of the Imperial Family have an honor guard during the month of mourning.  Custom also said that visitors without a chaperone were discouraged.

            “Wizard Goodson is acting as my chaperone this afternoon, gentlemen,” Arrie said, fixing the two guards with a level gaze.  “Do either of you wish to question his honor, after all the service he has provided our empire?”  Neither Guardsmen made a reply.

            “Please,” she continued, “leave us.  If there is any question that you were negligent in your duty, I will be sure to straighten it out.”

            “Of course, Your Highness,” said one of the guards, and bowing to her, they left.

            Arrie rolled her eyes.  “Politics.”  She opened the door, and they walked inside.  As they walked into the foyer Arrie spun around to face Kyle, but before she could speak he held up a hand in warning.

            “Wait.”  Kyle closed his eyes, and muttered the words to a spell.  When he was done, he gave Arrie a slight smile.

            “Is it safe?” she asked.

            “All clear.”

            Arrie rushed forward suddenly, pushing Kyle back against the wall.  She pressed up hard against him, and her lips met his in a powerful kiss.

            “Good,” she whispered in Kyle’s ear, “then get me out of this damn dress.”

*          *            *​
            “Well, I think we just violated about a half-dozen of those elven mourning customs,” Kyle said lazily.

            “Seven, actually,” Arrie replied, “plus a few that have nothing to do with funerals.  But we’ve been doing that for months now, so I don’t think those count.”

            Kyle laughed.  “Well, my _veil _spell will last for hours yet, so I think we have time if we want to try for an even dozen.”

            Arrie shifted over so that she was leaning up against Kyle, feeling the warmth of his flushed skin against her own.  “While I am expected to be a good widow and stay in here all by myself, I think you’d be missed.”

            “And if anyone comes looking for me here, then with one _teleport _I end up in some musty sub-basement of the library, where I can say I was holed up doing research.”

            Arrie frowned.  “You know that won’t fool everyone.”

            “You’re talking about your sister, the Queen of Merlion.”

            “She’s not my real sister, and yes, I mean Queen Autumn Coviere.  I think she suspects us.”

            “Of course she does.  She’s no fool.  But she has no proof.  No one has any cause to think that Herion died of anything but a battle wound.  It’s his fault for going into a battle when he was so desperately outnumbered.”

            “It’s his fault for thinking that the intelligence he was given before the battle was accurate,” Arrie smirked.  “Just goes to show you what you get what you start trusting your spies to be loyal.”

            “How did you convince Lanara to falsify those reports, anyway?” Kyle asked.  “It hardly seems like she’d be willing to sacrifice Herion, since she’s been his mistress for so long.  His death leaves you in a better position, but leaves her out in the cold.”

            “Oh, I just helped arrange for her to trade up,” Arrie said.       

            “Haxtha?”

            “The Emperor’s current official Consort is a bit of a bore, I’ve heard,” Arrie said.  “I thought Haxtha and Lanara might hit it off.”  Arrie frowned.  “But it’s not the bard that worries me.  She knows how to keep her mouth shut.”

            “If not her legs,” Kyle commented.

            “Be serious!” Arrie snapped, punching Kyle in the arm.  “Autumn’s sure to try and snoop around.  I wouldn’t underestimate her.”

            “Underestimate her?  A woman who had her siblings assassinated so she could claim the throne of Merlion?  Never.”  Kyle began to run his fingers through Arrie’s hair.  “But, like I said, she doesn’t have proof, and she’s too highly placed to act without it.”

            “She has the Ardaran,” Arrie said.  “The Inquisition could be trouble.”

            “Only if they take an interest, which they won’t. There’s a war to fight, remember?  And Tlaxan isn’t exactly one of Ardara’s strongholds.  Besides, even if they had reason to suspect you, they would be making the same assumption that Autumn will; now that you’re second in line for the throne, you’ll try to do away with Haxtha, or gain control of him in some fashion.”

            “Which, of course, I won’t,” Arrie grinned.  “At least, not that they will be able to detect.”  She sighed.  “You’re certain that’s how Autumn will think?”

            “You forget, I got to know her fairly well back in the early days out of the Tower,” Kyle said.

            “I know exactly how well you got to know her,” Arrie snapped.  “You two sometimes kept me awake half the night.”

            “Jealous?”

            “Hardly.”  Arrie suddenly rolled up on top of Kyle, straddling him, and she reached out with one hand and put gentle pressure on the wizard’s neck.  “You’ve been a useful companion,” she said, reaching down with her free hand to give a gentle squeeze to another one of Kyle’s sensitive areas.  “In more ways than one.  But don’t think for a moment that my affection renders you immune to vengeance if you ever decide to cross me.”  She looked at him for a moment.  “For that matter, I have yet to figure out what you’re getting out of all this.”

            “There are advantages to being the power behind the power behind the throne,” Kyle said.  “Beyond that, who knows?  Maybe it’s the thrill of cuckolding an Imperial Prince.  Maybe it’s my own little form of vengeance against that Corrupter bitch and her husband.  Maybe I’m using you as a stepping-stone just as much as you’re using me.”  Kyle made a quick motion with one hand, casting a quick spell.  Arrie yelped and rose slightly from her sitting position, and moments later their positions were reversed, with Kyle laying atop the sprawling warrior.

            “That was a dirty wizard trick,” she complained.

            He grinned.  “I’m a dirty wizard.”

            She put her arms around him.  “Just like a mage, using magic to do something he should be doing with his own two hands.”

            Kyle nuzzled against her neck.  “You’re one to talk.  I know you mindwiped those two guards in the hall.”

            “I nudged them.  They wanted to leave anyway.  They’ll go to their grave thinking it was their idea.  After all, there’s only one person on the entire continent that knows what I can do.”

_Exactly_, Kyle thought, as his mouth sought hers.

*          *            *​
            “Murder,” Autumn muttered, as she ran a brush through her hair, “she got away with murder, and I don’t have any idea how she did it.”

            “We’ll catch them, Autumn,” Tolly replied.

            “When?  How?  When Ariadne is sitting on the throne of Tlaxan?” Autumn threw the brush down on her sitting table.  “Damn her and that wizard!  I don’t know how they’re doing it!”

            Tolly put his hands gently on the aasimar’s shoulders.  “You’re letting your emotions run away with you,” he said.

            Autumn took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.  “You’re right.  It’s not helping.  I’m just weary from having to play the grieving vassal all day.”

            “We’ll only have to play that part for a short while longer, my dear,” Tolly said.  “Once the Tauric Empire is ready to push for the capital…”

            “We’ll be there waiting with the keys to the gate,” Autumn said with a grin.  “Assuming Arrie and Kyle don’t screw things up first.  Betraying the Empire and turning it over to the Taurics would be a lot easier with Haxtha still on the throne.”

            “They won’t move against Haxtha so soon after Herion’s death.  It would raise suspicions even they couldn’t deflect.”

            Autumn turned to look up at Tolly.  “And you still can’t convince the Archprelate to have the Inquisition look into it?”
            Tolly shook his head.  “Frelarr won’t risk stepping on the toes of Erito’s church, and he’s more concerned about the war.  Besides, their divinations would get the same result as mine.  Kyle’s wards are very effective.”

            Autumn swore silently, cursing herself as much as she did Kyle.  When she’d first met Kyle along with the others at the Tower, she’d seen the young, naïve wizard as a useful tool, so of course she had seduced him at the first opportunity.  She had ample opportunities to use her corrupting powers on him during their trysts, planting the seed of evil in his soul.  The seed grew and blossomed, but unfortunately Autumn hadn’t foreseen the wizard embracing his new outlook on life and flourishing.  She had lost control of him, she admitted to herself, and though in public they maintained a veneer of a close bond, in reality they were bitter rivals.  Autumn wasn’t sure when exactly he’d gotten involved with her foster sister, Arrie, but since then the two had been a thorn in her side.  Fortunately, soon after this she had discovered a kindred spirit in the Ardaran priest, Tolly Mulholland; their marriage last year had cemented a politically advantageous alliance, and given them both the freedom to pursue their greater goals.

            Autumn rose from her chair, and took Tolly’s hand.  “Come to bed,” she said.  “I need to put all of this out of my mind for a while.  Tomorrow we can proceed with our plans.  They may have maneuvered closer to Haxtha’s throne, but they can’t stop the Tauric army from coming.”

            “And once this corrupt elven monarchy is swept away, and a more orderly society put in their place,” Tolly said, “Ardara’s clergy in the Tauric Empire will be well placed to gain spiritual dominance in Tlaxan.”

            “Haxtha and his kin will pay for centuries of oppressing Merlion,” Autumn agreed.  “If it hadn’t been for that damnable treaty imposed on us by the Empire, my dear sister Ariadne would never have been anything more than the irritating daughter of Zanich Verahannen.”

            They retired to their bedchamber, where after a tumultuous bout of lovemaking, Tolly fell into a deep sleep.  Autumn, her mind still troubled despite herself, remained awake for some time, reading over letters by the soft glow of an oil lamp.

            Her reading was interrupted by a soft knock at their outer door.  Annoyed, Autumn tried to ignore it, but when the knocking continued, she snarled, threw on a dressing gown, and went to the door.

            Crystal was standing outside the door.  “Pardon the interruption, Your Majesty,” she said, dropping into a stiff curtsy.  “But I have need to speak to your husband, the Inquisitor Dominus.”

            “And this couldn’t wait until morning?” she grumbled.  “My husband is asleep.”

            “It is most urgent, Your Majesty, or I would not have come.  I must depart before sunrise on orders from our church.”  Crystal paused for a moment.  “Perhaps… perhaps I might pass the message to you?”

            Autumn sighed.  “Very well.  Come in and be quick.”

            The axani stepped into the foyer, and followed Autumn to a sitting area in the middle of the room.  “Is it… safe to speak here, Your Majesty?”

            “Of course.  Your own people set the wards.”

            “Excellent.”  Crystal suddenly stepped forward and slapped Autumn across the face.  The strike left a shallow cut across the corrupter’s cheek.

            “What in Stok’s name was that for?” Autumn said to Crystal.  But Crystal was no longer standing there.  Instead, a pink-haired cansin regarded Autumn with a smirk.

            “For making me wait,” she said.  “And you could be a little nicer to me.”

            “I don’t exactly expect unannounced midnight visitors, Aranal,” Autumn said, “and there are eyes everywhere.  If people saw me being overly friendly to you, they might talk.”

            “Still, I don’t think that showing a little courtesy toward your husband’s apprentice would kill you,” Aranal said.  “But speaking of him, I suppose it wouldn’t do to have my ‘master’ see you in the morning with an unexplained scar.”  Aranal reached out and softly touched Autumn’s cheek, healing the wound.  After the cut healed, Aranal’s hand remained in place, gently stroking Autumn’s cheek.  Autumn stood still for a moment, her eyes half-closed, but suddenly reached up and grabbed Aranal’s wrist, pulling her hand away.

            “I’ve already made it clear to you that I’m not interested in your attentions,” she said.

            Aranal laughed.  “You aasimar, always so one-sided in your preferences.”

            “Tell me,” Autumn retorted, “is sluttiness a trait among all cansin, or is it a family thing?”

            “Leave my sister out of this discussion,” Aranal snapped.  “But as much as I would love to continue tongue-sparring with you, we have business.”

            Autumn sat on one of the plush chairs in the room, while Aranal sprawled on a divan.  “My contacts among Kristyan’s people want a progress report on your efforts to undermine the Imperial Family.  The Taurics tire of besieging Tlaxan and wish to move south before winter.  From what I’ve been seeing, you’re not doing so well.”

            “The plan is progressing fine,” Autumn stated.  “Herion’s death was a minor inconvenience.  Ariadne and Kyle won’t be able act on their new position in time.”

            “Don’t underestimate them,” Aranal warned.  “You know what Arrie is capable of.”

            “I know,” complained Autumn.  “This would be so much easier if I could expose Arrie as a psion.  Tolly would have her head on a pike before sunset.”

            “You will tell no one,” Aranal snapped, “especially not your husband.  The Ardarans are still ignorant about the role of the psions in this war; if you tip them off about Arrie, then their Inquisition will start looking for others.  Our domination of this world depends on being able to manipulate the churches without their knowledge.”

            “I know, I know.”

            “Now,” continued Aranal, “what I told you in the hallway was true.  I… I mean, ‘Crystal’ has been summoned by the Prelate Council, which means I have to go to M’Dos.  You know what that means.”

            “I know,” sighed Autumn.  “Let’s just get it over with.”

            “You make it sound like you don’t enjoy it, Autumn,” Aranal smirked.  “But yes, let’s get it over with.”

            Aranal remained sitting on the divan while Autumn returned to her bedroom.  She stood at the side of the bed, watching Tolly sleep for a moment.  Then, she reached out and placed her hands on his chest.  A soft, white glow began to emanate from where she touched him, rising up out of Tolly and traveling into Autumn.  The Ardaran stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up.  After a few moments, the glow faded.  Autumn took a deep breath, and then walked out of the room.

            Aranal was standing when Autumn returned.  “Do you want my shirt on or off for this?” she asked.

            “On,” snapped Autumn.  Aranal stuck out her tongue.

            The corrupter placed her hands on the cansin’s chest, mimicking what she had done with her husband.  The glow appeared again, but this time flowed out of her hands and into Aranal.  Autumn had been trained by the Order of Corrupters in the ability to disrupt a priest’s connection to their deity, denying them their divine magic.  With Aranal’s help, Autumn had refined the technique, allowing her to steal a portion of divine essence and either using it herself or passing it to another.  This talent had been invaluable in helping Aranal pose as a faithful member of the Ardaran clergy.

            “Mmm,” purred Aranal, when Autumn was finished.  “Feels good.”

            “Do you have anything you want me to tell Tolly?” Autumn asked, dropping her hands quickly.

            “Just tell him that Crystal was called away by the Prelate Council,” Aranal said.  “I expect to be back in a week.”  She produced a scroll tube from her rucksack, stamped with the seal of the Inquisition.  “Here are the reports he needs.”  She handed the scroll to Autumn, but did not let go when she took the other end.  “I expect to hear some positive progress on your end when I return.”

            “You’ll have it,” she said, pulling the scroll free.  “Now, get out.”

            “What, no goodbye kiss?”

            “I have an axe that’s willing to kiss you,” Autumn snarled.  Aranal just laughed.

            “Best go wake your husband now, work off some of that sexual tension.”  Aranal walked briskly toward the door, shifting back into her disguise of Crystal as she went.  With one last shimmy and a wink, Aranal opened the door and left.

            Autumn stood in the foyer for a while, clutching the scroll.  Then she turned and went back to her bedroom to wake Tolly up.

*          *            *​
            Three days after Herion’s funeral, the Legacy was summoned by Emperor Haxtha.  Kyle walked into the conference room and saw Osborn already seated at the end of the table.

            “Good morning, Osborn,” Kyle said.

            “Good morning.”  Osborn was busily cleaning blood off one of his many daggers.

            “Trouble on the way in?”

            “Just an underling who needed to learn his place,” the hin replied.

            “And what is his place?” Kyle inquired.

            “Six feet under.”

            Autumn and Tolly were next in the room, taking seats on the opposite side of the table from Kyle.  “Kyle,” Autumn said curtly.

            “Autumn.”

            “We haven’t seen you since the funeral,” Autumn said.  “I saw you escorting her back to her chambers.  She must be beside herself with grief.  How is she doing?”

            “I can’t say for sure,” Kyle replied.  “She wanted to be alone, so I went to the library to do research.  I haven’t seen her since.”

            Autumn exchanged looks with Kyle, through smiles that didn’t reach their eyes.

_Liar_, Autumn’s glare said.

_Prove it_, Kyle’s eyes shot back.

            Arrie walked in next, and took a seat halfway between Kyle and Osborn.  “Good to see everyone,” she said.  “I feel like I’ve been out of touch for a month.”

            Tolly pointed toward a strip of white linen on Arrie’s forearm.  “A token of mourning, I take it?”

            Arrie nodded.  “Unfortunately, flowing white mourning robes are a little impractical when traveling.”

            “I prefer the Ardaran rituals,” Tolly said. “The mourner wears a heavy stone around their neck.  The weight serves as a reminder of the one who was lost, but doesn’t interfere with daily work.”

_And I bet you’d love to hang one of those stones around my neck_, Arrie thought.  _Right before you threw me into the Lassh River_.

            Autumn turned to Osborn.  “How’s business, Osborn?”

            “Thriving, thank you.  War provides a lot of opportunity for someone in my position.”

            Each of them eyed Osborn warily.  They knew that the hin was the guildmaster of one of Affon’s major thieves’ guilds, but no one had figured out which one.  Osborn only smiled when asked.

            The doors opened, and Emperor Haxtha walked in, his usual entourage of advisors and courtiers conspicuously absent.  He took a seat at the head of the table, clutching a large roll of parchment.

            “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he said.

            “Lanara’s not here yet,” Kyle pointed out.

            “She will be here presently,” the Emperor said.  “We will wait before we begin.”

            No one asked how Haxtha knew about Lanara’s whereabouts.  A few minutes later, the cansin rushed in.

            “Sorry I’m late,” she said.  “I was caught up in another matter.”  Lanara glanced briefly at Haxtha, who favored her with a barely noticeable smile as she sat down in a chair close to him.

            “I have a mission of utmost importance,” the Emperor said.  “One I can only entrust to you.” He unrolled the parchment, displaying a worn map of the Tlaxan Empire, marked up with positions of Tauric and Alliance troops.  “In two days,” the Emperor said, “our battalions here will be launching a major offensive against the main body of the Tauric army.”

            “You’re outnumbered four to one,” Tolly observed, scanning the symbols on the map.

            “Although the enemy believes that we actually outnumber them,” Haxtha stated, “thanks to a clever bit of counterintelligence work.”  Lanara affected a dramatic bow.

            “The purpose of the assault is to draw out their commander, General Andauros,” the Emperor continued.  “It will then be your task to eliminate him.”

            The Legacy nodded.  General Andauros was one of the principal commanders of the Tauric invasion, who was a fierce political and military leader back in their homeland.

            “You will have a limited window of opportunity,” Haxtha continued.  “It won’t take the Taurics long to figure out that our forces aren’t as strong as they were led to believe, and I’m not willing to let them be slaughtered just to give you a few extra seconds.  If you fail, I doubt we will get this chance again.”

            Haxtha looked over at Arrie.  “I wish I didn’t have to ask this of you so soon after my brother’s death.  But with Herion gone, and with Aralda’s… complications, I must look to you to defend our Empire in his stead.”

            Arrie nodded.  “I will do my best, Your Majesty.”  Inwardly she grinned at Haxtha’s discomfort in discussing Aralda.  Ever since his youngest sibling’s connections with the Tlaxan underworld was exposed, she had lost the support of the nobles, and her connections with the druids had cost her the support of the church of Erito.  Her place in the line of succession had receded dramatically.  Arrie doubted that Haxtha would congratulate Lanara on _that _clever bit of work.

            The rest of the Legacy offered their assurances to the Emperor, and after briefly discussing a few details, everyone rose and made their way out of the room.  Lanara lingered behind, looking over the map.  When everyone had left, she looked around.

            “So, what do you think?”

            Osborn emerged from his hiding spot and returned to his seat at the table.  “I predict that by now Autumn and Tolly are plotting how to use this ambush to eliminate Arrie and Kyle, and vice versa,” Osborn said.  “As for the mission, it’s to Arrie’s advantage if we succeed, because that will put her deeper in the Emperor’s trust.  It’s to Autumn’s advantage if we fail, because then she can continue with her planned betrayal.”

            And what side are you on?” Lanara asked.

            “My own.  It’s to my advantage for this war to drag on as long as possible.  My guilds’ coffers are getting fat from war profiteering.”  Lanara, of course, knew the secret that Osborn had kept from the others; that the hin didn’t control just one thieves’ guild, but all of them.  He’d cultivated his position in several guilds throughout Affon, and had slowly tied them together into a vast criminal organization.

            “Well, for my part,” Lanara said, “I spent a lot of time getting to the top man, I don’t want to start over.”

            “Then it seems our course is clear,” said Osborn.

*          *            *​
            “Stop jostling me,” Autumn snapped at Kyle.

            “You used to like it when I touched you,” he retorted.

            Tolly glowered at Kyle.  “That’s my wife you’re talking to.”

            “Oh, for pity’s sake,” Lanara groaned, “Ask Ardara to forge you a sense of humor some day.”

            The party clustered inside Kyle’s _rope trick_, looking down at the ground far below them.  As expected, the location of the general’s camp had been warded with a _dimensional lock_, making a teleport attack impossible.  It had been no mean feat to sneak onto the field of battle behind enemy lines to place the _rope trick_ just above the area of the ward, but they were now ideally positioned.  They waited patiently until they saw what they were waiting for; a large, muscular minotaur in field plate strode out of the main tent, his black fur bristling, and began bellowing orders.

            “Everyone know their job?” Arrie said quietly.

            “Osborn and Kyle are crowd control, Arrie, Autumn and Tolly take out the general, and I’m lookout,” Lanara recited.  “Let’s go.”

            Kyle dismissed the _rope trick_, and they all fell to earth.  Autumn was borne to the ground by a pair of feathery black wings, Lanara and Kyle flew with the aid of magic, and Tolly and Arrie relied on a pair of _feather fall_ spells.  Osborn simply seemed to fall to earth and land unharmed.

            A violent battle ensued.  Kyle unleashed several devastating spells on the general’s soldiers and aides-de-camp, and Osborn inflicted similar damage with his daggers.  Autumn and Arrie charged General Andauros, and exchanged a brutal series of blows with him.  Tolly took time to eliminate those Taurics who had been too close to the general for Kyle or Osborn to target, and then waded in to help his wife.  The general was a ferocious fighter, and all three of his enemies were badly wounded, but in the end the odds were against him.  He finally fell to his knees, his ebon-handled morningstar slipping out of his grasp.

            “Lanara, keep an eye out for trouble,” Tolly called out.  “Osborn, make sure our escape route is clear.  Kyle, finish off this minotaur while I tend to Ariadne’s wounds.”

            Lanara, who was invisible somewhere above them, flew off to watch the nearby battle, while Osborn circled around behind the field tent.  Kyle stepped up to the general, leveling a wand at his massive horned head as Tolly walked up to Arrie, who was kneeling in the dirt nearby.  Two things happened at the same time; Arrie jumped up and wrapped her spiked chain around Tolly’s throat, and Autumn’s axe severed Kyle’s outstretched arm at the elbow.

            Autumn began to advance on Arrie, stepping over Kyle as he lay screaming in the dirt.  Arrie pulled Tolly around, her chain still around his throat.  Blood ran down the front of his armor.

            “Try it, bitch, and your husband ends up about a foot shorter,” Arrie shouted.  Tolly struggled, but Arrie had braced herself against the Ardaran with one knee, locking her grip.

            Gurgling, Tolly managed to get his gauntleted fingers into the links of the chain, and pulled it free just enough to rasp out a spell.  Instantly, Tolly’s flesh turned dull grey and became as hard as iron.  He shrugged Arrie off his back, and with another spell grew to nearly nine feet tall.  Arrie whipped at his with her chain several times, but each blow glanced off his body in a spray of sparks.  She began to back off, as Tolly and Autumn advanced.

            “Two against one,” Tolly growled, still hoarse.  “If you just give up now, perhaps we’ll just have you sold to the Taurics as a concubine.  I hear some of the centaurs have developed a taste for bipeds.”

            “Not likely, bastard,” she snapped, and glared at him.  There was a strange sound in the air, like several people humming in unison.

            Autumn knew what was happening.  She wanted to warn her husband, but after being forced to keep Arrie’s secret from Tolly for over a year, she hesitated for a split-second, and that cost her.  Before the corrupter could utter a word, Tolly suddenly clutched his head, screamed, and collapsed, blood and other fluids oozing out of his eyes, ears, and nose.

            Arrie turned to Autumn, a wicked grin on her face.  “Your turn,” she spat, and again a hum filled the air.  A moment later, the intensity of Arrie’s glare lessened, replaced by a look of confusion.  Autumn smiled, and tapped a finger on the gold circlet she wore to signify her status as Queen of Merlion.

            “You didn’t think I wore this out of simple vanity, did you?” the aasimar sneered.  “A gift from some highly-placed friends for just such an occasion.”

            “So you knew about my training,” Arrie said, “you’re not as stupid as you look, ‘sister’.  I guess I’ll just have to finish you off the old fashioned way.”

            “You’re welcome to try,” Autumn leered, “but I should warn you about one thing.”  Autumn suddenly stooped down and touched Tolly’s twitching body.  White light shone from his chest and was quickly drawn into Autumn.  She took a half-second to send some healing energy into the Ardaran priest, to keep him from dying, and then stood up.

            “I have more than one trick up my sleeve.”

            Arrie leapt aside as the earth suddenly opened a huge fissure beneath her.  Seconds later, she was singed by a column of divine fire from the sky.  Autumn laughed.

            “Give up now, Arrie.  I can keep this up for a while, and even if you manage to get close, I’m more than a match for you.”

            Autumn began to cast another one of Tolly’s spells.  Suddenly, she felt a hand grasp her around the arm.  The hand spun her around with immense strength.  Kyle stood there, his grip locked on her with his remaining arm.  He looked pale, but from more than just loss of blood.  His eyes glowed red, and his teeth were fanged.

            “Just one last kiss before we go,” he hissed, and pulled Autumn to him.  He smashed his lips into hers, moving his grip from her arm to the back of her head to anchor her in place.  She felt his razor sharp teeth bite into her lower lip.  She twitched as she felt the life draining out of her, felt her control of Tolly’s divine powers slipping away.  Desperately, she fought back, and finally managed to break his grip, staggering and falling backwards.  Kyle stood over her, his mouth slick with her blood, and grinned.  Arrie walked up to him, put her arm around his waist, and they walked away, vanishing into thin air a few feet away.

            Autumn staggered to her feet and went to where Tolly was laying in the blood-soaked earth.  Summoning up what strength she had left, she cast one of Tolly’s _word of recall_ spells, and they both vanished.

            Moments later, Osborn and Lanara met in the midst of the battlefield.  “I guess that’s the end of the Legacy,” Osborn commented.  “I was rather surprised, actually.  Rash and sloppy on both sides.”

            “Amazing what the right music can do,” smiled Lanara.  “It can make people overconfident without realizing it.”

            “So, what now?” Osborn asked.  “The truth is bound to come out back in Noxolt.  You might have some trouble reintegrating yourself back with Haxtha.”

            “Who said I wanted to go back to Haxtha?” Lanara said.  She walked over to where General Andauros had passed out, and used her own magic to heal him.  She put her arm around his shoulder as he began to rouse himself.  “Like I said, I spent a lot of time getting to the top man, and I don’t want to start over.”  She looked at the massive minotaur.  “It’ll take some getting used to, but fortunately I’m adaptable by my nature.  And ultimately he’s just another step along the way.  I’m sure sooner or later the general here can arrange an introduction to Kristyan.”

            Osborn smiled.  “Just don’t conquer the world too quickly.  I have plans.”

            Lanara was helping Andauros to his feet, but pulled a hand free to wave.  “Say hello to Aranal when you see her again,” she said.

            “I’ll pass along your regards tonight,” he replied.  “It’s been fun.”

_Oh, the fun’s just starting_, Lanara thought, as Osborn dashed away.  _Arrie, Kyle, Autumn and Tolly are still alive out there somewhere.  I have the feeling we’ll all see each other again._


----------



## Ed Gentry

Trippy, Del. Quite fun.

I anxiously await the continuation of this regular story. It's in my top few on these boards. Please keep it coming.


----------



## Krafus

Wow, the Legacy turns in upon itself. I'm not surprised that it's the sneakier members of the group who now seem the most well-off... or that the evil version of Lanara has apparently decided to exploit her, ah, _natural opportunism_ to the fullest extent.


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## Delemental

Ed Gentry said:
			
		

> Trippy, Del. Quite fun.
> 
> I anxiously await the continuation of this regular story. It's in my top few on these boards. Please keep it coming.




Oh, there's definitely more.

Our next scheduled Aelfenn session is January 5th, and I typically have the session written up within the week, so with luck I should have something to post before the 12th, assuming I don't write any more fiction between now and then.

The good news is that we're going to be playing Aelfenn on a more consistent basis now.  We were splitting about 50-50 between this and my M&M game, but now the ratio's going to be more like 3-1 in favor of D&D.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Wow, the Legacy turns in upon itself. I'm not surprised that it's the sneakier members of the group who now seem the most well-off... or that the evil version of Lanara has apparently decided to exploit her, ah, _natural opportunism_ to the fullest extent.




The "Evil Legacy" story is one I've had a mind to write for a while, but just had to wait until the right moment.  Because, what fun is an evil party story if everyone doesn't betray each other in an orgy of blood?  But it had to feel right to me - the party had to be at a point of personal and political power where they would feel like they were able to strike out against the group in pursuit of their personal goals.  If I'd written it sooner, it would have felt forced to me - like I shoved the characters into a confrontation they weren't ready to have yet.

Too many people think playing evil is about backstabbing your party at the first opportunity - an intelligent person would utilize the group to further their goals and keep them as allies/resources as long as possible.  I honestly think that if our group really did play evil characters, you'd never see a scene like this - we'd figure out that we're a lot more likely to meet our goals for personal power if we stuck together.  There's no rule saying that evil people can't get along or cooperate.

I also should clarify one thing about the Evil Legacy story.  Arrie would not actually be in line to be Empress.  She's not of the Imperial Family, so she's classified as a Princess, not an Imperial Princess.  If Haxtha and Herion were to die, the title would go to Aralda.  Haxtha has no heir (his firstborn son was killed two years ago in game), and the Emperor doesn't marry, so there is no spouse to take the title (the Emperor has an official Consort, who bears his children).  I just figured that since I was bending continuity for the story anyway, that one more twist wouldn't hurt.

As for Lanara's _opportunism_, well, one had to assume that an evil Lanara would simply take her penchant for social climbing to its logical extreme.  I do sometimes wonder if Lanara's player gets frustrated by the frequent references to her 'free-spirited' nature (there are as many references to it at the table as there are here, if not more).  While certainly flirtatious, and with a penchant for non-conservative dress, and non-apologetic about her efforts to connect with persons of influence, I actually think Lanara does far less sleeping around than it appears.  Not that it's going to stop us from making comments, of course, any more than people are going to stop teasing Tolly about his tendency to end up in the company of very young women, or teasing Kyle and Autumn about their romantic life (though now Arrie is fair game for this, too, now that she's finally consummated her relationship with Herion).


----------



## Delemental

*Roots*

Another bit of fiction to tide you over until our regularly scheduled campaign resumes.

----------------------

            Lanara stood in the dusty street of the town, dried mud caked on her bare feet up to her knees, and balanced a well-worn fiddle on her shoulder.  The instrument was built for someone larger than she was, but she managed it well enough.  After a few moments, she began to play.  It was a lively tune, but one meant for someone with bigger fingers and a stronger bow arm, and so there was the occasional jarring stop or sour note that stabbed into the melody like a rusty dagger.  But the little pink-haired girl obviously had talent beyond her few short years, a fact that was recognized by a few of the passers-by with the clink of copper coins falling into the dented tin cup she’d borrowed from her father.

            They’d been in the fishing village for about two weeks now, having come in with one of the wandering hin clans they’d been traveling with.  Lanara had expected they would leave with the clan as well, but when it came time for the hin to start hitching their mounts to the wagons, the clan leader had told her that her father had decided to stay.  Why he’d wanted to stay here, he never told her – but he never did anyway.  She simply accepted it, said goodbye to her friends in the clan, and then went with Daddy to find a place to live.  They’d been making ends meet ever since – Daddy with his tinker’s cart, and she got a few extra coins playing near the markets.  Not in the markets, no; she’d learned on her first day that the market’s regular performers were very territorial, even toward an eight-year-old girl.  Because of this, she only ended up playing for an hour or two a day, during the peak market times; it simply wasn’t worth the effort otherwise.

            Lanara continued to play, keeping one ear out for the sound of coins falling into her cup.  Mostly what she was listening for was the sound of someone trying to take the cup itself; it had happened once before, and she was determined not to let it happen again.  She would also listen for the telltale sound of objects other than coins; when the worthless objects began to outnumber the coins, she knew it was time to pack up and leave.  Her ear was sharp enough that she’d started to be able to tell exactly what was being thrown into her cup just by the sound; in the past she’d found rocks, bits of scrap metal, bones, even a bloody mouse head once.  Which is why when the cup made an unfamiliar rattle, it surprised the young cansin enough that she stopped playing.

            Lanara quickly looked around to see who had made the mysterious offering.  She caught a quick glimpse of a human male dressed in well-oiled leather armor, a sword swinging at his hip.  The man was tucking away a coin purse, even as his companion, an orc female in glittering chain mail and carrying a large spear, chided him.

            “… such a softie, Shilsen…”

            The pair went around a corner and out of sight, but even a quick glance told Lanara all she needed to know.  _Adventurers_.  Her heart pounding, Lanara knelt down and looked inside her cup.  Her eyes went wide, and she immediately snatched up her cup, grabbed her fiddle, and dashed down the road a way to a small alleyway.  Sitting in the dirt, she looked around to make sure no one was around, and then slowly reached into the cup with trembling fingers and pulled out a coin.

            It was badly clipped, and so worn that the markings were practically invisible, but it shone with a luster that copper could not match.

            Lanara’s mind raced with possibilities.  She could buy some good food; meat that didn’t have to be rubbed down with spices to mask the smell, or potatoes with no black spots.  She could buy a new bow and strings for her fiddle.  She could have the wobbly wheel on Daddy’s tinker cart fixed.  She could buy a goat so they could have fresh milk whenever they wanted.  She could buy new clothes.  She could…

            Suddenly, she knew what she wanted.  She packed away her belongings into her make shift rucksack quickly, pocketing the two copper coins that were also in her cup but maintaining a tight grip on the gold.  She walked back out into the street and made her way into the market.  Weaving her way through the crowds, she came up to a ramshackle building on the far side of the square, one of the few permanent shops in the market.  Inside it was clean, but dark, and unusually quiet.  A gnomish man with gray hair and spectacles sat behind a large, imposing counter.  He peered down at her over the top of his spectacles.

            “What do you want, girl?” he grumbled.

            “I need a moneychanger,” she said, trying to put on a brave face.  She’d heard rumors that old Boggardin took in valuables that some of the local town boys ‘found’, but his reputation as a curmudgeon was much better known.

            “What for?  Coins don’t get no lower than a copper, you know.”

            “I want to change in this,” she said, slapping the gold coin down on the counter, rather louder than she’d intended.

            There was a long silence as Boggardin glared at the coin on his counter, looking at it exactly as someone might look at a pile of cat droppings.  Finally, he picked it up.

            “Where’d you get this, girl?”

            A flurry of stories came to mind, but she decided honesty would work best.  “I was performing just outside the market,” she held open her rucksack to show Boggardin the neck of her fiddle, “and someone gave it to me.”

            “Folks round here don’t carry gold, girl.”

            “They weren’t from around here.  They were adventurers.”

            “Really?  What did these ‘adventurers’ look like?”

            “One was a man in leather armor with a sword, human, dark hair.  The other was an orc woman with a spear and chain armor.”

            Boggardin glared down at Lanara, rubbing his chin.  Then he looked at the coin again, and bit down on it.  “It’s been clipped damn near to nothing,” he said, “and Krûsh be damned if I can make out a stamp.  I’ll give you the value of the metal, not a copper more.  Six silvers.”

            Lanara nodded eagerly.  She knew it was probably worth more, but she sensed Boggardin was being nice even bargaining with her at all, and she didn’t think that an eight-year-old girl would be able to easily out-haggle a gnomish moneylender.  Besides, the exchange was necessary; like he’d said, no one in this town carried gold.  She couldn’t very well go to the local shops with that kind of money – people would think she’d stolen it for sure.  They would still raise their eyebrows at silver, but it was easier to explain away.

            Boggardin unlocked a strongbox and pushed six silver coins toward Lanara.  She scooped them up and tucked them away in her tunic.  Then she left the shop and made her way to one of the many carts lining the town square.  A kind-faced elf-touched woman sat at the cart, her weathered hands cutting leather.

            “What can I do for you, child?” she asked.

            “I need to buy a pair of shoes for my father,” Lanara said.  “Some good boots.”

            The woman looked Lanara over.  “Who’s your father, dear?”

            “Helmut.”

            “Helmut the tinker?  Yes, I’ve seen him selling his trade here.  He could use a pair of boots.”  The woman set down her work.  “But boots are expensive, my dear.”

            “I’ve been saving up,” Lanara said.  “How much?”

            “Seven silver, dear.”

            Lanara’s face fell.  “I… I don’t have that much.”

            The cobbler looked at the crestfallen cansin for a while.  Then, with a sigh, she said, “you know, dear, you’re supposed to haggle.”

            “Haggle?”

            “Yes dear, it’s what you do at a market.  I try to sell my goods for as much as I can, and you try to buy them for as little as possible.  We sort of… meet in the middle.”

            “Oh,” she said, “Daddy usually buys everything.”

            “Well, then, what you should say when I tell you the boots are seven silver is that you couldn’t possibly pay that much of your hard-earned coin for an ordinary pair of boots, and you won’t give me a copper over… four?”  Lanara nodded at the cobbler’s inquisitive look, “four silvers.”

            “I couldn’t possibly pay that much of my hard-earned coin for an ordinary pair of boots,” Lanara parroted, “I won’t give you a copper over four silver.”

            “And now I say, “Dear girl!  These are the finest boots in the land!  It would pain me to sell for less than six.”

            “Please!” Lanara said, getting the hang of it, “for that much I’d be better off buying my own cow and making my own boots!  Five silver.”

            “Very good, child!” the cobbler beamed.  “Ahem, I mean, oh, dear, you pain me so.  But I suppose I can agree to five.”

            Lanara handed over the coins as the cobbler produced a pair of large, sturdy boots, weaving the straps together so that they could be carried easily.  As she handed them to Lanara, she glanced down at the girl’s grubby toes.  “A pair for yourself as well, dear?”

            “No, thank you,” she said, turning red.  “I haven’t got enough money for that, even with haggling.”

            “Well, perhaps another day, then, child,” the cobbler said.  “You know where to find me.”

            Lanara walked away with the boots, smiling so widely she thought her cheeks would split open.  She wandered around the market, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells before returning home with her gift.  But then her eye caught a flash of light, and she stopped, mesmerized.  She stood in front of a cart where various items of jewelry were sold.  Light reflected off of gold and jewels, sparkling in the sun.  A sudden, wild idea sprang into Lanara’s mind.

            She walked up to the cart, ignoring the stares of the large man with the cudgel who had obviously been hired to ward off thieves.  The merchant, a thin-nosed human with a widow’s peak, looked down at her through his nose.

            “I want to buy something,” she said.  “A gift.  I don’t have a lot of money.”  Lanara held out her last silver coin in her palm.  All thoughts of haggling were gone.  She knew in her mind that this was foolish, that she should use the last silver for food, that she didn’t even know who her mother was.

            The merchant looked at the coin, and then suddenly broke into a crooked grin.  “It’s not much, true, but enough for this.” He produced a thin necklace from a pocket.  The chain was hung with colored glass and polished shells; to Lanara, in that moment, it looked priceless.

            Lanara nodded, the exchange was made, and soon Lanara was dashing home, a prize in each hand, eagerly thinking of how she would retell the day’s events to Daddy when he returned home.

_            And then I bought these boots for you, Daddy, so you can work without your feet hurting and bleeding like they always do!  And I also got this necklace, I know I shouldn’t have, but I thought that one day you could give it to…_

            “Lanara!”

            She turned, startled, at the sound of her own name.  Running up toward her came her father, Helmut, his tinker’s cart and tools nowhere in sight.

            “Thank Feesha I’ve found you!  Come with me, quickly!”

            Helmut turned and began to run the other way, barely glancing over his shoulder to see if she was coming.  Lanara took off after him immediately, the heavy boots slung over her shoulder bouncing into her back as she ran.  She was barely able to keep up, maneuvering quickly past people and carts as they made their way through town.

            “Daddy, wait!” she shouted.  “Where are we going?  Why are we running?”

            “I’ll explain later!” he shouted back.  “No time now!  Hurry, my little gem!  To the docks!”

            Lanara grinned despite being almost out of breath.  She loved the docks, and all the ships moored there, from the tiny rowboats to the schooners that occasionally stopped to take on supplies.  She often came down and played on the boats, pretending she was a pirate captain or a gnomish admiral.  She even had the chance to go out on one of the fishing trawlers once, and was paid four coppers to help the cook on board.  She hadn’t stopped talking about it for days.

            The sharp tang of sea air hit Lanara in the face as they emerged from the town’s streets and came to the bay.  Gulls wheeled and screeched overhead amidst she sounds of creaking ropes and lapping waves, and the aroma of salt and fish lay heavy in the wind.  Lanara continued to follow her father, who was almost running by now, down one of the wooden piers lining the shore.  At the far end, she saw a man sitting in a small, single-mast boat waving to them.  Helmut half-stepped, half-jumped into the boat, nearly capsizing it.  As they two men regained their balance, Lanara saw her father hand the man a large bag of coins – more than she’d ever seen in her life! – and point out across the bay.

            Helmut then turned and held out his arms.  “Jump in, my little gem!” he said.  “We must go quickly, but now the wind will carry us instead of our feet!”

            Lanara leapt into his arms and was placed on a cruse seat set on the bow of the ship.  “Where are we going, Daddy?”

            “To meet someone very special, my little gem,” was all he said.

            The boat was soon underway, and they began maneuvering past the other ships in the bay.  Lanara couldn’t see past the ships, but she could tell they were heading for the open ocean.  She had a moment of worry; the seas were rough past the bay, and this ship was small and overloaded already.  She set her father’s new boots down on the floor of the boat and put her feet into them to make sure they didn’t get knocked overboard.  Her father hardly seemed to notice; he was looking out across the water, searching eagerly.

            Finally, they steered past the last of the large fishing barges, and got a clear view of the open ocean.  A large galleon was anchored just outside the bay, easily the largest ship Lanara had ever seen.  She could see that the anchors were being drawn up, and white sails were being unfurled from the vessel’s three masts.  Helmut pointed at the galleon and shouted, and in response the captain tightened some ropes and turned the tiller.  The wind began to whistle through Lanara’s pink hair as their tiny ship picked up speed.

            Slowly, they drew closer to the large ship, for by now it was obvious that the galleon was their destination.  As they neared the end of the bay, everyone on the small craft grew deathly quiet.  Lanara searched for some small clue for why her Daddy would be so keen to catch up to this ship.  She couldn’t make out the ship’s name, and was far too young and inexperienced in such matters to know anything about the ship’s origins from its design or the way the sails were set.  But at the moment when the galleon’s sails finally caught the wind, and it became obvious that they would never reach it in time, a woman stepped up to the railing at the stern.

            They were still too far away to make out details.  The woman seemed tall, but it might have only been because she was so high above them, and stood out so brightly against the drab wood of the galleon.  She wore a long blue dress, but her arms were bare.  She looked out across the bay toward shore, not looking for anything in particular, just… looking.  She had long red hair that waved in the wind… no, that was not right.  Her hair was red, but not any shade of red Lanara had ever seen on a living creature.  Not the red of the freckle-faced son of the miller, not the red of the pigtails of the little hin girl that used to follow Lanara everywhere when they were with the clan.  This was the red of summer cherries, of precious rubies, of blood and roses and the setting sun.

            As the galleon began to pull away and the woman at the stern grew smaller, Lanara became vaguely aware of her father shouting and crying.  The sound of her Daddy sobbing jolted her, and she spasmed as though she’d been jabbed with a sharp stick.  She felt something slip out of her grasp and heard something small hit the water.

            She turned and leaned over the side and looked into the clear waters of the bay, just in time to see the necklace she’d bought slowly descending through the water.  It was already too far down to reach, and Lanara was not a strong swimmer, especially in the rougher waters near the mouth of the bay.  She watched as the thin chain floated downward, the colored glass catching a last glint of sunlight.  Then a dark shadow passed over it – a fish, perhaps – and it was gone.

            By the time Lanara looked up again, her father had fallen silent, and was sitting in the boat, hunched over, his eyes closed.  She had never seen him without a smile on his face.

            “Daddy?”

            It took a long time for him to respond.  “Where did you get those boots, Lanara?”

            “I bought them for you, Daddy.  A man in the market gave me money for my music to pay for them.”

            Helmut looked at the boots.  No, he looked _through _the boots, through the wooden hull of the ship, down through the water, staring at… nothing.

            “That was very foolish,” he said.  “You have better things to spend your money on.”

*          *            *​
            Lanara leaned over the railing of the ship, looking back at the receding shore.  Not far from where they had boarded rowboats that brought them out to the anchored ship, she saw a ramshackle hut on the beach, most likely the home of one of the local oyster divers.  She saw two children running around on the sand outside the house.  The children were too scruffy looking to easily tell if they were boys or girls, but she could faintly hear the echo of their laughter across the waves.  Suddenly they turned and ran to their house, where their parents emerged from the doorway and met them with open arms.  After scooping up a child apiece, they all went inside.

            She turned quickly and walked back toward the stairs leading into the ship’s interior.  “I’ll be in my cabin,” she snapped at one of the mates nearby.  “Nobody bother me until it’s time to get off this damn heap.”

            After she stalked away, the mate turned to Kyle.  “Have we done something wrong, Captain?”

            “No, don’t worry about it,” Kyle said.  “She just doesn’t like boats.”


----------



## Pyske

Nice.  Very poignant.


----------



## Delemental

*Secret Mission*

It lives!  It lives!!

----------------------------------

            Tolly’s spade bit into the hard-packed earth, turning over chunks of hard clay and flinging them out of the deep hole in which the Inquisitor stood.  Sweat ran down his dirt-caked brow, despite the chill of the winter day, stinging his eyes.  He stood for a moment, surveying his work, and then looked up at the two acolytes standing above him, nodding.

            The two men hoisted Tolly out of the hole, and then four more Ardarans carried over a bundle wrapped in white cloth, and placed it as gently as they could into the pit.  Tolly stood silently at the foot of the grave for a moment, then stepped aside to allow the Eritan priest waiting nearby to perform last rites.

            As he listened to the words being intoned in Elvish, Tolly looked over at the row of wrapped corpses still waiting for burial.  There were still five left, and the sun was starting to descend.  He would not finish tonight.  He could, of course, have used magic to dig all of the graves in a single day, rather than the fourteen he had spent at the task, but Tolly knew he had to do the work by hand.  It was only right.  And he had hoped he would find some solace in this deep communion with the Earth, that each blow of a pick or turn of a shovel would unearth answers in his own soul.

            But comfort still eluded him.  Why had he done this?  Why had he unleashed such destruction in the pursuit of those agents of Meeranda?  He knew what answer he would have given at the time – there were agents of the enemy about, blasphemers who had infiltrated the city’s heart and abducted a high-ranking political figure, and he had acted to protect the realm as a whole.  This answer no longer satisfied him as sufficient, but he could not pin down what was missing.  Until he knew, Tolly feared he might chose to act in a similar fashion in the future.

_This is not the work of a scalpel,_ Tolly thought, hearkening back to that time three years ago when his purpose within the church had been laid before him by the archons before Archprelate Jerome had raised him from the dead.  _This is the work of a cudgel._

            Tolly was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of approaching hoofbeats.  He looked up to see his apprentice, Crystal, dismounting and walking toward him, scroll in her hand.

            “I have a message for you, sir,” she said, handing him the scroll.  The wax seal bore the stamp of the Ardaran Prelate Council.  Tolly looked at the seal for a long time.

            “Are you going to read it, sir?” Crystal asked.

            “I already know what it says.”  Despite this, Tolly produced a dagger and sliced through the seal, then unrolled the heavy parchment.



Brother Tolly Nightsleaving,

By Order of the Archprelate and the Prelate Council, you have been relieved of the duties, privileges, and authority of the office of Inquisitor Primus.  You will immediately return all badges and symbols of office to the Cathedral of Eminent Order.  You have also been expelled from the Order of the Inquisition, and may no longer publicly claim fellowship with said Order on pain of censure.

            As your new status within the Church of Ardara no longer permits you the authority to oversee the training of acolytes, Sister Crystal has been reassigned to apprentice with Inquisitor Primus Ardent.  Any obligations which either of you may have held toward the other as a result of your previous relationship are considered void by this Council.

            It is our hope that in the future, you will choose to be guided by Ardara’s will in your thoughts and actions.


            Tolly’s face remained impassive, even when a few short lines, penned in Frelarr’s own hand, appeared briefly at the bottom of the page and then faded.

            Tolly, Tlaxan wanted your head.  This was the best I could get for you.  Good thing you’ve done the elves a favor or two recently, but you still ended up being an expensive problem.  Keep your hands clean from now on.

            Frelarr’s parting admonition stung worse than the demotion he’d been expecting.  Perhaps it was the emotion from this that Crystal saw on his face.

            “I’m sorry, Brother Tolly,” she said.

_She knows_, Tolly thought, bemusedly.  _She called me ‘Brother Tolly’, not ‘sir’.  Just like a proper Inquisitor would._

            “It’s all right, Crystal,” Tolly said.  “Ardent is a good man.  Let me know before you leave, will you?  I would like to say my farewells properly.”

            “Of course.  Will I find you here?”

            “Yes,” Tolly said, looking around, “until tomorrow, at least.”

*          *          *​
            Lanara strolled through the streets of Noxolt, a smile on her lips.  She might have whistled, too, if whistling wasn’t so gauche.  She had a reputation to maintain.  Especially now.

            The cansin had just come from a meeting with Sorene, the wizened gnomish woman who was the Princess of Telluria.  Sorene, who was now in full-time residency at the Imperial Palace since the Taurics had overrun her own principality, had taken an interest in Lanara’s career.  After some careful inquiries, especially with Ambassador Nissa from the Peca Provinces,  Princess Sorene had officially become Lanara’s patron in the Imperial Court, which firmly cemented her place in Tlaxan.  The old gnome had scoffed at concerns that spending money on a bard was somewhat frivolous when the empire was at war.

            “She’s more than just an entertainer, you know,” Sorene had snorted, “she’s a top-notch spy, from what I hear tell.  And it seems to me that morale is as much a part of war as anything else, and her voice is one of the best in the land.”  Sorene had then slapped Lanara firmly on the buttocks.  “And even if she couldn’t sing a note, the sight of that would inspire a soldier to fight a dozen Taurics.”

            Lanara’s smile widened at the memory, even if her hindquarters still stung a bit.  She remembered that Sorene had had the same “hands-on” style at Kyle and Autumn’s wedding – she’d pinched and squeezed their hips and buttocks like she was sizing up livestock before declaring her approval of the match.  She couldn’t be sure, but she thought that one of Sorene’s advisors had stopped the Princess just short of reaching up Kyle’s robes and groping his testicles.  The old gnome meant no harm by it, of course… but Lanara would try to stay out of arm’s reach, just in case.

            Beyond the improvement in her social status, Lanara’s new patron had been valuable in more valuable ways.  The Princess had brokered several arrangements with various agents to help Lanara obtain some much-needed supplements to her tactical abilities, and helped her distribute some of the magical items she no longer had use for out into the front lines where it would be put to better use.  Sorene had promised to help seek out other items for Lanara when she had the chance, especially if she and the rest of the Legacy worked hard to “get those animal people out of my domain”, as she put it.

            Walking into an unfamiliar part of the city, Lanara started paying attention to the streets and intersections, comparing them to the directions she’d been given.  She’d been approached yesterday by an Imperial Messenger, who had asked her to come to a particular house in the middle of the city this afternoon to discuss “Alliance business”.  The messenger had not given her anything more than that, but his credentials had checked out (after their recent experience with Autumn and the doppelganger, none of them were ready to implicitly trust – as Kyle had put it –  “any elf with a badge”).

            She arrived at the specified destination, a nondescript house in the part of town where many minor merchants and craftspeople lived.  Running her hands through her black hair (she was, of course, in disguise), she looked around casually, and then approached the house and grabbed the door handle.  She felt a slight tingle in her hand, which alarmed her initially until she realized it was probably some sort of divination magic.  She opened the door and went inside.

            The other members of the Legacy were seated around the room in a ramshackle variety of old chairs and benches.  They turned to look at the new arrival.

            “I’d point out that you’re late,” Tolly said to her, “but I’ve said it so often it’s become synonymous with ‘hello’.”

            “I’d put you in your place, Tolly,” Lanara shot back, “but obviously you’re only lashing out at me because of your recent demotion, so I’ll be kind today.”

            “So, we’re here,” Autumn said, to no one in particular, “now what?”

            “Well, whatever we’re doing, it’ll be private,” Kyle said, glancing around.  “The place reeks of abjuration magic.  Didn’t see any of it from outside, though.”

            “Probably because of the lovely cedar paneling,” Arrie quipped, rapping a knuckle against a wood-colored wall and hear the dull metallic sound of lead sheeting.

            Across the room, one of the wall panels slid aside, and an Imperial servant appeared at the bottom of a set of stairs.  Each of then recognized the man as the same messenger who had told them to come here.  “Please, up the stairs to the end of the hall.”  He stepped aside to let everyone past him.  The Legacy proceeded up the stairs and to an ordinary looking door, which opened to a fair-sized room.  The walls of the room were lined with cork, and a quick nod from Kyle told them that the same wards that were downstairs were in place here as well.  An oval table was set in the center of the room, and Emperor Haxtha sat at the far end.  But the Tlaxan Empire was dressed in ordinary commoner clothing, looking more like a local resident than the ruler of the realm.

            “Please, sit down,” Haxtha said, “I would prefer not to linger here.”

            The Legacy took up seats around the table.  “We use this house to conduct the most secret business of the Empire,” Haxtha explained.  “It has been warded in every conceivable way, both mundane and magical.  We believe that even the psionic abilities of the enemy would have difficulty eavesdropping on us here.  As part of this security, each of us – myself included – will submit to memory modification to erase the location of this house from our minds.”

            When each of them nodded their understanding, Haxtha leaned in.  “I’ve brought you here to discuss a mission vital to the Alliance.”

            “What do you want us to do?” Arrie asked.

            “I can’t tell you.”

            They all looked at each other.  “Not your usual briefing, that’s for sure,” Lanara quipped.

            “I do have a mission I wish you to undertake,” Haxtha explained.  “But I cannot give you the details of the mission yet.  I wish for your role in the mission to remain unknown, even to you.  You may be the primary agents of the mission, or I may be sending you out as a distraction while the real primaries act in secrecy.  If you are captured, you cannot give away information you don’t have.”

            “All right,” Tolly said, “what are we doing, then?”

            “You will set sail in your own vessel, the _Armadillo_,” Haxtha said, ignoring the low groan from Lanara.  “The ship has been outfitted, and you will be provided with a crew.  You will sail west to the Haran Desert, where you will rendezvous with an orcish warchief who will provide details of the next part of your mission.”  The Emperor turned to Osborn.  “Because of the nature of this mission, you will be invested with full diplomatic authority for the Empire and the Alliance.”

            “Who is this warchief we’re meeting?” Tolly asked, though he already suspected.

            “Warchief Keth,” Haxtha replied.  “When your ship arrives at the port town at the mouth of the Kruga River, you will be contacted by his people to arrange the meeting.”

            The party looked at each other.  Knowing that they were meeting Warchief Keth, they now had a better understanding of who the Legacy was being sent, and why Osborn in particular had been appointed as an ambassador.  They each had a dozen questions, but knew it was likely that Haxtha would be unable or unwilling to answer them.

            “You have one day to prepare,” Haxtha said, when he saw the consent in their eyes.  “You set sail at dawn on the fifth.”

*          *          *​
            Osborn looked at the small scrap of parchment in his hand, frowning, as he reached up with his free hand to scratch his nose.

            The message was clear enough – _Imperial Stables, three bells, near the Legacy’s horses, for private meeting_.  He’d been slipped the note on his way back from the meeting with Haxtha, through channels he recognized as his own people.  But there were oddities about the code that he used to communicate with his network of operatives; slight variations that seemed amiss.

            The hin reached down and patted Rupert on the side as he sat next to his friend and master.  Osborn puzzled over the note a bit longer, and then reached into a pocket and withdrew a small hunk of raw steak.  Osborn wadded up the parchment and folded it inside the meat, and then held it out on his palm to Rupert, who promptly swallowed it.

            Had his network been infiltrated?  He supposed it was quite possible, even inevitable, given how much ‘unofficial’ aid he’d given to the Alliance and to the refugees of the war.  _Barely a scratch on the surface,_ he thought bitterly to himself.

            Osborn mulled the message over in his mind, trying to put himself in a more positive frame of mind.  The discrepancies in the code could be nothing more than the mistakes of a relatively new agent.  There might not be anything more sinister than a lapse in training.  Still, Osborn mused, he didn’t get to where he was by assuming the best.

The fact that it referred to the Legacy was the most puzzling.  He’d taken care that no one in the Shadow General’s network knew that he had any connection to the Legacy.

            “I think I’ll have to go to this meeting,” he said aloud to Rupert, who was looking at the hin expectantly for more treats.  “But maybe I’ll go a little early.”

            Osborn entered the stables at half past two bells, sneaking quietly into the building.  He wore his _ring of invisibility_, but was still taking no chances.  Osborn immediately noticed that the stables were devoid of the normal cadre of groomsmen and stable hands that tended the Emperor’s many horses.  But if anything was amiss, the horses in their stalls were showing no signs of disturbance.

            Osborn crept along slowly, looking and listening for any signs that someone was here preparing an ambush or some other nasty surprise.  He approached the stall where Arrie’s horse Ghost was stabled, and peeked around; both horse and stall were very well kept, as might be expected for an Imperial Princesses’ steed.  In the next stall over, Autumn’s Defiance gave a snort and stomped his hoof – the warhorse probably smelled him, but since he was a familiar smell, Defiance only showed token annoyance at the intrusion.

            He moved on, a bit more cautiously.  The other horses in the nearby stalls belonged to his friends as well, but unlike Ghost and Defiance, these were newly acquired, and so would be more fidgety at his approach.  Still, Osborn surmised, they would be equally ill at ease with some stranger hiding in their stall, so if they horses were calm, it was probably safe.  Thus, Osborn had to admit to himself later, he was somewhat surprised when he heard an unfamiliar voice behind him as he passed the stall for Tolly’s mount.

            “Well, you’re really early, aren’t you?” said the voice, in a slightly nagging tone.  The voice sounded strange, as though the person’s jaw was broken or somehow malformed.

            Osborn turned to address the speaker, and was quite surprised by what he saw.

*          *          *​
            With a sharp pop, the party arrived in the courtyard of Autumn’s manor house in Vargas.  Several servants stood nearby, awaiting their arrival calmly.  Aleria, Autumn’s personal valet, approached the Duchess immediately, holding a large wooden box.

            “We’ve made the preparations you requested,” she said, bowing, “These men will escort you to the river where your ship is docked.”  She gestured toward a large wagon, already laden with luggage and supplies, surrounded by twenty men at arms.   “Lady Auror and General Togusa have prepared the reports you wanted.”  She offered the box to Autumn, who took it under one arm.  “However, I took the liberty of reading through them and providing a summary of the salient points, should you wish to use that instead.”  Aleria reached into her tunic and produced two folded sheets of parchment.  Autumn regarded the papers for a moment, and then took them, handing the box back to Aleria.

            “Thank you, Aleria, you’re a life-saver.  Take care of yourself.”

            “Of course, Your Grace.”

            Tolly came up to the two women.  “Autumn?  The advisor?”

            “She arrived two days ago, and is awaiting you on the ship, Inquisitor Primus,” Aleria said.

            Tolly’s face darkened slightly.  “You may address me as ‘Brother Nightsleaving’ now, Aleria,” he said.  Aleria reddened.

            “My apologies, sir.  I intended no offense.”

            Autumn put a hand out and touched Tolly’s chest.  “It’s my fault, Tolly.  I didn’t tell anyone here about that… change in your position.”

            Tolly paused, and the color slowly drained from his face, though not entirely.  “No offense taken, of course.  It is a very recent change.”  He looked at Autumn.  “Will we be leaving right away?”

            “As soon as Kyle gets back…” there was another loud pop, “…with the horses.”

            “Five orders of griffin food to go!” Kyle joked, as valets approached and led the horses toward the waiting escort.

            Autumn walked over and slugged Kyle in the arm.  “I’ll feed you to a griffin before Defiance,” she growled.  A matching punch came from Arrie in the other arm.  “And I’ll feed it Violet as an appetizer.”  Perched on the horn of Kyle’s saddle, Violet cawed irritably at Arrie.

            “Forget the war,” Kyle grumbled, rubbing his sore arms, “I’ll need to learn to wear armor just to survive marrying into the Verahannen family.”

            “The only nobles in Tlaxan whose family tree is a tendriculos,” Lanara quipped nearby, earning a chorus of laughs, from Arrie and Autumn especially.

            It was, truth be told, a thin veneer of good cheer, put on to impress the servants and the soldiers of their confidence in the face of adversity.  But after the party took to their horses and had left the bustling city of Vargas behind, when they were riding on the long, lonely road to the Lassh River, their mood became more somber.  There was some anxiety about their mission, of course – going into the unknown with no sense of their true purpose would worry anyone.  But there was an undercurrent of doubt beneath it.  Each of them, it seemed, was struggling with their own inner demons; some well known, others hidden from everyone, even the person struggling with them.  Demons that, for the time being, had to be forced back, out of conscious thought.

            They arrived at the river without incident and with little fanfare.  The small fishing village they arrived in had been hastily modified to accommodate the large ship that was berthed just off shore.  After exchanging a few pleasantries with the local mayor, Autumn and the rest of the Legacy moved on to the dock.

            “I thought you said they made improvements, Kyle,” Lanara said.

            “They did,” he countered, “can’t you tell?”

            “Still looks like a iron tub to me.”

            “Correction,” Tolly interjected, “it’s an iron tub with a cannon.”

            At first glance, the _Armadillo _did look much the same at it did before.  But a pair of pontoons had been mounted low on the hull, most likely to provide stability for the pair of ballista that now stood on the port and starboard side.  From the front of the bow, midway up from the water line, a cannon protruded out a sally port.  The metal tube had been cast with the likeness of an armadillo’s head, its gaping mouth wide open where the bore opened.

            “They had to make it look like an armadillo, didn’t they?” Osborn sighed.

            “At least it’s a ferocious-looking armadillo,” Kyle said.

            Other changes were less obvious.  The ship’s metal plating had been redistributed, focusing on protecting the vessel in battle rather than forcing its way through solid ice.  The ice ram had been replaced with a more typical military ram, and the collapsible mast had been reinforced as well.  The flag of the Alliance flew just below a flag bearing the Legacy’s symbol.

            “Guess there’s no hiding who we are,” said Arrie, peering up at the flags.

            “Yeah, wouldn’t want to be mistaken for all the other iron tubs out there,” Lanara griped.

            “Shouldn’t you wait until you’re actually on the boat before you start your nonstop complaining?” snapped Kyle.

            Lanara flipped Kyle a mock salute.  “Aye aye, captain,” she said, and then quickly dismounted.  “I believe I know the way to my cabin.  With any luck it still smells like massage oil, so I can at least pretend I was able to bring a masseuse along.”

            The others dismounted and allowed members of the crew to lead their horses below decks, while they found their own cabins and stowed their personal gear.  Kyle remained above deck to supervise the final preparations and give orders as the elven crew cast off.  Lanara did emerge briefly, standing at the stern railing as they sailed away from the village, and then she returned below, after snarling something at the third mate.  Kyle reassured the sailor that he’d done nothing wrong.

*          *          *​
            It took the _Armadillo _three full days to reach the mouth of the river, and that was going with the current; despite Kyle’s protests, the ship really was an iron tub. With little traffic on the river in winter, sailing the ship was relatively easy, so the Legacy and the crew had some time to kill.  Eventually, throwing rocks at Targeth’s magic barrier and watching them disintegrate lost its charm, so each of them found their own form of distraction.  Lanara spent much of her time familiarizing herself with some of the new magical items she’d recently acquired, but other than that she remained in her cabin most of the time.  Others decided to examine the improvements in the ship.  The party was somewhat disconcerted when they discovered that the Tlaxan shipwrights had added a secondary method of propulsion, consisting of a pair of submerged water wheels powered by a team of zombies stored below.  Even knowing the zombies were licensed and sanctioned by the church of Erito did little to reduce the creepiness factor.

            The Imperial Advisor, a plain-looking elven woman, mostly kept to herself, saying that she would be of more use once they got to the desert.  She did have some skill as a sailor, and informed the Legacy that she would be able to take over as captain if Kyle were killed or incapacitated in some fashion.

Travel on the river was not rapid by any stretch of the imagination; once they got into the open ocean, however, things went much slower.  The weather was unpleasant, with numerous winter storms even this close to the equator.  None of them threatened any significant damage, but they did result in more than one member of the party having to revisit their last meal.

There were bright moments.  The party used the voyage to begin a new tradition; sharing a large morning meal together, provided to them with Ardara’s blessing via Tolly.  The Legacy saw it as a time for them to bond as a group; the fact that it bolstered their health and rendered them immune to poison and fear didn’t hurt either.  The party noticed that Osborn would usually save a large slab of steak or a napkin full of sausages to take to Rupert.

Three weeks into the voyage, the lookout hailed Kyle.  “Sails astern, captain!”

            Everyone went to look.  Sure enough, far back on the horizon, three sails dotted the sky.

            “What colors?” shouted Kyle at the lookout, who already had a spyglass out.  A moment later, the crewman shouted down descriptions of the banners on the three ships.

            “Those aren’t any colors flown by an Affon ship,” the first mate said.

            “Uh oh,” Arrie said.

            They watched at the three ships tacked onto a course behind the _Armadillo_, and then began pacing them, staying roughly five miles back.  They remained there for several hours.

            “What are we going to do about them?” Autumn asked.

            “Can we get a closer look?” Osborn chimed in.

            “I haven’t prepared anything suitable today,” Kyle said.  “Tolly?”  The priest shook his head.

            “Let’s wait and see,” Kyle said.  “They don’t seem interested in catching up.  Maybe they’re just curious.  Besides, this may be exactly why Haxtha sent us out here.”

            The ships remained in their positions for two more days, when they were joined by two more.  In that time, Kyle was able to use a combination of _arcane eye_ and _scrying _to get a good look at their escort.  All five were Tauric war galleys, crewed mostly by humanoid slaves with metal ring piercing their ankle just inside the tendon.  A few of the humans did not wear ankle rings, marking them as officers, though it was impossible to tell through the divinations whether they were lycanthropes or psions.  Other command crew included a centaur, a creature like a minotaur but with reptilian features that Kyle eventually identified as a dracotaur, and a feathered humanoid female with wings that they recognized from their voyage with Captain Starke as a raptoran.

            “Do we want to lose them?” Tolly asked.

            “Well, we aren’t going to outrun them,” Arrie said.  “You got a stormcloud in your pocket, Tolly?”

            “As a matter of fact,” he replied, “I can influence the weather to a certain extent.  Perhaps I could call up a small storm to drive them off.”

            The party looked at Kyle, who nodded his consent.  Tolly walked to the aft castle and threw his arms wide, and began to intone a ritual.  Within minutes, the sky had darkened, and soon heavy rain began to fall behind the _Armadillo _as they sailed on.  Black, angry clouds rolled toward the line of Tauric vessels, but as they drew near the rain slowed, then stopped, and the clouds dissipated, revealing clear blue sky.

            “What happened?” Autumn asked.  “Were you countered?”

            “Overridden would be more accurate,” Tolly said.  “I suspect they have a druid aboard, and a potent one at that.  In a situation like this, nature magic would probably trump Ardara’s power.”

            The party watched for about an hour, but the enemy ships made no move to close the distance.  “What now?” Arrie asked.

            “I think we’re being herded,” Tolly said.

            “Or they’re curious, and not sure what to do about us,” Arrie said.

            “From what I can gather from my _scrying_, they’re waiting for something,” Kyle said.  “Whether they’re waiting for us to do something or for something on their side to happen, I can’t tell.”

            “I can keep attempting to send storms to disrupt them,” Tolly said.

            “Sure, maybe every other day or so,” Kyle said.  “Let them think we’re still trying to throw them off.”

            They were followed for another three days, still without incident.  Finally, the party decided to take a gamble.  Tolly launched another _control weather _spell late in the evening, but followed it with a summoning spell that sent a giant celestial squid after the Tauric flotilla.  At the same time, Kyle used a _screen _spell to make it appear that the _Armadillo _was making a run for it.  The ploy worked; the Tauric ships scattered as they tacked to follow their illusionary quarry.  The crew of the _Armadillo _awoke to an empty ocean, and cheers went up.  But by midmorning, Kyle began to detect the presence of several scrying sensors, and a day later the five ships were back on their tail as though nothing had happened.  The Legacy resigned themselves to the fact that the Taurics would have to make the next move.

            Late that night, Arrie was walking above decks, and spotted Tolly at the ship’s stern. She joined him at the railing.  They both looked out across the black ocean; the ships couldn’t be seen, of course, but their presence could be felt.

            “They’ll attack, eventually,” Arrie stated.

            “Soon, I think.  We’ll be bearing south now, heading away from Tauric-controlled waters.”

            The warrior sighed.  “More blood, more death.  I suppose it was inevitable.”

            “You say that with the same tone a housemaid would use when it’s time to beat the dust out of the rugs.”

            “I’ve seen so many battles in the past three years,” Arrie said.  “What’s one more?  Or a dozen more?”

            “A somewhat jaded view,” Tolly commented, “I would think someone in your position would be more apprehensive about personal combat.”

            Arrie shrugged.  “I’ll die at some point, whether its tomorrow at the end of a sword or old and feeble in bed at the Imperial Palace.  Nothing can change that.  For someone like me, the only difference is how many people I send to the afterlife ahead of me.”

            There was a long silence, broken only by the splashing of the _Armadillo’s _considerable wake.

            “So, isn’t this where you’re supposed to offer some tidbit of Ardaran wisdom?  Save my soul, or something?”

            Tolly remained silent, looking out over the ocean.

            “Aw, come on.  You’re supposed to be my moral compass, remember?  Point out the error of my ways?”  There was the tiniest hint of desperation in Arrie’s voice, barely detectable.

            Tolly looked down at Arrie.  “You cannot find north with a broken compass, Arrie.”  With that, he turned and walked away, disappearing into the gloom.

            Silently, Arrie stared after the cleric long after he’d vanished from sight.  Then, she looked back out across the inky water, toward the five ships behind them.

            “Happy new year,” she said quietly to herself.


----------



## Ed Gentry

Excellent! Glad to see this SH back in action.


----------



## Delemental

“Make fast that mooring!”

            Autumn dashed up onto deck, straightening the shoulder plates on her armor as her husband bellowed orders.  “What’s going on?”

            Kyle pointed west, out over the water.  “A new ship, on an intercept course,” he said.  “They’re making their move.”

            Autumn looked, and saw the ship approaching fast.  Looking behind them, she saw that the other five ships were still there, but were also closing in.

            “Bail’s Mane!” Autumn swore.  “What can I do?”

            “Just join the others, and we’ll get ready to meet them,” Kyle said.  “We’ll try and get as many ships as we can before they get here.”  Kyle cast a spell, and suddenly several _unseen servants_ appeared and took hold of various ropes, maintaining a steady course.  “Break out the weapons!” Kyle shouted, “leave the sailing to the _servants_!”

            As the sailors scrambled about, pulling on leather armor and readying spears and bows, the Legacy gathered at the bow of the ship.  Kyle and Tolly cast several spells in preparation, and then turned their attention to the approaching flotilla.  The warships had formed up into two waves, and were closing fast, with three ships leading the attack and the other two following behind as a reserve.  Tolly cast, and a _blade barrier_ appeared in the air just in front of one ship.  A minute later, the battered vessel lurched and began to fall behind, its tattered, bloody sails flapping in the wind.  Another spell by Tolly sent an enormous gout of greenish slime at the other ship, which quickly dissolved the wooden craft down to the water line.  Finally, he sent more divine magic into the water just in front of the third ship, which began to churn and swirl into a large vortex, causing the vessel to spin out of control.*

            “That should give us some room to breathe,” Tolly said.

            “There’s the understatement of the year,” Lanara commented.

            “The year’s not even a day old,” Osborn pointed out.  “We’ve got time to top it.”

            Meanwhile, Kyle, Arrie, and Autumn had moved to the bow, looking at the rapidly approaching sixth ship.  Arrie had taken out her double bow, and was firing arrows at the enemy crew; Autumn was doing likewise with her crossbow.  The ship was close enough that they could see some of the officers of the other ships aboard this new vessel.  Kyle recognized the centaur, the dracotaur, the raptoran, and one of the human officers, who was carrying a bastard sword across his back.  There was a fifth figure aboard that none of them had seen until now; a human woman, with a sword strapped to her waist.

            “The sixth ship is a faster vessel that the war galleys,” Kyle said, “they must have picked up their strike force last night, and circled around to cut us off.”

            The rest of the crew were firing arrows at the Tauric ship, and not surprisingly the Taurics were firing back.  When six elves fell dead after a brutal volley, Kyle ordered the sailors to get below.  Arrie couldn’t help but notice that the arrows coming in were extremely large, nearly five feet long, and had been deadly accurate.  She also noted that they were all the same style, which led her to believe that all of the enemy missile fire was coming from one person.

As the ship drew close enough, Kyle cast a _defenestrating sphere_ and began hurling Tauric sailors off the deck, pausing only long enough to cloak himself in a _greater invisibility_.  Unfortunately, the fact that Kyle was close enough to cast spells at the Taurics meant they were free to do likewise.  Tolly was hit by a freezing ray from the raptoran that nearly encapsulated him in ice before he was able to shake himself free, and a second later the dracotaur hit him with a _greater dispel magic_.   Most of the spells on Tolly held, but he lost both his _status _spell and the _telepathic bond _that Kyle had placed earlier, depriving him of the two means by which he would be able to keep track of the party’s well-being.

            The Legacy shifted their positions to meet the incoming threat.  Arrie and Osborn moved to the forecastle, taking a few last shots at the Tauric ship, while Tolly and Lanara stood in the middle near the mast, the former casting a _vigorous circle_ while the latter sang.  Autumn waited at the aft castle next to her husband.

            “You know, I am invisible,” Kyle said to Autumn.  “You could go help the others.”

            “Not a chance,” she said.  “If I leave, you’ll do something stupid like teleport yourself over to the other ship.”

            “No I wouldn’t,” Kyle pouted, as he mentally adjusted his plans.

            The raptoran launched herself into the air, screaming.  Suddenly, the low dark clouds that had been overhead began to roil, and then formed into the shape of a large, angry creature that descended rapidly toward the _Armadillo_.

“That one’s all yours, Kyle,” Arrie thought over the bond, as she launched an arrow at the raptoran druid.  But it was Autumn who first had to deal with the storm elemental, shaking off the effects of the creature’s electrical aura even as it slammed into her with fists that shouldn’t have hit as hard as they did, considering they were made of clouds.  Gritting her teeth, Autumn focused pain into steely determination, and with a shouted oath to Bail struck back.  The blow hit with the force of a thunderclap, and the elemental reeled.  The rest of the party, inspired by the sentinel’s example, attacked with renewed vigor.  Arrie, after taking two shots from the centaur’s bow, used her piscrown to launch herself into the air and shoved her newly formed greatspear into the raptoran’s guts.  Kyle tried to petrify the flying druid, but she resisted his spell, and then cast an enchantment of her own at Lanara.  The cansin felt a brief wave of irresistible hunger, and for a moment the thought of taking a bite out of Tolly’s back crossed her mind.  But simple revulsion at the thought of getting that close to the Ardaran priest helped her shake off the spell’s affects quickly.

            As the Tauric ship finally drew alongside, the unfamiliar female shot a blast of dark, corrupting energy at Osborn, and then leapt from one ship to the other in a single standing bound.  Kyle tried to catch her in a _cone of cold_, but when the spell hit, a shimmering bubble appeared around her and absorbed most of the damage.  Kyle took a quick peek through his staff, and confirmed his suspicion; the woman was laden with psionic auras.  Everyone else noticed that the woman was not human, but had the tell-tale diamond-dust skin of a maenad.  She immediately rushed to where Tolly and Lanara stood, and engaged both opponents at once, wielding a wooden sword.  At the same time, the other ‘human’ on the Tauric ship also made a leap to the Armadillo, shifting in midair into the form of a snarling werewolf.  The lycanthrope closed in on Osborn, but attacked with a large, wicked looking bastard sword.  Osborn did his best to put some distance between himself and the werewolf so he could throw daggers, but the small confines of the ship’s deck made this difficult.

            The centaur and the dracotaur remained on their own ship, the dracotaur casting spells, and the centaur peppering the party with arrows.  Tolly’s plate armor was punctured by several shafts, tearing through the metal as though it was paper and even ignoring the protection of his _iron body_ spell.  Tolly pulled one free with a grunt, and noticed that the arrowheads were made of adamantium.  “Wonderful,” Tolly grimaced, and returned to the task of dispatching the maenad.

             Arrie was involved in a three-way aerial battle with the raptoran and the elemental at the stern of the two ships, trying to ward off both at once.  She wheeled to slash at the elemental, which gave the druid an opening.  But rather than attacking Arrie, the raptoran swooped down, casting a spell, and struck Tolly with a _rusting grasp_, causing flakes of iron flesh to fall away.  Lanara, staying out of the way of the maenad with the wooden sword, slightly altered her bardic song, setting up a harmonic dissonance to try to disrupt the dracotaur’s spells.  Despite this, the Tauric spellcaster was able to get a spell off, and Autumn was hit by a blast of acid from the dracotaur, which clung to her armor and sizzled as it worked its way through her flesh.  The blast hit Kyle, too, but his own wards protected him from most of the damage.  The dracotaur tried to cast again, but this time Tolly was ready, and countered the spell as it was forming.  As Autumn took another powerful swing at the elemental, reveling in the damage she was inflicting on the creature, Kyle produced a second staff and threw a _wall of fire_ across the deck of the other ship, blocking the line of sight of the dracotaur and centaur.

            Looking around, Tolly saw that many of his companions were bleeding freely.  He saw Autumn stagger a bit under a blow from the elemental, and he immediately stepped back and threw out a _mass cure_ spell, channeling it through his armbands to amplify its effects.  The spell helped immensely, but the casting gave the maenad an opening to slice her strange blade across Lanara’s stomach.  To the cansin’s dismay, she discovered that the wooden sword cut just as deeply as a steel one.

            The werewolf attacking Osborn lunged in, swinging his bastard sword, and then suddenly feinted and lunged in with his snarling, drooling jaws, sinking his teeth deep into Osborn’s forearm.  The hin wrenched his arm free, and tried to ignore the fact that there was now copious amounts of lycanthrope spit in the open wound.  In response, Osborn tumbled back and unleashed a hail of daggers.  Although most of the wounds began to close up as soon as the daggers hit, there were simply too many wounds for the werewolf to bear, and with a whine the werewolf collapsed, shifting back to human form.

            Arrie decided to leave the elemental to her sister, and swooped down to attack the raptoran druid again, leaving another gaping hole in the nature priestesses’ torso.  But the elemental, clearly trying to protect its master, swooped in and grabbed on to the flying warrior, gripping her tightly in its maelstrom-like appendages.  The elemental then flew up out of Autumn’s range, having grown wary of the sentinel’s prowess.  Spitting a last oath at the elemental, Autumn went in to help Lanara ward off the maenad, who’d just resisted an _unluck _spell the bard had tried to cast.

            Kyle looked around, sizing up the opposition to determine where he could help the most.  He considered trying to banish the storm elemental to help Arrie escape its grasp, but suddenly realized that the spell would be ineffective; nature magic drew its power from Aelfenn itself, so the elemental’s ‘home plane’ was this one**.  He was just aiming a _polar ray_ at the cloud-beast when the raptoran uttered a _word of balance_.  When the expected jolt did not come, Kyle looked around; a quick survey told him that the spell had not affected his friends much.  Kyle took aim at the massive cloud-creature again, when he felt a twinge from one of his abjurations.  Something had attempted to teleport nearby, and had been caught by his _greater anticipate teleportation_.  Something large, and draconic.  Kyle grinned.  Now he had to decide where exactly to deposit the dracotaur.

            Meanwhile, Arrie had slipped out of the arms of the elemental, using her psicrown’s _freedom of movement_ power and then flying away.  She was nearly exhausted from the constant barrage of electrical fury, and needed a moment to clear her head.  Looking around, she saw the raptoran druid swooping around to the bow, where the maenad was being assaulted by four of her companions.  Tolly had summoned a huge fist of energy, and was using it to try and push the maenad off the side.  Autumn and Lanara had both leapt in and landed solid blows with their weapons, while Osborn’s daggers were now protruding from several places in the psion’s body.   Unfortunately, with a triumphant shout, the druid was able to cast a spell, and the maenad’s wounds vanished, even though the two were separated by at least twenty feet of open sky.  To add insult to injury, the maenad’s psionic defenses absorbed the damage from Lanara’s _shout_.

            “Damn,” Arrie said, and was about to dive in to help re-wound the maenad, when the elemental swooped in and slammed into her with two massive fists, forcing her to again deal with her tempestuous foe.

            Tolly was about to finish pushing the maenad over the edge of the ship, and then use his _Ardara’s clenched fist_ to hold her under the water, but he caught a sudden movement from the corner of his eye, and looked up.  The centaur had jumped through the _wall of fire_, singeing itself badly as it landed on the deck of the _Armadillo_, three arrows already notched and drawn.  The bowstring sang as the arrows found their mark in Tolly’s chest.  If not for the fact that he was currently made of iron, the blow probably would have knocked the wind out of him.  As it was, his vision was blurring, and so he was forced to break off his attack on the maenad and heal himself.

            Kyle, seeing Tolly stumble, targeted the centaur with a _stun ray_.  The Tauric archer’s eyes glazed, and he staggered a bit as the spell took hold.  “Get him now!” Kyle shouted over the telepathic bond, “While he’s out of it!”

            Autumn and Arrie quickly moved to take Kyle’s advice, hacking into the stunned centaur with fresh fury.  Tolly tried to grab onto the raptoran with his _fist_, but she easily slipped out of its enormous grip, clearly protected by magic from any attempt to bind her.  Lanara, trying to take over where the cleric had left off, pulled out her new _decanter of endless water_ and, bracing herself against the mast, turned it on the maenad.  The torrential rush knocked the psion to the ground, keeping her from reaching Lanara with her wicked wooden sword, but the maenad had other tricks as well.  She looked over at Osborn, who was still peppering her with daggers, and suddenly a vortex of silvery energy appeared under the hin’s feet.  Osborn fell down through the hole, and a moment later emerged from a matching vortex suspended directly over Kyle’s _wall of fire_. A battered Osborn fell through the flames, and then splashed into the open sea.

            The elemental swooped down toward the deck, and seeing a large number of his enemies gathered together, it unleashed a blast of thunder and lightning on the deck.  The _Armadillo _rocked and lurched at the force of the blow.  Both Autumn and Arrie collapsed under the onslaught, and Kyle, who was caught in the area, nearly joined them.  He fired a _polar ray_ back at the elemental, who veered away, wanting to get away from the pain but unable to find its source.  Lanara was just able to avoid the worst of the blast thanks to a last-second spell.

The centaur and the maenad, who were also in the blast, were wounded by the elemental’s power as well, but the druid swooped low and cast another healing spell, closing up their wounds.  Scowling, Tolly reached out with divine power and dispelled the _freedom of movement_ on the raptoran, making her an easy target for his _clenched fist_.

Nearby, Osborn was swimming back to the ship, crossing the distance easily thanks to his own _ring of freedom of movement_.  The climb back on to the smooth, wet iron plates of the _Armadillo _proved trickier, and his first attempt failed.  He managed to grab on to a stray bit of netting that had come loose along the stern, and used that to begin climbing up to the deck.

At about the same time, the dracotaur reappeared, ready to unleash death on the first thing he saw.

The first thing he saw was the iron keel of the _Armadillo_, bearing down on him fast as he dropped into the sea just in front of the ship.

With only a second before being engulfed, the dracotaur cast a _vitriolic sphere_ at the ship, hoping the acid from the spell would quickly eat through the hull and allow him to climb in.  Unfortunately for the Tauric sorcerer, he underestimated exactly how much armor plating his enemies had been willing to place on their ship, and so the acid had only eaten halfway through when he was struck by the keel and pulled under.

The maenad managed to get another swing in on Lanara, despite the bard’s attempts to ward her off with the _decanter_, cutting deep into the cansin’s leg.  Kyle tried channeling a _greater dispel magic_ through the Scion’s Staff, converting the arcane energy into psionic power in order to strip the maenad’s wards, but he succeeded in only removing one power.  Meanwhile, the elemental, seeing that its first victim was down, turned to Tolly, who was attempting to rebuke the creature of air.  With a rush of wind that sounded like a scream, the elemental rushed toward the Ardaran, ignoring the burst of divine energy coming from him, and grabbed onto Tolly, dragging him kicking and struggling over the side of the ship and dropping him into the water with a loud splash.

Kyle moved over to where Arrie lay sprawled on the deck.  Checking her pulse, he pulled out a healing potion and poured it down her throat.  Groaning, she opened her eyes.

“Nap time’s over,” he said.  “See if you can deal with that centaur while I get to Autumn.”

“Right,” she said, climbing to her feet and picking up Anyweapon, and then taking a split second to use her psionic power to revitalize herself.  Arrie saw the centaur draw back with three arrows and fire at Lanara, who had managed to incapacitate the maenad with a lucky _hideous laughter_ spell*** and was now gleefully hosing down the giggling psion.  She leveled her spear at the centaur and charged in, the tip biting deep into his flank.  The three arrows buried themselves deep into the mast.

Suddenly aware of the danger, Lanara pulled out another one of her recent acquisitions; a metal rod to which three wands were attached.  All three wands discharged at the centaur at once, and he was left reeling under the barrage of spells, disoriented and weak. At the same time, Tolly suddenly reappeared out of nowhere on the other side of the archer, his maul in mid-swing.  The centaur, lurching forward in confusion to try and avoid Arrie’s spear, put the momentum of his own weight straight into Tolly’s blow.  Twitching, the centaur went down.

With a smile of grim satisfaction on his face, Tolly turned to the druid, still struggling to escape his_ clenched fist_.  With a thought, he plunged the fist into the water, carrying the raptoran with it.  He looked down and saw her shift into the shape of a shark, and so he pulled her out again.  He glared at her as he watched her thrash.

“I can keep this up for a while,” he said, “and you can change forms only so many times.  Surrender now.”

The druid’s response came from the storm elemental, who swooped in and battered Tolly from behind again.  Both Kyle and Arrie turned their attention to the elemental, trying to draw it off, while Lanara continued to harass the laughing maenad in case she had any other tricks.  At the stern of the ship, the dracotaur managed to catch on to the loose netting and began pulling himself to the deck.  About halfway up, he looked up to see Osborn looking down at him.

“I don’t think you have permission to board,” the hin said, a pair of daggers in his hands.  A moment later, the dracotaur was dead, hanging limply from the netting with the hilts of two daggers protruding from his eye sockets.

At mid-ship, a ferocious battle still raged between the elemental, Arrie, and Tolly.  Kyle, off to one side, focused his concentration as he prepared his next spell, taking a few extra seconds to let the energy build up.  He was about to unleash it on the elemental, when he suddenly remembered something****, and at the last second he turned and unleashed a blast of sonic energy at the raptoran druid, turning her into paste.

With a sound like a bolt of lightning striking a tree, the elemental went berserk at the loss of its mistress.  But without her guidance its attacks were unfocused and wild, and Arrie and Tolly were soon able to strike fatal blows that dissipated the creature like a summer storm.  They lowered their weapons, and were about to turn and help Autumn when the _Armadillo _lurched, sending them all staggering.  They heard cries of panic and alarm from below decks.

“We’ve been breached!” Kyle shouted, turning visible again.

“By what?” Lanara asked.  “The other ships are leaving!”  Sure enough, the two remaining Tauric war galleys were coming about and heading away from the _Armadillo_.

Tolly had run up to the bow of the ship, and was looking over the railing.  “There’s a hole through the ship,” he shouted.  “It looks like it was eaten through by acid.  We’re taking on water.”  He moved his _clenched fist_ around to the bow, jamming it into the gaping hole.  “I’ll do what I can from here,” he said.

“I’ll go below to see what I can do,” Kyle said.  “Arrie, get the crew up on deck and start getting the horses and essential supplies up here, too.  Osborn, Lanara,” he looked over at the maenad, still under Lanara’s spell, “finish that off.”

Kyle rushed down below, which was already knee deep in water.  He shouted orders to the sailors he saw nearby, directing them to get the horses up on deck.  He pushed his way forward to the bow, wondering what he could do to plug the hole.  He’d used up a lot of power in the battle, and what he had left wasn’t up to the task.

He burst into the cargo hold at the ship’s fore, and saw the hole in the vessel, roughly seven feet wide.  He also saw Tolly’s horse standing right in front of the hole, ignoring the sea water rushing through.  As Kyle watched, the horse touched the wall of the ship with its muzzle, and the iron plating outside began to shift and flow together, efficiently sealing the hole.

Once the hole was sealed and the water was no longer rushing in, the horse’s ears pricked up.  Its head turned, and it saw Kyle standing there, mouth agape.

“Oh, bugger,” Kyle heard the horse mutter.

*          *            *​
            Tolly was still at the bow when Kyle came up the stairs.  “How bad is it?”

            “It’s… fine,” he said slowly.  “All fixed.”

            Tolly looked down, and gingerly pulled his _fist _away from the ship.  Sure enough, the armor plating was whole and solid again, as though it had never been touched.  _Impressive work,_ Tolly thought.

            “Now we can finally tend to Autumn,” said Kyle.  “She’s going to be upset that she missed the end of the…” he stopped short, and stared blankly across the deck.  Arrie sat quietly near the forecastle, next to Autumn’s limp body, with her head in her lap. The warrior was stroking the sentinel’s hair, talking quietly to her.  There was a glazed look in Arrie’s eyes.

            “Oh, no,” Lanara said, looking over at the scene.

            Kyle just stared at the two women.  Tolly walked over next to him and regarded the scene.

            “Suddenly I’m glad they didn’t surrender,” Tolly said.  “I can bring her back tomorrow, Kyle.”

            The wizard’s eyes burned.  “Ready the cannon.”

            “What?”

            “Ready the cannon!” he shouted suddenly, his robes twirling around him as he stormed back down below.  “Helmsman, bring us about on a pursuit course!”

            “We’ll never catch them, Captain!” the helmsman shouted.

            “We’re not catching them.”

            As the sailors prepped the cannon below decks, Tolly went back up to the bow and stared out at the two fleeing ships.  He looked back at Autumn’s body below, and then his hand dropped into a pocket and pulled out a small griffon figurine.

            “What are you waiting for?” Osborn asked, walking up to the cleric while cleaning off his daggers.

            “Waiting to see which ship Kyle destroys,” he said, “so that I can get the other one.”

*          *            *​
            By late morning, the _Armadillo _had turned south, leaving the flaming wreckage of the last two Tauric warships behind them.  The smaller Tauric sloop, which was relatively unharmed, was recovered and now sailed behind the _Armadillo_, manned by a skeleton crew.  They’d taken the ship as a spoil of war, and Kyle intended to hand it over to the elven crew once they reached port.  They figured that the elves would have an easier time sailing home in the fast, Tauric-designed ship than they would waiting for the _Armadillo_.

            That afternoon, Lanara was standing by the starboard railing, having just finished using her decanter to hose off the copious amounts of blood on the deck, when she spotted something odd in the water.

            “Kyle!” she shouted, “Look over here!”

            Kyle came and looked where the bard was pointing.  A single female figure floated in the water, waving a piece of white cloth in the air.  The woman shouted something at them.

            “She said ‘permission to come aboard’,” Lanara told Kyle, seeing that he couldn’t hear the strange woman.

            Kyle frowned.  “Who is she?  Why is she out here?”

            “Search me.”

            “All right, let her come aboard.  But be ready for anything.”  Kyle turned and shouted for the crew to let some wind out of the sails so the ship would slow down a little.

            The woman arrived at the side of the ship fairly quickly, and once she climbed up on the deck, everyone could see why – her lower body was in the form of a large fish.  She was dressed in well-made clothing from the waist up, consisting of a leather tunic made from seal fur, decorated with pearls and scale-work designs.  She wore a seashell necklace, which Kyle saw had a faint magical aura.  The mermaid propped herself up on her tail, and then emptied the water out of her gills with a wet splortching sound.  Although Arrie was down below with Autumn, and couldn’t be persuaded to leave her sister’s body alone for even a moment, the rest of the Legacy gathered around the mermaid.  Both Kyle and Tolly tried to cast divinations on the mermaid, but found her to be quite strong-willed.  Since she was unarmed, they decided to let it go without comment.

            “Thank you,” she said, choosing not to address the spells being cast at her.

            “Welcome aboard,” Kyle said, “now who are you and what do you want?”

            Lanara nearly choked at Kyle’s abruptness, but the mermaid didn’t seem offended.  “My exact name and rank aren’t important,” she said, “and in fact I would prefer to keep that to myself for now.  Suffice it to say that I was once a noble in the Tauric Empire.”

            The Legacy looked at each other.  “Okay, that’s good enough to buy you a few minutes,” Lanara commented.

            “I’ve come here for several reasons,” the mermaid continued.  “One of which is to send a message to your continent’s military commanders.”  She shifted her weight on her tail to get more comfortable on the hard deck.  “You must know that not everyone in the Tauric Empire has sanctioned this activity, and many of us are either passively or actively resisting it behind the lines.  Some of us did not think that simple subjugation of a new land was an adequate solution to our problem.”

            “I’m hoping that it’s proving tougher for them than they thought,” Lanara commented.

            The mermaid shrugged.  “I don’t know the entirety of what is discussed in the military command structure.  Unfortunately, there are few of us working to oppose the Empire’s invasion.” She looked up at the top of the mast.  “I came because I see that you are flying the colors of your military alliance.  A ship like yours in these waters is rare, and for my own safety I dare not cross through the seas controlled by my empire to reach your own navies.”

            “What would you have of us?” Tolly asked.

            “I would like for you to inform your generals and strategists that there are people on the other side who are willing to work with you to end this conflict.”

            “That can be done,” Tolly said.  “What else do you need?”

            “That is all I require,” the mermaid replied.  “Now that your people know to look for us, my people can make contact.  Thank you for being willing to listen.”

            “You said you had several reasons to talk to us,” Kyle said.  “What were the other reasons?”

            “I assumed that you might have some questions for me, as a noble in the Tauric Empire, about the nature of our people and the causes of this conflict,” she said.

            The Legacy looked at each other again.  “Forgive us for being rude,” Lanara said, “but how can we be sure that this information is accurate?”

            The mermaid raised her right arm and placed it across her chest, fist clenched over her heart.  “I swear by my honor as a disciple of the Order of the Sentinel that what I tell you is the truth.”

            There was a slight pause.  “Boy, Autumn’s going to be upset she wasn’t alive to meet you,” Osborn said.

            “I think we do have a few questions for you,” Lanara said.  “What can we do to make you more comfortable?”

            “It would be easier if I could be in the water,” the mermaid admitted.

            Kyle began walking down the stairs.  “I’m sure Autumn won’t mind us borrowing the _portable hole_ for a while,” he said.  “Besides, it needed washing out anyway.”

*          *            *​
            Autumn stood at the entrance to Bail’s realm on Orcor, watching as a line of spirits walked through the ornate golden gates.  For someone on the verge of entering paradise, the sentinel looked very glum.

            The hound archon that stood next to her looked concerned.  “What troubles you, child?” he asked.  “Soon you will return to the mortal realm to continue our Lord’s work.”

            Autumn’s soul had arrived at Bail’s gates some time ago (how long she couldn’t say; from her previous experience she knew that the passage of time worked differently here).  She was about to enter when the archon now standing at her side appeared and detained her, explaining that an envoy from Ardara’s realm had already been sent informing them that one of the Earth Mother’s priests had communicated an intent to return her spirit to Aelfenn.  It would be easier, the archon had explained, if she were to wait outside of Bail’s realm for that to occur.

            “Look at these people,” Autumn said, gesturing to the line of spirits.

            “I see them,” the archon stated.  “They are the souls of hose who were faithful to our Lord in life, and are now being rewarded by joining Him.”

            “Exactly.  Why are any of them less deserving of a second chance than I?” Autumn complained.  “Or in my case, a third chance.”

            “Not all are meant to share the same fate, or have the same fortune,” the archon replied.  “Your role in the mortal realm is unique, as is that of your companions.  Has your father not explained this to you?”

            “I don’t get to see my father much,” Autumn said.

            “I see.”

            “It’s just…” Autumn turned and looked at the shining gates behind her.  “To have died twice now, to come to the very edge of my final reward, only to be snatched away at the last moment…”

            “You have a choice in the matter,” the archon said.  “You may choose to reject the gift of the Ardaran priest and remain.”

            “No, I couldn’t do that to him,” she muttered.

            “The priest?”
            “Yes.  No!  I mean my husband.”

            “Is he a follower of Bail as well? Or is he Ardaran too?”

            “No, Eritan.”

            “Ah.”

            From far away, they saw a figure approaching the gate, one who stood out amidst the crowds of mortal souls.  Eventually, a trumpet archon appeared.  The hound archon by Autumn bowed low, and then they exchanged formalities in Axiomatic.

            “I come on behalf of Ardara," the trumpet archon said, switching back to Common, "whose servant, Tolly Mulholland, known in mortal realms as Tolly Nightsleaving, has performed the rite of resurrection on behalf of the sentinel Autumn Goodson, also known as Autumn Verahannen, or Autumn Coviere.  Is she present?”

            “She is here,” the hound archon said, gesturing to Autumn.

            The trumpet archon looked at Autumn.  “Do you wish to return to the mortal realm, Autumn Goodson, to resume your life there?”

            “I… I guess so.”

            “I am afraid that I may only accept an answer of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in this case,” the trumpet archon replied.  “There must be no doubt.”

            “Yes.” Autumn said after a pause.

            “And do you understand that in reversing your death, the goddess Erito will demand of you a Tithe, to be extracted from your willing spirit?”

            “I do.”

            “Very well.  Come with me.”

            Autumn began to follow the trumpet archon, who was already walking away.  She looked back at the hound archon.  “You can tell Bail that the next time I come here, I’m staying.”

“And what do you want from me?” a voice asked.

            Autumn turned the other direction and saw a male figure standing nearby.  He was dressed in impossibly resplendent clothing, looking literally like someone had drawn out precious metals and gems into threads and made cloth out of it.  The two archons had gone prostrate.  The man gestured, and they rose slowly.

            “I’m… I’m sorry?” Autumn stammered.

“You have made me an offer,” Bail said.  “And now I’m waiting to hear what my end of the bargain is supposed to be.  In exchange for your vow that you will refuse any future attempts to return your spirit to Aelfenn, and will remain here in my realm as my servant, what do you wish of me?”

            “I… I wasn’t asking for anything.”

“Please, child.  I’m a trade god.  A fair exchange of goods or services is called for here.  What is fair to you?  For most of my followers such a vow would have little meaning, as they will only die once.  But for someone like you, with the friends you have… it’s a significant offer.”

            “I’m not sure,” Autumn admitted.  “I can’t think…”

            “If I may,” the hound archon said, “I believe the child finds it difficult to know the value her offer carries, as it is not, for lack of a better term, a type of coin she is used to trading in.”

“An excellent point,” Bail said.  “Would you advise her?”

            “Of course, my Lord.”  The hound archon turned to Autumn.  “I would suggest asking our Lord Bail to pay Erito’s Tithe on your behalf.  This would be an adequate starting point for negotiation.”

            “All right.”  Autumn turned to Bail.  “In exchange for my vow, I wish for you to pay my Tithe to Erito.”

“Done!” Bail cried.  “And, just because I like you, I’ll throw in a little something extra.”

            “Extra?” Autumn asked.

“It’s a surprise.  You would have gotten it anyway, I’ll just speed things up a bit.”  Bail looked at the trumpet archon.  “You may continue with your duties.  Apologize to our Lady for the delay.”

            “As you wish,” the trumpet archon said, bowing.*****

*          *            *​
            Silvery light emanated from Tolly’s hands as he performed the rite of resurrection.  Her body had been prepared by Arrie, washed and draped in a spare section of sailcloth, which was the best thing they could find to cover her.  Arrie sat at Autumn’s feet, and Kyle at her head, watching Tolly work.

            As Tolly neared the end of the ritual, the light from Tolly’s hands suddenly flashed with a golden glow.  He almost stumbled over the last line, but finished the rite.

            “What was that?” Arrie asked, alarmed.  “What was that flash?  What happened?”

            “I’m not certain,” Tolly said.  “There was a momentary surge of energy.  Not malign, but not Ardara.”

            All three fell silent as they watched Autumn.  After a few agonizing seconds, her skin flushed pink, and she took a deep breath as life returned to her body.

            “Welcome back, Autumn.” Tolly said, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead.  He lingered for a moment, then stepped back.

            “Thanks,” she said quietly.  She looked up and saw Kyle over her.  “Hi, honey.”

            “Glad you’re back, sunshine.”

            Autumn’s eyes darted down to where Arrie was sitting impatiently.  “So, how bad was she?”

            “Oh, she was fairly passive in her craziness this time,” Kyle said.

            “I was not crazy,” Arrie said sternly, standing up.

            “Of course not, Arrie.  You know I’m only joking.”  Kyle kissed Autumn and then stood to let Arrie take his place.  As the warrior passed by, Kyle looked back at Autumn and mouthed “crazy!”

            “You know, we’re going to have to talk about your penchant for ending up in fatal predicaments,” Arrie said as she sat down.  “We’ll have to buy a diamond mine of our own just to keep Tolly supplied.”

            “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that.  I don’t think it’ll happen again.”

            “Sure, you say that now,” Arrie said.  “But just you wait.”

            “Okay, okay,” Autumn laughed.  She squirmed a little, rubbing her shoulders against the hard wooden platform she was laying on.  “Damn.  Seems like I can’t get away from this damn itch even by dying.  I swear, I’m going to… ow!”

            “What?” Arrie was standing up, hand on her weapon.  Tolly and Kyle had stepped closer as well.  “What’s wrong?”

            “My back!” she cried, “it feels like it’s on fire!  It’s… aaiiee!”

            Autumn lurched forward into a sitting position, letting the sailcloth drop away.  Her face was twisted in agony.  The others could see two large, writhing lumps pushing out from her bare back at the shoulder blades.

            “What is it?” Arrie cried, grabbing Kyle by the arm.  “What are those things?”
            “I don’t know!”

            Arrie pulled Anyweapon out of it sheath, forming it into a long, curved knife.  She was about to cut into one of the lumps when she was knocked back by the force of two huge, feathery wings bursting out of Autumn’s back.  Tiny feathers floated around the room, but there was no blood, and the flesh around the base of the wings seemed to have neatly sealed up, as if the wings had always been there.  Everyone, Autumn included, stared in amazement at the white feathers, tipped with gold.

            Everyone stood or sat in silent amazement, Autumn too stunned to even cover herself.  After a while, Tolly turned and began walking out of the cabin.

            “Where are you going?” Kyle asked.

            “To try and fashion some sort of forge,” Tolly replied.  “Autumn’s armor will require some adjustments.”


---------------------

* And this is why you don't send ships after a high-level cleric who has had time to prepare for naval combat.

** In effect, elementals summoned or called via nature magic are native outsiders.  Divinely-summoned elementals originate from the planetary domains of the four elemental deities, whereas druidic elementals are formed from the elemental energy present on Aelfenn itself.

*** Best. Spell. Ever.  The save DC was 17; the maenad had a +17 Will modifier.  Guess what she rolled?

**** i.e., Kyle made a Knowledge (Nature) roll and remembered that sonic energy heals storm elementals.  

***** The deal with Bail was not pre-planned.  Tolly had used _resurrection _already to bring Autumn back, level loss and everything.  But Autumn's player made the off-hand comment about "telling Bail that next time I'll stay" (she's not a believer in unlimited resurrections), which then led to an impromptu role-play bargaining session (Bail is, in fact, a god of trade).  What is significant is that Autumn has yet to tell any of the rest of us about this deal...


----------



## Ed Gentry

Love it! The characters in this SH are among my favorites on the boards. Great stuff, Del.


----------



## Delemental

Ed Gentry said:
			
		

> Love it! The characters in this SH are among my favorites on the boards. Great stuff, Del.




Thanks, Ed.  Good to be getting back into the swing of things after the holidays.


----------



## Krafus

Sorry I haven't kept up with this SH of late, real life having interfered. Wonderful story, as usual. I have two comments: first, what was the maenad's ultimate fate? Did Lanara finishe her off? And second, Lanara doesn't seem very effective in combat. Her spells mostly seem to fizzle away uselessly, and when they succeed it seems to be because the opponents roll _really_ low. I mean, she might actually be quite effective, but IMHO she doesn't come across that way right now.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> Sorry I haven't kept up with this SH of late, real life having interfered. Wonderful story, as usual. I have two comments: first, what was the maenad's ultimate fate? Did Lanara finishe her off? And second, Lanara doesn't seem very effective in combat. Her spells mostly seem to fizzle away uselessly, and when they succeed it seems to be because the opponents roll _really_ low. I mean, she might actually be quite effective, but IMHO she doesn't come across that way right now.




I can answer this one--Lanara's player, traditionally (and I say it that way because it happens in every single RPG I have ever seen her in) has the worst luck with opposing saving throws. If a GM is having an off night rolling, all he needs to turn things around is roll a save against one of her abilities. Another point is that she tends to use items more than her inherent spells--and they inevitably have much lower DC's. The reality of the matter is, though, we don't need her to be effective in combat. When she starts singing, and uses her instruments of the bard, everyone in hearing range starts seeing a +6 to attack and damage, and her other song abilities are excellent for what she is--support for those of us who are combat monkeys, like the sisters, and to a lesser extent, Tolly. We encourage her to not attack more often than not, just so we don't lose our precious songstress. So, while she may not be overwhelming in H2H, we love her just the same.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Sorry I haven't kept up with this SH of late, real life having interfered. Wonderful story, as usual. I have two comments: first, what was the maenad's ultimate fate? Did Lanara finishe her off? And second, Lanara doesn't seem very effective in combat. Her spells mostly seem to fizzle away uselessly, and when they succeed it seems to be because the opponents roll _really_ low. I mean, she might actually be quite effective, but IMHO she doesn't come across that way right now.




The maenad was, effectively, curb-stomped by Osborn and Lanara in the last round.  When you're prone and unable to take any actions, there's not a lot you can do to escape the damage being done to you.

As for her effectiveness, well, Lanara's player shares a similar curse to mine; I can't roll high numbers on dice, and she can't seem to get a GM to roll anything but high numbers when making saves against her spells.  As Sinewgrab already explained, however, her strength lies in her bardic music abilities.  But all Lanara has to do is inspire courage for one round, and we're good for the next five after that even if she stops singing - she might as well do _something _in those five rounds.

And to be honest, a lot of the time she's using defensive stuff that does work, it just doesn't get highlighted in the SH because Lanara's very much a "stay in the background" type of combatant. (And since I try not to write my combats as round-by-round, character-by-character accounting ledgers, the less showy stuff often gets glossed over).  For example, when the storm elemental hit us with the lightning and thunder blast, she cast a Ruin Delver's Fortune spell on herself to boost her Reflex save and gave her evasion, which saved her butt.  But it's not exactly the kind of thing which calls attention to itself (which is probably how Lanara wants it) so I don't make a big deal of it.

She has been making a conscious effort to try and weed out less potent items for stuff that will work better for her - she just picked up the Rod of Many Wands from Complete Mage, and loaded it with ray spells (no saves, just a ranged attack roll).  It's also worth noting that Lanara's focus isn't combat, but social interaction - she's obscene enough in that area that our GM doesn't even bother with opposed rolls half the time.


----------



## Delemental

A shorter update this time - our last session covered a lot of ground, so I had to break it up.  This one's mostly dialogue vignettes.

--------------------

            Lanara sat on the deck with her lute in her lap, carefully inspecting the instrument for any signs of damage and replacing worn strings.  Nearby, Osborn was throwing a stick to Rupert, a smile on his face as he watched his faithful hound running back and forth across the deck.  It was a clear, sunny day, and although still a bit cold, after weeks of enduring cloud-filled skies, the light was a welcome relief.

            A shadow passed over Lanara.  Looking up and squinting into the sun, she saw a dark shape silhouetted again the sky, slowly turning and then lifting away from the ship with a flapping of wings.

            “She’s getting better,” Osborn said, following Lanara’s gaze.

            “Yeah, she hasn’t hit the mast or gotten tangled in the rigging once.”

            “Not bad considering she’s only had the wings for a week,” Osborn commented.

            “At least she’s not wearing her armor today,” Lanara chuckled.  “No offense to the girl, but watching her flapping around with all that metal makes me want to christen her the Flying Armadillo.”

            “There’s a reason most birds don’t spend a lot of time in field plate,” Osborn snickered.

            They both quelled their laughter when Kyle came up the stairs from below.

            “Afternoon, captain,” Lanara said.

            “Good afternoon.”  He looked up into the sky.  “She’s getting better.”

            “We were just saying the same thing,” Osborn commented.

            Kyle watched his wife sailing through the air.  “Looks like fun.  I think I’ll join her.”  He uttered a spell, and a pair of gleaming metallic wings sprouted from his back.

            “Nice,” Lanara said, “and no feathers to make you sneeze.”

            “Well, you know how they say married couples start to look alike after a while.  Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

            Kyle shot up into the air, quickly catching up with Autumn.  Lanara and Osborn watched the two of them fly about for a while.  After a few minutes, they flew together and embraced, holding each other aloft.

            “If they start getting frisky up there, I’m getting a crossbow,” Lanara winced.

            “If they start getting frisky, I’m using my _circlet of blasting_,” Osborn added.

            “We’d have to go get Tolly first.  He’d probably be willing to contribute a _flame strike_ to the cause.”

*          *          *​
            “Son of a b*tch!”

            Autumn slowly opened one eye, and bit back a nasty comment.  It hadn’t been easy to adjust to sleeping with a pair of wings sprouting from her back, especially when she shared that bed, and thus she hadn’t slept very well lately.  Given that she was supposed to be recuperating from her resurrection, any unexpected interruptions in sleep were not well received.

            “Damn it all!  Of all the… f*ck!”

            She sighed.  “Kyle, what is the matter?” she said sleepily.

            She felt Kyle tense up next to her – no, he’d already been tense when she woke up; now he was almost taut as a bowstring.  Through sleep-fogged eyes, she saw that Kyle had one of his light orbs sitting in his lap, glowing softly.  “Do you remember when we spoke to Aran the night before our wedding?”

            “Yeah, sure.”  _Kyle had better get to the point soon_.

            “Do you remember that Aran told us that one of the things that Kristyan’s psions was doing was combing Affon collecting divine relics?”

            Autumn knew this, of course.  Marrek, the Qin-Chu priest who was one of Kristyan’s vassals, had stolen a Bailite ceremonial dagger from her a couple of years ago.  Later they’d learned that the theft was part of this plot.

            “What about it?” Autumn yawned.

            In response, Kyle dropped an object on the bed, almost on top of her stomach.  She fumbled around and picked it up, blinking sleep out of her eyes in the dim light.

            It was an open puzzle box.

            This woke Autumn up.  They’d found the puzzle box in the gullet of the nightcrawler they’d fought in the Dark Hills, the battle in which Kyle had died.  The puzzle box showed no signs of magical auras, but had nonetheless managed to survive undamaged in the nightcrawler’s stomach.  The puzzle itself had proven tremendously complex; after several unsuccessful tries, Kyle had pocketed the box, and would take it out occasionally to study it.  Osborn had offered to jimmy it open, but Kyle said that he wanted to open it “the hard way” at least once first.

            “You got it open!” Autumn said, sitting up and putting her arm around Kyle’s shoulder.  She was about to congratulate him, when she realized he was still tense.  “What?  What’s wrong with the box?”

            “It’s not the box,” Kyle said.  “It’s what was inside.”  Slowly, Kyle held aloft a small object.  It looked like a small cage made of twisted and looped wires, made from a variety of metals from common iron to adamantium.  There was a small, irregularly shaped object inside.

            “Do you remember which relic Aran told us would be the most difficult for Kristyan to get his hands on?”

            Autumn’s memories connected to the object in Kyle’s hand.  “Oh, no.”

*          *          *​
            Minutes later, everyone was gathered in Kyle and Autumn’s cabin, which was now fully lit.  Each of them studied the cage in Kyle’s hand; he’d refused to let go of it.

            “That does look exactly like what Aran told us Shesh’s relic looked like,” Tolly confirmed.

            “What made you think that something good would happen when you opened a puzzle box? When does anything good ever come from opening a puzzle box?” Arrie shouted.

            “What?  Sometimes they have good things!” Kyle protested.

            “When?”

            “We got puzzle boxes in the circus all the time,” Osborn said.

            “You never got the right kind of puzzle boxes as a kid,” Lanara commented to Arrie.

            Arrie continued to look at Kyle.  “You’re supposed to be the smart one!”

            “What was I supposed to do?” Kyle argued.  “Just leave the box unopened forever?”

“Yes!”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

            “Well, where’s the fun in that?” Arrie said, pointing at the relic.

            “There’s no fun in this!” he shouted.

            “Quiet, both of you!” Autumn yelled.

            Lanara was looking closely inside the cage.  “What is that in there, anyway?”

            “A tongue, I believe,” Tolly said.

            “Ugh!  Why would Shesh stick a tongue inside the cage?”

            “Shesh is a god of secrets as well as misers,” Osborn said.  “Thieves who join a guild usually have to swear an oath to him to keep the guild’s secrets safe.”

            “What does it do?” Tolly wondered.

            “As far as I know so far, nothing,” Kyle said.  “It’s still not showing any magical aura, though knowing what we know now, it’s safe to assume that there’s some deity-level masking going on here.”

            “Try looking at it through your staff,” Tolly suggested, “Just in case.”

            Lanara handed Kyle the Scion’s Staff, and he looked through the crystal orb at the cage.  “No psionics either,” he said.

            “It does make sense,” Arrie said, a little less agitated now, “that a characteristic of a magical artifact for a god of hoarding and greed would be that it doesn’t look like a magical artifact.”

            Lanara nodded.  “Yeah, I guess if you’ve got a bunch of power-hungry people out there who can make stuff wiggle with their brains looking for Shesh’s relic, they’d be looking for something magical.”

            “You know,” Arrie said after a pause, “I think it’s safe to assume that they know.”  No one had to ask who ‘they’ were.

            “I say we stick it in the _portable hole_, and not tell anyone else about it until we figure out what to do,” Autumn suggested.

            “Let’s put it back in the box first,” Arrie added.

            “Just one problem with that,” Osborn said.  He held up the puzzle box, which had closed itself up at some point during their conversation.  He tugged at the lid to demonstrate that it was locked.  Kyle took the box with his free hand, but quickly realized the puzzle box had reconfigured itself, and wouldn’t open in the same way as before.

            “I’ve already did it once,” Kyle said.  “Go for it, Osborn.”

            Osborn pulled out some tools and started poking at the box, but after a few moments frowned and set it down.  “It’s pretty complex, and it seems to be actively resisting me somehow.  I spot a place where I could open something up, and then I blink and that spot just… moves.  I can work at it a little longer if you want.”

            “Perhaps if we worked together on opening it,” Tolly suggested.

            “Notice how all the women are wisely leaving the dangerous stuff alone?” Lanara observed.

            Kyle pointed at Arrie.  “She’s the one who wanted to put the cage back in the box.”

            “Let’s put the relic into the _portable hole_,” Tolly said.  “We have to complete this mission before we can address it anyway.  I have one idea of a place we could put the relic – we could take it to Erito’s Library.”

            “Would Erito allow that?” Kyle asked.  “Shesh may be subordinate to Erito, but I don’t know if she’d approve of his relic being stored at one of her holy sites, or vice versa.”

            “I’m not an Eritan priest,” Tolly said, “it was only a suggestion.”

            “And I’m not sure we want Kristyan to go looking for the relic there,” Arrie said.  “That much knowledge and power in once place…”

            “I think we’re stuck with it,” Osborn sighed.

            “Well, it’s not that bad,” Arrie said.  “I mean, when it’s closed, the hole is pretty dark, so it’s hard to scry.  Besides, it’s a… what’s the word… not really here.”

            “Extradimensional?” Kyle offered.

            “That’s the word.”

            “It’s true that psionics aren’t terribly good at transdimensional manipulations,” Kyle said.  “And since it’s a mobile space, it’ll be hard to find.”

            “So, we put it in the hole, like I said before,” Autumn said.  “Then they’d have to pry it out of my dead hands.”

            “But let’s not talk about that,” Arrie said.

            “But if that was the case, we’d probably all be dead,” Autumn pointed out.

            “Still, let’s not talk about it!”

            With nothing left to discuss, the relic was wrapped up and placed inside the _portable hole_, tucked away out of sight.  Osborn held on to the puzzle box, hoping to get it open at some point so they could place the cage back inside, figuring that the complexity of the puzzle box would be a final line of defense if Kristyan got his hands on the relic.

            The next morning, at breakfast, it was obvious that none of them had slept well, though Kyle looked particularly exhausted.  Tolly, who had been silent for most of the meal, finally addressed the wizard.

            “I’ve been meaning to ask you.  How exactly did you repair the hole in the ship?”

            “What?  Oh, that…” Kyle said, suddenly flushing.  “It was, um, a _fabricate _spell that I kind of tweaked, you know.  I’ve been keeping one on hand for just that kind of situation, see?  Yeah, I was surprised it worked as well as it did.  So…”

            Everyone just stared at Kyle.  “You’re so full of it I can smell it,” Lanara said.

            “We really need to give you lessons,” Arrie added.

“What?  I didn’t do anything!”

            “Right,” Lanara said, “you didn’t.  What really happened?”

            “Kyle?” Tolly said, “Do you really want to start the precedent of lying to us?”

            “Then you should stop asking me questions!”

            Tolly laughed, briefly.  “Try again.”

            “Rather not, thanks.”

            “Maybe we should go down in the hold and look around,” Lanara suggested.

            “You know, how about we leave Kyle alone,” Arrie said, coming to the poor wizard’s aid, “and we assume that he’s obfuscating the truth for a reason, and we trust that he’ll tell us if it’s important.”

            “She knows ‘obfuscating’, but not ‘extradimensional’?” Osborn whispered to Autumn.  The sentinel nudged him with her foot.

            “All right,” Lanara sighed, “I suppose if it was dangerous he’d tell us.”

            Tolly was less resigned.  “We’ll talk later.”

            Their meal over, everyone got up and went about their day, except for Kyle and Autumn.

            “Thanks for not joining in the inquisition,” Kyle said.

            “Well, there may have to be a second inquiry in private later,” she said.

            “Of course,” he sighed.  “But just so you know, it really isn’t dangerous.  It’s more of a… surprise.”

            “I’m sure.”

            “If I hadn’t promised not to tell, I swear I’d let you in on it.  I hate keeping secrets from you, because I know you’d never keep secrets from me.”

            Kyle stood up and kissed Autumn before heading up on deck.  He didn’t notice Autumn wiping away a tear from her eye.*

*          *          *​
            Down in the hold, Osborn walked up to Tolly’s horse.  “Hey, did you fix the ship?”

            The horse nodded.

            “Thought so.  Thanks!” Osborn held aloft a slab of meat.  “Bacon?”

            The horse nodded again, and swallowed the slab in two bites.

*          *          *​
            “Ariadne, what is that substance?”

            Tolly pointed down at the deck at Arrie’s feet, where a trail of glistening slime pooled at her feet.

            “It’s ectoplasm,” she explained.  “I’ve been manifesting a new power, which produces the stuff as sort of a side-effect.  I’m still working out the kinks, but it’ll vanish on its own.”

            “I hope so.  I would hate to enter battle only to slide off the deck and into the ocean.”

            “Yeah, but look at this!”  Arrie held out her arm, which was suddenly enveloped in a layer of ectoplasm.  She then took a dagger, and jabbed the tip at her arm.  Tolly could see that the slime was providing some resistance against the weapon.

            “It helps take the edge off,” she explained.  “Isn’t it cool?”

            Tolly studied her for a moment.  “I will go ahead and agree with you that it is ‘cool’, and then turn around and walk away.  I’m still not entirely comfortable with this.”

            Tolly didn’t see Arrie roll her eyes as he walked away.

*          *          *​
            Almost eight weeks after their departure, the _Armadillo _arrived at the mouth of the Kruga River, which led into the Haran Desert along its northern border.  The river was navigable, so they sailed the ship upstream.  Talia, the Tlaxan Imperial Advisor, told them that their orcish contact would be arriving soon.  Indeed, an hour later the _Armadillo _was approached by a lone orc in a rowboat, who asked permission to board.  When he climbed on deck, they could see he was garbed as a minor warchief.

            “I am Ruok, sub-chieftain to High Warchief Keth,” the orc said.  “We have been expecting someone to arrive.  Do you have credentials proving you are the ones we are here to meet?”

            Osborn stepped forward and handed Ruok a scroll tube containing their papers from the Emperor.  He also pulled out his clan token for Clan Hulg, showing that he was considered part of the tribe.

            Ruok looked approvingly at the clan token, and then gave the papers a cursory glance.  “You are the ones we are expecting,” he said.  “But we will not meet here.  You will turn your ship and sail south along the coast.  I will tell you when to stop.”

            Kyle looked over at the Talia, who nodded to indicate that this was according to plan.  “All right,” he said, “let’s put the zombies in reverse.”

            Much later that day, the _Armadillo _found itself sailing south once again, staying close to the coastline.  Ruok remained aboard the ship, and spent much of his time conferring privately with Talia.  Their proximity to the shore gave Tolly and Lanara the chance to walk on dry land again, an opportunity they took with relish.

            Around midnight, Ruok told Kyle to drop anchor.  “We will wait here.”

            “Until?” Kyle asked.

            “Sunrise.”

            “So, what exactly are we waiting for?” Lanara asked.  “And what’s been happening with Keth?  The last time we were here, he was just ‘Warchief’, not ‘High Warchief’.”

            Ruok grinned.  “You will see.  Great changes have come to the desert.”

            Arrie turned to Talia.  “I assume it’s more than just a coincidence that we got here just before the Time of Burning.”  Talia smiled.

            “It was considered an auspicious beginning.”

            Hours later, as the earliest signs of dawn began to color the sky, the lookout began ringing the alarm bell.  “Ships to the south, Captain!  Oh, my goddess!  There are dozens!”

            “How far out?”

            “About a quarter mile!”

            “What?” Even in the dark, that many ships should have been spotted much farther off.

            “They just came out of nowhere, captain!”

            Kyle swore.  “Haul out the cannon and stand ready!” he barked to the first mate.  But the mate was standing at the port railing, pointing out toward land.  “Look at that!”

            They all turned, and saw the desert was moving toward them.

            “I think we need another cannon,” Lanara said.

            Arrie, squinting at the crawling dunes, sighed.  “No, I think we need to get into the _portable hole_ and get Keth’s hat out for him.”


---------------

* This was the character's reaction.  The player's reaction to my comment about 'I know you'd never lie to me' was more along the lines of calling me a rat bastard.  Just to clarify, I'm referring to Autumn's secret about her deal with Bail to not be raised from the dead again.


----------



## Ed Gentry

Good stuff. I always enjoy reading this one.


----------



## Krafus

Argh, a cliffhanger. Well, I look forward to the next episode. Looks like a major confrontation is brewing up. Here's hoping the party is ready for a big fight.

Oh, and those wings of Autumn's must be proving a challenge for her and Kyle when the lights go out... Although with some imagination, I'm sure they could be turned into opportunities in that area.   

On a more serious note, is Autumn planning on modifying the kind of armor she wears or her fighting style because of the wings? Full armor would be really heavy, and if one is into realism, those wings provide a big easy target for opponents if one uses a slashing style (I'd switch to a thrusting weapon such as a rapier).


----------



## Sinewgrab

Delemental said:
			
		

> A shorter update this time - our last session covered a lot of ground, so I had to break it up.  This one's mostly dialogue vignettes.
> 
> --------------------
> 
> Lanara sat on the deck with her lute in her lap, carefully inspecting the instrument for any signs of damage and replacing worn strings.  Nearby, Osborn was throwing a stick to Osborn, a smile on his face as he watched his faithful hound running back and forth across the deck. .




Was he juggling, or throwing it to his dog, Rupert?

Even so, you are the best Delemental ever.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Argh, a cliffhanger. Well, I look forward to the next episode. Looks like a major confrontation is brewing up. Here's hoping the party is ready for a big fight.
> 
> Oh, and those wings of Autumn's must be proving a challenge for her and Kyle when the lights go out... Although with some imagination, I'm sure they could be turned into opportunities in that area.




Though I don't think we've discussed the practical considerations in any detail, I think it's safe to assume that Kyle's getting used to sleeping on a much smaller portion of the bed these days.  As far as the opportunities, well... probably best to leave that unspoken, out of respect for Grandma.



			
				Krafus said:
			
		

> On a more serious note, is Autumn planning on modifying the kind of armor she wears or her fighting style because of the wings? Full armor would be really heavy, and if one is into realism, those wings provide a big easy target for opponents if one uses a slashing style (I'd switch to a thrusting weapon such as a rapier).




This remains to be seen.  I know that she intends to make use of the wings in combat when she can of course, though having a fly speed of 20 kind of cuts down on the tactical options a bit (looks like _haste _is going to become a staple for Kyle).

Our game isn't enough into realism to worry about things like targeting specific body parts or the physics of weapon use while aloft.  So Autumn will probably stick with the axe.  I do know that she's looking at getting the Flyby Attack feat down the road, which would work well for her as a crusader - since all of her strike maneuvers are standard actions, they work well with that kind of split movement attack.


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> Was he juggling, or throwing it to his dog, Rupert?
> 
> Even so, you are the best Delemental ever.




No, he was just throwing the stick.  But he's just so darn fast he was able to run out and catch it before it hit the deck.  Because he's just that bad-*ss.  I left out the part where he was wailing on his guitar, and then rode his motorcycle across the ocean and killed all the Taurics using only his right buttcheek.

*Sigh* I suppose no one understands my genius.  I guess I'll just have to change it so that Osborn is playing fetch with Rupert.


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

Just caught up. Delemental, this is really good stuff.  Parts of it remind me of games long in the past. That whole sort of "Boom, we are the badasses, fear us." vibe is awesome, and the relationships between the characters really sets it off with a great contrast.  Both are very interesting to follow.


----------



## Delemental

Blarkon Dragonslayer said:
			
		

> Just caught up. Delemental, this is really good stuff.  Parts of it remind me of games long in the past. That whole sort of "Boom, we are the badasses, fear us." vibe is awesome, and the relationships between the characters really sets it off with a great contrast.  Both are very interesting to follow.




Thanks, Blarkon.  It has been nice to have a GM who, while still challenging us, acknowledges that characters of our level have capabilities that are going to have wide-scale effects.


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

Delemental said:
			
		

> Thanks, Blarkon.  It has been nice to have a GM who, while still challenging us, acknowledges that characters of our level have capabilities that are going to have wide-scale effects.




Yes indeed...having an encounter that runs like, "On your way to search  the hilt of the Sundered Apocalypse blade in the Labyrinth of the Nameless, you run into a small army of orcs on their way up the high road, pillaging and ravaging. After the shattered remnants of the army scatter like chaff, you brush the dust off your cloaks, clean your swords, and ride on."  

That's fun stuff.


----------



## Delemental

As the sun rose, the scene became clearer.  The moving dunes were actually a massive horde of orcs, tens of thousands strong.  Keth’s war banner was the most prominent within the horde, and several other clan banners had Clan Hulg’s symbol incorporated into their own design.  To the south, the rapidly approaching ships were finally identified – as gnomish warships of the Pecish Navy*.  The fleet, which already numbered several dozen vessels, was growing larger by the second as new ships would suddenly pop into sight, the telltale shimmer of dissipating illusion magic revealing their presence.

            “So that’s where the gnomes went!” Arrie and Tolly exclaimed in unison.

            Eventually, two small rowboats approached the _Armadillo_; one carrying a gnomish officer, the other an orcish warrior.  Once on board, they were formally introduced, and then presented to the party.

            “This is Warchief Ghraz of Clan Lorr, sub-chieftain to High Warchief Heth,” Talia said.  “And this is Vice Admiral Nabbidosh of the Provincial National Navy.”

            “Do you have a conference room where we could meet?” Admiral Nabbidosh asked.

            “We can convert the galley,” Autumn offered, even as Kyle was ordering his elvish crew to make the arrangements.  A few minutes later, everyone was gathered around two long galley tables that had been pushed together.

            “A few months ago, during the diplomatic conference held in Tlaxan,” Talia began, “there were a number of… less public meetings held, among them a meeting between the governments of what we now call the Alliance and representatives of then-Warchief Keth, as to how best to bring the orcs of the Haran into the conflict.”

            “Good,” Tolly said.  “I was hoping that something was actually getting done at that conference.”

            “Keth had agreed to rally as many tribes as he could under his banner,” Talia continued, “which, given his already considerable influence in the region, was a large amount.  The main problem was transporting them to the front.  Targeth would not consent to allowing several legions of orcs passage through their shield barrier, and the mountains of the Dwarven Confederates are all but impassable from the Haran, especially in winter.”

            “And so,” Admiral Nabbidosh interjected, “Overgovernor Garlen agreed to put the Pecish Navy at their disposal.  Our fleet set sail under the guise of mounting a direct offensive against the approaching Tauric fleet, and then feigned our ‘disappearance’ with the use of illusion magic and counter-scrying.”

            “So you sailed south around the continent to come here,” Kyle said.

            “Exactly.  We are here to pick up the orc legions, and then attack the Taurics in a surprise flanking maneuver.”

            “Fantastic!” Osborn exclaimed.

            “So how do we come into play?” Autumn asked.

            “You were sent to act as the rendezvous point for the operation,” Warchief Ghraz said, “and to act as a flagship for the fleet.  Your vessel is one of only five heavy ships of war in Affon, and so it was thought that you stood the best chance of surviving the voyage through enemy waters to arrive her.  Now,your presence will be a rallying point for both the gnomes and the orcs.  Besides, with your cannon you will be able to neutralize ships from a great distance, which will prevent the Taurics from spotting our armada and going to warn their superiors.”

            Autumn leaned over to Kyle.  “What exactly is the range on that thing, anyway?”

            “About two miles.”

            “There has been considerable effort made to time this rendezvous precisely,” Nabbidosh said, “and we have a tight schedule to keep.  We will need to have the entire orc army boarded within two days.  Naturally, we are hoping that you can provide some logistical support.”

            “Of course,” Tolly said.

            “We would like to meet with High Warchief Keth,” Arrie interjected.  “We have an important subject to discuss with him before we set sail.”

            “A ceremony, actually,” Autumn added.

            “The High Warchief was expecting you,” Ghraz said.  “Is this ceremony something that he will have to prepare for?”

            “Very likely,” Autumn said.

            “Then we should go to see him soon.”

            “Excuse me,” Admiral Nabbidosh said, “but is this something that my people should be preparing for as well?”

            “We’ll leave the final decision up to Keth,” Arrie said, “but I’m sure that you will be invited to attend as honored guests.”

            “I was going to suggest that all of the command staff from both forces be invited to breakfast with us tomorrow morning,” Autumn said.  “Perhaps we could discuss the details then.”

            “Very well.”  Everyone stood up.  “I will return to shore and wait to escort you to the High Warchief,” Ghraz said.  With that, everyone returned to the main deck and began boarding their ships; Talia went over to the navy with Nabbidosh to speak with the other admirals.  Soon the Legacy was left standing alone on deck.

            “Now, just to make sure,” Kyle said, “everyone’s okay with giving Keth the crown?”

            Arrie looked over at the teeming mass of orcs on the beach.  “At this point, it’s not exactly like it’s going to change things much.”

            “The amount of goodwill that will be created by giving the Crown of the Orcish King to Keth more than outweighs any risks of uniting the orcs under a single leader,” Tolly said.  “Besides, Keth is a lawful being, and it will be good to see the firm hand of Law brought to these lands.”

            “And if there are any clans that aren’t supporting Keth now,” Osborn added, “they will once he’s crowned.”

            “Just wanted everyone to have a chance to voice any dissent,” Kyle said.  “We have been carrying that thing around for a long time because we were afraid of the consequences of giving it away.”

            They agreed to have Autumn and Osborn go meet Keth, though for safety the _portable hole_ with the Crown (and other items of interest) was left on the _Armadillo_.  They met up with Warchief Ghraz, and were quickly led straight through the orcish legions to Keth’s command tent.  The tent was huge, and well guarded, and when Autumn and Osborn passed through the entrance, they noticed that the beaded curtain across the opening was made from lead beads, most likely meant to interfere with scrying without being too unwieldy to transport through the desert.  Most likely strands of similar beads had been sewn into the entire tent.

            Keth himself was sitting on a large wooden throne in the middle of the tent, flanked by his wives, guards, and advisors.  By orcish standards, the throne was highly ornate, though still solidly built, looking like it had been carved from a large slab of volcanic rock.  It was a sure sign of Keth’s power that a seat such as this was being hauled all over the desert.

            “It is good to see you again, clan-brother,” Keth said to Osborn as he and Autumn approached and bowed.  “And you as well, sentinel.”  He glanced at Autumn’s wings.  “I see your status among your kind has grown.”

            “As has yours, High Warchief,” Autumn replied.  “And it is for exactly that reason that we have come.”  Keth’s eyebrow arched.

            “We have come across an item in our travels,” Osborn said.  “An artifact of great importance to you.  We wish to bestow this item on you with a proper ceremony.”

            “What is this artifact?”

            Autumn approached Keth’s throne, pausing only a moment as Keth waved away the suddenly tense guards in the tent.  Autumn leaned in close to whisper the information in Keth’s ear.  Osborn heard one of Keth’s advisors mutter a crude joke about how the artifact must be ‘the silken tongue of an aasimar’ and some suggestions on how best to use it, which made him glad that Kyle hadn’t come with them.

            “You can understand why we would want to make this a public affair when it’s presented,” Autumn said as she stepped back.

            “Indeed,” Keth said, his mind whirling.  “For this to come to me now, during Grabâkh’s holy days… it is a great omen.  I will have to speak with the gnomish commander.  This may change our plans.”  He stood up suddenly.  “We will do it tonight, amidst the sacred fires.  I must give instructions to my high priests.”  He began to walk out of the tent, but then turned and grabbed the ears of the two guards closest to him, yanking their heads close.  “If you heard something, you heard nothing!  Clear?”  The two guards nodded as best they could.

            Releasing the guards, Keth strode outside, followed by Autumn and Osborn.  Once out of the tent, he waved over an orcish lieutenant, who came running up with a chest-crushing salute.

            “Inform my advisor Kashok that his warchief wishes for him to visit the pleasure tents this evening.  Escort him there yourself.  When you arrive, you may inform him that he is there to serve his clan, have him stripped and bound, and allow those with the inclination to use him as they wish.  Perhaps then he will learn to mind his tongue when speaking about our honored guests.”

            The lieutenant saluted again and went into the command tent, as Keth strode off toward the shore.

            “What was that all about?” Autumn asked.

            “You probably don’t want the details,” Osborn said, “let’s just say that Keth's hearing is good, and he is definitely not lax in the discipline department.”

*          *          *​
            The sun had set hours ago, and so the barren desert should have been freezing.  But the hundreds of huge bonfires that burned brightly throughout the orc encampment made the night feel like a sweltering summer day.  The orcs had gathered around a large dune, pressing as close as they could to see the events before them.  Near the top of the dune, a small contingent of gnomes in formal uniforms stood nervously witnessing the proceedings, clearly ill at ease being surrounded by so many orcs at the height of the Time of Burning.

            Just as the clamoring of the horde was about to reach a fevered pitch, everyone suddenly fell silent as if on some unseen cue.  Then the drums began.  It was a frenetic, erratic beat that at first seemed to have no rhythm or meter at all.  But then the orcs began to join in; some beat swords against shields, others stamped heavy boots into the sand, and others began to shout guttural chants.  At first it seemed like a cacophony of noise, no one performer matching his neighbor.  But those trained to listen would hear that the drums beat in unison with the drums, the shields were struck with the same rhythm, each boot stomp and shout was perfectly synchronized.  The warsong took on an almost hypnotic quality for those within the horde; for the thousands of gnomish sailors, listening to the ceremony from afar, it sounded as though the desert itself had suddenly burst into flames and was being consumed.

            As suddenly as it had started, it stopped.  Then the voices of the priests rang out across the gathering, with the answering cries shouted at a deafening roar.

“Kas grazil duro’rashik!” (“The fires of our Lord consume us!”)
_Mojh rashan Grabâkh!_ (Praise to Grabâkh the destroyer!)
“Kas grazil duro’pashai!” (“The fires of our Lord purify us!”)
_Mojh pashan Grabâkh!_ (Praise to Grabâkh the purifier!)
“Duro’jahakar du kas grazil!” (“We are reborn from the fires of our Lord!”)
_Nas dur Grabanar, vor grazos Grabhül!_  (His Eye sees all, his Wrath shall burn forever!)

             The chant continued, nonstop, even as the crowds began to part to let a single figure through to the top of the dune.

            Autumn walked slowly up the hill, looking regal in gleaming plate armor, her wings pulled up behind her like a cloak of white feathers.  In her hands she held a heavy crown fashioned of solid adamantium, with irregular crests styled like leaping flames.  The crown was adorned with enormous rubies, fire opals, and garnets.  An inscription in Orcish ran around the brow, carved deep into the metal.

            When she arrived at the top of the hill, she knelt and presented the crown to the head priest, who took it in his mail gauntlets and, shouting an invocation to Grabâkh, thrust the crown into a glowing brazier.  Slowly, as the crown began to glow red, the chanting faded and then stopped, and the entire army stood in silent expectation as a new figure approached the crest of the hill.

            Keth was clad in a suit of half-plate, the metal tinged red.  He carried a massive barbed spear in one hand, and on his other arm was a large shield shaped to look like Grabâkh’s flaming Eye.  The High Warchief gave his spear to the high priest, and then approached the smoking brazier.  Without a moment’s hesitation, he thrust his hands into the coals, picked up the crown, and set it on top of his head.  Wisps of black smoke curled up as the hot metal burned hair and seared flesh, but Keth stood stoically, his eyes burning with reflected firelight as the crown cooled.  Then, with a sudden motion, Keth grabbed his spear from the high priest, thrust it overhead, and let out an ear-splitting shout of triumph.  The cry was soon picked up by the other orcs, and by Autumn and the rest of the Legacy, who had been present through the entire ceremony.  Even the gnomes couldn’t help but be overwhelmed as the cacophony slowly shaped itself into another rhythmic chant.

            “Long live King Keth!”

*          *          *​
            A day later, the Pecish Navy set sail and began the long journey north, their small, maneuverable ships sitting low in the water under the weight of thousands of orcish passengers.  The armada numbered in the hundreds of ships, all moving at a slow, steady crawl through the ocean due to the extra weight.  This was perhaps a good thing, as it allowed the fleet to keep pace with their flagship, the ponderous _Armadillo_.

            The Legacy had decided not to take on any additional troops, as Keth had requested to sail in their vessel, and he and his staff would take up what room was available.  Initially, however, the party had the ship to themselves; Keth had ridden off into the desert with a small retinue the morning after the ceremony.

            “As High Warchief, there were some clans even I could not persuade to join us,” he explained.  “They will join their King.  I will meet the fleet on the coast in five days time.”

            Despite not having to entertain the newly crowned orc king, the party kept busy.  As had been expected, having two such diametrically opposed races sharing the same small space made things tense, and conflicts broke out on almost every ship.  The party soon found themselves acting as the fleet’s mediators, using their abilities to move rapidly from ship to ship.  They applied Lanara’s gentle, persuasive touch where they could, and Arrie and Autumn’s less gentle approach when needed.  Osborn worked to spot potential problems before they even flared up, and Tolly helped to settle things back to normal afterward.  Kyle mostly remained on the _Armadillo_, coordinating everyone’s efforts through telepathic bond spells and divinations, only involving himself directly when large-scale interventions were required.

            Surprisingly, the majority of the conflicts did not occur between the orcs and gnomes, but between the orcs and the battalions of Sargian pikemen that the navy had picked up on their way to meet with the orcs.  Not that the conflicts themselves were surprising; Sargia had no great love for the marauding orcs.  What was surprising was that the pikemen were there at all.

            “I thought Sargia had chosen to remain out of the fight for now,” Tolly asked the Tlaxan advisor Talia one day.

            “Things change,” she replied.  “Officially the country is still not involved.  But we have had private negotiations with the heads of the Cromanus Family, who controls Sargia’s Military Greatguild.  They are the ones sending the pikemen, not the Sargian government.” She shrugged.  “And it wasn’t even known for sure until the last moment whether the Cromanus Family would agree to it.  Apparently our offer was going to be rejected, until the Shadow General made some sort of offer that swayed them to join our cause.”

            “I hope one day we learn who this Shadow General is,” Tolly said.  “From all I’ve heard about his work for the Alliance, he has earned my respect and deserves the gratitude of us all.”

            Nearby, Osborn just smiled.  Though he hadn’t known about the gnomish fleet, he was aware of the negotiations between the Cromanuses and the Alliance, and had helped sweeten the deal by providing them with some crucial information about some of the other Great Families of Sargia.

            Things settled into a routine, more or less.  Keth rejoined the armada as promised, another two thousand orcs or so following behind him.  The fights continued but seemed to grow less frequent or intense at the days went on.  Occasionally the armada would encounter Tauric ships; lone scout ships were blasted by the Armadillo’s cannon before they could come about to flee, and larger fleets were quickly dealt with by the fast gnomish ships.  Despite their differences, the Sargians and orcs fought well together, and there was only the occasional accidental orc piking, or Sargian skull being split by an errant thrown axe.

            As the days turned into weeks, Tolly grew increasingly irritable.  He was seen walking around below decks for hours, poking through every nook and cranny, and the skin around his eyes was tinged dark yellow from repeated use of the saffron eye paste required for the_ true seeing_ spell.

            “What on earth is he looking for down there?” Lanara asked one day, after seeing Tolly storm through the galley.

            “He’s looking for whatever it is that fixed the ship,” Kyle said.  Autumn, resting in Kyle’s arms, smiled.  He’d let her in on the secret a few nights ago, and they’d discovered that both Osborn and Arrie were aware of the situation as well.  Only Tolly and Lanara were left out; though they all figured they would let the bard in on the secret at some point, for now they were holding off; it was nice for once to have something that they knew before she did.  It was probably only Lanara’s consternation at having been on board a ship for so long that had kept her from discovering the cover-up and prying it out of one of them already.

            “I thought we agreed to let it go,” Lanara said, exasperated.  “I thought we agreed that Kyle had his reasons for trying to cover things up, and we should trust you.”

            “Oh, I think Tolly trusts that Kyle’s telling the truth,” Arrie said, “he just doesn’t trust whoever or whatever it is was telling the truth to Kyle.  There’s a reason that Ardara’s creed isn’t ‘Let It Be’, you know.”

*          *          *​
            One night, about four and a half weeks after the coronation of Keth, as the Pecish fleet began to round the northwestern corner of Affon, the Legacy had a dream.

            They found themselves standing outside a familiar seaside cliff, looking at a familiar two-story house.  But there the familiarity ended.  For one, they noticed that they had all of their armaments and equipment with them; even their horses were there, as were Rupert and Violet.  Another oddity was that the house was in flames.  Autumn immediately began running toward the house, the others right on their heels, Tolly and Kyle both feverishly casting defensive spells as they ran.

            They saw movement at the balcony, and saw Aran emerge, blood caked on his head and the side of his face.  He was streaked with grime and soot, and held an ordinary looking short sword in one hand.  “Come through the side entrance!” he shouted down to them, waving his arms.

            They bolted to the right as soon as they passed the outer gates.  Soon they found the side entrance; a large double door, big enough for a man to ride through mounted.

            “Kyle!  Door!” Autumn shouted.  Moments later, the wooden portal was shattered by a _lightning bolt_.

            Weapons drawn, the party ran forward… into darkness.  As the light vanished and the Legacy lost consciousness, the only thing they were aware of was a low, mocking laughter.

-------------------------

* True story: our DM had named the gnomish nation the Peca Provinces, but it became clear that he hadn't really thought it through.  The first time we interacted with a citizen of the country, he realized that they would be referred to as... Pecans.


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

Just...too...awesome.

How do the players react when the DM does one of these "the party is rendered unconscious" bits?  Does he do some kind of game mechanics, or is it more a story device?


----------



## Delemental

Blarkon Dragonslayer said:
			
		

> Just...too...awesome.
> 
> How do the players react when the DM does one of these "the party is rendered unconscious" bits?  Does he do some kind of game mechanics, or is it more a story device?




Definitely as a story device.   We can accept this because we know that A) it's done for a purpose, and B) he's not trying to screw us.

He does compensate for this kind of deus ex machina by giving us an extra XP boost - a reward for playing along.  Another reason why he doesn't handle it with mechanics, because if he did we'd naturally resist (because if they're using the rules to capture us, we can use them to escape, and it should be obvious that it's darned hard to make a 16th level party stay put if they don't want to).


----------



## Delemental

*Labyrinthine Plots*

Osborn awoke in darkness.

            He remained still, taking stock of his situation.  He was laying on a cold stone floor, with no lights, dressed in only a threadbare tunic and pants  He could hear no sounds except his own breathing, and the slight rattle of a set of manacles on his wrists.  He was otherwise unbound and unrestricted in his movement.  He stood slowly, listening to the echoes his movements made.  The ache in his limbs as he moved told him that he had been unconscious for many hours.

            He could tell he was in a small stone room, and that he was alone.  He walked around slowly to get the measure of the space.  The room was bare except for a foul-smelling bucket in one corner.  A heavy wooden door barred the only exit from the room.

_No bedding, no space in the door to push food and water through… whoever has us doesn’t intend to keep us long_.  He began to probe at the manacles on his wrists.  They were solidly made, with only three short chain links between them, limiting his range of motion and the leverage he could apply.

_These are very well made – almost impossible to escape,_ Osborn thought, as he slipped out of the shackles.   Osborn made his way over to the bucket, and after a few delicate moments of picking with his fingernails, was able to pull off a splinter of wood of sufficient size for him to start working on the door lock.

            Minutes later, Osborn was creeping along the pitch-black corridor, his manacles gripped in one hand as a makeshift weapon.  He discovered other cells as he moved, but none of them were occupied.

            Finally, Osborn caught a faint sound up ahead to his left, something that sounded like boots on stone.  The hin moved forward cautiously until he caught the dim glow of torchlight.  He heard a cell door open, and two people go inside.  The door slammed shut, cutting off the torchlight.  Then Osborn heard the sounds of a large commotion from behind the door.

            Osborn moved ahead quickly and pushed open the door a crack.  Inside he saw Arrie screaming and shouting as she attacked two guards with the waste bucket in her cell.  The guards were armed with spears and armored, and seemed to be getting the worst of the exchange.  Osborn saw that each man had a dagger on his belt.

            Arrie twisted away from a spear point, and then used the momentum to bring the bucket up underneath the other guard’s chin. She was trying to stay in the center of the room as much as possible, to keep from being pinned against a wall, but the guards were not novices, and they were flanking her.  More disturbing to her was the fact that she’d been unable to access her psionic abilities, as though they were being suppressed or withheld.

            One of the guards grinned as he saw an opening in Arrie’s defenses.  He stepped forward, but then suddenly lurched and stiffened.  Blood began to trickle from his mouth as he tried to turn around, but he collapsed, revealing Osborn standing behind him, the guard’s own bloody dagger in his hand.

            After Arrie dispatched the second guard, they began gathering up weapons.  “Slipped out of your cell, I see,” Arrie said.  “Hardly a model prisoner.”

            “Yeah, I’m not getting any time off for good behavior.  What’d you use?”

            “Oh, the standard.”  Arrie began fluttering her eyelashes in a mocking fashion.  “‘Oh, I am ever so frightened of the dark.  I would do _anything _if you big strong guards would bring me some light.’”

            “Ah, the Lanara Gambit,” Osborn nodded.

*          *            *​
            Autumn awoke to find herself manacled to a wall by her hands and legs.  Even her wings had been belted down against her body.  She struggled against the bonds for a few moments, and then relaxed when she heard people coming down the wall outside her cell.  The room itself was pitch black, but she could see well enough with darkvision to tell that she was in a small, bare cell with only a single door.  She heard the sound of keys in the lock, and then a familiar female voice.

            “Wait here, I won’t be long.”

            Meeranda stepped into the room, a torch in her hand and a mocking grin on her face.  She placed the torch into a sconce on the wall, then stepped up close to the sentinel.

            “It’s very nice to see you,” the thrallherd said.  “You have no idea how happy I am that you’ve come to visit us.”

            “I haven’t come to visit you.”

            “Well, you did walk through the door.  I’m afraid I can’t stay long, but I so rarely get the chance to gloat.”

            Autumn stared impassively.  In truth, she was trying to call upon her divine power to blast Meeranda with beams of holy fire from her eyes, but the power wouldn’t come forth.

            “You are fortunate that the master has no further interest in you.  I thought you’d like to know that we will be torturing you and your companions to death.  We will allow you to watch your husband die, which I’m sure will be very comforting to you. But not before he has the chance to witness all of my soldiers enjoying your flesh.”

            “I am inspired by your words,” Autumn said flatly.

            “Good!  I wouldn’t want you to go into this bored.  But I must say, it’s amazing how you can find help in the strangest places.  There’s someone else who wants to say hello to you.”

            Meeranda stepped back, and another figure squeezed into the room, ducking down to fit under the door.  Autumn recognized it immediately.  She refused to look it in the eye, instead addressing Meeranda.

            “You have very bad taste in friends.”

            The cornugon stepped up to Autumn and placed the tip of a claw on the end of her nose, a mockery of an affectionate gesture.

            “She does not taste bad, sentinel,” it hissed.  “But you will taste far sweeter.  I am going to enjoy this.”

            Autumn spat in the cornugon’s face.  It’s long, serpentine tongue flicked out and licked the spittle away.

            “Your disdain is delicious,” it chuckled.  “Soon enough I will have the chance to savor your other fluids as well.  Your soul will be mine.”  The cornugon turned and pushed its way out of the cell.

“My soul belongs to someone else,” Autumn said defiantly.

Meeranda looked back at Autumn. “We have more pressing business to attend to now, but we will make sure you all stay safe and sound.”

“I hope you know that I will enjoy killing you.”

Meeranda laughed, and she walked out of the cell, and the door was pulled shut behind her.

            Autumn waited until the sounds of footsteps had faded away completely before allowing a tear to well up in her eyes as she swore violently.  But she blinked them back quickly.  There was no time for that now.  She began to consider her options.

            “Well, I could use the Lanara Gambit on the next guards,” she said to herself, seeing no reason to keep quiet when she was alone.  “But I’m hardly in the best position to take advantage of that,” she added, rattling the chains on her restraints.  “I also doubt that they’d care much if I pulled the ‘sick prisoner’ routine.  Maybe…”

            She went silent as she heard more people outside her cell, and heard the door unlock.  _If they’ve come for me already,_ she thought, _I’ll make sure that many of them live to regret it._

            The cell door opened, and Osborn and Arrie walked in.

            “I suppose you’d like to get down now.” Arrie said.

            “Would you be so kind, Osborn?” Autumn asked, even as the hin moved to unlock the shackles.  Moments later, she was free.

            “Want a belt, Arrie?” Autumn asked, holding out the leather strap that had bound her wings.

            “No thanks, I have a bucket.”

            “Meeranda is here,” Autumn said.  “And the cornugon who killed our father.”

            “I know,” Arrie said.  “We saw them leave.  Meeranda ordered the guards doubled, and said something about ‘the ritual must not be interrupted’.”

            “We need to find the others,” Autumn said.  She took a spear and shield from Arrie, and followed them out into the corridor.

            They eventually heard a strange sound like creaking metal, and following the sound, found another occupied cell, and opened it quickly.  Inside they found Tolly, who was shackled to the middle of the floor, blindfolded and gagged.  As Osborn unlocked the manacles, he noticed that the middle link had been twisted and stretched, as though Tolly had tried to shatter the chain with brute force.

            “Blessed be,” Tolly said, rubbing his wrists as he rose.  He accepted the second spear and shield from Arrie as Autumn filled him in on what they knew.

            “We must act quickly to find the others,” Tolly said.  He followed the rest out of the cell and down the corridor.  After a while, they heard a commotion coming from a chamber at the far end.

            “Sounds like about four men,” Osborn said, “and two dogs!”  Osborn began moving down the corridor rapidly, and the others hurried to catch up.  They came to a large intersection, where four guards were poking spears at a pair of snarling dogs.  One was Rupert, and the second was a greyhound that had a shining metallic coat like Rupert’s, but with more of a brownish-gold tone.  As the party rushed in to dispatch the guards, Osborn noted that the chains on the dogs’ collars had been snapped.

            Once the guards were dead, Rupert ran up and licked Osborn’s face, while the strange dog gave Tolly a similar treatment.  Everyone except Lanara covered up grins or stifled laughs.

            “Why is everyone acting so strange?” Tolly asked.

            “You’ll find out,” Autumn said.

            Arrie walked up and patted the greyhound on the head.  “Thank you.”  The dog barked and licked her hand.  Meanwhile, Osborn was talking to Rupert.

            “Can you smell Lanara or Kyle?”  In response, Rupert looked at the other dog, exchanged a few barks, and then Rupert pointed down one of the other hallways leading off the room.

            “Let’s try down this corridor,” Osborn said, and walked down the hall, Rupert at his heels.  The others followed, but the greyhound sat down, watching them.

            “Come,” said Tolly, but the dog shook its head.  Then it pointed its nose down the hallways leading out of the room.

            “I think he is going to stay there and guard the passageways while we search,” Autumn said.

            “Yes, he’s a very… communicative animal,” Tolly said.

            They all walked down the corridor, while Osborn checked doors.  “Has anyone else had trouble accessing their abilities?” Arrie asked quietly.

            “Yes,” Autumn said.  “Do you think it’s some sort of psionic block?”

            “Maybe.”

            Lanara’s cell was the next one they found.  She, like Tolly, was found shackled to the floor, bound and gagged.

            “They’re being extra cautious with the spellcasters,” Arrie said as Osborn worked to free Lanara.  Once they got the gag off, Lanara unleashed a string of profanity perhaps unrivalled in the history of Affon.  Once she calmed down, she was armed and briefed before joining the others to find Kyle.

            They found him further down the corridor, shackled and gagged as they had expected.  But he was laying on the floor, slowly and deliberately scraping the side of his face against the stone floor.  He’d managed to pull the blindfold away, and was obviously trying to wear through the leather straps to the gag.  Osborn quickly had him unshackled and ungagged, and Autumn hugged him.

            “What on earth were you doing?” Autumn said, seeing blood trickling down Kyle’s cheek from where it had been scraped against the floor.

            “Well, I had no idea how long I would be here, and I had to do _something_.  Admittedly, I wasn’t looking forward to the horrible facial scarring, but…”

            “We should stop and heal before continuing,” Tolly said.  “Several of us have been injured fighting guards.”

            “Yeah, I’ve got something moving in here that shouldn’t be,” Arrie said, poking at her ribcage.

            Tolly moved to cast a healing spell on Arrie, but stopped mid-spell.  “I can’t feel Ardara’s power.”

            Lanara tried her own magic, with no effect.  “Yeah, I’ve got nothing.”

            Kyle concentrated for a moment, and then looked up at Lanara.  “Say something dirty in Anarchic,” he said.  The cansin looked puzzled, and then said a few words in the jumbled planar tongue.

            “Didn’t understand a word,” he said, “that’s what I thought.”

            “What did you think?” Autumn asked.

            “I think this prison was built in a dead magic area,” Kyle said.  “I normally have a permanent _tongues _spell active, but it’s not working.  And I certainly can’t feel any of my other magic.”

            “Why would a dead magic area block psionics?” Arrie asked.  “I couldn’t use my powers either.”

            “I’m not sure.  Not much is known about dead zones – they’re kind of hard to study, you understand.  Maybe they cut off all forms of power.”

            “If this is true, then why bother binding and gagging the casters?” Arrie asked.

            “Dead zones sometimes fluctuate,” Tolly replied, “they were probably being cautious.  And I’m sure seeing all of us helpless gave Meeranda a thrill.  The good news is that most dead zones are relatively small.”

            “Then let’s find our way out of here,” Arrie said.  “And besides, could they do this ritual in a dead magic zone?”

            “Probably not,” Kyle told her.

            “There’s another door I want to check,” Osborn said.  “It’s more secure than the others.  We passed it on the way to Kyle’s cell.”

            They followed Osborn back, and after a minute or so Osborn managed to work the lock open.  Inside, they found their equipment, thrown into the room in haphazard piles.  The party began to strip out of their prison clothing and rearm themselves, though it quickly became apparent that their magical gear was not functioning.  Despite this, Arrie affectionately addressed Anyweapon as soon as she found it, lovingly stroking the weapon which was currently fixed into the shape of a longsword.

            “I’m sorry, baby,” she cooed.  “I missed you.  Look, I found a new friend for you.  His name is Bucket.”

            Kyle picked up his staff, and it flared to life, the crystalline ball detaching from the shaft and floating an inch or so away, filled with iridescent sparks and shapes.

            “Aw, it missed me, too,” Kyle said, setting the staff aside to strap on his belt.

            “I thought you said we were in a dead magic zone,” Autumn inquired.  “How is your staff still working?”

            “Because sufficiently powerful magical objects aren’t affected by dead magic,” Tolly answered for him.  “The Scion’s Staff is a pre-Cataclysmic artifact.”

            “Well, if we can all stop getting all lovey-dovey with our weapons,” Lanara said, “I’d like to go kill Meeranda and go home.”

            “And the cornugon,” Autumn reminded them.

            “And anyone else with them,” Arrie added.

            “Isn’t it convenient that all of our enemies chose to gather in one place for us?” Kyle commented.

            “Very considerate of them,” Tolly agreed.

            The party, now rearmed and united, returned to the intersection where the strange bronze-copper dog had been waiting; however, he was nowhere to be seen. They eventually made their way out of the twisting passages of their prison, into a series of longer, wider corridors.  It was obvious from the dust and cobwebs everywhere that the complex had not been used for some time until recently.

            “The architecture isn’t familiar to me,” Kyle said.  “But it’s definitely old, older than most of the stuff we’ve seen.  But if I had to guess, I’d assume we’re in the Underdark again.”

            “Well, maybe we can ask Meeranda about it just before we kill her and her scaly-faced friend,” Lanara said.

            “Merciful hands of Ardara,” Tolly blurted out abruptly.

            “What is it?” Kyle asked.

            “It just occurred to me,” the cleric said.  “Why is a cornugon, a servant of Grabâkh, working hand in hand with the Anathema?  All of the servitors of the gods are commanded to destroy them on sight.”

            “That’s not good,” Autumn said.

            “But ironic, considering the orcs are fighting against them,” Arrie said.

            “Or are they?” Kyle said, a look of worry on his face.  “What if we just sent millions of Grabâkh-worshipping orcs into the middle of the war, and they intend to ally with the Taurics against the Alliance?”

            They all paused and shuddered at the implication.

            “If Keth does that,” Arrie said grimly, “I have dibs on his spleen.”

            “We have to stop this ritual first, and then get out,” Osborn said.  “Any ideas which way to go?  Rupert’s not picking up a good scent in all this dust.”

            Suddenly, they heard a bark from further down the right passageway.  Going to investigate, they found the strange metallic dog sitting at the end of the hall at a T-intersection.  Kyle’s familiar Violet was perched on the dog’s head.  Kyle ran up to retrieve Violet, and as soon as he entered the intersection, his empathic link with her resumed.

            “It’s the edge of the dead magic zone,” he announced.

            Soon everyone was at the intersection, their magical gear functioning again.  Tolly began working on healing the party’s injuries.  Arrie looked at the party.

“Can someone enchant my bucket?”

“Not at the moment,” Kyle said.  “However, before we go on, I’d like a chance to read my spellbooks and prepare some spells.”

“As would I,” Tolly said, “but it’s not time for me to pray yet.  I’m not certain when dawn will be here.”

Kyle sat down and began studying his spells while the others waited or prepared themselves for the upcoming battle.  Arrie focused on her wedding ring, issuing a _sending _to Herion:

_Orcs on he way, Keth with new hat.  Be cautious.  Legacy captured by bad psions and cornugon.  Evil ritual in the works.  Will bust out._

            Once Kyle was finished, they made ready to move on.  They hadn’t gone very far when Kyle grabbed Autumn’s arm.  “Give me the _portable hole_,” he said suddenly.

            Autumn handed over the device, which Kyle spread out and jumped into. He came out a moment later, swearing.

            “The Cage is gone,” he said.  “I was hoping I’d be wrong, but they found it.”  Kyle smashed a fist into the wall.  “Gods be damned! That’s two major artifacts we’ve managed to completely mishandle in the space of a few weeks!”

            Autumn took Kyle’s arm.  “We don’t know for sure that Keth will use the Crown to betray us,” she said.

            “Only if our luck changes,” he said bitterly.

            “And as far as we could tell, the Cage doesn’t do anything,” Autumn added.

            “Actually,” Lanara said sheepishly, “that’s not true.”

            “What?”

            “Well, after we found it, I started thinking a lot about stories I’d heard about the Cage,” she said.  “Since I knew it would resist any magical means of finding out about it, I figured we’d have to learn about it the hard way.”

            “It’s true,” Kyle said, “I tried to cast a _legend lore_ on the Cage one night, and it failed.”

            “Well, I finally managed to remember the story of its origin,” Lanara continued.  “Just before I went to sleep on the night we were captured.  I was going to tell you all in the morning.”

            “Oh, why wait?” Arrie said.  “I’m in the mood to be horribly depressed right now!”

            “Well, first of all, it’s not called ‘The Cage’,” she began.  “It’s known as the Gatekeeper’s Key.  It all started way back in the days when Medos was first forming as a nation.  The merchant-priests of Bail and Shesh had themselves a little financial scuffle. No one is entirely sure exactly what it was over – perhaps the price of stone for the Spire of Eternity, or something about slave trading. Regardless, the church of Bail ended up on the losing side of the battle. Though they complained loudly in council, they found they could not get satisfaction. A militaristic priest of Bail decided to take a detachment of soldiers over to the Temple of Shesh and reclaim what was rightfully theirs, no matter how well guarded it may have been.

When they arrived in the middle of the night, there was but a lone acolyte on guard, watching the doors. He was easily captured, but when the Bailites attempted to open the doors, they found that they simply would not open. The doors we not locked, nor barred - they simply would not open. They began to demand answers from the gatekeeper, and threatened to beat the answer out of him. In response, he bit off his own tongue and spat it at them - a clear indication that they would be getting no answers from him. When they wiped the blood from their eyes, both man and tongue were gone, and the doors stood wide open. The men eagerly entered. Those few who were found the next day were unable to speak coherently, gibbering only about a ‘place between places’....”

They all quietly digested this story.

“It’s been said that the Gatekeeper's Key has the power to open or close any passage, to render its bearer utterly silent in their movement, or to act as a divining rod for wealth.” Lanara said. “Only the faithful of Shesh truly know how to utilize it, and, well, they're not talking.”

“Considering that we know who has this Key,” Arrie said slowly, “and the fact that it can open up ‘any passage’, and that the people who have it are performing a ritual of some sort, I’m coming up with all sorts of highly unpleasant ideas.”

“Likewise,” Kyle agreed.  “Let’s go make sure none of them happen.”

They wound their way through a maze of twisting passageways and rooms, until they came to a short set stairs leading down.  Once down the stairs, they seemed to come into an area of the complex that had seen more recent use.  The corridors also widened, allowing them to spread out more.  But they had yet to see a sign of another living being.

Eventually they came to another intersection, but this one was unusual for the fact that a curtain of blackness cut across one of the branches, blocking their vision.  They pondered the curtain for a moment.

“I’ll try to dispel it,” Tolly offered, and he held up his holy symbol.  But he soon put it down again, frowning.  “This is a potent spell,” he said.

“Well, are we going through or not?” Autumn asked.

“It’s hard to tell,” Kyle said, “but I think it’s nothing more than a curtain of darkness.”

“Still, seems like something they want to keep people away from,” Arrie said.  “Which means we should go there.”

“Shh!” Osborn said suddenly.  “Incoming!”

They fell silent, and soon they all heard it; slow, plodding footsteps.  From down one of the other corridors, they saw an eight foot tall humanoid figure approaching.  It looked like a mummy, but its wrappings consisted of what looking like old scroll parchments.  Bits of broken staves and wands jutted out at odd angles.

“What is it?” Arrie shouted to Kyle.

“I’m not sure – some sort of construct!” he shouted back, as he unleashed a _fireball _from his staff.  Osborn joined him with a _searing light_ from his headband and then some _magic missiles_ from a wand.  All of the spells rolled off of the creature harmlessly.

“This thing’s tough!” Osborn said.

With spells useless, the front-line combatants made their move.  Arrie struck the creature with one of her shotputs as she ran in, and when it struck she heard the crunch of glass and saw colored fluid leaking out of the impact point.

“It’s full of potions!” she exclaimed, as she shifted Anyweapon into the shape of a large hammer.

Autumn ran up to join her sister, her axe blazing with holy energy.  Planting her feet, she swung with all her might at the construct, and was rewarded when the blade bit deep.  Lanara began to sing, even as she summoned a celestial dire badger to help in the battle.  Even Kyle was ready, casting _adamantine wings_ on himself to use as weapons.

Wounded and threatened on several sides, the creature’s mouth yawned open, and a sheet of lightning blasted forth, striking Tolly and then arcing to the others.  Fortunately, they all managed to avoid the worst of the damage.

“This ends now!” shouted Tolly, hefting his maul.  Bolstered by the spiritual energy radiating from Autumn, he charged straight for the creature and swung, the force of his blow splitting it in half.  It fell with a crash in two halves.

“Ugh, what a mess,” Lanara said, holding her nose at the stench emitted from several mixed potions.

“Now I remember,” Kyle said.  “It’s a grisgol.  A construct built from discarded magical items.”  Kyle walked over to the top half, and stuck his fist in, rummaging around.

“What powers such a creature?” Tolly asked.

“This,” Kyle announced, drawing forth an object in his fist with an unusually wet sound.  It was a small, jeweled box.

“A lich’s phylactery.”  Kyle grinned, then pulled his arm back when he saw Tolly’s grip tighten on his maul.  “It hasn’t got a soul in it,” he explained hurriedly.  “It’s one that was prepared and never used.  Grisgols do have powers similar to liches, though, so it’s a good thing it never touched anyone.”

Kyle was able to extract a few more usable items out of the body, while the others talked.  “Well, the noise from that battle probably got some attention,” Lanara said.

“Are you kidding?” Osborn chuckled mirthlessly.  “If the guards haven’t come by our cells by now and noticed we were missing anyway, then this is the worst prison ever.”

“Then why haven’t we seen any guards?” Autumn asked.

“Could be they’re gathered wherever the ritual is taking place, to protect it,” Arrie mused.  “I’m getting the feeling that this complex is huge, and they probably only use a small portion of it.  Makes more sense to concentrate everyone in a smaller area.”

“Well then, once we start finding guards, then we know we’re getting close,” Tolly said.  “But now, which way?”

“I say through the curtain of darkness,” Arrie said.

Kyle finished a few moments later.  “Nothing too valuable, some minor wands and potions, but I did find this,” he said, producing a circle of black cloth.

“Ooh, a second_ portable hole_!” Lanara said.

“Great, now we have two places to keep powerful artifacts until we manage to completely screw things up and put them in the hands of the wrong person,” Kyle grumbled.

“Actually, can I have that?” Osborn asked.  “I could use it.”

 Everyone agreed to this, and a moment later they had moved beyond the curtain into a new series of passageways.  However, after only a few minutes of exploring, they discovered that the area beyond the darkness was unused, and that the curtain was probably placed to keep people from wandering off, rather than to protect any secrets.  They returned to the curtain to consider their options.

“Let me try something,” Kyle said.  He sat down and cast a spell, and was immediately surrounded by two dozen eyeballs.  He concentrated for a moment, and then the eyes went flying off in every direction.  Kyle then pulled out a folding lap desk, some parchment and ink, and waited.

“This will take a while,” he said.  “Keep watch.”

Several minutes went by before the first eye returned.  Kyle grabbed it in his left hand and concentrated on it while his right hand picked up a pen and started sketching out hallways and rooms.  Soon other eyeballs were returning, floating patiently nearby as Kyle grabbed them one by one, feverishly scribbling out lines and boxes.  Sweat trickled down his forehead.

Finally, the eyes stopped appearing.  The party noticed that several of the eyeballs had never come back at all.  Kyle continued to draw for several minutes after the last eyeball vanished, and then finally pushed the lap desk away and began rubbing his temples.

“Ow.”

“Kind of a sloppy map,” Lanara commented, looking at the drawing.

Kyle glared.  “I just constructed a map of an extremely large labyrinth using only the visual cues from two dozen magical eyeballs, traveling in random directions, which were in the dark most of the time.  It was… somewhat difficult.  I’d appreciate if you kept your criticism to yourself.”

“Sorry,” said the cansin, “just kidding.”

Tolly cast a healing orison at Kyle to ease his headache, and then he stood and looked at the map.  “We’re here,” he said, pointing at the center of the map.  “I was able to discover signs of activity in these areas I’ve marked.”  There were about a half-dozen Xs marked on some of the larger rooms on the map.

“I say we start here, at the closest one,” Kyle said, “and then work our way in this direction.”

“As good a plan as any,” Osborn said.  “Just tell me where to turn.”

Ten minutes later, the party was drawing near the first spot on Kyle’s crude map.  “Let’s try and move quietly,” Osborn suggested, and in response Kyle cast a _telepathic bond_ spell on the party.  They moved forward together toward a large room which they would have to cross to get to their destination.

The corridor leading to the room was lit with torches, a sign that their directions were accurate.  However, several of the party noticed some unusual piles of stone on the floor.  Looking closer, they saw that the stone wasn’t rubble, but appeared to be intricately carved pieces of stone, which were designed to fit together like a puzzle.  Looking over the pieces, they saw that if assembled they would resemble humanoid figures.

“Hey,” Tolly said suddenly, “they’re moving.”

Everyone looked closer, and sure enough, the pieces were slowly wriggling together.  They were in no danger of reassembling themselves any time soon, but the intent of the movement was obvious.  The sight triggered a tickle in the back of Lanara’s mind, but she couldn’t place it.

“Is this thing evil?” Autumn asked.  Tolly shook his head.

Lanara picked up one of the larger pieces, which looked like a face.  Turning it over in her hands, she nearly dropped it when it suddenly spoke, the stone lips moving as it uttered a string of words in an unknown language.  It continued to repeat the same words over and over.

“What did it say?” she said, alarmed.

“At dawn a leaf-creeper, at noon a stem-sleeper, at dusk a sky-sweeper,” Kyle translated.  “I think he’s speaking an archaic form of Elvish.”

“A puzzle man who asks riddles,” Arrie sighed.  “How quaint.”

“It’s a butterfly,” Lanara said.  She spoke to the face.  “A butterfly!”  It continued to utter the same phrase.

“Maybe you need to say it in the same language,” Tolly suggested.  Kyle gave Lanara’s answer in the ancient language.  The face stopped talking for a moment, and a look of comprehension crossed its face.  Then it began to repeat the riddle again, but this time with a more hopeful tone in its voice.

“Maybe we should try to put him together,” Osborn suggested.

The party worked together to reassemble the figure, sorting out pieces and sliding them together.  Finally, the figure was complete.  It formed the statue of an elf, wearing clothing that was at least twelve hundred years out of date.  Once the last piece was fit into place, the statue repeated its riddle one more time, and Kyle gave the answer. There was a shimmering, and the cracks and seams in the statue filled in.  A moment later, the elf turned to flesh and blood.  He appeared to be a scholar of some sort, and very nervous.

“Are you all right?” Autumn asked.  The elf looked at her in puzzlement, unable to understand her.  Lanara cast a _tongues _spell on the elf, after Kyle told him what she was about to do.

“You have my thanks, seasoned travelers,” the elf said.  “I will say only this; do not anger the creature in the next room.  With that, I am going to try to find my way out of these ruins.  Thank you very much for your assistance, but I fear for my life.”

“Just so you are aware, we think you’ve been down here over a millennia,” Kyle advised.

“I was certain that much time had passed,” he said.

“Any advice besides ‘don’t make the creature mad’?” Lanara asked.

“Try very, very hard not to make it mad,” he said.

“Can you describe it?” Autumn asked.

“You’ll know it when you see it.  I will be on my way now.”

They watched the scholar disappear out of sight, going back in the direction they had come.  Then, with a mutual shrug, they turned and entered the next chamber.


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

Great stuff indeed.


----------



## ethandrew

This is still my favorite story hour, it's so well done and seems like an amazing campaign to be in; worth the commute from Seattle to Portland


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## Krafus

Ooh, that bitch Meeranda is back... Along with the cornugon who cast that nasty spell. Here's hoping the party manages the lay the smackdown on them. I dearly hope they have some sort of dimensional anchor prepared to keep the sneering bitch from escaping again.

It should be an interesting fight.


----------



## Delemental

The room beyond was huge, and well lit with torches.  They emerged at the top level of a series of three steppes that descended to the opposite end of the chamber.  The steppes looked as though they had been dug away rather than built or carved, giving the room the feel of a mine or a pit.  The ceiling was huge, extending beyond the limits of their sight, and was supported by massive pillars throughout the room.  At the bottom level sat the largest sphinx any of them had ever seen or heard of.

“I think we found the ‘creature’,” Osborn said.

The party studied the scene more carefully. They saw several of the puzzle-statues scattered about the room, vainly trying to reassemble themselves.  They also saw signs of an archeological dig; bits of pottery, stone tablets, and other items were scattered about, and the sphinx appeared to be gently brushing dirt away from a spot on the floor.

Everything suddenly clicked into place for Lanara.  “Feesha’s fingernails!” she exclaimed, “I think that’s Athentia!”

“A-who?” Kyle asked.

“Athentia the Great Sphinx,” Lanara explained, slightly awestruck.  “She’s not only the greatest loremaster of all time, but the greatest riddlemaster.  She specializes in pre-Cataclysm knowledge.  Many have sought her out for what she knows, but few succeed in finding her, and fewer return.”

“Why is that?” Autumn asked.

“Like most sphinxes, she asks a riddle before giving information.  But if you get it wrong, she turns you into one of those puzzle-statues.  The answer to your riddle is the key to restore you, but of course you have to be put together first.  The more rare or precious the knowledge is, the harder the riddle gets.”  Lanara looked at the group. “So, do we ask a question, or just leave?”

“I’m not sure we should bother her, given what that elf said,” Osborn stated.

“She’s really not known to be overtly hostile, unless provoked or unless you disrupt her work,” Lanara said.  “If we’re polite and leave quickly…”

“I don’t think we have the time,” Tolly said, “and I don’t think there is anything we could ask her that would help in our current situation.  Perhaps we should simply introduce ourselves, apologize for the interruption, and be on our way.”

The party fully entered the chamber, and waited patiently for Athentia to take note of them.  The sphinx eventually looked up and took them in.

“Our apologies for the interruption, great Athentia,” Lanara said, bowing.  “We have no wish to disturb you.  I am Lanara Rahila, of the adventuring group the Legacy.  This is Princess Ariadne Verahannen of Tlaxan, Duchess Autumn goodson of Vargex, Brother Tolly Nightsleaving of Ardara, Kyle Goodson of Targeth, and Osborn Greenbottle of the Khag Steppes.  We wish merely to pass beyond this chamber.”

Athentia stared at them a moment.  “Touch nothing on your way through,” she said at last.

The party complied with the sphinx’s wishes, moving along the wall to avoid getting near any of the partially unearthed items.  As they made it to the arched doorway on the far side of the room, Kyle paused for a moment, looking regretfully at the giant form of the sphinx, before turning to rejoin his companions.

            The chamber beyond was barren, save for a large ziggurat-like structure in the center.  The room had obviously been the subject of Athentia’s attentions, as it had been completely dug out and every stone bore signs of having been dusted and carefully examined.

 “I think it’s safe to say there’s nothing here,” Arrie sighed.

“Where now?” Autumn asked.

“The other sources of activity I saw were more in that direction from here,” Kyle said, pointing.  “I think we should just try and make our way into that general area and go from there.”

            The Legacy found another entrance to the ziggurat room, and from there a long passageway leading in the direction they wished to go.  There were innumerable turns, dead ends, and empty chambers along the way, but they managed to stay on course.

            Approaching a T intersection, Osborn suddenly paused.  Two large, rough columns stood in the center of the intersection, blocking the view of the passage beyond.  At first, Osborn thought that this was what put him on edge, but suddenly he realized the true cause.

“Hey, columns don’t breathe!” he exclaimed.

As if on cue, each pillar suddenly sprouted four long tentacles, which lashed out at them.  A tentacle slipped around Arrie’s whirling weapon and wrapped itself around her waist, dragging her toward the column.

“Gee, I’m so glad I spent all those years learning an evasive combat style!” she said, as she began hacking at the tentacle.  Autumn was also caught by a tentacle, but Osborn, thanks to his magical ring, easily wriggled out of the ropers’ grasp.

            Kyle unleashed a _fireball _at the two creatures, singing one but leaving the other unharmed.  The columns growled, revealing sharp-toothed maws.  In response to the spell, one of the ropers grabbed on to Kyle with a pair of tentacles.  He felt his strength being sapped by some sort of toxin, and before he could react he fell limply to the floor.  He tried to slash at the tentacles with his metal wings, but his feeble blows bounced off, and soon he found himself being shoved into the roper’s maw.

            As expected, the other members of the Legacy took exception to this.  While both Rupert and Tolly’s new dog bit at the tentacles to try and break them, the rest of them battered their way through the ropers’ thick skin until they fell to the ground, shrieking.  Kyle was pulled out of the roper, slimy but unharmed.  Tolly cast a spell to restore a small amount of his strength, enough to allow him to stand.  After another spell and a potion, Kyle had enough strength to move about.

“Wow,” Kyle said, lifting and lowering his arms slowly.  “Now I know what regular wizards feel like.”

 “Let’s move on,” Tolly said.  “Unfortunately I can’t do much more for him at this time.”

“Well then, it should be dawn soon,” Kyle said.  “You’ll have a chance to pray.”

“How do you know?” Tolly asked.

“Because a while back I did a _sending _to Aran, to let him know what had happened.  I asked him to tell me the current time and date – we’ve been down here about thirty hours.  Since it was early evening on the 29th when we were taken, I figure we’re getting toward the morning of the first now.”

They marched onward through the long, winding corridors, alert for any sign of change in the dark, dust-filled hallways.  Eventually, they reached a point that Kyle felt was close to some of the other active areas on his crude map.  They decided on a direction and went forward.  Eventually, they reached a room from which an iridescent glow was emanating.  The party entered the room and saw that it was filled with several fist-sized, floating geometrical objects, which appeared to be orbiting the room at various rates.  The shapes were glowing with all manner of different colors. They couldn’t see any pattern in the orbits.

“It’s beautiful!” Autumn exclaimed.  “Can we take it with us?”  She began to unfold her _portable hole_.

“Um, why don’t we leave the pre-Cataclysmic magic object alone?” Kyle advised.

“Autumn, this thing could very well be another ‘puzzle box’,” Tolly warned.

“Maybe we can come back afterward and see what it is,” Kyle offered.

With only a slight pout, Autumn agreed, and the party turned to find a new area to explore.  Eventually, they came to an area where the hallways widened, which struck Kyle as familiar.  Proceeding cautiously, they eventually came upon a spot where a circular tunnel had been cut through the stone between two hallways running parallel, allowing easier access between the two.

“This hole was disintegrated,” Tolly said.  He ran his fingers along the edge of the tunnel, “relatively recently, though down here that could mean it’s a few hundred years old.”  Osborn stepped into the tunnel and followed it into a small area that glowed with several types of phosphorescent fungi.  Seeing nothing of interest, he returned shortly.  The party decided to press on down the hallway.

Tolly, who was acting as a rear guard, felt a sudden presence behind them as the party rounded a corner.  The mysterious copper-colored dog also tensed slightly, fur bristling.  Glancing back, Tolly caught a brief image of a large floating orb.  Making a quick decision, Tolly turned and cast _blistering radiance_ into the corridor behind them.

The beholder howled, jerking backward, and then unleashed its eye rays into the party.  Arrie, Autumn, Kyle, Tolly and Osborn were all struck by rays.  Tolly’s armor sizzled as it was partially dissolved, but there seemed to be no other harm done.  In response, Tolly summoned an _Ardara’s clenched fist_ behind the beholder, intent on pummeling the abberation.  But the beholder turned its back on the party and aimed its central eye at the corridor, dispelling the_ blistering radiance_ and the _fist_.

Autumn threw a tanglefoot bag at the beholder, covering it in sticky fluid and making it more difficult for it to aim its eyestalks.  She was about to follow up with her greataxe, but suddenly she found herself pinned to the wall by Arrie, who had turned Anyweapon into a mancatcher.

“Leave him alone!” Arrie shouted at her sister.  “It’s just a big misunderstanding!”

Another spread of rays struck the party, and again most of the worst effects were avoided. Even the ray striking Tolly’s dog seemed to be absorbed harmlessly. But Autumn’s face was suddenly stricken with panic, and she squirmed her way out of the mancatcher, wanting to do nothing but flee.  Fortunately, Osborn’s many daggers were able to dispatch the beholder quickly so they could turn their attention to the two stricken women.  Lanara tried to calm the panicked sentinel with soothing words, but she was too terrified to listen.  She broke out of Arrie’s mancatcher and tried to flee down the hall, but Arrie whipped around and tripped Autumn with the other end of her weapon, sending her sprawling to the ground. Tolly ended the fear effect on Autumn, and she immediately calmed.  Arrie seemed glad to see Autumn recover, but she still shot a dirty look at Tolly.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“You didn’t have to go and hurt the beholder,” she said, “I’m sure he was coming to help us.”

Tolly sighed.  “I’m sure that in a while you’ll come to understand why I did it, Arrie.”

            They went back and searched the fungi-filled chamber, which as they now suspected turned out to be the beholder’s lair.  Among the items they found buried in the fungus was a single arrow, etched with magical runes.  Autumn picked it up, and immediately felt ill.

 “I don’t think I should carry this,” she said, passing it to Kyle.

“No wonder,” he commented, turning it over in his hands.  “This arrow is enchanted to kill outsiders with a celestial origin.”

“That’s not something we want,” Osborn commented.

“Well, easily dealt with,” Kyle said.  He walked across the chamber with the arrow.  A moment later there was a snap, and then Kyle tossed the broken shaft away.  “Well, at least I know I have enough strength to break a stick.”

            Everyone chuckled and went back to searching for valuables.  After a while, Kyle moved out of the room and came up to Arrie, who was standing outside in the hallway.  Still under the effect of the beholder’s charm, she’d refused to participate in the looting out of respect for him.  As she stood watch, she felt him slip something into her pack.

            “I thought you broke that,” she said quietly.

            “Broke an old wand,” he explained.  “Look, although I hope it never comes up, you and I both know that you could have potential problems if you end up using the wrong kind of abilities in front of the wrong kind of people.  Let’s just call it our secret insurance policy.”

            Arrie looked at him quietly for a moment, then nodded slightly.

            Once finished searching the lair, the party returned to the previous corridor and went the other direction.  They passed a set of stairs leading down to another level, but decided to check the other areas of activity first.  They proceeded along the corridor until they reached what initially looked like a simple right turn.  But when they got closer, they saw that the  outer corner of the bend was shrouded by another curtain of blackness, placed diagonally across the corner.

“Looks like one of those curtains,” Arrie commented.

“Maybe we should go through this one just to make sure there’s nothing important on the other side,” offered Kyle.

            Osborn frowned.  “I don’t think so.”  He picked up a loose pebble, and walked over to the curtain, bouncing the stone in his hand.  He tossed it through the curtain, and then listened for a moment.

  “Just what I suspected,” he said.  “It’s a trap.  Behind the curtain is a pit and a chimney, one above the other.  There’s also a gravity-reversing effect.  You step into the pit, you fall up until you hit the ceiling, and then the gravity reverses and you fall down from way up there to way down there.”

“How’d you know it was there?” Kyle asked.

“I remembered hearing about them during my days with the Shadow Hand,” he explained.  “I figure they’ve got a bunch of those dark curtains around all over as decoys, to get people used to the idea that they aren’t really hiding anything.  Then people just start walking right through without checking.”

            Carefully bypassing the trap, the party was soon on their way again.  Eventually they reached the end of a long, wide hallway, coming to an impressive set of metal doors.  The metal was pitted with age, but still intact.  The hinges of the door showed no signs of rust or wear, and on closer inspection they were made of alchemically hardened gold.

“That’s probably going to be really noisy to open,” Osborn commented.

“Should we oil it?” Tolly asked.

“No need.”  Osborn invoked his Talent, and pushed on the door.  It yawned open in complete silence.

            Beyond the doors was a large, ornate chamber, with high vaulted ceilings supported by marble columns that stretched up far past the range of their light.  It was some type of entry hall, leading off into the darkness.   There were several arched openings to other chambers along the side walls.

“I’ll take a look up there,” Kyle said, spreading his magical wings.  He flew up to the ceiling.  “Nothing dangerous up here,” he said.

            Osborn suddenly heard a noise, a faint, rasping whisper.  _“So the hunt begins…”_

 “Something’s hunting us,” Osborn said, filling the others in on what he’d heard.

“Well, if something’s hunting us, they need to take a number,” Kyle said.

            The party continued forward into the hall.  Quick inspections of the side chambers revealed that they contained nothing of interest, so little time was spent exploring them.  The great hall itself began to narrow as they progressed, with the walls and ceiling shrinking in progressively smaller steps, until Kyle was finally forced to land near the arched exit at the far end.

“Gee, anyone else feel like they’re being funneled?” Arrie sighed.

            Beyond the arch was a modest-sized room, roughly square, filled with the remnants of rotting chairs.  An alcove against the back wall framed another set of metallic double doors.  Two smaller doors led off to the left and right.

“Shall we check the side doors before springing the trap?” Kyle asked.

            A quick examination revealed what they had suspected; the side doors led to abandoned rooms filled with old tapestries and furniture.  Unlike the chambers occupied by Athentia, which seemed more like a temple complex, these rooms appeared to have once housed nobility of some kind.  The party soon found themselves back at the double doors.

“Your move, Osborn,” Autumn encouraged.

            The metal doors swung open with a loud groan.  The room beyond was vast, and roughly T-shaped, with the doors opening at the top of the T.  Large marble columns ran along the walls, spaced every ten feet or so.  Directly ahead, at the end of the corridor, a large raised platform supported the bulk of two iron golems.  Their green, glowing eyes fixed the party with an unflinching stare.

“Spread out!” Autumn barked, as she dashed off to the side before making a beeline toward the golems.

“They’re vulnerable to adamantium,” Tolly broadcast across the _telepathic bond_, as he invoked a _righteous might_ spell and grew to enormous size.  Arrie immediately shaped Anyweapon into an adamantium greatspear as she charged in.

            Kyle flew up and enveloped both in a cone of electricity, slowing the golems down.  Then he cast another spell, enveloping himself in a cascade of stars.  Flying down toward the golems, he slashed at one with his metallic wings, shearing a chunk of iron off.  The golem swung a huge fist at him in response.

            “Look out!” Autumn shouted.

            The fist passed through Kyle harmlessly, as if he wasn’t there.  Grinning, he pressed his attack, although his inexperience at close combat and his weakened state meant that he had relatively little impact.  However, between Arrie, Osborn, Autumn, and Tolly, they were able to bring the two golems down relatively quickly.

“Tell me, Kyle,” Arrie said, as she caught her breath, “your magic eyes didn’t happen to see any actual _psions _amidst the Underground City of Monsters?”

“All I was able to make out were signs of activity,” Kyle explained.  “The _eyes _can’t see in the dark.  It’s kind of hit or miss.  At least we don’t have to wander all these winding passages and hope we get lucky.”

“Speaking of getting lucky,” Lanara said, “there’s another set of doors leading out of here behind where those golems were.  I don’t know about you, but anything that uses iron golems as doormen is probably not going to be happy about visitors.”


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

I wonder how Kyle's lady is going to feel about him keeping an arrow around that is designed to kill her, and even better, effectively lying about it?  We all know such things ALWAYS come to light at the most inopportune moment.


----------



## Krafus

Considering Autumn is already keeping a secret of her own from Kyle and the rest of the group, I doubt she'll make loud noises of protest. In fact, if the arrow is discovered, I think it will be other members of the group who'll be unhappy with Kyle (and Arrie).

And, ahhh, the group is now doing that most traditional of all adventuring activities, dungeon-crawling. Sweet.


----------



## Delemental

Blarkon Dragonslayer said:
			
		

> I wonder how Kyle's lady is going to feel about him keeping an arrow around that is designed to kill her, and even better, effectively lying about it? We all know such things ALWAYS come to light at the most inopportune moment.






			
				Krafus said:
			
		

> Considering Autumn is already keeping a secret of her own from Kyle and the rest of the group, I doubt she'll make loud noises of protest. In fact, if the arrow is discovered, I think it will be other members of the group who'll be unhappy with Kyle (and Arrie).
> 
> And, ahhh, the group is now doing that most traditional of all adventuring activities, dungeon-crawling. Sweet.




Well, here's the thing about all this.

First of all, I should clarify that Autumn did eventually break down and tell Kyle her secret, after Kyle let her in on the secret of Tolly's 'animal friend'.  There was just never a good point in the story to insert this bit of revelation (it happened between games over email).

And about the arrow... that little exchange between Kyle and Arrie didn't happen during the game session.  I inserted it into the story afterward - the first time anyone in my gaming group learned about it, even OOC, was when I posted this story.  I basically abused my creative license to pull it off - Kyle's Bluff stinks, and too many people in the party have a high Sense Motive for  him to pull this off in-game (witness the disastrous attempt to cover up his knowledge of what Tolly's horse really is).

I just came to realize that it's something Kyle would do.  He's protective of Arrie, especially since she has no resurrection escape clause in her adventurer's contract.  All divine servants - angels, archons, devils, demons, and eladrin - are under strict orders to slay any Anathema they encounter.  There is no such thing as 'extenuating circumstances'- a psion _killed a god_, so they are very unwilling to let history repeat itself.  Should Arrie display psionic ability in front of an angel, she will be attacked.  Though Kyle certainly doesn't like the idea of killing a servitor of Good, he's also very opposed to the idea of arbitrarily killing all psions, especially ones he cares about.  By giving Arrie the arrow, he is giving her the means to defend herself, but leaving it up to her discretion of when or if to use it.  If it came right down to it, if Arrie was being attacked by a planetar, I think everyone in the group would be standing between it and her.

Should Kyle tell everyone else about the arrow?  Maybe he should, and maybe later he will.  We're not exactly in a position currently to have a deep philosophical argument over the implications - we have bad psions and devils to squish.

And yes, we are doing a traditional dungeon crawl (heck, we're using the map from Undermountain as the dungeon).  Considering it's basically our first one ever, it's been an interesting change of pace.  I have to resist the urge to unload all my spells on every encounter.


----------



## Delemental

Just FYI, there will not be an update posted this week.  

Due to various events, our group hasn't been able to meet for a couple of weeks, thus I have no material from which to write.  Our next session is scheduled for next Friday, so I'd expect it'll be a couple of weeks yet before I have anything to post.

Just figured I'd save you the trouble of checking for updates for a bit.


----------



## Krafus

Curses! To think of all the story hours that lack updates because their writers lack time... 

Maybe you could write new alternate stories?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Curses! To think of all the story hours that lack updates because their writers lack time...
> 
> Maybe you could write new alternate stories?




Yeah, I've always been a relatively fast writer, which helps with the time thing.  Whether the speed is a good or bad thing in terms of quality is up for debate.

As far as alternate stories... we'll see.  The trick is finding a point in time where I can construct and set such a tale, and recent events have left us little 'wiggle room'.  If inspiration strikes, I'll see what happens.


----------



## djrdjmsqrd

*Good Job!*

Keep up the good work! Need more updates...any chance on some more Character Sheets, maybe some (whatever is written up) for major NPC Sheets?  

That would be a nice treat for me...

djordje


----------



## Delemental

djrdjmsqrd said:
			
		

> Keep up the good work! Need more updates...any chance on some more Character Sheets, maybe some (whatever is written up) for major NPC Sheets?
> 
> That would be a nice treat for me...
> 
> djordje




Well, seeing as how I'm not the DM, I don't exactly have access to the NPC stats.  Nor am I sure that the DM would want to post them.  I can ask about it.  I suppose that if I do get some NPC stats, I'd have to break down and make a Rogue's Gallery thread, wouldn't I?

Now, as far as updates...


----------



## Delemental

Okay, this update is relatively short, but oh boy...

---------------------------------------------------------------

            The ornate doors opened into a long hallway, which stretched beyond the range of their vision.  Proceeding cautiously, they eventually came to a set of stairs leading up to a matching set of doors, over three hundred feet farther down the corridor.  Osborn, inspecting the door for traps, reported they were safe, but slightly warm to the touch.

            The doors opened into a truly enormous chamber, extending roughly four hundred feet beyond the doors, and was nearly as wide.  The center of the room was dominated by a huge stepped pyramid, carved with imagery of flames and burning creatures. Rivulets of liquid magma flowed down in thin streams from the walls, then ran along recessed channels in the floor toward the base of the pyramid, filling the room with a reddish glow and sweltering heat.  A trio of creatures stood in front of the pyramid – two were huge, roughly spherical blobs, which looked like a thick pudding holding a raging inferno inside.  Occasionally a jet of flame would burst from the membrane, lighting up the room.  In the center of the room was a cloud of something that looked like a collection of thousands of sparks or burning embers, except that they moved with malevolent intent.

            The party moved quickly, spreading out into the room.  Arrie went right as Osborn went left, and Autumn charged straight down the middle toward the burning cloud.  Her greataxe cut through the cloud, doing little apparent damage, and a moment later the aasimar was enveloped by thousands of the tiny creatures, which looked like miniature elementals.

            “This is why I hate swarms!” she snarled, batting away the tiny creatures.  Her clothing and the padding under her armor were staring to smolder.

            Meanwhile, Arrie was slashing at one of the flaming globs, her spiked chain doing little apparent damage to it.  “Try something blunt!” Kyle thought at her, as he stepped forward and cast a _mass fire shield_, covering everyone in protective cold flames.  Next to him, Lanara unslung her _Doss Lute_ and began her inspiring song, letting the music echo through the enormous chamber and filling her companions with renewed vigor.  Then she stepped over and unleashed a _shout _at the pudding that Osborn was fighting, causing it to quiver and spray gouts of flame everywhere as the membrane ripped.

            Tolly, standing at the rear of the party, had just finished casting a _divine vigor_ spell on himself, and was now moving up to aid Osborn when he saw the strange metallic-colored dog race by.  As it passed him, he distinctly heard the dog mutter to itself in Draconic.

            “Oh, bother.”

            The dog ran up to within a few feet of the fiery swarm, and a blast of acid erupted from its mouth, extinguishing dozens of the flaming gnats at once.  The dog then withdrew to the back, a content look on his face.

“Holy cr*p!” Lanara exclaimed.

            “You and I need to have a discussion,” Tolly said to the dog as it trotted by.

            The party pressed their attack.  Arrie converted _Anyweapon _into a warmace, which proved more effective against the flaming pudding.  In response to Arrie’s blows, the pudding tried to envelop her, but she was able to easily slip out using her _evader’s psicrown_.  Lanara targeted the swarm with a second _shout_, which bruised Autumn a little but was much more devastating to the swarm.  Taking the cue, Autumn backed out of the swarm and threw a _bead of force_ at it, the blast disintegrating the last of the flaming insects.

            Kyle hung back, conserving his spells for the battle to come with Meeranda and the cornugon.  He looked over and saw Tolly’s dog looking up at him.  “I think he knows now,” the dog said.

            “Yeah,” Kyle replied.  “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”

            “I feel like I’ve failed somehow.”

            “But look how long you kept it up,” Kyle said encouragingly.  “And that was even after_ I_ found out.  And I’m terrible at secrets.”

            Autumn and Arrie teamed up against one of the oozes, and Tolly and Osborn tackled the other.  Eventually, the two sisters managed burst the one they were battling, sending a hot, sticky liquid spraying everywhere.  Some of the burning fluid soaked into Autumn’s skin, and she started to feel very weak as it burned through her blood.  Moments later, the second pudding burst open, spraying Tolly and Osborn and infecting the hin with its toxic blood.

            Lanara came over and cast a _delay poison_ spell on Autumn and Osborn through one of her instruments, stopping the poison from further weakening them.  As healing potions were quaffed, and the area searched, Tolly came over with a scroll and stood over Autumn, reciting the works and healing the debilitating effects of the ooze’s poison.

            “I thought you were out of those kind of spells,” Autumn commented as she felt her vitality returning, though she was still slightly feverish.

            “I found a scroll I’d forgotten about,” Tolly said.  “Besides, Kyle does not need to be at peak physical strength to be effective.  You do.”

            Tolly walked across the room to where his ‘dog’ sat.  The dog barked once, tail wagging.

            “You’re not fooling me,” he said simply in Draconic.

            The dog sighed, and sat down.  It suddenly began to change, shifting into the form of a largish copper dragon.

            “We’re supposed to learn from each other,” the dragon said in Common.  “So, tell me, how do I take a joke?”

            Tolly regarded the dragon for a while.  “Point taken.  Now is not the time to discuss it, however.  What is your name?”

            “Kuparikolikko,” the dragon said.  “I understand if you wish to come up with some sort of shortened version that’s easier for humans to pronounce.  But nothing too ‘cute’.”

            “Trust me,” said Lanara, “with Tolly that won’t be a problem.”

            “I take it that Ardara sent you?” Tolly asked.

            “Yes, Our Lady wanted me to keep an eye on you,” Kuparikolikko said.

            “Good thing she didn’t send a beholder,” Lanara quipped.

            “Ardara generally does not work with beholders,” the dragon stated.

            The cansin turned to Osborn.  “Boy, we need to get them both tutors for how to take a joke.”

            “Actually, the hin was in on the joke the whole time,” Kuparikolikko stated.

            “Yeah, I knew before any of you,” Osborn said proudly.

            “So, you all knew?” Lanara asked.  “Except for me and Tolly?”

            “We were very proud that we were able to keep a secret from you,” said Autumn.

            “Congratulations!” Lanara said with a smile.  “Vengeance will be sweet.”

            Tolly turned back to the dragon.  “I take it the ship was your doing?”

            “Yes.  I can’t teach you anything at the bottom of the ocean except how to drown.”

            “Understandable.  Will you be remaining in this form?” Tolly asked.

            “No, it’s easier to move around as a dog.”  The dragon shifted back into its former form, though now its coat clearly shone with the color of new copper.

            The pyramid, indeed the entire room, was obviously a shrine to Grabâkh.  Valuable offerings had been piled atop the pyramid’s steps, valuables which were now being swept into Autumn’s _portable hole_ by Kyle, Arrie, and Autumn.

“Should we really be taking offerings for Grabâkh?” Tolly asked.

“Grabâkh is a f*cker,” Arrie said.  “Besides, to the victor goes the spoils, right of conquest, blah blah blah.”

“You made a good, if ineloquent point,” Tolly admitted.

 Searching the top of the structure, Osborn found a hidden stairway leading down.

“Well, if I were going to be having a ritual…” Lanara commented.

“Down we go, then?” Arrie asked.

            As they proceeded down the narrow, steep stairs, they began to hear a low hum, more of a resonating vibration that they could feel more than hear.  At the bottom of the stairs, they saw a strange, purplish-greenish glow emanating from the end of a short hallway.

“That’s psionic energy,” Kyle informed them, though it was fairly obvious to everyone.

            At the end of the hallway, they came to a large room, which was surrounded by a dome of pure psionic energy.  So much psionic energy was in the air that Arrie could feel her own reserves being replenished just from the residual emanations.  Inside the dome were a number of robed figures, each standing next to a waist-high plinth.  Atop each stone column was an object they immediately recognized as the missing divine relics.  They saw the metal cage of the Gatekeeper’s Key, and the oathbond dagger of Bail that had been stolen from Autumn so long ago. The robed figure next to each relic was deep in meditation.  The figures and the relics were arranged in a rough circle around the center of the room, which was dominated by a glowing warp in reality that was painful to look at directly.  Psionic and divine energy flowed into the anomaly from the relics, mixing and pulsing in an unholy union. Only one of the plinths was empty; the one where Grabâkh’s relic would go.

            The Legacy attempted to move into the room, but the psionic barrier was solid and impenetrable.  From across the room, they saw two figures step out from behind the anomaly; Meeranda, and Grabâkh’s cornugon servant.  They both grinned at the helpless party.

            “So you see,” the cornugon laughed, “it does come to fruition.  That which was discorporated will be reborn, the gods will be brought to Aelfenn, and all will be crushed under Grabâkh’s heel.”  He glared at Autumn.  “As I said, all that you love will be destroyed.”

            “Well,” Meeranda said, from behind the cornugon, “that’s pretty close, but there’s been a change in plans.”

            Meeranda held up a hand as the cornugon whirled on her.  There was a wet popping noise, and the massive devil stiffened and then fell over, a gaping hole in its chest.  Meeranda stood there, holding its still-pulsing heart in her hand.

            “Thank you so much,” Meeranda said to the cornugon’s twitching corpse, “for bringing us the last bit we needed.”  She casually tossed the bloody heart over to the empty plinth.

            The Legacy frantically renewed their efforts to batter through the barrier.  Kyle pounded on the dome with the Scion’s Staff.

            “If you’ve got any tricks left,” he said to it, “now’s the time!”

            “Your pathetic little stick won’t help you,” Meeranda sneered.  “Silko will return, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

            Kyle reared back to smash the staff into the dome again, when he felt a pair of strong hands grab on with him.

            “Let’s try it together,” Aran said to him.

            The party stepped back as Kyle and Aran prepared to strike.  There were also four dromites with Aran, who stood silently waiting.

            The staff connected.  There was a sound like shattering glass and tearing silk.

---------------------------------------

Let's just say that the upcoming battle will have some relevance to the campaign plotline.


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

Oh my.  And the sad thing is the bad guys have only themselves to blame for both bringing the Legacy to their lair AND leaving them alive to cause mischief.


----------



## Krafus

Aah, evil turning on itself, a recurrent theme to much of fantasy...

I really hope that sneering bitch Meeranda won't manage to get away this time.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> Aah, evil turning on itself, a recurrent theme to much of fantasy...
> 
> I really hope that sneering bitch Meeranda won't manage to get away this time.




Oh, I have a few dimensional anchor scrolls just for that purpose. It's time for her to meet Ardara's wrath, channeled through a little cleric lad y'all may have heard of somewhere...


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> Oh, I have a few dimensional anchor scrolls just for that purpose. It's time for her to meet Ardara's wrath, channeled through a little cleric lad y'all may have heard of somewhere...




Jozan?


----------



## Delemental

*Apocalypse Reborn*

The shattering of the psionic dome produced a shock wave that knocked everyone to the floor, ally and enemy alike.  But most of the force was directed upward, blasting through hundreds of feet of rock to the surface.  Sunlight streamed down from the ceiling through a gaping hole over the tumor of energy that comprised the reincorporating Silko, which had swelled to almost fifty feet across.  Tendrils of energy streamed from each of the eighteen relics into the vortex, and the divine objects began to flicker in and out of existence as their power was drained.  Stone fragments of varying sizes rained down from the ceiling, one narrowly missing Lanara, another slamming down inches from one of the robed psions.

            Tolly looked at his draconic companion as they all got to their feet.  “I am supposed to teach you?  Then here is your first lesson.  This is how you die in service to your goddess.”

            The Legacy charged.

            They broke and ran into the room even as Kyle invigorated all of them with a _haste _spell cast in the blink of an eye, dodging falling rocks and the occasional burst of energy from the vortex itself, using the stone pillars as cover as they moved in on Meeranda.  Aran and his dromites had teleported across the room to block off another exit, and were engaged in a psionic battle with the robed psions who had been performing the ritual.  Lanara, singing as loudly as she could, climbed up the cavern walls using her magical slippers to avoid the rain of falling stone.

            Coming around behind the pillar holding Fiel’s relic, Kyle saw another familiar figure standing off to one side, previously hidden by the energy vortex.  Xerxes waited, mindblade at the ready, looking for an opportunity to strike.  Kyle made a quick decision, cast another spell, and Xerxes was suddenly gone, banished into an extradimensional maze.  He grinned, knowing that now they could concentrate on taking out Meeranda before Xerxes returned.

            And then the back of Kyle’s head exploded.

            The wizard collapsed, twitching, as Meeranda laughed at him.  Kyle was spared the additional indignity of watching as Xerxes reappeared only a few seconds after vanishing, smirking at how easily he’d solved the maze.  But the thrallherd’s mirth quickly faded as she was pummeled, first by a falling boulder, and then by Arrie, who lashed out furiously.  Kuparikkoliko, who had resumed his true draconic form, blasted both Meeranda and Xerxes with acid, though they managed to avoid the worst of it.

            Autumn glanced quickly at her husband, lying slumped against a pillar.  She knew there was nothing she could do for him now, but she had the chance to save others.  Running over to the pillar holding Bail’s oathbond dagger, she grabbed it and shoved it under her breastplate.  The tendrils of psionic energy still trailed from it, and she could feel the dagger fading in and out of reality, but the relic seemed to draw strength from her.

            The huge anomaly pulsed, sending energy throughout the room.  The wave hit Osborn, who was standing behind a pillar, invisible and waiting for an opening.  The daggers in his hands were enveloped in a greenish energy.  With no time to think about this, Osborn saw his chance when Meeranda backpedaled away from Arrie, obviously trying to take over the warrior’s mind but having little success.  He threw his first dagger, hoping it would land in a vital area.

            The energy surrounding Osborn’s blade seemed to accelerate it, and when it slammed into Meeranda it severed her arm at the elbow.  More daggers followed, each leaving a hideous wound and staggering Meeranda.  Osborn’s last dagger landed square in the middle of her forehead, splitting her skull like a melon rind.  She jerked backward, and fell into the vortex.  Meeranda was torn apart in an instant.

            As her screams echoed in the chamber even over the fury of the psionic maelstrom, another sound was heard in the cavern.  From behind the Legacy came a horde of hulking, black-skinned humanoids with long talons and teeth.  “Tonight we dine on man-flesh!” one of them screamed, in a voice that Osborn recognized as the same one he’d heard whispering outside the iron golem’s chamber.

“Astral stalkers!” Tolly thought at the others, identifying the new enemies even as he and the dragon turned and tore into the interplanetary mercenaries.

            From the cavern walls, Lanara aimed her _rod of many wands_ at Xerxes, hitting him with a triple blast and managing to drain away some of his intellect.  The sudden loss of his mental faculties threw off his concentration, and so the power that the mindblade was trying to manifest on Autumn only gave her a few minor scratches as tiny crystals flew at her.  The sentinel had been trying to recover Ardara’s relic, a compass carved from marble, but her hand passed through the ephemeral object.  Whirling, Autumn came toward Xerxes, battle axe in hand, with her sister Arrie running up to join her.  Her axe blazing with holy power, Autumn easily batted aside the xeph’s mindblade and carved a deep gash into his abdomen, sending blood and viscera flying.  Staggering back, and hoping to avoid being flanked, Xerxes tried to open up a dimensional tunnel under Arrie, the same power that had been used against Osborn on board the _Armadillo_.  But the agile warrior easily avoided the sucking vortex and continued her pursuit.  Xerxes tried to run, using his psionically enhanced speed, but unlike their last encounter, the Legacy was more prepared to deal with this.  Another blast from Lanara’s rod left the mindblade dizzy and reeling, unable to focus enough to walk straight, let alone run.

            The cavern shuddered again, and rocks rained down on several of them, from fist-sized chunks to boulders as big as horses.  Curiously, rain began to pour down from the hole blasted in the ceiling, most of it getting sucked into the psionic vortex.  Another pulse of psionic energy enveloped those in the room, and Osborn was suddenly concealed in a cloud of dark energy.  Also, a creature stepped out of the vortex; a green, three-armed monstrosity composed entirely of ectoplasm.  The beast roared, and advanced on Osborn, Tolly, and Kuparikkoliko.  It tried to grab the hin in its three powerful arms, but his _ring of freedom of movement_ allowed him to slip out easily and escape.  It tried to rake him with its claws, but the dark energy surrounding Osborn obscured his location, causing the construct to miss.

            Both Tolly and Kupa obliterated the astral stalkers they were fighting, and turned to aid Osborn, who had just narrowly avoided being stuck by a poisoned dart spat at him by one of the other stalkers.  Another pulse from the vortex struck Osborn, and the dark cloud around him was stripped away, but his daggers once again started to glow with a strange energy.  The green ectoplasmic creature recoiled at the sight of the glowing blades, but unfortunately it did not choose to run away, which would have ensured its survival.  As it was, it soon had several psionically-enhanced daggers protruding from its body, and it stood quivering, barely able to hold its form together after the assault.  However, at nearly the same moment another ectoplasmic construct was extruded from the vortex, this one resembling a centaur like creatures.  The construct moved out from the opposite side of the anomaly, close to where Lanara was perched on the wall.  Yelping, the bard scuttled back and cast a quick spell on the creature, which did not seem to have an effect.

            Arrie closed in on Xerxes, ready for revenge from their first meeting so long ago, when the mindblade had nearly executed her.  Anyweapon sang as it sliced through the air, connecting solidly with Xerxes’ neck.  He collapsed, his legs folding under him like wet strings.  Arrie and Autumn looked at each other.

            “Kill him,” Autumn said, allowing her sister the final word in their long-standing conflict with Xerxes.  The aasimar went back to trying to recover the Ardaran relic.  She was intercepted by the centaur-like creature, but at that moment it was struck by one of the rocks from the ceiling and staggered, allowing her to slip past.

            Tolly dispatched another one of the stalkers, but before he could turn to engage the last remaining one, he heard a sudden loud roar from above.  A torrent of water began to cascade down through the hole in the ceiling, spraying out over the entire cave and filling it ankle-deep within seconds.

            “Merciful Earth Mother!” Tolly said.  “We’re under the ocean!”

            It was apparent to everyone that Tolly was right.  The destruction of the psionic dome had blown a hole through the ceiling, and blasted out through whatever body of water the complex had been built under.  Now that water was rushing back in.  Only the presence of the vortex itself, which was absorbing the majority of the upside-down geyser, was keeping the chamber from filling up instantly.

            Osborn dashed across the room, taking a hit from one of the stalker’s claws, and leapt atop the pillar holding Ladta’s relic, a floating, spinning coin.  His fingers wrapped around the coin just as it was about to fade completely out of existence.  Lanara tried to do the same with Feesha’s relic, a weathervane with no spokes that turned without regard to the wind in the room, but it faded away and her hand went through it.

            Arrie and Autumn moved to dispatch the centaur-like construct together, while Osborn, Tolly, and Kupa worked to finish off the last of the astral stalkers and the three-armed construct, which had been slowly trying to drag itself away.  Soon there was only a single astral stalker remaining in the room.

            With an audible hiss, all of the remaining relics vanished from the pillars, finally drained of power by the vortex.  Both Osborn and Autumn felt the relics they had grabbed starting to fade, and grabbed desperately to them, willing them to remain.  Autumn cried out in frustration as the dagger she has strived to reclaim for nearly three years dissolved into nothingness, absorbed by the anomaly to fuel Silko’s return.  Osborn, on the other hand, felt the pull on Ladta’s coin ease, and it returned to a fully corporeal state.

            As wind and water rushed all about them, Tolly ran over to Kyle’s still form.  The wild surges of psionic and divine energy had battered him as well as the others, leaving him with an untapped reservoir of power that he was able to will into the form of the magic needed to heal his affliction.  Slowly, Kyle’s eyes refocused, and he sat up slowly.

            Meanwhile, Arrie had run over to a weary-looking Aran, who had finished dispatching the enemy psions. Only two of the four dromites remained at his side.  “How do we get them back?” Arrie shouted, pointing at the empty plinths of stone.

            “You can’t!  They’re gone!”  There was an edge of genuine panic in Aran’s voice.  “Can’t you hear it?”

            Arrie knew what he was referring to, though she’d been trying desperately to block it out.  From the center of the growing anomaly came a sibilant whispering, a growing psionic echo that threatened to drive anyone listening to it mad.

            “Silko has absorbed their essence!” Aran shouted.  “He’s coming, and we need to leave!”

            Tolly concentrated for a moment, feeling for his divine connection to Ardara.  The link was still there, but it felt strange… altered, somehow.

            By now everyone had gathered around Aran.  “I can get us out of here, but I can’t guarantee safety.  Are you ready?”

            “We have to close this gate.”

            Arrie turned to Tolly.  “We can’t close it!  We have to go.”

            “We have to close this gate,” he repeated.

            “Tolly, there is no way to close it.  The chance is gone.”

            “I have to close this gate.”

            Aran looked at Tolly sternly.  “If you stay, you will fail, and you will die.”

            “If I leave, then I have no goddess.  I am already a failure.  I have to close this gate.”

            Everyone stood silently for a moment, stunned by Tolly’s proclamation.  Lanara considered attempting to influence the priest into coming with them, but she knew his resistance to her power was formidable.

            It was Arrie who broke the silence.  “Okay.  If you’re going to give up, then go ahead, give up, and die.  We’re going to try and find a way to fix this.”

            Tolly looked at Arrie, and shook his head slowly.  “Of all the people…” Tolly exhaled slowly, and nnodded his acquiescence.

            Aran concentrated, and a new portal opened on the far side of the room, just large enough for Kupa to squeeze through.

            “Go through, quickly,” Aran said, beads of sweat standing out on his head.  “I can’t hold it open long.  If we get separated, head for somewhere familiar.”

            The Legacy moved into Aran’s portal, with Tolly and Autumn helping the wounded dromites through, and Arrie moving Aran toward the portal.  Kyle walked slowly and silently into the portal, not looking up once.  Finally, as water surged around their knees and cottage-sized chunks of the ceiling began to fall, Arrie pulled Aran through.

            The transition through the portal was rough, like a ship on stormy seas.  When they emerged, they were in a vast, chaotic landscape that felt familiar to everyone despite being completely alien.  Colors seemed strange – some were slightly off what was expected, some were muted or nearly nonexistent, others bright and vibrant to the point they were almost painful to see.  They all had a strange sense that their perceptions were altered here; at times they felt very detached from everything, and moments later they experienced very intense emotions.

            “Where are we?” Arrie asked.

            “The Realm of Dreams,” Kyle said flatly.

            The land changed before their eyes every moment.  They saw trees growing in the midst of barren deserts, waterfalls flowing up into the sky, stones that moved.

            “This place is amazing!” Lanara said.  The look on Tolly’s face showed that he didn’t agree.

            Suddenly, a great windstorm blew up out of nowhere, blasting the Legacy with sand and dust.  They lost sight of each other as they were all tossed about in the maelstrom.


END OF PART FOUR


-------------------------------------------------

Just to avoid confusion about what all was going on in this combat, here's a little background.  Every round the vortex was sending off a surge of energy.  Psionic characters were getting bonus power points, arcane and divine spellcasters were randomly gaining and losing spell levels, and non-casters would get affected by a random psionic power (helpful or harmful).  Plus there were rocks falling from the ceiling randomly.

And we've determined that Osborn truly is blessed by the goddess of luck.  He got the psionic power that adds d4 damage to every weapon he uses before he attacked Meeranda (and remember, Osborn can throw up to 10 daggers a round on a full attack, and has that feat that lets you do sneak attack damage on every crit; Meeranda was at -300 hp when he was done).  He got _concealing amorpha_ the next round, which saved him from the emerald gyre's attacks.  The next round he got the dissipator property on all of his weapons, so bye-bye emerald gyre.  And then not only did he successfully roll to grab Ladta's relic (it was a percentage chance, which got worse with each passing round), but he also made the final roll to see if he could manage to keep it whole, which means that Ladta's relic was the only one that survived.  (The effects of this will become apparent in future updates; we know OOC what happened, but our characters are still clueless, so you'll all have to wait...)

By the end of the night, Osborn's player was contemplating whether he should take a level of cleric.  Me, I was contemplating whether Kyle would participate in another combat beyond the first round ever again.


----------



## Krafus

Great update, Delemental! It must have sucked for you to see Kyle go down so quickly... Just what happened there, anyway? Xerxes rolled very high on his save against maze and then attacked Kyle from behind? At least that [censored] bitch Meeranda got what was coming to her. Oh, and did the DM actually expect you to recover more relics than you did? Or was it a surprise to everyone that Osborn managed to recover one in good shape?

Did Arrie finish Xerxes off? You didn't mention that - first Autumn was telling Arrie to finish him off, and the next thing I know for sure is that Arrie is helping Autumn dispatch that construct. I for one like to read about the death of major villains. And, this being D&D, if you don't specify that a bad guy has indeed died, there'll always be a doubt (at least for me) as to whether he did or not.

I find this very frustrating whenever I encounter it. We get a sweet major combat, and the villain _apparently_ dies... but it happens off-screen, and the author doesn't give readers definitive, satisfying closure.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Great update, Delemental! It must have sucked for you to see Kyle go down so quickly... Just what happened there, anyway? Xerxes rolled very high on his save against maze and then attacked Kyle from behind? At least that [censored] bitch Meeranda got what was coming to her. Oh, and did the DM actually expect you to recover more relics than you did? Or was it a surprise to everyone that Osborn managed to recover one in good shape?
> 
> Did Arrie finish Xerxes off? You didn't mention that - first Autumn was telling Arrie to finish him off, and the next thing I know for sure is that Arrie is helping Autumn dispatch that construct. I for one like to read about the death of major villains. And, this being D&D, if you don't specify that a bad guy has indeed died, there'll always be a doubt (at least for me) as to whether he did or not.
> 
> I find this very frustrating whenever I encounter it. We get a sweet major combat, and the villain _apparently_ dies... but it happens off-screen, and the author doesn't give readers definitive, satisfying closure.




Kyle acted early in the first round, and _mazed _Xerxes (I chose him of the two because I figured he'd have the lower Intelligence).  Then Meeranda used the _decerebrate _power on Kyle, and I rolled a freaking 3 on my save.  Then Xerxes turn came up right after that, and he rolled a 19 on his first Int check, so out he comes.  The stuff about Kyle's head exploding was just dramatic license - the power just teleports parts of your brains away, leaving you incapacitated and you die within 1d4 days unless you get a _major restoration_ or better. The reason Tolly didn't try to heal Kyle mid-battle is that he didn't have a _greater restoration_ prepared, but by the end of the battle he'd accumulated enough excess spell levels from the vortex that he could cast it 'spontaneously'.

I swear, Kyle's going to develop a complex.  I think this is his second or third major conflict recently where he does down in the first or round.  I'd do a lot better if I didn't have to roll dice.   :\ 

I think that the outcome of the relics was very much up in the air.  I think that had we concentrated more on recovering relics, we might have walked away with a few more, but at the cost of getting pounded by the enemy.  As it was, they weren't easy to get a hold of, because the ritual was nearly done by that point anyway.  We knew going in that the outcome of the ritual was going to happen - after all it's sort of critical for the next stage of the campaign.  Our actions did alter the final result - Silko's homecoming won't be quite the triumph that was planned - but we knew as players that there was no way for us to _stop _the ritual, unless we wanted to make this the last battle of the campaign and end it here (which was a choice offered to us, BTW - we chose to keep going).

Oh, and Xerxes is dead.  He was at -14 hp after Autumn's last attack (an Elder Mountain Hammer strike, I recall), and Arrie simply hit him with one of her three attacks in the next round, the other two going to the agile loper.  Sorry, guess I was a little too vague there.  I just assumed everyone would understand that if Ariadne runs into something that needs killing, she doesn't leave the job unfinished.


----------



## Krafus

Delemental said:
			
		

> Oh, and Xerxes is dead.  He was at -14 hp after Autumn's last attack (an Elder Mountain Hammer strike, I recall), and Arrie simply hit him with one of her three attacks in the next round, the other two going to the agile loper.  Sorry, guess I was a little too vague there.  I just assumed everyone would understand that if Ariadne runs into something that needs killing, she doesn't leave the job unfinished.




It _is_ a logical conclusion, but in a universe with so many means of avoiding or coming back from death, I prefer the major villians to at least die on-screen so I can be sure they did die this time around.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> It _is_ a logical conclusion, but in a universe with so many means of avoiding or coming back from death, I prefer the major villians to at least die on-screen so I can be sure they did die this time around.




Duly noted.  Future bad guys will suffer an appropriately gruesome fate in full view.


----------



## Delemental

*Dreamquest*

Eventually the winds died down, and everyone tumbled to a standstill.  They picked themselves up and dusted off the hot, dry sleep-sand that surrounded them.  They were in a vast desert, featureless except for a few tall trees with human hands at the ends of the branches, gently waving in the breeze.  Although all still shaken by their recent experience, somehow their presence in this strange dimension gave them a sense of strength, as if they weren’t just themselves, but a purer, more idealized version of themselves.  They felt healthy and refreshed, and Kyle, Lanara and Tolly noticed that their spell energy, which had been nearly depleted in the battle with Meeranda, was restored to its full potential.

“Where are we now?” Lanara asked, pouring sand out of her boot.

“Does it matter?” grumbled Kyle.

“He’s right,” Osborn said.  “If we are in the Dream Realm, then it’s not that important where we are, just how we get back home.”

“Wait,” said Autumn suddenly, “where’s Arrie?”

They looked around, and saw that the warrior was nowhere to be seen.  Instead, one of Aran’s dromites greeted their gaze – they recognized him as Tek, the dromite who often assisted Aran at his home.  It wore a two-bladed sword made of crystal across its back.

Autumn ran over and grabbed the dromite by its shoulders.  “Where is my sister?”

Tek looked at her calmly, its mandibles twitching slightly.  “Your clutch-mate is with my clutch-mates.  They are trapped in the Nightmare.”

“How do they get out?” Autumn asked.

“They do not.  We must retrieve them.”

“If we go there, will we get trapped as well?”

“Does it matter?” Tolly asked.

“No, but I want to know,” Autumn replied.

“Come on!” said Lanara.  “Let’s go!  It’ll make a great story.”  Kyle rolled his eyes behind her.

Autumn turned her attention back to Tek.  “Do you know the way?”

Tek looked around for a while, studying the near-featureless terrain.  “This way,” it said, pointing in what looked like a random direction.

“I do have _discern location_ prepared,” Tolly said.  “We could find Arrie easily.”

“Save it,” Kyle said.  “Let the dromite lead us first.  If we get lost, then you can use the spell.  It’s pointless to waste resources that aren’t needed.”

The Legacy walked through the desert, following Tek across the landscape.  Occasionally strange creatures would be seen in the distance, or flying overhead.

Lanara glanced down at Osborn, who was astride Rupert, and did a double take.  “Where did you get that?” she asked.  She pointed to a prominent holy symbol of Ladta hanging at Osborn’s belt.

“It happened during the sandstorm,” he said.  “I felt Ladta’s presence in my mind, and she offered me the chance to become one of her priests.  I accepted, and this symbol formed out of the sands.”

“So, does this mean you’re going to become another stick-up-your-butt cleric like Tolly?”

“Gods, no!  Ladtan clerics are much more relaxed than Ardarans.  We don’t even have sticks.”

“Well, good,” Lanara said, “especially since as far as we know, Ladtan priests may be the only kind left when we get back.”

“Ardara is not dead,” Tolly said to them both.  “I still feel her presence, though it is not the same as it was.”

“Unless it’s just your own mind projecting the ideal of Ardara into the Dream Realm,” Kyle said, “and all you’re feeling is a lingering memory of a subconscious longing.”

With no real response to this sobering thought, they continued on in silence.

They traveled for some amount of time; they found it was impossible to determine time or distance here.  Eventually, Tek stopped the party, and pointed up to a bank of clouds.  “The Nightmare Realm is there,” it said.

“How do we get up there?” Lanara asked.  “Fly?”

Tek shook its head.  “Dream does not work that way.  You must all travel the same path or become lost, and the method is as important as the destination.  We must build a fire, and then ascend the smoke.”

Tolly looked around at the flat desert surrounding them.  “There’s not much here to burn.”

Tek’s antennae twitched, and he focused on the sand at their feet.  Slowly, the sand shifted, and swirled, and rose up from the ground.  The sand changed into the form of a large wooden armoire; the party recognized it as an armoire that they’d seen inside Aran’s manor.  Lanara opened it, and saw that it was full of clothing, though it was all very oddly shaped and colored.

“This is the object in which the master keeps his…” the dromite seemed to struggle for the word, “cloth drapings.”

“Odd taste,” Lanara commented, holding up a shirt with uneven sleeves and over a hundred buttons on the front.

“It’s probably Tek’s perception of what human clothing is,” Kyle said.  “The armoire was created through his own force of will.”

They quickly set about smashing the armoire to kindling and building a fire from the wood and cloth inside.  Osborn soaked the pile in oil, and Kyle ignited it with a quick spell.  Soon they had a roaring fire going, and smoke curled high up into the sky.  As they watched, the smoke began to form into a narrow, winding staircase.

Tek looked around at the group, and pointed at Tolly.  “You falling would be unpleasant.  Let us go last.”

They began to climb up the smoke ladder.  Osborn, Lanara, and Autumn had little trouble with the climb, and were soon far up in the sky.  Tolly, near the back, was most of the way up when his foot slipped off the edge and he fell, though thanks to his _ring of feather falling_ his descent was slowed.  Autumn, hearing his cry, immediately spread her wings and swooped down, catching the priest and helping him back to the staircase.  Kyle, looking down as Autumn smiled at something he said to her, watched them slowly loop around toward the stair, and then he turned and began walking again, choosing his footing carefully.

There was only one other mishap when Kupa, the copper dragon, slipped off the stairs, but he recovered in midair and swooped back to the staircase easily.  Soon enough, they all went into the clouds overhead.  At first the clouds seemed light and wispy, but as they climbed the sky grew dark, as though night were falling, and soon it felt as though they were ascending into the heart of a violent thunderhead.

Suddenly, everything around them changed, as quickly as if transitioning from one kind of dream to another.  They all found themselves in a tunnel, leading off into the distance.  The walls were made of stone, but it looked as though it had been shaped or carved to resemble a living creature’s gullet or intestinal tract.  Although there was no visible source of light anywhere, none of them had any problems seeing.

“I don’t believe I care for this realm,” Tolly muttered.  He felt uneasy here, even though his inquisitorial training had rendered him immune to the effects of fear.  Looking around, he could see the same apprehension on the faces of the others.

“We go this way,” Tek said, pointing down the corridor.  “The way will be guarded by nightmares.”  Strangely, as soon as Tek said it, they all knew this was true, even though there was no sign of anything living other than themselves.

They walked along the corridor until they emerged into a large, spherical chamber.  A number of passageways exactly like the one they were in led off from the chamber in all directions; left, right, up, down.  When they stepped out into the chamber, they learned that regardless of where they stood, gravity always pulled them toward the floor.  Osborn was able to walk up and stand directly over Tolly without discomfort.  The only inexplicable part was that they’d all known, before even coming into the room, that this was exactly how it would work.

Tek pointed to one of the passageways.  “That one shows signs of being used.  Our clutch-mates are beyond.” Tek’s antennae quivered.  “We will have to face the First Guardian before we can proceed.”

“Why?” Autumn asked.  “If this is a dream realm, why not just think up a shortcut and get to Arrie and the other dromites?  Why couldn’t they just think up their own escape?”

“Because this isn’t a realm of Thoughts,” Lanara said.  “It’s a realm of Ideals.  It’s not just the reflection of the dreams that we all have when we’re asleep, but of our deepest conceptions of who we are and how the world works.  That’s why we all feel more… well, more perfect here.  We aren’t just _ourselves_, we’re idealized versions of ourselves.  But part of our self-concept is that of being heroes.  And everyone knows that what heroes do is face increasing adversity in order to gain their reward.  So unfortunately, as much as I’d like an easy solution, I think that we will have to face this First Guardian, and then one more powerful after than, and another after that, and so on until we’ve ‘earned’ the right to free Arrie and the others.  Whatever we end up facing, it’s likely that it will be drawn out of our own worst fears and insecurities.”

            “Wow,” Osborn said.  “That’s the kind of thing I’d expect Kyle to say.”

            “I have my moments,” Lanara said with a grin.  “In a lot of ways, dream-logic and story-logic are very similar.”

            They proceeded down the corridor, which seemed identical to the one they had entered from.  However, they saw that it ended in a large chamber, featureless except for the creature at the far wall.  It appeared to be a mass of six large, white, snake-like creatures emerging from a pit of blackness in the wall; despite the multiple heads, they sensed that it was a single creature.  The eyeless creature seemed to be waiting patiently for them to enter the chamber.

            “Very courteous of it,” Lanara said.

            “We could just blast it from back here,” Autumn suggested, “but somehow I think that might be breaking the rules.”

            They took a moment to prepare themselves, and then entered the chamber.  The serpent heads lashed out as the party drew closer.  Both Osborn and Kyle assaulted the creature with spells; Osborn with a _fireball _from a wand, and Kyle with arcs of lightning.  Both spells rolled off the creature harmlessly, deflected by its resistance to magic.  Spells from Tolly and Lanara also failed to affect the snake-beast.  Autumn and Tek rushed in, weapons drawn, and succeeded where their companions had faltered, drawing streams of black ichor from the creature.  In response, the heads snapped out at the dromite and the aasimar.  Autumn was able to escape the creature, its many jaws closing around her displaced image, but Tek was lifted high into the air as the snaky appendages wrapped around it.

            As Autumn continued to hack at the creature, and Osborn moved to get a better angle, Kyle moved beside Tolly and tried to bolster the spell the priest was casting, using his deep understanding of metamagic to boost the spell’s power.  Kyle scowled as his mental exercises failed to have the desired effect, though the _bear’s roar_* spell that Tolly was casting still went off, tearing at the creature with sonic energy.  A blast of acid from Kupa also caused it to recoil.  But it was Autumn and her greataxe that felt the brunt of the creature’s wrath, as several of the heads dropped Tek and enveloped the sentinel.  But this proved a fatal miscalculation, for the dromite leapt to the attack, its double-bladed sword whirling.  Tek seemed well trained in how to combat such strange monstrosities, as every blow seemed to cause it great pain.  Between Tek’s ferocity, and the many daggers that Osborn threw, the last heads soon collapsed.  From the center of the blackness in the center of the twitching mass, they all saw a huge, fanged maw screaming in rage and pain, and then suddenly it dissolved, the creature dissipating into shadow.

            Tolly quickly went around with a healing wand, taking care of injuries.  He healed Autumn first, and then tapped Tek, closing up the few wounds it had.  Tek looked curiously at the wand.

            “It is a stick,” it said.

            “It is a blessed stick,” Tolly explained.  Tek shook its head.

            “Crystal is so nuch easier to empower,” it said.

            As the darkness lifted, it revealed an enormous set of unadorned iron doors in the far wall.  The doors opened, and suddenly everyone was pulled forward rapidly through it.  They found themselves in a room, exactly like the one they had been in moments ago, standing in the exact spots they’d been in when the snake-creature had attacked.

“How original,” Lanara said.

            The air at the back of the room shimmered, and a creature appeared.  This time, instead of multiple snake-like heads, the creature resembled a black, rubbery tree made of flesh.  Thick, stringy fungus was draped all over the creature, and about a dozen ‘branches’ swayed menacingly, each tipped with a single large eye.  Three fanged maws slavered in the tree’s trunk, and its roots were a writhing mass of tentacles.

            “Somebody out there is having some pretty messed up nightmares,” Autumn said.

            “Probably a druid,” Kyle said, as he quickly cast a spell to boost his wife’s reflexes.  She took immediate advantage, rushing forward and landing a devastating blow against the nightmare tree.

            The branches shook, and beams of energy shot from the various eyes.  The entire party was engulfed in cascading bolts of lightning that arced and sizzled between them.  Another eye ray struck Kyle, who was knocked senseless. Yet another ray intercepted the _resonating bolt_ spell that Lanara was casting at the tree, reflecting it back at the bard.  Lanara cried out in pain as her own spell struck her.  Tolly and Kupa rushed in, flailing against the waving branches, but the thick, wiry fungus draping the tree proved difficult to penetrate.

            Autumn continued to chop at the tree, but she noticed that the head of her greataxe would sometime become insubstantial when she brought it close to the tree, causing it to pass through the nightmare with little effect.  Still, some blows did land true, so she persisted.  Lanara’s bardic music bolstered their efforts as Autumn, Tolly, Tek and Kupa continued their assault.  More eye rays shot out among the party, including another blast of lightning directed at the copper dragon, but a timely warning shouted by Lanara helped him avoid the bolt.  Osborn’s daggers began piercing some of the deadly eyes, giving them all a reprieve.  Finally, a solid blow from Tolly’s hammer succeeded in splitting the trunk, and with a horrific screech and a spray of sap-like blood, the creature began to dissipate.

            As the creature dissolved, Kyle came out of his stupor.  He looked at the rapidly decomposing tree, and sighed.  “Naturally,” he muttered.

            “What was that?” Lanara asked him.

            “Never mind.”

            Another iron door appeared behind the tree, and as before they found themselves pulled forward as the doors swung open.  This time, however, they found themselves falling through what felt like an infinite void.  After some immeasurable amount of time, they felt their feet come to rest on a solid surface, although they could still see nothing but inky blackness beneath their feet.  They came to rest in a rough circle, and in the center of that circle rose a shuddering, glistening cone of jelly and slime.  It was striated with veins of green and black, and a pair of burning red eyes floated in the mass.  Glistening pseudopods extended in all directions, waving menacingly at the party.  As soon as it appeared, they were all struck by a wave of pure maleficent power.

            Weapons were drawn, and spells were cast.  Kyle looked around, took a firm grip on his staff… and then stepped back, leaning on the staff, and watched, a resigned expression on his face.

            The others were too busy to comment on this.  The slime-beast flung a wad of greenish slime at Tek, which covered the dromite and rapidly began eating through its armor, clothing, and carapaced flesh.  Fortunately, Tek was able to summon up some of his innate psionic power, and froze the slime with a cold ray emanating from its antenna.

            Autumn blasted the slime creature with _searing light_ from her eyes, while Kupa breathed a cloud of gas at it that would slow its responses - but the beast seemed largely unconcerned by these efforts.  Osborn drew from his newly discovered faith to place a protective ward on himself, while Tolly took a more offensive approach and tried to _imprison _the beast, though the powerful spell had no effect, other than to draw the creature’s attention.  Four thick pseudopods, dripping with acid, slammed into Tolly from several angles.  The acid burned his flesh and his armor at the same time, and within seconds his plate mail fell away from his body in a jumbled heap of slag.  A few daggers thrown by Osborn were similarly eaten away to nothing.

            Autumn and Tek joined Tolly at close quarters, while Lanara tried fruitlessly to blast it with her spells.  The slime creature’s magical protection proved as formidable as its physical defenses, and their efforts produced little noticeable effect.

            Away from the scene of battle, Kyle surveyed the situation.  He sighed, and cast a quick spell, which seemed to have no effect.  But in that same instant of time, Tolly suddenly realized that his visible image had shifted and blurred, and Lanara suddenly realized that the _dimension door_ spell in her _ring of spell storing_ had somehow been replaced with an _assay resistance_ spell.  Both used the sudden change to their advantage, with Lanara now able to pierce some of the creature’s magical resistance to hit it with a resonating bolt, and Tolly was able to move into the fray and draw some of its fire.

            The creature focused its rage on Kupa, as the copper dragon was both immune to the acidic fluids dripping from its pseudopods, and had managed to do significant damage with its teeth and claws.  A pair of solid blows knocked the dragon aside, and for good measure it sent a glob of green slime at the dragon as well.  Other tentacles struck Autumn and Tek, and they both watched in disbelief as their armor dissolved into nothing.

            Another flurry of daggers struck the creature, and tore a hole in the glistening mass.  Osborn saw a familiar hand suddenly protrude out from the wound, reaching and grasping.

            “Arrie’s inside of it!” he shouted.

            Hearing this, Autumn renewed her efforts, her jaw set in vicious determination as her axe bit into the creature.  But as the axe slid into the acidic flesh, it began to warp and melt, and soon the sentinel was left with nothing but a sizzling metal stick in her hands.  Another slap from a tentacle caught her on the head, and dissolved the magical tiara she wore as a symbol of her rulership of Vargex.  Weaponless and armorless, she was forced to withdraw.

            Tolly, now seriously wounded, paused long enough to throw his own maul to Autumn before healing his wounds, and then rushing over to heal the badly injured Kupa, whose scaled flesh had been eaten away by the green slime.  Kyle reached out as Autumn went by and made her invisible, offering her some form of protection against the slime-beast’s attacks.

            The creature was now dividing its attention between the three most dangerous opponents; Tek, Osborn, and Kupa.  The dragon was knocked off his feet and sent sprawling, and then picked up in two pseudopods like a rag doll.  Tek, whose crystalline sword appeared immune to the creature’s acid, used it to slice gobbets of ooze off the creature, while Osborn’s daggers were doing the same, although every blade he threw dissolved into nothingness.  Another _resonating bolt_ from Lanara caused the creature to recoil enough to give Autumn an opening to move in and strike.  Unfortunately, when the maul connected the creature’s gelatinous body simply yielded to the blunt instrument, doing nothing except coating the maul in acid, which quickly ate it away to slag.

            “Damn it!” Autumn cursed, as she drew an ordinary dagger.

            The creature focused on keeping Osborn and Kupa off balance, so they couldn’t bring their full abilities to bear.  A third successful _resonating bolt_ from Lanara managed to tear enough of the creature away that one of Tek’s clutch-mates suddenly popped out, landing in a puddle of goo near Tek’s feet.

            “Brothers!” Tek cried out, attacking the creature with renewed vigor, “I will free you!”

            Tolly cast a spell to detect thought patterns, hoping to pinpoint where exactly in the creature he would find Arrie and the other dromites.  He briefly touched the intellect of the slime-creature; just enough to know that continuing to examine it would lead to madness.  He was about to pray for divine intervention to help rescue his friend, when suddenly a mucus-covered Ariadne appeared where Kyle had been standing moments before.  Looking at the creature, Tolly saw a blue-robed arm emerging from its far side, close to where Autumn was fighting.

            Fortunately, another series of attacks by Osborn and Tek managed to finally bring the creature down, and it exploded in a cascade of translucent slime and ichor.  Kyle and the other dromites emerged from the pile, the wizard’s robes hanging in tatters around him and his buckler little more than a few slivers of wood.

            “That was foolish,” Arrie said to Kyle.  “What were you thinking?”

            “Indeed,” Tolly added, “jumping into the midst of that monstrosity was rash.”

            Kyle stared at the both of them.  “Very well,” he said, “next time I’ll let you stay inside the acidic slime beast and die.”  He turned and walked away, leaving Arrie to reunite with her sister and Tolly to tend to the wounded.

            “Where’s Aran?” Arrie asked.

            “We don’t know.” Autumn replied.  “We lost him in the storm.”

            “We should probably find him,” Lanara suggested.

“No,” Autumn said, “I need to find my god and protect him.”

Tek turned to face the aasimar. “We will search for the master,” it said.  “And now that you are together again, you can find your way out of the Dream Realm.”

            “Let me try to find Aran first,” Tolly offered.  He sat down and performed the ritual for a _discern location_ spell, but when he finished, Tolly frowned.  “Nothing,” he said.  “Which means he is either dead, or something very powerful is blocking the divination.”

            “Aran himself is pretty powerful,” Arrie said.  “He may be blocking your spell himself**.  I suggest we not worry about Aran, and let the dromites take up the search while we return to our world.  We have important things to do there.”  Several of them nodded their heads at this, Kyle being a notable exception.

            “I’m sure that Tek will contact us or other allies if they need help,” Arrie said.  Tek nodded its agreement.

            “Okay then,” Lanara said, “let’s get out of here.  I’m ready to wake up.”

-----------------

* The actual spell name is _lion's roar_, from Spell Compendium, but since Ardara's totem animal is a bear, I figured this would be the version he received.

** Although the description of _discern location_ says that only deific level intervention can block it, in this game certain epic-level effects can do it as well.  So this could simply be Aran protecting himself with an epic version of _psionic mind blank_.  Of course, he could also be dead, or have been captured by other epic-level psions who are capable of masking his location.  Only time will tell...

Next time: Back to the really real world, to see how bad we've screwed things up!


----------



## voodoothng

Hi there!!  Player of Osborn here.  

Just wanted to throw something out there for all you loyal readers.  When it comes to the point about the roll for keeping the holy relic.  The final roll to keep it was a percentile and I had to roll 100%, so I was as suprised as everyone else when I made it.  So yes Delemental Is quite correct with saying it was Osborns night as far as luck was concerned.  Ultimately this is what led me to the decision to take a level of Cleric.


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## Delemental

voodoothng said:
			
		

> Hi there!!  Player of Osborn here.
> 
> Just wanted to throw something out there for all you loyal readers.  When it comes to the point about the roll for keeping the holy relic.  The final roll to keep it was a percentile and I had to roll 100%, so I was as suprised as everyone else when I made it.  So yes Delemental Is quite correct with saying it was Osborns night as far as luck was concerned.  Ultimately this is what led me to the decision to take a level of Cleric.




And OOC, Silko is apparently pretty PO'ed about it.  See, us saving Ladta means that Silko's restoration isn't 100% complete.  I'm sure all sorts of unpleasantness is in store for us because of this.


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## Blarkon Dragonslayer

I have faith in you guys' ability to deal with the situation. And I can't say enough about how excellent your play seems to have been.  (Not to mention your luck )


----------



## Delemental

*Nightmares Among Us*

As the last slimy, putrid remnants of the aberration they had defeated melted at their feet and slowly dissipated into the Dream Realm, Lanara turned to her friends.

            “Do you think that staircase is still waiting for us?”

            “Probably not,” Kyle said.  “The fire died long ago.”  He turned to look at Arrie.  “Nice to have you back.”

            “Thanks,” she said.  “It’s good not being dead.”  There was an unusual calmness in her demeanor - a reserved, even resigned sense that stood out as unusual in the warrior.

            Kyle’s answer was slow in coming.  “Sure.”

            “It’s amazing how morbid you can be in just one word, Kyle,” was Arrie’s response.

            “I don’t think you were ever actually dead,” Tolly pointed out.

            “No, I meant it was unpleasant being slowly digested.”

            “He’s just cranky that he has to go without his armor,” Lanara pointed out.

            “Several of us have that problem right now,” Autumn said, as she pulled her own cloak around her shoulders in memory of the armor that was once there.  Arrie, who’d been exposed to the acid for far longer, was down to little more than her clothing, and even then had to be somewhat careful how she moved to avoid unnecessary exposure.

            “Well, nothing we can do about that here or now,” Arrie said.  “So how do we go about waking up?”

            “It’s not that simple,” Kyle said.  “We were gated here by Aran.  We’re not in the Dream Realm as we normally would be, with our bodies in Aelfenn and our minds perceiving events here.  We can’t just ‘wake up’.”

            “Maybe those dromites could help,” Osborn offered.  But as they turned, they realized that Tek and his clutch-mates had left some time ago.

            “It’s possible I could use a _miracle _to _plane shift_ us away,” Tolly said.

            “If it even works the same here,” Lanara said.

            “I think we’ll need to find our way out the hard way,” Kyle said.

            “Are you sure we can’t just wake up?” Arrie sighed.  Autumn reached over and pinched Kyle.

            “Ouch!”
            “Are you awake?”

            Kyle sighed.  “Unfortunately.”

            Autumn shrugged.  “That didn’t work.”

            “We simply need to apply the rules of the Realm,” Lanara said, “and find something useful to get us out of here.”  She produced one of her bags of holding, and began rummaging around in it.  “No, a map of Haran water holes won’t help… oh, there’s that thunderstone… no…”

            “I don’t think the answer lies in looking through the stuff we brought with us,” Kyle said.  “In a dream, if you need something you just have it.  If you need to go somewhere, you just get there.  We’re thinking too logically about this.”

            “You’re saying we need to be illogical to escape?” Tolly asked.  He turned to Arrie.  “Lead us out of here.”

            The warrior smiled at him.  “Aran did tell us to head for somewhere familiar if we got lost.  Since nothing that’s actually here is familiar, maybe he meant…” Arrie turned and stared off into the blackness surrounding them.  Suddenly, she laughed.

            “There it is,” se said, pointing off into space.  “See it?”

            “See what?” Tolly asked.

            “The path leading to Vargas,” she said.

            They all looked off in the direction Arrie pointed.  Slowly, each of them perceived what Arrie had – a well-worn path leading toward the silhouette of Autumn’s ducal city.  Kyle took the longest time to see it.

            “You have to stop thinking about it,” Arrie suggested.  “Don’t look for it, just know it will be there.”

            “It’s not exactly the easiest thing for a wizard to ‘stop thinking’,” he grumbled.

            When all of them could see the path, they made their way toward the path.  As they traveled, they noticed that everything around them was starting to seem more solid, more real.  They also noticed, with no small amount of elation, that the armor and weapons they’d lost to the slime-nightmare seemed to be reforming themselves as they walked, appearing first as wispy, translucent shapes, and slowly coalescing into more solid forms.

            Suddenly, there was a sudden snap in their perception, and they found themselves standing on the very real main road to a very real Vargas, about a half-mile outside the city.  They knew the scene was real, because they certainly would not have wanted to see what was before them.

            Columns of smoke rose from several places inside the city.  The road was thick with fleeing citizens, taking only what they could carry.  At the city’s eastern walls, three enormous monstrosities were battering their way into the city, surrounded by several units of Vargas’ militia.  The creatures, who stood over twenty feet tall, were vaguely reminiscent of minotaurs, but had heads that resembled bison rather than bulls, and were far more massively built.  Stranger still, the creatures were covered in waving cilia instead of hair, and an odd tentacle or two protruded from their bodies.

            “Those look like goristro…” Kyle said.

            “But something’s been… done to them,” Tolly finished.

            “I don’t see any other Tauric troops,” Arrie said, using her psicrown to fly a few feet up for a better look.  “I think it’s just those three things.”

            “Osborn!” Autumn barked, instantly falling into command mode.  “I need to know the situation inside the city, and a damage report.”

            “I’m on it,” the hin said.  He paused only long enough for Kyle to read off a quick _haste _spell from a scroll, and then leapt atop Rupert and sped off toward Vargas.

            “I’m going over there to take charge of the troops battling those two,” Autumn said, pointing toward a mass melee near the northeastern corner of the city.  “I trust the rest of you can deal with the third.”  Spreading her wings, Autumn was aloft and flying toward her forces before anyone else could say a word.

            Tolly, Kyle, and Lanara cast a few preparatory spells as quickly as they could.  “Demons are normally vulnerable to cold iron, and axiomatic weapons,” Tolly told Arrie as he suddenly transformed into living iron.  “And I have a spell I need to cast on you just before we engage the creature, so resist the urge to run off for a moment or two.”  Kyle then read a teleportation spell from a scroll, and they were suddenly just outside the walls.  The goristro had smashed through the outer walls, and was now rampaging in the streets of Vargas.  Several soldiers had formed up around it and were trying to form a defense, but their weapons were largely ineffective, and the mutated demon was battering soldiers aside left and right.  One elf-touched soldier’s corpse was still wrapped in a tentacle protruding from the goristro’s leg.

            “Time’s wasting,” Arrie said to Tolly.

            The Ardaran cast a _fortunate fate_ spell on Arrie just before she flew off at full speed, shaping Anyweapon into a greatspear as she flew at the goristro.  Her initial attack missed, but she flew in front of one of the units of troops attacking the beast, simultaneously bolstering their spirits and putting herself between them and the demon.

            Kupa swooped in and blasted the demon with a cone of gas, but it seemed unaffected by the vapors.  The goristro reached out and slapped aside Arrie for her impudence in challenging him, but she weathered the blow.  She and the tentacled beast exchanged blows as the rest of the Legacy moved in to help.  Arrie noted with some annoyance that the goristro seemed to be surrounded by some sort of aura that was decreasing the effectiveness of her strikes. 

            Music rang out across the battlefield, inspiring all of the soldiers in the battle as the famous bard Lanara appeared on a nearby rooftop.  They also heard Autumn’s voice ringing out across the city, rallying her troops to battle.  But the Duchess’ words were drowned out by a loud, low rumble and the sound of falling rubble, a sound Tolly recognized as the effects of an _earthquake _spell.  Gritting his teeth, he renewed his efforts to scramble over the rubble of the wall and get to the battle.  His enlarged form pushed through the crowds of fleeing citizens and rounded a corner to get his first good look at the melee.

            Kyle, flying overhead thanks to the metallic wings on his back, pointed at the demon and attempted to _disintegrate _it, but the creature resisted the spell’s power, despite having a large chunk of its ribcage dissolved.  Lanara blasted it with a triple-hit with her _rod of many wands_, but the rays scattered and fizzled out when they made contact.  Kupa claw and slapped at the goristro ferociously, but most of its attacks barely penetrated the strange protective layer, and what little damage the dragon had done quickly healed over.  Then his master, Tolly, suddenly appeared behind the demon and slammed his hammer into its leg.  The leg buckled, but the damage wasn’t as much as it should have been.

            “This isn’t working very well!” Arrie shouted at him from the other side of the creature.

            Tolly was about to reply, but the goristro turned and stared at him, and he suddenly vanished.  He found himself in a strange, twisted labyrinth fashioned from his own worst nightmares.  Slowly he began to try and figure out how to escape – the maze followed no logical pattern, so he was forced to rely more on intuition and instinct even as the horrific images around him began to eat away at his sanity.

            Kupa blasted the beast with his acidic breath to little effect, and Lanara’s own spells were being deflected with ease by the demon’s magical resistance.  With Tolly still nowhere to be seen, and with the goristro getting the upper hand in its brutal exchanges with Arrie, Kyle realized that he couldn’t let up now, even though he knew that nothing he could do would matter much. _ Perhaps I can distract it long enough for Arrie to get in a good blow before it kills me_, he thought dejectedly.

            He landed at the demon’s feet; he was far too close to be safe, but he’d have to be close or else he would hit the city’s troops.  Kyle hit the goristro with a _prismatic spray_, but it ignored the effects of the green ray that struck it and kept coming after Arrie and Kupa.  _Naturally_, he thought.  With little else left in his repertoire, Kyle decided to make one last-ditch effort before he was inevitably crushed or incapacitated by some strange power.   He first unleashed his _adamantine wings _spell in a burst of razor sharp shards, which cut and sliced at the goristro’s flesh, squirming cilia falling away like shorn wool.  With the monstrosity distracted, Kyle threw a last desperate spell before bracing himself for the demon’s retribution.

            There was a sudden silence.  “Well, at least this time it didn’t hurt,” Kyle said quietly.  Then he realized that he’d spoken aloud, something difficult to do if he were dead.  Slowly, he looked up.  Towering above him was a massive stone statue of the mutated goristro.  Cheers began to erupt all around him.

            “It worked,” Kyle said, slightly stunned.  “It actually worked.”

            Seconds later, Tolly reappeared in the same place he’d been when he vanished.  He paused for a moment to consider the petrified demon, and then began slamming his maul into its leg, knocking away huge chunks of stone.

            Arrie came up carefully behind him.  “Um, Tolly, dear…”

            “Let me finish with the anger,” he said.  He got in another solid blow, then lowered his weapon.  “Now, what do we kill?”

            “Try healing Arrie first,” Lanara suggested.  Tolly took a look at the badly wounded warrior, and then cast his healing spells.  Another burst of magic closed up Kupa’s wounds as well.

            “I think my sister will need a little extra help with the other two,” Arrie said, already rising into the air.

            “I’m going to be giant-sized and made of iron for at least five more minutes,” Tolly said.  “I can think of nothing better to do.”

            “Coming, you two?” Arrie asked.

            “Yeah…” Kyle said, still surprised by his success. “Sure.”  He started running alongside Tolly down the street toward the other battle, following the flying Arrie.

            Lanara waited until they were out of sight before she walked over to the half-shattered remains of a tavern, and rummaged around in the debris until she located an unbroken cask of ale.  Sighing, she pierced the side with a dagger, produced a silver ewer from her bag, and filled it with the foamy brew.

*          *            *​
            It was Kyle and Arrie who found Lanara several hours later, sitting quietly by herself in a corner of a tavern, several empty mugs surrounding her.

            “So, something’s going on,” Arrie said, sitting down next to her.

            “Just a big, fat sense of feeling useless,” the cansin replied.

            “Why do you feel useless?” she asked.

            “Well, nothing I’ve done in the past several battles has done sh*t to anything except make you guys fight better.  It gets a little dull.”

            “You’ve never expressed interest in being more involved in battle before,” Kyle said.

            “I don’t necessarily want to get messy, but I’d like to have some major effect on whatever it is we’re fighting, so that maybe you guys don’t take so many damned hits.”  She turned to Kyle.  “Watching you get your head blown off wasn’t a good time.  Watching Arrie crawling out of some bizarre tentacled glob was not fun.”

            “Trust me, Lanara,” Kyle said, “I know what it feels like to think you’re not pulling your own weight.  I haven’t exactly been very effective myself recently – today being an exception.  I don’t know if we’ve just had a run of bad luck or if it’s just that we’re now facing very different types of opposition than we did before, and we haven’t fully adapted to that yet.”

            Arrie was silent for a moment.  “I guess the crux of your problem is that you don’t feel like you’re having an effect in battle.  It’s understandable in a sense, because you’re not in there hacking things to bits or blasting them.  But who has the biggest impact in a battle?  The one who strikes the killing blow, or the one who battered down the enemy’s defenses to allow that last blow to fall?  We all contribute to our success, sometimes more, sometimes less.  The fact that you can…”

            “Sing,” Lanara interrupted flatly.

            “… that you can make all of us, not just one, but all of us, hit harder and swing faster is important.  You don’t strike any blows, but you don’t need to.  Think of us as your instruments, and the tune you are playing is the death of our enemies.”

            Lanara sighed.  “It’s a lovely metaphor, but I’m growing tired of playing the same tune over and over.  It gets boring.”

            “Don’t you think I ever grow tired of just hitting things until they stop moving?” Arrie asked.

            “At least you can change what you’re hitting them with.”

            Arrie and Kyle looked at each other.  This was going nowhere, and Lanara was in no condition to really accept constructive advice.  Kyle, in particular, knew where her thoughts were drifting, and knew it would take more than words to shake her out of it.  All of them, he suspected, had been shaken by the events in the underground temple, and were questioning their very understanding of themselves and their world.

            “Perhaps we’ll work this out another time,” Kyle said.  “Just know that we respect what you do for us and that you’re in there trying, even if it does get a little monotonous, and feels like nothing really works.  But if you’re interested, we do have something a little more up your alley to do.”

            Lanara looked up blearily.

            “Obviously, some major things have happened while we were crawling around in tunnels and having waking dreams,” Arrie said.  “We need information about what’s going on.  There’s all kinds of crazy rumors floating around out there.  Autumn has arranged for us to meet up at her manor in a few days to give us all a chance to talk to who we know and get the truth of what’s happened since Silko’s return.”

            “This… this I can do.”

            “And no one does it better.  I’d suggest you sober up first, though.”

            Lanara sighed in amusement.  “You take all the fun out of everything.”

 *          *            *​
             Several days later the Legacy gathered around the large table in Autumn’s war room.  Autumn sat at the head of the table, with Kyle to her left and Arrie sitting unusually close on her right.  “So, unfortunately I’ve been too busy with putting my city and my duchy back together to get much news from the outside.  I figured we could all use an update on what’s happened since Silko’s return.”  She turned to Arrie.  “What news from the Empire?”

            “Well, contrary to some rumors, both Haxtha and Herion are still alive, and the Empire still stands.  But some of the noble families are taking advantage of the chaos to advance their position.  They’re not going after the Imperial Family, but some nobles are looking to gain status by hook or by crook – or in this case, by stiletto.  You need to watch your back, Autumn.”

            “Good to know,” Autumn sighed.  “Not that I needed to have to watch my back as well as my front.”

“As far as the rest of the Alliance, the biggest news is Targeth’s status.  There’s very little information coming out of there, but it’s known that their shield has failed.”

It was an incredible bit of news, and they took a moment to absorb it.

“There’s more,” Lanara said at last.  “There are rumors going around that the Tower has fallen, and even that the entire city of Trageon collapsed on itself and was destroyed.  No one’s heard anything from the archmages.”

“I tried scrying the Tower when I heard the rumors,” Kyle said.  “All I got was indistinct, fuzzy images.  The fact that I got that much confirms that the shield is really down.”

“What could have caused this?” Autumn asked.

“It seems that the Nodes are failing,” Tolly said.  “Trageon sits upon the most powerful known Node on the continent, and its power was key to maintaining the structural integrity of the Tower as well as keeping the islands of Upper Trageon aloft.”

“It’s likely that the archmages are either dead, or may be devoting their full attention to keeping the Tower upright,” Kyle said.  “Either way, they’re out of commission.”

“Okay,” Autumn said.  “Lanara, how goes the war?”
            “On hold for now,” Lanara reported.  “The Taurics have stopped pressing their attack, and we’re under a sort of cease fire.  According to intelligence reports, the Taurics are claiming that they were being mind-controlled into being the aggressors.  Now, we all know that’s the truth, but it isn’t being given a lot of credence by the Alliance.  But the Taurics seem to be having just as much trouble with nasty tentacled beasties as our side, so the truce is in effect so that each side can deal with that problem.  I was able to get in touch with one of my sources on the other side, and he confirmed that much.  He wouldn’t say what the Tauric command was planning to do after they dealt with the monsters, though.”

“Some thumbscrews and a hot poker would have solved that problem,” Kyle muttered.  Tolly raised an eyebrow at the comment but said nothing.

            “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about Taurics for a while,” Osborn commented.

            “Oh, and in one bit of good news, it seems that before the cease fire, the orcs did in fact attack the Tauric forces as planned,” Lanara added.  “So it seems that whatever nasty bit of treachery Grabâkh had planned, it wasn’t something that he included his people in.”

            “Thank Ardara,” Tolly said, “now I can take ‘smite Keth’ off of my list of things to do.”

            Autumn turned to Tolly.  “What’s the situation with the gods?”

            “According to the Divine Council in M’Dos, all of the gods save Ladta are now bound in mortal form to Aelfenn.  The connection between the gods and their priests still exists, so we are still granted spells.  The Council has confirmed that all of the Many are here on Affon, though naturally their exact locations were not given.  Grabâkh is known to be in the Haran Desert, and the locations of Feesha, Ardara, and Krûsh are unknown, though given their natures it’s assumed they are somewhere in the sky, in the earth, and in the water, respectively.”

            “What about Erito?” Autumn asked.  “It seems important that we find her.”

            “By all accounts, Erito is here, but is on the move.  She is seen in one place, stays for a short time, and then moves on.  There is no apparent pattern to her movements.”

            “She could be trying to stay a step ahead of Silko,” Osborn suggested.  “I’m sure he’d love to take out arcane magic.”

            “She may also be trying to repair the fluctuation in the Nodes,” Tolly suggested.

            “Speaking of which,” Autumn said, “Kyle, what’s happening with all these strange creatures?”

            “Well, my initial suspicions were correct,” Kyle said.  “I spoke with several farmers who described large areas that have become warped and twisted regions.  There are two such regions within Vargas itself.  It seems that the Dream Realm has somehow impinged itself upon the physical world, creating these overlapping areas.  The strange creatures, like those bizarre goristro, came out of portals from these areas.”

            “That explains why they were so hard to hurt,” Tolly said, “they’re not fully real.”

            “Real enough,” Kyle said.  “I’m pretty sure that weapons enchanted to affect incorporeal creatures will affect these dream-creatures in the same way.  The good news is that not all of these overlaid areas correspond to portions of the Nightmare Realm.  One of the areas in Vargas is definitely hostile, and I’ve had work started on walling it off.  The other is fairly benign.”

            “What is its nature?” Tolly asked.

            Kyle blushed.  “Well, it seems that it corresponds to a region of the Dream Realm that contains dreams of a more… erotic nature.”

            Lanara smiled.  “Kyle’s been picking flowers in the Fields of Love.”

            “Fields of Love?” Autumn asked.

            “It’s the name the locals have given the area,” Lanara explained.  “You might want to wall off that one too, just so you can charge admission.”

            Autumn looked at Kyle.  “And you were inside this area?”

            “I was studying it.  I didn’t know about the effects until I was inside.”

            Autumn nodded.  “So that explains how you were the other night.”

            “But anyway,” Kyle said, “there’s more.  It seems the workings of magic have been altered.  Reports are coming in that occasionally spells will misfire; some are reduced in potency, others are increased, and some have effects that are completely random.  It’s likely related to the instability in the Nodes is causing this.  The best guess is that roughly three to five percent of spells being cast are affected.  It’s not clear to me yet if this extends to innate abilities like Talents or racial magics, or if it affects more permanent magics that were placed before Silko’s return.  I also can’t say for sure if this is affecting divine or nature magic, though since the source of both of those is here on this planet, it could very well be the case.”

            “More good news for our side,” Lanara groaned.

            “It’s a lot worse for others,” Osborn said.  “I’ve been checking with the locals and civilians in other areas.  There are a lot of refugees south of the front lines, and there’s not enough food to go around.  Between the land captured by the Taurics, the crops and livestock that were stolen by refugees, and the areas of land lost to these dream overlays, the farmers are having a pretty tough time.  I’ve heard reports from villages in and near Targeth that there are a lot of people coming out of Trageon.  So many that several villages have had to barricade themselves off to keep them out.  If something doesn’t change soon, people are going to start starving.”

            “There’s been a lot of suffering out there,” Autumn said.  “I’ve had reports from Auror and Togusa on the status of things here in the duchy.  Our military forces have had about forty percent casualties, and we’ve lost about a quarter of our civilian population.”

            “At least that’s fewer people to go hungry,” Tolly said bitterly.

            “I could throw a good plague into the city to make sure the food goes farther,” Kyle said.

Autumn just stared at him, at first convinced he was trying to make another one of his poor jokes, but realizing that, while not entirely serious, he wasn’t making the comment for laughs.  She’d never heard anything so cruel come out of his mouth before.  _He’s just tired_, Autumn thought.  _We’re all tired, and Bail help us, there’s no rest coming._

“There is some good news,” Osborn said.  “The war profiteering that I’ve managed to get access to through various thieves’ guilds has given me access to a lot of loose capital, which we can send where we need it.”

“What other steps can we take now to help?” Autumn asked.

“We need to be able to deal with the problem of these dream creatures,” Kyle said, “and prepare in the event the Taurics get aggressive again.  I’d suggest we spread the word to the wizards in the Alliance that those with skill in alchemy should work on producing as much ghost oil as possible.  With magic unreliable, and with properly enchanted weapons in short supply, it’s the best chance we have.”

“I also think we should have people working on mass-producing those firearms that we found in Targeth,” Arrie said.  “They’re not terribly efficient compared to magic, but in a world where everyone’s going to be hesitant to cast spells, they could come in handy.”

“We should also make sure the Alliance command understands that the Taurics’ claims of being controlled are true, to avoid unnecessary hostilities,” Tolly advised.

“There’s not much to be done about the food problem,” Osborn said.  “I’ve spoken to some druids, and using their magic to accelerate crop growth would be a short-term solution.  It would just put off the famine a few years.  Besides, if what Kyle says is true, we might not want to rely on heavy use of nature magic.”

            “So it seems,” Arrie said, “that now we have to decide what to do personally.  I’d vote for finding Erito and keeping her safe.”

            “I disagree,” Kyle said.  “She may be stuck in a physical body, but she’s still a deity, and has plenty of her own power, as well as legions of eladrin and the faithful willing to die to defend her.  Besides, playing defense for Erito means Silko and his bunch get to run around unmolested.”

            “We could go check out Trageon, see if the rumors are true,” Lanara offered.  “See if we can do anything to help, make sure there aren’t any dangerous artifacts just laying around in the rubble waiting to be picked up by the bad guys…”

            “… do a little looting…” Kyle said quietly.

            Lanara paused.  “I’ll admit the thought of looking for some things that would help us out crossed my mind, Kyle, but since it wasn’t the main reason we’d be going, I thought I’d leave that out.”

            “So, Kyle, do you have any suggestions?” Arrie inquired, “Or were you planning on just sitting there casting _control weather_ every time we try and brainstorm?”

            “Two things come to mind,” he said.  “First, we know that the ritual that brought Silko back required him to drain the essence of all the gods, but one got away, thanks to Osborn.”

            The hin smiled.

            “Well, rather than trying to protect the deities he’s already drained, I think we should figure out how he intends to get to Ladta and stop him.  I’m pretty sure he’s going to want to finish what he started.”

            “Okay,” Arrie prompted, “what’s your second idea?”

            “That we go on the offensive,” Kyle said.  “We talked about it before, but never had the chance to implement our plan before we had to go on our little ‘secret mission’ to the desert.  We find out where Silko’s people are and start picking them off.  Put them on the defensive for a change.”

            “A worthy idea,” Tolly said, “but with the functioning of magic uncertain, is mounting an attack wise?”

            “Well, unfortunately, Tolly, it’s all I have, so I guess I’ll just deal with that, right?” Kyle snapped.

            Autumn sighed.  “Okay, look, we’ve had a hard time these past two weeks.  We’re tired and not at our best.  I think we should all get some rest, think about what we want to do, and come back here tomorrow and work out a plan.”

            “I agree,” Osborn said.  “After supper, then?”

            They all rose and left the room, except for Kyle, who walked over to a window and looked out over the city, and Autumn, who also lingered.  She came up and put a hand on his shoulder.

            “What’s bothering you, Kyle?  Some of the things you were saying back there – thumb screws?  Plagues?  That’s not like you.”

            “Is that such a bad thing?” he said, not turning to look at her.  “Doesn’t seem that being ‘like me’ has gotten us very far.”

            “I thought you were over feeling like you weren’t contributing to the party,” Autumn said.

            “It’s not that,” he said.  “I’m having a hard time justifying to myself why I should care so much about being a decent person.”

            “You don’t mean that.”

            “Don’t I?”  Kyle pointed out across the city, to the region of Dream that was being walled off to protect the citizens from harm.  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Autumn, but they’re _winning_.  Look at what being honest and caring has gotten us.  Look at what being deceitful, treacherous, murdering bastards has gotten them.  I can’t help but wonder if we’d be in this position if we’d been willing to be just a little more ruthless.”

            “Kyle,” Autumn said, tears in her eyes, “if we become like them, we’ve already lost, regardless of the outcome of any battle.”

            Kyle sighed.  “I hear your words,” he said, “but right now I’m not ready to believe them.”  With that, he turned and walked out of the room in a swirl of blue robes.


----------



## Krafus

Wow, that's two superb updates. Very high quality writing as usual, Delemental. I hope you haven't caught up to present time in that campaign yet - I want more updates! And now, some comments...

Aelfenn? Dream World? Someone has been reading Robert Jordan. 

Oh, and I can understand Kyle and Lanara's frustration of being unable to contribute much. Also, I think I understand the cause of the problem. As I recall, you mentioned a few months ago that, instead of lots of relatively easily-defeateable encounters each level, you tended to have just a few very difficult encounters instead. Such opponents of course have high spell resistance, so characters whose offensive abilities are based on magic are, well, screwed. 

So instead of being able to decimate groups of lower-level beings at least from time to time and being able to feel useful, Kyle and Lanara have to watch their spells fizzle uselessly as the party lurches from tough encounter to tough encounter. The goristro that Kyle turned to stone must have blown its save or something - and I'm sure Kyle is aware that it's pure luck that allowed that spell to strike. Now that there's an automatic spell failure chance no matter what, the spellcasters will be even less effective in combat. So it's normal that the guy is feeling depressed.

As for Lanara, well, she has the same problem as Kyle where magic is concerned, and with what the party has been up to of late (i.e. travelling and basically dungeon crawling), she hasn't had much chance to bring her particular skills to the fore and feel useful of late. And I don't think she will for a while yet, given that the campaign is now dealing with a wholesale invasion (and thus with lots of combat on the horizon) and gods. Maybe the Tauric leadership will want to negotiate a long-term truce while they deal with the tentacled beasts and their former psionic enslavers (since it seems the Taurics are now aware that they've been manipulated).

If the DM wants to cheer them up, maybe he could have a horde of low-CR tentacled beasts appear from nowhere and rush the walls of Vargas, allowing the spellcasters to decimate them from afar with spells and actually feel effective for a change.

_Autumn nodded. “So that explains how you were the other night.”_ Heh heh. So just how _was_ Kyle?

Oh, and as to Kyle's comments at the end of the last post, I don't really see how the party could have really altered the overall course of the campaign. I think the Tauric invasion and Silko's return would have happened no matter what. The only thing I can think of is that they might have gone on a locate-and-kill spree of the Taurics' psionic masterminds... But sooner or later they'd have encountered something they couldn't handle or the psionicists would have laid a trap, so IMO that course of action would merely at best have delayed the inevitable.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Wow, that's two superb updates. Very high quality writing as usual, Delemental. I hope you haven't caught up to present time in that campaign yet - I want more updates! And now, some comments...
> 
> Aelfenn? Dream World? Someone has been reading Robert Jordan.




Couldn't comment on that, though I don't think the DM is a big Jordan fan.  And I've never read any of those books, so the reference is lost on me, I'm afraid.

I'm also afraid that we are, indeed, caught up, and so the next update will have to wait until sometime after this Friday's game.



> Oh, and I can understand Kyle and Lanara's frustration of being unable to contribute much. Also, I think I understand the cause of the problem. As I recall, you mentioned a few months ago that, instead of lots of relatively easily-defeateable encounters each level, you tended to have just a few very difficult encounters instead. Such opponents of course have high spell resistance, so characters whose offensive abilities are based on magic are, well, screwed.
> 
> So instead of being able to decimate groups of lower-level beings at least from time to time and being able to feel useful, Kyle and Lanara have to watch their spells fizzle uselessly as the party lurches from tough encounter to tough encounter. The goristro that Kyle turned to stone must have blown its save or something - and I'm sure Kyle is aware that it's pure luck that allowed that spell to strike. Now that there's an automatic spell failure chance no matter what, the spellcasters will be even less effective in combat. So it's normal that the guy is feeling depressed.




Yeah, the goristro rolled a one on its save.  I was truly expecting it to have no effect.

We're well aware of why we have such difficulty using magic against our current opponents.  The fact that I roll dice abysmally doesn't help.  Kyle was more frustrated by the fact that he was getting taken out of battle so early that he didn't even have a chance to try, and that his lack of contribution didn't seem to be making much of a difference in the outcome.  He was starting to feel more a liability than an asset.  The reason he held back initially when we fought the ooze-creature in the Nightmare Realm (a modified Aspect of Jubilex, for the curious) was that he was sure that the others could handle it without him.  Only when they started having trouble was he moved to act, and initially that was only to give the other a little boost so they could do the job.  Using _benign transposition _to switch places with Arrie wasn't some act of matyrdom - he was at full hp, Arrie had been inside for who knows how long and was possibly close to dying, so he pulled her out the fastest way he knew how (he also had acid resistance up, so it wasn't doing as much damage to him).  Kyle was planning on using _dimension door _to escape himself the next round, but we killed it before that could happen.  And then when everybody got on Kyle's case for jumping into the creature, he decided not to bother explaining himself.

The goristro battle helped snap him out of that state of mind considerably, since it proved he could still contribute meaningfully.  Now, as for Kyle's other current angst-filled crisis, that's a different problem.  

Really, it's going to be all about proper spell selection at this point.  I can't keep up with Arrie, Osborn, or Autumn in terms of damage output, so better to find other things to do.



> As for Lanara, well, she has the same problem as Kyle where magic is concerned, and with what the party has been up to of late (i.e. travelling and basically dungeon crawling), she hasn't had much chance to bring her particular skills to the fore and feel useful of late. And I don't think she will for a while yet, given that the campaign is now dealing with a wholesale invasion (and thus with lots of combat on the horizon) and gods. Maybe the Tauric leadership will want to negotiate a long-term truce while they deal with the tentacled beasts and their former psionic enslavers (since it seems the Taurics are now aware that they've been manipulated).
> 
> If the DM wants to cheer them up, maybe he could have a horde of low-CR tentacled beasts appear from nowhere and rush the walls of Vargas, allowing the spellcasters to decimate them from afar with spells and actually feel effective for a change.




The main issue that Lanara's (and her player) has currently is that her routine in combat has become little more than "Sing, then do a bunch of stuff that doesn't really work".  Part of it is spell availability - bard spells are mainly geared around Will saves, which at this level, and with the types of opponents we face, aren't going to take effect very often.

Lanara's player is currently in the midst of considering her options, which may include a shift in focus to include more direct participation in combat.  She'd just like to be more than a "floating +4 morale bonus".  The nature of the campaign itself is going to change from this point on, and may include more investigative and diplomatic work, which may mean that her strengths will come more to the fore (she's a social character, not a combat character - her bonuses to things like Diplomacy and Gather INfo are obscene).



> _Autumn nodded. “So that explains how you were the other night.”_ Heh heh. So just how _was_ Kyle?




Let's put it this way - the way it was described to me was "Kyle comes out of the area with a new wand, and a willingness to use all fifty charges".

It should be mentioned that Autumn and Osborn's players were not at this session (which is why they ran off at the beginning), so I didn't really take the opportunity to expound in-game on how I would resolve this, er, state of existence.  However, when I told the DM that I was planning on checking this area of Dream out, I had considered asking Arrie to come with me.  Now, I'm not exactly sure what would have happened - probably nothing, because it's not like you lose complete control in the Fields of Love or anything, but it might have been an... awkward moment for the two of us.



> Oh, and as to Kyle's comments at the end of the last post, I don't really see how the party could have really altered the overall course of the campaign. I think the Tauric invasion and Silko's return would have happened no matter what. The only thing I can think of is that they might have gone on a locate-and-kill spree of the Taurics' psionic masterminds... But sooner or later they'd have encountered something they couldn't handle or the psionicists would have laid a trap, so IMO that course of action would merely at best have delayed the inevitable.




Oh, _I_ know that, and on a deeper level _Kyle _knows that as well.  But Kyle very much believes in the classic idea of the hero, even if he wouldn't say it as such, and wants to live up to that role.  He also feels the extra burden of responsibility for anything psionic, since he is the owner of the Scion's Staff.  He's always struggled with a darker side, something he usually keeps bottled up, but it gets out occasionally (recall the scene with the Scion-Watcher cult after they killed his brother in cold blood, or when Autumn was abducted by Meeranda).  Right now, he's having trouble seeing what the benefit of being The Good Guy™ was, in light of this rather dramatic victory for Team Silko.  So, until he's reminded of exactly why that capital 'G' in his alignment is important, Kyle's going to be entertaining less than savory thoughts for a while.


----------



## Delemental

*Divide and Conquer*

Well, after a long delay, here's the latest update!

----------------------

            “What is our status, General?”

            Togusa stood and bowed before giving his report.  “Duchy forces stand at seventy percent of normal, thanks to heavy recruiting.  However, we are still desperately short on officers, engineers, and support personnel.  It is unlikely that we will be able to fill many of these positions, and the state of the duchy’s treasury is such that it would be difficult to build our general forces further without reducing relief efforts elsewhere.”

            Autumn nodded, trying to keep the melancholy she felt at the news from reaching her face.  “Thank you, General.  And what of the tactical situation inside Vargas?”

            This question was addressed by a pale, aging wizard in parchment-colored robes that matched his skin, someone Autumn didn’t recognize at first. _Tazlin Mohere,_ Autumn remembered.  _He’s the head of the Mage’s Guild.  He and his wife were at my wedding._  His name was on the list of people that Arrie had said might try to assassinate her.

            “Work progresses slowly on containing the area of the city you refer to as the ‘Nightmare Realm’, Tazlin began.  “Our initial experiments on your suggestion of incorporating the alchemical compound _unguentum phasmatis_, commonly known as ghost oil, into the mortar of newly-constructed stone walls proved unsuccessful, as the mortar itself refused to set properly.  We believe the compound could be modified into a form of lacquer or paint and used to coat the outer surface of a wall, but this would likely only deter lesser incursions, and would be an inconsequential barrier to a significant breach.  Of course, the most foolproof method is to surround the affected area with permanent _walls of force_.”

            “All right,” Autumn said, “what’s the catch?”

            “The ‘catch’, as you put it, is that there are few practitioners of the arcane arts loyal to the duchy who have the skill required to perform this incantation, and of those that exist, few are willing to risk the spell with the current instabilities in the flow of magic.  Those who are willing to try are, quite properly, demanding a significant increase in the usual fees that would be charged for such an enchantment, given its demand on an arcanist’s own life force.  And with some of the members of my guild being diverted to the site of the other incursion…”

            “Other incursion?” Autumn blurted out.  “There’s nothing dangerous about the Fields of Love!”

            “Not overtly so, no.  However, there has been an increasing problem in the city of losing citizens with valuable skills to the temptations of this particular region and its… unusual influences.  Compounding the problem is that beings native to this region have begun wandering out of the incursion zone into the rest of the city, beings who are apparently able to create the same sorts of influences in those they encounter.  We can attribute at least one death to an entity from the Fields of Love – a bricklayer who apparently took in one of these creatures for his personal pleasure.  So much pleasure, apparently, that he neglected to feed himself for several weeks.  I’m told the grin on the face of the corpse was quite unnerving.  So we have sent some of our wizards out to locate these creatures and deal with them as well.  Our primary fear is that an entity from the Fields of Love might end up entering the Nightmare Realm, and we do not like the implications inherent in that particular combination.”

            Autumn shuddered involuntarily at the thought.  “Point taken, Tazlin.  Do what you can to convince your people to keep at it, and we will do what we can to give them the support they need.”  _Bail knows where I’ll find it, though_.  She’d devoted a large chunk of her personal fortune into getting the city back on its feet, and had squeezed every noble and merchant she could find for more gold.

            “It might be of some help if we could confer with your husband, the Court Wizard,” Tazlin said.  “He is currently the closest thing we have to an expert on the subject of this Dream Realm, and his insights might prove useful to us.”

            “The Duke-Consort is away at the moment,” _he didn’t say where he was going, or why, or how long he’d been gone_, “attending to other affairs of state.”  _Or off getting himself killed, or having a nervous breakdown_.  “When he returns, I will deliver your request.” _Right after I beat him to a pulp_.

            Autumn heard other reports from Auror and her other advisors, none of them encouraging.  Refugees swelled the city walls, depleting food stores rapidly.  Crime was up, tax collection was down.  Crop yields were expected to be poor this year, due to a combination of land lost to the Taurics or the Dream Realm overlays, and farmers killed by the war or the Dream Realm incursion.  The Imperial army had withdrawn to Noxolt to aid in relief and reconstruction efforts in the capital, leaving only ducal forces under her command.  And a private report, given to her by her spymaster, confirmed for Autumn what Arrie had warned her about weeks ago; that some of the noble families, both inside and outside of Vargex, were making plans to use the current chaos to improve their position.  King Tanach of Erumian had already survived an assassination attempt.

            Rubbing her temples, Autumn dismissed her spymaster and slumped down in her chair the moment he was gone.  She felt numb, drained of all emotion.  The urge to pack up her things and simply run gnawed at her soul, but she forced herself to shove those thoughts aside.  There was too much of that going on in her home as it was.  More than anything, she felt alone.  Everyone had gone their separate ways after their return from the Dream Realm, recognizing that there were several tasks best accomplished if they split up.  Arrie was wandering around Affon, checking up on family and friends.  Tolly had gone to Medos to brief the Divinity Council and urge them into action.  Lanara had been summoned to Noxolt by the Emperor himself, no doubt to help him negotiate with the Tauric Empire.  Osborn was somewhere in Targeth, or what was left of it, attending to business there.  And Kyle…

            “Where are you, Kyle?” she asked herself quietly.  “When are you coming home?”

*          *            *​
            Kyle arrived in the woods just east of Aleppi, the journey here significantly easier than it had been the first time.  He chose to walk to the little logging village of Canyon Camp, since he didn’t know how they’d react to him just appearing in the middle of the village.  When Kyle arrived, his presence caused little commotion among the villagers.  _Loggers_, he thought, _hard to rattle them_.  No one seemed to recognize him as he passed through, except for one person.

            He had trouble placing the name when he first saw the elf-touched woman running up to him, her deer-antler headdress bobbing up and down slightly.  She stopped a respectful distance away.

            “You’re the wizard, Kyle, aren’t you?” she said.  “Welcome back to Canyon Camp.”  She saw the blank look on his face, and smiled.  “Priestess Sisz.  I’m not surprised you have trouble recalling my name.  I’m afraid I didn’t make much of an impression on people back then.”

            “Trust me, I know the feeling.  Still having problems with that Rovenori priest?”

            “Who, Kath?  He left about a year ago.  Hard to keep the priest of a god of travelers in one spot for long.  But I wouldn’t say I ever had problems with him – he was just never one for mutual respect.”

            “Another feeling I’ve known,” Kyle said.

Sisz smiled. “So, what brings you here?”

            “Curiosity,” Kyle replied.  “I was hoping to ask someone about the shadar-kai.”

            Sisz’s face darkened.  “What would you want with them?”

            “Information.  I have a theory relating to the recent troubles around Aelfenn with the Dr… with these strange creatures that have been showing up.”

            “Well, I doubt you’ll get much out of them,” Sisz said.  “They’re an unpleasant bunch of fey.”

            Kyle’s brow furrowed.  “Have there been problems?”

            “No, not really,” she said looking away into the forest, in the direction of the shadar-kai territory.  “They’ve held to their end of our agreement, and haven’t attacked our people.  For the most part they keep to themselves.  When we do have to interact with them, though, they’re generally arrogant and hostile.  I doubt there’s anyone in town who could give you any information better than that.”  She looked up at Kyle.  “Do you think they’re responsible for these creatures?  We haven’t seen any here, but we’ve heard tales.”

            “Not responsible, but possibly related,” Kyle said.  “It looks like I’m going to have to do it the hard way.”  He sighed, then turned his attention to the town.  “Everything here is the same, I take it?”

            “Heavy demand for timber because of the war,” Sisz said.  “But normal.  Is it true that the Tauric army has retreated now that the Many have come to Affon to fight on our behalf?”

            Kyle bit his lip.  “The war is currently in a cease-fire,” he said carefully, “until everyone can figure out what exactly is going on.”

            “I’m thinking of making a pilgrimage to M’Dos,” Sisz said.  “The opportunity to actually see Bles in person is the chance of a lifetime.  For all we know, maybe the eleven Paragons will return as well!”

            “Or one of them, anyway,” Kyle muttered darkly.

            “What was that?”

            “Nothing.  So, is the Whistling Satyr still around?  I’d like a room for the night before I set off.”

            “I’ll walk you there,” Sisz said.  “Where will you be going in the morning?”

            “To the standing stones,” Kyle said.  “To talk to the shadar-kai.”

*          *            *​
            Tolly walked along the dry, dusty road, his armor flashing in the spring sun.  He made his way toward the small town at a steady but unhurried pace; even though he was wanting to make good time to his destination, he knew that today he would not accomplish this.  Normally he would be traveling under the effect of an _air walk_ spell, and would probably have finished the trip in three or four days.  But he’d gone on foot the past two days; somehow the concept of flying through the air during the Earthturning festival seemed… sacrilegious.

            His announcement to his brothers in M’Dos at the Cathedral of Eminent Order that he would not be staying there for the upcoming festival had met with a variety of responses.  Of course, his demotion from his previous position as Inquisitor Primus was well known, and many simply assumed that this decision was part of whatever heresy he’d performed that had caused him to lose that title.  Others assumed he was on some sort of special mission for the Archprelate, or the Alliance.  The truth was that he just needed to get out of the city, and these days he no longer felt as strongly as he once did about spending Earthturning among fellow Ardarans.  His faith did not require company to remain strong.  Apparently, Kupa held a similar opinion; he’d flown off just before Earthturning had started, saying that he had his own observances to make, and that he would meet up with Tolly at his destination.

            He’d spent the past four weeks in M’Dos, conferring with the Divinity Council about the current situation.  Or at least, that’s what he’d intended, but since conferring requires the active participation of both sides, he’d probably have to describe what he’d been doing as _lecturing_.  The Council, true to form, was wrapped up in their own affairs and seemed to pay the Ardaran priest and his stories about a ‘Dream Realm’ and ‘returning arch-psions’ little heed.  On some level, Tolly could hardly blame them – after all, it wasn’t every day that the Divinity Council had to deal with the issue of having their deities living among them.

            Several of the Many had taken refuge within their own temples in M’Dos, and this had thrown the city, indeed the entire country, into disorder.  There were questions of leadership and authority, with some saying that the representatives of the Council should step aside in favor of their deific patrons.  Duties and responsibilities were being shirked as clergy flocked to the temples to receive wisdom directly from their gods.  And the city was now choked with pilgrims, hoping for a glimpse of the divine before they set off to war.  For it was a widely held belief that the Many had descended to Affon to join the war against the Taurics, a belief that was still being propagated by the churches.  After all, it was reasoned, only the One and the Four were worshipped among the Taurics, which was why those gods could not be accounted for; but the Many were Affon’s gods, and would fight to defend it.

            With so much chaos in the air, it was small wonder that Tolly found M’Dos ill-suited for reverence to Ardara.  _You’re dwelling too much on the problems behind you_, he told himself.  _Focus your thoughts on something more pleasant.  Focus your thoughts on Her_.

            Immediately, an image of sparkling blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair entered his mind.  With more effort that he thought it would require, he dismissed the errant thought.  That wasn’t the Her he’d meant.

            Within an hour, Tolly was entering the town.  It was a small trading community, close to the border with the Khag Steppes, and so he wasn’t surprised to find a few hin running around.  But most of the town’s population seemed to be gathering around the central square, surrounding a small wooden platform.  Tolly wandered up to the crowd, remaining in the back.  On the platform was a figure wearing magistrate’s robes and another in common clothing, standing next to an earthenware vessel.

            Tolly was very familiar with this ritual. On the second day of Earthturning, the names of every convicted criminal in the community was inscribed on clay tokens, and these tokens, along with a few blank tokens, were mixed into a clay vessel.  The local Ardaran priest, or local magistrate, would draw a single token from the vessel.  According to the Ardaran church, the name drawn would be that of a criminal who was wrongly convicted, and this person would immediately be pardoned and set free.  If a blank token was drawn, then it meant that all who were currently convicted of crimes had been jailed lawfully.  Tolly knew that even though the Archprelates had sworn that Ardara’s Mercy was infallible, many communities opted to ‘forget’ to scribe tokens for the most serious and violent offenders.  He wasn’t quite sure what the role of the second person on the platform was; normally the priest or magistrate presided over the ceremony alone.

            The magistrate had started speaking, and the crowd grew quiet. “And now that Ardara has bestowed her mercy upon this man,” he indicated the commoner standing next to him, “the task falls to him to choose who Ardara shall Judge.”  The commoner reached into the vessel and began rummaging around.

            Tolly watched carefully, now understanding more.  He’d heard rumors of this particular variation of the Ardara’s Mercy ceremony, something that had sprung up in outlying communities in recent years.  He was surprised to see it in Medos, even this far from the capital.  According to what he’d heard, Ardara’s Judgment was performed after Ardara’s Mercy, and the name drawn was supposed to indicate the name of a person who was guilty of an undiscovered crime.  The church had not taken an official position on the practice yet, as the practice varied widely. The rumors about the ritual were indicating that it was often accurate, so if the Prelate Council did act on it, it would most likely be to standardize the practice.

            The man had grabbed on to a token, and now held it aloft for all to see.  When the cheers dies down, he handed the token to the magistrate.  The magistrate glanced at the token, frowned, and spoke quietly to the man with him.  The crowd quickly grew impatient.

            “There has been an error,” the magistrate finally announced.  “The name that has been drawn is not valid.  Another token will be drawn.”  The man reached into the vessel again, this time producing a token right away that he handed over to the magistrate as though it was on fire.  A dark look crossed the magistrate’s face as he looked at the second token.

            “Captain!” he shouted to a guardsman standing nearby, “I thought you had verified the accuracy of these tokens!”

            “I did, Your Honor,” he man said.  “Checked them myself this morning.”

            “Then how do you explain this?” The magistrate thrust the two tokens into the captain’s hands.

            “They both say ‘Silko’,” the captain gasped aloud.  “But… that’s impossible…”

            “I’m sure it is, because I think that if the Paragon of Heroes was currently in our jail, I would know about it,” snapped the magistrate.  “Another name will be drawn, and there will be an inquiry into this mockery of Ardara on her holiest days.”  The magistrate himself thrust his hand into the jar and pulled out a token.  And then another.  Then another.  His face grew blacker with each token he read.  Finally, with a cry of rage, the magistrate tipped over the vessel, and clay tokens scattered everywhere.

            “Whoever is responsible for this travesty will be caught and punished for their crime!  This ceremony is over!”

            The confused and slightly nervous crowd began to disperse.  Slowly, Tolly made his way up to the platform, and looked down at the pile of broken tokens, all of which bore the same name.

_Your will be done, Ardara_, he prayed silently.  _If I have anything to say about it, then the judgment you have proclaimed will come to pass_.

*          *            *​
_            To my friends in the Legacy,

          I’ve struggled for a while on how to bring you this news.  My first instinct, of course, is to compose a ballad about it.  However, with all of us scattered Feesha knows where across this continent, it wouldn’t be very practical to get you all together for a concerto.  And I don’t think any of you read musical notation, so that wouldn’t work well.  Even if you could, there would be the question of what style of notation to use.  While Elvish notation would seem the simplest choice, the nature of the song would probably go best with dwarven melodic rune-script.

          But I digress, as is my nature.

          In the end, I think that rather than write five separate letters and track each of you down, it’s better to write one and leave it at the one place you will all be coming back to eventually – Autumn’s home in Vargas.

          I say ‘you will be coming back’ instead of ‘we will be coming back’ for one simple reason – I will not be seeing you for a while.

          I have been designated as the chief negotiator for the Alliance and placed directly under Emperor Haxtha.  Putting aside my talent for innuendo for the moment, this means that for all intents and purposes I am an Imperial official, at least for the time being.  I’ve been charged with opening a dialogue with the leaders of the Tauric Empire in the hopes of negotiating a more permanent arrangement.  I’m not exactly sure how I’ll do this – even I’m not good enough to convince them that turning around and going back to a devastated continent is a good idea – but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

          I could have turned this offer down.  But the truth is that this is what I’m good at, and right now I badly need a dose of self-confidence.  But part of my price for agreeing to this position is to receive some additional training in some skills I’ve neglected – if part of my problem is feeling like I’m not as useful to you as I could be, then I guess it’s up to me to step outside my comfort zone and fix that problem.

          I have every intention of coming back to you as soon as I can – I’m not pulling a Madrone here.  But until I can come back and allow you all to once again bask in the glory of my presence, I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom.  (Yes, Tolly, I am capable of it when the occasion calls).

          Actually, Tolly, I may as well start with you.  There are some old issues in your life that aren’t as resolved as you think they are.  I’m not even sure you’re fully aware of it yourself.  If it ever comes down to it, trust that things will work out as they were meant to, and resist the urge to meddle.  Hopefully, this advice will never make any sense to you, because the situation will never come up.

          Arrie, I really don’t have much I need to say to you.  You seem to have pulled yourself together quite a bit since we left the Dream Realm, so I guess I don’t have to find a polite and creative way of saying ‘don’t go crazy and kill us all’.  I know you only have four years left before your deal with Herion expires and you have to go back to being a full-time princess – make the most of them.

          Kyle, you worry me.  I think you take on too much guilt, too much responsibility for what’s happened.  Maybe it’s the burden of an overactive conscience, I don’t know.  But there’s nothing that I or anyone else can do to stop you going down the road you’re looking down.  No one but you.  You really don’t want to go down that road, Kyle, and you know it.  Don’t realize it after it’s too late.

          Autumn, the one thing I’d tell you is to remind you that you can’t control everything.  And that sometimes the best way to handle a situation is to do nothing.  Stick with your strengths, but realize that you have more strengths than you give yourself credit for.

          Osborn – it seems like you have things well in hand, or at least as well as they can get these days.  My thoughts will be winging their way to you while I’m gone.

          Take care of yourselves, and I’ll see you soon.  Hopefully at the head of a parade in my honor.

Lanara Rahila​_
*          *            *​
            Arrie walked slowly among the teeming throngs of people in the refugee camp, her eyes scanning the many blank faces staring back at her.     

            It had been a depressing trip so far.

            She’d started by returning to her birthplace, the kingdom of Merlion.  Damen and Corissane, her cousins, were still seated comfortably on the thrones of the kingdom; their small realm was too insignificant in the eyes of most nobles in Tlaxan to make good targets.  Her brother Aiden was also still in his position as the twins’ steward, and appeared to be juggling his responsibilities to them and his responsibilities as the Lord Verahannen fairly well.  With nothing concerning going on, Arrie left quickly, so that her family would not be unduly burdened with the responsibility of ‘receiving a member of the Imperial Family’.

_In another four years, they may come to see me as nothing more than ‘a member of the Imperial Family’_, she thought glumly.  Though she was glad that her family was well, she couldn’t help but think about the father she’d lost, and would never see again.

            She’d headed south next, across the Dwarven Confederates and into the Khag Steppes, looking for signs of her next target.  Along the way she’d spoken to many people, and learned much about what they believed or were being told about recent events.  She’d also had the occasion to defend herself or others against marauding dream-creatures, and was beginning to gain a disturbingly good sense of how to fight these anomalies.  Still, she’d only come out of some of those scrapes by the skin of her teeth.

_Death is but another step on the journey,_ she’d reminded herself, her mind leaving out the part about how for her that step would likely be the last.  Down that road lay doubt, and fear, and madness.

            She’d finally found what she was looking for – the Amazing Traveling Circus.  Or, what was left of it.  She learned that the circus troupe had largely dispersed when the war broke out, with many of them going to join the Hin Irregulars fighting for the Alliance.  Only a few had returned, and many of those were wounded.  Osborn’s mother, Lillian, was there, healing from a wound in her thigh.  Her husband, Bartlebee, had not come back from the war, and Osborn’s twin brother Gerald had been missing for months.

            Arrie fought back tears as she felt the weight of the dagger she had stashed inside her boot.  “It was Barty’s favorite,” Lillan had told her, “and I think he would’ve wanted Osborn to have it.  He was always proud of his son.”

            She paused for a moment to clear her head and refocus.  She was now leagues away from the Steppes, and looking for someone else.  She returned her attention to the crowds surrounding her.  The stench of the camp was nearly overpowering; like all the others she’d been in, this one was overcrowded and poorly organized.  Off to her left, she saw an older woman spooning gruel into the mouth of a vacant-eyed, drooling man in tattered robes.  She recognized him as one of the wizard instructors from the Tower, no doubt a victim of one of the magical mishaps that now plagued practitioners of magic across Aelfenn.  Arrie briefly imagined seeing an incoherent Kyle sitting on the ground, rocking as he was cared for by Autumn.  She forced the image out of her mind, more unnerved by the thought than she cared to admit.

            She was about to give up and move on when she caught sight of someone that struck a chord with her.  She studied the face for a moment to be sure, and then she cautiously approached.

            The man was in his early sixties, and bore the scars and weight of a hard life.  Thick, callused hands ended in nails that were filled with dirt Arrie imagined would never fully wash away.  His sunken cheeks bore the mark of many lean winters, but there was still a spark in his blue-gray eyes.  He looked up at her through a mane of graying hair when he saw she was watching him.

            “Is your name Rufus?” she asked.

            “Ayup,” he replied in a heavy rural drawl.  “What’s it to you?”

            “I need you to come with me,” Arrie said.

            Rufus looked her up and down.  “Well,” he said at last, “I’m guessin’ you ain’t a whore, ‘cuz they don’t needs to come out lookin’ for business round here.  Judging by what yer packin’, I reckon yer either a slaver or a recruiter.  I ain’t much interested in either.”

            “I’m not a slaver or a recruiter,” Arrie replied.  “My name is Ariadne, and I’m from Tlaxan.  I’ve come to take you there.”

            He looked her up and down again.  “You’ve got the bearin’ of a noble,” he said.  “If you’re looking to slum it with the commoners, ain’t you got enough back home?”

            Arrie controlled her breathing.  Rufus was proving to be as infuriating as his progeny. “Look, I’d rather not explain it all here,” she said.  “So let me make this simple.”  She reached into a pocket and pulled out two gold coins, holding them so only Rufus could see them.  “I want to get you out of this camp,” she said slowly.  “And somewhere where you can get a proper meal and I can explain why I came to find you.”

            Rufus looked at the coins, and then at Arrie.  Slowly, he stood up, his joints and tendons popping as he rose.

            “Well,” he drawled, “you got my attention, miss Ariadne.”

*          *            *​
            He knelt inside the circle of standing stones, and focused his awareness on his surroundings.  _If you’re not here, then where are you?_ Kyle thought, as he studied the air around him.

            He’d searched for two days, and found no trace of the shadar-kai.  He’d found their village, the simple dwellings abandoned and empty.  But not a sign of the elusive fey could be found.

            After several minutes, Kyle caught his first glimpse of a lingering magical aura, near the center of the circle.  Concentrating harder, Kyle looked for more flickers of magic, hoping to confirm his suspicions.  Slowly, the picture came into focus.

_A magical ritual was performed here,_ he thought as he studied the evidence.  _A very large one.  Conjuration magic… they either brought something here or…no, they sent something away.  Lots of somethings…_

            He was pretty sure what had happened.  The shadar-kai had performed some sort of ceremony to return to whatever dimension they’d been hiding in for all the millennia since the Cataclysm.  A place, as he recalled Lanara telling them when they’d come here three years ago, that was ‘nowhere’, a place that ‘didn’t exist’.

            It was this phrase that had caught in his mind as he’d been thinking about everything they’d learned over the years about their enemies.

            Kyle could think of one plane that could be considered ‘nowhere’ and was thought to ‘not exist’.  That plane was currently impinging itself all over Aelfenn, and tentacled horrors from that nowhere were rampaging through the land.  It was possible, he thought, that the shadar-kai had somehow accessed the Dream Realm after the Cataclysm, hiding there to avoid the aftermath of that event.  Perhaps they had even gone there to hide from the gods as they engaged in their crusade against the psions after the Consort’s destruction.  Although the concept of a psionically-endowed race of fey was largely inconceivable, given their usual propensity for arcane magic, with everything Kyle had seen in the past four years, he wasn’t willing to rule anything out.  But if, in fact, the shadar-kai had come from Dream, then his primary interest was in finding out as much as possible about that realm, and about those psions who utilized it.

            Beads of sweat trickled down Kyle’s forehead as he bent his effort to teasing out the most difficult piece of information from the scant remnants of magical power.  “Definitely an extra-planar destination,” he said aloud to himself.  “Not a planet… what’s that… it looks like…”

            The answer clicked into place with the solidity of a door slamming shut.  Shadow.  The shadar-kai had gone to the Shadow Plane, which was most likely the very place they’d gone all those years ago.

            “Damn!” Kyle swore, rising to his feet and stomping around the circle of stones.  “Son of a bitch!”  He stomped to the center of the circle and screamed at the top of his lungs as he released weeks of pent-up rage.  He turned and stomped off, still swearing, kicking at the large stones surrounding the clearing.

            There was a fluttering of wings, and a large raven settled on a nearby branch.  “Um, boss?” the raven said, “you do realize you’re all alone out here, right?  Calm down.”

            Kyle whirled to face Violet.  “Don’t tell me to calm down!  This was the last thing I could think of to track Silko’s people down!  Nothing I’ve tried in the past six weeks has worked!  All of the psions I know about are warded against divinations, and so is that he-bitch Marrek!”

            Violet did not respond to Kyle’s tirade.

            “I mean, it’s not exactly like you’ve made any good suggestions!  The only idea I have left is using live bait, and I’m not exactly eager to dangle myself on a hook for Kristyan and his ilk!”

            “Then why don’t you ask someone else?”

            “Right, like I’d put anyone else in that position!  What kind of person do you think I am?”

            “That’s not what I meant, boss.  I meant ask about where the psions are.”

            “Ask about where the psions are?  Silko and his people aren’t exactly in the habit of making friends on the surface world.  Who would you suggest I ask?”

            Kyle stared up at Violet.  Slowly, the flush in his cheeks faded.  He walked over and extended his hand.  Violet flapped her wings and settled on Kyle’s shoulder.

            “Things didn’t go according to plan, I take it?” she asked.

            “No, they didn’t.”  He sighed.  “And clearly, I’m no longer in a state of mind to keep this up.  I guess I should just go back to Vargas and let them know I’ve got nothing to show for my efforts.”

            “Don’t give up hope, boss,” Violet said.  “Maybe the answer will come to you in a dream or something like that.”

            Kyle laughed mirthlessly.  “I’m not sure I really want anything from dreams right now, Violet.”

            “Suit yourself.”  The raven pecked at Kyle’s hair.  “Wood tick,” she said, swallowing the tiny insect.  “Say, if you don’t need me, there’s a rather lovely dead raccoon off yonder…”

            “Have a blast,” Kyle said.  “Don’t be gone long.  I’m heading back to town and we’re leaving after supper.  Some of us can’t live on carrion.”

            After Violet flew off, Kyle looked around at the stone circle, and the marks he’d left in the dirt from his outburst.  He sighed, and then walked away.

*          *            *​
            The wind whipped through Osborn’s hair as he rode swiftly down the road, the only noise the steady padding of Rupert’s feet on the hard-packed earth.  He was alone on the road; most people had fled the central regions of Targeth, so there were no travelers to meet, and nothing but abandoned farmhouses and pillaged roadside inns.  It was a depressing sight, and did little to lift the hin’s mood.

            Since leaving Vargas and making contact with his informants, he hadn’t heard much good news.  He’d headed into Targeth first, to see for himself if the rumors of Trageon’s destruction were true.  More importantly, he wanted to know how the Shadow Hand had fared.  If the leadership had been killed, then Osborn would have a chance of assuming control of his old thieves guild.  The Shadow Hand was an influential guild, and had contacts well outside of Targeth, and would be a valuable asset in the Shadow General’s network.

            He’d seen from a great distance away that the truth was much worse that he’d imagined.  The angry clouds of an enormous magestorm hung over where Trageon had been, flashing with multicolored lightning.  The storm rose in a pillar from the ground up into the sky for miles, completely obscuring any sign of the city.  He wasn’t able to get a good look at Trageon until he was almost on top of it.

            The city was a ruined pile of stone and metal.  The Upper City and the Tower had collapsed completely, and the weight of the collapse had caved in the Lower City, leaving a huge, rubble-strewn crater.  Shards of glassteel were scattered everywhere, buried in the earth; some were the size of giants.  The shards were still razor sharp, and nearly invisible – wandering around, one could easily walk into the edge of a shard and end up bisected before being able to stop.  Worse still, Osborn found the bodies of several people, most likely treasure-seekers looking for the Tower’s magical artifacts, whose lungs had been filled with clouds of glassteel dust, and shredded from the inside.  They had died drowning in their own blood.  If there were any members of the Shadow Hand left, none of them were here.  Osborn would have to wait before he could make his bid for control.  With a overwhelming sense of melancholy and not a little fear, Osborn retreated from the hellish scene.

            Meanwhile, he was still receiving regular reports from his network.  His twin brother Gerald, who was in the south posing as the Shadow General, was sending regular dispatches via the invisible _silver ravens_ he’d had made to permit secret communication with his people across Affon.  Gerald had sent him a copy of an old map that one of his agents had recovered; detailing the location of what was supposedly a pre-Cataclysm treasure.  Osborn had already sent a letter to Lanara asking her to dig up any information she could.

            He was also hearing rumors of bands of fanatic Ladtan clergy, forcibly converting entire villages to their goddess and then murdering them en masse, claiming that only Ladta could ensure the continuation of the life-death cycle and end the disturbances in magical power.  He was also hearing rumors that the ranks of many of the gods’ cults were swelling with new recruits in the face of recent events.  There had been increased attacks on settlers in the Steppes by new bands of Fiel’s Ravagers, and followers of Erito’s Entropic Heresy were gathering in the mountains south of Tlaxan, advocating the hastening of decay and entropy throughout the world.  Everywhere he looked, he could see the signs of shaken faith and uncertainty manifesting itself in the worst ways.

            There was too much to do, and not enough people to do it.  Which was why he’d turned Rupert’s nose west, and headed for the town of Dagger Rock.  He needed to talk with Grog, his second-in-command, and he needed to talk with him personally.

            The sun was getting low in the sky when the road finally turned in to parallel the river.  He stopped for a while to let Rupert rest and get some water while he ate, and then they set off again.  After another forty minutes or so, he saw the silhouette of the dagger-shaped protrusion that had given the town its name, casting a long shadow across the water.

            The road dipped slightly, and then rose again.  What Osborn saw when he crested the hill nearly caused him to fall off his mount.

            The entire town of Dagger Rock had vanished.  In its place, a strange arcane symbol was scorched into the soil, black against the red light of sunset.

            Osborn stared at the scene below him for a while in disbelief, and then looked around to see if there were any other signs of what had happened.  Then he turned Rupert around, and urged him into a run.

            “Sorry, old boy,” he said as they began to move.  “It’s going to be a long night.”

            Osborn needed help.  And he could think of only one place to get it.


----------



## Blarkon Dragonslayer

My oh my...sounds like folks are having quite an interlude.


----------



## Delemental

Blarkon Dragonslayer said:
			
		

> My oh my...sounds like folks are having quite an interlude.




Yeah, we decided to take about two months in-game to split up and pursue a few minor issues, and then get back together to discuss what we'd learned and plan our next move.  We all got at least one plot hook out of our downtime activities, and then we had to decide what to pursue first.

This latest update is only about half of the downtime activity, but posting it all at once would have been too much for one post.  I'll throw down the other half next week sometime.


----------



## Delemental

Apologies on the lack of the promised update.  I went on vacation, and did not have the time to write or post anything.  I will get something posted within the next day or two.


----------



## Delemental

Tolly walked through the packed streets of Miracle, being bumped and jostled by the crowds.  But they were extremely courteous and gentle bumps, so it hardly registered with him.

            He glanced off to his right, in the direction that most of the people were heading.  The towers of the House of Harmony gleamed in the sunlight, and the peal of bells ringing in the spires could be heard all through the city.  Everyone was heading to the temple, of course; given who was currently in residence there, this was no surprise.

            The crowds finally thinned, and Tolly was able to break out and quicken his pace.  He felt a little strange walking around in public without armor or weapons, even in this city.  When he’d arrived he’d found that the city’s normal policy of allowing only peace-bound weapons had been changed, most likely due to recent events.  Now no implements of violence were permitted in Miracle, including armor.  Fortunately, Tolly had anticipated this, and made preparations.  His equipment now lay well hidden outside the city, watched over by a bronze dragon that looked like a mangy stray cat.

            At last he came to a familiar townhouse in the less savory part of the city.  He strode up to the door and entered without knocking, and immediately headed upstairs to a room on the end.  An old dwarf, his legs bent with age, sat at the bottom of the stairs and watched him pass by, but said nothing.

            “Come in,” called a female voice when Tolly knocked on the door.  He walked in and saw two women sitting on the couch, playing a game.  One was a young human child of perhaps ten years, and the other a middle-aged woman who looked like an axani, though Tolly knew better.

            The two women stood up as he entered.  The young girl ran up and hugged his legs.

            “Master Nightsleaving!” the woman said.  “We weren’t expecting you!”

            “Hello, Elianora,” Tolly said to the woman.  He ruffled the girl’s hair.  “Hello, Iria, how have you been?”

            “Good,” she replied brightly.  “Elianora’s taught me so many things!  Watch what I can do!”  She pointed at a vase on the table, and it began to rise into the air.

            “Iria, stop!” Tolly barked.  The vase fell and shattered.

            Tolly took a deep breath.  “I’m sorry, Iria, I didn’t mean to be that curt with you.  But now is not a good time to show off your… education.”  He turned to Elianora.  “You will need to pack your things and leave the city.”

            “Why?” Elianora asked.  “No one has bothered us here.  We’re able to train in complete privacy.”

            “Paccë is here,” Tolly said.

            “I know,” Elianora said.  “We’ve heard.  I have to admit, even for one such as myself, it’s a bit exciting.  To have a divine being so close…”

            “Is exactly the problem,” Tolly finished.  “If Paccë doesn’t already know you’re in her city, she will soon.  Have any of your people told you what has happened?”

            “No,” Elianora admitted.  “I haven’t heard from anyone in some time, actually.”

            “The bad man made all the gods fall,” Iria said.  “I saw it in a dream.”

            Elianora looked almost apologetic.  “She’s been having nightmares recently.  It could be a reaction to her growing abilities.”

            “Or it could be the truth.”  Tolly glanced around the room.  “I will explain later.  We need to leave.”

            “But Paccë is a goddess of peace,” Elianora protested.  “No one may commit violence in Miracle.”

            “She may be a goddess of peace, but she is still a goddess, and one that has little reason to love psions right now,” Tolly explained.  “While Paccë herself might not act against you, her followers might.  Are you aware that there are sects devoted to Paccë that espouse a philosophy of ‘peace through strength’, and have no qualms about taking up arms against those who would disturb the peace?  Those sects do not operate openly in Miracle, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist here.  A devoted follower of Paccë, basking in the exaltation of the presence of their goddess, may very well decide that it is worth the price of permanent banishment from Miracle in order to eliminate two of Paccë’s enemies and usurpers of harmony.”

            Elianora swallowed nervously, and Iria hugged Tolly tighter.

            “It’s not only the followers of Paccë I worry about.  Anyone can come to Miracle, and despite the recent changes to the laws a weapon could be smuggled in.  And even if that were not possible, there are ways to abduct two people without harming them and get them outside of the city.  Beyond that, the psions devoted to Silko might very well decide to strike as well, if for no other reason than to get hold of one of Aran’s own people and an impressionable young girl they could mold to their philosophies.  And right now, I don’t entirely trust the ability of the gods to be able to prevent a psionic assault.”

            Elianora looked at Tolly calmly.  “Things must be very bad right now.”

            “That they are.”

            Elianora stood up and took Iria by the wrist.  “Iria, dear, we’re going to have to get our things packed.   We’ll have to leave some things behind, but those aren’t important.  Right now we need to listen to Master Nightsleaving and do what he says.”

            Iria nodded.  “Tolly will protect us from the bad man.”

_I hope I can, dearest child,_ he thought to himself.  _I hope I can._

            “Of course you can, Uncle Tolly,” Iria said.

*          *          *​
            Kyle sat quietly in the drawing room, studying Arrie as she read a book by the fire.        After watching her for a while, Kyle finally spoke.  “Arrie, what’s up with you, anyway?”

            She glanced up from her book; she’d been expecting the question.  “What do you mean, Kyle?”

            “You’re… different.  Ever since Silko’s rebirth and the Nightmare Realm, you’ve been… well, not twitchy.  You seem calmer, more composed than I’m used to.  What changed?”

            “What, I’m not allowed to undergo a transformation, too?  You and Tolly did.”

            “I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just curious where it came from.”

            Arrie put down her book.  She’d been somewhat surprised that he hadn’t asked weeks ago – Kyle wasn’t normally one to miss any change in his friends.  But lately his regard for the welfare of others had waned considerably, and so if he was now beginning to emerge from that state of mind, she wanted to encourage it.   “It happened while I was trapped inside that ooze nightmare.  I was… purified, I guess.  I realized that the creature was eating away at me, and my mind kind of started looking for all the things that were really important to hang on to.  As all the other stuff went away, I was able to see down to the core of my being.”

            “Like what stuff?”

            “Some of my fears and obsessions.  In the end I realized that just because I can’t have the same relationship with the divine that others can have, it doesn’t mean I can’t admire and share some of the principles they espouse.  It makes the idea of not having an afterlife a little easier to bear, knowing that I can still have faith.”

            Kyle nodded.  “Interesting.”

            “I’ve come to understand a truth about myself.  I used to regret the fact that I was nothing more than a warrior, that fighting was all I knew.  But I’ve come to accept that it is through strength that I interact with the world, and it is through strength that I can change the world.  I’ve also come to accept that protecting others is important to me, as is protecting the freedom of others.  It’s changed a lot of things for me.  My powers haven’t changed, but how I use them has, a reflection of my new understanding of myself.  I’ve come to realize that the powers that developed for me did so because they were a reflection of my core values.  I now develop those powers based on the purity of my belief, rather than the intensity of my emotions.”

            Kyle thought about this for a while.  “It’s nice to hear someone who had ideals they believe in,” he said at last.  “I remember what they were like.”

            “So now is when I should ask what’s up with you,” Arrie said with a grin.  “Autumn told me that things haven’t been great with you lately.”

            Kyle sighed.  “I guess I’m just having trouble believing that the things that were important to me really are.  They don’t seem to have done me much good lately.  I wonder if I was wrong to believe the way I did.”

            Arrie paused to gather her thoughts before replying.  “Kyle, you know I’ve never really espoused one particular set of morals over another, so I’m not one to tell you what is the ‘right’ path to follow.  But I do believe that how we live our lives isn’t a choice we make; it’s a function of who we are, deep inside.  You’re a good person, Kyle, and I really don’t think you’re capable of being anything but a good person.”  She left unspoken her true fear – that if Kyle, frustrated by the constraints his nature placed upon him, began to deliberately violate those beliefs, he would end up in an even worse crisis of self-doubt than he was currently mired in. 

            “I’ll have to take you at your word,” Kyle sighed, “but it’s not how I feel.”

            Arrie stood up.  “I think I know something that will make you feel better,” she said, holding out a hand.  “Come riding with me.”

            “I’m not much for riding, thanks.”

            “Then you won’t get to see what I brought back for you.”

            “What is it?”

            “A surprise.  Hence, the reason you need to ride with me.”

            They walked down to the stables and picked out two horses.  A brief wave of melancholy crossed Arrie’s face as she saddled her mount – her own horse, Ghost, had been killed during the attack by the nightmare goristros.  But soon they were on the road, heading south out of the city.  Within an hour’s ride, they were stopping at a large farmstead.

            “This is Pella and Bryant’s place,” Kyle said as he dismounted.  He’d bought the land for his younger siblings when he’d first brought them to Tlaxan from Targeth.

            “The surprise is inside,” Arrie said.  “Think of it as a reminder that it’s not just the bad guys who get what they want.”

            His curiosity piqued, Kyle walked up to the front door and pushed it open.  Both his brother and sister were sitting in the main room, along with their spouses and children.  The youngest child, Anjele, was sitting on the lap of a grizzled old man with graying black hair, giggling as he tickled her with thick, callused hands.

            “Uncle Kyle!” Anjele shouted when she looked up at him.  “Grampa Rufus came to stay with us!”

            “D-Dad?” Kyle stammered, suddenly feeling light-headed and having to lean on his staff.

            “Well, I’ll be damned,” Rufus said with a coarse chuckle.  “Yer mama always told me you weren’t cut out for farmin’.”

            Kyle looked back to where Arrie had been standing, but all he saw was an empty doorway, and the sound of hoof beats riding away.

            As Rufus stood and crossed the room to embrace the son he’d had to leave behind almost sixteen years ago, a part of the dull ache that Kyle had carried in his heart for so many weeks seemed to detach and float away like autumn leaves in the wind.

*          *          *​
            “Scion-Watchers,” Kyle said with disgust, looking at the symbol Osborn had drawn.

            Osborn had come into Vargas rapidly, his dog Rupert nearly exhausted from miles of running.  He’d relayed the news about Dagger Rock, and the symbol that was scorched into the ground, as soon as everyone had gathered.

            “Who are the Scion-Watchers?” Tolly asked.

            Kyle started to look at Tolly with disbelief, but caught himself.  Tolly had been serving in M’Dos as Inquisitor Primus when they’d encountered the Scion-Watchers.  “They’re a cult,” he explained.  “An old Eritan sect whose mission has become corrupted over the centuries.  They were supposed to watch over my bloodline, to make sure that Erito’s curse on the Godscion family remained in force.  But now they believe that they are supposed to eradicate the Goodsons to prevent magic from returning to them.  They tried to abduct me so they could enact a ritual to destroy my soul, and they kidnapped Pella and killed Bryant.  I have no idea how many of my cousins they’ve killed – for all I know they’ve killed my other siblings, Angar and Varda.”

            “Why would they destroy Dagger Rock?” Tolly asked.

            “It wasn’t destroyed,” Osborn said, “it was _missing_.  Like it had been picked up and moved away.”

            “Maybe they learned that I’ve been there,” Kyle said.  “They might be using it as bait to get to me.  I didn’t exactly leave them with a good impression last time.”

            “What did you do, Kyle?” Tolly asked.

            “I told them they had to disband and repent, and that the Arcanamach, their leader, had to offer me a personal apology on his knees and then become a swineherd, or else I would kill them all in horrible ways.”

            Autumn stared at Kyle.  “You told me that you just sent them a stern warning.”

            “That was pretty stern,” Arrie said.

            “We should go find out what happened,” Kyle said.

            “I feel the same way,” Osborn chimed in, “but we may have bigger problems, too.”  He relayed to the Legacy his news about the renegade Ladtan priests, and about the treasure map he’d found.

            “I had Lanara check into the myth,” Osborn said.  “Turns out that the really significant thing about that location is that there’s a druid trapped there under the effects of an _imprisonment _spell.  Seems that just after the Cataclysm, he was going around trying to heal the damage to the land.  But a coalition of clerics worshipping Erito and the Four hunted him down, and after a long battle they were able to imprison him.”

            “If he’s from the Cataclysm era,” Autumn said, “he might have information about psions.”

            “And if he’s capable of healing the damage to the earth from the Cataclysm,” Osborn added, “then maybe he could help the Taurics restore their land.”

            “But there must be a reason that those priests acted against him,” Tolly said.  “For clerics of five such disparate faiths to act in unison, they must have perceived a dire threat.  Perhaps I can gather some information from my church.  I may not be in the Inquisition any longer, but there are those in the church who still support me.”

            “I’m more interested in the current activities of clerics,” Kyle said.  “These Ladtan priests need to be dealt with soon.”

            “If they even are Ladtans,” Osborn said.  “Maybe they’re Silko’s people hoping to cause people to fear Ladta and abandon her, thus weakening her influence.”

            “Osborn, how did you come by so much information?” Autumn asked.

            The hin sighed.  “Well, it’s probably time I told you all.  You’ve heard of the Shadow General, right?”

            “You’ve been working with the Shadow General?” Autumn asked.

            “No,” he replied.  “I am the Shadow General.”

            Everyone stopped and stared at Osborn.

            “I’ve been building up a network of contacts and resources for years,” Osborn said.  “Originally I wanted to try and establish some sort of continent-wide smuggling ring, but with a little more benevolent aim than most criminal guilds.  But when the war started, I used my connections to provide aid to civilians.  The reason I was going to Dagger Rock is that Grog is my second-in-command.”

            Osborn looked around, and saw everyone smiling.  “What?”

            “Nothing,” Arrie said.  “Just… good job.”

            “Well done,” Kyle said, slapping the hin on the back.

            “We should write to Lanara,” Autumn said.  “She’ll be excited to hear about this.”

            “Oh, she’s known for months,” Osborn said.

            The aasimar sighed.  “Is there anything she doesn’t know about before the rest of us?”

            “There was Kupa,” Kyle pointed out.

            “I think we’re getting off track here,” Arrie said.

Autumn looked around.  “Well, I thought that this would be a more formal meeting, but since we’ve already started… what else have people learned?”
            “I was visited by Tok in a dream,” Arrie said.

“Was Tok the one who was with us in the Dream Realm?” Osborn asked.

“No, that was Tek.  But Tok told me about one of Aran’s contemporaries back in the pre-Cataclysm days, who chose to go into hibernation rather than becoming an elan like Aran and Kristyan have.  He encased himself in a crystal cocoon to sleep.  Tok tells me that the cocoon was discovered by some giants in the mountains north of the Peca Provinces, and taken to their castle.  If awakened, this man could be a source of good information, and an ally for our side.”

“I’ve heard rumors that the church has lost contact with a monastery in the mountains of the Dwarven Confederates,” Tolly said.  “It’s only relevant because the monastery holds an Ardaran relic.  Given recent events, the church is understandably nervous about the well-being of its relics.”

“I’ve been informed that there is an assassin’s guild operating in the city,” Autumn said.  “They were located in the area where the Nightmare Realm arrived.  They escaped the area, and there have been some unusual killings.”

“I thought we made it clear that assassins weren’t welcome in Vargas last time,” Kyle said.

“Yeah, well, they have a problem listening.”

Arrie coughed to get everyone’s attention.  “Maybe we all ought to think about this and sleep on it before we decide what to do first.  The simplest solution may be to start with the problems here and work our way out.”

“Sounds good,” Autumn said.  “I have other things to deal with anyway.  Count Helaku sent a messenger telling me about some Sargian dragoon that he found and is sending to us to lend a hand to the Legacy.  I’ll need to meet them tomorrow, and arrange to visit with my other vassals to see how they are faring.”

“Dinner tomorrow, then?” Tolly suggested.  “Excellent.  See you all then.”

*          *          *​
            The page came running up to Kyle as he sat in the courtyard, watching Arrie and Tolly sparring.  “Milord,” the page said, bowing.  “There is a visitor in the hall, bearing a letter from Count Helaku.  The Lady retired to her chambers to rest.  Shall we rouse her?”

            “No,” Kyle said, getting to his feet.  “She needs her rest.  I think I can handle this.”

            Arrie and Tolly, overhearing the situation, put their weapons down.

            “We’d better go with him,” Arrie said.

            They all arrived in Autumn’s audience chamber.  Kyle sat down in the heavy seat next to Autumn’s throne, and regarded the new arrival.  She was a human female, standing in a stiff military posture, taking in the room with her dark, greenish-brown eyes.  She had dusky skin and brown-black hair, pulled back in an efficient knot at the back of her head.  She was moderately attractive, but clearly not in the habit of making an effort to enhance her looks.  She wore well-used Sargian-style armor, and held in one hand the shaft of an impressively lethal looking longspear.  A page came up to the throne and handed Kyle a parchment.

_Duchess,_ the parchment read, _Not much to report here – cattle ranching is down, cattle rustling is way up.  With the way things are right now, it’s what I’d expect.  Found this young woman just before the cease-fire.  She’s part of an elite Sargian Dragoon scout unit, but her comrades were wiped out in battle.  Thought the Legacy could use another fighting arm.  Helaku._

            Kyle studied the Sargian woman for another moment. He glanced up at Tolly, who nodded.  He’d anticipated this meeting, and made use of a few divinatory scrolls to help detect any deceptions. “So, what’s your name?”

            “I am Dragoon-Captain Yuri Elle sen Tora Cromanus Fanchon, of the Republican Army of Sargia,” she replied formally.

            “Um, okay, at ease,” Kyle said.  Yuri fell into a more relaxed posture.  He took a moment to remember what he could of Sargian culture, which was precious little.  He knew that they placed a lot of pride in names and titles, which explained the long litany.  The appellation ‘sen Tora’ indicated some sort of affiliation with the god Tor, and he knew that the name ‘Cromanus’ was that of the Sargian family that controlled the military, and so was probably bestowed upon her due to excellent military service.

            “So, I’m Kyle Goodson, the Duke-Consort.  This is Tolly Nightsleaving of the church of Ardara, and Ariadne Verahannen, who is an Imperial Princess of Tlaxan, though we try not to mention it that often.  The Duchess, Autumn, is currently occupied, and we haven’t seen much of Osborn today, so you’ll have to meet them later.”

            “I am honored to make your acquaintance,” Yuri said, bowing.  “Tales of your deeds have reached even as far as Sargia.  The songs have been sung in many taverns.”

            “Songs?” Tolly said, then he shook his head.  “Lanara.”

            “So, Yuri, Count Helaku thinks you can help us,” Kyle said.  “What is it you can do?”

            “I am a Republican Dragoon, part of our nation’s advance scout forces.  I am skilled in combat and reconnaissance.  As your Count put it, I am ‘good at poking holes in things’.”

            “Well, we could always use another hole-poker,” Kyle said.  There was the distinct snort of a suppressed laugh from somewhere in the room.

            “It’s not my inclination,” Yuri said, “but there were certainly those in the Sargian army with that propensity.”

            Tolly leaned over to Kyle.  “That wasn’t the best choice of words, Kyle.”

            Arrie also leaned over.  “I like her!”

            “The Count speaks highly of you,” Kyle said, ignoring his friends.

            “Let me put it this way,” Yuri said.  “After I recovered, I sparred with the Count so he could determine my skill in combat.  After ten minutes, we declared a draw.”

            They all nodded appreciatively.  Helaku’s warriors were highly skilled, and none more so than their Count.

            “So, why have you chosen not to report back to your commanders in the Sargian army?” Tolly asked.

            “My unit is trained to operate largely independently – one consequence of this training is that I feel less inclined than other soldiers to ‘report back for orders’ any time there’s a change in the situation.  We’re currently under a cease-fire with the Taurics; if I report back now, I will simply be reassigned to another unit, and likely withdrawn back to Sargia.  If hostilities do recommence, I will be serving with people who I don’t know.”  She smiled.  “I would rather remain in the field and choose who I fight with myself.”

            “Okay, great!” Kyle said.  “Why don’t we find you some quarters and you can relax and change.  We’ll have you meet the others later and then we can talk about working with you.”

            “One question first,” Arrie said.  “What do you know about psionics?”

            “I’m part of an elite unit,” Yuri explained.  “I received a briefing.”

            “And what’s your opinion of them?”

            She shrugged.  “As I understand it, some are on our side, some are on their side.  I also understand they die when stabbed, just like anything else.  If they aren’t attacking me, I have no problem with them.  We Sargians are a bit too pragmatic to be superstitious.”

            “Good,” Arrie said, relieved.

            Yuri was led off by a servant to find some quarters.  After a while, she came out, looking far more casual.  She was greeted by Kyle, Arrie, and Tolly, who showed her around the manor and grounds, and talked with her about the Legacy and how they operated.

            “You know,” Kyle said, “I think that Autumn’s been ‘indisposed’ long enough.  I’ll go get her up.”  He turned down a hall toward their chambers.  Tolly, Yuri, and Arrie continued to talk in the hallway, until they heard a loud shout from Kyle.

            “What now?” Tolly said, even as he was running toward their room with the other two right behind him.  He came into the room and found Kyle sitting on the edge of the bed, shaking Autumn’s shoulders.  She was flushed and sweating, and thrashing around slightly.

            “I can’t wake her,” Kyle said.  “She’s feverish, and looks like she’s dreaming.”  He pointed out the movement of her eyes behind her eyelids.

            Tolly immediately invoked a _heal _spell on her.  The moment he did, Autumn’s thrashing intensified, and she began to moan in clear distress.

            “That was unexpected,” Tolly said.

            Kyle was peering about the room.  “No unusual magic,” he said.  “Arrie, can you detect any poison?”

            “Give me a moment.”  She fished out a small bracelet, the one her father had given her years ago as a girl to mimic a Talent when it was discovered that she didn’t develop her own.  At the time, of course, no one would have known that this was because she had psionic potential.  She strapped the bracelet on and used its power.  “No poison.  What about psionics?”

            Kyle produced his staff and peered through the crystal sphere.  “Lingering traces of a psionic power,” he said.  “It’s already manifested and ended, but the effects are lingering.”  He turned to the two servants standing in the back of the room.  “One of you will go quickly and quietly to Osborn Greenbottle’s residence in town, and tell him to come here quickly.  The other will go to the court apothecary and bring him here.  You will both exercise discretion.”

            As the two pale-faced women left the room, Tolly looked at Kyle.  “Why did you ask for an apothecary?  I have a great deal of healing magic at my disposal.”

            “Because I think you were too quick with the healing magic,” Kyle said, as he tried to hold down Autumn’s limbs to keep her from striking him.  Arrie ran around to the other side of the bed to help pin her wings down.

            Tolly’s face flushed.  “I was only trying to help her recover.”

            Once Autumn was restrained, Kyle pulled a small vial out of a pocket.  He opened the vial with his teeth, and after sniffing at the viscous pink liquid inside, poured the contents of the vial down Autumn’s throat.  Within a few moments, the thrashing slowed, and Autumn relaxed.

            “What in Ardara’s name is going on?” Tolly asked.

            “I think the magic you used neutralized the poison in her,” Kyle said, “which is why Arrie didn’t detect it.”

            “That’s usually a good thing,” Tolly said.

            “But in this case I think the poison was keeping her unconscious, to keep her from reacting violently to the nightmares.”

            “Nightmares?” Arrie asked

            “I think that the psionic power that was used on Autumn trapped her mind in an unending nightmare,” Kyle said.  “The poison kept her sedated so that she wouldn’t draw attention to her condition.  Eventually, though, the nightmares will lead to insanity, possibly death.”

            “It’s those assassins,” Arrie said.  “The ones Autumn mentioned yesterday.”

            “That would be my suspicion,” Kyle said.  “She said she’d received intelligence about them.  I’ll look through her office for that information.  You three stay with her and make sure she’s okay.”

            There were several minutes of frenzied activity.  One of the servants returned with the physician, and while he and Tolly tended to Autumn, Arrie pulled the servant aside to talk with her.  Aleria, Autumn’s personal handmaiden, soon arrived, and after being briefed, set about helping any way she could.  Kyle eventually returned with a sheet of folded paper.

            “This looks like it was written by those thieves from the Black Hand Guild,” Kyle said.  “It reads, ‘Duchess, as part of our agreement and in good faith for your continued tolerance of our operations in Vargas, some information has come to our attention which bears your notice.  An assassin’s guild has recently made an attempt to set up operations in Vargas.  We are uncertain if this is a new guild, or remnants of the Night Blades or Poisoned Edge guilds that were eliminated by you and your companions a year ago.  We were unable to gather much information, for shortly after their arrival was when a portion of our city was overrun by those strange nightmarish creatures.  The headquarters of the new guild was within that region of the city.  However, we have reason to believe they have escaped that region and continue to operate out of the slums, and that they may be plotting against you and your friends.  I suggest taking necessary precautions.  We will be in touch if we learn more – assassinations are not conducive to our own work in Vargas.’”

            “It would have been nice if Autumn had mentioned the ‘plotting against you’ part yesterday,” Arrie said bitterly.

            “We need to find out where these assassins are,” Tolly said.

            Kyle turned to Aleria.  “Go find the Duchesses’ spymaster,” he said.  “Tell him about this assassin’s guild, and have his people find out what they can.”  Aleria bowed and left the room quickly, nearly running into the servant who’d been sent to get Osborn.

            “Sir?” the servant said to Kyle timidly.  “Master Greenbottle, he… isn’t waking up.”

            Everyone exchanged looks.  “Let’s go,” Kyle said.  But before leaving, he leaned over and whispered into the physician’s ear, who nodded and handed the wizard another vial of pink liquid.

            “Why do you have that stuff, anyway?” Arrie asked Kyle on the way out.

            “Research,” was his only answer.

            They arrived swiftly at the Osborn’s home, only a few blocks from the ducal manor.  Inside they found Osborn laying in bed, in a similar state as Autumn.  After a few quick spells and tests, Kyle shook his head.

            “It’s the same thing,” he said.  “There are traces of a sedative poison in his blood, and the signs of the same psionic power.  He was knocked out, and then sent into this nightmare state.  But what’s worse, it seems that the poison they used to knock out Osborn is also enhancing the power’s effects.  The drug is helping to separate their minds from their bodies, in a way.”

            “What can we do?” Arrie asked.

            “Until we find the ones responsible, just keep them sedated and comfortable.”  Kyle opened up the pink vial and poured it into Osborn’s mouth.  “We should have him moved up to the manor and keep him in the same room as Autumn so they can both be watched.”

            By the time they got Osborn out of his house and discreetly into the manor, the spymaster had returned with a brief report.  Kyle met with him privately in Autumn’s office while the others moved Osborn into her room.  “So far we’ve only been able to narrow it down to this portion of the slums,” he said, pointing to a city map.  “It will probably take us a few days to locate their base of operations.”

            “We don’t have a few days,” Arrie said.  She walked into the room, already dressed in her armor.  “What say we head down there now and see what we can find?”

            “While I agree with the urgency,” Tolly said, coming in behind her, “I suggest we take a few minutes for some divine guidance.  I can ask Ardara to bestow a sign on me to help find the assassins.”

            “Divinations of that kind have been notoriously unreliable lately,” Kyle said, “not to mention the risk of a random mishap.”

            “I will not stand idly by when I have the power to help because I’m concerned about the risks,” Tolly said sternly.  “I will return when the ritual is complete.”  He turned and walked out of the room.

            Minutes later, he returned to the office.  Yuri was there, armed for battle, as were Kyle and Arrie.  “Well?” the wizard asked.

            “I was told, _Look where the beggars beg from beggars_,” he replied.

            Kyle snapped his fingers, and pointed to a map.  “Here,” he said.

            “How do you know? Arrie asked.

            “This is a part of the slums that a lot of addicts hang out,” Kyle explained.  “I went through there a few times when we were cleaning up the city last year.  The addicts are so desperate that they try to beg money off the other beggars and poor living down there.”

            “Then let’s go,” Tolly said, picking up his maul.

            “Do we want to try for a little subtlety here?” Kyle asked.

            “We’re past the time for that,” Arrie growled.

            Minutes later, the Legacy arrived in the slums, in the part of town that Kyle had pointed out on the map.  People scattered when they saw four heavily armed people coming down the road, suddenly remembering urgent business elsewhere.

            “We’re here,” Kyle said.  “Now what?”

            “Now I suggest we grab a random person and start asking questions,” Arrie said.  “Let Tolly use some of that Inquisitor training he has.”

            “Indeed,” Tolly said.  “Let’s look for a suitable candidate.”

            They spread out a little, looking over the few people who hadn’t fled at their approach.  Arrie stopped to stare down a bleary-eyed elf, wondering if he was coherent enough to talk, when she felt a tingling in the back of her neck.  It was an odd combination of a physical prickling and an instinctual warning.  She reached back, and felt the dart stinking out of her neck just as her vision began to blur.

            “Crap!” she shouted, just before she collapsed.

            The others rushed over.  Yuri spotted a figure in the shadows who darted away quickly.  She and Tolly were about to give chase, until a shout from Kyle reminded them that they would be leaving an unconscious Arrie in the middle of the street in the worst part of the slums.

            “I’ll get her back to the manor,” Kyle said.  He cast a spell, and metallic wings grew from his back.  “Looks like we’ll have to start the search over when we get back.”

            “No, we won’t,” Tolly said.  He bent down and picked up the tiny dart, holding it up for everyone to see.

            “We have them now.”


----------



## Delemental

The old two-story tenement that served as the hideout for the assassin’s guild had seen better days.  Years of neglect, a common feature among the buildings of the slums, had weakened the wooden planks and beams that supported the place, which had been built as a dancehall in whatever bygone decade it was first conceived.  Those who walked through the place often heard the creaks and groans of old lumber, or the persistent gnawing of rats.

            So, in retrospect, it was small wonder that when the Legacy appeared in the middle of the central room, Tolly already under the effects of _iron body_ and _righteous might_, that the Ardaran’s massive frame quickly fell through the floor and into the basement below.

            Kyle, Yuri, and Kupa, who could see the top of Tolly’s enlarged head poking up in the middle of the hole he’d created, quickly assessed the situation.  The main level was sparsely furnished in old, tasteless furniture.  A human male, clearly wearing the garb of a monk, stood near a ratty couch.  Up above them, a walkway encircled the outside of the room, and a female spellcaster stood looking down at them from the railing.  What made the pair unusual, however, was some familiar features; the monk had several facial tattoos which were identical to those worn by Osborn, and the sorceresses’ eyes were Autumn’s brilliant blue.

            Yuri, not sure what to make of this, decided to play it safe.  She ran by the monk, and swept at his feet with the haft of her longspear, hoping to knock him off his feet.  But the monk easily avoided the sweep, and Yuri dashed past, tearing a large hole in the upholstery of the couch.  The Sargian leapt into the air, easily clearing the distance from the floor to the balcony.

            At the same time, the sorceress on the balcony launched a _fireball _at the party, singing several of them.  Kyle summoned up a _defenestrating sphere_ in response, and launched it at her, hoping to knock her off the balcony, but she managed to keep her feet amidst the buffeting winds.  Kupa breathed a cloud of gas at the sorceress, hoping to slow her, but the vapors seemed ineffective.  Then Tolly appeared on the balcony next to her, and managed to land a solid blow with his maul before once again falling through the collapsing floor into the basement again.

            The monk, seeing that everyone’s attention was on his ally, ran up and began pummeling Kyle from behind, as he prepared to move the sphere back on top of the sorceress.  But this left the monk similarly open to an attack from high above, as Yuri leapt down, screaming, and impaled the monk’s shoulder.  As she pulled her spear free and prepared to strike again, she glanced up at the sorceress on the balcony, who was glaring with an unnatural gaze at her enemies.  Both Yuri and Kupa were suddenly paralyzed with terror, and stood helpless.

            Kyle, still being menaced by the monk now that Yuri had been incapacitated, managed to get off a quick _displacement _to protect himself, and then refocused on his _defenestrating sphere_.  The air globe slammed into the sorceress and flung her into the ceiling, and then back to the floor in the center of the room.  When she hit the floor, her body suddenly lost all cohesion, transforming into a black, shiny ooze that began to slink away.  Rising up from the ooze came the translucent, spectral form of Autumn.  Kyle whooped in triumph as his wife turned and began floating toward the monk, intent on doing battle.  Tolly, less optimistic, invoked _true seeing_ to make sure there was no deception, but could see nothing amiss with either Autumn’s spirit-like form or the ooze.  Reassured that they weren’t currently being deceived, he cast another spell to suppress the grip of fear that was overwhelming Kupa and Yuri.

            Everyone’s attention was drawn to the monk.  Kyle swiped at him with a _vampiric touch_ that missed, but Autumn’s incorporeal fists landed solidly enough.  But it was Yuri’s quick jab as she ran around behind the monk that proved the telling blow, and the monk collapsed into a pile of black ooze, releasing a ghostly version of Osborn.

            The party gathered together.  “What do we do with these two?” Tolly asked, pointing at Autumn and Osborn, floating nearby.

            “I’m not sure,” Kyle said.  “I was hoping they’d return to their bodies once those two were dead.  Maybe we should…”

            “Hey,” Yuri said quietly, “I think maybe you ought to turn around.  Now.”

            They turned to behold a terror.  The two smaller oozes had flowed together and combined into an ebon creature much larger than the sum of its parts.  Constantly melting and reforming, the creature shifted maddeningly from shape to shape, drawing each one from some horrifying nightmare.  Spines and clawed tentacles jutted out from every angle, and dozens of eyeballs peered out at them from within the black mass.  Atop the ooze, a human skull floated, cackling and screeching insanely.

            Kupa blinked at the sight of the monstrosity.  “You meet such interesting creatures,” he said, and then spit a line of acid at the ooze.  The caustic fluids were absorbed harmlessly by the ebony mass, and a _polar ray_ from Kyle bounced off it with no effect.  Similarly, an _implosion _from Tolly was easily warded off.  Osborn and Autumn floated in and began slashing at the ooze, tearing away chunks that dissolved in thin air even as its pseudopods passed through the two of them without effect.  Yuri, however, was not so fortunate; as she charged in with her spear, a tentacle lashed out and struck her fully across the chest.  The dragoon screamed as her form began to melt and dissolve, and her longspear slid out of boneless fingers.

            Tolly, who had dropped his _iron body_ spell so that he would stop crashing through the floor, ran over to Yuri.  Although he had never seen an abomination like this, he’d heard of other creatures of Chaos that could affect beings in similar ways.  He hoped that this creature’s ability was similar enough for him to treat it in the same manner.  Casting as he ran, he hit the Sargian with _heal_.  She immediately reformed to her true shape, though she was obviously still unnerved by the experience.

            Osborn and Autumn continued their assault on the ooze nightmare, continuing to rip away black globs.  The creature tried to gesture at Kyle, but Autumn knocked the tentacle aside, causing the ray of negative energy it had emitted to strike the far wall.

            As the Legacy began to close in, the skull atop the nightmare shifted forward until it was eye level.  The jaw began to move, and they all heard a familiar voice coming from it;

            “Help me!” Arrie’s voice cried out, “I’m trapped inside here!”

            The unnerving effect of this pronouncement was somewhat lessened, however, when a door on the far end of the room burst open, and Arrie came through, brandishing a huge adamantine warmace that was shifting into the shape of a greatspear even as she charged in.  Arrie’s spear joined Yuri’s in piercing the black mass several times, causing it to recoil in pain.  Kyle singed the ooze slightly with a _burning hands_ spell; the creature had displayed a great deal of resistance to elemental magic, and he didn’t want to hit it with a more potent spell only to discover that it was rejuvenated by fire.  The ooze again shrugged off most of the damage, but at least it didn’t look any healthier.

            Surrounded by enemies, the ooze emitted a foul cloud of poisonous gas before leaping across the room to escape its attackers.  Only Kyle was overcome by the fumes, and he staggered out of the cloud, gasping. Yuri, Arrie, Tolly, and Autumn moved across the room to attack again, the sentinel’s ghostly hands shining with divine power as she struck.  Kyle surrounded them all in an aura of flames that burned the ooze each time it struck

            The nightmare creature was leaping about the room, trying to escape, but found its attacks were just as mobile as it was.  Yuri and Arrie quickly fell into a brutally effective routine; Yuri would leap to the attack and impale the ooze with her spear, and as soon as she landed Arrie used her new magical cloak to switch places with the dragoon, putting Arrie in easy reach of her own weapons.  The ooze did manage to get in a solid blow on Kupa, whose form began to shift and melt as Yuri’s had done, but a timely spell from Tolly ended the dragon’s torment quickly. 

            Finally, it had endured enough.  It unleashed another blast of power into the party, a wave of psychic power that distorted perception and twisted the mind.  Yuri was left reeling for a moment, disoriented by the ooze’s power; it used the opening to slip past her and through a crack in the door behind her.

            Tolly quickly moved up and began battering the door down.  Osborn, meanwhile, who had been hanging back waiting for the opportunity to strike, simply floated through the wall and caught up with the fleeing ooze.

            The door flew apart in a shower of dust and shards of wood.  Tolly and Arrie stood in the doorway, ready to charge down the hallway.  Behind them, Kyle was tending to Yuri, ending her confused state of mind.  The hallway ahead of them was empty, except for a trail of ichor than abruptly ended in the middle of the hallway.  Osborn was nowhere to be seen, and a quick look around told them that Autumn was also not there.

            “All right,” Arrie said, “where’s my sister?”

            “Back in her body, I think,” Kyle said.  “I think Osborn killed the thing.”

            “Kyle, you’re the fastest, go and check,” Tolly said.  “Yuri, follow behind him.”  They both nodded and took off, Kyle spreading his metallic wings and flying down the hallway and outside, Yuri right on his heels.

            Tolly then turned to Arrie.  “We should search the rest of this place, and make sure no more are hiding somewhere.  Kupa, head to the top of the building and watch for anyone running out.”

            “Gotcha,” Kupa said, running down the hallway leading toward the outside door.

            “Shall we?” Arrie said, sweeping her arm toward the other doors in the building.  “I’d like to get back to the manor to make sure Autumn’s okay.”

            “After you,” Tolly said.

            They spent the next few minutes kicking in doors and searching for trapdoors or hidden alcoves.  They found several bodies, former victims of the ooze, and from the clothing and equipment found on the corpses it was obvious that these had once been the other assassins in the guild.  They did find the remnants of some sort of laboratory, and gathered several samples for Kyle to analyze.

After a long period of silence, Tolly looked over at Arrie.  "Ariadne, I believe I need to thank you."

Arrie looked over at Tolly, curiosity on her face, but she said nothing.

"I do, because I do not believe anyone else could have drawn me back to the reality of what we needed to do back at Silko’s cave. Of all of us, I would never have expected you to remind me that in order to do the Goddess' will, we have to trust that She can take care of herself, and we need merely to follow Her tenets, and She will take care of us."

Tolly paused, and gathered himself before continuing.  "Silko, and what he represents, terrifies me. I have been taking that out on you, as the only nearby psion, and letting it draw me astray from my duty and calling, which is to protect and serve Law and the Earth in Her guise as Mother. You drew me back from the edge - without you, I would have undoubtedly thrown myself away against the storm, and sacrificed Kupa in the process, as I am sure he would have stayed with me. I have always cared for your sister, and in no small amount for you. I, who was raised by the Church, had no family other than my Brothers and Sisters of the faith.”

“Tolly…” Arrie began, but he held up a gauntleted hand.

“Will you do me the honor of being my sister by blood oath? I can think of no one I could trust to watch my back more, and perhaps, this way, I can persuade the Mother to help me find a way for us to give you an afterlife. You deserve one as much as I."

 Arrie smiled, a soft, serene look on her face. "I'm honored by your concern Tolly, as I'm honored by your companionship. I have always believed that while you are not comfortable with my choices, you respect me enough to respect the decisions I make. I will likely continue to do things that defy sense and logic. It is as much a part of my nature as order is part of yours. I have been searching all this time, searching for who I am supposed to be and what legacy I will leave behind when all we know is dust.  I have found reassurance and death no longer holds the terror for me that it once did." A far-off look filled her eyes.

"It will be good to rest, to become quiet after so long filling up my world with noise and motion. I love that you and Kyle are willing to look for options but I can accept the consequences of the choice I made."

Tolly studied Arrie, taking in her words.  “I do not know where you found reassurance, my dear - as a priest of Ardara, one of course is always looking for converts, but I suspect that this is not a case of faith in the divine. But it is good that you have faith in something. I hope that it stems from faith in yourself."

Tolly extended his hand, open. Arrie gave him her hand and stepped closer, wrapping her other arm around his shoulders in a hug.  In a soft voice she said, "The Legacy is the family of my heart, the family that I got to choose. It would honor me if, in your heart, you knew me as your sister."

"I will - no, I do - and we, Kyle and I, will continue to try to find an option. If all else fails, then perhaps we can recreate the Consort, and make things better for you and Iria. All I want to do anymore is see the world through this, and make certain I leave it in better condition for our children - no matter the cost to me."

Arrie laughed, a sly look in her eye, as she separated from the Ardaran. "I’ll leave the building of deities to you and Kyle. I fear that I'm not terribly qualified. I have learned and learned well that a psion’s power is power within and a psion's faith likewise comes from within. If you build another Consort of clay and stardust, please do make sure that he understands that."

“Agreed,” Tolly chuckled.  "On a lighter note, I have not made myself aware of what you can do as much as I should.  Kyle has mentioned that you’ve had something of a shift in your outlook and your powers.  What can you do with your...abilities?"

Arrie gave Tolly a little finger-waggle. "Now that would be telling, Tolly. Don’t you want it to be a surprise?” Her expression morphed slightly, reminiscent of her old familiar smile.  “But I know the answer to that already. Things have changed for me, but not much.  Suffice it to say, I know what is important to me now and have put the rest aside. My powers are more stable but the intent guiding them is still the same. I've a new trick or two, but like most psionic powers they are fairly limited in their applicability to group tactics."

She patted him on the shoulder. "Worry less, brother. Or at least if I can’t allay your fears, learn to bluff better. I have put wild emotion behind me and taken up the mantle of one tasked from within by great ideals.”

“I will do my best,” Tolly said.  “But now, I see that there is no one left in this place who is deserving of our wrath.  Shall we return home?”

“Of course,” Arrie said.  “Our sister should be waking up soon.”

*          *          *​
            By the time they got back to the manor, Kyle had already administered a counter-agent to the sedatives they’d given Autumn and Osborn, and the two of them were awake, though still groggy and disoriented.  Both of their faces were still wet and sticky with dog saliva.

            “What do you remember?” Arrie asked Autumn after giving her sister a hug.

            “It’s… fuzzy,” she said, slurring her words slightly.  “Like a dream.  I felt like I was trapped in a nightmare where my friends were my enemies, and I was working to bring about the defeat of the Legacy and destroy the gods.  Then I think you came along and freed me from the body I was trapped in… after that I can’t remember much until I woke up here.”

            Osborn confirmed that his experience was much the same as Autumn’s.  “But we weren’t just trying to destroy you,” he said.  “We wanted to convert the Legacy, subvert them to our side.”

            “So, one thing I’m wondering,” Tolly said, “is how it is that Arrie isn’t laying here beside you.”

            “You know how you can train yourself to do something?  I’ve trained myself to go into a trance that allows my body to resist the effects of toxins, or to enter a sort of stasis.  When I felt the dart hit me, I entered the trance to fight off the poison.  Once I awoke, I made my way back to where I knew you we’d been before, and followed the sounds of things breaking.”

            “Did we lose much time?” Osborn asked.

            “Just the morning and part of the afternoon,” Tolly said.  “All in all, not bad.  The biggest mistake they made was trying to take out Arrie.”

            Osborn and Autumn looked to Arrie for an explanation, but she only shrugged.

            “Once they threw that poisoned dart at her, we had an object that belonged to one of them,” Tolly explained.  “I was able to use _discern location_ to pinpoint their hideout, and Kyle teleported us inside.”

            “Look at you with your crazy magic!” Arrie beamed.

            “No, deific magic,” Tolly corrected.  “Not crazy.  That’s your area.”


----------



## Delemental

*Troubled Times*

The Legacy appeared on the rise overlooking Dagger Rock, accompanied by a splash of lightning from the gathering storm clouds overhead, sending a terrified pair of beavers scampering toward the river.  It would have been an impressive arrival for any sentient witnesses, except that everyone’s clothing and belongings had shifted one person over in the circle.  Kyle’s eyes bulged and he nearly passed out as he found himself squeezed into Osborn’s hin-sized clothing, while Osborn toppled over in Autumn’s plate armor.  As Autumn helped the hin up, Yuri was already shedding Tolly’s armor.

            “This cr*p is way too heavy,” she complained, as she tossed the breastplate to the ground.

            Kyle looked over at the Sargian, having cut himself out of Osborn’s pants.  “I see our new recruit has become remarkably comfortable in our presence,” he said, as he magically mended the ripped pants.

            “I served in a mixed regiment,” Yuri said by way of explanation.  “They’ve seen mine, I’ve seen theirs, after a while it just doesn’t make a difference.”

            “So, that would be one of those magical surges we’ve been hearing about, Kyle?” Arrie asked, handing Yuri’s armor and weapons to her.

            “Yes,” Kyle said.  “A mild one, fortunately.  We only ended up exchanging clothing, as opposed to, say, limbs.  Or heads.”

            “I see.  Perhaps we ought reconsider using teleportation as our primary method of travel, then.”

            “We can discuss it later,” Tolly said.  “Right now we have other business.”

They all turned, and looked down on the symbol etched in the ground a short distance away.

            “That’s the Scion-Watchers, all right,” Kyle said with a grimace. 

            “The symbol wasn’t burned into the ground,” Osborn observed.  “It’s like the ground just died there.”

“There’s a hint of necromancy in the ground, but nothing active,” Kyle informed him.  “That probably accounts for the earth being dead.”

“Then I have even more cause to oppose this cult,” Tolly said.

“It really is like the whole town got scooped up,” Autumn said.  “Even the foundations of the buildings are gone.  If I hadn’t been here before, I’d swear that there was never a town here at all.”  She glanced over at the dagger-shaped plinth of stone in the middle of the river, as if to confirm she was really standing in the right place.

“Well, we have three days before my people show up here with information about those false Ladtan priests,” Osborn said.  “Let’s see what we can find out before then.”

            A low rumble of thunder rolled across the river valley, washing over the party and leaving them with a strange sense of foreboding.

            “So, what do you make of this mark, Osborn?” Tolly asked.

            “Search me,” the hin replied.  “That’s why I brought you along.  I’ve never seen the symbol before.  It’s not Tauric, which was my first thought when I heard that Grog was missing.”

            “It is not familiar to me, either,” the Ardaran admitted.  “Autumn?”

            The aasimar walked over and joined the other two.  “I’ve never seen it either.  You’re the one with the head for this kind of thing, Tolly.  That’s why you’re the Inquisitor and I’m not.”  She smiled, and kissed his cheek before returning to her survey of the surrounding area.

            Tolly sighed.  “I still say we should have recruited a wizard to replace Lanara.  They are more studied in this sort of symbol recognition.”

            “There were no wizards available, remember?” Osborn said.  “Most of them are too afraid to use magic after what happened anyway.  Besides, Yuri’s worked out fine so far.”

            Tolly looked around, and spotted the Sargian Dragoon on a wide patrol of the area.  “She is more than capable,” he admitted, “though I would rather have not had to recruit her in the first place.”

            “I miss Lanara too,” Osborn said.  “But there was nothing we could have done to save her.  She was assassinated by the Taurics while she was working undercover behind enemy lines.  She knew the risks.”  The hin looked around.  “Speaking of missing people, your wife has got that look in her eye.  You two haven’t spent much time together recently – go hang out with her for a while.”

            “Agreed,” Tolly said, throwing a smile toward Autumn.

            Having checked the area thoroughly and found nothing, the Legacy moved to a nearby hillside to make camp, even though it was still only mid-morning, since the clouds overhead threatened rain at any moment.  Tolly and Autumn had moved off away from the camp and were sitting together, looking down at the strange symbol on the ground.

            “You know,” Autumn said, “now that I look at it more, it kind of reminds me of a symbol that Kavan once showed me.  Something to do with the history of the Eritan church, or one of the Heresies.  Or one of their many secret societies.”

            “How is she, anyway?” Tolly asked.  “Madrone, I mean.”

            “Still on her secret mission for Erito, I think,” Autumn replied.  “I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

            “Do we know any other priests of Erito?” Tolly asked.  “Maybe they would recognize it.”

            “Arrie spends more time in Noxolt than I have,” Autumn said, “she’s off tending to the horses.  I’ll ask if she knows one.”

            “Pretty unlikely, since Arrie does not typically associate with priests of any god.”  He thought for a moment.  “Perhaps I can send a message to Madrone.”  He produced a pen and parchment from his pack, and after writing a quick note and copying the symbol on the ground, he placed it inside his silver raven and sent it off.

            “You know,” Arrie said, watching the bird fly off as she walked toward them, “you don’t have to send love letters.  You’re right next to each other.”

            Autumn grinned.  “That doesn’t mean I don’t still like getting love letters.”

            The moment the bird was out of sight, they each had the sudden feeling like someone was standing behind them.  They turned in unison and were greeted by the sight of a tall, thin, albino humanoid that looked vaguely elvish, except for his bone-white hair and the black pits that were his eyes.  The figure seethed in rage, and blood red motes of power danced within the depths of his inky black eyes.

            “Ardara’s Mercy,” Tolly whispered, “it’s a leShay!”

            “Outside the Library?” Arrie gasped.  “How?”

            They had all, of course, first met the leShay in Erito’s Library, when they had all learned the truth of the Cataclysm and what was to come.  Some of Erito’s most powerful servants, the enigmatic leShay were normally confined to operating in dimensions other than Aelfenn.

            Osborn, Rupert, and Kupa came running up quickly from the camp, having seen the leShay appear.  Moments later Yuri arrived as well from her patrol, but Arrie intercepted her in the way in as she began to draw her longspear.

            “Don’t,” she said.  “Keep your weapon sheathed.”

            “Who or what is that?” Yuri asked, maintaining a defensive posture.

            “It’s a leShay,” she explained.  “Very powerful.  You see how he looks angry enough to level a mountain range?  He could probably do it.”

            “I see,” Yuri said, who moved out of her fighting posture, though she didn’t relax one bit.  “How do you know him?”

            Arrie bit her lip, compelled by her vow to Erito into silence.  “It’s one of those things that we told you we wouldn’t be able to explain,” she said.

            The leShay finally spoke.  “Are any of you responsible for this?”

            “Responsible for what?” Autumn asked.  The leShay simply pointed at the symbol.

            “No,” the sentinel said flatly.  “We’re not.  We’re here to investigate it.”

            The red motes faded from the leShay’s eyes, though they did not vanish entirely.  “I see.”

            “Can you explain what this is?” Autumn asked.

            The leShay thought for a moment.  “Not in a way that your mortal minds can comprehend,” he said.

            “Is there anything we can do about it?”  Yuri asked.  She figured that anything that would make someone that powerful that angry was probably worth fixing.

            “Perhaps.  I will explain.”  The leShay turned to regard the symbol.  “I was called here because of a disturbance in the threads of Fate.  We leShay alone among all of Erito’s allies possess the knowledge and power to correct such anomalies.  Someone from this time and place had gone back to the far reaches of the past, and thus altered the present.  Erito is displeased, therefore, we are displeased.”

            “Who did this?” Arrie asked.

            “This even I cannot say,” the leShay answered.  “Whoever is responsible acted from the thread of Fate that should have been, and not from the one we now occupy.  That person no longer exists within this thread – clearly, they were willing to sacrifice their own existence to accomplish this abomination.”

            “If it does not conflict with Ardara’s will, then we are at your service,” Tolly said.

            “Ardara has no say in this matter,” the leShay replied curtly.  “It is outside of her purview.  Her opinion on the matter is irrelevant.”

            Tolly bristled slightly, but kept silent.

            “If we don’t know who is responsible, what can we do?” Osborn asked.

            “You can be sent back through the thread of Fate, to the point at which it was altered,” the leShay replied.  “Prevent the alteration, and Fate shall be restored.”

            “Not to sound ungrateful for the opportunity,” Yuri said, “but part of me wonders why it wouldn’t be more efficient for you to just go back and take care of this.”

            “Because sending back five mortals requires significantly less power than sending back one leShay,” he replied.  “One does not raise an army to overthrow a kingdom when a blade in the back will do.  Beyond that, the time in question predates the Sundering, and in that time the eladrin still bore open hostility toward my people.  My arrival would attract attention, and likely interference.”

            “Sundering?” Yuri asked.

            “I think that’s what they call the Cataclysm,” Arrie whispered to her.

            “How are we to know what event we must prevent?” Tolly asked.

            After concentrating a moment, the leShay answered.  “The key moment is the assassination of Justin Godscion.”

            “Never heard of him,” Yuri said.

            “He was a Serenity of Erito, and was a guiding force in the war against the psions.  His loss was a severe blow in the war against Silko’s rogue psions, and likely contributed to the success of Silko’s annihilation of The Consort.  His untimely demise would likely have had other, unforeseen consequences as the threads of fate were rewoven to this point in time.”

            “The who?  The Consort?  Silko the Paragon? What?”  Yuri looked perplexed.  The others, who of course knew the truth of Erito’s Consort and his destruction by Silko from their visit to Erito’s Library, looked at the Sargian helplessly.

            “Got it,” she said, “something else you can’t explain.”

            The leShay looked exasperated.  “The limit of your knowledge of the Sundering will interfere with your performance,” he said.  He reached out and touched Yuri on the forehead, and for a moment her eyes turned as black as his.  A second later, she staggered back, shaking her head.

            “Oh,” was all she managed to say.  “Oh.  Oh!”

            “Justin Godscion’s assassination should not have been,” the leShay pronounced, ignoring the reeling dragoon.  “Stop the assassins, and all shall be set right.  As a secondary objective, if you find the one responsible for this abomination, then you must either slay them, or if such is not possible, attempt to place this on their person.”  He produced a silver amulet out of thin air.  “This will cause me to know who is responsible, regardless of how the threads of fate are woven, and administer suitable chastisement.”

            Autumn accepted the amulet from the leShay, but felt Osborn tapping her on the waist.  “Let me hold that,” he said.  “I’ve got a better chance on sneaking it on someone’s neck.”  Nodding, Autumn passed him the amulet.

            “When must we leave?” Arrie asked.

            “At this point time is essentially immaterial.  You may take what time you need to prepare yourselves.  However, for those who are preparing magic, know that summonings will be ineffective, as they will attempt to draw their target from this point in the thread rather than where you will be, and your mortal magic lacks the potency to accomplish that task.  You will arrive shortly after the conclusion of a small surprise attack on the Serenity and his defenders, one no doubt designed to strip him of allies for when the true assassination is attempted.”

            With no further questions for the moment, the leShay suddenly vanished, leaving the Legacy to prepare themselves.  Kupa told Tolly that he would be staying behind.

            “We dragons don’t react well to this sort of thing,” he explained.  “Our connection to the world and its workings keeps us anchored here.  Trying to relocate myself to another part of this thread would be… uncomfortable.”

            The next morning, the leShay returned to find the party ready and waiting. He looked around at each of them.  “Do you understand that if you succeed, there is no guarantee that you will return as you are now to the correct thread of Fate.  In that thread, some of you may not exist, or may not know each other.  Some that you know to be dead may be alive, and some that are alive will be dead.  Friends may become strangers, and lovers become enemies.”

“We understand,” Tolly said, “and accept the consequences of our actions.”

            There was a flash of darkness, and suddenly the Legacy was shooting backward through a tunnel whose walls seemed to be composed of the twisting and unraveling threads of Fate.

*          *          *​
            “I thank you for your assistance, strangers,” Justin Godscion said, as he healed the last of his wounds.  “Your arrival was most timely.  Were you sent by the church?”

            The Legacy looked around at the carnage surrounding Serenity Godscion.  Dozens of bodies were scattered about; several wore the garb of Eritan clergy, but most of them were enemy warriors, still clutching bloodied weapons.  They’d appeared a few yards away, and had intercepted the last of the ambushers as they charged in, easily cutting them down.

            “We were not sent… by the church,” Tolly said to Justin.

            Justin prodded one of his assailants with his boot, a savage-looking orc.  “Strange creatures,” he muttered.  “I’ve never seen their kind before.”

            The Legacy exchanged looks.  The orcish race was not created by Grabâkh until after the Cataclysm, and so of course he wouldn’t recognize them.  Arrie examined a couple of the orcs; their armor and weapons were similar to what she had seen in their own time, but then again, the orcs had had little reason to change their implements of war over the centuries, so there was no clear way to tell what time period they might have been from.

            “They are called orcs,” Tolly explained, “and it would have been best if you had never seen them at all.”  Tolly looked around.  They were in a hilly land, and were standing in a small vale amidst the hills.  Nearby, a small cliff face loomed over them.  “Do you have a destination?” Tolly asked.  “We shall accompany you there.”

            Autumn immediately moved up to stand next to Justin.

            “Thank you again,” Justin said.  “What are your names?”

            They were about to answer when Tolly spoke up again.  “You can call me Nightsleaving.  This is Duchess, Slip, Psi, and Dragoon.”

            Autumn leaned over to her sister.  “Why is he making up names for us?”

            “You tell me.  You married him.”  She looked at Tolly.  “Sometimes I think you’re too clever for your own good, Tolly.”

            “Not clever enough, this time,” said a raspy voice above them.

            A figure in plate armor, clutching a quarterstaff, stood atop the nearby cliff.  The same symbol that was burned into the ground at Dagger Rock was embroidered on his tabard.  The face showing through the visor was that of a young human.

            “Another friend of yours?” Justin asked.

            “Hardly,” spat Arrie.  “He’s the man trying to kill you.”

            “That is no man,” Tolly said, peering at the figure on the hill with _true seeing_.  He could see that the young face shown to them was nothing but an illusion cloaking a skeletal face with glowing red eyes. “He is a lich.” 

            “I’m afraid that the position of Serenity will soon be vacant,” said the lich.  “I apologize to you, Justin Godscion, and wish this was not necessary.  But for the sake of the safety of the world, I’m afraid you must cease to exist.”

            “Many have tried,” Justin called up to him.  “None have succeeded.”

            “They did not have the resources of history that I have at my disposal.”

            “The only thing that will be disposed of is you,” Tolly shouted.

            The lich calmly tapped his staff on the ground, and suddenly the Legacy was surrounded by dozens of the same swirling black distortions that they had traveled through.  Dozens of frightful creatures appeared all around them.  Many of them were human… mostly.  They actually appeared to be a stitched-together amalgamation of several different humanoid creatures, with limbs of varying sizes attached to a patchwork torso.  There were also several packs of trolls, who looked like they had steel plates embedded in their green flesh.  Steel caps covered their skulls, and steel claws were embedded in their hands.  Blood oozed from the edges of the plates and dripped down the length of the claws.  The crazed look in their eyes spoke of unspeakable torments.  Another cluster of their assailants were ogres, clutching their massive, flaming battleaxes and ready for battle.  Above them, on the cliff, the lich had been joined by five women in mithral chain armor, obviously some sort of practitioners of magic, and off to either side, where the cliff dropped and became more of a steep incline, there were units of cavalry – dark-skinned humans that looked somewhat like primitive Zhintai, mounted atop fierce, two-legged lizards much like the raptors they had seen in the Khag Steppes.

            “Thorough, aren’t they?” Osborn said.

            The Legacy quickly prepared for battle.  Tolly’s body turned to living iron, and Justin evoked a prayer to enhance their skill in battle.  Arrie was briefly surrounded by a thin layer of ectoplasm, and exuded the scent of fresh earth.  Justin, the Serenity of Erito, looked back at her gravely, and then nodded.  “Vigor is a wise choice of powers, young ardent,” he said.  “I pray it serves you well.”  Arrie grinned – it was refreshing to be able to use her powers openly.

            The lich’s voice echoed across the suddenly active battlefield, obviously magically amplified.  “Now, all of you play nice, and I’ll be back soon.”  And with a chuckle, the lich withdrew past the far side of the cliff.

            “He didn’t do his homework,” Arrie snorted, as the enemy closed in on all sides, “we don’t play nice.”


----------



## Ed Gentry

Whoa! Abrupt change to have Autumn and Tolly together and Kyle nowhere to be seen. Very nice technique to introduce this thread of the story with the time changes.

Good stuff.


----------



## Richard II

Darn, I'm at the end. I really haven't gotten much, if anything, done at work this week.

And Lanara died. *Sniffle*

I <3 Lanara.


----------



## Aholibamah

Hi there, I just read some of your first page and I quite like your setting. I think that starting everyone at school is a neat idea, I tried it myself. However you have a nice way of doing it that makes it down to earth and yet fanciful. Very cool way to build a party. 

The players clearly are enjoying exploring your setting in order to buy stuff, get information and build character depth. I'll read more for sure.


----------



## Delemental

Richard II said:
			
		

> Darn, I'm at the end. I really haven't gotten much, if anything, done at work this week.
> 
> And Lanara died. *Sniffle*
> 
> I <3 Lanara.




Well then, you'd best hope we can fix things here in the past, so that we return to a present where Lanara is alive and well, even if she is off on sabbatical right now.


----------



## Delemental

Aholibamah said:
			
		

> Hi there, I just read some of your first page and I quite like your setting. I think that starting everyone at school is a neat idea, I tried it myself. However you have a nice way of doing it that makes it down to earth and yet fanciful. Very cool way to build a party.
> 
> The players clearly are enjoying exploring your setting in order to buy stuff, get information and build character depth. I'll read more for sure.




Thanks, and always glad to have a new reader.  I should clarify, however, that it isn't my setting; Aelfenn was created by our DM.  While we've had some influence in its development over the past few years, most of it is his own work.


----------



## Delemental

“He didn’t do his homework,” Arrie snorted, as the enemy closed in on all sides, “we don’t play nice.”

            As if to emphasize the point, Tolly shouted an invocation and pointed, and a violent tremor slammed into the cliff face before them, sending it cascading down in a torrent of earth onto the squad of trolls just beneath it.  Bits of stone and dirt rolled down and covered Tolly’s boots up to his ankles.  Unfortunately, the warlocks that were perched at the cliff’s edge were unaffected by the earthquake, as they were suspended in midair by magical power as the ground vanished beneath them.  The buried trolls started digging their way out.

            “Stay with Justin,” Yuri barked, “I’ll try to draw some of them off.”  She leapt into the air, landing on a nearby rise in the midst of a unit of the strange, stitched together soldiers, and began laying into one with her greatspear.  The wounds she caused, though grievous, seemed only to enrage the being, and it lashed out with tremendous strength at the Sargian, denting her armor with the force of his blow.

            Sheets of lightning arced through the ranks of the trolls and ogres, badly singeing them, though the scorch marks on the trolls were rapidly shrinking.  Justin grinned triumphantly at the success of his spell, but then cried out in pain as blasts of eldritch energy struck him, unholy beams emitted by the five warlocks above them.  He might have succumbed then and there, except for Autumn, who quickly jumped in between the Serenity and the warlocks, taking the brunt of two of the blasts herself.

            “Thank you,” Justin said weakly.

            “Of course,” she replied, glad to see he had survived.   “I’ll take care of them,” Autumn shouted to Arrie, who was laying into one of the trolls.

            “Careful!” Arrie shouted as Autumn spread her wings and shot into the sky, dodging the warlocks’ blasts.  Arrie had reason to be a little worried; the last time Autumn had faced a warlock, it hadn’t gone well for her.  And given Autumn’s vow to Bail, not to mention having no idea how time travel would affect resurrections…

             As their enemy closed in around them, Tolly unleashed another spell at the warlocks and trolls, this time filling the area in which they stood with radiant fire.  The warlocks, though dazed by the sudden radiance, seemed unaffected by the flames, but the light gave Autumn the cover she needed to gain altitude until she was higher than the cliff.  He felt the touch of divine magic as Justin invoked healing, filling them with a lingering power that would ease their wounds as time passed.  He spared a moment for a look around, and saw that Arrie had felled one of the trolls, damaging it so badly that it would take several minutes for it to regenerate back to fighting strength. Osborn was now using the troll’s body as a platform to unleash his flurries of daggers at the ogres and trolls pressing in all around.  But Arrie was also being badly battered by their monstrous foes; her fighting style, which relied on allowing the enemy to get close enough to strike so that she could retaliate, was an unforgiving method of combat, especially when so badly outnumbered.  Off to their right flank, he saw that a unit of ogres had joined with the flesh golem-like soldiers that were attacking Yuri, and the ogres were attacking with an unusual amount of coordination and cooperation, the results of which could be clearly seen in the many crimson stains on Yuri’s armor.  She would have to withdraw soon or be overwhelmed.

            He heard the echo of a war cry, and looked up just in time to see Autumn swoop down into the midst of the warlocks, cleanly decapitating one of the women in a single blow, and then radiating a burst of divine power than drove the other four to their knees in sudden pain.

            “Cease your attacks on the Serenity, or you will all be annihilated!” she screamed with absolute authority.

_That’s why I married her_, Tolly thought admiringly.  He stepped back closer to Justin, and just to make sure his wife’s efforts weren’t in vain, invoked a _fortunate fate_ on the Serenity.  He finished his spell just in time, as he saw that the warlocks above them had regrouped, and while two shot fiery bolts at Autumn, covering her in flames, the other two were aiming down at the Legacy.  Thinking they meant to blast Justin again, Tolly moved into their line of fire.  The flaming blasts did shoot down toward the party, but lanced into the unconscious troll that Osborn was perched upon.  The troll exploded, sending bits of shrapnel everywhere.  Shards of hot, jagged armor plates cut through flesh and fabric of both enemy and ally alike, filling the air with the stench of scorched flesh.

            Enemies poured into the sudden vacuum left by the explosion.  Both Osborn and Arrie were rent by the claws of trolls, and the assault on Yuri had grown so severe that she was finally forced to leap away long enough to use the healing magic bound into her armor, though it was not nearly enough to stop all of her bleeding.  There was barely room for the others to breathe, let alone drop their defenses long enough to cast a healing spell or drink a potion.  Arrie used her magical cloak to switch places with Tolly, allowing her to bring her adamantine weapon to bear against the half-golems, while Tolly was able to face the trolls, whose claws could do little to penetrate his iron skin.  But they could all see that the two units of cavalry had descended the hill on both flanks, and were wheeling around to the rear, no doubt getting ready to charge straight down the middle at them.

            Suddenly, Arrie and Tolly felt a firm hand grab onto their shoulders, and Osborn saw a ghostly, disembodied hand touch him*.  The hin barely had time to grab onto Rupert’s collar before they all vanished.  They reappeared an instant later at the top of the cliff, just to the right of where Autumn was still battling the warlocks, and well away from the mob below.

            “A moment’s breath,” Justin panted, still woozy from the _dimension door_ spell he’d just cast, “Brought to you by the grace of the Goddess.”  A second later Yuri, who had seen them vanish, used her own magical cloak’s powers to appear close by.

            “And much welcomed,” Tolly said, quickly healing Arrie, who was on her last legs.  Osborn turned his attention to the warlocks, quickly killing the closest one with a flurry of daggers, as Autumn smashed another one of them into carrion.

            “Dear Erito,” Justin said, looking down the hillside on the side of the cliff opposite the battle.  In the distance, several catapults had been set up, pointed toward the sea of enemies below them.  A few of the catapults were loaded with flaming ammunition; clearly meant as some form of insurance, in the event that they gained the upper hand in the battle.

            “How could any creature go to such lengths to destroy me?” Justin wondered aloud.  “What sin could I have performed in his eyes?”

            “I don’t think it’s you he’s after,” Osborn said, invoking a healing prayer of his own.  “He wants something else.”

            Their analysis was interrupted as one of the remaining warlocks gestured, and rubbery black tentacles edged with frigid cold erupted from the ground below them.  Arrie and Osborn slipped out easily, thanks to the devices they wore, and a quick spell from Justin allowed him to walk out unscathed a moment later.  Only Tolly was trapped in the binding tentacles.

            The mass of creatures below them slowly began to turn to make their way up the steep sides of the cliff.  Some of the ogres dropped their greataxes in favor of composite bows, and fired upon Autumn, but the aasimar was easily able to avoid the arrows as she wheeled about in the air.  Yuri leapt in to help her dispatch the warlocks, and when Autumn saw she was close by, the sentinel invoked another power of her order, creating a brief dichotomy of positive and negative energy that deepened the wounds of the enemy she struck even as it eased the injuries she and the Sargian had sustained.

            Justin cast another spell, and down below, the earth in the midst of a pack of ogres and trolls erupted as the ground suddenly and violently froze, sending chunks of ice and stone flying everywhere.  Several of the half-golem soldiers went down, as did a couple of the trolls, though obviously not permanently.  The ground where the spell hit was left a broken, ruined mass, forcing one of the cavalry units to slow down and navigate the treacherous footing more carefully.  Their advance up the hill was further slowed when Tolly unleashed a second _earthquake_, sending several ogres and half-golems plummeting into fissures in the ground.

            As the hordes of enemies surged up the cliff and began to press in, the Legacy fell back into a more defensive position.  Autumn was the only one who remained outside, as she worked to eliminate the remaining warlocks in a pitched aerial battle.  As the sentinel wheeled around, she saw one of the two warlocks pulling a sinister-looking energy out of her chest, and then hurling it at Autumn.  She cried out as the twisting, curling bolt of eldritch power struck her, seeming to burn her to her very soul.  Most of the trolls had come to the edge of the cliff near where Autumn and the warlocks were flying, and would lash out with their long arms whenever the aasimar flew close.  Autumn could have easily avoided the trolls by flying further away, but it would mean giving the warlocks the opening they needed to retreat and regroup.

            As Arrie stood ready for the impending charge of the ogres and half-golems, she glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the siege engines, and saw four more figures approaching rapidly.  The one in the rear was instantly recognizable as the lich who had engineered this elaborate ambush in the first place, but the other three appeared human. All four were in full plate armor, and all wore tabards with the same symbol, marking them as part of the same cult or cause.  One of the three was mounted on a warhorse, and wielded a wicked-looking falchion.  The second was armed with a greatsword, and the third with a longsword and shield.  All three bore other markings besides the symbols on their tabards, symbols which Arrie recognized from long ago, when her sister first joined the Order of Sentinels.  These three were Incarnates**, a warrior sect whose training was similar to the sentinels, but who espoused a different philosophy altogether.  They fought to maintain an ethical and moral balance in the world.  With a grimace, Arrie prepared herself for the challenge they would present.

            Tolly, not willing to wait for the threat to come closer, attempted to implode the mounted incarnate, but he shrugged it off.  In response, the lich waved a hand and encased Tolly in a tomb of stone.

            “A fitting place for you, Ardaran,” the lich taunted.  The incarnate with the shield shouted commands, and the other surged forward suddenly to join the attack.  The incarnate with the greatsword was met by a howling Yuri, who dropped on him from above and thrust her spear through his midsection.  He twisted away just in time to avoid being disemboweled, and was about to counterstrike when Yuri vanished, replaced by Arrie.  Yuri appeared some distance back, and began laying into the ogres and half-golems that were closing in.

Justin, seeing the enemy getting closer, took advantage of the battlefield and dove into the writhing mass of icy tentacles that one of the warlocks had conjured earlier.  His _freedom of movement_ spell kept him safe from being grabbed, and the ring on his finger protected him from the numbing cold.  The tentacles discouraged pursuit, giving him a chance to use his spells for something besides self-defense.  He healed Yuri through a _spectral hand_ he’d conjured earlier, and then blasted one of the two cavalry units with a spell that sapped their vitality, slowing them considerably.  He then targeted one of the badly wounded ogres that was fighting Yuri, and with a shouted prayer pulled all the moisture out of its body, which coalesced into a water elemental that immediately slammed two appendages into the ogre standing next to it.

For a moment, it seemed as though the Legacy was holding their own, but then the remaining cavalry charged in, as did the three incarnates.  Razor-sharp lances speared the water elemental, dispersing it into a large puddle, while other lances pierced Osborn and Rupert, and another struck Yuri.  Tolly teleported out of the stone sarcophagus and arrived close to Arrie, who was now fending off both the incarnate on horseback and the one with the greatsword.  He healed the badly-wounded warrior, and then they stood back to back to face the incarnates, preventing them from advancing into the main combat.  The incarnate’s greatsword swung and connected with Tolly’s iron torso with a resounding blow that almost knocked the cleric off his feet, and a moment later the incarnate with the shield slashed at Arrie, opening up a deep gash across her chest.

Autumn, whose efforts to eliminate the warlocks had been frustrated by their frequent use of healing scrolls, was finally able to land a mortal blow on one of the two women, sending her body tumbling down the cliff to the ground below.  Her efforts to reach the last warlock were frustrated by the rending steel claws of the modified trolls, and so with a fierce battle cry she laid into them with her greataxe.  On the other side of the battlefield, Justin cast a _howling chain_ spell at the lich, knocking him to his feet and denting his breastplate, but the lich dispelled the chain and stood up after only a few moments.  The undead mastermind responded with a _flame strike_ against Justin, though the Serenity avoided the worst of it by diving in among the cold tentacles surrounding him.

The air was thick with the smell of blood, sweat, and viscera as the battle raged on.  Yuri and Osborn faced off against the ogres and the raptor cavalry, while Autumn battled trolls.  Arrie and Tolly had their hands full fending off three incarnates, while Justin continued his spell-battle with the lich.  But the Serenity saw a pack of reinforcements heading toward Yuri and Osborn, and diverted his attention long enough to blast the troll in the middle of the group with an _orb of acid_, causing the shrapnel-filled creature to explode in the midst of its allies.  But the brief moment of distraction was all the lich needed, and Justin was hit with a _reaving dispel_, which stripped most of his defensive spells away.  Fortunately, the Serenity was able to retain his _freedom of movement_ spell, or else he might have been dragged down and crushed by the tentacles.

Arrie and Tolly were focusing their attention on the incarnate with the greatsword, hoping to eliminate one foe at a time.  But the holy warrior hung on stubbornly, aided by the divine power that all three incarnates were channeling, which not only made their attacks more lethal, but often healed the wounds that the Legacy inflicted.  The Ardaran and his sister-in-law were briefly cheered when they felt a familiar burst of holy power which signaled that Autumn had landed a devastating blow and taken out a troll and the last warlock.  Arrie dove in front of a backhand swing from the horseman’s falchion, giving Tolly the seconds he needed to cast a _mass cure_ spell of his own.  But then one of the incarnates slammed his shield into Arrie, striking her in the head.  Her vision wavered, and she saw double for a moment.  Her head cleared just in time to see the greatsword slash down through Tolly, splitting him nearly in half.  With a look of surprise on his iron face, Tolly fell to the earth like a toppled statue.

With a grim smile of satisfaction on his face, the incarnate pulled his weapon free from Tolly’s body, ready to turn his attention to the other warrior.  But an ear-splitting shriek cut through the air, and suddenly the end of a longspear blossomed through the man’s chest, driving down at an angle into the ground and pinning him in place.  Yuri drove the point deep into the earth, and then released her grip, skewering the incarnate to the ground.  She backed off a step as Arrie moved in and put a few more holes in him with Anyweapon, which had been formed into a longspear as well, and then Arrie tossed Yuri the weapon and drew her old spiked chain.

Osborn, who had withdrawn a few paces to heal himself and Rupert with a wand, surveyed the battle.  Tolly was down, and Arrie was on her last legs.  He could see Autumn flying in fast to help, but neither she nor Yuri were at full strength either.  Justin was trying to do what he could, but was hard pressed fending off the magical attacks of the lich.  He’d been forced to abandon his refuge of tentacles in order to reach Arrie and Autumn with a healing spell, and was concentrating his magical power on eliminating the incarnates rather than targeting their leader.  Osborn was beginning to wonder if any of them would survive this ambush.  As he put his wand away, his hand brushed against a hard disc in one of his pockets.  With a start, Osborn knew what he needed to do.  He jumped onto Rupert’s back and urged him into a run.  “Come on, boy,” he shouted, as he took off toward the lich.

            Some of the ogres had broken through and had joined with the incarnates, battling against Yuri, Arrie, and Autumn.  The first two continued to strike at the impaled incarnate, who stubbornly refused to die thanks to the healing that he was receiving from his own allies.  He finally raised his greatsword, and with a powerful blow sheared through Yuri’s adamantine longspear, freeing himself to act.  Pummeled from several sides, Arrie finally succumbed to the massive amount of blood she had lost, dropping to the ground like a grain sack, though a split-second spell by Justin kept her away from death’s door.  Yuri and Autumn, surrounded, used up the last of their readily available healing, and prepared to pave the way for the Serenity’s hopeful escape with their lives.

            Then they all heard a strange, strangled cry coming from behind the battle lines.  They looked over and saw Osborn clinging tenaciously to the lich’s back, clutching a silver amulet.  As the lich clawed desperately at the hin, trying to paralyze his assailant, Osborn managed to get the amulet around his neck and lock the clasp in place.

            The lich vanished instantly, dropping Osborn to the ground and knocking the wind out of him.  Seconds later, the other combatants started to vanish, whatever blasphemous power that was holding them in the past now severed.  Too exhausted to celebrate, the Legacy simply collapsed where they stood, pressing shaking hands to bleeding wounds in a pathetic effort to staunch them.  Autumn crawled over to her husband’s body, which had already resumed its fleshy form, and wept openly.  Justin walked quietly over to where Arrie lay, and used more healing magic to revive her.  He and Osborn moved about, quickly administering to the party’s wounds, not saying a word until they were finished.

            Arrie walked over to where Yuri sat, holding the broken pieces of her longspear.  “You hold on to Anyweapon for a while,” she said quietly, “until we can get that replaced.”  Yuri simply nodded.

            “Thank you all for saving me,” Justin said to them, “and praise to Erito for sending such valiant defenders to my aid, though I can’t honestly say that the life you have saved is worth more than the one lost here today.”  Autumn, still draped across Tolly’s body, said nothing in reply.

            Justin turned to Osborn.  “How were you able to defeat the lich?”

            He flashed a weary smile.  “With the grace of Ladta.”

            “Know that for your actions today, whatever resources the church of Erito has will be made available to you.  Your companion will be restored to you, if that is your wish and his.”

            “That will not be necessary, Serenity,” said a familiar voice.  The leShay that had sent the Legacy into the past, or one that looked like his twin, walked up to the group.  Justin turned and bowed deeply; the leShay acknowledged him with a bow if his own head.

            “You honor us with your presence, Ancient One,” Justin said.  “Was it your doing to send these noble warriors to my aid?”

            “We are,” the leShay replied.  “And I have been given leave by Our Lady to grant boons to them for their service.  I believe life would be considered a boon.”  The leShay’s black eyes flashed with power for a moment, and suddenly Tolly sat up, whole and unblemished.  Autumn cried out with joy and embraced him, nearly knocking him over as he tried to stand.  There was another flash of power, and Yuri’s greatspear appeared in her hand, good as new.

            “Your other boons will be granted you when you return from whence you came,” the leShay said.  “The threads of fate have been rewoven to their proper course.”

            Yuri turned to Justin.  “So, what now?”

            “I suppose I must return to Trageon,” Justin said.  “And report this incident to my Council.  An investigation…”

            “Serenity,” the leShay said quietly, “you will not recall these events once you leave here.”

            Justin looked at the leShay for a moment, then nodded.  “I understand.”  He turned to face the Legacy again.  “Again, I thank you for saving me.  May Erito watch over you in your journeys.”

            “Before we leave,” Tolly said, “I do have one question for you.  It is a bit unusual.”

            “I will answer, if I can,” Justin said.

            “What is the name of Erito’s Consort?”

            Justin looked surprised.  “That is a rather unusual question, his name is well-known to all.  But for your sake, his name is

            There was a flash of darkness.

*          *            *​
            “Well, I can’t see any sign of this Scion-Watchers symbol,” Kyle said to Osborn as they stood overlooking the town of Dagger Rock.  “And the town’s here.  I’m not saying I don’t believe you, Osborn, but I guess… maybe Grog and the townsfolk were able to figure things out on their own had put everything right before we even got here.”

            The rest of the Legacy looked around, and then at each other.  They could all remember what had happened, but the memory was strange, as though it were the memory of a tale they had been told as children, rather than something they themselves had experienced only a few minutes ago.  Autumn and Tolly exchanged awkward glances.

            “Still,” Kyle was continuing, “we should probably look around.  If the Scion-Watchers are about, it could be trouble.”

            “I…” Osborn looked around blankly, “I don’t think the Scion-Watchers will be a problem any time soon.”

            Kyle looked at his friends curiously.  “Is something wrong?  You all look like you’ve never seen me before.”

            “We’re…fine.” Autumn said.  “I guess we were just ready for something big to happen when we got here.”

            “Well, I say it’s a welcome change of pace,” Kyle grinned.  “Come on, let’s see if Grog still serves that good ale.” He began to walk down the hill, and then suddenly stopped short.  “Autumn, what is that?”  He pointed to the weapon on his wife’s belt.  She looked down, and in place of her greataxe was a gleaming, ornate falchion.

            “It’s… Faithful Avenger,” Autumn said reverently, drawing the cold iron blade.  “It was the weapon of the first Crusader.”

            “How in the world did you…” Kyle looked around, and noticed other changes.  The Ladtan coin relic that Osborn wore around his neck now glowed with increased magical power, as did Yuri’s greatspear.  He noted a tattoo on Arrie he hadn’t seen before, and in the middle of Tolly’s right hand, a large diamond was embedded in the palm.

            “What in Erito’s name have you all been up to?” he asked.

            “Well…”

-----------------------------------

* This was an impromptu ruling during the game, but our DM did allow Justin (me) to use the _spectral hand_ to administer the 'touch' necessary to bring Osborn along in the _dimension door_. Arrie and Tolly were adjacent at the time, but Osborn was 10 feet away.  It may have been a bit cheesy, but it was honestly probably a good thing here - if left behind Osborn would probably have been surrounded and killed.

** There are nine different types of Crusader, one associated with each alignment and espousing a different cause.  The NG Sentinels are devoted to eliminating the taint of evil from Aelfenn, especially extraplanar evil.  The TN Incarnates are devoted to maintaining a balance in the world.  Clearly, the Arcanamach (the lich who was the head of the Scion-Watchers, and masterminded this whole thing) had convinced them that the possibility of the Godscion line wielding arcane magic represented a serious threat to the balance.  We've also run into the NE Corrupters in the past (when the Archprelate of Ardara was assassinated).

For the record, when the campaign began we used different rules for these warriors - they were all different types of holy warriors based on the paladin (indeed, the paladin was the LG version).  But our DM vastly prefers the rules from Book of 9 Swords to this, as it gives them more of the "feel" he was looking for from the class.  And so, the nine types of holy warriors are all variations on the Crusader from Bo9S.


----------



## Richard II

Hurray. But how come Kyle didn't get sent back in time along with the rest of the Legacy? Would the time continuum get irritated with having both Kyle and his manytimesgreatgrandfather talking to each other?


----------



## Krafus

Heh heh, Tolly married to Autumn... He finally gets the girl, only it's in a temporary alternate timeline. It's almost sad.

I really liked the battle - lots and lots of action going on. So Osborn had the means to win all along once the lich showed up... Good thing he remembered what he had. I wonder how many battles in D&D have been lost because the party or a player in particular forgot he/she had an item or weapon that would make a great difference?


----------



## Delemental

Richard II said:
			
		

> Hurray. But how come Kyle didn't get sent back in time along with the rest of the Legacy? Would the time continuum get irritated with having both Kyle and his manytimesgreatgrandfather talking to each other?




Because the lich had gone back in time and assassinated Justin Godscion, his ancestor, before he had any children.  Thus the Godscion line died out, and Kyle was never born.

Remember, way back when The Consort was destroyed by Silko, Erito cursed Justin and his family that magic would neither touch them or be touched by them for seven times seventy generations, since Justin had failed to protect The Consort (Fair?  Probably not.  But who says goddesses are always rational, especially when their significant other has just croaked?).  The Scion-Watchers were originally a small group of Eritan priests assigned to monitor the family line to make sure the curse was enforced.  Over time, their purpose became corrupted, until they believed they were supposed to make sure that magic never touched the Goodson line.  The Scion-Watchers likely believe that there will be another Cataclysm if a Goodson learns to use magic - they probably blame the current problems with the Dream Realm on Kyle.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Heh heh, Tolly married to Autumn... He finally gets the girl, only it's in a temporary alternate timeline. It's almost sad.




But there's nothing saying it won't cause problems down the line - after all, Autumn now has two distinct sets of memories; being married to Tolly, and being married to Kyle, and all of the emotions tied into those memories.



> I really liked the battle - lots and lots of action going on. So Osborn had the means to win all along once the lich showed up... Good thing he remembered what he had. I wonder how many battles in D&D have been lost because the party or a player in particular forgot he/she had an item or weapon that would make a great difference?




Thanks.  Battle scenes, especially long ones, are rather tedious to write, and I worry that as I go I'll start to lose focus and end up basically narrating a round-by-round accounting of each character's actions.

And yes, the DM did 'remind' Osborn of the amulet.  To be fair, the session in which Osborn got the amulet and the session in which it was used were separated by two weeks, so it's not surprising it wasn't the first thing on his mind.  But we would have been dead if Osborn hadn't used that amulet when he did - Tolly was already dead, Arrie, Yuri, and Autumn were all in low hit points (like 10-30 range), and we were getting surrounded again.


----------



## Richard II

Delemental said:
			
		

> Because the lich had gone back in time and assassinated Justin Godscion, his ancestor, before he had any children.  Thus the Godscion line died out, and Kyle was never born.




That makes sense, except for the fact that Kyle was alive in post #316 when The Legacy approached Dagger Rock. Shouldn't he have not existed then as well if the Godscion line never got started?

Time travel makes my head hurt.


----------



## Delemental

Richard II said:
			
		

> That makes sense, except for the fact that Kyle was alive in post #316 when The Legacy approached Dagger Rock. Shouldn't he have not existed then as well if the Godscion line never got started?
> 
> Time travel makes my head hurt.




The shift in the timeline occurred in the midst - one minute Kyle was talking about Scion-Watchers, the next the party (minus Kyle) was studying the 'strange rune'.

I made the transition subtle, without a lot of cool CGI or wicked guitar riffs.  After all, if such a thing did happen, things would just... change, and no one would really know otherwise.  Only the leShay, who are sensitive to such things, would be aware that an alteration to time had occurred.


----------



## Richard II

Delemental said:
			
		

> The shift in the timeline occurred in the midst - one minute Kyle was talking about Scion-Watchers, the next the party (minus Kyle) was studying the 'strange rune'.




Gotcha. Went back and reread #316 and everything makes sense now.

*patiently waiting for more story*


----------



## Krafus

Delemental said:
			
		

> But there's nothing saying it won't cause problems down the line - after all, Autumn now has two distinct sets of memories; being married to Tolly, and being married to Kyle, and all of the emotions tied into those memories.




But isn't she aware that the memories where she's married to Tolly are false?


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> But isn't she aware that the memories where she's married to Tolly are false?




Are they? In the alternate timeline they were perfectly valid, and, lacking the interference of a certain robe-wearing, lightning-casting waste of flesh, would be valid here as well. Besides, Autumn acts, she does not think. She's like her sister that way. The distinction is likely to confuse her.


----------



## Delemental

Sinewgrab said:
			
		

> Are they? In the alternate timeline they were perfectly valid, and, lacking the interference of a certain robe-wearing, lightning-casting waste of flesh, would be valid here as well. Besides, Autumn acts, she does not think. She's like her sister that way. The distinction is likely to confuse her.




This is, unfortunately, the nasty thing about time manipulation.  Everyone in the group, except Kyle, now has two distinct but equally valid memories of their lives - the one in which Kyle didn't exist, and the one in which he did.  Neither set of memories are 'false', in the sense they were manufactured or implanted - those things really happened.  The only clear distinction is that the memories of life without Kyle come to them with a sense of separation.  Yes, they know that the other timeline never really happened, but they _remember_ that it did.

Everyone is running around with a second lifetime's worth of memories, and all the emotions attached to that.  Autumn fell in love with and married Kyle, but in a real sense she also fell in love with and married Tolly.  Arrie regards Tolly as a blood brother, but also as a brother-in-law.  Tolly lost the girl, but he got the girl at the same time.

This is why Erito gets angry when people mess with the past.


----------



## Krafus

Okayyy... So might a character decide that he/she enjoyed the "alternate life" more than the current one? If Tolly were more ruthless, I could envision him arranging a permanent "accident" for Kyle. Almost impossible, true, but speculating is fun.

What I wonder is how the other characters will behave toward Kyle and each other now. In particular, there could be something of an awkward Kyle-Autumn-Tolly triangle, with one of the participants unaware of the triangle's existence.

Oh, and everyone got a boost/prize but Kyle, who arguably is the one who needs it most considering the nature of the campaign?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Okayyy... So might a character decide that he/she enjoyed the "alternate life" more than the current one? If Tolly were more ruthless, I could envision him arranging a permanent "accident" for Kyle. Almost impossible, true, but speculating is fun.




Oh, I'm sure Tolly would _much _rather be living in the alternate timeline.  



> What I wonder is how the other characters will behave toward Kyle and each other now. In particular, there could be something of an awkward Kyle-Autumn-Tolly triangle, with one of the participants unaware of the triangle's existence.




Yeah, because _that's_ never happened before.  

We'll see how it plays out.  The session right after this ended was shorter than our usual sessions (we planned a potluck dinner that took longer than expected to prepare and eat, and then the inevitable food coma stalled things further), so we didn't really have the time to do a lot of post-time travel roleplay.



> Oh, and everyone got a boost/prize but Kyle, who arguably is the one who needs it most considering the nature of the campaign?




Oh, Kyle got a prize in his box of Cracker Jacks too, it's just not as obvious as the others...yet.  The main reason that Kyle reacted so strongly to the boons the others received is that from his perspective, they just showed up out of nowhere for no reason at all.


----------



## Krafus

Delemental said:
			
		

> Oh, I'm sure Tolly would _much _rather be living in the alternate timeline.




So... He could try making his dream a reality. Reach for the stars... Or point them out to Kyle while his other hand is holding a poisoned dagger.  





> Yeah, because _that's_ never happened before.




Ah, but this time it seems to me there are more elements in play this - notably that Tolly and Autumn recall being married, apparently happily so. I wouldn't be surprised if Autumn contrasted her current uneasy marriage to the happy one she was apparently having in the alternate timeline - and then gave a start and looked guiltily at Kyle.



> Oh, Kyle got a prize in his box of Cracker Jacks too, it's just not as obvious as the others...yet.  The main reason that Kyle reacted so strongly to the boons the others received is that from his perspective, they just showed up out of nowhere for no reason at all.




For his sake, I hope it has something to do with spell penetration. The poor guy's got to be tired of seeing his spells fizzle uselessly.


----------



## Sinewgrab

Krafus said:
			
		

> So... He could try making his dream a reality. Reach for the stars... Or point them out to Kyle while his other hand is holding a poisoned dagger.
> 
> Ah, but this time it seems to me there are more elements in play this - notably that Tolly and Autumn recall being married, apparently happily so. I wouldn't be surprised if Autumn contrasted her current uneasy marriage to the happy one she was apparently having in the alternate timeline - and then gave a start and looked guiltily at Kyle.
> 
> For his sake, I hope it has something to do with spell penetration. The poor guy's got to be tired of seeing his spells fizzle uselessly.




Tolly would never use a dagger - if Kyle was killed, now there might be a moment of crisis as he ponders bluffing a resurrect, and then telling the party Kyle did not want to come back...

And we will NOT talk about Kyle's penetration abilities...Autumn is teased enough as it is.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> For his sake, I hope it has something to do with spell penetration. The poor guy's got to be tired of seeing his spells fizzle uselessly.




Actually, Kyle has loads of spell penetration.  He has both of the relevant feats, plus an additional +2 against psionic targets because of the staff.  Plus he has the Assay Spell Resistance spell, which he typically uses against targets likely to have a high SR.  If he uses Assay Resistance, then it's usually not a problem, even if I roll low.  If I don't use it, then that "4" on the dice doesn't cut it, even with a +22 on the roll.

Kyle's spells end up being lackluster for tworeasons:

1. The target makes their save.  Really, this is a problem for any caster at high level.
2. I roll like cr*p.  Either my attack roll misses, or I roll below average damage (although the other day when I was playing Justin, I was kicking ass... at first).  And with most beasties we face these days packing an appreciable amount of DR and energy resistance, "below average" can quickly become "insignificant".


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver

So, what did Kyle get?


----------



## Delemental

Bryon_Soulweaver said:
			
		

> So, what did Kyle get?




A year's supply of chariot wax.  



Seriously, he got an upgrade to the Scion's Staff.  The staff works under mechanics similar to a legacy weapon, where it gets more powers as the wielder advances in level (though the Weapons of Legacy book wasn't out yet when I got the staff, so our DM just made it up).

The staff now functions as a _+5 psibane/+5 magebane quarterstaff_, and it can pass the bane properties along to spells Kyle casts (giving me a +2 to save DC and +2d6 extra damage against psionic and arcane targets).

The staff has other properties, too - Kyle gets an extra +2 bonus for spell penetration against psionic targets, gives him access to defenses similar to some of the anti-psionic feats  like Closed Mind, and it will automatically convert a _detect magic_ or _dispel magic_ spell cast through it into _detect psionics_ or_ dispel psionics_, respectively.   It also allows Kyle to take ability burn damage to his physical stats in order to restore expended spell slots, though I've not had to use that particular function since our first encounter with Xerxes, ages ago. 

This most recent upgrade is, as I understand, the second to last boost the staff will get - the final power I guess will likely be something relating directly to the end of the campaign.


----------



## Delemental

*Broken Faith*

Here's an update, though I'm sure it will be lost amidst the flood of 4E posts...  

-------------------------- 

          It wasn’t until the group was safely ensconced in the Happy Half-Ogre, and had ordered a round of Grog’s best ale, that they began to fill in Kyle on their journey into the past.  Kyle took the news that he had come close to never existing fairly well.  The party did decide to leave out certain uncomfortable details, such as the changes in relationships that had come about because of the Scion-Watchers’ meddling.

            “We’ll need to stay here about three days,” Osborn said, changing the subject.  “Grog has our people looking into the activities of these so-called Ladtans, and can give us details once he has their report.”

            “Well then, we may as well take advantage of the hospitality,” Autumn said.

            The Legacy took some time to explore Dagger Rock.  The town itself was larger than before, now numbering nearly a thousand people rather than the three hundred it had been.  The town had seen significantly more merchant traffic come through the town, and attracted the types of businesses that support trade.  The party wondered how much of that had come about as a result of Grog’s work as Osborn’s second.

Grog had done well for himself in the years since the Legacy’s first visit to Dagger Rock, when they were all still enrolled in classes at the Tower.  He had expanded the Happy-Half-Ogre, and added a more few rooms to rent out.  His prices had gone up a little since their first visit, but were still quite reasonable.  The party introduced Yuri to Grog, after first clarifying that she was unrelated to the Yuri who had tried to frame him and run him out of town.  The party’s end of the conversation was quite brief, as Grog already knew all about their activities.

            “The Dagger Rock Tavern’s got a new owner,” Grog told them, as he wiped off mugs at the bar.  “About a year after Yuri went to the gallows, a young elf-touched lass from Freeport came to town and bought the place from the Council.  She’s a decent sort,” and Grog gave a slight nod to Osborn that said _I’ve checked her out_, “a lot more so than Yuri ever was.  Of course, the Witham family still owns the Hearthfire, though the elder Withams have passed on, and their son runs the place now.  The three of us have an understanding that keeps us all in business – the Hearthfire goes for the older folks in town and the high-class travelers, the Half-Ogre attracts the more… boisterous crowd, and the Tavern… well, she’s got her own draw.”

            To the curious looks of his friends, Osborn explained, “The Tavern’s a brothel now.”

            “This town really _has _grown up,” Arrie mused.

*          *            *​
            After three days had passed, the Legacy gathered in one of Grog’s back rooms to discuss the intelligence that had been gathered.

            “There have been several attacks on villages in the southern part of Targeth,” Grog explained.  “They seem to target small towns, no more than two hundred souls.  The pattern has been the same; these towns start to experience a sharp rise in misfortune – accidents that maim people, locusts devouring crops, that sort of thing.  Then these ‘missionaries’ come in, and tell everyone that the reason this is happening is that they don’t worship Ladta.  They work to convert everyone in the town, and once that happens, they put all of the people to the sword, and move on.  Whatever’s left standing seems to get wiped out by a natural disaster of some sort.”

            “I can simulate a natural disaster,” Tolly commented.

            “You _are _a natural disaster,” Arrie quipped.

            “As are you.”

            “What are you talking about?  I’m an _unnatural _disaster.”

            “Are they even authentic Ladtan priests?” Osborn asked.

            “It appears so, even though they aren’t part of the official church, as much as one exists.  Ladta’s worshipers don’t really have an organized hierarchy like the more lawful churches, and so every community has a different interpretation of how to worship her.”

            “But surely Ladta wouldn’t approve of this twisted worship,” Osborn argued.

            “I think she’s a bit preoccupied right now,” Grog said.  “and Ladta’s not the only god who’s had some of the faithful stray a bit off the straight and narrow, you know.  Why, just a few days ago, there was some Eritan cult sniffing around here.”

            While they were talking, another figure entered the room quietly and sat down next to Grog; since the fire-touched tavern owner didn’t react to this, the Legacy assumed he was supposed to be there.  Looking at the figure, they realized that they’d seen the face before… in a manner of speaking.

            “I thought you worked for Keth,” Kyle said to him.

            “Grog pays better,” the Faceless One replied.

            “Any idea where they’re heading next?” Osborn asked.

            “Their targets appear random,” The Faceless One said.  “At least there’s no pattern I’ve found.”

“Why are they doing this?” Yuri asked.

            “It seems that they think they’re saving the world. Now that Ladta is the only goddess left, they believe that the only way she can maintain the cycle of life and death that Erito used to oversee is if enough souls devoted to Ladta pass on to the afterlife.”

            “Cocky bastards,” Yuri commented.

            “I think we need to put an end to this,” Tolly said.

            “Yes, immediately,” Osborn agreed.

            “There is something you should know,” The Faceless One said.  “They aren’t killing everyone.  They’ve been sparing the very young and very old.  But just because they’re showing a modicum of mercy doesn’t mean they’re any less devoted to their cause.  The ones who aren’t killed are taken away to serve them.”

            “Any idea how many?” Kyle asked.

            “Somewhere between three and eight core members of the group,” replied the Faceless One.  “It’s rumored they’re building a fortress somewhere, but I’ve not been able to locate it.  If you manage to find it, I won’t be surprised if you find their walls defended by ten-year-olds.”

            “Do you have something that belongs to them?” Tolly asked.  The Faceless One shook his head.

            “You might find something at the last village they attacked,” he suggested.  “It’s a long shot at best – they left the place a week ago, and it was razed just like the others.  I can show you on this map.”  He produced a parchment map from a pocket.

            “Mark the locations of the other villages that have been hit, too,” Kyle said.  “Perhaps there’s a pattern to the attacks we just haven’t seen yet.”

            The Faceless One unrolled the map and made a few marks on it with a stub of charcoal, then handed it to Osborn.

            “Thank you,” the hin said.  “Compensation will come in the usual manner.”

            “I know it will,” he said.  “That’s why I work for Grog and not Keth.”

*          *            *​
            They teleported into the middle of an inferno.

            Flames leapt up from the ground all around them, sending out waves of heat from charred piles of rubble that were improbably still burning.  As soon as they arrived, both Arrie and Kyle sensed the presence of a Dream Realm overlay nearby.  But the thing that drew the most attention was the screaming, writhing form in the middle of the village ruins.

            The creature was a marilith, her six flailing arms clutching burning longswords in a white-knuckled grip.  But unlike most demons of its kind, this marilith looked as though it were burning from the inside out, or else composed of fire entirely.  Flames burst from every orifice and from various places on her scaled flesh, wrapping around her body like a shawl.  The marilith’s eyes were glazed over in a rictus of pain and insanity.  The moment she detected the party’s presence, she raised her blades and rushed at them.

            Autumn quickly leapt forward and met the marilith’s charge, the gleaming blade of Faithful Avenger meeting three of the demon’s flaming swords.  Arrie and Yuri were a half-step behind, their longspears thrusting forward into the demon’s flesh.  Osborn invoked Ladta’s power, surrounding himself and his allies in a protective aura.

“Hey, what kind of metal do I want here?” Arrie asked as she slashed at the demon and noticed the wounds were not as deep as they should have been.

Kyle looked over at Arrie. “You want cold iron!”  The warrior nodded as the composition of Anyweapon changed.  “And you want axiomatic, too!”

“I can’t do axiomatic!” Arrie complained.

            Kyle, moving off to the flank, fired a _polar ray_ at the marilith, but the ray barely missed, shooting off into the distance and striking a pile of burning debris that was instantly extinguished.  He was about to hurl another spell, but then paused, looked around at the situation, and dropped his arms.  He began circling around the battle and heading for the far side of the village.

            “Where are you going?” Tolly shouted at him.

            “I’m going to go check out this Dream rift!” he shouted back.  “Make sure there aren’t any surprises!” 

            The party returned their attention to the screaming marilith, who was slashing furiously at both Yuri and Autumn.  Flames leapt from the demon’s skin and curled around Autumn, causing the sentinel to burst into flames herself.  As Yuri leapt over the marilith again, stabbing her spear into its neck, Tolly summoned a large boulder in midair and caused it to slam into the demon, smashing into her midsection with a satisfying crunch of bone.

            The melee continued unabated.  Despite being insane with pain, the marilith was still a cunning and nimble opponent, and many of the Legacy’s attacks missed.  The demon’s coils looped around Arrie, and pulled her in close, crushing her, but her psicrown allowed her to slip out before too much harm was done.  Kupa, who had been circling around looking for an opening, darted in quickly and tried to bite the demon, but his jaws closed on air.

            “Are you going to help or not?” Tolly shouted at Kyle, who was on the other side of the battle and heading out of the village.

            “Oh, you’re fine,” he called back.  “It’s one marilith, for Erito’s sake.  You guys just took on dozens of ogres and trolls, three crusaders, and a lich!”

            Tolly, scowling, turned and invoked another spell, hurting the marilith with divine power that also healed his friends.  Osborn’s daggers flew through the air and struck the demon, though most of them bounced off her scaly skin.  Yuri was the next to be grappled by the snake-like tail, and unlike Yuri had no easy escape.  The marilith squeezed, and the edges of the dragoon’s vision went gray.  Suddenly Yuri found herself standing out in the open, and Arrie was enveloped in the coils.

            “Thanks!” Yuri shouted as Arrie once again slipped free thanks to the psionic power in her crown.

            Screaming, the marilith turned her attention to Autumn, slashing at the aasimar furiously with all six swords and leaving several deep wounds.  Furious, Autumn swung back just as furiously, sending boiling hot demonic ichor flying.  Weakened, and now surrounded, the marilith managed to focus long enough to teleport a short distance away, but not far enough.  Autumn flew in, Faithful Avenger raised, and buried it in the demon’s skull.  With a short cry, the marilith collapsed in a heap, and the flames went out.

            Autumn mopped sweat from her brow as the others ran up to her, Tolly with healing at the ready.  She kicked at the marilith with her boot.

            “It should have vanished,” she said.  “Summoned demons return to their planet of origin when killed.”

            “Perhaps this one was not summoned,” Tolly observed.  “It could have been gated in, or somehow arrived here bodily.”

            “Let’s ask Kyle,” Arrie suggested.

            They found him staring at the region of dream overlay, which appeared as a shimmering curtain in the air.

            “Are you guys finally finished?” he asked.

            “No thanks to you,” Yuri grumbled.

            Kyle waved off the complaint.  “This appears to be a portion of the Nightmare Realm,” he said, looking at the rift.  “One that had to do with dreams of fire and burning.”  He didn’t mention that when he’d approached, he’d been struck by the siren song of creatures within the rift, beckoning him to join them in the warmth.  He’d shaken it off easily.

            “That explains things around here,” Autumn said.

            Kyle nodded.  “The marilith was infused with dream-essence from this rift, much like the goristros that attacked Vargas.”

            “The marilith wasn’t summoned,” Tolly said.  “The body remains.”

            “She may have come through this rift,” Kyle said, “or been pulled through.”

            “Whatever the case,” Tolly said, “there is nothing left here that will connect back to these false Ladtan priests.  Perhaps we should try and search for their fortress.”

            “I want to check out the other villages,” Kyle said.

            “Why?” Osborn asked.  “If they’re in the same shape as this one…”

            “That’s exactly what I want to check,” the wizard explained.  “This village ended up with a Nightmare Realm rift opening practically on top of it.  What if there are similar rifts at the other villages?  What if there’s a connection to this Ladtan cult?  What if they’re somehow using these rifts, or can control them?”

            “A good point,” Tolly said.  “We should go soon.”

            “I only prepared one _teleport_,” Kyle said.  “I have my emergency scroll, or we could wait a day.”

            “Or,” Arrie suggested, “we could walk.”  She looked around.  “If there are other dream overlays near these villages, I really don’t want to jump into the middle of them.  And I can’t imagine that being close to the rifts will help up avoid one of those magic mishaps.  I love you all, but I really want my bits and pieces to stay my bits and pieces.”

            “Fair enough.”  Kyle consulted the map.  “We should head that way.  It’s three days’ walk to the next destroyed village.”

*          *            *​
            Kyle spent most of the next three days with his nose in a book.  Several books, actually, though after an unfortunate incident where the wizard nearly walked off a bluff, Autumn restricted him to only keeping one open at a time.

            “And what exactly are you doing, anyway?” his wife asked him, as he took a few notes in the book hovering in front of him.

            “Field research,” he replied.  “Just making some observations about the Dream overlays and about the properties of that oneiric marilith.”

            “What’s ‘oneiric’?” Autumn asked.

            “It’s a term I made up to describe creatures that have been suffused with the properties of the Dream Realm.  It’s an adjective, like you use ‘celestial’ to describe creatures infused with the essence of the good planets, or ‘axiomatic’ to describe order-infused beings.”

            “And you just decided you get to make up your own words, eh Kyle?” Arrie teased.

            “Right now, dear sister in law, whether you believe it or not, I am essentially the world’s foremost non-psionic expert on the Dream Realm.  So yes, I do get to make up my own words.”

            “What does all this have to do with these books you’re reading?” Autumn asked again.

            Kyle paused, and closed the book he was holding.  “Up until recently, magic couldn’t affect the Dream Realm except for in very crude ways – didn’t even recognize it existed as a place at all.  That’s changed.  So I’ve been looking into ways to tap into the Dream Realm, to get information about it in a way that doesn’t involve actually going there and fighting creatures with extra tentacles.”

            “Any luck so far?” Arrie asked.

            “It’s slow,” he admitted.  “It’s not like there’s a huge body of research out there to draw on.  Most of these books are about planetary metaphysics, and I’m just taking a stab at figuring out if the same concepts apply to the Dream Realm.”

            The Legacy was well outside the next village when the scent of death hit them.  Carrion birds could be seen circling overhead, wheeling and dipping down.  When they finally caught sight of the village, they knew that even though death had come for these people just as swiftly as it had in the last village, it did not come through fire.

            The partially dug holes on the outskirts of town were proof that at first, the villagers had tried to bury their dead.  A smoldering pile of blackened wood a short distance away gave an indication as to what they had resorted to when they’d started dying too fast to dig graves.  In the end, though, people had simply dropped dead where they lay, sprawled in the dirt.

            Tolly pushed over a body with the toe of his boot, which rolled over stiffly, sending the vulture that had been pecking at it flying off with an irritated squawk.  The man’s eyes and nose were crusted over, and dried, bloody foam clung to his lips.  His leathery flesh was marked by several large boils and greenish splotches.  Tolly looked up, and saw Arrie looking at him.

            “No kids,” she said.  “No elderly.”

            Meanwhile, Kyle and Autumn were examining a much large corpse in the center of town.  It looked like nothing more than strips of diseased flesh surrounding a skeletal frame, with two tattered, leathery wings on its back.

            “An angel of decay,” Autumn said.  “Like the one we saw at Morladim’s castle.”

            “I can’t tell how it died,” Kyle said.  “But now we know what caused the rest of the village to die.”

            “Over here!” Osborn called, leaning out from the door of the town hall.  The others followed as he made his way to a room at the back of the hall, where a small shrine to Ladta sat.  The shrine was newly built, but had seen heavy use.

            “Something’s not right,” Autumn and Osborn said in unison.

            “What do you mean?” Yuri asked.  In response, Osborn pointed to the engraved image of Ladta’s totem animal, the cat.  “Look at the eyes,” he said.  “The pupil slits are horizontal, not vertical.”

            “And the shrine is inlaid with platinum wire,” Autumn said.  “A village this size couldn’t afford that.  This was built by people from the outside.”

            “I think,” Yuri said, “that I’m going to patrol the perimeter, just in case.”  The Sargian shouldered her longspear and walked out of the town hall.

Tolly looked at Arrie.  “Will you help me carry the bodies to the pyre?  Whatever plague killed them still infects them, and though I can purge the disease from our bodies, whoever stumbles on this place next may not be so lucky.”

Arrie nodded her assent, and followed the Ardaran outside.  The others came out soon afterward.

“We should kill those scavengers,” Autumn said, looking up at the circling vultures.  “They’ll carry the plague away from the village.”  She pulled a crossbow out of her pack and began loading it.

            “You fly up and hit them from above,” Osborn said, pulling out a pair of daggers.  “I’ll get the ones that fly in low.”

            “Want to help, Kyle?” Autumn asked.

            “Actually, I’ve got something else I want to look into.”

            The party worked hard the rest of the afternoon, burning corpses and shooting down vultures.  As the sun just started to touch the horizon, they finished their work. Eyes red from smoke, they came to the center of the village and found Kyle, sitting cross-legged on the ground, in the center of a white circle drawn with fine sand.

            “What’s this?” Autumn asked.  Kyle did not respond.

            “Hello?” Arrie said, a little louder.  “You fall asleep in there?”  Still no response.  The party exchanged worried looks.

            Yuri reversed her longspear, and being careful not to step into the circle, poked Kyle in the shoulder with the butt.  He shifted slightly, but did not react.  At this point they noticed that Kyle’s eyes were filled with a rainbow of swirling colors.

            “This isn’t good,” Arrie said.

            There was a flapping of wings, and a large raven settled on Kyle’s head.  Autumn was about to shoo it away, when she noticed the vibrant purple feathers over its eyes, which looked like small eyebrows.

            “Violet?”

            “That’s me,” Violet said in her raspy voice.

            “What’s going on?”

            “I’m afraid Kyle’s not home right now,” the raven said.

            “What did he do?” Arrie asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

            “It was an attempt to get some information from the Dream Realm,” Violet said.  “It’s a divinatory spell he’s been working on – it contacts entities native to the Dream Realm.  I’d explain it, but it’s way over my head.”

            “Is it supposed to do this to him?” Tolly asked.

            Violet paused.  “I’m… not sure.  I don’t think so.”  She pecked at a fly that had landed in his hair.  “His body still works, but there’s just nothing in there to drive it.  But it’s not too bad – watch.”  She turned and leaned over until her beak was next to Kyle’s ear.

            “Kyle,” she croaked, “stand up and walk out of the circle.”

            Kyle rose, his face blank, and stepped over the line of sand.

            “You can give him simple directions to follow,” Violet said.  “I’ve been testing it out.  Nothing too complex, though – not ‘Kyle, cast that spell’ or ‘Kyle, fight that guy’, but the basics work.  Sit, stand, walk, run, that kind of stuff.”

            “How long will it last?” Osborn asked.

            Violet did a slight shuffle that might have been an avian version of a shrug.  “No idea.  Maybe hours, maybe weeks.  Maybe forever.”

            “We can’t just leave him like this,” Autumn protested.  “There has to be something we can do!”

            “I know,” Tolly said reassuringly, “but we don’t even know what is wrong, and it may be something he recovers from on his own.  And we have other pressing matters to attend to.”

            “The Ladtan cultists,” Autumn said grimly.  “I know.  But Kyle’s not safe in this state.”

            In response, Tolly unlatched a necklace around his neck, and placed it around Kyle’s.  “This will provide him with air,” he said.  “I suggest we place him in your _portable hole_, and we can check on him periodically to make sure he receives food and water.  It’s not the first time we’ve had to use it as a sanctuary for the comatose.” He glanced over at Arrie, who sneered at Tolly.

            “Now what?” Arrie said, as Autumn folded out her _portable hole_.

            “We still need to find where these cultists went,” Tolly said.

            “I think they may be heading toward the foothills to the south,” Osborn said, pointing.  “I realized that we hadn’t seen any livestock in the village, and I thought that maybe the cultists herded them off for their own use.  I found a trail, and followed it, but unfortunately it looks like the sheep were simply driven well outside the town to keep them from getting sick, and then slaughtered and butchered on the spot.  The trail continued on to the south, but I lost it pretty quickly in the rocky ground.”

            “Why not just herd the sheep to their fortress?” Yuri asked.  “More efficient that way.”

            “They may lack the capacity to manage livestock,” Tolly suggested.  “And a simple _gentle repose_ spell would keep the meat fresh for days.”

             “Can’t you just find them, like you did with those assassins that attacked me and Autumn and Arrie?” Osborn asked.

            Tolly shook his head.  “For that spell to work, I must have either seen the person I’m looking for, or I must have something that belongs to them.  I was able to find the assassins because I had the poisoned dart they attacked Arrie with.”

            “Toys,” Yuri said suddenly.

            “I’m sorry?”

            “Maybe you don’t have something belonging to the cultists,” Yuri explained, “but we know they’ve been taking children with them, right?  Surely one of those kids left behind a doll or a top or something like that.  Find the kid, and you find the cultists.”

            “Of course,” Tolly said, climbing to his feet in excitement.  “I hadn’t thought of that.  Let’s look through the homes.”

            The party was easily able to round up several children’s toys.  Tolly picked out one, a battered rag doll, and told everyone that he would attempt the spell in the morning.

            Clouds rolled in during the night, covering the stars and moons.  The morning brought a light spring rain, but Tolly did not pause for a moment in his preparations.  Within minutes, he had his answer.

            “They are in the foothills,” Tolly confirmed.  “It’s about two days from here.”

            “Two days if we walk,” Arrie said.  “What if we push ourselves a little?”

            “Then we could get there by midnight tonight,” he replied.

            “Sounds like a good plan to me.”


----------



## Richard II

Delemental said:
			
		

> Here's an update, though I'm sure it will be lost amidst the flood of 4E posts...




Nope, your faithful readers will find it. Assuming they're not at GenCon themselves.


----------



## Delemental

They arrived, nearly exhausted, at the site of the cultist’s fortress just before midnight.  The structure was still under construction; the palisade wall was mostly complete, as was the first floor of the keep.  Several other buildings were in various stages of completion, as was the outer wall surrounding the entire complex.  Yuri and Osborn were sent to do reconnaissance, while the others caught their breath.

            They returned after about an hour.  “Well, we know that all those missing people from the villages are here.  They’ve got the elderly working as guards and carpenters, going day and night.” Osborn reported.  “And there is some religious symbolism incorporated into the keep – sort of.”

            “What do you mean, ‘sort of’?” Arrie asked.

            “There’s a black cat’s tail nailed to every ninth board on the wall,” he said with disgust.  “Nine is a sacred number for Ladta.”

            “What else did you see?” Arrie asked.

            “The children are there too,” Yuri said.  “They’re inside the keep, chanting.”

            “Chanting what?”

            “It’s some sort of ritual or prayer,” Osborn said.  “There’s one adult with them, leading the chanting.  I really can’t tell what its purpose is – maybe some sort of consecration or warding, given the number of people involved.  It has elements of a Ladtan devotion, but its been twisted – like they refer to Ladta as the ‘One True Goddess’, which isn’t at all part of her teachings.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of formal training in this sort of thing.”

            “How long would it take you to get back there?” Tolly asked.

            “About ten minutes, why?”

            “Once you’re inside, I can scry on you and use that to help identify the purpose of the ritual,” he said.

            “They were chanting in Anarchic,” Osborn said.  “You don’t speak the language.”

            “Scrying doesn’t permit me to hear the target anyway,” Tolly said, “but I’ll be able to see the motions they make, the materials they use, any symbols or diagrams they have.”

            “It’d be a lot easier with a _telepathic bond_,” Osborn commented.

            “I just checked on him,” Autumn said.  “Kyle’s still out of commission.”

            “The scrying will take an hour to prepare,” Tolly said.  “Rest, and then make your way back to the keep.  Stay there about fifteen minutes, then come back.”

             An hour passed, and found Tolly staring into a silver basin filled with blessed water, staring at the images inside.  He muttered and mumbled to himself as the scene shifted and changed with Osborn’s movements, but he refrained from commenting until Osborn was back with the rest of the group.

            “It’s definitely a type of warding,” he explained.  “They’re placing a combination of a _zone of anarchy_ and a _forbiddance _on the altar.  Once it’s complete, it will be difficult for us to enter.  However, they are making a number of mistakes in the ritual.”

            “I could hear them having to start over more than once,” Osborn said.  “And I noticed something else weird that I missed before.  All of the kids have both ears pierced.”

            “Obviously something the cultists did,” Arrie said, “but why?”

            “No idea.  I suggest we find out.”

            “But let’s rest now, and go later,” Autumn suggested.  “We should be fresh when we go in.”

            The night passed, and the party woke up just before dawn.  “How should we approach?” Arrie asked quietly.

            “We could fly in,” Autumn suggested.

            “No, _you _can fly in.”

            “I could as well,” Tolly said, “if Kupa carries me.”

            The dragon just stared at Tolly.  “What are you going to give me?”

            Tolly’s lips pursed at the unexpected demand.  “Since you are following me, let’s say I won’t charge you for any healing.”

            “Let’s say I don’t care about that,” Kupa replied.

            “Very well,” Tolly said curtly.  “You can explain your unwillingness to serve to Ardara.”

            “It’s a couple of hundred yards between the outer wall and the palisade,” Yuri said.  “There are buildings in between for cover.”

            We should try to avoid being seen,” Arrie said.  “I don’t know if the old folks guarding the place are being coerced into serving or not, but either way I’d rather not have to carve my way through them.”

            They eventually decided on a multi-pronged approach.  After casting a few preparatory spells, Tolly crawled into Osborn’s _portable hole_, and the hin made a stealthy approach to the keep, running from building to building.  Arrie and Yuri took much the same approach, though Arrie made use of her psionic powers to make extradimensional hops through the area, while Yuri did more physical hopping. Autumn opted for an aerial approach, dropping directly behind the inner wall after circling around behind the hills.  Kupa and Rupert were left to guard both the camp and Kyle, who was brought out of the _portable hole_ and left in a tent.  Kupa was instructed to take the catatonic wizard to Vargas if they did not return.

            Miraculously, the Legacy managed to penetrate the outer perimeter of the complex without being seen, and made their way inside the keep from various entrances.  Soon they could all see what Osborn had; a group of fifteen to twenty young children, arranged randomly around the room and chanting.  Two adults, dressed in full plate, also occupied the room; one was the cultist who had been leading the chanting the night before, the other stood off to one side, watching.  The cultist leading the prayers had several chakram hanging from his belt, which was not an unusual sight on a Ladtan priest.  But these chakram had serrated edges, another abnormality which only added to suspicion that this cult had been somehow corrupted.  The cultist at the end of the room was armed with a fairly normal looking longsword and shield, but the engravings on his armor told Autumn that he was a member of the crusader sect known as the Anarchs, who were devoted to spreading disorder.  No one in the room seemed to be aware of the party’s presence.

            Their attack was swift and brutal.  Arrie ran in to engage the anarch, and Yuri and Autumn moved toward the priest in the middle of the room, but were intercepted by two figures in breastplates, wielding spiked chains, who charged out from a nearby alcove.  Osborn opened up his _portable hole_ and released Tolly, his body formed of living iron and followed by a bright mote of divine energy that hovered over his head.  Tolly immediately made his way to where the other priest stood in the middle of the room.

            “In Ardara’s name, I declare you false!” he shouted, and attempted to _imprison _the priest.  But the spell failed to capture him, and the man laughed.

            “Your bitch-goddess has no power over me, Ardaran!” he sneered.  Ignoring Tolly, he instead cast a spell at Autumn, summoning a translucent chakram made of divine energy that began to slash at her.

            Meanwhile, Arrie and the anarch traded vicious blows, any one of which would have felled lesser warriors.  The anarch, who was as proficient with his shield as he was with his blade, slammed the shield into Arrie’s face, sending her stumbling back long enough for him to shift toward the center of the room and slash at Tolly.  Tolly cried out as the blade’s chaotic energies pulsed through him, reacting to his own orderly nature.  In response Tolly tried to _implode _the anarch, but was unsuccessful.  Arrie took advantage of the brief respite to down a healing potion, and then went after the anarch again.

Yuri and Autumn each squared off against one of the two new combatants, who were pointing at them and shouting curses.  Yuri felt a sudden wave of unease, a lack of confidence that showed in her attacks.  Her movements seemed to be just a little bit too slow to get into position, her spear thrusts just a little too shaky to strike true.  Autumn, apparently, was not affected, as she sliced into one of the men with enough force to shatter bones.  Osborn, who recognized the two new warriors as hexblades, threw daggers at the one fighting Yuri, but his blades were just a bit off target.

            “Foul heretics!” Yuri shouted, frustrated at the inexplicable decline in her skills.

            Both hexblades briefly touched rods hanging from their belts and muttered spells, and then attacked again.  Autumn was struck by a spiked chain several times, but in the midst of the flurry the hexblade reached out and touched her arm, draining her vitality and absorbing it for himself.  The other hexblade, seeing that Yuri was at a disadvantage, began to target Osborn with both steel and spell, though only the former managed to do any damage.

            Bleeding from several wounds caused by both the hexblade and the priest’s _spiritual weapon_, Autumn’s face grew red with fury.  “Enough!” she shouted, and slammed her falchion into the hexblade with unnatural power, rupturing organs inside him.  The hexblade gasped in pain and his defenses faltered, and he was barely able to cast a spell, vanishing.  Tolly, who had prepared a _true seeing_ spell before the battle, could see that the hexblade was not gone, only invisible.  He reached out a hand and touched him.  For the others in the room, there was a sudden strangled cry from out of nowhere, a wet, popping noise, and then the sound of a body crumpling to the floor.

            Arrie spared a moment from her battle with the anarch to look around the room.  The children were milling about uncertainly; they had moved out of the way of the battle, but showed no signs of trying to escape. _ Why don’t they run?_ she wondered.

            The Ladtan cult priest tried to dispel Tolly’s _iron body_, but as the spell came at him, the mote of light over his head flared to life, intercepting the spell and turning it back on the priest.

            “Your faith is weak, heretic,” Tolly said.

            “We shall see,” he replied, as he reached out and healed the remaining hexblade, who was now pursuing Osborn around the chamber.  Yuri ran past both the hexblade and the priest, jabbing her spear at each as she sprinted by, but the curse that afflicted her caused her to miss the priest entirely, and only strike a glancing blow on the hexblade.

            The priest laughed at the Sargian’s failed attack, and laughed again when he saw the anarch charge into Arrie, practically impaling her on his blade.  “It seems that the One True Goddess favors our cause,” he mocked.  “You have yet to even strike me.”

            “That changes now!” shouted Autumn, as she leapt in and struck the priest across the back with Faithful Avenger, sending a shock wave of holy power across the room.  It passed over the children without harm, but the anarch cried out as the power burned his flesh.  Autumn’s triumphant grin turn to a stare of horror as she saw that her blow had done little damage to the priest. Instead, bolts of red lightning shot out from the priest and struck a half-dozen of the children nearby, who screamed in pain as gashes identical to the ones that Autumn had made on the cultist appeared on their backs.  The children collapsed, and appeared dead.  Everyone immediately backed away from the priest, as if he had suddenly burst into flames.

            Osborn, who had seen the entire event, had also noticed that the earrings being worn by the children had glowed red when Autumn’s blow fell.  “Children!” he shouted, “Take off the earrings!”  They made no move to comply.  Still calling out to them, Osborn renewed his attack on the hexblade, who had turned invisible like his former companion.  But thanks to Osborn’s magical blindfold, which he had donned before battle, he could sense the hexblade’s presence without seeing him, and several daggers found a home in the body of his curse-spewing enemy.  Tolly, similarly immune to the hexblade’s illusion, struck him with another _implosion_, but he resisted.

             Arrie and the anarch circled each other, both leaving a ring of blood on the wooden floor.  “I tire of fighting you,” the anarch said suddenly, and without warning he turned and charged at Autumn, his sword blazing with chaos-fire.  The end of the blade struck the sentinel in the chest, burning its way through her armor, through her chest, and emerging from the other side, between her wings.  Gurgling, Autumn staggered back against the wall, alive only by sheer will.

            A terrible scream echoed in the room, from more than one person.  Yuri was the first to rush in, her anger finally overcoming the power of the hex as she struck at the anarch again and again.  “Faithless son of a bitch!” she screamed as she pressed the attack.  The anarch turned to meet her assault, and then screamed as Autumn staggered up from behind and landed a devastating blow of her own.  “I will not be vanquished so easily!” she spat at him.

            A few feet away, the hexblade leapt from Tolly to Osborn, landing blows on each even as he tried unsuccessfully to avoid Osborn’s daggers.  Tolly kept his concentration on the priest, though he was now wary of the unholy power he wielded over the children. He saw Arrie come up from behind and strike the priest across the back of his knees with Anyweapon, sending him tumbling to the ground. Tolly attempted to use his last _implosion _on the rogue Ladtan, hoping the sudden power would kill the priest before he could transfer his wounds to the children.  But the priest easily resisted the spell, and in response dropped a _flame strike_ on Tolly and Osborn, as well as a few of the children.  The charred corpses of the kids dropped to the ground with a sickening crunch.  Those who watched the horrible scene saw wispy, translucent forms rise up from each corpse, and then suddenly get pulled down into the ground below the keep.

            Arrie held her weapon on the priest, waiting for him to rise.  “Run!” she shouted at the children still milling about.  “Why don’t you run?”  But she could see the glazed stares of fanatics reflected on each young face, and knew her pleas were falling on deaf ears.

            The hexblade came around and slashed at Arrie, hoping to draw her away from his master.  But she stood her ground, and instead Osborn rolled past her and flung four daggers at him, which managed to find their mark.  Still running, the hexblade staggered and hit the ground, dead before he came to a stop.

            “That’s two of your people dead, priest,” Arrie shouted.  “Surrender now!”

            “No, my dear,” he cackled, “instead let’s even the score, shall we?”

            The priest reached out and grabbed at Arrie.  Instinctively she jabbed at him with her weapon before she could stop herself, cutting into his flesh.  Red lightning arced, and two children fell over dead.  His spell went off, sending waves of negative energy into her that tried to tear her soul out of her body.  She hung on, barely, but the spell left her shaken and weak.

            “Yes,” she heard the priest mutter, as his eyes darted toward the two ghostly forms being sucked into the ground from the dead children, “yes, more souls for the Soul Well.  It must be fed!”

            “That will be quite enough!” Tolly bellowed, as he picked up the priest and pulled him to his chest, pinning his arms to his sides to keep him from casting any more spells.  Arrie, seeing her chance, willed Anyweapon to take the form of a mancatcher, and used it to hold the priest in place.  But the cultist only laughed again, and easily slipped out of Tolly’s grip and the mancatcher’s arms, aided by magic.

            Autumn and Yuri closed in on the anarch.  With both hexblades dead, Yuri could feel the curse starting to lift, though it still hampered her actions.  The anarch stepped back, and using his sword as a defensive device to ward off his enemies’ blades, slammed his shield into the ground.  The earth rippled from the impact, sending waves out in all directions.  Autumn barely kept her feet, but Yuri was knocked down, though thanks to years of acrobatic training she was back on her feet again in seconds.  Autumn hit the anarch with another bone-splintering strike, but he held on defiantly, seemingly unconcerned with the damage.

            “What unholy power is keeping you on your feet?” Yuri cried out.

            With two of his allies on each opponent, Osborn decided to try to get the children to safety.  He stood atop the altar in the center of the room and held up his holy symbol of Ladta.  “Come with me!” he shouted at them.  “Follow me in the name of the True Goddess!”  Some of the children looked at him, and seemed uncertain what to do.  A few began to walk toward him as he made his way toward a door.

            “No!” shouted the priest.  “Come to me, children!  They are leading you astray!”  He reached out again and touched Arrie, sending more necromantic power into her and stripping away her life force.  But this time Tolly intervened with power of his own, repairing the damage that had been caused to Arrie’s soul.  The anarch shoved his way past Yuri and Autumn and charged Arrie, hoping to help the priest eliminate one foe.  Still woozy from the priest’s assaults, Arrie was only barely able to avoid his blade.  Suddenly, his sword began to blaze with chaos-fire again, and he raised it up to strike Arrie down.

            And then Yuri was there.

            Stab.

            “You!”

            Stab.

            “Will!”

            Stab.

            “Not!”

            Stab.

            “Win!”

            Yuri pulled her longspear out of the bloody chunk of meat that had once been an anarch, and stepped over it as it fell to the floor.

            Now the Legacy was faced with only one opponent, but one they dared not harm.  Arrie was first to act, pulling out a pair of bolas and hurling them at the priest, tying up his legs and sending him crashing to the ground again.  Tolly hit the priest with one dispelling after the other, stripping away his defensive spells.  Yuri dropped her longspear and switched to a flail, which she used to land blows meant to incapacitate rather than kill.  With no blood being drawn, the red lightning did not come again, except for one short burst when Autumn struck the priest with the flat of Faithful Avenger and the holy energies of the blade reached out to scorch the evil cleric’s flesh.  Even Osborn, who could see he was making little progress with the brainwashed children, rushed into the melee, drawing a seldom-used short sword and clubbing at the heretic with it.

            Desperate, and seeing that the party could overwhelm him, the priest cast another spell.  A blast of frigid cold filled the room, drawing all of the heat out of the air and into the priest, who seemed revitalized even as everyone else suffered.  The sudden shock struck Yuri and Osborn the hardest, and Autumn, who was already on her last legs, succumbed to the cold, the damage to her body too much.  She would have fallen then, if not for the _fortunate fate_ spell that Tolly had placed on her before the battle had even begun.  Her wounds closed, and her lungs filled with air.

            A few of the children in the room fell dead, frozen in place.  As their souls lifted from their bodies and were sucked into the ground, they all felt a disturbance in the earth beneath them, like a small tremor.

            The party renewed their efforts to render the priest unconscious.  Blows rained down on him from all sides, but he stubbornly refused to succumb.  Finally, as he prepared to cast another spell, Osborn pulled out a sap and hit him at the base of the skull.  The priest blinked, and his pupils went wide.  Before he collapsed, senseless, he muttered one final phrase, punctuated by a low rumble emanating from beneath their feet.

            “The Soulkeeper comes!”


----------



## Delemental

Kyle’s eyes closed.  When they opened again, the swirls of colors had almost completely vanished, though there was still a slight sheen, like oil on the surface of a pond.  He stood up and emerged from the tent.  Kupa and Rupert sat just outside, and looked up as he emerged.

            “Where?” was all he said.

            Kupa tuned his head and pointed out across the hill.  Kyle saw the beginnings of a fortified wooden village a few hundred yards away.  A partially-completed keep sat in the center, and smoke billowed from a large hole in the roof.

            Kyle quickly cast a few spells, and then vanished.

*          *            *​
            The rumbling under their feet intensified, and there was a noticeable swelling in the floor near the center of the room.  Osborn quickly unrolled his _portable hole_ and unceremoniously dumped the unconscious priest inside, just before the earth exploded. Everyone was thrown back as a monstrosity arose from the newly formed pit, accompanied by the stench of rotting flowers.

            The creature was large and bulbous, about the size of a wagon, and looked like a huge misshapen head.  Instead of hair, several atrophied, spindly arms waved about, tremulous fingers pointing in all directions. As it floated upward, they saw that instead of a body, the creature’s underside was little more than a mass of tentacles and stalks.  Four steel chains were attached to the underside of the huge head, tethered to the ground below with razor sharp spikes, as though trying to keep it from escaping.  Orbiting the soulkeeper’s body were three black orbs.

            Osborn was the first to act, hurling a dagger at the soulkeeper’s hideous body.  The dagger bounced off harmlessly, not even leaving a scratch.  Tolly then tried to cast _destruction_, but the spell fizzled before it even reached the creature.  A shotput thrown by Arrie passed through the soulkeeper harmlessly, and a blow by Autumn that would have cut a normal man in half did little more than cause the beast to jiggle slightly.  Finally, Yuri ran up and thrust her spear at the soulkeeper, and although it connected solidly, the wound it left was barely more than a scratch, which quickly scabbed over.

            “Oh dear,” Osborn said.

*          *            *​
            Two men, slightly stooped with age, stood vigilantly by the main entrance to the keep, their spears firmly in hand.  They’d heard some strange, terrible noises coming from inside, the sounds of a fierce battle and the cries of several children.  But these men had been charged by their high priest to remain on guard and defend the keep from intruders, and they intended to do their duty.  Any less would show a lack of respect to Ladta.  So much depended on her and her priests – could they do no less?

            There was a sudden popping noise, and a man appeared directly in front of them.  He was large, and wore midnight blue robes.  The door to the keep faced east, toward the rising sun, and so the man was silhouetted again the dawn.  His eyes, however, seemed faintly luminescent.  Slowly, the two guards raised their weapons.

            “Move,” he growled.  “Now.”  The crystal sphere on the end of the staff he held began to glow.

            Faced with the reality of a hundred and forty pounds of old man with a spear against two hundred and thirty pounds of angry archmage, both guards wisely allowed common sense to override devotion.

*          *            *​
            The soulkeeper floated in midair, almost seeming as though it hadn’t even noticed the party was there, assailing it with its most potent attacks.  Tolly threw spell after spell which it simply ignored, and the blows of their various weapons did nothing but leave minor injuries.  The soulkeeper glanced at Yuri and attempted to charm her, but fortunately her ring countered it.

            Yuri, who had attacked the soulkeeper again with little effect, screamed in frustration.  “Fine!” she yelled.  “If I can’t hit you…” She turned and jabbed her longspear into one of the black orbs, sending a viscous, inky fluid spraying everywhere.  The orb burst open, and suddenly the soulkeeper whirled on her, looking as perturbed as a giant gelatinous face could look.  It hit her with another spell, and suddenly Yuri was frozen in place.  With an awful noise, the chains holding the soulkeeper in place pulled free, and began waving around in all directions.

            A figure appeared in the doorway of the chamber, surrounded by a crackling aura of electricity.

            “Soulkeeper!” Kyle shouted.  “You couldn’t defeat me before, and now you stand no chance!”  Two bolts of lightning arced out from his fingertips, striking each of the two remaining orbs.

            The others quickly got the idea.  Autumn continued to slash at the soulkeeper, trying to distract it, while Arrie began targeting one of the black orbs.  A few moments later Yuri joined in, after Tolly dismissed the spell that held her.  Osborn moved up behind Autumn and used a healing wand to tend to her wounds, to make sure she stayed on her feet against the soulkeeper’s attacks.  Enraged, the soulkeeper lashed out with its four chains, knocking Autumn, Osborn, Yuri and Arrie to the ground.

            Tolly surrounded the soulkeeper with a _blade barrier _to try and keep it in place, while Kyle surrounded one of the orbs with a _resilient sphere_, cutting it off.  Kyle had seen the same thing that Tolly had been seeing; each of the orbs was connected by a string of energy to the soulkeeper.  But Kyle had seen their purpose; the orbs fed a protective field around the creature that negated most physical and magical energies.  Until the field was down, the soulkeeper was virtually invulnerable.

            Arrie’s spiked chain whipped around the last orb, and pulled it apart.  The soulkeeper shuddered and howled, and Kyle saw that the protective field was gone.  Yuri was already taking advantage, thrusting her longspear into the now much more vulnerable nightmare.  Strangely-colored fluids poured out of the wounds she left.  The soulkeeper tried to paralyze her again, but this time she shook off the enchantment.  It then started to float away, ignoring Tolly’s _blade barrier_, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough.  Between Kyle’s lightning, Autumn’s falchion, Arrie’s chain, and Yuri’s longspear, the creature had no chance.

            It was Yuri who struck the final blow, screaming as she thrust the shaft of the spear halfway through the soulkeeper.  It exploded in a burst of soul-destroying energy that lanced through everyone in the room, leaving them wounded but felling none of them.  A torrent of freed souls shot upward out of the creature’s body like a geyser, blasting off the roof and hurling themselves into the sky, where they soon vanished as they made their way to the Shadow Plane.

            The Legacy picked themselves up and gathered together, wary of the broken floorboards and crumbling ceiling.

            “Kyle!” Autumn shouted happily.  “You’re back!”

            “Of course,” he said.  “I was just waylaid, that’s all.”

            “By what?”

            “By that,” he replied, pointing at the hole where the soulkeeper had emerged.  “After I completed my spell, it sensed my presence in the Dream Realm and came after me.  I’ve been fighting a battle of wills against it for the past day or so.”

            “If that’s the case,” Tolly said, “what took you so long?”

            “It was persistent,” Kyle answered.  “But at least the spell works.  I’ll just have to find a way to account for the proximity of soul-consuming nightmares.”

            “Oh, is _that _all,” Yuri laughed.

            “Well, that’s all well and good,” Arrie said, “but right now we have a bunch of displaced orphans to worry about.”

            The Legacy walked out of the ruined keep into the morning sunlight.  The villagers, at least the elderly, had already gathered around, though none of them were carrying their spears.  The children were still hiding, though the fact that they were hiding in large groups made them easy to find.  The party moved around and gathered everyone together, making sure to remove the earrings from the children’s ears.

            “Let me deal with this,” Osborn said.

            Tolly seemed to bristle a little, then relaxed.  “I suppose that makes sense, though I’m not used to deferring to a lesser priest.”

            Osborn turned and glared at Tolly.  “A ‘lesser’ priest?”

            Tolly turned slightly red.  “I meant less experienced.  You’ve not been ordained as long.”

            Osborn continued to glare.  “I think you need to go away now.”

            Tolly paused, and then, nodding, he strode away toward their camp.  Yuri accompanied him, just to make sure he wasn’t alone if the crowd got ugly.

            When he was gone, Osborn walked over to an overturned crate and climbed atop it.

            “Is there any among you who speak for the rest?”

            “What do you mean?” one man at the front asked.  “What do you want of us?”

            “I wish to know who will take care of you.”

            “The Fatemaster took care of us,” an old woman shouted from the back.

            “The man who brought you here was no true priest,” Osborn said.  He held aloft his holy symbol.  “I am a true priest of Ladta, and my companions and I have put an end to his heresy and freed you all.”

            “Then you have doomed us all!” a man cried out.  “The One True Goddess needs the souls of the faithful to maintain the balance!  The Fatemaster told us this!”
            “He lied!” Osborn shouted.  “He lied to serve his own ends, and used you!  All souls contribute to the balance, not just those faithful to Ladta, and they do not need to be sacrificed to serve that end!  Ladta has never accepted the sacrifice of sentients!”

            A murmur rippled through the crowd.  Then the old man in front who had first spoken raised his voice again.

            “How are we to know your words are any more true than his?” he asked.  “All I see is a hin with an engraving of a cat.  Can you show us that you truly speak for Ladta?”

            Osborn thought for a moment, and then, reverently holding his holy symbol, he raised his arms into the air.

            “Ladta,” Osborn intoned, shouting into the morning air, “can you show these people a sign that they have been misled?”

            There was a long, expectant silence.  Osborn felt the relic coin in his pocket vibrate slightly, and grow slightly warm.  He waited patiently, and then from the back of the crowd he heard a cry – not of fear, but of delight.

            The crowd turned and saw a young girl, no more than seven, cradling a small gray and white kitten. Other children began to call out with joy as more kittens appeared, running out from behind houses and fences to leap into the waiting arms of the kids.

            Suddenly, Osborn felt his relic coin grow warm again, and he felt a definite sensation of pulling.  Trusting his instinct, he followed the sensation, waling slowly through the town accompanied by a small group of local villagers.

            Osborn followed the urging until he reached a nondescript spot near the center of the village, a few yards from a large egg-shaped boulder.

            “Bring me a shovel,” Osborn said.  Soon someone handed him a child-sized spade, which was sized perfectly for him.  He began to dig, and after digging only a few inches down, his spade hit into a hard wooden surface.

            Quickly expanding his hole, Osborn soon uncovered a very old strongbox, one that had obviously been there for decades.  After it was pulled out of the hole, he pried it open, and a mound of silver coins, green with age, spilled across the ground.

            “I believe this should be more than enough to help all of you find your way to other relatives, or establish a new settlement if you wish,” Osborn said proudly, standing up and gesturing for the displaced villagers to take their share.  “It was lucky that this was found here.”

            As the villagers began to gather up coins, Osborn felt a hand on his shoulder.  He looked up into the face of the man who had challenged his authority.  “It seems I owe you an apology,” he said.  “Your faith seems genuine.  How could we have been led astray?”

            “I will tell you that story in good time,” Osborn said.

*          *            *​
            The Fatemaster of Ladta tumbled out of the _portable hole_, and found himself surrounded by six people, none of them friendly.  He knew all of their faces, except for one, a wizard in blue robes.

            One of them, the hin who pretended at true faith, crouched down in front of him.  “Explain yourself,” he said.

            The Fatemaster was only too happy to educate these heathens on the path of salvation that had been revealed to him.  He lectured them on the proper acts of faith required to save all of them from certain destruction, and how sacrifice was required so that the Soulkeeper could deliver the souls of the faithful to Ladta via the Soul Well in order to maintain the balance of powers.

            Inexplicably, when he was finished none of them were moved by his words.

            “How exactly did Ladta tell you all of this?” the wizard asked.

            “She revealed it to me in a dream,” he said reverently.

            The wizard sighed.  “Well, now we know that some of them are actively seeking out people in the real world to corrupt.”

            “One more thing to worry about,” sighed the Ardaran priest.

            “What should we do with him?” asked the aasimar, nudging the Fatemaster rudely with her boot.

            “He’s nuts,” said the Sargian woman.  “I’d think the answer was fairly obvious.”  She held up the end of her long spear and pointed it at him.

            “Leave him to me,” said the hin.  He stood up, and pulled a coin from his pocket.  No, not just any coin… a sacred relic of Ladta!  For such a thing to be in the hands of a heretic…

            The Fatemaster watched as the coin began to glow brightly, obviously reacting to the presence of a true believer.  The hin pressed the relic to the Fatemaster’s forehead…

*          *            *​ 
            The Legacy watched as the insane pawn of the Soulkeeper slowly vanished into the distance, his meandering path taking him far away from the lives of the villagers he had used.

            “I still think killing him would have been better,” Yuri said.

            “He has been stripped of all divine power by Ladta,” Osborn said, “and the mark he bears will tell all of my faith what he has done.  His life will be far from easy.”

            “Well, that’s over with, then,” said Arrie.  “Now where?”

            “Back to Dagger Rock, for a start,” Osborn said.  “I’ll have Grog send some people out this way.  These people will need help getting back on their feet.”  The hin looked back at the fortified village.  “Besides, for all his faults that crazy priest did pick a good defensible location.  It may come in handy one day.”

----------------------------

Sadly, it may be some time before the next update appears.  A good chunk of our gaming group has vacations scheduled this month, so we won't be playing much, and one of our players (Autumn's player) is wanting to get some experience in the DM chair, so she's going to be running us through Ruins of Greyhawk on rotation with the Aelfenn game and my Mutants and Masterminds game.


----------



## Delemental

*The Memory of What Could Have Been*

I'm baaack!

We'll warm up with a little piece of fiction written by Autumn's player, based on email roleplay sessions she had with various characters.  We have played an actual game as well, which will be written up very soon.

---------------------------------

Autumn sat on the bench in the small garden, looking into a little pool nearby, trying to work her memories into what is and what could have been, but felt like it was, and the confusion it created in her heart. She felt like she should be with both Kyle and Tolly and it was all a mess. She needed to find some kind of quiet to figure out her feelings and thoughts on the whole affair.

She reflected on the problem at hand, going over it in her mind as she had done countless other times since their recent encounter with the leShay. When time had been altered, all of a sudden she was married to Tolly and they had loved each other as fiercely as she and Kyle did – though at the time she had no way to compare, for in that altered version of history Kyle had never come to be. But the memory of the love was crueler by far, and it was a bizarre experience to all of a sudden have your memories rearranged so utterly. The look on Tolly’s face had been heartbreaking. For he knew as well as she the love they shared.

_And now has no love of his own to fall back on,_ she reminded herself.

What to do? Kyle is the one she chose. Not Tolly. But what she had experienced, though not meant to be, was no less real. She thought long and hard and did her best to listen to her feelings too but they were more screwed up and confused and made the order of her mind fall into chaos. She needed help.  If she couldn’t resolve this, then her entire extended family – the Legacy – would be thrown into imbalance.

Autumn stood up, and made her way out of the garden and back to the Happy Half-Ogre, where they were all staying while Osborn concluded his business. Just as she was rounding the corner to go up the stairs, she almost ran full on into Tolly. His cheeks reddened as he looked on her and she knew that her blood was rising just with the sudden and unwelcomed flood of could have been, memories of intimate times with this man. Flustered, she quickly muttered an apology and continued past him.

Arrie sat meditating in her room as a huffing and puffing Autumn burst into her sanctuary. She went straight for Arrie’s bed and plopped down and started to cry into her hands as her wings wrapped around her in a protective manner.

            Arrie sat silently, knowing what troubled her sister, but allowing her the time to find her own words.

In between sobs, Autumn managed to get out a few of those words.  “Stupid time traveling, timeline altering, emotional memory changing situation!” she wailed, “How am I supposed to face two men that I’ve loved with all my heart, knowing that to choose one is both right and wrong?”

Ari watched Autumn for a moment, thinking. She uncurled her limbs and got up from the floor, sliding onto the bed next to her sister. She stroked Autumn's long silken hair and wracked her brain for some way to give the aasimar some peace.

"In the end, it is your decision how to approach this situation. It’s your emotion and your relationship to the two men. I can point out for you some things that may help..." She trailed off as desire crystallized into understanding within her mind. With so much death and turmoil, the mantle of repose she had created with her belief became foremost in her mind.

Autumn stilled a bit but tears still ran down her cheeks. "Arrie?"

Arrie smiled gently. "Will you trust me for a moment, humor me?"

Autumn frowned. "You know I trust you." She gave a hiccup that trailed off into a sniffle.

The warrior psychically imparted calm to her sister's troubled mind, filling the air with the scent of jasmine. She held that pattern in her own mind as she spoke, hoping to give Autumn a few moments of clarity in which to consider her situation.

"Consider the men in question. Is there anything that you feel you could speak with Kyle about that he would not respond foremost out of love for you? If you were to explain all of this to him, what might the consequences be? How many of those consequences do you really feel would be negative?

“And consider also Tolly. He is wise enough that his goddess entrusts him with some of her most powerful prayers and secrets. If you approached him as someone seeking the wisdom of his Earth Mother because her heart is in turmoil, would he not search his heart to find words of wisdom for you?"

Ari slipped off the bed and wetted a small cloth in the wash-basin, handing it to Autumn. "Have I helped?"

Autumn got up with a determined look on her face, taking a moment to wipe her face with the washcloth. “Yes.”

*          *          *​
Kyle looked up from his book when he heard the door open.  Autumn looked like she had been crying, and was emotionally wrung dry. She sat on the bed next to him and looked at him with haunted eyes.

“Kyle, we need to talk.”

Nodding, he set the book aside and gave her his full attention.  He, like Arrie, knew what was troubling his wife, but unlike the others, he had not experienced the alteration in time and memory, for in the altered version if history his family line had been eradicated.

            “When we went to fix the past and time was altered,” Autumn began, “you didn't exist, for any of us. That’s why when we got back we didn't know who you were right away. Then our memories of the correct timeline got written back into us. We can still remember the alternative but it is strange like a story told to us long ago, but not gone or forgotten.” She knew, of course, that Kyle had already been told all of this, but she found she had to say it anyway.

“There were many things that were different, and things that happened there that never came to be, but the change that affected me the most was that I was married to Tolly.”

She sighed.  “I have been struggling with this odd situation and my feelings on my marriage to both you and Tolly. I needed to talk to you and tell you the whole story so you know why I have been distant recently. I plan to talk to Tolly as well and work things out between us as well.”

"Oh. Well, I guess I can see where that makes sense... if I didn't exist, then naturally you and Tolly..." Kyle paused for a moment, looking tense and troubled.

"Do you have feelings for him?"

“Yes. I can’t forget giving my heart to him in this other reality and remembering this other reality like it never happened. It happened. It felt like a real lifetime even if it feels odd and off somehow. It’s still there in the back of my mind. I have been struggling with this since we got back.”

Autumn paused. “I’m glad to be able to finally talk to you about this. I love you and that has not changed, I married you here and now, not Tolly. I’m going to talk to Tolly and work out this relationship turmoil so that we are not causing an upset to our family and friends.”

Kyle put his arms around Autumn and embraced her. "Tell me when you speak to him,” he said as he released her, “I'll probably need to be ready for any blowback."

Autumn placed her hands on his face and looked him straight in the eyes. "Kyle, I am going to talk to Tolly after _we _are done talking. I’m with you, not him. I’m going to talk to him to make sure that this is clearly understood with both of us."

Kyle took Autumn's hands in his."Yes, but how do you feel about Tolly?"

The question threw Autumn a little.  Hadn’t he just asked her that?

"Everything you experienced in that other version of time was real, even if it no longer exists. You have two different versions of your life story now, both equally valid even if one feels like a childhood story to you. I can't pretend that it doesn't affect the way you feel.  But neither can I feel any sort of anger or disappointment in either of you.  Had the two of you started some sort of intimate relationship in the version of time that I know, then of course I would be upset.  But you fell in love with Tolly in a world where I never was, so how can I consider that a betrayal?”

Kyle stood up and crossed the room to sit in the windowsill, glancing down at the street below.  “I don't fear you leaving me, or secretly seeking his company.  Who you are as a person hasn’t changed, and neither has Tolly, and I know neither of you would do that. What I fear is that the two of you will try to pretend that nothing has changed, to deny what happened and the emotions that has created in you, covering them up vows and promises and understandings.  If you do that, then I fear that the consequences would be even worse than if this had just been a simple affair."

“That is why I must talk to Tolly,” Autumn said.  Standing, she kissed Kyle and went out the door.

Several minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and Arrie stepped inside.  Kyle had moved back to the bed with his book.  “That was quicker than I expected.”

Kyle shrugged, this time not setting his book aside.  “Right now I’m not the one she needs to have a long talk with.  My part in all this right now is to be the calm one.  There’s enough turmoil between the two of them already without me adding to it.”

Arrie grinned.  “I must be rubbing off on you.”

“Don’t let Autumn catch you.  That’s all we need in this situation.”

Arrie rolled her eyes, and looked around.  “Why is there nothing sharp or heavy nearby to throw at you?”

“Because I’m a very smart man.”

They both shared a laugh, though it died quickly.  “Seriously,” Arrie said.  “You okay?”

“Terrified,” Kyle said, “but how is that different from any other day?”

*          *          *​
Finding Tolly was a little harder then anticipated. Autumn had to resort to flying over Dagger Rock to locate him. Once she spotted him lying in a field of reeds by the river she flew over to him, landing quietly next to him. She slipped her hand into his, resting next to his body as if it belonged there.

“Tolly, we need to talk about what happened. We can’t ignore that we remember being married to each other and shared a powerful love.”

"No, dear one, we cannot.” He spoke without opening his eyes or turning toward her. “But we also must remember that that was not this reality, and here, well, you know who you chose. My feelings are unchanged, there or here, but Kyle is a brother-in-arms. I cannot betray him, no matter the cost to me."

Tolly reluctantly released Autumn's hand, and then half rose and rolled to his side, gazing at Autumn lying next to him. He raised his hand to her face, cupping her delicate chin. "You are his lawful wife, Autumn. Not mine. I would betray my faith, his friendship, and your trust, all in one act. The painful part is I am not sure it wouldn’t be worth it.”  He lingered for a moment, then suddenly stood up, sending panicked waterfowl screeching and flapping away.

“Please, don't follow me." Tolly turned and slowly walkee away, headed further along the river.

In a soft choked sob, only loud enough for Tolly to hear, came the words.

 “I love you Tolly.”

There was a pause.  Slowly, Autumn got to her feet.

“Please don’t walk away from me, I need you to help me sort through this.” Tears fell from her eyes

as she watched him walk away from her.

Tolly stopped. Without turning, he spoke to her. "But what can we do? We shared a lifetime, but not in this life. He is the best of friends. You are the one I fell in love with. You married Kyle. All we can be is friends, Autumn."

Tolly turned; his eyes shone. "I _cannot _betray your oath. It would be denying everything that I am, and then would you even want me? A betrayer of his own faith? We have to be friends, and no more. Close, but not as lovers - only as family."

He threw his hands to the sky, limned with divine energy. "And now, I have the ability to bring him back from death’s grasp, as I have brought you back before, and I would be obliged to do so, by my oath as a priest, and my place as a friend.  I would die for any of you, and I have, but I will not betray myself. No matter how much I want to." He dropped to his knees in the earth.

"What else can we do, love?"

Autumn’s heart, breaking under the strain of loving two very different men, beat fearfully in her chest.

Her promise to Bail became painfully real, as she knew that if she were to fall, Tolly would call for her, not knowing she will not come to him again should she die once more.

The weight of it all crashing down around her, she fell to her knees in anguish. The wind rustling the tall reeds surrounding the embankment of the river pulled loose one of her feathers, catching the up current and moving off down the river. The lone feather moves past Tolly just barely caressing his cheek as it floats on by.  Autumn, crying softly into her hands, her wings move to wrap protectively around her, does not see the feather’s touch, does not see Tolly’s fingers rise up and linger on that spot.

“We must only be friends,” she said at last. “I would never ask you to betray anyone, let alone yourself, my love.” She looked up with great sadness in her eyes. “Know this; my love will not fade with time for I have lived two lives, one with you and this one with Kyle.”  She swallowed, and then looked up at him.

“When I die, Tolly, do not come for me again, I will not be able to answer your call. I have made a vow to Bail that I will stay with him the next time I go to his embrace.”

Tolly slowly, slowly moved closer.  "Bail is a God of Trade, Autumn. Always remember. Yours is not the only deal." Tolly moved up, easing inside the wings' embrace. "Cry, but then we must move on. I cannot promise I will not come for you. I can promise I will do all I can to prevent the need."

She moved into him and cried, letting out everything in her. They embraced for what seemed an eternity, Autumn talking about all of her fears, desires, old times, and anything that came to mind amongst raking sobs.

Finally, they separated, though they did not let go of each other.  "Come, we must clean up, and regain our composure,” Tolly said. “We have much to do. The weight of the world rests on shoulders such as ours." He smiled wanly. "And we will go forth, and love each other, and Kyle, and Arrie, Osborn, and Lanara, and the world will bow to us."

It took a long time for the tears to slow, and Autumn, overwhelmed and exhausted by it all, just rested in his arms for quite some time.


----------



## Richard II

Yay, more story, even if it was sad. And does the line about loving lanara foreshadow her return? Lanara's a lot more fun than the dragoon.


----------



## Delemental

Richard II said:
			
		

> Yay, more story, even if it was sad. And does the line about loving lanara foreshadow her return? Lanara's a lot more fun than the dragoon.




Don't know for sure when she'll be back, but I agree with you.  I think that in the minds of the group, Lanara's absence is only temporary, so I don't think we consider the idea of her not returning some day.

Guess it depends on when Lanara's player decides she's ready to bring her back.


----------



## Delemental

*Heart of the Mountain*

It only took a day for Osborn to conclude his business in Dagger Rock, mostly because he was able to send messages back and forth to Grog as the party made their way back from the remote village, and by the time they arrived most of the arrangements were finished.  After a few last-minute instructions, Osborn set about helping the rest of the Legacy prepare for their next journey.

                “Where is this monastery, exactly?” Yuri asked, as she packed her belongings.

                “I know how to get there,” Tolly explained, “but not the exact location.  It’s in a rather forbidding part of the mountains south of Targeth.”

                “Well, at least it’s nearly summer,” Arrie commented, “so the journey will be a little easier.”

                “Not as easy as a _teleport_,” Kyle commented.

                “But with far less risk of having my parts rearranged,” Arrie finished.

They departed the next morning, riding fresh horses provided by Grog.  They crossed the hilly country quickly, and within three days were coming upon the jagged peaks that formed the border between Targeth and the Dwarven Confederates.  They left their horses at a small outpost that was friendly to the Shadow General, and made their way on foot into the mountains.  It was the end of the month of Canith, and with only a month to go until Midsummer the weather was warm and pleasant.  Most of the snow had receded from the mountains, except for the peaks, but the streams and rivers flowing down from those peaks were still strong and swollen, creating barriers that the Legacy had to overcome with a combination of creativity, experience, and a dose of magic when necessary.  Fortunately, they did not experience any significant warping of their spells.  The only significant injury sustained was by Tolly, who gave himself a hernia trying to move a large boulder off the trail.  It was quickly healed, the boulder transmuted to mud, and the party was on their way.

Another slight delay occurred when the party was accosted by a tribe of stone giants, demanding payment for passage.  They briefly considered refusing, but when the giants’ toll ended up being only a couple of hundred gold coins, they decided to simply pay the toll and be on their way to more important business.  After that, they only had to deal with the weather, as they rose higher into the mountains where it was still bitterly cold.

Seven days after entering the mountains, Tolly began to see dwarven runes carved into rocks along the trail.  “The monastery is close,” he announced.  “Another day’s journey at most.  Since we have no idea why the church of Ardara lost contact with this monastery, I suggest that we be prepared for anything.”

“We’re not going to have any problems with these monks, are we?” Kyle asked.  “I mean, because of your recent disagreements with the church.”

“These monks live here to hone their faith away from the distractions of the world,” Tolly said.  “They have little interest in politics.  However, they can be a bit insular, and slow to accept differences.  This is one situation where it may be good that Lanara’s not among us.  Regardless of how charming she is, the presence of a cansin worshipper of Feesha would likely rub them the wrong way.”

By the time they stopped to make camp, it was obvious that they were getting close to some sort of settlement.  The path they had followed had widened into something like an actual road, though one that had never been touched by a wagon or cart of any kind.  There were signs that some brush had been cleared, and that some effort had been made at gathering the meager amount of wood found this high up.  Wary of what they might find ahead, the Legacy made camp well off the trail, and kept signs of their presence to a minimum.

They arrived at the monastery early the next morning, approaching the area under an iron-gray sky.  Two large, ornately carved stone doors were set into the side of the mountain; clearly designed to keep out even the worst winter storm, and possibly even hungry stone giants.  But there was no sign of activity, and one of the stone doors stood slightly ajar.  Drifting snow had piled up in front of the opening.

Autumn began to move forward, but Osborn put up a hand to stop her.  “Let me check it out first,” he said, before turning invisible and moving forward.  Creeping up quietly toward the door, he saw immediately that no one had moved in or out of the door in some time.  But from somewhere inside, he could see a very faint, flickering glow, and he could hear the sound of shallow, ragged breathing.

Ending his invisibility, Osborn motioned the others forward.  As they approached, the ragged breath drew in.  “Is someone there?” a weak voice cried out.

They pushed open the doors, and walked into a scene of carnage.  Dozens of bodies, stiff with the cold, lay scattered throughout the large open space just beyond the stone doors.  Many of the corpses were dressed in the plain brown robes of Ardaran monks, and were all humans or dwarves, but many others wore more traditional attire, but came in much less traditional forms.  Among the bodies were half-giants, maenads, and xeph, as well as humans and various planet-touched and element-touched races.  Many of the dead were carrying crystals, or bore strange tattoos; all it took was a nod from Kyle to confirm what kind of energy was emanating from those devices.

“This one is alive,” Osborn called out.

Tolly walked over and knelt at the side of a young, pale human, propped up against a stone pillar.  His blonde, curly hair was matted with dried blood.  A large tome lay open across his lap, and a quill pen was still clutched in his fingers.  A small, stubby candle sat next to a vial of ink, both nearly depleted.  The man looked up at Tolly, and then, with trembling hands, picked up the book in both hands and handed it to him.

“Tell them we tried,” he said weakly, and then said no more.

*              *                *​
                “It’s an adventurer’s journal,” Tolly said, reading through the pages of the large book as the others sorted through the bodies.  “This man – Pepin was his name –  was apparently some sort of servant or hired henchman for a group of adventurers loyal to Aran, who hail from an Underdark village called Tal Jashar*.  He kept a detailed record of their journey.  He apparently stayed alive, mostly through sheer force of will, just to make sure that someone would get this.”

                “What happened here?” Yuri asked.  “The Ardaran church lost contact with this place weeks ago, but these people died relatively recently.”

                “It began just after the start of the month,” Tolly said, skimming through the lines of dense dwarven writing.  “These adventurers came across information that Kristyan was still pursuing divine relics, since Silko’s apotheosis was incomplete.  They tracked a group of Kristyan’s psions to this monastery, but arrived too late to stop the initial attack.  The survivors indicated that their communications were being intercepted for some time – the attackers were gathering intelligence before the assault.”

                “So, they must have come back,” Autumn commented.

                “No, they never left.  After killing the monks, Kristyan’s men went deep into the mountain, into the deep chambers of the monastery.  They emerged again after these adventurers arrived – apparently fleeing in terror.”

                “Fleeing from what?” Kyle asked.

                Tolly frowned.  “The journal does not say.  Something in the mountain’s depths apparently managed to decimate the psions and sent them running.  There was another battle here when they emerged, which resulted in the scene you see here.  Kristyan’s forces had been weakened enough by whatever is down there that these adventurers were able to eliminate them, though obviously at great cost.”

                There was a moment of respectful silence for the fallen heroes.  “What now?” Osborn asked at last.

                “The monks and the adventurers from Tal Jashar should receive a proper burial,” Tolly said, “and Kristyan’s people should be thrown off the nearest cliff.  After that, we need to address the situation down below.”

                “What is down there, anyway?” Kyle asked.

                “I don’t know,” Tolly admitted.  “But it’s clearly of great importance, and the security of this monastery has been compromised.  As a member of the church, it is my duty to make sure that whatever these monks were guarding does not end up in the wrong hands.”

                “Well, we’re with you,” Autumn said.  “But exactly what kind of death-traps do Ardarans use to protect their relics?”

                “Bludgeoning and crushing, mostly,” he replied matter-of-factly.  “And suffocation.  Suffocation is common.”

                “What a lovely place,” Yuri quipped.  “Let’s go, shall we?”

                The party completed the grim business of tending to the dead, and then gathered together and proceeded down the long, dark tunnel at the back of the cavern-like main chamber.  They passed a number of rooms carved out of the stone, used as living quarters for the monks who had once populated this place.  After a while, however, the walls became rougher, and the light sconces fewer and farther between.

                Eventually, they emerged into a large chamber which looked more like a natural cavern than a man-made one.  Roughly oval in shape, half the room was nothing more than a plain rock floor, featureless except for a single altar upon which rested an ingot of strange metal.  The back half of the chamber dropped away into a deep pit, and dozens of metal spikes could be seen protruding from the ground below.  A single door sat on the far wall on the other side of the pit, but it was level with the floor above, rather than the floor of the pit.

                The moment that everyone entered, the tunnel they had come through seemed to collapse in on itself, irising shut.

                “That doesn’t look so good, Tolly,” Yuri said.

                “It’s typical,” Tolly said, his attention focused on the metal ingot on the altar.  The metal was unlike any he had ever seen; it was a dark alloy, somewhat like cold iron, but the surface of the metal seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.  He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d seen this object before, perhaps in a dream he’d had long ago.  He resolved to take the ingot with them when they returned from recovering the relic.

                Osborn was already examining the altar.  “Clever,” he said.  “Two traps, one pretty obvious, and the other hidden much better.  I almost missed it myself.”  A few minutes later, Osborn declared that both traps were disabled.

                “There’s also some writing on the altar,” Osborn said.  “I can’t read it.”

                They all went around to look at the inscription, which was written in Terran.  Tolly translated it.

                “My thunder comes before the lightning; My lightning comes before the clouds; My rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?”

                There was only a moment’s pause.  “A volcano,” Kyle and Tolly said simultaneously.

                With a grinding sound, a narrow stone bridge extended from the edge of the pit, across to the door in the far wall.  The bridge was barely six inches wide, but seemed solid.

                As the Legacy turned to proceed across the bridge, Kupa cleared his throat.  The young dragon had been silent most of the time they’d been in the monastery.  “Well?” he asked Tolly.

                “Well, what?”

                “Aren’t you going to take the relic?”

                Tolly looked back at the metal ingot.  “That’s the relic?”  Kupa nodded.

                Slowly, Tolly reached out and grasped the ingot.  As his hands closed around it, the metal suddenly shifted, briefly taking the form of a slender blade before resuming its shape.  Tolly stood with his hand around it for a moment, his eyes distant, and then came back to his senses.

                “Most interesting,” he said.

                “What is it?” Kyle asked.

                “It’s an ingot of soulsteel,” Tolly said, “said to be the first metal ever created, when the One and the Four were young.”  Tolly concentrated on the metal for a moment, and it shaped itself into an exact replica of Tolly’s own maul.

                “Well then,” Arrie said, “if the monks left their relic out in the open like that, then one wonders what can be found further in.”

                “I think we need to find out,” Osborn said, pulling out a rope.

                They crossed the narrow bridge with little difficulty; Osborn went across and set a guide line, and Autumn flew behind each person as they crossed to support them if they wavered.  The door opened into a short hallway which ended in a blank wall, but as soon as everyone was in the hallway, the door behind them vanished, and another one appeared at the end.

                “This is going to get rather tedious,” Yuri complained.

                “At least we don’t have to worry about getting lost,” Kyle said.

                “The easiest way to follow the law is to have only one choice,” Tolly said.

                The door emerged into a large, rectangular room, over two hundred feet across and about half that amount in depth.  Two stone pillars, about waist high, sat near the middle of the room, about fifty feet apart.  A sphere of purple stone sat on top of each pillar, pulsing every few seconds with an inner light.  As expected, once everyone had crossed into the room the door vanished.  What was slightly less expected was when two iron golems walked through the walls on either side of the room and began advancing into the middle.  At the same time, small vents opened up along the wall near the floor, and water began rushing into the room.

                As the party moved into combat, it quickly became apparent that these were no ordinary constructs.  They were larger and more powerful than typical iron golems, and had a disconcerting tendency to repair the damage being caused by the Legacy, the dents and gashes slowly filling themselves in.  Arrie and Autumn each chose a golem to fight, relying on their tried and true tactics of hitting something until it stopped moving.  Yuri assisted Arrie, leaping into the air and driving her adamantium spear into the golem’s chest, and then pushing off with her legs to land several feet away.  Tolly cast a spell on Osborn’s sword so that he could strike the huge constructs more effectively; the hin then moved to support Autumn.  Tolly was about to cast another spell, when a noise behind him caught his attention.  He moved out of the way as a panel opened up in the wall and a jet of flames shot out across the room.  Several other panels opened around the room, and flames began to shoot out at random.  Occasionally the jets of fire would touch one of the golems, accelerating its regeneration.

Kyle and Kupa took a few moments to analyze the purple orbs in the center of the room, watching as they pulsed every few seconds.  Their analysis was sped up considerably when Tolly attempted to use a _greater stone shape_ to trap one of the golems; one of the orbs flashed out of sequence just as Tolly finished the spell, and the magical energies dissipated.

                “They’re dispelling magic!” Kyle warned.  “Stay out of range!”

                “Easy for you to say!” shouted Autumn, who was running out of maneuvering room.  The golem had been focusing on Autumn, pounding her repeatedly with metallic fists.

                Kupa inhaled sharply, and then spit acid, carefully controlling the stream of caustic liquid so that it actually split in two, with each stream coating one of the orbs.  They immediately started to sizzle and warp, and seconds later one of the orbs shattered.  The other one followed soon after, but not before it had activated one last time and caught Autumn, stripping away a defensive spell Tolly had placed earlier.

                Kyle blasted one golem with a _lightning bolt_ to slow it down, while Arrie transformed Anyweapon into a massive sword that would allow her to make more effective attacks, at the same time using a psionic power to allow her feet to cling to the walls, getting her up out of the rising water.  Tolly finally entered the fray, coming to the aid of Arrie and Yuri.  He struck the golem with the maul he’d formed from the soulsteel, and to his surprise discovered that the wounds he caused did not repair themselves.  Between the three of them, they managed to finally do enough damage to get the golem to stop moving, though they could tell it was slowly repairing itself.

                On the other side of the room, things were not quite as good.  Autumn had been severely battered, and was on her last legs despite utilizing maneuvers that restored her inner strength.  Sending his familiar Violet to land briefly on his wife’s shoulder, Kyle completed a desperate spell, draining his own life force to give to her.  Seeing the situation, Arrie activated her cloak, and instantly traded places with Autumn.  Arrie began attacking the other golem as Tolly quickly healed the aasimar.

                “Mother will kill me if I let you die before you give her a grandchild!” Arrie shouted across the room.

                Kyle paused.  “…yeah, that’s something I can’t do through Violet.”

                Finally, they managed to bring down the second golem.  Tolly quickly used a series of spells in rapid succession, burying the golems in stone to buy them some more time, and keep them from being hit by jets of fire.  The water was still rushing into the room, and was now up to mid-thigh on most of them.  Osborn was almost chin deep.

                “Look for something to open a door out of here!” he shouted.  The party began searching the room quickly.

                Osborn was able to find what he was looking for; a pair of mechanisms on the pedestals that the orbs had been sitting on.  Unfortunately, the dragon’s acid had partially melted the controls.

                “Can you make it work?” Tolly asked.

                “I’ll try,” Osborn said, as Tolly handed him his necklace of adaptation.

                It took quite a while, but Osborn was finally able to work around the ruined mechanisms enough to trigger them.  The flow of water stopped, and began to drain away, even as the flame jets disappeared into the walls.  Within moments, the floor was uncovered, and a doorway appeared in the far wall.  The two mounds of stone under which the golems were buried were beginning to shake and crumble even as the Legacy dashed through the exit.

                “Ardara is such a lovely hostess,” Yuri gasped, as they paused in the plain corridor beyond to heal their wounds and wring out soaking wet clothing.  “I really must send her an invitation to my next cotillion.”

                “You’re just being petulant,” Arrie teased.

                “I’m just surprised she knows the word ‘cotillion’,” Kyle commented.

                “I really like it here, actually,” Kupa said.

                “Guess we should move on,” said Osborn, as he shouldered his pack again.  “Only one way to go anyway.”  Sure enough, the door behind them had vanished, as had the others.

-------------------------------

* The dead adventuring party making a cameo appearance here is a group that we made up to play as an alternate party, back during our GM's long hiatus from the main campaign.  The idea was to give us a chance to let other people run a game in the world.  We only ever played one adventure, though.  Pepin, by the way, was my character.


----------



## Krafus

Aah, the joys of dungeon crawling. Who cares if the rest of the world is burning - there's treasure to be looted and monsters to be killed! (Not that I'm saying the party did wrong by choosing to investigate the monastery's silence.) Did Kyle and Tolly's players truly simultaneously say the right answer to the volcano riddle?


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Aah, the joys of dungeon crawling. Who cares if the rest of the world is burning - there's treasure to be looted and monsters to be killed! (Not that I'm saying the party did wrong by choosing to investigate the monastery's silence.) Did Kyle and Tolly's players truly simultaneously say the right answer to the volcano riddle?




Hey, it's not like we went there expecting a dungeon!  

As for the riddle, well, we fudged that a little.  The DM actually forgot to look up a suitable riddle for the session, but since it wasn't going to be a major obstacle anyway, he just assumed we'd figure out the answer.  It was reasonable that the two most likely to answer it first would be the smartest character (Kyle) or the one most familiar with earth-related topics (Tolly).


----------



## Richard II

Yay, new story.

As I was waiting for a new update, I went back and reread most of the old stories, and something sort of occured to me. If Phanuel is autumn's father, shouldn't autumn be a half celestial instead of just plane-touched? Granted, I'm not up to date on my Good Outsider Biology Lessons, so it could be that the amount of celestial power imparted to offspring is immaterial of exactly when the celestial outsider showed up in the background, but to me Celestial + Human = Half Celestial.


----------



## Delemental

Richard II said:
			
		

> Yay, new story.
> 
> As I was waiting for a new update, I went back and reread most of the old stories, and something sort of occured to me. If Phanuel is autumn's father, shouldn't autumn be a half celestial instead of just plane-touched? Granted, I'm not up to date on my Good Outsider Biology Lessons, so it could be that the amount of celestial power imparted to offspring is immaterial of exactly when the celestial outsider showed up in the background, but to me Celestial + Human = Half Celestial.




Yeah, we took a bit of liberty there from D&D canon; you're right that normally an aasimar's celestial bloodline is several generations removed.  Autumn's mom being 'Touched by an Angel' is part of her backstory, but obviously there'd be balance issues with throwing the Half Celestial template on the character.  It was simply decided that the amount of outsider 'essence' imparted to a child can vary widely.  Whether the celestial in question has any control over that isn't really known.


----------



## AelfennDM

OK, ENWorld won't reset my password, so a new profile it is. *grumble*



			
				Richard II said:
			
		

> Yay, new story.
> 
> As I was waiting for a new update, I went back and reread most of the old stories, and something sort of occured to me. If Phanuel is autumn's father, shouldn't autumn be a half celestial instead of just plane-touched? Granted, I'm not up to date on my Good Outsider Biology Lessons, so it could be that the amount of celestial power imparted to offspring is immaterial of exactly when the celestial outsider showed up in the background, but to me Celestial + Human = Half Celestial.




Here's the deal with half-breeds (note - only human/other pairings create half-breeds, all others fail to produce):

When a human mates with a member of another race, whether on Aelfenn or an extraplanetary* creature, the child that is produced is either a half-whatever (half-orc, half-elf, etc.), or is, in game terms, a human with the half-whatever template applied to it (half-celestial, half-fire elemental, half-axiomatic, etc.). The gods decided that a being with inherent planetary powers but none of the restrictions just wouldn't do. Thus, at some point around the beginning of puberty, that child falls into a deep coma. During this extended sleep, they must choose which half of themselve they will follow. They receive visions of possible futures based on possible choices they make, so it isn't just a blind guess. The child is not allowed to wake up until the choice is made, though if it takes longer than a month, the child will simply vanish. 

For those born of two mortal races - if they choose the non-human parent race, they become a full-blooded member of that race. Half-elves would become elves, for example. If they choose the human race, they become human...mostly. In the above example, the child would become elf-touched. Statwise, they are essentially the same as humans, but gain minor stat adjustments (+1 and -1) and trade their human feat for a weak version of their non-human parent's vision. An elf-touched, for example, gains +1 Dex, -1 Con, and the ability to see half-again as far in low-light conditions as a human (a torch illuminates 30 feet). Note that it is in theory possible to have gnome-, hin-, and dwarf-touched, but these are rather rare due to, ahem, various size considerations.

For those born of a human and an extra-planetary creature - same process as above, but a larger portion of the non-human parent's power remains within the child if they choose the human. This gives them spell-like abilities, resistances, and some fairly nice stat boosts, but comes with a level adjustment (+1 for all of 'em). 

*I say extra-planetary because Aelfenn doesn't use the standard D&D cosmology. The other planets (and moons, as well as the sun) provide the functions of the Elemental and Outer planes. The entire thing is self-contained within its own crystal sphere (see Spelljammer), and is barred from the Planes in a manner somewhat similar to Athas (see Dark Sun). And yet there are so many familiar elements...(and it's not entirely 'cos the DM's lazy, either).


----------



## Delemental

The writing in this installment's kind of blah, but I needed to get it finished before it drove me nuts.

-------------------------------------

              The next door opened into a room that was filled with a thick, white fog, which swirled around and made it impossible to see more than a few feet.  Kyle winced when he tried to view the fog with _detect magic_, and was nearly blinded – magic permeated the fog, and though it was not very strong, it was enough to render magical senses useless.  As they moved into the room cautiously, the door behind them vanished, and the mist suddenly turned a garish violet hue.

                They quickly learned that the fog did more than obscure vision, as Autumn suddenly doubled over, coughing violently.  Blood seeped out of the corners of her mouth, and she looked pale.  The others could feel the purple vapors burning at their lungs, sapping their vitality.  They also began to hear a sound like stone scraping on stone, from somewhere deep in the fog.

                Holding her breath, Arrie motioned for everyone to spread out and move into the room.  They had only gone a few feet when the fog changed colors from purple to green, and this time Arrie, Autumn, and Kyle felt its effects, as their joints stiffened up.  Looking at each other, they saw that there were gray hairs and crow’s feet where none had been before.

                “This isn’t a fun place,” Kyle gagged.

                “It gets worse,” Osborn said.  The hin had donned his magical blindfold that allowed him to sense his surroundings.  “There are walls in here, that keep moving around and shifting.”

                “I see no walls,” Tolly said, as he restored some of Autumn’s lost vitality.

                “Force walls,” Kyle explained.  “Son of a…”

                The fog turned a burnt orange color, and once again Kyle was affected, feeling his senses being dulled.  They were also starting to encounter the invisible force walls, which arrested their progress, but then seemed to shift position just as they adjusted, providing a new obstacle.  Worse yet, the vapors continued to change colors, with each hue assaulting their bodies and minds in different ways.

                “I don’t feel like doing a maze today,” Kyle growled, and cast a spell.  An inky black orb appeared next to him, and the colored vapors surrounding it began rushing into the blackness.  The orb moved forward at Kyle’s mental command, and when it touched one of the force walls, the wall wavered and vanished.

                Kyle finished casting another spell.  “Ready to go?” He thought to the others.

“When did you get that?” Tolly asked.

“A while ago.  I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use it.”

                Through trial and error, the party was able to make their way close to Kyle, who proceeded to push his way through the force maze.  There were a couple of delays when new walls sprung up behind Kyle, cutting him off from the others, but these problems were quickly resolved.  Making their way through the color-changing fog, they eventually found the source of the grinding noise; a pair of large earth elementals.  These were easily dealt with – Kyle disintegrated one with his sphere, and the three warrior women took apart the other.  With the opposition removed, they had little difficulty moving to the other side of the room and finding the door out.

                Another transitory passageway took them to a ledge overlooking a large cavern.  The room was dominated by a massive pool of magma, which smoked and boiled about twenty feet below the ledge.  The ceiling above them was obscured by smoke and sulphur.  Pillars of stone of varying sizes jutted from the magma, forming irregular platforms all the way across the room.  Standing upon many of those pillars were a half-dozen monks dressed in traditional Ardaran garb, silently and patiently holding vigil in the room.

“I thought all of the monks were killed,” Arrie said, as Kyle placed a spell on everyone to protect them from the heat, and Tolly infused everyone with healing energies.

“They were,” replied Yuri.  “Look closer.”

                They peered through the smoke and heat shimmers, and saw that the monk’s bodies were translucent, like those of ghosts.

                Kupa, who was having difficulty remaining perched on the small ledge with the others, spread his wings and started to fly across the room.  But a sudden burst of hot wind blasted him, threatening to push him into the magma.  He quickly twisted and dug his claws into the wall, hanging on until the wind subsided.

“I guess I’m not flying across,” Autumn said.  She looked at Tolly.  “Can you talk to them?”

                Meanwhile, Yuri took a couple of steps back and made a jump for the closest ledge, about eight yards away.  She nearly cleared the distance, but the volcanic rock on the edge of the pillar crumbled under her feet, and she dropped suddenly, barely able to catch the edge of the pillar.  Rocks tumbled down the side of the column, splashing into the magma below.  The Sargian dragoon’s arms trembled with exertion as she tried to pull herself to safety, but a moment later she found herself suspended in midair, held aloft by a telekinesis spell from Kyle.  He set her down gently on the pillar.

 “Next time don’t miss!” he said to her, with a grin on his face.

                As she stood, one of the ghostly monks leapt across the chasm to confront her.  An insubstantial fist swept through her, and the Sargian felt her strength sapped by the touch.  Yuri and the monk began circling each other.

                Arrie, activating her psionic powers, began walking along the outer wall.  She pulled out her spiked chain Strike From Beyond and began weaving it around herself in a defensive maneuver as she walked.  Autumn, however, turned to Tolly.

                “I’m tired of forcing our way through this place,” she said to him, speaking aloud.  “You’re Ardaran, as are they.  Can’t you _talk_ to them?”

                Tolly, nodding, stepped to the edge of the outcropping.  “Brothers!” he shouted across the room, “We must pass!”

                The monks looked up at Tolly, and spoke in unison.  “_Then as a true believer of our faith, you know we must discharge our duty._”

                Autumn then stepped forward to Tolly’s side.  “Please!” she called to them, “It is at the behest of your goddess through his faithful servant Tolly that we have come here.  The world outside this place faces a grave threat from enemies that have not been seen since the days of the Cataclysm.  These enemies are seeking out the relics of the gods in order to bring about their destruction.  Already, they have struck here – your living brothers above are no more.  We were sent to secure the soulsteel and place it in safekeeping.  If truly your eternal task is to preserve the safety of this relic, then you must have the wisdom to know when that task must be given to others.”

                There was a long silence, save for the bubbling and hissing of the magma below.  Then the monks slowly floated up through the ceiling.  After only a minute or so, they returned to where they had been.  “_What you say of our brothers in faith has been verified. Your words have wisdom, Daughter of Bail.  But we must know that Ardara has appointed a worthy guardian._”

                In the center of the room, a large, rectangular platform appeared, floating over the magma and rock pillars.  The monks all floated toward the platform and landed upon it, and then a glowing bridge extended from the platform to the ledge where the party stood.

                “_Come, Son of Ardara,_” the monks said in unison.  “_If you would claim guardianship of the soulsteel from us, you must show your worth by defeating us in single combat._”  The six monks then stepped closer to one another, and began merging together, until they had combined into a single being, who radiated power despite his serene posture.

                “At least he’s solid now,” Osborn noted.  “Although I notice a disturbing lack of walls in that arena.”

                Tolly stepped onto the bridge, having no doubt that despite its translucency it would support him.  He made the crossing to the platform beyond, and stood silently studying his foe.

                “So what are the rules?” Kyle asked.  The others looked at him.

                “What?  They’re Ardarans.  There have to be rules.  Is this fight to the death, first blood, first fall?  Any time to prepare before they start?  Can allies help with preparation?”

                “_The Son of Ardara will be given the space of ten heartbeats to prepare himself.  His allies may not intervene.  The combat will end when one side yields or may no longer continue.  If you are victorious, you may depart with the soulsteel.  If we are victorious, then you will join us here in our eternal guardianship._”  The monk waved his hand, and Tolly felt all of the magic that had been placed upon him by his friends disappear.  Nodding his understanding, Tolly took a moment to cast iron body on himself, and then divine power as he and the monk closed the distance to each other.

                The monk leapt into the air and landed a solid kick on the side of Tolly’s head, and then followed it up with another to his chest.  Tolly attempted to cast a spell on the monk, but he easily shrugged it off.  Seeing that relying on magic would not serve him well, Tolly shifted to a more direct approach, hefting the soulsteel maul and swinging it as the monk closed once again.  The two combatants exchanged a furious series of blows each time the monk came in close, but then he would leap away.  But Tolly had been moving as well, and had managed to position himself so that when the monk jumped out of melee, he landed near the edge.

                With a roar, Tolly charged into the monk, lowering his shoulder and hitting the monk square in the chest, sending him hurtling back over the edge.  As soon as the monk’s feet cleared the edge of the platform, he vanished, and suddenly Tolly found himself standing among his friends on the ledge.

                “_You are found worthy,_” the voice of the monks echoed from everywhere in the room.  “_You may pass._”

                The Legacy made their way across the room through a combination of magic, psionic power, and sheer muscle, soon arriving on the far side to the expected plain door and short passageway beyond.

                The chamber beyond was a large but simple room, and held a single stone dais in the middle, about ten feet across.  Terran runes were carved on the flat surface of the dais.  Surrounding the dais on the walls were several statues, primarily of humans and dwarves – presumably notable figures of the faith.

                “That which is most precious must be left behind,” Tolly translated.

                “Precious to whom?” Kyle asked.  “To Ardara, or to us?”

                “Maybe you’re supposed to leave the soulsteel,” Yuri suggested.  “Sort of a test of faith thing.”

                “It’s not much of a test of faith if you know it’s a test of faith,” Arrie pointed out.

                Suddenly, Kupa strode forward and climbed up on the dais, curling his tail around his body as he laid down.  There was a brief, warm glow in the room, and then another door opened.

                “I take it you’re staying, then,” Tolly said.

                “It seems to make sense,” Kupa replied.  “A dragon would be very precious to Ardara – we are her favored servants.  And I’ve been thinking about settling down for a while anyway.  This place would make a very nice lair.”

                “I see,” Tolly nodded.  “Then take care of yourself, Kupa.  We will stay in touch.”

                “Indeed.  It has been quite an experience.”

                Tolly drew out his maul, the one he’d forged himself many years ago, and set it on the dais next to Kupa.  “A donation for your hoard,” he said.

                “Thank you,”  Kupa said, “I’m genuinely touched.”

                The rest of the Legacy said their farewells, and then made their way through the door.  They emerged into the large foyer that marked the entrance to the monastery.  The stone door leading outside had been left open slightly, and snow drifted in, covering the bare stone floor.  A raven hopped through the snow, pecking at the bits of viscera that were left from the battle.  The raven looked up at the Legacy when they appeared, squawked, and then shook its feathers.  As it shook, the raven grew and shifted form, and within moments Princess Aralda was standing where the raven had been.

                “We need you to come back to Noxolt,” she said without preamble.  “We’ve lost contact with Lanara and Herion.”

                “Of course,” Tolly said.  “Kyle, are you willing to risk a teleportation?”

                He turned and saw Kyle already beginning the incantations.


----------



## Delemental

*The Crystal Citadel*

The following post has been rated PG-13 for mature content.

Because, you know, we talk about mortgages and retirement plans and stuff like that.  

------------------------------

	They arrived in the hills surrounding the city of Noxolt, just off one of the main roads.  Arrie immediately began walking toward the city, as did Aralda and Autumn.  The others hurried to catch up.  Looking back over his shoulder, Kyle noted a lingering magical afterimage had been left in the spot they had teleported in, showing the silhouettes of the party.  About ten minutes later, they all heard a loud explosion from the area they’d come from.  Everyone glanced at Kyle, who shrugged; it was one of the magical distortions that had plagued casters since the ascension of Silko, and he had little control over it.

	“At least it was an unpopulated area,” he said.  They’d had to teleport in well outside the city, as the Imperial Palace itself was well warded against teleportation and divinations.

	They met with no opposition as they entered the city and then the palace grounds, and were immediately ushered in to a secure room.

	Arrie turned to Aralda as soon as the servants left.  “Give us the details,” she said, curtly but not unkindly.

	“Lanara and Herion have been in constant communication with us since they left on their diplomatic mission to the Tauric Empire,” Aralda said.  “They’ve been in Erum, negotiating with the Taurics over a peace accord.  The negotiations had been going along fairly; although the Taurics have a superior force, the size of their fleet has meant that they are even more troubled by the regions of Dream overlay than we have been, and so they are eager to negotiate a reasonable truce to deal with the problem jointly.  We’ve been getting regular progress reports from them, about two a week on average.  But when the letters stopped coming several days ago, we sent out a scout patrol to see what was going on.  The patrol never returned.  Our diviners have also tried to determine what happened, but their magic simply doesn’t work when they try to find either Herion or Lanara.  Our priests can only confirm that they aren’t dead.  The Emperor has asked that the Legacy look into this personally.”

	“Had there been any changes in the negotiations?” Kyle asked.

	“None that would explain their disappearance,” Aralda said.  “They were actually starting to come to an agreement on some key issues.  I think the Taurics are getting tired of living on boats.”

	“We will want to see the letters they’ve sent, of course,” Tolly said.

	“Of course, though I can tell you now that our cryptographers have found no secret messages or coded warnings.  But most of them were penned by Lanara, so there may be something you will see that we haven’t.”

	“It may be something as subtle as her choice of words,” Tolly said.

	Aralda snapped her fingers.  “Ah, before I forget – Tolly, you have had visitors awaiting your return for some time.”

	“Then they can wait longer,” he said.  “This takes precedence.”

	“They are quite… insistent.”

	“Very well,” he sighed.  “I’ll see them this afternoon.”

	The letters from Lanara were brought in for inspection.  Though they went over every word with a fine-toothed comb, the Legacy could see nothing out of the ordinary about any of the letters.  Finally, they agreed that looking for clues in Noxolt was fruitless, and with divinations giving no information, their only course of action was to travel to where Lanara and the prince had last been seen.

	Their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of visitors.  This came as no real surprise; several of the palace staff had come in to see the Legacy, expressing their fears of what had happened to their prince and to Lanara, and imploring the Legacy to find them.  Over half their time had been spent shaking hands and offering words of encouragement.  Clearly, both of the missing people were held in high regard.

	When the newest visitors came into the room, however, everyone stood up in surprise.  Tolly was the first to step forward.

	“Princess Nidru, Princess Lajila,” he said.  “It’s an honor to see you again.”

	The two princesses from the Red Archipelago smiled, and exchanged greetings with the others.  “We were told we would find you here, Tolly Nightsleaving,” Nidru said.

	“How may I be of service?” he asked.

	The two sisters exchanged a look that spoke volumes, then returned their focus to Tolly.  “Our father, King Bali, charged you with our protection in the wake of the arrival of the Tauric invaders, did he not?”

	“Indeed,” agreed Tolly.  “Which is why I arranged for you to remain here at the Imperial Palace, which offers both security and accommodations suiting your status.”

	“And this has been sufficient to a point,” Lajila said.  “However, given the current state of the world, we feel that the place where we will be safest is at your side.”  Both women then moved up and stood to either side of the Ardaran, cozying up to him in a manner that was best described as ‘familiar’.  

	Tolly turned slightly pink as he regarded the two women at his sides.  “I’m honored by your trust in me,” he said, “but our missions require…”

	“We are not helpless ourselves, Tolly,” Lajila said.  “We are both ordained to the service of Krûsh, though the power he grants us is not as great as what Ardara has bestowed upon you.  Ours is an offer of aid as well as a request for protection.”

	“Well…”

	“Oh, come on, Tolly,” Kyle said, grinning.  “You know there’s no sense in turning down help.  Besides, you did promise.”

	Tolly sighed.  “Very well, since you insist.  I must warn you that we will likely leave tomorrow.”

	“We will be ready,” Nidru told him.  “We have few material possessions and can pack quickly.”

	“They certainly don’t need a lot of time to pack clothes,” Yuri said under her breath, eyeing the scantily clad twins.

	Lajila and Nidru took their leave of the party and returned to their suite.  Tolly still looked uncomfortable after they left.

	“Hey, it’s four more eyes working for us when we go look for Herion and Lanara,” Arrie said.

	“They have eyes?” Osborn joked.

	“I don’t really care what you do with them on your own time,” Arrie continued, “but if they are going to distract half of you on this search, then I’ll…” The threat was unfinished as Arrie suddenly collapsed to the floor in a heap.

	Everyone looked at each other.  “Stress?” suggested Yuri.

	“It wouldn’t be like her,” Kyle said, as Tolly knelt down to check her vitals.  A dark look crossed the priest’s face.  “Kyle, come here,” he said.  “Tell me what you see.”

	Kyle next down and studied Arrie closely.  His face paled.  “Necromancy, with a delayed trigger effect.”

	Tolly swore and cast a quick spell, which shimmered and dissipated with no apparent effect.  “That should have worked,” he said, and tried the same incantation again.  The result was the same.  Cursing again, he raised up and extended a hand.  His soulsteel weapon flowed out from his arm and shaped itself into a short, sharp blade, which he used to slice through Arrie’s chain shirt like it was cloth.  He then began pounding on her chest.

	“What is it?” Autumn asked, pushing forward.  “What’s wrong?”

	“She’s dead,” Tolly said somberly.

*	*	*​
	It took several minutes to calm Autumn down.

	“My best guess,” Kyle said, walking back to Arrie’s body as Yuri and Osborn talked to Autumn in a corner of the room, “is that the spell was laid on her by one of the many visitors we’ve had today.  There was plenty of opportunity.”

	“So someone with access to the palace,” Tolly surmised.

	“Something like that,” Kyle growled.  “How many necromancers are in this damn family, anyway?”  He scanned everyone else in the room.  “No one else has any sign of strange magic.”

	“We need to alert the Emperor,” Tolly said.  “This could be a plot against the entire Imperial family.  We need…”

	Arrie suddenly sat bolt upright, drawing in a huge, gasping breath.  Everyone rushed to her side.

	“What happened?” Autumn shouted, after she wrapped her sister in a tight embrace.  “How did you…”

	“Wait a minute,” Tolly said, putting his hand on Autumn’s shoulder.  He looked squarely at Arrie.  “Ariadne, who won the bar fight the first time we were in Laeshir?”

	“Kyle,” she replied.

	“What was the exact amount you had to loan Kyle to pay his bar tab?”

	“One hundred and thirty-four silver.”

	“What was the name of the boy whose front teeth you knocked out when you were seven?”

	“Jules, the stable hand.”

	“Why?”

	“He tried to kiss me, and boys are icky.”

	Everyone sighed in relief.  “You’re you,” he said.  Some time ago, the Legacy had decided that in a world of shapeshifters, illusionists, and mind controllers, they needed some way of telling if someone was really who they said they were.  They’d come up with a series of questions to be asked at random, combining a mix of various details that only the real person would know, as well as some deliberately altered facts to throw off anyone who’d done their homework.

	Ariadne looked down at her chest, which was very sore.  She noted the loose flaps of her chain shirt, and several links scattered about on the floor.  “You own me a new shirt, Tolly,” she said, as she pulled the severed sides together to cover herself.

	“I can have it repaired by morning,” he said.  “But I’m curious as to what exactly happened.  You were dead, and my attempts to return your soul to your body were blocked.”

	Arrie nodded.  “I know what happened.  And we need to go.”

	“Go?  Go where?”

	“First of all, somewhere we can talk privately.  _Very_ privately.”

	Many suggestions were made, but in the end they settled on a simple _rope trick_ spell.  Once they were all inside, Arrie spoke.

	“I was dead,” she began, “there was no trick there.  The reason you couldn’t do anything about it, and the reason I was able to come back, is that Erito is the one who killed me.”

	There was a thick silence in the small extradimensional space.  “Why?” Autumn finally asked.

	“Because it was the only way she would be able to talk to me.”

	“What did she have to say?” Kyle inquired.

	“She wanted to warn us about a very grave threat to all of us.”

	“From Silko?”

	“No.  She doesn’t deny that Silko is bad news, but apparently Kristyan is worse.”

	“How?” Osborn asked.  “Silko’s a god now, and Kristyan’s just his lackey.”

	“Kristyan has apparently constructed a Citadel of some kind.  It’s this Citadel, or whatever’s inside, that has caused the overlays of the Dream Realm to appear in our world.  Unfortunately, he apparently didn’t think things through when he built it, because now things are starting to come apart.”

	“What do you mean,” Yuri said slowly, “’come apart’?”

	“He’s tearing apart reality.  If allowed to continue, he will break everything.  Every.  Thing.  Erito’s exact words to me were, ‘He must be stopped, even at the cost of Aelfenn itself.’”

	“Then we are not just saving our world,” Tolly said, “but the entire universe.”

	Arrie nodded.

	“Let’s go,” Yuri said.

	“First we need to find out where we’re going,” Arrie said.

	“I don’t suppose that Erito drew a map on you anywhere,” Kyle asked.  Arrie shook her head.

“Erito has no awareness of where the Citadel is located – all she knows is that it is made of crystal.  And mum’s the word on this – we can’t tell anyone what we’re doing, no matter how much we trust them.  If Kristyan gets wind that we’re looking for the Citadel, we’re screwed.  Erito had to kill me to be able to tell me safely.”

	Tolly sighed.  “We can’t rely on divinations, since we’ve never even met Kristyan in person.  Even if we had, he’s likely warded against them.”  The Ardaran’s face suddenly brightened.  “I’m willing to bet that this Crystal Citadel is in the Dream Realm, or on the boundary between that place and our world.  It would explain why Erito is unable to locate it.”

	“That’s still a big area to look in,” Osborn said.

	“But travel in the Dream Realm is a matter of intent, not directions,” Arrie said.  “If we go there with the desire to find the Citadel, we’ll find it.”

	“Unless he’s manipulated Dream to the point of blocking that aspect of its reality,” Kyle said.

	“But even then, it will at least tell us we’re looking in the right place, because we’ll be able to feel our minds struggling against something.”

	“And let’s not forget that since Erito gave us this information directly, Kristyan has no way of knowing that we know about the Citadel,” Autumn added.  “He won’t know that we’re looking for it.”

	“Now we just have to hope that Silko doesn’t notice us,” Yuri said.

	“Actually, I don’t think Silko knows about what Kristyan’s doing, either,” Arrie said.  “Think about it.  Silko went to all this trouble to bring himself back and ascend to godhood so he could rule over creation – do you really think he wants dominion over a shattered universe?  It’s possible that Kristyan is either ignorant of what he’s doing with his Citadel, or is a true nihilist.”

	“Then I suppose we should go about getting to the Dream Realm,” Kyle said.  “I hate to say it, but Herion and Lanara will have to wait.”

	“I know,” Arrie said.  “I’ll have to go tell that to Aralda and Haxtha.”

	Those conversations turned out to be just as unpleasant for Ariadne as she had expected.  Aralda cried and yelled for a while, and then became increasingly cold toward Arrie, which was no great surprise given that she was unable to explain exactly why she was not going to go looking for her husband and Aralda’s brother.

	“Fine,” she snapped at the end, “if you can explain to the Emperor why you feel you can disobey an Imperial Order, then I will let it pass.”  With that Aralda turned and stormed out of the room.

	Haxtha was no less difficult.  “Unacceptable,” was all he said to her.  “You will continue with your mission to locate Prince Herion and Lanara Rahila.”

	“Haxtha,” Arrie said slowly, “as much as your brother is one of the most important people in the world to me, and as much as I would do anything to make sure that he was safe, right now we have to move in a different direction.”

	“Unless you tell me why, I cannot accept that.”

	“Surely, you have been in a position yourself where you must order people to do things without telling them the reasons, because you know that allowing that information loose is dangerous.  If I tell you why, it will negate an effort that we cannot duplicate.”

	“You have to give me something more than ‘trust me’, Ariadne.”

	She paused.  “Haxtha, you have faith, am I right?”

	“Of course.”

	“Have faith now.  I’m not asking you to trust me.”

	He sat silently for a moment.  “I will consider it.  You will have my answer by morning.”

*	*	*​
	There was a knock on Tolly’s door that night.

	“Come in,” he called from his room, where he sat at a desk table writing letters to his superiors in the Church.

	Princess Nidru walked into the room, wearing a diaphanous gown which left little to the imagination.  Even this proved too much, apparently, because Nidru reached behind her neck and released a clasp, and the gown fell softly to the floor.

	“Princess…” Tolly began, swallowing back a lump in his throat.  Nidru walked to his side and gently pulled the quill from his hand.

	“There will be no argument, Tolly Nightsleaving,” she said to him.  “Tonight I will share your bed, and the next night it will be Lajila.  We both expect to be with child as soon as possible.  Is this understood?”

	Tolly thought for a moment.  “The gods' will be done,” he said at last, and he reached for her.

*	*	*​
	When dawn broke the next day, the Legacy was already in the palace courtyard, preparing to leave.  Word had already traveled that the famed heroes would not be going north to look for Lanara and Herion, and more than once they were the recipients of a cold stare or muttered comment from a passing servant.

	Emperor Haxtha came out as the party was beginning to take their mounts, arriving without announcement or fanfare.  He walked up to Arrie and looked up at her, lightly grasping the reins of her horse.

	“I have spent the night in prayer and meditation,” he said quietly.  “And Erito has seen fit to grant me a revelation as to the scope, if not the nature of your mission.  I don’t say this often, but I apologize for standing in your way.  I will find others to search for the prince and your companion.”

	Arrie nodded.  “I would have stood in our way, too.”  She wheeled her horse around and took off out of the courtyard, heading west with the rest of the Legacy.

	Two days of hard riding brought them to the gates of Vargas.  Autumn greeted her people warmly as they passed through the streets of the city.  The Tauric invasion had halted just north of the city, and most of the people credited Duchess Autumn and her military forces for keeping the Taurics at bay.  Thus, at the moment, she was wildly popular.

	“Quite a difference from the first time you came to the city,” Osborn observed.

	“Yes, but I feel it’s undeserved praise.  It was Togusa who led my armies, and my mother who ministered to the state.  And the Taurics stopped their invasion because of Silko and the Dream Realm problems, not because of my rule here.”

	“So take credit for choosing good people,” Osborn said.  “Let the people have their heroine.  You’ve spilled as much of your own blood on this ground as anyone else – you deserve it.”

	Autumn smiled, and waved at the crowd.

	They arrived at the ducal manor and were greeted by Autumn and Arrie’s mother, Auror.  Autumn began to head for her offices, followed by the others.

	“We really should be leaving now,” Arrie said.

	“I have a few matters that require my personal attention,” Autumn explained.  “I do have to do _some _of the ruling around my own duchy.”

	Arrie stepped up and whispered, “But it won’t really matter much if we’re too late to stop things.”

	“Yes,” Autumn replied quietly, “but no one besides the six of us knows that.  In the meanwhile, life goes on for everyone else in Vargex.  And if we succeed, those people still need me to be their Duchess, even if only for a few hours.”

	Arrie paused as Autumn continued up the stairs to her rooms.  “Sometimes I just don’t get her,” she said.

	“Try being the secret leader of a continent-wide clandestine paramilitary group some day,” Osborn said as he walked by.

	By the next morning they were all ready, having seen to their personal affairs in case they didn’t come back.  They walked out into the city, toward a large section of buildings that had been walled off.  Vargas had been hit by two manifestations of the Dream Realm; the first was a fairly straightforward section of Nightmare, and that area had been sealed off and was under heavy guard to keep anything emerging from it at bay.  No one went near that part of town.

	The other area, where the Legacy was now headed, was entirely different.  This section was also walled off and guarded, but in this case the guards were there to keep people out, not to keep creatures in.  Autumn surveyed the newly-built wall when they got close enough, nodding with approval at the skeletal guards patrolling the base.

	“Remind me to commend the mage who came up with the idea of using undead guards,” she said.

	“You’re welcome,” Kyle said.

	After a brief yet saccharine display of affection, Autumn and Kyle turned their attention back to the wall, and the thick iron gate off to one side.

	“Better get all of that out of your system now,” Arrie said.

	“It doesn’t really matter,” Kyle said.  “There’s not much you can do to insulate yourself from the effects of the Fields of Love.  We’ll just have to tough it out.  But we can expect that at least a couple of us will fall victim to the area’s influence, and will have to be pulled out of it by the others.”

	“What do these Fields of Love do?” Lajila asked.

	“It’s an overlay of Dream that represents erotic dreams,” Tolly explained to her.  “It evokes uncontrollable lust in those inside.”

	“And before you ask ‘what’s so bad about that?’” Osborn piped in, “It’s a lust that overrides all other concerns – not just social propriety, but the desire for food, sleep, anything.”

	“I can understand why you guard it so well,” Nidru said.

	They approached the iron gate, Tolly easily holding back the skeletons with his holy symbol as Autumn opened the lock with a large key.  Arrie steeled her mind against the realm’s influence, and Tolly called upon his faith to help keep everyone’s emotional state in check.  Osborn donned his magical blindfold, and then, as an afterthought, opened up his _portable hole _and had Rupert crawl inside.  With a last look back, they entered the Fields of Love.

	The sensory assault was immediate and overwhelming.  The streets and buildings appeared the same, but they were surrounded by a reddish orange mist, and occasionally there were brief glimpses of humanoid-like figures sliding through the mist, most with exaggerated physical characteristics.  The air smelled of flowers and exotic perfumes, with an undercurrent of musk, and the only sounds they heard were reminiscent of sighs of pleasure.  They had traversed only a few feet when it became clear that some people were slowing in their progress.  Yuri stood transfixed, her eyes unfocused and her breathing heavy.

	“She’s been influenced by the realm,” Tolly said.  “Some erotic figment had entered her mind.”

	Autumn began to move to shake Yuri or otherwise distract her, when she heard moaning.  She turned her head, and immediately flushed with anger.

	Kyle and Arrie were locked in a passionate embrace, kissing deeply as their hands roamed everywhere.  Autumn began to move toward them, balling her fists, when Tolly put a hand on her shoulder.

	“Before you do something… violent,” he said, “Listen for a moment.  Neither of them realizes who is in their arms.”

	Autumn stopped for a moment, and realized he was right.  By the names they called out, it was clear that Arrie was entranced by a vision of her own husband, Herion, while Kyle was caught up in a waking dream about his own wife.  Both had simply reached out in the midst of their individual fantasies, and made contact with the closest person to them.

	“Well, beyond the fact that this is really weird to watch,” Osborn said, “I don’t think we’re getting very far with three people down, and the longer we stay here the more likely this turns into an eight-way orgy.”

	“Then you wish them to stop?” Lajila asked.

	“Yes, please,” Autumn said.  “Now.”

	Lajila and Nirdu stepped forward and cast some spells that were unfamiliar to both Tolly and Osborn.  The glazed look vanished from the eyes of Yuri, Arrie, and Kyle.  While Yuri’s recovery was relatively easy, Kyle and Arrie spent a few moments looking at each other, both clearly trying and failing to come up with something to say.  Then slowly, slowly, they disentangled themselves, took a large step away from each other, and began to quietly readjust clothing and armor that had been pushed out of place.

	“We need to move on,” Osborn said.  “Tolly, you take the lead.”

	They began to move forward, deeper into the region of Dream.  They had no particular destination in mind; they only needed to get far enough in that they could transition to the Dream Realm fully.

	“Hurry up,” Arrie said, her eyes riveted on the ground.  “I want to get somewhere where I’ll be able to make contact with all of you again.  Eye contact!  I meant eye contact!  I hate this place!”

	“I think we may have come far enough,” Tolly said, stopping suddenly.  He raised his hands toward an area directly ahead, where the mist seemed to be coalescing into a narrow vertical oval shape.  As the mist thickened and the oval widened, Tolly extended both hands on an impulse and placed them in the middle of the oval, then pulled them apart slowly as if drawing back curtains.  The oval parted down the middle, irising into a portal.  An area of bright light lay beyond.

	“Wow,” Yuri said, “talk about your blatant metaphors.”

	“No one will accuse the Fields of Love of subtlety,” Osborn said.  “Let’s get out of here.”

	They all moved quickly through the opening, with Autumn the last to leave.  They stood in the midst of a bright, blinding light.

	The quest for the Crystal Citadel had begun.


----------



## Krafus

Maybe Tolly should be nicknamed Starbuck (for the bull, not the restaurant chain) and place an ad: "In need of superior heirs for your kingdom/country/city? Look no further! Tolly 'Starbuck' Nightsleaving, priest of the Church of Ardara and one of the heroes of the famed Legacy adventuring group, offers very reasonable rates and a proven track record of quality offspring. Questions can be asked through _sendings_ or by sending a representative to the Imperial Palace."

More seriously, though, is it a custom for Red Archipelago princesses to seek the 'best' foreigners to sire the heirs to the throne? I can see the advantages, but I can also easily envision the local nobles not being happy at this state of affairs. (Apologies if this has been explained before - I've only read the latest update.)


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Maybe Tolly should be nicknamed Starbuck (for the bull, not the restaurant chain) and place an ad: "In need of superior heirs for your kingdom/country/city? Look no further! Tolly 'Starbuck' Nightsleaving, priest of the Church of Ardara and one of the heroes of the famed Legacy adventuring group, offers very reasonable rates and a proven track record of quality offspring. Questions can be asked through _sendings_ or by sending a representative to the Imperial Palace."
> 
> More seriously, though, is it a custom for Red Archipelago princesses to seek the 'best' foreigners to sire the heirs to the throne? I can see the advantages, but I can also easily envision the local nobles not being happy at this state of affairs. (Apologies if this has been explained before - I've only read the latest update.)




I'm certain that the princesses are concerned about producing an heir, since as far as they know they are the only survivors of the royal line (the REd Archipelago was destroyed in the initial Tauric invasion, and the King and princes stayed behind to defend their lands).  Certainly they would see Tolly as an ideal candidate, given that he's a man of faith and obviously strong and healthy.

Also bear in mind that in general the inhabitants of the islands don't hold to 'traditional' views about monogamy, and in this world one of the aspects of their god (though a minor one) is fertility and pleasure.

Ultimately, of course, the reason Lajila and Nidru have attached themselves to Tolly is that they are his new cohorts.


----------



## nwjavahead

*Great!*

Bloody Good Job on the SH!

Been away from RPG/ENWorld for a very long time becuase of RL bullsh*te.  Good to see this SH is still around.

Any chance on a RG of the PCs, eh?

nwjavahead aka djordje


----------



## Delemental

nwjavahead said:
			
		

> Bloody Good Job on the SH!
> 
> Been away from RPG/ENWorld for a very long time becuase of RL bullsh*te.  Good to see this SH is still around.
> 
> Any chance on a RG of the PCs, eh?
> 
> nwjavahead aka djordje




Thanks for the compliment.  Nice to know that even with the far more erratic posting of late, people are still hanging out to read it.

As far as a Rogue's Gallery... 

Well, I've always held off on doing a Gallery.  Partially because I kind of feel like Galleries are more interesting when you can see stuff besides the PC's stats - things like NPC write-ups and magic item descriptions that I don't have access to as a player.

Mostly, though, it's because getting all of my fellow players to bring me up to date versions of their characters has been... challenging.  We'll leave it at that.

If I have time in the near future, I'll see about at least posting up Kyle.


----------



## Delemental

They emerged one the gentle slope of a grassy dell, a slight breeze causing the long grass to ripple.  A few trees dotted the landscape, their branches swaying.  Despite the idyllic environment, they all felt immediately uneasy, sensing something about their surroundings just wasn’t right.

	It was Osborn who first noticed the problem.  “Ugh,” he said, suddenly taking a step back while looking at the ground he’d just been standing on.  The others moved over to see what he’d reacted to.

	Osborn had been standing atop a round, pinkish-colored rock, jutting just a few inches out of the ground.  At first, the problem wasn’t apparent, until a bit of wind blew past, and the all saw the rock shiver slightly, and tiny bumps emerge on the surface.

	A closer look at their surrounding revealed its true nature.  Everything surrounding them that would normally be living, organic matter – the trees, grass, and other plants – were in fact made of materials like stone and metal.  Conversely, everything they could see that should have been inert was actually comprised of living tissue.  The dark soil surrounding the flesh-rock was made of millions of tiny, crawling insects.

	“This is one of those times in my life that I wish I could fly,” Yuri said.

	A short distance away, they heard a slight commotion.  At the bottom of the dell, they saw a group of eight figures of varying sizes.  Four were humanoid, dressed in ornately decorated furs and hides, and the other four were large tyrannosaurs, standing in a protective circle around the humanoids.

	“Who are they?” Autumn asked, peering down.

	“They’re the Elder Druids of Tlaxan,” Kyle said, “Four out of the five, anyway.”  Kyle had worked with the Elders in the recent past.

	“Why are they here?”

	The answer came from the Elders, who were shouting at the Legacy.  “Defilers!” they shouted in fury, “Despoilers of nature!  You will pay for what you have done!”

	Arrie sighed.  “They think we’re responsible for all this, don’t they?”

	“Yes,” replied Kyle.

	“They’re going to attack us, aren’t they?”

	“Yes.”

	“It’s worse than you think,” Tolly said.  “Look closely at them.”

	They all looked, and could now see that each of the Elders had small protuberances emerging from their bodies, the beginnings of new tentacles.

	“They’ve been infected by the Dream Realm,” Tolly said.  “We need to destroy them.”

	Magic erupted as the two sides came together.  Yuri leapt ahead to cut off the advance of the tyrannosaurs, while others started to circle around to get to the druids.  As Autumn took to the air  on her gold-flecked wings, Osborn turned invisible and began moving around the periphery.  Arrie, opting for a more direct approach, was bolstered by a spell from Kyle, growing to about ten feet in height.

	A cascade of white-hot flames enveloped the party, and moments later a mass of translucent dinosaurs appeared on the flank and crashed into Lajila and Nidru, stomping them with massive feet made of pure spell energy.  Lajila held aloft a seashell inscribed with the image of a dolphin, and with a few words disrupted the druidic spell and caused the stampede to vanish.  The favor was returned moments later, however, when Tolly attempted to strike all of their enemies with an _earthquake_, but it was countered by one of the druids with an almost dismissive wave.

	A tremendous blast of electricity erupted in the midst of the druids, and when everyone’s eyes cleared from the sudden bright flash, they saw that one of the druids had been eradicated, leaving only a smoking spot in the unnatural grass.  Arrie ran into the midst of the druids a second later, only to be pushed back by druidic magic.  But clearing Arrie out of the way left them vulnerable to a pair of _flame strikes_ from Lajila and Nidru.  The other two druids chose to heal themselves.

	The battle shifted to melee as the Legacy began to converge on the Elders.  One of the tyrannosaurs managed to run up and snatch Kyle in its massive jaws, but Kyle vanished and reappeared a moment later.  Yuri had also been caught up in the jaws of a dinosaur, and was actually swallowed by the massive beast.  Arrie broke off from the druids to try and rescue her, but then a second later the dragoon appeared in the open, covered in tyrannosaur saliva.  The magical cloak around her shoulders gave off a brief glow as Yuri stood there getting her bearings.

	As the party began to close in again, the druids began to shift.  One assumed the form of a huge water elemental, although the water looked green and foul.  A second became a grossly misshapen earth elemental, oozing a black fluid from several cracks.  The third erupted into flames as he assumed his elemental form, but this elemental produced a thick, noxious cloud of black smoke that smelled like burning flesh.

	The druids began to battle the Legacy physically, even as their tyrannosaur companions turned to rejoin their masters.  But a _blade barrier_ from Nidru cut off two of them, and a spear attack from Yuri finished one of the beasts off.  Inside the ring of blades, Osborn suddenly reappeared, hurling a dozen daggers at the fire elemental, who collapsed and quickly reverted back to his normal form.  The party closed in on the two remaining druids and their cohorts, even as Kyle regrouped with the princesses and Yuri turned to face the third tyrannosaur, the Sargian putting three large holes in its scaly hide.  Tolly, who had come to assist her when she’d been swallowed earlier, moved in with his own weapon and landed the fatal blow.

	A short distance away, Lajila, Nidru and Kyle stood in a circle, focusing their collective will on the other two tyrannosaurs.  A column of divine flame crashed down on them, magnified not only by the cooperative efforts of the two sisters but by Kyle’s deep understanding of magical forces.  The_ flame strike_ was powerful enough to incinerate both of the beasts.  The three of them began focusing on another spell, but their concentration was broken when the Elder Druid who had transformed into a water elemental gestured, and summoned a huge tornado right on top of them.  Kyle managed to hold his ground, but the Archipeligan princesses were flung skywards, and even Yuri was pulled toward the vortex.

	On the other side of the field of battle, Osborn, Autumn and Arrie continued to harass the Earth Elder and Water Elder.  Arrie, who had transformed her weapon into a greatspear, had impaled the water elemental, and left him vulnerable to another barrage of daggers from Osborn.  The druid collapsed like a barrel of water dropped off a cliff, slowly coalescing back into his natural body as he died.  Meanwhile, Autumn landed a vicious blow against the earth elemental, causing great gouts of black fluid to gush from an abdominal wound.

	The Earth Elder looked around, and saw that his enemies were closing in, and his tornado had been dispelled by the Krüshi priestesses.  With a strange cry, the druid suddenly melted into the ground.

	Everyone stood still for a moment, weapons ready, expecting an attack.  Autumn looked as though she wanted to strike the ground where the druid had vanished, but she knew it would do no good.  Slowly, they became aware of a low, steady rumbling in the ground.

	“Earthquake?” Autumn asked Tolly.

	He shook his head. “Not the spell.  But not a natural tremor, either.”

	The winds started to pick up a bit, fanning the flames that were still burning in the long grasses from the multiple firestorms and flame strikes.  Clouds overhead rumbled.  Osborn used his ring to turn invisible again, and Kyle and the twins tended to the injuries they’d suffered in the tornado.

	The rumbling in the ground grew more intense, and rain began to fall.  But the wind had also picked up to the point that the fires continued to burn, and in fact were starting to get pushed toward a central point, a natural vortex being formed by the trees around them.

	“We need to get out of here,” Tolly said suddenly.  He turned, and began focusing on creating a pathway out of the dell and toward the Crystal Citadel.

	“What’s going on?” Autumn asked him.

	“We need to go now,” Tolly said, “before something comes along that we can’t handle.”

	Autumn opened her mouth to question his statement, but then noticed what everyone else was starting to see.  The wind, rain, and fire were now starting to swirl and coalesce around a single point, and now the tremors were strong enough to send chunks of dirt and rock flying into the air, where they were also absorbed by the growing mass.  The cloud of elemental fury grew in sixe until it towered over them, and it began to sprout tendrils which looked very much like the beginnings of arms and legs.

	“I think we agree with you, Tolly,” Kyle said.  “Let’s go.”

	The Ardaran shook his head in frustration.  “I can’t seem to focus on the destination,” he said.

	“Let me try,” Arrie said, and focused her own will.  She guessed that the Dream Realm might respond more readily to someone with psionic training, and so drew upon her own inner strength as she focused on an image of crystal spires.

	There was a sudden wavering in the air before Arrie, and then they all sensed that a path was open for them.  “Does it go to the Citadel?” Tolly shouted over the wind.

	“Does it matter?” Yuri yelled back, looking over her shoulder at the monstrosity behind them.

	With that, they all surged forward, moving swiftly away from the growing fury.

*	*	*​
	They emerged from what felt like a long tunnel into what looked like another forested area, but this time the ‘trees’ were comprised entirely of enormous shards of crystal which jutted out of the ground.  Crystals of all shapes, sizes and colors surrounded them, and they saw their own distorted images being reflected back at them a few dozen times.

	“This is not the Citadel,” Tolly said.

	“No, but it’s likely closer to it than we were before,” Arrie replied.  “And besides which, it’s safer than where we were.”

	A strange sensation passed over all of them – more of a vibration than a sound.  All around them, the crystal shards started to vibrate slightly in resonance with some unseen stimulus, filling the air with soft, dissonant tones.

	“We hope,” Kyle said quietly.


----------



## Skyduke

Hi! I just recently started reading story hours, and I must say that yours is very entertaining, and fun to read. I like the way all the characters evolved in meaningful ways, although I heartily lament Kyle's "loss of innocence". It was bound to happen, but the bumbling Kyle of their beginnings at the tower was much more endearing that the cynical arch-mage he has turned into. I hope when all this is over, he might reconsider his view of the world.

On an another note, the last few updates really have not given them much room to breathe, or even replenish their spells. It looks like they can't get a break, no matter how hard they try. The campaign must be very challenging!

Oh, by the way. I am just curious about Osborn - how does he manage to throw dozens of dagger in one round?

Thanks a lot, and keep up the good worl.


----------



## Delemental

Skyduke said:
			
		

> Hi! I just recently started reading story hours, and I must say that yours is very entertaining, and fun to read. I like the way all the characters evolved in meaningful ways, although I heartily lament Kyle's "loss of innocence". It was bound to happen, but the bumbling Kyle of their beginnings at the tower was much more endearing that the cynical arch-mage he has turned into. I hope when all this is over, he might reconsider his view of the world.
> 
> On an another note, the last few updates really have not given them much room to breathe, or even replenish their spells. It looks like they can't get a break, no matter how hard they try. The campaign must be very challenging!
> 
> Oh, by the way. I am just curious about Osborn - how does he manage to throw dozens of dagger in one round?
> 
> Thanks a lot, and keep up the good worl.




Kyle has definitely become more world-weary as time has gone on, though really I think we all have.  It's not an easy thing facing the potential destruction of your world.  Whether or not Kyle manages to mellow out when all is said and done remains to be seen - even when the threat of Silko and Kristyan is over, there's still things that need fixing.  For Kyle, it's a sort of "with great power comes great responsibility" thing... without the Spandex.

As for Osborn... well, it's partially creative license on my part.  The mechanics of it rely on the fact that he's got several levels of fighter, plus the Master Thrower prestige class (Complete Warrior, I think?  IIRC, he's currently a fighter 5/rogue 7/master thrower 5/cleric 2).  I couldn't quote the exact mechanics to you, but essentially he gets to throw two daggers with each attack roll, and of course has multiple attacks when doing a full attack (plus Rapid Shot, of course).  It's not something he can pull off every round, but it's devastating when he can - especially when he can get sneak attack in there, too.  But his effectiveness is severely curtailed against any sort of DR, since he has to deduct it from each dagger that hits.  He also has to be close (within 30') so he's vulnerable to counterattack.


----------



## Delemental

A short but sweet update this time...

------------------------------

	They had arrived somewhere in the midst of a large, bowl-shaped depression, with a slope so gradual that it was difficult to make out the far edges.  The air was still, and a bright yellow disk burned directly overhead in an approximation of the sun, so no shadows were cast.  Light from the orb would occasionally refract through one of the crystal trees, creating a bright spot or flash in the air.  The ground below them was hard, and felt like some sort of smooth coral.

	“So,” Arrie said to Tolly, “care to get us closer to where we’re going?”

	“And soon,” Osborn said warily.  Off in the distance, he could hear faint scrabbling sounds, reminiscent of multiple boots or clawed feet on the hard coral ground.

	Turning slowly, Tolly began to focus his will on finding a path out of the forest and toward the Citadel.  The rest of the party focused on this task as well, except Osborn, who kept a wary ear open as they began to move through the forest behind Tolly.  Autumn shot the hin an inquisitive look.

	“They’re keeping pace,” he answered, gesturing off to their right, “but not coming closer.”  A few minutes later, however, the scrabbling noises suddenly stopped in mid-stride.

	Gradually, the slope increased as they walked, as though they were getting closer to the edge of the depression they’d arrived in.  But after nearly half an hour, everyone stopped.

	“What?” Arrie asked.

	“We should have come out of the dell by now,” Tolly said.  “And I know we’re not going in circles.”

	“You know,” Kyle said, “if there is an intelligent being in control around here, it’s probably far more adept at manipulating Dream than we are.  It could be manipulating the landscape to keep us trapped here.”

	“You mean, screwing with us?” Arrie said.

	“As always, straight to the point, Arrie,” Tolly said.

	Osborn looked up, and his eyes widened in shock.  “Look out!” he cried, suddenly vanishing from sight.  At that moment, Nidru, Yuri, and Arrie were all struck in the back by greatswords that were swung at them from above their heads.  Autumn narrowly avoided a fourth blade. 

	Four figures swooped down out of the sky, expertly dodging the crystal trees.  Each was centaur-like in appearance, but with thicker, more muscular bodies.  Long, serpentine tails flowed behind their draconic lower bodies, their scales shimmering iridescent in the light overhead.  None of them had wings or any obviously method of flight, and tiny horns protruded from their brutish skulls.  The four creatures glared at the party as they came around for another pass.  Two dove in from behind, their blades whirling in a frenzy and leaving deep wounds in several members of the Legacy, with one sword stroke even finding Osborn’s dog Rupert.  But the party’s counterattack was equally devastating, leaving one of the dragon-like creatures gravely wounded, and another dead, with several of Osborn’s daggers piercing its flesh.

	Kyle flickered, and suddenly they were all surrounded by a cloud of caustic vapors, which seemed to be harmless to the Legacy but which burned the flesh of their enemies.  In addition, each of Kyle’s allies was surrounded in a personal aura of flames, and Kyle’s hand was surrounded in a nimbus of black energy.

	Hissing from the pain caused by the acid, one of the creatures came in low and emitted a piercing scream, blasting the entire group with a wave of sonic energy.  Another charge Tolly and drew blood, but came within range of the spell the Ardaran had readied, and a moment later his assailant was simply gone.  Nidru called upon her power to heal everyone in the party, closing up the deep wounds the creatures had inflicted.

	A joint attack from the three women warriors felled one of the centauric beasts, and a _vampiric touch_ from Kyle convinced the last remaining foe to seek the safety of the sky.  It rose into the air, trying to put distance between itself and the Legacy.

	On the ground below, Yuri jumped.  The draconic being never saw her coming until her greatspear slammed into the middle of his back, driving him back to the ground, where he was finally slain in a barrage of sorcery and steel.

	The Legacy stripped the creatures of armor and weapons and then threw the bodies into Kyle’s acid cloud, preventing them from healing their wounds.  They located a nest not far from the site of the battle, high up in one of the crystal trees.  There they found a variety of valuables, including a fist-sized lump of uncut emerald, and an ancient but well-preserved tapestry depicting Emperor Tlaxan I.

	As they collected the valuables and packed them away, Osborn heard a low, quiet chuckle, which seemed to came from both everywhere and nowhere, resonating inside his head.  He motioned for the others to be quiet, but no one else heard the laugh at first.

	Suddenly, the laugh came again, now audible to everyone. It seemed to resonate from the crystals themselves.

	“Tolly,” Arrie said, “Leave. Now.”

	“You don’t think I’d let you leave that easily?” a voice surrounded them, deep and menacing.  “You’ve bested my experiments – obviously that means you will be my next subjects.  They clearly weren’t strong enough.”

	Something a short distance away caught Osborn’s attention; a pile of bloody flesh, peeled away in strips from some large creature.  Walking over, he flipped the edge of one strip over with his boot, and saw that it was covered with glimmering silver scales.  At the same time, Yuri spotted what looked like the remnants of an eggshell laying on the ground just a few yards away, but judging by the curvature of the shell, it would have been an egg the size of a house.

	“If whatever came out of that shell is around here,” she said, “we’d best not be.”

	“You know, this is stupid,” Arrie shouted to the air.  “We’re racing to stop a being who wants to destroy pretty much everything, and you’re hanging us up.”

	The mocking laugh vibrated the crystals around them.  “And who do you think created me?  It’s not all going to end, child – it’s all going to come _here_.”

	The ground a few feet away exploded upward, disgorging an enormous winged creature that at first looked like a blue dragon, which at first filled Tolly’s heart with joy, for blue dragons are the servants of Ardara.  But as the dragon advanced, his heart sank, for he realized that the scales were not blue, but a glittering, translucent sapphire.


----------



## Delemental

Both sides moved rapidly toward each other.  The dragon snatched a thick crystal branch off a nearby tree as in ran forward, and flung it at Yuri, who was leading the charge.  The branch caught her mid-leap and sent her crashing to the ground.  While she was still reeling, the dragon focused his power on her, but she just managed to free herself from its psionic power as she felt the flesh on her body begin to pull and tear.

	The wyrm launched itself into the air as the others drew closer, circling wide over the tops of the trees.  Those who were able followed it into the sky, Autumn leading the way as Kyle sprouted metallic wings and Arrie focused the power of her psicrown into flight.  Kyle summoned a blade of force which began chasing the dragon through the air, while Arrie and Autumn tried to maneuver to cut off its flight path and the others waited for an opportunity to strike.  Yuri leapt into the air as the dragon passed overhead, but her leap was short by mere inches.  The dragon’s tail whipped out and sent shards of crystal flying toward Lajila and Nidru, who dove to take cover.

	Wheeling around, the dragon suddenly twisted in midair and grabbed onto Kyle, squeezing him in a massive claw.  But a second later it was a psionically-enhanced Arrie who was in the dragon’s grip, and she proceeded to slip out of its claws and land a solid blow with Anyweapon.  Unperturbed, the beast flew on, quickly outpacing Arrie, and with a casual flick of a foreclaw send a telekinetic pulse toward Tolly, knocking his soulsteel weapon out of his hand.  It then batted Autumn out of the way as she charged in, and on its next pass around tore into Arrie with teeth and claws.

	The Legacy positioned themselves for another pass as the sapphire dragon banked.  Autumn summoned divine power as energy lanced from her eyes, but it reflected off the gem-like scales harmlessly.  A _prismatic spray_ by Kyle was similarly refracted away.  Scowling, Kyle closed his eyes briefly, focusing his mind on recalling the pattern of a spell in his grimoire and forcing it to take shape.  A beam of blue-white energy shot out of the crystal sphere atop his staff, striking the dragon in the head with an ear-splitting crack.  The dragon’s eyes glazed, and it was unable to focus on keeping itself in the air.  The wyrm crashed into the forest, sending shards of crystal flying.  As it crashed, Lajila and Nidru focused their combined wills on summoning a wall of blades in its path, though the dragon managed to avoid the worst of the barrier.

	It was the opening they’d waited for, and the Legacy took advantage.  Autumn dove onto the dragon’s back, her falchion digging deep into its scaly hide and sending blood spraying into the air.  Yuri rammed her greatspear into its neck, feeling the satisfying jolt as the end of her spear hit bone.  And Osborn, who had lurked invisibly amidst the trees waiting to get into range, ran forward and placed several daggers in the dragon’s more vulnerable spots.

	Roaring with rage, the dragon focused its will, and sent a pulse of psychic power out all around him.  Suddenly everyone in the Legacy felt the agony of the wounds they had just inflicted, while a wave of relief passed over the dragon’s face.  It then vanished, reappearing inside the circle created by the _blade barrier_, using it as a defense.  Autumn and Kyle flew over the spinning blades, while Arrie moved to pick up Osborn and carry him into battle.  Kyle shot another beam of energy at the dragon, but this one was black as pitch and drew the dragon’s life force away.  Yuri, screaming a battle cry, leapt over the blades, and charged at the dragon.  But its massive claws caught her first, ripping and tearing at the Sargian dragoon.  Knocking her back almost to the blade barrier, the dragon opened its mouth and emitted a blast of deafening sound which enveloped both Yuri and Kyle.  The energy of the dragon’s breath would have torn Yuri apart, if not for a protective spell placed on her earlier, but for the first time the Sargian’s mind came to grips just how terrifying this beast was.  Dropping her spear, she vaulted back over the blades and began to run.

	“Damn,” Kyle said, falling back as he saw Yuri run.  With her speed, she could easily get lost in the endless crystal forest, and finding her would be impossible.  He cast a _rope trick_ spell into a clearing just ahead of Yuri, hoping she would seek its shelter.  At the same time, Lajila cast a spell in the same clearing that would ease Yuri’s terror once she reached it, and Nidru brought down the blades separating the Legacy from the dragon.

	Snarling, the dragon once again took flight, but this time it did not bank to return to battle, but continued flying straight, away from the battle.  Within moments, its silhouette was no bigger than a sparrow.

	“Tell Kristyan we’re coming for him next!” Yuri yelled at the vanishing wyrm.

 	Everyone gathered at the clearing where Yuri had come to a halt.  “Thanks,” she said to Kyle and Lajila.

	The party made use of the _rope trick_, climbing inside to tend to their wounds in case the dragon returned or any other enemies came by.  Then they backtracked to where the sapphire dragon had emerged from the ground, and found a rough tunnel that led to an underground chamber.  There they discovered a cache of valuables, including a sword and a crystalline structure that Kyle confirmed were charged with psionic power.  There were also several of the large strips of silver dragon flesh in the chamber, heaped in a pile.

	“What do you make of this?” Osborn asked.  “Silver dragons serve Feesha.”

	“Perhaps they had to kill an existing dragon to create that sapphire beast,” Kyle mused, “or a silver was transformed, and this is the result of a very rapid molting.”

	Claiming their reward, the Legacy returned to the surface and began to navigate through the dreamscape again, led by Tolly’s will.  The incline of the land grew gradually steeper, with no apparent peak in sight.  After an hour’s walk, Kyle stopped, and looked around.

	“We’re inside a giant egg,” he announced.

	This fact soon became apparent to everyone.  The area of Dream they were in had been shaped like a huge egg, with the crystal forest covering the inside of the ‘shell’.  Had they been forced to traverse it as they would land in the real world, it might take them months to circle around to where they had started.

	With little choice but to keep going, the Legacy pressed on.  They knew that within the bizarre architecture of the Dream Realm, their journey would lead to a destination, even if none was apparent.  Sure enough, after another hour they began to notice cracks in the shell-like ground under their feet, and a short time later they could actually see a point where the trees ended.

	They came to the top of an abrupt cliff face, with the edge dropping down into nothingness.  Hovering in the air all around them, they saw enormous, jagged shards of shell, as though a hole had been broken in the egg… or something had hatched.

	“Where now?” Autumn asked.

	Tolly scratched at his beard.  “Well, it is a dream, so…”  He walked forward and stepped off the edge of the cliff.

	Everyone rushed forward to see Tolly standing there, protruding horizontally from the cliff.  Soon everyone had made the transition, and they were traversing the edge of the eggshell, which was roughly a mile thick.

	They came out on an open plain.  The ground appeared soft and cloud-like, though it felt solid.  Rising up out of the clouds in the distance was a palatial structure made entirely of crystal, which flashed and sparkled despite the apparent lack of a light source.  Much closer to the party, a round, table-shaped stone jutted out of the mist.  There were unfamiliar markings on the stone.

	As everyone moved toward the stone, Arrie blinked and shook her head.

	“What’s wrong?” Autumn asked.

	“Nothing.  The glyphs on the stone… they kind of translated themselves in my mind.”  She turned to her friends.  “It’s from Aran.”

	They gathered close as Arrie read the message.  “To the Legacy – I’m not in a position where I can offer much help.  However, I can give you a safe place to rest.  Place those items of power that represent you best upon the stone.”

	“But do we even have time to rest?” Tolly asked as Arrie finished the translation.

	“I doubt that Aran would have offered it otherwise,” Arrie said.  She drew forth Anyweapon, shaping it into a simple longsword, and placed it atop the stone table.  It immediately rose into the air, hovering over the table with the blade pointing down, and the air around them began to shimmer slightly.  Kyle was next, placing his staff on the table.  The staff seemed to shiver slightly at first, reacting to the presence of a psionic item, but soon it rose into the air next to Arrie’s blade.

	Autumn drew her falchion Faithful Avenger even as Tolly shaped his soulsteel into a maul and placed it on the stone, followed by Yuri’s greatspear and the Ladtan relic-coin that Osborn carried.  The shimmering in the air intensified as each item was laid down, and as they rose and began to slowly orbit each other, they could see that the world beyond that shimmering was slowing down, until it seemed almost frozen in time.

	Arrie reached out and touched the cool surface of the stone.  “I don’t know if you can hear this, Aran,” she said quietly, “but thank you.”


----------



## Krafus

Nice update... I wonder what was the reason for the dragon's retreat? Because it certainly seemed to be winning right up until then. Was it to prevent a TPK?

Oh, and I'm curious - what was the power that the dragon used then:



> Roaring with rage, the dragon focused its will, and sent a pulse of psychic power out all around him. Suddenly everyone in the Legacy felt the agony of the wounds they had just inflicted, while a wave of relief passed over the dragon’s face.




Did the dragon pass all the wounds it had taken up until that point back to the people who delivered them, _and_ heal itself at the same time? Because if that's the cause, this power sounds, well, massively overpowered.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Nice update... I wonder what was the reason for the dragon's retreat? Because it certainly seemed to be winning right up until then. Was it to prevent a TPK?
> 
> Oh, and I'm curious - what was the power that the dragon used then:
> 
> 
> 
> Did the dragon pass all the wounds it had taken up until that point back to the people who delivered them, _and_ heal itself at the same time? Because if that's the cause, this power sounds, well, massively overpowered.





The dragon had been winning, but we ended up doing some serious damage while it was on the ground.  In addition to a lot of plain damage delivered by Arrie and Osborn, it had lost about 6 CON - 4 CON from the poison of the _prismatic spray_ (I know the story makes it sound like it was ineffective, but the spray did affect the dragon), and 2 more from Autumn's Mountain Tombstone Strike (she rolled snake eyes, or it would have been even more).  Since it was a 35 HD dragon, losing 6 CON chopped 105 hp right off the top. It was also down 4 levels from Kyle's maximized enervation, which deprived it of its four highest level powers.

In the end, it ran because it was an intelligent creature who didn't particularly want to get killed, and it knew we were heading off to face his boss next.

The power it used was _hostile empathic transfer_, I believe, which lets you transfer your damage to those around you.  I think we all ended up taking something like 45 damage each, so not that bad for what I assume is a 9th level power (its in Complete Psionic, I'm pretty sure).


----------



## Krafus

Delemental said:
			
		

> The dragon had been winning, but we ended up doing some serious damage while it was on the ground.  In addition to a lot of plain damage delivered by Arrie and Osborn, it had lost about 6 CON - 4 CON from the poison of the _prismatic spray_ (I know the story makes it sound like it was ineffective, but the spray did affect the dragon), and 2 more from Autumn's Mountain Tombstone Strike (she rolled snake eyes, or it would have been even more).  Since it was a 35 HD dragon, losing 6 CON chopped 105 hp right off the top. It was also down 4 levels from Kyle's maximized enervation, which deprived it of its four highest level powers.




Ah, I see. I had no idea about the CON loss.



> In the end, it ran because it was an intelligent creature who didn't particularly want to get killed, and it knew we were heading off to face his boss next.




Which brings up a problem for the PCs: the dragon required the party's full attention, and his master is presumably even more powerful. Two such mighty foes at once, or even one right after the other, would seem to be too way much for them to handle.



> The power it used was _hostile empathic transfer_, I believe, which lets you transfer your damage to those around you.  I think we all ended up taking something like 45 damage each, so not that bad for what I assume is a 9th level power (its in Complete Psionic, I'm pretty sure).




Hmm, I'm looking at _hostile empathic transfer_ from the SRD, and it's a 3rd level power that, from what I can tell, can only affect one creature at a time.


----------



## Delemental

Krafus said:
			
		

> Ah, I see. I had no idea about the CON loss.
> 
> 
> 
> Which brings up a problem for the PCs: the dragon required the party's full attention, and his master is presumably even more powerful. Two such mighty foes at once, or even one right after the other, would seem to be too way much for them to handle.




Which is why the respite provided by Aran to replenish spells and heal will be most welcome.  We faced the dragon pretty much unbuffed - with any luck that won't be the case when we go after Kristyan.  I'm also hoping we get something of a chance to scout out the citadel with divinations, so that we can get to him faster. 



> Hmm, I'm looking at _hostile empathic transfer_ from the SRD, and it's a 3rd level power that, from what I can tell, can only affect one creature at a time.




I could have the power wrong, or there could be feats or augments being applied that I'm not aware of.  It _was _an epic-level encounter, so the dragon had plenty of options.


----------



## Delemental

*Betcha thought this SH was dead, didn't ya?*

Okay, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that there will be an update pretty soon, hopefully within the week.

The bad news is that it'll probably be one of the last.

After five years, our group is ready to move on.  Away from Aelfenn, away from D&D for a while even.  Although the original plan for the campaign had us continuing on into epic levels, we've come to realize that we just don't have the motivation for that, so better to come to a conclusive end now rather than let the game stumble toward a vague, unsatisfying end.

After we finish the current adventure, there will likely be an epilogue of sorts.  After that, we're moving on to other games and other systems.  I've not yet decided if I will be chronicling those games, but if I do, I'll put a link up to any new stories.


----------



## Delemental

*Final Assault*

The walls of the timeless demiplane began to dissipate as the Legacy prepared for their approach.  As the last spells were cast, the protective bubble vanished, and they found that their position had shifted; they were now only a few yards away from the tower.

	The structure itself rose above them, a crystalline mass that seemed to twist around an enormous bluish orb that pulsed and crackled with power.  Kyle noticed a second ethereal tower, mirroring the first but inverted, rose invisibly upward from the orb; the effect was almost like two hands cradling a ball.  Kyle relayed the description to the others telepathically.

So, the direct approach?  Yuri asked.

Not yet, Kyle cautioned.  Let’s try something a little different.  He cast a spell, and suddenly the Legacy looked like a nondescript band of xeph, accompanied by a lone dromite.  Perhaps we try stealth for once.

Indeed, Tolly said, and even if they are aware of us, then perhaps our attempts to be sneaky will amuse Kristyan so much that he’ll be helpless with laughter when we find him.

	They approached the tower and soon spotted the only entrance, a thick, narrow door in the base.  After Osborn examined it and found nothing unusual, Arrie pushed open the door, then stepped aside to let the others in.

	The door opened into a relatively small, crescent-shaped space occupied by a pair of armored half-giants, wielding crystalline glaives.  They cast confused looks around as Arrie and the others filed in, but did not react with undue alarm at the appearance of a band of xeph.

	“A dream-storm has driven us here,” Arrie mumbled to the half-giants.  “We seek shelter.”

	“We weren’t aware of any patrols in the area,” one of the half-giants said.

	“You weren’t supposed to be,” Arrie replied.  “But something out there is disturbed, and we felt it best to withdraw rather than confront it.  Especially with everyone on alert already.”

	“All right,” the guard sighed.  “You can stay here until the storm blows over.”

	Autumn piped up.  “Is there somewhere we can stay besides the entrance?”

	The guard shook his head.  “Not without orders from Kristyan.  No one’s allowed inside.”

	Autumn stepped up and addressed the half-giant.  “We’re not asking to be put up in quarters.  An out of the way storeroom will do.  We have very little psionic power available between the eight of us right now; should there be an attack, we’ll be of little aid to you if we are hanging about in this room.  As soon as we’re able to move on, we will.”

	The guard scratched at his hair, thinking.  “You promise you’ll stay put?”

	“Of course,” Arrie said.

	The guard turned and opened the door behind him.  “There’s an empty room on the fourth floor you can use.  Be gone as soon as you can.”  He began heading up the stairs, not waiting for the ‘patrol’ to follow.

Wow, Yuri said to Autumn as they ascended, I didn’t know you were such an accomplished liar.


I don’t lie, the sentinel replied.  Nothing I said was false.

	They were led around on a staircase that spiraled up the outer wall of the tower, Arrie leading the way.  The stairs were mostly enclosed, except where they opened onto landings on each level.  But as they approached the fourth level, Arrie suddenly began to feel a strange sensation; it was a sense of peace, of rightness.  There was a resonance with the psionic core of her mind, a feeling of confidence.

	The effect on the others was less tranquil.  Each winced as they climbed the stairs and their minds were assaulted with a sound like claws on glass.  Blood began trickling out of Yuri’s ears; when the half-giant guard noticed this, Arrie rushed over to her.

	“The dream-storm has destabilized you!” she said, forcing panic in her voice.  “You need to lie down now!”

	Arrie hustled everyone into the room, a small, chamber with no features other than a cluster of crystals in the corner.  After a growled warning to stay put, the guard closed the door and marched down the stairs.

	Several members of the party were now trickling blood from their ears, eyes, and noses.  Let’s find somewhere else to be, Tolly suggested.

Whatever’s causing this, it’s not those crystals, Kyle said.  I suspect we’re close to that giant floating orb we saw outside.

There are stairs going up, Arrie said.  I suspect that’s where we have to go, but that’ll put us closer to that orb.

We may just have to push through it, Tolly said.

I saw a portal on the second level, Osborn said. To the Ethereal, I think.  Maybe we can get around another way.

Let’s try the portal first, then, Arrie said.  Worst case, we have to backtrack.

	They proceeded down the stairs, almost immediately feeling relief as they dropped out of the orb’s range.  Osborn, who moved ahead to scout, came to the second story landing and immediately crouched down, even though he was invisible.  With his magical blindfold, he could sense a presence in the far corner, some being that was invisible like himself.  The portal he’d seen was near the center of the room.  After sending a telepathic warning to the rest of the group, Osborn moved around and took up a position to one side, waiting while the rest of the group got into position.

	The ambush took only seconds to execute.  A pair of Osborn’s daggers flew out of nowhere and pierced the invisible guardian, who grunted in pain.  It cast a spell in response, and a force wall bisected the room, cutting across the stairwell to block off the stairs heading to the main level.  Unfortunately for him, it did not cut off the stairway above.   

	A few seconds later, Yuri was cleaning dark ichor from her greatspear, while Kyle went over the corpse of the medusa sorcerer.   The force wall that cut them off from the portal lasted only another minute.  Osborn came back to report that the guards downstairs had apparently not heard the battle, thanks to the wall of force.  Kyle came up with a ring and a small red crystal.  He handed the ring to Autumn, explaining that it would help her see invisible beings, and then offered the crystal to Tolly.
You know I don’t use psionic items, Tolly said.
It’s not psionic, it’s magical.  It’s an augment crystal – they’re extremely rare post-Cataclysm.  This was attached to the medusa’s bow; I suspect that it provides some sort of fire enhancement to a weapon.

I’ll take it! Osborn said.  He picked up the offered crystal and stuck it to the pommel of his short sword.

	The party hid the body of the medusa, then proceeded into the portal.  They emerged into a tiny room, barely big enough for a person to lie down in.  A hole in the ceiling was the only way out.  Yuri began to retrieve her rope, but Kyle stopped her.

No gravity on the Ethereal, he explained, as he rose into the air.

	The air around them seemed misty, but not damp, and to their surprise they found that the walls were quite solid around them; whoever had built the tower had brought materials through the portal.  The hole led upward into a slightly larger room, with no exits, but the wall on the far end was hazy and insubstantial.  Osborn carefully poked his head through the wall, and announced the presence of another hole in the ceiling.

	As Osborn rose up through the hole, however, he began to get that claws-on-glass sensation in his mind.  He drifted down again, cursing.

Let me go first, Arrie suggested.  She rose up through the hole and looked around.  She was in a long, narrow hallway, that curved slightly.  Behind her about fifteen feet, she saw another hole in the ceiling.  But up ahead, the walls only rose about halfway up from the floor, and outside to the left she saw a gigantic pulsating orb of energy.

Guys, that orb is right here, she said.  I’m going to keep going to see how far you all have to go to get past it.

	But as she moved, she caught a flicker of movement near the orb.  She approached cautiously, wanting to make sure that they weren’t attacked from behind on the way through.  She looked at the orb, and saw a pair of glowing red eyes staring back at her.

	Mentally crying out in alarm, she stepped back as an energy form poured out of the orb, and approached her with clear malice.  Arrie dropped back down through the hole.

So, we’re cut off, I take it?  Tolly asked.

Pretty much, Arrie replied.

Perhaps we should go back to the Dream Realm, the Ardaran suggested.

That may not help.  The orb exists in both worlds; most likely we’d end up facing this creature there as well.  Arrie looked up through the hole.  I have an idea.  If we distract it, we can make it to the next hole in the ceiling.  I’ll stay back while you all go through; the orb’s power doesn’t harm me, and I’m used to being knocked around. 

	The creature was waiting for them as they sprang up out of the hole.  Osborn and Yuri were the first up, charging in quickly in the hopes of pushing the beast back enough to give the others room to maneuver.  The others moved their way up to form a defensive line, and then Arrie moved to the front.

	“Will you guys get moving?” she shouted, not bothering with using telepathy, as she maneuvered to intercept the beast’s lashing tendrils.  One of the tentacles struck her, and she was struck with psionic feedback that sapped her vitality.  Autumn was also struck by a tendril, with similar effects.  Seeing the debilitating effects of the attacks, Nidru stepped forward and healed them.

	But then the orb pulsed, and tendrils of energy lashed out from its surface, striking everyone in the head and lashing out at their very sense of being.  Everyone reeled from the mental shock, except for Autumn, who drew into her deepest convictions to retain her own sense of identity.

	“Now!” Arrie shouted through gritted teeth.

	Kyle was the first to comply, moving past the melee and shooting up into the next level.  He came up in a corridor with a large door on one wall, along with another hole in the ceiling.  An arcane glyph was carved into the door, and Kyle studied it for a moment before Yuri and Tolly shot up through the hole, with the others not far behind.

Autumn attacked and the creature dissipated, Yuri said to the wizard, but I think it was starting to reform, or another one was coming out of the orb.  Everyone should be on this level soon.

This mark belongs to a elven sorcerer that I thought died decades ago, Kyle commented.  His name was Umaerh.  He focused a lot on necromantic magics.

He’s not one of Herion’s cousins, is he? Osborn asked as he came up through the hole.

	Yuri suddenly clutched at her head and stifled a scream as another energy tendril arced up through the hole and struck her.  “I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet,” she grunted, not able to concentrate enough to communicate mentally.

	As soon as Arrie appeared in the hole, battering away tendrils with her greatsword, everyone began to move upward, toward a second opening in the ceiling.  Yuri was the first one through this time, floating up into another narrow chamber with a door set into the far wall.  The wall to her left was hazy and insubstantial.  She kept a cautious eye on that wall as the others came up to join her, but was relieved when she realized that the pressure on her psyche from the orb had subsided.  Smoke rose from Kyle’s hair as he came up, having been blasted by the orb before departing.

That’s much better, Autumn said, as she noticed the pain in her head easing.

	Arrie was the last one up, bruised and battered.  That was unpleasant, she said.

I imagine it was, Autumn replied sarcastically.


----------



## Delemental

A quick survey of the room revealed that the door was warded by a pair of glyphs, one set to kill whoever opened it, the other set to affect everyone else in the room.  The insubstantial wall opposite it hid a small corner, with another hole leading upward.  It took Osborn only a few minutes to counteract the glyphs, and once it was safe to open the door revealed another chamber that was filled with all manner of crystals, books, scrolls, and other psionic implements.

Some sort of lab, Kyle guessed.

	Some of the books and scrolls were unloaded into Autumn’s portable hole, and then the party went through the ethereal wall and up to the next room.  It led to another small, square chamber, with another hazy wall in front of them and a shimmering portal to their right.

I think this leads back to the material world, Tolly said, examining the portal.

Then should we use it, or continue on? Autumn asked.

Well, let’s at least see what’s on the other side of this wall, Kyle said.  He stuck his head through the wall, but moments later he cried out and staggered back, blood streaming from two deep gashes in his head.  Yuri reached out with the end of her spear and quickly pushed the wizard back, even as Osborn, Autumn, and Arrie leapt through the wall to confront Kyle’s assailants.  They were faced by a pair of half-giants wielding massive glaives.  Autumn and Osborn paired up against one, while Arrie attacked the second with her spiked chain, followed closely by Tolly, who had converted his soulsteel into a long spear to compensate for the long reach of the glaives.

	Arrie’s chain whipped out and left a long gash on the half-giant’s midsection.  Roaring in pair, the guard brought his glaive around in an arc that connected with the whirling weapon, snapping it cleanly in two.  The other guard made a similar attempt with Autumn’s falchion, but the sentinel parried the blow, and then with a backhand sweep decapitated the half-giant.  The other guard, who was surprised to learn that breaking Arrie’s weapon had done little to deter her attack, swept aside the pair of short chains flailing at him and bolted for a door on the far wall, with the rest of the Legacy in pursuit.  Kyle, having been healed by Lajila, stepped through and launched a _fireball _at the fleeing giant, even as the weapons of the rest of the party landed devastating blows.  Only through the use of his own psionic power was the half-giant able to remain on his feet and make it to another door.  Just as he pulled the door open, Tolly’s spear struck him in the back, and then a volley of _magic missiles_ from Kyle sent him to his death.

	Tolly peered into the chamber beyond where the guard had fallen.  In the far corner stood a massive construct made entirely of red crystal, which was beginning to stir.  He could see that there was nothing else in the room that would warrant a battle with the construct, so Tolly pulled the door closed, leaving the body of the guard inside with the crystal golem.

You sure that door will hold? Yuri asked after Tolly relayed what he had seen to the others.  They could hear the golem pounding against the door behind them.

It doesn’t matter, he replied.  The golem is too large to fit through the doorway.

	They found another hole in the ceiling in the room where the guards had been stationed, but unlike the others, a strange, greenish glow emanated faintly from above.

I think we should check that out, suggested Arrie.

	One by one, they floated up to the next level.  Unlike the rest of the tower, the chamber they entered was a huge, roughly triangular chamber with arched ceilings twenty feet high.  The room was decorated from floor to ceiling with gilded statues, bas reliefs, and tapestries that looked like they had been looted from every major temple in Aelfenn, but all the décor depicted icons and symbols revering psionics.  Stained-glass panels near the ceiling depicted Silko’s rise to power in the pre-Cataclysm days, including the vanquishing of a blank-faced deific figure that could only be the Consort, and another depicting Silko triumphant over the other gods of their world.

	At the apex of the chamber, a large crystal throne sat atop a raised platform.  A figure sat in the throne, eyes closed.  His hair was jet black, and his features youthful.  He was dressed in exquisite robes of fine silk and gold thread.  At the base of the platform knelt two robed and hooded figures, one male and one female, facing each other.  Hovering above the throne was a single massive green crystal, triangular in shape, which glowed brightly.

Someone thinks highly of themselves, Osborn commented.

Heresy, Tolly growled.

How can there be heresy if there are no gods? said a calm voice, intruding into the Legacy’s telepathic conversation.  The voice clearly belonged to the figure on the throne.

	The Legacy slowly began moving into the chamber, spreading out from the hole they had arrived from.  “There are still gods, you realize,” Tolly said aloud.

For now.

	"So, who do we have the honor of addressing?" Yuri asked.

	They all heard a mental sigh.  A shame that after all this time we’ve pursued each other, you wouldn’t know me when we met.

	“Kristyan, I presume,” Kyle said.

	The figure on the throne nodded his head.

	Arrie stepped forward.  “Where are they, Kristyan?  You know who I’m talking about.”

You will be able to see them soon, Kristyan told her.  Now, as I was saying, how can there be heresy when the gods no longer exist?

	“You define the concept too narrowly,” Tolly said.  “Your actions are an abomination to all life, and to the principles embodied by the gods, regardless of their physical forms.”

My actions are necessary to free us all, Kristyan replied.  And once I have drained Silko’s power, I will be able to reshape the world as it should be.

	“How?” Kyle asked.

	Kristyan smiled.  I will bring Aelfenn _here_.

	“You will destroy Aelfenn in the attempt, and you will be left with nothing!” Tolly shouted.  “You are like a child playing with his father’s sword, who doesn’t realize that his play brings death!”

You have no understanding of what I am doing, Kristyan said.  You mortals need to grow up.  You have lived under the yoke of the gods for too long, and they will not allow you to mature and move beyond them.  Instead, like poor parents, they would keep you under their wing for eternity.

	“So instead, you offer us servitude under you?” Arrie asked.  “Doesn’t sound like much of a trade.”

I do not demand blind obedience, only respect, Kristyan said.  Though at first I will have to take a firm, guiding hand in leading the sentient races to a new age, I will be a far better parent that Erito and her ilk ever were.  I will allow you to grow and choose as you will.

	“Until that choice no longer includes seeing you as the supreme being,” Arrie muttered. 

	Kristyan regarded the Legacy for a few moments.  I suppose that I should be a courteous host and offer you the chance to join my cause.  What would convince you to work for me?

	“What are you offering?” Yuri asked.

Anything you desire.  Images suddenly filled Yuri’s mind, showing her every one of her wants and desires fulfilled, no matter how extreme, or decadent.  She even saw a vision of herself as the ruler of her own world.

	Yuri thought back at Kristyan.  I want my world back the way it was before, with the gods restored.

	Kristyan smiled sadly at her.  That I will not do.  I would be remiss were I to deny you the opportunity for growth you desperately need.

Then see?  You really aren’t willing to give me anything I want.

	Arrie stepped forward again.  “This debate is pointless.  You won’t convince us that your side is right, and we can’t convince you that what you’re doing is going to destroy reality.  I think this is the time when we start trying to kill each other.”

I suppose it is, Kristyan said.


----------



## Delemental

I suppose it is, Kristyan said.  He opened his eyes, which were glowing the same green as the crystal over his head.  The two acolytes also opened their eyes, and a shimmering emerald filed suddenly sprang up around Kristyan’s throne and the triangular crystal.  At the same time, an invisible shape manifested itself in the center of the chamber, which to those with the ability to see it appeared as a massive, spiky, four-limbed monstrosity composed entirely of ectoplasm.  Another pair of half-giant guards moved out from behind the throne and took up positions next to the two acolytes.

	The Legacy also flew into motion.  Kyle uttered a few short words, and suddenly a flurry of magic exploded all around him as several contingent spells activated and a_ time stop_ went into effect.  After enhancing himself and the party with defensive spells, Kyle attempted to entrap the astral construct in a _resilient sphere_, but was unable to contain it, and then attempted to channel a dispelling through his staff to bring down the force field.  To his surprise, Kyle realized that Kristyan was tracking his movements, even during the effects of the _time stop_, and when he attempted to dispel the barrier, a moment’s concentration from the psion disrupted his effort.  Kyle staggered a step, overwhelmed by the massive amount of magic he had just channeled in a short time.

	Yuri leapt to engage the male acolyte before the half-giant could get into position, burying her spear into his shoulder and sending a pulse of electrical and sonic energy into him.  Though the head of the spear bit into flesh, Yuri saw that the elemental energy dissipated harmlessly.  She jumped back to avoid the sweep of the guard’s glaive.

	The astral construct swept its huge claws at Autumn, barely missing the sentinel.  Nidru attempted an_ invisibility purge_, but the construct was apparently immune to the spell and its location was not revealed.  Unfortunately, Nidru’s spell did reveal Osborn, who was attempting to move up stealthily to the female acolyte.  Uttering a curse, Nidru ended the spell.  Meanwhile, her sister invoked Krüsh’s power to bolster the party’s fighting prowess.  Tolly attempted to summon an earth monolith to join the battle, but his spell was disrupted when a strange, four-armed insectoid creature leapt out from its hiding place and slashed at him with a longspear.  The insectoid’s chitin-like shell shifted colors as it moved, blending in with its surroundings.

	Autumn and the astral construct continued to exchange blows, though Autumn seemed to be getting the worse end of the deal until a timely _mass heal_ from Nidru.  The half-giant guards attacked Yuri and Osborn, and Arrie went after the insectoid while Tolly bolstered himself with _iron body_.  Kyle unleashed a _glitterdust _on both the insectoid and the construct when they moved close to each other, which blinded neither but revealed their location to everyone.  Arrie’s greatspear bit into the side of the insectoid, but she herself recoiled in pain as the creature’s psionic power manifested, sending painful feedback up her weapon and into the warrior.  Gritting her teeth, Arrie put everything she had into disrupting the power, and barely succeeded.  Lajila summoned up a miniature volcanic eruption which peppered the male acolyte and his guard with lava, but the spell bounced off Kristyan’s shield without effect.  The psion looked around the room, and the crystal over his head pulsed.  Cries of pain echoed throughout the chamber as everyone in the Legacy felt their life-force forcibly ripped from them.

	The male acolyte attempted to target Lajila with a psionic power intended to induce panic in her, but the priestess ignored it, having been bolstered by Tolly’s _heroes’ feast_ before they’d entered the citadel.  His female counterpart invoked a bolt of chilling cold against Yuri, numbing her joints as she leapt back and forth to attack.  As the Sargian dragoon moved in again, she was caught in Kristyan’s gaze.  Everyone watched in horror as a double of Yuri seemed to pull out of her body, formed from shadow and blood, until there were two Yuris standing there, nearly identical in appearance.   The real Yuri could only stare, drained by the ordeal, but then gripped her longspear tightly, and with a yell of rage, she leapt into the air and came down upon the prone half-giant, impaling him.  At almost the same time, the false Yuri leapt at Nidru, barely missing her.

	Kyle gestured at the female acolyte, who promptly vanished into a _maze_.  He then summoned up a mass of _black tentacles_ with a quick word, which enveloped the male acolyte, his guard, and the astral construct, though the tentacles were unable to restrain the huge beast.  He finally flew over to the field enveloping Kristyan, and erected a _prismatic sphere_ around himself.  Though the sphere’s radius didn’t pass beyond the psychic barrier, it did enclose the wizard in a deadly barrier from all other directions.

	I need a private space to work in, Kyle said over the telepathic link.

	Nidru blasted Shadow Yuri with a_ sound lance_ followed by another _earth reaver_, and Lajila matched her sister’s sonic attack and then followed it with _hypothermia_.  Moments later the female acolyte reappeared from the maze, and the two psionic acolytes retaliated with bolts of fire and electricity.  Meanwhile, the thri-kreen leapt at Tolly, invoking a power as it moved in that gave its carapace the same dull metallic sheen that Tolly’s _iron body_ had given the Ardaran.  Narrowly avoiding an attempt by Tolly to implode the four-armed being, its claws raked Tolly’s chest.  It then reeled as it was struck by Arrie’s enormous sword, which had been altered to allow her to penetrate the thri-kreen’s iron skin.

	Kristyan gave Osborn an imperious glare, causing his brain to swell painfully inside his skull.  The hin was able to break free of the power moments before his brain liquefied entirely, but his vision still swam and was tinged with red, and he felt a warm fluid dripping from both ears.

	Yuri prepared herself for another charge, pausing only momentarily when she thought she heard some sort of commotion coming from the floors below.  As she leapt into the air after the male acolyte, she saw her shadowy counterpart going after Lajila, who invoked another mass healing spell a split second before she was struck.  Yuri came down upon the acolyte, taking a blast of psychic power as she landed and thrust her spear into the psion’s chest, killing her.  As the acolyte collapsed, everyone saw the field surrounding Kristyan flicker and weaken.  On the other side of the chamber, Osborn nimbly made his way through the field of tentacles and hurled several daggers into the remaining half-giant guard, dropping him.

	Autumn was raked by the construct’s huge claws again, crying out in pain.  She was receiving the worst of the ongoing exchange between the sentinel and the construct, and wasn’t sure how long she could endure.  Fortunately, both Osborn and Arrie came to her aid, and between them managed to bring down the construct.  Finally free to move about, Autumn made he way over to the male acolyte, who had just used his powers to free himself from the tentacles, and casually lopped off his head.

	With a cry of surprise, Kristyan dove to one side as the field surrounding him collapsed, and Kyle’s _prismatic sphere_ snapped closed, neatly bisecting the throne where the psion had once sat.  Kyle quickly moved out of the sphere to block Kristyan’s movement, trapping him between the rainbow-colored globe and the field of black tentacles.  Invoking quickened spells to help his aim, Kyle reached out with a hand charged with necrotic power and transferred a large portion of Kristyan’s life force into himself, and then struck him with bolts of negative energy that further sapped his life energy.  A moment later, Tolly appeared behind Kristyan and slammed into the psion with his soulsteel hammer.  Beset, and with nowhere to turn, Kristyan invoked the power he’d used against Yuri on Tolly, pulling a duplicate out of the priest to help defend him.  The duplicate, however, was unarmed – despite Kristyan’s prodigious power, he could not replicate a holy relic of Ardara.

	The floor at the far end of the chamber erupted, leaving a gaping, rubble-strewn hole where the entry had once been.  Climbing up into the chapel came a pair of huge trolls, with crystals embedded in their flesh, and four more half-giant guards.  These six were in a pitched battle with a pair of figures that the Legacy recognized as Herion and Lanara.  The party immediately turned to aid them, with Lajila enhancing their weapons with brilliant energy, and Yuri leaping in to relieve the embattled bard.  Arrie used her magical cloak to exchange places with her husband after he received a vicious series of attacks from the half-giants, allowing him to receive healing while she engaged Kristyan’s minions.

	Autumn flew up to join the battle against Kristyan as Tolly exchanged dispellings with his shadowy counterpart, both of them losing valuable defensive spells.  Kristyan tried to destroy Kyle’s mind, but he resisted the power and kept fighting, hitting the psion with a dispelling channeled through his staff that removed one of his defensive powers.  Snarling, Kristyan called upon the crystal overhead, drawing emerald green energy into himself and then sending it out in an explosive blast that tore at the flesh of everyone around him.

	Nidru invoked a field of _blistering radiance_ in the corner of the room where Yuri and Arrie fought, knowing that both had been rendered immune to fire before the battle.  The half-giants and trolls, scorched by the divine power, were forced to abandon their positions, pursued by the two warrior women.  The thri-kreen, who had tried to engage Lanara to silence her inspiring song, suddenly changed direction and leapt at Kyle, raking his claws into the wizard’s back.  Herion, who was moving up to aid the battle against Kristyan, cast a _telekinesis _spell and shoved the thri-kreen into the _prismatic sphere_, frying the insect warrior.

	Slowly, the tide of battle swung in favor of the Legacy.  Yuri managed to take down the two trolls, injuring them so badly that it would take them hours to regenerate, while Arrie carved her way through the half-giants.  Osborn attacked Tolly’s shadowy duplicate, finally killing it and restoring Tolly to full strength, while Kyle stunned Kristyan himself with an electrical ray.  As Osborn moved in to join the battle against Kristyan, and Lanara and the two priestesses of Krüsh went to help finish off the guards, Herion stepped back and cast a _shatter _spell on the green crystal.

	The crystal exploded, as did the roof above their heads.  As did the sky above that.

	Green energy blasted skyward, pulled out of Kristyan as he screamed in uncomprehending rage.  The sky whirled with a nearly infinite combination of colors, including some impossible colors.  Rents opened in the sky, and through them they could see places in the material world; some were familiar parts of their home continent, some were of a blasted wasteland they assumed was the Tauric Empire, and some of a foreign land that could have been the lands of the Xhintai, or even some unexplored continent.  They all felt a rumbling through their feet as the power holding the Crystal Citadel together began to dissipate.

	The Legacy looked down at Kristyan, who had dropped to his knees, appearing nearly comatose.  Autumn stepped forward, her blade in hand.

	“For those who have suffered and died for your ambitions,” she said, and brought her blade down.

	The Legacy stood in silent contemplation of all that had come to pass, until the trembling of the citadel forced them out of their reverie.  Rising up into the air by the power of will alone, they made their way toward the rents in the sky, passing through one into the real world, even as the essence of the Dream Realm poured through.

-------------------------------------

And there it is, the last tabletop session of the campaign.  I'll wrap this all up at some point in the near future with an epilogue.


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## Delemental

Okay, it's now been several months since I last looked at this Story Hour.  I had intended on posting an epilogue to wrap things up, but circumstances have prevented that.  So I figure that it's about time that I did officially what all of you probably have already assumed was done already - close this thread out.

I appreciate everyone who took the time to read this, and comment on it.  It was a lot of fun to play, but it's time to put Aelfenn to rest.

But my fans need not fret!  Both of you will be pleased to know that I have been keeping a record of our newest campaign, an Exalted game, and I intend to begin posting those games here soon, possibly at the beginning of the year.  So keep an eye out for it.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays to you all.


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