Entry 4/20/13

Chapter 34: Research and Worry

It’s been two weeks!  I haven’t been able to contact the group and I am going out of my mind with worry!  I checked in with Sheila and Grusk in Spearrow and found out that the former managed to heal the latter (with assistance from Rish) from a Mummy Rot disease!  Someone really did try to kill Grusk and from what I can tell, the group left the village and headed back north, but even checking in Hammerfell and Perch, I haven’t been able to find out any information.  I really hope they didn’t move on to Elb without me!

Oh, that reminds me, I’ve discovered where most of Fennic’s teleport arches go!   Obviously the three locations I mentioned already, but also three apartments in Stormguard which are all warded so their use can’t be detected.  Another arch led to a cabin on the ground of the Starfire Winery.  I met with the owner there to inform him of Fennic’s death.  He was a very pleasant elf named Raz, who besides making some truly wonderful wine, was a wizard who often worked with Fennic.   His specialization in Destruction-type spells made him a force to be reckoned with and he even made some of the magical traps guarding the Vault in Spearrow.  I will keep him in mind if any of my group needs to enchant their weapons with more destructive magic.

Another arch leads to a jungle located on the border between Lilly’s homeland of Rolonia and Grundo.  Other than a general impression that he enjoyed the hospitality of the area, I assume he went there for exotic materials for spells or possibly some of the wildlife there.   In his journals, I also found out that he did a lot of bounty-hunting for the nearby kingdoms.  I am glad that he wasn’t the one put onto Lilly’s trail.  That would have been much more dangerous than the dark paladin we encountered and I fear that we would not have fared so well.

The next arch was definitely used for relaxation.  It led to a cabin on a tropical island.  The sea and surf was quite beautiful and relaxing.  I am going to need to get rid of most of the clothing he left behind.  I shudder to imagine him in such skimpy attire and judging by the amount of female “clothing”, he must have brought company here often.

Speaking of females, the next arch I investigated made my stomach crawl.  It led to an unoccupied room in the lady’s dormitory of the Forthwright School.  There had been rumors of an invisible lover that could sometimes be found in the room and a number of sexually-adventurous young women had become pregnant after their “ghostly” encounters.  I made sure that none of children sired by Oslo’s deceased apprentice were in need of aid.  The girls were all of noble houses at least so the children would never want for anything.  Fennic was an amazing mage, but a despicable person.

The next arch I used led to a “Familiar Farm” where they raised many wondrous and magical creatures.  The staff was all friendly and accommodating and I spent a couple of days learning about the place and its wondrous inhabitants.  Someday, I plan to find a familiar of my own – something that can fly!

There were five other arches that I discovered, including one that had no destination set as of yet, but I didn’t feel comfortable exploring them and I had other things that I needed to research until I could reach my friends again.  I went through Fennic’s notes regarding the “dark constellations” that he studied in his Observatory.  As I looked at his diagrams, I realized that he had made an error with some of the runes.  They were the same symbol, but rotated or tilted.  In studying the runes in detail I managed to unlock two magical effects: a rune to make cloth lighter so that it could levitate or even fly and another that created a temporary protective circle.   I plan to study this magic further, as I find the time!

During my time alone, I spent quite a bit of time in Stormguard; though I made sure to travel in disguise when I traveled through the streets.  I missed my disguise wand more than ever, but Fennic had a strange wizard’s had that transformed its wearer into an elderly bearded wizard, complete with arcane robes.  It was a terrible look, but no one would likely recognize me.  During my time in the city, I did two things.  Study and research at the Great Library and I met a girl.

It’s not what you might expect (though, after my rather embarrassing behavior in Hammerfell and my shyness around my female friends, you probably don’t expect much).  Her name is Tal'edesha or just “Tal” for short.  She’s a gnomish tinkerer and engineer and besides being attractive and deadly with a blade, she is extremely intelligent.  We made a deal to produce items similar to the lightning generator that we discovered in the ruins of Ka’Fel.  Everything is in the experimental stage at this point, but I look forward to our progress.  I also started working with her to learn the magic techniques used by her kind to effortlessly maintain illusions.  We sparred a little and her blurring, dexterous style is something that I could definitely adapt to fighting with my scimitar.  Plus her movements make me think that she would be an excellent dance partner, though I might have to use magic to either make her larger or me smaller.  Regardless, I look forward to spending more time with her.

Besides my very pleasant times in Tal’s company, I did quite a lot of research.  There was very little about my family history other than vague mentions of some of the more famous of my ancestors.  There was quite a bit on Oslo, however.  In his (much) younger days, he had been a member of the Wizard’s guild in Stormguard and spent a great deal of time exploring and adventuring.  He found a staff that inspired him to leave and go to the land of my birth, but guild tried to take the staff.  A great fight broke out that left buildings melted, with stone running like hot wax.  Arcane duels set off explosions that rocked homes and even shattered windows in the Lord Knight's palace.  In the end, Oslo was left barely alive but the dock side was in ruins and the wizards guild had to pay blood price to the city and repair all that was damaged.

I didn’t find out anything new on Nicotem but all accounts; the Efreet that he imprisoned was a nasty character.  He is known as a warrior and a con man and though he isn’t powerful by his kind’s standards, he is still considered a Lord.  It is also said that he is quite vengeful so I will be sure to hide my connection to him and the man-djinn that imprisoned him so that he will not decide to take any form of retribution out upon me or my friends.

Researching the Bloodsong guild that Tom’s ghost spoke of yielded very little information.  Asking around, I did learn that they are seekers of knowledge and work to influence events from behind the scenes.  I found stories of how they spent vast fortunes to recover a lost tome or map an uncharted area.  Information appears to be what they value most.  It is also said that they have uncovered rituals that can gift a person with great power in multiple areas of expertise, merged together in one seamless blend of knowledge and ability.  I’ve studied Tom’s information and along with a detailed map of the ancient city and the current city, I have found a route to the location of the notes belonging to the ancient elven wizard, Thendaris.  Once I meet up with my friends, I intend to find these notes and meet the guild.

The last thing I looked into was the vampires that have moved into the city.  Known as the Red Fangs, they are based in the capitol city of Rengar, where they have dominated the shadows for the last three centuries.  I learned that the vampire that we killed was named Edgar White and at nearly a century old, was a high-ranking member of the group.  Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find out anything further about why they have suddenly decided to move on the city of Stormguard.

Though I have enjoyed my time to research, study and make new friends, I really miss my group.  I hope I can get in contact them soon! 

Chapter 35: Reunited!

Finally!  We’ve gotten back together again, but things will never be the same.  It seems I missed out on an epic adventure!  Elb was liberated, Shane has regained all his power and knowledge, Lilly killed Mala’kai, and a new member has joined the group!  I still have to sit down with Shane to get the whole story (now that he is a master Bard once more), but I despair at having missed such important events.

Shane teleported the group inside of Stormguard and I rushed to meet them as quick as I could.  Before I could find them Lilly had disappeared, presumably to meet with her guild, but it saddened me that she couldn’t wait until after I got there.  I greeted others warmly and met the new person, a large man dressed in outlandish armor that I recognized as a style from Lunasigra, the Land of the Full Moon.  His face was covered in a masked that hid his features but his voice was deep and rich.  He introduced himself as Mak-ausk but insisted that I call him Mak. 

Shane had to excuse himself to attend to some business, leaving me alone with Rish, Fasa and Mak.  Not quite sure where to go first, we headed down the street in the general direction of the Silver Dragon, but before we could reach the inn, we were surrounded by a group of heavily armed and armored members of the temple of Irori.  Their orders were to detain Rish and bring her to the temple to face charges of Heresy.  To say I was outraged is an understatement and I came to her defense immediately, but there was nothing I could say.  We were all escorted back to the temple and informed that it would take at least two to three days to have the trial.  The inquisitor in charge was livid at this and I made my own objection because we had need of Rish’s healing skills.  A grizzled paladin came forth, dressed in plain but sturdy armor.  He guaranteed that our friend would receive a fair trial while another young man stepped forward to offer his services as a cleric.

Seeing no other option available to us, we departed and I led the group back to the apartment in the low quarter.  Though it was the shabbiest in appearance, it was also the easiest to get to unobtrusively.  Mak, Fasa and I talked with the new cleric by the name of Chad as we walked and eventually ran into Lilly who was leading a man in armor.  She introduced him as Warren, a paladin who was here to hunt the Red Fangs.  We reached the place and went inside to chat and get to know each other until there was an urgent knock on the door.

Since no one was supposed to know this place was occupied, I made sure everyone had weapons ready as I opened the door.  There stood a young man with dark hair and dark, angry eyes.   He was handsome and had darkly-tanned skin, but I couldn’t tell where he was from.  Standing the same height as me, he narrowed his eyes and I could see wariness in his tense stance.  He introduced himself as Will and said that Oslo sent him but before he could say much more than that, there was a crash and a dark figure hurtled in through the window.  Another followed him in, but we engaged the pair and disabled them quickly: one of them was terribly wounded by Will and Mak and the other was held by Chad’s magic.   Thanks to Fasa, no others managed to get inside; though they did try.  

We tied up the two humans to interrogate them.  Chad stabilized injured man’s wounds and in his weakened condition, he was much more cooperative in answering our questions.  The men, including more outside that Lilly had taken care of, were hired by the Red Fangs and sent by a vampire named Gregory Bones.  Before they could say anything further, we heard a crash in the hallway.  Standing in the shadows was a tall, menacing figure.  The gleam of red eyes and the glint of sharp, white teeth told us all we needed to know of our visitor.

He charged at us, but thanks to the blessed stakes that Warren had provided, we managed to dispatch him with little to no injuries to our group.  As he puffed away into mist, I used my command of air to capture him in the same flask that Edgar had previously occupied.  In the chaos of combat, the injured man escaped, leaving his partner dead with a stiletto buried in one eye. 

Quite the welcome for everyone!  To rest, I took them all through the arch to Fennic’s tropical island.  In the morning we are going to visit the temples and make sure everything is in order before heading into the ruins beneath the city so everyone is getting some rest.

Chapter 36: Trouble Above, Trouble Below

Our trip into the catacombs was a success!  Although, we have some concerns that we need to follow up on along with a potential business opportunity.  There’s also the Blood Song Guild!  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Let me start with how our morning adventure began that morning.

Temple district was busy as always as we went to the Temple of Irori so Chad and Warren could report the attack last night.  I went along to check on how Rish was doing.  The Paladin and the Inquistor in charge were both livid because the Hierarch was delaying the trial unnecessarily.  While the holy-types checked in, Fasa and Will waited outside.  I watched everyone as I usually do and noticed someone acting very strangely.  He was looking around a little too intently, especially at the more martially-inclined people in the room, almost like he was taking inventory.

I had been hearing rumors of paladin and other Faris going missing in the town so I decided to check on this individual.  I walked up to him to ask what he was doing but saw me coming, turned, and ran.   He was caught quickly and after questioning the man, we learned that he and others like him were being paid by some shadowy individuals for reports about the military strengths of the temples. 

Outisde, Fasa and Will had been watching another suspicious acolyte and when we moved toward, him he ran as well.  A chase led through the streets and in the direction he was running, we spotted a cloaked figure wearing a large brimmed hat and standing in the shadows.  He turned and ran too as well, but I called up a stiff breeze and blew the hat off his hand.  He immediately screamed and burst into flame in the morning sun.

The paladins all rushed around the smoking corpse and made sure nothing disturbed the undead creature’s final rest.  Unfortunately, that means I couldn’t add my third vampire to my collection.  Ah well, it’s still for the best.  We learned that the local butcher shop had been compromised by the red fangs and group of them were nesting beneath the place.  The throng of holy warriors made short work of the place and now the streets are just a little safer.  

We left the temple district and headed for the docks to enter the catacombs and began navigating our way through the ancient passages.  Will turned out to be an excellent guide as I immediately got turned around.   Our first difficulty was with a pack of rust monsters, but between the use of range weapons and wood staves our equipment came through unscathed.  The bulk of the group went down with a well-placed lightning ball.

After that, we ran into a wraithlike undead that would have been much more dangerous if not for the fact that we had a cleric and a paladin in our group.  We carefully avoided a gloomdrake, continuing through the tunnels and we didn’t encounter anything else of interest until Will spotted a dead body wedged into an alcove.  We found letters on the corpse between two individuals, Melarkius and Xris who are planning an assassination attempt against the Lord Knight at his upcoming birthday celebration.  As soon as possible, I will be delivering these letters to the Lord Knight and finding out who these people are.

Soon after finding the body, we encountered a group of Duergar.  They seemed to be focused on studying the support columns of the catacombs.  Consulting the maps I brought, we realized that the supports would likely collapse major portions of the city if they sabotaged them .  I don’t know if these dark dwarves are in league with the mysterious assassins but it seems too great a coincidence.

We set up an ambush for the group and devastated them with our initial attack.  Will proved to be a very competent archer and Mak used his blades to inflict terrible wounds.   I delivered a strike to one that I didn’t know I was capable of.  I practically cut the dwarf in half and the lightning unleashed by the spell stored in my scimitar finished him off.  One of the survivors of our ambush pulled out a small whistle and called for reinforcements.  A much larger group arrived and the fight continued in earnest.  There were a number of wounds on our group, but we managed to finish them off and even capture one of them.  Thanks to Chad’s communication spell, I was able to interrogate him and learned that they were sent here to map the region so they could hold the city ransom or possible just conquer it. They had been working for a year and half and have a tunnel under the northwest part of town that connecting to their lands.

Seeing no other option, we dispatched our prisoner and moved on.  Nothing else of note occurred until we reached the ruins of the manor house of Thendaris.  The building was mostly intact and quite impressive.  I took some notes, made some sketches and committed as much about the place as I could to memory.  Seeing this building, still standing after thousands of year, is an opportunity of a lifetime.  We searched the interior and found a library.  Most of the books and parchments were little more than dust but I found the notes in a protective case, still intact.  I used mending on the papers to make sure they wouldn’t crumble at my touch and looked them over.

They described a process to combine bardic music effects, something that I will definitely want to peruse in more detail if the Blood Song Guild will allow me.  After storing them carefully, I searched some more and found a spellbook belonging to the Wizard King.  This could be worth a fortune!  I intend to contact the Wizard’s Guild to see if they will purchase the volume; after I study it thoroughly, of course.  Although, Oslo may want to look at it as well, so perhaps I will wait to see what he wishes.

Still exhausted from our trek, we thought it prudent to rest here in the manor house.  When we are ready to move on, we will head to the surface and deal with everything we found out.

Chapter 37:  The Blood Song Guild

My head is swimming with knowledge and power!  I don’t know how long it will take for me to sort through it all.  I’m sure my fellow Guild members feel the same, but I am getting ahead of myself.  Writing this out does help sort through the chaotic maelstrom in my mind so I will describe what we’ve been through.

After resting in the Thendaris' house, we found a different route to the surface and emerged from a grate in the floor of a magic shop.  An elderly woman flared with arcane power at the intrusion, but fascination and bemusement won out over hostility.  We thanked the woman for her time and went on her way.  Though, I will have to return there to peruse her wares.  She may even be interested in the route down to the manor house so she can look through the ancient place.  Of course the Blood Song may wish to have exclusive access.  <writing trails off to indecipherable scribbles>

I apologize, let me continue.  Since our subterranean trek had taken almost three days, we went to Irori’s temple first to check on the status of Rish’s trial.  To our surprise and delight, the trial was complete and she had been exonerated of any charges.   The paladin had served as an excellent defender for which he will always have my thanks.   Once we had Rish back with us and said goodbye to Chad and Warren, we headed to the Purple Parrot tavern to meet the Blood Song Guild.

We were directed to an upstairs room and were met by a very distinct looking half elf who introduced himself as Alair.  Dressed in leathers, he was skinny, even more so than I but slightly taller.  He had green eyes and green hair as well while his skin was dark, almost the color of tree bark.  After giving him the notes, he was impressed and offered us membership in their ranks.  During a brief ceremony,  I distinctly saw the ghost of Tom Nice in the back of the room.  After it was finished, Alair took us into a private room and asked us if we wished to partake of the ritual of joining.

He told us that he was a druid and wizard and the ritual allowed him to advance in each distinct set of skills and abilities as a seamless hole.  The ritual would allow us to do the same.   Since Lilly and Fasa had only one set of skills that they trained, the process would do little for them, but for me, Will, Mak, and Rish, the ritual could be very useful indeed.

One by one were led to another room in the complex.  Being the only woman present (and I assume at some unheard urging from her god), Rish went first.   I never saw her leave the room and Alair returned to lead me inside.  After getting confirmation that I was definitely committed to this, he nodded and left the room.  The walls were circular and a dark red in color and the only furnishings in the room were two large mirrors.  Standing well over six feet tall, the perfectly polished surfaces were framed by an ornate swirling pattern of gold, copper and silver.  Suspended from the exact center of ceiling was a flickering lamp that, in contrast to the mirrors, was plain unadorned steel.  Without realizing I had even moved, I found myself standing between the mirrors, directly into the lamp. I could feel the pulse and hum of magic in the room but before I could reach out with my senses to study them a spectral voice echoed through the room. 

“Look to your left.”  I did so and saw the mirror but the surface was blank.  “Picture in your mind what it is to be a bard.”  As I did, images began to appear in the mirror hazy at first, but with increasing clarity and detail: singing in a crowded tavern, pouring over musty tomes, sweeping my scimitar in a practiced, complex pattern, smiling, laughing, and commanding.

The voice came back again, “Look to your right and picture what it is to be a sorcerer.”  Again the blank surface swirled and I saw flashes of lightning and swirling winds and in the center of the storm was me, hovering in mid-air, my hair whipping around my face, my eyes glowing with electric fury.

“Now look straight ahead and hold the images in your mind.”  As I complied, the mirrors rose off the floor and slowly began to rotate around me.  As each one passed in front of me, there was a flash and I was left with an image blazing in my eyes, like the glow remaining after looking at a bright light.  Faster and fast, the mirrors spun and the images became an indistinct blur: Singing, Casting, Dancing, Laughing, Whirling a staff, Reading a Book.

Then with an explosion of brilliance, the mirrors shattered and fragments of glass showered me from all sides.  They shards didn’t cut my skin; however, they embedded themselves inside of me, shredding my very soul.  As I fought to stop myself from screaming in agony, a warm soft radiance cascaded down around me.  I looked up to see the lantern giving off a study warm glow and the light bathed me and soothed me.  I can only describe the sensation as that of knitting my soul together once again, but now stronger than ever.

Knowledge and power grew inside me, stronger as both a bard and a sorcerer and equal in skill and ability.  Spells flooded into my mind and as well secrets unknown to me before I entered this chamber.  Weariness swept through me and I collapsed to the floor.  I had a vague sensation of being lifted and carried but darkness claimed me until I awoke in a soft, warm bed.

I stumbled out of the room and staggered into the common room of the Purple Parrot to find Rish, Will and Mak all there looking as bad as I felt.  Alair walked up to our table once I was seated bearing four tankards of cold, clear water.  He smiled at us, but didn’t say a word before turning and leaving through the front door.

After drinking my water, I pulled out journal and began to write.  The others didn’t say anything but a feeling of camaraderie was present that hadn’t been there when we came here last night.  A new path has opened before us and I am excited to see where it leads.