Entry 4/27/13

Chapter 38: Assassins, Vampires, Elves and other Nasty Things

Life in Stormguard has been relatively uneventful for the last week.  One of the first things I did was study the Wizard King’s spellbook.  I learned that it is one of a series of three such texts and it detailed the use of elemental magics in harmony with the body.  Through the correct rituals it could greatly extend the life of a person.  It also allowed me to delve further into my Djinn bloodline.  If I concentrate, I can now see the currents of air, like swirls of white and blue in the air.    Also, I’m fairly certain that the mild weather we’re experiencing is due to me pushing the storm clouds out to sea.

I decided to sell the book and after wrestling internally, I gave Oslo the option first.  One of the first spells in the book was a brutally effective disenchant spell.  We both decided it would be best not to put that knowledge in the hands of a city which rigidly controls the transport of magical goods into their gates.  He gave me a small coffer with the warning to open it someplace with plenty of room.  I chose one of Fennic’s more plain bedrooms and from the small container poured ten thousand platinum coins.  A good portion of my share went to a couple of items from Inrus’ Shoppe: two new wands, an enchanted haversack, and a set of magic spectacles to help me spot things easier.  With the deal that I worked out with her in trade for a map to Thendaris’ manor house, I got everything at a discount.

Most he others have been busy as well.  Rish helped a group from her temple to clean out the vampire nest that we discovered.  One of the paladins who fought at her side was the very famous Dyer Maskil, a half-dwarf.  Someday, I’d really like to know more about his background.  I’m sure it’s a fascinating tale.

Mak has been focused on making some new armor since his was severely damaged in our trek through the catacombs.  I showed him how to use the archways so he could do his work at the temple of Torag in Hammerfell.  While he is working, he asked me to look for some Elf Fabric to make his over-tunic.

The only problem is that Elf Fabric is only made by gray elves and they are extremely rare outside of their own lands.  They are an extremely private people and humans especially are not welcome.  I found that Fennic had an Archway to gray elf lands, but his notes made it clear that if I were to stop in for a visit, it would likely be the death of me.  The fabric they make is said to be enchanted in such a way that it can double as armor, turning as hard as granite when it is struck.  Even monks can wear it but conflicts with a monastic order broke out over use of the armored robes and now elven assassins enforce a ban of monk usage of their cloth.

I found that there are approximately two dozen gray elves spread throughout the city of Stormguard.  Over half of them were nobles serving as ambassadors, but of the remainder, I found one merchant in the noble quarter.  He was a pleasant enough fellow and to my delight, he actually had Elf Fabric for sale: at one gold per square inch!  To make a tabard for a person of Mak’s stature, the cost came to 750 platinum!  Luckily, he will be paying me back because my funds are almost depleted.

The most important thing on our agenda was warning the Lord Knight about the assassination attempt.  Lilly and I tracked down some information on the people named in the letters we found.  “Xris” was the name of a minor noble of Melody Hall.  I’m not clear of his motivations other than being a pompous, over-indulged child, but then, maybe that’s enough.  I've read and recited many tales about conflicts that were started for even less valid reasons.  The corpse we found was Gren, a man-servant of lord Xris.  Information on Malarkius was even more disturbing.  He is an unparalleled assassin and to make matters worse, he’s a doppelganger as well.  I hope that alerting the Lord Knight in advance will ensure his safety.  There are still almost three weeks left to prepare before the celebration.

After warning the Lord Knight, Rish proposed a job that she needed help with.  She had a lunarian blade in her possession and needed more information about it.   Years ago, when she first came into contact with her god, she hid another similar blade inside an abandoned house north of the city.  I took her to the great library to do some research.  (I swear; it was not a date!)  With the help of one of the guides, we found some very detailed information.  The swords were part of the “Prayer-killer” set.   They were forged in Lunasigra during a time when holy wars were ravaging the country.  The emperor commissioned the forging of these weapons and gave them to his champion.  This warrior’s task was to seek out men and women of faith and slay them so that no such wars would plague his lands.  Rish currently held the smallest blade, known as Heretic.  The largest blade, Faith-slayer was the one she hid away.  According to the legends, if anyone held all three blades, they would truly be a force to be reckoned with, especially against anyone who wielded Divine magic.  Someday, I am going to have to hear this woman’s story, maybe over dinner.  I should invite Dyer as well.  Who knows, they could really hit it off!

While we were still at the library, we also researched the history of the Feldor mansion where she hid the blade.  It belonged to an extremely prosperous family of gnomish tinkers.  Their house was the envy of many noble families of Stormguard until tragedy struck the household.  According to the stories, there was a dinner party at the mansion and one of the guests was a witch.  Insults were made and a fight broke out and the witch put a curse on the house.  Some of the clockwork servants went berserk and killed everyone who didn't flee the house in time.  Since then, no one has successfully gone into the house and lived to tell the tale – except for Rish, of course.

In addition to a basic set of floor plans for the house, we found at that the family’s descendants still live in Stormguard, though they have fallen on hard times.  Lilly and Will went to check out the surviving heir’s home to see if there was anything that could help us enter the cursed house.  By some strange coincidence, I was walking Tal home after a very nice dinner when I saw Will struggling on the stairs of the apartment building where the Feldor family lived.  Tal and I rushed to aid him and when we arrived I found that he was in the thrall of a powerful enchantress.  I used my Bardic Countersong and disrupted the magic while Lilly broke free on her own and attacked the male enchanter.  Before we could do anything else, the female of the pair activated a teleport spell stored in her ring and they disappeared.

As we recovered from the encounter, I introduced Tal to my friends, and the four of us went to the guard station to report the incident.  There had been a number of other similar attacks so the guards took our report very seriously.  Afterwards, Lilly and Will rushed off without another word; maybe because they were too shaken up by their encounter.  The magic used on them caused their minds to be overwhelmed by feelings of desire and lust and having recently withstood the effects of Nixie dust, I can understand just how disconcerting that situation can be.  Although, I did notice that they ran off together…  No, I’m sure nothing happened!

I’ve just returned to the Midtown apartment after walking Tal home.  My business and dance partner has come to mean a great deal to me and I wanted to make sure she got home safely.  She was very appreciative and I still feel the warmth of her lips on mine.  I must say, I think I have discovered the best use of the Enlarge Person spell.  Unfortunately, I will have to work on a way to increase the spell’s duration if our kisses are going to last that long.  Her sudden change in height was really hard on my back; though, a little muscle strain is totally worth it.

Chapter 39: The Clockwork Ghost

We’ve left the Feldor mansion and I have decided that I will be writing out this story and selling it to the Baron for his theater – absolutely amazing!

At Rish’s urging, we reached the house an hour or so after sunrise.  It was silent and feeling of foreboding hung over the building like a shroud.  Blackened tendrils of vines snaked up the brick walls, like veins of dark blood.  In the center of the grounds we spotted a reflecting pool surrounding a fountain.  There was no water, but the artwork was amazing.  All around the outside of the place, nothing moved but we could all feel the unmistakable sensation that we were being watched. 

Rish led us around the house to the chapel but stopped in her tracks.  The colorful stained glass windows where she had entered years ago were gone.  There was only smooth stone which as evidenced by the newer brick and mortar and the fragments of glass was a relatively recent change.  Not seeing a way in there, we moved around to the servant’s entrance.

The locks were simple enough for Lilly to bypass and we entered a small kitchen area.  In the center of the floor was a smashed clockwork construct that reminded Rish and I of the butler described in the stories we found.  According to Will, there was also evidence of a murder here, but there was no body left behind.  Feeling uneasy, we headed toward the chapel, but in the hallway, a blast of scalding and rusty water blasted Mak as we passed a crack in the wall.

I used my mending wand to repair the crack so we could all pass it safely.  Further down the hall I got singed by a strangely mobile wall sconce.  It arched down and touched a lit gas lamp to the back of my hair.  After patting out the flames, we rushed down to the chapel doors.  A large barrel of brackish water was next to the door and as Lilly and I examined it, an unseen force scooped out a large amount of the fowl water and splashed us.  Unfortunately, the water also contained a number of hungry leeches.

Lilly and Mak used salt to clear the creatures off of her while I scorched mine with a blast of lightning.  Taking stock of the situation, the more magically inclined half of our group could sense the presence in the house; similar to a ghost, but more mechanical in nature.  Mak could detect evil from whatever the entity was.  We came up with a theory that it might have been the butler, a construct that the house’s owner had invested a tremendous amount of time, money, and energy.  Deciding it would be best to recover the sword quickly, we rushed into the temple.

In a hollow under the altar, Lilly and Rish recovered the long, curved blade marked with the same runes as the dagger Rish already carried.  She got a distant look in her eyes as she held the sword and looked up toward the doors suddenly.  A voice called out suddenly, demanding that “Lillian” come out.  We all looked to Lilly but she was frozen in what I could only interpret as a mix of confusion, horror and anger.  We retrieved another sword from under the altar, a bastard sword that had a holy aura and gave it to Will.

I grabbed Fennic’s hat and put it on Lilly so that she now looked a bearded wizard dressed in arcane robes.  I also cast Enlarge Person to complete the disguise so she now looked human.   Not a moment too soon because there were three people standing in the entrance to the chapel: a Halfling with a handsome, distinguished look and powerful, commanding presence.  He introduced himself as Lilly’s fiancé and demanded to know where she was.  I noticed Rish staring at one of the humans behind the Halfling and saw her hand drifting over the hilt of Faith-Slayer.  A cleric then and judging by the robes worn by the other man, he must have been an arcane caster.  I also noted that they weren’t coming inside the chapel.

We managed to convince the Halfling that Lilly had run off with our valuables and disappeared.  I don’t think he was believing our story, but the house chose that time to interject with crashing sounds  and hisses of steam from somewhere behind the men.  Shouts of alarm rang out and I told them that the place was haunted and we all needed to figure out how to stop whatever was causing this before it killed us all.

The Halfling seemed to believe this and took his men upstairs to the attic to search, leaving us to check the basement.   As soon as they were gone, we compared notes and were all convinced that Lilly’s intended was some form of undead.  We had an idea to reanimate the butler so it could be let loose on the group and started for the kitchen.  A spectral voice stopped us and said, “downstairs”, so in true adventurer fashion, we went to the basement.

There we found a massive construct which was badly damaged to the point of being inert.  Among the pile of metal was a large woodsman’s axe.  Next to the remains was a huge boiler which supplied the hot water throughout the house and after glancing over at Mak’s scalded armor, I had an idea.  I positioned Will, Rish, and Fasa at the valves of the boiler while I readied my Gust of Wind spell.  Singing a song to help with timing and precision, I pushed the magical torrent of air into the metal cylinder. 

A surge of super-heated steam shot up through the house, blasting out of all the pipes throughout the levels above.  Screams erupted from upstairs followed a bellowing voice full of hatred and anger.  It definitely sounded like no ordinary Halfling and it was coming our way.  Without knowing what to expect, we were all justifiably nervous.

Since the disembodied voice directed us here, I asked aloud what happened so many years ago.  Was the house haunted because of the curse?  “No curse” was the answer followed by “Guests attacked my master - was protecting him.”  I asked the clockwork spirit if it would help us versus the evil thing in the house.  It agreed and I used my Mending wand on the pile of metal.   The body reformed but it took a second charge to finish the process.  As it shuddered to life, I asked the construct if it had a name.  Clarrens was the reply and it swore to help and protect us.  Picking up its axe, the clockwork man strode up the stairs.

After a brief discussion, the rest of us went upstairs as well to fight whatever Lilly’s fiancé was.  When we arrived, Clarrens and the Halfling were squaring off, except the Halfling had dropped his guise and appeared as a three foot tall desiccated corpse wrapped in rune-covered cloth.  We recognized him as a
spell-wrapped mummy and from what I could recall, they were extremely powerful.

Unfortunately for him, there were a number of cards stacked against him in addition to the powerful clockwork construct.  Will’s Ranger training was specialized in hunting undead.  Mak and Rish were both divine casters that had attacks affective versus creatures like this.   He also had no immunity to attacks from Lilly’s blade or my lightning.  What proved to be his undoing was Rish consecrating the area where we fought and me using the Rune of Threads to levitate the body over holy ground, preventing his escape.  He screamed and exploded in a flash of light.  (Unfortunately, Rish informed us that if he could reform again if there were another set of wrappings within 100 miles.  I’m sure he will be back.)

With Clarrens restored, the house was quiet.  No ghostly presence lingered in the walls and Mak assured us that the construct itself was no longer evil.  He agreed to serve us and our plan is to have him stay in our stables to protect and care for our mounts.  After that, we spent some time examining the house and I was excited by the large collection of books!  A few prized volumes stood out from the rest.  First was a detailed manual on how Clarrens was created.  Next was a large tome of engineering practices written by the master of the house and last was a detailed account book of the family’s dealings.

I know that Tal is going to love looking at the first two and I suggested that we give the third to the surviving member of the family.  The rest I planned to add to Fennic’s Library and the others agreed.  Lilly eventually found the family’s safe and produced a Master Key from her pocket which I assumed came from the apartment where she and Will ran afoul of the rapist enchanters.  (Do all adventurers have that kind of bad luck?!)  The safe was intricately trapped as only a master engineer to could.  With my musical assistance and the remaining charges in my Knock wand, we got the safe open.  Inside was a single item: an Iron Flask.  I knew of items like this from my homeland as they are used to ensnare outsiders and force them into obedience. 

I can’t help but think that this flask will only cause us trouble, especially if there is something already stored inside.  We loaded up the rest of the library on our horses and set off to the north.  Traveling back through the gates of Stormguard with a magical construct and all of the items we now carried would have incurred a huge price tag.  The only other option was to travel north and west to Spearrow where we could use Fennic’s hut there.  I will have to have a message sent back to Stormguard once we get to Reese.  I only told Tal that I would be gone for a few days and I don’t want her to worry.  She mentioned that her sister was going to be visiting and that she wanted us to meet.  I’m sure that will be fun and I’m looking forward to it.