Still The 11th Of Bloom
We encounter Taevel again as we’re leaving the Slave City, and she joins us on our trip to the surface. (We now understand why her vision seemed so poor – she was blinded by the wizard, Eyvind, just like Diethan and Moondros were.) We return to the city without incident. While Archinemus goes to sell our loot and the litorians remove poor Norba to the Mane for nursing, I take our blinded friends to the Temple of Teun. Now, granted, I don’t observe services to the Mother of All Machines as often as I should, but the place has prospered since I was here last. The machine-making Shuul have ascended in power in Ptolus of late.
In any case, a priestess here cures the blindness. Of course, she does not entertain for a moment that the Shuul could ever have bought slaves, litorian or otherwise, despite what Norba has told us. The Shuul support law and order, and it’s not conceivable that they might break the law in that fashion. My friends don’t appear convinced. As for me, I don’t know what to think.
During our time together I’m surprised to hear Moondros tell me that she knows of my people, the Hu-Charad! At first I wonder if she merely read the name off my brooch, but no, she says they were here thousands of years ago. They excelled in rituals and magic and shepherding the land. Some minor races owe their existence to the Hu-Charad’s uplifting, she adds. But long ago they returned to their land across the sea. What surprises me most is that she says the Hu-Charad were a race of giants – not simply tall humans. It’s all very puzzling.
After the visit to the temple, we hit the Ghostly Minstrel for dinner. Some elves there seem happy to see Moondros. Well, her big slivery wings do draw a bit of attention.
12th Of Bloom
Today I go with Tharn to ferry more food to the Slave City. Meanwhile, someone sends Barbatos a vase as a gift to the publisher of The Midtown Partisan (his “anonymous” newssheet). More later.
13th Of Bloom
We return from the Slave City today. With Moondros in charge there and Karaal and Salsan to back her up, I think those people are going to be all right. I wish I’d had more time to talk to Karaal, though. When I tried to ask him how he knew his cause was worth spending his life fighting for, all he did was smile at me and say, “Don’t worry, Benris, you’ll know.” I’m not so sure.
Anyhow, something weird happened today. Barbatos had placed his gift vase on his dining table, and in the night it fell off the table and broke. Last night he heard a strange skittering noise in his room, and when we investigated today, we were aghast to discover a yucky hand and arm trailing regenerative goo! It could propel itself quite quickly across the floor, and it even tried to strangle Diethan! Spunky thing. We manage to burn it up with alchemist’s fire. Piecing this adventure together, we realize that the vase must have held what could only be a troll’s finger! As it regenerated, it broke free of the vase. If we hadn’t found it now, the troll-arm could have killed Barbatos in his sleep!
On a hunch, we go over to my Dad’s house in the evening, and he confirms what we’d feared: Yes, a package was delivered for me, from a “secret admirer.” Using a spell, Calista was able to determine that the person who last touched my vase was a dwarf named Gudmund Rockwater. We go to the Mane where the litorians stay and monitor the vase all night until Calista can cast her object reading spell again and we can find out more.
14th Of Bloom
Today we learn that the vase was created by someone named Salora Hail, a human, in a shop in the South Market. Its most recent owner was Gudmund Rockwater. Having learned what we wanted, we burn what has now become a troll’s hand and wrist and head to Salora’s potter’s shop. She tells us that she sold Gudmund three or four of the vases. He lives nearby, but she doesn’t know exactly where.
Barbatos buys a vase from her, sans troll finger. Salora suggests we try Thyra Stonehelm in a nearby hemp shop – she might know where Gudmund lives.
Thyra’s certainly happy to help by passing along Gudmund’s address. She says the dwarf is quite an unsavory type, but that’s what shivvel will do to you. When we arrive at Gudmund’s doorstep, Barbatos charms him into revealing the name of his employer: a low-ranking member of House Abanar named Zorin Sar. This “businessman” works through the lawyer Denoss Firth. Aha! That’s the lawyer who tried to pay us to drop our attempt to buy Myraeth’s Oddities! Gudmund tells us that couriers are coming next week to pay him the balance of what he’s owed for sending the last batch of troll fingers, which he buys from the Dark Market under the city. I’ve never been to the Dark Market, but I’ve heard that slavers are there a lot. Gudmund tells us that you get there through the Undercity Market (via a mercenary guildhall) after giving a password.
Back home, we write a sharply-worded letter to Zorin’s lawyer, telling him to back off. Then the door opens: It’s Seanus returning with Kanagi, and they’re really hurt!
Still The 14th Of Bloom
Seanus and our forlaran friend Kanagi explain that the man who sent her the threatening note found them in their Warrens hideout. The guy was tall with a magic sword. He was dressed as a knight with a white hood and cloak . . . and the symbol of Lothian on his shield. He seemed to be working alone but said he’d dreamed of Kanagi’s death and wanted to make it real. They ran. We ask Kanagi to put his picture in an image crystal so we can all see what he looks like. Then that very night we spot him outside my rooms. He seems to be speaking to his sword. Weird! What kind of radical is this, who wants to kill all creatures with even a drop of fiendish blood?
15th Of Bloom
The next day, Calista, Diethan, and Archinemus visit St. Gustav’s Chapel, but Brother Fabitor (the only priest of Lothian we know) tells them he doesn’t know the guy in the crystal. However, he can see that the knight doesn’t belong to a particular order. Their next stop, thanks to an idea from Calista, is the Siege Tower, where they meet a member of the Keepers of the Veil named Phadian Gess. She recognizes the knight as one Arad Pallamach. He worked with her order a few years ago, she says, but he left. She called him a fine and upstanding knight. Humpf. She says he has no special sword that she knows of, and no mental problems either. Seems that he’s acquired both in recent months.
Seanus and Kanagi are still over at my place. We set up a watch that night in a neighbor’s apartment and across the alley. Pallamach approaches invisibly at midnight. He bursts through my window – visible now, thanks to Archinemus throwing flour all over him. We defeat him after a terrible battle during which, at one point, Archinemus and I both dive out the window. Pallamach’s sword shows me horrific images of swirling flame and babies dying all around Kanagi. Horrible! I can see how such a powerful weapon could warp a man’s mind.
We take the screwy knight to the Temple of Asche (god of cities) and try to see our friend Mand Scheben, who helped Barbatos with his ear-seeker malady a while back. Pallamach awakes at the temple and seems resolute in his convictions for his “missions.” Mand believes he’s insane. Pallamach claims a great man gave him the sword. Mand offers to sweep it all under the rug and take him away to a place where he’ll be well cared for and unable to hurt anyone. We want to give the guy every chance to recover, though, so we take him instead to Phadian Gess. She says they’ll care for him. We leave him in their good hands. Now Kanagi can breathe easy.
16th To 23rd Of Bloom
I’m spending some time studying local knowledge with Diethan. But the other night I found myself overcome with weariness. I went to bed and slept for two days! I had no idea adventuring could take so much out of a person. The only trouble is, when I awoke, all my clothes seemed to have shrunk. Well, that’s what I thought at first, but Seanus swears it’s ME that’s changed.
And he’s right: I’ve grown eight inches in the last two days! This must be another strange consequence of my Hu-Charad heritage. I grit my teeth and go over to Dad’s to show him my new height – over eight feet now – and tell him what I’ve learned about these people who left me as a baby. Dad’s a good egg. He says it doesn’t matter if I’m ten feet tall, I’ll always be his daughter. Great Kint, can a person really get that tall? I’d have to move into an apartment with higher ceilings!
As it is, I have to get new clothes and take my armor in to be enlarged again. Along that same line, I decide to buy a shield as well as a great maul, in case we have to face some skeletons next time we’re in the Dungeon. You can’t be too careful.
24th Of Bloom
We venture back into the Halls of Cordaris to deal with the undead that we unwittingly unleashed on the city when we unblocked the entrances. We hear someone moving ahead of us. Following bloody tracks, we see a skeleton exuding blood. In the big battle that ensues, Calista traps eight of the undead monstrosities at once with her eldritch web – makes it easy for the rest of us to clean them up.
As we’re finishing up our grisly foes, we spy two figures in bone armor. “What have you done!?” they exclaim. Just as it’s sinking in that they are members of the Forsaken – as foul a group of undead-loving cretins as you’d ever want to see – Calista just sort of goes nuts. She attacks the pair, launching herself at them and is cut down before her surprised comrades can even back her up. When we’ve taken care of those two, she comes to again and slits their throats for good measure. I’ve never seen her like this! It makes me wonder what it is we don’t know about her. . . .
Exploring a bit more, we find a secret panel leading to a narrow stairway down to the Blood Pool from which the bleeding undead emerged. We leave this place for later and set the shallow pool on fire. Diethan assembles the treasure scattered about the place, and I carry it out. This haul contains a pill that confers darkvision on one who swallows it – the sort of thing used by the Shuul more and more often these days. Strange. A scroll we find on the bodies of the two Forsaken calls these undead “The Lords of Blood” and urges the Forsaken agents to request parley with “Irithul” to seek alliance. The note was signed “Shigmaa Cynric.” It sounded pretty desperate.
25th Of Bloom
We need to spend today healing up. It takes a little time for us to get our magical treasure items identified. Meanwhile, Archinemus and Diethan go to finalize our deal with Myraeth to buy the shop.
26th Of Bloom
Today we take ownership of Myraeth’s Oddities! I can’t believe that we really managed to pull it off! We hire Seanus as our official appraiser. Taevel, our friend from the Slave City, says she will clerk for us in exchange for a salary and a place to stay in the back room.
Myraeth Tuneweaver takes us on a tour of the place – we’ve got inventory worth seventeen thousand gold! Of course, we still owe the elf a thousand gold every month for the next two years before the place is fully ours, plus two extra “balloon payments.” Anyhow, Archinemus thinks the place should bring in two thousand gold in monthly profits. How can we lose?
