Into the Moral Darkness: IC

This thread is for the solo game between Nonlethal Force and Velmont:

Into the Moral Darkness​

Venial had been sent be the Baron Eiden's royal court to investigate Jairal Oakshod, the half-elf mayor of Devil's Hand - a small suburb of Stalagmite. He was to impersonate the Aster Rufus Harassha, otherwise known as the Voice of Geoffsonburg. The mission was rather simple - it was to be a simple impersonation and information gathering event.

The Voice of Geoffsonburg is a minor ambassador serving under King Sigfried of the Nation of Barghost. The ambassador is typically used for minor things such as trade agreements and minor troop deployment pacts. As an Aster, Rufu Harassha claimed a name that was a decription of his work. Being an ambassador he took up the name "Voice" and originally he is from Geoffsonburg in Barghost.

Unfortunately for Venial, the job was botched horribly; although the fault did not belong to Venial. It was unknown to Venial (and as far as he can tell unknown to Baron Eiden's as well) that the Baron's court had a spy or informant within it that tipped Jairal of Venial's coming. A trap was laid and nearly succeeded.

Looking in hindsight, the first clue should have been in Jairal's lack of reception upon the arrival as Venial as the ambassador. Yet this was not out of character for Jairal, either. Jairal was a low ranking mayor who knew that his power and influence knew significant limits. Thus, Jairal often made it policy that delegates, ambassadors, and other important figures would be greeted with an invitation to retire to their quarters until Jairal was prepared to greet them. While it gave Jairal a great feeling of power to force those more powerful to wait on him; it also largely contributed to the fact that Jairal stayed a small town mayor. Most people with influence were put off by Jairal's pretense and through their great offense ensured that Jairal's name never was mentioned for promotion in power. As was JAiral's custom, Venial was dismissed to the ambassador's suite to await Jairal's summon.

The second clue should have been in the fact that the butler avoided entering the ambassador's quarters once he had shown Venial the room. The butler managed to pull the doors open and then humbly bow, awaiting Venial to enter the room without him. Once Venial entered, the butler offered a quick excuse for being needed in the stables. Before leaving, from the doorway the butler pointed out the door that leads to the bathroom, the door that leads to the sauna, and the doorway that leads to the study. Once the butler was able to answer Venial's questions, he skillfully closed the doors to the suite and dismissed himself.

By the third clue, Venial had caught on. As Venial approached on of the doors in the room, he saw a glimmer of a substance on the door knob. The substance was slightly more shiney than the brass handle. The refelction of the light drew his eyes and before he touched the handle he paused. His skill in alchemical poisons gave him perfect confidence that there was poison upon the handles.

Once Venial stopped short of the door handle, three trained rogues eapt out to corner Vanial. Greatly outnumbered, Venial knew that escape was the only possible way to survive. Fighting would likely lead to death; but he had to move quite quickly to keep his escape route from being sealed off. A couple of defensive parries and appropriately timed feints, glances, motions, and words kept the escape path open. In a flash he slipped through the door and the chase was on.

The chase only lasted for a few seconds, although from the perspective of those involved it seemed for too long. Venial was able deftly move down an adjacent hall, turning several times in quick succession to throw them off his trail. After a few lucky choices he found himself once more back along the hallway in which the ambassador quarters was located. As he ran down the hall looking for a place to hide, he suddenly found himself lifted off of the ground.

Venial was lifted into the air and brought into a shadowy niche along the wall in one quick motion. A heavy hand gripped over his mouth tightly, preventing him from making a noise. The person's other hand wraps around Venial tightly to prevent him from moving. A few seconds later Venial's pursuit passed by the niche and turned down another hallway. Their footsteps receeded down the hallway.

The firm hand released Venial's mouth and he heard a soft voice whiper from behind. "Whoa, there, little one. I'll let you go, but I've gotta warn you. You run down that hallway and you get caught. Follow me, and I'll get you out safe."

The voice seems to be feminine, but Venial is unable to twist and turn in the stranger's grasp to see the person that picked him up. He is able to speak as the hand is removed.

Venial minds was a quick one, even for an Aster. As he is being lift, his first thought was that he was dead. By the time he could escape that grasp, the other three would have join up. He couldn't count on the same luck he had when he escaped his room, but he quickly feels the grip as firm, but not offensive... the doubt come to his mind. As he heard the voice, he knew he was saved. Why an ally of his aggressor would ask him to follow her. He would only need to hold him a moment, for the other to catch up. Maybe it was a third group who would want him, but at least, it was clear it was alive. Let's escape teh immediate threat before figuring the true intent of that third party.

As the hand is removed from his mouth, he quickly whispers "Don't lose time, lead the way."

The woman sets Venial down, still in the shadow of the small alcove. She peeks out into the hallway and whispers. "Introductions come later. Quickly, follow!"

As she steps into the relative brightness of the hallway Venial can see that she is a small, thin elf. In spite of her frame, she does appear a bit stronger than he might expect - as if her line of work keeps her in good shape. She wordlessly leads Venial back into the ambassador's quarters and quietly closes the door. She points to the ceiling, which is clearly out of reach for the Aster. "Get something to boost you up!"

Around the room, Venial can see the typical furnishings of an estate bedroom. The bed is there, as is several dressers and chests of drawers. Both of which would likely be too heavy for Venial to move anyway. There is an oak table and a set of four oak chairs - sized for humans, of course. A few cheval mirrors stand in corners and a large mirror hangs from the back of one of the double hinged doors that leads to the halway.

Venial put his hands on the table legs and starts to pull it. He looks at the elf to see what she is doing. A little help would be appreciated. I don,t have time to loose in designing my room... he thinks, but don't ask, thinking that she must have a good reason if she don't want to help. Which one, that wasn't clear yet. He then takes a chair and put it on the table. He climbs on the table, then on the chair and looks at ceiling. He quickly calculate how mcuh feet he still need to be able to climb up. If needed, he plana to cast Expeditious Retreat, that will gives him more strength in his leg to recha the ceiling.

Once Venial begins moving the furniture, the elf nods and goes about the room - completely ransacking it. She takes great care to avoid the poisoned doors. As quietly as she can she pulls drawers out of the dressers, turning them over and scattering them about the room. She crumples the bedsheets and draws a dagger. She bites her lower lip and draws the dagger across the back of her hand unlil it is obvious that a significant wound develops which will spill a fair amount of blood. She glances to Venial and if he appears to object or speak motions to be as quiet as possible. Once a significant amount of blood has dripped from her wound onto the bedsheets she begins to stir them around each other, smearing the blood onto as much of the bedsheets as possible. By this point, Venial is able to have enough height to reach the ceiling.

The elf springs onto the table and offers her undamaged hand to lift Venial up with her. She presses onto the ceiling and finds several soft spots. She lifts up and a narrow stretch of the ceiling lifts out, bringing in light from the room above.

As quietly as possible she speaks, "We must go!" She offers to help Venial throught he hole, although he is certainly skilled enough to climb the chair and with a bit of effort make it through on his own.

Venial looks at the mess she is making. He simply nods and grabs the chair to put it on the table. His instinct start to understand what she was doing. It's sure Jairal will learn that the assassination attempt will have failed, but that will compromise him... or maybe it will be just lead him on a false trail.

Venial climbs on the table, but the elf jump on it and climb before him. He follow her and jump, catching her hand. No time to be proud. he thinks, knowing he could have done it alone, but with her help, it would be faster. With the help of teh elf, he pass through the hole. Instinctively, his eyes scan the surrounding, trying to see in which room he was.

The elf smiles as he accepts her help. Once he is through, she drops to the floor and moves the table back to the original position as quietly as she can. She tips over all but one of the chairs to make it look like they were thrown around or used as shields in the fight. The chair she left standing underneath the hole was just tall enough to allow her to reach the hole. As she stood on the chair, she reached up and barely was able to suspend herself from the ceiling. With a kick that she knew would make too much noise, she kicked the chair so that it fell several feet from her position. She now dangled from the ceiling, struggling to pull herself up without the support below her.

Inside the room above, Venial recognizes that he is in a small, private temple. There is no place for sacrifices here and only four solid wooden benches for use by a 'congregation' line the floor. An ornately carved wooden altar rises up from a slightly elaveted platform at the end of the room. There are religious symbols upon the wall behind the altar, but Venial's lack of religious knowledge does not let him identify them.

The hole in the floor lies between the raised platform and the four wooden benches. The wooden benches are situated so that a center aisle is formed - two on each side. Green stained glass windows line the right side of the room and a solid oak door rests in the wall opposite the platform and behind the benches.

Venial take a moment to relax. The small chapel is not a place he feels confortable. He hasn't been a good follower. He seldom pray to Olidarama, her father patron, and to Yondalla, her mother's patron, but he generally live his life outside the religion. So each time he enters a church, he feels like he wasn't respecting the god dedicated to it, but he know that as long as he would repect the sacred ground, the gods would bother him.

He looks at the elven woman a moment. He feels that he wasn't yet in security, but following blindly wasn't something he liked much. He decide to dare a question. "What we do now? And who are you?"

After the elf struggles to get herself up she replaces the portion of the wooden floor.

"I am Erranielle Thurissan, and I am priestess of this place. What we do now is wait. Your room below will be discovered and I will be questioned quickly after that."

She moves to one of the solid benches and carefully lifts off the lid. With the lid removed, it looks oddly like a coffin. The inside has been padded for comfort.

"You will need to slip in here until I am done being interrogated. Once they have finished with me, we can plan your escape to greater detail. For now, though, you must hide. I know not when they will come."

No sooner does she finish speaking than the crash of wooden doors opening below can be heard. There are muffled shouts that ring out down the romm and down the hall one level below. Erranielle gives Venial a look to hurry.

Venial looks at the small coffin. Why I don't like that. Between a dagger in the back or sleeping in a coffin, I would chose teh latest anytimes, but still... The Aster hear the sounds below. He nods and start to enter the hidden coffin. "You're a priest... what god do you follow?" he asks as he finish to place himself. He block the bench until she answers. He will also asks to see her holy symbol, as most priest have at least a crude one on them. As soon as he see it, he will lay down and wait for her to move teh bench over his head. After that, he will haev plenty of time to figure what she is trying to do. Coincidence rarely happen, and should never be considered, so why she has been helping him, and how she knew that he was followed, bt that's something he will have to wait to learn.