Bloodthorne’s limp body moves after about five minutes.
“What’d I miss?” he asks, looking around the room. His body still pretty torn up from the fight.
“We killed them. And turned that one to stone,” The Necromancer chuckles.
“We should definitely put that in our mansion in Sigil,” Bloodthorne says, using his bag of holding to scoop up the man-sized statue of the mechanically-enhanced skaven.
“Okay, I piled up everything that is magical. If everybody carries something, I can teleport us to Baron in two trips,” The Necromancer says while gazing around the room under the effects of his detect magic spell.
“Hold on…” Eltharion says, pushing a loose stone off a nearby wall. Inside, he finds a forest green cloak with a strange symbol embroidered on it. “How about this?”
The Necromancer looks at it.
“It’s not magical,” he says.
“I’m taking it anyway. Someone hid it here for a reason,” Eltharion says, putting the cloak into his bag.
The Necromancer collects the items and teleports the party back to Baron.
“Okay, I’m going to go get this stuff identified,” The Necromancer says, flying off.
“I’m going with ‘im,” Bloodthorne adds as he flies off as well.
Grog also goes off by himself to find an inn room. Blaze, Blaine, Ogrim and Eltharion head to the castle. They enter the castle to report back to Adlai.
“Hey Adlai, look who we found,” Eltharion says, pointing behind him to the rest of the group.
“Good, you’re back. We have a problem, and lots of news” Adlai says, giving barely a passing nod to the newly returned Grog, Necromancer, Blaze and Blaine.
“Can’t even get a minute of rest around here…” Ogrim grumbles.
“Sorry, but this is serious,” Adlai says. “Last night, someone kidnapped Senman and Misani out of their inn room. A ransom note was given to the innkeeper.”
“Who gave him the ransom note?” Eltharion asks.
“We have him in custody if you want to interrogate him. I’m about ready to try and scry them so we can go find them, and make sure they’re okay,” Adlai says.
“Take us to him.”
Adlai leads them down into Baron’s dungeon. They stop at the first cell, and a regular looking fellow stands up.
“Can I leave now?” the man asks.
“Not until you give us some answers,” Eltharion says, his face serious.
“I already told your people everything I know!”
“And what is that, exactly?” Ogrim says.
“When I woke up in the morning, I had a piece of paper in my room and a note. The paper said to deliver the note to the innkeeper, and not to open it. There was a gold piece with it, so I thought if I did what it said, that maybe I’d get another gold piece. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong!”
“Seems legitimate. Adlai, start scryin’, we leave tomorrow,” Ogrim puts. Nobody argues.
The guards let the man free, and the Heroes go upstairs to Adlai’s chamber, where he scrys Senman.
An image swirls into view on his mirror. They see a huge pillar in what looks like an enormous stoneworked room. Misani and Senman are at the base of the pillar, bound and gagged.
“Okay, so we need to find out where that temple is, and go there,” Ogrim says.
“I’ll do some research, but first, I have some news as well. I’ve been researching more of the prophecies,” Adlai starts. “It seems as if there are two people who are mentioned quite a lot. They basically team up and seem to play a big role in the coming Dark Tides.
“One of them is said to be invincible, unable to be harmed by anything. Like a stone. The other is described as lightning fast. Able to kill many men before any can react. They are called ‘The Two’.”
“So, they are going to help us against the dark elves?” Eltharion asks.
“That’s what we’re hoping, but the problem is, from what I’ve been able to decipher, I can’t tell what side they are fighting on,” Adlai says.
“Well, come on, it should be pretty simple. There’s us, and there’s them,” Eltharion says.
“Actually, the prophecy speaks of three distinct factions. The good, the evil, and the others. The good and the evil seem to clash for most of the time, and the others grow quietly in strength. From what I read, either the good or the evil side prevails at first, but after a long delay, the other faction gains the upper hand,” Adlai says.
“What do you mean ‘Either the good or the evil prevails,’ huh?” Eltharion asks. “You can’t even decipher that!?”
“I’m sorry, it’s very cryptic, and I’m doing all kinds of other research at the same time!” Adlai is quite flustered.
“Sorry. You’re right. Hey, could you add this to your pile of research?” Eltharion pulls out the cloak he found, showing Adlai the peculiar symbol.
“You… found this?” Adlai looks shocked, as if he has seen a ghost.
“Yeah, why?” Eltharion replies.
“Hold on, let me check something,” Adlai throws open some books on his desk, flipping through the pages quickly. Finally, he gets to a page that has two large symbols drawn on them. One looks like a shield with a tree on it, and the other is a triangular symbol, which looks exactly like the on on the cloak.
“So, what does this mean?” Eltharion asks.
“Hold on, come with me, I need to ask the king of the dwarves a question,” Adlai leads them downstairs. He knocks twice on the chamber. A dwarven guard comes to the door.
“We need to speak with Strumdar Goldensoul, it’s of vital importance,” Adlai says.
“Wait ‘ere a minute,” the dwarf closes the door. After a minute, the king emerges with a mug in his hand.
“I’m eatin’. What’s the trouble?” Strumdar asks.
Adlai slaps the book down on the table in front of him, pointing to the shield.
“Recognize this?” Adlai asks.
“Yes, it’s the Oakenshield. An heirloom of our kingdom. Supposeddly only the chosen one can wield ‘er,” Strumdar says.
“And you never bothered searching for the chosen one in your own kingdom? Even in the dwarven family that shares the shield’s name?” Adlai presses on.
“Nay, we figgerd it was just a legend,” Strumdar says.
“Well, it’s not. And you’re looking at the ones they speak about in the prophecy, right now!” Adlai says, pointing to Ogrim and Eltharion.
“They are The Two!”
