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Story Hour
Eberron's Not So Brave - The Dragonmarked Madness
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5971204" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>Pain free day, so long update. Almost up to date with what happened in the game, too. </p><p></p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p><em>After lunch, everyone was gathering around the storyteller again. The snowfall outside had gotten worse, and the wind was constantly howling. There was little light, as the sun had trouble to break throuh the swirling snowflakes. </em></p><p></p><p>"So, as I said, Deniv and Feyan arrived first. But they had forgotten an important detail. The temple had several entrances, and one of them was to be left unlocked for them. Now they were looking in confusion at the relatively small, but brightly decorated building. None of them remembered that it was them who had the notes from Hollowain, either.</p><p></p><p>Lady Caithlyn seemed vaguely amused by this. "We should start checking clockwise," she suggested, her cheeks flushed from all the excitement. "It certainly won't be the main exit." That, the others agreed with so they rattled at one door after the other while the bride-to-be tried to fix herself up for the wedding while she went along. If anyone would have noticed them, they would have been a weird sight. </p><p></p><p>Filbura and Milayn, who were just on their way to the temple, had a problem of a different kind. Her charge had woken up and was banging the inside of her transport box. "We are drawing attention," Filbura hissed. </p><p></p><p>"You don't say," the assassin growled back. Loud she said "I'm never going to transporting banger snakes for that wizard anymore, especially not for that meager pay."</p><p></p><p>The couple and their children they just passed by looked confused, but didn't interfere. No one with a sane mind would interfere with the delivery for a wizard. "Banger snakes?" Filbura wondered, looking confused. </p><p></p><p>"I just made that up, obviously. Look, there is the temple, we need to let her out somewhere where no one can see us and explain the situation to her better than we did before."</p><p></p><p>The delivery entrance to the temple was, as with most such buildings, small and hard to find behind fancy decorations. It gave them enough cover to drop their cargo and open it up. The woman jumping out in a fury was about to shout at them when she almost stumbled over her brush and saw her tiara. More out of a reflex, she grabbed both and then she mumbled some angry words. Milayn and Filbura felt themselves rooted into place. "He didn't mention she can do magic," the dwarf protested. </p><p></p><p>"Who?" the elf snapped at them. "Who sent you to abduct me? You better talk or I'l get it out of you."</p><p></p><p>"We are here in the name of your beloved, Fandel Sayadin," Milayn explained, remembering the instruction not to mention their contractor's name. "To prevent the wedding tomorrow, we brought you here to be married tonight. It's all arranged."</p><p></p><p>"Fandel?" There was a short moment of confusion, then the woman let out a short laugh. "Then you think I'm Lady Caithlyn?"</p><p></p><p>The two abductors looked at each other, equally confused. "Why, yes, you were in the house, you fit the description..." the druid said. </p><p></p><p>"I'm Lady Dolara, Caithlyn's elder cousin. We might look a lot alike, indeed, but I'd think this would have given away I'm not the one you were looking for." She lifted her right hand, and the band of marriage, a green metal band looking like vines shimmering in green and blue, curled around her right wrist. "I've been married a long time ago. So, as for Fandel's candor, I admire it. But he sent some beginners who obviously had not planned this out well. Caitjlyn is at the fair."</p><p></p><p>"We had little time to plan," the dwarf grimaced. "We were just hired 2 hours or so ago. We basically just followed the instructions." </p><p></p><p>"Well, if she is at the fair, there is hope yet," Milayn reminded her friend. "The others might find her yet and be on their way already, as we never said we'd meet up again. Could you release us, please?"</p><p></p><p>The elf undid the spell with a motion of her hand. "What others? There is more of you?"</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, we split up in case you... I mean, Lady Caithlyn, went to the fair. Seems it was a good idea, too." The druid looked up at the temple walls. "Maybe they are already inside, they might have had less trouble. I just hope this Fandel will be here in time, too."</p><p></p><p>"I thought he hired you? He must be here already, then, no?" Lady Dolara looked suspicious again. </p><p></p><p>"We didn't meet him." Milayn remembered the bad feeling she had had about this endeavor before. "A friend of his asked us to help out. Probably wanted to keep the groom out of trouble, just in case."</p><p></p><p>"A friend?" The lady's eyes narrowed. "This friend would not happen to be one Hollowain, would it? No, I can see from the looks on your faces that it was him." The lady let out a very unladylike curse. "Then I hope your friends have not found Caithlyn."</p><p></p><p>"And why would that be?" The dwarf folded her arms. "Are you against them marrying?" </p><p></p><p>"No." The irritated stare of the lady made Filbura close her mouth. "I'm against Hollowain go through with his fiendish plans, and I fear they involve Caithlyn's undoing. He has been sneaking himself into Fandel's good graces and eventually friendship. This is why I came to Sharn to begin with when she wrote of this friendship; to warn him and Caithlyn of them."</p><p></p><p>"This Hollowain character isn't trustworthy, then?" Milayn grabbed the dagger in her belt. "He's been planning against them? To what end?" </p><p></p><p>"Because Fandel has signed over his estate to him in case anything happened to him. He has no family, you see. Hollowain has been doing this several times before, but the authorities could never prove a thing."</p><p></p><p>So we've been hired to do his dirty work, and he likely plans to kill us off, too, and then blame it all on Fandel, who would either kill himself or be executed." Milayn was quick to assess the situation. "He's probably arranged this attack on himself, too, to find some fools to work for him."</p><p></p><p>"Hey," the druid protested, but she, too, saw the truth in the words of the assassin. </p><p></p><p>"Very likely, yes. We need to hurry and see if we can intercept your friends before it is too late." Lady Dolara turned and started rounding the temple, not waiting to see if they would come along or not. </p><p></p><p>"Shouldn't we call the authorities?" Filbura asked naively.</p><p></p><p>"Are you mad? We'd be probably arrested for abduction, or at least, Deniv and Feyan would be."</p><p></p><p>"Good point." Filbura started following the lady. "Let's hope we won't be too late to same the girl or our friends, then."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah," the Thuranni agreed and hurried to follow. "The damage to our reputation would probably be irreparable." </p><p></p><p>The other two and their charge had by now found the unlocked door just on the other side of the place. A partly covered everburning flame was all that lit up a small anteroom with a bench, a mirror and some chairs and chest. It looked like a room to prepare a wedding party or any other person of importance, so they seemed to be on the right track. By now, Caithlyn only needed another look into the mirror to be happy with her appearance. Her gown worried her a bit, as it didn't shout "wedding," but they assured her it was fine, and that it was the action that counted, not the looks. </p><p></p><p>From the anteroom, a narrow hallway led deeper into the temple, ending at a sturdy metal door just out of the reach of the anteroom's everburning flame. Deniv bumped into Caithlyn when she stopped to avoid the same happening to her with Feyan. Her and the gnome had less issues with the sudden darkness. "They could have left more light on," Deniv mumbled as he sorted himself out. The lady chuckled nervously. Feyan pushed the door open to reveal the inner sanctum of the small temple. </p><p></p><p>A rotunda with benches of wood and stone alternating and an equally round altar was revealed. On the latter, a 3-armed candle holder stood, candles lit. A vial with water and an incense holder with burning leaves were also present. More everburning flames decorated the walls here, and the light was warm and welcoming, not too bright on the eyes but chasing away all the shadows. </p><p></p><p>"So they are here, then," the gnome chuckled. Louder he called "Here comes the bride!"</p><p></p><p>A hooded figure disengaged from a doorway. They had not noticed it before. With slow but steady strides, it came towards the altar. "Welcome, friends. Welcome, Lady Caithlyn! The groom will be with you in a moment."</p><p></p><p>Deniv recognized the voice of Hollowain and looked at his friend. The gnome shrugged. The masquerade was a bit strange, but they both remembered the elf's words about not wanting to be dragged into the mess of things. "Are we supposed to go now?"</p><p></p><p>The hood turned to Deniv and shook his head. "We need some witnesses present. Where are your friends?" </p><p></p><p>That was a good question. The men could not believe that the women were still looking for the lady, when it was clear the 2 of them must have been successful. "On their way," Deniv said to overplay their mess up in not coordinating things better. "We got split up."</p><p></p><p>"Very well. We cannot wait for them, though. I'm going to go along with the preparations. Caithlyn, would you come over to the altar, please?" </p><p></p><p>She was about to do as he asked, when a female voice suddenly called out. "No, don't! It's a trap, he means to do you harm, likely to kill you!"</p><p></p><p>A copy of Caithlyn seemed to materialize out of another hallway at the head of the altar. She has her arms raised, and a faint light was glowing around her hands. "It's Hollowain, and he's evil. He's done it before, he's after Fandel's possessions and wants to frame him!"</p><p></p><p>Hollowain had turned around in surprise, looking from one woman to the other in confusion. That was enough for the newcomer to strike a spell at him. A bolt of light hit him squarely between the shoulders and threw him between the benches. </p><p></p><p>But right then, more doors to more hallways opened, and two groups of armed men appeared, some of which they knew just all too well. "Those are the thugs that were after Hollowain before!" Deniv exclaimed. </p><p></p><p>"It was a set up? All of this?" The gnome, having a hard time to digest that a wedding-to-be turned into a possible fight grabbed his knife and jumped after Hollowain, in the hopes to grab a hold of the man and make him call back his thugs. The newly arrived mage woman went to Caithlyn and grabbed her by the arm, steering her hurriedly behind the altar to get some cover. The thugs drew falchions, cudgels and other means of dealing out hurt.</p><p></p><p>The gnome reached Hollowain, who was trying to shake off the dizziness caused by the spell and the fall. Quickly, he grabbed the man by the neck and let him feel the blade. "Better not move, or you may get another mouth a bit deeper than you are used to," the gnome hissed, trying to put malice into his voice. "And better call back those thugs of yours, too." </p><p></p><p>Hollowain was not fooled that easily. He knew inexperienced people if he met them. This gnome, he knew, had never killed in his life before. He reached behind to grab Feyan's wrist, confusing the gnome. Feyan hesitated a moment too long, and before he knew, he found himself flying over the head of the elf and crashed down hard behind some benches. The world became dark around him. The last thing he heard was Hollowain's laughter.</p><p></p><p>Just then, Filbura and Milayn came running through the hallway Lady Dolara had used, having had some trouble catching up after they missed the door the woman had opened with a spell. The assassin cursed and her hands went to her arsenal of shuriken and throwing knives. Filbura was slower, taking her time to notice that she had indeed seen some of the thugs before. Deniv, she noticed, had just thrown some smoke causing bottle on the ground, which saved the elf woman from being attacked by all thugs at once but also obscured the sight for her bow and Milayin's assorted throwing tools. The assassin already cursed, but one of the thugs was down. The others, 7 if she had counted right, were circling around the smoke to get at Caithlyn, who was still hiding behind the altar. Hollowain joined the fray with his own sword, but cried out as Filbura managed to put an arrow in it. The sword dropped with a clinging sound. "Aren't there any priests here to notice the commotion?" she wondered. </p><p></p><p>Hollowain looked like he was about to explode. His carefully developed plan was about to blow, and he needed a solution fast. His hand went to his belt pouch and he withdrew a sheet of paper. With a snarl, he began reading from it. </p><p></p><p>The cloud Deniv had caused began to dissipate. Lady Dolara hurled a ball of light at Hollowain. Filbura shot an arrow at the only thug not inside the cloud, but missed and found the man coming at her. Milayin threw her shuriken in rapid succession, and while she hit no vital spot, she brought the thug down before he could reach the dwarf. Hollowain's spell, disrupted by the attack he had to duck, fizzled and he let out a roar of anger. A moment later, he could not move anymore, being in the grasp of Lady Dolara's spell. The cloud was gone and revealed sleeping thugs and... a sleeping Deniv. He had been caught by his own defense. Filbura could not help but giggle. Lady Caithlyn, too, was sleeping behind the altar, which had been inside the cloud. Feyan came too just then with a loud groan. "Did we win?"</p><p></p><p>"Don't stand around," Milayin hissed, kicking the last thug unconscious, then beginning to plug her weapons from his body. "Tie them up. Or should we just kill them all?"</p><p></p><p>Feyan and Filbura both looked shocked at the suggestion, but the elf lady just pointed at Deniv. "We won't be able to prove anything to the authorities. Get him out of here and go home. Take what valuables Hollowain has with him. I'll find out where he holds Fandel and then dispose of them. None of us can afford for him to live so he would be our enemy in the future." There was a cold glow in her eyes suggesting no one needed her as an enemy, either. </p><p></p><p>"Right." Milayn rushed to Feyan's side to help him out of the benches, then searched Hollowain and took whatever she could find, which was unfortunately a lot less than what they had been promised. Filbura's druidic magic managed to raise Deniv, although he was still disoriented. Before they knew it, they were back on the streets in the temple district, all but Milayn in a rather depressed mood. The assassin, who had feared it would not end well, was not one to worry over spilled milk. </p><p></p><p>"We shouldn't tell the others about this," Feyan offered as they were waiting for transportation. "We got some money from the guy, yes?" When Milayn nodded, he suggested they just make up a short escort job to explain it and leave it at that. Deniv readily agreed, not wanting an argument with either Ahna, the paladin, or Lorraine. Filbura shrugged, she wasn't much for secrets but if her friends wanted to keep this to themselves, it was fine with her. Milayn just nodded once, preferring to avoid the same sort of arguments Deniv was worried about."</p><p></p><p><em>"So, did they learn a lesson out of this?" one of the warriors in the audience asked. </em></p><p></p><p>"Like that you don't leave your real fighters at home if you can avoid it?" <em>The storyteller chuckled.</em> "Unfortunately, no. But for now, they were safe and heading back home, trying to remember the main reason they had been sent out to begin with. The matter of the vampire. And they had nothing to report there, either.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In the time they had been out and about and almost gotten themselves killed, Lorraine had been holding her daily training sessions with paying students. To the end of those, she saw a familiar face framed in red hair in front of the door as she let a student out. "Mallie?" she grinned at her second grade rogue counsin. "What are you doing here?"</p><p></p><p>"Looking for you, obviously." The much smaller an slightly older woman positioned herself in a chair and too the offered wine. "I heard of your troubles with the House – silly elders, as usual – and thought you could use my help. Or, to be honest, I need yours." </p><p></p><p>Mallie had always managed to dodge troubles in House affairs. She was a good enough fighter and aspiring rogue, the latter their family, with few exceptions, knew nothing about. She also owned a security and exploration business in a small town outside of Sharn. Mainly, she was supplying those with no time to go out and search for hands to do their (sometimes dirty) work with the man power to do so. Most of this manpower came from House Deneith, as good fighters were almost always on the list, as temporary bodyguards and escort details most of the time. </p><p></p><p>"You need my help?" Lorraine was amused. "It's rare enough that any dragonmarked want to work for you, so you have decided to see if I've been down on my luck enough to actually work for a close relative? One that has a tendency to venture into the not-so-legal side of things at that?" The woman chuckled. "Not quite. Although, it's not about you or your business, it is just that I abhor fixed schedules, which is, as you know, one reason father and others had issues with me."</p><p></p><p>"Since when do I stick to fixed schedules?" Mallie grimaced. "If anyone hates anything fixed, it is me."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, especially if it is fixed on someone's wall, or..."</p><p></p><p>Mallie threw the empty leather cup after Lorraine. "Be serious, for once. No, the situation is this. I have a high profile client who has, in the past, not been on friendly terms with House Deneith. Thus, I can't really get anyone from Deneith to do any work for her, for fear of running into trouble with the elders. Yet, it was specifically asked for someone from our House. Some seal that can only be opened by one of us, if I get it right. So I thought..."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, send the outcast." Lorraine threw the cup right back. "And let me guess, the fact that I'm currently not in good standing is supposed to be left out?"</p><p></p><p>"Indeed. Who needs all the details? Definitely not our clients. Also, because they asked for more than one capable hand, and I can hardly send anyone with you who could tell about you, I thought maybe some of your friends..."</p><p></p><p>Lorraine's eyes narrowed. "How would you know about them? How did you find me, first place?" </p><p></p><p>"I kinda... well, I kept tabs on you because, well, you never know when you nee family help. I admit I lost sight of you at first, but then I found the messenger station you use when you sent news to aunt Gizella. I knew you'd write her as she was always so fond of you and had gone at your father something awful for throwing you out." The red haired woman reclined and put her legs on the table in the kitchen, looking awfully smug. </p><p></p><p>"Of course you have," Lorraine growled. "I do not appreciate being spied on."</p><p></p><p>Now her cousin looked insulted. "I didn't spy on you! That'd be a waste of good resources. Just kept track on where you were. And then I saw you were looking for work... May I at least tell you what it is about?</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, sure. But we are working on something high profile at the moment, for the authorities." Lorraine wasn't willing to go into details. "So if this takes longer than a few days, it's a no go."</p><p></p><p>"No, it actually sounds like easy money. So, here it is..." </p><p></p><p>As Mallie explained the details, Lorraine found herself interested against her will. Maybe she could ask a few of the others to come along on this."</p><p></p><p><em>"What was it? And did they leave without telling anyone else, too?" a child piped up. </em></p><p></p><p>"Oh, no, Lorraine knew better than to do that. She waited for everyone else being back that evening, and for our 4 intrepid abductors to finish their tale of not much found out and a supposed escort business. Also, Tjuja was reporting that her attempts to divine anything about the vampire had met with little success, except that it was a male. But it was just their first day on the job, so all in all, they weren't really disappointed and had their hopes up to find something in the near future. </p><p></p><p>The core of the problem to solve, Lorraine explained, was an old, partially ruined tower which had once been a training facility for House Deneith, located in inhospitable swamp marsh area on the coast about a day's travel from Sharn. The village and surrounding lands close by belonged to a Lady Thurga. A decade or so ago, they disposed of a mass of undead with the help of some priests. Suspicion had always been that those had come from the tower, but it was quiet after a while so the matter was forgotten. Now, though, there were not only more undead, a green poisenos fog had started to creep over the marsh. Sometimes, the wind blew the fog into the village and farms, killing off small cattle, and the young and elderly, despite being thinned. This time, there was no doubt about the source, but it had been impossible to enter the tower because the magical seal closing it was strong still. It required, so Lorraine had been told, someone with Deneith blood to open it. The Lady Thurga had even offered to have potions against poison and some protection against undead ready, and would also send some of their guards along who knew the marsh. Their job was to open the tower, help clean out what was inside, and maybe Lorraine would find something of calue to her House. </p><p></p><p>"Undead," Tibunn grimaced. "A vampire is already bad enough but I suppose they are more talking of zombies, skeletons and such?"</p><p></p><p>"Not specified. Probably, yes," Lorraine nodded. </p><p></p><p>"I'm needed here," Tjuja said right away. "I need to do more divinations about this vampire still, and I can't do that so well from the distance." </p><p></p><p>Moreelle nodded. "I can get leave from my current employ at any time, so I won't mind going along if I'm needed. I saw zombies before." Despite her words, she twisted her blonde hair nervously. </p><p></p><p>"I think 4 or 5 of us will be more than enough." Lorraine looked at Ahna, who had begun to act as their leader in earnest by now, and for a change, Lorraine didn't mind as the paladin, unlike her former superiors, asked for their views. </p><p></p><p>Ahna nodded. "Sounds like I should go along on this one. Zolan?"</p><p></p><p>The orc grinned. "I wouldn't let you go without me. I'm the skeleton smasher!" </p><p></p><p>The others knew the tale about his former encounter at an old graveyard well enough by now and just nodded and waved to stop him from regaling them with the same story again. "Anyone else?" Lorraine asked. </p><p></p><p>"Sounds like you need a mage," Quavin added, not looking too happy about it but determined to pull his weight. </p><p></p><p>Filbura hesitated. After her stint with the abduction job, she was a bit reluctant to go on another mission so soon. Yet she had had it with the city. She needed a change of scenery. "Mind if I come, too? I know that makes 6 but, I need to see some wildlife and vegetation, even if most of it is going to be a marsh with poison gas."</p><p></p><p>"We have a team, then. Leave next to tomorrow?" Lorraine asked. As everyone nodded, Lorraine smiled thankfully at them and went to send notes to her students about her absence. She was all eager to see if there was anything in this old tower to bring her back into her House's good graces, even if she had no wish to work with them anytime soon again."</p><p></p><p><em>As the storyteller nipped on hot tea, the child spoke up again. "Tjuja was scared, wasn't she? It wasn't about divinations."</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The storyteller nodded, chuckling softly.</em> "Well observed. Indeed, terrified described it more, though she did her best not to show it and no one who noticed would ask. In her youth, there had been a bad episode with a ghoul she had not yet told anyone about. </p><p></p><p>In any case, they traveled as planned and arrived at their destination or Marshford late the evening they had started. It was already getting dark, but they could still see green fog drifting off from the nearby marsh, not always dissipating in the mild breeze. They had been expected, so their quarters for the night and their food were ready, and several people from the village – actually more of a small town counting the farms, the mill and other businesses not directly in the settlement – wanted to talk with the party immediately. Among them, of course, Lady Thurga, who proved to be an ancient looking human with wrinkles all over, with a mind still quick and manners not so polite. The latter didn't matter much, because the woman made a list of things she could help out with. Among the items they were given were two large glass orbs with a continual light cast on them. This was, of course, much better than any torch. Not only didn't they require oxygen or cause smoke, they could not be blown out by sudden drafts or in water. </p><p></p><p>The bad news was that no guards could accompany the party, and the reason was obvious. A lot of the locals spouted injuries from a brigand attack the day before, and with two exceptions all of the lady's guards had been injured, and those two were needed to stand guard. Reinforcements were on the way, but no one wanted the group to wait that long, as there had been a skeleton sighting the night before, too. There was a bright young ranger lass who was willing to show them through the marshes, and while both the paladin and the warrior objected to use half a child as a guard into something dangerous, the priests of the town assured them that it would be fine. The girl, Lale, was immune to the poison, as were about a quarter of the population and as many animals, they were told. She was a ranger apprentice, knew the marsh well and had in the past been invisible to the undead when she had been out hunting. It was as if they would not recognize her as a living. Lale was from a neighboring thorpe on the lady's land, and her group of rangers and druids had sent her as a guide. Naturally, the party questioned the girl a while after everyone else was gone to let them have rest, but asides from being a bit shy, nothing seemed unusual about her – no magic was detected on her, no evil either and she was definitely alive. Casually, Lala mentioned to be curious as well, and the paladin thought of asking her to return with them to Sharm later to have the mystery solved, hopefully. </p><p></p><p>More or less fine with this, they went to bed and found that, despite their excitement, worry or even fear, they fell asleep easily. Maybe it was the soft beds, or something had been in the food, but they woke up refreshed and ready to open the tower that had once been a House Deneith training facility. </p><p></p><p>The trek through the marshes proved to be an annoying exercise. The good thing was that the fog had killed off the insects. The bad thing was that it had also killed off larger animals, and the stink of death over the area combined with the stink of the fog was something awful. Everyone but Filbura and Lale felt sick and had to take a break often, so the advance was considerably slow. Which did not help the situation. They had to use several of the anti-poison potions even before they arrived, and there was sure to be some fog in the tower, too, plus the way back. </p><p></p><p>When they finally made it, it was late afternoon already. The sun was hiding behind mist and poison fog, and it was getting cooler quick, as was fitting for the time of year. It was decided to camp inside one of the many small huts rangers, trappers and druids had erected in the area instead of going in exhausted, wet and cold. During the night, they kept watch, of course, but asides from some strange noises, like something large moving through the salty waters, nothing transpired." </p><p></p><p><em>"That's the thing about adventuring," someone chuckled. "Everyone who doesn't do it seems to think it is all the danger of battle and the excitement of missions. Here's a day long walk in bad area, which I'd like to see anyone not used to it do, and it gets mentioned in passing because, eh, it would be a real bore to detail."</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>"Wise words. Indeed, most people do not take such truth into account when planning their glorious adventure careers," a large warrior chimed in. More people laughed, commenting that was why they had their behinds firmly set in their own estates or ships."</em></p><p></p><p>"Yes, well, I am sure several of the party had similar thoughts, both about the trek through the marsh and the abduction mess up." <em>Filling up the teacup, the storyteller leaned back and sighed.</em> "But there was no turning back now, so the next morning saw them in much subdued mood, still feeling sick and unable to breakfast for the most part. </p><p></p><p>There was a road recognizable now, and it lead up a rocky path to the remaining cliff face of the area. In the cliff was build a massive, rectangular tower with one large waterwheel attached; the latter still working, stirring the low flowing, dirty creek it was in. The sturdy double doors looked magically protected even to the uninitiated; they had done well in the test of time. The symbol of House Deneith was etched upon it. </p><p></p><p>"Ugly building," Filbura commented. </p><p></p><p>"Practical building," Lorraine corrected, slightly annoyed. For a moment, she hesitated, not knowing what exactly to do, then she tentatively put her hand on the door. A clicking sound could be heard after a second or two. "Welcome to the blood," a voice whispered in her head. No one else could hear it, but that wasn't surprising to anyone. </p><p></p><p>The door opened to a mostly emptied out hall dimly lit by the gray daylight filtering in, with only a few tattered rugs here and there and some dented shields and broken weapons lying around. And, to their annoyance, 6 skeletons which promptly started to stir. "Someone doesn't want us in," Zolan grinned. "Or anyone, most likely. And that someone likely wasn't from your House Lorraine."</p><p></p><p>"I'd say," the warrior agreed. "Should be easy enough to handle, yes?" </p><p></p><p>"Yeah!" the orc agreed, drew his short sword and jumped forward. Moreelle wanted to start a song of magical aid and encouragement when, to everyone's surprise, the orc priestling started to sing! It was all in orcish, and with such a bad voice – unless it was supposed to be so off-key and screeching – that Filbura and Lala, who hadn't been affected much by anything until now, covered their ear in shock and grimaced as if to be sick. The bard herself mouthed a few elven curses and threw a worried look at Lorraine. How could the woman fight with such a noise right next to her?</p><p></p><p>Indeed, Lorraine missed a few swings when, they dare think, she would otherwise not have had trouble. At first it seemed as if she was about to instinctively attack her ally instead of the undead, but little by little, the singing annoyed her and her anger gave her a different sort of power. Bit less skill, more direct fury. Which worked as well. </p><p></p><p>Once the job was done, Lorraine stared at Zolan. "What was that?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh, just an old orc song to frighten the enemy," he explained. "To get myself in the mood."</p><p></p><p>"Hate to point it out," Moreelle sighed. "But those things aren't alive anymore and thus don't get scared, yet the rest of us had to fight to think clearly in this infernal noise." </p><p></p><p>"Aww, is my voice really that bad? Come on, girl, I just wanted to help."</p><p></p><p>"Hint for you – if it doesn't affect your enemy but hampers your allies, it's bad!" Ahna, who had been unable to even draw her sword in the pain of the acoustic onslaught, said drily.</p><p></p><p>"My mind's gone blank of any spells," Quavin added for clarification. </p><p></p><p>"Alright, alright." Putting his sword away, the priestling lifted both hands. "I will try not to do it again."</p><p></p><p>"Just try?" Filbura groaned. </p><p></p><p>"Just don't... sing... anymore, ok?" the elf bard patted the orc's arm and followed the others. </p><p></p><p>"What about Lala?" Filbura worried. "She's too young to go in with us, I'd say, and too young to stay outside alone, too."</p><p></p><p>Lala frowned. "I don't want to go in, but I am not too young to be out alone. I have been out alone for years, now. And the undead really don't notice me."</p><p></p><p>"But if they really don't, she is as safe with us as outside, no? And maybe she can help get us past some problems somehow," the mage suggested. </p><p></p><p>The girl shook her head. "I'll wait for you in the hut we stayed, but if you aren't back in 3 days I'll be on my way back. Is that alright with you?"</p><p></p><p>Ahna nodded. The girl had, after all, just been sent along to guide them. "Be safe," she said and watched Lala leave. Then she went ahead to stand next to Lorraine. Filbura and Moreelle carried the lights, the dwarf in her right hand and the elf had managed to fix the leather bags they were in to her left shoulder somehow, to have her hands free for playing her flute she had brought. "Alright, now where to?" Ana asked. </p><p></p><p>Lorraine consulted the badly scetched map they had been given, drawn by someone who had, a long time ago, been the appointed ground keeper. "Straight ahead, I'd say."</p><p></p><p>"But there is a door in the left wall, too, and if we go ahead, something unknown might come out and fall into our backs," Quavin tried to reason. </p><p></p><p>"Good point." Filbura pointed to the left, to cast her vote as to where to go first.</p><p></p><p>"Agreed," the orc nodded. "Won't want anything in my back."</p><p></p><p>"But of we go there first," the bard mused, "won't that mean something can fall into our backs from there?" She pointed front. </p><p></p><p>"Heck, if we are going to discuss this all day, we get nothing done!" Zolan went to the left door and pulled it open, not worrying about traps as in his eyes undead didn't set traps.</p><p></p><p>He was lucky. Asides from some carrion insects seemingly immune to the poison fumes feasting on dead rats, nothing was in this room which looked like it was once used for training. The room behind, with some training dummies, was equally empty. The shower and laundry room next to the training hall had a few dead tiger beetles and more dead rats, but nothing dangerous either. Satisfied, the group went back to the entrance hall and moved forward."</p><p></p><p><em>"Not checking for traps, again." The halfling from last night shook his head. "I guess they learned the hard way, didn't they?"</em></p><p></p><p>"Maybe. For now, they felt a little bit too confident but were at least somewhat careful. They found hallways with stairs as they moved on, and a small closet, all empty and no sign of undead. A few cobwebs with dead spiders here and there and some dead rats and mice, mostly already decomposed or eaten, was all that looked remotely spooky. </p><p></p><p>They found the dining hall right from the hallway, and here they found their first real challenge. Hissing and crying, with tentacles spouting from its shoulders, a huge black at was standing on a rotting dining table. 3 ghouls, their stink adding another wave of nausea to most of the party, stood on broken chairs clawing at the beast. </p><p></p><p>"Displacer beast," Lorraine said, having seen such a creature before. "Let's go for the ghouls. The beast is their enemy so hopefully our ally, at least for now."</p><p></p><p>"Let's go for the ghouls, sure," Filbura mumbled, doubting her wisdom of coming here, but then she would have worried to no end had she not come along. </p><p></p><p>The orc, the warrior and the paladin jumped forward, the paladin invoking the protection of a scroll they had gotten in the village. The ghouls turned their attention on them, howling an gargling in frustration as they could not get at the party. Moreelle started into a song about defeating the unnatural, and everyone felt better at once, both more confident and slightly stronger. </p><p></p><p>The beast saw its chances and clawed into one of the ghouls. Those undead, while slightly intelligent, had nothing on the cunning or agility of the beast, so the ghoul's attacks went into empty air as it tried to defend itself. While working up some sweat, the party and the beast had the ghouls down in little time, their mage not even needing to throw any spells – this was something they had agreed on early, by the way. Not that Quayin was sure that some fire spell or the other would not erupt when he was nervous, but he was determined to try and reign it in until they really needed the power. </p><p></p><p>With the ghouls gone, the beast snarled at the party and backed off. Filbura started to talk to it with words the others could not understand, but the beast calmed down and even let out a purr that almost sounded like a house cat, just louder. "It says the poison does bother it and it came in here to find some shelter. It also says the other room is full of dead rats and giant centipedes." Filbura pointed to their right. "Sounds like the kitchen, from the description, which makes sense. Doesn't sound like we need to go in there." The druid took one of her remaining potions against poison and offered it to the beast. Again she spoke in that strange language. </p><p></p><p>"Figures she would help it," the paladin sighed, but she, too, had no need to see the beast harmed. </p><p></p><p>"Her name is Ti'ir," Filbura announced as the beast licked up the potion. "She's not from around here, she was with a wizard and got lost when their ship sank in the latest storm. She wants to come along." </p><p></p><p>"A displacer beast with a wizard?" Lorraine's eyes almost fell out. "Does she understand us?" </p><p></p><p>"Only a little, but she will probably learn. The wizard wanted to make her his familiar but she would prefer to be free of any such bonds and return to the wild where there is no poison."</p><p></p><p>"Agreed, we'll find a place for her when we are done. Thank you, Ti'ir," the bard said politely. Ti'ir purred again. </p><p></p><p>"Ignore the kitchen and let's move upstairs, then," Lorraine suggested. Everyone agreed. </p><p></p><p>The stairs were of solid stone and thus they could move up quickly. On the 1st floor, the hallway went left and straight after they turned a few corners, ignoring the stuck door immediately across the stairs. Looking at the map and seeing that straight would eventually lead to the next floor, it was quickly decided to go left instead. There was a door immediately to their right as they came into this section. More carefully this time, they checked the door and then opened it and found a peculiar sight. Several dead rust monsters and half eaten metal chunks which might have been weights littered the floor. From the ceiling they could see dead bats hanging, mostly looking mummified. The toxic fog had killed them but their claws didn't let go of their next even in dead. Without a word, they closed the door and moved on. </p><p></p><p>"I wonder what causes this fog," Filbura mused. "It's fine if we are not affected and it kills all the inhabitants we might have had to fight, although I feel sorry for the bats. But not knowing what it is is beginning to worry me."</p><p></p><p>The paladin nodded. "It might not even have to do with the tower."</p><p></p><p>An empty storage room to their left later, they came to the end of the hallway. Again they couldn't find a trap on the door and pulled it open. The room behind was large, with a number of bunk beds with chests at their foot ends. There were skeletons and rotten bodies on each of those beds, as if something had killed them in their sleep. To no ones surprise, all those bodies stirred as soon as Lorraine put a foot into the room. "Let's get at it again," she said, being a lot more cocky than before. </p><p></p><p>This time, with 6 zombies and 10 skeletons, they needed the help of the elf mage to incinerate some of them, as even with the bard's song it might have caused some issues defeating them all with just 3 people and a beast without being infected by a zombie disease. Fighting in the stink and the poison also exhausted them more than usual, even with the potions. "You need to learn to turn undead, priestling," Lorraine told the orc. Zolan just grinned and nodded. </p><p></p><p>Having dealt with this, the party moved back to the stuck door. Lorraine was satisfied with the progress but a little disappointed with finding nothing of interest to her House so far, and she thought that the room there might have been an administrative place. Instead, after pulling it open finally, they found a gymnasium with an even worse stench, a skeleton with a glowing dagger next to it on the floor and shuttered windows letting almost no light in. </p><p></p><p>"It's not magical," Quavin said, pointing to the dagger after a quick detect. "I smell a trap." </p><p></p><p>"Indeed, and those things might be a part of it," Moreelle agreed, pointing out the 3 wights rising up from behind rotten mattresses. </p><p></p><p>Zolan groaned. He was not as trained a fighter as the paladin or the warrior, and despite not wanting to admit it, he was beginning to get tired. But as the bard's song sounded once more, he managed to join into the fight after the paladin had used the second scroll of undead protection. He just worried they would run out of those scrolls soon. </p><p></p><p>Quavin, who held himself back this time, only brandishing his staff just in case, noticed another issue. Moreelle looked paler than before. "How often can you keep doing that?" he whispered as the last wight fell. "You look awfully exhausted."</p><p></p><p>"In this stench and all? Probably one more song. The poison also affects my voice, I need to be careful not to sound like our orc friend soon."</p><p></p><p>The mage nodded. "How many of those protection scrolls did they give Ahna?"</p><p></p><p>"I didn't count," the bard admitted. "4 or 5, maybe?" </p><p></p><p>Again, Quavin nodded, pushing his red blond hair out of his forehead and tried to fix it behind his ears. For some reason, he thought of a haircut and wondered why his mind brought this up in this situation. "We will run out of resources soon, at this rate. There's one more level after this one, and then there is the basement." They had noticed a spiral stairway, blocked in places by rubble, before. "Those undead need to be coming from somewhere, or being drawn here by something."</p><p></p><p>Filbura frowned. "Those wights rather looked like coming from elsewhere while the bodies in their beds and downstairs looked as if they had been warriors from this place." She pointed to the tattered remains of what looked like peasant's clothing on the wights. </p><p></p><p>Ahna, wiping her scimitar-like blade clean on the mattresses, had heard the last part. Her gnome ears twitched as she sneezed in the stench. Lorraine towered behind her, and to Filbura, it was an almost comical sight. No one who would not know Ahna and her almost monk-like fighting style, only wearing chainmail and leather armor, would think her a paladin, really. The muscles on her arms seemed overly large for a gnome, and she had in the past gotten funny comments from male gnomes about it who had no idea what she was. Her blue, piercing eyes looked from one to the other. "How is everyone feeling?" she inquired. </p><p></p><p>Zolan admitted being weary, Lorraine felt like just getting started despite feeling slightly nauseous. Filbura was somewhat green in the face and just grinned sheepishly. The mage assured he was fine but wanted to tally their resources. Moreelle admitted to not being able to perform many more songs, at best 2 with some time to recover. The Ti'ir let it be known that she was unhurt and still strong.</p><p></p><p>"Well, if we go back outside to rest to tomorrow, we might run out of potions," Ahna reminded them. "And this poison will get us quick. Asides, we might have to clean out the rooms all over again. We have 3 more of the undead protection scrolls. We have 2 potions of restoration, and the one wight almost managed to make them necessary just now," the paladin counted. "We also got vials of holy water, 10 of them,as you might have noticed."</p><p></p><p>"I say we rest 10 min and then move on," Zolan suggested. "Us orcs can rally a lot, and after a break I'll be ready to hack some more of those abominations apart. The I suggest we check upstairs and if there is no cause for the undead or the fog there, well, we will see if we are still fit to go to the basement."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, we will not risk our lives over this," Ahan agreed, looking at Lorraine to reinforce that part. "We'll go back to the village if necessary, and get more resources, if needed. </p><p></p><p>"Sure," Lorraine nodded, sounding slightly frustrated. "I would have thought we'd found something of importance by now."</p><p></p><p>"Getting rid of a bunch of those abominations is important," Filbura reminded them. </p><p></p><p>10 min later, rested and strengthened with some food and drink, they were on the move again. This time, they went straight and to where the hallway turned right, moved to another right turn without encountering anything and then came to a halt in front of the stairs to the upper level. The displacer beast blocked their way and hissed in alarm.</p><p></p><p>"She says there's something on the ground," the dwarf translated and held the light out. The floor seemed to move slightly, giving off a greyish color.</p><p></p><p>"Just great. That's ooze, isn't it?" Zolan groaned. "And it seems to thrive on the poison fog."</p><p></p><p>"Can you burn it off?" Ahna asked the mage. "The walls and floor are all stone, nothing else should burn here."</p><p></p><p>"I'm pretty sure those things are immune to fire," the elf frowned. "But let me see." </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the assumption proved to be right. Not being good with any sort of electricity spells or protection spells, the elf leaned back against a cold wall and sighed. "It corrodes weapons," he explained. "So not much use hacking at it."</p><p></p><p>"You don't have any spells which could do anything?" Filbura inquired. </p><p></p><p>"I'm thinking, I'm thinking, but remember I haven't had a chance to study that many spells in my life, yet. My magic is mainly raw fire energy."</p><p></p><p>"Folks, it is moving," Zolan pointed out, and Ti'ir was already moving away from it. The ooze was spread out over the whole length of the corridor up to the stairs, and now they could see it ripple, probably having noticed them and getting ready for an attack. "Can these things move fast? How do they attack?" </p><p></p><p>The party moved back behind the corner, and to their relief, the ooze didn't seem to want to follow. "I'm not sure," Quavin admitted. "Oozes weren't my favorite thing to study."</p><p></p><p>"Well, when this is over, we could all do our best to learn as much as possible about all the weird life forms in the world," Filbura determined. </p><p></p><p>"So, we are stuck?" the bard said meekly. </p><p></p><p>"Unless you find a way to sing it away, it seems so," Lorraine snapped, getting more and more frustrated with their situation. </p><p></p><p>The eyes of the elf woman lit up. "That may just be possible but you'd need to cover your ears. Zolan... can you do that noise again you made downstairs?"</p><p></p><p>"What?" The orc looked at her in confusion. "You mean my singing?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, that noise," she nodded. "I have a spell redirecting and focusing sound for defense, but I need a sound source."</p><p></p><p>"You want to turn my voice into a weapon? I looove that!" Zolan brightened considerably. "Where do I need to stand?" </p><p></p><p>"Right in the corner, I will be next to you. Best the others stay here," Moreelle said. </p><p></p><p>The others actually backed up some distance into the corridor to be on the safe side. Still, the sound of the orc and the amplification by the spell of the bard – the mage thought he heard names of different tonal systems – assaulted their ears despite being directed at the ooze. Some smoke or dust drifted through the corridor, and then the noise stopped. Moreelle mouthed something, but it needed a few seconds before everyone could hear again. "It worked," she repeated. </p><p></p><p>"Great." Lorraine immediately pressed on. "I just hope there'll be no more of these things or I will need a new set of ears."</p><p></p><p>The displacer beast had run at the first sound, back down the corridor, and now reluctantly caught up again. She mewed at Filbura. "Ti'ir says that that was worse than a thunderstorm in a narrow valley," the druid translated. "Which, I guess, was the worst howling she had ever heard before." </p><p></p><p>Zolan looked decidedly too proud as they climbed the stairs to the next level. </p><p></p><p>TBC</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5971204, member: 53286"] Pain free day, so long update. Almost up to date with what happened in the game, too. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [I]After lunch, everyone was gathering around the storyteller again. The snowfall outside had gotten worse, and the wind was constantly howling. There was little light, as the sun had trouble to break throuh the swirling snowflakes. [/I] "So, as I said, Deniv and Feyan arrived first. But they had forgotten an important detail. The temple had several entrances, and one of them was to be left unlocked for them. Now they were looking in confusion at the relatively small, but brightly decorated building. None of them remembered that it was them who had the notes from Hollowain, either. Lady Caithlyn seemed vaguely amused by this. "We should start checking clockwise," she suggested, her cheeks flushed from all the excitement. "It certainly won't be the main exit." That, the others agreed with so they rattled at one door after the other while the bride-to-be tried to fix herself up for the wedding while she went along. If anyone would have noticed them, they would have been a weird sight. Filbura and Milayn, who were just on their way to the temple, had a problem of a different kind. Her charge had woken up and was banging the inside of her transport box. "We are drawing attention," Filbura hissed. "You don't say," the assassin growled back. Loud she said "I'm never going to transporting banger snakes for that wizard anymore, especially not for that meager pay." The couple and their children they just passed by looked confused, but didn't interfere. No one with a sane mind would interfere with the delivery for a wizard. "Banger snakes?" Filbura wondered, looking confused. "I just made that up, obviously. Look, there is the temple, we need to let her out somewhere where no one can see us and explain the situation to her better than we did before." The delivery entrance to the temple was, as with most such buildings, small and hard to find behind fancy decorations. It gave them enough cover to drop their cargo and open it up. The woman jumping out in a fury was about to shout at them when she almost stumbled over her brush and saw her tiara. More out of a reflex, she grabbed both and then she mumbled some angry words. Milayn and Filbura felt themselves rooted into place. "He didn't mention she can do magic," the dwarf protested. "Who?" the elf snapped at them. "Who sent you to abduct me? You better talk or I'l get it out of you." "We are here in the name of your beloved, Fandel Sayadin," Milayn explained, remembering the instruction not to mention their contractor's name. "To prevent the wedding tomorrow, we brought you here to be married tonight. It's all arranged." "Fandel?" There was a short moment of confusion, then the woman let out a short laugh. "Then you think I'm Lady Caithlyn?" The two abductors looked at each other, equally confused. "Why, yes, you were in the house, you fit the description..." the druid said. "I'm Lady Dolara, Caithlyn's elder cousin. We might look a lot alike, indeed, but I'd think this would have given away I'm not the one you were looking for." She lifted her right hand, and the band of marriage, a green metal band looking like vines shimmering in green and blue, curled around her right wrist. "I've been married a long time ago. So, as for Fandel's candor, I admire it. But he sent some beginners who obviously had not planned this out well. Caitjlyn is at the fair." "We had little time to plan," the dwarf grimaced. "We were just hired 2 hours or so ago. We basically just followed the instructions." "Well, if she is at the fair, there is hope yet," Milayn reminded her friend. "The others might find her yet and be on their way already, as we never said we'd meet up again. Could you release us, please?" The elf undid the spell with a motion of her hand. "What others? There is more of you?" "Yeah, we split up in case you... I mean, Lady Caithlyn, went to the fair. Seems it was a good idea, too." The druid looked up at the temple walls. "Maybe they are already inside, they might have had less trouble. I just hope this Fandel will be here in time, too." "I thought he hired you? He must be here already, then, no?" Lady Dolara looked suspicious again. "We didn't meet him." Milayn remembered the bad feeling she had had about this endeavor before. "A friend of his asked us to help out. Probably wanted to keep the groom out of trouble, just in case." "A friend?" The lady's eyes narrowed. "This friend would not happen to be one Hollowain, would it? No, I can see from the looks on your faces that it was him." The lady let out a very unladylike curse. "Then I hope your friends have not found Caithlyn." "And why would that be?" The dwarf folded her arms. "Are you against them marrying?" "No." The irritated stare of the lady made Filbura close her mouth. "I'm against Hollowain go through with his fiendish plans, and I fear they involve Caithlyn's undoing. He has been sneaking himself into Fandel's good graces and eventually friendship. This is why I came to Sharn to begin with when she wrote of this friendship; to warn him and Caithlyn of them." "This Hollowain character isn't trustworthy, then?" Milayn grabbed the dagger in her belt. "He's been planning against them? To what end?" "Because Fandel has signed over his estate to him in case anything happened to him. He has no family, you see. Hollowain has been doing this several times before, but the authorities could never prove a thing." So we've been hired to do his dirty work, and he likely plans to kill us off, too, and then blame it all on Fandel, who would either kill himself or be executed." Milayn was quick to assess the situation. "He's probably arranged this attack on himself, too, to find some fools to work for him." "Hey," the druid protested, but she, too, saw the truth in the words of the assassin. "Very likely, yes. We need to hurry and see if we can intercept your friends before it is too late." Lady Dolara turned and started rounding the temple, not waiting to see if they would come along or not. "Shouldn't we call the authorities?" Filbura asked naively. "Are you mad? We'd be probably arrested for abduction, or at least, Deniv and Feyan would be." "Good point." Filbura started following the lady. "Let's hope we won't be too late to same the girl or our friends, then." "Yeah," the Thuranni agreed and hurried to follow. "The damage to our reputation would probably be irreparable." The other two and their charge had by now found the unlocked door just on the other side of the place. A partly covered everburning flame was all that lit up a small anteroom with a bench, a mirror and some chairs and chest. It looked like a room to prepare a wedding party or any other person of importance, so they seemed to be on the right track. By now, Caithlyn only needed another look into the mirror to be happy with her appearance. Her gown worried her a bit, as it didn't shout "wedding," but they assured her it was fine, and that it was the action that counted, not the looks. From the anteroom, a narrow hallway led deeper into the temple, ending at a sturdy metal door just out of the reach of the anteroom's everburning flame. Deniv bumped into Caithlyn when she stopped to avoid the same happening to her with Feyan. Her and the gnome had less issues with the sudden darkness. "They could have left more light on," Deniv mumbled as he sorted himself out. The lady chuckled nervously. Feyan pushed the door open to reveal the inner sanctum of the small temple. A rotunda with benches of wood and stone alternating and an equally round altar was revealed. On the latter, a 3-armed candle holder stood, candles lit. A vial with water and an incense holder with burning leaves were also present. More everburning flames decorated the walls here, and the light was warm and welcoming, not too bright on the eyes but chasing away all the shadows. "So they are here, then," the gnome chuckled. Louder he called "Here comes the bride!" A hooded figure disengaged from a doorway. They had not noticed it before. With slow but steady strides, it came towards the altar. "Welcome, friends. Welcome, Lady Caithlyn! The groom will be with you in a moment." Deniv recognized the voice of Hollowain and looked at his friend. The gnome shrugged. The masquerade was a bit strange, but they both remembered the elf's words about not wanting to be dragged into the mess of things. "Are we supposed to go now?" The hood turned to Deniv and shook his head. "We need some witnesses present. Where are your friends?" That was a good question. The men could not believe that the women were still looking for the lady, when it was clear the 2 of them must have been successful. "On their way," Deniv said to overplay their mess up in not coordinating things better. "We got split up." "Very well. We cannot wait for them, though. I'm going to go along with the preparations. Caithlyn, would you come over to the altar, please?" She was about to do as he asked, when a female voice suddenly called out. "No, don't! It's a trap, he means to do you harm, likely to kill you!" A copy of Caithlyn seemed to materialize out of another hallway at the head of the altar. She has her arms raised, and a faint light was glowing around her hands. "It's Hollowain, and he's evil. He's done it before, he's after Fandel's possessions and wants to frame him!" Hollowain had turned around in surprise, looking from one woman to the other in confusion. That was enough for the newcomer to strike a spell at him. A bolt of light hit him squarely between the shoulders and threw him between the benches. But right then, more doors to more hallways opened, and two groups of armed men appeared, some of which they knew just all too well. "Those are the thugs that were after Hollowain before!" Deniv exclaimed. "It was a set up? All of this?" The gnome, having a hard time to digest that a wedding-to-be turned into a possible fight grabbed his knife and jumped after Hollowain, in the hopes to grab a hold of the man and make him call back his thugs. The newly arrived mage woman went to Caithlyn and grabbed her by the arm, steering her hurriedly behind the altar to get some cover. The thugs drew falchions, cudgels and other means of dealing out hurt. The gnome reached Hollowain, who was trying to shake off the dizziness caused by the spell and the fall. Quickly, he grabbed the man by the neck and let him feel the blade. "Better not move, or you may get another mouth a bit deeper than you are used to," the gnome hissed, trying to put malice into his voice. "And better call back those thugs of yours, too." Hollowain was not fooled that easily. He knew inexperienced people if he met them. This gnome, he knew, had never killed in his life before. He reached behind to grab Feyan's wrist, confusing the gnome. Feyan hesitated a moment too long, and before he knew, he found himself flying over the head of the elf and crashed down hard behind some benches. The world became dark around him. The last thing he heard was Hollowain's laughter. Just then, Filbura and Milayn came running through the hallway Lady Dolara had used, having had some trouble catching up after they missed the door the woman had opened with a spell. The assassin cursed and her hands went to her arsenal of shuriken and throwing knives. Filbura was slower, taking her time to notice that she had indeed seen some of the thugs before. Deniv, she noticed, had just thrown some smoke causing bottle on the ground, which saved the elf woman from being attacked by all thugs at once but also obscured the sight for her bow and Milayin's assorted throwing tools. The assassin already cursed, but one of the thugs was down. The others, 7 if she had counted right, were circling around the smoke to get at Caithlyn, who was still hiding behind the altar. Hollowain joined the fray with his own sword, but cried out as Filbura managed to put an arrow in it. The sword dropped with a clinging sound. "Aren't there any priests here to notice the commotion?" she wondered. Hollowain looked like he was about to explode. His carefully developed plan was about to blow, and he needed a solution fast. His hand went to his belt pouch and he withdrew a sheet of paper. With a snarl, he began reading from it. The cloud Deniv had caused began to dissipate. Lady Dolara hurled a ball of light at Hollowain. Filbura shot an arrow at the only thug not inside the cloud, but missed and found the man coming at her. Milayin threw her shuriken in rapid succession, and while she hit no vital spot, she brought the thug down before he could reach the dwarf. Hollowain's spell, disrupted by the attack he had to duck, fizzled and he let out a roar of anger. A moment later, he could not move anymore, being in the grasp of Lady Dolara's spell. The cloud was gone and revealed sleeping thugs and... a sleeping Deniv. He had been caught by his own defense. Filbura could not help but giggle. Lady Caithlyn, too, was sleeping behind the altar, which had been inside the cloud. Feyan came too just then with a loud groan. "Did we win?" "Don't stand around," Milayin hissed, kicking the last thug unconscious, then beginning to plug her weapons from his body. "Tie them up. Or should we just kill them all?" Feyan and Filbura both looked shocked at the suggestion, but the elf lady just pointed at Deniv. "We won't be able to prove anything to the authorities. Get him out of here and go home. Take what valuables Hollowain has with him. I'll find out where he holds Fandel and then dispose of them. None of us can afford for him to live so he would be our enemy in the future." There was a cold glow in her eyes suggesting no one needed her as an enemy, either. "Right." Milayn rushed to Feyan's side to help him out of the benches, then searched Hollowain and took whatever she could find, which was unfortunately a lot less than what they had been promised. Filbura's druidic magic managed to raise Deniv, although he was still disoriented. Before they knew it, they were back on the streets in the temple district, all but Milayn in a rather depressed mood. The assassin, who had feared it would not end well, was not one to worry over spilled milk. "We shouldn't tell the others about this," Feyan offered as they were waiting for transportation. "We got some money from the guy, yes?" When Milayn nodded, he suggested they just make up a short escort job to explain it and leave it at that. Deniv readily agreed, not wanting an argument with either Ahna, the paladin, or Lorraine. Filbura shrugged, she wasn't much for secrets but if her friends wanted to keep this to themselves, it was fine with her. Milayn just nodded once, preferring to avoid the same sort of arguments Deniv was worried about." [I]"So, did they learn a lesson out of this?" one of the warriors in the audience asked. [/I] "Like that you don't leave your real fighters at home if you can avoid it?" [I]The storyteller chuckled.[/I] "Unfortunately, no. But for now, they were safe and heading back home, trying to remember the main reason they had been sent out to begin with. The matter of the vampire. And they had nothing to report there, either. In the time they had been out and about and almost gotten themselves killed, Lorraine had been holding her daily training sessions with paying students. To the end of those, she saw a familiar face framed in red hair in front of the door as she let a student out. "Mallie?" she grinned at her second grade rogue counsin. "What are you doing here?" "Looking for you, obviously." The much smaller an slightly older woman positioned herself in a chair and too the offered wine. "I heard of your troubles with the House – silly elders, as usual – and thought you could use my help. Or, to be honest, I need yours." Mallie had always managed to dodge troubles in House affairs. She was a good enough fighter and aspiring rogue, the latter their family, with few exceptions, knew nothing about. She also owned a security and exploration business in a small town outside of Sharn. Mainly, she was supplying those with no time to go out and search for hands to do their (sometimes dirty) work with the man power to do so. Most of this manpower came from House Deneith, as good fighters were almost always on the list, as temporary bodyguards and escort details most of the time. "You need my help?" Lorraine was amused. "It's rare enough that any dragonmarked want to work for you, so you have decided to see if I've been down on my luck enough to actually work for a close relative? One that has a tendency to venture into the not-so-legal side of things at that?" The woman chuckled. "Not quite. Although, it's not about you or your business, it is just that I abhor fixed schedules, which is, as you know, one reason father and others had issues with me." "Since when do I stick to fixed schedules?" Mallie grimaced. "If anyone hates anything fixed, it is me." "Yeah, especially if it is fixed on someone's wall, or..." Mallie threw the empty leather cup after Lorraine. "Be serious, for once. No, the situation is this. I have a high profile client who has, in the past, not been on friendly terms with House Deneith. Thus, I can't really get anyone from Deneith to do any work for her, for fear of running into trouble with the elders. Yet, it was specifically asked for someone from our House. Some seal that can only be opened by one of us, if I get it right. So I thought..." "Yeah, send the outcast." Lorraine threw the cup right back. "And let me guess, the fact that I'm currently not in good standing is supposed to be left out?" "Indeed. Who needs all the details? Definitely not our clients. Also, because they asked for more than one capable hand, and I can hardly send anyone with you who could tell about you, I thought maybe some of your friends..." Lorraine's eyes narrowed. "How would you know about them? How did you find me, first place?" "I kinda... well, I kept tabs on you because, well, you never know when you nee family help. I admit I lost sight of you at first, but then I found the messenger station you use when you sent news to aunt Gizella. I knew you'd write her as she was always so fond of you and had gone at your father something awful for throwing you out." The red haired woman reclined and put her legs on the table in the kitchen, looking awfully smug. "Of course you have," Lorraine growled. "I do not appreciate being spied on." Now her cousin looked insulted. "I didn't spy on you! That'd be a waste of good resources. Just kept track on where you were. And then I saw you were looking for work... May I at least tell you what it is about? "Yeah, sure. But we are working on something high profile at the moment, for the authorities." Lorraine wasn't willing to go into details. "So if this takes longer than a few days, it's a no go." "No, it actually sounds like easy money. So, here it is..." As Mallie explained the details, Lorraine found herself interested against her will. Maybe she could ask a few of the others to come along on this." [I]"What was it? And did they leave without telling anyone else, too?" a child piped up. [/I] "Oh, no, Lorraine knew better than to do that. She waited for everyone else being back that evening, and for our 4 intrepid abductors to finish their tale of not much found out and a supposed escort business. Also, Tjuja was reporting that her attempts to divine anything about the vampire had met with little success, except that it was a male. But it was just their first day on the job, so all in all, they weren't really disappointed and had their hopes up to find something in the near future. The core of the problem to solve, Lorraine explained, was an old, partially ruined tower which had once been a training facility for House Deneith, located in inhospitable swamp marsh area on the coast about a day's travel from Sharn. The village and surrounding lands close by belonged to a Lady Thurga. A decade or so ago, they disposed of a mass of undead with the help of some priests. Suspicion had always been that those had come from the tower, but it was quiet after a while so the matter was forgotten. Now, though, there were not only more undead, a green poisenos fog had started to creep over the marsh. Sometimes, the wind blew the fog into the village and farms, killing off small cattle, and the young and elderly, despite being thinned. This time, there was no doubt about the source, but it had been impossible to enter the tower because the magical seal closing it was strong still. It required, so Lorraine had been told, someone with Deneith blood to open it. The Lady Thurga had even offered to have potions against poison and some protection against undead ready, and would also send some of their guards along who knew the marsh. Their job was to open the tower, help clean out what was inside, and maybe Lorraine would find something of calue to her House. "Undead," Tibunn grimaced. "A vampire is already bad enough but I suppose they are more talking of zombies, skeletons and such?" "Not specified. Probably, yes," Lorraine nodded. "I'm needed here," Tjuja said right away. "I need to do more divinations about this vampire still, and I can't do that so well from the distance." Moreelle nodded. "I can get leave from my current employ at any time, so I won't mind going along if I'm needed. I saw zombies before." Despite her words, she twisted her blonde hair nervously. "I think 4 or 5 of us will be more than enough." Lorraine looked at Ahna, who had begun to act as their leader in earnest by now, and for a change, Lorraine didn't mind as the paladin, unlike her former superiors, asked for their views. Ahna nodded. "Sounds like I should go along on this one. Zolan?" The orc grinned. "I wouldn't let you go without me. I'm the skeleton smasher!" The others knew the tale about his former encounter at an old graveyard well enough by now and just nodded and waved to stop him from regaling them with the same story again. "Anyone else?" Lorraine asked. "Sounds like you need a mage," Quavin added, not looking too happy about it but determined to pull his weight. Filbura hesitated. After her stint with the abduction job, she was a bit reluctant to go on another mission so soon. Yet she had had it with the city. She needed a change of scenery. "Mind if I come, too? I know that makes 6 but, I need to see some wildlife and vegetation, even if most of it is going to be a marsh with poison gas." "We have a team, then. Leave next to tomorrow?" Lorraine asked. As everyone nodded, Lorraine smiled thankfully at them and went to send notes to her students about her absence. She was all eager to see if there was anything in this old tower to bring her back into her House's good graces, even if she had no wish to work with them anytime soon again." [I]As the storyteller nipped on hot tea, the child spoke up again. "Tjuja was scared, wasn't she? It wasn't about divinations." The storyteller nodded, chuckling softly.[/I] "Well observed. Indeed, terrified described it more, though she did her best not to show it and no one who noticed would ask. In her youth, there had been a bad episode with a ghoul she had not yet told anyone about. In any case, they traveled as planned and arrived at their destination or Marshford late the evening they had started. It was already getting dark, but they could still see green fog drifting off from the nearby marsh, not always dissipating in the mild breeze. They had been expected, so their quarters for the night and their food were ready, and several people from the village – actually more of a small town counting the farms, the mill and other businesses not directly in the settlement – wanted to talk with the party immediately. Among them, of course, Lady Thurga, who proved to be an ancient looking human with wrinkles all over, with a mind still quick and manners not so polite. The latter didn't matter much, because the woman made a list of things she could help out with. Among the items they were given were two large glass orbs with a continual light cast on them. This was, of course, much better than any torch. Not only didn't they require oxygen or cause smoke, they could not be blown out by sudden drafts or in water. The bad news was that no guards could accompany the party, and the reason was obvious. A lot of the locals spouted injuries from a brigand attack the day before, and with two exceptions all of the lady's guards had been injured, and those two were needed to stand guard. Reinforcements were on the way, but no one wanted the group to wait that long, as there had been a skeleton sighting the night before, too. There was a bright young ranger lass who was willing to show them through the marshes, and while both the paladin and the warrior objected to use half a child as a guard into something dangerous, the priests of the town assured them that it would be fine. The girl, Lale, was immune to the poison, as were about a quarter of the population and as many animals, they were told. She was a ranger apprentice, knew the marsh well and had in the past been invisible to the undead when she had been out hunting. It was as if they would not recognize her as a living. Lale was from a neighboring thorpe on the lady's land, and her group of rangers and druids had sent her as a guide. Naturally, the party questioned the girl a while after everyone else was gone to let them have rest, but asides from being a bit shy, nothing seemed unusual about her – no magic was detected on her, no evil either and she was definitely alive. Casually, Lala mentioned to be curious as well, and the paladin thought of asking her to return with them to Sharm later to have the mystery solved, hopefully. More or less fine with this, they went to bed and found that, despite their excitement, worry or even fear, they fell asleep easily. Maybe it was the soft beds, or something had been in the food, but they woke up refreshed and ready to open the tower that had once been a House Deneith training facility. The trek through the marshes proved to be an annoying exercise. The good thing was that the fog had killed off the insects. The bad thing was that it had also killed off larger animals, and the stink of death over the area combined with the stink of the fog was something awful. Everyone but Filbura and Lale felt sick and had to take a break often, so the advance was considerably slow. Which did not help the situation. They had to use several of the anti-poison potions even before they arrived, and there was sure to be some fog in the tower, too, plus the way back. When they finally made it, it was late afternoon already. The sun was hiding behind mist and poison fog, and it was getting cooler quick, as was fitting for the time of year. It was decided to camp inside one of the many small huts rangers, trappers and druids had erected in the area instead of going in exhausted, wet and cold. During the night, they kept watch, of course, but asides from some strange noises, like something large moving through the salty waters, nothing transpired." [I]"That's the thing about adventuring," someone chuckled. "Everyone who doesn't do it seems to think it is all the danger of battle and the excitement of missions. Here's a day long walk in bad area, which I'd like to see anyone not used to it do, and it gets mentioned in passing because, eh, it would be a real bore to detail." "Wise words. Indeed, most people do not take such truth into account when planning their glorious adventure careers," a large warrior chimed in. More people laughed, commenting that was why they had their behinds firmly set in their own estates or ships."[/I] "Yes, well, I am sure several of the party had similar thoughts, both about the trek through the marsh and the abduction mess up." [I]Filling up the teacup, the storyteller leaned back and sighed.[/I] "But there was no turning back now, so the next morning saw them in much subdued mood, still feeling sick and unable to breakfast for the most part. There was a road recognizable now, and it lead up a rocky path to the remaining cliff face of the area. In the cliff was build a massive, rectangular tower with one large waterwheel attached; the latter still working, stirring the low flowing, dirty creek it was in. The sturdy double doors looked magically protected even to the uninitiated; they had done well in the test of time. The symbol of House Deneith was etched upon it. "Ugly building," Filbura commented. "Practical building," Lorraine corrected, slightly annoyed. For a moment, she hesitated, not knowing what exactly to do, then she tentatively put her hand on the door. A clicking sound could be heard after a second or two. "Welcome to the blood," a voice whispered in her head. No one else could hear it, but that wasn't surprising to anyone. The door opened to a mostly emptied out hall dimly lit by the gray daylight filtering in, with only a few tattered rugs here and there and some dented shields and broken weapons lying around. And, to their annoyance, 6 skeletons which promptly started to stir. "Someone doesn't want us in," Zolan grinned. "Or anyone, most likely. And that someone likely wasn't from your House Lorraine." "I'd say," the warrior agreed. "Should be easy enough to handle, yes?" "Yeah!" the orc agreed, drew his short sword and jumped forward. Moreelle wanted to start a song of magical aid and encouragement when, to everyone's surprise, the orc priestling started to sing! It was all in orcish, and with such a bad voice – unless it was supposed to be so off-key and screeching – that Filbura and Lala, who hadn't been affected much by anything until now, covered their ear in shock and grimaced as if to be sick. The bard herself mouthed a few elven curses and threw a worried look at Lorraine. How could the woman fight with such a noise right next to her? Indeed, Lorraine missed a few swings when, they dare think, she would otherwise not have had trouble. At first it seemed as if she was about to instinctively attack her ally instead of the undead, but little by little, the singing annoyed her and her anger gave her a different sort of power. Bit less skill, more direct fury. Which worked as well. Once the job was done, Lorraine stared at Zolan. "What was that?" "Oh, just an old orc song to frighten the enemy," he explained. "To get myself in the mood." "Hate to point it out," Moreelle sighed. "But those things aren't alive anymore and thus don't get scared, yet the rest of us had to fight to think clearly in this infernal noise." "Aww, is my voice really that bad? Come on, girl, I just wanted to help." "Hint for you – if it doesn't affect your enemy but hampers your allies, it's bad!" Ahna, who had been unable to even draw her sword in the pain of the acoustic onslaught, said drily. "My mind's gone blank of any spells," Quavin added for clarification. "Alright, alright." Putting his sword away, the priestling lifted both hands. "I will try not to do it again." "Just try?" Filbura groaned. "Just don't... sing... anymore, ok?" the elf bard patted the orc's arm and followed the others. "What about Lala?" Filbura worried. "She's too young to go in with us, I'd say, and too young to stay outside alone, too." Lala frowned. "I don't want to go in, but I am not too young to be out alone. I have been out alone for years, now. And the undead really don't notice me." "But if they really don't, she is as safe with us as outside, no? And maybe she can help get us past some problems somehow," the mage suggested. The girl shook her head. "I'll wait for you in the hut we stayed, but if you aren't back in 3 days I'll be on my way back. Is that alright with you?" Ahna nodded. The girl had, after all, just been sent along to guide them. "Be safe," she said and watched Lala leave. Then she went ahead to stand next to Lorraine. Filbura and Moreelle carried the lights, the dwarf in her right hand and the elf had managed to fix the leather bags they were in to her left shoulder somehow, to have her hands free for playing her flute she had brought. "Alright, now where to?" Ana asked. Lorraine consulted the badly scetched map they had been given, drawn by someone who had, a long time ago, been the appointed ground keeper. "Straight ahead, I'd say." "But there is a door in the left wall, too, and if we go ahead, something unknown might come out and fall into our backs," Quavin tried to reason. "Good point." Filbura pointed to the left, to cast her vote as to where to go first. "Agreed," the orc nodded. "Won't want anything in my back." "But of we go there first," the bard mused, "won't that mean something can fall into our backs from there?" She pointed front. "Heck, if we are going to discuss this all day, we get nothing done!" Zolan went to the left door and pulled it open, not worrying about traps as in his eyes undead didn't set traps. He was lucky. Asides from some carrion insects seemingly immune to the poison fumes feasting on dead rats, nothing was in this room which looked like it was once used for training. The room behind, with some training dummies, was equally empty. The shower and laundry room next to the training hall had a few dead tiger beetles and more dead rats, but nothing dangerous either. Satisfied, the group went back to the entrance hall and moved forward." [I]"Not checking for traps, again." The halfling from last night shook his head. "I guess they learned the hard way, didn't they?"[/I] "Maybe. For now, they felt a little bit too confident but were at least somewhat careful. They found hallways with stairs as they moved on, and a small closet, all empty and no sign of undead. A few cobwebs with dead spiders here and there and some dead rats and mice, mostly already decomposed or eaten, was all that looked remotely spooky. They found the dining hall right from the hallway, and here they found their first real challenge. Hissing and crying, with tentacles spouting from its shoulders, a huge black at was standing on a rotting dining table. 3 ghouls, their stink adding another wave of nausea to most of the party, stood on broken chairs clawing at the beast. "Displacer beast," Lorraine said, having seen such a creature before. "Let's go for the ghouls. The beast is their enemy so hopefully our ally, at least for now." "Let's go for the ghouls, sure," Filbura mumbled, doubting her wisdom of coming here, but then she would have worried to no end had she not come along. The orc, the warrior and the paladin jumped forward, the paladin invoking the protection of a scroll they had gotten in the village. The ghouls turned their attention on them, howling an gargling in frustration as they could not get at the party. Moreelle started into a song about defeating the unnatural, and everyone felt better at once, both more confident and slightly stronger. The beast saw its chances and clawed into one of the ghouls. Those undead, while slightly intelligent, had nothing on the cunning or agility of the beast, so the ghoul's attacks went into empty air as it tried to defend itself. While working up some sweat, the party and the beast had the ghouls down in little time, their mage not even needing to throw any spells – this was something they had agreed on early, by the way. Not that Quayin was sure that some fire spell or the other would not erupt when he was nervous, but he was determined to try and reign it in until they really needed the power. With the ghouls gone, the beast snarled at the party and backed off. Filbura started to talk to it with words the others could not understand, but the beast calmed down and even let out a purr that almost sounded like a house cat, just louder. "It says the poison does bother it and it came in here to find some shelter. It also says the other room is full of dead rats and giant centipedes." Filbura pointed to their right. "Sounds like the kitchen, from the description, which makes sense. Doesn't sound like we need to go in there." The druid took one of her remaining potions against poison and offered it to the beast. Again she spoke in that strange language. "Figures she would help it," the paladin sighed, but she, too, had no need to see the beast harmed. "Her name is Ti'ir," Filbura announced as the beast licked up the potion. "She's not from around here, she was with a wizard and got lost when their ship sank in the latest storm. She wants to come along." "A displacer beast with a wizard?" Lorraine's eyes almost fell out. "Does she understand us?" "Only a little, but she will probably learn. The wizard wanted to make her his familiar but she would prefer to be free of any such bonds and return to the wild where there is no poison." "Agreed, we'll find a place for her when we are done. Thank you, Ti'ir," the bard said politely. Ti'ir purred again. "Ignore the kitchen and let's move upstairs, then," Lorraine suggested. Everyone agreed. The stairs were of solid stone and thus they could move up quickly. On the 1st floor, the hallway went left and straight after they turned a few corners, ignoring the stuck door immediately across the stairs. Looking at the map and seeing that straight would eventually lead to the next floor, it was quickly decided to go left instead. There was a door immediately to their right as they came into this section. More carefully this time, they checked the door and then opened it and found a peculiar sight. Several dead rust monsters and half eaten metal chunks which might have been weights littered the floor. From the ceiling they could see dead bats hanging, mostly looking mummified. The toxic fog had killed them but their claws didn't let go of their next even in dead. Without a word, they closed the door and moved on. "I wonder what causes this fog," Filbura mused. "It's fine if we are not affected and it kills all the inhabitants we might have had to fight, although I feel sorry for the bats. But not knowing what it is is beginning to worry me." The paladin nodded. "It might not even have to do with the tower." An empty storage room to their left later, they came to the end of the hallway. Again they couldn't find a trap on the door and pulled it open. The room behind was large, with a number of bunk beds with chests at their foot ends. There were skeletons and rotten bodies on each of those beds, as if something had killed them in their sleep. To no ones surprise, all those bodies stirred as soon as Lorraine put a foot into the room. "Let's get at it again," she said, being a lot more cocky than before. This time, with 6 zombies and 10 skeletons, they needed the help of the elf mage to incinerate some of them, as even with the bard's song it might have caused some issues defeating them all with just 3 people and a beast without being infected by a zombie disease. Fighting in the stink and the poison also exhausted them more than usual, even with the potions. "You need to learn to turn undead, priestling," Lorraine told the orc. Zolan just grinned and nodded. Having dealt with this, the party moved back to the stuck door. Lorraine was satisfied with the progress but a little disappointed with finding nothing of interest to her House so far, and she thought that the room there might have been an administrative place. Instead, after pulling it open finally, they found a gymnasium with an even worse stench, a skeleton with a glowing dagger next to it on the floor and shuttered windows letting almost no light in. "It's not magical," Quavin said, pointing to the dagger after a quick detect. "I smell a trap." "Indeed, and those things might be a part of it," Moreelle agreed, pointing out the 3 wights rising up from behind rotten mattresses. Zolan groaned. He was not as trained a fighter as the paladin or the warrior, and despite not wanting to admit it, he was beginning to get tired. But as the bard's song sounded once more, he managed to join into the fight after the paladin had used the second scroll of undead protection. He just worried they would run out of those scrolls soon. Quavin, who held himself back this time, only brandishing his staff just in case, noticed another issue. Moreelle looked paler than before. "How often can you keep doing that?" he whispered as the last wight fell. "You look awfully exhausted." "In this stench and all? Probably one more song. The poison also affects my voice, I need to be careful not to sound like our orc friend soon." The mage nodded. "How many of those protection scrolls did they give Ahna?" "I didn't count," the bard admitted. "4 or 5, maybe?" Again, Quavin nodded, pushing his red blond hair out of his forehead and tried to fix it behind his ears. For some reason, he thought of a haircut and wondered why his mind brought this up in this situation. "We will run out of resources soon, at this rate. There's one more level after this one, and then there is the basement." They had noticed a spiral stairway, blocked in places by rubble, before. "Those undead need to be coming from somewhere, or being drawn here by something." Filbura frowned. "Those wights rather looked like coming from elsewhere while the bodies in their beds and downstairs looked as if they had been warriors from this place." She pointed to the tattered remains of what looked like peasant's clothing on the wights. Ahna, wiping her scimitar-like blade clean on the mattresses, had heard the last part. Her gnome ears twitched as she sneezed in the stench. Lorraine towered behind her, and to Filbura, it was an almost comical sight. No one who would not know Ahna and her almost monk-like fighting style, only wearing chainmail and leather armor, would think her a paladin, really. The muscles on her arms seemed overly large for a gnome, and she had in the past gotten funny comments from male gnomes about it who had no idea what she was. Her blue, piercing eyes looked from one to the other. "How is everyone feeling?" she inquired. Zolan admitted being weary, Lorraine felt like just getting started despite feeling slightly nauseous. Filbura was somewhat green in the face and just grinned sheepishly. The mage assured he was fine but wanted to tally their resources. Moreelle admitted to not being able to perform many more songs, at best 2 with some time to recover. The Ti'ir let it be known that she was unhurt and still strong. "Well, if we go back outside to rest to tomorrow, we might run out of potions," Ahna reminded them. "And this poison will get us quick. Asides, we might have to clean out the rooms all over again. We have 3 more of the undead protection scrolls. We have 2 potions of restoration, and the one wight almost managed to make them necessary just now," the paladin counted. "We also got vials of holy water, 10 of them,as you might have noticed." "I say we rest 10 min and then move on," Zolan suggested. "Us orcs can rally a lot, and after a break I'll be ready to hack some more of those abominations apart. The I suggest we check upstairs and if there is no cause for the undead or the fog there, well, we will see if we are still fit to go to the basement." "Yeah, we will not risk our lives over this," Ahan agreed, looking at Lorraine to reinforce that part. "We'll go back to the village if necessary, and get more resources, if needed. "Sure," Lorraine nodded, sounding slightly frustrated. "I would have thought we'd found something of importance by now." "Getting rid of a bunch of those abominations is important," Filbura reminded them. 10 min later, rested and strengthened with some food and drink, they were on the move again. This time, they went straight and to where the hallway turned right, moved to another right turn without encountering anything and then came to a halt in front of the stairs to the upper level. The displacer beast blocked their way and hissed in alarm. "She says there's something on the ground," the dwarf translated and held the light out. The floor seemed to move slightly, giving off a greyish color. "Just great. That's ooze, isn't it?" Zolan groaned. "And it seems to thrive on the poison fog." "Can you burn it off?" Ahna asked the mage. "The walls and floor are all stone, nothing else should burn here." "I'm pretty sure those things are immune to fire," the elf frowned. "But let me see." Unfortunately, the assumption proved to be right. Not being good with any sort of electricity spells or protection spells, the elf leaned back against a cold wall and sighed. "It corrodes weapons," he explained. "So not much use hacking at it." "You don't have any spells which could do anything?" Filbura inquired. "I'm thinking, I'm thinking, but remember I haven't had a chance to study that many spells in my life, yet. My magic is mainly raw fire energy." "Folks, it is moving," Zolan pointed out, and Ti'ir was already moving away from it. The ooze was spread out over the whole length of the corridor up to the stairs, and now they could see it ripple, probably having noticed them and getting ready for an attack. "Can these things move fast? How do they attack?" The party moved back behind the corner, and to their relief, the ooze didn't seem to want to follow. "I'm not sure," Quavin admitted. "Oozes weren't my favorite thing to study." "Well, when this is over, we could all do our best to learn as much as possible about all the weird life forms in the world," Filbura determined. "So, we are stuck?" the bard said meekly. "Unless you find a way to sing it away, it seems so," Lorraine snapped, getting more and more frustrated with their situation. The eyes of the elf woman lit up. "That may just be possible but you'd need to cover your ears. Zolan... can you do that noise again you made downstairs?" "What?" The orc looked at her in confusion. "You mean my singing?" "Yes, that noise," she nodded. "I have a spell redirecting and focusing sound for defense, but I need a sound source." "You want to turn my voice into a weapon? I looove that!" Zolan brightened considerably. "Where do I need to stand?" "Right in the corner, I will be next to you. Best the others stay here," Moreelle said. The others actually backed up some distance into the corridor to be on the safe side. Still, the sound of the orc and the amplification by the spell of the bard – the mage thought he heard names of different tonal systems – assaulted their ears despite being directed at the ooze. Some smoke or dust drifted through the corridor, and then the noise stopped. Moreelle mouthed something, but it needed a few seconds before everyone could hear again. "It worked," she repeated. "Great." Lorraine immediately pressed on. "I just hope there'll be no more of these things or I will need a new set of ears." The displacer beast had run at the first sound, back down the corridor, and now reluctantly caught up again. She mewed at Filbura. "Ti'ir says that that was worse than a thunderstorm in a narrow valley," the druid translated. "Which, I guess, was the worst howling she had ever heard before." Zolan looked decidedly too proud as they climbed the stairs to the next level. TBC [/QUOTE]
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