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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6046488" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 28 - A MESSAGE FROM GARETH</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Mercutio Midas, human cleric of Pelor/rogue</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Rale Bodkin, human rogue</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, human conjurer</p><p></p><p>I'm a bit confused about this next adventure, because my records indicate that this was the introduction of Logan's replacement PC, <strong>Telgrane</strong>. But it was a short adventure, and I had thought that on this session we played not only this mini-adventure but the longer adventure that followed, only Telgrane was not part of that second adventure (and neither was Akari). So maybe Logan was back for this session, and we knew ahead that it would be shorter than normal. (That happened sometimes, due to Boy Scout commitments for Dan and Jacob.)</p><p></p><p>Anyway, for his second PC, Logan wanted to try out a conjurer, and since he was creating him as an 8th-level character, he was able to have already invested in the Improved Familiar feat. Telgrane's familiar was <strong>Infernia</strong>, a Small fire elemental who took the shape of a woman with dark, curved horns. (This was based on the image he had found on-line of a flaming demon with a pair of large, dark horns jutting from her head.) We decided that he was a member of Wing Four whose adventuring partner was a glory-hound barbarian who insisted on going on all of their excursions, leaving Telgrane in permanent "backup" status. It was a good enough reason to have him in the Adventurers Guild Headquarters, which is where the bulk of the next adventure was going to take place.</p><p></p><p>Campaign plot-wise, the following had happened since "Kazmira's Safehouse": <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mercutio had turned Kazmira in to the Greyhawk City militia, and had been awarded the 50,000 gp bounty for her head. (This was split up between the PCs that had captured her and Piddilink Dundernoggin, but Mercutio insisted on a cut as well, since without his participation she'd still be free.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kazmira had been sentenced to death for her crimes. (The fact that they were usually high-profile crimes and she often stole from the noblemen of the city no doubt helped her gain the death penalty.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Said sentence was to be carried out the afternoon of the game session.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Nobody had seen Akari, Cal, Feron, or Slayer in the last three days, and even Fang had gone missing.</li> </ul><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The day began with the delivery of an unmarked envelope. The envelope was unaddressed, nor did it bear any markings of any kind. Opening it, Delphyne pulled out one of the calling cards that Kazmira habitually left at the scene of her robberies, featuring an elaborate drawing of a magpie. On the back, in a recognizable handwriting, was a simple message:"Lovely," replied the young witch. "Who paid you to deliver this card?" she asked the lad who had brought it to them. He merely shrugged, as the man had provided no name and had paid him up front to deliver the card. He described the man in detail, but it was nobody the group could place - but then, they knew that Gareth had that <em>hat of disguise</em>, so he could have appeared as anyone. They thanked the delivery boy and sent him on his way.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The next day was a bit more exciting. Delphyne was the first one up, and she walked down the stairs from the upper level and was crossing over to the kitchen when an audible "pop" sounded behind her. Spinning around, she found herself standing face to face with an equally surprised troll. Her screams brought the rest of the group hobbling down the stairs in their bedclothes and whatever weapons were handiest, and thus began a pre-breakfast battle with a hideous, wart-covered troll who was apparently just as hungry as they were but disagreed vigorously with the rest of the group as to what exactly constituted an exceptable breakfast. After a desperate battle and several of Chalkan's numerous flasks of alchemical fire, the group found themselves with a charred corpse in the middle of their living room.</p><p></p><p>A close examination of the troll's body showed that it was wearing a Guild ring. Pulling it off, they found the name "GARETH" etched on the inside.</p><p></p><p>It turned out that nobody was very hungry for breakfast after all.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>Four days later, the group headed over to Executioner's Square to observe Kazmira's hanging. They were specifically asked to attend, so they'd be there on hand in case Gareth attempted a last-minute rescue operation. Several minutes before the appointed execution time, however, several City Guards frantically waved the group over. They were hurried over into an unused interrogation room.</p><p></p><p>"We've got a problem," remarked one of the wizards assigned to the Greyhawk City Militia. "It's standard procedure to scan the accused for magic before their hanging, to ensure they don't have any magic items on them that might assist them in escaping justice. It's not common, but occasionally someone finds a way to slip something to the accused during their incarceration.</p><p></p><p>"In any case, we cast <em>detect magic</em> on Kazmira, and got an unusual reading - her entire body is infused with magic. Not her clothes, though, just her body. She's radiating a strong necromantic energy, but we're not sure what that means or what we can do about it." He further explained that all prisoners are similarly examined upon their arrival, and that at that time Kazmira was not radiating any magic at all.</p><p></p><p>"Have you tried dispelling the magic on her?" asked Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>"I tried, with no success," replied the wizard, looking a bit abashed at his failure. "Perhaps you might want to give it a try...?" Delphyne agreed at once, and the group was escorted to see the prisoner. Kazmira snarled and raged at their approach. "Release me!" she yelled. "My fiendish ancestor is watching every event that transpires here, and anyone trying to harm me will be met with a terrible demonic revenge!"</p><p></p><p>Delphyne fired off her <em>dispel magic</em> spell, with no discernable effect. Indeed, a quick peek with <em>detect magic</em> gave the same indications: strong necromantic energy was emanating from the tiefling's body in waves.</p><p></p><p>"Perhaps a divine spell will succeed where an arcane spell will not," suggested Mercutio, elbowing Delphyne out of the way and firing off his own <em>dispel magic</em> spell at the caged tiefling, who only raged at him for his efforts. His spell was no more successful than had been Delphyne's.</p><p></p><p>"Weird," he admitted.</p><p></p><p>"Is this maybe a tiefling thing?" asked Rale. No one was sure, but they all hoped she was just bluffing about the "demonic revenge" bit.</p><p></p><p>With no further suggestions about what to do about the situation, and with bloodthirsty cries for justice coming from the crowd outside, the Greyhawk City Militia decided to go on with the execution. The adventurers dispersed into the crowd, keeping a close eye out for Gareth, or - remembering his faulty <em>hat of disguise</em> - for individuals whose shadows did not match their own forms. All eyes went up to the gallows as Kazmira was led by a group of four Militiamen, snarling and cursing as she struggled against her bonds. She was placed on the gallows platform as her crimes were read aloud to the crowd. When asked if she had any final words, Kazmira only cried out, “I’m not the one! I’m not her!” The chief official ignored her outburst and stated "By the power invested in me on behalf of the Council of the City of Greyhawk, I hereby sentence you to death for your crimes. Executioner, do your duty!”</p><p></p><p>A black hood was placed over Kazmira’s head, followed by a rope noose. Then, at the official’s nod, the executioner pulled a lever and the floor dropped out from under Kazmira’s feet. She fell several feet to the end of the rope, there was an audible <em>snap!</em> as her neck broke, and then...she was gone. No body dangled on the now-empty noose, which fluttered in the breeze. Her prison clothing fell to the ground below the gallows.</p><p></p><p>A sudden panic erupted through the crowd, after some idiot screamed that her ghost would wreak vengeance on her killers. The adventurers were pushed and shoved in all directions as panicked townspeople desperately tried to flee the scene. In the end, though, Kazmira's body was gone and neither the adventurers nor the Militia had any explanation as to what had just happened.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The day after Kazmira's questionable execution - for there was certainly some doubt as to whether she had been killed or not - began with another delivery, this one a single long-stemmed black rose from Ingermann's Flower Shoppe. Like the other messenger from nearly a week ago, this one had no idea who ordered the rose to be delivered here, nor was there a card stating who the flower was from. So the group took it upon themselves to do some investigating. They went to Ingermann's Flower Shoppe and asked who had ordered the flower to be delivered to Wing Three. The young lady wasn't sure, and seemed primarily concerned that the flower made it to them intact and was in good condition. When they group assured her that the flower was indeed lovely, and that they merely wished to thank whoever it was that had sent it, the Flower Shoppe employee agreed to check her records. Flipping through a ledger, she found the entry she was looking for: the flower had been ordered by one Magdelena Pietrovski, whom she remembered as a rather cultured, older lady. Rale immediately latched on to the fact that the first three letters of the woman's first and last names spelled out "MAGPIE," and that this was a rather apparent warning from Gareth. A black rose could easily be a warning of impending death.</p><p></p><p>Wing Three put themselves on full alert status, and desperately wondered where the other half of their Wing was, but nothing eventful happened the rest of the day. Nonetheless, even though they slept in their own Headquarters that night, they took turns taking guard shifts during the night.</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>The next day, in midmorning, the sound of footsteps on the stairs leading up to their wing was heard, and a stranger entered the room. Immediately, the group grabbed for their weapons, while some of them peered down at the floor of his feet to see if his shadow matched his figure.</p><p></p><p>"Um, hello?" asked the young mage rather nervously, seeing a much less friendly reception than he had been hoping for. "I'm Telgrane, from Wing Four next door. I just thought I'd come on over and see if you had any openings, as I don't ever get to do much in my Wing." Telgrane explained his situation, that he was paired with a real glory-hound of a dwarven barbarian who elbowed him out of the way of all adventure outings, leaving a rather bored conjurer looking for alternatives to permanent stay-at-base-in-reserve status. The five adventurers chatted a while, when there were the sounds of more footsteps coming up the steps and into their general living area. The group turned and found three beautiful women smiling up at them.</p><p></p><p>"Hi," beamed the first woman, a fighter by the looks of the polished armor on her torso and the sword at her hip. "I'm <strong>Barbie</strong>, and these are <strong>Candi</strong>, <strong>Kitten</strong>, and <strong>Bunny</strong>. We're the new recruits from Wing Seven."</p><p></p><p>"I only see three of you," commented Delphyne.</p><p></p><p>Barbie spun around, and called out "Kitten? Where are you?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm right here," replied a young-looking elf with a strange hairdo, her white hair sticking out around the top of her head like a mushroom cap. She wore an elaborate white cape and had an odd-looking, lumpy humanoid perched on her shoulder. She stepped quietly up the stairs and into the room with the rest of the group.</p><p></p><p>Introductions were made all around. Bunny was a drow, wearing tight-fitting leather armor, but her sunny disposition and friendly demeanor showed her to be an exception from the majority of her dour race. Candi was also an elf, and also wore leather armor, but hers was chock-full of daggers, knives, and stilettoes that jutted out at all angles. Mercutio was quick to offer the young ladies a drink, and toddled off to the kitchen. In crossing the entryway, however, he stopped in puzzlement and looked at the <em>wall of stone</em> that had been placed directly across the bottom of the stairs, blocking it off completely. "How odd," he commented, just before the assassins struck.</p><p></p><p>Kitten fired a blast of <em>magic missiles</em> at Delphyne, while the homonculous on her shoulder leapt off and flew into Rale's face. Barbie leapt at Mercutio, and he only just got his rapier up in time to deflect the vicious blows from her longsword. Barbie cursed their luck, for they had each chosen a target and were studying them for secret assassin death attacks, but hadn't had the time to complete their studies before Kitten's wall had been discovered.</p><p></p><p>The drow, Bunny, had selected Chalkan as her target, and she came after him with a jagged dagger that seemed to scream "assassin" just by its looks. In the tight quarters, Chalkan chose to fight with his own longsword rather than the bow and arrows he preferred. Meanwhile, Rale was under attack by the elven rogue/assassin, Candi, who seemed just as adept throwing her knives and daggers as she was stabbing with them. Worse, quite a few of the weapons employed by the assassins seemed to be dripping poison.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, Telgrane was something of a wild card in all of this confusion. The assassins had been hired to slay the members of Wing Three, and the lanky wizard did not fit the description of any of that group. It didn't mean that he wouldn't be killed along with the others, merely that they didn't know anything about him ahead of time. And that meant that they were completely surprised when one of Telgrane's first actions was to reach into his robes and pull out not a weapon, nor a wand or spell component, but a simple tinder box. He stepped back out of range, blew on the contents of the open box, and from the glowing embers inside erupted a small gout of flame, which instantly took the shape of a halfling-sized woman carved out of flame, with a pair of twin, graceful horns jutting from her head. "What would you have me do, Master?" she asked in Ignan.</p><p></p><p>"Slay the women assassins!" commanded Telgrane. "That one" - and here he pointed to Delphyne - "is not among their number."</p><p></p><p>It turned out that the assassins had made a terrible mistake in their tactics. The <em>wall of stone</em> was there to ensure their privacy while completing their mission (or at least half of it, since the other half of Wing Three seemed to be elsewhere at present), but Kitten held sufficient <em>dimension door</em> spells to ensure their quick getaway once their mission had been performed. This tactic had worked well in the past, but had a fatal flaw built into it: namely, if Kitten was slain - as in fact happened in this instance - the assassins had no easy way out of their own trap. Kitten was the first to fall, under a series of <em>magic missile</em> attacks from Delphyne, and suddenly the assassins were outnumbered three to five (or four to six if you counted homonculi and fire elementals) with their element of surprise long since gone. It was only a matter of time before their numbers were whittled away, and since the group already knew who had hired them and for what purpose, they didn't even feel the need to keep the last one alive for interrogation purposes. And for their part, the assassins were a stoic lot; even Barbie, the last to die and apparently the group's leader, kept fighting to the end long after it was evident that she couldn't win.</p><p></p><p>So the end result was that the four assassins had been slain, but Gareth's message had been definitley received, if not sucessfully carried out: the group had been threatened with death if Kazmira were slain, and this assassination attempt made it seem as if Gareth believed that she was dead. Unless he had only sent out the assassins to make it look like he believed Kazmira was dead?</p><p></p><p>There were too many possibilities, and too many unanswered questions. The group swore to keep a look out for Gareth, and if Kazmira was in fact alive, the odds were that when they found Gareth they'd find her as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6046488, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 28 - A MESSAGE FROM GARETH[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Chalkan, half-elf ranger/cleric of Corellon Larethian Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Mercutio Midas, human cleric of Pelor/rogue Rale Bodkin, human rogue Telgrane, human conjurer[/INDENT] I'm a bit confused about this next adventure, because my records indicate that this was the introduction of Logan's replacement PC, [b]Telgrane[/b]. But it was a short adventure, and I had thought that on this session we played not only this mini-adventure but the longer adventure that followed, only Telgrane was not part of that second adventure (and neither was Akari). So maybe Logan was back for this session, and we knew ahead that it would be shorter than normal. (That happened sometimes, due to Boy Scout commitments for Dan and Jacob.) Anyway, for his second PC, Logan wanted to try out a conjurer, and since he was creating him as an 8th-level character, he was able to have already invested in the Improved Familiar feat. Telgrane's familiar was [b]Infernia[/b], a Small fire elemental who took the shape of a woman with dark, curved horns. (This was based on the image he had found on-line of a flaming demon with a pair of large, dark horns jutting from her head.) We decided that he was a member of Wing Four whose adventuring partner was a glory-hound barbarian who insisted on going on all of their excursions, leaving Telgrane in permanent "backup" status. It was a good enough reason to have him in the Adventurers Guild Headquarters, which is where the bulk of the next adventure was going to take place. Campaign plot-wise, the following had happened since "Kazmira's Safehouse":[list][*]Mercutio had turned Kazmira in to the Greyhawk City militia, and had been awarded the 50,000 gp bounty for her head. (This was split up between the PCs that had captured her and Piddilink Dundernoggin, but Mercutio insisted on a cut as well, since without his participation she'd still be free.) [*]Kazmira had been sentenced to death for her crimes. (The fact that they were usually high-profile crimes and she often stole from the noblemen of the city no doubt helped her gain the death penalty.) [*]Said sentence was to be carried out the afternoon of the game session. [*]Nobody had seen Akari, Cal, Feron, or Slayer in the last three days, and even Fang had gone missing.[/list] - - - The day began with the delivery of an unmarked envelope. The envelope was unaddressed, nor did it bear any markings of any kind. Opening it, Delphyne pulled out one of the calling cards that Kazmira habitually left at the scene of her robberies, featuring an elaborate drawing of a magpie. On the back, in a recognizable handwriting, was a simple message:"Lovely," replied the young witch. "Who paid you to deliver this card?" she asked the lad who had brought it to them. He merely shrugged, as the man had provided no name and had paid him up front to deliver the card. He described the man in detail, but it was nobody the group could place - but then, they knew that Gareth had that [i]hat of disguise[/i], so he could have appeared as anyone. They thanked the delivery boy and sent him on his way. - - - The next day was a bit more exciting. Delphyne was the first one up, and she walked down the stairs from the upper level and was crossing over to the kitchen when an audible "pop" sounded behind her. Spinning around, she found herself standing face to face with an equally surprised troll. Her screams brought the rest of the group hobbling down the stairs in their bedclothes and whatever weapons were handiest, and thus began a pre-breakfast battle with a hideous, wart-covered troll who was apparently just as hungry as they were but disagreed vigorously with the rest of the group as to what exactly constituted an exceptable breakfast. After a desperate battle and several of Chalkan's numerous flasks of alchemical fire, the group found themselves with a charred corpse in the middle of their living room. A close examination of the troll's body showed that it was wearing a Guild ring. Pulling it off, they found the name "GARETH" etched on the inside. It turned out that nobody was very hungry for breakfast after all. - - - Four days later, the group headed over to Executioner's Square to observe Kazmira's hanging. They were specifically asked to attend, so they'd be there on hand in case Gareth attempted a last-minute rescue operation. Several minutes before the appointed execution time, however, several City Guards frantically waved the group over. They were hurried over into an unused interrogation room. "We've got a problem," remarked one of the wizards assigned to the Greyhawk City Militia. "It's standard procedure to scan the accused for magic before their hanging, to ensure they don't have any magic items on them that might assist them in escaping justice. It's not common, but occasionally someone finds a way to slip something to the accused during their incarceration. "In any case, we cast [i]detect magic[/i] on Kazmira, and got an unusual reading - her entire body is infused with magic. Not her clothes, though, just her body. She's radiating a strong necromantic energy, but we're not sure what that means or what we can do about it." He further explained that all prisoners are similarly examined upon their arrival, and that at that time Kazmira was not radiating any magic at all. "Have you tried dispelling the magic on her?" asked Delphyne. "I tried, with no success," replied the wizard, looking a bit abashed at his failure. "Perhaps you might want to give it a try...?" Delphyne agreed at once, and the group was escorted to see the prisoner. Kazmira snarled and raged at their approach. "Release me!" she yelled. "My fiendish ancestor is watching every event that transpires here, and anyone trying to harm me will be met with a terrible demonic revenge!" Delphyne fired off her [i]dispel magic[/i] spell, with no discernable effect. Indeed, a quick peek with [i]detect magic[/i] gave the same indications: strong necromantic energy was emanating from the tiefling's body in waves. "Perhaps a divine spell will succeed where an arcane spell will not," suggested Mercutio, elbowing Delphyne out of the way and firing off his own [i]dispel magic[/i] spell at the caged tiefling, who only raged at him for his efforts. His spell was no more successful than had been Delphyne's. "Weird," he admitted. "Is this maybe a tiefling thing?" asked Rale. No one was sure, but they all hoped she was just bluffing about the "demonic revenge" bit. With no further suggestions about what to do about the situation, and with bloodthirsty cries for justice coming from the crowd outside, the Greyhawk City Militia decided to go on with the execution. The adventurers dispersed into the crowd, keeping a close eye out for Gareth, or - remembering his faulty [i]hat of disguise[/i] - for individuals whose shadows did not match their own forms. All eyes went up to the gallows as Kazmira was led by a group of four Militiamen, snarling and cursing as she struggled against her bonds. She was placed on the gallows platform as her crimes were read aloud to the crowd. When asked if she had any final words, Kazmira only cried out, “I’m not the one! I’m not her!” The chief official ignored her outburst and stated "By the power invested in me on behalf of the Council of the City of Greyhawk, I hereby sentence you to death for your crimes. Executioner, do your duty!” A black hood was placed over Kazmira’s head, followed by a rope noose. Then, at the official’s nod, the executioner pulled a lever and the floor dropped out from under Kazmira’s feet. She fell several feet to the end of the rope, there was an audible [i]snap![/i] as her neck broke, and then...she was gone. No body dangled on the now-empty noose, which fluttered in the breeze. Her prison clothing fell to the ground below the gallows. A sudden panic erupted through the crowd, after some idiot screamed that her ghost would wreak vengeance on her killers. The adventurers were pushed and shoved in all directions as panicked townspeople desperately tried to flee the scene. In the end, though, Kazmira's body was gone and neither the adventurers nor the Militia had any explanation as to what had just happened. - - - The day after Kazmira's questionable execution - for there was certainly some doubt as to whether she had been killed or not - began with another delivery, this one a single long-stemmed black rose from Ingermann's Flower Shoppe. Like the other messenger from nearly a week ago, this one had no idea who ordered the rose to be delivered here, nor was there a card stating who the flower was from. So the group took it upon themselves to do some investigating. They went to Ingermann's Flower Shoppe and asked who had ordered the flower to be delivered to Wing Three. The young lady wasn't sure, and seemed primarily concerned that the flower made it to them intact and was in good condition. When they group assured her that the flower was indeed lovely, and that they merely wished to thank whoever it was that had sent it, the Flower Shoppe employee agreed to check her records. Flipping through a ledger, she found the entry she was looking for: the flower had been ordered by one Magdelena Pietrovski, whom she remembered as a rather cultured, older lady. Rale immediately latched on to the fact that the first three letters of the woman's first and last names spelled out "MAGPIE," and that this was a rather apparent warning from Gareth. A black rose could easily be a warning of impending death. Wing Three put themselves on full alert status, and desperately wondered where the other half of their Wing was, but nothing eventful happened the rest of the day. Nonetheless, even though they slept in their own Headquarters that night, they took turns taking guard shifts during the night. - - - The next day, in midmorning, the sound of footsteps on the stairs leading up to their wing was heard, and a stranger entered the room. Immediately, the group grabbed for their weapons, while some of them peered down at the floor of his feet to see if his shadow matched his figure. "Um, hello?" asked the young mage rather nervously, seeing a much less friendly reception than he had been hoping for. "I'm Telgrane, from Wing Four next door. I just thought I'd come on over and see if you had any openings, as I don't ever get to do much in my Wing." Telgrane explained his situation, that he was paired with a real glory-hound of a dwarven barbarian who elbowed him out of the way of all adventure outings, leaving a rather bored conjurer looking for alternatives to permanent stay-at-base-in-reserve status. The five adventurers chatted a while, when there were the sounds of more footsteps coming up the steps and into their general living area. The group turned and found three beautiful women smiling up at them. "Hi," beamed the first woman, a fighter by the looks of the polished armor on her torso and the sword at her hip. "I'm [b]Barbie[/b], and these are [b]Candi[/b], [b]Kitten[/b], and [b]Bunny[/b]. We're the new recruits from Wing Seven." "I only see three of you," commented Delphyne. Barbie spun around, and called out "Kitten? Where are you?" "I'm right here," replied a young-looking elf with a strange hairdo, her white hair sticking out around the top of her head like a mushroom cap. She wore an elaborate white cape and had an odd-looking, lumpy humanoid perched on her shoulder. She stepped quietly up the stairs and into the room with the rest of the group. Introductions were made all around. Bunny was a drow, wearing tight-fitting leather armor, but her sunny disposition and friendly demeanor showed her to be an exception from the majority of her dour race. Candi was also an elf, and also wore leather armor, but hers was chock-full of daggers, knives, and stilettoes that jutted out at all angles. Mercutio was quick to offer the young ladies a drink, and toddled off to the kitchen. In crossing the entryway, however, he stopped in puzzlement and looked at the [i]wall of stone[/i] that had been placed directly across the bottom of the stairs, blocking it off completely. "How odd," he commented, just before the assassins struck. Kitten fired a blast of [i]magic missiles[/i] at Delphyne, while the homonculous on her shoulder leapt off and flew into Rale's face. Barbie leapt at Mercutio, and he only just got his rapier up in time to deflect the vicious blows from her longsword. Barbie cursed their luck, for they had each chosen a target and were studying them for secret assassin death attacks, but hadn't had the time to complete their studies before Kitten's wall had been discovered. The drow, Bunny, had selected Chalkan as her target, and she came after him with a jagged dagger that seemed to scream "assassin" just by its looks. In the tight quarters, Chalkan chose to fight with his own longsword rather than the bow and arrows he preferred. Meanwhile, Rale was under attack by the elven rogue/assassin, Candi, who seemed just as adept throwing her knives and daggers as she was stabbing with them. Worse, quite a few of the weapons employed by the assassins seemed to be dripping poison. Fortunately, Telgrane was something of a wild card in all of this confusion. The assassins had been hired to slay the members of Wing Three, and the lanky wizard did not fit the description of any of that group. It didn't mean that he wouldn't be killed along with the others, merely that they didn't know anything about him ahead of time. And that meant that they were completely surprised when one of Telgrane's first actions was to reach into his robes and pull out not a weapon, nor a wand or spell component, but a simple tinder box. He stepped back out of range, blew on the contents of the open box, and from the glowing embers inside erupted a small gout of flame, which instantly took the shape of a halfling-sized woman carved out of flame, with a pair of twin, graceful horns jutting from her head. "What would you have me do, Master?" she asked in Ignan. "Slay the women assassins!" commanded Telgrane. "That one" - and here he pointed to Delphyne - "is not among their number." It turned out that the assassins had made a terrible mistake in their tactics. The [i]wall of stone[/i] was there to ensure their privacy while completing their mission (or at least half of it, since the other half of Wing Three seemed to be elsewhere at present), but Kitten held sufficient [i]dimension door[/i] spells to ensure their quick getaway once their mission had been performed. This tactic had worked well in the past, but had a fatal flaw built into it: namely, if Kitten was slain - as in fact happened in this instance - the assassins had no easy way out of their own trap. Kitten was the first to fall, under a series of [i]magic missile[/i] attacks from Delphyne, and suddenly the assassins were outnumbered three to five (or four to six if you counted homonculi and fire elementals) with their element of surprise long since gone. It was only a matter of time before their numbers were whittled away, and since the group already knew who had hired them and for what purpose, they didn't even feel the need to keep the last one alive for interrogation purposes. And for their part, the assassins were a stoic lot; even Barbie, the last to die and apparently the group's leader, kept fighting to the end long after it was evident that she couldn't win. So the end result was that the four assassins had been slain, but Gareth's message had been definitley received, if not sucessfully carried out: the group had been threatened with death if Kazmira were slain, and this assassination attempt made it seem as if Gareth believed that she was dead. Unless he had only sent out the assassins to make it look like he believed Kazmira was dead? There were too many possibilities, and too many unanswered questions. The group swore to keep a look out for Gareth, and if Kazmira was in fact alive, the odds were that when they found Gareth they'd find her as well. [/QUOTE]
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