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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 2970432" data-attributes="member: 12037">The berk directly in front of the tiefling is the one bringing up the rear.-Planar ProverbSession 7/8/06 - In Search Of (continued)“Assassins,” said Jackal under his breath.As the first barrage ended, the group finally saw their attackers in the light. On the rafters with the mummies was a dark elf, definitely some kind of spellcaster since he had hit Malbi with a of ray of fire. Hiding behind one of the pillars was a tiefling, a woman who was probably also a spellcaster and the one who had dominated Stock’s mind. The third was some kind of pale humanoid with sheer white eyes who was now engaged with Grum. They all wore black cloaks.“What have you brought into my holy place?” Xas exclaimed, his voice loud and demanding.Jackal knew that this was about to get very dangerous and decided that however much he disliked the idea, Xas wasn’t part of this, and he was still valuable alive. Pushing Xas back  to try and get him behind one of the pillars, he shot a second bolt at the spell slinger above, not able to tell if he hit or missed. He glanced over toward Stock who was still under thrall and hoped Grum could hold his own against the bugbear.Grum, not wanting to fight Stock, tried to focus his magic into getting rid of the enchantment that held him in sway but failed, his magic rebounding against the power of the one who had Stock controlled. Gritting his teeth, he prepared to fight his way out of it instead.As Grum bored down onto his assailant, he saw a flash of light and resounding thunder. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Jackal unscathed, but Xas gripped his burned side. Turning back to his opponent, Grum saw a blur of attacks, some being deflected by his breastplate, but he felt a pain in his calf and thigh, blood trickling downward. A voice called out from the shadows somewhere “Kill the half ogre!” Stock looked at Grum and advanced.As that was happening, Jackal got a good sight in on the drow above and shot at him, catching him in the right leg, and the enemy fell to the ground. Xas, nursing his burns and looking at the scorch marks on the floor, decided that he had had enough of this. Clearing his mind, he touched upon the spell on Stock and broke the tiefling’s hold over him.Stock paused only a moment in horror of what he had done. He had a job to do. Moving past Grum, the smile faded from the enemy as he saw Stock was coming after him instead. He tried to duck under Stock’s swing, but it was useless. Stock deftly flipped the double axe so that the other head caught him in the side. In desperation, he clutched his horn in his hands and blew out not sound but a cloud of fog.The tiefling saw things going downward fast from their initial volley and decided that now was as good a time as ever for a retreat. Grum and Stock in the fog couldn’t see her run by and escape out the doorway, and Jackal was too far away to stop her. Advancing on the fallen drow, Jackal saw that he was still breathing, though unconscious, and when Grum emerged from the cloud, he called him over. Healing him, they tied him up and decided that an interrogation was in order.The aftermath of the scene was a spectacle to behold. In the formerly impeccably clean Chapel there were now two bodies, Malbi and the pale assassin. They had one enemy stripped of any equipment and tied up for good measure, and there were blood and char marks across the floor. A few of the honored dead had fallen over, and a few more of them were burned slightly. The two temple attendants crouched behind the alter, and Xas was furiously scolding Jackal, who wasn’t taking that very well.“You bring your battles into my temple?” He fumed, accenting the word my in his speech. “You come in here asking my help in finding a Factotum in my own Faction? To betray them? Then you destroy my temple?” again accenting that the temple was his. “And now you expect me to actually help you? Are you a fool?”Stock knelt beside Malbi’s body, shaking his head.“Your good Factotum Caradver is the one who sent those assassins here.” Jackal responded dryly. The assassin attacks were getting out of hand. One false move, and the battle would have gone the other way. And, he knew that Xas was the one responsible for saving all their lives, a fact he didn’t relish thinking about.Xas looked uncomfortable at this thought.“It was a setup. We were told you were one of Caradver’s lieutenants!”Xas harrumphed. “A worshipper of Orcus? Preposterous! That’s not achieving Death. That’s…” he trailed off. “How do I know that you aren’t lying?”“Do we look like we came here looking for a fight?”“Yes.”“Do we look like we came here looking for a fight from them then? Ehhh regardless… it was a setup. They knew we were coming here. Greydust must have-.“ He cut off halfway through his sentence, “Where is Black Dagger?” his expression exploded as he looked around the Chapel.Stock poked his head out the door for a second to check out the area and see if Black Dagger was there. “He’s not outside. And, those girls are gone…”Jackal fumed silently, and Grum growled.“Want me to go look?” asked Stock.“Wait a minute,” scowled Jackal. “One thing first.” He turned back to Xas. “I noticed you casting spells. Can you do anything about him?” He motioned toward Malbi.Xas sighed. “I could if I wanted.”“Look. Caradver has been trying to kill us for almost a year now. Now that you’ve seen the assassins make an attempt on us and know he’s behind it, whether you believe me or not, you’re a part of it and you could very well be a target too. One of those assassins got away, and she saw you help us.”“I did that because they hit me with a lightning bolt!” he started sweating.“Tell that to Caradver or the assassins.”Now Xas’s veneer of calm was almost completely gone. He started pacing, contemplating his situation. “Stock, go see if Black Dagger is around, and go find a shop and get us some diamond dust so we can bring Malbi back to life. Take Grum with you; they might try again.” They wrapped themselves up to hide the blood stains as best they could and left.“Good. Now,” he turned back to Xas. “Tell me about Caradver. Then, I advise you to take some time off your duties here and head out of town for a while.”Xas was getting more and more rattled. “Factotum Caradver is a priest of Orcus and a necromancer. They think that being undead is the way to transcend to True Death. Misguided or power hungry, I don’t know, and I don’t care. There are only a handful of them anyway. He was just another grunt until the man Darius showed up, a weak man hoping to fill the shoes of his father.”Jackal was about to tell him he wasn’t asking for a life story before he heard the name Darius come up. He had assumed a connection, but this was the first proof he had. “Darius you say? Tell me about him.”Xas stopped pacing and looked into Jackal’s eyes, unsure. “Darius? He’s enigmatic. He isn’t a Dustman. He came to Caradver and told him secrets of the Twenty Four Relics. Since then he’s grown in power, becoming a Factotum and continuing the work to explore them started over two decades ago by his father. I don’t know if Darius worships Orcus or not.”“He doesn’t.” Now Xas began to look interested. “You know him?”Jackal didn’t answer. “Where can I find Caradver?”“I don’t know. I told you, I’m not one of his men.” He paused. “Perhaps… I do know of a small shrine to Orcus in the Hive used by Dustmen.” He licked his lips. “Maybe…”“The wild goose chase continues,” Jackal sighed.</blockquote>

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