Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2755501" data-attributes="member: 1210">Trickery and Treason!“Cara!  Cara!”  Sir Cedric’s voice rings through the darkened cemetery.  “Where is the watch?” wonders Jorgen.  Didn’t we have this all set up?  But a quick check reveals nothing- no watch presence nearby.  His skin starts to crawl.  Something is very wrong here.  “I can’t find any tracks,” Dahlia reports. “Cara!” cries Sir Cedric.  “Cara, my thweet!  Where are you?”“I found this.”  Kyle waves a note.  “The guy who did the talking for them had it.”The others crowd around eagerly to read it.  Thelron-     I am pleased by your progress in recruiting more of the folk to our cause.  Tie them tightly to us by enlisting their aid in dark rituals; then we need not fear their betrayal, for to betray us is to betray themselves.  Bind them to us and have them bring others before us to join them in our cause!  Our numbers shall grow, and we will spread like rot in an aged tree!    Once you have amassed a sufficient number- there must be nineteen of you- send me word and I will give to you a book that describes a great ritual of power, one that has been lost for centuries.  It will allow the priestly of you to combine your black magicks together and to increase their power dramatically.   And I will give you a text which you may have heard about- the Codex Cruentis.    As you can tell, there are many things about which you have not yet been informed.  If you continue to progress as you have been, you soon shall be.  You must be ready by New Year’s Eve: you will take your nineteen and go to the Ghost Tower.  That night, a black moon will rise into the sky.  Assuming we have the tool we need, we shall be able to open the gates of fire.  And the tool is close at hand.    Remember, do nothing to force those we seek to bring into our circle to act against us!  Until the time is ripe, we must remain most discreet.  I count on you to restrain K’Vizz until the moment comes.Remember, too, that betrayal is death.Yours Sincerely.“Cara!” screams Sir Cedric to the night.“What are we going to do?” gasps Kyle.“First, we must escort our wounded back to the Spinning Dice,” muses Jorgen, thinking aloud.  “Then we should figure out what happened to the watch.”“And Cara,” adds Colder. ***Though Sir Cedric is distraught to leave the cemetery without Cara, he recognizes the futility of staying.  The group returns to the inn, where Cedric tends to Dahlia’s wounds, and soon she groans into consciousness.  “Now let’s go to see the baron and his advisors,” insists Jorgen.“It is the middle of the night,” Goer points out.“They knew the plan.  Something went wrong.”  Jorgen looks grim and angry.  Goer shrugs.  “All right, then.”Jorgen and Sir Cedric go to the citadel, where they find everyone asleep.  They send a page to wake Sir Harth with word that it is urgent.  He comes out in his nightclothes.  “What is it?” he asks alertly.Sir Cedric and Jorgen relate their tale.  “Where were the watchmen?” demands Jorgen.Sir Harth looks confused.  “You- you told us it was off.”“What!  I did!” exclaims Jorgen.“Yes.  Or, from your expression, someone who looked... disturbingly similar to you.”***Meanwhile, back at the inn-“Cara!” exclaims Kyle.Sir Cedric’s new bride hurries in.  “I’m so glad to find you guys!”“What happened?” asks Colder.  “She captured me and took me to her lair, but I managed to escape.  I don’t think she knows that I’m gone- if we hurry, we can catch her!”“Good idea,” Goer nods.  “Let’s go.”“Wait a second!  She’s after the elf, right?  So let’s leave him here, with someone to guard him.  That way there’s no danger that she’ll get her hands on him when we attack her.”  The others nod, and Dahlia volunteers to stay with the elf, as she is too wounded to be an effective combatant.  Soon the group is following Cara through a maze of streets and alleys.  “She was in the sewers,” Cara claims.  After a twenty minute journey, they come to a dilapidated area with uninhabited, broken buildings.  “Is that the entrance?” Goer asks, pointing at a nearby manhole cover.  “Cara?”He looks around.“Cara?”***Sir Cedric’s timing could not have been more fortuitous.  He reaches the inn just as someone is trying to take the elf away.  A woman, seemingly different from the one they faced in the cemetery.  When Cedric confronts her, wondering, Where are the others?, she sprouts bat wings and tries to fly away with Mr. Bags!  Worse, her features change: she is the same woman as they fought previously.Cedric is having none of this.  Even as the woman starts to glow with eldritch green faerie fire evoked by Dahlia, Cedric rains a series of blows on her... to no avail.  She shrugs them off.  He wounds her only very slightly.  “By the power of my pinky finger!” Sir Cedric declares, and casting his sword aside he reaches out and begins grappling with the bat-winged demon.  She hisses and claws at him, but in a moment he has her pressed to the ground. She vanishes out from under him, and Sir Cedric collapses onto the ground.  “Thecure the elf!” he shouts, flailing his arms about as he pulls himself hurriedly back up.Dahlia and Cedric stand guard together.  “She has mind-control powers,” Dahlia comments.  “We must be wary.”***“There is treason afoot,” Jorgen muses to himself as he finally lays in bed that night.  “It’s the only explanation.  How did they know to call off the watch?  And they were laying in wait for us.”  He frowns, his brow furrows.  “Someone tipped them off.  But who?  Only the baron and his closest advisors, and of course the members of the party, knew about our plan.”  He grimaces. Treason.  An ugly word.Jorgen can’t sleep for a long time.Next Time: To Rescue Cara!</blockquote>

Verification