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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5899733" data-attributes="member: 53286">It had been easy enough for Lhess to let herself in, as her brother had created a magical trap not triggering for her family or anyone marked by him. He always did that, completely ignoring that not all members of their family would be that friendly, but then he had always been blue eyed. Without disturbing the privacy of her friends and relatives, the young woman went through the rooms and admired the way everything was set up. You could see royal education and expensive taste everywhere but in Uthas’ room. The magically infused garden was a very pleasant surprise. Lhess could feel divine energies at work here in addition to the arcane ones, but she guessed the others hadn’t noticed this yet. There were two spare rooms in the attic, and with her usual busy way, she set to converting them into a small place of worship to her gods and a room for herself. She would consider tracking down the others if they were not back the next day, she decided. For now, she would try not to embarrass them by just dropping in on whatever so-called adventure they might be on. They were probably just aimlessly wandering the island. But the next morning brought a surprise for her. The sun was not quite up yet when someone was knocking at the door, loud and steadily. Not quite awake yet, the paladin considered ignoring the call, after all no one would be looking for her. But then, it might be something important so she got up when the knocking didn’t cease and opened the door in her morning robes, looking not quite regal with her messed up hair ans sleepy eyes. Two human men, a half-elf youngster, a gnome elder and a half-halfling, half dwarf family with about a dozen children stood in front of the door, looking tired, dirty from travel and distinctly hungry. “Excuse us, we are looking for the heroes of Freeport,” the dwarf woman, who was looking like the mother of the family, spoke up. “The city guards told us to come here and ask for help, as they can’t do a thing about places outside the city.”Lhess blinked. “My brother and his friends aren’t home,” she replied, taking in the group while trying to wake up fully. “I just arrived last night myself.” Noticing the despair in the eyes of the gnome elder, she opened the door and invited them in. “But maybe I can help you? And you sure look like you could use some rest and food and some cleaning up.”Obviously grateful, the group entered under the coordination of the gnome and the dwarf. There were not a dozen, but 18 children, Lhess counted, and not all of them seemed to belong to the dwarf-halfling couple. One girl seemed to be all human, and there was a gnome boy and an orc girl. Taking matters in hand as it was her nature, Lhess directed everyone to the lavish bathroom and helped clean up the children, and once done with that she put them to rest in whatever bed they were closest to, usually 3 in one bed, and the older ones on the floor. Once everyone was cleaned and in several sets of spare clothing they had luckily carried, she ushered the grown ups into the living room and dealt out what little food she currently had on hand. “Now,” she said just as the old gnome fell asleep on the couch after eating, “what happened to you? You are not from Freeport I gathered. Did someone drive you off your land or robbed you?” “Something like it, but...” The halfling shook his head. “First things first. We are from Coasthold, a village a day or so travel from here. On foot that is. A week or so ago, a group of bandits moved in and decided to make our place their new headquarter. They kicked people out of their houses ans killed or hurt whoever would not comply. They stole everything valuable, too. Many tried to run but were brought back or killed as well. We got out with his help.” The man pointed to the snoring gnome. “he made us invisible, but he could not take everyone with us so our friends gave us their kids. He would have stayed behind to do it for others as well but they would have known and killed him.”Lhess face darkened. “And there is, of course, no authority to protect you in this area, no government to stop the brigands.”“Indeed not. But the area had been peaceful for decades, as the pirates and robbers don’t usually do anything in their backyard. We guess those bandits came from the mainland, but we rather not ask the criminal guilds here for help lest they see us as indebted.”“Have you tried the Temple of Justice?”“Yes, but they have no one to spare, being understaffed and everyone able to do something out on missions. They marked us down as to be checked out but it could take days or even weeks.” The half-elf boy sounded bitter about that, and no wonder. “I guess in a city like this, their priests and paladins will always be overly busy.”“When will the heroes be back?” the dwarf woman asked. “And would they help?”“I do not know,” Lhess admitted. “My friends went to explore the island. With some luck they have already stumbled over your village.” She would not wonder about that, Nev and especially her brother had always had a talent to stumble over things like that.“We can not bet on luck. Luck has already deserted us,” the taller man said. “We need something real.”The heroic swamp wanderers and treasure finders woke up considerably later. Uthas was the one waking up latest this time, having suffered most – or so he claimed – from the swamp ordeal. Nev was already continuing with the inventory when the half-orc went outside to check things out, which mostly meant to find a place to do his business. Uthas did notice something out of the ordinary on the way back. A black plume of smoke was coming from the south west, where the coast must be located if he wasn’t half asleep still. A burning building, he guessed, but he called Flip up to confirm. Flip sucked at his pipe for a bit and then nodded. “Burning building, something tall, probably a wooden tower, or maybe someone is burning down a bunch of high trees. Could be lightning caused it. Could be some crazy person randomly burning down buildings as there has been smoke in that direction a day or so before. Just didn’t mention it because I didn’t want the prince to change direction and lose the likely path out of that swamp.”“Could also be some attack?” Uthas pressed.“Stuff like that can always be an attack. Which makes it even more important for us not to mention it. Can you imagine those two nobles of ours chasing off after the next adventure, probably with not fully known potions and weapons, and we will have to go after them to save them from themselves again?”“They got better, lately.”“Better, yeah. But remember the prince’s talk about responsibility last night? That’s just a more mature reason for him to chase off after whatever looks like someone could need some help. Saving the world and all that blue eyed nonsense.”The bodyguard grunted. “They would be safer out here.” Keeping the prince safe was, after all, his job, not rescuing people, although he liked to do one thing with the other. “Has been a hassle to make sure they don’t get into too much trouble.”“Exactly. So, we are clear, then? No word about this.”Nodding, Uthas made to go back downstairs. “Not a hint at it. Let’s check the rest of those tunnels out instead.”Some hours later, Nev was done with the inventory of the many rooms, with the help of his magic quill. Uthas and Flip had scouted the smuggler tunnel leading towards the coast and had reported in all clear after dispatching a group of dire rats and disarming a simple slide trap. Orlath had been staring into the mirror for a while, which was unusual even for a prince caring for his personal appearance. When he didn’t respond to Nev’s inventory report, Uthas tapped him on the shoulder and caused him to jump. "Don’t' do that," the prince gasped. “I was concentrating.”“On what?” the half-orc wondered, scratching his head. Orlath was weird at times, but his bodyguard could not remember an incident like this one. “It’s only a mirror and you don’t look different in this one than in all the others you use to stare into.”“Oh be quiet, Uthas. This is not a mirror. I mean, not a mirror mirror.” Noticing the growing confusion and worry in the half-orc’s eyes, the prince pointed to what looked like minor scratches on the edge of the mirror’s surface. “See that?”“Yeah, someone’s not been careful with that thing. Say boss, did you drink one of the potions without double checking or something?”“What? No, silly. Those are arcane symbols. Magic stuff, you know,” he tried to make it more clear to the barbarian. Uthas only grunted. “Say what?” Now Nev was stepping closer and began to stare into the mirror the same way. Then he whistled. “What’s going on?” Flip inquired, trying to look around the legs of the taller folk, growing slightly impatient with the situation.Uthas made a twirling motion with his fingers. “I think they’ve gone nuts.”“I’m telling you, it is a magic mirror,” Orlath insisted. “It can transport you anywhere you know, like a teleport spell. You just need to think of the place. Oh and you need to be able to trigger the arcane magic of course.”“Of course,” Flip sighed. “If it is like that, then why do we only see ourselves?”“It’s a protection for the user,” Nev said, tracing some of the arcane marks with his finger. “Only who thinks of a place can see it. And from what I see, the one activating the magic can push anyone or anything through it, so it is more like a one way portal than a spell.”“This is a one way thing, then?” Flip noticed. “Means that, probably, there is another one like this somewhere to get back here?”“Not necessarily, after all, the stuff in here was brought here the usual way. But it explains why the exit above has not been used in what looked like decades,” Nev mused. “But it means we can go back home, then?” Uthas was, as most of the time, the practical one. “And get all the stuff here home, too?”“We’d not have space to put all this, not even using the attic, the basement and part of the garden, I don’t think,” Orlath replied. “But in theory, yes.”“We would have the space.” The organizer in Flip came out. “One or two of us just need to be in the rooms it goes to and push the crates so they don’t waste space. And I’d not use the basement at all. The large room where Uthas put in a training room for the two of you would do for the heavy stuff, everything else can go in the attic.” He lifted a hand to stop Uthas from complaining. “Seriously, i think the two of them will not get any better with sword and staff with you training them – or maybe not at all.”Uthas grunted acknowledgement. “Guess I’m the one to go home first, then.” He sounded half pleased, half annoyed. “How do you figure?” Nev wondered. “You need someone to push the crates around, and that would of course be me. Flip is too short in the butt and too weak in the arms, and the two of you would probably pull something trying to do that job. So, as usual, it’s going to be the barbarian, no?”“He has a point,” the halfling grinned. A few minutes later, Nev was working on a plan to get all the stuff home while Flip and Uthas were sealing the exit towards the coast again. “You know, Orlath, there is one issue with the plan,” Nev suddenly noticed. “And what’s that?”“How in the name of the Gods of Magic do we get the mirror home? I sure don’t want to leave it here.”Lhess followed the small creek the refugees of the village had indicated, making sure not to overtax the horse she had borrowed from the Temple of Justice. It was a good solid warhorse belonging to one of their paladins who was currently on sea, and she and the gelding had gotten along well from the beginning. An elven horse might have been trained better, but for being the mount of a half-orc, this one was behaving exceptionally well and was reacting to her commands almost before she gave them. The horse’s color was of a dull grey, and it didn’t look like much to a casual observer, which was as well. Lhess had no intention to be taken for rich prey. Fighting through thug encounters was boresome to her, even if they came in larger numbers she would just smite and spell them out of her way. She was in full armor and carried her shield, but she had put an illusion around both to make it look like old rusty equipment. It was likely as important not to be seen as worthwhile to rob once she arrived at her destination, and despite being a paladin she had no qualms with stealth if it made sense. She could bother with possible brigands on her way back. And there was no doubt in her proud mind that she would solve the village’s problem alone and come out of it basically unharmed. She was, after all, a paladin of the Realm. The weather was fine enough, although there were some clouds hanging on the horizon. As Lhess covered her eyes against the sun to see better, she noticed that not all of it was clouds. Something was burning in the direction of the village. Probably a tall building. With her current speed, she would arrive there early afternoon, with plenty of time to check the area out. “The gods give there will be no more deaths,” she prayed. That was when she noticed the motionless figure just off the road, an arrow sticking out of its shoulder. Lhess dismounted at once, hoping to find whoever it was alive. She found an orc female, from the looks of it a merchant’s guard, the arrow was stuck between her shoulder blades but she was still breathing. Pulling on the arrow, the paladin sent a healing prayer to the God of Health. She was barely done pulling when a golden light played around the wound and over some other parts of the orc and the wound closed. A crunching sound could be heard as the divine magic fixed a dislocated shoulder and a broken rib.“Wake up,” Lhess whispered. “You are safe for now.”  But she knew it could take a while.  “Right, that’s all of the crates and barrels for the training room and the garden,” Nev said, crossing out something on his scroll. “Only a few small crates of riches left that’ll later go in the attic.” Flip was already shoving those trough the mirror. They were all exhausted after getting all the items here and pushing them through, even though the wizards had helped with levitation spells here and there. “I’m almost done. Then we can go home.” “Yea about that..” Nev watched the last boxes disappear. “We should continue down the corridor to the coast instead, to find out where exactly we are. That way, we can come back later for the mirror.”“You can’t be serious.” Flip stopped to look at the magic gateway. The mirror was as tall as an orc and one and a half times as wide, you would be able to ride a horse through if needed. “How could anyone, even Uthas, carry this all the way there? We do not even know if the passage is always wide enough for it.”“There are spells to reduce the size of such objects,” Nev explained. “I’ve been studying them, but the ones I know until now cannot be used on powerful items like this one. You need a special spell for that and that’ll need some researching.”“I see. But I don’t think it would be wise of us to go without a good fighter, after all we’ve seen.” Uthas, who could still hear them from the other side and, if only in shadows, even see them, grinned back trough the gate. “Nice to know I’m wanted but all the pushing and shoving made me very tired. I’d not be good fighting now.”“Well, we could always rest here another night,” Flip suggested. “But Uthas is gone now, anyway.” “Ah yeah, about that...” Nev turned to the mirror. “Uthas, come closer to whatever it is you see from us.”Curious, the half-orc obeyed. No sooner was he in what appeared to be arm’s reach as the noble reached through the mirror, grabbed him and dragged his bodyguard back to the tunnels. “As I thought. Not quite so one way, after all sound could pass through and you saw something, didn’t you?”Astonished and also somewhat disappointed not to be back home anymore, Uthas nodded. “Mostly you appeared like shadows.”“We’ll figure it’s secret out. Now, let’s cover some distance towards the shore. And who knows, we might find yet more stuff,” the prince said in a cheerful voice. Uthas and Flip groaned in unison. From the top of the rise they were standing on, well hidden behind bushes, Coasthold appeared like a normal fishing village, with the exception that one of the 2 towers build to serve as signal point for the boats had been burned down. That had been the plume of smoke from earlier. Oher than that, there was no current sign of struggle, although 2 barns had been burned down recently as well. The orc woman grunted in annoyance. “Master’s carriage isn’t here, I think.” “How do you figure? Could be in the stable, or the barns.”The orc’s name was Thalla, and she was indeed a merchant’s guard. Her charge had been attacked by a group of mostly orcs all clad in black and blue leathers, and they had left her for dead after the attack, but had taken their master hostage. Ransom was a good way to make money, although in the Freeport area, abducting rich people could get you into troubles with both the authorities and the local criminal guilds and pirates. To keep Freeport a safe haven, even the thugs had to follow some rules, including not troubling the rich folks keeping the resemblance of order or taking care of the trade.“His carriage is a fancy thing. Wide set of wheels, and it only has two wheels. It looks like...” Thalla frowned. “Have you ever seen war with charging carriages? Two wheels and fast and can turn almost on spot?”“Yeah. Why is your master using something like that?” Lhess checked the ground for a sign that such a carriage might have been here, the tracks should have been remarkably different and the ground was wet enough to leave plenty of traces. But she, too, saw nothing despite her keen elven eyes.“The master got injured in fight some time back. Has a limp, bad hip, can’t ride well anymore. Priests can’t cure it as it was done by a cursed weapon. So, to be as quick and maneuverable as riders, he had the carriage made. His own design.”“Nice. But I think you are right, then, your master is not here. A different group of bandits must have taken him. Or maybe he has enemies?”“Aye, he has enemies. But they would rather try and get him by ruining his business.” “There have been no traces going off the main road, where could the carriage have gone? Lhess shook her head. “In any case, I’ll help find your master but I need to take care of this here, first.”“And I’ll help. You saved my life and I owe you.” Thalla frowned as if to dare the paladin to contradict her. “You’ll be done here faster, too, and then you can help find master.”“Right. So, my idea was to sneak close when it is getting dark, but the way it looks now, we might as well ride in like normal travelers. My illusions should hold against most people.”Thalla shook her head. “Illusions are not good to rely on. What about me riding in pretending to look for some thugs to join? I grew up on a pirate vessel, I can pull it off.”“The descriptions didn’t sound as if they were so happy to get new people, and here might be some magic involved, too,” Lhess said. “There is magic involved and you want to employ illusions?” The orc shook her head and chuckled. “Maybe wait until it is dark is best.”“It’s decided, then.” Lhess grinned. “We must look a crazy pair.” The orc laughed out. “Yeah, an elf paladin and an orc mercenary. That would be the source of stories.”</blockquote>

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