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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 842097" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Twenty-Six, Part Two: Threehills ManorThe coach rattled and jerked over the highway - the road falling into disrepair the farther it got from Highgate."Dru.""What?""We will find him."Dru looked back at Di'Fier.  Even in the dim light of the coach she could see his expression: sincerity and determination, the same qualities that had made her trust him with her life so often on the Watch.She looked away, out the window, at the twilight landscape rolling by. "I just hope he's still alive.""Plenty of people saw Aust.  The dwarf in the weapons shop, the staff at the Sojourn Tavern...""That's what worries me.  More people saw him and Galanodel in a week than ever saw them in Freeport.  It makes me wonder if he was using it to cover up...something else.  Some other tracks."The steady thud of hooves on the roadway began to slow, and the wood of the coach-frame creaked around them.  Looking out the window, Dru saw windows glowing with a cheery light, shining through the gathering darkness.  The coach rolled to a stop, and the coachman descended, opening the door and flipping down the step."Which it is time for dinner, and there's no goin' on tonight," he told them.  "Not with as dark as it is.""Thank you," said Di'Fier, stepping down.  "Why don't you have the stableboy look after the horses, and come and have a drink with us?""That's uncommon kind of you, sir," the coachman said, tipping his hat.  "I'll see to that, I will."A few minutes later, they were installed at one of the inn's long tables, trenchers of meat and potatos steaming before them."I can't believe beef is so cheap here," Di'Fier muttered."Which it is, which it is," the coachman responded, setting down his drink and licking the froth from his moustache. "As compared to Freeport, that is."  He grinned. "Sussed your speaking, but I can't say as I ever took nobody to Threehills from Freeport.""We're traveling to visit the Baron," Di'Fier told him, and the coachman's eyes widened."The cursed Baron?""I knew this wasn't going to be simple," Dru observed.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Which it is a terrible thing, this curse, the coachman told them over another mug of ale.  And worst of all because it took his wife, and she such a pretty one - but I'm running ahead, because it started with the eldest boy, him falling sick and all, terrible sick, and having to stay indoors all the time and never go out until he died.  He'd have been about your age, sir, was he to live.  And then there was the twins, all sudden-like, one right after t'other. And the littlest boy after that.  It was like to break a mother's heart, which it did to my mind, which it did, as they say she did away with herself in such a way as was so horrible that one of the servants took mad and has not been well since.  Thank you, sir, I will have another ale, and uncommon kind of you it is, for this is thirsty work.  Well, sir, after the...let me think...after the twins died, there was seen a ghost or spirit of some kind roaming the land each night.  Some say as it was the one hunting the Baron and his family, but my cousin says as he saw the Baron order it and it listened, so I reckon he brought it to protect them, seeing as how he was a wizard and all.  Which it did no good, mind, because it was after that that the youngest boy died, but then again the Baron has lived these five years or more since...<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The sun was setting behind them, stretching their shadows far before them on the road, when the coachman leaned down and knocked on the window.  "Beggin' your pardon, sir, ma'am, as we're just coming up to the manor now."Di'Fier thrust his head impatiently from the window as they approached. The manor was wood over a base of weathered stone, standing on the headland that sloped from the mountains around Highgate, three day's journey to the west, slowly down to the ocean.  Even here the rocky cliffs were nothing to trifle with.Di'Fier frowned.  The manor had seen better days, that was clear.  The last vestige of whitewash was gone from the walls, and moss clung to the stones as ivy snaked up the side of the house.  A smaller, separate building - a carriagehouse, perhaps - had once stood nearby, but it lay in an untidy sagging pile, as if it had collapsed from exhaustion.Di'Fier didn't wait for the step to be flipped down: he jumped to the ground, leaving the coachman to fetch their bags, and strode up to the front door, knocking rapidly upon it.After a few moments, the door swung open to reveal an elf garbed in dusky black.  The elf bowed.  "May I help you?""My name is Di'Fier.  I've come to see my uncle."At those words, the elf's face transformed from haughty indifference to a lok almost akin to sympathy.  "I see.  Please, come in," he said, with a glance towards Dru. "You did not receive the message, then?""No...""I am afraid that your uncle has gone quite beyond the cares of this world."</blockquote>

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