Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 152
Friday, July 27
Late the following morning there is a knock on the door. A messenger in the Ducal colors is there with a sealed letter.
“I have an important missive for General Windstorm that she should read at once,” he tells Eddings (while squinting through the Farazil-check continual flame that all visitors endure). Kay comes forward to take the letter and politely dismisses the messenger. She breaks the seal (signifying the royal army) and hands the letter to Ernie to read for her.
General Windstorm – Your presence is required on the Balani Peninsula as soon as is possible. Yaro Karenne, the leader of the Yrimpa, has withdrawn the support of his soldiers at an extremely inopportune time. He demands to speak with you before recommitting his forces to the war effort. The sailing ship Stalk Swift is departing from Tal Hae an hour after noon on the day of July 27. It will take you directly to a landing point on the peninsula, where an armed escort will bring you to the main rear encampment. – General Largent
With hardly more than an hour before her ship leaves, Kay gathers her belongings, says her good-byes, and leaves for the docks.
Twenty minutes later Eddings is summoned to the door yet again. This time there is a teenage messenger-boy there, carrying something in a sack. “Mister? A woman named Kay gave me these to bring to you. Her message was, she remembered her ring could hold stuff, and it turns out there was something already in them. She said they’d be more useful to you than to her. She also said you’d pay pretty well for bringing them back.”
Eddings passes the sack back to the others. Step, wanting to take the risk in case it’s a trap, accepts the bag and looks carefully inside.
“Hm. It’s books. Two gray books tied together with a cord. There’s a Black Circle on the cover of the top one. It…”
He concentrates for a moment.
“It’s not radiating evil. I think they’re…”
“Spell books!” Aravis and Grey Wolf shout, jumping forward. Ernie comes to the door and hands the youth three gold pieces; the boy goggles for a moment before running off. Grey Wolf and Aravis have a brief and unseemly tug-of-war with the tied-up books, before an exasperated Kibi comes over and (being much stronger than either of them) yanks them away. Before the other two can stop him, he unties the cord and flips open the top book.
“Mmmmm. Yup. Spells in here. Some good ones.”
He turns a few pages.
“’Energy Buffer.’ That looks interesting…”
The other wizards crowd around, and all three are basically useless for the rest of the day.
Morningstar has prepared a large number of sending spells for the day, and spends the afternoon as the “switchboard of Ell.” First she sends one on behalf of Grey Wolf, to his sister Jaina: Hi. I'm alive. Back at Greenhouse. How are you? – Greywolf
The reply: HA! I knew it! I knew you weren't going to die! Told Ya! Told Ya!, Told Ya! You should have listened to me when I
Morningstar smirks. The next one she sends for Ernie, who wants to check in with their old city-guard friend Marbury Tillerson. (Lt. Tillerson is currently stationed in Verdshane, and has been since the expulsion of Meledien some weeks earlier.) Hi! It's Ernie. How are you? I’m fine. Just checking in. We always have too much pie now. Reply 25 words or less.
Marbury’s answer: Ernest! Things are busy here. I've been cutting trees as well as guarding creepy magic buildings. Rumors of trouble but nothing has happened yet.
Finally, Morningstar sends a sending of her own, to her father in Kynder Hold: Dad - How are you? Am good. Working hard. Probably going out of sending range again soon. Is mom well? How are things at the temple? Morningstar.
From father: Your Mother and I are both well, and things at the temple are normal. Stay safe wherever you go. Say "hi" to Dranko for us.
So all is well. Flicker and Ernie go out to buy some supplies both culinary and magical for the impending craft-fest while the others start reorganizing and refitting the large basement as an alchemy lab.
They are still out early that evening when a sharp scratching sound comes from beneath the basement floor. Morningstar casts detect thoughts and finds it similar to the air elemental from the chimney. Scree offers his opinion that it’s an earth elemental trying to dig its way into the house.
While Step draws his weapon and stands ready in case the elemental breaches the floor, Kibi casts see invisibility and runs up the stairs. Once on the main floor he runs from window to window looking out, hoping to catch a glimpse of Parthol’s simulacrum. He sees nothing, but a moment later there is a great FWOOM from around the side of the house. All the Company knows that sound well – a fireball has impacted the Greenhouse! There is a scream from the street, and the sound of retreating footsteps as a passing commoner flees.
Morningstar breaks off her concentration on the elemental’s mind and casts another sending to Ernie, warning him and Flicker that the house is under attack again. She follows with her fifth and final sending of the day: To Duke Nigel: Greenhouse under serious magical attack. Runecarver. Stronger than Sharshun. DONT HELP. But you should know. Will check in when over.
The reply: Understood. Let me know if I can render assistance, send troops, or request court wizard provide aid.
As she finishes, an upstairs window starts to rattle violently and doesn’t stop for several minutes. Everyone is looking out of windows on all sides of the house, but again the assailant is not in evidence. Then Dranko spots Ernie and Flicker running around the corner and down the street toward the house.
“Those idiots!” he groans. “They should be hiding somewhere, not coming back here!”
The halflings reach the front door of the Greenhouse. Ernie takes out his key, but as he moves it toward the keyhole his hand strikes something invisible. While he manages to hold onto the key, they cannot get into the house – there is a wall of force entirely blocking the door! They run around to the back door but egress is similarly dissuaded. Realizing that they’re sitting ducks, Flicker and Ernie run off again to the safest other place they can think of in the Tal Hae: the Temple of Yondalla. They are not attacked en route.
Hours pass without incident. In the interim, Kibi indulges his curiosity and casts detect magic to observe the wards on the Greenhouse. He discovers that the Enchantment and Abjuration magics are actually stronger at the spot on the floor where the earth elemental had tried to break in. Interesting. The wizards then debate whether the walls of force (since expired) were part of the Greenhouse’s defense system, or placed there by the simulacrum. Aravis performs an experiment to see if one can dimension door out of the Greenhouse, and in fact this works.
Eventually the halflings come back and the Company eats a sullen dinner, frustration showing on every face. “This is intolerable,” Grey Wolf grumbles. “Eventually it’s going to decide it can’t get in, and start picking us off when we leave.”
Aravis jabs a fork into his mutton. “Tomorrow I’m going to be loaded for combat,” he says. The other spell-casters nod their heads. One way or another, the situation is going to change.
…to be continued…
Of course, now the Company knows that the enemy's out to get them. I suppose that they're afraid to go out now, lest they be assasinated? If they are, I'd say this latest attack served its purpose.
