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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 77748" data-attributes="member: 726">Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 139cDranko shows the letter to several passers-by with no luck, but that changes when he re-visits the Quiet Man Pub.  A garrulous local remembers the scarred man – "an old campaigner, by all accounts.  Not seen ‘im m’self, but he’s stayin’ with Master Cosnor up on Pearl Street.  No, don’t know the address, but it’s th’ ‘ouse with the two big lions out front.  Can’t miss it."Morningstar has been listening in via Rary’s telepathic bond, and they all meet up outside before heading northward into the heart of the Silent Quarter.  As expected, the telepathic bond soon cuts out, blocked (presumably) by the Divination Sink.   A city guardsman passes them en route, but he has been warned of the party’s business by Cobb, and so stops to ask if there’s anything he can do to help.  When they tell him they’re on their way to visit a Master Cosnor, the guard says, "Oh, Lord Cosnor!  Nice old chap.  Don’t see him much, but he always has a kind word if I pass him in the street."Before they reach the "house with the lions out front," the party casts a number of spells, including invisibility on Dranko and (most importantly) Grey Wolf.  Someone points out that the Divination Sink may help them here, since spells that would detect invisible things are presumably being universally blocked.   Then Dranko heads down the street, looking for the house.  All of the houses have large iron fences around them, with outward-curving spiky tops that make it very difficult to scale them.  Furthermore, the fencing is continuous for several blocks, effectively blocking access to number of sprawling estates.  Dranko tries climbing the fence in front of Cosnor’s house, but can’t quite get over the spikes.   Meanwhile, down the street, a household guard has come from a nearby mansion and demanded to know what the party is doing, loitering in front of his master’s house, and fully armed.  They apologize for the intrusion (even though they’re on the street), and move a block or so away to avoid a fuss.Dranko comes back to the group to request a fly spell, and Kibi obliges.   Flying and invisible, Dranko soars over the fence and above the grounds of the wealthy denizens of the Silent Quarter.  The area is a tangle of stone walls, little fenced-in well-tended gardens, courtyards, trees, narrow lanes, and of course the mansions themselves, which are mostly one-story but large and sprawling.  It's hard to tell where one property begins and another one ends.He flies back and forth over the estates, spotting many gardeners and patrolling guardsmen, but nothing out of the ordinary – unless you count plants that can grow and thrive in the never-ending twilight of Kallor.  But on a third sweep, something catches his eye.  It is a quick flash of blue light, gone almost before he is aware of it.  When he looks back to where he thought he saw it, it is gone.  Nevertheless, he flies slowly down, toward a tiny walled garden adjacent to a large house.   There is a door opening out of the house into the enclosure, but the space is empty, save for (of all things) a stone sundial set upon a three-foot-high stone pillar.   He drifts lower, and while the presence of a sundial in a city of twilight is unusual, what’s more unusual is the faint blue glow coming from beneath the pedestal.Lowering himself so that his nose almost touches the ground, Dranko sees that while most of the ground in the enclosure is grass or flagstones, the pedestal is sitting atop (and covering) a disc of glowing blue glass.  A faint blue light emanates from beneath, around the edges of the pedestal.   This, he realizes, could be the source of the Divination Sink!  Rather than immediately getting into trouble, Dranko flies back to the others to report what he has found.  They briefly talk it over, and decide that what they really want to do is smash that disc.  The plan they form is that Kibi will use a scroll of invisibility on Ernie, and then Dranko will fly Ernie over to the garden, where he’ll call upon the Strength of Yondalla before pushing over the sundial and its pillar and smashing the glass disc.  Ernie is also wearing a magic ring that casts dimension door in case he needs to make a speedy exit.  Grey Wolf, also flying and invisible, hovers high over the area, watching for trouble.It goes just as planned – up to a point.  A few minutes later Dranko and Ernie are standing invisibly together in the garden.  Ernie has imbued himself with great strength, and together they push over the pedestal. It tips, and the stone sundial slides off, smashing onto the flagstones beneath with a tremendous crash and breaking in two.  The glass looks solid, and the blue glow does not increase nor decrease.  Ernie hefts one of the two broken pieces, and with great effort brings it down hard upon the blue glass disc.  There is a dull "clank," a small piece of the stone breaks off, and a fragment of glass chips away.  Ernie looks disappointed.  Dranko hands him his mace, and Ernie starts whaling away at the glass.  Each swing chips another small piece of the glass with a loud "whang!" but the progress is disappointingly slow.  Looking closely, Ernie can see fine cracks going downward, and he realizes that it’s not just a thin disc sitting on the surface – it goes down at least a good six to eight inches.That’s when an old gardener comes tottering out to see what all the racket is.  The servant, a stooped old man, sees that the sundial and its pedestal have been pushed over and smashed.  He also sees a mace, wielding itself, pounding away at a blue glowing disc set in the ground.  "Eeee.  Aaah.  Aaaaaaah.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"  The gardener goes scurrying back into the house.  Ernie has managed to create a divot in the glass about the size of an orange, but the disc is thicker than that.  Dranko produces a chisel, and wedges it into to one of the glass seams, and the next swing of Ernie’s mace drives a large chunk of glass out of the ground.  More cracks appear, some of them going down.  The disc flares again, and when it’s filled with blue light, Ernie now sees that the disc is really more of a cylinder, and it goes down at least another foot or more.  Arg!  After another two swings the chisel shatters.  Dranko replaces it with a crowbar.  Since the Strength of Yondalla has run out, Ernie activates the bull’s strength inherent in his magical armor.  As he does so, a loud raspberry noise comes out of the breastplate.  Dranko, who had made the armor for Ernie himself, had added a small enchantment so that pulling the little finger of the left gauntlet would make that sound.  But the bull’s strength function shouldn’t have emitted any sort of flatulent noise.  They chalk it up to the effects of the glowing glass, and Ernie keeps swinging. Whang!  Whang!  Whang!The servant returns with two armed guards, who are less easily phased."Whoever you are, or whatever you are," one of them says, "stop swinging that weapon, drop it at once, and explain your presence here!"  Ernie does neither.  But when the guards step out into the garden, Dranko (still invisible) booms out:  "I am a servant of the most holy and blessed Church of Ell, and we do her bidding!   We are destroying an Unholy Abomination of Evil, in the name of the Goddess!  Stand back and let us do our work!"Whang!The guards look at each other.  One says, "Look, I don’t know what this is all about, but this is private property.  We’re going to have to fetch the Master.""Good!" says Dranko.  "He should explain what this foul relic is doing on his grounds."Whang!Ernie continues to chip away at the disc, but it’s slow going.  The glass is solid straight through, and each swing is only chipping away small pieces.  The crowbar is a bit too unwieldy for this sort of work.  Eventually the guards return, along with a tall man with a black beard."I am the master of this house," he says from behind his guards, "and whoever you are, you are trespassing on my property.  I demand that you leave at once."Whang!Dranko repeats his shtick.  "I am a holy servant of Ell, sent to destroy this evil artifact buried on your land.   Hinder us at your own peril.. we do the Goddess’ work!""If you are, then why have you come here in secret.  Why was I not informed?  And what is that glowing thing in my garden?""Don’t you know?" booms Dranko."No!  I’ve never seen that before in my life!"Whang!"Then why were you hiding it beneath your sundial?" Dranko demands.  "And why do you even have a sundial in this place?"He’s stalling, big-time, giving Ernie has much time as he can.  The master of the house splutters."That glowing thing wasn’t there when I put this sundial here… and it was a gift!  Not that it is any business of yours.  I think you are a petty criminal up to some mischief, and are making up some crazy story now that you’ve been caught.  Guards, if there is still any sign of them five seconds from now, I want you to take care of them.""Yes, sir.  But… you know… they’re invisible.""Just swing your swords around!  You’re bound to hit them eventually!  And you!" he says to the gardener, "go fetch more of my guards."There is some commotion as the guards push their way into the garden and start flailing around with their swords.  A minute later more come out, and two of them even manage to score light hits on Dranko.....to be continued...</blockquote>

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