NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1199854" data-attributes="member: 143">Happy Halloween, all!* * * * *Chapter 67The night was cold and dark, with a soft but steady rain that filled the great bowl of Cauldron, descending its streets and alleys to end up eventually by pouring into the black lake at its center.  The night wind came and went in gusts, flapping the colorful awnings that had been set up along the city’s major thoroughfares in anticipation of the Flood Festival. Down by the lakeshore, the streets were deserted, as anyone with even a lick of sense chose to stay indoors where it was warm and dry.  Even the occasional patrols of the City Guard didn’t bother to come down here this night, departing their guardhouses only to conduct hurried sweeps of the higher streets along the rim of the bowl before returning to the laughter and dice that waited in heated chambers of old stone. The Lakeshore Pavilion was just a vague shadow in the night, even to Zenna’s darkvision.  From her vantage, she could see it silhouetted against the flat expanse of the lake, but could make out little more than that.  Yet she dared not approach closer.  Dannel had been specific on that, and Zenna had been forced to agree.  They could not risk losing the only concrete lead they’d been able to uncover thus far, even if it meant risking a trap.  Mole would be closer, she knew, but in circumstances like this Mole was like a part of the night itself, finding the darkest part of the shadows and sliding into them like a sword sliding into its scabbard.  Arun had been... a bit more difficult.  Zenna smiled despite herself at the memory.  Arun was smarter than his gruff manner and hard exterior suggested, she knew, and he’d ultimately bowed to the logic of the situation.  The dwarf just wasn’t suited to an operation based on stealth and subtlety, like this one.  But he’d made his displeasure known, before finally agreeing to wait for them at a quiet hole-in-the-wall tavern, one of the few still open at this hour, several blocks away.  The rain made a constant patter against her cloak.  She was already soaked, the threadbare garment a poor substitute for her usual cloak, but despite the weather had insisted on going with her original idea to head out disguised.  Anyone who happened to catch sight of her would see only a ragged wretch huddling in a doorway, a man well into middle age who’d clearly been ill-used by life.  She was getting more used to the powers of her hat of disguise, and found that she could swiftly switch between personas with just a few moments of concentration.  Under the battered cloak that formed the exterior of her disguise, her dagger and spell components were within easy reach.  The wind picked up again, filling her shelter with the sound of its coming.  With her innate resistance to cold she wasn’t as poorly off as a true homeless person would be, but she was far from comfortable.  But she forgot about her discomfort, as she saw a vague form break the familiar outline of the Pavillion, across the street and a half-block away, on the very shore of the lake.  The waters of the lake had risen up to surround the heavy wooden pilings that supported the structure, giving it the illusion of floating upon the water.  A few of the buildings along the lakeshore had water lapping up against their very doorsteps, adding a sense of urgency to their mission.  If they didn’t find the wands of control water, flood season this year could be catastrophic for Cauldron. She watched the Pavillion intently, cursing silently at her inability to see clearly what was happening.  Inwardly she resolved to learn one of the spells that allowed one to better perceive events at a distance.  The figure at the Pavillion had to be Dannel, but she could not tell if there was another person there with him.  They’d agreed on a predetermined signal, a small display of colored light easily conjured with a prestidigation spell, but she knew that the reality was that Dannel was more or less on his own, if in fact the message was a trap.  She didn’t know where Mole was, but doubted that either of them would be able to get to Dannel quickly enough to aid him if an ambush was sprung.  She tensed as she caught a hint of movement from the direction of the Pavillion.  Someone was coming down the street, in her direction.  Reflexively she shrank deeper into the darkness of the doorway, but as the figure drew closer, she was able to see that it was Dannel.  The elf was moving quickly, his boots splashing in several inches of water with each step.  He spotted her, belatedly—even with his keen elvish eyes, he couldn’t match her darkvision—and nodded.  Zenna rose, and clung to the lee of the buildings along the side of the street as she followed the elf away from the meeting place.  She finally caught up to him as they rounded the corner that led up to the tavern where Arun waited.  “Well?” came a little voice just behind her.  Zenna jumped about a foot into the air before she realized that it was Mole, virtually invisible in her dark cloak. Dannel looked at both of them, the rain falling in runnels off the hood of his cloak and down his body.  “I got it,” he said.  “I know where the wands are being held.”</blockquote>

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