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="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 535225" data-attributes="member: 5400">Part 7 – Friends and Enemies in Holly CanalWe had tied up Nataleod and his men and commenced searching through the warehouse that Maglorix had led us to. The building was divided into three areas. The first two were stocked high with crates and iron bound chests all of which, upon closer examination, turned out to be empty. The entire thing was a facade, a ruse, like the branches and leaves strung about a hunter’s hide to fool animals in the forest. It was the third room that housed the building’s true purpose. The small, windowless space contained only two objects. The first was an altar, grown rather than made, in the illithid fashion, from flesh and bone. I have heard tales of debased men and women worshipping mind flayers, as though they were celestial powers, and it seemed that this room was a shrine for one such cult. The mind flayer who laired in the sewers was the centre of a secret religious sect, probably no more in number than the six who ambushed us, plus Maglorix. Given the magic which he manifested, the merchant Nataleod probably served as the group’s priest. The prospect made us very uneasy, and Kakita withdrew to keep watch over the bodies of our foes, in case of treacherous magic.The only other item in the shrine was a rod of ironwood, bound at each end by bands of adamantite. There was no doubt that it was a magic item of some kind and we were puzzled as to why the cultists had not used it against us. We agreed that most likely it was either sacred to the mind flayer or else the cultists did not know how to make the magic work. Aria took the opportunity to examine the rod closely and claimed that it resembled a Flailing Rod, which she had once seen used in a duel. Since she seemed to know the most about it, we left it in her care. It took her seemingly no time at all to figure the rod’s operation. At her command the two foot long rod manifested two spiked mace heads, attached, one to each end, by adamantite chains. Pleased with her new toy, Aria retracted the dire flail heads within the rod and we left the shrine to examine the bodies of our enemies. There was a bittersweet moment for some as Mark made the comment that such a weapon would have been perfect for Iyanden, a former comrade of the party, who had been executed by elves during a sea voyage to Landfall Island.We were just beginning to search the bodies of the fallen and captured, most especially hoping to find a purse to the value of the gold we’d been promised, when a full patrol of the Holly Canal city watch entered the warehouse courtyard. With their spears held ready, they were fully intent on arresting us for banditry, robbery and murder. With swift words we managed to persuade them to investigate the shrine in the warehouse and the mind flayer lair in the sewers. We were held under guard in the courtyard while a magistrate was summoned and members of the guard went down into the sewers to confirm our story. It was midday by the time a decision was taken and we were set free.However, justice in Holly Canal, as with so many parts of the Worlds-lit-by-the-Pyre, is a pragmatic thing. Until we had arrived, Nataleod and his cronies had been considered to be upstanding citizens. We on the other hand were freebooters and strangers, with no one to vouch for us. Since the evidence supported our version of events, we were not imprisoned or enslaved. However, we were exiled from Holly Canal and everything taken from the bodies of the cultists were confiscated, though Arial managed to keep the Flailing Rod. We were escorted to the docks and held aboard a ship to Fareach, sailing on the evening tide. A little before sunset, we set off down the Criaki river to the ocean, travelling with the flow, sails furled. It was nearly fully dark as the ship slid past Scalytown, its lights barely visible through the dunes.As we passed the lizard folk settlement, we were astonished to see what must have been close to the ghetto’s entire population gathered on the beach. They carried torches which they waved in the darkness, and they cheered and sang in their strange sibilant fashion as we passed by. In their midst, the holy man bowed to us and waved. We waved back from the gunwales, touched by this display of gratitude. It seemed that we had made both friends and enemies in Holly Canal and though we were officially exiled from the town, if ever we were to return we would doubtless find allies ready to support us. That night’s voyage was particularly sweet.</blockquote>

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