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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Brennen" data-source="post: 2033603" data-attributes="member: 553">April 16th, Late Night[session 3, Jan 23rd '05]Barrick started snoring almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.  Father Al settled into a chair by the door as he took first watch, while I decided to write just a bit before retiring.  I had not completely drifted off when there was a knocking on a door somewhere in the hall.  I had almost decided it was a figment of my half-awake mind when Father Al began shaking my shoulder roughly.  "There's someone at Marcus and Charlotte's door," he whispered harshly.  My fingers quickly went to the floor and wrapped around my urgrosh as I sat up right away.It sounded as if there was a bit of arguing going on next door, but I couldn't make it out, especially as Barrick barked loudly "What is it?!" as Al woke him.  As he stumbled out of bed, we heard the door of our companions' room open, and Marcus talking to someone in the hall.  I was up and walking quietly toward the door, when Barrick stumbled past and yanked it open. He blinked into the light of the hallway for a moment, grunted, and slammed the door closed again.  Not so much walking as tripping across the room, he said "It's the innkeeper", in the same breath that began his snore as he fell back into bed.Al and I listened at the door a little, and after hearing a brief discussion, Marcus knocked and told us there was somebody, probably the intended party for the clock, who wanted to talk to us downstairs.  We woke Barrick up again, who was grumpier this time, and wanted to put his armor on first.  Not that I blamed him.  Stories of shadow elves I've heard; they might look like anybody.After we geared up, we joined everyone in the dining area, which had closed for business by this time.  There was a man and a woman, somewhat older looking, for humans anyway, sitting at a table talking with everyone else.  They introduced us.  The woman was called Marquetta, and the man Chelton.  They'd been discussing the "package" and the shadow elf who had been pursuing us.  It seemed that the odd gray men were simply humans who had been corrupted by Shadow.  Our conversation had a couple more references to the "package", as if the contents were still a secret to someone here. Barrick blurted out, "Package? Why don't you just say 'clock'?  Unless you mean the decoy over in the other 'package'", his stubby fingers making quote marks in the air.  There were a few groans, but even the most patient dwarf can only handle so much human subtlety.The two visitors didn't know why the shadow elves had been looking for the clock, but there had be many rumors of them forming strange alliances over the past two seasons.  Also, there was a village in the barony that had "vanished", empty of people, with only a strange, aged ruin where a healthy town had stood only weeks before.  Chelton seemed to think there was a link between that, the elves and the clock.Marquetta commented that the clock didn't appear magical.  We were pretty impressed that she could tell without any hand waving spell stuff. Barrick joked that he did feeling a little funny in his stomach when he wound it, but his comment was only met with blank stares.  Maybe it was amazement that he had cracked a joke.Apparently, Vittorio Matteao had created not one but three clocks.  One we had obviously just delivered, another was already in the hands of shadow elves, paid for in blood, and the whereabouts of the last was uncertain.  Chelton had sent for this clock, since it was in possession of a colleague of his at the wizard academy, Gloom Hall.  Handel was that man's apprentice, charged with delivering the clock here. (Apparently, Chelton was some sort of wizard himself, and Father Al had given Handel's ring to him before we came down. Chelton wore a similar ring.)At mention of the delivery, it seemed to dawn on our visitors that some payment for such was due to us.  They had Rhinehart, the innkeeper, fetch a small bag.  Peeking inside, we saw it was full of platinum coin, about a pound of it, judging by the bag's heft.  Not too bad.The coin seemed to loosen the tongues of some of my fellow travelers, with Marcus and Father Al moving from suggesting to volunteering our services to help find the missing clock.  I jumped in, holding the bag up. "For similar compensation, of course," I said. Here was what I was looking for.  Adventure and reward enough for a return to Virisia.  I mentioned to Barrick that this was the type of opportunity I had discussed earlier that evening.Seizing on the idea, he immediately offered a position to Father Al as the healer of Dwarven Inc.  (Our adventuring troupe a business?  I hadn't really conceived of it that way, but the dwarves of the east obsess about such things, I guess.)  Father Al seemed interested, and handled it good-naturedly when Barrick openly tried to low-ball him a ten percent cut.  He wisely tabled the discussion for tomorrow.Throughout this exchange, Marquetta and Chelton thought about the proposal, then agreed to our terms.  Giving us a bit more detail to start our task, they told us that Vittorio Matteao had spent several years here in Stonehearth.  Though he was dust almost two hundred years, he did turn his writings over to a library not far from here.  That library was part of a monastery for priests of Alioth, specifically dedicated to one of his demigods, one called St. Ambrosius.  In those writings, Chelton thought we could find whom the clocks had been given to.  The monastery was just shy of two days away.Marquetta explained that she and Chelton could not go to the monastery themselves, as they may not be too welcome.  Chelton was indeed a wizard, a Diviner, and an alumnus of Gloom Hall.  She was a member of the Council of the Northern Star, a group of witches in these parts.  If we needed to contact them, we could do so here, at the Boar's Tusk, which was pretty much their base of operations.  Rhinehart the innkeeper could deliver messages if they weren't about.With that, we bade them goodnight and headed back upstairs.  Since it was nearly time for his watch, Barrick stayed awake and paced up and down the hallway, his boots thumping loudly, axe slung over his shoulder.  If anyone opened their door to complain about the noise during those two and a half-hours, they must have reconsidered, because I didn't hear anything else the rest of the night.</blockquote>

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