Six Nights to Yearsend (Ptolus, Kareus' Solo Adventure)

[wysiwyg]

Whispering back, Kareus says: “Look Loraine, we have hounds looking for us. Our own lives far outweigh the few meagre belongings that can be sparred here. Besides, there are enough hands here to do the job without us. I also have a feeling one of the Sorn assassins recognized me. It’s time to leave. Now!” He grabs her hand and sternly leads her out of the crowd towards the seer’s house.
Once they are away from the scene, he mentions: “By the way, the man that I killed...well strangely enough, the corpse that was hijacked...em...that was him.”

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The 25th of Yearsend Month, 1:22 PM

After looking around for a moment to make sure that the fire is being contained, Loraine nods wearily at you and begins to follow as you continue your journey. The old lady who you rescued is sitting on the ground near the house and being attended to by another elderly lady and the children you saved. She says frantically to them as you walk by, "He's wearing a disguise, he is! That's not his real face. He's human, you know! A tall and handsome lad."

Loraine says with a wry smile, "We definitely need to go as it seems that touching her for so long dropped your illusion in her eyes. At least you have an admirer."

You reach the Rivergate District successfully, and find the way to the seamstress' shop that Megara described. The front of the shop is unassuming except for a faded and wooden sign over the oaken door with a picture of a sewing needle and an unlit red lamp. It's the red lamp that catches Loraine's attention and causes her face to turn a similar color. "Oh, come on! Kareus, do you know what this place is? You're telling me your friend works in a brothel?"

 

[wysiwyg]

Taken aback himself by this new discovery, Kareus composes himself, albeit a large grin still remains on his smirking face. “Oh come on Loraine, I’m not asking you to reconsider a change in profession, we’re just here to meet my friends, who coincidently do not work here.” To himself he thinks - although some of them probably wish they did.
“We’re just going to meet my friends and contemplate our next move. Let me remind you that we do have sniffs tracking us and it’s definitely safer inside – provided you don’t meet some of your work colleagues (smirk, smirk). So let’s move along shall we.” Kareus holds her firmly by the arm, and takes no refusals. They move inside...

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"Not another word, Kareus, or I swear..." A very angry Loraine starts saying before you grab her by the wrist and pull her along.

You knock on the door to the brothel before an elderly woman peeks from it and lets you in while asking, "I'm sorry, but we are closed at this time although I encourage you to come back later. Our young ladies need their rest before entertaining couples." She gives a wink and you feel Loraine bristle next to you, but you explain why you have arrived before the bard can say something insulting. The woman is surprised, but lets you in and has you relax in a back room with a large couch while she goes to get Megara.

A beautiful woman walks down the steps, youthful in face and body. "Hello, Kareus. I am Megara. It's good to talk to you face to face like this instead of speaking to you in my dreams."

Before you can ask anything, Loraine takes in both the woman's appearance and what Megara just said and whispers under her breath, "I am so going to hurt this man..."

 

[wysiwyg]

“For heaven’s sake Loraine, you’re a copper! Don’t tell me you’re duties never took you to a brothel before. What are you so nervous about? This is the last place anyone would come looking for us. Just calm down. Please!”
Standing up when Megara enters the room, Kareus asks her politely “A bordello, a spinner and a dreamer. You have quite a repertoire madam. Is there anything else that I have omitted? This is my friend Loraine, ” he says introducing the two women to each other. Turning more serious, he enquires “How and why did you find me in my dreams? Surely it is not something you do to everyone. And coincidently, where are my friends?”

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"One of your friends, Morty, and I have a rather confusing friendship. I'm somewhat close to him and I could sense that he was in distress and that he was concerned for you. Normally I see the future of people I am close to when I dream, but I believe that since I was dreaming of his concern for you at the same time you were dreaming I was able to find you. Of course, Fate Weaving is a difficult skill and I may have the science of it all wrong. I find it easier to just open my mind up to the world and I see things easier in this way, almost as if the world was trying to tell me or even warn me. Some young Fate Weavers try to see the future and direct which visions they will observe, but that rarely ever works. The visions are becoming more frequent and more vivid for me of late, and I fear what it all may mean. As for your friends, they went to find a friend of theirs that looks like a lizard and then off to the Temple District in order to see if they could locate where they had been held captive in the last few days."

 

[wysiwyg]

Kareus turns pale after hearing Megara last sentence. “This could be extremely dangerous for them if they find the place. Our captors would certainly recognise us on sight, whereas we would not. I fear that once again they are closing a trap on their own tails. Do you have any idea where in the temple district they were heading? It is of utmost urgency that I find them before it is too late.”

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"In a vision, your friend Luna saw a holy symbol that involved two circles slightly joined, one black and one red. In my own visions I had a sense that the location that you had been held a prisoner in was a basement or a cellar that was blasphemous, yet surrounded by holy ground. I had assumed this was in the Temple District, but there are so many small chapels in that area it may take your friends a bit of time to locate."

 

[wysiwyg]

"No time to lose." Kareus leaves with Loraine (disguised as a member of the watch in a uniform similar to Loraine's). The pair head off "on official police business" to the temple district, asking if any one has witnessed a party of 6 with a description resembling the group wondering about.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Loraine is a member of the Knights of the Chord, which sometimes work with the City Watch. Kareus takes up a similar uniform and heads with her to the Temple District. She talks to several members of the Watch at three of the entrances to the district. You hear several interesting tidbits from different officials:

"A group of armed adventurers? Bah, that kind seems more and more common of late. We did see one group with an assarai, a small pet lizard, and a tall elven woman with blonde hair. They were dressed in red and black robes and were headed for the Street of a Million Gods."

"Yeah, I saw a group like that. There was a robed wizard-looking gentleman in a group with a huge bear that walked on two legs of all things. They had a litoran with them, too. They asked for directions to the Celestial Conclave."

"No, I don't recall seeing a group like that although I did see the strangest group of mercenaries heading towards the Celestial Conclave. There was a red man dressed in orange robes, a blue gentleman carrying a large blade, and a muscular tanned lad with a huge axe..."