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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 460088" data-attributes="member: 1674">Shadows of Mithril, part 2In the DeBronis estate, the majordomus welcomed them. He showed them to the room where Asuras had told Derigesh and Barconius abou the gift the house wanted to make to the city.It was a nice room with a big picturewindow to the south side, giving a view of Mithril below. There were some comfortable chairs, shelves with books on the wall and a fireplace in which a small fire was burning away. There was definetly no space in here for someone to hide.They checked whether it was possible to listen to a conversation in this room by listening in one of the adjactent rooms, but even where the shaft of the fireplace lead upwards, there was no way to hear what happened in any other room.Talking to some servants, they found no further clues on how anybody could have obtained the knowledge. There was of course the possibility of magic, however they were certain that a man like Emili Derigesh would have made sure that there were no scrying sensors and no magic around before having a confidential talk.Meanwhile, the sun was nearing the horizon on the west, and so it was high time to return to the pigeonry. Trepat and Jan went to a pub where they had a meal and waited for their friends to fetch them.Ben went into the wooden building, where he lingered near the counter. After a while, a young, dark haired halfling entered, and the owner nodded to Ben, signalling him that this was the halfling they were looking for.Ben left the building, and now Niklas and Torn, who were waiting outside near a stand where mulled wine was sold over a counter that consisted of a bar between two barrels, knew that the next halfling who would leave the building was the one they were looking for. They finished their drinks, and soon they saw the halfling. He was happily whistling a song, gingerly sidestepping horsedroppings and ponds on the way, and he was heading out of the caravansary compound.As the halfling walked down the road that lead southwards between the merchant quarter and the harbor, the last rays of the setting sun were gone, and Niklas and Torn took turns following him through the evening. Then, as Niklas was falling back, he noticed that they weren’t the only ones moving through the shadows.It appeared that there was a woman with a green coat following Torn. She seemed unaware of Niklas, so that she was staying out of Torn’s view but stayed visible for the monk. Like the two heroes, she was expertly using doorways and other shadows to stay invisible for the one she was following. Niklas decided to stay behind her and see what she was up to. After all, she could very well be an accomplice of the halfling.Eventually, the halfling reached the Demon Whale, a former warehouse that had been converted to a huge tavern with a sailor’s rooming house on the upper floors. The halfling entered the building, followed by Torn, followed by the woman, followed by Niklas, and except for Niklas all of them were unaware that they were being followed. Each one was greeted by a wall of heat and smoke as they went into the one big tavern-hall that was stretching out on the ground floor of the structure. There were over a hundred sailors in there, drinking, dancing, singing and pinching the barmaids’ bottoms.Yet, the tavern wasn’t completely full yet. At this time of year, the seaways to Albadia were still blocked by ice, and so it was actually offseason in the Whale. The halfling went to a free table close to the middle of the hall, where he sat down and hailed a barmaid. After a short while, he was given a bowl of steaming soup and a tankard of ale. Niklas watched as Torn settled down near him and the woman did the same. He positioned himself to be able to watch all three of them, leaning against one of the beams that supported the ceiling of the drinking hall.The halfling finished his meal, and as he reached for his tankard, something strange happened to him. First, his right hand got darker, and insubstantial. He looked at his hand in horror, but before he could even shout out, his whole body transformed. The flesh disappeared, and his clothes fell to the ground, no longer held up by any substance. Where there had been a halfling before, there was now an unattached shadow, similar to those the heroes had encountered at the raiders’ camp.Torn was up on his knees, and he ran forward, but it was too late, and now he was standing face to face with the shadow, which attacked him. Meanwhile, panic rippled through the room, starting near the transformed halfling and then expanding like the waves in a lake after a stone had been thrown into it, until all of the hall was caught, and people were running around in a mad rush for the exit, knocking over tables and stepping on the unfortunate who had fallen down.Niklas was bracing himself against the beam. He had noticed that the woman seemed to be as surprised as him, and she too stayed. He was pretty sure that when the halfling was transformed, she had been looking into the crowd to her right, as if she had seen something peculiar there.As sailors and barmaids were trampling over each other, the shadow attacked Torn, draining strength out of him. The half orc pulled out his mace, but he was barely able to wield it with so many people running into each other. Then, the woman cast a spell. Before Niklas was there to intervene, she had finished it, and two magical missiles flew at the two combatants, both hitting the shadow.Torn used the advantage, but he wasn’t able to hit his transparent opponend. Barely noticing another pair of missiles hitting the shadow, he fought on. Then Niklas and the woman, who he hadn’t seen before, were next to him. Niklas punched at the shadow without any effect, and the woman cast another spell and flames burst forth from the tips of her fingers which she had fanned out in front of her.This was enough. The shadow dissipated and before Torn could thank her, the woman was heading for the exit.“That woman, she had been following you ever since we left the pigeonry”, Niklas said, panting.“Let’s not lose her, then!”, Torn said, and they both headed to the exit, catching up with the mysterious woman.</blockquote>

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