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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3276053" data-attributes="member: 143">Just got back from my business trip, so here's an update a bit later than usual for me.Read on!Glad you found us, Guillaume! As for the Duke, we'll find out about him in tomorrow's cliffhanger. * * * * * Chapter 80PURSUITVaro realized that he was being followed. Getting in and out of the Patriarch’s private office above the nave of the Cathedral of the Father without being detected had not been as easy as he’d made it seem.  He’d already burned a good number of his daily allocation of spells, and only the newest higher-order divine spells granted by Dagos had made the operation possible.  That and the cache of potions that he’d taken from Banth’s laboratory.The potion of gaseous form that he’d used to leave the Cathedral had not lasted long enough for him to cross Camar and return to his hideaway in the Docks Quarter.  He’d barely managed to get to an alley branching off the Great Square before he’d rematerialized.  He had already used his power to disguise self earlier, so he adopted a more mundane camouflage, taking out a ratty old cloak from a sealed oilskin wrap and tugging it down over his body.  The garment stank, and augmented with some filth from the alley, the disguise was quite convincing.  Ordinarily, a beggar moving about near the core of Camar’s busiest mercantile district would have drawn attention from the Watch, but with the city bound up in the excitement of the pending Founder’s Day holiday, things were rather more chaotic than usual.  Tomorrow, at least, nobody in the city would go hungry. Walking with an affected limping gait, the cleric made his way quickly back to the Docks.  It wasn’t until he’d passed through the huge iron archway of the Ravager’s Gate—named for one of the less praiseworthy of Camar’s rulers—that he began to feel the familiar twitch between his shoulder blades.  The feeling wasn’t quite supernatural, but Licinius Varo had long since learned to trust in instincts. He started a few minor maneuvers designed to shake whoever it was that was following him.  He wasn’t really expecting those to work; if whoever was tracking him was any good, they likely wouldn’t have any effect.  And if it the source was magical in nature...Varo had made heavy use of warding spells since returning to Camar... nondetection, obscure object, undetectable alignment, and false vision.  But he knew that such magic was rarely foolproof, and that if the Duke, or the Guild, had learned of his return, then he would be marked as a threat to be eliminated at once. His visit to the Patriarch had almost ensured that this was the case.  But it was a risk he’d had to take.  He still wasn’t sure what was going to happen when he returned to the planar sanctuary, but he suspected that events were going to take a sudden and dramatic turn, one way or another.  It was the same feeling he’d had when he’d first looked upon the valley of Rappan Athuk. He cut through a crowded shop, shedding his disguise as he did so, and emerging in a rare form—his natural appearance.  But that lasted only long enough for him to duck behind an open stable door.  Once there, he quaffed a potion of invisibility—another of Banth’s presents—and scanned for any magical auras that would suggest magical scrying.  He detected none, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he’d lost his pursuers.  It took him the better part of an hour to travel the two hundred yards separating him from the tiny courtyard where Armides lived.  The cleric put into use every trick and deception he’d learned from a cult that lived and breathed such.  Even so, he was not confident as he headed down the alley and ducked into the narrow side passage.  This would be the last time he used this access point, however.  He’d already come here more times than was safe, but with most of the hiding places of the Creepers already coopted, he had little choice. The little plaza was empty.  Armides had already sold the mule, and the sounds of the city were muted, the thousand different noises of the Docks blended into a single background buzz.  Varo entered the building.  The dismal hallway inside swallowed him up.  The small side rooms near the entry were empty.  Almost reflexively he checked the trap on the door in the far back; everything was as he had left it.  Neutralizing the trap, he moved inside.  The room was dark; the small candle he’d left burning had gone out.  Closing the door behind him, he summoned light.  The first thing he saw was Armides, hanging from the rafters, gagged and bound, an ugly purple bruise swelling over his left eye.  The second thing he saw, as he spun to his right, was that he was not alone. His good eye widened in surprise, as he saw something he had not at all expected, and which completely shattered his carefully laid plans.</blockquote>

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