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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 383375" data-attributes="member: 1210">A messenger comes for Horbin at the Mulled Mead: “Tangus the Brilliant requests you join him at a Temple of the Light.”Horbin is a cleric of the Light, just as Tangus is; he can hardly refuse.  Smelling a political trap, he tries to demur, but the messenger frowns darkly.  How can he refuse a request by one of his fellow clergymen?  Finally he agrees to an appointment.  When the time comes, he goes before the other cleric.  Tangus is a human of obvious Forinthian lineage; he has golden hair in a halo like a lion’s mane, and though he isn’t arrayed for battle his mien is grave and severe.“I hear you and your friends have been spreading rumors about me,” he begins without preamble.  “I understand you’re claiming that I was responsible for the problems in the harbor.”  He frowns, his eyes narrowing.  “Is this true?”Horbin, caught point-blank and off-guard, stammers, “Uh...” and thinks about it.  He himself hasn’t spread any rumors, but he remembers overhearing Captain Clambake, Bolfol, Vito and Krunkshank discussing the possibilities of propagating the bugbears’ rumors.  They must have done so.  Crap.  Choosing his words carefully, not wanting to perjure himself in front of another priest of the Light, he says, “I myself have never told a falsehood about you.”Tangus’ frown deepens.  “Do you believe that I had something to do with the harbor problems?” he demands.“No,” Horbin admits.“Are you willing to say this in public?” “Uh... yes, as long as it’s true.”  “Come with me.”  Tangus leads the hapless Horbin out of his office and into the church’s main hall of worship.  The windows are stained glass depictions of important points in the Dextrite faith: Solurnustice, the moment the sun was ignited a million years ago; Dexter casting the demon out of the child; Dexter casting himself into Bleak’s Maw; the Archangel Gabriel guarding the Gates of Heaven with his flaming sword...  The chamber is packed with people.“My friends,” Tangus announces, “here is Horbin, one of the adventurers who have been sullying my name.  He has something to say about this.”Crap, Horbin thinks.  He’s as evasive as he can be, but he can’t just lie to all those people, can he.It’s all last-minute maneuverings at this point.  Zenvo seems to be doing pretty well, but Ooluts has really started to buy himself a come from behind.  A lot of last-week spending seems to have done him well.  Election night rolls around, and the party members who have title to the land they bought from Longburns’ family all cast their lot for Zenvo Dalais, spoon-player extraordinaire.  Then Vito takes Horbin and Droidi quietly to Ooluts’ mansion.  They know where the safe is thanks to the floor plans the Magpie Gang gave Vito, and Ooluts is pumping hands with his bodyguards until the polls close.  His mansion is stone, and so it’s easy prey to a stone shape spell.  It takes a few minutes to search the safe out and convince it to open, but then Vito swipes the papers and that’s that.  They stone shape everything closed when they leave.Later, at the Dwarves, Longburns tells them that the results probably won’t be in all the way until the next evening or afternoon.  “It takes a while to count things up- unless there’s a landslide, which isn’t the looks of things tonight.” “Let’s go get the thing that destroyed my holy symbol,” Horbin suggests, and Droidi and Vito agree; Horbin does a divination that seems to point back to where the adventurers first met it again.  The three heroes pick up Blunder and head back to the sewers......</blockquote>

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