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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 7208978" data-attributes="member: 23">SESSION 8 We have survived the night thus far, with both ourselves and the wine intact. I cannot say the same for the thieves. If this is the best the thieves' guild has to offer, then perhaps they should find a new profession. First they tried to break in through one of the front windows on the first floor. We had blocked all the windows and doors with tables, so they were unsuccessful until they finally managed to knock a table over. Torin was waiting for them, however, and when a man stuck his head through the window to look around, Torin shouted "We're closed!" in his face. The man, totally surprised, fell back from the window and disappeared. We replaced the broken shutters and blocked the window again. A short time later, Suleiman, who was standing guard on the second floor, heard "thumps" on the roof. We soon smelled smoke, and went outside to investigate. The thieves had tried to smoke us out by firing flaming arrows at the roof. When Finis tried to summon a body of water over the roof to put out the flames, he was struck by arrows fired from some dark spot nearby. Torin and Blades took care of the archers, while I tried to summon water. I succeeded, but only slowed the rate at which the fire burned. Suleiman climbed the roof with a blanket and put out the flames, removing the arrows as well. We went back inside, blocking the door again. The thieves had not given up, and tried to break in through a second story window. Suleiman heard them, and warned us. Blades and Torin ran upstairs and encountered a roomful of thieves. They stepped in to attack, but two more thieves stepped out of closets and jumped the dwarves from behind. Suleiman jumped those thieves from behind, stabbing one in the back (although, from the looks of the remains, it seems as if the poor thief was struck by a slab of granite--I'm glad Suleiman is on our side!). Finis and I remained downstairs, guarding the cask (Finis had used his elven cloak to disappear, so I'm not sure exactly where he was--but I know he was near the bar). We heard the sound of the cellar door opening, and I went to check it out. A Wolfen and four more thieves had somehow gained access to the cellar, and were marching toward the bar! I shouted to Torin and Blades for help, and retreated to where I hoped Finis was hiding. Finis appeared, and cast some kind of spell on the Wolfen. The Wolfen seemed to lose interest in us, and walked off towards the stairs leading to the second floor. The four thieves attacked Finis and I, but we stood our ground. Meanwhile, Torin, Blades, and Suleiman came downstairs, attacking the Wolfen on the way down. A couple of the thieves fighting us went to help the Wolfen, but it did not matter--Torin and Blades made short work of them all. The few thieves that remained tried to flee down to the cellar, but only one or two escaped. Torin and Finis found that an entrance to the sewer had been made in the cellar, and tried to pursue the thieves. According to Torin, he was running down the sewer after the thief when he heard screams, saw the thief writhe in pain, and fall to the ground. A man in plate mail stepped out of the darkness, with insects crawling all over him, devouring him! He pleaded for help, then fell. Torin wisely ran back towards the inn. He and Finis exited unharmed. We immediately blocked the entrance to the sewer with a table. I can't imagine what was going on down there--it sounds like someone cast an insect plague. But what was the man in plate mail doing down there? We searched the thieves, finding nothing. The Wolfen, however, had a fine white cloak, as well as a ring and a flask of some kind. His sword glowed for a short while, but then sputtered out. Noting that it was covered in some kind of oil, and that the flask held a similar oil, I surmised that it was some kind of Oil of Sharpness, or something like that. Suleiman discovered that the ring enhances the wearer's strength. We gave it to Blades, as he is in combat the most. Suleiman is wearing the cloak, although we are not sure if it does anything. We have decided to get some rest, as we do not believe the thieves want to suffer any more losses tonight. Just in case they do, we are keeping watches. Mine is nearly over, without incident. May the rest go so smoothly! June 11th This has been a terrifying day. Once again, we are fortunate to be alive. I write from inside a temple of Oghma the Binder (it's more like a library, really). How did I end up here? Read on. The morning started out wonderfully. Braggi was ecstatic when he saw that the cask remained intact. I had placed a firetrap on it the night before, and almost forgot to remove it--but Suleiman remembered, just in time. People soon started filing in to taste the wine. Braggi charged them the exorbitant price of one gold piece per glass (or cup, or bowl, or whatever else he could find to serve it in). The customers were obviously happy to pay a gold--no one went away unhappy. Actually, one person went away unhappy. Suleiman (who seems to be not only incredibly strong, but very clever) was keeping an eye on the customers as they approached the cask of wine, to make sure that no one dropped anything in it. Of course, someone did, but Suleiman was not quite quick enough to grab his hand--something fell in the wine. The man (a member of the thieves guild, trying to poison the wine) tried to run, but we knocked him down, and guards hauled him off. Braggi was devastated, but I asked Prometheus to purify the wine--it worked, of course. And it is an exquisite wine, by the way. If you ever have a chance, try some. It's called "Kiraay Violet" wine. Braggi rewarded us handsomely, paying us three times what he originally offered to pay us. In addition, we seem to have become local celebrities. People ask us "Are you the guys that killed twenty thieves?", to which we politely respond "No, it was only around fourteen". I'm a little uncomfortable with all the attention, and I worry that the thieves' guild will seek revenge. But our fame has brought at least one boon; we were surprised and pleased to see Rig and Barnrick of the Linden Tuatha (well, we weren't so happy to see Barnrick). After some friendly conversation, we apologized for not getting the chest to Kratys' Freehold. Rig said that Taren Kratys' was in fact here, in Duma Faifni, and that he and Barnrick could take the chest to him. After checking to make sure that these were really Rig and Barnrick (instead of some imposters trying to get the gold), we gave them the chest, and they went on their way. It is wonderful to be free of another obligation! Growing tired of being celebrities, we decided to investigate the sewer passageway underneath the inn, except for Blades, who went to Oomash's forge. Braggi came down into the cellar while we were moving the table, and seemed surprised, and perhaps a little alarmed, to see us down there. We explained what we were doing, and he said he had simply come to pick up something. He was not very convincing, as he looked around for something to take with him. Apparently, he's hiding something down here, as he eventually grabbed a broken mouse trap, and left. We entered the sewer, and soon found the place where Torin had met the man in armor. The walls were coated with dead insects. While looking around, we saw lights flashing down the tunnel. At first we were curious, but when we saw that they were moving closer, we turned to run. We could not outrun them, however, and we were soon attacked by four creatures that flew without wings. They had a large "sucker" mouth, and tried to attach themselves to us. One of them attached to me, and another one to Suleiman, but with the healing spells of Finis and Torin's axe, we killed them. Suleiman reached into the disgusting sewer water and pulled out a breast plate, with a corpse attached. On the breast plate was a symbol, portraying an anvil and sword. We have come to learn that this is the symbol of Goibhniu, a local diety. The priests of Goibhniu are haughty and rude; they are also the ones that have been following Finis. I decided to go back to the inn to get my candle of invocation, so that I could cast speak with dead on the corpse. I was stopped by Ith, the man that had hired us to catch his escaped animals more than a month ago. He wanted to hire us, saying that if we could find some Owlbear eggs, he'd give us 200 gold per egg! While that would go a long way toward paying for Blades' magical cure, I could not agree without everyone's opinion, so I said that we would talk to him later. He is staying at the Lion's Pride Inn, should we need him. I grabbed a candle from our room and went back into the sewer. After discussing it further, we decided not to use up the candle's precious time, but to continue investigating the sewer. We eventually found a manhole that opened just thirty yards from the house of Blaise, which burnt down the other night. There has to be a connection; perhaps we should stake out the sewers sometime soon and see who or what comes down them. We went back up into the cellar, where Braggi waited for us. He said that many people were waiting to see us in the main room, but that we smelled so vile that we should wash up first. Balstead brought down some water, and we cleaned ourselves and our clothes. The first person in line was a magic-user named Rinver of Findabar, who wanted to hire us to investigate the ruins of a temple of Oghma. Rinver is a little strange; he is always shaking his fist in the air to emphasize parts of his sentences, and it becomes annoying quickly. He is staying at the Gray Mare. The next potential employer was a dwarf named Alorath. He wanted to hire us to fight goblins and their leader, a green dragon! He is staying at the House of the Crystal Mace, in Goldenberg. Finally, a man who had bothered us once before wanted to pay us to kill some Nixies. He seemed more than a little crazy, so we immediately declined this offer. The first offer of the three is the most attractive; I think the second best is Ith's Owlbear egg hunt, and third, the dragon and his goblins. We will have to consider these offers carefully before deciding. After a brief shopping expedition (I needed a scroll case and some spell components), we picked up Blades and returned to the Inn to find Xavier waiting for us. He asked us if we could go to our room to speak. Once in our room, Xavier told us that he suspects some kind of dangerous conspiracy is going on, and that we are caught in the middle of it. It is possible that someone is trying to provoke the priests of Dagda and Goibhniu into fighting each other, and the thieves are after us for certain. He suggested that we should retreat to a safehold that the White School keeps in Duma Faifni. Of course, we agreed. Now begins the terrifying portion of my story. As we got up to go, there was a loud knock on the door. We called out "Who is it?", but the only reply was more knocking. Suspicious, we drew our weapons, and opened the door. Standing in the doorway was a very tall humanoid, in a black cloak. Instead of feet and hands he had talons, and instead of a face, he had two tiny eyes and a huge maw filled with grinding teeth. Xavier leaped up and slammed the door in its face, saying that we could not defeat this creature. He turned to the wall, pointed a ring at it, and suddenly the wall shook as if a some force had struck it. The boards splintered and broke, but the magic had not made a hole. At the same time, the creature roared, a stunning noise that made us stand in shock for a moment. We quickly recovered and blocked the doorway with a chair. Xavier turned his ring on the ceiling, and Suleiman started trying to break down the wall that Xavier had already weakened. We heard a few shouts from the main room of the inn, and the creature punched through the door. Our weapons bounced off of its forearm as if it were made of solid iron. Xavier succeeded in punching a hole through the ceiling, and we began a hasty retreat. The creature gave up on the door and ripped through the wall. Xavier told us to meet at a temple--he would fly away, seeking help. We agreed on meeting at the temple of Oghma. Suleiman had managed to open the hole in the wall. Finis, Xavier, and I climbed out through the ceiling, and Suleiman, Torin, and finally Blades crawled through the wall. In an attempt to cover the retreat of the others, Xavier struck the creature with some magical missiles, and I tried to blind it with a light spell. Neither spell had any effect. Because our room was on the first floor, Finis, Xavier, and I were now in a room on the second floor. A quick glance into the common room revealed that all the inn's patrons were stunned, and simply stood or sat frozen in place. We ran to a room with a window and broke through it (not wishing to run through the main room, where the monster might spot us). Meanwhile, the creature had begun its pursuit of the other members of our party down the street. Xavier cast a spell and flew away into the cloudy night, after giving me directions to the temple (Torin already knew the way, as he had been there to do research on our map). Finis and I immediately started running. I've noticed that my endurance and speed have increased since our flight from the orcs. Fear is an excellent motivation for exercise! For a while, we were running on a street parallel to the one on which the dwarves and Suleiman were running, and we could see them occasionally, by looking down the alleys between the buildings. We were, of course, faster than the dwarves, so we eventually got ahead of them. But the dwarves were apparently faster than the monster, as it fell behind them. We then noticed that the dwarves were no longer following the correct route to the temple, so we went to find them. Someone jumped out of the shadows and offered to help us and give us shelter, mistaking me for a priest of Dian C'echt. We declined, continuing to search for our friends. Eventually we spotted them in a dead end alley, under attack by six members of the thieves' guild. The creature was charging down the street towards the two of us, and roared when it spotted us. We tried to lead it away from the dwarves and Suleiman, but as soon as it saw them fighting the thieves, it ignored us. I wonder if it was after Suleiman or the dwarves. Who could have summoned such a powerful creature? The Hordling (as Xavier later called it) struck one of the thieves, turning him into a red mist, and strode forward to deal with the rest. Torin, Suleiman, Blades, and the remaining thieves clambered to get over the wall. Of course, the thieves disappeared into the shadows, and the beast broke through the wall as though it were paper. Following a respectful distance behind the Hordling, we shouted directions to Torin, so that we could get back on the path to the temple. Twice during our pursuit, powerful bolts of lightning shot down from the sky, striking some other part of the town--they were almost certainly call lightning spells. Eventually, we made it to the temple distract. The dwarves and Suleiman hammered on the door until an old man let them in (actually, they shoved him out of the way and shut the door). Finis and I hid behind the corner of a building, watching as the monster stood for a moment, and then vanished. We sprinted across the street to the temple door. Once we were all inside, the old man led us to an inner chamber, and told us to wait there. He said that he was going to find out what was going on. June 12th We never saw the old man again. We kept watches during the night, but no one interrupted our rest. When morning came, I called to some Red Branch Knights patrolling the streets, and explained our situation. They offered to escort us to the White School Haven. We accepted, but first we dropped Blades off at Oomash's forge, and took our things from the Silver Eel. Braggi was quite upset about the damage done to his inn, but he was convinced the thieves had caused it. I must admit, that was my initial suspicion as well, but upon further reflection, there is no way that any thieves could summon such a powerful creature. And if they could, why would it attack thieves' guild members? No, this had something to do with the conflict between Dagda and Goibhniu. Why would they send a Hordling after the dwarves, or Suleiman? The others don't seem very keen on finding out what's going on--they just want to leave town. I would like to solve this mystery. I think that it is quite likely that Prometheus has brought me here to shed light on this problem, and I intend to do so. We reached the stronghold of the White School with no trouble. It is a tall, white tower, which Torin tells me is of old but very sturdy construction. Once inside, we were reunited with Xavier. He told us that some priests and pilgrims of Dagda had been attacked last night by a group of Earth Elementals. Almost thirty had been slain. I am afraid that a street war will break out between the two churches; this must be stopped. For now, we are resting and nursing our wounds. Suleiman has taken an interest in wizards and magic lately, and has been engaged in conversation with our appointed guardian, Matrim. Perhaps he will become a wizard; we could certainly use one, and Suleiman is as intelligent as they come. I think I will stop writing now, as I have no new information to report. I am worried that if I continue, I will enter into dangerous speculation as to the cause of recent events, and I should not do so without more information. I must admit, having so many questions raised, with so few answers, is becoming very frustrating. My goal has been to acquire knowledge for the betterment of well-meaning sentient creatures; while we have managed to beat up some local thugs, we have done little to solve this mystery. Nor do I see any opportunities to get more information; I am simply waiting for Prometheus to drop clues into my lap. No matter! He will provide. June 13th It has thus far been a restful day, for a change. Finis and Suleiman have spent it in conversation with Matrim. Matrim, a tall, somewhat awkward seventeen year old apprentice, is nearing the completion of his training. He performed some tests on Suleiman, and found that he would indeed make an excellent mage, and could perhaps train at the White School. Suleiman was disappointed to find that becoming a wizard takes at least five years. Finis' conversation with Matrim was a little more revealing. Matrim is from the city of Ironband, in Jilantia. He met Irpolreh, one of the powerful wizards of the White School, when he was only twelve. Irpolreh agreed to make Matrim his apprentice, and they traveled to Brighthelm in Kalevala, where the White School has a large base, called Hope's Foundation. Matrim suspects that Xavier was a student of Ilmargolf the Silver, a famous wizard. Finis asked Matrim about the large statues that we have, in our travels, twice encountered. He says that they represent two of the Great Kingdom's mightiest heroes, fair Brienna and Gabriel the Silver. Brienna was apparently quite long-lived for a human, as they were prominent from the third century until 477, when they disappeared. Gemdarus Goldenforge, one of Brienna's allies, likely made the statues. I had almost forgotten about the little dwarf we encountered carrying the huge block of stone, but Finis had not. Matrim seemed excited when Finis asked about it, and ran to get a tome entitled "Inhabitants of the Great Kingdom", by an elf named Fircullin. An entry in the book identifies the creatures as "Korreds", a fantastically strong race of sour disposition. They apparently spend all their time moving stones from one location to another (although I can't imagine why they don't get bored--they're immortal, although they can be killed, and an eternity moving stones around does not sound fun to me), and have been here moving stones since the elves first arrived in central Aragon 2000 years ago. They have, on occasions, worked for druids. Here is an interesting warning for travelers: When Korreds gather to celebrate, usually on the first day of spring and the last day of fall, their laughter can compel all those that hear it to dance with them. Those that dance with the Korreds cannot be stopped, and will dance themselves to death before the sun rises! Finally, Matrim told us that the white cloak we took from the Wolfen and the broach on Finis' elven cloak are both magical. The white cloak is a "Cloak of the North", and provides the wearer with great warmth in the most bitter cold. We are not sure what the broach does. I have been practicing with Torin's magical warhammer for several days now, in those few moments when we were not busy. Today, Torin assisted me with my practice. He is not an expert in its use either, but he does have some useful suggestions. I feel fairly comfortable with the weapon now. Still, I will keep my trusty flail at my side. After a hearty lunch, I asked Matrim some questions about the recent events in Duma Faifni. He was able to tell us that Hordlings are a type of Daemon. Although they are grouped together under the name "Hordling", each Hordling is unique, with widely varying appearance and abilities. Few wizards or clerics can summon them. I also asked him who he thought would benefit from a battle between the churches of Dagda and Goibhniu. Matrim's answer did nothing to narrow the group of suspects; in fact, he offered new suspects. He suggested the druids of Midhe, King Rosfeldr, or even a coalition of weaker churches might be behind it. In fact, there might be no attempt by an outsider to cause conflict at all--this might be a real war between the churches. I suppose we will have to keep waiting for an opportunity to arise; perhaps the instigators will make a mistake and reveal their hand. For now, we resume our practice and rest.</blockquote>

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