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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 7294258" data-attributes="member: 23">Ooh, the plot really thickens now!SESSION 20 We continued toward Wicklow after dinner. More conversations with the elderly woman, Taleri, yielded no more clues. The river soon split, heading into a lake crowded with recently-cut logs, with a large lumber mill, on the right, and continuing to Wicklow on the left. We took the left branch, and after passing under some bridges emerged into the harbor. Several ships lay in port, including some Ionian galleys, and we passed a large, impressive one called the Wraith, which had its own special dock. We tied our boats up, and I marked them with a continual flame rock. After passing up two inns (the Three Old Kegs and the Bronze Cup), we settled on the Blushing Mermaid. Because it is harvest time, the room rates are somewhat high. While we went to our room and took inventory of all of our magical items, Urym went down to the bar to collect some information about the town and its inhabitants. After deciding on an arrangement of equipment, we joined Urym downstairs, and had the displeasure of watching a raw oyster eating contest. The unfortunate loser regurgitated all that he had worked so hard to eat. I asked some sailors about ships going to Ionia. They mentioned that one called the Gift was going straight to Urbs Deorum. I will try to speak to the Gift's captain, Xallicles, tomorrow. As we prepared for bed, Urym told us what he had found. There is a new king, Colin O'Shea. His father was killed fighting the Fomorians. The Children of the Light are a group of wizards that enforce their own version of justice, and the king favors them. There were also some seemingly irrelevant bits of information: Nightstalker is a famous local thief, there is a ghost at some place called Blackwell Manor, and another adventuring band, the Loremasters, are in town. The Loremasters seem to be local heroes. Tomorrow will be a busy day; we must get some rest. August 10 Poor Suleiman couldn't sleep over all the noise in the bar last night. Fortunately, I grabbed the magical pillow, so I will still be able to cast spells today. After a hearty breakfast, Blades, Suleiman, and I headed out to pick up some new clothes. However, we did not immediately don our new clothes; instead, we went to the baths, where we all had a badly needed cleaning-up. I had a haircut, and shaved off my beard. Blades has braided his beard--it makes him look quite distinguished. Suleiman, on the other hand, has shaved all the hair off of his head, except for a goatee. He looks even more intimidating than before. We have all moved our Pentachromata patches onto our new clothes (and burnt our old clothes). After that, I went to find the Gift, while Blades and Suleiman went in search of spells and armor. Suleiman later told me that while they were passing down an empty street, he heard a woman's voice call out his name, and he looked up in time to catch a falling rose. He caught it, and it wilted in his hand. They investigated the building from which the rose seemed to fall, only to find that it was basically empty. I suspect this was meant to be a warning, but I cannot elaborate on this further until Suleiman feels that it acceptable to make his secret known. I found the Gift without too much trouble. It is a one-mast galley. I sneaked under the dock to cast detect evil, in order to survey the captain and crew. A helpful crewman, Cyriscos, went to get captain Xallicles. He informed me that the boat was leaving on the 13th, and that they could carry us. I told them that I would let them know if we decided to book passage. According to the harbormaster, three boats are headed towards Alcyone. The soonest, the Foam Spray, is supposedly very fast. The first mate says that they will leave on the 12th, and I suspect that they use magic--some kind of wind spell, I think--to power the boat. This ship has promise. Suleiman and Blades managed to find me, and we went to a store called the Time and Tide, so that Suleiman could inquire about gaining some spells. After some serious bartering, they struck upon a possible bargain. Suleiman wanted to discuss it with the group first, so we returned to the inn. Once there, we decided to relocate to the Lighthouse, a much finer inn, in which we would be assured of a peaceful night's sleep. We picked up our belongings and started up the hill toward the inn. Along the way, a beggar stopped, asking us for money. I gave him several bronze, and he was thankful. Finis, on a whim, asked him what he saw in Taleri's cage. The beggar became agitated, refusing to answer the question. As he ranted louder and louder, it became clear that something strange was happening. Suddenly, the man's flesh contorted, and he changed into a terrible wereboar. I quickly read off my scroll of protection from lycanthropes. Much to my surprise, Finis and Urym were flung away from me as the sphere of protection appeared. Apparently, the magic does not distinguish between lycanthropes and shape-changers. Still, that does not explain why Urym was thrown--does he have lycanthropy? Regretfully, we had to kill the man in self-defense. Finis was gored by his tusks, and we were concerned that he might have contracted lycanthropy. We had little time to ponder this, however, as several town guards ran up to us, led by a man carrying a staff with a lantern on its end. At this point, I noticed that Suleiman had slinked off somewhere. The man with the staff, apparently a wizard who introduced himself as Shepherd Karl, wanted Finis to go to their tower to be treated for Lycanthropy. They said that it would take a month to treat him, if he had it. We were reluctant to waste that much time here, but we eventually decided that it was a good idea to find out if Finis had lycanthropy. Blades, Urym, and Corwin went with him. Suleiman reemerged from the shadows after they had gone, and we walked to the Lighthouse. Along the way, Suleiman told me that he could see lines of magical power emanating from Shepherd Karl's lantern. One of them strayed close to Suleiman, and changed color. Suspecting that he was being tracked somehow, he hid. I suspect that, once again, his secret is causing him trouble. Apparently, in addition to turning fires blue, he now radiates evil. I know that he is not evil; I have checked myself on prior occasions. This is most puzzling. After signing our names to the register at the Lighthouse, we went to our rooms to discuss matters further. Meanwhile, Finis had been given a clean bill of health, and allowed to leave the tower. As they made their way up the hill to the inn, they were stopped at a bridge by a mighty bearman, or Angentyr, who wanted to fight Corwin. Corwin obliged him, and although I hear that he put up a good fight, he lost. The large man nonetheless invited Corwin to go drinking with him at the Bronze Cup. He has yet to return; I hope that he is all right. I can happily report that Finis has freed Taleri from her fifty year old curse. He tried to imagine a horrible catastrophe, such as the entire party being slaughtered. Opening his eyes, he gazed into the cage, and saw absolutely nothing. Apparently, Taleri saw the same thing, but did not know what it meant. Finis told her that it meant that her life was devoid of purpose--and that she must find a purpose to make life worth living again. He suggested caring for children, perhaps in an orphanage, as she apparently cared a great deal for her family in Alcyone. She didn't seem to like this idea, as she suddenly turned into a young warrior woman. She explained that she would have revenge on the Taygete League, thanked him, and left. Finis seems to have learned a great deal from the experience. August 11th I do not know if you will believe the tale I am about to relate. I also do not know if you will consider me worthy of our order, once you hear what grievous sins I have committed. I can only hope to one day atone for my evil actions. The day started innocently enough. Corwin returned, slightly hung over, from his night of revelry. We got up, ate breakfast, and went to the Time and Tide, where Suleiman and the owner (a gnomish wizard) began copying spells from each other. The rest of us went to the Foam Spray, and booked passage. The captain wanted each of us to surrender a weapon as a sign of good faith before boarding. We agreed, but as we still had things to do in town, we kept our weapons with us. Our next goal was to find the dwarf armorer who works for the king. Blades is in need of better armor, although I fear that heavier armor would only slow him down further. We never got even got close to the dwarf. As we walked into town, we were stopped by Shepherd Karl and several guards. Karl demanded to know who and where Suleiman was. I'm not sure how he found out about Suleiman, but I suspect that they may have looked at the register at the inn, or perhaps they heard one of Urym's tales from someone. I was determined not to hand Suleiman over to them--they planned to keep Finis a month for lycanthropy, so there was no telling how long they would have kept Suleiman to deal with his problems. Actually, I do not trust their idea of justice, and I suspect that a fate much worse than treatment would await Suleiman. Finis, who did not know of Suleiman's secret, nonetheless seemed to have similar feelings on the matter. We both refused to turn him over without some kind of proof of wrongdoing, or some kind of formal charge. Karl refused present either, simply stating that he represented justice, so we must do whatever he said to do. The conversation escalated into an argument. We continued to refuse to cooperate without some justification, and Karl continued not to provide any. Finally, he insulted both Prometheus (calling him a false god!), and Druidism, and that was the last straw. We turned to walk off, and Karl directed his men to attack. A verbis ad verbera! Chaos ensued. Karl used some kind of spell or magic item to blind many of us. Prometheus restored my sight with cure blindness, and I reentered the fray. Corwin and Blades were soon caught by a hold person and knocked out by the guards, and then Karl caught Finis in a magical lasso. I thought for a moment that we were doomed, but Finis turned into a hawk and escaped from the lasso. I read a scroll with hold person on it, freezing Shepherd Karl where he stood. While I dispatched several guards with sunscorch, I shouted to Finis, asking him to take Karl out of commission somehow. Finis responded by pecking out Shepherd Karl's eyes. As shocking as this was, it was strangely fitting. Karl's distorted view of justice had blinded him figuratively; now it had blinded him literally, and I felt only a little remorse at this. A guard frantically waved Finis away from Karl, and they began to carry him, still frozen by hold person, away from the fight. Finis returned to human form, and we woke Corwin and Blades from unconsciousness. We gathered our wits, and some town guardsmen down the street blew some horns and charged toward us. Realizing that the entire city would soon be mobilized against us, we made for the nearest gate, which lay along the Northeast portion of the wall. Finis turned into a bat to scout ahead, and Urym, Corwin, and I picked up Blades in order to move faster. As we ran, I heard spell casting begin behind us, and Corwin was suddenly polymorphed into a large bison. He apparently kept his wits about him, and we ducked behind a building to avoid further spells. While we were putting Blades on Corwen's shaggy back, several guards rounded the corner. We held them off for a moment, and then resumed our mad dash for the gate. Several guards tried to block our way, but Corwin plowed through them. They managed to hit Urym as we ran past, and he slowed for a moment. Nonetheless, we had made it outside the city. Now we had to find Suleiman and get as far away from the town as possible. He was near the docks, to the south, in a poorer district of town that lay outside the city walls (still copying spells from the gnome's spellbook). We ran through the fields to the east of Wicklow, maintaining a safe distance from the wall. Many guards and a few adventurers were giving chase behind us. At this point I began to realize that many of these men were innocently doing their job. Nonetheless, there was not much time to ponder this. Finis appeared, in human form, some distance in front of us, and cast spike growth on the ground in front of our pursuers. This certainly slowed our pursuers down, and even brought low several guards. This was disturbing to me as well--the death toll was getting high. Still, the fate of Demopolis may hinge on our escape! Our pursuers were joined by a flying wizard. Finis joined us again, and I ran ahead of the group to check out the next gate. Several guards stood blocking it, although they were looking inward. They had not yet heard that we had made it out of the walls, and were expecting us to try to break out. I decided to try to attract their attention--once I was in range, I cast a sunscorch on a wooden building inside the walls. The guards shouted in surprise and abandoned their post to douse the flames and determine their cause. This seemed to be a clever idea. Still, I wish I had not done it, or that I would have been more careful. The flames apparently spread quickly among the wooden hovels of this impoverished section of town. How many lives have I ruined? How many innocents lost their lives as a result of my selfish action? If I had been just a little more thoughtful, I would have set a cart or other object ablaze. It would have been just as effective, and less innocents would have been endangered. Worse still, I doubt that I will ever be able to return to Wicklow to compensate those injured for their losses--I would surely be killed on sight. But there was no time to consider this at the moment. We continued our sprint toward the Time and Tide, with Blades bouncing along on Corwen's back. Urym took a few arrows, and was badly injured, but he managed to keep up. We rushed into the slums, interrupting Suleiman just as he finished copying fireball into his spellbook. Alas, he did not have time to copy the other spells he wanted, but fireball is quite satisfactory. We had a moment's respite from our pursuers, which we used to heal Urym. Urym concealed the area behind us with a wall of fog. We told Suleiman to begin using his wand of polymorph, which we had captured from the Githyanki in Prolingmur, to turn us into seagulls, so that we could fly away. As Suleiman turned Urym into a bird, the flying wizard, from some concealed location, dispelled the wall of fog (and, inadvertently, returned Corwin to his normal shape), and two adventurers charged into combat with us. Blades and Corwin took care of them, and I helped out with a sunscorch. Another guard rushed up, and tried to blow a horn, but Finis struck him, and entreated him to flee for his life. Sadly, he did not listen. After I knocked one of the adventurers unconscious with another sunscorch, Suleiman turned me into a seagull as well. Corwin and Blades took care of the last adventurer, and the guard with the horn. Urym, flying overhead, had located the wizard. He was summoning an earth elemental. Finis read his scroll of protection from elementals, and tried to get to the wizard. Urym fluttered around in the wizard's face, and managed to disrupt his concentration. The Earth Elemental sank back into the earth, and the wizard attempted to escape. Suleiman tried to polymorph him with the wand, but he dodged the magical beam. Corwin managed to nick him with his mighty sword, but he escaped. Suleiman polymorphed Blades, while Finis healed some of the wounds of the unconscious adventurer (his companion was dead), and apologized for things turning out the way that they did. From our vantage point in the sky, Blades, Suleiman and I could see that the Riders of the Mark, the local cavalry, were assembling in the fields to the east of Wicklow. Also, the flames from the sunscorch that I had used to distract the guardsmen at the gate had spread to several more buildings, but it seemed that the flames were, for the moment, contained. Finis cast speak with animals, summoned a flock of seagulls with his linden staff, and Suleiman turned him into a seagull as well. Several guardsmen were charging towards Suleiman and Corwin (the only ones left unchanged), but Finis led a flock of seagulls toward the guards, causing them to stop and frantically slap at the birds. This provided enough time for Suleiman to change Corwin and himself. Fortunately, Suleiman had the foresight to give each of us a unique mark--a streak of color on our wings, which allowed us to identify each other. Finis asked the birds about places the gulls meet in the ocean, and they led us to an island rock, standing alone in the harbor. Once there, we found some rocks with lichen on them, and scratched messages in them with our beaks to communicate (a tedious process). It was agreed that we would head Northwest, toward the shore, and then follow it west until the spell wore off. After what must have been a couple of hours of flying, the spell wore off, dropping first Urym, and then the rest of us to the ground. We left the shore for the concealment of the nearby forest. I can hardly believe that we are still alive! Unfortunately, our gain was possible only because of the terrible losses of many innocent people. Although I am relieved to be safe, I am struck by grief--how could I have allowed this to happen? I am a servant of Prometheus, not Epimetheus! I stepped out of the forest, and into the surf, to pray for forgiveness. Of course, we were all tired and hungry, so I decided that trying to cast a spell would be a good way to determine whether Prometheus still thought me worthy of his gifts. Much to my relief, create food and water worked; however the food had an ashen taste to it. Prometheus, in His wisdom, has decided that I have done wrong, but I am not yet lost. I must strive to regain his trust; I will begin by starting the Sacred Mystery of Purification immediately. Suleiman is clearly upset by the whole ordeal. He is honored that we would go to such lengths to protect him, but feels (not without justification) that it is his fault that we are in this mess. So, he decided that it was time to explain why all these odd things had been happening to him. If Suleiman is comfortable letting the group know his secret, then I feel comfortable writing it in this log. I am sorry that I have kept this from you for so long. More than a month ago, when we were in Tesplyn's Grove, Suleiman went for a walk at night while we rested. He heard a commotion, and came upon a dwarf killing a man. The dwarf said he was a king, and that the man was an assassin, or something like that. The dwarf left, and as Suleiman watched him go, he was approached by a tall man who spoke Hejazian. He explained that he was called Utgard Loki, Puck, and several other names, and that the man the dwarf had killed was one of his greatest servants. He knew that Suleiman wanted to become a wizard, but was unwilling to spend the years of training that Rinver said it would require. Suleiman had been a slave for eight years of his youth, and two years of magical training, serving a master as an apprentice, seemed too much like more slavery. Serving the somewhat scatterbrained Rinver, of all possible masters, for two years seemed even worse (he might get his eye poked out by Rinver's eternally emphasizing index finger)! Still, he badly wanted to learn the magical arts. Utgard Loki offered Suleiman a deal: He would grant spells to Suleiman, in exchange for Suleiman completing two tasks. First, he must destroy the Torc of the Bull in Ailech (a gift from Dagda to his followers). Second, he must locate the Mantle of Twilight (a magical item helpful to assassins). At the time, Suleiman did not know what these objects were, and he agreed to the deal, signing a contract. Utgard Loki said that failure to satisfy the terms of the contract would result in the taking of one year of Suleiman's life. We all pondered this for a while, and in an emotional moment, the group forgave him. Suleiman was much relieved, and I told everyone that I intended to see what our church could do for him--perhaps offer him some kind of protection. Perhaps I can find a lawyer in Anarchopolis that could find a loophole in the contract. Our next course of action is uncertain. Blades has come up with a very clever idea: We could use the wand of polymorph to change Blades or Corwin into a Dragonne (Screech was a Dragonne, if you will recall), build a riding harness from rope and wood, and fly west to Alcyone. However, there is some uncertainty about whether even Corwin would be strong enough to carry all of us--after all, he would only be polymorphed into Dragonne form; he would not be a real Dragonne. This seems rather trivial to me. We have our freedom, although at a terrible cost. Urym tried to console me by saying that there is no dishonor in fighting valiantly; I pointed out that this was true, so long as innocents were not injured. He quickly went back to learning to play the lute. Prometheus willing, I may find another member of our church in Alcyone who can cast atonement for me. For now, meditation on my sins and the Purification will have to suffice. Pray for me, brethren, and forgive me my transgressions.</blockquote>

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