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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 432367" data-attributes="member: 674">Chapter One "The Book" Part OneRautho was standing outside of Sazeer’s office looking over the scroll Jaepho had given him. Inside it was a list of the individuals that Sazeer expected him to work with.    It seemed to be a pretty motley crew. An aging human warrior by the name of Gebren Farrow, a human woman with abilities that leaned towards the mystical named Izala Meeka, an elven exotic dancer and acquirer of information named Seryn Laramer, and a halfling sorcerer with an unknown name. For some reason his named was smudged on the document he had been handed.     In addition to the descriptions of the individuals on the sheet of paper was a brief overview of what Sazeer wanted them to do. A book, whose cover was covered with geometric shapes, had been stolen from one of his warehouses and he needed it to be recovered.     The opening of a door caused him to look up from his document. Walking into the room was Jaepho followed by two of the individuals he was supposed to be working with. One, Izala, was a lass of no more than eighteen years dressed in relatively simple garb and possessing a shock of red hair that tumbled down her back.  There was something alluring about her that Rautho could not quite place. The other individual was an aging but still powerfully built man dressed in a light suit of armor and with a number of weapons about his person. His craggy face appeared to have a perpetual scowl about it and his face had a prominent, white mustache across it. His hair was similarly long and white.      Jaepho quickly introduced the three to each other. As Rautho expected the redhead was Izala, and the aging warrior was Gebren, though he insisted that he should be called Geb as Rautho shook his hand. Geb quickly got down to business.    “So what’s Sazeer havin’ us do for this job?”    “We are to recover a book that was stolen from him,” responded Rautho.    “Alright then, where was it stolen from?” Geb queried further.      “Well it disappeared from the House Sazashi Warehouse,” replied Rautho somewhat uncertainly.     “You are being pretty closed lipped, son, let me see that,” he said grabbing the piece of paper out of Rautho’s hands.     Rautho just stood their flabbergasted for a moment.    “Hmmmm…” pondered Geb, “it appears we don’t have a lot of information here. How much are we being paid?”    “We have been promised seventy-five gold ordu for the recovery of the book and another two hundred if we deal with the thieves.”    “Seventy five gold pieces!?" responded Geb in some shock, "Now listen to me, sonny.  I've got a bit of experience in being a mercenary.  Seventy-five gold pieces may be enough to hire my services for a day - but that's assuming I don't have to draw my sword.  But for a mission like this? I don't think so.”      “Well that is how much Sazeer offered for the mission, I suggest that you go along with it. Sazeer is obviously of great wealth and will probably reward us well for our success.” Rautho then began to stare directly into Geb’s eyes attempting to mentally cow him into submission. Geb took up the challenge, and after a few moments, Geb was forced to look away.       Glancing over at Izala, he inquired, “What do you think about all of this?”   “I have no arrogance such as you have just shown,” was her curt response.    “What are you talking about young lady? Arrogance?” Geb was slightly shocked at her response.     “Yes, we do not know anything of your abilities and skills. Why should we assume that you are worth even seventy-five gold. As for myself, I have no interest in such material things.”    Geb snorted in response, “Bah, I’m leavin’,” and walked over to the door to Sazeer’s waiting room, turning the handle when he got there. It was locked.     He turned and looked at Izala and Rautho, “I’m going to go look for Sazeer. You two can do whatever you want, but I’m not going to go along with this lack of respect. I have worked for his family for a long time, and if he is going to treat me like this I can find better jobs elsewhere. “    As he left to explore the rest of the house, Izala made a quick sweeping gesture in the direction of Geb, releasing a short shower of little stars. Rautho looked a little puzzled about this but chose to keep this information to himself for the time being.         Geb himself appeared to have a sudden change of heart. “I can’t find him. Forget it.”         Rautho shrugged, Izala smiled to herself, and as a trio they left the Sazashi House to go and find their fourth, the elf Seryn.         This lasted for all of four minutes. Suddenly, while walking, Geb snapped out of it. With a curse he stated, "Balsemeth's Balls! Someone was using magic on me!" and looked over Rautho, dressed in a chain shirt and possessing a huge great sword on his back and then over to Izala, an unarmored girl carrying a quarterstaff.         After a moment of thought he said, “The note said you were an observer, do you use magic?”        Her response was simple, “No, I do not use magic.”        After a moment of thought, and a quick decision that she appeared to be telling the truth, he stated, “Well it appears someone used magic on me back at Sazashi House. I am going to have a talk with Sazeer about this,” and stalked off.          Izala and Rautho decided that that sounded rather final and decided that the best thing to was to go and get Seryn.  *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    Shelzar was awash with its usual late-day crowds and numerous merchants and craftsmen made their way up and down the city’s packed streets. The crowds largely chose to part in the face of Rautho’s intimidating frame, figuring that it was best not to anger the large Albadian, so they made good time on their way to the Palace of No Veils, where Seryn worked. The Palace itself was a three-story structure significant only in the fact that its sign has the picture of a woman dressed enticingly save for the fact that her face was completely uncovered. The interior of the structure seemed dominated by a theme of comfort mixed with sex. Its patrons were scattered throughout the room sitting on sets of cushions, at various tables, or congregating at the bar or around one of the stands upon which the Palace’s exotic dancers moves to the rhythm of some hidden musician’s music. Rautho and Izala failed to spot any elven women in the room so Rautho walked over to the barkeeper, a thin looking halfling who was drying an empty flask. Izala followed, choosing to stand behind Rautho in order to avoid the barkeeper’s gaze.Rautho said gruffly, “I need to speak with Seryn.”The barkeepers glib response was, “A lot of people need to speak to her. What makes you any different?”Rautho just looked at him for a moment before the barkeeper sighed, “I will go let her know you are here to see her.”The halfling hopped off the bar stool and headed to Seryn’s room, stating politely as he entered, “Miss Seryn, there is a tall man here to see you, an Albadian by the looks of him. He has a very big sword on his back” "What does he want...?" Seyrn added a clip to her hair."He wishes to ... talk with you." The man hesitated a moment, as if he were uncertain of the man's motives.            Seyrn chuckled, "How many men come here saying they wish to 'talk' to me? Though he sounds interesting. I'll see him. I shall be out in a moment."As she left her chamber she couldn’t help but worry that he might be the agent of someone whom she had “gathered information” from in the past. After a moment she dismissed the thought. Life was too short to be spent worrying about such things. However, it did pay to be careful. “Will you go instruct the bouncers to keep an eye on him,” she instructed the barkeep before heading out to see her visitor.When she emerged from her quarters and caught sight of him she could not help but stop for a moment. The halfling wasn’t exaggerating. "The Albadian was big and rather handsome too, though the clash between his bulk and the fineness of his fur garb left something to be desired"“So what can I do for you?” Seryn asked cordially.Rautho turned around at the sound of her pleasant voice. She was beautiful! He couldn’t help but gaze at the gentle curves of her body, which were greatly accentuated by the tight garb she wore. It wasn’t just her body either. Her pale, almost ivory skin, enchanting green eyes, and golden hair combined to form a truly captivating image. After a moment of staring he noticed that Seryn was smiling in amusement at his reaction.He coughed for a moment, and than stated, perhaps a bit too quickly, “Greetings, my name is Rautho and this,” he gestured to Izala, “is Izala. Sazeer Meeka sent me. He has a job proposition for you.”At the mention of his name, Seryn glanced around quickly and stated in a loud whisper, “Come, we should talk in my private room,” and began to walk over in the direction of the guarded stairs on the near side of the room. Rautho and Izala followed, as did a pair of bouncers who followed Seryn’s quiet command to follow. At Seryn’s room, one of the bouncers stood outside of the door, and a second followed her in. Seryn wandered over to a couch and sat down, reclining across it in order to extract as much comfort from it as she possibly could.“So what does Sazeer want of me?” she inquired in her oh-so silky voice. Rautho seemed to have regained some of his composure since Seryn had originally caught him looking at her and stated eloquently, “Sazeer Meeka wishes to contract you to join a team in pursuit of a missing tome stolen from the Sazashi House warehouses. In exchange for this he is offering to pay you seventy-five ordu, with an additional two hundred ordu bonus if we are able to destroy the thieves as well.”Seryn’s brow crinkled in annoyance, “Seventy-five ordu? Has he gone mad? I know he is stingy, but not that stingy. Oh well, I suppose I can ask him about that. There is one problem. We need to convince my boss, Coto, to let me get off tonight. ”Rautho grinned in response. “Leave that to me.”Seryn and Rautho’s meeting with Coto was quick and to the point. Rautho was able to convince Coto to give Seryn the night off to have a “private audience” with Sazeer Meeka in exchange for a cut of the profit. This was acceptable to everyone, so Rautho, Seryn, and Izala made their way back to Sazashi House. *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *As Geb walked up to the Sazashi House with a scowl on his face, the guards watching vigilantly over the door stopped him. “What is your business here?” one asked. Geb spat out in annoyance, “I need see Sazeer.”Deciding it was best to let the mercenary in, they let him pass. Inside, Geb immediately drew his sword, glancing around in search of any sort of wizard who might attempt to use his power on him.After but a moment, the halfling Jaepho arrived and looked at Geb’s drawn sword with some alarm. “What may I do for you Master Gebrin?” the halfling inquired. “I wish to see Sazeer,” stated Geb with grim determination. “Yes, yes of course,” said the halfling, “please follow me.”Geb sheathed his sword and did so. As they approached the waiting room before Sazeer’s office, Jaepho stated calmly, “You will have to leave your weapons out here.”At that comment, Geb stared at Jaepho for a few moments, idly caressing the hilt of his blade while gazing at the halfling with a scowl on his face. Eventually he decided, that he probably should go through with this. It wasn’t any different from what had happened in the past. Sazeer entered into the room only a moment after Geb, did reclining himself on the couch. “Greetings Geb, what may I do for you?” he asked amiably.Geb scowled. “What’s going on here? Your father never treated me this poorly. What did I do to earn this disrespect?”A look of mild confusion passed over Sazeer’s face. “What are you talking about?”“What am I talking about? Seventy-five ordu is what I am talking about. You know good and well that I am worth more than that but yet you insult my history with your family with such a crappy offer. What did I do to deserve this?”“Seventy-five ordu? I instructed him to offer more…” said Sazeer softly.“So did I!” exclaimed Geb. “That is most unusual, I will have to question him when he comes back. I told him to offer you five hundred ordu for the recovery of the book, and another thousand for the removal of the thieves.” “Well that’s mighty interestin’,” stated Geb with a smirk.“Yes it is. I will have to question Rautho on it when he comes back,” said Sazeer smoothly.“What makes you think he will come back?” asked Geb.“Because I did not give him enough information to complete his assignment,” smirked Sazeer.   Geb nodded, “Also whats with this magic that was used on me? Did you have anything to do with that?”“Magic?” Sazeer raised an eyebrow at that.  “Yes, magic. Some weird spell hit me while I was in your waiting room, caused my to forget my skills and my pride. I didn’t remember again until I shook it off on the street,” Geb complained. “That is most unusual. No, I do not know anything about any sort of magic that was used on you,” said Sazeer with a concerned expression on his face. “Hmmm…maybe those who were responsible for the theft of your book cast it on me. They want me to take this mission for some reason,” pondered Geb. “Perhaps,” said Sazeer, “it is something worth investigating.”Geb nodded. “Anyway, would you like to stay here until Rautho returns? Perhaps in the pleasure room?” Sazeer asked politely. Geb scowled again. “No, I will be waiting at that tavern you have over across the street.” “Good. I will have Jaepho come get you when they arrive.”*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    It was a good forty minutes before Geb, who was at this point well into his second mug of ale, spotted the three entering into Sazashi House. Rather than get up and follow them in he chose to wait and see if Sazeer would follow through with his word.    He did.    Within moments Jaepho crossed the street, and informed Geb that Rautho, Izala, and Seryn had arrived. Geb, slightly pleased, threw down the silver for his ale, and crossed the street to the Sazashi House.     Inside he found the elf woman, who he assumed was Seryn, and Izala. He introduced himself to them and discovered, as they introduced themselves to each other and he kissed her hand, that she was indeed Seryn. They informed him that Rautho was meeting with Sazeer so they waited, engaging in pleasant small talk to pass the time.     When Rautho finally emerged from Sazeer’s office he had a slightly embarrassed look on his face. “It appears…that I was mistaken on how much money I was to be offering you. It appears that I was supposed to offer you five hundred ordu each for the recovery of the book with a one thousand ordu bonus if we removed the thieves as well. I was under the impression that were being paid five hundred and one thousand ordus total for the completion of our job.”    “Well that’s a little bit better now, isn’t it?” Geb said amiably to Jaepho before realizing suddenly that the halfling had, once again, disappeared.     “That still doesn’t explain all of these magical happenings though. There is something odd going on around here. Somethin’ that’s messing with my head, and maybe your heads too. We really could use a mage.”    Rautho coughed slightly at this, trying to mask out his laughter. Geb didn’t seem to notice.         “So we should probably get on with this mission, shouldn’t we? Perhaps we should meet back at my place?” Seryn offered pleasantly.     “That sounds good, m’am, let me just take care of my horse real quick. I will meet you outside.” After getting affirmation from Seryn, Geb left the room.    Izala said, “I need to gather some things from my room, I will meet you outside as well,” and departed.    “What about you, Albadian, is there anything that you need to take care of?” Seryn asked Rautho in amusement.     Rautho pondered for a moment. “Actually, there are a few errands I need to take care of. How about I meet you at your house.”    “That sounds lovely,” said Seryn before giving Rautho and extensive set of directions that Rautho barely paid attention to. He didn’t need to. He had the directions on the piece of paper that Jaepho had given him.    About an hour later everyone had finally gathered inside of Seryn’s rather quaint little abode. Fifteen minutes later they were on their way to the warehouse, with slightly more in the way of personal arms and armor. Seryn was now decked out in a body suit that was covering a fine suit of mithral chain and had a number of daggers on strategic portions of her body. Izala was also carrying a crossbow that served as an additional form of personal protection beyond that provided by her quarterstaff.        The warehouse was only a few short blocks from the Sazashi House and it was readily apparent that the structure was large even with the darkness that now shrouded the city. A pair of guards in the livery of Sazashi House stood at attention outside, with falchions on their backs, and scimitars at their side.     Seryn walked up to them, “Sazeer sent us to investigate the warehouse,” she said smoothly.     The guards looked them over, paying special attention to Rautho. “Yes, we were told to expect you,” one of them stated as he reached over to unlock the door.        The interior of the warehouse was very dark so Geb lit up his lantern. With the sudden emergence of light that the lantern brought the group was able to get a general idea of the layout of the warehouse.     On the ground floor was a large area filled with several orderly stacks of crates. On the far side of the room was a set of stairs that ran up a wall onto the second story of the warehouse. The second floor only appeared to cover a 1/10 of the space and opened directly into the area above of the ground floor. A trio of doors was set into the second floor’s wall.     Assuming that the doors would be the best place to start looking, the group began to walk over in the direction of the stairs. As they began moving up the stairs single-file, Seryn who was in the front noticed another pair of doors on the bottom floor that were previously blocked by the crates. She mentally noted their presence and their potential for future exploration.         The first door they encountered was locked, much to their annoyance. Rautho called down to the guards, “Do you have keys for these rooms? We need to check them out.”    One of the guards responded, “No sir, we don’t have the keys.”        Geb yelled, “Who does have the keys. And what do you do if some sort of fire starts up in one of the locked rooms?”    The guard responded, “That would be the foreman,” pointedly ignoring the question about the fire.     Geb continued, “And where would this foreman be?”    The guard said curtly, “Probably at home in bed.”        Geb scowled, “And where would this home be?”    The guard said, “We aren’t told that.”    Rautho interjected, “Why don’t we come back and investigate this in the morning?”    Seryn replied, “No, we need to take care of this now. This was probably an inside job, if we take care of it in the morning then its more than likely that whoever did this would realize that we are onto him.”    Rautho shrugged and walked off, descending the staircase. Izala followed.     Once Rautho was out of sight, and Geb and Seryn were preoccupied with the top floor’s door, Izala called upon her abilities, expanding her senses to detect the emanations that emerged from the world around her. She slowly explored more and more of the structure, stopping only when the walls prevented her from moving any deeper. Eventually, finding nothing, she slowly let her third eye close and returned to her normal senses.    On the third floor, Seryn was having a tough time working the first look. Eventually she gave up. “This lock is fairly new, and is apparently beyond my abilities to pick.” She sighed.    Geb looked momentarily annoyed and began to kick at the door.    “What’s going on in there?” yelled one of the guards.    Seryn called back, “I slipped down the stairs.”    Geb and Seryn looked at each other, shrugged, and moved on to the next door.     This one was a bit easier. Unfortunately, the interior of the room was a bit…dull. A trio of desks and several cabinets were to be found within. Geb and Seryn spent the next few minutes searching the room before they found what they found something of interest. An empty folder entitled, “The Kan Thet Expedition.” Considering it relevant but not quite sure as to what its import might be she stuffed it back into the filing cabinet. Geb decided to check out the cabinet himself and found something that they both found interesting: an employee list. Seryn took it and put it in her belt pouch.    While Geb continued to poke around in the office Seryn went to investigate the next door. She quickly discovered that it was a privy and moved down to the bottom floor, with Geb in tow.     Meanwhile, Rautho had lured one of the guards into the corner were he was vigorously questioning him. “What do you know? Tell me what you know or I will make sure that your life as it is will become a living hell!”    The guard literally quaked in fear at the anger of the large man and sputtered out a number of indiscretions he had committed over the course of his life including cheating on his wife, making off with some cinnamon, and sneaking into the orgiastic rites of the Temple of Enkili. Rautho noted the last one with approval. Before letting the guard, Otis, go back to his post. “Remember, I know about the cinnamon,” Rautho growled as he walked away.     Izala was having similar fun with the other guard, though she went about it in an entirely different way. She reached out with her mind and gently caressed the guard’s mind, making him become favorably disposed of her. Her brief questioning, however, was similarly pointless and resulted in them coming up with little more than what she already knew. The one item of interest was that noone had access to the book, which was stored in the very well locked door, but Sazeer and whoever Sazeer gave direct permission to.     With both of their questioning completed, Izala and Rautho returned to where Geb and Seryn were working on the lock of the first of the first floor rooms.     It proved to be of similar difficulty to the second door on the second floor, and after a few minutes they were inside. The interior appeared to be a more private office with but a single desk and cabinet and a door on the far side of the room. Seryn decided to investigate the desk first and, after springing the lock, she only found one thing of note: a list of missing employees. Sticking that in her pocket she moved on to the cabinet.     When she at last opened the lock, she clicked open the cabinet. Much to her surprise, five daggers were immediately launched at her with dangerous force. Her reflexes and agility were at full-force however, as she was able to make a rapid combination of dodges that allowed her to avoid the daggers completely. With her final landing everyone looked at the cabinet with some slight shock. Seryn merely shrugged and looked inside the cabinet.     Within was a very large, very heavy chest sitting there in a lengthwise fashion. Frowning slightly, Seryn said, “Geb could you pull this out of here?”    Geb nodded, and with a grunt removed the chest, heaving it over onto the desk. As Seryn moved to open it Geb said, “"Hmm...Did I ever tell you the story of Victin…? He was this fellow who had his hand chopped off when... Bah, nevermind.  I'll tell you later."    Seryn frowned slightly and began examining the chest; “It appears it has a needle trap in the lock.”     Izala said helpfully, “Let me look at that,” and went over to examine the chest. She got in front of the chest and used her body to block off the other’s view of her activities while she telekinetically used one of Seryn’s loose lock picks to gently activate the trap. When she finished she said, “The needle is out.”    Geb walked over and with a single, final slice of his sword broke the lock’s needle.     Seryn proceeded to adroitly pick the chest’s lock. Thinking it would be better if he stayed out of the room while doing this, Geb stepped into the main warehouse area. Everyone else followed.    When no explosions or cries of pain came from the office, everyone returned to find Seryn leafing through the pages of the book she found inside the chest. After a moment she stopped and read a passage from the book. “Sworn Book of Chern recovered from ruins in the Swamp of Kan Thet. Company of the Sevenfold Sword paid five thousand ordu for said recovery.”     Geb’s natural scowl deepened considerably. “Chern? We are looking for the Sworn Book of CHERN? Suddenly this job is becoming a lot less appetizing to me.”     Seryn merely laughed, “I am merely thinking that we should have been offered a lot more money for this.”    Geb continued, “I am suddenly getting a lot less trusting of our good employer on this. Why didn’t he turn it over to the temple of Enkili? He may be the god of misfortune but he hates the titans as much of the other gods and they could have easily done away with it. This isn’t good at all.”    Seryn shrugged, “I think we can trust him. As long as we are useful to him, we can trust him.”    Geb turned and looked at Izala, “What do you think of this?”     Izala appeared contemplative for a moment, “It is definitely something we should investigate further.”     Geb looked at everyone and snorted in disgust before walking out of the room. Seryn shrugged and proceeded to copy the short passage she found in the book before putting it back into the chest. Her attention then turned to the little, silk bag that was sitting next to the book. Looking inside almost caused her eyes to pop out of her head. Inside were numerous gemstones: diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds.         With a visible internal struggle she gently put the bag back into the chest.     “Rautho dear, could you put the chest back into the cabinet?” she asked him.    Rautho nodded and did so.         The next room appeared to be a records storage room similar to the ones upstairs. The group decided that they had the information they needed and really did not need to be exploring through every single cabinet of records in that room. So, after investigating the adjoining chamber (which turned out to be a meeting room) to the main office, they closed all of the remaining open doors and found themselves inexplicably drawn back to the one door that they were unable to open.     While they examined it and argued over what they should do about it, Izala slipped away, moving down to where the guards stood. She smiled sweetly at them and, while caressing Otis’ mind, suggested to them that she saw a shadowy figure disappear into the locked door and they should go investigate it.        Taking her words to heart they immediately charged up to the door and begin throwing themselves at it.    The others looked around in confusion while Izala said “I saw a shadowy figures slip into the room!”     After a moment the guards knocked down the door and everyone but Rautho rushed into the room. The interior was very chilly, and a cool mist seemed to radiate from the structure’s walls. Several sets of shelves were found on the walls, each of which had several different chests sitting on them. Geb exclaimed, “He must be invisible!” and the two guards took a moment to swing their weapons around, trying to strike some sort of unseen foe. After a few moments, Geb said mournfully, “He must have gotten away,” and began to look around the room. The others save for Rautho, who was still standing outside of the room, chose to follow suit. Geb moved over to touch one of the chests, and found it cold to the touch. Suddenly, Seryn cried out in pain. Everyone looked over at her and found that the left half of her body was covered in ice, and that her left arm appeared to be hanging limply in the air. With some panic, Izala, Rautho, and Geb hurried her out of the room and stood there for a moment, staring warily at the room they just exited.This lasted for but a second before Seryn’s sensitive ears began to pick up the distant sounds of a number of booted feet running down the street, slowly getting louder almost as if they were quickly approaching the warehouse. With some panic she said to the others, “It sounds like we are going to have some company…”</blockquote>

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