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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 439581" data-attributes="member: 674">Chapter One "The Book" Part TwoAfter a few seconds of confusion, realization of what was going on dawned with the rest of the group. Geb rushed over and slammed shut the one door that still stood open and the group began to rush down the narrow flight of stairs to the floor below. They did not make it far. As they reached the bottom of the stairs and began to move across the room for the door soldiers bearing the sigil of Sazashi House began to pour into the room. They immediately began to surround the group, pointing their crossbows at them and aggressively yelling at them to get against the wall.    After a few brief arguments the group did so, deciding to wait for someone of authority to arrive so they could talk themselves out of their current “situation.” They did not have to wait long. After a few moments a tall, muscular man with long, black hair and a smug, sneering look to his face walked in. His plate mail glittered in the light of the torches that lit the exterior of the building showing off the sigil of House Sazashi that emblazoned the front of his armor. Recognizing him as the chief enforcer of Sazeer Meeka, Seryn immediately raised her voice in complaint, “Maka, dear, what is the meaning of this? We are here under the authority of Sazeer Meeka.”Throwing his hair back he sneered, “Then why are you in here sulking like thieves in the night? And why is that door up there knocked down?”Izala cleared her throat at this, “I saw a shadow sneak into there and informed the guards of this. They decided to break the door down.”Geb growled as Maka turned to walk away, “I recommend you have your guards quit pointin’ those crossbows at us.”After pausing to think a moment Maka nodded at the guards. They lowered their crossbows, while still retaining them in their hands. Maka then proceeded to walk out of the room.The four remaining inside exchanged glances, with Rautho glancing over at Maka and then at Seryn. Seryn just shrugged.     After a moment Maka returned to the warehouse’s interior, a look of anger dominating his face. “Tell me which one of you charmed the guard,” he demanded.     Geb said wearily, “That’s probably the result of the villains behind this. They had me charmed until I was able to fight it off, and I think they charmed Izala too.”     “Only way she could have accepted this job at THAT price,” he mumbled under his breath.     Maka strode over to Izala and grabbed her chin, staring into her eyes for a moment before tossing it away. “She is not charmed,” he said indignantly.     He looked around the group one more time, stopping only to look at Rautho who, for his part, merely stared back a look of determination and certainty. After a moment Maka looked away and said, “Very well. You may go. I wouldn’t recommend leaving town though. Sazeer will want to talk to you in the morning.”    Seryn laughed in annoyance, “Why would we do anything like that?”    Maka merely glowered in response and watched as the group slowly filed their way out of the warehouse.After they were a short distance away, Geb broke into cursing. As the others looked at him with curiosity on their faces, Geb looked slightly embarrassed. “Beg my pardon ladies, I just remembered something. I have heard of the Company of the Sevenfold Arrows before. They are a nasty bunch. Worked out of Mithril for a few years. They got thrown out after they got caught working for some penumbral lords. Nasty, nasty bunch. Wouldn’t surprise me if they were behind this whole thing.”The rest of the group nodded solemnly. All of them had heard of the penumbral lords before. Seryn looked particularly aghast at the thought, and reached over to rub the smokey quartz statuette of Drendari in her bag.  With that information, the party agreed that they would meet up in front of the Sazashi House the following morning. With that they split up each going to their respective accommodations. Rautho to his room in the Golden Bay Inn, Geb to his room in the tavern across from Sazashi House, and Seryn and Izala to Seryn’s place. The night itself passed uneventfully and each of the group slept soundly, eagerly awaiting their next morning’s meeting with Sazeer Meeka…     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    Upon their arrival at the Sazashi House at the crack of dawn the omnipresent Jaepho led them through the House to the waiting room outside of Sazeer’s “office.” Jaepho then disappeared through the door, claiming that Sazeer would see them in a moment. And he was. Rather than questioning them as a group though, one by one the Rautho, Geb, Izala, Seryn, and then Rautho again were brought into the room.         When Rautho left the room for the last time, he told the others, “Sazeer is ready to see all of us now.”        The interior of Sazeer’s office was much the same as it always was. Sazeer was reclining on his couch while the two women who fanned him were positioned much as they always were. Off to the corner was the scribe. Maka stood off to the side with a look of contempt on his face. Geb just glowered at him.    When the group entered, Sazeer smiled at them cordially and said, “Well your answers have proven satisfactory. Geb mentioned that you had some questions for me. What are they?”    Rautho started off. “When did the book disappear?”    Sazeer popped a cherry in his mouth and said, “It was on the 2nd of Belot. The day before the book was in our possession and on the next one it was gone.”    Geb interjected gruffly, “Was the book stored in that cold room? Also, why didn’t you trap the place if such important things were stored in there?”    Sazeer replied calmly with a smile on his face, “Yes, it was stored in there and yes it was trapped. With a little spell designed to freeze anyone who happened to enter there without permission.” He looked pointedly at Seryn.     She simply shrugged and after a moment asked, “Sazeer, darling, what exactly is this book that we are looking for? All you have told us is that it has geometric patterns across its surface and some sort of ugly brown stain across the bottom.”     “Well Seryn, my dear, it is a spell book with a few rare spells in it,” he smiled in return.    “How did you get it? How long did you have it until it disappeared?” Geb jumped in, frowning with his entire face, resulting in a scowl that was even darker than usual.     “Ah yes, I suppose I should tell you that,” Sazeer smoothly state between bites of a peach, “I hired a group of mercenaries with called the Company of the Sevenfold Sword to recover the book while they were in the Swamps of Kan Thet, they did so and I paid them for their troubles and their discretion. Unfortunately not all of them came back.”    “Hmm,” grumbled Geb, “How do you know that the ones who didn’t come back are really dead? Don’t you think its possible that other members of the Company might have came back and stolen it from you? Maybe to get the money twice, one from you, and once from another group? I have heard of this group before. They have a bad reputation in Mithril. ”    Sazeer raised an eyebrow at this, “I really doubt that happened. They have a reputation in Shelzar for doing the job they were paid for and doing it well. Their references spoke highly of their ability to get things done. I don’t care about their past. Besides, I really doubt any of them could have had a hand in it. All of them except for one died when they came back from the swamp. Some disease or another.”         Geb continued, “Where is this one survivor now?”    After finishing his peach Sazeer said, “Altho the Unrepentant is currently under the care of the priest of Madriel in the Hospice of Madriel. Assuming he hasn’t left already, of course.”    Geb made a mental note of that and became silent.     Seryn took up the slack, “Your papers said that three employees were gone. Who were they and what did they do?”    Sazeer leaned forward with a slight smile on his face, “Oh, yes. Them. Oris, was a porter. Fairly muscular fellow who helped carry boxes in. Shera was a secretary she worked in the office. A young girl couldn’t be more than eighteen. The last was Eothan. He helped sort the spices. He was a rather surly fellow. I sent Maka out to check the tenements where they said they had lived when they came for the job. It seemed that the address they gave were fake. We had Maka and some of the house guards “question” their neighbors, but unfortunately that turned out to be a dead end.” With this Sazeer sighed.     After everyone was silent for a minute or so, Sazeer asked, “So do you have any more questions or are you ready to get back to work?”Geb smiled at this, “I actually have one more question. How do we know we can trust you?”    Seryn responded before Sazeer could, “Of course we can trust him. As long as we are useful to him we can trust him. Isn’t that right Sazeer, darling?”    Sazeer smiled back, “Of course. Plus you can trust me because I am paying you. That is all you should be concerned with.”    The group sat in silence for a few moments before Izala said, hesitantly, “I think we are ready to return to work.”    Sazeer smiled. “Good, I hope to hear of the books successful recovery in the near future.”            They then left.     Outside the group engaged in some quick discussion and agreed that they should go to the Hospice of Madriel. From Seryn’s recollection, she seemed to think that the Hospice would most likely to be found within the confines of the Grand Temple. So off they went, enjoying the sights and sounds of the mid-day city of Shelzar.</blockquote>

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