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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1292974" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #5: The Smugglers, Episode 2 of 5Miriel watches out to sea, while Goldpetal watches inland. It’s a cold, cold night, and between the fog and the lack of moon, it is very dark. Through the early part of the night, the fog renders it impossible to see. By around eleven, the fog begins to thin somewhat. Miriel draws her peacock-embroidered cloak more tightly about herself, to ward against the bitter cold. Finally, shortly before midnight, she spies a light out to sea. “There it is,” she whispers. “The first signal.” She lifts up the lantern, and gives the second signal. The third signal comes in answer, and she gives the confirmation signal. “Goldpetal,” she hisses, “Can you see anything through the fog?”“I think I can see it,” he answers, “It might be a big schooner; it’s hard to tell in this fog.” He glances away, and scans the land around the tower one last time. With the fog, he can’t see much of anything. The two listen, straining to hear anything, but the fog blankets the night in silence, and all they can hear is the waves against the cliff edge.Miriel and Goldpetal rush down through the tower to the cave, Goldpetal in the lead with his bow drawn, and Miriel watching behind with her spear ready. They stop inside the tunnel, hidden in the shadows thirty feet along the corridor, outside of the lighted area. The three waiting in the cove hear the splashing of the oars and muffled sounds from the oarlocks. Paks readies her sword, while Chuck has his bow ready. Jim is still concentrating on the illusion, but holds his bow ready in his right hand. We can see a light; the people in the boat have a torch. There are twelve people aboard a large rowboat. There are two men in the bow, peering forward into the night. One is an older, thin man in a robe. Next to him, holding the torch, is a very tall man, with an angular, patrician face, his hair and large cloak billowing in the wind. There are four oarsmen. Manacled together in the center of the boat are six miserable-looking slaves.  The older man says, “Something doesn’t feel right, Virilius.” We can hear his voice carrying clearly over the water, although he spoke softly. “I agree, Sambelay,” says the man he addressed as Virilius. “Something is wrong.” In a voice clearly accustomed to command, he orders, “Get the men ready.”Jim’s illusionary Delonia gives a wave of greeting, but from the top of the cliff a woman’s voice shouts “Virilius, it’s a trap!”At a quick word from Virilius, the well-trained oarsmen immediately start rowing back out to sea. The old man casts some sort of spell, and a thick fog stars pouring out of his fingertips. Within moments, we can't see anything at all. Jim grabs Chuck with one hand, while he grasps his medallion with the other. “I’m casting waterwalk on both of us,” he says. Chuck drops his bow on the beach, as he and his mentor draw swords. They rush towards the boat, running atop the placid waters of the cove as though it were firm sand. Paks recognized the woman as Delonia, and attempts to impersonate her voice. “Wait, wait,” she cries. “Don’t leave me! Come back!”Jim and Chuck run across the water. Jim reaches the boat first, and begins exchanging blows with Virilius. They are both expert swordsmen, and at first neither scores a hit. Chuck attacks the wizard, Sambelay, with both swords, cutting him with the longsword and forcing him to stop a spell he was chanting. As Virilius and Jim are trading blows, they also trade insults. “You are no match for me, boy,” Virilius tells the Vigilant.“Your days are numbered, Asuras swine,” says the Vigilant, parrying a blow. Virilius, never taking his eyes from Jim’s blades, says “Bjorn, distract them.” One of the oarsmen takes a boathook, and uses it to grab one of the slaves and throw him overboard. At the same instant, the mage casts a spell, and suddenly Jim sinks into the water, his waterwalk abruptly ended. As Chuck and Jim ran into the fog, Paks started heading back to the tunnel, long sword held in her right hand. She sees Goldpetal and Miriel waiting, and Goldpetal nearly looses his bow at her. “They’re getting away,” she says. “But Delonia is upstairs. Follow me!” The three of them run up the tunnel underneath the tower. When they reach the room under the tower, Paks listens to see if she hears anyone in the tower room, but she doesn’t. She heads up the ladder into the tower, and runs to the front door, where she sees Delonia running away into the darkness.“After her, she’s getting away!” Paks yells, plunging into the night in hot pursuit. Delonia is heading south, past the area we have explored. Goldpetal runs to the door and shoots an arrow, but he misses. Miriel starts running after Delonia and Paks. Paks, weighed down by her chain mail, seems to have no chance of catching the mage, but then Goldpetal casts entangle. Delonia is running through tall grass, and the grasses immediately start wrapping around her ankles and calves. Within seconds, she is brought to a quick halt.The rogue mage turns and casts a magic missile at Paks. A bolt of sickly green energy streaks from her fingertips, and penetrates Paks’ chain mail, catching her in the chest. The young warrior shakes it off. She runs up closer to the sorceress, yelling “Delonia! Surrender!” Paks starts circling around to the south, cutting off her retreat, and shouts to the other two, “Come at her from different sides, so she cannot escape.” Goldpetal and Miriel approach cautiously, from opposite sides, surrounding her at the 120-degree points of the circle of entangling grass. Delonia is thoroughly entangled by the tall grasses. Miriel, standing outside of the entangling grasses, draws her sling, and her first shot whacks Delonia in the head. Paks yells, “Have you surrendered yet?”Delonia says nothing, and continues struggling with the grasses. Paks shoots an arrow at her, but misses. Goldpetal comes up to the edge of the circle and fires his short bow, also missing the sorceress. Delonia realizes that she can’t get away. She puts her hands up, spreading them wide so we can see that they are empty. “Okay, okay, I surrender!”“Okay,” Paks says warningly. “But don’t try anything when the entanglement goes away.” Miriel pulls out her coil of silk rope. Down at the cove, Chuck is still standing on the surface of the water, but Jim has sunk into it up to his neck, and is forced to swim, an awkward task with swords in his hands, and near impossible with chain mail. He can do little better than tread water. Chuck yells, “Slaves! Help us, and be freed!” “Chuck, get the slave!” Jim commands. Chuck runs over, reaches down, and grabs the slave by the tunic, preventing him from sinking. The smuggler with the hook has started rowing again, and the small boat is making progress away from them. “Jim,” Chuck asks desperately, “Should I follow the boat?”The spellcaster in the boat casts another spell. The rowers start moving a lot faster, and the boot shoots away. As the boat disappears into the fog, Virilius shakes his fist and says “You haven't seen the last of me! No one crosses Virilius Asuras and gets away with it!” Jim doesn't answer Chuck's question, and when he looks over, he sees his mentor slipping beneath the waves. Chuck pulls the slave over to Jim, and takes him by the collar of the tunic as well. With three people’s weight, Chuck sinks into the water halfway up to his calves, and each step is difficult. He starts pulling them both slowly towards the shore, through the spooky fog. By the time they reach shore, Chuck checks on the slave, and finds that he is not doing very well. He looks malnourished, and the cold from the water has leached most of his energy. Chuck begins freeing him from his bonds.Jim, however, looks around the cove, and finds it empty of the rest of the group. “Where is everyone?” he asks. “Let’s go see what happened.”They each grab one of the two torches by the doorway of the passage. Jim leads them up towards the tower, while Chuck supports the slave, who leans most of his weight over the younger Vigil’s shoulder. There is no sign of what happened to the other three.When Chuck and Jim reach the room underneath the tower, Jim stops Chuck, pointing at the floor. “Hey, what’s that?” he asks quietly. Chuck looks where his mentor is pointing, and sees a small shoe print, about the size of a child’s foot. The whole party is wearing boots. He looks around to see if there are any other prints. “It looks like four people went up the ladder,” he whispers, “This small print more recently than the other three.”Jim gestures for silence, and Chuck starts quietly up the ladder. The trap door to the base of the tower opens without a sound, and when he pokes his head up into the tower, he sees a halfling in the shadows by the door of the tower, looking out. He doesn’t seem to notice them.Chuck puts a finger to his lips, and then motions Jim up. As Jim climbs, Chuck tries to sneak up on the halfling, gliding soundlessly towards the door with his sword in hand. He taps the halfling on the shoulder with his free hand. The halfling yelps and jumps a foot in the air.“What are you doing here?” demands Chuck roughly. The halfling turns towards him, and he recognizes the same sneaky halfling who he had seen several times in Southport over the previous three days.Though he received quite a shock, the halfling has his wits about him when he first speaks. “I’m looking out the door,” he says, stating the obvious. “What are you doing here? I’d just like to say that I’m amazed at your composure, Chuck. Not only can you run through mist and water and do nothing useful, but you can also ask straightforward questions. Good thing I decided you weren’t worth following.” Chuck stares at him darkly, as Jim approaches with an arrow knocked. Neither of them look like very friendly, but the halfling stands his ground. He looks exasperated. “I was also trying to stop the slavers,” he explains.Chuck looks very suspicious. “Perhaps we could have cooperated?” he asks.“I want nothing to do with you, sir,” the halfling says. “I serve the Lady Miriel.”Jim rolls his eyes. He steps to the door, and looks outside, where he sees the tableau. Miriel, Paks, and Goldpetal have surrounded the sorceress, who is thoroughly entangled by the grass and vines, which have wrapped their way all the way to her waist. Paks and Goldpetal have arrows ready, while Miriel seems to be readying some rope. “Chuck, don’t take your eyes off of him for one minute,” he says, and heads outside to see if the others need any help.Chuck kneels and begins to rummage in his pack for flint and steel. As soon as his attention is off the halfling, the halfling says, “I’m going out to greet my mistress.” He steps quickly outside the door before Chuck can react.“Here. Warm up,” Chuck says, dropping his flint and steel next to the slave. He steps to the door, and sees that the halfling is not fleeing, and is, in fact, approaching the rest of the group.As Jim draws within a hundred feet of the three heroes and their prisoner, he calls out, “Ho! What’s going on?” “We have this one entangled,” Paks yells back, “And she has surrendered to us!”“Nicely done!” says the Vigilant, as he reaches the edge of the entangling grasses. “She’s given us her parole,” continues Paks, “And we’re going to tie her up.”Goldpetal looks at halfling, who is approaching. Chuck straggles along behind, long sword in his right hand, looking unsure whether he should attack or treat the halfling as an equal. “Who are you,” the elf asks the halfling. “Why are you here?”The halfling retorts, “Why are you here? Who are you?”“It’s our job to be here,” Goldpetal answers implacably. “Yes,” says the halfling, “I know it’s your job, Goldpetal. It’s also mine.” Though most of the others are watching this exchange, Paks keeps a close watch on the entangled Delonia, who seems to be considering escape. “Who sent you?” demands Goldpetal.  The halfling responds tauntingly, “Who sent you?”“Grilliam sent us,” answers Goldpetal.The halfling draws close to the group. “Who sent him? And who sent him?”“The gods,” the druid responds. “Do you claim to be a god?”The halfling shakes his head. “No, I’m just me.” He approaches Miriel, with Chuck immediately behind him, but unsure yet if he means her harm.Goldpetal looks over at Paks, and informs her, “The entangle is about to expire.”She nods. “Chuck,” she calls, “Bring me your manacles.” Chuck looks at the halfling dubiously, but then returns to the tower, and his pack, to get a pair of manacles.Miriel looks the halfling in the eye and asks, “Do I know you?”“Why, no, madam, not yet, but I know you. I am Milo, and I have been sent by Madriel to serve you and protect you.” He kneels down and reaches out, taking her hand and kissing it as though he is a courtier. Miriel says to the halfling, “I haven’t heard of you from Madriel or Verenia.” “I have my honor,” he responds. “What more do I need?”Miriel shakes her head. “I don’t know you.”“Isn’t Madriel the goddess of mercy?” the halfling responds.“What does mercy have to do with it?” Miriel asks, an almost incredulous tone to her voice. “I don’t trust you yet. You had the chance to meet us before, and instead you show up here, under suspicious circumstances.”By this time, Chuck is returning from the tower with the manacles. He and Jim come over to Paks. Chuck hands her the manacles. The two Vigilants draw swords, and Jim calls out, “Sorceress, if you try anything, you’re dead.” The entanglement subsides. Paks approaches Delonia, with Chuck and Jim guarding her. The sorceress offers no resistance, and Paks secures her with the manacles. Jim switches from sword to bow, and stands where he can watch both the halfling and the bound sorceress. Chuck walks over to Miriel, and asks, “Miriel, do you want a set of manacles?” He glances meaningfully at the halfling.To his surprise, she declines his offer. “No, it’s not right to manacle someone on suspicion alone. Just keep an eye on him.”Jim calls, “Chuck, don’t let him out of your sight.”</blockquote>

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