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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arwink" data-source="post: 278422" data-attributes="member: 2292">  In my head, this was when the campaign and the story truly started.  It's kind of weird to have started writing this, and realise exactly how much was begun before this session even started.  The timing on the two parties is a bit hazy, and Madeline and Solomon may have been a day ahead or behind when they reach the party.  No-one really paid attention or noticed at the time No-one felt much like doing anything.  Bjorn sat and ate quietly in the corner of the Gargoyle's tap-room, his eyes bloodshot and Voolfy sitting with her head on his knee in a gesture of comfort.  It'd been a long night, despite his wounds.  He'd taken the young monk, Meryn, on an extended tour of the Demon-mouth districts finer drinking establishments, sampling a wide range of their best and worst brews.  The ostensible reason had been to check for signs that his brother was around, although it soon fell by the wayside.  Too many people where confused by his close resemblence to his twin, the two were like statues carved by the same hand except for the length of their hair, and the heavy fog of ale quickly dulled the urgency of the questioning and the need to move from bar to bar.  Meryn sat opposite him now, seemingly fine despite her consumption of a variety of spirits, and her slight glow hurt Bjorn's eyes.  Khynal sat at the far end of the table, a few slices of breed and cheese at his side.  He was going through his morning ritual, meticulously cleaning and polishing the two pistols.On the other side of the city, in an inn with a better reputation and cleaner clientelle than the Gargoyle, Madeline and Solomon finished a fine breakfast.  Their plans for the day were hazy, at best.  Perhaps a trip into the demon-mouth?  An investigation of the University Archives for news regarding Medline's Grandmother and how she learned the arts of the Eldritch Master?  Neither felt particularly movitated to do anything.  Their purses were full with Kathkallan's payment, their stomachs were full and the future seemed brighter than it had several days ago.  Perhaps they should go shopping, head into the adventurers market in Demonmouth Square and pick up a few supplies for a descent into the depths tomorrow.  After a side-trip to the Windglamor Parade, another morning tea of coffee and cake. at the Zedelar Coffee house.And the day passes, slowly.  Three adventurers sobering up and biding time.  At three they meet with Logda, Teacher and Sage with an interest in ancient religion, in the hopes he can explain some of the reason for their mysterious assult.  The other two dallying, idly moving through the city on an uncertain path.  As the appointed our approaches, Khynal nudges his companions into movement.  They walk through the city streets, eyes searching out every nook and shadow, hands moving to weapons every time they pass an alleyway.  There's no assult, no sudden appearance by mysterious cultists to waylay them. Even the tall guardsmen who stand by the Universities gates let them through, albeit with the understanding that Voolfy must be leashed at all times.  Solomon has lived most of his life in Eaglespire, and he knows segments of the undercity like the back of his hand.  Above ground, he's less sure of his way.  Certain districts he knows, but in places such as the Academy district he finds himself taking unfamiliar turns, walking into dead ends.  A life on the streets with pickpockets and gamblers did little to aquaint him with the intricacies of the winding streets so well known by Eaglespire aspiring scholars and knights.  Although he knows the Demon-mouth district is on the far side, he quickly gets lost.  A soft rain starts to fall on the city, the kind of light drizzle the TYrian's call Istishia's blessing.  Madeline is ready to start berating her comrade, disgusted that he would seek to repay his debt as a guide when he doesn't truly know his way.  Solomon shrugs - at times like these even a local doesn't feel shame in calling on a tout to guide him.  He raises his hands and prepares to call when he sees it out of the corner of his eye.  A small plume of steam rising from the lip of a building.  Madeline notices his sudden distraction, follows his gaze just in time to see a pair of fire mephits leaping over the lip of the building.  Their stubby, flamming wings flutter as they leap, carrying them to the next rooftop.  Although the dissapear from few, the trail of steam rising as the rain hits the mephits flaming bodies is enough to chart their movement.  They run from rooftop to rooftop, heading for the walls of the academy in the distance.  Solomon and Madeline look at one another, evaluating the two choices presented here.  With a silent nod, the decision is reached.  They sprint for the Academy's walls, following the train of steam to their intended victims.Inside Lochfinch tower, the home of the Academy's schools in theology and history, Khynal, Bjorn and Meryn meet with their sage.  Logda is a middle-aged man, dressed in scholars robes and partially balding.  He is more than willing to help, although he asks that each of the PC's sit with him for an interview at a later date.  He is intrigued by each of their religions, and eager to question each of them about their beliefs.  Bjorn is, after all, a wild elf wearing the holy symbol of a grey elven god, almost unheard of among the wild-elves of the north.  Khynal is of a race of people without a god, but there is a small cult who believe that by the combination of enough mental energy, they can force one into existence.  Meryn, as an aasimar, has an obviously divine heritage that is virtually unknown in Tyria.  Logda's curiosity is suitably arroused, and all three are willing to pay his price.  Logda recognises the symbol immediately, telling the trio that he interviewed a man who had escaped from the temples compound.  They were relatively recent in the history of Eaglespires temple, and notoriously shy and difficult to track down.  Logda calls it luck that he even caught the attention of this one worshipper, and he's never seen the physical sumbold, only had it descrived to him.  Finally being able to see the symbol of the cult jobs his memory.  He gets very agitated, jumping and bustling back and forth along the full bookshelves that line his office. When he sits again, book in his lap, the sudden rush having put two peices of information together are palpable in his features.  He explains to them what he knows of the symbol, that it belongs to an earth cult that worships a fell earth-elemental of great power.  There were other cults, each worshipping a being made of the other elements, air, water and fire, and the powers of these four beings was granted by a god known only as the elemental eye.  For centuries before the cataclysm that broke the world, these four cults were responsible for acts of great evil and violence.  Outside Logda's office, two flaming mephits land on the ledge of his window-sill.  Intent on the information in the sage's book, none notice the tendrils of steam or the shallow hiss that fills the air.  At the base of the tower, Solomon and MAdline quickly calculate the position of the window and hurry through the door.  The beasts look like they are trying to hide, but who knows what they seek to ambush on the far side of the window.  Logda hurridly reads through the book, paraphrasing as he goes.  For nearly a thousand years after, their worship was forbidden on pain of death.  Occasionally, small cults would spring up, but in recent years there has been evidence in Eaglespire that all four cults have created a small temple, and he fears that they may yet combine to work towards their religions original goal - freeing the elemental eye and his followers and allowing them to walk the earth once more.  As he goes to read more, a gout of flame flies through air.  The book bears the brunt of the blast, its ancient paper pages going up in seconds.  Logda's robes are scorched and burning, and he panicks as he tries to put them out.  Meryn, Bjorn and Khynal draw steel, preparing for attack as the second mephit breaths a cone of fire at them.  Meryn nimbly dodges, but Bjorn and Khynal barely manage to avoid the flames path.  Both are singed, and Bjorn looses half an eyebrow to the assult.  Khynal opens fire at the windows, catches one of the mephits with a pistol shot.  The bullet passes through the creature, although he thinks he catches a wince of pain cross its face.  He growls in frustraction, reloading his gun, as Meryn and Bjorn charge the window with Kama and longspear at the ready.  It takes but a few seconds of combat, with all three adventurers wounded and a very panicked Logda ttrying to beat out the fires that have started along his bookcase, before Madeline and Solomon burst through the door.  They join the assult, aiming at mephits with spells and crossbow while Solomon yells out "Water or cold, hit them with water or cold."  Khynal shrugs, he has neither but he can pummel both creatures with a chain of bioelectric energy.  Meryn swings with her kama again, wounding one of the creatures as it climbs through the window to better assult the companions within, and Bjorn attempts to create a small pool of water above the creatures head, only to be dissapointed when the water evaporates into a thick steam on contact.  Realising that his water spells lack the power to harm the creatures, Bjorn instead enchants the teeth of his wolf companion before setting about the heal the worst of the companions wounds as they fight.  The dancing flames of both mephits have done yet more damage to Logda's office and various party members before the party brings them down, hitting them with psionic power, magic missile, the magically enhanced teeth of a quite aggitated Voolfy and a flurry of Kama attacks.  Solomon quickly joins Bjorn in healing the combatents, occasionally pausint to stamp out a fire in the carpet should it get out of hand.There is a moment of silence in the aftermath of the fight, the adventurer's catching their breath and Logda slowly calming down from his vantage point behind a thick, stuffed couch.  Bjorn eventually turns to the bookcases, putting the last of the fires out with a cloak soaked by his create water spell, as the rest of the adventurers look at one another.  Meryn and Khynal experience a familiar tingling sensation, and they can see the familiar lines of a black birthmark rising out of the glove on Solomon's right hand, and the tips of another above the tunic line on the back of Madeline's left shoulder.  After the first are done, Bjorn turns back to his companions, noticing the tingle on his own brand at the same time.  "Vell," he says, "I think we should all get a drink, yes?"There's a general nod of consensus among all involved.  As they thank the quivering Logda for his time and file out of the room, Bjorn follows along after his two new companions, ready to chat the entire way back to the Gilded Gargoyle.  "I am Bjorn from Sveedom," he starts.  "Say, have you seen my twin Brother Sven?  I'm trying to track him down."--------More later.  Some drinking, some searching for clues, and the trouble with some Hextoran Priests.</blockquote>

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