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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wraithdrit" data-source="post: 864160" data-attributes="member: 10820">Session 6 - PrologueWarning: Violence ahead, enough to at least warrant PG-13. You have been warned.Eleint 27th, 1372 - Throne Room, City of Shade, MidnightIt was the busy time of the night. Throngs of shades, their followers, and companions mingled about the room. Soft light lit a few of the areas, allowing just enought ambient light that those who could not see perfectly in the dark would not run into the others. The guards at the door opened the twin massive double doors and in strode Clariburnus. His glaive was not visible, but there was no doubt that the shade was deadly still. No one paused in his path, scurrying quickly to the side if he happened to walk in their way. Only thirteen other shades warranted that kind of treatment.Clariburnus strode toward the darkest portion of the room. This time it was one far corner. The Lord of Shade listened intently to a pale elven woman that stood before him. His features were not even visible, though his general hieght and form were. Despite his seeming anonymity the power he radiated demanded reverence from all those around him.The pale elven woman continued, "... she bled out right there." The entire group erupted into laughter. Clariburnus assumed it was some sort of punch line to a witty story. How wonderful for them, enjoying the comforts of court while he works feverishly to ensure all of their survivals. Clariburnus stopped behind the group and waited. A few people began to talk, but something about the Lord of Shade made them stop in midsentence or even midword. He turned toward Clariburnus. "You bring news already?"Clariburnus bowed low. He needn't kneel this time since the setting was a bit less formal. The City had strict rules on what ettiquette was appropriate at a particular time. "Yes m'lord."The inky dark form moved toward Clariburnus. People backed quickly out of the way lowering their heads. "Tell me." A pair of guards settled on either side of the pair as they walked. The Lord of Shade was leading Clariburnus somewhere it seemed."The group seems rather newly formed, still getting a handle on themselves.""Lucky amateurs then?""Hardly. They are deadly, m'lord. One claims ownership of the mines." Clariburnus matched his masters step, gliding just as silently and easily along as they left the throne room and ventured up a massive, ornate spiral staircase."Interesting, go on.""They were easy enough to find. Follow the noise and the swath of destruction they left behind. While not always the most subtle I think they have great potential. They could definately be useful in the current situation.""I see. And how do we guide them in the way we want them to go?" The Lord of Shade had reached a large ornate doorway. Guards in front of the double doors opened them to admit the pair. They strode across the chamber, dark boots landing on finely laid green marble floors, turned inky black from years in the Plane of Shadow."One of them contacted me, mentally. He wants to learn our ways." "Really? You think this human worthy.""Halfling m'lord.""Hafling?" The Lord of Shade actually chuckled. "Truely interesting.""I have a few other ideas on how we could turn this to our advantage..." Doors to a balcony swung open and the pair stepped out onto the large stone platform. The railing was missing in places, fresh damage from the fight with the Chosen that had nearly plunged the city to the desert floor. Below workers clamored over many different buildings, repairing, building and renovating most of the city. Overhead flights of dire bats glided on the hot winds of the desert. The Lord of Shade took the progress in and then turned toward Clariburnus. "Very well, my son. What are these ideas?"Eleint 27th, 1372 - Dagger Falls, midnightJoseph stopped at his regular spot on the wall. He scanned the empty field below the town walls. Another quiet night on patrol. He longed to be on the patrol in the southern farm lands, hunting the drow raiders that had hit a few days ago. Randal Morn had called it a random act of violence by a people consumed with hatred for anything but themselves. Still many people wanted to see something done. So Morn had called for volunteers to work some overtime, patrolling the farms to the south of the river. Joseph had volunteered, but so had every other member of his unit. Needless to say he had not been picked. He sighed and rubbed the upper portions of his arms, trying to get the blood flowing a bit better.Something crunched out in the middle of the empty field. Joseph snapped out of his daydreaming and dropped down to take cover behind the defenses, his crossbow ready and aimed at the middle of the field where he had heard the noise. He scanned slowly, but saw nothing. Finally deciding it must have been some sort of field animal Joseph relaxed and straightened a bit.As he turned to continue his route along the wall a dark figure rose up to beside him on the wall, floating in mid air. Joseph began to spin. He began to scream. He began to lift his crossbow. He never had time to finish any of the actions. His eyes locked on the purple eyes of a female drow elf clad in finely wrought elven chainmail. She was almost beautiful. Her eyes were just a bit too angry to be pretty. Her sneer was just too vicious, and it made the rest of her features seem downright demonic. In a flash reality snapped back into full speed and the drow was faster than the human could ever hope to be. She lashed out with a dagger, slicing through Joseph's throat. The guard stumbled back a few steps his blood running down his neck. His crossbow clattered to the stone floor beneath his feet. His corpse followed it close behind. The drow hooked a rope onto the edge of the wall and dark figure after dark figure quickly clambered up onto the wall. Joseph's dead eyes stared at the figures, the only witness to group of over a dozen that breeched the town's defenses. The flesh around the wound in Joseph's neck sizzled, burning away as some sort of awful magic ate away at the flesh. The acid burned all the way through his neck before it finally stopped sizzling. The loose head was kicked by the groups second in command as he got his footing after climbing onto the wall. He smirked as he watched the head roll to a stop against the upper portions of the wall a few feet away.The large group moved swiftly toward their target, ignoring the rest of the darkened houses. They reached the front of the target building without any incident. Warriors flanked the doorway. The female chanted a soft spell, then touched the closest warrior. She nodded to him and he spun and kicked in the door. Absolutely no noise was made by the door being kicked in, her enchantment masking any noise around him. Several of the drow streamed into the residence. Flashes of light were seen from inside, first white then red, and then nothing but silence and darkness. Inside the first drow was greeted by a magical trap that guarded the door. He felt the white fire burst up around him, but his natural resistance to magic held and he barreled through. The first of his companions to follow him was not as lucky. The unearthly flames leapt from the first warrior to the second. His scream was silenced by the bubble of silence around the first warrior. It was obvious to the third drow through that the spell had been expended on the warrior in front of him, nothing but a charred husk remained.The first drow continued through the first room rushing around a large table with papers strewn about on top. He threw his shoulder into the door of the second room. It noisely broke away and the warrior lifted his hand crossbow to fire. Just outside of the silence bubble the figure standing beside the bed already had a wand pointed at him. Several globes of energy burst forth from the tip of the wand and spiralled individually into him. They easily punched through his protections and scorched thier way straight through his chest, leaving a craterous hole there. The dead warrior's momentum threw him forward. He slid to a halt a few feet in front of the wizard. As more drow streamed in past him the wizard attempted to use the wand again, but the silence now enveloped him as well. When the command word died on his lips, so did his chances of survival. He slowly lowered the wand as the group streemed in and fanned out, most of them pointing hand crossbows at him. In the front room, the female strode to the table. A pair of warriors flanked the smashed door to the outside. She looked down at the tabletop and pushed a few papers this way and that till she found one that caught her interest. She made a quick few motions with her hands, motions that where echoed along the lines till the two warriors closest the surrendered wizard saw them. They quickly lowered their hand crossbows and grabbed the wizard by each arm and hauled him forward. One snatched his wand from him and tossed it to the groups second in command. The male examined the wand, snorted silently and tucked it into his belt.The human was forced to his knees in front of the drow female. She turned towards him, and smiled. She made more motions with her hands, then pointed to the carcass of the drow with the silence spell still in effect on him. A pair of the other warriors grabbed him and tossed the carcass into a corner, freeing the woman and her captive from the effects of the spell."Where did you learn of this?" She held up the parchment and stabbed the image of the gem with a single finger.Sergio paled, "A... a farmer said that ..."She spoke alien words quickly and easily, and touched his forehead. Pain ripped through his mind and a single deep wound ripped open along his forehead, back into his scalp and down his nose and through one cheek. She purred, "Try again."He grit his teeth against the pain. If he screamed she would kill him instantly. He had to get away. He had to warn everyone. "An... adventurer..."She drew one finger along the opened cut, "Name and location?"He wimpered and nearly passed out at the pain. "I can't..." She drew a dagger out and spun the blade in front of him. He could see the acid clinging to its surface, it sizzled when exposed to the air. "This goes into the wound next. Tell me now, and I may kill you quickly." Sergio had not been an adventurer for long. It was cause he hated discomfort. He had retired with his meager earnings and lived a life of comfortable research. Pain, distress, and torture were just not things that he stood up against well.He quickly gave up the information. "His name is William Farseeker... he is one of the Farseeker sons.... his family villa is on the east side of town... and he has an apartment on Westcrook Road. He said he got it in Tethyamar... he must have teleported into town to return so quickly, he has probably teleported back by now, he has the gem... you may as well go to Tethyamar if you want it." He looked hopefully at her, thinking with that much information she might spare his life.She smiled, "Good..." She looked up to a pair of mutilated forms that perched in the corner. Long toungues hissed out of their mouth and bloody, visible muscles writhed over their forms. They  stood taller under her gaze, awaiting her command. "You may have him." Sergio wrenched around to look at the creatures and began to scream, one of the creatures swiped a clawed hand across his face before the scream ever reached his lips. The drow holding Sergio let go and backed off as the two creatures consumed the poor sage quickly and efficiently. The female turned to her second in command. "I'm going to assume that this family villa has a vault like our villas do. I will go there with the primary team and find the gem. That is where I would have kept it. You take the secondary team and make sure he is not at the apartment. Be quick and we will meet back at the crypts. Above all else, find me this gem!" She handed him the blood spattered page with the gem drawn on it, so as to recognize what he was looking for. He nodded and whispered, "Yes mistress."</blockquote>

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