Iron Realm Log Twenty-Five
Just in case you've forgotten, the cast:
Tragladt - Dwarf warrior
- male
Atris - Lich assassin - female
Buxttonn - Elf Battlemage - male
Tahlia - Vampyre thief - female
Drusila - Vampyre battlemage - female
Kysan'tel - Wildling battlemage - female
Wyrin - Wildling warrior - female
Taid Sef - Dwarf sorcerer
- gender unknown
Caster - Human assassin - male
Year of Darkness 1123
3rd - 4th day of the Tiger
The party head for Salinar's library. On the way they realise they are being followed; Atris expands her telepathy outwards but cannot find the mind. Drusila and Tahlia turn into bats and flutter back to find the follower.
The pursuer is a nobleman judging by the long nose but his features are hard to discern as he wears a hood. Tahlia flaps down and tries to remove the hood but fails, instead she gets a good look at a scarred and maimed face.
Not a pretty sight.
Atris casts improved invisibility on herself and heads back to the nobleman. Drusila returns to vampiric form and prepares arrows. The nobleman senses danger but cannot see the direction until Drusila looses a shaft. Incredibly, the scarfaced nobleman catches the shaft then vanishes - to reappear directly behind the party.
As the party turn to face him he vanishes again. Only the vampiric bats are able to track him but even they lose the nobleman as he appears to be able to slip through solid rock.
At Salinar's library Atris asks about the nobleman.
"His name is Lord Vaegon of House Dread, he has been banished by King Vainnor for a feud between him and your enemy Lord Xarian of House Dalvor."
"During the feud Xarian tormented House Dread and the severe injuries you see on the nobleman are as a result of Xarian's cruelty. Because of Lord Vaegon's retaliation he banished House Dread from court, and indeed from castle Stormstone."
Salinar gives Atris a cloak called Shroud, an artifact she commissioned earlier.
That night the two vampyres - Drusila and Tahlia - roam the streets looking for drunkards. They soon find two likely candidates. One is so mesmerized by Tahlia's beauty that he is paralysised and she drains him of all his blood.
Drusila feeds with similar ease and they try their best to hide the corpses. But they do not hide them well enough. Drusila - whose senses are nourished and at their height - senses a familiar heartbeat. It is Lord Vaegon.
As bats the two vampyres watch as the strange scarred lord puts his hand through one of the corpse's skull, seems to meditate a while and removes the hand without a trace.
Atris, who is in the study at the Astral Tower, sacrifices the Casket of Wonder to create her first magical item. The ring of the battlemage is created (40,000 gp) and she hands it to Buxttonn.
Atris then heads out to replenish her magic. She finds herself staring at the tip of a longsword as a common street mugger tries to rob her.
"How fortunate," the master assassin says with a wry smile. The robber does not even feel his neck snap moments later, nor is he aware that his soul is now forfeit.
Next morning the party move en masse to a tavern in the merchants' quarters called the Seller's Cellar. Atris casts a telepathic message out across Stormstone meant for Lord Vaegon. "Nice catch Scarface . . ."
In the busy taproom they don't have long to wait. Atris spots the rogue lord in a quiet corner, back to a solid wall to avoid assassins, or perhaps so that he can slip out if things go bad.
As a precaution the two vampyres - Drusila and Tahlia - flap onto an overlooking roof as bats to keep watch. Drusila soon becomes concerned that there is a quiet gathering of robed individuals, seemingly randomly appearing in the courtyard, the side streets and the back alleyway. Drusila then spots Lord Xarian giving quiet instructions and realises it is a trap.
Tahlia points out the strange weaponry of the gathering. Each man carries a half spear, a strange choice of weapon and not the more familiar longsword or longspear.
Inside the tavern Lord Vaegon makes his goals clear. He says he is in it for revenge and wants to kill Lord Xarian slowly, but along with the rhetoric is a warning.
"He is resourceful and very powerful," the scarred man says, "you underestimate him at your peril. He is close to the king in respect of his wealth. His house is a great supporter of king Vainnor."
Caster decides that he has heard enough and walks out of the tavern and past the growing numbers of Xarian's henchmen. Tahlia resumes humanoid form and joins Caster, whilst Drusila remains on the roof - as humanoid - to keep an eye on the brewing storm below.
Without warning all Hell breaks loose.
The spearsmen start to discharge beams of light into the tavern indiscriminately. Each light blows apart anything it touches: flesh, solid rock, glass, wood, nothing can withstand the bolts of energy that emerge from the new weaponry.
Even Tahlia and Caster are set upon by two spearsmen but manage to avoid the beams of light and enter combat. Caster manages to shoot one dead with a light crossbow, whilst Tahlia ducks and dives under each assault before she too stabs her enemy through the eye.
They pick up the half spears - which emit magic - and run for the Astral Tower.
Inside the Seller's Cellar there is carnage. Buxttonn, Wyrin, Tragladt, and Lord Vaegon dive for cover into the cellar room. Taid Sef sinks into the rock but leaves a hand outside, enough to hurl an hypnotic pattern into the courtyard, which leaves ten of the attackers stunned and confused.
Atris remains on the ground floor, dodges beams of death and manages to survive the crossfire. Taid Sef casts a fireball into the courtyard, which scatters the attackers and blunts their attack; many of them run for cover or just run for their lives.
But still some remain. Those brave spearsmen center on Atris, who has strolled through one of many gaping holes in the walls to be amongst the spearsmen. Just when they think the woman is a sitting duck Atris detonates Jahick's Fire Curse and the flames engulf the remaining attackers and consume them with life-destroying fire.
Drusila shoots dead those who try to run as the rest of the party are led through a secret tunnel to emerge into a backstreet several hundred feet away.
On his way back to the Astral Tower Caster tries to activate the half spear. It gives a satisfying click but it is the last sound the young assassin hears as the booby trapped weapon blows him into a million pieces, along with all of his equipment including the Book of Lies.
They later return to Salinar's library to speak with the learned librarian. They discuss the possibility of going to the king and presenting the evidence of Xarian's treachery . . . but Salinar is not convinced his majesty will even listen.
"The word of a trusted friend against those who court a banished lord . . . I'm not sure you'll get very far."
Atris holds up the ring of the lich and ponders her dilemma. The ring is her death-cheating tool but the quandary is who she gives it to and where it must remain.
Then the solution hits her like a punch in the face.
"Salinar," she says with a twisted smile. "I want you to find me a husband, a minor nobleman with little or no ambition . . . I want you to find me a husband my friend . . . "