Investigations

Walking out of the Thronehall, Surya paused in a small atrium along the corridorn they'd entered through. Turning, he came to face Crassus as the latter drew level with them. The tall, gaunt Prætorian commander was giving nothing away in either his expression or his stance, his hawkish face tilted towards Surya's, and his faintly gleaming black sugistratus armour gave him a noticably ominous appearance.

The Tellaran introduced himself and his friends, and Crassus offered a firm handshake. "It appears we are to work together," he said evenly. Surya gestured in agreement. The Prætorian's eyes roved over the three, and he continued, "You people can represent two things to me. Trouble; chaos and disorder, disruption - or an extra chance to help pull my fat out of the fire." Surya looked the tough-looking nman up and down and appeared to form a positive impression. "Are you on duty?" he asked finally, with seeming irrelevance. Rather than answer, Crassus glanced down at his sable armour. Surya continued, "only I thought we could perhaps discuss this over a drink. I'm buying," he added. Crassus appeared thoughtful. "I could regard it as 'interviewing recruits'" he commented. "Consider yourselves deputized," and he proceeded to lead the way to a suitable hostelry.

Comfortably settled behind cups of wine in the Red Malen, an army officers' tavern, the four investigators discussed their situation. It was clear that Crassus, having been directed to join forces with the group by his Emperor, had no intention of going against this, and was trying to evaluate what he'd got involved with. "I heard the song," he said, nodding at Hansen; "now tell me some more," he ended, clearly aware that there was more that could be shared between 'grunts' than was suitable for unfolding before the court. An understanding was reached, objectives identifed (find out what happened, and prevent it happening again) and some plans made. Surya explained in more detail what the Vintares Gate was, how it worked, and who put it there, and delicately broached the concept of attempting to destroy or remove it to prevent further attempts to open it. Crassus didn't dismiss the idea out of hand, but indicated there might be some opposition to removing such a significant monument.

The next step, obviously, was to explore Gravincia's house in more detail, and search it for clues. Hildraft made a quick visit back to the group's rooms, to find Sack there, exhausted after his intense night's activity, preparing to turn in. Greygill and Luregon were keen to be involved, though, and came back with the dwarf. Meeting up with Surya, Crassus and a squad of Praetorians, they made their way to the Daywalker senator's home.

Hildraft had secured the keys, but it was clear that the house-slaves were up and around, working inside, and the squad's declartium [corporal] hammered on the door and bellowed a demand to be admitted on the Emperor's business.

Nothing happened, other than sounds of some alarm from within, so Surya braced himself, tapped his Bull's Strength amulet, and kicked the double doors clean off their hinges. Revealed in the hallway were a couple of terrified slaves, and a thunderstruck guard peering out of the guard-room Sack had locked the previous night.

Black-armoured Prætorians poured into the hallway, short stabbing malen swords in their hands, and the mantle of Imperial power about their shoulders. The guards were not suicidal; all three dropped their weapons and surrendered. Crassus rapped out swift orders, deploying his men into the building to lock it down and capture everyone in it. He'd explained earlier that evidence secured from slaves was inadmissable under Imperial law; but only a fool would ignore the investigative leads that could be obtained by interrogating such 'property'.

Surya, Hildraft, Crassus and two Prætorians headed up the stairs, making for the unexplored study room. As they pased through the hall, Surya's all-round vision caught sight of an oddity; a large, gnarled, clawed foot visible through the open door of one of the bedrooms. A couple of steps took him there, and he saw what he'd expected; the huge form of the vampire ogre, sprawled at the side of one of the coffins Sack had sterilized, dead from the effects of sunlight on a vampire unable to reach shelter in time.

They took a moment outside the study door to prepare themselves, and then they threw it open and leaped in. Surya, shockblade sword and shield raised, placed himself squarely between the elemental guard and the precious spellbooks; Hildraft squared himself and threw a Dismissal spell at the extraplanar sentry.

Unfortunately, this failed, and the dwarf found himself regretting only bestowing Protection from Fire on Surya as the flames crackled across his armour, heating it uncomfortably. Then Surya was at the creature, his electrically-charged sword slashing great rents through the living fire of their opponent. In a few seconds, it had suffered enough damage to make its' form on the Material Plane untenable, and it vanished, forced back to the Elemental Plane of Fire.

With the guardian gone, they turned their attention to the room. The central pillar's shelves held Gravincia's spellbooks - of great interest to Surya, now that he'd started his training in the arcane arts; they went into the Bag of Holding. The desk was piled with books, but Hildraft sensed a trap on it, and with the assistance of the Prætorian segficum [declarta spellcaster], discerned it to be a Symbol of some kind. The soldier tried to bring it down, but failed, and finally Hildraft's power of prayer managed to break the enchantment - a powerful and very dangerous Symbol trap.

With the desk safe, they were able to examine the contents. There were several books - clearly all of what they'd come to term "vampiric" nature - and two sheets of paper. The top one carried a very detailed description of the group as they'd been on entering Thornal - Surya, Sack, Hildraft and Hansen, with a scribbled postscript briefly describing Rolc. The other sheet was a map, hand-drawn and crude, which a little puzzling showed to be a map of the Engeror Mountains, at the extreme north of known Alair, with Vorsand and the Versate Pass marked. What was remarkable was that it also showed beyond the Versate pass - a region that none present had ever seen maps of or heard any tales about. The sole known fact about the Unknown North was that Varkar Barduric had come from there - and presumably what dragons still survived in the world lived there still.

The map showed the far side of the Engereor range, and some sort of flatter land, plains or tundra. At the top was clearly marked a symbol, and the words "Valca Gate".

After some discussion, it was agreed that all the evidence would be returned to the main Prætorian barracks, where Crassus had a room prepared for it where it could be examined by experts. He had, however, no objection to the group securing some items for their own use. Surya accompanied him there to see to the arrangements, while Hildraft headed back to the Library of Aderra. There, he placed a request for research into the words "Valca Gate", and requested maps of the Unknown North; while he waited, he used his Sending magic to make similar requests of Cardinal Axeedge in Kobur. In a couple of hours, some details began to emerge.

In the very dim and distant past - before the coming of Men to Known Alair - the dwarves had traded with visitors from the Unknown North, dwarves like themselves, who made the hazardous journey through the Versate and across the (then) empty Northlands, until the waxing power of the great orc-fortresses in the northern Erean made it too hazardous. Scattered references from those days indicated that dwarves were not the only sentient race to live north of the Engeror, and that the regions there were very cold; little more.

The most useful information was found in ancient books of elven-lore. There, it was recorded that the Valca Gate was created by the hero Galoriand after his battle with the First Vampire Cain, and was not only the gateway to the demiplane Arnora where the dread being was imprisoned, but was the keystone of that plane. The Valca held the plane Arnora shut; it also held it up. To destroy the Gate would be to unbuild the demiplane and release its' inhabitant...