The White Rat and the Death Hounds

Sigil, The Outlands, 7^th October 1601

Having run out of questions for the Mimir,  they turned to go. Jarvis nervously opened the heavy doors, and they slipped back into the corridors of the Mortuary.

Making their way cautiously, they escaped from the Dustmen's stronghold and retraced their steps back to the Hive. As they walked, it became apparent that Jarvis' mind was beginning to wander; he appeared almost unaware of their presence. In fact, when they reached the door of his hovel, and he turned to unlatch the door, he started visibly at the sight of them, unsure of who they were and why they were there. After a second, he asked for his robes back, uncertainly. Gradually, he came back to himself, and when the Tellaran said they might be back to see him again, he agreed, saying it was nice to do business with them. He was hurried and distracted, though, and it was clear he wanted to be inside to spend more time with his new obsession... sheep.

Returning to the streets, the group began to ask for directions to the street the White Rat was said to live on. The first person they asked, a goodwife, took one look at Surya and Hildraft and practically fled. The second citizen they stopped was less squeamish.   A naive young healer with his apprentices, he was able to direct them to where they needed to go.

As they crossed the city in the indicated direction, the quality of the districts began to improve again. By the time they reached the named street, they were in no doubt of the social level of the White Rat. They were just turning down the street when they were rather abruptly hailed.

A patrol of five men walked quickly over to intercept them, led by an obvious sergeant. All wore mail topped with a white surcoat, blazoned with a single arrow.

The leader addressed Surya, curtly informing him that he had missed his way, and that "sell-swords and bravoes" were not welcome in this area of town. Exchanging glances, the pair drew on their new knowledge of Sigil to ask who, as there, were no laws or rulers of the Cage, gave these people the authority to say this, and who were they anyway?

The sergeant identified them as members of the Harmonium, a faction of Sigil, who keep order and the rule of law; his name he gave as Nairb. Surya and Hildraft were already beginning to understand Sigil well enough to suspect that there was a unilateral element to this, but gritted their teeth and explained to Nairb that they were not "bravoes or sell-swords" but law-abiding citizens come to visit a resident here, the White Rat. Nairb blinked. "We are aware of the weirdo," he said disaprovingly. In a city like Sigil, this was quite a statement.

"Be about your business, but remember - I will be watching you. I know your faces now," he warned. Surya smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Hail and farewell," he declared, making a hand gesture that seemed unknown here, but was in fact regarded as rather rude in Tellare. Nairb marched his men away, and Surya and Hildraft walked down the street to the house of the White Rat.

They knocked, expecting the door to be answered by some sort of servant, and were quite surprised when it was opened by what could only be the White Rat himself.

Tall and well-built, he was largely human in appearance, but his large, long-fingered hands were furred across the backs, and his head was almost entirely rodentine. His expressions were reassuringly normal, however, despite no visible iris or pupils to his eyes. He was elegantly dressed, but appeared to be unarmed. "Yes?" he asked.

"We have a common enemy," said Surya, launching directly into the business at hand as was his way. "Bramandin." The Rat looked at him in surprise for a moment. "By the way," continued the Tellaran, "Who are the Harmonium?"

"Come in," said the Rat, recovering his courtesy from his surprise. He ushered them inside and seated them, providing drinks to their taste, and then sat down facing them.

"The Harmonium are a faction of Sigil, " he explained, "who see a very clear picture of what is Right and what is Wrong, and themselves as the ultimate arbiters of those conditions. For all that there is no authority granting them the right to do so, there is no-one to prevent them either, and for those they regard as law-abiding they can be a great benefit. Others see their views as narrow-minded and arrogant."

Then he turned to the more serious business. "You mentioned Bramandin. Have you  lost someone to him?"

Surya grinned. "No," he said, "He's hunting us," The White Rat gasped. "You bear a death mark from Bramandin?" he asked concernedly. Hildraft and Surya nodded (Sack shook his head with  a grin), and Hildraft said, "We killed a little tiny dragon... we and some others. What was it called? Oh yes, Varkar Barduric."

The White Rat nodded. "Word of that deed had reached here," he said. "So you are the Wyrmslayers? And now someone has paid for vengeance?" He sat back in a position of listening. "Tell me all."

Over the next hour Hildraft and Surya spun the tale of the Slaying and the events since. The Rat's eyebrows climbed when the tale wound down to Tiamat. Surya mentioned the sword Zero-One ("Ah. The Sword of Ultimate Law. It is well that it's beyond reach," said the Rat. "Wouldn't you like it?" teased Surya. "Me? No; no mortal can be worthy of that."). He was deeply impressed that Hildraft had managed to scry the cambion assassin.

As they told the tale, it occurred to Surya that there was something fishy in the way that Yakov had been able to divine the name of their nemisis, and resolved to go back and find out more about how the dark magic expert got his information.

The White Rat looked at them for a few moments. Finally he spoke. "My sword is yours," he said simply. "I would give a great deal for another crack at that bastard. What is your plan?"

Surya explained that everything they'd learned indicated that Bramandin would be almost impossible to hunt or track. They had to get him to come to them. The Rat nodded. "You have something to aid you that I have never had," he commented. "Bait."

Surya rather delicately approached the topic of whether the Rat, a knight of the forces of Light, would be happy working with him, given the weapons of dark portent he carried. "They have been used only for good," he stated, mentally brushing one or two incidents under the carpet.

"I know," said the Rat, "word of your deeds has reached even here. I would not criticize you, although some of your objectives could do with examination."

They discussed the next move, which Surya and Hildraft had decided would be to visit Bramandin's premises, search them for any clues as to his whereabouts or evidence, and probably do something damaging to them. The Rat did not attempt to dissuade them, but declined to go along; he, unlike them, had to live in Sigil afterwards.

Leaving his home, they worked their way into the Market Ward. This was the trading district of the City of Doors, and a bewildering array of shops, stalls, and street traders met their eyes. Having purchased a map on the way, they turned down a dusty side street and located a closed shop, with dust-clogged windows and nothing on view inside. A close look revealed that the only face of the premises exposed was the front; top, sides and back were enclosed by other properties.

Sack "cased" the place, discerning some pretty nasty traps on the doors and windows, while the others examined the nearby shops. Surya, intrigued by the multiplanar flotsam and jetsam offered by one of the weapons traders, bought a couple of curiousities at random. Then, as night fell, they cautiously approached the door and set to work.

Working with millimetric care, Sack managed to unlock and open the door without mishap, and it swung into the shop, leaving an arc in the thick dust covering the floor. Cautiously entering, they discovered a small, square shop, with a section partitioned off at the back. A counter separated the front from the back, and a writing desk stood against the back wall.

Checking and testing every step of the way,  they moved cautiously forwards. Detect Magic showed them that there were enchantments laid on or near the writing desk, so they concentrated on that. Like everything else in the shop, it was coated in a thick layer of dust; the three or four pieces of paper on the desktop were unreadable for it. However, the other object on the desk was completely free of dust; a small, intricately carved wooden box. It was from this that the dweomer radiated.

Carefully, Sack checked it for traps, then used his smallest lockpicks to jimmy the mechanism inside the box's keyhole. Then, crouching down, he used a curved stick to push the lid back.

With a silent flare of light, Bramandin's face appeared over the box, transparent and four times life size. His voice rang out through the shop. "Intruders, I see. Today is not your lucky day....". With almost no transition, the inside of the shop was filled with roaring flames.

Sack and Surya had already been recoiling, and continued the motion towards where the door had been. Hildraft was slower, and suffered worse, but all three plunged through the rapidly disintegrating shopfront into the blessed coolness of the street. A crowd was already beginning to gather as they did so, and they managed to lose themselves into it as the building began to collapse. A few streets away, they paused for Hildraft to heal their burns, and headed back to the portal they had arrived through, to find the White Rat waiting for them.  His elegant attire of before shed, he wore well-made armour and had twin maces looped onto his belt.

Hildraft unpacked the apple, and they stepped through, emerging into the courtyard of Reital castle in the moonlight.

Reital Castle, New Tellare, 7^th October 1601

As the flare of the energies of the portal faded, Hildraft's detector flashed, indicating the presence of magical gateways. As the group started in alarm, three oval openings into nowhere spiraled into existence around them, and huge canine forms started to spring through. Each disgorged three, and then they snapped shut.

Death Hounds.

The companions drew closer to each other, weapons leaping into their hands - except Sack, who instantly vanished from sight and reappeared on the wall, already reaching into his quiver for an arrow. Hansen began to sing his bardic magic, a quaver in his voice, as Hildraft bellowed, "Close up and touch each other!" As the massive hounds closed at terrifying speed, the dwarf reached out, grabbed Surya next to him, and cast Ethereal Jaunt. Instantly, all the group were shifted into the Ethereal plane. Freed from gravity, they began to drift upwards. The hounds, not slowing and plainly still able to see their targets, reached them and leaped upwards. Close up, the Death Hounds were disquieting, slightly translucent and not quite in phase with the material plane, huge as ponies. Bounding up, their terrible teeth slashed at the group, tearing and biting, and a cry of pain from the White Rat indicated that they could reach into the Ethereal. Conversely, they were susceptible to the companions' weapons - to a point. The blades swept straight through their forms without slowing, but rents appeared in their track. Far less damage that there should have been; with the insight of the Robe of Eyes, Surya realized that the material weapons themselves weren't harming the monsters; only the magical enhancements.

A few seconds later, they had managed to ascend beyond the hounds' reach, and Hildraft unleashed a Flame Strike. Unearthly flames streaked down through the Ethereal, straight through the courtyard ground without stopping. The Hounds, though, partially shifted into the Ethereal as they were, howled as the holy fire seared their forms. Those that had been wounded by the defenders' blades and shafts died instantly; the remaining three snarled for a moment and blinked out of view.