Burning down the House

Lossal, Tarlanor, 27th April 1655

The next morning, Lynien and Méabh, bathed and refreshed, sauntered into the Blue Knight in search of their comrades, and an update on what had happened the previous day. Gorfang and Uruk both showed signs of suffering from the night before, although the arrival of a breakfast best described as 'more lard than love' seemed to help.

Once the events of Gorfang and Eloy's foray had been narrated, the group discussed their next move. Damarus remained their only lead to the Blood Snake - admittedly only on the strength of mysterious dreams from unconfirmed sources - and eventually they decided to tackle him again to try and get some information. Eloy and Lynien mentioned a need to conduct some Guild membership business at some point, but were content to wait until later. Uruk was still seriously hung over, so he remained at the Blue Knight along with Bog who was happily brewing Boom Boom.

A block from Damarus' premises, Lynien slipped Maedar's Ring on and vanished from view. Méabh checked carefully to see if they were being followed, which they weren't, and cast a Cat's Grace in anticipation of trouble. Gorfang carefully slid the Veldrin into his scabbard of Keen Edge to prepare it. Then the group went up to the trapped front door. Not without some apprehension, Gorfang knocked; to his relief, nothing untoward happened.

After a few moments, the door was opened by Boris the valet, the young servant who Eloy and Gorfang had met on their first visit. This worthy blinked at the sight of the two aggressive visitors from the previous day, but their more civilized approach today made him a little more accomodating.

"We would like to see Damarus, please," said Gorfang levelly. "You're in luck; he's just come in," replied Boris. "Please come through to the waiting room and I'll see if he's free." He showed them through to the nicely panelled room Eloy and Gorfang had been in before, and disapeared to make the arrangements.

While he was gone, Eloy took the opportunity to unsheathe Bereloth and scan around for secret doors and magic. There were none of the former, but a small, unremarkable brass ornament on the pottery shelf turned out to be enchanted - and fixed firmly to the wall. Suspecting a surveillance device, the companions left it alone. Shortly afterwards, Boris returned. He eyed Eloy's drawn sword with some disquiet until the others told him to put it away, which he did with some reluctance. Méabh's fingers moved imperceptibly in a cantrip, and suddenly Boris's belt gave way and his trousers fell down. There was a general laugh at his expense, as he grappled with the trousers while trying to carry on his duties. He managed to secure them with one hand, and then ushered them all up the stairs to the office of Damarus.

Damarus' office was fairly full; apart from the man himself, seated at his huge desk working on some papers, four of his tough-looking guards were placed around half-way down the room, and the rogue Callia stood poised and ready to the left of the desk. Gorfang stepped up to the desk to speak to the agent; Eloy moved out to the left and as far forward as the guards would let him, whereas Méabh moved to the right and tried to slip between the guards. This might have worked for a winsome and harmless female in a floaty dress, but Méabh's alien eyes, businesslike leathers, and visible weapons made her a clear potential threat and the guards politely gestured her to a halt. Lynien, invisible and silent, slid between the guards to the edge of the room and waited there for an opportunity to flank someone. Then Damarus looked up.

"Ah, you've returned," he said in a pleased tone. "Have you brought the crystal pyramid as agreed?" Gorfang looked levelly at him. "We would like an introduction to your client - the Blood Snake," he said. Damarus' iron self-control flickered for a moment, and his eyes widened with surprise. "You know a lot," he said. "As I explained, this is not possible."

"Then the deal's off!" snapped Gorfang. Damarus looked a little sad. "We have an agreement, lady and gentlemen," he said quietly. "I would hate you to break it, for I would then have to pursue you for breach of contract." Gorfang coughed a laugh. "Yeah, right," he said contemptuously. Damarus raised a finger. "I was not referring to using the legal profession," he clarified.

Gorfang drew one of his other swords slowly and slid it across the desk through the papers to the agent. "Do you want to take it up now?" he challenged. Damarus appeared unmoved. "I don't resort to this kind of ...." he flicked the blade with a fingernail to create a faint ping! "Physicality," he continued. "I retain other contractors for that sort of thing." He nodded and the four thugs drew short swords and long knives.

Méabh stepped slightly forwards. "May I speak?" she asked. "Of course," said Damarus with an equable wave of his hand. "I hope to avoid bloodshed," she explained. "It's possible that you have underestimated us." Damarus shook his head. "You underestimate me if you imagine I would meet you without adequate protection," he replied. Méabh tried another tack. "If we complete the contract, can we then meet with the Blood Snake?" Damarus shrugged elegantly. "Things might be changed then; I could certainly re-approach him with that request," he said reasonably. "Is there a possibility we can hire you to discover his true identity?" she asked archly.

Again, a question he wasn't expecting made Damarus' eyes flicker, and the ghost of a smile appeared on his face for a moment, as if the subject were one he'd maybe thought about himself.

"I don't think that would be a viable possibility," he said regretfully. Méabh gave up. "I hope you've made a will," she said meaningfully, and once more tried to step around the guards in front of her - without succcess.

At this point, it occurred to Eloy that some dæmonic assistance would be useful at this point, and so he duly pulled out his flute and began to play it, in the hopes that it would summon something to their aid. The resulting ditty was a actually surprisingly tuneful, but ungarnished by magical effects; clearly Eloy had not learned to use it well enough to trigger the magic. What it did achieve, however, was to completely distract one of Damarus' guards, who clearly couldn't believe his eyes (or ears).

Damarus glanced at Eloy with a puzzled and faintly irritated frown, then back at the group in general. "It seems we're not getting anywhere," he said with the same slightly insincere regret in his voice. Gorfang looked back at Damarus. "Does that mean our contract is ended?" he asked. Damarus nodded, which turned out to be a fatal error. With a bound Gorfang sprang onto the desk, scattering papers everywhere, drew two swords, and launched a mighty blow at the agent's head.

The tension shattered and the room exploded into action.

Gorfang's comrades knew him better than Damarus did; the tone of his voice and the flexing of his muscles had been more than enough to warn them what was coming, with the result that several people reacted almost simultaneously. Méabh cast a Hold Person on Damarus, freezing him in his chair as the fatal blow descended, although the actions were so close together that only when he didn't attempt to dodge at the last moment was it apparent to Gorfang what had happened. The Veldrin struck cleanly on the top of Damarus' skull, and peeled his head apart in two halves down to his teeth. The impact sent the body sprawling behind the desk so quickly that the only one of his henchmen to see his death was Callia, whose leathers were spattered in his brains as he fell. A second later she was unexpectedly wounded as Lynien reached across and stabbed her with Baraclantar. The tiefling watched eagerly in the hopes that the frog poison she'd applied to the blade had reached Callia's bloodstream but it appeared it hadn't. Unsure where the attack had come from, Calia hefted a short spear and moved towards the desk to engage Gorfang, and Lynien gleefully stabbed her again, damaging her left leg sufficiently that she couldn't leap up to the desk to be on a level with Gorfang.

Eloy, confronted by two of Damarus' compentent-looking thugs, struck with his sword and wounded one, but the other responded with brutal efficiency, and a terrible head wound sent the human down to the carpet mortally injured. On the other side of the room, the guard facing Méabh slashed at her, and despite the inhuman quickness of her magic and her defence with her staff wounded her twice. Alone against two foes, Méabh was not inclined to half measures, and, channelling her magic through Erilas' staff, she unleashed a massive blast of Lightning at the two right-hand guards. One was half-way to the desk to challenge the rampaging orc, and almost evaded the strike, but the man she was fighting was caught full in the face by the entire blast. Blackened, burning, and weaponless, he staggered back. Beyond him, the bolt carried on, set fire to the panelled wall and blew out one of the windows.

Observing Eloy's fall, and more importantly that his erstwhile foes had turned away to engage someone else, Lynien unpouched a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds and knelt next to him. A faint breath of life stil clung on within him, so she tipped the healing fluid down his throat and stroked what remained of his neck to make him swallow.

Gorfang, perceiving a serious challenge in Callia, let his left-hand sword fall and took the Veldrin in both hands. The black blade ripped across the rogue's chest twice, slashing the black leathers into ribbons and tearing deep wounds in what (the orc thought) a human would probably consider a very attractive chest. She responded by stabbing the orc twice and the battle continued.

Méabh gave her foe no time to recover. Leaning forward, she cast another spell, and the guard gasped and moaned. Her own wounds shrank and closed, and she grinned nastily. Lynien sprang to her feet to be greeted with the sight of the backs of Eloy's two late foes. My favourite angle of attack, she thought happily, and drove her rapier into another unsuspecting victim. A moment later Eloy, furious, had risen to his feet and struck a similar blow from behind. One of the two guards went down and the other turned to engage the man he thought he'd already killed.

Atop the desk, Gorfang finally beat down Callia's defences and ended her career. Spinning in place, he noticed the last guard of the left-hand pair still fighting Eloy, and launched a devastating slash at him, unaware of the invisible Lynien in between. The tiefling girl bit out a most unladylike oath as the black sword whistled past her head with inches to spare and buried itself in the hapless thug, killing him.

Méabh's foe had abandoned hostilites, and was trying to simultaneously beat out the flames and surrender to the sorceress. She stood back to allow this, and then noticed Gorfang preparing to throw his second sword at the man from the desk. Once again, she cast Hold Person, and Gorfang froze in place. His eyes bulged with wrath. Méabh walked over to him, removed the sword from his hand and placed it carefully on the desk within his reach, said "We need some prisoners to talk to," stepped back out of reach, and cancelled the spell. Gorfang eyed her dangerously; once again, his native (and rather unusual) intelligence warring with his natural bloodlust and aggression. "I did not apprecuiate that," he ground out. Méabh gestured towards the other thug from the right-hand side battle, who was currently cowering in a corner between the fight and the fire trying not to be noticed, inviting Gorfang to kill him instead, but the flow of the moment was lost, and the orc resorted to kicking the crap out of the (very expensive) furniture instead. His mood wasn't improved when Lynien stopped him hurling Damarus' desk out of the window on the grounds that they needed the files stored in the drawers, but after he'd slaughtered the fourth guard after all he started to feel better.

While Eloy and Lynien ransacked the desk and the bodies and tipped everything worthwhile into a sack, Méabh questioned the burned and battered prisoner she'd saved. There was a false start while she dealt with the fact that he was half-deafened and needed shouting at, and then she asked him "What do you know about the Blood Snake?" The man goggled. "I've never heard of it," he said, "I haven't got one, honest; you've got to believe me!" She held up a hand to still his begging. "Fine." she said, "leave by the nearest exit." The thug glanced at the blown-out window for a moment but wasn't quite dazed enough to risk the leap, and stumbled across the room to the door, where he made the curious little gesture that safely opened the runelocked door.

Suddenly Lynien appeared at his side. He gaped at her; "Who are you?" he asked, clearly struggling to retain a grip on things. "Come here," she said, and led him to Damarus' desk. "Open that drawer," she told him. After a moment's hesitation where the fact that he wasn't allowed in that drawer warred briefly with the sight of Damarus sprawled in a pool of blood and brains behind the desk, he worked the symbol and the drawer opened. As Lynien began to ransack the drawer, the man slipped away again, hopes of survival rising again, but his face fell at the sight of Gorfang waiting by the door this time.

The orc shut the door, then turned to the scorched bruiser. "Show me how to open this door," he demanded. Relief flooded the thug's face; here was something he could do to buy his life. Carefully he taught the orc the complicated little gesture, and Gorfang successfully opened the door. "Good," said the orc, and cut the unfortunate man down without a second thought.

The room was now well ablaze, and it was clearly time to hurry things along. Swiftly, the party searched the rest of the upper floor, finding little of interest other than a bolt-hole rope-ladder under one of the windows. Méabh unrolled this and climbed down. Eloy and Gorfang were about to follow when Lynien mentioned hearing voices from the direction of the hall. The two warriors went to investigate - Eloy muttering 'no witnesses' as if prompted by some alien spirit from another world - while Lynien lowered the loot and descended the ladder.

Reaching the landing and peering over the top of the stairs, Gorfang and Eloy discovered two more thugs - completing the roster of six that they's seen the previous day - lurking at the bottom of the stairs with loaded crossbows, and Boris the valet hiding behind a corner further down the hall. Stitching a look of innocence on his face, Gorfang began to walk down the stairs as if nothing was wrong, despite the strengthening smell of smoke and crackle of flames. One of the guards jerked his crossbow; "Stop right there!" he cried. Gorfang affected to look surprised and replied, "I'm just coming back down from my meeting with Damarus," while continuing to walk.

"We heard fighting, and an explosion, and something's on fire up there!" shouted the guard, with rather more bravado than confidence. "Stop there or I fire!"

At this point Lynien opened the front door. It creaked slightly as it swung open, and Boris glanced around in puzzlement as there appeared to be no-one there. A moment later his attention was snatched back to the stairs by a crash! that shook the entire building. Gorfang had hurled himself bodily down the last flight of stairs at the two guards. One simply froze in utter shock; the other managed to fire his crossbow, winging the orc in the arm as he hurtled downwards. The next moment nearly three hundred pounds of orc and armour smashed down on him, hurling him across the hall to smash into the wall opposite.

With a yell, Eloy charged down the stairs in the orc's wake, and cut down the other guard while he burbled in bewilderment. Gorfang surged to his feet, drew his sword, and finished off the man he'd landed on, who was also in no position to defend himself.

Meanwhile, Lynien had slid invisibly into the hallway and come up behind the hapless and harmless Boris. Mercilessly, she drew a blade across his throat and he died choking in his own blood.

While this was happening, Méabh had slipped into the first room off the hallway, which turned out to be Callia's room. It was quite large, but almost obsessively cluttered and untidy. Scattered around were an enormous variety of clothes and items for disguises, and a vast number of weapons of different types and qualities, none magical. Her eye was caught by a small strongbox, and after smashing the lock off she had a sift through before calling Lynien in to have a look. One item caught her attention and she squirreled that away before anyone else spotted it.

For Lynien, Callia's room was like a professional sweet-shop; packed with things she could easily see a use for. To steal them all would have taken an hour at least and a waiting cart. The building was burning. The best she could do was cherry-pick. Eloy snagged a set of nicely-balanced throwing knives, and the contents of the strongbox went into Lynien's sack. Méabh kindled another fire in Callia's room - just to make sure - and then they left the scene as the flames consumed the house of Damarus.

Back at the Blue Knight, they divvied up the loot and started to examine the files...

Digest of information found in Damarus’ Files

• An espionage job on the dwarf mastersmith Dirzor, carried out by Callia, to determine whether he was adulterating the enchantments on the weapons he makes. Evidence delivered to client ‘Coalface’, fee paid 10,000gp, Callia’s fee 2,500gp, balance invested in Guild Venter as standard.
  
  
• The hiring of the assassin Principa for the slaying of the pit fiend Hammerwrack and the retrieval of the sword Rilliantorin, commissioned by the Blood Snake. Target eliminated, sword delivered, fee paid to Principa 225,000gp in assorted gems, fee collected from Blood Snake 500,000gp, balance invested in Guild Venter as standard.
  
  
• A commission from a different client, referred to only as Flamingo, to steal Skufruss’ Sceptre of the Dragon Lords. The notes tell that he hired a rogue named Tirmir some six months ago and sent him on this mission. At the bottom is the notation “Probable failure” and yesterday’s date. No fee collected.
  
  
• The folder marked ‘Deathbreaker’ contains the details of the group’s commission to retrieve the pyramid. A snippet of notes describes each PC, though generally only in ways publicly available. It describes the fee proposed as 4,500gp, and the 1,000gp advance in ‘Guild Venter time-bonded credits’. A date five days from today has been noted along with the words: “Assume absconded; send Principa to retrieve.”
  Under ‘Opposition’ is found the following lists:
  • Certain: Pelor, Gonvan, Aderra, Diruc, Ehlonna, Karlan, Karrath, Morganna, ?Lilyx, Lolth, Shushkrah
  • Probable: Dwarf, Elf, Triad, ?Orc, The One
  • Uncertain: Hobushu, Tiamat
    
    
• A folder marked ‘Blood Snake’. The contents of this show that Damarus’ concern for his client’s privacy did not extend to his own activities. He’s obviously tried to discover as much as he can about this client, and only this client. An address is provided, in a very select part of town, as well as a description [tall, dark, saturnine, very strange accent, very swift and agile, and – strangely – ‘appears immune to fire’]. Notes describe two failures at inserting spies into his dwelling, but add ‘The museum is of course open to all but this is no help’