| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I'll take the scroll fragment to a friend of mine in town - if he can't make sense of it then his master in Oppara should be able to manage it."
Parchment in hand, Maria made her way down to Stachys' tavern, where Tash had set himself up (the rent being covered by providing various arcane aid to the business). Had even organised an extension to part of the building so he had a larger workspace. The room was as cluttered as ever, though Maria was sure that there was some method to the madness. It was also clear he'd taken some of Darius' more "mechanical aid" approach to magical enhancements - various gadgets and tools lay about meant to focus arcane energies into particular forms.
The arcanist himself was pouring over one such device, his sleeves rolled up as he applied oil carefully to the joints of an armature.
"Tash? You free for the moment? How's your divination?" she asked.
"Not in my repertoire at the moment," he replied, magically cleaning his hands as he made his way over to her, leaning on the table, "but give me ten minutes or so and it will be, what's the go?"
"Piece of a used scroll, trying to work out what it was used to cast. Ideally who used it, but I'm trying to be realistic in my expectations."
"Well I'll try - probably better off takin' this to Darius, though. I think he sent me some teleport scrolls recently, they're around here... somewhere."
"I thought you knew where everything was in here?"
"I do!" Tash sounded almost offended. "They only arrived the other day, haven't had a chance to file 'em away properly yet, or even see what the scrolls are. Some of us have a day job, after all."
"Does yours involve periodical threats to your life and/or metaphysical existence?"
He started to reply but paused for a moment. "Yeah, alright, fair enough. Stick it in one of the clamps on that thing over there, I need to grab me spellbook and take time preppin' stuff so you may as well pop out and have a drink."
"It's not even noon," the detective pointed out as she took the scrap of parchment over to the assortment of machines.
"Wouldn't know it from the mornin' crowd round here, I can tell you. No no; the next machine along, the one with the magnifyin' glass."
Tash uses his spells to focus on the scrap of parchment with divination magic. He concludes that it belonged to a scroll of teleport, providing the assassin's method of entry and exit. Reading the psychic impressions around the scroll reveals it was held by somebody associated with darkness and shadows, but little else.
***
Back at the palace, Zileska prays over Taldogis's corpse, sacrificing valuable diamonds to restore life to the dog. The divine magic reverses the decomposition of his body, and the mutt's chest begins to rise and fall as he opens his eyes. He groggily gets to his feet, then, tail wagging, he lets out a booming *WOOF* and puts his paws on the half-elf's shoulders, nearly bearing her to the ground as he licks her face in gratitude.
You use the scroll of speak with animals, and Taldogis eagerly barks out his story: "Mom had been very upset! She got a piece of paper four days before I died, and it made her sad! That night, she found old thread in her drawer and then she made 'Ferner' lock me up! But I was worried about Mom so I escaped! Then a nice guard let me into the hall and into Mom's room. But there was a bad shadow man there, so I bit his hand! Then he stuck me with a sword, and then... And then I died, I guess! But now I am alive! Where is Mom? Is she okay? I miss her!"
"Well, that gives us something to go on, at least," Maria said, stowing the evidence again.
"Wish I could be more help, Maria, but I think you'd need to find a proper diviner to work out more, and a powerful one at that. Darius probably has the raw power for it, but he only really dabbles in that stuff. But I recognise that look in your eye; I get the feeling you learnt more than you expected from that."
"Confirmed one suspicion and lent evidence to another. Could you trace where the teleport came from or went to?"
"Not outside the penny-dreadfuls, I'm afraid. If anything like that does exist, it's either a closely-guarded secret or still being studied. I could do some digging, see what I can find, but it's probably already too late to even attempt."
"Leave it, I at least have some new questions to ask," Maria said as she turned to leave.
"I'm guessin' you can't tell me about the case?" Tash asked, still seated at his machine.
"Client's request, I'm afraid - they want this handled discreetly."
With what she'd learned from Tash's divinations, Maria headed to the palace to find Martella, filling her in on what Tash had discovered.
"The impressions we got of the killer sound a lot like a cultist of Norgorbor. It may have been carried out by an actual member of the cult, but then I suspect he's a god that appeals to freelance assassins as well.
"So we know how the killer got in and out, but it does have me wondering about security considerations around here. Would the assassin have had to circumvent anti-teleportation measures or were none ever established?"
The morning is dark and gloomy, with heavy gray clouds overhead. A constant drizzle of rain patters on the windows of the palace's library as you meet with Martella and Carrius to discuss the results of your investigation. The crackling fire in the hearth hardly seems to warm the room at all. Carrius waves away a servant and pours his own cup of tea, but lets it grow cold on the table next to him while he broods.
"Unfortunately, we do not have any countermeasures in the Palace for teleportation," Martella confirms. "It would have been expensive to secure such services from a powerful wizard, and are funds have been strained as it is. We trusted none would be brazen enough to attempt such a daring strike against the princess, but... Well, here we are."
When shown the necklace Zhi found on the dressing table, Martella smiles. "Eutropia got that back in charm school. She used to wear it all the time."
A confused expression flits across Ferna's face. "I saw the princess wearing it from time to time. It seemed to be a beloved piece of jewelry, but it's not particularly valuable. She always kept it in a drawer in her jewelry cabinet. I don't remember ever seeing it in a special box before."
"And you're certain it isn't magical?" Melodie asks, examining the necklace closely with magical and mundane gazes. "She had it with her and I believe that she knew she was going to die. So it must be important... Zil, are there any spells which can detect the presence of a soul? Otherwise... we should keep it close and try to track down this assassin and whoever ordered the hit. Martella, does this key mean anything to you? Bartelby recognised the heraldry, but not what it was for..."
Martella studies the key before shaking her head. "Alas, I do not know it's significance. Perhaps if Zileska can beseech her goddess for a divination spell, it might provide clues on how to proceed? Failing that, you might be able to use it or some of the other evidence as a focus for a scrying spell to try to find the assassin."
While the others speak with Martella and Carrius, Zhi teleports back to Oppara. Her goal is to have her agents begin gathering information on the Brotherhood of Silence's current activities. It sounds more and more like they might have been behind Eutropia's assassination.
She has an ulterior motive, however. She still hasn't forgotten the words of the summoned outsider that placed her father in their company. So along with general information gathering, she wants any information regarding someone matching the description of her father.
She returns to Birdsong Palace later that morning to join the group in whatever they're engaged in.
Regarding souls:
"I can cast speak with soul; if there's a soul in an object, I can communicate with it."
Regarding divination:
"I can use divination or other forms of such magic to peek toward the outcome of future events, but these can't tell us what to do - just tell us whether a given course of action is a good idea or a bad one. We need to decide on a direction first."
Regarding Maria's investigation:
"You're better at this than your father ever was."
Zileska prays over the necklace as she enacts her spell. There is a pause, then you hear the faint voice of Princess Eutropia! "Hello?" she asks tentatively.
"She's here!" says Zileska excitedly to the assembled ladies. She turns and whispers to the necklace. "We found you. It's Zileska. Who did this? We'll keep you safe. Do you want me to return you to life?"
"No!" Eutropia says quickly. "Not yet. I did this on purpose. I learned of a contract that the Brotherhood of Silence placed on my life, and I made the risky decision to do nothing to prevent the assassination. This might be our only opportunity to draw out whatever secretive force has been stalking me, tampering with my brother, and goading Maxillar Pythareus from arrogant regressive into a warmongering maniac. I used a powerful magic item, to transfer my soul into this necklace, leaving my catatonic body to be murdered. While I am in here, divinations cannot detect me. I trusted in your cleverness and resourcefulness to put together the clues I left behind to realize I was not truly gone. I must say, job well done.
"The enemy believes me dead. They will have lowered their guard. Now is the time to strike before they realize the truth. You must find their hidden base and put an end to them. Only once they have been well and truly eliminated, then you may restore me to life and we can finally bring this long and bloody war to an end."
Zileska relays the message that she has received.
"So that's good news!" she says. "Now we just need to follow the clues - great work, by the way, Maria and Zhi - and piece together the origin and identity of the assassin, and take down this evil cult at last."
"We have flesh and blood from the assassin," Zhi says with a raised eyebrow. "How about using magic to locate them?"
She gives Melodie a smile. "Even if the assassin was working on contract, I'm sure they know ... things."
"If they know things then I can find them out." Melodie agrees, with a slightly sinister smile.
Zhi looks at her wife for a moment before licking her lips.
Martella is overjoyed to hear that Eutropia's soul is still nearby. "That damned headstrong woman!" she laughs even as she wipes the tears from her eyes. "We cannot squander the chance she has given us. We must find the Immaculate Circle and deliver swift justice upon them."
"Circle... Follow the circle back to the beginning..." Carrius murmurs. He twists a handkerchief around his fingers several times before finding the words. “I... I’ve been seeing things, these past few days. Ever since Eutie died. Horrible visions. The men who held me captive in Yanmass—they worked for a secret society. I think it is the very same one you are talking about. I remember them dragging me back from the grave. I think they always meant to kill Maxillar and my sister and then use me as their puppet emperor. At least until you rescued me.
“It’s all still a jumble... They brought me back somewhere dark and lonely, overlooked by the World’s Edge Mountains. I remember the first time I saw daylight, Antios’s Crown stood perhaps fifty miles off to the northwest.
"Now... that my sister lies dead, I fear they’ll come for me, and drug me and control me again. If I could have seen any of this earlier, then my sister wouldn't have had to take such drastic action. You have to stop them, please!"
When Carrius is done with his speech he falls back in his seat, exhausted. A moment later a servant offers to help him upstairs, and Carrius agrees, but not before pushing a small lockbox across the table, adding, “I recovered these items from the Palace of Birdsong’s vault. I trust you can put them to good use.”
Carrius’s lockbox contains a +3 alchemical silver heavy mace, a pearly white spindle ioun stone, a ring of spell storing, a rod of cancellation carefully wrapped in sheepskin, three scrolls of mage’s magnificent mansion, and three scrolls of mass cure serious wounds.
"Hyden!" Melodie exclaims, "really?" At the blank looks from the rest of the group she explains. "It's the Lotheeds ancestral land, once a prosperous mining town. It's been abandoned for decades as I recall, the mines played out and it wasn't worth the effort any more. This is getting... Martella, how many times have your family come up in relation to this now? If it isn't you or Bartelby... is there anyone else that might be involved?"
Martell blanches. "There is only one Lotheed I can think of who has the power to manipulate events in Taldor to such an extent. Duke Paniver, my possibly immortal grand-uncle. I have never met him, but based on all we have learned of him, he is an archmage of unparalleled arcane ability. I shudder to imagine what other persons of power he may have gathered to his side."
"Could this be the Immaculate Circle then?" Melodie asks as her mind leaps ahead, making connections. "If he's immortal then he'd have the time to set something like this up. And the connections to get a coven of hags on side... Could he have been behind Carrius' resurrection? We know someone was."
She shakes her head.
"Either way we need to get to Hyden, as soon as we can!"
"I can get five of us there in an instant if I can see it first," Zhi offers. "Do we have any scrying magic?" She glances at Bartelby.
Bartelby produces a carefully rolled vellum scroll. "Courtesy of Avenna, the diviner late of Maxillar Pythareus's employ. This will allow you to view the town to facilitate teleportation. It will take an hour to cast the spell. I suggest you use that time to make whatever preparations you'll need to before departing."
"Again, I can only take five of us," Zhi says with an eye towards Safina.
Safina nods in understanding. "Time is of the essence. I'm sure you all will be fine without me." She kisses Maria tenderly. "Stay safe, my love."
"If I attune Safina to the dagger I could teleport her in once we've arrived?" Melodie suggests. "Bartelby, I assume you'd prefer to stay here? Fighting family is... never fun." Her blithe tone undersells the sudden pain as she remembers Kurana falling from the sky a broken mess, and without meaning to she reaches for her wife's hand.
"I've no wish to confront a wizard as powerful as Paniver Lotheed," Bartelby affirms.
Zhi takes the scroll with a nod and moves to a different room to utilize the scroll. She seats herself in a comfortable chair, unrolls the parchment and begins the spell. Scying isn't something that she's ever tried before, so she's curious as to what types of sensations it'll produce.
As Zhi invokes the scrying spell, mist begins to swirl within a large silver mirror Bartelby has provided. Slowly, the mist begins to clear away, revealing a worn-down street among a few ruined buildings. Zhi fixes the location in her mind, and once everybody is ready to depart, she casts a spell of teleportation.
The spell is successful, and you find yourselves on the very same street in the town of Hyden. The buildings all around are vacant and crumbling, but signs of passage—from carriages and horses, primarily—are abundant even to the untrained eye. In the distance, the World's Edge Mountains loom on the horizon.
Zhi looks around at the empty buildings. "If they're all empty, then where is all the traffic going?" she asks. Her eyes attempt to follow the tracks.
"Shall we follow the road?" she suggests to the others.
"Probably the old mines. That's where liches like to lair, isn't it?" says Zileska.
The priestess seems preoccupied, occasionally her fingers twitching over her holy symbol, glancing off in the direction of the mountains now and again.
"Something up, Zil" Zhi asks, noting the priestess' nervousness.
Despite her lack of training, Zhi can pick out the path of the trails. They seem to lead to a large two-story stone building near the old court and the crumbling Lotheed castle.
Zhi will spend some time scouting around the building, checking for carriages and/or stables with horses currently in residence.
She also counts the exits/entrances, watching for signs of life the entire time.
Four crumbling stone columns flank the bricked-over front doors of this two-story stone building. The face of a snarling lion is carved into the stone lintel above the doors. A cupola roof shows obvious scratches and gouges where the former gilding was scraped away by looters.
The windows that once ringed the upper level, as well as the front door, have been sealed with brick and mortar, and then plastered over from within. Only one side door on the first floor remains usable. This door is locked.
As Zhi is scouting the building, the air beside the rest of the party suddenly ripples as a horrible monster appears out of thin air! Terrible jaws ringed with clawed arms open atop this towering mass of flesh. A probing tongue flops from another orifice.
The tongue lashes out at Zileska, battering her and wrapping around her to snare the priestess! A screeching telepathic voice sounds in your minds. [i]"Tremble, mortals! You face Chadirrex Who Frays the Edges, and I will take from you all you hold dear!"
Melodie throws off the creature's gaze without issue and slaps Zileska quickly before retreating out of range. At her touch the creature's tentacles loosen their hold and Zileska is able to slip free.
Zhi turns as the sounds of conflict come to her ears. Racing back to the group, when she gets within range of her spell of speed , she stops long enough to cast it.
To Zhi, Zileska says, "I don't know... just nerves, I suppose. Whenever someone says 'immortal wizard' my mind automatically goes to 'lich' and I'm just... not quite up to that level of mayhem."
Zileska slips handily from the grasp of the critter.
"Been meaning to try this," she says, cracking her knuckles and then bobbing and weaving as she attempts a spell.
The monster resists Zileska's attempt to banish it. Again its telepathic voice fills your minds. "This is where hope comes to die. Your friends will abandon you. Your greatest achievements will turn to ash in your mouths. Leave and do not come back!" The creature fades away, but you can feel its foul presence lurking nearby...
"Okay."
Zileska starts walking away.
"Kiss my ass!" Zhi snarls back, as she moves closer to where the creature ... was?
"We're not going ... Zil? Where are you going? Come back! It's not a lich, it's stupid demon!"
Maria and Safina were mid-kiss when Mel mentioned the dagger's abilities. "It's funny - I keep forgetting that the dagger can do that. I usually have a better memory about that sort of thing."
The magic settled into Maria's mind smoothly and she turned to follow Zileska.
"Damnit!" Melodie curses as her feet start carrying her away from the fight. Her mind is willing but the creatures magic is dangerously subtle and has her feet under a spell.
"C'mon! Show yourself!" Zhi challenges with her weapons drawn. "You're with me, right, Sara?"
{"I'll try and bring it back. Be ready."}
Melodie tries to dispel the creatures effect and force it back to the Material Plane.
Zhi draws her weapons and prepares to stab at the thing when/if it appears.
The creature fades back into existence behind Zhi! The rogue stabs out at it but fails to hit, then the monster's tongue lashes her, wrapping around her and holding her tight!
Sara rushes over to help, reaching for the fiend's eyes, but failing to find purchase!