"If everyone's in one piece, we gotta keep moving. We have a date!"
Jametor keeps looking at the area where the Cyphergate is located. He then turns to Njord. "Lead on, but I need to visit the Cyphermages soon, I think."
Heading further down the street in the direction of the old mill, the group notices a bit of fresh blood near the entrance to a dark alleyway. The street is still completely deserted. No shops are open for business at this late hour, of course, but even the usual shady "night denizens" of Riddleport are curiously missing.
"I gotta bad feeling about this", the big ulfen says while continuing to scratch at his extra-shaggy beard. "Be ready for trouble."
Njord looks around for a sign of their contact.
Antal grimaces, shaking the unnerved feeling from his mind. "Ready and expecting it, big guy."
Randall checks out the alley for lurkers and bodies without entering.
A sudden scream pierces the stillness.
A man appears, shining as brightly as a torch, about two hundred feet in the air... and falling. His final scream is cut off a few seconds later by a sick crunch as he strikes the ground just near the old mill.
Njord looks around.
"Everyone saw that, right?" he says in disbelief before rushing to the splattered man's side.
As he approaches, Njord realizes that the 'man' is none other than Kay, the kitchen girl who started at the Gold Goblin only a few weeks before. A blanket tied around her body gives off light like a torch, as well as masking her figure.
"Gods above it's lil' Kay", Sven says. "How?"
"Who's out there?" he bellows, looking for a sign of who could have dropped her from so high above.
Jametor casts Detect Magic, concentrating on the body of Kay.
Jametor detects a faint aura of evocation on the blanket.
Antal also casts Detect Magic and looks towards the mill, keeping his eyes open for any signs of who could be doing such awful things.
Antal sees no hint of magic around the old mill.
"Well we can't do anything for Kay right now and that we still need to find out who planted a dagger in the door. We'll come get Kay on the way back."
Antal's also gonna look to see if there's any magical energy still in the air from where the woman fell. "This is getting stranger and stranger..."
Antal can't detect any magical energy within the range of the spell.
Njord shakes his head sadly.
”Maybe this is what they wanted us to see.”
"Disgusting individuals." Antal spits on the ground in response.
"Poor Kay..."
Fíriel moves to the girl's body and reaches out one hand to close its eyes, then sighs.
"Maybe Njord...maybe. But we came for a "meeting" near the mill. We need to make sure this isn't the only thing. Why go to this trouble, why not just kill Kay at the Gold Goblin and put her in the apartment with the dagger?"
Jametor paces back and forth thinking.
"I don't trust anyone, no one but you all. I don't trust Saul as far as I could throw Njord. Do you?"
”I dunno. Saul seems honest to me. Does he give you a bad vibe?”
"I am not sure he's..dishonest. I think there's more to this story than you and I know. He's sent us places, not given us a full story. He's changed our deal, then changed it back. I've heard somethings about his feud with Clegg. You and I both know Clegg is supposedly powerful enough to just squash Saul, had him on the ropes. Why didn't he? Why doesn't he now? Where does Saul disappear to? Heck, none of us fit in. I'm a bookish elf, who doesn't know when to shut up. We're a group of oddities. Look around, you see a lot of "us" around here? Notice how it's only the locals who are dying? Why's that? Why Kay? She's harmless. Why aren't they attacking us? We've hurt them. Hurt them bad. Njord, I've seen you in battle, you don't go after the weakest. You head for the strongest. The one who represents the most danger. I've read enough history to know that's the way you are supposed to fight. Why are we being attacked like this?"
Jametor pauses for a moment.
"It's not that I get a bad vibe, but I think he's just not telling us everything. Oh, you remember how he reacted when I mentioned going after the crime lords that first day? Seemed to me to be a good strategy, find the root, go after it. Does any of this make sense?"
Njord listens quietly to the elf’s short rant, nodding only occasionally.
”I’ll agree somethings with Saul have been a bit a strange and I get the feeling he doesn’t always give us the full story but he’s never sold us short. Like I said last night, we’ve all got our demons Jametor. Maybe the old cripple’s just not ready to share his with us”, explains while scratching at his beard again.
”What’s got me worried now is who’s got the stones to break into our room…”
Fíriel looks between the two men, frowning slightly at the elf. "Why are we the exception? Why do you trust us? Based on what you've said, couldn't one of us just as easily be a spy or something?"
"Precisely, bold enough to break into our room and leave a note, so we can come out here to see Kay? I don't think so. But, I am a bookworm, up until now, I've been a scribe and a young wizard, this is a bit new to me."
Randall adds, "You are also new here, am I right? To Riddleport? Because going after the crimelords is a much taller order than you might realize. I've heard of cities where the government has to be careful not to upset the powerful families because of what they can do. Think of the crime lords as the government and the powerful families. They get along because as long as there is a balance and each knows what's what, they can continue to do what they do. What keeps them in check, such as it is, is each other."
"What I'm saying is that if one of the crime lords' power was disrupted in some fashion - or if one was killed somehow - there would be war in Riddleport like you have only seen in your books. Escalating the fight against a crime lord is as likely to bring all of the others down on us as not. That's what the old-timers on the street say - the ones that are willing to talk."
He will examine poor Kay's body. "As a bookworm and young wizard, Jametor, how could someone do this? How do you make a body appear in mid-air only to fall?"
Randall discovers that Kay's hands were tied behind her back, but other than that she seems to have been completely unharmed... until she took her 200' fall, that is.
Jametor answers Randall's question in a distracted manner as he is thinking of something else. "Fly spell, or maybe levitate, the light spell is easy to do, it's a cantrip wizards first learn, well or as soon as they learn read and detect magic."
Antal grimaces. "Crimelords don't play by normal people's rules of logic. As far as someone who runs a gambling hall, I don't trust them one bit."
He sighs, stroking his chin. "We're in the midst of somewhere dangerous, with strange things happening, and on a street known for bad things. None of which go together well."
"What should we do?"
”I don’t know but I’m getting tired of waiting around. If whoever left that message doesn’t show up soon, I say we grab the girl’s body and head home. She shouldn’t be layin’ there on the street like roadkill.”
The night is still. No one appears from the shadows.
”Enough games. Let’s head home”, Njord says as he scoops up the girls broken remains.
As the group makes its way back to the Gold Goblin, the utter stillness slowly dissolves into the normal night hubbub of Riddleport. The first few people they meet glance at Njord's burden and look away quickly, not meeting anyone's eyes. As the party gets farther from Plague Street and the old mill, people begin to pay less and less attention to them.
Arriving back at the Gold Goblin, the group finds the door to their quarters unlocked once more. Another dagger is beside the first, holding a new note to the inside of the door. The daggers match.
One for one; I'd say we're even. Your move.
—Clegg
"So Clegg is going to take an innocent for everyone we kill?"
Jametor looks at Randall.
Antal just shakes his head. "This is getting to be pointless! We should just head out and go searching for this man and settle things."
Njord clenches the note in his meaty fist, for the first time in a long time, in a silent black rage.
”We gotta make him pay”, he growls.
0:Read Magic, Detect Magic, Resistance, Flare
1: Summon Monster 1 (school) Mage Armor, Color Spray, Magic Missile, Summon Monster 1
Randall stares at the note, lips drawn in a tight line, obviously thinking. He finally speaks, "Clegg has men and money and other resources we don't have. How does the saying go, 'Vengeance is a dish best served cold?' We need to wait and watch for our opportunity. Learn about Clegg, keep our heads down, and let him forget about us. He will have other diversions come up. I'd wager he doesn't even consider us enemies. We are such small fry to him, he only does this because we prevented his thugs from his prize of the day. That one died matters not to him - that's just an excuse for what he's done tonight. We need to wait and plot and plan." He looks directly at Njord, "An emotional head-on attack will only end poorly for us. A war of attrition where he doesn't know who his foe might be - which foe it might be - or a gradual build-up to a devastating strike; if we are going to make him pay for this poor girl..." He pauses, "We will make him pay."
Antal sighs. "It's going to be a long wait, I have no doubt."
Grimly, Randall nods. "It will be better that way."
"Okay, let's get busy preparing."
Njord stares in silent rage at Randall as he gives his speech.
"But he- I-..."
With a sad sigh, the big ulfen bows his head.
"I'm gunna take her to the morgue. I'll see you all later."
For the next few days, crushed and broken bird carcasses wash up on the beaches around Riddleport and cluster as flotsam beneath the wharves, creating a horrible stench over the south portions of the city. People who were near the harbors that night say that the birds kept flying nearer and nearer to the Cyphergate, until they eventually crashed into it by the hundreds. The few survivors continued their ragged flight out to sea, and presumably fell to their deaths in the ocean when they wore themselves out flying.
The rest of the week passes without any night-time visitors or strange events, and even the patrons seem to have calmed down somewhat. Early on Fireday evening, Samaritha comes panting into the Gold Goblin around the time she's to begin her shift. She hurries up to Njord. "Njord! I'm so excited!!"
She throws her arms exuberantly around his neck and squeezes, then releases him and holds him at arm's length to smile in his face. Her cheeks are red with excitement. "I've been accepted, Njord! One of the cyphermages has agreed to take me on as his apprentice! He wants me to begin Moonday morning, so I'm moving out tonight! Oh, I'm so excited!"
Caught by surprise, Njord can only laugh and grin at Samaritha's excitement.
"Is that so? A dream come true it seems. Har! That's the best news I've heard all week."
The big ulfen scoops up the beautiful half-elf and continues to split his dark beard with a huge grin.
"We should celebrate. Tonight. Before you become a fancy cypermage and forget about all of us."
Antal just chuckles at the over-exuberance of the woman, walking by as he continues his overseeing of the employees and customers. "You tall folks are far too excitable."