"Well... If that's all, I'll take my leave." says the Duchess. "I believe Hermes will want to set up a few details before he leaves..."
The woman stands up calmly and struts away from the room.
"See you around."
Lorena sighs once again...
"Do you need anything for your journey back to Blue Shell?"
"Nothing that I can think of."
"That's good... You should go and meet Pillowstone's caravan, then... That Hermes guy is proud and arrogant, as most rich folk are, but he isn't a bad fellow." Lorena seems considerably more relaxed now that Pillowstone and the Duchess left the room. "Anyway, it's good to see you're still in one piece. Farewell!"
She waves at you and leaves...
Ayren mumbles something to himself and then turns to you...
"Uh... I'll meet you guys at the caravan..." says Ayren. "I'll have to take care of some personal matters first. Now you know who the client is, so you should be fine on your own, anyway. See you later!"
These words said, the half-elf rushes through the door.
As soon as Jaazkara opens her magic bag to shift through your loot, she feels a sharp drop in temperature around her... Two daggers zip out of the bag and float on the air a few feet ahead of you... They are soon followed by a number of longswords that do the same.
An spectral humanoid figure appears out of thin air and grabs the daggers... You recognize the black eyed, half-frozen man as the specter you fought back at the half-buried temple. He looks just as angry and just as solid... And the swords floating around him are the same he used as projectiles last time you met.
"You WILL NOT steal the claws of The Manticore!"
Specter
Frederick
Jaazkara
Eitylen
Brother Cyrus
The creature floats away from Jaazkara's reach and rains steel on the reptilian warrior!
Still surprised by the ghostly appearance, Jaazkara is only able to deflect a single sword.
- - -
"Well, this is unexpected." Frederick says, and moves in to attack.
The specter floats away from Frederick's blade, evading the attack.
Frederick feels a familiar cold creeping up his spine.
Surprised beyond words, Jaazkara reflexively and wordlessly taps her inner fury and brings to bear her fauchard, then hops into range to strike the spectre.
Jaazkara's fauchard takes a bite of substance from the creature, but not enough to defeat it... Although ti does look angrier.
Eitylen decides to use one of his bombs.
The flames hurt the creature, but not enough to destroy it.
Should've known this would happen...
Cyrus presents his holy symbol upwards and a burst of positive energy ushers forth to wipe away the specter.
"Light banish thee foul specter!"
The creature absorbs the blunt of Brother Cyrus's wave of healing energy... But is not destroyed.
It floats a little bit further away and once again rains metal over Jaazkara.
"This steel belongs to the Manticore! You filthy thieves will pay for your crime!" it shouts angrily.
This time, his attack is even more precise! And Jaazkara can't evade the blades.
- - -
Frederick tries to slap it again. Twice!
Frederick's blade takes a sizable chunk of the creature's substance... It still persists, but is visibly weakned.
Jaazkara fights on despite her wounds, striking upwards in a brutal flurry of spinning cuts.
The elf keep throwing things at the spectre
The specter is almost completely destroyed by Jaazkara and whatever little strength it had is then finished off by Eitylen's vials...
The creature vanishes from sight and his daggers fall harmlessly on the ground... And are soon followed by the floating swords.
The daggers still feel cold to the touch, though...
Jaazkara points to the pile of sinister blades and says, "We must find a way to end 'dis spectre, for good."
Brother Cyrus rubs his chin and thinks on it for a moment.
"Before everything happened so fast now that I see it again perhaps...?"
The specter is a ghost... Although of a somewhat rare variety.
While most people know that resentful souls may fail to move on at the time of their death and therefore become ghosts... Some of these restless spirits can create a strong bond with a solid object (or two), sometimes even gaining some of its properties, thus creating a creature that is similar to a ghost, but with physical substance. This gives the creature more control over matter than your usual specter, but in turn, makes the creature more vulnerable as well.
Despite this vulnerability, putting a definitive end to these spirits may prove just as difficult as their incorporeal peers... This can only be done by setting right whatever unfinished business keep it from moving on to the afterlife. Destroying the object that holds the soul will only anger the spirit and turn it into a ghost of the incorporeal variety... Where and when it'll reform is based on the time and place of its death.
There are some powerful magicks that can force a spirit into the next life, but they are rare, difficult and costly.
"Let's just fill a barrel full of holy water, toss the weapons in there, and bury it somewhere."
"Certainly it has some duty that binds it to our world. Visiting a library and looking for references to this "Manticore" may prove fruitful."
"Though failing that, we could seek a ritual to banish it from our world. It might prove an interesting distraction while we await the Purple Moon."
"Let's just fill a barrel full of holy water, toss the weapons in there, and bury it somewhere."
"A somewhat barbaric solution Frederick. Matters such as these tend to be a bit more complicated than that."
Brother Cyrus remembers the corpse-infested area where you found the giant chameleon accompanying Jaazkara... He remembers finding weapons and armors and identification tags displaying a variety of symbols... Some of them had the Pillowstone crest... Some had the emblem of the Red Eagle company... Others had the picture of grey dog... And a few of them depicted a black manticore.
Eitylen doesn't remember any historical facts about a "black manticore"... But he does remember hearing about a mercenary company named "Shadows of the Manticore" back in Blue Shell.
Brother Cyrus tries to recall if the specter manifested wearing anything similar to a black manticore emblem or crest.
Both times you saw the specter, he was wearing piecemeal armor and plenty of bloodied bandages. He also had frostbite marks on his exposed skin.
Because of the nature of piecemeal armor, the specter didn't really have any imagery on his plate... Manticore or anything else.
"It may be a bit of a stretch, but there is a mercenary group that is identified by a black manticore. Perhaps we could look into it when we get back to Blue Shell."
After enough hours are past, you move the limit of the city, where you find Hermes Pillowstone and his caravan. As you approach, one of his followers throws a heavy, fancy bag at your feet.
"I'll take you to your horses..." he says leading you to a group of five mounts... Four of which are saddled, while the last one carries a number of heavy bags. "These are yours. We leave in 10 minutes." Pillowstone observes the conversation from afar.
Inside the bags, you find a collection of gems and gold bars worth quite a fortune. You get on your horses and join the ranks of the caravan.
Precisely 10 minutes later, you depart. As expected, Pillowstones makes no stops and you continue travelling long after the sunset. The man does seem to be in a hurry...
It's past midnight when you finally arrive at Blue Shell. After the long trip, it's quite the relief to see the familiar white walls and blue gates. A short interaction between the city's watchmen and the Pillowstone riders later, the gates are open and you're inside the city.
Still on his horse, Hermes Pillowstones approaches you.
"We'll see if your promises hold true... You shall receive the appropriate compensation. Good night." he says, still maintaining his stoic tone...
He and his men ride away into the night, towards the western side of the city... Leaving only your group and your horses around.
Ayren is visibly exhausted, but doesn't let this stop him... "Thank the gods!" he shouts, filled with joy. "I'm home!"
He grabs one of the bags and returns to his horse.
"I'll put this somewhere safe! See you guys later!" while riding away, he turns and shouts.... "Are you still staying in the Mad Shark? I'll meet you there as soon as possible to discuss the rest of our payment!"
He turns away and shouts one last "Good night, fellas!" before he starts humming a joyful song and riding away...
- - -
Brother Cyrus whistles at the mass of fortune.
"More riches than most will see in a lifetime." The Priest says slightly in awe.
"Aye Ayren, we can meet there later." He says after collecting himself and his share of the reward.
"If you need a place to stay Jaazkara, the Mad Shark Tavern is a friendly enough place...and their Shark-Bait soup is pretty famous." With that, the Priest departs in the direction of the tavern.
Jaazkara looks at the gathered wealth with joy, and decides to find out what she can about the city. She nods at Cyrus' words and says "My 'tanks. I will meet you dere shortly."
If nothing happens that night, then next day Eitylen will look for someone to sell him some eyes of the eagle and a smith to further enchant his chainshirt.
- - -
You reach the Mad Shark inn, where you're greeted by Marcie, the dark brown-haired, honey-eyed girl to leads the staff (and takes care of most of the tavern's paperwork).
"Ah, you're back! It's good to see we haven't lost such great patrons!" she says, incredibly welcoming as always... As just as devoted to marketing. "Get a table! Have some ale! tonight we have Goat meat! Fresh from the mountains! You'll love it! Ale is 20% off today!"
The tavern is lively as always... A great number of patrons drink and eat and talk and brawl quite energetically, though fights never leave the "empty" corner of the tavern. A group of musicians from out-of-town play a spirited song about a sassy mermaid.
Sweet little Liz gracefully dances to the music while delivering food and drinks to the tables, charming patrons with her green eyes and red hair. Her older sister, Brenda, is wearing her shinning full plate, as usual... She is talking amicably with Jenny, oldest of the tavern's maids (although still in her late twenties), but is then apparently made embarrassed and uncomfortable by one of Jenny's jokes and leaves with a flushed face while Jenny laughs loudly. Karina, still clumsy, trips and stumbles in her order-delivering efforts, but she seems to have made some progress! This time only two glasses and one plate fall and break on the floor. Somehow she manages to keep her dress, shoes and golden hair impeccable. Whatever she drops, it seems to never spill on her.
Joel Ironblood, the burly tavern owner jokingly comments about his employees and "these ruffians of customers" taking all the dark brown from his head and making it silver! He opens a few barrows of ale and serves customers by the balcony. His wife, Marina, shouts from the kitchen that he should be grateful he even has hair at all. Both staff and customers laugh at her remark. Joel groans, rolls his eyes and carries a different barrel to the kitchen.
Other than that, you recognize a few faces in the crowd... Some returning customers, off-duty city guards, a few "courtesans", a drunk bard and a couple sailors...
A bad night to have money... Or a good one, depending on how you see it.
- - -
Jaazkara looks at the gathered wealth with joy, and decides to find out what she can about the city.
Eitylen just drinks a bit of Ale and just sit there for the night enjoying the night and if noting else happens he goes to sleep.
Jaazkara wanders through the streets for a while. She and her chameleon companion invariably attract the attention of all those with whom she cross paths. Everyone stares for a while, but move on without bothering her or running... There are weirder things in this city, after all...
She hears much from conversations around her and eventually finds two guards, who are initially quite startled by her but soon calm down and talk to her surprisingly politely. She gets a quick rundown of the history of the city and the location of the most important buildings (important in their mind, of course... They give full directions to a number of taverns, brothels and city guard buildings, but curiously forget to mention the grand library, alihanna's garden or any temple other than the ones dedicated to Abadar, Calistria, Cayden Cailean and Desna).
Once she feels like she learned enough for a night, Jaazkara heads to the Mad Shark tavern, where she's merrily welcomed by a young girl with dark brown hair and a wide smile. Jaazkara is momentarily impressed by how naturally this girl greets her, and can't help but wonder if this reaction is genuine or very, very well practiced... The girl even lets the chameleon go in, once Jaazkara assures her the animal won't try to eat anyone.
As she enters the tavern, her senses are overwhelmed by a maelstrom of images, colors, sounds and smells... Mostly of beer and meat. She quickly notices the great number of shark jaws hanging all around on the walls, including an impressively large one, hanging on the wall behind the counter, where a burly man with mark of shark teeth on his shoulder serves ales to some of the tavern's patrons.
She then quickly finds the rest of her party and rejoins the group.
In between placing his order of shark-bait soup with a slice of roast pig on the side, Cyrus tries to get Brenda's attention and waves her over.
Brenda is getting another tankard of ale when she sees Brother Cyrus calling her. Despite the songs, beer and overall irreverent atmosphere, when Brenda approaches, she still moves in her typical overly disciplined pace.
"Hail, Priest Cyrus" she says, cordially. "It's good to see you back in Blue Shell. How do you do?"