Archibald Atherton's page

Archibald shrugs.

"Until the riots are under control the doors stay shut. The wounded of these conflicts are not our primary concern and are taken care of at other locations if at all."

When back at the temple, she begins to inquire surreptitiously if anyone might have a look at the ledge book found on Gamlen's body. She asks Dilipom first; after all, they knew each other well, and he spoke Varisian.

The Bank of Abadar's gilded gates are closed, and a contingent of the Coin’s Faithful stand at the ready, armed with crossbows to repel would-be looters.

"There is nothing to do for you today, go back home." Ernhild is greeted by a superior.

Atherton looks at Lady Eleanor, but as nothing is to expect from her at this stage, he replies. "As you wish. You know where you find me."

He hands over the papers and leaves.

"I don't know what went wrong with the families business over the years, but now it took a sharp turn down. Lord Vanderbuilt took almost all what was left for a deal that should turn the tide. And now he left in this most unpleasant way, which has sparked serious doubt, that this turn will come. Waiting until the family runs out of money seemed a worse option than this."

"Well..." Atherton stammers confused.

"Who is taking responsibility then? I have all the documents here and was expecting that someone would check and make some decisions about how to handle this situation."

Meanwhile an emissary of the temple of Abadar arrives at the Vanderbuilt Manor. He asks to speak to the head of the house.

Once he gets to meet Lady Eleanor he introduces himself. "My name is Atherton, and I'm here to express condolences in the name of the Temple of Abadar."

"And to settle the succession in regards to the administration of the accounts of the family. Please forgive us for bringing up this topic while your husband isn't even buried. But the state of the accounts is desolate and with the spending the Vanderbuilt family usually does, they will be depleted within two month."

"Please take a seat. I'll inform the High Priest of your request."

Menan gets to wait half an hour until Archibald comes again to bring him to the office of the high priest.

"I'll see to it." Archibald replies and leaves his post to find someone.

He returns shortly thereafter. "Please follow me." Archibald leads past the clerks and into a large representative office/shrine room.

It is late afternoon already, but the temple of Abadar is still open. To be accurate, it is open at all hours but not for business.

As the group approaches with the chest, the book and the papers in tow, they are greeted as always by Archibald. "Good afternoon Sirs and Madams. How can I help you?"

At the temple of Abadar there is a rather large crowd attending the service. Most of the nobles are there, the clergy in full numbers and a lot more people, from new town and some from old town. Lady Eleanor, Lady Adelaide and Lady Margaret are among the nobles on the gallery in séparées. Also Massimo Marinelli is among the visitors in his own séparée.

The service has a strict liturgy. The choir that sings some hymns consists of talented and trained singers. The sermon is on the benefit it has on trade to adhere to the law without being forced to.

After the final blessing the people stand in small groups chatting. As a neutral observer one could come to the conclusion that this is more a social, than a religious gathering.

Archibald leads Menan inside into a niche of the temple with a small altar and a murial of Abadar behind it. Besides the altar is the box for the offering.

"Please wait here. You can use the time for prayer. The High priest will be with you as soon as possible"

Archibald disappears through a door.

"If it is indeed a curse you've come to the right place. We are capable and prepared to help with such ailments. You may choose whom you'd like to try. The more experienced the cleric the better are your chances to get rid of it. We have five clerics that are able to cast such powerful magic. Your chances are best with our High Priest of course."

"Whom should I inform?"

I assume you're familiar with the rules for remove curse.

At the temple Archibald stands at the entrance as most of the day and whistles a catchy tune.

"I wish you the best. If the issue remains, we can provide help removing that.

"You can of course use the library. The box for the offerings is at the entrance."

At the temple Menan meets with the usual guy at the entrance.

"Yes, they have come up with a plan. A few of our higher ranking members will join the guard going there. They'll make sure no goblins are left and then they'll fence off the castle and put warning signs up."

"There is one in the old town, on the square around the House of Flame. It looks like an antique shop. I guess it is more than a coincidence. If your life is turning south, those are the institutions to make a coin of your misery."

"Maybe you'd like to open an account with us and go the long way, that will for sure benefit you if you decide to persevere in the long run."

"The fastest way to get money is probably in a pawn shop. But they too ask for collateral."

"Sorry Ma'm. I'm not doing loans. You'd need an account with this bank. Then you'd need an appointment, where you persuasively show how you intend to pay the loan back. Or you produce collateral, like a house in Abadon."

"You're right, who in Abadar's name would search such knowledge. Therefore I'd refer you to the House of Flame. I suspect your chances of finding such knowledge are better there."

"Poisoning? Who would do such a thing? And poison doesn't work for weeks and months, does it? I don't really know much about poison, besides to avoid some venomous animals, that are rather rare in this area."

"We suggested some herbs and special diet to strengthen them and did several castings of restorative spells, but the positive effect was always only short lived. It kept getting worse. The disease was special, in that we've seen nothing which was that persistent. Even castings to remove the disease didn't help."

"Usually we simply keep the patient from dying, until they recover from within. But this recovery from within wasn't happening. As it happened to the man too, we suspected it might be something in their bloodline? But we didn't really know"

"You're lucky, I was among them."

"Abadar bless you. The library again, or do you want to open an account?" The man asks as Menan comes along again.

"Maybe I can help you too?"

Running out of avatars, recycling begings.

At the temple of Abadar Menan is greeted by a guard in full plate. On his request for a book about local law he is pointed to a side room that serves as a library. There are some books about accounting, some holy texts of Abadar, some about trade rules and a rather thin volume about local penal law.

Basically it is a listing of crimes, the related jail time and the price to buy yourself free from jail. A few crimes have a death sentence, and from what you read, Lady Pembrooke qualifies. That short list consists of high treason and murder even if only attempted, when done in a way that the general public was offended.

There is a tribunal consisting of the chief of the guard, the mayor and the high priest of the temple of Abadar. But they come only into play if the general public is involved. Either because of an ugly crime, or because someone who is important enough makes a fuss about being thrown into prison instead of simply paying the fine.

But if there is no one intervening on behalf of the one thrown into jail, that one will have a hard time, as there is no way to intervene from the cell on one's own.

"Good bye." Alterton says and leaves.

"Thank you for the offer, but this was on short notice and I don't have much time. Maybe another time?" Alterton asks.

Archibald Atherton accepts the diamond and holds up his holy symbol. Speaking a prayer his holy symbol starts to glow. The diamond in his other hand also starts glowing with this golden radiance. As the diamond is pure light Atherton touches the gnome with the light.

His prayer continues for quite some time and at the end all light enters the gnome as if sucked up by him.

Atherton looks at Mrs. Heidmarch for confirmation.

"These are strange circumstances to raise someone from the dead." Archibald Atherton voices his concerns. "What circumstances make it necessary that the elite of the city watch is present?"