Slice of Glaive

I am sitting in the room freaking out when the rest of the party comes back. They immediately start to ask me about what it wrong. I attempt to explain the abomination that was ‘Bob’. They struggle to understand, but Perrol recalls a bit of the history and that outsiders do not learn the Citheru and never the battle magic. In the explaining, I start to work this through in my head and calm down a bit. Finally, Jarlyn reminds everyone that we have business. They continue to listen as they explain that while eating lunch they were approached by a page in guards’ colors and told them that we all need to report to the magistrate office to tell the entire story of the affair earlier. However, when they showed the map they were given to the location, the barmaid said that it wasn’t the location of the magistrate’s office. They paid some urchins as scouts to reconnoiter the location given. They came up to discuss what we’ll do and to change into full armor. I decide that I’m well enough through my funk to put on my armor and go with them. We meet up with the scouts to get the report on the location to which we were given a map. As we walk toward the location, Kross notices that we are being followed. Ghoral manages to capture the tail. After some questioning we know that he resembles those they saw before. And was to be paid if by following us we went to the magistrate’s office. Not wanting him to report back on us, we tie him up although we do pay him several copper (we feed him the coins one at a time so that he is not robbed while tied up and Jarlyn promises to come back and untie him later.) As we approach the building with the suspected trap, we discuss strategy. Kross and I climb to the roof of a nearby building where we notice that the guards are more than the simple dock workers they appear. After we report this to the others, we decide to split up with Kross on the roof to take a shot, Ghoral and I in the alley, and Jarlyn and Perrol in the street.

Segment 12
Kross takes the shots at the two guards
Attack=Move By with DCV 12 to hit vitals on first and head on second
The first one is dazed and the second guard is down (I ripped out his throat)
Perrol then steps into the alley and managed to get a throwing knife in the eye of the other one.

End Combat

Kross rejoins the group. We prop up the bodies. As we listen at the door and window, Jarlyn hears at least two people talking. Kross peers in the window and sees four men in a line playing rock-paper-scissors and one loses and walks toward the door. I see Kross’ signal, as does Ghoral with some prompting from Jarlyn, and know that there is a guard headed for the door. He panics when he goes to open the door and tries to close it. Ghoral shoves open the door and sends him sprawling.

Segment 12
Half move to the prone guard
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 6 to hit prone guard and sever the Achilles tendon.
Perrol goes around me and attacks another guard.
Jarlyn joins us.
Ghoral thunks one guard in the chest, killing him, and attempts to hit another.

Segment 3
Attack=Oruskormaeli with DCV 1 and miss

Segment 4
Perrol fights his guard and yells for Kross to get in here to help us.
Jarlyn fights and knocks his opponent unconscious.
Ghoral is the killing machine that he is.

Segment 6
Attack=Orushormaeli with DCV 6 to hit prone guard in chest for 11, killing him

Segment 8
Perrol takes out Jarlyn’s guard who had been knocked unconscious.
Jarlyn opens the sliding doors into the next room.
Ghoral rushes through the open door and fells both guard in front of him with one blow each.
He also yells at them to stay where they are and the one in front of him freezes.

Segment 9
I move closer.

Segment 12
Half move up stairs
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 10 to hit the guard at the top of the stairs for 2 damage to chest.
Perrol moves into the room and yells at us all that if we can capture the front man alive to do so.
Ghoral kills the guard who’d entered the room from outside (one of those in city uniform) as well as gets the leader to surrender.

Segement 3
I attempt to get the men up here to surrender because their leader has given up but they didn’t hear him say that.
Attack=Orushidaila with DCV 11 in the vitals for 3.

Segment 4
Once the leader is no longer awed, he is able to tell all the men to surrender once Jarlyn promises that we will not torture or kill them. They all do.

We start going through them and asking questions. Perrol notices with is magesight that the leader is wearing a brooch whose gem is magical. When questioned about it he replies that he was told to wear it by those who hired them. He does not know who hired him. When asked whether the goal was to kill or capture us, he replied that capture was preferable but not to kill Perrol and to try to kill Ghoral. Ghoral asks and is told that the leader was paid 30 gold pieces for the job. When searching the bodies we find 5 silver on each and 2 gold on the leader. We find 10 long swords and 2 short swords that were in great condition and 1 long sword that is used. We can sell any of the swords that look great for a profit (half purchase price ss=8sp and ls=12sp).

It is morning and we are in the market. From behind me I hear traditional Ulronai greeting in Ulronai that uses the name Izta. As that name is known only within “us” to hear it now in a crowded market is highly unexpected. It is even more unexpected that he is not Ulronai. I ask him how he knows that name to which he replies that he was a friend of my father. Reluctant to talk about matters such as this in an open area, I follow him when he commands me to come and turns to walk away. This is wigging me out quite a lot, so I unsheathe my stiletto, but keep it concealed at my side. He leads me to a manor house in an upscale neighborhood (not the best, but nice). Once we enter the yard I make visible my weapon and he locks the gate we just entered and pockets the key.

He tells me to defend myself and attacks with the forms of the Ctitheru. I refuse to fight back and merely avoid his strikes. When he gets too close, I defend, but I do not attack. The fact that he knows these moves is unheard of. “Attack,” he says and proceeds to attack again. Eventually, I fight back. When we’ve worked through all of the forms he mentions that I haven’t forgotten my lessons.

He then uses some moves that I recognize as the Ulronai warrior-magic. Now that is just the last straw. As wrong as it is for a stranger/non-Ulronai to know the Ctitheru forms, it is an abomination for one of them to know the magic. He offers to teach me and I reply that it is wrong. When he presses I say that it is WRONG. He says that I’m even more stubborn than my father was before he disappears and I high-tail it out of there. This is so wrong and messed up, that I just need to find a safe place and work through how something so against the bounds of nature and society could have taken place. There are only a couple of non-Ulronai that have been taught the fighting and that was in return for some feat of great worth to the People. And there have never been any people who were taught the magic. I find my way back to the inn, sit on my pallet with my back to the wall, rocking in with my knees pulled up to my chest, and trying to find my happy place.

We return to the Inn (it is midafternoon). Perrol tells us that he notices someone has been in the room. I see nothing gone or additional in my packs; however, near Perrol’s bunk/packs I see a scuff mark as if there was someone searching. Perrol asked me to search a bit more, but I find nothing. We go down into the common room to eat and for Perrol to play as part of his agreement with the innkeeper. In the middle of his performance, a performance in which he was doing really well even getting coins, there is a bright flash like lightning centering from his lute. He is up there is convulsions. I can only watch as Ghoral and Jarlyn rush to help. Jarlyn had noticed that the attack came from the lute, all of its strings are gone, and that is why he is pushing it away. Kross comments to me that he notices a group of student mages in gold robes that appear to be casting a spell and scanning the room.
After Jarlyn manages to somewhat heal Perrol they go upstairs to recover. Kross, Ghoral and I stay behind to ask those gold robes what they might have noticed. They say that it appeared to be an electrical attack and that there was a timing spell on the lute that could have been triggered either by playing a certain amount of time or by a certain amount of time passing. Since they know no more I ask them if there is a particular mage/instructor at the academy who would be better to ask about these things. He says that any one would know about this. Spells of this sort are not difficult and could even be learned by someone who dedicated him/herself to learning just these two spells. I take my leave of them.

Night falls. We each take a 2 hour watch during the night except for Perrol because of his injury.

We wake up the next morning and Jarlyn, Ghoral and I go down to breakfast before Perrol even wakes up. Kross stays up there to watch Perrol. I choose to stay in the common room and in our private room during the course of the day watching people and seeing if anything suspicious happenes. Ghoral also stay in the Inn although he is with Perrol as a guard. Kross chooses to go to the Mage Academy to do research and Jarlyn to the Skyfather’s temple to worship.

During dinner, which we all attend, I notice a pickpocket. Perrol motions us into a conference where he mentions that he saw the pickpocket as well. Also, he sees that this pickpocket appears to be part of this group of four people who are keeping tabs on each other. Jarlyn says that he notices one of the others is a cutpurse. Also, everyone except Ghoral sees that one of the other members of the four has a billy club. Jarlyn, Perrol and I also see and pass on that the last of the four has a stilletto. We decide who we will each take. Ghoral and Perrol get up to cover the door and keep the billy club wielder from getting to the door.

Segment 12
I delay for the moment.
Perrol stares down his the billy club wielder.
Jarlyn draws a weapon and confronts the pickpocket.
Kross does a weaponless strike on the stilletto wielder.
Half move to get to cutpurse
Attack=Strashuri with DCV 2, I miss the cutpurse
They run for it and the pickpocket hits a body in the crowd and the cutpurse makes his way to the kitchen.
Ghoral moves after the cutpurse to grab him.

Segment 3
Half move to reach pickpocket
Attack=Strashuri with DCV 3 to hit pickpocket in thighs for 4 damage

Segment 4
Perrol continues to cow the billy club wielder.
Jarlyn gets the pickpocket under control.
Kross does another nerve pinch on the stilletto wielder.
Ghoral continues his grab and drags the cutpurse back into the room.

Segment 6
Half move to stilletto wielder
Attack=Grab with DCV 5 to hold the stilletto wielder
I succeed but then he twists out of it to escape

Segment 8
Kross moves over and punches out the stiletto wielder.

End Combat

The entire episode is related to the city guard when they arrive. Unfortunately, the stilletto wielder gets off. We are bought a round of drinks by the grateful patrons. Also, the innkeeper gives us this night and the next two for free plus our food for those days.

We retire up to the room for the night. Jarlyn heals Perrol. Then Perrol says that he notices part of my pact is glowing. I see nothing and neither apparently does anyone else. I ask Jarlyn to check if my packs have become evil. He notices some minor evil/hatred in the common room but none in the room with us. Perrol activates his shield and searches through my packs and comes up with the small embellished mirror I acquired when looting. We decide that whatever is happening, I’ve taken no damage from carrying it for over a week. We just go to bed with our usual night watches, etc.

During breakfast a young ivory robed professor and a priest of the Skyfather walk into the Inn. We recognize the priest as Matthias who we dealt with several days before at the temple of the Skyfather. They approach our table and ask to join us, which we, of course, accept. While we finish eating they chit chat among themselves. Once we are done the mage starts off by saying that with the help of the clergy they’ve deciphered the writing: “The Wicked Shrine in ruins, A shelter for the roadweary, A storm sets the course, A faithful heart point the way, Over fire beyond the smoke, The enemy find the Path.” They’ve found that the religion was evil centered around an evil god whose name they do not know. Both the language and the religion were supposed to have been dead for milennia. The priest says that the coins and the urn have been safely destroyed. There are stories of humanoids attacking villages in the distant past before most records exist from this part of the world. They are still looking for more references in both church and arcane archives. While this god is not currently on our plane, enough followers could be sufficient to bring It here provided that the appropriate rites are used to open a gate to this plane. Jarlyn asks how we may help and they respond that we could go elsewhere are research more. Once we finish talking about this, Perrol mentions that last night he noticed an item of mine was glowing. I go and get the item and Perrol also sees that both the priest’s holy symbol and the mage’s amulet are glowing. The mage confirms that all three items are magical. Upon asking, I find out that it is a mirror of obfuscation, which when activated it allows one to hide magic from magic detection. It could even hide an area, a magical act, or an item. From what we’ve said, it was likely used by the necromancer to hide the summoning of the skeletons/possession of the children.