And Justice For All
by TheShadow
AN: This story is loosely based on Root of Evil: Kurst Murders, a player built module, so I guess part of the plot and some of the character belong to its creator, Honch. I own Meris, Punkin, Amberlee and of course Telaya. I also own Patheon, the curse rapier. It's TM'ed and I reserve all rightss and privileges entitle to the creator of such a great weapon. I would also like to thank my supportive audience…
Firiyla- Just one email but Monday your mail box will be crammed, okay.
Guan- This is going to be less goody-goody and less "kill all the damnable dryads." Just don't ask me how. LOL.
Fomy- This one would be a better cheer up story. -). Laterz.
Summary- (Right After Angels and Insects) On the coastal road between the Recovering City of Neverwinter and the Highlands of Zhent Primus, lies the Sovereignty of Kurst. Rumors are spreading of persistent violence and is drawing our heroes closer to the epicenter of a town that was once famous for its lawfulness…
It was the dream that woke her up.
Her eyes snapped open for the seconds it took to know the sounds weren't real. No one was there. No one was trying to grab her.
She took a deep, uneven breath and tried to recapture the dream. It was gone, leaving behind a feeling of acute anxiety, profound loneliness, and the memory of someone weeping . So sad. So hopeless. So real.
So get over it, she thought.
Hazy gray morning light seeped into the room from under closed curtains. In fact, everything looked remarkably hazy. She sat up, feeling sluggish. She peered into the mirror opposite the bedroll. And saw nothing but a blur. Perplexed, she stood and crossed slowly to the mirror. She leaned close. The face grew clear.
Except that it wasn't her face, or the one she thought she had remembered she had.
The woman that stared back looked as panicked as she felt. Mouth open. Eyes wide. Face drained of color except for a pair of ugly blotches beneath her blue eyes. She raised her hand a felt the knotted ebony mound on top of her head and attempted to run her fingers through the entanglement to no avail. She spun to look around behind her and notice a pair of panting bodies covered by a pair of bedrolls. They laid closed together, very closed with little room between the two bodies. The farthest was obviously long, probably well over six and half feet while the other was much shorter as the body stretched out to about five feet long.
The dark haired girl continued to look over her features. Her skin was pale, almost ghostly and she only wore a tunic.
Where is my armor, thought the girl?
How do I know I wear armor, she questioned herself as she looked over to a corner that sat a gold-plated armor that reflected the few sunbeams that came into the wood-logged room. She grabbed the armor and it clung to her body as if it were constructed just for her. She looked beneath and noticed a longsword with a golden hilt ornamented by a large purple gem sitting in the middle just above its handle. The blade looked sharp and no remnants of battle covered it. The black haired figure picked the sword up and the patina flashed quickly filling the room with a sudden rupture of yellow daylight but the darkness fought back and regained the room. The girl looked at the entryway and noticed that it was half opened and made her way to it.
Why would I sleep with the door open, she thought as she gently opened the door and walked out of the cabin?
XOXOXO Daylight's Call
The early morning tempest ran a crisp chill over the back off the curly, blond haired body that rolled over and peeked out of the bedroll. She released her hands out of the compartment and rubbed her sleep-crested eyelids. She swiftly batted her eyelids and relieved her green eyes that seemed to capture every ray to enter the room. She pulled herself out of the bag and sat Indian style as she squinted to look around the room. Directly beside her was her the love of her life, Meris Sensbane. But she could not locate her best friend, Amberlee.
She thought to herself, perhaps she felt we needed some time to ourselves, or maybe she wanted to clear her mind of the past few days events.
The tall frame beneath the last remaining bedroll began to spook as the purple garbed girl leaned over to get a better look at his face from the tiny peep hole he form.
"Punkin," the raspy and quite annoyed voice spoke out, "If the sun's not out, don't even try to wake me."
Punkin ran for fingers over his bedroll and peeked over the top of his purple hair, "You are aware that we are all alone, babe."
Meris flopped over on to his back and half of his head breached the cap of the bedroll. Looking into her into her eyes he said, "Did you and Amberlee plan this little…coincidence."
Punkin stood agape, "What? I'm not that kind of girl." Punkin said as she curved and her lips meet his, slowly yet passionately they exchanged their warmth.
They pulled away and Meris continued to lay on his back as Punkin stretched and readied herself for the tasks that would need to be accomplished ahead.
"I thought Amberlee had that last watch?" Meris asked as he rose up and revealed his dark blue long johns that covered him shoulders to toes.
"You look cute," Punkin snickered, "Is that what you always sleep in?"
Meris rolled his eyes and continued, "We need to make sure that our resident paladin is okay. She's been though a lot of…"
"Crap," Punkin interjected, "Yeah, we need to make sure she is okay."
XOXOXO The Road To Kurst
"Amberlee…" the dark haired girl heard something whisper.
She searched around and saw withering vegetation. She sniffed the air and smelt nothing. The early morning only held her and her blade.
"Amberlee, why do you resist me?" the voice continued.
"Who are you…where are you?" the girl rasped.
"I am your destiny," the sword began to glow, "I am what you can become."
"You're the sealed demon…" she said as if she had an epiphany.
"I am your sealed demon," the sword spoke.
"You are?" she asked as she held the sword up closer to get a glimpse into the luster of the sword which only revealed her face as the sun started to creep over the horizon.
"What do you wish to know, milady."
"Everything…I need to know everything…"
XOXOXO Follow That Paladin
"Alright," the purple leathered bard said as she stood outside of the abandoned cabin and looked out to see if she could see her friend, "We need to find her, quickly. Before she does something…well, not like herself."
"Like walk off in unknown region without telling anyone a word," Meris said as he walked up to a tree and looked around it.
"Okay, more unlike herself. But, we don't know where she went…"
"We don't…but I do."
"Oh, right. Meris the Magnificent can do anything…"
"So I see you're still as annoying as ever," Meris said as Punkin rolled her eyes and Meris finished, "I can still sense my father's presence…I can hone in on it. She is this way," Meris said and pointed in the direction of what appeared to be a town.
"Ah, Meris, do you known what town that is," Punkin asked as they began to walk toward the city gates.
"No, do you?"
"I'm Punkin Capernun, Bard Extraordinaire…" Punkin wrapped her arm around Meris' waist, "Of course I know what town that is." Punkin smiled.
"Okay, are you going to tell me anything."
"Have you ever heard of Kurst," Punkin asked looking into his depthless purple eyes.
"Town of Decriminalization, yes, I've read about it. How do you all of a sudden know where we are?"
"I have a keen sense of direction and I rode along the Zhent mountains and we are in between those mountains and home so…"
"I understand," Meris shook his head, "I won't underestimate the power of a bard, okay."
Punkin infectious grin glared into his eyes baiting him into smiling as the walked closer to the fortified town.
XOXOXO Haggar The Drunk
The girl looked around the bustling city as the townsfolk raced about taking care of their early morning routines. She watched the people with a calculation, trying to understand them, trying to understand herself.
"I'm Amberlee Alagondar from Neverwinter. A great paladin and I'm in search of three heretics," she reminded herself.
"Ssst…there you are Jimmie. It's your ole buddy, Haggar," she heard a half-drunk and very audible voice flying at her from behind, "Hic, I'd knew you'd come. Yep, I knew'd you come, yes I did."
"Jimmie?" Amberlee looked around, "Who's Jimmie?"
"Jimmie, hic, you always were a kidder."
"Stop calling me Jimmie, I'm…"
"So Jimmie, did ya hear that things are bad here, hic, real bad. The people are scared. Oh, but not me. Nopes, not me, you know me, right."
"No, I don't but why are the people so scared?" Amberlee asked as she looked at the people walk by without looking directly at her, or anyone for that matter.
"The murders of course! Hic, you'd be scared too, if you thought you were gonna be murdered ev'ry time you stepped out on the streets. Duh," Haggar started to sway, "You're not drunk, are ya."
"Please," Amberlee said as she clenched her fist, "Stop calling me Jimmie."
"But I told them you'd come. Yes, I did. And now. Now, you're here. You should go and talk to Nicholas. He needs…" then the drunk collapsed and fell asleep.
Amberlee looked down at her sheathed long sword and said, "I don't think that this will be as easy as you claimed."
XOXOXO Telaya- One Tough Tiefling
Punkin stared as the purple strings of hair on Meris head bounced up and down methodically as they walked while she maintained her grasp around his waist.
Meris peeked down, "What are you doing?"
"Watching your hair move." Punkin said continuing her study of his tresses.
Meris shook his head and decided he didn't need to understand that comment.
"Why do you think your father wanted to you," Punkin asked.
"I don't know but I guess that he and Luskan are tied in some way. And now I at least understand my mother's death," the wizard spoke smoothly, controlling the swelling in his throat.
"I'm sor…" Punkin said but felt something…or someone very near to her, "Do you feel that, Meris?"
"An evil, foreboding danger that seems to be slowly closing in on us…" Meris said as he began to whisper a spell that made their skin scales made of stone shielding them from a high amount of physical damage then he recited a spell than cause a blue glow to surround them. An elemental protection spell, remembered Punkin as she readied her rapier and focused her mind to see what her eyes couldn't.
She drew in the dew-filled air and captured a smell that she remembered…a smell from the past. It was a very dangerous smell.
"Telaya," Punkin spoke out into the air.
"Who?" Meris asked.
"The girl that nearly killed you…and me, remember."
"The Assassin?"
"Yeah. Tall, lanky thing and a pair of bug bites on her chest," Punkin grinned as she saw Meris blush.
"Why is chest size so important to you girls?"
"I could ask the same of men," Punkin said as she circled around looked for any sign of the silent killer.
"You know Amberlee and I were captured by a group of those Luskan assassins…"
"I know. I saw the carcasses of three of them. Probably your handy work."
"And if it was…"
"Then you had less self-control than you claimed," Punkin smiled as she saw a movement, very quick and subtle.
"Did you see that?" Meris asked as he started to chant a divination spell to allow them to see the unseen realm. Punkin always hated this view. Everything juxtaposed into an amorous multiple dimension portrait that reminded her of the time she was stuck in the Source Stone with Ash.
"I still don't see her," she said as she slowly sidestepped and circled almost as if she were dancing by herself.
"She'll show her face. She wants me, right?"
"Don't say it like that…what do you think you Mr. Casanova all of a sudden," Punkin said still looking, "What do you think she's waiting for?"
"Our guard to drop. So keep your discipline."
"What discipline?" Punkin asked half-smiling.
"Well, the little that you have. She wants our spells to fall and our minds to wander…that's how assassins are."
"She's not a real assassin, anyway. I don't think she'd kill you even if she had the opportunity. She loves you too much to do so and even if she tries your girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancée will kick her scrawny little ass, again."
Another shift.
"And she's too weak to face me, Meris' one true love, face to face," just as Punkin finished spitting out these words a lightning quick shadow appeared directly behind her and wrapped a katana around her neck.
She was protected by a black with silver lined armor and a black helm with a pair of short horn on the side. "So," the five foot nine inch figure retracted the blade and straightened the one hundred and ten pounds that gripped her bones.
"So what!" Punkin said as she pointed her rapier, "You sneaky little tramp, that will be the last time that you creep up behind."
Telaya removed her helm, "You really are cute when you're angry. I can see why Meris finds you amusing."
"Keep it up and my steel will be a-musing up your ass," Punkin said as she clamped her fingers into the hilt of Patheon.
"Watch your language…this is supposed to be PG-13," Telaya tossed her straight brown that nearly meet her shoulders, "Anyway, I'm not her to kill you. I'm here for my dear brother."