NOTE - for some reason I only posted PART of chapter 63! i have no idea what happened. Kingpariah mentioned the ending was really abrupt, but I thought he was commenting on the actual ending I wrote and not the fact that I screwed up and didnt post the whole thing. it is actually foxed now.
Let Me Paint You A Picture…
The companions moved between the pools of radiance cast by the city lampposts, the rings of Illumination almost touching and blending, but not quite. A nighttime breeze rose, carrying with it the smells of the adjacent park - trees, flowers, lawn, and water - the rustle of the leaves from the breeze briefly drowning out their booted footfalls against the cobblestones and the babble of a nearby water feature. Kuhl, in the lead, paused, taking in the view of their destination.
"Well, if Bonnie can get our note to the Open Lord," Aleina said. "Whether through Jalester or by delivering it personally, Laeral should have no trouble finding this place."
"True," Dawnbringer thought in Kuhl's mind. "Not too many estates converted from windmills. Even in a city the size of Waterdeep."
The half-elf guessed there would be no others except for the one in front of them. Windmills were typically located near or on farms, used either to pump water or grind grain. Whatever farm or farms this windmill once served was long gone. It stood in the wealthy Sea Ward, surrounded by the villas and manors of the Waterdhavian elite. Even though it was clearly now a residence, the sturdy wooden blades still creaked a slow circuit in the breeze, giant shadow arms obscuring the field of stars above them as they spun. It was ideally located, being adjacent to the Heroes' Garden park, and the upper windows must have pleasant views of the lush public garden across the street. But unlike other buildings in the area, the windmill showed signs of neglect - the ivy climbing the stone walls partly grew over windows, rust was present on the wrought iron fencing and gate, and the garden beds primarily held weeds rather than flowers or herbs.
"Evening," a voice called out. "Heroes' Garden is closed till dawn and the residents in this ward like their privacy, especially in the middle of the night. Be about your business."
"Someplace else," another voice growled.
The voices belonged to a pair of constables wearing the tall steel helmets and green-and-goldenrod doublets distinctive to the Waterdhavian Watch. The half-elf was so fixed on their destination he hadn't noticed the two approaching from inside the park. The first speaker had bushy gray eyebrows under his helmet that could use a trim and his tone held perfunctory civility, but the voice of his taller, leaner, companion held no friendliness at all. Both had their hands on their truncheon handles and the tall one held his whistle partway lifted to his lips, wariness in his hazel eyed gaze.
"What if our business is here?" Sky asked with a quizzical cock of her head. "We can't really 'be about our business somewhere else' if it is here, right?"
"What kind of business can you have here at this hour?" the first speaker scoffed, all pretense of civility gone.
"Watch business," Jhelnae said, smugness in her tone as she produced the badge Lady Silverhand gave her.
The eyes of both constables widened then narrowed as they studied the shield shaped golden symbol with the stylized crescent moon and nine stars.
"Is that?" the taller constable asked his partner.
"One of the badges given by the Open Lord to her agents," his companion replied, taking his hand off the handle of his truncheon. "Yeah, I think it is."
"But she's a drow," the hazel eyed one complained.
But even as he said this he lowered his whistle and released his truncheon.
"Must be one from that temple in the North Ward," bushy eyebrows said, shrugging.
"What is this city coming to," the tall constable muttered under his breath.
The half-drow's eyes hardened, but Kuhl cut in before she had a chance to speak.
"What can you tell us about the residents in the windmill?" he asked, conjuring a bit of his commander from the Evereskan Tomb Guard in his tone.
Both men straightened slightly, coming to a sort of attention.
"An old priest of Ilmater rents a room in the west wing," the shorter constable said. "He spends his days caring for the sick at the Hospice of Saint Laupsenn and his nights caring for his mad shrew of a landlady."
"Gorgeous, half-elven, mad shrew of a landlady," his partner put in.
"Gorgeous, half-elven, mad shrew of a landlady," the other amended, nodding.
"Unless he has a predilection for elderly priests," Aleina said. "I'm guessing the half-elf is the one who is Neverember's former mistress and not the priest?"
"What's a predilection?" the tabaxi asked.
"A leaning toward," Jhelnae explained.
"Like bad posture or something?" Sky asked, tail lashing.
"A bent for?" the half-drow said, giving her friend a meaningful look, then continued with exasperation when the tabaxi shrugged in confusion, "Kink. Obsession. By all that dances - a preference for having sex with!"
Jhelnae threw up her hands at the last sentence, giving up.
"Non-tabaxi have so many words for mating," Sky said, shaking her head and blowing out a breath. "It's needlessly confusing."
The constables shared a raised eyebrow glance then focused on Kuhl, seemingly finding him the one they could relate to most.
"Her name is Kalain," the tall hazel eyed one explained. "And yes, she was once Neverember's mistress."
"Not that there was a shortage of those after his wife died," the bushy eyebrowed constable added. "But he favored Kalain enough to buy her this place and, as the story so often goes, this gave her ideas that marriage should follow. Their relationship soured and he abandoned her."
"Broke her mind," his taller partner said, taking up the narrative. "Never leaves that place, never has visitors, the old priest brings her food and she just stays holed up there, painting her twisted and creepy art."
"And has bouts of shrieking loud enough for her neighbors to call in the Watch," the shorter constable said.
"Or she sends the priest to fetch us herself," his hazel eyed partner added. "Raving about assassins and wanting us to search her place."
"What in the Nine Hells," Aleina said, voice as cold as some of the layers she referenced. "Are you suggesting being abandoned by a man is enough to break a woman's mind? And Selune Tears, forgive her for wanting more out of a relationship than just being set up in a comfortable love nest for him to visit whenever he wanted. He's gone and now she wants to focus on her art, what's wrong with that?"
"What is your business with Kalain?" the taller constable asked.
"We just need to… talk with her," the aasimar said."
"About something to do with Lord Neverember?" the other Watch officer said, raising one of his distinctive bushy eyebrows.
"Yes…" Kuhl said after a moment's hesitation.
He couldn't think of another plausible reason they needed to talk with her.
The two constables glanced at each other and smirked.
"Then see for yourself," the shorter of the two said. "We will warn our fellow Watch members in the area that any commotion coming from Kalain's place will be handled by agents of the Open Lord."
"Well that sounds ominous," Dawnbringer said in the half-elf's mind.
"Not a chance she'll cooperate?" Kuhl asked hopefully.
"Not a chance," both men said together with a mirthless chuckle as they moved away to do what they promised.
"Men," Aleina said, rolling her eyes. "Their collective egos can't handle that a woman might be better off without them. If anyone decides she is, 'there must be something wrong with her'.
She made her voice mocking for the last part and then gave a snort of derision. The half-elf opened his mouth to protest the collective ego part, but the aasimar continued with her rant before he could.
"That sort of attitude used to define my world. I went from the daily game of hide-and-go-seek with my cousins to the game of find-and-marry-a-rich-man, just like that."
She snapped her fingers.
"The attitude among some tribes of tabaxi," Sky said, tail lashing. "Believe it or not, isn't so different. You have to go a long way to escape it. Maybe even cross an ocean."
The statement, the tinge of melancholy in Sky's voice, caused a pause in their conversation and shared looks to pass among her companions. She rarely ever mentioned anything about her past, being very much a creature of the present.
"Well," the tabaxi said with a dismissive wave, all traces of melancholy gone from her voice. "Shall we go meet this Kalain?"
Momentary silence greeted her question. For Kuhl's part, he still contemplated what this revealed bit of Sky's past might hint at, but decided in the middle of the night on a street in the Sea Ward was not the time or place to try and learn more.
"If Kalain is as hostile to visitors as they say," he said. "How are we going to convince her to let us inside, let alone search her place for the entry to the vault?"
"The plan hasn't changed," Jhelnae said, shrugging. "Badges followed by me charming her if needed."
"The constables said she is a half-elf," Kuhl reminded.
Having witnessed the innate elven resistance to charming magic from their encounter with the vampire earlier this evening, his companions understood the problem immediately.
"It can still work," the half-drow insisted. "I did it before. When we escaped Velkynvelve, remember? And I had less experience then."
The half-elf did remember of course, but then the backup plan had been to knock their drow guard unconscious if charming magic failed. They could not do the same with a Waterdhavian lady who refused to let them search her home.
"Let's just try and talk to her," Aleina said. "It might turn out better than expected. She isn't even asleep. I see lantern light."
Flickering light did filter through through many of the ivy obscured windows of the first floor.
The wrought iron gate squealed on rusty hinges as they entered the overgrown yard. They crossed along a brick pathway to the main entrance and Kuhl rapped on the heavy wooden door.
"Was Bonnie acting strange when we gave her the note?" Jhelnae whispered as they waited.
"Strange in what way?" the aasimar whispered back.
"She hardly said a word, just stared. Barely even nodded and only mumbled she would 'try'. It wasn't like her."
"You showed up at the end of her shift telling a barmaid she had to get a message to the Open Lord," Dawnbringer said in Kuhl's mind. "How was she supposed to react?"
The half-elf felt the same, but footsteps from inside made him hold his breath in anticipation rather than repeat his sentient sword's sentiment. The door eased open and the faint lamplight from the street revealed a sapphire blue eye, a high cheekbone marked with splotches of paint, and a swath of midnight black hair tucked behind a pointed elven ear.
"Who is it?" the woman partly hidden by the door, Kalain, Kuhl guessed, asked.
Her voice was very pleasant and he felt a sudden surge of hope that Aleina was right and that the constables had misrepresented her.
"We're with the Watch," he began.
Then stopped, realizing he didn't have his badge. He'd given it to Bonnie to help her get their note to Laeral Silverhand. Thankfully Jhelnae, anticipating his need, displayed the one she still held from showing it to the constables. The sapphire eye gazing out through the crack in the door narrowed, but the door opened wider.
"The Watch?" Kalain said, an edge in her voice. "What took you so long? I sent Vhaspar to fetch you nights ago. He said you promised to come, but you never did. Whoever was lurking in here is long gone."
Kuhl once again found himself at a loss for words, both at the sudden surprised direction of the conversation and at the fully revealed figure of Kalain. She wore a paint covered smock that hung just above her knees and nothing else. Her hair was disheveled and matted also holding splotches of paint as did every part of her exposed pale skin. A cloud of overly perfumed air surrounded her, almost gag inducing and almost masking the stench of the unwashed body at its center. Still, he could see why the constables called her gorgeous. If one was inclined to look past her obvious madness and lack of cleanliness, she was.
"Oh," Aleina murmured, tone sympathetic.
It was Sky, not surprisingly, who assessed the situation the fastest and saw the opening provided.
"Well," she said. "We're here now. Maybe we should search the place in case they came back."
There was a pregnant pause as the painter contemplated this offer, then she nodded and pulled the door open fully.
"Yes," she said. "They might have. Please come in."
She padded back across the dusty stone floor of her foyer on bare feet.
The conversion of the windmill to residence was well done, a blend of rustic charm and luxury, with exposed wooden beams sanded and stained and stone walls smoothed and polished. It was the paintings hanging on the walls, however, that immediately drew the eye.
I see you have noticed my work," Kalain said. "Do you like them?"
"They're very… lifelike," the aasimar said.
That was a very positive way to describe them, and they were very lifelike and life size for that manner. One of the two massive paintings depicted a monstrous dog with a powerful physique, its fearsome form covered in short, rust-red fur with glowing red eyes and standing in a hellscape of igneous rock and magma. The other was an equally ferocious looking giant, six-legged, two tentacled panther-like black cat stalking through a fey woodland. Kuhl recognized it as a displacer beast because Captain Errde Blackskull of the Stone Guard of Gracklstugh had given the name of such a creature and when she'd described the tentacles hanging off the floppy hat of a derro named Droki.
"They're both portraits of him and my protection from him," the painter said.
"Him?" Jhelnae asked, though she probably guessed the answer.
"The beast you all ultimately report to, of course," Kalain said. "That rat Neverember. Why have I never painted him as the rat he is? That shall be my next creation…"
She broke into a cackle that had the companions sharing uncomfortable glances.
"How can paintings protect her?" Dawnbringer asked in Kuhl's mind, "However well done and frightening?"
"Or," Aleina said. "You could not paint him at all. Forget about him and move on."
"Move on?" the painter said, incredulous. "Would that I could. How can I when he has divorced me from the high society that used to embrace my art? When he sends spies and assassins to watch me, prepared to murder me should I actually take a new lover?"
"I don't know if you have heard," Jhelnae said, giving a sidelong look of distaste at the two paintings, "Being immersed in your own world of insanity and all, but there is a new Open Lord of Waterdeep. Laeral Silverhand."
"That whore?" Kalain spat. "How naive are you? She is his secret mistress, holding Waterdeep for him while he secures his grasp on Neverwinter."
"You think an over seven centuries year old daughter of a goddess is so enamored with an aging politician that she'd willingly serve as his temporary stand in?" the half-drow asked, tone disbelieving. "Hate to be the one to tell you, but since you don't seem to have anyone else to do it, I will, you're delusional."
"Not diplomatically said," Dawnbringer observed. "But accurate."
Considering Diarnghan once told Kuhl that Jhelnae once asked a medusa if she was 'crazy or just a bitch', the lack of diplomacy was not surprising.
"Since she was turned to stone by that medusa, that lack of diplomacy also may have been unwise."
"So," Sky said, with a sharp-toothed smile that was probably meant to be disarming rather than a bit feral. "We should get about searching the place for those lurkers, right? I know just where to start."
But the painter ignored her, focusing on the half-drow.
"You are a pretty thing, aren't you?" she said, voice cold despite her words. "Skin and hair ebony black and eyes of emerald green. Just the sort he would favor. I know he had his eye on female members of the Guard. Why not the Watch as well?"
"Don't draw me into your twisted reality…" Jhelnae started, but a touch from Aleina made her go quiet.
"What my friend is saying may be a bit harsh, but it's true," she said, motioning to the paintings. "You have amazing talent, but you've let yourself get twisted into a nightmare of your own making. She is trying to get you to wake up."
"And take a bath," the half-drow whispered under her breath.
"Actually, you know what you need," the aasimar said. "A visit to the Temple of Beauty with a friend. Think of it as a fresh start."
"My friends were his friends," Kalain said. "They abandoned me when he did."
But the half-elf noticed a softening of the eyes of the painter and perhaps a hint of sanity in her regard of Aleina.
"Well then," the aasimar said. "Jhelnae and I will be glad to go with you."
"We will?" the half-drow said, arching an eyebrow and wrinkling her nose. "I mean, of course we will."
The latter statement had been influenced by a jab of Aleina's elbow.
"You are very sweet," Kalain said. "You remind me of the days when my patrons used to fawn over my paintings and beg me for portraits."
She slowly backed away from the companions until she was framed by the two monstrous paintings on either side of her.
"Would you like me to paint a portrait of all of you?" she asked.
"Err…" the aasimar said in hesitation. "Don't take this the wrong way, but we kind of had a bad experience the last time someone asked us that."
"Coven of green hags bad," Jhelnae said.
"Almost didn't get to meet a naiad bad," Sky added.
Kuhl had not actually been with them on the trip to the Restful Lily, but had heard the stories.
"It wasn't really an offer," the painter said. "What I did before, the portraits, wasn't art. It wasn't true. It was all flattery and lies to stroke the egos of those who paid me coin. But these? These show the true monsters lying hidden inside people. They are art. They are real. Here, let me show you."
She reached out and grazed her fingertips against the canvases on either side of her. At her touch, fire seemed to crackle through the painting of the rust red monstrous dog and a green glow suffused the forest scape containing the six-legged and tentacled displacer beast. A wave of vertigo passed over the half-elf as the colors of the paintings blurred and swam before his eyes, then a canine growl emanated from the dog painting and a feline hiss came from the other.
The hair on the back of Kuhl's neck rose and he suddenly smelled sulfur mixed with woodland scents. The canvases warped and twisted free of their frames on the wall and the sinewy and monstrous subject matter of each tore and clawed themselves from their worlds of oil pigments into reality.
"By all that dances," the half-drow breathed.
"Kill these spies and assassins," Kalain commanded, pointing. "Defend me! Scour the stain of their presence from my home!"
Her look of manic glee only lasted a moment, then Dawnbringer blazed to life in Kuhl's hand and the painter threw up her hands to block the sword's brilliance and gave a cry of surprise. She shied back, thudding against the wall between the remains of her two ruined paintings.
He was more concerned with her creations. The great black cat's emerald green eyes glowed malevolently as it lunged toward him. He dodged to the side, feeling air on his cheek as the black furred tentacles sprouting from the creature's back whipped past him.
The half-elf raised Dawnbringer to strike, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the hellish hound take in a deep, flame-tinged breath, burning red eyes fixed on his companions. Extinguishing his radiant blade, Kuhl changed direction, sprinting towards the canine creature as he slipped the sword hilt in her sheet. Increasing heat buffeted him as he crossed the distance, becoming almost unbearable as he tackled the hound.
Or tried to.
The creature didn't go down, but rather spun in a thrashing tight circle that left the half-elf unable to grasp any sort of real grip on its blistering hot fur. But the desired effect the same.
Better.
The gout of flame the hound released from its maw narrowly missed Kuhl's companions and, as they spun, fanned into the displacer beast leaping in pursuit of the half-elf. Some of the flame reached Kalain and she shrieked in time with the conjured cat's high pitched yowl. She couldn't be too hurt as she ran screaming out her still open front door.
"Intruders Vhaspar!" she cried out. "Assassins! Help me! Let me in!"
Pounding on a door followed from outside, presumably her lodger's.
The half-elf had more immediate problems than worrying about the mad painter. The hellish hound tried a tackle of its own, with much greater success. Kuhl lost his footing to tripping paws and fell hard onto the stone foyer floor. He rolled to avoid snapping bites and pulled Dawnbringer from her sheath. Twin rays of crystalline blue slammed into the monstrous canine, frosting it's fur and causing the jaws about to clamp down on his sword arm to open wider in a yipping yelp instead. The half-elf ignited his radiant blade and slashed upward and a spray of blazing hot blood rained down on him as she sliced deep.
The yipping yelp became a death howl, flames sprouting upward from the raised maw and snout, then the hound went abruptly silent as Dawnbringer cut deeper still.
Kuhl rolled and shifted and managed to just avoid dead canine weight from collapsing on top of him. It was good that he did, since as he clambered to his feet the corpse consumed itself in a burst of flame until only ash and a few tufts of fur remained.
"Will you hit it already!" Sky screeched.
She'd activated her magic boots and dashed in a circle, the rending claws and grasping tentacles of the displacer beast just behind her. A crackling burst of energy sailed into the creature, but went right through hitting nothing as the image evaporated into mist and another creature took its place,
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae screamed adjusting the aim of her summoned abyssal sword. "The cursed thing is never where you think!"
"It's right there!" the tabaxi yelled.
She spun and flung a dagger, which looked like it was going to sail end over end right past the great cat, but instead buried itself into the shoulder of a new image of the cat which winked into existence while the one Kuhl had been tracking disappeared.
"Does that help?" Sky asked.
But her spinning throw cost her and, not surprisingly given the speed her magic boots carried her, she tripped herself up and stumbled, despite her agility.
"Actually," the half-drow said. "It does!"
True to her word, the next burst of energy from her leveled sword crackled right into the beast and sent it crashing into a stone wall, not far from the now ruined painting that had conjured it into being. A trio of scorching rays of heat seared into the displacer beast as it shook its head to clear it from the thudding impact. The piteous scream it made as it burned almost made the half-elf forget that this was some sort of conjured creature and almost made him stay his hand.
Almost.
Instead his descending blade split its skull as it crawled to its feet after extinguishing its flaming fur with a roll across the floor. It fell to a heap at his feet then evaporated in a green mist that quickly dissipated.
For a time the only sound in the foyer was the heavy breathing of the companions as they stared around the room and each other. Then Sky climbed to her feet, ran to the front door, and closed and barred it.
"When you want to search someone's house," the tabaxi said, tail lashing as she rounded on them. "And they've asked you to do just that, don't try to save them from themselves and don't start insulting them."
She leveled a clawed accusing finger at Aleina and Jhelnae in turn who both adopted apologetic expressions.
"She is definitely not wrong in this assessment," Dawnbringer observed in Kuhl's mind:
"I really liked that tunic," the aasimar said. "Jhelnae and I bought you that tunic in memory of Derendil."
It took a moment for the half-elf to realize she was talking about his tunic, which was bloody and burnt and the skin under it wasn't much better from his attempt to tackle the hellish hound and from being sprayed with fiery blood. He didn't even feel the injuries, however, until Aleina applied a healing spell, which made him wince and hiss in pain as his skin magically recovered.
"Come on," Sky said, motioning for them to follow. "The stone is telling me the vault is this way."
She led them down a short hallway.
"She has a twisted imagination," the half-drow said as they passed hanging paintings of a mummy and a ghast. "I'll grant her that."
"They're so lifelike," the aasimar said.
"Unlifelike," Dawnbringer telepathically said.
Kuhl decided the correction didn't need to be passed on.
Stairs to their left spiraled along the outer wall of the windmill to the upper level, but the tabaxi turned left, through a narrow hallway. The door at the end led to a bedchamber.
The place was a wreck. Atop the four poster bed was a disarrayed nest of velvet and silk, the floor around it littered by strewn garments and scattered parchments with partial sketches on them. A chaotic clutter of jewelry and trinkets lay on dressers and most of the drawers of these dressers were open. A pair of paintings hung in this room as well, just as highly detailed as the others - a manticore in a mountainous setting and a gargoyle perched on a stone ledge. The moldy smell from partially eaten plates of food blended with tipped over and spilled perfume containers among the stoppered bottles.
Sky went to the closet and started tossing out the contents. Aleina winced as each discarded item was added to the general clutter of the bedroom. Once the tabaxi cleared space on the closet floor, she squatted, manipulating something the half-elf couldn't see. When she stood there was an edge, a seam not visible before that someone could just slip their fingers inside. The tabaxi stepped back, gave him a golden eyed glance, and motioned for him to take her place.
Her meaning was clear. He squatted in turn, jammed his fingers into the seam, and pulled. There was a slight give, but nothing else. Taking a breath, he pulled harder and the lid to a trap door opened upward to reveal a dusty stone stairway descending into the darkness, a dank smell wafting upward from the depths.
"The vault where Neverember hid his embezzled hoard," Sky said. "Is down there."
Not sure how well this all works. In our play through this was quite exciting. After Kalain activated the first couple of paintings my version of Kuhl trapped her with an entanglement spell so she could not activate anymore. This was my favorite vault location, so I wanted to work Kalain in. Even as a player, I felt bad for her and I believe she survived our campaign