(G154 13/01/2013 Sunday - BG - JF(GM) , AP , ON)
DAY 164 (22nd Eleasis)(August) continued...
Oz had everyone moved to a more defensible room in the basement of the inn.
It was a servant room with three bunk beds in it.
One bunk each for him, Fenrir, Parrie, Urol, Meree and Liamae.
He then sent a message to Captain Crispy to warn him about what was going on.
After that had all been sorted out, at about three o'clock he used a magical
charm spell to pump a chambermaid for information. She said that people were
most suspicious of a newcomer called Firebeard Elvenhair, another guest called
Rina and the new assistant chef, a half-halfing called Tipsy Littlefeet.
He went to talk to Tipsy and after bribing the head chef and after Liamae had
charmed him they learned he had done 'something' in Waterdeep and was on the run,
but he had nothing to do with the assassination attempts.
Meanwhile, a very giggly and excited Parrie gave Fenrir a bed bath much to his
delight and amusement. He was recovering in bed for until the poison was out of
his system and Parrie was acting as a very attentive nurse.
After they'd eaten some carefully selected food they all settled in for the
night, laying makeshift traps.
As he drifted off Fenrir had a vision of Rizolde, one of the crew of the
Sea Wyvern. She happily told him that she had come to a deal with
Bnurgstickslackskin and had become a Warlock in his service. She then went
into a trance and the demon took over.
Fenrir was never delighted to hear from the demon, but at least he was being
reasonable. He told Fenrir that he had to get to Ellis Adarbrent pretty soon.
It was good that he was looking into ways of holding back Sertretous but
the situation in Waterdeep was more urgent.
They needed Ellis under demon control. Otherwise the demons would go for the
'Armageddon option' which would be an all out demon attack on all enemy targets
before leaving Waterdeep to the devils completely. Bnurg painted a scene of
terrible destruction with many hundreds of deaths.
Fenrir shuddered to think of how the Inquisition would react to that and reasoned
to himself that sacrificing Ellis to whatever fate the demons had planned for
him might be the lesser of two evils.
DAY 165 (23th Eleasis)(August)
They were taking turns on watch and it was while Oz was awake, just after five
o'clock in the morning when he heard a noise from above.
He opened the bedroom door and was hit by a bolt fired from a crossbow of a
figure at the other end of the corridor. The black clothed figure then
ran for it. Oz cast a spell to make him run faster and made chase, the others
behind him.
The assassin made it out into the street and quaffed a 'gaseous form' potion
but the pursuit was too fast and as they ghostly figure tried to make its
way over the wall it was brought down by magical arrows fired from Meree's
bow.
The figure crumpled into a misty head at the foot of the wall and Oz ran
back to get Parrie but as he approached the door he heard a scream.
He called for them to open the door, but Parrie cried back that 'Some one
is shooting at us from a hole in the ceiling and we are hiding under the
beds!'
Oz ran up to the room above but the other assassin had fled leaving a
torn up floor board and a hole behind them as evidence of what they had
been up to.
Parrie ran as fast as she could to the captured assassin and healed her, as
it was a female human and as the guards had shown up she was taken to
the cells under the gate house.
It was deduced that this was Sal Fields the husband of Sammu Fields, researchers
that had been at the Candlekeep Inn for the last five days or so.
Captain Hull was happy for Oz and Liamae to talk to her, but since all
their charm spells had no effect on her Oz was limited to just asking
questions. Sal Fields remained silent.
Meanwhile Mr and Mrs Fields belongs had been bought in and Oz had a look
at them. They had a great many tombs and notebooks, most of which had been
written by them. He spent about an hour flipping through them and got the
idea that they started studying history, then the history of magic and
then magic itself, but ancient magic used by lost civilisations.
For the next two hours after that he sat in Mrs Fields cell and read one
of her books and eventually she began to talk.
She said that her husband, about a year ago, had gone off on trip to a
ruin east of Baldur's Gate to read some ancient runes he had heard were
there that he thought would help with some research. Two months later he
came back, but was much changed.
She said he began more violent and moody and began to beat her and their
children. He would strike off on some journey without much explanation as
to why, this trip to Candlekeep being an example of this.
Then when they were here, her husband had said that, 'There is a very
bad man here, a demon worshipper called Fenrir Thunderstaff. We have to
kill him!'
I didn't want to kill anyone, she said, but she was frightened of what
he would do if she didn't help and since when she'd asked in the inn
who this Thunderstaff fellow was and had been told he was a villain,
a murderer and said to be possessed by demons, well, she thought, the
world will not miss him.
She could not say for sure, but when Oz proposed that her husband may
be under the influence of a geas spell or something like it, she admitted
that this could be the case.
At noon Oz went and talked to Mandral Sisten, the Gatekeeper of Candlekeep
about Sal Fields. The monk said that, 'Money will be taken from the Fields
possessions and given to the maid that was posioned to pay her for her trouble.
If however you decide to not press charges then she will be expelled from
the Keep and told never to come back. If you decide to press charges and we
find her guilty of attempted murder we will most likely hang her.'
Oz didn't really like either option so he asked if he could speak to
the head of Candlekeep. He was told though, to get into the inner areas
and the libraries he would need to give a book of at least 1000 gold in
value.
He used magic to copy out some of the Fields books, but although they
contained fragments of magic, the most valuable books were still only
worth about 100 gold.
Oz then told Mandral everything he knew about demons and devils, Sertretous
and about why certain people would want Fenrir dead.
Mandral was very interested in this and said that if this was true then
the woman should be given to the 'wizards in the tower' who would extract
every morsel of information out of her.
Oz was concerned though, since Mrs Fields later said to him she had
a feeling that if she went into the inner areas she would never come back
out alive and even Captain Hull admitted to Oz later that afternoon that
usually this was the case.
We are all usually guilty of something, after all.