Three - Pulling the Threads

Mission Log: Entry Three

It has been ten days since I have seen my home.

The warning of those missionaries who returned to Heaven's Reach of a turbulent world full of danger and lies has been proven true.

Myself, Lady Almareth, Prince Argamir, Madam Oliphant, and Mr. Knife (whose name we have come to learn is Sehl A'dorr) gathered in the manor's courtyard to plan our next move. We again encountered the Baroness who urged us on with our investigation and asked me personally to look after her daughter.

We ventured into the city to investigate the area which Sehl claimed to encounter the assassin he mentioned last evening. He led us down an alleyway to a courtyard of crops, surrounded by buildings. No sign of a fight was to be seen. Inquiring with the locals, they told us a body was carted off after a great commotion.

This led us to search the local administrative complex to try to locate the corpse. It was here we encountered some officials which clearly had something to hide. I overheard one of the workers tell the other to send a warning down into the facility, which I relayed to Price Argamir. He insisted we escort both workers down into the morgue as a precaution.

We walked down through the public jail into the morgue. This yielded the first of many of today's surprises.

Atop a preparatory slab lay a shackled, twitching corpse. A heavily armored man introduced himself as Staltis Camrordrin and demanded to know our business. Accompanying him in the morgue were two soldiers. As the others began questioning Staltis, I noticed one of the soldiers reaching for his weapon. I attempted to persuade him not to resort to violence, but he and the others attacked.

I am grateful for my training. The group of young thugs I met upon the road were the only combatants beyond sparring partners which I ever faced. I suffered a wicked cut from Staltis in today's skirmish, but I was able to subdue him and a third attacker who appeared from a back room. Unfortunately, while Sehl defeated another, the prince was forced to kill one of the soldiers. When the fight was over, I administered the prayer for the dying.

It was revealed during this fight that Lady Almareth possesses impressive magical abilities. We came to learn that this has been a secret kept from her family. It would seem her family had secrets of their own as our prisoners decried the Baroness, accusing her and the lady of operating a cult of Dagon and poisoning Carse with heresy. Lady Almareth's display of arcane power only fueled their ire. It also did not help that to coax this bit of information from Staltis, Sehl cut off his ear.

I must admit that I was surprised at the Baroness' adherence to Dagon which she openly admitted at dinner. I knew little of this entity, but have come to learn that Dagon is a demon. I am still trying to make sense of this. There may be some truth to these accusations.

Not knowing who to trust, I ran to fetch Lady Almareth's most trusted guards, Mel and Amigo. When we returned, they were shocked to discover that we had captured supposed members of a Carsian secret police, known as the Emerald Serpents. Mel and Amigo were very hesitant to take any hostile action against them and were very uncomfortable when Lady Almareth ordered them to stand guard as she locked the badly beaten prisoners in the jail.

The lady then decided we would confront her parents with this information. As we crossed the bridge through the manor, Sehl was attacked by two hooded figures which dragged with him as he lept from the bridge. It was during this encounter that one of the assailants called out to Sehl by name. We wounded one enough that he fled, but another was left unconscious on the water's edge. Thinking them common cut-purses, Lady Almareth urged us to leave the scene and continue to her parents. Madam Oliphant took this opportunity to head into the city and Sehl stayed behind with the prisoner.

I followed Lady Almareth as we met her mother. Hearing the details of our encounter with the Emerald Serpent, she seemed anxious and offered no meaningful explanation. Frustrated, Lady Almareth decided to meet with Sagrath who was most interested in our encounter with the shackled corpse. He seems to think that there are followers of Orcus, the demon prince of the undead, at work in the city. He urges us back out into the city to learn as much as we can and report back to him.

I took this opportunity to warn Lady Almareth of Sehl's possible deception and to keep an eye on him. We then gathered Prince Locklear and, after a brief and fruitless search of the palace for Sehl, ventured to the courtyard to devise a plan to continue investigating the alleged assassination plot as well as the activity of any Orcus worshippers.

As we talked, Lady Almareth spied a suspicious figure running past the palace gates, so we gave chase. It took several blocks for us to catch up to who turned out to be the assailant we left unconscious at the bridge. He fought like a cornered animal, swallowing poison as it was clear I had bested him. He wore a ring like the one Sehl had shown us last night. Foolishly, I had left Lady Almareth's side and she and Prince Argamir were attacked by a second attacker.  The prince suffered a vicious wound, but we were able to subdue him just as Sehl arrived, smelling as if he had been lurking in the sewers.

It was here that Sehl confessed to knowing the dead assailant, admitting they were part of an organization of thieves known as the Scoffers, but that he had no dealings with assassinations and did not know man. In fact, he told us, he had just been attacked by these foes earlier in the day as we were in the palace. I understand his need to hide his unsavory associations, but I am still apprehensive about Sehl. Mother had warned me not to revere every elf I met, for they differed in virtue as any other folk. Will I never cease to be humbled by her wisdom?

With our remaining attacker neutralized, and his poison ring and ingredient pouch confiscated, I tended to the one who swallowed the toxin. It is unclear to me how or why it occurred, but as I prayed for his soul, the body burst into flames and quickly disintegrated into ash.

Lady Almareth requested that we take our prisoner to the palace's private dungeon within the barracks. Soon, local guards appeared to assess the disturbance we caused since, as they said, the envoy from Merkemia was on its way. Following shortly behind them was Madam Oliphant. Lady Almareth noted that she now carried a spear with draconic markings of the Order of Talos. I recall from my studies that this was the paladin order started in Dreknar by Talos of the fabled 42nd Adventuring Company of Merkemia. It will be made clear later in the evening that she has stolen this spear from a local establishment founded by one of that same order.

During all of this, Sehl had been talking with a nearby boy, sending him off with a message to his network of thieves in hopes they may have some knowledge of the so-called Guild of Death and, most importantly, to alert them of the apparent infiltration they've suffered.

Once at the barracks, and our prisoner secured, Prince Argamir began his interrogation which intensified so quickly that I was sure he would kill the assassin. However, as I recited my prayer for the dying, our attacker roiled and screamed in pain as his flesh began to burn. In our subsequent battle of wills, he provided only taunts and threats of Orcus' wrath. This confirmed Sagrath's suspicions that Orcus had a foothold in Carse.

Soon after, Sagrath appeared. Lady Almareth and the others told him what we had encountered today and offered to probe the prisoner's spirit for answers, but he would have to be killed first. Instinctively, I prayed again, with the expected results. This seemed to please the prisoner, but I was asked to cease as Sehl deceived him by threatening magical immortality and therefore the inability to meet his patron. The ruse worked and our prisoner reluctantly mentioned the Temple of Bahamut.

With no one else to turn to, the Emerald Serpents seemed like our safest, though certainly uncomfortable, option. Returning to the jail, we found Mel and Amigo sitting in the cell, dispirited, instead of Staltis. Freeing them, we were led to a different chamber, housing an impressive library where a number of scholars carried on about their business.

But Staltis and an attachment of his guards also dwelt here. As we approached a table where say Staltis, he ordered that we be surrounded, searched, and taken into custody. Lady Almareth explained to him that we returned for his aid, and recounted our story as I presented the poison instruments taken from our attackers. It was here that Staltis noted that Madam Oliphant carried a stolen spear.

Most interestingly, it was discovered in our search that Lady Almareth hid upon her person a small reptile familiar which I believe is classified as a pseudodragon. The matters at hand were too grave for me to succumb to curiosity, but I would like to learn as much about this creature as I can.

Intrigued by our story, Staltis provided some intelligence gathered by his organization, notably how to order an assassination via the Guild of Death, through some agent within the Temple of Bahamut. He then allowed us to retrieve both Sagrath and our prisoner in the hopes of using the wizard's magic to glean more information from the corpse.

Though briefly distracted by the arrival of the Merkemian envoy and King Argamir himself, we return to the Emerald Serpents and begin Sagrath's ritual. They chained the prisoner down and sliced his throat, a sight I am most disappointed to have seen. Through Sagrath's magic, the spirit within the body animated. They asked of it who the assassin's target was, and it told us that it was Argamir and the family.

A struggle within the corpse ensued as more questions were asked, with a horrible voice within it ordering us to relinquish our hold on its servant. As the corpse began to break free from its restraints, it was hacked apart by Staltis' guards. With the ritual a failure, I spake again my prayer for the dying and, as the body burned away, it called "You can stop the wedding, but it won't matter."

Clearly, elements within Carse were compromised from within by agents of Orcus, so we left Staltis to warn the Almareths and King Argamir. Luckily, they heeded our warnings. Noting the reaction of those under Orcus' control, I suggested we gather Carse's soldiers and Argamir's guards and recite to them my prayer. Though it was quite a late hour, the families agreed and soon we were in the courtyard, presented with rows and rows of soldiers.

At first, my prayers did nothing, but as I urged the others to join in, seven men reacted violently and were taken into custody.

Afterwards, the soldiers were dismissed and in our tired state, we were urged to retire to quarters which were arranged for us.

Breifly, we discussed with Sagrath the beginnings of a plan to catch the agent within the Temple of Bahamut by arranging a false assassination order. The details of this plan will be clarified in the morning.

The many questions resulting from today's events, as well as the many revelations about my current companions will test my discipline tonight as I attempt to rest.

Most curious to me is the power of my prayer? Am I wielding an unrealized power? Is a greater force working through me? There is much reflection and prayer needed in the coming days.