Q: "The eagle flies in search of prey..."
A: "North. North is the way". (Whichever direction the Royal Capital is from current location)
The man is none other than the assassin; Wolfgang (Lord Emmon/Sij's murderer, who had worked undercover within House Von Heltzer.) Wolfgang seems to be quite distrusting and paranoid towards Ramos, and is eager to leave the city as soon as possible. He is dismayed further when Ramos informs him of the forlorn Mack, and his intention to initiate him into the Order. Ramos also expresses interest to stay in High-Haven until he retrieves his stolen gold. Wolfgang reluctantly agrees to wait, but vows to stay in the room until it is safe enough to leave. Cynthia, followed closely by the Hell-Knights; Nefarion and Ysera are next to arrive at the Spearhead. They have a sombre drink of red wine as Seltyiel weeps hysterically in the background. But the mood is swiftly interrupted following a violent and messy vomiting episode for Seltyiel, who had drank a dodgy cocktail.
Hel awakens, and she finds herself lying down on a comfortable bed in a minimalist room with wooden walls, and nothing but a faint flickering candle to light it. Perplexed, she gets out of bed, and attempts to exit the room through the door, but she finds it locked, and the one window is well reinforced with wooden planks. She bangs on the door, screaming hysterically but no-one hears her cries for help. She attempts to destroy the door using her magic and abilities but a wall of energy blocks her. As she scans the room for magic, alarmingly...evil energy surrounds her, trapping her within this room. She uses Spectral Hand to allow her to pass her hand through the wall, where she conveys a message of help to anyone on the other side. It's not long before a young woman tries to free her, but she has no luck with the door either. The commotion is heard by Ramos and Wolfgang, as astoundingly, it seems to be happening in the same tavern that they are in. Ramos goes out to investigate, seeing the young woman attempting to open the door. He offers his help, and heads downstairs to acquire a key. The Half-Orc bartender (begrudgingly wiping up vomit at this point) refuses to lend the key to Ramos, insisting that the occupier of the room didn't want to be disturbed. When Ramos questioned him further, the bartender revealed that the occupant was a tall and skinny man, although he never saw his face. The gold he was being paid was too good so he didn't question it further. The man had reportedly rented that room for the last six months, and hadn't stirred since. Ramos threatened to harm the bartender if he did not procure a key, and the bartender drew a dagger, and threatened to call the guards, but alas Ramos saw through the Half-Orc's bluff, and managed to win him over. The bartender went to look for the key (or even a spare), but none were to be found. The Hell-Knights had overheard this conversation and decided to help Ramos investigate this problem. They returned upstairs to the locked room, and Nefarion shattered it with his Great Axe. Ysera dispelled the magical barrier. When they entered the room, to their surprise, they saw Hel lying on the bed, whimpering claiming that there was a monster under her bed. Nefarion attempted to move Hel, but he could not, and on further magical scanning, sensed that she was positively tainted. Undeterred, Ramos crouched down, and lifted up the bedskirt, and under the bed was Hel, her eyes full of terror, she whimpered to him, "there's someone on my bed". When the looked back onto the bed, the 'Other Hel' was nowhere to be seen. Shortly afterwards the candle extinguished itself and the room fell into complete darkness. They used a Light Spell to illuminate the room, and heard a strange twitching noise coming from above. When they looked up, they saw a gangly, withered humanoid clinging to the ceiling. It looked down on them with it's wide black eyes and shrieked horrifyingly, sending them all flying across the room, it then materialized into black mist and burst out of the barricaded window and into the night. Hel seems unharmed (physically anyway) and they all decide to try and sleep through the rest of the night. In the night, Seltyiel becomes bored, and decides to wander around the High-Haven castle, he manages to sneak inside successfully but is shortly discovered by a guard. Seltyiel flies up to the ceiling, jingling chains, and pretends to be a ghost. The gullible guard is convinced and cowers. It's not long before another (more sensible) guard approaches, he sees through the obvious hoax and asks Seltyiel politely to leave, and he does so with childish discontent.
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| The 'Creature' in Hel's Room. |
As they sleep deep into the night, Nefarion suddenly awakes, after he thought he heard a voice mumbling from outside of his room. He attempts to wake his 'sister', but has no luck. He decides to exit the room, in order to trace this source of noise. The corridor is pitch black and from it's end he can hear the playful giggle of a young woman echoing towards him. Cautiously, he walks down the corridor towards the source of this strange and harrowing laughter before he hears the voice again, this time, she speaks into his ear. "The smell of death is on you, Murderer.".
Nefarion turns to look and he see a woman, shrouded with a green cloak. As she walks into the moonlight, he can partially see her face. A young, confident face, with two small horns on her forehead. Her amber and scarlet alien eyes meet his (their intention shrouded) and her red lips smile at him indulgently. Following this, two more cloaked figures come into view, and Nefarion seems surrounded. Both of these figures are male, the taller and muscular one seems to be human, and the other speaks in a strange, serpentine dialect of common. And so it would seem that Nefarion's forewarned "Two Days" had finally run out. Whoever he had contacted during that blood ritual at the Bastion's Black Chapel, had answered him. The horned female continues to speak to Nefarion, and goes on to talk about her 'Dark Master', she divulges that he seeks great power, and is eager to meet with Nefarion and his companions, as they have 'piqued his interests'. Nefarion feels as if he has little choice in the matter, but decides to listen regardless. She says that if Nefarion meets this Dark Master, and decides to offer his faith and service, he will be rewarded with great riches...more gold than he could ever spend, and great power, the likes of which the world has never seen. The Master has a sanctuary in Val Nemor, deep within Villeroy territory, meaning that Nefarion could operate within that region with great ease. He could even get close to the Queen's treachorous uncle; Lord-Meister Villeroy (who with his Automatons, had been responsible for Nefarion and the Royalists' defeat at the Battle of the West-Harbour). He could even slit his throat...end the war, once and for all. But only, if he joined this dark and shrouded order. Furthermore, she told Nefarion, that he had already encountered two of her associates; Xenastasia, the Bastion's resident Necromancer and a fellow Hell-Knight. And also, the Assassin that abducted Prince Rhed (and mortally wounded him) was also a former member, and yet neither of the three cloaked figures seemed remotely perturbed by his demise at Nefarion's hand. She concluded the encounter, by saying that if Nefarion was interested in meeting the Master, that all he had to do was enter a Knightly Tournament in Val Nemor, and 'impress him'...supposedly he would be watching. The Tourney starts in a week, so Nefarion has plenty of time to make his decision. Nefarion returns to his room and falls back asleep, when he awakes the next morning, he's not sure if it had even happened. Could it have been a dream?
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| The 'mark'... |
They all rise early, promptly leaving the Spearhead Tavern. Nefarion, Ysera, and Hel agree to head out of the city towards the Bastion to report their accomplishments and findings to the Arch Lictor. Seltyiel (who is need of the Bastion's magical and alchemical amenities) decides to go with them, and Cynthia reluctantly follows them, as she is still technically a prisoner of the Hell-Knight Order. They arrive at the City Gates, but are disallowed exit by the guards, who have tightened up security following the murder of their Lord. After some tense discussion, the Townsguard Captain; Vissaeus appears, and he grants them access out of the city (because he knew them to be the ones responsible for saving the City, and repelling the Von Heltzer siege army.)
Ramos stays in town with no intention to follow the other PCs. He searches around town for clues about his missing money, and encounters a tradesman; Qith (a self-proclaimed 'Purveyor of Eel-based Ephemera'), who directs him to a man who is new to town, and who has recently acquired a great deal of wealth; a man known as Matheus. Ramos takes this information to the Captain of the High-Haven Townsguard; Vissaeus (who he discovered had helped elevate Matheus to his current state of influence and wealth). But after Vissaeus finds out that Ramos is an outsider to High-Haven, he becomes very suspicious and intimidating towards him. He even questions him regarding his motives and business within High-Haven, but Ramos manages to deceive the captain, and find out some information of his own. The Captain tells him that Matheus has an office in the City Castle, where he conducts his affairs in the reformation of High-Haven and assassination aftermath. He keeps Ramos' prized Glaive as 'insurance' until he returns. It doesn't take long for Ramos to locate Matheus in the Castle, and he is granted a private meeting in his office. After a heated discussion, it becomes clear that Matheus' is not playing Ramos' game, and is not admitting to any of Ramos' strong accusations. Ramos finally threatens Matheus by kicking the door shut, and Matheus calls the guards to take Ramos out of the premises.
Current Party Formation
(Group 1)
Location: En-Route to Bastion Zenith
Active Quests: 'Snake in the Shadows', 'Blood Rituals', 'One Book Short of a Library', 'Avenge the Fallen'
Members:
Cmdr. Nefarion Furyborn
Sgnf. Ysera Furyborn
Seltyiel Garrott
Hel the Necromancer (Mel; Ghost Sister)
Cynthia the Malefactor
(Group 2)
Location: City of High-Haven
Active Quests: 'Claw of the Griffin'
Members:
Ramos of the Order
Wolfgang of the Order (NPC)
Lt. Mack (NPC)
Lt. Mack (NPC)
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