Friday, July 22, 2011

Frei's Memories: Day 17 (Part II)

Herrick's Punishment:

When we told Katja about Herrick's plan to "steal her dragon" she produced the angriest laughter I have ever heard. I could tell she was vexed that her business partner would betray her, but she was also amused at his lack of understanding---and maybe even a bit excited that Herrick had given her every excuse to do something terribly nasty to him. After scarcely a moment of contemplation, the great dragon told us to pay Herrick a surprise visit and grant him an surprise audience with her. As I look back on it, it is a bit unnerving how eager we all were to carry out her wishes.

After a long stakeout, (so long that our knight, Hypatia, ate crepes until she was a bit loopy from something in the filling) we tracked Herrick to one of his mansions. After the sun went down, all sorts of party guests began arriving at the mansion. We noticed a comparatively large number of employees from certain houses of ill repute among the guests and concluded that is must have been a sexy party---certainly the most opportune time to pay Herrick his surprise visit!

Spike and Kwaku (the mystic and the sniper) infiltrated the compound and neutralized some of the more incompetent guards. We waited for Herrick to retire to his personal chambers with his personal, sexy entourage before acting on the rest of our plan. Hypatia, still in a crepe-filling-induced altered state, presented our priest and herself to the guards at the gate as members of Herrick's evening entertainment. When he asked about her armor, she replied that it was part of the act. The guard asked about her sword and she replied that she was an expert sword swallower. The guard stifled a snicker and muttered, "the master gets stranger every day." I still can't believe that got them inside the mansion.

Once Hypatia and her escort were in place, Spike and Kwaku entered the house through a window on the top floor. They hid a few roaming guards in a room with a sleeping man who turned out to be Herrick's son. We decided messing with Herrick's family was outside of our orders (and really low) and left the man alone. As soon as a few more guards brought Hypatia and the priest to Herrick's room, the sniper and mystic sprang from their hiding place and attacked. Herrick's guards didn't stand a chance against us; we cut right through them can caught Herrick, pants down, trying to escape through a secret passed. We stole away into the night with our victim. Once Herrick was bound, gagged and blindfolded we took him to Katja.

We strapped Herrick to a chair in Katja's lair and removed his blindfold. The enraged dragon shouted at him so ferociously that her every word nearly knocked the chair over. The meeting only lasted about two minutes, but it was all that was need. Afterwards we left Herrick, pale, quivering and still without pants, in a mud puddle a half away from Keening. I don't think Katja will have any trouble from him for a while.

Frei's Memories: Day 17 (Part I)

Spike's Hireling Party:

We sold most of the prisoners from Helmut's tower to the mines in Keening. However, there were a couple of the wizard's former agents we decided to keep. The four of them served as Helmut's elite, traveling spies and enforcers and weren't very interested in working for the king back in Nashik. We paid them a healthy sum of gold and they agreed to work for us (specifically, our Shadar-kai mystic). Spike, our mystic, gave his hirelings the old land deed we discovered in the ossuary and ordered them to find the place.

Elves and Their Masters' Offer:

We ran into Nico and friends around Keening. They said that their Elemental masters desperately demanded an audience with us. Nico loaned us his magic mirror and we had a conference with the Elementals. The Elemental in the mirror offered us a huge amount of money, artifacts and land if we could bring them the Ossuary Grymoir. They seemed more than a little annoyed that we'd given it to the Aons. We agreed to get the book for them and ended the conference. The nearly destitute hippie elves were super angry and stormed away. I'm convinced the deal is a setup. It would certainly break the Aon/Elemental truce and I don't buy the Elemental in the mirror's argument that it could be kept secret. I think it's reasonably safe to assume the Elves are working for some kind of splinter group, the same group that attacked the Aons' Game. I just keep seeing that pyro-dragon with that Iblis-like symbol on it. These guys are making me very nervous and there's pretty much no way in Heck I'm going to give them that book. It looks like we have another book forging adventure ahead of us.

Herrick's Mistake:

Katja told us that her nasty plan for Herrick was prepared. She decided it would be best just to tell Herrick her secret for refining the essentia ore. That way we could collect our reward and have a chance at getting Herrick to reveal more about his plan. I thought it a strange decision considering how furious she was when we first talked about it. I guess, in spite of her temper, Katja really is a shrewd operator. Anyway, we secured an audience with Herrick at once. We told him, under a zone of truth, that Katja used a dragon's breath to refine the ore. Herrick gave us our generous reward for the information. Herrick then offered us a fortune to steal the dragon. He said he'd also pay for another dragon, but not nearly as much because he wanted Katja out of the picture. I'll bet, dear reader, you can guess what we did with that information!

Katja and Kwaku:
I suspect that something has changed with whatever is going on between the dragon and the elf. Sometimes, when she glances at him, I notice something more than lust in her eyes. And, the other day, I caught him rehearsing some lines from that book we bought in Eibelstat. I asked him about it, but he's tight lipped about the whole thing. I sure hope he knows what he's doing; I can imagine about a baker's dozen ways this could end in disaster. Of course, I have to admit, I do find his predicament extremely entertaining.

Frei's Memories: Day 16 (Part II)

The old portal:

We made a quick search of Helmut's tower, but he must have liquidated most everything he had in is war against us. We found a nice coffee table book and some unusual origami, but we were generally disappointed. There was an old portal in the tower, but it wasn't much use to us, either. Helmut's notes said that he was sure there was some sort of treasure on the other side, but none of his minions managed to find anything. We passed though, but the only thing on the other side was an endless sea of scorching sand. Maybe if we get our hands on some serious desert survival gear, or find some way to fly, we could return and hunt for the treasure. Since killing Helmut officially made us the next greatest threat to the king of Nashik, we took a bunch of prisoners and hightailed it back to our safehouse. Helmut's tower is not in a convenient locale and there's not much of value in it that's not behind nasty traps, inhospitable wasteland or hideous monsters; I decided it was safe to leave the place and return when the heat dies down around Nashik.

Party at Katja's:

Strange, shadowy goblin-esq creatures greeted us upon our return to the Obsidian Prison. We went for our weapons (I hid in the sniper's cloak), but we relaxed when the shadow creatures started blowing horns and throwing confetti all over us. Moments later, Katja showed up, eager to hear our report. The dragon grinned maliciously at the grisly details of Helmut's demise and afterwards invited us in to her mansion for a party. The mansion was decorated and the table was set with a mouth watering feast. We seated our selves and partied the night away with Ark and the other dragonborn. Out of pity, we have the captives a few baskets of food so they could have a picnic with Katja's new, brain-damaged shadow minions.

After a few drinks and lots of food, a surprisingly serious matter came up. Ark suggested crossing the Rift. W were feeling confident and we all had important things in jeopardy on the other side so we agreed. Ark said they would set off for Eibelstat in the morning and see if anyone there could help us. Before the night was over, it occurred to all of us that Ark and her team were on the wrong side of Zerthadium, which we might have to assist to get our precious ones our of Victor's clutches. We made a solemn vow not to interfere with each other on the other side. I don't know how that's going to work out, but I have a feeling Victor is going to make it difficult to keep our word.

Katja and the Shadowstone:
Katja learned how to create shadow minions with the shadowstone. I think they turned out quite well---except for one of them, who just sat there eating the confetti at our welcome party. The dark elf later told me that she made a sky, an ocean and a very nice beach. He said there were seagulls, too, but some of them moo-ed like heifers. Using the shadowstone must be tricky business.