Some days, you awaken with the right song in your head. So it was for me, when I woke to a pounding on the door to our suite just before midnight and for some reason found myself humming Hedwig’s theme. I rushed out into the common room in my boxers to see what was going on and met Aurora.
She was wearing that translucent satiny nightgown she only wears when we have separate rooms. Which is unfair, really, since I was the one who gave it to her. There was no special occasion for the gift. I just really wanted her to have it. In the moonlight streaming through the window, the view was good. I’d go into a thorough description or write a sonnet so I’ll always have it to remember, but trust me, I won’t ever forget that image.
She also had her double bladed sword in hand. She readied herself for whatever lay beyond the door and I pulled my attention away from the glorious view and approached the door. “Who is it?” I called out.
“Please, you must come quickly.” I recognized the voice of the innkeeper’s wife.
“We’ll be right out. Just give us seventy five seconds or so.” I turned to Aurora. “Grab my clothes from the chair in my room and take them into yours. I’ll need about a minute with my spellbook.” She nodded and followed me into my room. I cast a light spell and the view got even better than in the moonlight. Best purchase I’ve ever made.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to admire it. The innkeeper’s wife sounded serious about the need to hurry. I pulled open my spellbook and turned to the page with the spell for quickly donning armor and clothing. After a minute or so of quick study, I went into Aurora’s room, where I found that she had pulled on pants and a tunic. Her wonderful nightgown was lying over the back of the chair. My clothes and her armor were both on the bed.
With a quick cast, the clothing and armor pulled itself onto us. “Let’s go,” Aurora said.
We opened the door and headed out into the hallway. The woman waiting for us looked upset. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“The stables,” she said, hurrying down the stairs.
Aurora and I exchanged a glance. I could see from the fear in her eyes that I wasn’t the only one thinking about what had happened to Rarity. Aurora leapt over the railing, falling ten feet or so to the ground below and bounded out the door. I pushed past the innkeeper’s wife and ran as hard as I could to keep up.
Thankfully, Aurora’s armor slowed her down and I caught her as we reached the stable. A crowd had gathered outside. Aurora tried to push past, but even with her strength, she was having trouble getting past the throng of peasants.
I called on the power of my ring and cast a spell to make my voice louder. “Either make a path or I swear to Pharasma I’ll conjure a fireball in the center of the crowd!” I bellowed, hoping that invoking the name of the goddess of death would remind these people of their mortality. The crowd parted and Aurora and I rushed past.
The innkeeper stood by the stable door, a stout cudgel in hand. “Let us see the heavenly steed!” One of the mob shouted. The innkeeper raised his cudgel menacingly. He motioned for Aurora and I to go inside.
I must say, I really wasn’t prepared for what we saw. For lack of a more hilarious term, Starbrite was twinkling. Or more accurately, he was glowing. Blue, if you’re wondering what color light he gave off. It was faint, but in the darkness it was definitely visible, though it really didn’t illuminate much.
I looked at my companion. “Aurora, you wouldn’t happen to have any idea why your horse is putting on a light show, would you?” She shook her head, unable to speak. I studied Starbrite for a few moments. There was no doubt about it. He wasn’t just a horse. He was infused with celestial power. I’m not sure why we had never noticed it before.
Aurora looked at me, pleading. “Please, don’t let them treat him like they did Nualia. I don’t want to hurt them, but I have to protect him and I can’t think of another way to keep him safe other than with my blade.”
Crap, I hadn’t thought of that. Rubbing their warts on her, tearing out bits of her hair… I couldn’t let them do that to the only companion Aurora had from childhood. I thought quickly. “Well, there’s always the Wizard’s First Rule,” I said to no one in particular.
Aurora just looked at me. “Do you have an idea?”
“Might be a longshot.” The look she gave me told me that she wanted me to try. I prepared a spell and pulled out a jar of squid ink, casting a light spell on the ink. I wasn’t going to enjoy this. I walked outside, and one of the members of the crowd shouted for me to let them into the stables.
“I can’t hold a crowd this size much longer,” the innkeeper said to me.
“That’s okay, there’s been a misunderstanding. Just give me a moment to explain everything and I think they’ll leave.” He nodded and I addressed the crowd. “Good people, I’m sorry, but it seems that there has been a misunderstanding. You see, the horse inside is indeed glowing, as you’ve already heard. But it’s not because of any celestial touch.”
“You just want to keep the holy steed to yourself!” someone in the crowd shouted. Several others murmured in agreement.
“Not at all! You see, I fear that if you treat this poor beast as some kind of holy steed, you’ll only anger the heavens. He’s not holy. You see, I’m a wizard, and he somehow managed to get into my magical inks,” I said as I held up the jar of ink with the light spell on it.
“This could be a trick,” someone in the crowd said. “Show him to us!”
Dammit. I had been hoping not to have to do this. “It is no trick, good sir!” I said. “I will show you.” I opened the bottle of ink and drank it all in a single gulp. Thankfully it was squid ink, so I likely wouldn’t have any trouble digesting it, but it was still an unpleasant taste.
After a moment, someone shouted, “Nothing’s happening! See, he’s lying!”
“I assure you, it just takes a moment. You just need to be patient. You’ll see soo- *HNNKK*” I doubled over, grabbing my stomach in apparent pain. I fell to my knees and the crowd stepped back involuntarily, gasping. I used the sound to hide that I was speaking magic words and my position to hide the gestures. “AAAAAAHHHH!!” I shouted. “My skin feels like it’s burning!” As I released the spell, my skin began changing color, turning a bright blue. In truth, I looked like a Smurf.
The innkeeper was beside me. “Milord! What’s wrong?”
I stood up slowly, doing my best to appear ill. “And this is why you don’t drink magical ink,” I said, looking at my very blue hands. “You don’t know what the effect will be. Also, I think I might throw up. I’m going to need some Wismuth Salix. If possible, could you get some for Starbrite as well. He’ll likely be feeling a bit sick as well.”
The crowd began murmuring their disappointment at the fact that Starbrite obviously wasn’t a celestial steed after all and started to disperse. “How long will this last?” the innkeeper asked me, while others were still in earshot.
“For me, hopefully it’ll be cleared up by morning. But for the horse, I have no idea. Not only am I no expert on horses, but he drank an awful lot of ink. It’s entirely possible it could be permanent.”
He nodded. “I’ll go visit the apothecary and get the medicine for you and the young lady’s horse.”
“Thanks,” I said before heading back into the barn. Aurora was just inside, where she had been watching from the entire time. “He should be okay now.”
“Will he really be sick?” she asked, whispering.
“No,” I whispered back. “As far as I can tell, he really is some kind of heavenly steed. You sure you have no idea why? No encounters with angels you’ve forgotten to tell me about?”
She shook her head. “Nothing I can recall.”
“Alright, then,” I said. “There’s just one more thing. In your saddlebag is my symptom kit. There’s a syrup in there that will induce vomiting and diarrhea. We need to give Starbrite some of it.”
She looked alarmed. “What? Why?”
“I’ve gotten rid of most of the people, but some of the more persistent will want to be sure I was telling the truth and may snoop around later. If the stable boy is complaining about the sick horse, then that should help convince them. I wish there was another way.”
The syrup doesn’t taste bad, so Disney Princess Aurora had little trouble getting him to drink it. After the innkeeper returned, I took the medicine and pretended to give some to Starbrite, then magically locked the door to the stables with a spell that would fade by morning so the stable boy could get to work. I keyed it so that Aurora, the innkeeper and I could open it.
When we got up to the room, I conjured a light spell and helped Aurora out of her armor, then went to go remove the blue color from my skin and vomit up the medicine. I managed to get a bit of vomit on my shirt, so I removed it immediately so I could clean it with a bit of magic before a stain set in. I then gargled with some mead, not having any Listerine handy and cleaned my mouth with the same spell.
After that, I undid the charm that I had used to change my skin color. One of the simplest spells, learned by most apprentices, but a powerful tool for bluffing if used correctly.
I was washing my face with a towel and the basin of warm water the innkeeper’s wife had brought me when Aurora came back into the common room, once again in her nightgown. In the warm glow of the magical light, it was completely apparent to me that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it, at least not in the chest region. Her perky breasts were joyfully visible in the light of the room. She hugged me tightly, and I was quite aware that all that was between us was a rather thin layer of satin.
“Thank you for protecting Starbrite,” she said softly as I returned her embrace. After a moment, she released me and I reluctantly let go as well, then she headed off into her own room for bed.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever know if she had deliberately put those clothes on before coming out to thank me or if she had simply decided to do so and forgot what she was wearing. Both are just fine with me. I just wish she’d hugged me longer.
The next morning, after a night of wonderful dreams, I awoke and met the others downstairs. Aurora and I filled Geo in regarding what had happened with Starbrite, and I decided not to say much regarding other things I saw that night. If Aurora hadn’t intended me to see anything it was best I not bring that up. And if she had, well then it was a private moment between us and I didn’t want to cheapen it by bragging.
Besides, I had other things on my mind. Like the fact that Paulie came down to breakfast glowing. More than Starbrite. And his personality…have you ever seen the episode of South Park where everyone acts gay? It was kinda like that.
You know, I’ve been trying to figure out that cat man for a while, and I just don’t get what’s going on. I can say that whatever divinity gives him his powers is fickle at worst and whimsical at best. The powers he has access to seem to change with the tides. Worse, this seems to be having a detrimental effect on his mind. He changes personalities every time his powers change. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him go through at least nine personalities.
Oh well, most of the personalities aren’t too hard to work with. As long as he isn’t trying to light everything on fire, we can get along together well enough. I decided not to press the issue. Besides, we had a lumber mill to investigate.
The mill was located down on Kyver’s Islet, along with maybe half a dozen other mills. We opted for the low risk stakeout option, which wasn’t my idea, but was fine with me. After about an hour into watching the mill operate normally, I remembered that I get bored with that kind of thing easily and decided to ask around indirectly, trying not to tip off the workers.
Pretending to be a potential investor looking to buy a share of the mill, I asked the workers of the other mills what they could tell me about the Sawmill of the Seven – great ominous name, by the way. They told me that things were fairly normal over there, but that Justice Ironbriar visited the mill fairly often, and was probably a part owner of the operation. I greased a few palms to keep them quiet, then Aurora and I went back to the others with my findings.
Lenn had fallen asleep on watch, but Geo and Paulie were vigilant. When I told them about Ironbriar’s involvement with the mill, they came to the same conclusion Aurora and I had. Lead investigator into the murders also part owner of a mill possibly connected to a shadowy organization that might be involved in the murders? Yeah, he rose right to the top of our list as a potential suspect.
I gave a couple kids a few silver coins to keep track of anyone unusual who visited the mill with a promise that they would each be given a gold coin when I returned if they were diligent. We then went off in search of Justice Ironbriar.
I’ve had easier times finding beautiful women to ogle in men’s only gyms than we had looking for the elusive elven Justice. He was nowhere to be found. We decided to observe the mill for a day or two more, then sneak in if that turned up nothing.
After a third day of staking out the building, most of which I had spent back at the inn enchanting items for our party’s use, including a rod that would allow me to silently cast a few spells a day, which I figured would aid in stealth, we set out for the mill around midnight. The streets were dark, but the mill was active, with a crew manning the operations through the night. Geo picked the lock and we headed inside.
The machinery was loud. We hoped that would help us as much with the sneaking as it hindered our ability to hear anyone else who might also be sneaking. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
On the ground floor, we found several stalls filled with cut wood and a bunch of hay. We weren’t sure what it was for, but suspected that perhaps they used the hay to feed cart horses while loading up deliveries of lumber.
We then headed upstairs. I’m not sure if it was Lenn’s heavy footsteps or Aurora’s rustling armor that gave away our approach, but a worker appeared out of one of the doors. “You’re not supposed to be here,” he said calmly. “Come back during the day if you need to speak with someone about business.”
Thinking quickly, I leveled my crossbow at him. “Take us to Foreman Tannen. He is long past overdue on payment of a debt and is bound by law to face trial and go to debtor’s prison.”
He responded calmly, without any care for the fact that I was aiming a crossbow at the spot right between his eyes. “Foreman Tannen isn’t in right now. He works during the day. Come back then.” Crap. I hadn’t thought to find out who runs the night shift, I had just gotten the name of one of the higher ups during my earlier investigation.
I was trying to think of a way to salvage the situation when Geo spoke. “Tell us about the Brothers of Seven.” If I hadn’t had a crossbow in both hands, I would have face palmed. Geo apparently lacks all ability to lie except when it comes to lying to guards. Even Aurora’s face had an astounded look on it at Geo’s ending of any credibility to our lie.
“You’ll have to come back tomorrow,” the man said, shutting the door between us. We heard him lock it.
I sighed. “Well, I guess we do this with violence. Geo, be so kind as to unlock the door?” I readied a spell. Once Geo unlocked the door, I turned invisible. Geo drank an extract and did the same, then we crept into the room. The men inside were wearing strange masks that looked to be made of human skin because of course they were.
Now, I don’t want to go on a rant here, but what the hell is up with all these human flesh masks? Was there a sale down at the Costco? Did someone have some left over orphans and needed something to do with them? I mean seriously, what the crap is up with that?
Geo and I exploded from invisibility and the others rushed in. The fight was quick and dirty. At one point, more enemies dropped in from the floor above, where wood normally comes down after running through the automatic slicer.
Sadly, one got away, fleeing out the window. I studied one of the masks. Sure enough, it held some nefarious enchantments. We gathered their masks and headed upstairs, certain that it wouldn’t be long until we had to explain our presence here to the town guard. We needed evidence that would exonerate us.
Upstairs, Geo picked the lock on a door and carefully looked inside. He made the hand signals indicating that one enemy was forward and to the right, while one or maybe two enemies waited to the left. He then indicated he was going right. His skin changed color once more and he crept into the room.
I waited a moment and unleashed a burst of radiance into the room, placing it on the left side so as to avoid blinding Geo. Two of the men inside were startled by the light and injured by its cleansing power. That confirmed that they were evil, so that made me feel better.
Geo jumped up and caught one foe clean in the gut with his dagger and rended his flesh with strikes from his tentacles. Lenn, Aurora and Paulie rushed into the room. Lenn hit one of the foes so hard his corpse went flying into one of the auto saws. I felt myself pale as I watch it chew through his body and drop it into the room below.
You know, that’s probably exactly what Katrine Vinder had gone through, though I suspect she had been alive when she hit the saw. I feel really bad for the poor girl. Maybe I should check up on her when we get to Sandpoint.
Aurora engaged a foe around the corner in the room. I rushed over and thrust my dagger at him, trying to distract him so she would have a better shot at taking him down. Turns out it was unnecessary. He was blind from the magical light I had conjured seconds before. Aurora and Lenn ended him rather quickly.
As Geo inspected one of the bodies, the machinery ground to a halt. I just barely managed to spot several more foes climbing up through the chutes below the auto saws and dove around the corner where the other man had been hiding.
As the others fought, I reached out with my magic into the planes, calling for something to answer my call and aid me. A few moments later, three lantern archons materialized. That was kinda what I’d been hoping for.
The archons began firing searing beams of light at the enemy. Then I heard the door open again. “What is that thing?” Aurora called out. I could hear the others struggling with their new foe and leapt around the corner.
I wasn’t expecting that. “It’s a Babau demon!” I called out. “Elemental magic likely won’t help much. You’ll need cold iron or holy weapons to get through its defenses. Either that or hit it as hard as you can. Archons! Focus your fire on the demon!”
While we fought the demon, more enemies climbed up from below. Paulie conjured a magical bow and began trying to harm both the men and the demon. After the demon fell, we began routing the remaining men.
That’s when I felt the sickly touch of negative energy. My body was wracked with pain as it permeated the room. Several of the dying foes on the ground felt the touch of it and passed beyond the veil into death.
In the doorway stood a man in far too many clothes. I don’t say this because I wanted to see him less dressed, I just mean that he didn’t look like he should be able to function in all of that. He was also wearing a mask likely made of human skin, though this one was a bit different from the others.
He taunted us and we began fighting him. He made use of the door to keep us from having a harder time hitting him. Aurora called for me to give her a better chance at reaching him, so I used my magic to make her grow. She did what she could to strike over Lenn, who stood on our side of the doorway. Still, it was not an easy task.
After the man taunted us again, Paulie called out. “Oh my god, you guys! He’s under some kind of magic spell. He may not be attacking us of his own free will.” I began trying to discern what magic spells he had upon him by using my own magic to resonate with the auras upon him. Meanwhile, Lenn brought him down. Geo moved to make sure he didn’t bleed out before we could ascertain whether he was actually responsible for his own actions.
As I examined the spells on him, I recognized several. The only one really worth noting here is the charm he had upon him. He might have been less than culpable for some of his actions. On the other hand, he was carrying a holy symbol of Norgorber, evil god of murder and other nasty things. I highly doubt his hands were entirely clean.
Making matters more complicated was the fact that under his mask, he was Justice Ironbriar. There would be political implications if we killed him. Screw it. “He’s a cleric of an evil god of murder tied up with whatever is going on with these Sihedron Murders. As much power as his god has given him, his hands aren’t clean, even if he was charmed into these latest crimes. We have no way of knowing what support he may be able to muster. Leaving him alive may mean that Xanesha escapes. I’m not willing to risk it. I vote we kill him.”
“I agree,” Aurora said. That surprised me. “If he wasn’t a cleric of the god of murder, I would be less inclined to do so, but in this case, that might be the best option.”
Lenn counted on his fingers. “That’s three!” he said gleefully as he decapitated the unconscious figure. I’ll hope he was counting himself and wasn’t just wrong on his count. Geo and Paulie just shrugged.
“We don’t have much time, let’s see if there’s evidence further upstairs,” Geo suggested. I wrapped up Ironbriar’s body in a spare sack and stuffed it into my magic bag.
Upstairs, we found a locked door. Geo opened it with a key he had found on Ironbriar’s body. Inside, we found a wall covered with human faces. Someone had taken the skin off of multiple victims and stretched it into macabre ornaments which now adorned this wall because of course they did.
Geo and I searched the desk. He didn’t seem bothered at all by the faces. For me, it was just one more scene for my nightmares. Inside the desk, we found several books. One was a gibberish book on a “lost magic art”. Anyone with the barest of training could see that it was a fake. We also found a real spellbook. I decided to study it later at my leisure.
Finally, we found a diary of some sort. It was written in a combination of Elven, Draconic and Infernal. I knew the first two, Aurora knew the third. Between us, we could tell it was written by Ironbriar in code. It could take days to decipher fully. Still, the wall full of faces would buy us that time.
While I’m on the subject, let me take this opportunity to mention something about Aurora. In addition to being some kind of Disney princess when it comes to dealing with animals, that woman has an incredible ability with languages. In the time it takes me to learn one, she can learn two. And that’s even after you consider that I’m a super genius. Don’t get me wrong, Aurora’s incredibly intelligent. It’s just that I’m not used to someone being better than me at that kind of thing, and I know something like six languages well enough to be considered fluent.
Satisfied that we’d found everything on that floor, Geo scaled a ladder up into a trap door that led to a rookery. There were a bunch of ravens within. Now, there were no incriminating letters, but we had an idea. I parchment and wrote upon it. “The Black Crow flies at midnight!” I followed the words up with the Batman symbol. If I knew where it was, in a general way, I could get close enough to use magic to pinpoint its location.
Finally, I cast a light spell on the parchment and Geo tied it to a raven’s leg before sending it off. It flew directly towards the Irespan to our north. The light went out before it reached its final destination. Still, that gave us a good place to start looking.
Once we were certain the building was secure, Geo went to fetch the guards to show them the grisly scene in the office while Aurora and I took the body of Ironbriar to the temple of Iomedae. We weren’t certain who we could trust within government, as anyone could be a potential member of this murder cult, so we needed someone with some political power that could be trusted. Hence, clerics and paladins of a goddess who favors justice.
I begged the clerics to use their magic to confirm his guilt by speaking to his spirit in order to ensure that we would be exonerated of any wrongdoing in killing him. Once I fully explained the situation, a process that took hours, they agreed.
Unfortunately, captain “Wear all the clothes!” didn’t feel talkative. Still, the clerics seemed to believe us considering all our past dealings with them and agreed to speak to the law on our behalf. That, combined with the evidence in the office was enough to buy us time to decipher the journal.
For a week, Aurora and I studied the journal. It might have gone faster, but every time she got close enough for me to smell her hair, I flashed back on the previous week’s nocturnal adventure and lost my train of thought.
While we worked on that, Geo took the evil magical masks to try to get some money from getting rid of them. He was hoping to get a bounty for destroying them from a temple, but I gave him the name of the black market dealer I met last time we were in town, the one who sells me those less than entirely legal contraceptive aids. I have no idea what route he took for getting rid of them, nor did I really care. As long as I never have to see them again.
When Aurora couldn’t take any more work on the journal, I spent my time working on crafting new magical items for the party. She seemed especially happy about the boots that help her jump better and run faster even in armor.
In the journal, we found evidence that Ironbriar had led the cult for quite some time and that someone he called “Lovely Xanesha” had been the one to suggest to him this new method of killing. It also mentioned dealings with the Red Mantis cult, a group of assassins who worship some fiendish assassin bug or something. I know more than that, my brain just can’t recall its name and it’s not really important. They had paid Ironbriar for something he called “Vorel’s Legacy”. Probably that damned phage.
Finally, the journal mentioned the location of Xanesha. She was hiding out in the Shadow Clock, a structure located beneath the Irespan. We had been unable to locate my Batman letter, so that was handy. We began planning our assault on Xanesha.
I wrote down everything in a letter and sealed it with some wax. Earlier this evening, I visited the Temple of Iomedae once more. One of the clerics I had met before, a balding man missing three of his front teeth, greeted me. “Milord, we received a message for you from the paladins we sent to Sandpoint on your behalf. It seems that they were attacked by ghouls on the road, but managed to slay them with no injuries. Miss Vinder is safely back in Sandpoint, though it seems that she and her sister have begun publicly bickering over some man. Finally, they have begun hunting down and routing the remaining ghouls as requested and believe it should take no more than a few weeks to fully cleanse the area.”
“Thank you,” I told him. “May I speak to the head cleric? I have a letter to deliver.” He nodded and ran off to fetch his superior. The head cleric greeted me and I handed her a letter along with Ironbriar’s journal. “My friends and I have deciphered the journal. We move to arrest the leader of this plot in the morning. If somehow we don’t see you again before dawn the day after tomorrow, please open this letter, it explains everything, including where we’re going and who conspires to lead the enemy. Please make sure it gets into the hands of someone who will stop the threat. And if you happen to find our bodies, we’ll pay for revival if you will do so.”
She agreed and offered to say a prayer for our safety. I thanked her, telling her we could use all the help we could get.
Tomorrow morning, we go after Xanesha. We can’t be sure if she’s the highest member on the ladder or just the next rung. What’s certain is that she has access to magic at least strong enough to bespell Ironbriar and it’s likely she knows we’re coming. Bring it on. We’re ready.
Koi koi.