Journal of Roxanne

Game One

January 26, 2002

I'm not sure why I thought helping Geldemar out was the thing to do. Or why I thought he might need my help. He told Lessa he needed "brave" individuals. I may have held off that wererat for a while, but he was the one who blasted it into bits--if he needed help with something, I didn't imagine there was much I could do. If he needed information about someone, why didn't he just ask Madam Lessa for it? Maybe he needed a spy to get *real* close to someone, and maybe it was slightly risky, so he thought of the brave rat-fighting whore? I mean, my reputation might be growing more respectable, but I seriously doubted he wanted me for my rather new connection with Betshaba.

I walked into The Unicorn and got the usual winks and studious avoidance. I returned the winks and pretended to ignore those who wanted to pretend I didn't know what they looked like naked. After all, I could lose so much business if I weren't discreet. One who did acknowledge my presence, though, who was sitting alone, was Niccolo, the leech. I sat by him, and explained my newfound calling to him. He seemed somewhat surprised (I mean, who wouldn't be? I sure was) but didn't react much. We ordered some ale, and after a little chatting we realized we were both waiting for Geldemar. He knew no more than I did over what Geldemar wanted.

Only a few minutes later, someone who really did not fit in this upscale place walked in--or rather, two someones. The first was a huge, muscular woman with unkempt blonde hair, an armlet spiraled around one arm, a hammer and an axe, a chain mail shirt, and most importantly, jagged scars and a shiny purple rock where her right eye should be. Following behind her was the hugest cat I've ever seen, which explained a lot of the scars on her arms and legs. The room quieted down a bit as she made her way to an empty table and sat down. I noticed she and Niccolo gave each other a nod of recognition, but all he said was that she provides him with medical herbs sometimes. I was really curious about that cat, so I went over to introduce myself.

She wasn't very chatty. She told me the cat was actually a Mountain Lion named Mica. I tried to make her feel a little more chatty by talking nicely to Mica, but no luck, at least not yet. I went back to sit with Niccolo when a dwarf walked in. He was also sporting some heavy weaponry, as well as some plate armor, and by the looks of him he'd just stepped out of a bonfire. The mountain-lion woman greeted him with an axe-high, and he sat with her. Keeping an ear on their conversation, it wasn't long before I heard they were both waiting for Geldemar too. So I brought Niccolo over to their table, and we took seats.

People are a hell of a lot more guarded when they're not looking for sex. And it's a lot harder trying to get information out of them without flirting. Trying to hold a conversation with these three was like pulling teeth. I finally got something out of them all though. None of them knew what Geldemar wanted, though each of them had a different connection. Niccolo sometimes discussed "professional matters" with him. Niccolo's professional matters seemed to have to do with hunting and killing small animals then taking detailed notes and drawing detailed pictures of their insides... he had a book with him. I'd heard odd things about him, but he seems to be confirming them. He said he is trying to learn about how humans work inside but it's hard to find "participants," so he works with animals. That sounded a bit ominous, but he's always been a good leech.

Maggie Oreson, the catlady, is the daughter of the blacksmith Jonah and the militia trainer Alexandra in town. She's a weaponsmith herself... she made the axe[?] she wears. Her grandfather, whom she lives with up in the mountains, made the hammer. Geldemar saved her life once, though how I'm not sure. She was under the impression that if there was a physical fight that Geldemar needed help fighting, it would have to be someone or something extremely powerful.

The dwarf was Gunther of clan Intiefen. He was a weaponsmith too, and had made everything he was carrying and the armor he wore. He was from Margad, which I've never heard of, but is apparently about seven days journey from here. He doesn't know Geldemar personally, but apparently the wizard actually asked the Dwarven Konig for help! I figured there was more to Geldemar than he ever let on, but apparently he really got around! What a shame he never accepted that freebie". In any case, the Konig had sent out eighteen dwarves from the dwarven kingdom on various errands, but Gunther's was to help Geldemar. That's about as much as I could get out of any of them with an hour of chatting. Geldemar was getting to be quite late.

The next people to come in for our group made quite an entrance. The first was a huge green-skinned man with facial tattoos and a huge axe that put both Maggie's and Gunther's to shame. The room got dead silent. Following him was a young blonde kid who barely looked like more than a teenager. The kid said something about Geldemar, and I motioned them over to the table.

The half-orc made quite a show of taking the axe off his back and slamming it on the table. An awful lot of people left, and I began to feel bad for driving away all the buisiness. But our new companions, Morak and Quinn, were far more interesting conversationalists than the other three. They both had worked in the circus--Quinn as a juggler and tightrope walker, Morak as the strongman. He apparently lifted horses, as well as other things. Quinn said he was actually 20, which I supposed at the time was possible, though he really didn't look it. By the time they were in there ten minutes, they'd managed to scare everyone else out of the tavern, and business was clearly shot for the day, even though Morak revealed his tatoos to be makeup. In any case, they also did not know what Geldemar's purpose was, only that they heard that they were the right ones to do the job.

Finally, the man of the hour (or rather, of an hour ago) showed up. He seemed to think he was slightly early. He said we were all there, though he was somewhat surprised [pleasantly] at Morak being there. He wanted to retire to a place of more privacy (the others seemed to think we were private, but if the wenches here were at all like me they'd listen to every word we said), and as Niccolo was the only one with a private residence, Geldemar asked if we could go there. Niccolo agreed, I left a large tip for the wenches, and we were on our way.

Once outside Futterschotte[?] walls, I asked Geldemar just what he wanted us for. It wasn't a tiny little favor he needed, either. He told us that some wizard friends of his had seen visions that our part of the world would be overrun by Thet within two years, unless something happened to change this fact. He didn't know what had changed the balance of power to make this possible. These wizards, despite having knowledge of the events, were unwilling to get involved, but Geldemar was willing himself.

At this point, I was thinking either he was insane, asking around for circus performers and whores to help stop a Thesh invasion. For that matter, a doctor and a couple of weaponsmiths weren't going to stop a Thesh army, either. Now, if he knew who I had to sleep with to find out who was behind it all, that I could do'but why would the others be needed if he just needed me as a spy?

He continued, though, that he didn't think we were ready for such a task. Rather, that we had potential to do such. In my case, I suppose he meant that I could eventually become a powerful priestess. But he said there were other things going on in Valduran which seemed related to this shift in power, things which could help us gain experience and power enough to find out what's behind the invasion. He mentioned that people had been disappearing, though he did not say from where, and that a small town's well had been poisoned, though that poison has since been cleared up. How these had to do with an invasion, he didn't say. In any case, those seemed like tasks I could help with, if I could figure out who knew the secrets.

We were almost to Niccolo's tower when we saw a horse come down the road. To my surprise, it was Agni Rafezzi. Last I heard he had gone home to get married, and since home was so far away, I didn't expect him back. He clearly did not expect to see me on the road, and discreetly motioned me with the universal "we've never met" sign. I know it well. Then he started talking to Geldemar. He knew him too, only apparently as a professor. I had no idea he taught at the Royal Academy. I hate when something so obvious about our regulars "like their job" bypasses me so completely. In any case, we all introduced ourselves to Agni, and for my introduction I fingered my holy symbol and added "soon to be of Betshaba" to my name. That threw him a bit.

While Geldemar had not expected to see Agni on the road, he said he was happy he was there. He repeated the scant information he'd already told us, still without details of names or places. Why didn't I ask him?

As we approached Niccolo's door, Geldemar said, "You see, there's a prophecy..." He opened the front door.

A dark-armored hand thrust out of the door, jamming a quarterstaff towards Geldemar with enough force to burst through his chest with an odd darkness. The staff was odd...it looked made of seven different parts, not all wood. And beyond the dark hand, as Geldemar was sliding off the blunt staff, I could see the man who wielded it. All in black armor, a fire-breathing dragon for a helmet, naked women impaled with spikes decorating his armor, and another naked woman as the hilt of his sword.

I ran to Geldemar who wasn't quite dead yet. I put my hands on his shoulders, not sure what to do as I saw the life ebbing out of him. I vaguely heard Quinn yelp in pain and looked up to see him lying on the ground at the murderer's feet. Instead of finishing Quinn off, the murderer sort of laughed, said "Whelps," then disappeared in purple light.

Niccolo was with Geldemar now, too. I begged Niccolo to do something for him, but it was clear Geldemar couldn't survive this. His chest was a bloody hole and his ribs were sticking through. Blood was coming out of his mouth. But his eyes were still aware.

He looked up at me. "It is as I feared. The Manslayer is here." He could barely talk. But he somehow had the strength to reach up and grab a fold of my dress. What he had to say was that important. "He cannot be killed by man or woman. You must defeat him." Then his hand fell loose, and he died. Geldemar died.

Much of what happened next is somewhat blurry in my memory. There were a couple times I steeled myself to pay attention to every detail, hoping someone would be able to put the information together into something that made sense. Agni started going through his things. He was wearing three medallions and a few rings. He had a few marks and some silbergeld on him. But nothing written, no sign of who had killed him or why, or what he wanted us to do. I tried to see if anythign was unusual about the wound, besides the fact that this Manslayer murderer had the strength to shove a blunt piece of wood through his chest. I noticed nothing but white chest hair. That was when we realized Geldemar seemed to be getting older. Agni seemed to suspect why, but wouldn't tell us. I think somewhere in there I told Agni that Geldemar had saved my life. But I'm not sure. I've seen death before. I've seen violence. But nothing like that.

They took him inside to wrap him in a sheet. I was inside for some of that, but then I had to go out and get some air. I didn't want my memory of Geldemar to always be of his head nearly falling off from rapid decay. The chest wound was bad enough. I went outside to try to remember what he was like at The Rose; friendly to all the girls, so polite in turning us down, bursting in the door and saving my life from that horrible rat creature. That's how I wanted to honor his memory. But I mostly saw the blood and gore and darkness.

When I had calmed down a little (but just a little...just to the point where I didn't want to scream and sob much anymore), I went back inside, and Geldemar had apparently turned to dust. I could deal with him like that...without all the blood and bone. We started talking about what to do next, about what we could do. We all agreed we wanted to know what had happened, and why he had gathered us together in the first place. Agni was insistent we talk first to the Headmaster of the academy. That seemed to make sense, if he was a professor. Maybe some of the other Regents would know his business. Maggie had been to his tower once. It was about a week's travel or so through the Janos mountains, and when she'd been there it was guarded by Earth Elementals and had no door, but apparently there's a chance these guardians would have disappeared with Geldemar's death. We also thought about going to investigate the disappearing people and poisoned well he'd mentioned, but we didn't know where those things were.

First, we had to go to Futtershotte[?]. We couldn't just leave from where we were. We needed supplies for a journey. And me, I had to go tell Madam Lessa everything. Agni let me ride his horse back for the trip, since Niccolo's tower was a couple hours away. When we got back, Maggie and Agni planned to buy or rent a couple horses and a wagon for the trip. Maggie was going to stay with her family, and I recommended the inn most of the non-whoring adventurers stayed at in town. I told them if they needed me I'd be at the temple, but first I went to The Rose.

I clutched the bloodstain in my skirt together when I entered. All the girls were happy to see me, but could tell something was wrong. Max Jr. started nosing at my skirt, and I tried to push his head away while scratching his ear. Instead of hanging out like I usually would, I went straight to Madam Lessa's back room.

After asking her not to use this information for profit yet, I told her everything -- everything I knew about our group, everything Geldemar had told us, and everything I had seen at Niccolo's. She caught me in a slip -- I completely forgot to check Agni's hand for a ring... but ultimately, that wasn't terribly important. As she saw it, Niccolo seemed the most unusual as someone to gather into an adventuring group. I figured it was simply because he was a leech, and if there was fighting involved, he'd be needed. But that didn't fit what he'd told us about. I was surprised to find out that even Lessa didn't know that Geldemar was a professor. I told her we were going to Eisenstaadt, and she gave me a name, ______________. She said that if I ran into trouble, go to him and tell him Lessa sent me. He was hard to find, but hung out often at taverns in the southern part of town, and that he would probably require service in return for help, but just the usual service -- no problem there. Before I left, she gave me a hug. I held on to that hug probably tighter than I ever have since Nika left for Aebasa.

I still wasn't in the mood for hanging out with the family of girls -- they'd want to have fun, and I didn't want to tell them yet about Geldemar. I wouldn't be the only one saddened to know that no one would win our competition. Instead, I said some quick goodbyes and then went to the Temple. I had to tell them I was leaving for a while.

I couldn't face Sister Eloise right away. We had, as a group, promised not to tell anyone about Geldemar. Telling Lessa didn't count of course, I tell her everything. But as nice as Eloise is, and my superior and all that, I still didn't think I should tell her. But I felt bad about that.

I decided to go to the pool first. It's a nice place to be alone. Well, the others often think so too, but when no one else is there, it's a nice place to think. When I got there (fortunately no one was about), I realized my hair was dry again. I'd been trying to rewet it throughout the day, but running a wet comb through it just doesn't last long. If I emptied a waterskin over my head, I'd run out of water rather quickly and have to go refill it several times a day. I really like the sexy wet look, but it's a bitch to maintain. Somehow the Sisters and Brothers manage not to let anyone see them constantly dunking their heads, but their hair always has that "just-bathed" look. I wonder why Betshaba makes us do that...can she see us better when we're wet? Is it so that everyone knows what we are, in case they don't know the symbol?

These were just idle thoughts, really, trying to distract me from the horrid mental image of Geldemar's broken and bleeding chest. The hair thoughts didn't stand a chance against that. So I stripped off my clothes, bloody handprint and all, and dove in.

It was easier to think about things in the water. I swam from one end of the pool to the other, sometimes at the surface, sometimes underneath. Sometimes I just floated on my back. But the horrid swirl of emotions and the images of that Manslayer crashing in on me began to subside. Those images of Geldemar I wanted...the ones of him enjoying good food and good company at The Rose...those started coming to the forefront again. And what I needed to do...that was getting somewhat more clear, too. First we'd go to the Academy and see what the wizards there could tell us about what Geldemar had planned. Then, if they didn't know, we'd go to whoever told him this prophecy, and find out our part in it, if we did, indeed, have a part, which seemed like he was about to say. Then, if we needed more information, we'd go to his house...though walking through the mountains sounded a bit intimidating. I'd barely been outside Futtershotte's[?] walls, especially since Nika left. Anyways, if at that point we still didn't know what was going on, we'd look into these disappearing people and poisoned well, which it seems is what he wanted us to do anyway.

And simple as a quick swim, my path seemed suddenly pretty clear. I was still sad, but I felt much better, like I could face people normally again. Thanks Betshaba, I needed that. I went to my room for a change of clothes, then sought out Sister Eloise. She knew right away something was wrong, too. But she was pretty understanding when I told her I couldn't tell her why I would be leaving for Eisenstaadt, possibly for a few weeks. "Do you feel you have been called to follow this path?"

Looking back at my swim, not to mention Geldemar's hint at a prophecy, I said, "Actually, yeah, quite possibly I have been."

"Then you must follow your heart."

Except for the whole wet hair thing, following Betshaba is remarkably easy.

I met the others next morning at the inn after smiling at a red-symboled follower of Vortumnus who chastely avoided looking at me. I found out from the others that he had apparently joined us. They seemed pretty suspicious of him, and rightly so, I think. I mean, Geldemar had told us that we were all there, but this man, Alexander Crownguard, claimed he'd also been sent by Geldemar.

On our travels, I decided to try and find out as much as I could about him. These overly-chaste types are difficult, but I at least learned something about his homeland...or at least, what he claims is his homeland. It's called Koramia, and the symbol of Vortumnus is usually red there. It's surrounded on three sides by Ocean, and is many months' travel away from Valduran. He acts friendly enough, but he's rather stuck up when it comes to nobility. He was talking with Agni about that one night of our travel.

Also on the trip, I chatted with Quinn and Morak about the circus, and whenever we stopped near the river I refilled my waterskins and dipped my head in for the required look. Maggie kept stopping to pick flowers...apparently it was to scent Agni's wash water.

This was farther than I'd ever been in my life. Nika had taken me riding around the countryside a bit, but never more than a day's ride. And I'd heard descriptions of Eisenstaadt, but the reality was still a shock.

Cresting the last hill, the city at first seemed to spread horizon to horizon. Tens, if not hundreds, of Futtersharte's could have fit inside it. I asked Agni if there were a Temple of Betshaba there, and he said there was a beautiful, medium-sized one. I wondered what "medium-sized" meant in this city.

Still, once we approached and entered the gate, it didn't seem quite so overwhelming. Dealing with only what my eyes could see, it wasn't so different after all.

Agni led us to the Academy first, where he had to bribe the gate guard. Once inside, Alexander's horse became upset, and he said he'd wait outside the Academy. That did nothing to improve our trust in him.

Clearly, Agni's professors didn't have must trust in him either. Other students approached him with hearty welcomes (though many turned away the instant they realized he'd brought me with him... I had been a birthday present, not to mention The First, to several students on Agni's coin), but the first professor we met, Master Lord Halcyon of Ophion, Enchantments professor, treated him with scorn. He was able, however, to get us a meeting with the headmaster.

The headmaster was quite nice at first. He flattered me with a "If it is not blasphemy to say it, I am surprised Betshaba would take one who rivaled her in beauty." Nicely done piece of flattery on his part. Not terribly genuine, but nicely done. He had something flattering to say about everyone. Most interesting was learning that Morak was the half-orc's stage name... his true name was Theodore...the Headmaster Agador had a truth-spell in action in the room. I decided to keep pretty quiet once I learned that. Maggie, however, pushed Quinn about his age (not a very subtle way to get information, but direct, I suppose), and Quinn's refusal proved he's not twenty. In any case, the Headmaster then promised that all evidence turned up in investigating Geldemar's death would be released to us.

Agni showed us his quarters... a large suite, incredibly sensual with satin sheets and pillows everywhere. It was like the special room at The Rose, only larger, and I'd never gotten the luxury to just sleep in that room. I lounged, enjoying myself. Others relaxed as well, while Agni went on personal business and Quinn and Morak went out as well. Agni returned some time later, clearly upset and angry, and poured at least three hundred silbergeld from a container on a shelf into a backpack. "They're not going to do anything here. And I quite possibly will be expelled." Apparently the Regents felt that Geldemar's death was his own fault, and that Thet rulership would not be so bad. Then a letter came demanding Agni's presence regarding investigation into his part in Geldemar's death.

We all decided to go, except Quinn and Morak who had stayed the night somewhere else. The trial, held by three professors, was ridiculous in its bureaucracy. I'd list all the details of the trial, but it would be pointless. They were more interested in who had given Agni the message from his father that he had to go home to be married than in anything to do with Geldemar. In fact, that's what they called a recess for... to find out who sent the message four months ago. Ridiculous. Attention to detail is important, I know that, but certain details are a hell of a lot more important than others.

Agni wasn't supposed to leave campus grounds, but I thought maybe I could do a little investigating of my own, if the Regents couldn't help us. I bet the priests at the Betshaban temple would know who and where the Agurs are, and that guests at the local adventurers' taverns would know where the missing people and poisoned well were from. Maybe, if I could find the right brothel, I could get some dirt on the Regents that would be helpful to Agni. I got directions to the Temple from Agni, and once outside I saw Quinn and Morak, and they gave me directions to a tavern. Hopefully one of those places could point me to the appropriate brothel.

Game Two

February 9, 2002

Betshaba's Temple in Eisenstadt was a little bigger than the one in Futtersharte, but admittedly, not quite to the scale I expected. I mean, the whole city was so huge, I thought Betshaba would have a proportionately large temple. Lots of Baelthor and Baelthoric temples on the way there, though.

Sister Abigail was quite nice, and of course had the perfect wet look. Maybe that's one of the secret Betshaban spells: "The Wet Hair Spell: keeps your hair comfortably wet in a sexy just-got-out-of-the-river look all day." Man that would make things easier. Anyway, we chatted for a bit, and I told her about recently finding myself becoming an adventurer and my need for an Augur. She knew of only one in town, Gaila Maganas, a wealthy woman who apparently gets picked up on the streets for shouting out people's fortunes, whether they want to hear them or not. It didn't sound terribly promising, and Sister Abigail didn't know where she lived. She had heard of the poison well town, Sonnenschwert, though she was under the impression that it was a natural, temporary poisoning.

The Proud Cockerel was next -- an adventurer's tavern Quinn had directed me to. I had a great time there, flirting, getting drinks bought for me, and meeting some interesting people. Unfortunately, none of them had heard of people disappearing. At least, no one felt like sharing the information.

On my way back towards the Academy, I popped into several likely tavern-looking businesses, and was actually surprised to find what I was looking for at the Flying Stag, where Quinn had told us to leave a message for him if he were needed. It was breakfast time there, of course. One of the girls smiled from her table at me--she looked tired. "Long night?" I asked. "No, just feeling under the weather." I sat down with her and ended up having a very pleasant conversation. At first she thought I was looking for work, which of course I'm not. I got to "business" fairly quickly, but didn't get what I was looking for. A few of the students go to the Flying Stag occasionally, but no professors. The only time a professor came in there was to drag students back to campus. Adelaide suspected we got more of them in Futterscharte than they did there, since they'd be out from professors' eyes. It really was a shame -- I was hoping to get something to help Agni out of his fix, but if the professors are really that puritan, it can't be helped.

I spent some more time in there with just smalltalk, meeting the other girls: Giselle Youngmay and Rosalinde. The place had a similar feel to The Rose; it seemed like a nice place to work. Good people for Quinn to know.

Back at the academy that evening, I found I wasn't the only one to learn the Augur's name. Agni, in fact, had secured a dinner for himself -and his whole staff- at her father's home. It was pretty quickly established that Maggie and Gunther would be bodyguards in this scenario. Morak was a bodyguard too, after some brief discussion ... Quinn wouldn't go if Morak couldn't. Quinn was supposed to be an apprentice. "So, what role am I supposed to play on your staff?" Well, I laughed, anyway. Apparently showing up at a rich man's house as a consort isn't exactly appropriate, so I went for the role of "spiritual advisor." He insisted that I have a nicer dress for the occasion, which he bought for me. A nice, fairly simple blue dress which was a little high cut for my taste but low enough to show Betshaba's symbol against my collarbone. I did a quick wet-down of my hair -- it had mostly dried sometime in the Flying Stag, I think -- and we were on our way.

It wasn't until we got there that I found out that Agni's premise to get us in here was to arrange possible business deals with Gaila's father. The man sold stone. I think Gunther perked up at that, but he's a dwarf, it's hard to tell. I listened quietly to all the business-talk, but Belgard Thorin the chancellor didn't seem to be saying anything that I couldn't figure out by asking someone on the street what the man in this huge house did. We learned that he had a few sons and one daughter, and that the daughter, the augur, lived down the road. Much of the rest was small talk, which I joined in while eating a delicious spread. Agni and I pretty much did all the talking. I was kind of surprised Quinn didn't join in, he's usually chattier than that. I was also surprised when Agni introduced me -- not that he said I was a Betshaban priestess, which is a bit of an exaggeration, but when he said how devout a Betshaban his father is. I asked him later if it were true; apparently his dad's business does a lot of overseas shipping. Maybe I should get to know his dad someday.

The steward brought in a hammered dulcimer player to play for us, and a servant to take us wherever we needed to go before he left himself. Agni made eyes at the musician, who didn't seem to mind.

Agni leaned over the table and started quietly talking with us about plans. I tried to gauge if the musician or servant would be able to hear us -- I was pretty sure the dulcimer would mask the sense of our voices to either, they were pretty far away in this huge room. Still, I always find it amazing what some people are willing to talk about with "lesser people" around. It seemed we were to spend the night here, and look for Gaila in the morning.

On his way out, Agni put a hand on the dulcimer player's shoulder and whispered something to her. She smiled and blushed. Damn, I was going to do that. Still, as everyone began to file out to go to bed and I remained the last one, I determined to do what I was best at -- get some needed information.

When it was just me and one servant, I asked him for the tour. Thomas was his name, and he shyly showed me around to many rooms which apparently were rarely if ever used. He hadn't even been to many of them. I'd guess this guy has so much money he's not sure what to do with it, if he's got a ton of rooms he doesn't need. We passed three bedrooms, or possibly suites, with guests in them in a different wing from where my group was staying. Thomas wasn't willing to divulge who they were though. It might have been useful information down the road, but knowing who was buying stone for their own wall or house or whatever wasn't highly likely to be profitable information, so I didn't push.

He ended the tour in his quarters, then I began my serious business. I think I may have converted him to Betshaba. He was fortunately chatty enough to give me exactly the information I needed: where Gaila lived, along with the fact that she has several servants and Thomas would not want to be one of them. He unfortunately fell asleep before I found out who those guests were; it would have been nice to come away with more info since I wasn't getting paid for this, especially since Agni was probably getting the same information. I had Thomas lead me back to my intended quarters before dawn so he wouldn't get in trouble. Maggie and Gunther were passed out in front of Agni's room, a couple ale mugs on the floor. I went into my own room, wet my hair from the basin on the table, then went back to Agni's door. Mica's ears were back as she let out a catty moan.

"Well, I guess it would be best not to try to wake Maggie when you're like that, eh Mica?"

"No," said Maggie. Apparently she wasn't quite as passed out as I thought. Still, they seemed rather terrible at pretending to be guards if this was how they passed the night. Or rather, terrible at pretending to be guards on duty. Off duty, this was a pretty perfect performance.

Mica was apparently hung over. She burped a fireball. I thought it was time to leave the immediate area.

Inside Agni's room, I found out that as I suspected, I wasn't the only one to find out where the Augur lives. I also wasn't surprised that Agni's hair was perfect as always. I was a bit surprised to find out that the dulcimer player was in the closet -- very undignified of her.

We had a very nice breakfast during which Agni and Maganas blew each other off quite effectively inside of four minutes. Then it was time to take the road up the mountain a bit to Gaila's house. On the way, I asked if anyone had seen Alexander lately. No one had. Quinn, apparently, had actually forgotten about him. Still, we decided it was something to worry about later.

Once we got there, no one was answering the door. It was a pretty big place, but Gunther went around knocking at every entrance, and still no answer. Even if she was a bit weird and as crazy as everyone in the town thought, her servants should answer the door. We debated breaking in for a bit; I was all for it; I mean, the girl and her servants could have been hurt -- but Quinn eventually just tried the door, and it opened.

We found her in the courtyard, no servants in sight. We located her by the trail of smoke coming from her hooka. She was higher than a kite. I took note of everything she said, but she was so out of it, I wasn't sure what to believe. Still, all prophets are supposed to be kinda nuts, aren't they? Well, I don't know that she was insane, just high. Well, she did talk to her fish. She wore a symbol similar to one of the ones Geldemar had on -- I took that to be her Augur symbol.

She was incredibly impressed with Maggie's eye -- I mean, who wouldn't be? She also told Maggie she would die happy, at which Maggie announced that Gaila was telling the truth. Then she was absolutely entranced by Quinn. She said he had no Fate. That's an odd thing for a fortune-teller to say, isn't it? She seemed fascinated and somewhat disturbed at the idea.

She seemed pretty willing to answer any questions we had. She had introduced Geldemar to her friends in Oridal, in particular her Master Rusalos, her own teacher. She sort of knew Geldemar was dead -- or at least, she apparently predicted that he would die this month. We asked if she knew what killed him, and she said she knew there was a great danger, something that shouldn't be here, something from "out there," the last part said while looking up at the sky. Well, if she meant that Manslayer, he certainly didn't appear like he belonged, particularly not in Niccolo's house killing a good man. But he also didn't appear to come from the sky. Wherever she meant by "out there" was probably clouded by the drugs. So I asked her if there was a prophecy about this danger. She said yes, but wasn't very helpful about it after that. She said the prophecy was about "other places, other times," and that the man who knew it died in a gutter. If that was the prophecy we were looking for, we were out of luck.

Agni asked her to look and see who killed Geldemar. She stirred around her fish pond a bit, got as far as telling us that Geldemar was opening Niccolo's door, and then she screamed so loud they probably heard it in town.

I understand she was scared. I mean, I was paralyzed with fear myself when I saw the guy. But she started freaking out, saying that even though it was impossible, he saw her through the vision. I suspected that was probably the drugs reacting to that horrible image, but then, I didn't exactly know anything about magic.

What followed was a lengthy debate over whether or not Gaila would be coming with us. Quinn didn't want to be around if Manslayer actually did see her, and decided to take care of her. After that he and Morak quickly left to get the wagon to take us out of town. Maggie didn't want her father, who took care of her, to be mad at us for practically kidnapping his daughter, since she clearly didn't want to go with us. Or rather, at first Gaila was very against it, but as she took more drugs she went with us peacefully towards the Baelthor temple, which was where Maggie wanted to leave her. Agni wanted her with us as a source of information. I personally saw the merits of all three arguments, but two outweighed one--I didn't want her with us. Besides, her information was rather cloudy at best. The guy who knew what we need to know died in a gutter? Not very useful.

Eventually Agni managed to cast some sobering spell, since Maggie said she wouldn't mind Gaila going if she would agree to do so while in her right mind. Once in her right mind, she promptly forgot everything she said while high, and of course didn't want to come with us, so Agni dropped the argument.

When we met up with Quinn again, Alexander was with him--so much for the possibility of ditching him. I still don't trust him.

We found out that Gaila had given Niccolo one last message -- "The first piece is in Zaubersturm." Whatever this "first piece" was, she said it was vital to the fate of the world. No pressure or anything! First we're saving Valduran, now we're saving the entire world. Lovely.

We debated what it could mean, and whether it could be "peace," which seemed unlikely since Zaubersturm is apparently not only on the Borderlands, but also held by The Order of the Sword, who Agni says are warmongering wizards who would never let us have this "first piece," if it's a thing. Maybe it means "first piece" of the puzzle of what happened to Geldemar. In any case, we decided to go there instead of Sonnenshwert, since most people, Sister Abigail included, were pretty sure the poisoning was natural, and the well wasn't poison anymore anyway.

We traveled north first, and got to the inn at the crossroads around nightfall. Inside were fourteen of the most depressed, bored looking people I'd ever seen. Most of them looked like guards. There was a somewhat unattractive-looking whore kind of pawing at one of them, who didn't look the least interested. No music, nothing. Not even a shocked silence at the mountain lion, the stone eye, or the half-orc.

I called over a bored wench and ordered an ale, and when asked, she said all they were serving was gruel. I hadn't been reduced to eating gruel since the orphanage, so I decided to refrain.

Quinn and Morak had an acrobatic act. I oohed and ahhed and cheered, encouraging them (plus they were pretty good), especially the big backflip finish, but most of the place wasn't even paying attention. Something was definitely wrong with this crowd -- it didn't seem natural. So I decided to mingle, see if I could figure out what everyone was so down about.

Peter, John, George, Henry, and Fred were some of the most boring men I'd ever talked to. They claimed nothing bad had happened, though. I tried my best to be the most charming wench I could be, but nothing. These guys were boring eunuchs, apparently. Sure, something weird was happening here, but it was just so depressing I couldn't get through to them. On my way back to our table I whispered to the whore that she wasn't going to get that far if that's how she was going to go about it, and I could offer her pointers, but she sort of hissed at me to get my own john. I really wasn't feeling like it, so I sat back at our table and nursed the ale I'd ordered.

Most of the group wasn't at the table anymore. Niccolo and Maggie were urgently calling people over to various parts of the tavernroom. Quinn was apparently trying to get laid, because a pretty woman had walked in. Seemed like it might be working, too. Niccolo and Maggie tried to block his way up the stairs to a room with her, which wasn't very nice, but they let him go. Then I figured I might as well go to bed, too. I mean, this place was dead. Niccolo pointed out Morak's room to me. He wasn't in it, so I slept in some other room. Didn't seem to matter, anyway.

I woke up to Niccolo urgently shaking me. Apparently someone had hurt Quinn and made off with some people's stuff. We gathered in Quinn's room -- he was going to be all right with rest and Niccolo's care, but he looked really bad. Someone -- the woman, I'd guess -- had stabbed him in the back. Niccolo said someone had knocked him out, but he thought it might have been magically, because he hadn't been hit or anything, but he saw a hooded man in spiked armor with an axe when he went unconscious.

Maggie, Gunther, Agni, and Alexander were going to go chase after them. Alexander's horse probably had a chance of catching up with them if they were going back to Eisenstaad, and the others would have to follow on foot because they stole the riding horses. I wanted to stay with Quinn, make sure he was okay.

It was actually a couple days before they got back. I was getting kind of worried about them, hoping Alexander hadn't betrayed them after all. His sword had been stolen, but that could have been a trick. In any case, I did what I could to help out with Quinn, though that mostly meant getting food (the innkeep was apologetic for having forgotten to order new food in the last week, just like the merchant and guards were surprised they'd lost track of time and not traveled in the last week -- no one realized they'd been affected) for Morak and Niccolo, stuff like that. Niccolo and I asked the innkeep where the woman had been staying. She'd been in a third floor room that stank of every bodily fluid I could name and more. A note had been left: "Best wishes and thanks, Rothapharius." Name didn't sound familiar to anyone there.

When the others returned, they'd found everything except a knife of Niccolo's. The thieves had fenced everything. Apparently the woman had dyed her hair red, but no one they questioned had been able to describe the man clearly.

Shortly after they returned, Quinn awoke, and we learned something odd about at least one of the thieves: the woman wasn't a normal woman. In the middle of hers and Quinn's fun, she turned herself into a gray creature with bulbous eyes. Quinn was clearly disgusted by the whole thing and was going to have nightmares. "I hope she didn't ruin you for all women." After everyone else had left, Morak pulled me aside in the hall. "Look," he said, "I've never done this before, so I'm not sure how to ask. But, um, how much?"

I smiled. "To help Quinn? A freebie. But maybe we should wait until he's a little more healed, physically."

"Whenever. You're the expert."

I felt strangely good about this. Freebies weren't my usual style, but this was more than just a job. Quinn really looked like this experience would scar him sexually, possibly affecting other areas of his life, too. I wanted to keep nightmares away. This was healing. This was actually priestly work.

In the meantime though, Agni disappeared for a day while I wasn't looking. Apparently one of the rings he'd gotten off of Geldemar was a teleportation ring, and he figured out how to use it. Good thing, too, because when he returned he managed to save us a trip.

The ring had taken him to Geldemar's house -- the one we were worried we wouldn't be able to get into. "Did you find the prophecy?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, and held it up.

He let me have it, and I started looking over it. "Oooh, this verse is about me," I said, looking over it. Then someone said to read it aloud, so I did.

When the Wind Lord cometh

From a world far away

With him will come death,

His dominion pain, hope to slay

Those who shall come to kill

He that cannot be slain

Shall number seven of strong will

And these shall be his bane

"Well that's good," I said. "Looks like we win."

The first shall come from the sea

One of low repute, strong of heart

"That would be me," I said. I'm not sure the others appreciated the commentary. I continued.

New in faith, armed with love is she

"Love...? That's a bit of an exaggeration. I'm certainly armed with lust"

She shall pierce his hate, this is her part

Oh Betshaba, I hope I don't have to sleep with him. Ugh. Not enough money in all of Valduran. I must have paused there, thinking about it -- I sensed impatience from the group, so I read on.

The second shall hail from the dark

A physic of brilliant mind

A child of the Tribes is his mark

He shall fall by his own kind

That seemed to be about Niccolo, but he wasn't admitting anything about Tribes or marks. That last bit didn't look so good.

The third is a child of no past

No future, but present, opposed to fate

He is the key and can kill it at last

Neither born of man nor mate

That seemed to be Quinn, what with the whole fate thing. Later, though, Quinn said he knew both his parents, and he actually looked like his dad, so that didn't make any sense at all.

Come now is the man of stone

A stalwart warrior of cunning arm

He shall become as one with bone

But his task will be to do harm

Well, that seemed to be Gunther, but what the heck did "become as one with bone" mean? Gunther didn't seem to feel like speculating on it, at least not aloud.

Step forward, child of Raifes

A noble born, a king shall he be

His world of mysteries, weak by his rages

He shall fall by the Enemy's decree

"Wait a minute, what?" asked Agni. "What's that last bit?"

"I thought you read this already, you found it," I said.

"Well, I just read the king part."

That's disturbing -- partial information can be so dangerous, but how silly to ignore the information that you have right in front of you. In any case, I read on.

Cub of the bear stand forth

Bring your strong arm, your body broken

The weapon of light from the north

She shall forge, to kill the enemy the token

"Hey, way to go, Maggie!" I said. "You'll make something that kills him. Looks like Quinn gets to use it..."

"Are there more verses?" Maggie asked. I wonder if she's less stoic when there aren't any dwarves around.

The arm of strength comes to finish

In his hand a sword, in his mind comes magic

He is cloaked in lies, but granted his wish

He will be loyal, but well he will pick.

"Then it just says "there's more, the rest???" and the date 5828AC."

We debated over that last verse for a while. Who was it? I think it's Morak, though Morak doesn't think so. Well, he does use an axe and he doesn't have magic, but those things could happen in the future. He is cloaked in lies, though'scary stage name, make-up tattoos. The best argument against that though is that Geldemar was surprised to see him with us. Alexander maybe? That doesn't feel right either -- I mean, we all suspect him of being cloaked in lies, but it would make more sense for him to be loyal if he isn't cloaked in lies, right? Acutally, now that I think about it -- and I didn't bring it up then -- maybe we haven't met this last person yet. We're going to the stronghold of the Order of the Sword, right? Sword and magic. I wonder what his wish would be.

And I'm also nervous about that "rest" bit. What else is there that we don't know?

Alexander eventually saw it too, and asked which verse was him, to which we had no answer. He also pointed out that only Quinn's verse wasn't stated in fact -- he can kill it, but not necessarily will.

Niccolo announced that Quinn would be ready to travel the next day, which meant that night it was time for my part. I let Morak know, then went in to Quinn's room.

I explained to him how Morak asked me to come in there. How he had had a horrible, scarring experience, one that would likely give him nightmares, if it hadn't already. An experience that could affect all his future relationships with women, or could make him afraid of sex. And I was uniquely suited to help heal him of this pain.

It wasn't hard to convince him to accept this healing. And I continued to heal him throughout the night, not holding anything back, giving him my best work. He apparently hadn't realized I was a professional before -- not that I tried to hide it. He was practiced for his age, and though he hadn't learned yet to last long, he recovered quickly. And by the time morning came, I was reasonably certain his experience with the gray creature wouldn't haunt him nightly or loom over him every time he had sex.

Game Three

March 9, 2002

As we approached Kreuzung, another big city, we had to avoid the most convenient gate -- Quinn and Morak's old circus, Boltano's, was in town, and apparently Theo wasn't too thrilled about going. It seems he wasn't only the strong man, he was also one of the freaks, and he's got some bad memories. So we circled around to a different gate, where the guard asked us if we planned to sell anything. I could feel most of the group's eyes on me. I smiled -- I mean, I didn't plan to sell myself.

Heading towards the other gate, we passed a small shrine to Betshaba that doubled as the city's port. I planned to go there later, but for now we were looking for a place to spend the night. I picked out The Drowning Cod -- an adventurer's inn and whorehouse, it seemed like it would be pretty good. Agni complained a bit -- rather snotty of him, as the Rose has always been good enough. I didn't let the boys take our horses -- I've heard of horse-theft rings that will do that kind of thing. But when the boys looked so dejected as we stabled our own horses, I threw a couple coppers to them to brush the horses. But anyway, we didn't stick out too badly in here. Someone had a hawk, and a dwarf in the corner put his axe on the table when he saw Morak.

After sitting down, Alexander seemed uncomfortable. When I asked him what was wrong, he said he was worried this was a "house of ill repute." Those Vortunmnus-types can be so cute with their priggishness. In any case, while I was talking with him about how those who partake in such business will burn in eternal damnation, he suddenly looked up at a blonde-haired, dark-armored man. The two of them began to talk in a language I didn't understand. Alexander (or "Alehandro, as this guy called him) seemed to know him and was surprised at his being there, and the other man seemed both surprised and relieved. Whoever he was, they weren't mortal enemies. Alexander asked to be excused, and the two of them went outside. I tried to listen by the door -- I didn't expect to understand the language, but maybe I'd recognize a repeated word. No luck though -- way too noisy in the barroom.

When Alexander came back, the story was that his father, who though Alexander should not be traveling abroad when there was still evil to fight at home, had run into trouble in Adanar for heresy. Really the only heresy that could get you in real trouble that I know of is to claim that there's a single ruler of the gods -- and these guys think it's Vortumnus. Now that's odd. I mean, Vortumnus isn't even on the ruling council. I suppose it might make sense to some to think Ptaros should still be in charge, but Vortumnus? He's the baby of the gods. How odd. Well, I suppose I should be more concerned about heresy, but if Alexander isn't trying to preach it, it's just his own delusion. All this assuming of course that it isn't all an elaborate disguise.

In any case, the other man was a criminal who was working off his redemption in Alexander's father's service, apparently. And Alexander was going to go to Adanar to help his father. Some of the group suggested helping him, which is somewhat odd -- do they trust him now, or did they want to make sure to keep a closer eye on him? Alexander insisted on doing this alone though, so I told him, "You should follow your heart." Good, solid, Betshaban advice. I'm beginning to get the hang of this now -- maybe I'm ready for vows after all.

About half the group went off to follow him, so I sat chatting with Gunther for a while -- he's become a bit more talkative. Niccolo came back and said that Quinn and Theo had gone into some building, so the three of us talked some. I told them about my theory that the last verse of the prophecy might be someone at the Order of the Sword.

I didn't chat for long, though -- I wanted to go to the shrine. Only one of the priestesses was still awake after I'd done my prayer and rewet my hair. One of the worshipers pointed her door out to me, and I could hear splashing behind it and I thought maybe this time I'd catch one of them in action, but no, she was just doing her laundry. She'd only taken her vows a year ago though, so for the first time I wasn't too intimidated to ask about it -- though the answer was somewhat disappointing. No spell involved, the priests just manage to wet their hair away from prying eyes. Sister Sarah had seen a few of the older ones do it, though. Anyway, I told her where I was traveling, and she assured me there were creeks and such along the way so I wouldn't want for water.

I didn't see the others until the next morning. Maggie had followed Alexander and the other man until they left for Adanar, but then she'd been stuck outside when the gates were closed at midnight. Quinn and Morak, on the other hand, had apparently gone to another tavern and had gotten quite drunk and loud. Someone approached them when Quinn had mentioned Geldemar, and said that if the two were working for Geldemar, he had information they'd need to know. He wanted to meet them again that night, and he wanted a place he could send information where we'd get it.

Now that perked my ears up. "We need a place to send information? If it's okay if it's out of town, I know exactly where to send it." And just like that, I got Madam Lessa a new contact from out of town. Well, I suppose Quinn and Morak got the contact, but won't Madam Lessa be proud of me for sending stuff from so far away her way? And without even taking off my clothes".

It wasn't all set up yet though -- Quinn and Theo still had to meet him. So we all planned to be at the Rolling Turtle a bit before they showed up, so we could check the guy out and make sure it wasn't a trap or anything. I would be going in my disguise as "whore hanging off rich Agni." I figured I could handle that.

I spent the day exploring Kreuzung -- hanging out in taverns, listening to men brag about their adventures or their businesses or their farms while they bought me drinks. You can learn a lot about a town that way, even if it is all exaggerated.

Once at the Rolling Turtle, playing my part, however, things became rather surreal as I watched Maggie display a sense of humor. We were passing this poor "Hank the Black" kid back and forth, promising him silver to find out information about each other. Agni went all-out, claiming to be a Green Mage of Thet, enemy of the Black mages. I was amused, but I admit I felt a little bad for him -- lying to him about our groups knowing each other was one thing, but scaring him was going a little too far. Agni ended up getting briefly arrested and the kid ended up rolling in dirt and running away. If I see him again, maybe I'll offer him a reduced price.

In any case, we didn't see Quinn meet anyone. By the time Quinn came in, he'd already met up with the contact. Information would indeed be sent to The Rose, though it seems Quinn didn't make arrangements to say specifically who the information was for. Lessa knows enough not to sell anything that would be harmful to me, though.

The next day we were off. I made sure to bathe in the river one last time after we crossed the bridge, because we were about to leave it. That made me a bit nervous, but we ended up crossing enough creeks in the day that my water supply didn't get significantly less.

We did have a bit of excitement the first day out from Kreuzung when we heard someone scream for help. I stayed back with the wagons while the others checked it out -- it could conceivably be a bandit trick. But it wasn't... nor could the others find the source of the cry or catch the animal that caused concern. Apparently it was something big, though.

The next day we saw a patrol out of Bielburg that recognized the description of the animal--something called a Leucrotta that can sound like a human to lure enemies. I think I prefer the dangers of the city. We ended up staying that night at their castle in a small guest building that looked almost jail-like. The only other guest we saw came looking for me to give his confession, but of course I can't do that yet. He wasn't willing to stay and chat -- something about chatting being evidence of an idle mind and idleness leading to sin. He was going to Thet to convert people to the worship of Betshaba with the use of his blade. Definitely one of the worshipers of Saint Chlodomer. Those guys are just too intense for my tastes. And in the process of doing good work I think they do a lot of bad as well... but they are Betshaba's, and the sea can be cruel as well. At least that's what they tell me.

The next day we passed a messenger speeding along on his horse, and shortly after that we saw a side-road to the north. It was a bit narrow for the wagon, but we decided to take it as it led in basically the right direction. Fortunately it led in exactly the right direction, and several days ahead of what we had expected, we were at Zarbursturm.

I noticed right away that they seemed to be building a new story, but I thought that wasn't anything special until the first guy who talked to us, Subaltern Alastor Neff, told us that they were preparing for a siege from Thet in about four days. So whatever this "piece" was, we'd better find it fast. We decided not to tell anyone in the Order of the Sword yet what we were really there for... we wouldn't lie, just tell them that Geldemar had told us of a prophecy and then had died before telling us any details, but an Augur had said we should come here.

We were taken to the guy in charge... Mage Steward William Mercer. He called Theodore by name, who seemed suddenly very interested in the ceiling. Mercer seemed primarily concerned with our usefulness should we be stuck there during a siege. It seems to me my particular talents would be very much needed if a bunch of soldiers were stuck in one place for a really long time... that tension would need to be relieved somehow... but he seemed more interested in fighting skills so I told him I'd held off a wererat once. Of course I'd much rather be out of there by the time soldiers appear, but if it comes to it, maybe I'll go to him privately about it.

He wanted to talk to Theo when the rest of us left. When Theo came back out, I was pleased to find my informational instincts hadn't been wrong... Theo was who the last verse was about, and he was in the Order of the Sword. Apparently at one point when he was very young but still a circus freak, he'd gotten into a lot of trouble in one town and the townspeople had tried to stone him. Mercer had scared the people off and nursed him back to health, then taught him magic. After a while, Theo didn't like the way the Order did things... the example he gave was that they think the best defense is a good offense -- so he went back to the circus. Quite a revelation... though why didn't Geldemar expect him, then? Well, he didn't expect Agni to be with us at the inn, either. Maybe he was just surprised the two of them came together.

We talked about this in our guest quarters, which were about the same as at the last place. We had really limited access to anywhere... just our rooms, the hall, the mess hall, and the courtyard. We started coming up with plans to search for a "piece." My plan was to get the info out of whoever we could meet at the mess hall... the only problem is that with only four days to work with, I had to figure out who would be the most likely to have the information we wanted, and that could be difficult.

In any case, we started by exploring what we did have official access to, starting with the courtyard. A bunch of people were going through training drills. I started heading to the mess hall, but I passed a very self-important-seeming man flanked by two others going to the courtyard, so I followed.

He turned out to be the Warden... more in charge than Mercer, anyway. And he wanted to talk to us about adventuring. While expanding the catacombs of the castle, they'd broken into some previously existing tunnels and wanted us to explore them and make sure there weren't any other exits because the Thesh could then get in. We had until two days after the Thesh arrived... if we weren't back up after that, they'd seal up the catacombs. That's awfully nice of them.

Still, old catacombs seems to me to be a likely place for a mysterious piece of something to be, so it could be exactly what we're looking for. I borrowed a crossbow from the mages... Godfrey had taught me how to use one of them once, and it would keep me farther away than a shortsword would, certainly. Maggie seems to think I've never seen a weapon before -- she felt the need to remind me not to shoot through people. Still, she does have a point, fighting isn't exactly what I'm best at. However, adventurers have told me all sorts of stories about their ropes breaking or knots coming undone at the worst times (always dramatically appropriate, though, the way they tell me), and if there's one thing my priestess training has drilled into me it's knot-tying. I'm also going to be drawing a map of the place for the mages. I'm perfectly content to stand behind Maggie and Mica and Gunther and Morak if anything attacks us.

Game Four

April 6, 2002

According to all the stories adventurers have told me, absolutely everything in a dungeon is dangerous. Every flagstone in your path could be a switch to a trapdoor or spikes falling on your head or blades chopping through you or worse. Magic was around every corner, as was all sorts of creatures... everything from killer hobgoblins to entire orc tribes to spiders bigger than horses. Adventurers exaggerate everything trying to impress, me, however, so while I knew it could be dangerous I figured we... well okay, the fighter-types... could handle it. I'd heard over and over again the need for rope though in all sorts of situations, so at least I was prepared there. And I could draw the map so no one else would have to scramble for a weapon if we had to fight.

First it was down through the catacombs. It was all old members of the Order of the Sword. I started trying to pick out where the more important people were laid to rest... we may have to search here later to find the "piece," whatever it is. I'd guess if it was that important it might be kept with and important dead guy. Then again, maybe the important dead guy entrusted it to his favorite whore, because who'd think the whore would have it? Well, whatever the hell it is I hope it's obvious when we find it. Agni stayed upstairs to help the Order with some research, so we can't even tell what's magical down here. But then, the piece may not be magical. This is maddening without knowing what it is.

So we stepped through where the workers had made the hole into the old caverns, and we were immediately faced with cobwebs down one corner and spikes down another. Closer investigation of the spiked floor made it seem that there might be a trapdoor or a spinning floor or something like that. So Maggie got Mica to clear out the mass of cobwebs with a bit of flame.

What followed was probably the most pain I've felt in my life as a little pool of stuff beyond the cobwebs exploded and I saw a bright flash of light, and next thing I knew I was on the floor with Niccolo rubbing salve on my skin and realizing I in no way felt in the mood for a sensual massage. I felt like I'd been baking in the midsummer sun for days, but considering I was in the middle of a fireball that wasn't so bad. The flash had been so quick that my clothes were mostly intact (though not as conservative as they had been, nor as clean), but the map was toast and had to be redone.

We couldn't figure out the spikey floor, so we went through what used to be cobwebs. Niccolo and Quinn looked for traps, though they barely missed getting their heads chopped off by a scythe. Beyond that was a room with a marble statue of a minotaur. Niccolo freaked out a bit when I mentioned I'd heard stories of statues coming to life, but this minotaur stayed motionless.

What followed that was hours of twisty corridors, usually accompanied by a "ting ting" noise. Maggie saw tons of small booted footprints that she said went from recent to centuries old. It all sounded like mind tricks to me... magical illusory sounds and planted prints. Gunther said there are dwarven childhood legends of creatures called tinkers who hang out in old abandoned tunnels who will attack if you get a look at them, but otherwise they might just cave us in. Hours and hours later (after trying to chisel and figure out a rusted metal lid that I think was either a switch or a fake lid... mind tricks again) we heard a cave-in, but we didn't see it. We came to the conclusion that this actually was a minotaur labyrinth at one point... certainly no one could easily find their way out of this place without a map.

Eventually we explored all the twisting tunnels and had no choice but to deal with the spikes. It wasn't easy, but with liberal use of big rocks we figured it out, and with the even more liberal use of pitons and the minotaur statue, we got across it.

We ran into a bunch of traps after that. I think my favorite was the cage where I got to use my Codex knowledge of ropes and water and silk... wet silk is one of the strongest flexible materials there is. So a little twisting, (well, a lot of twisting to get Theo and Gunther through) and we moved on.

The traps started getting easier to avoid or switch off, until the sword-bearing statues asked us for a password. At least, that's what we assumed they were asking. Poor Niccolo... well, I think he was expecting it after my offhand comment. Anyways, Theo and Maggie held them off while the rest of us scooted past, then Gunther helped finish them off.

We ended up in a series of room that seemed like personal quarters. There was an office with a weird magical painting that looked like maybe it used to seem like a window, but it was all tattered. I guess the magic was fading. There was tarnished green gold everywhere.

The toughest bit, though, was the mummy. I froze up. I mean, I probably couldn't have helped much anyway, but afterwards I felt terrible. If I'd taken my vows, maybe I could have helped against this thing. As it is, Maggie was hit and has some sort of infection and Niccolo doesn't know what it is. This could be bad.

Game Five

April 20, 2002

Okay, so breaking a crossbow the first time I try to shoot one isn't exactly the best way to make a good impression on fighter-types who aren't impressed with whores. I still have no clue how the entire front end of a crossbow can come off just from pulling the trigger. I don't know, maybe I loosened something the way I was carrying it while I was mapping. In any case, so much for the Order of the Sword's crossbow. The shortsword worked just fine at slashing up those shrieking mushrooms anyway.

That's the only fight I got in, actually. I was ready to fight the skeletons if I had to, but I didn't have to. I felt bad, though. A priestess would be able to do something about that. After I take my vows, I'll be able to help, but this time all I could do was hold onto my Betshaba symbol and pray. Watch us not run into any more undead things after I do take my vows. Other than that, the main things we ran into were statues with crowns in them, crowns of various materials with emeralds on them. Somewhere past the coatroom and pool, however, we heard fighting going on, and as we approached, we heard some talking. I didn't recognize the language, but it was sort of like dwarven. Several male voices, one female.

Niccolo flung open the door and this odd gray-skinned skinny dwarf came out, getting bigger as he approached, but Niccolo stabbed him between the ribs and he dropped. We arranged ourselves on either side of the door, but then so did they, on their side, and they wouldn't be cajoled into coming out. The woman said something in a very different language, but what I couldn't tell -- she was certainly scoffing, though. Since I wasn't directly by the door I asked Theo to hand me the dwarf's body, and I started rifling through it for clues. His pouch held seven gold Thesh coins, and I held one up for the group to see the stamp. Then, for good measure, I stripped him of his armor, his axe, and all eight of his daggers. When that was over, I heard a clink just in front of Quinn, but saw nothing. "There! There! Something's there!" I pointed and whispered as heatedly as I could... enough to warn those by the door of the invisible dwarf just before it revisiblized and attacked. It shortly thereafter joined my pile of near-naked dead weird dwarves and its gold joined the pile I'd started. Maggie tapped at her gem eye and said it wouldn't happen again.

Since that didn't work, we were at a stalemate, until someone looked in and realized at least one of them was leaving. So we had to storm them... at least the odds had been evened a bit. The fight hadn't been going on long though when Niccolo suddenly yelled out what could only be Thesh" "Blah Niccolo Morwynion blah blah Morwynion blah something really forceful and commanding!" And the woman said "Niccolo?" like she knew him really well. The fight stopped suddenly to everyone's shock but those two, who left briefly, then came back and killed the two remaining dwarves.

So, Niccolo is Thesh (dark tribes), his sister Salvazia works for the Fell King, and the Fell King's new advisor is Manslayer and he wants something in these catacombs. Just lovely. Niccolo has convinced her, apparently, not to harm any of us while trying to prove to her that Manslayer is actually working against the Fell King for his own purposes. Do we know that? I don't think we've had any evidence of that. I mean, all politicians are constantly backbiting each other for an advantage, but that whole poking-the-stick-through-the-heart thing didn't cry out "politician" to me. I mean, he's evil, but so's the Fell King. Why couldn't he be trying to help him? Well, it kept her from trying to kill us, that's good.

Plus, if it wasn't for her, that griffon thing would have likely killed us. It sort of killed Quinn... that's another weird thing, he can't die... or rather, he's died twice and turned to some blue sludge that reformed into Quinn. Now that was fascinating. That goes along with the whole radiating magic and such. Now, what about the not born of man or woman? True, most normally-born people don't turn into blue goo instead of dying, but then, that could be the result of some kind of spell. Still, it makes me feel a little better about Quinn being on the front lines like that.

Anyway, beyond the dead griffon (that aged just like Geldemar did) was another statue and another crown... lead this time, but it wasn't rusted or corroded or anything. We figured that must have been what we came to get, since it was the most heavily guarded. There were more places to explore, but after these last few fights, we just weren't in any condition to risk fighting any more undead. I have a feeling though there were two more crowns... we found five, and the prophecy specifically mentions seven of us, and this place was important. It was just a hunch though, and considering our timelimit of the rapidly approaching army (and the fact that the Order had sealed off the catacombs after we sent Agni back to warn them of the opening), and considering our injuries, we decided to leave with what we thought must be The Piece.

Maggie found us some caves, but not before we got to a stream and I got to refill my waterskins and take an actual bath, and clean all that soot off of me and rewet my hair properly. I tried talking nice with Salvasia... Niccolo had been personally offended that we hadn't taken his word that we could trust her around the crown. I was a bit taken aback by that... how can he know he can trust her that well just because she's family? I mean, wouldn't her loyalty be to her ruler first? Still, I felt bad about offending Niccolo. I think I've known him long enough in the biblical sense and otherwise to know he's not a bad person. A little disturbing, maybe, but not bad. Nice-talking Salvasia resulted mostly in sarcasm back. She also delighted in telling me how Children of St. Chlodomer are hunted down and it's a badge of honor for recruits to kill one. That's horrible, but I'll admit I couldn't quite fill myself with righteous anger. I'm sorry Betshaba, but if an enemy says "convert or die" I can sort of understand why they choose to fight back, even though converting would be the best for them even without the threat of death. Not the whole badge of honor thing, but the choice to fight back. Anyway, that kind of killed my attempts to be friendly, though I continued to try... being friendly isn't just polite, it's my career training.

We had a visitor the next morning though... a priest of Abaris named Rexar. He wanted to know why all he'd seen when trying to scry the last four days had been us. I was the only one polite enough (or trusting enough, I guess) to give my name, but after that and me pointing out that he'd come into our camp, he explained himself. We decided to go ahead and show him the lead crown to see if he knew what it was... if he could only scry on us, he'd find out about it anyway. I was worried that this thing might be attracting everyone's magic to us, but then Rexar said he was probably one of the only people currently alive who would recognize it. It's over 2000 years old, from the end of the Second Age of Man, and designed to protect the wearer from something called psychic power, which is something like magic but without spells. At the time it would have been priceless, but now almost nobody has that kind of power.

So how is that the Piece? It looks complete. Maybe this Manslayer has this kind of power. I mean, he comes from another world, maybe they have that power there. Or maybe the dwarves or the dark elves Salvazia mentioned that he brought with him, maybe they have this psychic power. Oh, and he was able to look through that augury of the past which Galia said was impossible, maybe that's because of this special power. Of course, if this crown is supposed to protect us from him, it will only protect one person, and I somehow doubt a little crown will protect against that quarterstaff through the chest. Maybe there's another Piece that does that. Then again, we still don't know... this was the best-protected thing we saw, but we didn't see everything... I hope this is what we were looking for.

Game Six

May 4, 2002

We decided to head back to Eisenstadt to talk to Gaila, some of us then on to Futtersharte, and Gunther on to his Koenig. As for me, as soon as I had told Lessa everything, I was going to the temple to take my vows. I could have done something about those undead. Nobody would have had to be hit by them. And I'm on a really important mission now... one that Betshaba must have known about when she sent me that dream in the first place. I need to show her that I really am dedicated to this.

Our travel back to the road was briefly hampered by bandits, but shockingly enough, Hank the Black got us out of it. I was rather surprised when Maggie invited him to join us as far as Futterscharte in order to get him out of banditry. I'm not sure, but I think she felt guilty for teasing him so much. He's an amazingly na've little kid (claim's he's twenty, just like Quinn, but really, I don't care), but he's sweet. He wants adventure, and he wants to be good at it. The bandits gave him some warped arrows and told him they were trick arrows, and somehow Maggie or Niccolo or someone accidentally convinced him they were magical while trying to convince him they were just rotten. Maggie vainly tried to teach him how to fletch arrows, but it wasn't working. I spent most of our travel talking to him, trying to keep him out of everyone else's hair, trying to get him to let Maggie teach him. Mostly keeping him out of the others" hair. I like the kid.

Maggie rather unfortunately caught a sick deer. It tasted okay, but the next day four of us were sick. I felt like I was going to die, but I've seen food sickness before... once Niccolo said what we had, I knew I'd be fine in a day. Probably one of the most hellish feeling days in my life (at least the fire was over quickly), but I'd live through it. I just rested on my horse's neck, drank plenty of water, and leaned out as far as I could to puke so it wouldn't get on my dress or the horse's neck or legs. Gunther, however, was in terrible shape. He was rolling and groaning on the wagon and Maggie had to throw a bucket of water over it every once in a while to wash all the filth. I've never seen a dwarf look so undignified. They almost didn't let us into Beilburg.

They did though, and we had to wait a few days for Gunther to fight off whatever infestation he had. But apparently Maggie knows the Herzog here and he summoned us. It turned out that he, like the guy in Kruezung, was an informant for Geldemar and needed someplace new to send information to. I tried again for the Rose, but Maggie seemed to think the dwarves would be offended by it being a brothel (they weren't) and suggested her grandfather. I was rather disappointed that the rest of the group decided on her grandfather... I suppose I can see that sending all our information to one place might make it a little more dangerous, strategywise, but really that's Lessa's real business... I hope she's not disappointed in me for not widening her network. Well, I guess the guy in Kruezung was really just a bonus... that's not why I left anyway.

Once Gunther was better we went on to Kreuzung, and that's where the real problems began. First the guard tried to stall us... I thought he was just bored at first (after all, his stalling technique was rather uninspired), but then about twelve guards and more up on the walls told us we were wanted for questioning in a murder and we were the last seen with the body.

We cooperated fully... I mean, we were all innocent. Well, we had Selvazia hide by a tree outside the city. A dwarf, the human captain, and a judgement priest presided... the priest would know we were telling the truth, so I felt perfectly fine telling them everything we knew, once we found out it was Alexander's aquaintence who had died. We said everything we knew about Alexander, everything he'd told us about this guy, how Alexander said his father was in trouble for heresy in Adanar (the priest scoffed at the idea of Vortumnus as king... it really is a rather ridiculous choice for a heresy, I mean, the youngest?), what we knew about Koramia, and Alexander's red Vortumnus symbol. Three miles outside of town, the other Koramian had been killed with a poison very large sword, and so had Alexander's horse, and both had been skinned from the neck up. Alexander wasn't seen. There were scorched hoofmarks nearby they had tracked until they simply disappeared. The red Vortumnus symbol was cut in half with a blade.

Maggie seems to think that Alexander, if alive, would never have left that symbol behind... he spent a long time looking for it after we'd been robbed by Rothgapharious. I still think the whole paladin thing may have been a disguise and he did all this, though the skinning part was hideous and I don't know where the scorched hoofmarks came from. But then we found out there were two more murders... Hector (Lessa's new contact, damn!) and a member of the Iron Band named Lorael. We didn't" know who she was, but thought Agni may have talked to her. She didn't work for the guard though so it couldn't have been her who checked that Agni wasn't the Green Mage of Thet.

We started to get scared... people we'd talked to were dead, horribly. We had to get home to make sure everyone was okay. We bought enough horses for us all to have two to get as fast as possible home (paid for with melted down Thesh gold). We left Hank there, hoping that it was safer than bringing him with us. Then Quinn was about to run his horse in the ground to get to Eisenstadt until I slowed him down. We stopped at the Inn at the Crossroads... the bartender there was killed too. We'd barely talked to him! We got to Eisenstadt not too much later.

We asked the guards to speak to the captain immediately. After he'd been sent for, we asked about murders... a prostitute had been killed the same way. Oh Betshaba, if it was Adelaide... I had just chatted with her for an afternoon! Quinn ran off saying he'd meet us later at the Flying Stag. Clearly there was someone he cared about greatly. Niccolo, Selvazia, and I decided to go to Gaila while the others waited on the guard, to follow us.

We walked in to Gaila's, and it stank horribly. There was this hunched filthy guy in rags who met us in the entryway. When we asked to see Gaila he said she was busy. When we insisted, he got pretty nasty about it, but when Niccolo tried to push past him, the guy (later named himself Xorin, or rather himselves) hit him with his staff, and then made his evil tree tear out the door.

At that point it seemed a stalling strategy was in order.

We stalled, Maggie and Gunther eventually arrived, and Niccolo managed to negotiate to see Gaila. While he was gone, some of the guards arrived, and I told them the situation, including the tree. They sent for reinforcements including clerics. When Niccolo came back, he said that the garden was full of strange plants, the goldfish were dead, and Gaila, though alive, was not in a good condition. That Xorin had said they had something to do together.

We saw a vulture land in the garden, and then a weird sound like a tree falling, but nothing attacked us as we waited for the reinforcements. Those turned out to be more guards, a cleric of Baelthor, and Agador Winthrop and a few other Malachite mages.

By the time we made it into the garden, however, (after they'd taken care of the tree) they were both gone. Both of their footprints led to a huge tree that had grown in the middle of the garden, then stopped. Agador took out a crystal ball and said she was in darkness, which meant either underwater, underground, in someplace dark, or dead. The guards cut the tree down, but it was just a normal tree. Then Agador checked again.

"Oh, there they are. They seem to be in Thet. Ah, who's this... " then the arrogance in his voice suddenly faded as his eyes widened. "Spikes?" Gunther asked.

"He's looking at you, isn't he?" I asked. "He looked at Gaila, when she was looking into the past. We know it's impossible, but he can do it."

Winthrop passed his hand over the ball quickly and put it away.

Around then was when Maggie snapped, as we tried to tell him what we knew of Manslayer to help him. She'd had enough of putting up with Winthrop's arrogance, which I applaud her for, but maybe it wasn't well-timed. One of the mages with her said that Winthrop's arrogance was bound to get him into trouble one day, but that Winthrop now indeed saw Maggie as his enemy and would likely do her best to ruin her. His influence was politics, so while he probably can't directly affect her, I'm a bit worried about her parents" businesses. I don't know of anything directly damaging to either of them, but someone with enough contacts could make up rumors to discredit them and possibly destroy their livelihood.

I was more concerned, however, with the lives of those I cared about in Futtersharte. If it was this crazy Druid doing all the skinning, maybe he hadn't gotten any further than here backtracking us, and maybe they were okay. But we didn't know if this was the guy who did it. I wanted to get back.

Game Seven

May 18, 2002

We tried to meet with Quinn at the Flying Stag, and while I was relieved to see that Adelaide was still alive, the prostitute who was murdered was one of the Stag's... a woman named Giselle. She specialized in the rough types, and Geldemar was one of her "favorites." I wonder if she was his informant because she specialized in the rough types who would probably be the ones more likely to have good information, or she chose to specialize in the rough types after becoming his informant. Adelaide didn't see Xorin come in for her... I hope I'm right that it was Xorin committing these acts.

Theo showed up to tell us that he and Quinn were working something out... that it would be a while and they could meet up with us at Futterscharte or leave messages here at the Stag. I was in a rush to go, but we did need to let the horses rest. I was up far before dawn though, readying the horses even before my morning prayer. We pushed the horses through the night to get there, and I rode directly up to the Rose. Maggie and Niccolo were talking too much about future plans, I just cared about Madam Lessa and the girls...

Madam Lessa was fine. Apparently she'd had a bad cold, but that was it. Not only was she alive, but apparently Hector is, too... he'd sent a note to Quinn saying whoever was after him actually got Charlie, and he's lying low now letting people think he's dead. Other than that he didn't have much to say we didn't already know, except that Lurael was on the outs with her guild. Anyway, after reading the letter, I explained everything. Even about Sevasia, though I asked her to keep that quiet, since we're trying to get her on our side and she's got plenty of helpful information, even if she doesn't exactly like me. After all that, she asked me if I was sure this was what Betshaba wanted me to do... that ultimately, I need to look out for myself. I'm glad she's looking out for me, but I really do feel called to this. I mean, hey, I'm in a prophecy. Not that I'm thrilled about my part in it, but still.

I told the others about the letter... Niccolo doesn't trust it. Understandable, but if we get any more information from him we shouldn't ignore it, just understand that it could be false information, go informed it might be a trap. I mean, we don't know. But during that conversation, Agni came downstairs... I can't believe Lessa didn't tell me that! He had somehow made it all the way home to Eisenstadt, taken his exams, and then brought his study group down here for a party. As to why he was no longer expelled, apparently being a crown prince carries some weight with the Regents.

That would have been a little more surprising if it weren't for the whole King prophecy. When Niccolo reminded him about the end of his stanza though, Agni claimed not to hold much stock in it. In any case, after planning for Agni and I to go to Eisenstadt and sell the crowns, and then meet up in a couple weeks, the others left for Niccolo's tower and it was just myself and Agni at the Rose.

I learned a lot about what was going on in Eridia. The "Pretender King," __________________, is a follower of Phlegethon, and ______ Rafezzi has put forth his claim to the throne. His claim goes back to a maternal ancestor he shares with the current King, and the Pretender's line has some bastard links. He has, according to Agni, the support of the peasants, many Counts, the merchants, and the church of Betshaba which is the most powerful church in Eredia. All he lacks is military support. Well, if the prophecy is true it'll probably work out. I suppose Lessa probably already knows all this, but I'll check.

In the morning I asked Godelina for some food for the road, and we got some wonderful picnic food for the trip. The trip itself was pretty uneventful until we got all the way to the Abarisian Order. We decided to go to the mages instead of the clergy in case the clergy would just claim them outright without paying us. The clergy in me winced slightly at that, but it was still going to supposedly responsible worshipers of Abaris.

The Abarisians were much more pleasant than the Regents. First we talked to ________________ who chatted a lot with Agni about paths to enlightenment and the nature of reality. Some of it was a bit above my head I suppose, but listening closely I think I understood. Each Order sees different ways of understanding reality, and I suppose of manipulating it. The Abarisians (at least __________) thought that research and "controlled conditions" were the way to go, while Regents think that knowing one's place in the world was it. __________ argued better, but he has been at it longer than Agni, who did hold his own. There were a bunch of metaphors flying about, chiefly reality as fabric and reality as a fishbowl (with the gods being in a different reality outside the fishbowl). I brought up divine magic briefly, but really I was learning more by just listening.

The Master of Antiquities, _________________, was a funny old man. He wanted to make sure we didn't get paid too little for these circlets. He told us similar information as Rexar had... that they were from the kingdom of ____________, and that they were superstitious about the swirling pattern because they thought that would make you go crazy. In any case, he gave us 4500 silbergeld for them.

We got back to Futtersharte and I donated three of the silver bars, part of my share, to Betshaba, and Sister Eloise led me to a room with a chest-deep pool in which to think. I thought a lot about what she suggested... that there are many things Betshaban priests do, not just because they are tradition or because they are practical. The hair and the knots, of course. I'd been thinking about it all the way to and back from Futtersharte, and I thought about it more now, lying back naked in the water, letting my hair stream out in wet tendrils. I'd always loved the way that felt, hair floating in the water, waving as if alive with the water's movement. It wasn't really the hair, though, it was the water that was alive. Or rather, nothing was alive without water. I thought back to _________'s metaphor of the fishbowl... fish live in nothing but water... humans, dwarves, animals, all need stone and air and fire too, but water is so powerful it has the force to hold some life all by itself. And the fabric metaphor...that reminded me of tying all those knots. What if the kinds of knots we tie to make nets mirrors in some way that fabric of reality? That seems a bit too literal, but I don't know, maybe not.

I came out of the room in the morning, and Sister Eloise was right at the door waiting for me. She and some of the other clerics brought me to another room with a pool, which she led me into. She asked if I accepted Betshaba into my heart always, I said yes, she baptized me, and suddenly, I felt different. As I stood up each of the rivulets of water running from my hair, my nose, my chin, all felt charged with something... something like light, kind of like really good sex but not quite, and much more raw and powerful than that. Inside, I felt like my dream, and like I could see the Ocean again.

There were the congratulations as I got out of the baptismal pool, and the things I would need as a priestess. Afterwards I talked with Sister Eloise some about what I'd been thinking about. She said that there was no one right answer, it was something personal, but still a connection we needed. I also told her about my wish to be able to combat against undead next time, and she suggested training with a Child of St. Chlodomer. I can't say I'm thrilled with the idea, but if it'll help, it'll help, I guess.

Two weeks came and went as I went back to a stint at the old profession in order to spend time with my real family. Being a priestess was a bit of a selling point... I may have ended up converting a few men... at least, some of them who said they'd converted may actually do so. Every morning I went to the temple and prayed... Betshaba's gift of magic that morning was just like the baptism... it was every morning. I confess I got a little show-offy with the mending spell, but I didn't think Betshaba would mind. When a client had gotten a bit zealous with one of the girls and ripped their dress a bit, I fixed it. After that I had to fix three dresses a day... as many times as I could. Using the magic, again, gave me that same light, powerful, almost sexual feeling.

A little after two weeks, when there was no word, I asked at Maggie's parents" house after her. They figured she was fine, still up at her Pops" house. A couple days later Niccolo came by and confirmed it, but he had horrible news as well.

Agni had met with a woman under Niccolo's care at his tower. She told Niccolo that Agni had tried to seduce her, and when his usual methods didn't work he tried to use a spell, which failed. Agni, the man who could have just about anyone he wanted, tried to rape a woman.

I had hoped it wasn't true, that the woman had misinterpreted this spell he tried to cast, but a few weeks later Maggie showed up at the Rose (to her obvious discomfort) to tell me that Agni had arrived and had, indeed, admitted to it. He just didn't see it as rape. She said she had talked to both her mother and the Baelthoric priest, both of whom told her by law it certainly was. She said she went to others because she's biased on the subject... when she was young, someone tried to rape her and destroyed her eye. Geldemar turned the man to stone and replaced her eye with the magic one she has now. In any case, she seemed pretty conflicted (in a calm yet rage-filled way) because she's incredibly angry at him, yet at the same time doesn't want the woman to have him killed, because that's not legal either.

She said he just appeared when she and Niccolo were together in the town, and thinks that he's watching somehow. Maybe he has a crystal ball too. In any case, I knew I had to talk to him. Not as his former whore, not as a fellow prophecied-about-person, not as a friend, but as a priestess of the religion which most of the country he's about to rule follows. Certainly after this he's not going to know me as a whore again.

I wrote a sign for him and put it in my room before falling asleep the next morning. I awoke to him crawling in my bed, and I violently pushed him out. And then I started talking to him about it.

Being the priestess in this wasn't easy. Especially after he said, "You've been a priestess for two weeks, you don't know shit about the religion." Six, and I studied before that, but that's not the point. I told Maggie he probably wouldn't accept me as a priestess, but if I brought him to someone else Salvasia might be exposed and that wouldn't be any good either. Still, I kept trying. We were talking in circles forever. He kept saying that the spell he cast wasn't forcing her, and what he wanted to do wouldn't be harming her. He tried to make some kind of allegory about me casting a fear spell on someone whose bravery is sacred to them, but that's just not the same. He didn't cast that spell in self-defense or to get information out of her, he just wanted sex with her. And by Betshaba, not to mention by Cardena, or by Erato who he follows, there are TWO whorehouses just down the road from the tower and plenty of women who would have him without coin! He made the argument that he was an attentive lover, as I could attest to... I pointed out that I was willing, she wasn't. He even told me a secret... that he wasn't born with his looks and charm; his looks were a gift from a fairy of some sort and his charm was helped by a book... magical, I presume, because he said anyone who likes him is not seeing what is natural. But that's different too... that's a change in himself that the women can choose to like or dislike, not changing her opinion directly in her own mind. Ultimately, he was being selfish... it seems he has never not gotten what he wanted. I even learned a few weeks ago that he got out of his engagement by getting drunk and throwing up on someone important. When I said "Just because you can get something doesn't mean you should," he repeated it slowly as if the idea were completely foreign to him. He absolutely refused to pay the woman 3000 gold, and as for the idea of a death threat, he practically ignored it. What he said he wanted out of this conversation was a way to make it right with the group. All I could think was that he actually understand that what he did was wrong. Not just emptily apologize, but actually understand. It seemed impossible, even when he almost agreed that it might be worthwhile for me to try to help him save his soul.

I was rather surprised at what finally got through to him: he again was pointing out how good a lover he was, and he asked if I personally thought he was worthy to sleep with. And I said, "Before I found out about this, yes." And suddenly he was stunned into silence. No more posturing, he was finally shocked. I guess the personal bit did work out when being a priestess failed. Well, not completely work. He was shocked, and clearly personally hurt, but when he acknowledged me as a priestess and said he needed healing, the healing he said he needed was to sleep in bed with me... not for sex, but because he felt alone and didn't want to. It might be true that he felt alone and didn't want to be, and for some reason I even trusted him not to make a move on me, but I don't think that's the healing he needs. I think his selfishness needs healing. Imagine a whore teaching humility. Well dammit, who needs humility more than a gorgeous prince? He needs to learn that not getting what he wants won't hurt him. Besides that, what he did makes me not want to get near a bed with him again. I don't know, maybe I should be trying to remove his anatomy, but I've heard so much that there are always extenuating circumstances... Agni at his heart is not a bad man, simply spoiled and selfish and apparently has never been told that just because he's above most men in birth, looks, and talent, that doesn't give him the right to be above morality. I told him he could sleep at the Rose, and I'd even sleep in the same room, but not at his side. That wasn't enough for him, so he left, wherever he goes. I hope he thinks a lot.

Game Eight

June 1, 2002

Finally almost everyone got together at the Rose. Everyone except Agni, whom nobody's heard from since I talked to him. I found myself in the uncomfortable position of sort of defending his actions. It seems I'm the only one who doesn't see him as beyond hope. I'm kind of surprised that Maggie thinks that him paying the money actually would help her opinion of him... maybe I'm misinterpreting that, I don't know. In any case, now the group just wants to find him and get the money from the crowns from him, that's it. I feel I was beginning to get through to him, and that he can learn from his mistake... but if we can't find him, it won't help much.

We got another note from Hector... something about a plague in Hartland stopping shipments of Brambleberry Wine, and a suspicion that Thet might use Hartland as a place to attack Valduran. I'm not exactly thrilled about traveling into a plague...

We went to Eisenstadt, where we were going to ask at the Academy if they'd seen Agni and go to the Abirisians to sell them the mask and disk... the Master of Antiquities was such a nice old man. We were also going to sell the horses and get another wagon. We stayed at the Flying Stag. I noticed Niccolo taking Adelaide aside, and when he came back he said he'd given her some medicine because she'd been feeling under the weather. She'd been feeling under the weather since I met her months ago. This wasn't just because she was tired. After everyone else had gone to bed I asked her about it... it was syphilis. She said she was just happy that the Stag kept her on to wait tables. It's a family there, just like the Rose. There are places that would kick her out on the street after that, when it's not her fault. What creeps with that disease are doing giving that disease to prostitutes, knowing that they'll kill her and she'll probably give the disease to others before she knows she's sick... that is just sickeningly wrong. Adelaide did not deserve this.

I went to the temple, and Sister Abigail was still awake. I asked her if there were priests here on the path of the healing, and she said yes. Curing Adelaide's syphilis would take a sizable donation, if she wasn't a worshiper. Three hundred silver.

I did some quick math in my head... with the money I'd made at the Rose in the last few months added to the little amount of silver I'd had before, plus the three gold from Gunther, I was about 22 silver short. I could sell that dwarven dagger... it was supposed to be pretty nice. If that wasn't enough, I could sell that nice dress Agni's bought for me or some of my silk or something. I told Sister Abigail I'd be back with Adelaide and the donation tomorrow.

I went to services in the morning without Abigail... the shops weren't open yet. On the way back though I found a weapons shop to sell the dagger at. I considered trying to up the price with some special service, but then I saw his wife in the back of the shop, and changed my mind. I got 50 for the dagger though... more than I needed. Man, this must be a nice dagger, evil weird dwarven-make or no.

Gunther was awake in the common room. I told him I'd need to be doing something for a couple hours so I'd meet him back here to go to the Master of Antiquities. Then I went back to Adelaide's room and knocked on the door.

"Sorry it's early," I said when she answered it, "but you need to get dressed and come with me." I was smiling.

"Why?"

For some reason it feel quite right to just come right out and say it... so I decided to make it a surprise. "You'll see. Get ready."

When she saw our steps were headed towards the Temple district, she began to be a little suspicious. "You're Betshaban, right?"

"Right."

"I thought Betshabans didn't have anything against us."

"Certainly not. I've been working myself the past couple months."

"Oh. You're not trying to convert me, are you?"

"I wouldn't dream of it." This was getting fun.

"I don't have anything against Betshaba you know..."

"Well, that's good to know."

"You're sure you're not trying to convert me?"

Sister Abigail was waiting for us when we got there. "Sister Abigail, I have the donation. This is Adelaide. Adelaide, this is Sister Abigail. The priests here are going to cure you."

She just stared at me speechless for a second.

"You don't have to pay me or anything.... It's just that you don't deserve this, none of us do. I just want you to be better."

She broke down into tears. I hugged her, then Sister Abigail took her. It wasn't long at all before she came back, looking less pale but still crying uncontrollably. I smiled, hugged her again, and brought her back home to her family.

A little later at the Stag again, Gunther and Niccolo were there. Then five guards were there and they arrested me for treason. I wasn't terribly worried... I mean, I didn't commit treason after all. I figured it must have something to do with selling that dagger... if they'd been found on Thesh enemies they might wonder why I had one. Gunther tried to protest, and he actually called me a dwarf friend! Later he amended that a little to point out it was an official title, but still, I was touched.

The chains were a bit embarrassing, but as I was in a covered wagon it wasn't so bad. I had to wait in a cell for about an hour before they took me before a panel of guards including five iron band types. I thought this would be pretty easy... they'd ask me where I got the dagger, I'd tell them we fought some weird dwarves underneath Zarbersturm, and that would be it.

It turned out to be a little tougher than that. They asked me where I'd been born. I said I didn't know, my earliest memory was in an orphanage. They asked me if I'd ever met anyone from a different nationality. I pointed out that growing up in a brothel frequented by adventurers and being a prostitute meant that I indeed had met people from many different nationalities. They squirmed a bit at that, though it didn't seem they were morally opposed (unlike Gunther... he had said earlier that Bethshabans are "morally loose" just because I'm a prostitute. Not that prostitutes are necessarily morally loose. How close-minded!).

Then they asked me if I'd ever "entertained" anyone of a different nationality. Oh crap, Niccolo's from Thet. They gave each other a "did you catch that?" look. I didn't know that at the time of course! "Ah, not that I refuse to answer your questions or anything, but could I hear exactly what the details of the charge are and the evidence against me before I start telling you every single detail of my history?"

They didn't go for it. To their credit, they didn't act nasty about it. Something about knowing too much coloring my answers. Dammit.

So, I told them. "Well let's see, the first was from Aebasa, though he wasn't a client. I did have clients from there a couple times though, as well as Eiridia. I remember a few from Oridal, a bunch from Adanar, some of the non-Vortumnus-worshipers from Haleland." If they were doing more than just determining if I was telling the truth, if they were really reading my mind, then they were getting a lot of vivid imagery. A lot of the foreigners were actually quite interesting... they just did things differently than the local boys. Not always better of course, but differently. "... and then there was this one youngish guy who said he was from the Great Empire, but I think he was lying. No accent... he was probably from Beilburg or something and had run off to try and be an adventurer, trying to make himself look impressive from being far away." Finally though, I couldn't stall completely, and if I held anything back it could be worse. "And to be perfectly honest, since I wouldn't dream of being any other way," did they smile at that?, "we did rarely get a client or two from Thet."

The axe that fell after that wasn't the one I expected. "Did you ever at any time entertain someone from Nadera?"

Huh? "Not to my knowledge."

"Did you ever at any time give information critical to the defense of Valduran to anyone from Nadera?"

This was just getting weird. "No."

"Did anyone at the Rose give information critical to the defense of Valduran to anyone from Nadera?"

"Not to my knowledge."

They looked at each other, nodded, and told me I was free to go. And then said, "And this has nothing to do with the dagger."

Weird.

A little later I went with Gunther to the Abirisians, and got more for the mask and the disk. The disk was an old symbol of Ophion from the same country... seems a little odd to be in that temple, but it was in private quarters, so maybe there was an Ophion worshiper there, or maybe someone just didn't like living underground. The Master of Antiquities didn't know much about the mask but he actually said if he learns it's more valuable than he realized he'll pay us retroactively. At that point Gunther gave his word as a dwarf that if we find more interesting old stuff to sell we'll bring it to him. In return, he said he'd sell us something called a "bag of holding" for relatively cheap.

Once we learned what one of these things was, everyone was all for buying it. It just looks like a burlap sack, but you can stick up to 500 pounds of stuff in there and get whatever you need out of it without rummaging around. That's pretty darn cool.

We stayed another night because Maggie had asked the Herzog to look into why I was accused. Apparently an informant who had given them good information before told them that information had been going from The Rose to Nadera. It was someone local who the Herzog did not think had any sort of personal grudge against me, the group, or The Rose. Still, it was really weird.

We decided to go back to Maggie's grandfather's house because Niccolo needed some armor and weapons and he'd give them to him pretty cheap. Putting off running into the middle of a plague was okay with me, and maybe more information had been sent to him.

But when we were a few hours outside of town, I learned why I'd been accused. Because of Theo and Quinn.

Someone they trusted told them the Rose had Naderan spies. Who this was and why they trusted him, they refused to say. Well, I trust my family just as implicitly. The rest of the group was quick to say "well The Rose has been called into question, we can't trust them at all anymore." By Betshaba! What bastards! Why is the word of someone Quinn and Theo won't even talk about taken over mine? Why does the fact that Geldemar frequented the Rose, helped us out in times of money troubles, TRUSTED us, mean nothing to them? And then they expected me not to say anything to them about it. What BASTARDS!!! They didn't even respect that Quinn and Theo were accusing my FAMILY. Gunther actually said, "but you're adopted." I wanted to dump him in the middle of the ocean and let him sink like a rock. Instead, I decided to try and pray in the river. They stopped by the side of the road. I yelled at them to go away. They didn't.

I lay in the river with all but my face submerged so I could breathe. I tried to calm down. I couldn't. After a few hours of boiling emotion, I got out of the river, jumped back on my horse, and rode to Futtersharte ahead of the group without a word.

Once in Futtersharte, I went straight to the Temple and asked Sister Eloise for a room with a pool. A night of attempting to pray in there didn't help much either, except to calm me down enough not to scream at Gunther and Maggie when they stood at the exit the next morning. I also was given a message from Niccolo to "find the group." Didn't say where they were, though.

"What are you planning to do?" I asked Gunther and Maggie. They apparently wanted me to go back to Eisenstadt and talk with the priests there for guidance or something like that. "If I was seeking guidance from a priest I'd come here. And I am going to talk with my family. I will not ask them if they are from Nadera. I will ask if they had anything to do with the murders. Are you going to stop me?"

"We do not think you should do this."

"They are my family."

"Then I cannot stand in your way," Gunther said.

I walked to The Rose.

It was the hardest conversation I'd ever had with Lessa. For the first time in my life I didn't feel comfortable for telling her everything. Damn Quinn and Theo for that! I was just so afraid of people getting hurt. I didn't tell her who had accused the Rose in our group, because I didn't want to completely lose their trust. I never did ask her directly if there was anyone from Nadera working there. She did say that she knew none of the girls were from there... but she never directly said she wasn't.

I think the likeliest reasoning behind all this is that Manslayer is trying to tear us apart, get us not to trust one another. Agni's actions were his own fault, but me... well, he could have orchestrated something that this unnamed source saw, and knowing that the Rose did sell information in general, it would seem a plausible stretch to say that the people I love and trust more than anything are traitors. And seeing as how this group seems perfectly willing to trust the first thing they hear and not accept anything after that, it's going to be an easy job for him. Lessa told me to see it as a challenge. I guess I'll have to... a challenge of trying to save Valduran with a group of people who think I sentenced them as the next skinning victims because I told my family I was scared.

Game Nine

June 15, 2002

We started up towards Hartland, and the tension in the group was practically visible. This really wasn't good at all. I don't know if the rest see how bad it is. I mean, I think they see the tension, who wouldn't? But I don't think they realize that we're not going to accomplish a damn thing the way we are right now.

It got even worse when Agni just showed up one day. Most of the group was even reluctant to tell him where we were going. I tried to work things out by taking him aside that night, but someone followed from the camp. We went back, and it was either just Quinn or maybe Quinn and Niccolo. Niccolo came up with some lame excuse about establishing a perimeter or something like that. I just said, "Look, this group has got some serious trust issues right now. I'm actually trying to fix some of that now, but it would be a lot easier if I could talk with Agni in private first." Maggie got offended that we'd suggest she was following us, and Quinn said "Fine!" and huffed off. This wasn't exactly working. Maybe I should have let them be when I heard them shuffling in the woods, but I thought it might be someone attacking us.

So anyway, I got Agni alone, I think. He said he paid off the woman, which would at least make Maggie's mind rest a little easier, I think. But then he surprised me... he said he wants to have a Betshaban baptism, take Betshaba on as his patron. He said it wasn't just to make me happy or to make the group happy, but it was a decision he came to after some soul searching. Erato, he said, was a good god for a youth, but if he were to run a country, Betshaba suited him better. There's clearly a lot of political reasons behind this, and I think maybe he was laying on his emotional reasons a bit thick the way he talked about it, but I do think he's sincere. He doesn't just want to convert for show.

So I told him I could perform the ceremony, but I wanted to talk to him about it over the next several days, to make sure he knows what he's getting into and to make sure he really is sincere. He said he does indeed want me to baptize him, as I'm the priest he knows best, but also for political reasons he eventually wants a bigger ceremony in a bigger town. I suppose there's no sin against wanting a bit of a show, as long as his soul is sincere, right?

I told him that many in the group didn't even want him traveling with us. His first response was, "They don't have a choice on that. Geldemar, you know... " But as much faith as we're putting in that prophecy, I don't think the rest of the group will let it guide their decisions on traveling companions, and I told him so. I also told him that it would be completely up to him to convince the others to let him stay.

When we got back, I had to prod him to start, but then he gave a rather good speech of contrition. Niccolo said he was neutral on the subject anyway since his previous apology. Maggie questioned him a lot and then said she didn't believe him, then said she'd go with the group decision. No one else spoke up, so Agni is still traveling with us. After Agni had gone to sleep, I told Maggie that for what it's worth, I do believe he's sincere, if perhaps exaggerating his sincerity. I don't even think she nodded in response. Oh well. I had a little more luck with Niccolo when I woke him and Selvasia for their turn at watch. First I told him that Agni didn't know where they came from, and he said he'd tell Agni in the morning. Since Niccolo seems to be the most reasonable person in the party, I asked him if the others trusted me at all now. He said they trust me and my intentions, but think I've made bad decisions. Which means they probably won't let me know anything else about them if they can help it. Dammit. Selvasia said we shouldn't trust her for one second if anything happened to Niccolo. Wonderful.

Along our travels I had Agni read from the Codex, and we'd talk about it in the evening. I'm afraid I'm not an amazing teacher, though. I had him read about Betshaba's rape, first... not subtle, I know, but Betshaba's often not subtle either. Then I had him read stories of people following or not following their hearts, and finally a little of the restrictions and rules, but not too much of that yet since we weren't anywhere near an ocean and what concerned me now was how he felt about the broad ideas he'd be judged by. Also along the way was the experiments with Geldemar's teleportation ring. The first experiment was in carrying Niccolo with him. Just before he left, Quinn said, "See if you can find any books with the name Tam." Not sure what that means, but now's not the time to start interrogating him I guess. In any case, Agni said it was hard to carry someone, but he could do it with some risk. He didn't think he could carry two without a whole lot more risk. But in an emergency he could get us all out and back one at a time. Theo tried the ring as well, and though it made him kind of shaky afterwards, he could do it.

We stopped in Kreuzung to change over our money and learn more about the ring and the wand. The wand turned out to be a pretty powerful weapon for Agni (only Gunther and Theo could have used it otherwise, and they have better weapons), and the ring turned out to work just like Agni already knew, but he found out it comes from another world, like Manslayer. He also suspects that Geldemar and possibly also Alexander Crownwarden are from other worlds as well, though has no evidence but intuition for the last. Theo and Quinn got work for a kid's birthday party, and now that we had the ring to pick them up, we went ahead and left them behind.

Travel to Hartland after that was really uneventful. The biggest event was in finding out, once we got there, that it was the grapes that had the plague, not the hobbits. I believe everyone at this point felt the whole trip was a big waste of time. But we didn't have any other leads. We decided to go on to Oridal and maybe talk to Geldemar's Augur teacher, if we could find him (and Agni was sure he could). Wayfair, the capital of Hartland, was on the way anyway, so we went there.

They had a human-sized inn there (with incredible food... I know Godelina's not just a fluke!), and I chatted up the locals. I learned all about the major families... Munys are lazy, Bramblebushes are greedy, but they make the wine, Taigs are the respectable ones and tend to have positions of authority, and the Billyson-Gowers have tempers and tend to get into fights. At least, that's what I heard from Taigs. A couple Munys told me the Taigs are all stuck-up and make everyone else work. In any case, they didn't want to talk much about the grape plague, but gossiped about everything else under the sky. About all I learned (and this was from some Halic construction workers) was that they blamed humans for the plague.

It still doesn't seem like much of a Thesh plot though, unless Manslayer or the Fell King just don't appreciate good wine. So really, this is probably just a nice, comfortable place to eat a great meal before we travel on to Oridal.

Game Ten

July 14, 2002

Agni wasn't around the next morning. At first we figured he'd just slept at the tower and decided to sleep in, but when he continued to be missing, we simply weren't sure where he'd gone. Or, eventually, how Quinn and Theo would catch back up with us. I once again found myself in the rather annoying position of his defender. It's not that I don't think what he's done is horrible, or that he's doing things not in the best interest of the group, it's that I seem to be the only one who doesn't think he's beyond hope, or that he can change. I hope he doesn't prove me wrong, and I hope the rest of the group gives him a chance to prove me right.

Anyway, we figured as long as we were there we might as well see if there was anything we could do to help before we went on our way to Oridal. Turns out it was good we asked, because the hobbits were going to have a council meeting in a week to blame all of humanity and kick us out of the country. That would stop that road from going straight to Oridal from Valduran... or the other way around, I guess. So we figured that must be the military advantage Thet was going for.

After Maggie took a look at a cast of an armored footprint, Niccolo came in from his investigation of the vines and declared that they were suffering from an expensive Naderan poison called graperot. He also kept a bit of vine to study, which the Grand Duke allowed as long as he returned it at the trial. Taking the vine was a huge crime here. I guess I can understand that... don't want anyone stealing the recipe for the expensive wine.

Brynn Dda was the only human around when the poisoning happened, but he was apparently above suspicion... he's a bard from _____________ who is also apparently a hobbitfriend. We talked with him a bit. He thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad if humans were kicked out, and that his druid friends wouldn't be interested in helping the vines... too far away and too political. I don't know... I hope the druids he knows aren't much like Xorin.

We went to talk with Crom Bramblebush, who was apparently the best warrior in Wayfair. He certainly seemed the grumpy warrior type. We wouldn't have gotten anywhere with him if we hadn't dropped Geldemar's name. Not that anyone here would really stop us from searching the fields, but that would just be rude and make them less happy about humans. Gunther's presence helped too, of course. However, we didn't find a dang thing in the fields. I thought something must have been left behind, even accidentally, as a clue to the poisoner's identity (we agreed it was a human, but we wanted proof it was a Thesh plot), but nothing was there. Talking to Bron Muny, the tracker who had taken the cast, didn't tell us much more either except that he didn't think the feet were armored. I apologized for our rudeness (Maggie saw it as "getting to the point quickly" but we didn't even tell him who we were, and as far as I can tell these people don't seem to enjoy getting to the point quickly... also, she kept asking the same questions over and over again in slightly different terms as if Bron were an idiot...I rather think Bron thought the same of us), and invoked the name of Geldemar but that didn't help. So we decided to spend the afternoon in the inn.

There was another human there we hadn't seen or heard about before. Niccolo and I went to go sit with him... Kegel _________, a wine merchant from the One Star Merchant House in Kruezung. He said he came up to find out what was happening to the wine, and now was staying to find out what the hobbits" decision would be. He seemed pleasant enough until he started insulting the "pecks" with no effort at lowering his voice. Well, it's often been my job to deal with unpleasant people, so I stayed pleasant and chatting with him. He was under the impression that there wouldn't be too much political effect by the shutting down of the road, and that Valduranian wine merchants would only profit by it. He was under the impression that it would be too expensive an operation for a wine merchant to come up here and poison the vines just for competition. Well, 4000 silver is a hell of a lot of coin, but not impossible for wealthy merchants, or maybe a whole merchant house. In any case, Kegel became uninteresting and I went back to gossiping with the hobbits. I learned about Grada Taig's (the patriarch's) sick grandson, and the Muny's patriarch's quarrel with Jacka Muny over a lady some time ago, as well as the fact that Kegel's bed had broken six times since his arrival. I wondered if the hobbits were doing it on purpose. Maybe Kegel was just to be difficult... he certainly was obnoxious with ordering and reordering his dinner (which was better than Godelina's, shockingly enough... I won't tell her though. I couldn't find out anything about the Tuttle reputation... they're more in the north, apparently).

No luck going back over the fields the next day. We tried talking with the Taig patriarch who seemed surprisingly worldly for the people around here, but talking with him just convinced me that talking to the patriarchs wouldn't do any good except to convince them that it was a human... and that our Thesh plot story was pretty weak. In fact, the wine merchant story seemed more and more plausible. So I proposed that we search Kegel's room. I could distract him (hopefully bringing him to my room, not his own, but if it were his own I'd make sure he slept), and Niccolo would do the sneaking, since our resident sneaker Quinn was still in Kreuzung and neither Maggie nor Gunther were the sneaking types.

It turned out that I didn't need to sleep with the unpleasant man, because two of the road workers decided to distract him with a bit of pummeling. That was more than enough for Niccolo to dart up to his room. After a minute or so Maggie and Gunther started breaking it up, and Niccolo came down and helped with a couple goblets. I tried to stun one of the other workers who had joined in, but it didn't work... I guess Betshaba decided the rest of the group were handling themselves fine without her magic.

After all was settled, Gunther ended up with a bleeding head thanks to some hobbit sling bullets, Maggie yelled at the workers in Halic and got them to start cleaning, and I'd Mended one of the goblets Niccolo had broken over someone's head and returned it whole to the bartender. Then I helped Niccolo bring Kegel up to his room.

The room didn't look ravaged, but I managed to get him to whisper that he'd found something. After leaving him there, we all gathered in Niccolo's room, where he told us he'd found a bag of grape seeds under Kegel's mattress.

We went to the Grand Duke immediately, and he confirmed what we pretty much assumed, that they were local seeds. It still wasn't enough to pin the whole poisoning thing on just him or just on his merchant house, so we needed to confront Kegel.

Confronting Kegel turned out badly. While he was asleep I looked through his stuff... oddly, he didn't have any money. As far as I knew Niccolo was the only one in here... I doubted a hobbit would steal coins when they didn't really use them. (Later he took care of a lot of the taxes in Oridal, so it really wasn't worth confronting him). We stayed in the room until he woke up. First he admitted to stealing the seeds, that he'd intended on stealing a vine but when he arrived they'd been poisoned already, and he had to search the whole place looking for them. He'd been purposely obnoxious to make sure they wouldn't sell more Bramblebury wine in Valduran so he could corner that market. But now that he didn't have the seeds, he still refused to confess at the council... he knew he'd only be exiled anyway, and whether he had the seeds or not, Valduranian wine and his merchant house would still benefit, he just wouldn't personally benefit as much as he'd planned.

Niccolo started threatening him, and he started threatening legal action back home, pointing out that he could get Gunther to be a witness against him. At that point, Maggie left, apparently not wanting to be put in a position where the truth would go against Niccolo. Gunther, after promising Kegel that Niccolo wouldn't hurt him, did the same.

But he didn't promise that Selvazia wouldn't hurt him.

I assume he didn't realize this oversight as he left the room and Niccolo looked at me. Personally, I don't have any moral quandary about threats used to get information... it's not very subtle, it's unpleasant, but I guess it works. But actual torture, that's just wrong, unless it's against someone truly evil, and that didn't fit this guy. I whispered quietly, with my back to Kegel, "She won't use anything, will she?" She'd been parading her thumbscrews around before. Lovely. Niccolo promised she wouldn't. So I went outside.

Maggie and Gunther weren't around anymore, but I stayed upstairs. I was around to hear Kegel's horrible scream.

When Niccolo came back out, I gave him a piece of my mind when it came to lying and breaking promises. He insisted he didn't, that Kegel wasn't harmed because his hand had been numbed, and he'd given him medical treatment. And that Selvazia had stabbed a dagger through his hand. Dammit! How the hell are we supposed to do ANYTHING when everyone's lying to each other and breaking trusts and torturing people who aren't even really the bad guys? And he brings in all these technical details about anesthetic... I swear, he's worse than Agni when it comes to talking around loopholes.

Kegel insisted on talking to Gunther alone. He told him that he had seen some wooden human-sized sandals with a strap to fit a hobbit-foot. He'd only tell us where they were if we promised to let him go once they were found to be what made the prints in the fields.

After the agreement, he took us to a granary owned by a Taig. Hidden between a couple of the granaries were the shoes he described. I stayed with him while Maggie and Gunther confirmed that the shoes fit the print and Niccolo and Selvazia went to get Kegel's stuff. As soon as that stuff arrived, Kegel was off in a flash.

The Duke called a meeting after he'd seen the print. Everyone in town, as far as I could tell, was there. It came out pretty quickly that it was, in fact, Ron Muny who had done it. He blubbered in front of everyone, and the Duke decided he could work out his apology in Crom's fields. Later, the Duke told us that Bron was just upset at Talek Brambelbush for marrying Creda. None of that came out of all my gossiping, unfortunately.

When we asked him where he'd gotten the poison from, and he said it was, in fact, Kegel.

The chase to catch up with him was rather unpleasant. Selvazia's mutilated her horse when it fell. I got a little cocky with my own riding ability and tried to call on Betshaba to trip Kegel up a bit, but instead lost my concentration and tripped my own horse up. Poor horse...it was in a lot of pain, and i though it would probably have to die. But it had been good to me. After Nicolo had caught up with Kegel and was bringing him back, I asked him to put the horse out of his misery. Then I rode Kegel's horse back, seeing as I was in quite a lot of pain and there wasn't much Nicolo could do for me, either.

The rest of the questioning was somewhat pitiful. Bron Muny said he'd been chatting with Kegel two months ago and Kegel had given him the poison for free. Kegel positively blubbered, and said he hadn't been here, and he could find witnesses in Kruezung. The bartender said he had, though. I let everyone know that there were spells that could make someone look like someone else...heck, I could do it now. The Duke had heard enough though. Basically he just banished Kegel and kept Bron to the same labor punishment. We have no idea who the fake Kegel was or what his motivations were.

There seemed no way to find out at this point, so we decided to push on to Oridal. We had met some travelling guards who told us that Ruscalos was a pretty important person in the capital city, so we should be able to find him without Agni's help.

Oridal turned out to be a big pain in the butt. Money, money, money, that's all they seem to care about. Minar temples everywhere, taxes on everything. I actually felt a little relief that a couple of the horses had died, because I'm not sure we could have afforded taking them all the way to the capital. Niccolo made it a point to translate to me that I couldn't sell myself here...no matter that I've not sold myself anywhere but the Rose ever. I am curious how much it costs to get a prostitution license, considering it's usually a profession girls fall into who have no money to start with.

At the capital city, I was actually able to get us past one tax...that of entering the temple district. We went there because I figured I could probably ask someone for information there without being charged for it. They had a big temple to Betshaba...not so big as in Eisenstadt, but big and beautiful with a gorgeous pool nonetheless. And a Bishop, too! Bishop Aldrienne Belarn is the first bishop I've met...she doesn't act all high-and-mighty like I'd expect a bishop to do, but then, the only high-and-mighty Betshaban priests I've met were the Children of St. Chlodomer. After we found a common language... Aebasan... she was able to tell me where to go to find Ruscalos...the Mages" district across from the Vestry's hall, and that he was an advisor for the Vestry. Before I asked, though, she said there are actually laws about giving some information without charging. Sheesh! On the positive side, apparently, the taxes are relatively cheap for citizens and nearly nonexistant for priests. Still seems an insane way to live to me.

Gunther got us into the Mage district the same way I got us into the Temple district, and the Augurs weren't too hard to find...just look for the dreaming types. We managed to get some rather weak jokes in about how we didn't need to make an appointment in advance with an Augur, and after being told it didn't work that way, we found out that Ruscalos had, indeed, been expecting us.

The reason he expected us, though, was because Agni had contacted him (*before*) he disappeared through the amulet, which was apparently a communication device. Without telling us. I swear, just when I think I might be making progress, he screws it up. Maggie and Gunther then went into some badmouthing of Agni which I don't think Ruscalos cared about much one way or another as long as he gets his amulet back. If we get it back, he says, he'll grant us citizenship which will make it so we can actually afford to leave the country. Otherwise, he didn't give us quite the direction I was hoping for. He thought Geldemar shouldn't have interfered with us and the whole prophecy thing. He also thought Geldemar would be coming back to life shortly, until we pointed out he'd been dead for months and had aged to dust. This meant, apparently, that his soul had been stolen, either by the staff or by Manslayer himself. So Geldemar isn't even in whatever afterlife he'd choose for himself (though I suppose he actually chose not to have an afterlife at all....). So I guess that's direction...free Geldemar's soul. I don't think we're quite ready for that, though.

The only possible immediate direction he gave us was that Mordenkainen, who had created that ring and had cast the whole never-dying spell on Geldemar, would want his ring back, and he told us the country where he was currently staying. Of course, getting the amulet and ring back to their proper owners would mean finding Agni...

We stayed the night at an Adventurer's Guild house. The serving wenches were working, but I couldn't speak their language so I didn't have a chance to ask how much they make or what the cost was to get the license. It is rather boring not being able to mingle much because of a simple language barrier. Maggie and perhaps Gunther seemed interested in notices on the wall which were apparently advertisements for adventurers. I don't know about them, but I don't think I've got time to pick up a third career...

Game Twelve

August 10, 2002

They decided to come get me after they'd killed this huge two-headed giant thing. The giant's carcass in the room they'd decided to camp in was almost enough to make me feel sick again. Quinn had died again, (that makes four, the third being when Manslayer apparently just showed up, said "So you're the one," and cut him with his sword) and it was taking him longer to reform. Several of the rest of them didn't look so well off either. I wished there was something I could do to help, but Niccolo was quite capable enough with Maggie's help, so I just took a watch.

Brother Benedict, the Baelthorian priest who was after this Drizt Piergeron guy, said that they thought they had his footprints, they were much bigger than they were supposed to be, and that we might be dealing with a shapechanger. Lovely... we've had such good experiences with them. There also appeared to be something down here who could turn people to stone, if the unusual statue in the front room was any indication.

The weirdness started when we headed out after resting. It wasn't so weird that we suspected there were enemies down a corridor when Mica growled, or even when they got quiet when Niccolo tried to sneak up and explore the corridor. I heard them grab at him, but he got away. It got weird when Agni popped out of nowhere and started translating for them when they were shouting insults, and for the voice further ahead of us who apparently decided to let "the mistress" know there were intruders. There was some rather lengthy debate about what to do next, and honestly, I agreed with Agni that we should go after the messenger creature before he warned anyone, while several others thought we should attack these seven creatures who almost got Niccolo. Meanwhile the messenger got further away. Finally it was decided to make a stand at the giant's room. I hung back to keep an eye on Quinn in the corner, after telling Brother Benedict that I could call on Betshaba's blessing for the fight. A woman who called herself ________ was sent to negotiate with us, but negotiations quickly broke down into fighting. After the initial shock and fumbling for my holy symbol, I called out (admittedly, a little nervously, as I'd never done this before), "Betshaba! Bestow your blessing on this battle!" That familiar warm feeling flowed through my body, and I felt more confident about the battle as the others seemed to redouble their efforts as well. The group cornered the woman and killed her, and it turned out she wasn't a woman after all... she was a big ugly guy with horns. Mica's nose confirmed that this was the Drizt Piergeron we were looking for. Brother Benedict had hoped to capture him alive for questioning to find out who'd hired him to stir up unrest in ___________ between the houses. The group was quite happy to start yelling at Agni at this point. Never mind the seven guys we knew for sure were out there ready to attack, or at least had been. Well, to be fair it wasn't the whole group, mostly Gunther. All the stuff I'd warned Agni about came up, and Agni agreed to part with all the magic items except the ring. Gunther threatened force, Agni said "Raglesturn" and disappeared. "Well, that worked," I said. Gunther didn't seem to appreciate my sarcasm. I didn't appreciate all the yelling. In any case, Agni showed up again, and there was more yelling and sneaking involved, and I just decided to stay out of it. I'd told Agni that he had to get the group's confidence by himself... they're not listening to me, after all. So Niccolo knocked Agni out and Gunther took the ring and gave it to Maggie to hold. This will do wonders for the sake of this prophecy thing, I'm sure. To his credit, Agni seemed to decide enough was enough when he woke up and didn't try to get the ring back.

I'm just shocked we weren't attacked. We were eventually greeted by a female voice out of the darkness who called herself Saddorax and who said she was willing to negotiate. She said she wanted to leave unmolested, and we would get to go too.

She was pretty free with information, though, if we can trust any of it. She said she was hired by someone named _________Stormbeard north of Eisenstadt. To contact him she's supposed to go to an inn north of Eisenstadt and mention his name, and a message would come to her. She was paid in gold bars. Maggie insisted on looking at one of them to see if it had a country mark. Saddorax had a servant or something throw it to us... she really didn't want to get near. When Maggie saw it didn't have a mark, she threw it back into the darkness, but Saddorax said she'd get it later. _______

Agni, or maybe it was someone else, I forget, decided we should take the gold as restoration. Saddorax insisted she needed it. When she said she would have to travel through Oridal, we all expressed our willingness to let her keep it. She may have sent monsters to kill us all and may have succeeded in killing Quinn temporarily, and caused no small problems in this country, but I wouldn't want to send my worst enemy through Oridal without lots and lots of money.

Quinn had actually woken up by this time, though he wasn't worth much. There was some rather disturbing talk about going back on the "live and let live" agreement, which absolutely shocked me coming from Gunther. Brother Benedict straightened him out, pointing out that the Koenig wouldn't go back on a deal once he'd made it.

Brother Benedict felt that our part of the agreement had been fulfilled, even if we hadn't found reliable information and had killed the guy we were sent to capture. So he took us to _________, an inn he knew where he might be able to find people to help us find Tam.

I knew whoever Tam was, he was important to Quinn, but I didn't know why. He seemed to have revealed this name to the group when I was away... presumably because of my supposed position as an enemy of the country. I'd gathered that he was a wizard, and my best guess was that this Tam wizard had some information on Quinn's past. But more than that, I hadn't pushed for info... I'm sure Quinn trusts me least of all, and somehow this group needs to get past mistrust and believe we really are all looking out for each other with a common goal. Pushing Quinn for info obviously isn't the way to do it.

• • • Agni took ring for a night with permission, came back, said the next day he would be inducted as full Mage at the school, needed the ring back again, wanted to take me. When people forgot to ask for it back, he volunteered it. I think it's the sign of the beginning of good judgement***

Brother Benedict introduced us to __________, who is apparently a mercenary. Not terribly talkative. The brother offered _______ the option of helping us find Tam, not for pay but as something interesting to do. Agni immediately hired him as a bodyguard the next day as he went around to various moneychangers. That evening I decided to mingle with whoever could speak Aebasan... and later asked Maggie if I could be let in on Gunther's Halic lessons. Not speaking the language really cramps my information gathering. Brother Benedict went off to find leads on Tam.

The next morning, first thing I went to the Temple of Adastreia with the Betshaban shrine. Rather odd, that arrangement... Sister Eloise told me that Adastreia had almost no temples, mostly shrines at big Betshaban churches. In any case, the Adastreians" main function in the community was to feed the poor and homeless. This country didn't care much about the weak, so someone had to. After I'd prayed at the shrine and wet my hair in the pool (trying to do it when no one was looking... it's hard on the road, but I want to pick up that trick), I talked with the sister a while. When I asked about Tam, she said she'd heard the name before. Some of the poor and homeless worked for him, she thought. She'd never met anyone who claimed to work for him, but rather heard from others who knew someone who worked for him. There were a few leaders of theives" groups in town, and Tam appeared, to the sister, to be another of them, though fairly new. She wasn't sure who I could ask to learn more, however.

When I met up with the group again that evening at ______ (though Brother Benedict was absent), I was about to tell them what I'd learned about Tam when a cloaked woman came in and walked right to our table. "Hakfichen ar Roxanne pah Betshaba"

Not sure what she said, but pretty sure of the tone and of course understanding my name, I smiled and said, "That's me."

Her voice had some confusion then... she couldn't understand Adan or Aebasan, but those who could then translated. She worked for Tam, he wanted to see me. He didn't know others were looking for him, but they could come too. So she led us to a surprisingly well-appointed room in a rather shabby area of town, on the outside, anyway.

Tam was not what I expected.

He was undead, clearly, but this was no masked zombie or jerky moving skeleton. This was an intelligent corpse. His skin had pulled back enough to show a hideous grin, but there was enough left to hold him together. His eyes were sunken pits with a deep, evil, blue glow.

I didn't know what it was, but I knew Betshaba would want it really dead. Any of the Children would probably attack it right there. But I was just as sure that this thing could kill me far quicker than I could do so much as punch out one of those exposed teeth. I hope you don't blame me for saving my skin at this point, Betshaba, I prayed. It's not that I think this thing's a good guy, but I'd kinda like to live to fulfill my part in the prophecy and all that. Hope you understand...

The undead thing certainly had plenty to tell us. He had created Quinn, and seven others before, all of whom had different "design flaws" and had eventually died for real. The last one was apparently disintegrated by something called a "beholder." He wasn't sure how many lives Quinn had, though another of his "siblings" had taken longer to reform each time as well. Quinn was most interested in finding out if he'd continue to live after killing Manslayer. Tam didn't seem to find that too important.

Tam came from another world which had been conquered by Manslayer. The whole world. Manslayer came from some other world where he'd conquered the whole thing there as well. Tam was quite proud of figuring out the "trick" of how to kill him... Quinn.

"Because he's not born of man or woman," I said.

"Right. Smart girl." He went on that he didn't really know what kind of weapon was supposed to work. He only knew "a weapon forged." That was pretty much all of the prophecy he knew. He mentioned that he thought some other wizard named Elminster got it all wrong, thinking that it was supposed to be a hammer in the hands of a barbarian. He speculated that it probably had to be a weapon forged specifically for the purpose of slaying Manslayer.

Other groups, he said, had been prophesied in other worlds to defeat Manslayer. They failed. Why? "They fell to infighting," Tam said, and despite the messenger, I hoped everyone in the group was listening real closely to that bit. "Manslayer manipulated them, they gathered the things he needed, and one by one they either turned to his side or were killed." In the world before his, what he'd needed was the pieces of that stick that killed Geldemar.

"What does he need here?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"I don't know."

Well, it was obvious that the first thing he needed was that crown. Especially when Tam mentioned that Manslayer was an incredibly powerful psychic. Suddenly, that "near-useless" crown didn't seem so nearly useless anymore.

• • • more stuff... Manslayer enslaved FIFTEEN gods on his home world. Those destined to stop him on Tam's world were destroyed by a Druid who didn't have anything to do with it. Maggie gave Tam copy of prophecy. He associated faces with the lines. We left, he asked Niccolo to stay behind, Selvasia too. He came out carrying Selvazia's body***

• • • Maggie and I followed him to outside the city, Maggie said she'd watch over him. I came back and told the others. Discussed with _______ if he really wanted to be involved. I told him that we'd perfectly understand if he wanted to just leave now. Never said he would. ***

• • • Agni and I talked alone for a bit about the whole infighting and trust problem. I told him we'd have a small baptism ceremony at the Betshaban Waters. He at first wanted something grand, but then said maybe he shouldn't, the possibility of his death was helping his father politically. I'm worried that he isn't really taking this as seriously as he should, but he does want to commit to Betshaba... if he doesn't learn soon, he will have to deal with the consequences. I can lead him to water, but I can't make him drink. Heh heh. Little unintentional Betshaban humor there.***

Game Thirteen

August 24, 2002

• • • this will be a non-narrative journal... what with the moving and first week of school, I have had approximately zero time to do a journal. Which is too bad because Roxanne did some pretty cool things this game...

--Went to Agni's Mage ceremony. The Regent who is also an Order of the Sword member challenged him to a duel or to cast a Grade 3 spell. The rules: whoever surrenders first loses. I later suggest he try to Charm this mage into surrendering, rather than try with physical spells (and I could have sworn the wand wouldn't be allowed, but Agni seemed to think it was)...

--before duel, brought Agni to Eisenstadt temple to pray for guidance. He asked Sister what sort of sacrifices he should make. She suggested something of commesurate value to the outcome he wished to pray for. While he was alone, I asked her advice concerning his baptism. I worry about him focusing too much on the political and practical side of worshiping Betshaba, and not on the far more important spiritual and emotional side. She says it would reflect badly on me in Betshaba's eyes if he weren't ready to really worship her, since once the ceremony is over he'd be judged by her and I could damn his soul. Which of course isn't what I want.

At duel itself, I offered Betshaba's Guidance if I could be his second, but I couldn't. Instead of a duel, Agni conjured up an evil-looking one-horned heavy creature; that satisfied everyone.

--Thrilled to be on the river, taking occasional but short turns at rowing, chatting with the crew when possible, trailing my hands in the water.

--Help arrange for cheaper travel on the Sunsprite, but later I find even cheaper travel with a Betshaban ship that was harbored at the gorgeous Betshaban temple. They'll take us at one tenth the other ship's price.

--Come back to big argument at the inn. Something about Brag and a mug, and Agni charming someone again. Agni runs off. I chase after him and bring him to the temple.

--(this part was role-played in the car on the way home): Agni is leaving. He says that the group is better without him, that all he's good at is making himself look better than he is. Also, kind of out of the blue, he says that nothing more ever came between us because of a curse placed on him after his father had angered someone... anyone Agni falls in love with will die. He broke off the engagement partially because he was beginning to like the girl too much. He also said if he could allow himself to love, it would be me. Throughout this part of the conversation, there was no pretention in his voice. Then he said that the group is probably dead, that there's so much infighting we'd get nowhere, and when/if things in Valduran got unlivable, he'd take care of me. Not the others... the pretention was slipping back in. At this point I told him that while I had wanted to baptize him here in the Betshaban waters, after seeking advice in Eisenstadt I had decided to wait because he didn't seem to truly feel worship in his heart, just his mind. Also that most of what he'd just told me gave me real hope that he would be ready, but that he's not there yet. That he should search his soul on the way home to Eridia, and only have that big ceremony he wants when he's truly ready, not when it's a good political move. And then, what the hell, for old time's sake I have sex with him. Hee hee.

--I come back and yell at Benedict for breaking the group apart. Benedict apologizes for his temper but insists that evil cannot be allowed. I agree, but Agni's actions weren't evil if what he said about mishearing the bouncer is true. While he has lied in the past, this group always assumes the absolute worst in any situation involving Agni... and when people assume the worst of a person, that person usually lives up to expectations.

--Nothing else to be done about Agni, I insist on enjoying the ocean view. I enjoy it a lot, and am up on deck staring at it as much as possible. I talk with all the crew, the priest, the captain. I help out with light work and with knots where needed.

--huge storm a few weeks in. I get on deck and start with loud prayers... loud to reassure the crew. Louder when they start tying themselves to the deck and masts. A huge water-tornado approaches, and I pray as loud and as earnestly as I can. The water spout passes extremely close to the ship, but passes it by. I hear an angry roar/scream as it passes. I am convinced that some evil creature (or I suppose even Manslayer himself, what with the god-killing abilities) sent that spout after us, and that Betshaba protected us, protected her ship. Wow... an honest to goddess miracle. Quinn later says he saw a huge mouth, and considers it might be a dragon. Maybe more likely a huge sea-creature of some kind, but that's what I think roared.

--after storm, helped with any mending or faith healing needed.

Game Fourteen

September 7, 2002

• • another non-narrative one... I've got 40 more students than last year and need to make them do MORE writing than before... the grading! AAAAAHHHH!**

--I prayed at the temple in Graywing when we landed to end my Seaborne pilgrimage. I get to keep my hat, oar, and amorphous third thing.

--We see lots of men in Graywing who just sit around all day. I talk to them a bit and find that they're blowing off work because their wives have jobs which support them.

--At the inn we learn it's three days to Strongholm. The waitress seems to think we're slow idiots... the Aebasan tendency to hate barbarians doesn't help, neither does Maggie's insistence on having every single detail of any issue explained to her. Waitress suggests a guide. We get Andros, a young man. He wants to get married soon so he can retire.

--We get to Strongholm. At the inn I'm propositioned... when I tell him I'm not working tonight, he asks Maggie! She's as shocked as I am, though probably not as amused.

--We go to Abarisian order... Mordenkainen was murdered six months ago on a bridge by a man in a cloak who was not caught. We talked to the person who saw it. We go to the bridge on the Deimos river, but any possible clues are of course long gone.

--On bridge, we're approached by one of the Children of St. Chlodomer. He wants to take Alexander in for questioning for possible heresy because his Vortumnus symbol is red. I say that Alexander is a barbarian and they have different customs in his land. All the more reason to question him, says the Child. At this point I figure my part of protecting Alexander as a traveling companion is done... I don't have any authority over the Child, Alexander agrees of his own will to go with them, and to top it all off, Alexander is a heretic. Maggie tries to change his mind, asks me to do something about it. The Child points out I have no authority, I agree.

--That night I go to the Betshaban temple, Maggie is there. Sister won't let us down to see Alexander. I pray at the pool, Maggie leaves. I go hang out with men in the streets until I realize they get mad when they realize I'm not working, so I go to bed.

--I wake to a sharp pain in my head, but am unable to react as I'm hit again.

--wake again in a room with everyone including Agni. Mordenkainen appears in the form of an illusion and says we will be tested to see if we are worthy to save our world. Nice guy. Quinn, Theo, and Brother Benedict aren't there.

--No time for explanation from Agni. We don't have the ring anymore.

--various rooms... a room with crypt doors that calls Brag "Bragaman Larathian." No revelation of a last name for me of course. Quinn and Theo are there, not Alexander or Benedict. Manslayer tomb in the floor.

--various monster battles. Niccolo dies twice, Gunther dies once. When fighting Efreet for the chance at a wish to bring Niccolo back, I have a plan to boost my Command spell [by raising Wisdom, a Guidance spell, and Luck points] to force him to surrender. He surrendered before that after Agni dumped water on him (Agni later asked how Betshaba would feel about that... nice use of water, actually)

--I use almost every single spell except "Mending" in this dungeon!

--Mordenkainen's at the end. He refuses to talk until Maggie stops yelling at him. Maggie yells about bringing back Niccolo and Gunther. I agree with her sentiment, but clearly yelling at him wouldn't do any good, he was way too powerful for us. I tried calming her down by saying we'd find another way, though whether Betshaba would allow her priests to bring either of these two back I didn't know. After she stalked off, Mordenkainen used a wand on them and they both came back to life, and she came back. He said he'd hoped this experience would bring us closer to trusting each other than it had. Gunther was only there because he'd asked Mordenkainen to be there, and Quinn wasn't because "he wouldn't risk the key." He has more to tell us.

Game Fifteen

September 21, 2002

Things with Mordenkainen got rather... well... uncomfortable. It started with Agni giving a rather direct but at the same time somewhat tactful speech about why we don't trust him. My opinion was more that I didn't like him, but I saw what he was trying to do by thrusting us in that dangerous situation... and to some extent, it did work. We worked together marvelously in there. Maybe our tactics weren't perfect but we were willing to come to decisions about our plans pretty quickly and unanimously. Get us out of an immediate life-or-death situation though, and all bets are off, even after this.

Throwing him off a bit at the beginning was fun though. He said, "As I see it, your mission is two-fold. First, you need to find a way to protect the Key from psychic..." "Got it." I said. He blinked. Heh.

He did give us a lot of information which I have no real reason not to trust... I mean hell, we acted off the information given to us by the Lich, why not this guy? He said in his world Manslayer had to gather up these pieces of the staff he carries, and that the prophecy was completely different. Manslayer in his world was once called a Windduke of Acqua, whatever that is. He's mortal but has made deals with various evil gods who give him power. When I asked "So he's kind of an evil paladin?" Manslayer said exactly. But of many evil gods. He told us two weaknesses that may actually help in fighting him... the studs on his belt are some kind of artifacts given to him by each of these evil gods that give him some kind of power. The other is that he's physically blind and uses his psychic powers to see. Useful... especially if that crown is being worn. Most disturbing, though, is that our mistrust was finally confirmed... I knew there was a reason not to like Alexander Crownwarden... he's Manslayer himself. Why didn't he just kill us? Well, he managed to use those against him in the past it seems. Mordenkainen doesn't think the prophecy means I'll have to sleep with him. At this point Maggie's sarcasm popped up: "She seems to worry about that. I don't know why." Sigh.

Then the whole thing turned into a counseling session. He said everything I've been trying to tell everyone. Well, I guess I haven't told everyone, mainly Agni, Niccoli, and Brother Bernard. I've still been saying it a lot though... how if this is going to work we have to trust each other, and how we might not like every single little thing that someone else does but ultimately it's the big actions that are important and our final goal. Most of this was directed at Maggie's opinion of Agni, though some was also pointed my way at how I'm not helping Maggie's emotional turmoil. I guess I didn't see that blank mask occasionally pierced by sarcasm as emotional turmoil. It's so much harder to read women...

Mordenkainen suggested that the only thing that could damage the Rod was something equally as powerful. The only thing he knew of was a sword which apparently was possessed by a lich that, last he knew, was in the pretender king of Eridia's possession. Agni suspects this may have been the cause of that king's decent into cruelty, since he had always seemed to be a good Betshaban. I fear that it's possible I'm supposed to weild this sword... not because I've very good with swords, but because the new part of the prophecy Mordenkainen had for us mentioned that a person with a strong heart should weild it, and it also calls me "strong of heart." And I've got some training dealing with the undead which the rest don't have. Brag is also mentioned as having a strong heart though so maybe I'm off the hook. Just the same, I'm going to get more training with getting rid of the undead when I have the chance. Shudder.

We decided to travel to Eridia since it was right next door, so to speak, while Gunther used the ring Mordenkainen returned to us to go see what was up with the dwarves in Valduran. Our trip took a couple of weeks... we were trying to stay hidden since apparently many in the country think Agni's dead, and that appears to be helping the war effort. We got lost in the woods... apparently we ended up in the Faerie realm. We met a couple gorgeous faeries who knew Agni... this must be the faerie who gave him his looks that he told me about that time. The woman was saddened at how Agni had "grown." Understandable. Although the way he talked to the two of them seemed more genuine than anything he ever said except sometimes to me.

The little girl led us back to our own realm... I was frankly glad to be out of that place where everything magic glowed pink. Including a gem set into Agni's chest that muttered "I'm watching you!" over and over again. Tam had put it there for some reason and threatened to kill the rest of us if he told us. Well I guess we'll deal with that later. We also have to hope the little faerie girl can find those of us we lost in the woods.

Getting a secret audience with Agni's father wasn't as easy as we thought and we ended up causing quite a ruckus before we got the audience. But once we did, it was relatively pleasant. He was thrilled that Agni actually had spiritual counsel with him, and he took my opinion seriously. That just doesn't happen often enough. I was surprised that Agni's battle plan, the one he presented to his father, included hiring a Narisian fleet to storm the capital. I had assumed we'd be sneaking in. His father didn't want to bloody Betshaban's waters with such a fight. I imagine Betshaba wouldn't mind a little blood in the cause of the greater good (especially since part of my hope in using this sword against the Rod, the sword would be destroyed as well), but how would shooting cannons at them get us their magical sword?

Game Sixteen

October 19, 2002

That night I went to the castle's Betshaban shrine to pray for guidance... I would need it if we really were going to do an ocean battle. There was only a layman keeping the place up... the priests were all on the front lines, he told me. Seemed a little odd that someone as devout as Lord Rafezzi... or rather King Rafezzi... wouldn't keep at least one priest around for guidance or confession or whatever, but then, I didn't have any real experience with war, particularly not war that included Betshaban priests as major forces.

So as I swam in their pool and prayed, I realized Betshaba really was going to help me prepare... I just needed to choose a course. Two paths seemed strongest to me... the ability to heal others, or the ability to work with Betshaba's water. Our group already had several who could heal others... not miraculously of course, but then, would Betshaba always want her miracles used when there was a practical alternative? Water though... water was strong. Water could help us in a fight, whereas little old me really can't. And as I made my choice I felt a wonderful thrill run through me as new possibilities ran through my mind, new miracles Betshaba would bless me with. And there was more too... if I ran across any more undead, I would hurt even more of them than before. I still wasn't confident about whether I could handle a lich, particularly a lich in the form of a sword, but it helped.

King Rafezzi approved of the plan. He told us the next morning that we'd go out on the ships, while his front line would distract the majority of the pretender King's forces and he'd go north and get mercenaries to bring the fight to the capital around the time we got there. Once the ships took the docks, we were to open the gate if the mercs hadn't done so already, and then go to the castle and look for the sword. It all sounded astonishingly dangerous to me. They said there'd be three priests per ship, working hard to disguise the ships from divination. They must be pretty powerful priests... I could probably disguise one sail, or maybe even a lifeboat, but not a whole ship. Maybe working together they can do more. They also mentioned that the Betshaban priests in Kyroklos might have been duped by the Pretender and might fight against us. I hoped that wasn't the case.

On the ship... the Leviathan... the first thing I did was to try to see the priests... I thought maybe I could ease the burden a bit, plus I really wanted to meet Sisters or Brothers from a country full of Betshabans. They were apparently already working on the magic though and were under strict guard. That was disappointing. So we went to introduce ourselves to Captain Basilokos and discuss plans with Admiral Maxentius, but pretty much for the rest of the journey we were on our own.

I had a lovely conversation with Brag by the rail one day. He seemed to think that I would be the most likely to survive this... I guess because of the religious connection... and that if he died, would I promise to mail some letters for him. Which of course I promised. We talked for a good long while about religion and how I was called and what I did before I was called and why we're on this whole quest-to-save-the-world thing. Been a while since I've had a serious conversation with anyone besides Agni... it was nice. That conversation was interrupted though because Agni wanted to know if I could make him look any more impressive than he already does... I didn't at the time, and besides it really wasn't necessary. He was going to reveal himself to the troops and crew to be a rallying point. It worked pretty we'lleveryone wanted to drink with him.

I spent a lot of time getting to know the crew and troops... groups which stayed separate from one another. They were a good bunch of guys, though... some patroned Betshabans, some not (which I made sure to keep track of in case healing was needed).

When we got there, they were ready for us. I don't know if the priests had failed or if they had scouts or what. I was also wondering where those priests were... why weren't they up here to defend and/or attack when it came down to the wire? Fireballs were coming at us from a tower, Aebasan fire from other ships. I magically hurled a couple of vials at enemy ships to cause fires near the water-line, and Gunther hurled others toward the tower, but the other mages managed to take care of the tower. I spent most of the rest of my time on the ship putting out fires with Angi, Maggie, and Theo's help.

When we got to the docks, the streets were pretty empty and all the storefronts and taverns and brothels had white cloths hanging from the doors... sheets, dishrags, sometimes even undergarments... to let us know they had no fighters and weren't planning to resist. No problem, we went straight for the gate. The gate... where I got shot full of arrows before making it to the relative safety of the inside of one of the towers. Brag decided to be my human shield and tried to prevent me from casting a spell that could maybe help outside, but actually I didn't see where my spell would be that helpful, so I saved it. Then I heard a big commotion outside and Agni ordering people around, and then the gate raised up, and it appeared that we had won so Brag and I went outside the tower. The pretender King was tangled up in a bunch of vines, a glowing red sword was floating by Agni's side, and his father and a bunch of soldiers were surrounding the patch of waving grass and roots. When the plants calmed down, Rafezzi made the pretender King kneel, and the kneeling king somewhat graciously begged mercy on his life.

And then Agni's father took out a sword... the end of it had a skull, and the entire blade looked more smoke than solid. He yelled something... I don't remember it exactly, but I'll always remember part of it: "In the name of Phlegethon!"

So that's why there were no priests... dammit!

Game Seventeen

November 9, 2002

After a tense period where just about everyone except the mercenaries were sort of blinking at the scene in shock, Agni called out a congratulations for the Rafezzi victory and walked towards his father. He was surrounded by these mercenaries... I assumed it was a bid to save his life and maybe buy us time. But then a crossbow bolt suddenly stuck out of Agni's father's chest, and another dinged off his armor, and then both Rafezzis disappeared as the father swung the sword in a firey circle.

I had been whispering to Gunther, Maggie, Brag, and Benedict... I could either shield a fight or our escape, but I needed to know where to put the cloud of fog. With the Rafezzi's disappearance and the crossbow from above, it looked like a fight. So I called on Betshaba to cloak the Lord Magus and everything around him in thick fog, so he would be less of a threat at least.

Nothing happened.

Oh Betshaba I'm sorry I should have realized when there weren't any priests I'm sorry I'll put this right somehow I'll put it right oh goddamn we're fu...

The mercenary captain was standing right in front of Gunther, who was in front of me. Evil just oozed off him. He said "Stand aside" in thickly accented Aebasan to Gunther and simply waited.

"We've got to get the King's body," I whispered to Gunther. "Get the King's body, powerful priests of Betshaba can bring people back from the dead, we need to get the King..."

"Do you think any priest of Betshaba will live through the night?" Benedict growled.

"We need the King's body...we need to get to the High Priestess!"

Gunther put his hands out to both myself and Benedict and said a word, and reality shifted and we were in Geldemar's castle.

We watched from the mirror during the brief seconds that Gunther was there, bringing back one member of our group at a time. Niccolo came back mindless, Theo didn't come back. He was cut down on top of the gatehouse. He didn't look dead, but there were plenty of guards around him, not to mention the mercenary captain... Gunther was wounded, it was too risky for now. There were several mercenaries gathering up the King's body and others putting his head on a pike.

"What about the Temple?" I asked.

He was able to focus on the outside of the Temple. Some mercenaries were walking up to it. He went back to Theo. No change.

"The Temple..."

"I can't get IN the Temple!" Gunther yelled. I cringed a bit, but I couldn't back down.

"We can't let them kill the priests," I said. "We need them, the High Priestess can probably bring the King back, this isn't a personal thing, we need her!"

"No one suggested it was personal," Maggie said.

"Just look around the outside, maybe we can find a way in."

Looking around the outside, they were cutting down trees and placing them against the walls. They were going to set a fire around them... it would take a long time to burn down, but the priests couldn't get out. But then Gunther found a balcony he could teleport to, so he did.

A couple minutes later, he reappeared with a wounded man. The scene we could see for a few seconds in the mirror before he went back was of several priestesses helping several wounded men into the prayer pools... the safest place during a fire. He popped in, then came back with another wounded man. Maggie started setting up an infirmary in the library. Gunther was getting winded, and I assumed it was not only from running downstairs. "You need to get the High Priestess," I said. Otherwise the King is dead, he can't come back." I need to put it right...

Gunther came back with one more wounded man, but the next was the High Priestess, who slapped him. Gunther had to rest. He said he could try again in half an hour. Maggie said the Temple would probably last that long before the ceiling caved in, maybe even an hour.

When he looked again in half an hour, the building was shaking, collapsing. This was more than a fire... fires don't create cracks in the ground. It was too late for the rest of the wounded and priests inside.

Much of the next twenty-four hours was a blur of shame and hatred. The High Priestess cured Niccolo of whatever spell had affected him. Gunther picked up Quinn the moment he reformed by the gate. He then went to see Mordenkainen who gave him an actual cornucopia and told him the Sword of Kos couldn't bring the Rafezzi's back for 24 hours, and that Manslayer would be able to tell when that happened. We captured the Lord Magus who told us rather politely that it didn't bother him at all that Rafezzi worshiped Phlegethon and killed the rightful king of the country, and would we please follow the rules of war and see to his health. The fact that the mercenaries were raping all the women they could find didn't bother him in the slightest, and according to the rules of war we could ransom him to his family. What the hell... I wanted to punch this guy's teeth in, but suddenly Brag remembered he was a noble and wanted to treat him by these oh-so-wonderful rules of war. He did tell us where Theo was being kept at least.

The High Priestess (I didn't know her name, but I didn't want to be presumptuous) was spending pretty much all her time comforting the wounded. I stopped her in between patients, and so full of shame I couldn't look her in the eyes I said, "Mother, I need to seek atonement. I need to put this right."

Without a trace of judgment she said, "I'll meditate on this, and then cast the atonement. There will be a quest."

I nodded. "How can I help in the meantime?"

"Comfort the wounded."

Putting men at ease used to be my stock in trade, but that was before I'd destroyed a kingdom. Still, for their sake, I tried to remember what I had been like before that, and started talking to the guards.

Things got worse. There was a rescue attempt made for Theo... no choice on that really. It seemed to be going well, but they set off the Iron Maiden trap that Theo was in, and Gunther brought too many people. He brought everyone back, including the dead Theo, except Niccolo as the mercenary captain arrived. By the time Gunther got back to the mirror, the captain had a sword through Niccolo's head and was waiting for Gunther to arrive. Gunther tried to pick his moment, then popped in.

That was the last we saw of either of them.

Without any other options, Benedict and Maggie started working on carving out a door. We wouldn't starve at least, but now there was no way for us to get that sword, and we doubted Rafezzi would be able to defend himself against Manslayer. Unless Agni managed to defeat his father, or if Rafezzi somehow managed to strick the rod with the sword, we'd pretty much lost.

Late that afternoon Mordenkainen appeared. He had gems for eyes... odd, but really not high on my list of cares at the moment. The mercenary captain had the ring, which he would be able to teleport back to himself tomorrow, but in the meantime we had to prepare in case he arrived. More importantly, we had to think of something else to break the Rod. It would require an item of legendary powers, and Mordenkainen didn't know of any from this world. Maggie suggested looking in the library here. I went downstairs and asked the High Priestess to join us. She knew of one very powerful weapon that had appeared in the world recently called the Magesword. Ten years ago it was found by a king of a country called Lun Dorak, then disappeared when that king was defeated by a group of knights who actually rode dragons. How to find this disappeared sword at the end of the world remained a problem. Mordenkainen suggested something odd about sending souls back in time, which the High Priestess pointed out would upset the god of Time and probably wouldn't help us... something about splintering reality. Then he said he could wish for certain things, but the more extraordinary, the more likely there would be dire negative consequences. So finally he wished for a list of the ten safest items in this world which would be able to break the Rod. A scroll appeared in his hands and he listed them off... ten possible goals now. And my quest. And with half our prophecied party.

Game Eighteen

November 23, 2002

...the list of the safest ten things in this world that could break the Rod, and their locations. The Sword of Kos was in the middle of the list, apparently on the other side of the world... Mordenkainen didn't wish for the list in order of safest to least safe, but if it was... well, I didn't like to think of how much worse it could be than a lich possessing you. The top of the list was something called the Greysword, in Koramia, where Manslayer had pretended to be from. I don't know if he would have been truthful about it in case we tried to check his story out, or lie about it figuring we'd have no way to check it out. He said it was a land of heretics though... maybe best not to go there. Some of the things were on this side of the world though. We didn't really make any decisions about what to get yet.

When I had a chance to get her alone, the High Priestess and I went down to Geldemar's bedroom to perform the atonement. She poured a puddle on the ground and sat cross-legged in it, and lit some incense. She didn't tell me what to do, so I sat across from her, humbly as I could.

She chanted for a bit, then suddenly her head snapped up, and her hair became all wavy. Her voice changed. You have failed me.

"Yes..." I said. I'm so sorry, I thought, I should have checked why I didn't see the priests in Eridia, I should have realized...

Three times you have failed me.

That surprised me a bit, but how could I question my goddess when she was sitting right in front of me?

First, you failed me when you did not reveal the spies in The Rose.

What?! The apologies stopped rampaging through my head and were replaced by complete confusion. How could answering truthfully that I had no knowledge of Naderan spies in The Rose have been a failure to Betshaba?

Second, you failed me when you spoke ill of my brother.

I didn't remember blasting Baelthor at any point, but I supposed I had been less than respectful about him a few times. It made more sense than the first, anyways.

Third, you failed me when you helped in the murder of my most Blessed One.

This I accepted with complete recognition. I had indeed. Unintentional or not, tricked or not, there had been clues and I should have realized. The apologies stammered in my head again, but they were cut short by Betshaba's next words:

To make reparations, you must repair the first failure. You must kill the spies, and only the spies, in The Rose.

The High Priestess' hair stopped waving, her eyes returned to normal, and I stared at her silently, my mind howling wordlessly.

Going back upstairs, I was even quieter than before when I got to the others. They were planning a course of action. Apparently no consensus had been reached about which of the weapons to go for, so they decided on the short term to find a wizard who could use the ring for us... I guess Theo wouldn't. Maggie suggested that her grandfather might know someone trustworthy.

Back to Futterscharte. If I wanted to atone, that was where I had to go.

That night, I screwed up my courage to talk to the High Priestess about what Betshaba had told me. She remembered that I had failed three times and that I must repair the first. She definitely appeared sympathetic when I told her what She wanted me to do... to kill the only family I had ever known. I didn't know if I wanted to do it, much less if I could. I wanted to be Betshaba's priestess, but how could a goddess of Good ask me to do something like that? And though it was a minor issue compared to the atonement, why did I have to atone for something I'd done unknowingly? Her advice didn't at all cheer me up... not that much could, really. As for being unknowingly, that didn't matter. And she said that if Betshaba asked me to do something like this, it could only be because the spies at The Rose were doing something against Betshaba's wishes.

"Why couldn't she have asked me to repair the third failure?" I practically wailed. "I was trying to do that, by making Gunther bring the King's body here, and you."

There wasn't a hint of blame in her voice when she answered... whether that was something I was grateful for, or something that only made me feel worse, I couldn't decide. "What has happened in Eridia will take a long time to repair. Perhaps many years. And I'm not certain that the King can be brought back. To be brought back, he must wish to return. Also, he cannot have passed beyond the Veil. I believe that Betshaba may have already taken him to Herself."

It had seemed impossible, but the heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach got even heavier.

"Further, if what I gather from the rest of you is correct, you and your friends have a greater, more important destiny than that of repairing Eridia, one that will not wait for the damage there to be undone. I suspect that She gave you this task because it is something you can do, and something which can be done in not too much time."

I wondered rather darkly how the High Priestess would feel if Betshaba asked her to murder her family.

I didn't sleep that night. I ran everything over and over again in my mind, but each time I shrunk away from that word kill, and I thought of how happy my life at The Rose had been. Madam Lessa raised me. She and the other girls, and Godfrey, and Godelina... they rescued me from the torture of the orphanage, gave me a home, a livelihood, a purpose. How could they possibly be doing anything so horrible as to make Betshaba want them dead? Sure they were spies, but not for anything evil, just to give Madam Lessa influence in town, and some in Eisenstadt. How could they possibly...

But then I thought of Agni's father. He had seemed so good, so respectful. I felt betrayed by him... how had Agni felt? The others seemed to think Agni may have been in on it, or at least unopposed to him. I found that unlikely. But if I had been in Agni's position, would I then feel that killing the senior Rafezzi, even though he was my own family, was justified?

Probably.

I shied away from that thought for several more hours. But it was there. And I also remembered that Madam Lessa had never quite said that she didn't work for Nadera.

I sort of made up my mind. I would find out if Madam Lessa worked for anyone. Anyone horrible. Something as horrible as what Lord Rafezzi had done... selling information to Nadera wasn't that horrible. And then I would make up my mind.

I continued to be miserable, and now tired as well, as Mordenkainen teleported us to Niccolo's tower. We heard noises in the distance towards Futterscharte, so we walked there. Each step was heavier and heavier. When we got closer we saw that a wooden wall was being built around the town. They had arrows trained on us as we approached, but then Maggie's mom saw us and they stood down. Then Captain Oreson talked with us a bit, and between flirting with Brag and teasing Maggie, we found out that Thet had been sending patrols fairly close by, and they were preparing to be one of the last lines of defense before Eisenstadt. Which upset Maggie greatly; she wanted her mother to leave. Understandable, but I honestly was more concerned with immediate matters. I kept glancing towards the wall in the direction of The Rose, but the new wall blocked it completely from view.

Unable to convince her mother to leave, we turned back towards her grandfather's inn without stepping foot inside the new walls. Relief was mixed with still more dread, and I kept looking back to the town, even when it was long out of view.

I was briefly distracted on our way up there by the appearance of a naked but rather modest man about my age who didn't speak any language common to any of us in a bush. He wore only a pinkish wooden disk around his neck. It kind of reminded me of a holy symbol, but none I recognized. Benedict cast some kind of language spell and we could understand him, though he apparently thought we were speaking his language. We gathered that his name was Tobin, and after some confusion we found out he was from Abeo-Toril, or whatever that place is called. From a town called Hopshire, or maybe the town was called Waterdeep... I'll admit I wasn't paying full attention to him, I was rather preoccupied. He worshiped a god called Lathander Morninglord. He didn't sound much like Ophion. Tobin recognized the name Manslayer, though, and got quite angry at the name, though mostly he was pretty subdued. Unsure what to do with him, we took him with us, after Brag gave him some clothes.

We were oddly fortunate when we got to Maggie's grandfather's there was a mage there from the Order of Abaris and, rather oddly, a half-elven priest of Aridnus. They both spoke of Geldemar, which was pretty much the magic word with us. Benedict tested them with a truth spell and they both passed.

The mage, Finn Eiramhan, seemed friendly enough, but I was more interested in the moment in Moran, the priest. He might be of Aridnus, but did Betshaba send him to me? I needed to learn the truth in The Rose. I loved them, but if Madam Lessa or the girls were doing anything evil, they wouldn't tell me. A priest of Aridnus could find out if they were doing anything horrible enough to... anything horrible. Madam Lessa might never forgive me for bringing him in there, but if it was an opportunity to prove her innocence, or anyone else's, I could live with being unforgiven by both my goddess and my family if it meant saving them.

I approached him after dinner when I had the chance to get him alone, and after having to say everything aloud again, which was torture in itself, he agreed to help. Then I went to Brother Benedict. This, at least, was easier. I told him that it had come to my attention that I had spoken ill of Baelthor, and as His representative, I wanted to apologize to Baelthor through him. He was nice enough about it, but then when he realized I wasn't positive precisely what I'd said, and that I didn't remember when, he asked me how I'd found out. So I told him Betshaba had told me. He of course then realized that Betshaba would be less than pleased at what happened in Eridia, and my part in it, and asked if I were suffering consequences. When I told him yes, he asked, "When were you planning on telling the group this?"

To keep the shaking out of my voice, I ended up probably sounding rather cold when I replied, "When I decide whether or not I want to atone."

He didn't mask his look of disapproval very well, but he didn't say anything.

"I'll decide before we leave Futterscharte," I said.

There was a bit of a fuss over Moren and I leaving alone in the morning, particularly when I wouldn't tell them why. But I wasn't in the mood to lie to them, and even less in the mood to tell them the truth. They let me go, but then they were waiting for me when we got to the new city wall. I guess Maggie knows a shorter way, though why she didn't take us the shorter way in the first place... anyways, it didn't matter. I didn't feel like confronting their disapproval and distrust at the moment. I think I told them that I wasn't planning on doing anything they would disapprove of. Then I went to the Betshaban temple, Moren following me.

Sister Eloise greeted me warmly, but she could tell within a second something was wrong. I wanted to confide in her, but it was harder than talking to the High Priestess. Sister Eloise knew the women that Betshaba wanted me to kill. She knew they were my family. But I did tell her I didn't know if I could do it. That this was something so hard... She was sympathetic, and also hesitantly advised that if it were something that could be considered illegal, I should let the authorities know. I hadn't even given thought to legal issues... I cried again, and went to one of the private pools... the one where I'd kept my vigil before finally becoming ordained...

I was procrastinating. I knew it. I finally left the pool and went with Moren, stopped briefly outside by Brag. He rather kindly said that if there's anything I ever need to talk about, he'd listen. But more people than I wanted knew about this already.

And then everyone else was in The Rose, being waited on by Tessa who was trying rather vainly to work on Tobin. Their sour expressions really weren't what I needed. Of course what I needed was never to have screwed up in the first place and not to be in this situation... Most of the girls were downstairs... half of them should have been upstairs this time of night. When Moren and I walked in, Max was the first to notice. He stood up from his position by the door and licked my hand. Grateful that Max, at least, was safe. Then Claire noticed me, and all the girls came running up for a hug. I greeted them warmly back, but it pulled on all my experience of faking pleasure to manage a smile. A bunch of the local guys brightened up when I entered as well, and I heard "It's Roxanne!" said with a smile by many around the room. I waved at a couple for whom I'd been their favorite in the past.

Then Madam Lessa shooed the girls back to work and took me and Moren to a table. I tried small talk for a bit... without telling her what had happened, and what had happened to me, there wasn't much to say. I asked about the problem between the dwarves and humans, but I think she said the recent threat of Thet has brushed all that under the table. Of course I was barely listening to her. I was a bit aware of the rest of the group coming up to a table near ours. This was unbearable.

"Perhaps we can go somewhere more private to conduct our business," Moren said.

I wasn't sure if I were grateful or not, but Madam Lessa, certainly holding back questions of why I'd brought a priest of Aridnus with me, led us to one of the back rooms. Tobin started creating some kind of fuss, but whoever's spell made him understandable had worn off. Godric held him out of the back corridor.

"Now," she said once we were in there, "what sort of business does a priest of Aridnus have here? We don't get many of your kind around."

"We..." I said, "...we have do deal with matters that affect the whole world..."

"Yes?" She clearly didn't see where she was going. I wasn't sure I did either.

"Well..."

Moren started casting.

"Wait! None of that, now. There will be no casting in my home." She was getting mad. If possible, I felt even worse. This alone, bringing someone to magic the truth out of her, was about the worst kind of betrayal of the woman who raised me that I could think of... besides what Betshaba wanted me to do.

"I'm sorry, Madam Lessa, but..."

"No. I will not accept this in my home. Roxanne, you should know better."

"Roxanne asked me to join her here, Madam Lessa. If you are innocent you should have nothing to hide."

I wished I could turn invisible. "I told you, we're dealing with worldwide matters..."

"I don't care! Now, sir, I must insist you leave this place before I call the guards."

They argued a bit, and Moren planned to stay, but I asked him to leave. Maybe I had a chance to regain Madam Lessa's trust, and I didn't want to have anything to do with Moren getting arrested. He left very unwillingly.

Once he'd gone: "I swear, Roxanne, if it hadn't been you who'd brought him here. You know very well I have plenty to hide."

"I need to know something, Madam Lessa."

"What?"

"I need to know who we work for." Why the hell did I think the direct approach would work? If it really was something bad, anyone in that situation would lie. Still, I felt braver when it was just me and her. I could talk to her, treat her as the mother I'd known, even if I was a rather impudent child.

"I have no idea who you and your group work for, Roxanne."

"No, I mean here. You, me, the girls. Who do we work for?"

She opened her mouth, but then an unmistakable voice of a large, woodsy, angry woman burst from the taproom:

"...and YOU DON't WANT TO SEE ME WHEN I'm PISSED!!!" That was followed by a roar that didn't sound one tiny bit like Mica.

Madam Lessa and I ran out of the door to see a rather large bear facing Godric at the beginning of the hallway. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn't a bear anymore, it was a naked Maggie.

"What the hell?" I muttered.

Madam Lessa took less time to compose herself than I did. "I want all of your friends out of here immediately. They are not to return. I will speak to you when we are alone." And she turned and walked back to her personal room.

I didn't go back. What could I say? We went back to the temple where I felt some level of comfort, and the situation, plus Moren, pretty much forced me to explain what was going on. Benedict at least looked significantly less disapproving when I explained what I had to do to atone.

We ended up consulting the authorities after all... Maggie's mom. More and more people got involved, which in one respect took some of the pressure off me, but that really made me feel even more guilty. Plus Tobin, with another spell on him, claimed that he could sense the evilness on people, and he claimed that Madam Lessa, Claire, Tessa, Godric, and, unbelievably enough, Max, were all evil. Max? That's just ridiculous. Moren said that Aridnus had told him Madam Lessa was standing between myself and my atonement, and that she had been judged, and his path was clear. This was all spinning way out of control, and it was all my fault...