RPF A Tempest Of Fears -- a d20 Dungeons and Dragons adventure

Malaeus

The Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

"<My guardsmen have been racking their none-too-large brains trying to remember if they saw anything suspicious since we got here at highsun,>" replied Tirza. "<Thus far, nothing. Great slabs of meat they are. I suppose it's understandable. If it weren't for last night,>" and he noticed a shudder cross that bared shoulder of hers, <"I would say this town was no different to any other pathetic excuse for a settlement from here to the Chultan peninsula. We'd certainly not have been here at all if it weren't for the presence of a deal.>"

The half-elf frowned. "<But me ... well, the jail. The local jailhouse. I remember thinking it looked run-down for a place that has no real law nearby. Almost abandoned. These sorts of places, you either expect full cells or at least the 'local character' occupying one.>" Tirza looked around, then drew a little closer. "<And then there's something else. I've travelled a hundred fleapits and dozens of great cities, from the Sea of Fallen Stars to the halfling holes of Luiren. And I have never -- never -- seen an inn where the cook and wait staff were not in and working before the crack of dawn. And I've not seen hide nor arse of that barmaid, or her colleagues, or that surly excuse for a bartender this morning.>"

TAG: Mitth

IC: Russell Holston

The cleric nodded, smiling back; even when she wasn't necessarily being cheerful, Ivaela's smiles seemed infectious. "I agree, we should probablyget the others and try to see the leader of this town first. If nothing else, master Creel won't be in a good mood if we wake him again - not that he was in a particularly good one earlier, anyway," he added dryly.

Glancing around for Malaeus, he saw the mage deep in conversation with the half-elven tradeswoman nearby. They didn't seem to be speaking a language he knew, and given how closely it matched Malaeus's accent Russell concluded Tirza was also a native of Halruaa. He decided not to interrupt just yet - their conversation had the air of at least some significance, and interrupting probably wouldn't help - but he did keep an eye on them.

TAG: Everyone in the inn

Malaeus Balle

Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport

"<I have noticed as well,>" Malaeus replied thoughtfully. Talzin's observations confirmed Jandal's remarks concerning the lack of guardsmen in the town. If the jailhouse was not in use and no local guard had been seen, then there were no authoritative figures in town to enforce the peace. It would explain why the disappearances and desecrations were allowed to happen. "<The town seems to be either asleep still or missing, hopefully it is the former. What exactly is being offered here that is so enticing? This place seems nothing more than an unimportant fishing port. Surely you and the others didn't come all this way to acquire trading rights for fish?>"

TAG: @Saintheart the Temporary @Cassie5squared @Rilwen_Shadowflame

Malaeus

The Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

The half-elf chewed her lip for a moment. "<I suppose it matters little now ... though I trust you'll retain some discretion and not go walking straight to Creel with this information.>" She leaned back against the bar, touching an elegant, fine hand to the gold leaf tattoo at her shoulder. "<I assume you know what this means. About eight months ago one of our free agent traders, the Raumahar Herdakh was lost off this coastline in a storm - all hands, including the mage with them. We'd written off the ship, of course, but when one of the netyarchs chanced across some of the mage's effects in a Calimport bazaar they took an interest and commissioned the Aurohiim to see where the trail led back to.>"

She looked at Malaeus again. "<What we found -- and the only reason we are here -- is that it seems his town lies at a fortuitous location. The currents off the Icepeak bring flotsam from shipwrecks up and down the Sword Coast to the beaches around Ashenport. The town, I understand, sells much of what they find into the Luskan markets, but our sources suggest they're often swindled on the deals they make, it's irregular money, and they're leery about the chance that one day the person they sell to will be related to the cold hands their finds came from. So we made overtures to the town's alderman that they might consider an exclusive arrangement with us: all the flotsam they find, in return for a regular stipend from us. We were due to discuss those arrangements at the trade fair. Obviously we do not share the same markets as Luskan, and at the end of the day -- as I'm sure you'd remember -- it is old tradition that flotsam belongs to he who finds it.>"

TAG: Mitth

IC: Ivaela Teuthor

Ivaela nodded, settling the decision with herself. "As soon as Malaeus is done talking with his new friend there, we can go see if the alderman will see us," she said. "Eiros will know I'm not still here in the inn, so he can guide the others to meet up with us if they wish to." From the ever-present current of impressions flowing across her bond with the unicorn, she knew nothing untoward had happened there; plainly the others hadn't run into anything very troublesome in the meantime.

She frowned a little, and lowered her voice. "I hope the alderman is not averse to our being here," she murmured to Russell. "These disappearances can't have gone entirely unnoticed, yet he still welcomes guests when they come here. We might need to be on our guard around him.

TAG: Cassie, any

Malaeus Balle

Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport

"<Who was this mage that was lost?>" He had feeling that it was important that he find out everything he could about that fateful ship and the mage. He wondered how long the disappearances had been happening and if it coincided with the disappearance of the mage. He would have to ask Ivaela. He briefly glanced back at the cleric and paladin and saw that they were waiting on him to finish his conversation with Tirza.

TAG: @Saintheart the Temporary @Cassie5squared @Rilwen_Shadowflame

OCC: You know what... I've been calling the half elf after the Dathomirian Nightsister, Talzin.

Malaeus
The Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Tirza's look held on the cleric and paladin, then came back to Malaeus. "<Nomm Aldahiir. Is his name so relevant? Frankly, given your ... status I'd be surprised if you knew him.>"

TAG: Mitth

OOC: Knowledge rolls apply here, Mitth.

Okieday!

Well since both of my Knowledge skills have 12, that is a 15 on either one. Not sure which one im rolling for. History or Arcana?

Malaeus

The Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

One thing was right: Malaeus didn't know the individual Tirza had named. But like most mages trained to the defence of Halruaa, he knew the name Aldahiir - it was the name of one of the more prominent families constantly vying for a position on the Council of Elders, one whose interests lay principally with the more elemental forms of magic. An Aldahiir, Malaeus remembered, had been amongst his teachers for a brief time, though what relation that one was to the missing mage was impossible to know.

In any event, it did make sense that a member of that family would be with a trading vessel; if nothing else, the mage's role probably would have been to control weather or influence the ship's course for most efficient travel.

It must have been one mother of a storm to have overcome even a Halruaan mage's considerable powers - and one brutal conflict of mage and elements to leave such a mage unable to resort to magic items or spells allowing him to teleport away, as the more powerful mages of Halruaa were all capable of doing.

TAG: Mitth

OOC: Knowledge (History), really.

Malaeus Balle

Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport

Malaeus had bristled a little at her jibe toward his position in the hierarchy of Halruaa. He hated being reminded that he could not achieve anything amongst his fellow wizards simply because he didn't dedicate his life to the entirety of the arcane arts. So what if his masters decided that his skill was better suited for the conjuration arts and chaos and destruction. Part of it is because I couldn't control my temper and pleasure in destroying things. But he figured that his best shot at a seat on the Council of Elders was to prove that he didn't need to master all the schools of magic.

At the mentioning of the name, his gaze wandered skyward and wondered, simply just wondered if this storm had anything to do with magic. It has not stopped raining since I came to this area, he recalled and frowned visibly. "<You are right, I do not know him, however the family name and reputation is known to me. I was taught by one of his House.>" He did not mention that it had only been briefly. Ha, what do you think of me now, tradeswoman? He would have sneered at her if he didn't think it would turn her away and close up.

"<This storm... has it been raining non-stop since high sun?>" he asked. He would have to ask Jandal to find out how long the storm has been going if it had lasted thus far since high sun. He knew storms could last all day long, but non-stop like this? It felt like one of the typhoons that plagued the southern shores of Halruaa every summer.

TAG: @Saintheart the Temporary @Cassie5squared @Rilwen_Shadowflame

Malaeus
The Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

Tirza's expression didn't change at the mention that Malaeus had been trained by an Aldahiir, but she did frown when he asked about the storm's length, cocking an ear to the howl of the winds outside. "<Well, yes -- as far as I know. My guardsmen might know whether it rained all through the night; there was at least one of them awake at all stages, but yes, we were soaked from a good ten miles outside this village.>" She paled; had Malaeus had this reaction from his announcement of who had trained him he might have been more satisfied. "<You ... believe them to be connected? The storm that claimed the Raumahar and this one?>"

TAG: Mitth

Yuriko Gozen
Tannery

Yuriko appeared at Darron's shoulder, melting out of the darkness like a very cheery ghost. She's found the lower levels of the tannery utterly boring. There wasn't even any loose change scattered about.

"You first, then." she patted Darron on the back in a friendly manner and grinned, her teeth eerily bright under her hood. "You want your coin back, right?"

TAG: @Ramza, @DarthXan318 , @Saintheart the Temporary

Malaeus Balle

Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport

"<It is a possibility,>" Malaeus shifted his weight on his other foot as he answered. He knew she would not take kindly if he outright accused the mage of being behind this. He did not have any evidence, only a coincidence that a mage who's family was known for it's elemental magic, having disappeared in the midst of a sea storm. A sea storm that said mage should have been able to easily handle on his own. But whether the mage was a willing or unwilling participant, he wasn't certain. One thing was for certain, he should have survived. "<Wouldn't you find it rather odd for an elemental mage to be overwhelmed by a mere storm? Something happened to him and it is connected to this, I am certain of it. What do you know about him?>"

TAG: @Saintheart the Temporary @Cassie5squared @Rilwen_Shadowflame

Malaeus

The Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

The half-elf sighed. "<It did raise a few eyebrows amongst us when we lost the ship, yes, given who was aboard. But ships are lost in these accursed waters every week, and it was not the first of our vessels that had foundered. We are not the Magehounds. The matter was investigated only because two of Aldahiir's rings were found in Calimport. We were given the job because it was our vessel that sank and because we have some contacts in the cities of the north. Anyway ... we used Nomm Aldahiir several times in the past, because although his aid was expensive, it paid dividends. His whole life was the sea and the winds. The Magehounds, not to mention some of our better-informed contacts, suspected he honoured Talos, but he had never failed to bring a ship safely to port and he'd never breathed a word of that dark god, so he was left alone. I met the man a couple of times. He was tall - close to seven feet, a thin staff of a man, dark, straight hair to his shoulders. Dressed in black robes embroidered with gold.>"

The sinister-sounding costume didn't give Malaeus pause. Many mages preferred the striking look of black to their robes; it was not as if one's moral centre was colour-coded to one's fashion preferences, despite the more ignorant fables some idiot commoners told one another.

"<He struck me as calm, as competent, and as dangerous as any other wizard from a respected family. No family or close friends out this way as far as we know, and I gather from my brethren we knew him rather well. We don't know of any travels he had to this area other than the occasional voyage which he was simply escorting.>"

TAG: Mitth


Darron, Yuriko, Zaid (Summer, Eiros)

A Tannery, Ashenport
Dawn, Third of Marpenoth
Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)

The staircase creaked alarmingly as Darron moved up it, but did not sway or shift under his feet -- and stayed that way from bottom to top as the druid, followed closely by Yuriko, moved up to the second floor of the tannery.

The coin tossed up here was still glowing off behind a couple of obstructions, casting pale light unevenly around the room. This seemed to be a sort of office stretching the length of the second floor, with no ceiling and shaped in an arch which formed the roof of the building, dark rafters in shadow above. Various shapes proliferated around the floor, all unmoving, all in various threatening poses or movement. Sea eagles; rabbits; a furtive-looking fox; the bear ... and ...
Wolves.
Two of them, off in one corner, posed with teeth bared. Summer's response was immediate: the wolf's hackles went up, a harsh growl echoing through the chamber.

It appeared whoever operated the tannery was also a taxidermist. But the shadows, the howling wind outside, and the pale, disrupted light of the coin gave the chamber the appearance of a nightmare: a nightmare frozen into awful, still life.

TAG: Livi, Xan, ramza

Malaeus Balle

Smooth Sailing Inn, Ashenport

Talos. This was getting more interesting by the minute. "<You've given me much to think about.>" Malaeus stroked his chin thoughtfully. Odds were that Aldahiir had did indeed die in that fateful storm, but he found it far too a coincidence. There was a connection to the missing mage and the attempt on everyone's lives last night and this storm. He just was not sure where exactly the mage fit in. As the antagonist of this mystery or a victim or what?

The warmage nodded his thanks to the guildswoman before he turned and headed back to the cleric and paladin. He faced Ivaela asked, "How long have these disappearances been happening again?"

TAG: @Saintheart the Temporary @Cassie5squared @Rilwen_Shadowflame

FYI, the disappearances you're looking into have been happening over the past eight years or so, though they're all land-based (i.e. they don't relate to deaths at sea in any way.) There's no particular discernible pattern to them other than they seem to happen when a druid has entered this rough area. If you had a map you could plot it out and realise they're all within about fifty miles of Ashenport, but unless you've looked at one recently you wouldn't have that insight.

Yuriko Gozen

"My father used to tell me a story." Yuriko said conversationally as they climbed the stairs. "About a lonely monk who captured the souls of deceased villagers in animal skins to live with him forever."

She looked around at the top level, the snarling wolves caught, forever frozen, in the coin's light. "Just popped into my head for some reason."

Yuriko narrowed her eyes in the half-light, scanning the room for anything that would make this investigation worthwhile.

TAG: @DarthXan318 , @Ramza , @Saintheart the Temporary