Session 1 Report - undead portal

General Summary

Tanith came awake with a small sigh, staring up at the dingy walls of her small room. Surely she could afford to spend a day resting. She need not get up right away. She closed her eyes and pulled the thin quilt up over her head, blocking out the light of the newly risen sun. A few moments later, she sighed again, threw off the quilt, and swung her feet out of bed. Rising with a groan, she stretched and began dressing for the day. She would spend today exploring this new town, seeing what opportunities for work she could find, and replenishing her supplies. Maybe there was a learned sage in town who could add to her growing knowledge of demons and their origins. She nudged her travel chest fully under the bed with her foot, making sure it was out of sight. She picked up a silver spoon with the letter M engraved on the handle from the bedside table, rubbing at the engraving with her thumb before tucking it into her pocket. Blinking away tears, she left her rented room at the Fancy Muskrat, locking the door behind her, and strode out of the inn and into the morning light.   Ten hours later, tired and dusty from the streets, she made her way back to the inn. Distracted by thoughts of the armorer she had passed working in his shop, she noticed an elf with a mule at the door of the inn. Glancing at him and dismissing him as a hunter of some sort, she entered the inn and wove through the tables to the corner, where she sat with her back to the wall and motioned for the serving girl to bring her some stew. Keeping her eyes downcast so as not to attract attention, she settled in to wait for her dinner. *** Aliurinal watched the young woman pass, a grace to her step that he associated with humans proficient with swordplay. Snorting in derision, he led the mule around back where he would leave the quartered wild ox it bore for processing. Collecting the agreed upon fee, he returned the rented mule and made his way out of the city to the southwest. Passing by the guard house near the edge of town, he saw Silas sparring with a much larger man. Grinning at his fellow scout’s predicament, he continued on his way. He hoped to be miles down the road before sunset, planning to camp in a grove that he frequently used when he had business in Nosbury. He was clad in studded leather armor and carried both a longsword and a shortsword, as well as a longbow. Adjusting the quiver on his back, he melted into the surrounding vegetation, silent as only an elf can be, and set a swift pace, unnoticed by the humans on the road. *** Roland watched the young woman pass by his shop, slowing to eye his wares. He nodded in her direction, but she lowered her eyes and hurried on. He shrugged and returned to his forge, heating the half-formed blade. This was the last one for the day, and then he could retire upstairs to his newly borrowed book. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small boy in the street pick the pocket of an unwary traveler. Shrugging, Roland turned back to the blade, judging the color of the metal with a practiced eye. *** Silas entered the guard room, scratching under his studded leather armor and adjusting his shortsword in its scabbard. A sword breaker hung from his belt, an unusual addition to the uniform that marked him as a low-ranking officer in the city guard. Looking up, he saw a large man talking with Captain Hal (Halidrium "Hal" Picklesworth). Hal motioned Silas over.   The newcomer wore a chain shirt and was armed with a longsword and battleaxe. He was well over 6 feet tall, and Silas had to look up to meet his eye. He introduced himself as “Bear,” and Silas smiled faintly at the appropriateness of this moniker.   “Bear here is looking for some work,” drawled Captain Hal. “Whaddaya say you put him through some paces, see what he’s got.”   Silas eyed the big man doubtfully, then sighed and shrugged. They stepped outside and faced each other, each man sizing up his opponent, Silas with his shortsword and sword breaker and Bear with his longsword. Silas moved first, lightning quick, but Bear got his sword up and parried. After a few more blows exchanged, Bear landed a hit and Captain Hal called the contest. Captain Hal told Bear he would be welcome in the city guard, and Bear thanked him, stating he would consider it. Clapping Silas on the shoulder, Bear sheathed his sword and moved off toward the Fancy Muskrat, looking forward to a hearty meal. *** Shortly after Bear left the guard house, the city alarm bells began to clang. Silas grabbed his weapons and headed for the edge of town, where he saw a beacon of light shining straight up into the sky to the east of town. As he watched, the beacon disappeared from view, but the alarm bells continued to sound. In a clearing outside of town, Aliurinal looked up and saw the light in the sky as he was starting to set up camp. He could hear the alarm bells from the town. Grabbing up his pack, he jogged rapidly back toward Nosbury and the light.   At the Fancy Muskrat, Tanith abandoned her stew and bolted upstairs, donning her armor rapidly. She clattered down the stairs while belting on her longsword, shield and heavy crossbow strapped to her back and a dagger at her waist. As she rushed out the door and into the street, she saw a big man at a table, shoveling down a bowl of stew. He looked up at the alarm but seemed disinclined to interrupt his meal. Roland looked up from his work at the sound of the bells. He laid down his tools and exited his shop, heading toward the edge of town and the light. *** Silas squinted off into the night, where he could make out smallish humanoid figures moving quickly toward Nosbury. He glanced to the side, counting five guards who had responded to the alarm and were ready for action. He ordered them to set up a defensive position across the road and slipped off to the side to find cover. Two more guards arrived along with Roland, who hung back behind the guards and attempted to look beyond them to the disturbance. Silas could now see another group running behind the small figures, still humanoid but larger in size, and he shook his head in confusion, wondering what would be in store for this night.   By now, Aliurinal had made it back to the road outside Nosbury and started slipping through the darkness toward the running figures. His elven eyes could make out what he thought were half-grown children in the front pack and he shook his head, muttering about demon-possessed human children. He glanced toward the guards across the road and spied Silas slipping off into the bushes. Moving up behind him silently, he tapped Silas on the shoulder and offered to go scout the area. Silas, embarrassed at being caught unaware, agreed to this plan. Before moving off, Aliurinal paused and then muttered, “I think the ones in front may be kids.” Silas looked at him in startlement, but the elf was already gone.   As Aliurinal moved closer, he could see that the group in front were indeed children, five in number, possibly around 12 years old, although he was not a good judge of human age. The kids looked terrified and were running hellbent for town. He shifted his attention to the group chasing the children, which appeared to be moving more slowly. Something was not right about the way that group moved, and Aliurinal began to suspect something unnatural was heading for town. He judged that the kids should be able to outrun their pursuers, but then he spied a larger shape moving at speed and overtaking the shambling creatures. Nocking an arrow in one smooth movement, he let fly and connected with the racing figure which stumbled but continued on. He could now clearly see that this foe was a riderless skeletal horse, and he could now make out that the shambling figures were also skeletons and other undead manifestations. Three of them were larger than the rest, and there must have been dozens of the smaller ones.   Back on the road, Roland, wearing his darkvision goggles, moved off the road to find cover. With the aid of his goggles, he could clearly see the kids out in front with another group behind, although he could not make out who they were. With a thought, Roland’s armor rolled down his arms and covered his body. He set his feet and readied his shield.   Silas jogged back toward the line of guards, now numbering around a dozen. “They’re kids! Protect them!” he ordered, nodding at Bear who moved up to stand with the guards, javelin in hand.   “Is that a horse?” queried one of the guards, and Silas turned in time to see the skeletal horse stumble as it was pierced by an arrow. Ordering the guards to advance, they began to move toward the kids, Bear taking his place in line and Roland stepping up beside him as well.   Tanith arrived, out of breath, her eyes widening when she saw the children. Her heart began to pound as she skidded to a stop, drawing her sword. She saw what appeared to be a skeletal horse round the group of kids and cut off their escape. One child fell and the others began shouting and pulling at him to get him up. Without another thought, Tanith began sprinting toward the children, under her breath muttering, “Not again. Not again.” She flinched away as over her shoulder a bolt of lightning shot straight at the horse. Glancing back wildly, she saw the smith from the shop lowering his arm, as if he had shot the bolt from his gauntlet! The bolt struck the horse and it stumbled and went down. Tanith slid to a stop and watched, as the kids appeared to be out of immediate danger.   Bear dropped his javelin and started trotting out toward the children, Silas and the guards hard on his heels. Roland took off after them, stepping aside to let the kids through the line of guards as the one who had fallen made it to his feet, tugged along by his comrades. Standing off to the side and trying not to be noticed, Tanith heard one of the guards demanding, “What did you do this time?!” while grabbing one of the kids by the shoulder. “It’s not my fault!” the kid shouted, twisting away from the guard’s grip.   Quickly assessing the children and seeing they were uninjured, Silas ordered them to go back to the safety of the town. He formed up the guards to defend the road, Roland standing with them while Bear ran forward roaring a challenge with his battleaxe drawn. With the foe still about 600 feet away, Tanith sighed and armed her crossbow, waiting for them to close. She knew she was most accurate within a hundred feet, so she concentrated on steadying her breathing and slowing her heartrate, reciting one of her favorite verses in her head to calm herself.   Disregarding the activity by the children, Aliurinal continued to move toward where the beacon had been located. He saw a rippling in the air and glided stealthily in that direction. Passing by the shambling clot of undead, he could see a long line of lurching figures straggling back toward the rippling air, and as he watched, a new figure stepped from the anomaly to follow after the others. At this sight, he turned and ran back to report to Silas. There was something arcane going on and it would need to be shut down before there were more creatures than they could handle.   Back at the guard’s defensive line, Roland launched another lightning bolt from his gauntlet and hit one of the shambling creatures, while Silas let fly an arrow but missed. They continued to fire while Tanith shot a bolt from her crossbow and hit one of the large creatures, barely slowing its advance.   Finally Captain Hal arrived on the scene just as Aliurinal ran up, breathing hard, and informed him about the portal that seemed to be emitting undead. Hal commented, “We need to shut that down, but we can’t leave the city undefended.” Tanith stepped forward and offered to move up to check out the portal. The kids appeared to be safe for now, but she was wary of anything magical that might threaten them. Roland agreed to go along and Aliurinal offered to guide them. Hal deployed five guards to stay to the rear to guard the road, while the others pushed forward toward the oncoming undead. Silas, itching to go scout the anomaly, waited for orders.   Exchanging a long glance, Captain Hal dispatched Silas to lead the portal party, consisting of Roland, Tanith, and Bear, and guided by Aliurinal. Aliurinal pointed out the shimmering portal and then melted into the night. Behind the party, the guards opened fire into the approaching skeletons and zombies. From their closer vantage point, the portal appeared to be at the center of a circle drawn in the dirt, possibly with more arcane symbols drawn within the circle. There was no sign of a magic user or other living creature in the vicinity. Roland spied an empty pack off to the side of the portal, and he could make out white objects around the perimeter of the circle. Figures continued to emerge irregularly from the shimmering in the air. Without thinking, Tanith said, “We need to mess up the circle.”   As the others glanced to Tanith, Aliurinal moved off around the back of the portal to investigate the pack. As he drew closer, he could see that the white objects on the ground were candles, unmatched, some lit and some unlit. He could also see sticks lying on the ground, although the closest trees were some distance away. Glancing back to the group, he could see them edging closer to the portal. Bear stumbled, and Aliurinal could clearly hear his armor clank. An emerging skeleton turned to look in their direction and Aliurinal tensed, ready to draw his bow, but the skeleton turned back to face forward and shambled off toward the town.   Approaching the portal, Tanith moved forward and scuffed out the symbols in the dirt, blowing out the nearby candles. Nothing happened, and she muttered an orcish curse under her breath. What appeared to be a ghost flew out of the portal, moving fast, and she flinched backward involuntarily. Bear summoned an unseen servant and sent it toward the portal. It walked through the space but did not cross over, blinking out of existence at the precise moment that it came into contact with the shimmering air of the portal. Reaching the discarded pack, Aliurinal bent and drew it open, examining the contents. He saw a pile of matches, half a loaf of bread, and some candy. Rolling his eyes at the stupidity of demon-possessed human children, he yelled back to the group, drawing the attention of one of the undead for a second or two. Just as before, the undead barely paused before continuing on its way toward the town.   Looking from one to the other in confusion at this behavior, suddenly the party noticed that no sounds of battle could be heard from the direction of town. Quickly spreading out, Tanith and Aliurinal began searching more widely around the portal. Aliurinal found a piece of paper fluttering on the ground and called out for the rest to come and look, whistling a meadowlark song as the agreed upon signal for all clear. The paper contained a crude drawing of a circle enclosing a star within, with notes written on the back in a childish hand. “Charlie can bring some extra candles.” “Should we use blood?”   Looking over the note, Roland ascertained that there must be a focus to the spell that so far remained unlocated. He ran back toward the guards to question the children about their activities this night. He stopped, however, when he noted that the hoard of undead had come to a stop, shuffling around aimlessly at the same approximate location where the kid had fallen down in his flight from the mob. Shaking his head, he reversed direction and went back to the group by the portal.   “I think I know where the focus is,” he said, pointing in the direction of the stalled mob of undead. Hoping that the undead would stick to their pattern of ignoring them, Tanith made her way to their location and began to edge toward the milling throng. The undead paused in their restless activity and looked in her direction. She froze as well, and then very slowly edged closer still, scanning for an object on the ground. Spying something sparkling, perhaps a crystal, she drew a deep breath and began to extend her sword toward the object, intending to try to sweep it away from the pack of creatures.   “Hold!” called out Roland from behind her position. He summoned a mage hand and picked up the object.   “Can you carry it all the way to the portal?” asked Tanith.   Exchanging a glance, Tanith backed toward Roland and together they began to move to the portal, carrying the object at a distance. As they neared the portal, Roland lobbed the object into the shimmering air. As it connected, a beam of light streaked up to the heavens and then disappeared. Blinking away the afterimage, Tanith saw the mage hand dissipate and the air cease shimmering, but the undead unfortunately remained. The focus object hit the ground with a thud, and the undead renewed their restless shuffling. Everyone seemed to pause for a moment, waiting for whatever would come next. It was then that the undead attacked. *** Silas fired an arrow with his short bow and closed with a zombie. The guards also moved in and engaged the foe. Aliurinal took aim at one of the bigger skeletons and struck it with an arrow. Two zombies moved up to attack Silas, while a skeleton and a zombie attacked Tanith. She took a glancing blow and dodged to the side. With a noise of frustration and resignation, Tanith concentrated and a shadowy figure coalesced 15 ft away. She commanded it to move behind the closest giant skeleton, striking twice in quick succession and rattling the bones. Roland moved to the side and sent lightning toward the foe engaged with Tanith. Nodding her thanks, Tanith concentrated on staying alive. ***   In the midst of the guards, Captain Hal ran in and felled a zombie. At his side, Silas swung at another, taking his head off with one blow. Corrupted flesh splattered his armor, and he gritted his teeth while stepping to intercept the next in line. Two guards off to his right battled a ghost, while the rest of the undead continued to push forward, flanking the guards. The zombie on Silas smashed into him, and Silas staggered. A second ghost reached out toward Bear and he dodged aside. One of the newest recruits, wearing the red cape gifted to him by his father on joining the guards, was fighting desperately. Bear could see the panic on his face and knew he was unlikely to survive if he could not calm down and bring his training to bear. No sooner had he thought this when a giant skeleton dealt a staggering blow and red cape went down. Gritting his teeth, Bear took out the skeleton in front of him and stepped up to the next one. He dodged an attack but was struck a glancing blow by a flanking zombie. Further down the line, two guards battled a skeletal horse, a smaller skeleton, and a zombie, fighting for their lives. *** Over by the site of the portal, Tanith continued to battle the advancing undead. Outnumbered, she slipped in the mud and took two wounds, but she kept her feet. Aliurinal saw her predicament and dropped one of her opponents with an arrow. Her shadowy echo continued to fight the giant skeleton with two zombies joining in the melee. They struck at the echo but missed.   Redoubling her efforts, Tanith attacked a zombie twice and it went down, guts splattering everywhere. Roland continued to blast the giant skeleton, but it stubbornly would not go down. It closed with Roland, but Aliurinal came to the rescue once more, launching an arrow and causing the skeleton’s arm to drop off. Tanith dodged another attack, but her echo dissipated as it was struck by a zombie. She summoned it again and commanded it to attack the skeleton in front of her, as she was quickly tiring with the loss of blood from her wounds. From the corner of her eye, she saw the giant skeleton felled by Roland’s lightning, and she began to believe that they might actually prevail. Once again her echo was dispatched, but she grimly summoned it back and fought on. *** Finally the guards managed to take down a ghost, while Captain Hal finished off another skeleton and went to work on a zombie. His face was set in grim determination as he methodically swung his blade. He could see his recruit on the ground to his right, blood pooling beneath his red cape, but he could not disengage to tend to him. He shook his head and kept swinging.   Several guards flanked the remaining giant skeleton and chipped away more bone. Aliurinal took aim at it and let fly, but missed. Bear, engaged nearby with a skeleton and a zombie, danced away but suffered a glancing blow. Tanith dodged aside, summoned her echo once more, and took down the last skeleton opposing her. She commanded her echo to assist Bear with the zombie attacking him, then moved in as well to join the fray. Bear swung a mighty blow, and the skeleton went down.   To their right, Silas moved around a knot of combatants and engaged a zombie, taking him down. He and Captain Hal exchanged a grim nod, then Hal plunged his sword toward the giant skeleton. His fellow guards missed, but Aliurinal finally had a clear shot and pierced it with another arrow. Tanith beheaded the zombie in front of her. Looking around, she saw Roland swing and miss the giant skeleton, which by now was surrounded by a knot of guards. Bear moved in and felled the giant skeleton.   At the end of the line, a skeletal horse continued to battle a bewildered guard who could not seem to connect with it. Silas moved in to help him but slipped on the zombie parts coating the field. Aliurinal took aim and dropped the horse. For a moment it was as if the whole world paused as suddenly the field of battle was quiet and still, everyone searching for more foe. Seeing no undead still up, swords dropped and shoulders sagged, then everyone began to look around and take stock of the situation.   With a sigh of relief, Tanith let her echo dissipate and began to clean her sword. She wiped zombie goo from her face. She looked up to see guards tending to one of their fellows in a red cape who was down, but appeared to still be alive. She glanced over to Roland, who was using his mage hand to move what appeared to be a rod with a red gem on top out of the summoning circle to examine it. Moving closer and peering over his shoulder, Tanith could see it was covered in carvings that seemed more like a design rather than a language. A small amount of dried blood was also in evidence. Bringing the rod to Hal, Roland suggested the kids had been using it as a focus for the portal spell. Hal shook his head tiredly, then ordered the guards to begin gathering the corpses to be burned. *** Looking up, Tanith observed horses approaching from the north, stopping in front of Hal. An older man in robes dismounted, his guards remaining mounted.   “I came as fast as I could when I saw the light,” the old man said.   “Your timing is suspect,” returned Aliurinal.   Looking at Aliurinal steadily, the old man explained that his abode was a good distance out of town to the north. Sighing, Hal stepped in and filled the old mage in on the events of the night thus far. “What do you think of this, Exius?” asked Hal, handing him the focus object.   After close examination, Exius cast a spell over the rod and then nodded in confirmation. He related that this type of item was used back in the necrotic wars to summon undead for fodder to distract enemies. Curious, Tanith asked if the same sort of thing could be used to create a portal to wherever demons come from. Exius looked at her sharply then answered that it could not. On learning that it was one of the children, Daniel, who likely had concocted this whole scheme, Exius offered to take the rod for safekeeping. Captain Hal declined and slipped the rod into his pocket. In lieu of other aid, Exius offered to set the corpses ablaze. Deciding the excitement was over, Bear left to head back to the inn for a snack, while Aliurinal asked to spend the night at the guard house. Tanith, Roland, and Silas moved off with Hal toward the guard house as well, wanting to have a chat with Daniel and the other kids. *** Daniel, well known around town for getting the other kids into trouble, was indeed the ringleader. He denied knowledge of the rod, until it was revealed that the note and pack had been found near the portal. After some shuffling of feet and glances at each other, the kids admitted to finding the rod while exploring in Farmer Kevin’s field, just outside town. Roland pondered how this field borders the river, and he wondered if that fact would prove to be significant. The kids claimed they just “made up a ritual” and tried it, not expecting it to work. On further questioning, it seemed that Charlie may have seen this image in one of his father’s books. Rolling her eyes, Tanith pulled out a piece of candy from the pack and started eating it. One of the kids said, “Hey! That’s mi….never mind.”   Roland and the others agreed that the kids were not being entirely truthful. Tanith asked if they had dreamed about the rod or felt compelled to use the rod, but received no clear response. Apparently, Daniel had been keeping the rod under his bed for the last couple of days. His parents were tailors, and they live above their shop. Charlie’s father was known to dabble in magic, but mostly his work focused on historical research. Tom, one of the smaller kids, had “volunteered” to donate the blood for the ritual.   Taking Hal off to the side, Roland asked if anyone new or unusual had come through town recently, but Hal was not aware of anyone. At a loss for what to do next or how to get the kids to tell the truth, the group exited the room. In the hallway stood a man dressed in well-made clothes. He asked after his son, Daniel. Captain Hal released Daniel to his father’s custody, and a guard was assigned to escort the rest of the kids to their homes. Tanith, Roland, and Silas dispersed to their respective lodgings, agreeing to meet in the morning to check out Kevin’s field.   Back at the Fancy Muskrat, Tanith stayed up late cleaning her armor and sword, reciting poetry to herself to calm her mind. *** The five companions reconvened the next morning, accompanying the kids and Captain Hal to Kevin’s field as planned the night before. The kids were stubbornly sticking to the story that they just made up the ritual and did not expect anything to happen. They led the group of adults around the field, “looking” for the place they found the rod.   Stepping away from the kids, Tanith scanned her surroundings carefully. The field was muddy, but she relaxed her eyes and let them wander randomly around the ground. Her attention was drawn to an item that appeared to be half buried, sticking out of the mud. She nudged Aliurinal and pointed, and he immediately began searching the surrounding ground for tracks. He did not find anything remarkable. Crouching down, Tanith saw what appeared to be a rusty piece of metal. By now, the others had joined her and stood peering down at the object.   “Looks like it may have been deposited here by the river,” commented Silas. Grunting in agreement, Roland used his mage hand to pluck the item from the ground. It appeared to be the rusty blade of a dagger, crudely made, without any identifying designs or markings. Roland began to perform a ritual designed to detect magic.   As the ritual progressed, the kids had shifted from looking nervous to appearing bored. Gazing at them with dislike, Aliurinal suggested maybe Charlie’s parents deserved some closer scrutiny, with his father’s known involvement with magic books.   “Next time we should let them experience the consequences and feed them to the demons,” he muttered. Tanith started and looked at him sharply, but then quickly looked away. The kids rolled their eyes and shifted their feet, obviously wishing for something more exciting than the ongoing ritual.   Moving away from the group, Silas worked his way toward the river, scanning the ground for anything else that may have been carried downstream. While he did not find any new objects, he could see that the rocks closer to the river looked like they may have come down from the mountains to the south. Upon returning to the group and voicing his observations, Captain Hal looked up at Silas and remarked that there had been some extra ogre activity in the mountains of late. The kids exchanged glances and Daniel mouthed the word “Ogres!” while his eyes lighted with curiosity.   Roland completed the ritual to detect magic, marking one location with a stick. After scanning the rest of the area, he remarked, “That’s it. Nothing else magic in this vicinity.”   Realizing no one had brought a shovel, everyone moved off to the house to borrow one from Farmer Kevin. He was very loquacious, and the kids started to giggle behind their hands and imitate him when they thought no one was looking. Taking the shovel and glaring at the kids, Tanith moved back to the marked location and began to dig. She uncovered a small, well-crafted brass ring that was glowing visibly. Cleaning it off, she could not make out any inscriptions or inset jewels. To the kids’ dismay, Roland began another ritual. After another ten minutes had passed, he determined that the faintly glowing ring….was glowing. Daniel smacked himself in the forehead and groaned, while the other kids sighed and shuffled their feet. Trying once again to make an impression, Tanith quietly told the kids that even though what they did may have seemed exciting, it is much less exciting when someone dies. Almost as one, the kids chorused, “But nothing bad happened!” Joining in the conversation, Aliurinal told the kids they should have done their ritual farther from town, where no one would have seen the light. At that comment, Tanith rolled her eyes and extracted more candy from her pocket to eat. One of the kids watched her, looking glum.   After some discussion about going upstream to determine whether there was some sinister source of magic up in the mountains, Captain Hal offered a bounty for any ogres the party could dispatch. To claim this bounty, the party would need to collect each ogre’s right ear. The group trooped back to town after returning Kevin’s shovel, discussing their next steps. *** On returning to town, Tanith went off alone to go visit with Charlie’s father. He invited her into his home, and they sipped tea while discussing what he had learned about magic books and demons through his extensive reading and research. Leaving his well-appointed study, she stepped back into the street. Looking at the position of the sun, she gauged she had enough time to walk a couple of miles north to the old mage’s abode, where she asked him similar questions. Magic books and demons. It always came back to magic books and demons for her. She filed away the new bits of information she had learned and rose to take her leave. As she stepped out into the late afternoon sun, Exius offered to pay her for any artifacts she could bring him if she decided to go south to look for the origin of the rod. Nodding her thanks, she set off toward town. *** Back in his shop, Roland gathered provisions for a journey to the south. He had told the others that he would meet anyone who wanted to accompany him at the Fancy Muskrat tomorrow morning. Silas contemplated his options. There was no time to “receive detachment orders” before the group intended to leave the next day. Resorting to persuasion, he managed to talk Captain Hal into letting him go on a leave of absence with reduced pay, for a short time.   Bear, seemingly unconcerned with what tomorrow would bring, dug into his dinner.   Aliurinal contemplated going back to his clan, the Eversong Clan, to talk to “real magic users.” Intrigued by what these humans had been getting up to, he considered his options.   Tanith, arriving back at Nosbury and passing the guard house and then Roland’s shop, returned to the inn to sort through her meager belongings, leaving some in her chest under the bed and setting her backpack at the foot of the bed. It seemed a good enough job as any other, with a bounty on ogres and an offer to purchase magical artifacts on the table. If it didn’t pan out, she could always ask Silas to pull some strings for her to get her into the guard. It might be nice to stay in one place for a while. She headed back downstairs for dinner, and to arrange for the innkeeper to hold her room. She was paying well for the fancy lock on her door.   To be continued….