Investigations in the Dark

The following day started off cooler than the previous ones, but quickly grew in heat. We set off towards the harbour once again, hoping for more information about or news from either the “Arielle” or the “Albatross”. With the docks, an imposing, three-masted barque came in sight, decorated with beautiful carvings and larger than any of the surrounding ships. Approaching two guards posted at her landing place, we came to know her as the “Sailor’s Yarn”. She sailed from Waterdeep, bringing with her the Lord Protector Dagult Neverember himself. Maybe he will bring some order into the mess with occupants in the north and this Baator-damned rift in the east.
Upon our pleading, the guard hailed one of the sailors over, allowing further questions to be directed at him. The man unfortunately also did not have any further news from the south, having seen the “Albatross” but ten days ago, before she departed. However, he mentioned recent sightings of merfolk along the coastline, accumulating over the past couple of weeks. Usually this people tend to solitude and if encountered is shy but peaceful at best and indifferent at worst. Yet, there are tales of a more vicious folk roaming the northern shores of the west coast of Faerûn. Perhaps the lost ship had such an encounter along its travels, otherwise the man could not explain its delay. Still he made at least Nysqwen’s day, as he indeed knew of the “Unbending Willow” which still was out there and went with the tides. Finally, apparently there cannot be a visit to the harbour without finishing on the new favourite tale of every sailor, thus we sang our way to the tune of the “Fisher King” away from the docks.
 
On our way to fetch Grum, Archie approached me. He came up with the idea that Voithos, his small, spider-like, construction, could sneak into the tent and under the cover of the last cage in the carnival if I could grant him invisibility for that period. The young genius had found an arcane way to somehow link the vision he had through his immense goggles to the one of Voithos, making him the ideal spy. I had no idea, if this would work as thus far, I only attempted to hide living creatures from sight. Archie however said, his companion was not merely a metal object, animated by some magic but rather inhabited by a fey spirit the boy had befriended with and stood in telepathic connection with. This idea intrigued me, and I gladly agreed to help with his plan, if it was within my power. Nysqwen took a detour at some point, as she wanted to speak to Amber once more and promised to catch up with us at the carnival.
Arriving at the brewery, Tusnelda already rolled her eyes at our approach and sent someone to fetch Grum before we said a single word. The dwarf appeared with a broad smile on his face and a few intricately decorated tankards in his hands; each one filled to the brim with dark, lightly foaming beer. With an expansive gesture he placed two in front of his receptionist, declaring that this was not a day for sour faces but rather for celebration. Now the inscription became readable: “Merry Midsummer” was carved in swung letters over their upper half. Leaving the still grumbling lady behind, he turned and presented us with a handful of further tankards. The beer was unmistakably brewed by himself, a masterwork of brewery, strong yet not too bitter with a hint of fruity sweetness in the aftertaste. The perfect taste to describe this summer day. Thus invigorated, we proceeded towards the outskirts of Neverwinter.
 
Being quite early, most of the other visitors were families or groups of children. At the entrance, Nysqwen indeed caught up with us, grinning even broader than Grum had earlier. Excitedly she told us that she had invited Amber to visit the Midsummer celebrations together with her and that she would pick up the blacksmith in the afternoon of the bespoke day. Good for her! Someone as hearty and sturdy as Amber might be a very good match for our dear dragonborn friend. And perhaps it was for the best that we did not get around to these lessons in charm, as Nysqwen being herself is probably the best and most honest way to approach a woman like Amber anyway.
We immediately got in line to enter the tent containing their display of wonderous creatures. The tour this day was accompanied by pretty much the same words as on the day before, speaking to a rehearsed, thought out attraction. Kyla payed special attention to all exhibited cages, later informing us that only the harpies may indeed be real. The owlbear turned out to be merely a black bear, albeit a quite artistic one, the cockatrices were chickens, making the stone figure in the back not less unsettling, and the manticore turned out to be a rather old and tired lion. Still, I found the idea of having harmless attractions and disguising them for the entertainment of common folk rather appealing, as it prevents unnecessary danger to the visitors while providing a distraction from the sombre daily routine many of these people were facing, and my friends seemed to agree with this notion.
The final cage still had a cloth draped over it and stood about three paces behind the harpies. While we waited outside, I already managed to enchant Voithos, who, as he later told us, left Archies shoulder on his command. A few heartbeats later we saw the cloth lifting briefly and then falling shut. After the tour, Archie told us that the cage only contained some bundled up pieces of clothing in the centre, resembling maybe a sleeping accommodation, a bucket in one corner that seemed to most likely be used as a privy but had not seen use in a couple of days, and some leftovers featuring human sized bite marks. In the wooden floorboards, a few grooves, as if from scratching were visible.
Upon these revelations, Kyla turned to the guide and approached him by implying she would know about their illusory game and wondering what might have been up with the final cage. The greenish humanoid showed no concern towards her implications, realising that we were not interested in harming their business in any way and likely deciding that openness was the best defence against these inquiries. He said, the former inhabitant of the cage had been there on his own free will and had been a member of the carnival. Apparently, he possessed the ability to change his shape at will, thus being one of the highlights of their acts over this past year. Yet, in the last town they passed through, he decided he wanted to stay behind. Not really satisfied by his accounts but also not knowing how we might get more information out of him, we said our farewells and he wished us all the best for our further day on the carnival. Archie left the invisible Voithos behind to potentially figure out if the guide might be up to anything suspicious between tours – without success. Teynos suddenly came up with the idea of cross-referencing this story by perhaps speaking to one of the guards about the same questions. Unfortunately however, this only left us with the information that their last stop was in Leilon and did not explain why they would put up the cage if the inhabitant had left them this long ago. Still, it was a very good idea and to my shame, I have to admit that after what time I have spent in his company I would not necessarily have given him credit for making such intricate deductions from other beings’ behaviour. I really should know better at this point than judging others too quickly. Be more open minded, Morthos, or else you are no better than those judging you!
For the rest of the day, we partook in the various activities the carnival had to offer. Grum registered for a pie-eating contest in the evening, Nysqwen went to throw balls through the gelatinous cube, in which she succeeded on the second attempt, winning a potion of the essence of the cube. Much to her chagrin however, she still did not manage to beat the high striker. Kyla and I stepped up to the target shooting range, where I managed to succeed on the first two distances while Kyla in a second round hit even the furthest target disk right in the centre. We both were awarded with a small rag doll for the first target, which will be a lovely gift for the children back at Anataea’s, a flask of a perfume of bewitching and Kyla was given a potion that Archie later identified as a potion of fire breathing. That reminds me, I should still have him take a look at those bolts we had found in the hill giant’s cave…
 
Then it was time for the pie eating contest. Grum was facing five opponents, a feisty and two more slender humans, another dwarf and indeed one of the employees of the carnival. While the blueberry pie of the first round was downed by all participants, one of the humans seemed pretty filled already. A small scan of the crowd revealed what I can only assume would be his round of friends, who were laughing quite heavily at the sight of his face. Presumably, they pressured him into the competition, or he wanted to impress them. However, he managed to make it also through the apple pie of the second round while both other humans and, much to my surprise, the other dwarf were eliminated. After the third round and a tasty looking nut pie of sorts it finally was too much for him. Leaving for the fourth round only Grum and the green gentleman. Even without participating, my stomach turned in response to the somewhat strong-smelling meat pie that was served next. And mere two bites from the finish, Grum slumped in his chair, unable to continue. Somewhere from behind us a voice shouted, if Geniri could not stop from ousting the visitors in this competition, revealing the grinning gentleman to be our guide from the day before, unless they all were called Geniri for some reason. Grum took his loss quite well though, arguing that for the buy-in he at least got almost four very tasty pies.
Finally, Teynos headed towards the fighting ring, eager to continue his rise among the challengers of the title. His opponent this day was a rather slender elf, taking in a professional fighting stance and seeming much more similar in style to Teynos than the bugbear. And indeed, the fight was quite a bit longer than the previous one with Teynos having a hard time for the most part in even hitting the elf. He, on the other hand, landed a few quite nasty punches. During the fight with the hill giant, it had not been that obvious due to its raw strength, but Teynos seemed to be not the most durable, if hit repeatedly. He relied on his quickness and ducking, yet if a punch found its mark, it quickly took its toll on the half-orc. It came to a point were for a heartbeat he almost looked as if he would go down. But something primal took over his gaze and with a loud roar he swung a hefty right hook at the elf’s temple, knocking him clear out. Thus, he won his fight, although by the width of a hair.
 
On our way back to town, Kyla made a strange observation. Regardless of the street we were walking through, be they main and busy or narrow and dark, we did not encounter a single rat. The small rodents usually are omnipresent and as much part of the town as its smells, sounds and people. But at least at this very evening, none was visible. We all were clueless as to what might have caused that, in more than three decades I cannot remember a night where I would not have crossed the path of at least one. The evening suddenly grew darker, as large clouds rolled up – a thunderstorm was brewing over our heads. Following a hunch that it might be connected to Zanna, we hurried towards Melissa’s abode. Yet the young girl was already fast asleep and Melissa reassured us that she did not encounter anything too agitating throughout the day. I left the doll I won earlier with her though, maybe the young girl would find some joy in the gift.
The first lightnings cracked around us while we were still on our way back to Anataea’s home and thus arrived soaking wet but unharmed. With the help of a few warming words I managed to prestidigitate most of the moisture from our clothes to allow for a good night’s rest. Once I was sure that my friends were sleeping, I made myself ready to head out once more to see if Chant was holding up through the very sudden shift of weather, knowing about the leaky roof in the kitchen. Yet, before I could leave an unfitting sound cut through the rumbling thunder. A flute.
 
Somewhere in the city, not only was someone playing a rather enticing melody, it also managed to carry from a potentially soaked, wooden instrument through the storm outside. And it did not necessarily sound as if the artist was sitting right outside my window. I opened my door silently and saw Grum further down the hallway approaching. He heard the same melody as I. Quickly we made for waking up the others and after a brief explanation headed out to find the source of the sound.
The music led us along the River towards one of the collapsed bridges that used to connect the Protector’s Enclave with Castle Never and the northern districts. At its broken end, only occasionally illuminated by lightning stood a five feet tall figure, hooded and cloaked. From the hood protruded a strangely elongated nose or snout, almost like a small trunk at the end of which the figure held a flute and played her strange, unfamiliar melody. Soaked, tense and bewildered, it was an unpleasant sight that between us and the creature hundreds, if not thousands of rats were swarming, their attention dedicated singly to the figure at the end of the bridge. Grum slipped on one of the wet and mossy cobblestones of the untended ruin, cursing under his breath. Yet the small sound was enough. The head of the strange being turned briefly towards us, before the creature vanished from sight. The rats surrounding us fell into chaotic squeaking and ran away to all sides, vanishing in the timespan of a few heartbeats.
We quickly ran towards where the figure had stood but found no traces leaving from there. While it was possible that it had jumped into the river below, there was no way for us to see anything down there at this hour, especially with the dreadful weather. I tried to repeat what little I had heard from the piece that had been played on my pan flute, but to no avail. We mused if this stranger might have been the changeling that belonged to the carnival. Teynos interposed that he had heard stories about flute players who would lure children and kidnap them, others would perform similar acts as the one we had witnessed. These players usually were seen as demons or devils and all the stories had very much sounded like fiction to him. At his remark about devils, Kyla chuckled and said that if it was a devil, I should know about these things. While it was probably meant in a joking manner, that hit deep. I will never escape this hellish heritage, no matter where I run or who I interact with. It made me doubt my thoughts about opening up. What will happen if they know the truth? I cannot afford to lose them. Not my closest friends. Not again and not after whatever happened to Vivis, Camp and all the others.
Archie rummaged around in his pouch and presented us with a small metallic contraption. This device was able to store a spoken message, up to six heartbeats in length, and repeat it to whoever finds the apparatus. Thus, I offered to the stranger to meet with us in the same place in the following night, if he was interested in talking. As it was still raining and by now far past midnight, we had nothing left than to head back and hopefully still find some sleep this night.
 
While falling asleep turned out to be no issue, We were woken very early this morning, probably not more than three hours into our slumber, by what sounded like hell breaking loose on the street in front of the house. A quick glimpse through the window revealed the horrific sight of hundreds of small rats, accompanied by a few larger ones running through the street, biting passing citizens and plundering our and the surrounding houses for food. We grabbed our belongings as quickly as possible, stormed down and out the front door to face the incoming flood of rats. I’ll be even more damned if there is no correlation between last night and this turmoil. Anataea and Nal were already busy driving the rats from our building; a silent nod confirmed that it would be our task to face the rest. A few paces down the alleyway, a sea of black and brown bodies between us, a grotesquely huge, black rat was standing, seemingly directing the others and upon our arrival fixing its gaze on us.
Kyla immediately conjured a swarm of crows, formed of blindingly bright light around herself that annihilated any rodent that came into her vicinity. Archie busted out Ori, who extended a shining brass barrel spewing fire on the animals around us. His first priority was a cluster of rats that currently were dragging and biting a man down in the centre of the street. In an attempt to perhaps catch what the rats were up to, Grum turned himself into a giant rat and ran off towards the still staring black one. Nysqwen drew forth her glaive and swung it in deadly arches, cleaving through bodies left and right, while Teynos almost seemed to enjoy punching and kicking rodents through the air in a flurry of moving limbs. The best idea I had to counter this assault was to try once more the tune we heard last night on my dear old pan flute. Yet, with the lack of sleep and the disconcerting vista in front of us, I realised myself that I was not doing a very good job in replicating the notes. If that was the problem or something else entirely, I do not know, however, it did not help in any way shape or form. Rather, after angrily shoving the instrument away, an unsettling laughter filled my head, and I felt the attention of the apparent leader of the rats shift towards myself.
After getting hit quite devastatingly with Kyla’s spiritual weapon, the black rat disappeared into thin air. Any sleep-deprived and desperate thoughts of this maybe being just a coincidence were wiped out now at the latest. After Grum reverted back to his dwarven self, he casted a beam of pure moonlight among the larger rats that previously surrounded the leader and changed into a hyena. Amongst the six of us, it took less than a minute to rid the surrounding streets of the remaining rats. A final one, however, Grum caught between his teeth and carried inside. We found a box to set it prisoner, while Nysqwen took some time to attune with a more animalistic side within her. Her eyes glowed up in a similar white as was visible when she went into her raged fighting state of mind and when she spoke next, it was a weird mixture between her normal voice and the squeaking of a rat. She very quickly realised, how limited the mind of the small rodent was, however. All she could gather from our captive was that they had come from the sewer system under the city and that the black rat was responsible for enlarging some of her kin and rallying them to hunt for food in this part of town this morning. We decided to keep her in her box for now, as she might be able to later on lead us to wherever the black rat might gather the swarms within the sewers.
Still exhausted from the lack of sleep and the encounter on the street, we decided to just go back to bed, hopefully rest and continue our investigations in the afternoon or early evening. I just quickly spoke to Anataea, describing our discoveries of last night and our fear that this was connected to the endris battle at our doorstep. She nodded thoughtfully, assuring me that she would see what she might find out in this regard. Seeing the exhaustion written on my face, she left me to my rest with a soft smile. Now, lying in my bed I cannot get this melody out of my head. Just what is this creature up to? Let’s deal with this first, before I think about how to tell them.