Journal Entry 18.01: Graykar's Heist and Dream

Once Graykar is done shopping, he reports back to Gregory to check on the alchemist's progress. Having completed the concoction, Graykar pays the required sum of money - 50 gold.

Gregory tells him to focus on the memory he wishes to remember, or as much as he can regarding the memory. Graykar gulps back the potion - this one tastes like pure sweet syrup, though a little thicker. Almost coughing trying to swallow it, Graykar gets it down. Then waits. Gregory insists it should only take about thirty minutes or so to fully activate.

Graykar thinks of what he knows of Fi'lanazierk. She is supposedly the fourth daughter of Si'Nassa. Graykar imagines he might have misheard the name, after all, even for all of his history, how would he have been involved with such a powerful being?

Nothing much happens. He remembers a few events more vividly from when he woke up in that alley ten years ago. Those were already his first memories.

However, he remembers nothing before that. The potion didn’t work.

Telling this to Gregory, the alchemist acts confused. He then starts poking and prodding Graykar. He takes a small hammer and tests Graykar's reflexes, tapping him on the knees, ankles, and elbows. Then he tugs on Graykar's ears, has Graykar stand, turn around to the left three times and then to the right five times. He has Graykar jump in place for 10 seconds. He brings out a silver forceps caliper to measure Graykar's skull while muttering. “Hmmm – unusual place for a bump. That might affect things.”

Still confused, he then grabs some magical stones which glow and starts to bring him into Graykar's aura. "Hmmm, I think I see. I think I see."

After a little longer, he says, "Yes, I believe I can get you to see further back. However, I need some things. Hard to find items. I need a shard of griffon egg, and then I need that blessed by a priest of Kristor. You get those items for me, I believe I can get you what you need.”

Graykar says he will do what he can and then heads on to find Gordan. Gordan askes where Graykar has been, and Graykar says he was forced out of town on business. Accepting this, Gordan says, "Well, your timing is excellent. We have a job we need to do tonight before Mid Revel starts. Si'Lachara Dau will be the only time we can do this job." Si’Lachara Dau is the first actual day of Mid-Revel.

Gordan then gives Graykar the scope of the job. One of the museums of third tier is getting a shipment this afternoon and it goes on display in two days. The Borkjä want part of that shipment swapped out with a fake. Supposedly, there are some dragon bones being brought in from somewhere far to the south on First Dawn Lake. The Borkjä would like to get a small bone fragment to study and then replace it with a replica. For the team, they already have an infiltration expert and an artificer who can make a copy on the spot. What they need is a little muscle and back up in case things go south. Graykar would be perfect for this.

Agreeing to this little task, Graykar asks about where to find Griffin egg fragment. Gordan really doesn't know, however, he suggests maybe the museum might have some for sale - the five finger discount kind of sale. Graykar scouts that museum out later that day and sure enough, they have a display with various kinds of eggs, one of which is labeled as ‘gryphon’ egg. Graykar wonders if the spelling indicates a difference and decides it probably doesn’t Unfortunately, it is a whole egg. Graykar figures if a shard is needed, the whole egg should be better. He studies the security of the display while pretending to peer closely at the eggs.

That night, he waits for the rest of his group to retire. Graykar then sneaks out and meets up with Gordan.

He is introduced to the other two members of his new crew. One is Angelina, a red-haired half-elf. Her hair is red enough that Graykar suspects she dies it. The other is Rotho, a tall and very lean human. He must be near seven feet, yet could probably slip between a tight crevice halflings wouldn’t fit. His nose is overly large, protruding from his narrow head like a beak.

Looking down at Angelina first then up at Rotho, Graykar gives his greetings.

They lay out their plan and Graykar provides a little input from his brief scouting trip earlier in the day.

Not wasting any time, they head out. Rotho quickly picks the lock to the outer door and then casts a small spell he claims will detect magical traps, subtly moving his fingers so that unless you were looking right at him, you might miss that he was spellcasting.

Angelina then casts a spell herself. Graykar has seen that spell cast enough he immediately recognizes that she has cast a basic Detect Magic spell, however like Rotho, she has modified it in a way that she casts the spell without saying a word.

Certain that the museum is safe to enter, Rotho heads in first and Angelina moves in second.

Following them in, all three sneak to the back storage area of the museum where they see that everyone has left. Waiting from their hiding spot for over an hour, they see that only three guards are walking around the museum.

Graykar is now up, it’s his turn to act. He has the other two hold back. Sneaking up to the first guard, Graykar waylays him easily. With the guard unconscious, Graykar then sneaks up on the second guard as he is returning and quickly does the same to him. With the first two guards down, Graykar takes a moment to pull them out of the main walkways and hide them behind some of the displays.

Now for the third guard. If Graykar is right, he will be coming by in about five minutes. That gives him five minutes to sneak back out to the show floor to where the griffin eggs are being held.

Believing he has just enough time, he sneaks back out into the museum and from memory runs to where the display is at. As he turns a corner, Graykaar is surprised to see a fourth guard coming around the corner at the same time. Without hesitation, Graykar swings his mug and connects it with the guard’s jaw.

It doesn’t take the guard down, however, the magic of the mug overpowers the guard and leaves him drunk. As the guard stumbles trying to raise the alarm, Graykar brings the mug down on top of the guards head, this time knocking him out.

Graykar quietly apologies, “Sorry they will find you drunk tomorrow, friend.” Looking closely at the man, Graykar attempts to memorize his features. He will look him up later and make sure that should the guard get fired, or possibly land in worse trouble from a vindictive museum owner, Graykar will be able to possibly help him out. After all, he doesn’t want anyone innocent getting hurt from just doing their job.

Even knowing he is short on time, he quickly ruffles through the guard’s clothes and items hoping to find an identification stone. Sure enough, within one of the guard’s belt pockets he finds a small sapphire. As Graykar picks it up, and it turns from blue to green. Looking closely at the gem, he sees the name Durras Plotinuk inscribed inside. Graykar then takes the stone and places it back in the guys hand, leaving it to rest there a second. Once it turns blue again, Graykar is certain that this stone belongs to the guard. Returning it to the belt bag, Graykar once again continues on to the room with the egg display.

Finding the room locked and with only about three minutes remaining, Graykar pulls out his tools to pick the lock. It is an easy lock, no hassles. Graykar is certain he didn’t damage the lock so relocking the door shouldn’t be an issue. Pulling a stick of firewood out of his backpack, he uses it to block the door open.

Approaching the display, Graykar already knew what to expect having observed it a earlier in the day. While it was a glass case, the panels fit together perfectly. The hinge was almost impossible to observe as the door appeared to be nothing more than one of the glass sides of the case. What had taken him a few minutes when he visited earlier had been finding the actual lock and release down near the base of the display. Now already knowing where to locate it, with picks in hand, he has the case open in five seconds flat. He then looks carefully for any traps before reaching in and picking up the griffin egg.

The egg is colored dark yellow with little green specks. It measures nearly 18 inches high while at its largest side diameter it is just over 10 inches across. It is conical in nature. The broadest cross-section of the egg is near the bottom where it starts to gradually taper off toward the top.

Grabbing the egg, Graykar spins it around looking to see if there is any tracking glyph on it. Sure enough, he spots one on the bottom. He has bought some anti-magic powder earlier in the day just in case. Pouring some over the glyph, he rubs it in and destroys it, or so he hopes. His other concern was the size of the egg. It should fit in his satchel, but until he actually tries, he is not certain.

It fits. And the magic of his satchel should also block most location magics, or so he hopes. He makes a mental note to have that tested later.

Locking the glass case back and then backing out of the room, Graykar estimates he is right at the five-minute mark.

He locks the door and takes off running silently back the direction he had come from. So far, he has avoided using any of the divine spark which still exists deep in the back of his mind, however, now that he is in need, he focuses and a burst of nearly impossible speed comes to him as he blurs back through the museum. Seeing that the third guard just now discovering that one of his friends is missing, Graykar runs up and takes him out before the guard even has a chance to raise the alarm. Almost looking straight at Graykar, all the guard sees is an approaching blur before being knocked senseless.

Heading back to Angelina and Rotho, Graykar tells them the guards have been taken care of.

“I was wondering,” Rotho said. “It sure you took you a while. Gordan said you were one of the best he had seen.”

“Some things take time, rest assured, they are out of the way,” Graykar responds.

As they move on in, Graykar notices that Angelina nods in approval as she sees the guards are merely knocked out and not dead. Rotho doesn’t give any indication that he cares.

They approach the back of the warehouse section and find a large area cordoned area from the rest. “This is the receiving area,” Rotho says. He begins a few minor preparations looking for further traps and then approaching a large crate.

Graykar watches him work and quickly concludes that while Rotho is skilled, he is currently trying to put on a show to make himself look more needful than he actually is. Rotho goes through the motions of removing several minor ‘traps’ which Graykar is positive never existed. In the process, Rotho has opened the desired crate, carefully prying back the top with a small crowbar. He looks around and finds several of the dragon bones resting in straw.

Once done, Rotho tells Angeline that she is free to perform her magic.

Taking a smaller bone, one only about a foot in length, she turns and studies it carefully.

She then opens her backpack and pulls out a small sack of what appears to be flour. Pouring the white substance on the floor in front of her, she then pulls out a small flask of water and pours it on the heap of white dust she just created. Taking an inscribed stick from her belt, she uses it to start stirring the water and dust together. As she starts stirring she also begins to mumble some quiet incantations.

The glyphs on her stick begin to glow with a subtle red and the mess in front of her quickly becomes a fluid putty that falls right off of the stick, balling up on the floor.

Once that is done, she puts the stick back at her belt. “Now that the wand has done its job, I will finish. This part takes about twenty minutes, so please, make sure no one bothers us.”

Taking the bone in hand, she closes her eyes and starts running her fingers over it, all the why chanting. As she does so, the putty on the floor starts moving and taking a similar shape of the bone. Over the next several minutes, an exact replica of the bone in Angelina’s hands is sitting on the floor where the putty was at.

As soon as she says, “Done!” Rotho picks up the replica bone and places it back in the crate.

Ten minutes later, the three are back on the street. Rotho takes the real dragon bone and says, “Obviously none of us were here. I am glad both of you were able to keep up your ends, you both did good. I’ll make sure good words get put in on the both of you.”

With that, the three separate.

Graykar sneaks back into Dame Imokan’s Estate. Oddly, as he does so, he thinks he sees Morvion sneaking in right before him. I wonder how many of us are coming and going on our own agendas this evening?

Not really needing to sleep, Graykar gets up and around to meet everyone for breakfast. He then says he has an important errand he needs to run first thing and will need to skip breakfast, but should be back in about an hour if everyone wants to head out to celebrate together. They agree to wait and off he goes.

His first task is to create a shard of the egg. He hates destroying it, however, he needs just a shard per Greggory’s instructions. Moving around the city a few miles away from Dame Imokan’s, he pulls out the egg. He then takes a small hammer and cracks it. He puts all the fragments back in his pouch except the part containing the location glyph, which he kicks toward a street drain.

Then he runs over toward the temple district of the 6th tier. Rather than trying to find a dedicated temple to Kristor, he looks for the main polytheistic temple to the 13 gods. Once he locates it, he makes a quick donation in return for getting a priestess of Kristor to bless several of the egg fragments. With the amount he donated, she doesn’t seemed concerned with what she is blessing.

Now making his way over to Gregory, it is a while before he can wake the old man up. Once Gregory is up, Graykar hands over the blessed griffin egg shard. Surprised, Gregory says he should be able to finish a new concoction by sundown. Graykar promises to return.

Later in the evening, having spent the day with his companions, he returns to Greggory.

“This potion will taste foul, fouler than any you have drank before. However, it should work to unlock those pesky memories you are after,” Gregory states as he hands a cup full of liquid to Graykar.

“Thank you. I am most curious as to what I have forgotten.”

“I should warn you – this stuff has a kick to it. It will likely knock you out for several hours. I got a bed in back if you wish to crash there, only another 10 gold?” Gregory suggests.

“Can you bottle this up. I have a lot to do tomorrow and would like to crash in my own bed,” Graykar asks.

“Sure thing.” Gregory takes back the cup and runs into the back. After a few more minutes he returns with a corked flask. “Drink this soon, it’s potency will wear off in a few hours.”

Thanking Gregory, Graykar leaves. Before he heads back to Dame Imokan’s he has one other stop. Looking in on Gordan, the skinny duelist tells him that the mission was successful and thanks him.

“We have another job in a few days – interested?” Gordan asks.

Graykar declines, saying he must leave the city as soon as the Mid-Revel is done, but promises to return as soon as his other business is concluded.

Heading back to Dame Imokan’s, he prepares for bed and then drinks the potion. Using a potion to retrieve a personal memory feels oddly like déjà vu. He’s done this before, hasn’t he? Or was it a story Aja just recently told them? Hmmmm?

---

That night he dreams and remembers brief elements of another time. He’s in Chrailis, though the city is smaller. He recalls looking at his skin – much darker than it is now. He recalls living several days like this, in another’s body. When he looked at the mirror in the dream, the stranger he sees is a white-haired elf, not Graykar. Though at the time, he does not know this.

He was visiting Chrailis, having come from a far city to visit and to come see the Mid Revel. At the Mid Revel he met up with a beautiful yet exotic looking woman. Her hair is blonde and short, somewhat spiked up. And her eyes were dark, almost jet. They hit it off and he chooses to stay in Chrailis. Even then he remembers suspecting she might not be human.

Whoever this woman is, he doesn’t remember much. She simply went by the name of Lana. She insists that he should not pry or look further, just accept their relationship as is. She comes and goes, sometimes disappearing for days at a time.

Fearing that she might be someone else’s property, he remembers that he instead pried and finds she is a member of the Aristocracy. The next time they meet, she said they must not meet again and he should leave Chrailis for his safety. Ignoring this, believing her to be in trouble he could save her from, he continued to pursue her. She meets him again and this time he attempted to persuade her to leave with him. She actually agreed.

As they are getting ready to leave through the only functioning world gate in Chrailis, several members of Coterie Tar Isovral surrounded them. They were wearing robes of black and purple. No words were spoken. One of the purple-robed members stretched down his hand and a glowing purple blade come into existence out of nothing. He moved slowly but determinedly toward the other-Graykar with the definite intent to strike him down.

Lana then interceded, standing between the Coterie member and Graykar, staring him down. After several seconds of staring at the purple-robed man, she turned to the Graykar. “You must leave and not come back. It is an error for me to leave, for I would soon be vulnerable and killed, possibly killing those around me in the process. You would likely end of dead if you remained near me once we leave Chrailis. I love you, Tanlota, and so will not risk your life. I will never forget you, however, it is a mistake for us to try and continue our dalliances. You are allowed to leave, but never return.”

She moves up close and kisses him a final time before stepping away and turning her back to him. To the Coterie members she says, “He is to be allowed to leave.”

Without speaking, in his mind, Graykar remembers hearing the robed Coterie with the sword project, He is to be slain. None shall defile one of the daughters.

Continuing to stare at the robed Coterie member, she then said with an imperious voice which Graykar had not heard before, “On my order as Fi’Lanazierk – should this very man ever return to Chrailis, he is to be executed. However, it is my will that he lives today. I will deal with mother.” And without even looking, she lifted a single hand palm out toward Graykar and he found himself flung through the air toward the world gate. As he neared it, the gate activated and he hurtled through.

---

The next morning Graykar awakes with a horrible headache. Maybe he drank too much the day before, maybe it was the potion that Gregory gave him. He vaguely remembers the dream and the main details. Was it a dream or was it real? It would definitely explain why upon returning from the other Canton that the Coterie told him he was marked for execution if he should ever return. Well true or not, it’s a good story so Graykar decides to accept it as fact.