Eberron Adventure Journal: The Demons' Prophecy (2)

Therendor 5-9, YK 999

Part One - House (Cannith) Party:
Upon arrival in Fairhaven, the Wolves disembarked to run a variety of errands. Luggoth received a message from Savannah, back in Sharn, that everything was relatively stable, and that she missed him. Lysander went out and purchased an elaborate mirror for use in scrying, while everyone went out to buy some potions and scrolls for the next leg of their journey.

The next day, the Wolves showed up at the mansion reserved by House Cannith for the wedding. It was a lavish affair, attended by many members of all three branches of House Cannith. Before the ceremony, a dozen of the finest wines in Aundair flowed freely, and fire roasted vegetables from several Aundairian farms were taken around by finely-dressed waiters and waitresses.

Brand had a brief, strained conversation with his uncle, and the other Wolves got a glimpse of Url, his shifter bodyguard, who did indeed look like a dangerous individual, even though he wasn't allowed to carry any weapons into the ceremony.

Pel spent a great deal of time gathering rumors and gossip, hearing a lot of talk about Thaliost, a city lost to Thrane during the war. It was clear that many Aundarians longed to have it back, even though many admitted that Thrane has now had Thaliost for over 20 years, longer than Aurala has sat upon the throne of Aundair. Pel also picked up a simmering dislike of the Eldeen Reaches, which seceded from Aundair about forty years ago.

When he tried to gather some thoughts about the current situation in Sharn, Pel gathered that many of the Aundarians, even in the nobility and military, were somewhat nervous that this could spark another war. Many believed that King Boranel was itching for a reason to get back at Droaam for the murder of his bride Chaseva, even though no link between the Hags of Droaam and the murder had ever been fully established. Several even supported a conspiracy theory that the King's Dark Lanterns had fomented the gang war, with help from the Tyrants and the Boromar Clan, in order to set up a situation where Breland could justifiably declare war on Droaam.

After a couple of hours of mingling, the congregation was assembled in the hall, where they witnessed an elaborate swordfighting demonstration by several members of Aundarian nobility and several other members of House Cannith including the groom, Hetris d'Cannith). It slowly segued from a general display into a show wherein Hetris "rescued" his bride to be from Karrnathi soldiers and swept her up to the altar.

The rest of the ceremony was fairly standard for the Sovereign Host, as the priest praid for their future happiness, their health and the health of children to come and for the gods to make their family a beacon amongst Vassals. This last was greeted with thunderous applause from the House Cannith members in the audience. Then the guests, following instructions on cards in their seats, burned offerings in small ceramic vessels with the Celestial Crown or signs of one of the Sovereign Host gods on the bottom. The two then exchanged rings and a brief, chaste kiss before inviting the guests to join them in a feast.

After enjoying a more wine, a meal of pan-seared rabbit with a wood-nut sauce, a mushroom-rice casserole and a half-dozen different dessert pastries, the guests lined up to greet the couple, pass along gifts and enjoy the music provided by a dozen House Phiarlan bards and the dancing that comes with it. Hetris and Elaydren were especially pleased that the Wolves had commissioned an artist from Sharn to paint their portrait.

Elaydren asked the Wolves if they had seen Barron Merrix d'Cannith, and expressed some mild surprise that he didn't come, since he did accept the invitation. She asked the adventurers to carry a message with them to Sharn, but when they told her they weren't going back immediately, she decided to use a Sivis message station instead. After an hour, the couple departed on a couple of Valenar stallions to head out for their honeymoon in the country.

After the wedding, the Wolves retired to the apartment that House Orien had set up for them. Lysander set up his new mirror to try and scry the half-fiend they had encountered on the lightning rail. He saw the being, in a dark room somewhere, talking to someone in the shadows. The low, growling voice asked "Why did you try to kill Luggoth?"

"Ttemmal ordered it."

"I sent you to Ttemmal to follow my plans, not his. He's simply worried about the prophecy... Wait... we're being watched."

Before Lysander could sever the connection, the being in the shadows stepped forward, revealing himself to be a humanoid with a tiger-like head and glowing cobalt eyes. A Rakshasa, and a powerful one. He said "Well, hello there" before Lysander was able to finally cut the spell short.

A few hours later, as the Wolves slept, there was a knock on the door. Nalos Venteri was in the hall, and he told them that he had secured an airship. They were leaving in the middle of the night, rather than the morning, in case anyone had overheard their conversation and because it would be easier to slip out without anyone seeing them.

They went down to the docking tower in Fairhaven and met Captain Morris Blacksilver, the captain of the free airship The Beginner's Luck. They climbed aboard for a 20 hour flight to Flamekeep in Thrane. While they traveled, Lysander (seeing the use for an independent airship) got Sivis Message station contacts for Captain Blacksilver, who turned out to be an ex-Brelish soldier who had won the ship in a game of cards.

While on the trip, in between sleeping, Pel illuminated for the Wolves what he knew about The Demon Wastes and the Lords of Dust. He told them that there weren't many settlements in the Wastes, and the best known was a sketchy hamlet called Festering Holt. The Wastes were dominated by warring barbarian tribes, including one called the Ghaash'kala who worshipped Kalok Shash, the binding flame which might have been the same as the Silver Flame. The Ghaash'kala were charged with making sure nothing entered or left the Wastes.

The Lords of Dust were the servants of fiends who were imprisoned by the Silver Flame in the Age of Demons. The most common among them were Rakshasa, shapeshifting demons that can assume any human form and possess considerable magic powers on their own. He also revealed that he had heard that neither sword nor mace could harm them, only a spear or arrow blessed by the forces of good.

Part Two - Allies Lost and Found:
As the sun began to set in Thrane, The Beginner's Luck settled into the docking tower in Flamekeep. However, as they were climbing out of the ship, Luggoth spotted a Wanted poster which indicated a man who looked very much like Nalos (without the red hair and glasses) was wanted for multiple murders. Luggoth tore it down and passed it to Lysander, who sidled up to Nalos and put his hat of disguise on him while showing him the poster. Which, incidentally, referred to Nalos as "Lukar Drosin."

Nalos was exceedingly nervous, and explained that he had been using a cover identity, but that otherwise he had been telling them the truth. He hadn't murdered anyone, but if this had been done, clearly he had been compromised, and it was dangerous to stay with them. Even with the disguise options available to them, Nalos felt that the people looking for them might have magical abilities. His presence could compromise the Wolves, who probably had not been discovered yet. He gave them a contact for him in Korth, in Karrnath, and asked them to send him a message when they knew anything. He told them that the information they sought would probably be in the Flamekeep Archives, but he didn't know much about how to get to them.

As The Beginner's Luck departed again with Nalos on board, the Wolves heard someone yelling out. "Lysander? Is that you?" They saw a paladin of the Silver Flame walking toward them and calling out to Lysander. Then most of the Wolves recognized him as Verodin Atrelioth, the paladin they had rescued from the Cult of the Dragon Below in the previous year.

After a few pleasantries, the Wolves told Verodin what was going on. Verodin revealed that he was on his way to meet Cardinal Hetrion in Trolanport. The Cardinal, whom the Wolves had met when he restored Brand after a vampiric attack, had told Verodin not to talk to anyone else in the Church, which lined up with what Nalos had told them. When Verodin let slip that Cardinal Hetrion's first name was Ossul, they realized that the Cardinal targeted for assassination was someone they knew.

Verodin had to go to Trolanport, but he didn't think the Wolves should come with him, because of Cardinal Hetrion's instructions. The Cardinal had told him to trust only four men, and three of them had been murdered, supposedly by the fourth one. However, the news of corruption in the church did remind him what he had heard about a corrupted band of ex-paladins and clerics from many years ago, a fanatical group named The Order of Cleansing Flame. He didn't know anything else about them, but knew that all that information should be in the archives. He gave them a few names and places to use in Flamekeep that would help them find some information about the Archives.

Part Three - The Flamekeep Archives:
The Wolves went into town and found an inn that Verodin had recommended. While Luggoth used the hat of disguise to appear as Gareth and buy weapons for dealing with the Rakshasa, the others spent about half the day checking in on Verodin's contacts and others.

After spending a few hours, they learned that the Church stored all of its documents and records in a heavily guarded, enclosed chamber inside the Shining Cathedral. The only way to walk through its walls is to be a Cardinal, and to be detected as the purest worshipper of the Silver Flame. However, there were rumors that even some of the Cardinals are not pure enough to walk directly into these record chambers. For this reason, the Flamekeep Archives were created. They were built by House Kundarak, and the entrance was guarded and trapped, passable only by a series of safeguards. Rumor had it that they are either underground or extradimensional in nature.

As far as accessing the Archives, they learned that Some five miles from Flamekeep itself, there was an understated hovel belonging to a hermit named Erv. Many citizens of Flamekeep know about Erv, but few knew that Erv is in fact an agent of the Silver Flame charged with guarding access to the Flamekeep Archives. They also learned about a few of the security measures. Each High Cardinal had a medallion that would identify them to some of the security measures, and they also got a series of passwords that were generated by House Kundarak and passed along by courier every day.

Seeking information on House Kundarak, the Wolves did another three hours of research and found out that intercepting the Kundarak courier was no easy task. When the package was sent, the new passwords don't take effect until all of the High Cardinals had received them, signed the piece of paper, and had it returned to the Kundarak enclave. The password document, once signed, was sealed with a glyph of warding by the courier, and was not opened until it is presented to the six Kundarak wizards charged with Flamekeep security inside the Kundarak enclave. In addition, Lysander checked in with one of his contacts in Flamekeep to find out about a few useful things for breaking into the Archives, which included adamantine weapons, waterbreathing magic, protection from fire and some kind of teleportation.

Luggoth decided to pick up masterwork weapons that could be blessed when holy weapons turned out to be too expensive.

Pel and Lysander used their disguise abilities to pose as "peasants" and visit Erv, but he quickly saw through their ruse and told them to go. That night, the Wolves spent several hours formulating a plan to intercept the couriers and get the code phrases.

While Brand went and picked up an adamantine longsword, the rest of the Wolves went through the first part of the plan. Pel kept an eye on House Kundarak, communicating with Lysander and the others using their rings of communication.

When six couriers emerged from House Kundarak, Pel picked one at random then followed him on his route. He found a blind alley on the route and marked it with chalk so that the other Wolves could get ready. Pel saw him go into House Kundarak and then, after a short time later, he emerged with the rest of the couriers.

Lysander stepped into the alley when the courier did and fired off a sleep spell, which put the dwarf right out. The others rushed in, Pel disabled the glyph and they got the information out. They found two number codes and two words, each tagged with "Archives" and "Library." Maechen also got a flash that he should cast Detect Magic on the paper, and when he did it glowed purple, although that faded when his spell did.

Pel then shapechanged into the dwarf, recast the glyph of warding from his scroll, and then poured a dose of dreamlily into the courier to cast suspicion on him. While the rest of the Wolves secured the doped up, sleeping courier, Pel walked back up to the Kundarak enclave, meeting up with the other couriers. They said that he had been the one who got the codes today, and sent him in, which revealed to Pel that he had lucked out and picked the only courier who had actual codes.

Once in, Pel dropped off the codes and left. One of the wizards asked him how his wife was, and he gave a non-committal answer, which seemed to confuse them, but let him get out.

The Wolves geared up and headed out to Erv's shack, disguising themselves as a Cardinal and his retinue. However, they didn't fool Erv for long, and as soon as the door was opened, he attacked Pel.

The Wolves rushed in and attacked Erv, who began fighting with monk abilities. He dodged most of the attacks from Maechen, Brand, Pel and Lysander, but he couldn't duck Luggoth's greatsword, and he was taking quite a beating without dishing out enough damage to Luggoth in return. Finally, with Pel firing spells out of his wand and Luggoth slashing and smacking Erv, the monk dropped, unconscious but alive.

XP:
Pel 1920 XP
Luggoth 1920 XP
Maechen 1920 XP
Lysander 1620 XP
Brand 960 XP