Game Session #5.5 The Missing Chapter

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It took me awhile to get back into the swing of writing these things up, but I’ve finally finished session 5.5 the missing chapter. This takes place between session 5 and 6 without Sicarius. Since this one was so overdue I forgot a lot of details so I sped up the pace of the conversations. As usual PM any corrections to me with as much detail as possible and I’ll do my best to fix it as quickly as I can. Told from Lucia’s viewpoint.

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With things finally starting to settle down, we manage to make it back to the safe house without further incident. After safely arriving, Tirvan bids us farewell at the entrance. We thank him for his help in protecting the Senator and exchange some small pleasantries. Shin being his usual stupid self asks a completely tactless question about the best way to kill a member of the Order of the Immaculate Storm. Part of me is in disbelief as I hear the feces flowing out of Shin’s mouth, but I suppose that Tirvan is even more dumbfounded as he just stares at Shin, no doubt trying to come up with a polite way to tell him that he’s a fucking idiot. In the end Tirvan just stutters for a bit before deciding that since he has nothing nice to say that he won’t say anything at all. He bids us farewell again and then quickly departs before Shin can come up with something else to say. I watch jealously as Tirvan leaves, able to distance himself from the stupidity that is the rest of my squad. Oh well, thems the breaks.

After Tirvan leaves the rest of us enter the safe house and are greeted with the familiar face of Klavion and the less familiar face of Duragar. I smile as I see that Klavion has made good on his claim to bring the great hero to meet us. We exchange some short pleasantries before getting down to business. I bring both Klavion and Duragar up to speed on recent events, filling in the numerous holes and details that I left out in our conversations over the mind link. As I’m telling the tale of our day, I can’t help but be amazed at everything we managed to accomplish.

Now that everyone is up to speed, we shift the focus of the conversation over to what has happened and what the hell is going on. Our first topic is the Shadow Templar. I do my best to subtly pump Duragar for information about this mysterious group. Unfortunately he doesn’t let too much slip, but after hearing my theory about why the Senator was attacked he seems to agree that this was a ploy to draw us out into the open. Next we talk about the undead Eodai we just recently dispatched and Duragar is very interested to hear about Tirvan and the Order of the Immaculate Storm. He helps fill in some of the holes in my memory recounting a tale about how they were formed during the Millennium War, how it is odd that they of all people have accepted an Illyrian amongst their ranks, and the mysteries revolving around Tirvan himself.

Once we are finished with our debriefing, Duragar says that he is very impressed with our progress, but as much as he would like to give us a break of course he has another assignment for us. I can’t help but roll my eyes as I hear that these guys still expect us to continue working like dogs. Damn these Wayfarers, don’t they understand the concept of a break. Well at any rate they better understand the concept of extra hazard pay because that is what I expect after everything that has happened today. Glancing over at my companions, I sigh softly as I was really looking forward to spending some quality time away from these idiots.

After hearing about what I learned about the Shadow Templar, Duragar was concerned that they were using the Saint Eve’s tavern as their meeting place. He tells us that the Saint Eve’s is supposedly one of our safe houses and that it is run by a good friend of his. Now that he has learned about these events, he is concerned that his friend hasn’t checked in with them and wonders if he has been turned against the Twilight Watch. Our mission is to go to the Saint Eve’s and make contact with our agent Alphonso Eve. We are to ask him about a hawk eye individual as well as inquire why he hasn’t made contact with us. Sounds mostly like an errand that any idiot could do, but for some reason they just decided to send us instead. We ask some short questions about how to contact Alphonso without revealing who we really are. We are told that mentioning our credo should be sufficient and as before, be as discreet as possible.

Our next mission assigned and us good to go, Klavion takes his leave to go do some more research and information gathering for us. If nothing else, he sure does make a good gopher for us. With nothing left to say we start to leave, but my curiosity gets the better of me and I tell Juno and Shin that I’ll meet them outside in a minute. Once they leave I ask Duragar and Nalivir if they have ever heard of the Azure Flame. Probably not the best idea or the best idea, but at the moment I really didn’t care. I got the usual plain response, but also a very interested Duragar who seemed very curious as to why I would ask about such a thing. Nalivir on the other hand seemed disinterested and I let the subject drop, simply responding that I was just curious what they had heard about it. Sadly it seems that not everything can go my way and having gauged their response I deemed it pointless to push the issue. Just mentioning it was a bad idea and if I showed them anymore cards for free I might come to regret it in the near future. Still smiling I take my leave and join the others outside the safe house.

As I’m leaving the safe house I see another familiar face walking towards us, it seems that our good friend Osmium has returned, yippee. We say hi and start to ask him where he went when he suddenly interrupts us, points at me, and tells me to follow him. I raise an eyebrow wondering what he wants with me, also curious as to where he went and why he has returned so suddenly when just a little while ago he said that it would be dangerous for him to be with us. So yeah, he’s not making a whole lot of sense at the moment. I look over at Shin and Juno and then ask Osmium what about them. He replies that they are unimportant and that I need to come with him immediately. The question of why he wants me to come with him is buzzing around in my head, but I have to admit that he has gotten on my good side after calling both Shin and Juno useless, something I whole heartily agree with at the moment. So while I’m weary of going with him to some random place, the prospect of ditching two out of three of my traveling companions is an appealing thought. Deciding that whatever he wants shouldn’t take too long, I instruct the others to go ahead of us to the tavern and wait for us there. I remind them not to do anything stupid and stand out. With that, we all disperse. Shin and Juno heading to Saint Eve’s and Osmium and myself going somewhere unknown.

On our way to somewhere I ask Osmium to fill me in on what’s going on. Oddly enough, he seems very troubled by whatever is going on and hesitates to answer. After a moment he swears me to secrecy before telling me that a friend of his has gone missing. He mentions some other small tidbits of information, but my mind is focusing in on the missing friend and trying to put the pieces together. Sadly I still don’t have enough information so I let it go for now and decide to play along. A short while later we arrive at a sewer entrance. Honestly I can’t say that I’m that surprised that we ended up here, but it still doesn’t explain why he needed me to come. More so I’m concerned with what crawled out of these things earlier and am silently hoping that we don’t run into anymore of those things down there.

For the second time today, I descend into the bowels of Valdis. Not exactly where I envisioned myself when I joined the Twilight Watch, but for some dumb reason here I am. Osmium explains that he needs my eyes to find the source of the Eodai we encountered earlier. Things finally starting to make sense, I figure that he couldn’t track the mana traces I found earlier and needs me to do it for him. Great, so now I’ve been reduced to a magic bloodhound. Part of me wants to tell him to go crawl back into the shadow that spawned him, but I am curious where those things came from myself. And I guess part of me does feel a little sorry for his friend. Then again who would want to be friends with a guy like this is beyond me. Once I agree to help, I start scanning the sewers looking for what I found earlier. It isn’t too hard to pick up the trail again but it does take me a moment to find the particular trail we want. Finding the most recent trail of mana, I motion for Osmium to follow and we start following it back to its source.

There isn’t much to say about our journey. It smelled, there were some vermin, and for the most part it was boring as all hell. Then as we’re walking along it starts to stink even harder than usual. A scent that is both repugnant and familiar at the same time. I can’t quite place it, but after taking a few more steps I spot what is causing it. A nice big pile of corpses piled up all nice and neat.

Well, they weren’t piled up all nice and neat so much as thrown about in a mess of blood and gore. Guts hanging here, body parts lying there, all in all it was a fairly grisly scene, but all that I cared about was the fact there were corpses lying down here. Old habits kicking in I quickly assume a defensive stance and scan the area looking for potential threats. Not seeing anything jump out at me, I slowly relax and then walk over to inspect the corpses. Surprisingly I end up finding eight dead men dressed up like those Shadow Templar we’ve been killing all day. Checking their weapons I confirm that these guys are the genuine article and start thinking about what did this. I get a quick mind link message from Shin telling me that they have arrived at the tavern, and asking how much longer we will be. I respond saying not long and remind him to be on his best behavior. Noticing that the trail is heading up above ground, I climb up the ladder and take a look topside. Recognizing the area where we were assaulted by the undead Eodai, it isn’t hard to guess what probably killed the Shadow Templar. Of course this information isn’t that comforting since it means that we’ve been heading in the wrong direction. Dropping back down into the sewers I quickly tell Osmium where we are and that we’ve been going the wrong way. We quickly do a 180 and head back the way we came. As we pass the corpses on our way back I can’t help but question whether or not I really want to find the place where these things came from.

After a bit of travel time we arrive at the source. Once again there is a hatch leading to the surface and I’m about to climb up when Osmium stops me. He suggests that he should be the first to check it out and make sure the coast is clear, an idea that I quickly agree too. Doing his usual shadow trick he climbs up the walls of the sewer and starts to go through the hatch when he suddenly stops in front of it. He seems to struggle for a bit before falling down and assuming Illyrian form. Staring at the exit he says that he can’t pass through.

Focusing my vision on the exit I find the barrier that I expected to find, but the barrier itself was far beyond my expectations. Composed completely of darkmoon air mana this barrier appeared to be custom made for this entrance. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but it looked like it was possible to create a small hole in the barrier just large enough for the hatch so one could pass through without deactivating the entire shield. The strength of the barrier was also rather interesting as it was far beyond anything that I have ever seen before.

A few seconds after I confirmed the barrier’s existence I fill Osmium in on what was blocking his path, studying the barrier as I do so. Of course if I didn’t want to be disturbed I probably should have known better than to tell Osmium that there is a big invisible wall between him and his mystery friend. After learning of the barrier’s existence Osmium quickly summons several shadow tendrils and starts forcing his way through the barrier.

I wince as his first tendril moves to strike the barrier, silently thinking that there went our element of surprise. Not surprisingly his first tendril didn’t even scratch the barrier. Given how powerful this thing looked, I doubt that even I could force my way in. But as his second, third, and each successive tendril after strikes the barrier I noticed an irregularity that was both intriguing and setting of every warning bell in my head.

At first I didn’t even notice it, but as each successive tendril failed to do any damage to the barrier I got curious and started to see how the barrier was responding to Osmium’s attack. Imagine my surprise when I realized that none of his attacks were even making it to the barrier. Thanks to my Dragon’s Eye I was able to watch the supposed moment of impact when his attack should have hit the barrier, but instead was stopped by some mysterious force before the attack even hit the barrier. Falling short by maybe an inch or so, I doubt that most people would even realize that their attacks weren’t actually touching the barrier. And of course there is a short list of things that could generate such an effect, high level time magic being the most likely suspect. I let Osmium continue his useless struggle for a few more seconds to confirm my findings before telling him to stop. Osmium is looking very frustrated at this point so I quickly explain that because his attacks aren’t even reaching the barrier that his attempts are useless. He spends a short second pondering this knowledge before dispelling his tendrils. He asks me what we should do and I ask him to give me a minute. Turning my attention back to the barrier, I conduct my own test to see if I can figure out how the barrier works. Firing a small flame at the barrier, I watch as it gets within an inch or so and the disappears without a trace. I grin as the flame disappears, confirming my theory that some kind of time magic is at work here. Now the wheels are turning trying to figure out how to break down this barrier so I can make it my own.

Unfortunately this new information is telling me that anything I do will probably be useless unless I can come up with some way to get past the time displacement part of the barrier. Forcing our way through seems to be a big no no so our best bet on getting inside would be to figure out how to open the hole for the hatch. That will probably require some kind of key, or perhaps it can only be opened from the inside. I come up with dozens of fruitless theories, but I can’t help but feel that I’m missing something important. Staring blankly at the barrier trying to figure out its mysteries, I catch a glimpse of a stray shadow element. Wondering what that could be, I try looking for it again. It takes me a bit but I manage to spot a second spell complementing the barrier. Some kind of befuddlement spell that is messing with my head and preventing me from figuring out how the barrier works. A two part barrier, those bastards! This second spell explains perfectly why I’m having such a hard time figuring out how the barrier works. Now we’re getting somewhere.

As I’m starting to locate parts of the shadow spell to see if I can remove it Osmium interrupts me and tells me that we have to get through the barrier. I tell him to hold on and go back to thinking about how to do just that. Obviously I need to remove the second spell so I can deal with the first. As I’m pondering if my flames will be able to reach it, Osmium informs me that they know we’re here. While I’m not that surprised that they know we’re here, what interest me is how Osmium knows that they know. Sighing as I take one last glance at the barrier, we both suggest that we vacate the premises, agree, and then quickly do so before the guards come around. Booking it back the way we came, I occasionally glance up at the ceiling keeping tabs on just how far the barrier extends, looking for a weak spot we might be able to punch through. To my surprise it extends for quite a ways before disappearing. Stopping us once we reach the edge of the barrier, I tell Osmium that we should be safe here since we’ve just left the area protected by the barrier. Curious as to what the barrier was protecting I start looking around for an exit so I can confirm our position, Osmium on the other hand isn’t quite as patient as I am and conjures several tendrils that start clawing their way through the ceiling. I quickly put some distance between myself and the crumbling ceiling as the debris starts to fall. Sighing quietly as he isn’t nearly as subtle as I would have imagined him to be, I wait patiently as he makes us an exit all the while wondering how I am going to explain this one to the crowd we are no doubt drawing.

As the ceiling crumbles I catch a glimpse of something green fall to the ground. Taking a closer look I notice a patch of grass among the rest of the rubble falling from the sky. I stare at the grass for a moment wondering where the hell we would find grass inside of Valdis. In a city like Valdis you would probably only find grass in either a park or a noble’s front yard... Oh yeah I am definitely not liking where this is going.

With our exit made, we both climb our way up to the surface. After taking a nice deep breath of clean fresh air I look around for the crowd of curious people that we have no doubt drawn. For the second, or is it third time today I am amazed as one of my teammate’s obnoxiously obvious actions draws no attention what so ever. In fact, I can’t even see another soul no matter where I look. While I’m looking for signs of intelligent life I confirm that we are in one of the nicer areas of Valdis and that we did indeed make a big hole in some rich guy’s front lawn. Looking back in the direction of the barrier I notice a nice big ominous mansion standing on top of it.

Taking a better look at the house, I notice a strange mix of shadow and fire darkmoon mana surrounding it. Very different from the air and shadow barrier that was protecting it from below. Looking around for a mailbox so I can figure out who lives here I find one with the name K. Oladorn on it. K. Oladorn that name sounds familiar. It sounds like one of the heroes of the Millennium War. Makes sense since he was supposedly from Valdis. As I recall he died during the war and I don’t remember hearing of any significant descendants or relatives. So why would our search lead us here and why the hell is some dead war hero’s house now home to probably demonic forces.

As I’m pondering these facts Osmium is busy filling in the hole he just created as he similarly stares at the mansion. After a few seconds of staring I am able to figure out two things. The first is probably the reason why we didn’t draw a crowd. It seems that there is a spell that is creating some kind of repulsion field that both cloaks the house from curious observers and a creates a kind of subtle suggestion to not pay any attention to it. The second is there is another or maybe the same spell that causes pain if you get too close to the house. Testing my findings I take one step towards the house and instantly feel the effects. Oh yeah that’s annoying. Taking a step back I feel the pain fading. Turning to Osmium I tell him about the pain field and suggest that we don’t get too close to the mansion. The pain will probably increase exponentially the closer we get.

Of course Osmium being well... Osmium decides in his infinite wisdom to ignore my suggestion and starts walking towards the house. Well his stupidity is my gain, sometimes it’s nice to have dumb companions. I watch as the field begins to attack him as he advances towards the house. To his credit he seems to be shrugging off the worst of it and continues on his march. Watching this scene reminds me of a spell my mom used to use to keep insects out of the house. Considering that there is probably a servant of Zex living inside that mansion, the irony of this situation is not lost on me. Part of me is concerned about what I will do once the barrier renders Osmium unconscious at the front door, but the other part of me is enjoying the spectacle. I’ll worry about what to do with him when he falls when he falls.

As Osmium crosses the halfway point I have to admit that I’m impressed with his tenacity. Judging from how much pain I felt from that one step I figure that I wouldn’t make it halfway across the field before the pain overwhelmed me. He seems very determined to rescue who ever is trapped inside that house. Part of me is sympathetic to his cause, but I still think he’s an idiot for charging in like this. Of course I can’t say that I wouldn’t do the exact same thing if I was in his position. Oh well, better figure out a way to take down that field so I can join him.

As I ponder how to break through this field and join Osmium things suddenly change. One second Osmium is trudging through the field and approaching the door, the next second he’s flying past me and crashing through the fence. Me, I’m just standing there staring at empty space replaying what I just saw through my mind. If I didn’t have these eyes I wouldn’t have a clue what just happened, but for good or ill I saw everything. One moment the field is doing it’s job causing pain, but suddenly all of the mana in the area gathered and compressed itself in a single point, this point then slammed into Osmium sending him flying, and then immediately returned back to its original state. All of this taking place over the span of a few milliseconds.

I can’t help but be amazed and just a little concerned by what I just saw. Cool effect, a hell of a lot more interesting than my mom’s old spell, but at the same time it didn’t look like the field did that on its own. More so it looked like someone from inside the mansion noticed Osmium and triggered that effect. I check the windows, but fail to spot anyone. Not wanting to push my luck, I quickly back away and go check to see how Osmium is doing.

Oh yeah, he’s out. It seems like whatever it was that blasted him packed one hell of a punch. I can’t tell if the expression of pain etched on his unconscious face is from the field, the blast, or both. Either way, I can tell that we’re not getting in through the front door anytime soon.

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To be continued.

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Continued from previous, still told by Evil Mastermind Lucia's viewpoint.

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While I’m trying to figure out what to do next I get a message from Shin. It seems that our companions are getting a little restless and Shin asks me once again how much longer we are going to be. Still trying to figure out what to do, I ignore him as he asks again, then asks if we’re ok, and finally asks if we’re alive. At this point Klavion jumps in wondering what is going on. I suppose at this point I should mention that we’re alive, but I’m unsure of what to tell them.

Lucia: (Uh...)

Klavion: (I hesitate to ask, but what’s going on?)

Lucia: (Well, we have three big problems.)

Klavion: (Ok...)

Lucia: (So yeah. We went exploring in the sewers, long story, and we eventually ran into this fucked up barrier. Some kind of a darkmoon air force wall protecting an access hatch. And if that wasn’t clear enough, there is some kind of temporal magic at work there that is preventing anything from actually reaching the barrier. And to make things even more interesting, there is a secondary shadow component that is preventing me from figuring out how the barrier actually works.)

Klavion: (...)

Lucia: (So since we couldn’t get in that way, we tried gaining entrance through the front door. Does the name Kelvin Oladorn ring any bells? Right, big hero and all of that. Anyways it turns out this barrier is protecting his house from below, and above ground there is another spell at work. This time we have some sort of a repulsion field surrounding the house. Harmless at first glance but if you get too close it will give you one hell of a splitting headache.)

Klavion: (.....)

Lucia: (Which brings us to our final problem. Apparently someone noticed Osmium trying to march across the front lawn. He almost made it to the door before someone triggered some kind of defense spell which sucked up all the ambient magic and then blasted him clear across the lawn and through the fence. As for Osmium, he’s ok I guess but he won’t be waking up anytime soon. And yeah, that about sums up what we’ve been up too.)

Klavion remains speechless for a moment before quickly recomposing himself. I imagine him burying his face in his palm where ever he is. He offers to send a team of specialists to examine our findings and I tell him that’s a good idea and he should hurry up and do it. He instructs us to resume our current mission and I say that is also a good idea, but there is one problem with that idea, Osmium probably won’t want to leave just yet. He sighs and agrees with me, telling me to deal with it. What a bastard, I’m going to enjoy killing him one of these days. I acknowledge his orders, tell him to direct the specialists to the sewer entrance since that will probably be their best bet, and to be careful since they will probably be expected by who ever just blasted Osmium across the front lawn.

That taken care of I look back down at Osmium. I figure that if he wakes up here, he’ll probably just repeat what just happened and get himself KO’d all over again. So I quickly incant two spells, smirking as I steal one of Klavion’s tricks. I summon my wings and then cast an illusion of a cloud over both me and Osmium. With our nifty little disguise, we float away to a distant rooftop. As we’re leaving, I take note of where this mysterious house was located and then start heading towards the Saint Eve’s tavern.

Landing about halfway between our previous and current destination on a nice convenient rooftop, I wait for Osmium to wake up. He does so shortly and we have a few words. Nothing spectacular, mostly what happened, where we are, and what we intend on doing next. Part way through the conversation Osmium suggests we move somewhere less bright so we break into an unoccupied room in the building we’re standing on and then resume our conversation.

I ask Osmium what the fuck is going on and why he is so hell bent on getting inside that mansion. He sighs and then tells this elaborate tale of this woman who helped him escape from Zex’s little hellish prison. I listen very interested in how he pulled off that particular trick. It seems that you need several keys to escape and this woman was one of his keys. Apparently Zex is trying to steal all of Osmium’s keys so he can’t get out again. Fascinating. I also learn that this woman is a member of nobility, a married woman at that as well as some other interesting facts. How she was abducted by the Eodai presumably and is currently being held in that mansion we just left. Osmium seems to be very adamant about getting her back, even at the cost of his own life. Seeing that there is little I can do to stop him, I do my best to persuade him to hold off on launching another frontal assault until we know how to get inside.

He agrees to wait until the specialists are done analyzing the barriers and we ask Klavion for an update. Klavion tells us that they have arrived and that progress is being made. Klavion also mentions that he looked into that school incident he mentioned earlier and there is no record of anyone named Tirvan attending the academy. There was a young man by the name of Osirian who attended and was the student who was illegally forged into an Illyrian. He tells us about how he was let go instead of killed and I found this rather odd, they believed him to be incompetent yet the Tirvan I know is far from incompetent. I thank him for the information and remind him to keep those specialists protected. He says ok and we continue to the tavern.

We arrive at the tavern rather tardy, spotting Shin at the bar picking up some food as we walk in. We wave, apologize for being so late saying we got lost and then join him and his mysterious cloaked friend at a table. The cloaked idiot being Juno, attracting probably as much attention as one can without causing a riot. Yeah, real subtle guys. Oh well, nothing to do about that now. Some guy comes and takes our order, as he goes to fetch our order, Shin informs me that guy is the owner who we were supposed to make contact with.

He comes back with my ale and Shin mentions our credo to him, his expression changes and asks us what took so long. Not wanting to discuss things out in the open, we make a big show and get moved to the VIP room. Shin, making another stupid comment that draws more attention than any of us would have liked as we make our way to the back room. Man, I really want to kill that idiot.

Once behind closed doors we talk with Alphonso about what he knows and what we want to know. Both sides are weary at first, testing each other to see if they can be trusted or not. First we both apologize one for taking so long and the other for not getting in touch earlier. Alphonso mentions that he thinks he was being watched. I ask about the hawk faced individual and he confirms that he has been coming here on a regular basis with his silent friend. Using a false name, he rented out a flat in his tavern and he and several of his friends met there. Alphonso tried to listen in, but couldn’t get much. Checking the rooms after also turned up no more clues. Shin asks to see the rooms and Alphonso says that can be arranged. Deciding to trust that Alphonso is on the level, I tell Shin to forget about the rooms and we asks some more questions about the commanding Shadow Templar.

Alphonso describes the two as one powerful mage and one non-mage who wields powerful magic items. I ask him to describe the weapons and he accurately describes the now familiar dagger and gun combo. He seems confused about parts of the gun so I drop a few hints that help fill in the blank spots. The more I talk to him, the more it seems that he was just doing his job. Yeah, he’s on the level. I ask him if he overheard anything and he says that they were talking in some unknown language. He goes on to say that if he couldn’t recognize it, then it is very exotic as he hears all sorts of stuff. I nod, figuring that it is one of their codes and ask if he could remember what was said. He smiles at this point and casts an air spell, producing a small sphere of air that replayed all sounds that it previously captured. Smiling, I say that’s a neat trick and we listen.

Unfortunately none of us are fluent in Shadow Speak which is the cipher I assume they are using. I ask him if he can replay that slower, he says it will be difficult but tries to do so. He succeeds and I cast a spell of my own. Tracing illusionary flames in the sky, I transcribe the conversation that the pair are having in the air word for word. Once we are finished with that, I apply the cipher I learned from Winston and we end up with this passage.

Lunares hour in the all seeing eye
The western median in the dead of night
Awaken in the eastern crescent
The hour of Solaris in the western eye
End your labor in the southern edge
The skies darken in the western Crescent
Solaris falls in the eastern edge
The stars align in the eastern median.

Decoded we are still baffled by this meaning, obviously our quarry is smarter than we thought and was using a code within the code to throw off spies such as ourselves. Seeing as none of us knew what to make of this, I turned to our resident information monkey and asked Klavion his opinion. We repeated the passage to him and he told us that it sounds like each line is talking about a time and a place. Lunares Hour being midnight and The Hour of Solaris being midday.

With this new information in hand, we went back to thinking about what this meant. A list of some sort, but the question of what happened during those times and places was still up in the air. We asked Alphonso when he recorded this and he said about a week ago or so. This meant that it probably wasn’t referring to the Senator’s tour. The times of day were also puzzling as it seemed that it covered the entire day. Alphonso made the connection that the places might have something to do with the insignia they use. Looking at the insignia, we all got the bright idea to overlay it over a map of Valdis. Drawing a map of Valdis in illusionary flames over the insignia we all started staring at it. We all agreed that the all seeing eye would indicate Valdis Keep. The only problem was how to orient the rest of the map. Juno finally making himself useful popped in and determined a common northern point and correctly orientated the map.

With that problem taken care of, we set ourselves on the task of deciphering the rest of the passage. Marking the locations on the map and then questioning Alphonso, we were able to determine several likely meeting places. The two closest to our current timeframe being an old abandoned barracks and an abandoned granary. Shin finally showing that he is more than a walking collection of muscles makes some interesting conclusions and takes charge of this investigation. Consulting with Klavion, he determined that our best shot to intercepting their next meeting place would be to gather at the old barracks. Klavion agreeing, we decided to do that.

Meanwhile Osmium is asking Klavion over the mind link for an update on the status of the specialists that were sent out earlier. Klavion responds that they are close to breaking the shadow befuddle spell I mentioned earlier. I ask about the repulsion field and he says that they decided to stick with the sewers, the spell above ground being far too dangerous to mess with. He also mentions that me noticing the shadow spell saved them a lot of time. It took them awhile to notice it even when they were looking for it. Hearing this, I am greatly disappointed in the team’s capabilities. I had previously assumed that they would be better than me at this because they were specialized in analyzing strange magics. Now I am starting to wonder if it was such a good idea to entrust this task to them. It only took me half a minute to spot that shadow enchantment and if we weren’t interrupted I might have been able to crack it in another minute or two. Oh well I guess that I can’t expect too much from these backwater mages, a comment which I mutter over the mind link. Lesson learned.

Now that we know our next move we finish up our chat with Alphonso. Some small details are taken care of and we arrange to have a guard posted at the tavern to help keep an eye on things in our absence. Those who bother eating paid their tabs and we set off for the barracks.

We arrive at the barracks without incident a welcome luxury. At this hour it seems that we are the only ones out here, but it appears that we are not the only ones who have been to this particular barrack. We spot a trail of foot prints from the main road to the supposed abandoned barracks that seems to be fairly recent. Upon seeing this, Shin, this gigantic Val gets on his tippie toes and somehow manages to step inside of the human size foot prints with his Val sized clod hoppers without leaving any evidence that he was ever there. I stare at him in amazement for a few seconds before casually walking up to the door. Really, sometimes this guy just dazzles me. To his credit, it was a good idea to conceal his own foot prints, but we human sized folk don’t have such problems as our foot prints are hard to distinguish from those already present. But good job Shin, you get a gold star for thinking ahead like that.

The front door is bolted shut and pad locked. Though, despite this it is obvious that someone has been using this facility for something or another. Osmium starts to do his usual shadow sneak through a window when Juno stops him. Juno being the master of all that is mechanical pops the lock on the door and we all proceed inside. Shin asks Osmium to lock the door behind us, and a small shadow tendril appears to relock the door just the way it was when we got there. Hmm, maybe there is some hope for Shin after all. He seems to be well versed in laying an ambush for his opponent. Probably because he’s walked into more than his fair share but still a good thing to keep in mind.

The interior is mostly what I expected. An old barracks covered in dust except for a lone path that leads to the second floor. Being careful not to disturb the dust, I follow it upstairs. The trail leads us to a dorm room that has been converted to a meeting room. A large table and a bunch of chairs stand where one might expect to find bunk beds. Unfortunately there is nothing of interest on the table and the rest of the barrack seems to be untouched. Figuring that there is nothing here, we all leave the room and head back to the main room to discuss what our next step is going to be... Well at least that was what I was planning on doing. On my way down Shin disappears somewhere as does Osmium. Juno on the other hand is busy attaching some kind of device to every entrance inside the barrack.

So there I stand in the main hall and just face palm as I realize that an ambush is completely out of the question. The once neat line of dust that went from the entrance to the stairs is now completely disturbed. Dust that previously covered every inch of the facility except for that line was now scattered by everyone’s unnecessary movement. Perhaps I should have told them not to touch anything when we first got here. Here is my problem for assuming that they would be smart enough to avoid leaving evidence that we have arrived. That aside, I am reminded that I should not remain inside if this ambush is to succeed. If their mage is anything like me, then a quick magic scan will reveal not only my presence, but Osmium and perhaps Juno as well. I really need to work on a masking spell for my aura one of these days. Relaying the relevant information to my companions I quickly exit through one of the second story windows and fly to an adjacent rooftop. Lying low I wait for our guests to arrive while my companions frivolously conceal themselves somewhere in the barracks.

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To be continued.

[feedback]

Continued from previous, still told by the nice guy Lucia’s perspective.

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We wait for a short while before I spot two approaching figures. I briefly notify the others over the mind link and observe the pair to see if they noticed both my presence and the mind link spell. A few tense seconds pass and the pair passes me without flinching. I smirk and watch as they approach the barracks. Deciding to chance it, I briefly activate my Dragon’s Eye and check the pair for magics. Of course that probably wasn’t the best idea as the duo suddenly stops and the mage looks straight in my direction. Yeah bad idea. The pair stare at me for another tense few moments before turning back around and continuing on their way to the barracks. Breathing a sigh of relief, I notify the others that they are at the door.

Silently praying that they won’t notice the obvious signs that we are lying in ambush, I watch as they unlock the door, open it, and stop. I silently curse the other’s stupidity and watch as they close the door and quickly start to leave. While I am considering my options Osmium suddenly appears out of nowhere, as per usual, and conjures a shadow tendril. Aiming to grapple the mage and take him out of combat, his tendril flies towards the mage but is intercepted as the fighter type steps in front of him and deflects the tendril with his blade.

Well I guess these two won’t go down as easily as their subordinates did. From around the corner of the building I see Juno’s shiny self appear but pay him little attention as I’m more interested to see how the mage is going to react. Moving in a little closer so I can try and counter spell whatever attack he aims at my team, I’m a bit surprised when he turns to me and fires off a fairly powerful lightning bolt. I guess he must have kept an eye out for me since he noticed my detection spell earlier. Well this spells out bad times for me since I don’t have any of my defensives active because I was trying to keep a low profile. Quickly checking my options I decide that I should go with my strongest defense. "From deep below the world's crust I call forth the primal fire. Untamed by man, the lifeblood of this world's heart. Create for me an armor impervious to all harm." The floor beneath me suddenly begins to glow red before a burst of magma erupts from the ground and envelops me, flowing magma covers my body creating a defensive barrier which intercepts the lightning bolt and absorbs the damage. Unfortunately while the armor protects me from bodily harm it isn’t quite enough to cushion the force of the attack which knocks the wind out of me. Yeah, maybe on second thought I should have tried to deflect it rather than block it.

His mage friend now in the clear, the fighter goes on the offensive and takes a slash at Osmium. Osmium manages to narrowly dodge the attack but gets cut in the leg, fortunately it doesn’t look too serious of a wound but it looked like it bypassed whatever armor Osmium is using. Remembering how easily those daggers cleaved Shin in half I’m a little less than enthusiastic about our chances against these two. In response to getting his leg cut, Osmium spits a glob of acid at the fighter’s face which is easily dodged in turn.

Once I’m done clearing the cobwebs and regaining my senses the mage decides to shoot another lightning bolt at me, fantastic. Juno now deciding to try and do something useful fires off some kind of magic suppression beam at the mage. Juno’s little trick seems to weaken the mage’s lightning bolt but it doesn’t change the fact that there is a lightning bolt flying straight at me. Deciding that dodging is better than trying to block it I quickly drop to the ground and watch as the lighting bolt blows a hole in the building that I was using for cover. Yeah, definitely don’t want to get hit by one of those.

As the mage’s lightning bolt puts a hole in the building I’m lying on, the big blue angry retard aka Shin decides to show up in style as he crashes through the second floor wall directly above the door of the supposedly abandoned bunker. Brick and debris go flying with the force of an angry retard and as the dust clears you can see the big blue retard himself standing in the doorway looking pumped up and ready to smash someone’s face in.

Sensing his chance to incapacitate the mage, Osmium conjures another shadow tendril and sends it after the poor mage. Without his warrior friend to protect him, the mage is easy prey for Osmium who wraps his tendril around the mage’s throat and begins to choke him like a little bitch. A lightning shield flares up as it does its best to protect the mage, but it seems that Osmium’s tendrils will not be denied as the mage starts gasping for air.

Once again rushing to his friend’s aid the fighter says something I can’t make out and then thrusts his nether blade right into Osmium’s stomach. Ooooh that’s gotta hurt. Osmium falls to the ground as the warrior pulls his blade out of the shadow fiend’s stomach. Osmium’s tendril dissipates and the mage similarly falls clutching his throat gasping for breath, his lightning shield fades as he loses his concentration.

Juno once again trying to be helpful fires some kind of light beam at the mage. I believe these technical people call it a laser or something. Well whatever it’s called it seems to be rather effective as it hits the mage and drops him to the ground. Poor guy, first he gets the life choked out of him and then he gets shot while he’s down. As the mage falls the warrior screams out “Kelborn!” Well I guess we now know the name of the mage, not that it matters. With one team member down for each side we seem to be in the clear. With our superior numbers, range, and big blue over there this fight looks like it’s in the bag.

Fighter boy who ever he is turns his gaze towards Shin and takes on a defensive pose, obviously waiting for Shin to make the first move. Seeing the invitation Shin wastes no time and jumps down fist first hoping to turn the fighter into a pancake. Unfortunately things don’t always go as planned as the fighter somehow manages to deflect Shin’s attack and dodge out of the way. Instead of making a human shaped pancake Shin ends up making a small crater in the ground where his fist impacted.

Moving back on the offensive the fighter slashes at Shin and once again is denied a critical hit as Shin manages to dodge the main part of the swing, the tail end nicking him in his leg. Man, this guy really needs to start aiming a little bit higher if he wants to take Shin out. Shin on the other hands grins as he seems to be enjoying his little duel with the captain.

For all I care Shin can have his duel with the captain. If he doesn’t finish him off then I doubt that I’ll have much trouble dealing with him after. And if Shin just happens to die again, that would be a nice bonus. Sadly Juno will be having none of this dueling shit and fires an ice beam at the fighter. I must say that I am rather impressed with the fighter’s reflexes as he quickly moves to try and deflect the blast with his sword only to fail as the ice beam hits his sword and then quickly forms a prison encasing him in solid ice.

Of course this is the perfect set up for Shin who smiles and cracks his knuckles as he moves right in front of the fighter. Winding up he throws a power punch at the fighter’s stomach which cracks the ice in front of the fighter, the force of the blow shatters the rest of the ice which was holding him in place, and the fighter falls to the ground unconscious.

After the captain falls I jump down from the building, summon my wings to help slow my fall, and then walk over to join the others. Once I get there I glance over to see how Osmium is doing. He seems fine as he wakes up a few seconds after I get there. Glancing back at our enemies, I notice that we somehow managed to take both of them alive. Well now that we have prisoners I guess we get to play the fun game of interrogation again. It seems that everyone else has the same idea as we drag both bodies inside the barracks and close the door.

Osmium seems to be the one most looking forward to this as he conjures six tendrils that bind the captain to the ground, two tendrils grabbing each arm and one tendril grabbing each leg. Figuring that he seems to be in the spirit of this, I let Osmium deal with the captain and move to search the mage’s body. My search reveal a sealed envelope which I quickly pocket. I check to make sure the mage is unconscious before looking back to see how Osmium is doing.

Satisfied that his target is helpless, Osmium creates another tendril that starts slapping the captain awake. A bit groggy, but the captain slowly starts to come around. He struggles briefly with his restraints before giving up, realizing the futility of his actions. The seventh tendril that was slapping the fighter awake removes the captain’s sword gauntlet, tosses it aside, then picks up the captain’s nether blade and hands it to Osmium. I watch, rather curious as to what mind games a disciple of Zex will use to get information out of his prisoner. As I’m watching, I notice that Osmium’s wounds seem to be healing at an accelerated rate. Interesting breed these Illyrians.

Osmium looks over the nether blade and then makes a comment on what a fine weapon it is. A pity that the captain will have no use for it now. Osmium then spits a glob of acid at the captain’s hand which slowly begins to dissolve. The captain screams in pain as his hand burns away and all my hopes of watching an interesting torture session start to fade away. Osmium begins asking the captain questions about Kelvin Oladorn and what he knows of him. The captain glares at Osmium and then sarcastically responds that Oladorn was a great hero who got himself killed. Osmium asks what he knows about the Eodai where the Captain responds that they are the vaunted saviors of our people, unlike the Illyrians. Osmium continues to ask what I would consider pointless questions and the captain responds with sarcastic unhelpful answers.

While Osmium is busy torturing the captain for seemingly no apparent reason it looks like his hand burning exercise gave Juno a bright idea. Juno starts walking over to me and the mage and then aims his shoulder laser at the mage. I ask him what he’s doing and he tells me that he’s removing a potential problem. I tell him that’s unnecessary and the two of us get into an argument where Juno wants to burn the mage’s hands and I don’t want him too. I’m not sure why Juno is so hell bent on crippling this mage’s hands, if he’s that scared of him casting spells then he should use that anti-magic beam he has. Even he should realize that not all mages need their hands to cast spells. Eventually I was able to get him to not burn the mage’s hands and he goes back to watching Osmium torture the captain. Moving a little closer myself so I can hear them better, I keep an eye on the mage while listening to Osmium’s ineffective torture session. Meanwhile Shin for some dumb reason is outside trying to clean up and cover up the evidence of the battle that just took place. I have no idea what he hopes to accomplish with that giant gaping hole he made in the 2nd floor wall that is staring at the main street. Oh well, whatever makes him happy.

Checking back with Osmium, it seems that he hasn’t made much progress with the captain, actually it seems that Osmium is the one being tortured rather than the captain. From where I’m standing it looks like Osmium is getting more and more frustrated as the captain is enjoying giving his useless answers. I guess Juno really wanted to do something ‘cool’ and tries to join in the interrogation by pointing a light beam at the captain’s head and threatening to burn an eye if he doesn’t tell us what we want to know. At this point I’m rather fed up with these two’s performance knowing that we will never get anything useful out of them if this keeps up. Muttering under my breath, “Amateurs.” Both of them look over at me seemingly annoyed and ask if I have a problem. I just shrug it off and tell them to do whatever they want.

I don’t like them and they don’t like me. Whatever. How people like these two idiots got into the Twilight Watch just disturbs me. The fact that the common man believe these morons to be their saviors is just beyond me. Remembering how Tirvan responded when I was just threatening Winston earlier makes me very happy that he isn’t here to see this. Hell if he saw this I doubt I’d ever be able to convince him to join up. And now I’m not even sure that I want to be associated with these two idiots. Had I known that the Watch accepted people like this I doubt that I would have joined up in the first place. Hell, I’m starting to question whether or not I should even bother staying with the Watch at all.

Probably the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that they aren’t getting the message that this isn’t going to work on this guy. Simple pain torture rarely works on someone this well trained. I’m about ready to put a stop to this nonsense when the captain seemingly has a change of heart. He responds in a polite yet still sarcastic voice that he will agree to answer all of our questions. After he finishes speaking his body suddenly starts convulsing as I detect a burst of primal spirit energy. Moments later, he’s dead. Osmium seems very unhappy with this turn of events as his tendrils rip all four limbs from the dead guy’s body which sends blood spatter all over the place.

Me, I’m more worried with what caused that. I do a quick check of my surroundings to see if it was some kind of an invisible sniper. I didn’t detect anything before he started convulsing, and looking around it doesn’t look like we have company. This leads me to believe that it was some kind of fail safe that would terminate him if he actually broke and started leaking secrets. Osmium continues to fume silently and Juno moves back over to the mage. Keeping an eye on him, I watch as he freezes the mage’s body leaving only his head unfrozen. Uh oh, it looks like since they broke their first toy they’ve moved on to the next one. This time Juno takes charge and wakes the mage and then starts asking him pointless and useless questions.

Realizing that I don’t have a lot of time to figure out what happened to the captain before it repeats on the mage, I assume that the captain activated some kind of suicide tool/spell. Kneeling down next to the bloody corpse, I search what’s left of the captain’s body for some kind of clue that would explain what happened. As I’m searching I hear Juno’s threats, questions, then I hear the mage scream. Sparing a moment to see what Juno just did, I see him standing over the mage’s head and it looks like he just burned one of his eyes away. Not good, I’m running out of time here. Remembering that the burst of spirit energy originated around his head, I search there and find a nice little trigger rune etched on the back of his head. From the design I confirm that it is what I feared and at any time the mage could activate his and we’d be shit out of luck.

I quickly move over to the mage and check the damage that Juno did. Nothing major, just removed the eye and instantly cauterized the wound. Cool toy, bad timing. Kneeling down next to the frozen mage, I quickly check the back of his head for a similar rune. Finding one, I quickly cast a removal spell, "Infidels who would dare challenge our might, vanish from our sight, consumed by these flames." Several small flames appear around the rune forming a circle before the rune itself catches on fire and is burned away, leaving no trace of its existence behind. Satisfied that I’ve managed to neutralize his escape card I stand back up look at both Juno and Osmium and tell them in a rather smug voice, “This is why I hate amateurs.”

Shin having realized that his efforts were in vain rejoins us inside to see how things are going along. I catch him staring at the dead captain’s corpse for a moment, but he doesn’t say anything. Poor guy, as much as I think he’s an idiot, at least he’s an honest idiot. Glancing back down at the mage I notice him looking at me in awe. It seems that he’s gained a new respect for me now that I’ve removed his escape card, “You are no ordinary mage.” To which I just smile and let him absorb what just happened. A light goes off in his head as he puts two and two together and figures out who I am, “Ah, I see. Catastrophe of Dawn was it?” This I’m less happy about since he says it in such a sanguine fashion without feeling or even surprise. Now that’s no fun, even worse is the fact that he says it in front of everyone else. I do find it interesting how he was able to figure it out after only seeing two of my spells, I wonder what gave me away. I guess I’ll have to be more careful in the future. Oh well, can’t do anything about it now. Since my cover’s blown either way I might as well make the most of it. Removing my shades, I smirk and let the poor bastard confirm his theory.

Kelborn stares at my eyes and then just chuckles. He compliments me on discovering the rune after only seeing it once. He goes on to say that he is surprised that the Twilight Watch would take someone like me in. He seems rather shocked by this whole situation, speaking as if he’s dreaming. After taking a moment to realize that this isn’t a dream, he looks back at me and says in a more serious yet at the same time annoyed voice that if they knew who I was beforehand that they would have sent two teams just for me. I continue to smile, letting him speak his peace and vent out his anger over the situation.

As I’m letting the tension build and the reality of the situation sink in, Osmium jumps in and asks Kelborn what he knows about the Eodai. Like his friend, Kelborn responds that he knows nothing to which Osmium objects saying he doesn’t believe him. Not wanting to go through a repeat of what just happened I step in and tell Osmium that I believe that Kelborn doesn’t know anything about the Eodai.

Guessing that the Shadow Templar would have little to nothing to do with the Eodai after having their men slaughtered I ask him about the attack on Senator Nalivir. He just smirks and tells me to read the letter that he had on him. Deciding that he’s given up and telling the truth, I take a look at the letter I stole from him earlier. I see the now familiar seal of the Shadow Templar on it. Breaking it open I retrieve the letter, speed read it twice, then stand there pondering what I just read. Osmium asks to see the letter as I’m thinking about it and I just glance over at him indifferently. Recently he hasn’t been much more than a burden to me. I take another read of the letter to make sure that I have most of it memorized and then hand it over to him. Maybe this will shut him up for a bit while I ask Kelborn a few questions.

The letter itself was fairly interesting, a field report from the now deceased commander to Lady Astra, the leader of the Shadow Templar. It contained information about their encounters with us, the undead Eodai, and detailed descriptions about each of us. Something I found particularly troubling was how accurate some of those descriptions were. Glancing back at my companions, maybe some of them were too accurate. In either case it is a good thing that we were able to intercept this letter before Lady Astra got her hands on it. For the moment we will remain as unknown vigilantes.

Pondering what to ask him, I start by apologizing for his eye. This of course irritates both Juno and Osmium which only makes it easier for me to apologize for their stupidity. I get a chance to get on his good side, let him see that I’m not like the rest of these idiots, and piss off my companions at the same time. It’s win win baby. That said, I start with the simple question. Why did they attack the Senator. Kelborn responds with a laugh and says he can’t believe I didn’t figure that out yet. They were after us, not the Senator. I smile and thank him for confirming my theory. That seemed to shut him up. I then asked why they staged an ambush on the Senator if they were after us. He responds that it was an order from his commanding officer. His dead friend wanted something to show for his efforts and figured that if he couldn’t stop us then he could at least kill the Senator. I assume that he planned on framing us for the crime, but unfortunately his team was attacked by undead Eodai.

The conversation shifting to the Eodai, he asks us if they are under our control. I respond in the negative but tell him that I was able to find out where they were coming from. I ask him about Kelvin Oladorn, he replies much like his friend that Oladorn was a hero and that’s it. I tell him that this is the origin of the undead Eodai and he asks for proof. Sadly I have none so I tell him that. He asks why he should care about one group of insurgents over another to which I respond that at least we can be reasoned with and don’t attack people indiscriminately. Kelborn chuckles as he responds saying that even rebel scum can tell that there are bigger fish to fry.

Feeling a little bolder I mention in passing that I do have a question for him, but he probably won’t answer. Chuckling, he asks me what my question is. I ask him who sent him and his team to assassinate Senator Nalivir. He just continues to chuckle and tells me that I was right, he won’t answer that question. A bit bold himself, he asks me if our leader really is Duragar Aetherbane. Smiling I tell him that I might answer his question if he answers mine. Still smiling, he just shrugs the best he can while frozen and says that he will have to remain in the dark then.

Satisfied that he answered all of my major questions without much hassle, it was unfortunate that the Shadow Templar were even more in the dark that we were. Currently we know more about the Eodai threat than they do so asking them any questions about that would be pointless. We confirmed that they weren’t targeting the Senator, but they were trying to draw us out instead. From the letter it seems that the rest of his team is now dead, and with the letter in hand it is fairly safe to assume that they haven’t reported anything significant about us just yet. The only question that they can answer is the one that they never will. That is who sent them on this mission in the first place. Unfortunately given how he has been answering my questions, it is unlikely that I will be able to force that answer out of him. Maybe someone in the Watch would be better equipped to rip that knowledge out of his brain for us. Note to self, get Klavion to find someone to do that for us. Speaking of which, guess it’s time to report in again.

One quick mind chat later and we have ninja’s incoming to pick up the survivor. While we’re killing time, I take the crystal lapel form the commander’s corpse. Studying it, it seems that this serves the same purpose that the helmets did. I have a brief chat with Kelborn about the piece, asking who made it, it’s purpose. I take a moment to test it and Kelborn says that he’s the only one who can hear it. Figuring that this might come in handy, I pocket it. Looking at the commander’s dead hand, I also steal his ring and pocket that as well.

Some time passes and ninjas arrive on the scene. They see the mess we made and ask what happened, we respond that it’s a long story and then I point to Kelborn. They ask for help thawing him out and I respond that I’ll help once he’s been put to sleep. One ninja moves over to do so, but Shin is a step ahead of him and thwacks Kelborn in the head. Doesn’t quite knock him out and Kelborn is about to complain when Shin hits him again, this time knocking him out. Sighing, I melt the ice holding him down and Shin picks up the body. The ninjas ask what we’re doing and I tell them that we’re accompanying them back to base for this one. They say ok, I tell one to keep an eye on the mage to make sure he doesn’t wake back up, and then we all set off back to the safe house. Man oh man what a day. Now if they have another mission waiting for us, I really do think that I’m going to kill them.

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Fin. I’ll get started on session six later tonight hopefully. No promises when I’ll actually get it done though.