Aramil's journey
My life has changed for the better. I can feel it this time...
After all the hard work I put in for The Hammer & Shield in Waterdeep, Dirk had sent me up to Wheloon as the head recoverer. I was very happy to accept his offer. After learning the tricks of the trade and the inside workings of the H&S, I was confidant I could serve the Rogue well at the new post.
After a few weeks in town I had the hang of the local enforcement(Purple Dragons) headed up by a noble young lad by the name of maxaminus Tholl and had met with most of the merchants. Spreading the word of the recovery business through my two 'recoverers' wasn't too hard and we began to get some small requests. We set up shop at the Wyvern Watch Inn and I had an office there. The barkeeps always had the best ears in town so I arranged some "business" with them and they had so far been fairly generous with the information about town. I appreciated this and took care of them since I was new to town and needed all the connections I could get if I was to succeed. One of my recoverers was a magic user named Dalvar. He has been good with identifying the recovered items.
Lord Sarp Redbeard ran this town with a somewhat limp wrist. A thorn I could see in the side of Max, I could tell it crimped his style a bit and Max secretly wished for more stringent control. Just a hunch, since Max always backed up the Lord in public.
The new Temple was that of Mystra on the outside, but something never seemed right about it. I had ventured near the grounds, but never went inside them as my curiosity might prove trouble. Except for the business the Temple gave the H&S, we didn't get much from these religious types. Most times they keep to themselves which is fine with me.
When the reports began of townsfolk and travellers missing however, one of my first suspicions was the Temple. A supposed Mystra priest, Turnaster Danik, had stopped by my office a few days ago with some questions. Dalvar had also browsed inside the first of the Temple grounds and found nothing peculiar. Just a nice flowery garden with some nice, archers circling the top. I wasn't surprised that they didn't notice a Gnome checking out their garden. Probably thought he came with the Temple just for the garden! Well, I'll cut them some slack on the archers as they are new in town and might not trust the locals just yet.
When Amnic went missing, the PDs of course were brought in after several complaints. Max sent them off to investigate the suspicious magic at night, etc that one would expect from a Temple of magic. Of course nothing was found. I had my doubts and Dalvar's as well. When a couple of travellers came to town asking about their friends and I had seen them, it was time for some exploration. I received word that a PD would be assigned to help. Didn't need any further explanation there, Max wanted to know what I found. It's good to have the backing of the local authority when you go creeping into other people's business!
Another priest of Mystra by the name of Amber arrived in town. He had poked around at the Inn and when I got word, I met with him. His story rang true and I told him of the false priest I had met earlier. His reaction added that much more to my feeling that the Temple was not on the up and up. The two travelers searching for their friends were dwarfs, Thain and Hu. I thought about starting a bar joke with Hu, having all the regulars yell HU!! whenever he walked in, but thought better of it due to his monk robes. He might appreciate it, but I will get to know him better before letting that one loose. Thain was in full plate. Good, we would need a tough fighter.
We spent a day planning. The PD never arrived, but sent word that he was delayed and our investigation should continue without him. Deciding to get a better look at the garden and ask some questions, we separated into two groups after Amber went in so as to not draw too much attention. It looked pretty much like what Dalvar had told me. non-descript alters here and there and I caught glimpses of the two archers. They were circling in a standard pattern. good, that will give me the time I need to check behind the doors that were locked. The first one was open and I quickly slipped in unseen by all. A messy bedroll was here and a hallway went on further. No time to check it now. I timed my effort and again made it back into the courtyard without a problem. At the other end of the yard, I had to quickly pick the lock and slipped inside unseen. This was even more plain and was simply a staging room for the archers to use on their way to work. A staircase led up, other than that nothing. As I slipped out of the door to the courtyard, one of the archer saw me closing the door. Crap. Well, we'll see how this goes.
The guards were pretty rough. They seemed to be mad mostly that I was able to get inside without them seeing me first. I kept to my story and asked to see the Purple Dragons. The priest, Shan was to hear my "confession" it seemed. They wanted me to leave all my belongings in the courtyard. Eh, so be it. It would be interesting to see what they would do with tacit cooperation. My attempts to misdirect their questions seemed to help the situation as soon I found myself in shackles awaiting the PD's arrival. I waved at them and was lead back to the town station. I almost laughed out loud and gave away Amber's ruse. He had most of the guards in a daze listening to him ramble about Mystra. I like this mage. He's got some trickery in him. All in all a good experience, the PDs were gracious and I got a good night's sleep.
The next morning I presented my story to the magistrate and he let me off with a fine. No one from the Temple bothered to show up. They were content to let the PDs handle the issue. I had hoped my story would lead them to let the locals deal with it. I went back to my office and met with Thain and Dalvar. they told me that Amber and Hu had decided to keep their appointment with the Temple priest to go through some ritual and get a better inside look. The catch was it would take three days to complete. Well, that gave us some time to find out more in town. A messenger delivered a note to me and I recognized it as being from Max. he was a bit peeved about my getting caught. I sent a note back and let him know that we had another lead after a note was found asking to meet at the docks later that night.
The three of us made our way to the location early after lunch to see what was up. A very deserted part of the docks. After some exploration, we found what appeared to be a trap set up to capture whoever was on the walkway. I attempted to disarm it only to have it go off and destroy itself in the process. So much for the ambush. We hid and waited to see who would show after cleaning up the net below. No one showed. figures.
A new note arrived the next day pleading distraction. Well, we'll see.
Nothing much happened for the next couple days as we waited to either storm the Temple at the first sign of trouble. We were surprised to see Amber and Hu tie up to the docks in a flashy new boat. The boat captain was kind enough to pay them for the boat as well. Seems they have been successful. I listened to their story and we quickly informed Max about their findings. The PDs made short work of anyone left inside.
I will have to send this info to Dirk. Some decent work by my new friends! Hope they plan to stick around for some more.Statistics: Posted by Ghostwheel — Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:56 pm
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