Lorin feel free to move this to a designated folder if you want. I couldn't see the option.
Xavier prodded you gently with a wing. "Master are you alright" He asked. "Yes" you thought back to him still not moving. You had deliberately frozen when you discovered you were being scryed. You understood its range and the extent of its powers intuitively. And you knew standing in the hallway of your keep was benign a place as any. Dismissing the scrying would have been easy also but someone or something had been attempting it with increased frequency and you were curious so you let it happen; sort of. It had become increasingly difficult to know you were being watched. Implying that whomever it was, was either growing in power or gaining knowledge of you through natural means. Attempts to scry on you were normal occurrences and you often dismissed them. This felt different so you cast the proper spell to detect who it might be. The image shocked you. It was that shock that held you transfixed. You saw a man holding a staff peering into a pool. That vision was to be expected. What shocked you was the almost imperceptible shadowy figure lurking near the man; Simon. The image was gone quickly and you knew you were safe from scrying for now, but the questions were mounting. Simon was lurking for sure. Your first thought was that Simon had sensed the same thing, guessing that he also had been the target of scrying and went hunting. Simon clearly had a propensity for being rash. So you waited, hoping that your Elven friend would reach out to you and explain that he had eliminated a threat. Buying yourself some time from your anxiety you reached out to the others. They all responded back, you quickly explained what was happening and they each confirmed your theory that they had all been targets of scrying. Being 80% certain of your conclusion you expressed to the others that Simon had gone rogue. You chuckled at your own play on words and recommended that the party give Simon time to check in. After a half hour, having moved to your study, you could no longer wait on your friend and you reached out your mind to him and the others. "Simon?". There was no reply. "Simon?" you called again. "He is alive" came back a response. It was Izzy. "Contingency spell brought him back to Rogue's Wind. He is unconscious but he seems generally unharmed." Your thought was echoed by three other mental voices. "I'll be there soon. Where is the ship right now?"
Boric:
It took you longer then you had hoped to retrieve the pin for Simon's order of the blackened sword. You had been too engrossed in studying Simon's notes from his last foray into being "remade" as a hand for Moradin that you had left the Pin in your quarters. You're Elven friend had achieved much in this year since spending time in the quasi plane chasing Arcana. He was almost back to his old self, with a few changes the most notable being that he seemed to have set aside his twin swords to embrace the way of the axe and he now sported two of those in a gesture to Moradin. A move you could completely appreciate.
The pin allowed you to teleport to your current location and you now stood just outside a city that was in the remaking. Myth Drannor lay before you. You marveled at the parallel path of your friend and the his city that he loved. You waited for the scouts you were certain would be intercepting your approach. As if on cue "Hail, friend dwarf" a familiar voice said. You turned to see the glimmer of dragon mail in the sun. "Ah good friend Jason, well met.". The two of you shook hands and walked on. "So Boric, what trouble do you think our friend got into this time?"
"Who knows, he is always cutting off the head of the hydra, so to speak"
"True." Came Jason's reply with a smile and the shake of the head. "Odd thing though, he came to me a week or so ago and was asking about a staff. A staff he said that came from my world. A staff he said that was created by a god who tried to overthrow Odin."
"A staff you say?" came a third familiar voice. Zanther sat on a fallen tree just a few paces from you so well blended into his surrounding you were certain you never would have seen him had he not spoken. Zanther smiled at you both knowingly. "Well met my friends.". He said stepping into stride with the two of you.
"a week ago you say Jason? That coincides with the time he paid me a visit and asked if the Harper's had heard any rumblings of an enchanter with a staff of immense power. Had he not said enchanted I would have responded Greylen, but we all know Greylen had no talent for charms, if it doesn't explode our wizard friend thinks it's useless." Zanther laughed heartily at his own joke. "Remember when he tested my resistance to fire when we were faced with all those kobolds?"
"Which time?". You responded.
The three of you chuckled together about the numerous memories of being set aflame.
Zanther added in mid laughter. " Patrol coming". As if announced by a herald five elves stepped around the trees and halted before you.
"Announce yourselves and state your purpose here."
Jason stepped forward grabbing the collar of his tunic so that the pin showed clearly "we are here to see the Spell Major"
With a bow the first elf bid you welcome and with no further questions they spread out around you to escort you in. Zanther went right to work with one of the scouts peppering him about security, threats and any news. Jason walked next to the leader and struck up a conversation about the new Coronal and how the cities defenses and reconstruction were coming. This left you time to reflect upon the snippets of information your friends had about Simon. This brought back to your memory Simon's notes that he had sent on to you. One phrase from his notes now jumped out at you. "The Shrinshee has asked me to look into the whereabouts of a staff of power, a staff not of this world." This hadn't seemed all too important before since the Shrinshee often asked him to check in and recover certain objects from time to time. Now you wondered if this staff of power was too powerful.
Once inside the city the patrol broke off and left you to head along your merry way. The three of you decided to head to Simon's ancient hidden manor next to the lake and wait there for Greylen. Your eyes wandered upward and you saw the smallish cloud that sat motionless above the lake. It was still too far away for you to tell but by all indications that cloud was the Rogue's wind wrapped in an illusionary spell. Twenty minutes later you arrived at the tree fort and found Greylen sitting at the base of the tree. He was handcuffed, gagged and surrounded by several guardsman Despite the circumstances the guard seemed quite nervous. Greylen on the other hand, although calm, was as imposing a presence as ever. Lightning crackled between his cuffed finger tips and a smile formed on the edges of his gag, but shown clearly in his eyes. He was having fun.
Jason stepped forward "what is the meaning of this? Un-cuff him?" The pins you wore were recognizable among the captains of the city guard and they knew that those accompanied with a pass phrase would give you a great deal of autonomy and authority. The captain stood his ground even placing his hand on his sword. The tension rose in the area. "Announce yourselves and state your purpose here."
"we are here to see the spell major" Greylen rolled his eyes as if a memory had suddenly come to surface.
The captain relaxed visibly then nodded to his men. One stepped over to Greylen and removed his bindings. Then in explanation the captain added "This one," his head leaning toward Greylen "said his name was Greylen and he was here to see the arms major."
At this point Greylen's gag came off and he retorted. "You blubbering dunderhead of a captain don't you know that the arm's major and the spell major are the same person."
The captain, who was clearly made of tougher stuff than could be intimidated by an arch mage, even though he should be afraid, turned and to Greylen and simply said. "You gave me your name, and I don't see your pin anywhere."
Greylen paused mouth agape then simply added, "oh, good job captain."
With that the captain rounded up his men, including several you hadn't seen before and walked back toward the center of town.
All of you stared at Greylen with bemused looks.
"what?" he responded "so, I don't need the pin to teleport wherever I wish."
"And giving the captain your name?" Zanther questioned.
"Well, that blasted elf has me so concerned right now I just wanted to get here and save his hide so I could beat him senseless afterwards. I didn't see the point in messing with cloak and dagger games, time was wasting. Magic is the true power anyway not these senseless tools of stealth and secrecy."
The three of you chuckled. And then Jason finally added. "Well, mister 'true power' could you please teleport all of us up there to the cloud."
Greylen smiled back at you knowingly, "my friends, this is Myth Drannor, you can fly." and with that he intoned the key word for flight and took off up to the cloud.
The three of you looked at each other. Jason finally asked? "Do you think he was really just trying to test security around here."
Zanther responded first "Perhaps, you never know with him, for being the most intelligent person I know, he does tend to forget some important things from time to time."
"True." you added "except this time I think he is a little concerned for the elf and he wanted to make sure that security hadn't lapsed to the detriment of our friend. Then again perhaps he did forget because of his concern for the elf or a combination of both."
You all wondered after that staff as you flew to the deck of the Rogue's Wind.
more individual stuff to come.