** Part I: Fire and Ash **

[spike]

Forger: "Mayhap, how would you even know what sort of paper and handwriting the one you wish to impersonate writes on? I would need an example, if possible. Otherwise you are throwing darts in the dark. There is a way, if you be so brazenly bold. The tower north of here where courier doves are dispatched, if any of you are able to fell one with arrow we might have a template to work from, and hence your forgery. However it would be difficult to deduce which dove to shoot I reckon'

(vs. INT) both of you remember seeing a dove with a golden scrolltube tied around its neck.

[TristenC]

[Ooc: we atill have the documents right?]

Idrys digs out some of the relevant letters and hands them to the forger for study.

[spike]

Yes, many.

The forger takes the documents and examines them with discerning eyes, tweaking his chin and murmuring to himself 'fanciful penmanship, but easy enough to duplicate. You will need to craft the body of the letter, though if you allow me to examine these documents I would be able to devise one with effective tone of speech, and make it sound more convincing. I've written for plenty of assassins guilds in my time'

[Chris1234]

"So do you still need a dove? Or are we merely looking for a flat surface now?" explores Karlane. "The message is between you and him," pointing at Idrys.
She adds, looking pointedly at the black guard and Azonia, the latter with a smile, "It's none of our business so we will stand guard a discreet distance away."

[spike]

Forger: "no, now I need a workspace, and at minimum an hour, some tea and biscuits would be lovely, and plenty of light. We might as well go to the previous assassins guild since it's been cleared months now. Nobody in their right minds would venture therein'

Black Guardsman: 'you had to select that place of all the places? Not a warm roadside Inn? Crazy old man"

Forger: "wise to have lived to be this old, unlike your headless friend here'

Black guard: 'Why you filth, that was a friend of mine!'

[TristenC]

Idrys steps between the pair, serious as imminent death. Let's not dawdle long enough nor argue loud enough to be discovered. The guild house it is then, but try not to antagonize each other.

[spike]

The forger nodded, 'come along then, this way' he guided you through a cloister of thick oak trees, and after ten minutes of hiking the oaks turned to willows and there were shallow bogs left and right of you. He pointed toward a distant hilltop, crowned by a tree stump. When you reached it, he revealed that the many ringed stump was a cunningly disguised trap door he pried open with a dagger. A rope ladder descends 10 ft down into darkness, where an earthen cavern lies. The forger chants softly beneath his breath 'xiombarg noquar lomium nulgrath' and a burst of subdued pale white light flowed forth out of his walking staff, bathing the cave in its radiance. You noted that this light was also warm to the touch.

There were adjoining lesser caves, and several rooms wrought from carved limestone. The forger took to a study and seated himself at a desk, unfurled some parchment you provided and began preparation of his assorted tools, consulting Idrys on perfecting the letter. Karlene noted a mantle with a pile of old books on top of it, one of them being an Elven bible. She discerns the suspicious outline of a secret door within the bowels of the chimney, though at a safe distance of course.

The black guardsman opts to stand guard at the doorway.


DECISION

[Chris1234]

Does Karlane know anything of this place, either specifically or generically? {Intelligence Gathering (18), Obscure Knowledge (16), Photographic Memory (18)}

She checks Fury is ok, then then examines the books. Do any of them look less dusty than the others? Maybe one or more is a cypher key...

If nothing catches her eye, she examines the secret doorway for traps.

[spike]

You heard from Spider that the Watcher's cleared out an assassins guild in the area recently in retaliation for assassinating a monarch that they brought to power in Jez'zur (a realm east of Nyr).

Books: none of them look newer/cleaner than the rest, they're all dusty.

After some simple inspection you determine that there was a trap on the secret door but was previously disarmed by somebody beforehand. When Karlene touches the surface of the secret door she sees a vision in her mind of a man clad in black hood and cloak, working on the secret door. He appears as a thief and is using a long dagger to sever some tripwire through the slit on the doors left side. The vision disappears.

When you open the door it reveals a narrow tunnel and slithering down the passage is an elven zombie, that slithers toward you eagerly at first with its arms outstretched and groaning in hunger. Yet when it became very close it suddenly stopped and knelt before you and Idrys on one knee.

Just then Karlene saw another vision enter her mind: another man, at the entrance of the chimney has an invisible noose ensnared around hsi neck and he is hoisted upward some 15 feet where a small vicious thing was there, killing him and later devouring him in secret.

[Chris1234]

{OOC: Hi Spike! This scene just made me shiver. Great story-telling. OK, does Karlane have any idea of the source of these visions? Something she's always had? Or..? I'm fishing for is someone sending them? Is someone (i.e. NPC) trying to manipulate her through them?}

Karlane pauses, running the thoughts through her mind:

• Were any of the people she's seen in visions (including the fellow doing the vicious hanging) compatible with it being Spider? i.e in height.
  Was hanger/hanging compatible with an assassin? Or more like a weird kind of monster with 'tentacles of hanging'?

She says to Idrys, "I just had a vision about this place, this secret tunnel. Do you ever get anything like that? And I'm guessing that this.." she indicates with her chin at the undead, "recognizes our heritage. What do you think?"

[spike]

The vicious creature doing the strangling looks like a meazal.

It feels as though when you touch and come in contact with certain places/things/objects you gain some sort of flashback vision of previous happenings in regards to them. (obscure knowledge) It is said when a dhampir who venerates the God of secrets they will gain supernatural spiritual gifts of power due to their unique nature.

Azonia came toward you and said 'I told you I will reveal a second secret to you, Karlene. Let me see your mace, when you have a moment'

The forger shows Idrys his handiwork, a letter that reads:

Lomag,

Your usefulness to me has ended, and the master has anointed me as the one who bears authority in his future designs. Your wanton sacrifices to that two headed baboon you call your God serves no purpose in our campaign.

Disperse from the region and take your filthy followers with you, begone from my sight or suffer my wrath, and the ire of the architect master himself.

-Karnak

P.S. I have commanded all forces loyal to me to destroy you on sight, consider this a gesture of mercy

[TristenC]

I do not receive such visions, sister. Perhaps this is your gift alone... I seem to be able to regenerate, perhaps that one is unique to me... I do not know what to think of that, he gestures to the kneeling undead. I wonder if we can command it...we should try in a bit, a tool is a tool no matter how crude. For now let's keep it away from the pups and the group.

When the forger presents Idrys with the documents, Excellent work. That should keep the momentum going nicely. Any distraction would be welcome. Tell me, do you know much of our current circumstances? I realize you've been incarcerated a time but a man of your talents no doubt hears things anywhere. Some advice regarding these, he hefts the sample documents, or other forces out for us would be useful.

[Ooc: do we have a name for the forger?]

[Chris1234]

Jerry nods to Idrys, "You may be right on that. And you should try commanding first."

Over her shoulder, eyes not moving from the undead elf, "Hi Azonia. Are you about to tell me this mace has something hidden in the handle?"

[spike]

The forger tells Idrys 'Ah, I am Erodan, artiste and scribe formerly royal scribe of the supreme court in Lawhaven, if such details please you." he thought for a moment and pondered Idrys's queries, "I heard of a group coming out of the salt bog which evaded capture by the black cloaks, to their humiliation. Also they were seeking a renegade named Ash who also has thwarted their snares. They had him incarcerated, along with a young woman named Meagan in the adjoining cell, but a white hot light flooded the jailhouse and he was freed and took the woman with him. He said to deliver a message to one bearing your description, that he will meet you at the place you are bound, whatever that means. A priest of Love he was referred to as being, if my ears do not fail me'

He begins analyzing the documents murmuring to himself.

Commanding the elven zombie you realize it obeys your will without need of verbal commands.

Azonia smiled knowingly at Karlene, 'In a sense, yes' she took the mace and removed the head. Twisting and turning the head like one might a rubix cube, she said 'if one does not know the right pattern, they will receive a spike in the hand filled with lethal poison' after completing the correct combination, the mace head snapped open to reveal a tiny key crafted out of pure platinum, engraved with runes. 'This key is special, a priest of your order hid it within for you to discover when the time was right. He said you will know what to do with this when the time was at hand'

Erodan interjected 'such mysteries are commonplace in the ancient order of Lor, young priestess. To solve them is to give glory to the Lord of Secrets, and in their solving, knowledge is procured, secrets solved birth newer ones yet. However he is also the God of Light, and as such light will be shed on what is dark and the dark veil lifted in due time'

[Chris1234]

Karlane just raises her eyebrows.
After a few seconds, she comments, "I know so much and yet so little."
She examines the key.

"How do you know of this, Azonia?"