THE ALLIANCE MIRAGE

When the false dawn was still cresting the sky, Tee arose while the others still slept and left the Minstrel. She headed up to Castle Shard, where she found that even with the early morning hour Kadmus was waiting for her. He escorted her to Lord Zavere, who it seemed had arisen not long before.

“I’m sorry to disturb you so early in the morning,” Tee said. “But I have news about the Idol of Ravvan.”

Zavere was more than interested when Tee showed him the letter they had recovered from the Temple of the Ebon Hand concerning the Dawnbreaker, the Argent Dawn, and the unnamed “idol”. Zavere wasn’t as certain as Tee that the letter referred to the Idol of Ravvan, but he agreed that it was a definite possibility. “Keep me informed of anything you might discover.”

“We will,” Tee promised. “But there was one other matter.”

“What is it?” Zavere asked.

Tee quickly supplied him with an abbreviated version of the ambush from the night before.

“Is everyone all right?”

“Yes,” Tee said. “Barely. But we don’t know where we can go that would be safe. We were wondering if… Well, we were wondering if it would be possible to stay at Castle Shard.”

Zavere pondered it for a long moment, but then he said, “I’m sorry, but it’s not possible. Your relationship to Rehobath is too well known. If I were to give you or your comrades sanctuary – particularly Sir Tor – it would be seen as Castle Shard aligning itself with Rehobath.”

Tee chose her next words carefully. “I don’t trust Rehobath any more than anyone else should.”

“Be that as it may,” Zavere said. “It’s ultimately a matter of public perception, not reality. I have no desire to tip the scales in this matter. Nor do I want to antagonize the Commissar in this. The situation is simply too delicate.”

“I understand,” Tee said with a resigned sigh, and left to rejoin the others for breakfast at the Minstrel.

THE PACTLORDS OF THE QUAAN

As they were settling down to their meal, they were surprised to see Jevicca come through the front doors of the inn.

“Good morning!” she said cheerfully, waving her red-glass arm towards them.

“Jevicca!” Agnarr said, a huge grin creasing his face. “What brings you here this morning?”

“I have news,” she said. “We’ve identified the bone ring you gave me.”

‘Really?” Tee said.

“They belong to the Pactlords of the Quaan,” Jevicca said.

“The who of the what now?” Elestra said.

“They’re not very well known,” Jevicca said, “And they’re mostly dismissed as a minor criminal organization. They’ve also got a minor reputation in the slave trade.” (Tee’s ears perked up at the mention of the slave trade. Could there be a connection to the Brotherhood of the Blooded Knife?) “But the reality is something more than that.

“There is an ancient book known as the Tome of the Shadow Dragons. Or perhaps it is many books. Only fragments of it have ever been found, and even these are few and hard to decipher. This book speaks of the “teachings of Jessuk”, a body of lore dedicated to the warping and corruption of natural life – the transformation of the natural races into abominations.

“These arts were practiced en masse by both the Banelord and Ghul, among others. The Pactlords are the descendants of the creatures created by them. They hold themselves superior to the “natural races” and, ultimately, seek to subjugate us.

“The group is held together through a living pact which is focused through these bone rings. The nature of the pact – and the force which binds it – is a secret kept by the Pactlords themselves. As is the nature of the ‘Quaan’.

“They have never been seen to pose any true threat, but they consider themselves – like Ghul before them – to be the natural heirs of the Banelord’s secrets. This explains their interest in the Banewarrens, but that doesn’t appear to be the group’s only current activity: Slave raiders have been prowling the caverns around Kaled Del and attacking the trade caravans of the Delvers’ Guild. Some of the raiders have been reported to be wearing ‘rings of bone’.”

THE FORTRESS SUITE

Jevicca’s briefing gave them a lot to chew on. She asked after their progress with the Banewarrens, but there wasn’t much they could tell. (And even less that they wanted to.) As they turned to amiable chatting over the rest of their breakfast, they returned naturally to the question of their lodgings: Should they go? If so, where?

Jevicca suggested the Nibeck Street mansion. It was currently abandoned, it would give them a base of operations as close to the Banewarrens as they might care to have, and it would let them defend the entrance to the Banewarrens.

On the other hand, as Agnarr put it, “Living over the hellmouth? No thanks.”

Greyson House was another abandoned building, but, as Tee pointed out, “The bad guys have already looked for us there. It’s no safer than here.”

“We could just go to another inn,” Elestra suggested.

“But that has all the same problems,” Tor said.

“Only if we stay in the same place,” Tee said. “We could just load everything we own into bags of holding and stay in a different inn each night.”

But that would prove troublesome for Ranthir’s research.

Tor proposed, as he often had in the past, that they buy a house somewhere in Ptolus.

“But that has the same problems, too,” Tee said. “It’s only a matter of time before they track us down, and then we’re vulnerable again.”

If they needed fortifications, then perhaps Pythoness House would be a solution. But Sir Kabel was already there, and while the others might be able to make that work, Tor would only be able to stay there if he abandoned his position within the Order of the Dawn. They briefly considered Tor staying at the Godskeep or the Holy Palace, but splitting the party seemed like a bad idea – particularly if it meant burrowing even deeper into the politics of the church.

Security through obfuscation, as Ranthir pointed out, was playing with fire: They could reset the clock, but eventually their new home (wherever it might be) would be found. And once it was found, they became vulnerable.

So they decided to stay where they were. Instead of hiding, they would bunker down. They laid out a plan for remodeling an entire wing of the Ghostly Minstrel: A false room with a secret door would be used as a pass-thru to a real suite of other rooms connected by new, interior doors.

They spoke with Tellith, who agreed to the remodel if they paid for it and if they also paid at a year’s rent in advance for the rooms they would be converting. This done, they spent several thousand crowns and arranged for more than twenty contractors (including several master craftsmen) to install the secret door, punch thru the two new connecting doors, and to strengthen the security on the existing doors. They also hired an arcanist to ward the windows with permanent alarms. And then they spent even more money to speed a project that should rightfully take weeks until it would take only two days to complete. On top of all that, Tee set aside enough money to pay every single person working on the project a hefty bonus to forget that they had ever worked on it.

Nasira was somewhat taken aback by the sheer amount of money they were able to throw at the project (more than 5,000 crowns when all was said and done). And while the project surely tapped deeply into their resources, they all felt it was an investment worth making.

THE NEXT STEP

While they were still drawing out their plans for the new suite, an invitation arrived.

INVITATION TO THE CRUISE OF THE VANISHED DREAM

We had hoped that this invitation might arrive on a most triumphant note – giving you proper congratulations on the apprehension of Shilukar and the ending of his scourged blight upon the city. With the recent news of his escape within the prison, that triumphant note is perhaps muted, but your accomplishment was nonetheless notable and worthy of great praise and equally great appreciation.

To whit, it would be our honor – both in light of the duty you have done for us and for those sundry other accomplishments which you have achieved in the name and for the betterment of our fair city – to attend upon us for a grand cruise of the Vanished Dream at the estates of House Abanar upon the Fifth of Noctural to celebrate the last rays of the year’s light and the coming of the Days of Night.

Dered Abanar
Merchant Prince of the Abanars

Ranthir quickly penned a positive and elegant acceptance, and they dispatched it by courier.

While Tee was drawing up the contracts and making the other arrangements necessary for the suite, Tor went to the Godskeep to continue his training with the Order of the Dawn. While he was there, he was informed that Rehobath had requested a meeting with him that evening at 7 o’clock. Tor wasn’t told what the meeting was about, but he could only suspect it had something to do with Dominic’s denunciation of Rehobath the day before.

Elestra, meanwhile, was checking the morning newssheets. The headlines were considerably less dramatic than the day before (“What a Whopper! Stranded Jellyfish as Big as a House!”), but there was also a report of another brutal murder in Oldtown: A priest had been killed on the Columned Row. His head had been ripped open, just like the woman who had been killed the night before on Flamemoth Way.

On her way back to the Ghostly Minstrel, Tee stopped by the Delvers’ Guild and left a message posted for Arveth:

Arveth—

Eye’ll be seeing you.

“Do you think she’ll break my code?”

Running the Campaign: Home Base Renovations – Campaign Journal: Session 41D
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index