In-Game Date: Mansday, Disander 14, afternoon – evening.
The week of Horfang.
Sheltered in the temporary sanctuary of Amrauthlen’s grove, the group discusses their next course of action. Also, the group tells Grumble of their misgivings about his sister Glorwyn. Grumble does not take well the suggestions that she could be anything other than what she seems.
However, now that the group has a quiet moment to spare, they haul out the fried corpse of the Blessed, decide what questions to ask the corpse, and have Audric cast speak with dead. Despite the best efforts of the group to come up with direct questions, the knowledge gleaned from the memories imprinted in the corpse is not terribly helpful. Apparently, the Blessed met with this Speaker in Dreams only in her dreams, and never face to face (if the speaker even has one). Rowan mentions her dream where Potter was killed, his brain devoured by a hooded figure with large, pale luminous eyes, thinking that perhaps the figure from her dream and the speaker in dreams are the same entity.
Everyone also realizes that they had similar dreams where they opened a gate in the ruins of Brindinsford and a voice spoke of doom. Well, Audric didn’t have the dream, since he was still awake while everyone was having their nightmare.
Setting out from the grove, they travel a short distance to the university librarium to speak with Kartharine. En route, they encounter a patrol of human militia that seems either frightened of the party or frightened of something else. Either way, with no weapons being openly displayed by the heroes, the militia does not hassle them.
A brief search of the university grounds finds Kartharine, who has been closing up the various buildings of the university as the faculty has dismissed its students temporarily in the wake of the baron’s proclamations. The party shares what little knowledge they’ve gleaned, and Kartharine seems to think that the Speaker in Dreams could very well be one of the Illithid, also known as mind-flayers. Arrogant, evil and cruel, the Illithid are masters of psionic power as well as arcane magic. Whether such a being is being brought back to life here in Brindinsford by parties unknown, or if a living one is here exerting its mental influence over the townspeople, is unknown.
Armed with this unsettling knowledge, the group sets out to visit Glorwyn at the warehouse housing the wagons of her caravan. Traveling down the nearly-deserted main streets of the city, Nialia’s nostrils flare as she catches the scent of something following them. All her senses are screaming at her to be still. Glancing behind her, she sees nothing, but her nose tells her something is there, and moving slowly closer. She stops the party and tells them that something’s stalking them. Audric stares intently in the direction Nialia is looking and pales suddenly. The shapeshifter tells them that the Elf is right, and that something wants to kill them. Grumble pulls his axe out of the bag of holding and tosses it to Rowan, who just has time to grab a pair of swords out of the bag when Audric cries out.
Something tears into Grumble a fraction of a second later, rending his skin and armor nearly effortlessly. Badger and Rowan spring to the dwarf’s aid and Nialia manages to cast faerie fire on the thing, outlining the form of a gigantic predatory cat shape. Now able to see their enemy, the party has a slightly easier time actually landing blows on the thing. Even so, its hide is thick, and even strong blows seem to have little effect. But less than a minute after the attack the creature lies dead at their feet.
The party takes off, fleeing the scene and stowing their weapons in the bag once more. The rest of the walk down to the warehouse is uneventful. The door to the building stands slightly ajar, and Grumble calls out a hello as he enters. Everyone else follows, but Nialia, smelling the air, catches a few strange scents: death, dwarf, and … elf? She can’t figure the smells out, so she enters with the rest.
Glorwyn sits by herself at a small table, apparently the only one there. She says that she believes the other caravan members have either fled town, or perhaps have gone out drinking once they realized they were stuck here in the city.
Grumble, as delicately as he can, suggests that his companions have doubts as to who she is, and why she knows about the house of Bel. Glorwyn denies having heard of the house of Bel, let alone saying something about it to Badger. She shrugs, asking Grumble to quiz her on something from their childhood that only they would know about. He does, and she supplies the correct answer without hesitation.
Suddenly, her eyes narrow, and Glorwyn suggests that the shape-shifter stop trying to surreptitiously circle around behind her back. The party is a bit surprised that she knows what Audric is, and asks her how she knows. She shrugs in reply, and looks at Audric, musing aloud if he’s all hot and bothered because he can’t read her mind. At Grumble’s confused look (as well as Rowan’s and Nialia’s), Glorwyn seems puzzled, telling them that of course all shape-shifters can read minds whenever they want; it’s an innate ability of theirs. As three sets of eyes narrow and fix on the ex-assassin, Glorwyn smiles sweetly, but her eyes are cold.
“I’ve read yours easily enough, murderer.” She says, her voice now edged with a simmering malice. “Everything you’ve ever held close has been taken from you … violently. You think this “love” you’ve found will be any different?”
Audric goes pale and Badger takes a step towards Glorwyn, her hands balling into fists. “Stop!” the gnome commands.
“You can fight it,” continues Glorwyn, “but how do you really think a trained killer like you can hold out? Tell me, do you think she’ll die by your hands directly, or will she perish in some dungeon somewhere and you won’t even remember why you should care?”
“STOP IT!” screams Badger.
“That’s enough!” growls Rowan, pulling her swords out of the bag of holding.
“Tough talk from someone whose daddy isn’t around to help her out when she’s in over her head,” spits the dwarf maid. Suddenly her expression changes to one of interest. “Now, what do you have in there?” she asks the ranger, her face full of an unsettling hunger.
Grumble overturns the table in front of his sister. “All right, Glorwyn, what the hell are you playing at?!” he barks.
She turns to him at last, and Grumble sees that though her face is unchanged, her eyes seem different in the dim light of the warehouse. Now they seem older, more sinister, and full of cruel laughter.
“You poor, misguided dwarf. I know your family, and not just from what I pulled from your head. I suppose you still think everything was your fault.” Glorwyn clucks her tongue. “Poor Mordi…”
Unable to restrain themselves any longer, Rowan and Grumble make nearly simultaneous lunges for the dwarf-girl, their weapons drawn. Glorwyn snaps her fingers, and they all freeze, finding themselves unable to do anything but breathe, and only that with some effort.
Glorwyn stands up from the chair she’d been sitting on, and as she does so, changes her own form into that of a tall, stately elf-woman. She is beautiful, but in the same way that an iceberg is beautiful: cold with a world of hidden danger lurking beneath the surface.
She tells them she wanted to see the people that thwarted her brother’s plans. She’s been watching them fumble around the city for days. She says that she’s read all their “little minds” except for Nialia’s. There’s something blocking her thoughts, something that seems familiar about Nialia, but nothing the evil elf cares too much about.
“I have no more interest in you,” she says, as if dismissing them as utterly unimportant and uninteresting. “There was a spark, yes, a hint of power… but nothing more. If I were you, I’d get out of the city before things really get bad. That, and pray to whatever gods you cling to that we never meet again.”
So saying, she takes the bag of holding and opens it wide, removing the chest holding the Book of Vile Darkness. She breaks the lock on the chest with her bare hands and flips up the lid, drawing a deep, satisfied breath. “Can’t have one of these wandering around the place,” she says with a cruel twist of her mouth. “It might fall into the wrong hands.” With that, she waves her hand and vanishes with a dull clap of inrushing air.
Once she’s gone, the party can move again. Grumble shakes so badly that he nearly falls as he walks away from the rest of his comrades, then goes berserk, smashing and hacking everything he can sink the blade of his axe into.
Faces ashen, the party eventually makes their way back to the library, where they tell Kartharine that they just met the sister of the three siblings of the House of Bel. Kartharine goes pale, and demands that they recount every possible little detail, no matter how insignificant. She groans when she hears that Rannah seized the Book of Vile Darkness, but seems genuinely pleased to learn that Rannah and Amroch are in contact with each other, though she does not say why.
As the shadows lengthen, the discouraged and emotionally ravaged party heads toward the temple district, where Badger hopes to be able to do some reconnoitering around the
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