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Mysterious Attacks (Session #6)
While eating lunch in the Cat House, Blaine, Kyle, and Rory were approached by a young acolyte with a summons from Solomon. The followed the acolyte to the church, as soon as they passed the threshold, Solomon approached with a big smile. He informed them that he was finally able to magically reach Ibrahim. Everything was fine with him, he had been held up in the city, and he told Solomon about a private cache of scrolls that included a regeneration spell. Solomon told Rory that he could remove the demonic arm whenever Rory was ready, however, he would need Rory to provide some service to the church in the future to pay for the spell. Rory agreed and followed Solomon into a room in the rear of the temple.
The entire ritual consisted of a hour and Rory exited the room with a new halfling-sized arm.
While the paladins and Rory were dealing with the evil arm, Kruenor and Gaelen were patiently watching the Teketian embassy, hoping to see Terrak Dojan, the murderer of Kruenor's clan. After spending five hours watching the building, Kruenor was rewarded with a brief, disturbing, glimpse of his greatest adversary. As Terrak Dojan walked from one building to another, he was followed by a large humanoid construct covered with magical writings. Terrak Dojan owns a a potent guardian; a runic guardian.
Now, with the trip to Suldath unnecessary, Rory decided to search for information about Jamar Steck. Rory went down to Dockside, hoping to spread some coin and find some clues to the rageweed dealer's whereabouts. Whenever he asked about Steck people would shrink away from him and refuse to tell him anything. After several such encounters, Rory began to believe that the locals were avoiding him. Realizing that he was unlikely to find any information this way, Rory headed back to the Cat House.
At this point it was dark, the lamplighter's guild were traveling the streets, and the people were settling in for the night. Rory took a short-cut to get to the Cat House. He was strolling along when an arrow streaked from the shadows and buried itself in his side. Surprised, and lucky to be alive, Rory darted to an alley before his unseen assailant could strike again. As he hid among the refuse, a man dressed in oiled leather armor, and wielding a weaponblacked rapier stepped into the alley, obviously looking for Rory. Rory had hidden well, so the man passed him. The man looked as if he were going to leave through the other end of the alley when he stopped, pulled a small card from his pouch, concentrated, and quickly turned and looked directly at Rory! Rory darted toward the entrance opposite the man, loosing a magic missile at the man to slow him down. The man calmly pursued, sheathing his rapier, and readying his bow. When he emerged into the street, Rory turned and threw a dagger, aiming for the assassin's bowstring. His aim was true, the bowstring was cut. This frustrated the assassin and he charged Rory while drawing his rapier. Rory was prepared for the attack and hit the man with his shortsword, landing a debilitating blow. Thrown off balance by Rory's blow, the assassin stabbed at the halfling, missing badly and knocking the rapier from his grip. This was just the break that Rory needed, he plunged his sword into the man's gut, killing him outright.
Rory searched the man, finding the magical card and a mark which identified the man as a member of the Eyes in the Night, the guild to which Rory belongs. The magical card held an etching of a death spirit with Rory's name scribed on the bottom, a death card.
Rory staggered to the Cat House, hoping his friends were there. When he entered the Cat House, his friends saw his injuries and healed him magically. He told them about the attack and his previous affiliation with the guild, and they decided to go as a group to the guildhouse that Rory had been to. They spent the next two days preparing for their assault on the guildhall.
The following evening, Kruenor and Gaelen walked into the night fog, beyond Daruun's Pass into the lower city. Three small, shadowy figures attacked. As they fought their assailants, they noticed that they weren't human, or any other race that the two of them had ever seen. The creatures were short, slight, with large noses and small black eyes under hairy brows. Instead of feet the walked on small, black hooves. Shadows seemed to gather around them trying to conceal them from sight. When their chosen victims put up a fight, the creatures fled into a nearby alley. Kruenor and Gaelen did kill one of the creatures, but the other two scrambled into the sewer before the companions could get to them. Kruenor sketched the creature, then threw the body into the sewer to dispose of the corpse.
The guildhall isn't a major headquarters for the guild so they figured it wouldn't be a difficult assault. Rory led the group into the sewer near the building, figuring that the sewer entrance would be the easiest route into the building. They passed unmolested to the ladder leading up into the guildhall.
They opened the trapdoor slowly, listening for any sounds from the room above. The heard nothing and when the trapdoor was completely open, they saw that the room above was deserted. The group padded throughout the first floor of the old converted warehouse, it seemed completely abandoned. As they crept up the stairs towards the barracks area, a horrible stench wafted towards them. They continued down the row of rooms used as quarters for beginning thieves until they got to the end of the row; Rory's quarters. When they looked into the room, they were assaulted by the sight of Eran hanging over Rory's cot with his throat cut and his tongue pulled out the slash. Carved into the flesh of his chest was the word, "TRAITOR". Blaine cut the corpse from the wall and wrapped it in blankets. The group left the abandoned headquarters with Eran's body in tow and went straight for the local guardhouse.
When they entered the guardhouse and showed the body to a young guardsman manning the desk, he blanched and asked the group to wait for his superior. When his superior entered the room, introduced himself as Harman Davanon, looked at the body, and asked the paladins to come with him. Blaine and Kyle said that there wasn't anything that the man could say to them that he couldn't say to their companions. Harman told the party that Eran was deep undercover trying to bring down the Eyes in the Night. He had been undercover for over a year and he had recently reported that "the Dark", the nearly legendary leader of the Eyes in the Night had returned.
The Eyes in the Night is the oldest thieves' guild in Xraxus, it had been in operation for more than 220 years. For about 190 years, they were ruled by a being known only as "the Dark". It is widely believed that the Dark was a powerful wizard, but many others speculate that he was a long-lived monster of some sort. In 1746, the Dark disappeared. With their leader's disappearance a power grab ensued, nearly tearing the guild asunder. The guild was greatly weakened as several of the guild's officers left the guild to start guilds of their own. The city, formerly owned by the Eyes in the Night, was cut into smaller pieces by the many smaller guilds. For the last 20 years, the thieves' guilds have stabilized.