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Landroval and I head out for the Zhent section of town to look for Borovic Dundragon. We're crossing the center part of town when a guardsman comes staggering out of a building -- dark-skinned, with broze chain. He's been in some kind of battle, and he says Borovic Dundragon is still looking for the murderers. We go into the building he came out of, follow some tracks out the back to an alley. The tracks appear to head toward the Simbian part of town. We continue on to a guard house, where we talk to a sergeant-at-arms. Borovic is still out looking for the brigands, and there's no telling where we might find him. But, he says, some of the villains had broken the prisoner out of jail. We didn't really know there was a prisoner. He takes us over to the jailhouse where the "prisoner" has broken out. There are two dead bodies on the floor of the cell, and Miranda's clothes. Looks like a knock spell opened the cell door. But how did the rescuer get in the front door, past the other guards? Landroval demonstrates how alter self, like the evildoers' shape-shifting ability, can be used to fool people. Did anyone visit here before the prison break? Well, yes, the sgt-at-arms tells us. Councilwoman Dorothea was here maybe half an hour before the attack. We inspect the bodies. Looks like they were killed at close range with a crossbow. One is a half-orc with a bootprint on him and several bruises, with his pants undone and bolt sticking out of his back; the other is a greasy-looking human. Landroval and I crouch down by the body with the crossbow bolt. "The bolt is drow-made, it looks," says Landroval. "How can you tell?" asks the sgt. The elf indicated the long tip of the bolt. "That's mithril on the end," he says. "But the poison on the bolt is only a sedative," I say after a sniff. "A sedative?" Landroval asks. "Yes, some kind of mushroom and holly mixture. I don't understand it though... the cause of death appears to be poison." Landroval inspects the blood coming out of their mouths. "But if it wasn't the poison on the arrow, who else poisoned them?" "Obviously there are more questions here than answers," I say. "What do we do now?" Landroval stands up, brushing off his knees. "We need to head to Councilwoman Dorothea's house and talk to her again. We'll just have to look for Borovic on our way over." And with a word of thanks from the sgt, we're off. Once in the street, we're stopped by a young man with a scroll, on delivery from the scholar. We head over there to talk with him. He's got some information for us. It seems the elven mage Batrice used to own a large house in town. "Amb residence" at the time (no clue what that means), but his son bought another house, and sold the old one to a Simbian merchant. Anyhow, as luck would have it, the lineage can be traced all the way down to a great-great (etc) granddaughter has a mercantile shop near the Thayan section of town. Terrific--we'll have to check it out when we get a spare moment. So we continue to Councilwoman Dorothea's. It's pretty isolated, with a moat, guards, the whole bit. One of the two guards at the gate (they look like they're from the Sea of Fallen Stars) tells us that the Councilwoman is not in, but we can leave a message if we like. I catch a glimpse of a dark-skinned man with bronze armor way up on one of the battlements. So, Landroval and I slip off to turn invisible and break in the back door. We scope out a side gate, wait for someone to open it, and slip through with them. It doesn't take much time to cross the courtyard and get in through the unlocked front door. We come in to a receiving room with a spiral staircase and some doors. We head up the stairs, into a large hallway with about eight doors, and the ends of the hallway seem to go to two towers. The tower door on the left side of the hallway is locked, so we go over to the right side. It opens to a room with a view, very luxurious. A straight ladder leads up to a trapdoor. We climb up that, Landroval opens the door a crack and peeks his head out. He sees soldier boots, but it looks like it's only one man. This appears to be the top of the tower, open on the sides with a gazebo-type roof. Landroval flips the door open with a loud bang, and we (still invisible) climb out quickly. The Simbian-looking guard is quite startled. He grabs one of the four flags at his feet (the red one) and waves it. A whistle blows from the other tower. Landroval and I stand against the walls while four guards in bronze chain come busting up the ladder. But there appears to be no one but the other guard there, looking sheepsih. The four chide him for the false alarm, and go back down the ladder. The guy waves another flag (white) and then locks the trapdoor, glancing around the rooftop suspiciously. We whisper and move around and generally freak the guy out. I open up the trapdoor with a bang, and Landroval tries to push the guard in (making himself visible again), but he's too sure-footed. The guy yells, drawing some looks from the other tower, but Landroval quickly casts hold person and then waves the white flag. Landroval then takes off the guy's weapons and has him sit him down on the stool (my presence is still unknown to the guard). Landroval interrogates the man about "Lady Dorothea." The guard is part of the Golden Coin Mercenary Group that was just hired by Councilwoman Dorthea a week ago. She has had a couple of guardsmen she called "lazy" put to death. She has lots of late-night conferences, but the guard doesn't know who with or for what purpose. There is one lady who comes around especially late at night, with a black horse in black barding. This lady, whoever she is, seems mad at Councilwoman Dorothea for something. How long ago did Dorothea leave? About an hour ago. She lives in the South Tower. Landroval says, "Then that's where I want to go." He ties the guy up and heads down the ladder (letting me get out first, surreptitiously). Landroval strides through the house, down to the first floor, and over to the door in the South Tower. On the way, we don't see any servants or housecleaners of any kind -- just a glimpse or two of a guard going around the corner. There's a sitting room outside of the tower, and we make it all the way to that room before someone notices us. Landroval goes right to the door and knocks sharply. A surprised-looking guard comes running in. Before he gets two steps in the room, I yell out, "Stop right there!" The man is a little startled at the voice coming out of nowhere. Landroval knocks again on the door, then turns to face the man calmly. "I wouldn't go anywhere if I were you," he says. The man snarls at him, "Oh yeah? I'm not scared of one elf," and takes a step forward. I jump over to another part of the room and make a different voice. "The commander said stop!" from closer this time. He stops. I jump to another part of the room and say quietly, "Let me be the one to shoot him, Commander." The guard by this time has stopped moving forward and raised his hands a little. "All right," he says, "no need for that." Landroval says, "Now that we understand each other, tell me how to get into this door." "Oh," says the guard, "you can't get in without the key, and only three people can open that door." "Oh?" says Landroval. "Are you one of those people?" The man looks a bit relieved. "No, I can't open it," he says. At this moment, a little lightbulb goes off in Landroval's head (thanks to his lie-detecting gem in his forehead). "You're lying," he says. "Maybe I should just have you killed and then take the key." "It isn't really a key," he says nervously. "What is it then? I'm losing patience!" Landroval says. "Just open it!" The man walks forward and places his hand in the center of the door, and the latch clicks. Going in, we find a library and desk, with a spiral staircase in the center leading up. We go up. Here we find a rather nice bedchamber. I take a look around, making a lot of noise, to further the illusion that I am actually several people. Under a pile of stuff I find Miranda's sword, longbow, backpack, and chainmail. Nothing else seems to be of interest here, so we go back down and search the desk, but we can't get into the locked drawers. Nothing more to do here, so we leave the guard knocked out and leave. Landroval snags a piece of paper with Dorothea's seal on it to use as a prop for leaving the building. When we get back to the hotel, we find the group's horses gone. We follow the tracks to a flea-bitten hotel, check to make sure their horses are there, and get a key to their room. We talk to the innkeeper, but he's no help. Looks like we'll have to wait here for them. |