Well, with nothing left to do in Mirage, we may as well head back to Mystara.
Back to familiar surroundings. We left Mirage earlier today, and were quickly teleported to Serraine.
We've decided that it's about time we dealt with the assassins waiting for us in Darokin City. To this end, we're flying Tess and Zhi to Darokin City so that they may converse with the constabulary.
We dropped Tess and Zhi off. In several days I will perform a sending to Tess and find out what has been arranged.
I did a sending to Tess, and he said to get back to him tomorrow.
It appears that we will leave be using a disused barn. From the sending to Tess, I would guess we hope to trap the assassins?
We are to arrive at this barn outside Darokin City in two days time.
We decided to land the falcon a fair distance away from the barn (30 miles in fact). It wouldn't do to advertise the fact we have arrived.
For most of today we hiked our way here, to the farmhouse/barn. It's relatively defensible, although the roof is in poor condition. Several members of the constabulary are also here to provide assistance.
Now we wait.
In other news we flew past Aengmoor a few days back. Presently, the forest is a rather unhealthy shade of brown. It takes no expert to realise that this is not good. Not good for the forest that is.
This really has been terribly boring. It's been two days, and nothing has happened.
Due to this boredom, some of us wandered in to the city to make it absolutely clear that we are here. When we returned, Lani commented that someone had evidently slipped a letter into one of her pockets. The letter, written in Darokinian, apologised for an unwarranted attack (the previous murder attempt?). The writer wishes to meet her at a tavern, tomorrow, in order to make amends.
Clearly we do not know if this is simply an elaborate trap. Nevertheless, Lani will go in, and so will the rest of us. We hope the rest of us will be somewhat more unobtrusive. For example, invisibility will hopefully help.
Fancy that. It was the assassin (priest/follower of the Lady of the Noose), that wished to apologise. Apparently, such priests are prohibited from assassinating women. Consequently, this fellow, by attacking us, got himself into a bit of strife with his deity.
Now he has to atone to Thora (absent), Phoranon (absent), Lani, Turia, and Safranna. Poor bastard. Lani, Turia, and Safranna asked for several things as atonement.
Firstly, there was still a contract out on the rest of us (the males). They ordered him to annul that contract. Secondly, they asked that Tess' soul be restored to him, which he said he would be able to accomplish. The third request, made by Turia, will no doubt prove useful as well.
Well, no doubt the women will want to remind us of what they have done for us, time and again. But then, they could just as easily have all asked for selfish things.
Oh, Tess wanted to get some stuff that would be useful against vampires. By the sounds of it, the guy really didn't know what would be useful.
Tess will leave to have his soul restored tomorrow.
Tess got has returned intact (Leo verified his sould had been restored). Three cheers for Tess.
There is no sign of the horn. I wonder if it's been placed back in circulation again?
Tess was also given some sort of paste that is reputedly useful when wanting to do bad things to Vampires.
We'll head back to Serraine for now. From there we'll have to decide what to do next.
I'll also do a sending to Phoranon to inform her of the debt that is owed her.
Back in Serraine. T'zaz analysed the ``poison'' that Tess recived from the assassin. It turns out that it is nothing more than a natural healing salve, comprised of various natural ingredients. Melanie in fact knows the concoction, having made it several times.
There is a possibility that the salve will harm a vampire, given that they are undead, and very unnatural. Hopefully we will never find out how effective the salve is.
We are not still not sure what to do. I did a sending to Phornanon, asking if she had any suggestions. She does not believe we can help her with Aengmoor (read as: do not interfere). She does believe investigating King Cole could prove useful, and she commented that the WDL games look interesting.
King Cole is one of the humanoids from the crater, in Glantri. Apparently he wishes to form a principality. What is interesting is that the princes of Glantri seem to be agreeing that this is a good thing. The princes are not known for agreeing.
I have no idea what the WDL games are. We'll ask her tomorrow.
Phoranon informed us that the WDL games (Western Defence League games) is a sporting event, involving games like running, fighting, etc.
We'll have to find more out about this. It basically sounds like a fun sporting event. It would be good for relaxing.
Oh, Gurzurk is interested in going to Rockhome. I guess he has to report back to his superiors again. We'll pop over now, and then return. Tess will stay behind to find out what he can.
We'll stay a day whilst Gurzurk reports, then return to Serraine.
We have returned. Tess has uncovered some information.
The first is that King Cole is a kobold, which is apparently surprising. From what people tell me, kobolds generally aren't the most fearsome, or intelligent, of creatures. King Cole is in the great crater region, and is agitating to become a prince of Glantri. The princes of Glantri are either taking this seriously, or are agreeing to the idea.
This is possibly because this is one way of reducing the threat posed by the humanoids of the great crater. After all, if they were incorporated into Glantri, then hopefully they wouldn't attack it!
Well, we'll head off to Darokin City to find out what we can of the WDL games.
The first WDL games are to be held in Darokin City in two years time. Anyone is eligible to enter, although they should be from one of the WDL countries. Registering a year in advance is required.
Participating, and performing well, is expected to bring considerable pride and prestige, not only individually, but to the country one represents as well.
However, this does not help with our immediate decision. What will we do now?
There are several options. One is that we could travel around the world, sightseeing. This is a serious options. But to do so we would need a teleport gate to be installed on the falcon, so that we could easily go back and forth between the falcon and Serraine.
To get the teleport gate would require six months of research by Lani, at a cost of approximately 100 gold per week.
This is well worth it, but instead we have decided that travelling to this world within Mystara is what we will do. By doing so, we could try to find Lyril and Or-len, and see if Thora is around somewhere.
To this end we have purchased the two books, one by the halfling, the other by the lady Alphatian mage. Zhi got us a good price at 400 Darokinian gold each.
I imagine that there will be lots to organise. So we'll return to Serraine (again), and start deciding just how we will go about this endeavour. Oh, we should read the books as well.