8 Alturiak 1373 - Suzail, Temple of Seven Stars, Desicrist's Room

Yesterday did not end well. There was nothing pleasant about my dreams. I saw a young hin child, large for his age, with red glowing eyes, and really large feet that had bird-like claws. He had a hole in his chest right where his heart should have been (I could see completley through it), and a jagged cut across his throat that was so deep his head kept sliding sideways on top of his bloody neck. He gurgled out words and bubbles of blood in a language I didn't understand, though it sounded familiar - but I knew he was saying everything I had failed at, and calling me unnatural because I have died and been brought back, and that I am a bad son and brother and let my people down by leaving them to the whims of vengeful Loviatar clerics.

He was only about two feet tall but he ran at me and attacked me and clawed at me with this black poison on his fingers. I could feel myself getting weaker, and slower, so I turned invisible and silent to get away, but then I saw his true form - all half rotten and guts hanging out with an evil green glow in one eye-socket and maggots eating the other eye. For legs he had four legs, like half the legs of a giant black spider - like a drider, kind of, but no spider body. He had a dagger in his hand that was twisted and torturous looking, and flaming - except the flames looked like three dimentional shadows and were shaped like a giant sword. He spoke - it sounded familiar, like Hin - but it was all arranged in the wrong ways & I didn't understand the words or sentences, and every several words was a Trade word - but I knew he saw saying he could smell me, and he could see me, and he could hear me, and feel where I was, and was going to taste me soon ... and that's when I woke all sweaty and terrified worse than anything I've ever been before.

So I snuck down stairs and got a large drink of something really strong. On my way back up I tripped on a small hin-sized stool and the dagger I was holding stuck into the floor and burned the wood, like the building itself was evil. I ran back up stairs, scared, and went back to the room and under the covers of the bed. I fell asleep instantly, even though I was still scared. Then I saw an image of a little girl I once knew who had be turned undead and was rotting but didn't know that of herself. As she got farther away, and smaller, I could hear her calling to me, "Vo, you are like me. Like me. No one does." Then she dissapeared. I slept the rest of the night. When I got up in the late morning, though, there was no burn mark on the floor where I had left it.

Good thing it was just a meaningless dream brought on by stress, and not enough bad food.


We decided to use Celery in the disguise of Fergel, using my Robe of Blending, and wait in the Watching Wyvern for Faggo so we could capture him and interrogate him (without torture, though). A guy came in looking to hire people to kill goblin raiders on his prairie. 500 a day to take care of goblins. I thought that was suspicious - way to much money - and the guy made a point of approaching Fergal and trying to get him to do the work. I should have though it would not look like such a sweet job - I mean, if this guy wanted to talk to Fergal and Joe he would not offer a job to anyone for such a large sum, would he? But I was not thinking rightly and thought this was the guy. I met him just as he was coming out and I in to the tavern. We traded a few words, and decided to use me as a prop to drum up some interest in his job. I got up on his shoulder like some child, or cripple, or a lame old man, or puppet, or midget, or something, and tried to get some interest. Didn't work though, and he set me down and 'sent me on my way'. You know it's really fun talking to people, and they all act like I'm a kid or some petty pickpocket or cat burgurlar - basically they think I'm helpless.

We met with the Lord Mayor Sthavar and the Captain of the Silent Blades (Suzail's shadow army) and it was revealed to us that Jessica, Sthavar's receptionist, was the leak and Suzail has no one in custody. They want to use her spying to convey misinformation about their plans and use it to trap her associates or discover the names/locations of higher ups. At the time I was under the impression we were speaking of Fireknives (that Jessica was a Fireknife), but I have come to realize that we were actually speaking of the Night Masks. They are the rogues guild in a city called Westgate. Mostly they run Westgate, and specialize in assassinating people. They have a love affair with poison.

In 1341 the Bleth and Cormaeril noble families were banished from Cormyr for being Fireknives. They went to Westgate and allied with the Night Masks. The Night Masks are presently rumored to be led by a vampire (I'd rather not have to kill such a powerful creature - I might get hurt doing so). Why the Night Masks are in Suzail is not known to me - Marcus and Sthavar have not told me, and may not know themselves. But I did not directly ask, and 'intelligence' people are known for not volunteering anything. Though Marcus did say the Night Masks rarely operate outside of Westgate (I guess they are happy running one city). My guess is they are here in support of, at the request of, the Fireknives, who were planning something big (30 assassins big) and the whole thing is being compromised by us (SoM) killing almost half their number.

In order to use Jessica against the Night Masks & Fireknives we openly disgused a false plan (though I forgot half way through that we were doing so, and thought we were talking actual plans) to meet with the guy who is supposed to meet with Fergal and Joe - the guy we were told was Faggo.

Then we were told about the house of assassins that are located near Duvey's house in the northwest quarter (the rich-non-nobles). The assassins are staying in a merchants house that they have holed up in and they are maintaining a very strict silence, to, presumably, protect against scrying. I think someone should be trying to read their thoughts, but maybe that spell Caulwen has is not common. Their leader seem to be involved with Jessica, romantically (or maybe he's just using her and told her lies and she thinks she is doing something good or being used in some way), and his name is believed to be Bernard Pyotr, from a small bit of conversation picked by the clairaudience of the Silent Blades. One would be inclined to think there were spells where you could just know things since magic is so gods awful powerful. It's great for killing, but not to hot in the information gathering category of stuff. But I guess that works for us as well as against us.

Then we left to go to our banquet thrown by Scytal Rushman, at the Dragon Jaws inn (where we are staying, when not staying in the Temple of Seven Stars - why seven stars, anyway? Why not six or eleven? I prefer eleven, myself). Scytal is a nobleman from the Dales who is a follower of Mystra and a good friend of the guy Jaren Kar tried to kill. Scytal had to much to do with helping Cormyr figure out what happened to Tilverton (I think it was demons - and if they need someone to go in and say "Damned to turning into shadow" it's the SoM for them).

At this 'banquet' (which was hardly a banquet - I'd much rather have a heroe's feast, myself) we were repeatedly poisoned, course after course (like five out of eight), but we didn't know until poor Caulwen took sick with one of the courses. Desicrist cured the food of poison and I gave Caulwen a potion for her guts and we finished the meal, but not after checking out the kitchen and finding it empty (Celery had to finish preparing and bringing out the last two courses). I checked out the back door, but there was only a bum digging in the trash and eating poisoned fish, and a woman giving an oral presentation to a friend of her's. That's what I thought, anyway, turns out they were the poisoners who had been hired to kill us. They are a musical group, too, called Saurian Slither, and she is quite good on the stage (and not all that bad in the sack of holding).

We demanded that the owner come down, and questioned him about the entire thing. Sometimes I don't think we are that swift of a group - maybe it's my fault, I'm not sure, but we seem to get into a lot of situations where what saves us is good old luck. And because of this I am considering switching from Brandobaris to Tymora as my patron. I really don't know what that means, though, so I'll have to ask Desicrist about that. We then delivered the doorman, Gregory, to Sthavar for a full descritption and quesioning. Which is how we knew what the assassins looked like.

We needed drinks after that. So Celery went back the the Watching Wyvern (or the Wyvern's Watch) as Joe Stoudt and had a pint. This was, of course, all part of the plan we had coordinated with the Marcus & the Silent Blades. The same big, blond guy returned looking for people to kill the goblin raiders, but I didn't feel right about that. Then a Turmish guy came in looking for people to accompany his ship across the Dragonmir to Westgate to guard against pirates (and the inclusion of Westgate made me certain this Turmish guy was our guy). Celery got a secret signal from the Turmish man indicating he was looking for 'him' (Joe - and was therefore Faggo), and said he wanted to see the show over at the Duke of Ales. So Celery was led over there and Bellumthain and I followed, secretly.

Belli and I watch the dancers, while Celery went upstairs to converse with 'Faggo'. Everything went to hell when Celery faltered in the conversational part of his disguise , but no one really expected him to talk to the guy much. Go good old Celery decided NOT to cut this one in half and only crown him twice, knocking him out cold. Two hidden assassins tried to poison Celery with blowgun darts, but Celery is so healthy he's basically immune to poison at this point. So he casually, yet swiftly removed the guts from both of them and painted the walls of the room with his sword-brush. It was all over in like nine seconds, or maybe eight. By the time the Silent Blades entered the room there was nothing for them to do but clean up. Not so much the Silent Blades, as the Silent Maids.

Meanwhile, down in the thick of it, Bellumthain was enticed by the dancer woman in the troupe. I recognized her as the woman (and the men were the men) I had seen earlier in the ally behind the Dragon Jaws inn, and the ones who had served us (took me this long to put one and one and one together and get a three-way). She whispered in frustrated Belli's ear & he left the inn after coming over to us and trying to get us to allow her to join the SoM AND telling us he loved her. The shy kid really needs to get out more. I understand lost love and past feelings, but one can not let one's self be led around by one's lack of recent experience. We should all regularly participate in such activities, so as to not be vulnerable (at least that's my excuse for sleeping with the enemy).

After being charmed by this woman and leaving the inn he whistled while he walked to ward the docks. I know, because I was suspicious and followed him. Just before he committed himself to a life of man-man sea-based love I sapped him into reality again. I bet it looks funny seeing me run up and jump in the air and hit someone as tall as him. He came out of his enticed state and tried to say he knew what he was doing, but didn't know why he was at the dock, in front of Skatterhawk's dock of all places, about to enter (and probably be entered on the ship docked at the dock). And that was it for this entry in the book.

The intersting thing is, though, 'Faggo' didn't seem to know Joe wasn't Joe, even though he had sent assassins after the Soldiers of Mystra, and even took a while after we captured him to figure out who we were. I think Jessica told Bernard (who is a Night Mask), who only relayed part of the info on to the Fireknives. Just enough info to get us killed, and to result in the death of 'Faggo' (who is a Fireknife). All is not well in the happy little Fireknife/Night Mask family. But that's for tomorrow's entry.

And that was it for one day's work. Four silver please.

Abelalon Vo, SoM

7 Alturiak 1373 - Suzail, Temple of Seven S's

It's hard to believe it's only been one day since we left Seakin. But it has. And I'm more tired than Bark after a six bitch party.

We finally did leave Seakin, and fought the Hydra, and then teleported back to Desicrist's room in the Suzail temple to Mystra (the temple of the Seven Sisters, or Seven Stars, I'm not sure which because I hardly ever see the front entrance, and usually forget to look anyway). Desicrist went to go talk to the temple leader (who I heard is a hot 'older' human woman of some considerable clerical abilities - maybe she will take a memo for me one day), and the rest of us set out to do what needed to be done.

First thing was to truely raise Celery. In our fight with the 12-headed ice-hydra he managed to get himself torn into 13 major pieces and many score of small pieces. The interesting thing is, beside being able to see Celery's insides, in that this particular magic does not need the actual body to work. Being the leader and having the final say is great. I need to take more advantage of this. thought it would be fun to have Celery brought back without his corpse so he could stand there, alive, and look at his dead self. Who ever gets to see their own guts, or the expression on their face when they are actually dead (or even see their own head removed from their body)? Well, now my friend Celery has - and he's much happier for it, just ask him and he will tell you so.

Unfortunatly, Desicrist was made to stay with this the temple leader in 'private' consultations. He would hate for me to make crude jokes about her holyness, but it's just to damned funny that he has to secretly consult with her in a half-brew smoke filled room. He's all uptight about it and here she is, one of his elder clergy toking up and 'seeing the Weave' on a regular basis. As far as I'm concerned she, and the entire temple leadership, are a bunch of half-heads. She's still pretty, though, and apparently very powerful (But can she challenge Elminster? I've really got to meet that old fella one day - maybe next year, I think ... After taking back Myth Drannor from the demon hordes who presently hold it, and making it the only hin city in the north). I bet Desicrist could take her - I bet Desi IS taking her - I bet he's got more moves than Bark, but just hides it all away so I don't feel inferior - He really is a hell of a guy, always thinking about the wellfare of others.

The rest of us went to go check out what was up with Duvey. I was against the whole thing, but everyone else wanted to so I went with them. I had hired a kid, named Duncan, to keep an eye on Duvey, and check into a few things for me. I did some checking myself, too. Why is it that it's so hard to find good help? I don't even live here and I get more out of people than the locals. Maybe 'cause I'm not a street kid I get some respect or something (even though they are usually larger and stronger than me - but who needs strength, when one has charm?)

We were told, I was told (after Babydoll thought it would be a good idea to throw a poison dart at Duncan - for some idiotic reason - and I had to restrict him and try to recover the relationship), that there was a guy or two who had been pretending to be drunk homeless people who were actually watching Duvey's house. They had started watching about the same time the smoke stopped pouring out of Duvey's Chimeny. We decided to investigate. So we did.

It's a good thing Thraxel pushed the investigating through. Now that I know what I know, I'm fully on board and ready to do. The Soldiers of Mystra have landed in Suzail, and it will never be the same. Not Cormyr, not the Fireknives, not the Night Masks, nor the Silent Blades, Skatterhawk or the Black Rat. Not even the homeless and copperless of Suzail will go unchanged.

Duvey's house was a complete mess (actually, it's Faltsgraff's house). Not the complete house, but where there was mess it was complete. The basement was horrible. Worse than horrible, it was solidly evil. And evil as it was, I was somewhat effected and tainted for a time. The mess in the basement was that of Duvey, and his new boy. Both had been murdered. Duvey had been beaten horribly, and probably over a long period of pain-filled, fearfull time. All his fingers had been chopped off, and a garrot finished him in what looked to be a slow process. The boy had been stabbed in his heart, and his neck cut wide and deep. Both looked to have been dead for about the same amount of time as since the smoke had stopped and the drunk-less watchers employed. Desicrist had to be consulted. We removed him from his clerical report & conversation and brought him back to the house (magically, so no one saw us leave or come). We checked the house for clues, but really found none. I found some maps, but that was it, and, interestingly, the map he made with us was not around. That changed my normally gullible nature into a suspicious one, and it hasn't changed back yet (maybe this is permanent).

Desicrist was enticed to speak with Duvey's deadness. We learned a lot. The Fireknives had done this - Duvey died because we turned in that assassin coward at High Horn. The guy outside, the bum impersonator, was one of the assassins. I had to break my promise and become invisible. Thraxel made an illusion of Duvey coming to the window and sneaking a peak. Joe, the digit removal expert, spit out his drink in shock and suddenly realized something invisible was infront of him (me). He tried to get away. He went into a guy's house. I heard him stabbing someone. I opened the door and threw two daggers at him, expertly aimed at the underside of his arms. Within seconds he was dead, and I gave the victim a poison curing potion so he would not die. Joe was brought back to the house, and questioned as well. Dead things sometimes give better answers than the living. Joe had been dead for a long time. He just wasn't aware of this fact, so I reminded him of it. Desi went back to his temple.

At some point, around the same time, I got the info from the kid Duncan, and we petitioned to meet the lord of the city, Sthavar. We also discovered the identity of the other assassin and names and descriptions of other Fireknives who are higher-up in their pile of corpses. I was then able to meet with lord Sthavar, and ply him for info. But mostly he just got from us and we had to wait for a second meet. We got the other guy, called Fergal, at his inn, and questioned him in his room. The details are not to important, but I lost my composure and participated in torturing the coward with Thraxel. Bellunthain couldn't stomach it. I wish I couldn't, but all I could think of was the sight of Duvey all tortured and mutilated, and listening to this rotten ofal lie about who did what, and why and for who, I just lost my respect for comfort, his comfort, and burned and cut him until he told the truth. One thumb less and I was satiated, we had the map Duvey made, and I began coming out of my reverie. I called off the torture, Thraxel wanted to continue, but I had him stop.

I couldn't handle what I had done right away, so I went to an inn with Caulwen & Nullum, and relaxed for a while. I got a bath & massage (they went to the room), and distracted myself with a couple of the attendants. Took a nap and then woke to Bellumthain telling us of his recent adventure. Then Bellumthain took me to Waterdeep and we spent the rest of the evening buying a few things and selling the stuff we had collected. This distracted me for a good few hours. We returned to Suzail, and here I am about to find some dreams of pleasant green things, cooling breezes on hot days, laughter, mom, dad, little Wendolar, sweet bread and happier times.

Bellumthain, Thraxel and Celery told me how they had been attacked by some assassins, and that Fergal had been killed by the assassins, but that they had killed several of the guys dressed in black. They said the Tann house had been burnt down at the same time. Poor Faltsgraff, he has no idea all this has happened yet. His brother, his house, his business, all destroyed. And the Fire-Eyes still unaccounted for.

Abelalon Vo
Soldier of Mystra