The Flying Lizards

August 1-5, Albanus 1

The first day of the great fair dawned, bright and warm.  Gaius was awoken by the faint clink of metal on metal, an inch away from his ear.  Leaping from the bed he grabbed his sword... and scared the hell out of Alive.  The pseudo-dragon had gathered a small pile of buttons and pewter cutlery, which he had arranged into a small "horde" next to Gaius' pillow.  The ranger tried to explain to him that stealing was wrong.  Alive's ethical comprehension proved a bit weak, but he did understand that for whatever reason, this upset Gaius.  Gaius even managed to convince him to take a few of the buttons back to their grumpy owners.

At breakfast, Sir Tinnius purchased all of Marius' scrolls, which he intended to distribute to younger paladins when the Council gathered.  Then the party split into two groups.  Marius, Leyna, Lucellus, and Regulus headed off to the Temple of Legis.  Marius asked how to get access to the Temple's libraries and was told he'd have to come back tomorrow, for an interview.  Then he and Leyna left the paladins waiting for an audience with the Pontifex Maximus Orosius, to arrange a place to hold the Council.

The rest of the band visited the Harrans merchant, who gave them 15,000 gp for the letter of credit that Leyna had coaxed out of Count Harrans.  Unfortunately, the man had no idea how to find them rooms -- everything was sold out, he was sure.  After that they cruised by the Collegium (home of Viridistan's magi) and left a message that they had a pseudo-dragon for sale.  While they chatted, Gaius spotted enormous spider webs up by the second story windows.  Shuddering, the guards said they'd been made by the spider "companion" of the drow ambassador, Anat Alariel.  Neither she nor the spider were in view that morning, however.

Chores done, the party turned to more serious matters:  shopping.  Only two items stood out that day.  Leyna spotted a grubby mercenary selling leeches for 40,000 gp apiece.  Vermin he claimed had fattened on the young of illythid (mind-flayers) and could give their own great mental powers.  How, he wasn't too clear on.  Severus meanwhile spotted a pair of poachers selling six bloody unicorn horns... and precipitated a major family squabble.  The horns were under-priced and Severus figured they could turn a tidy profit re-selling them as neutralize poison "potions".  Leyna and Corvina objected to this, as unicorns are benign and intelligent creatures revered by the elves.  Gaius agreed with Severus, and Marius was neutral -- render unto Caesar, and all that.  After much discussion, Severus went ahead and bought the horns.  He tried to get the poachers' names (they claimed they were "Marcus" and "Gaius") and where they could be reached (they wouldn't say).  Brennus watched them that night and the next day, since Severus intended to report them to Sandarfon when the elf arrived in town.  However the rest of the horns sold the next day, and on August 3rd the poachers left town, heading south.

Returning to the Sword and the Spear, the band found Regulus fit to be tied.  A squad of the Praetorian Guard (the imperial bodyguards and secret police of Viridistan) approached him and Lucellus that afternoon, summoning Lucellus (alone...) to an immediate interview with the Praetor.  Despite his friend's misgivings, Lucellus showed up an hour later.  Praetor Ferreus, he announced, clearly wore something to disguise his aura -- he hadn't been able to sense the least bit of evil about him.  The Praetor wanted to hear about the situation in Rostilla and had arranged for Lucellus to have an audience with the Empress in two days time.  He assured the paladin that Empress Mara Gentillia Augusta would be very concerned about his lost squire.  Corvina sat Lucellus down immediately and did what she could to remedy his bad haircut, so he would be presentable for the interview.  Others urged him to leave Ancilla behind when he went, even if it made her unhappy.  Camilla and her knight Sir Rarans, they reminded him, probably vanished during an imperial audience.  Reluctantly, Lucellus agreed to let the other paladins keep vigil over his Council Blade.

There was one last little incident that evening.  Tinnius grumbled to Sir Darius that his squire Balthasar had been chatting with a serving wench for far too long.  Darius called the boy back to the table but did not reprimand him.  So Tinnius called him to task.  Did he think it was appropriate to speak with a woman of that sort?  Balthasar replied that the philosophers said one should learn from people in all walks of life.  Oh, Tinnius sneered, so speaking to the wench was instructive.  Yes, Balthasar said.  Pray do tell us what you learned, the old knight returned.  Balthasar fixed him with a beatific smile.  "I learned that there's a man over by the door who's been asking questions about the Surrexi.  Who they are, what they're doing travelling with paladins."  Marius noted that the man's eyebrows didn't quite match the color of his hair.  Severus then wandered up to the bar, ordered a drink, and told the man, "I'd sue my barber if I was you.  That dye job's terrible."  The stranger sputtered and said, "I'll, um, do that.  Did it to, uh, please the wife."  And then he left.  Quickly.  Corvina sent Tenebrus to follow him.  The raven tracked him back to his apartment and watched him compose a brief letter, which he delivered to the Carcer (Viridistan's prison, and the barracks of the Praetorian Guard).

Morning of the second day found a note at the breakfast table:  would the owners of the pseudo-dragon please bring it to the Collegium?  Marius set out early for his interview.  The priest grew uneasy when the boy admitted he wanted to read up on demons.  But when Marius admitted he was from Rostilla, the man leaped to the wrong conclusion.  "Oh, you want to learn more about Dulcea and why we forbid her worship!"  Marius agreed, in vague terms, and by the end of the meeting he got full research privileges.  The priest couldn't stop talking about how pleased he was to have some of their "Rostillan brothers" show such foresight and open-mindedness.

Over at the Collegium, Gaius, Severus, and Corvina met with Magister Oshan -- the most nervous mage they'd ever met.  He kept picking at his pants, as if they were uncomfortable.  From that (and from his full, curly beard) they guessed that he was from Dulsanius, the land of the God-King where men wear dresses (or kilts, as they call them;  Dulsanian noblemen's names always have an "sh" in them, too).  Oshan wouldn't talk about his past;  he insisted he was Viridian.  Though when they pointed out that his beard was unusual for the city, Oshan immediately said he planned to shave it off.  Corvina managed to make him smile several times, however, and Alive seemed to like him.  He liked him even more when Oshan produced a gold bar and told the pseudo-dragon he could have it.  Alive dithered, torn between Gaius and the bar.  But when Gaius assured him he wouldn't hate him or throw anything at him, Alive agreed to stay with Oshan.  Oshan in turn paid the party 23,000 gp in gold bars and promised to build a little cave for Alive out of more of them.

Then, the shopping frenzy resumed.  Corvina found Gaius a set of enchanted leather that helped him move silently and Leyna got him a magical bow.  Gaius located some fireball scrolls for the mages... and then opened up a can of worms.  Sophus, a slave-merchant, had a wide selection of pretty Altanian women for sale.  "Boys too, if... interests so incline."  He also had Sobellian slaves trained in a variety of languages;  these slaves, unlike the Altanians and Verch ones, appeared content and were unchained.  Worried that these might be some of Corvina's friends, Gaius took his cousin past the slave coffles.  And sure enough, one of them stood out:  a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes -- a rarity in Altanians.  Corvina recognized him as Sheffrin... Sir Regulus' bastard child, who lived west of Madreponas.

While Corvina stewed silently, Severus wandered in and tried to purchase Sheffrin.  The merchant wanted 100 gp for him.  But when questioned, the boy was rebellious.  He heaped insults on Severus, calling him "drow-shit" and a "drow-fucker", and insisting that he'd bite off anything that got shoved in his mouth.  Severus used this to leverage the boy's price down to 65 gp.  Once they had him, they took him back to Corvina, who learned that six more of his tribe were enslaved.  Severus bought them too (and Dah, a Sobellian slave fluent in Sobellian, Rostillan, Viridian, Verk, and Franskan -- the language of the lands of the Liche Kings).  Then the band arranged passage for them, by ship, back to Altania.  They quietly warned Regulus (so as not to cause a scandal), who spent the evening with his son and later repaid the Surrexi for the costs they'd incurred.

Late that afternoon, a polite, neatly dressed man approached Severus and asked if he had the pleasure of speaking to Count Severus Surrexus.  When Severus said he did, the man introduced himself as Captain Cassius of the Praetorian Guard.  The Praetor wished to speak to both him and Gaius Molossus -- would they be so kind as to join him for dinner this evening?  Severus and Gaius agreed.  That evening, they left the rest of the family at the Sword and the Spear, and headed to the Carcer -- Viridistan's jail, and the barracks of the Praetorian Guard.  Once there they were ushered in to a book-strewn room, where a plainly craggy-faced man in plain clothes waited for them.

Praetor Ferreus appeared to be much more moderate than his horrendous reputation might imply.  As a guardsman brought wine, he said he had little patience for small talk.  He had invited Gaius and Severus because he wanted to know what the situation in Rostilla really was like and to determine whether or not he had any common ground with the rebels.  The two Rostillans explained current events at length.  Ferreus assured them that his main interest was re-establishing the tribute, which King Albanus had stopped.  Though he did grumble that he wished he'd known about Albanus' demonic bodyguards earlier;  he'd lost a damned good man because of them (doing what, he didn't say).  Severus assured him that he had no qualms about the tribute, and would pay it if he (Severus) was on the throne.  Ferreus inquired how he might assist the Surrexi;  Severus suggested a couple targets he could hit (punishing Count Galens, for instance, who captured Innocens Harrans, or burning the storehouses of the Count of Tillaford).  He also requested information about the capitol's defenses and how one might enter and leave Rostilla secretly.  The Praetor thanked him for the suggested targets, and said that he could give them information on Rostilla.  Good ways to come and go... provided one wasn't worried about the Dearthwood.

Only one thing surprised Gaius and Severus:  when Ferreus asked them what they thought about Albanus' half-brother -- King Errans' bastard child.  Severus had heard rumors of the boy, but wasn't sure he existed.  Ferreus affirmed that he did.  To which Severus answered that he had no interest in promoting an untried boy... and whoever his regent might be.  The Praetor concurred and assured him that if the Surrexi had any luck in Rostilla, the boy would not be seen again.  He also enquired about their uncle, General Martialis.  Severus was vague about him, but assured the Praetor that when the time came, he could move the general.  After a few pleasantries (and jokes about Empress Mara Gentillia), they parted ways.

While this was happening, Captain Cassius paid a visit to the Sword and Spear.  While young Marius acted as chaperone, the Praetorian chatted with Leyna and Corvina.  He'd been assigned to their case, to assist them.  Were they familiar with Viridia's laws?  They were.  Did they need temporary permits, authorizing them to use magic for one month?  They did.  For whom, the captain asked?  Corvina said herself and Severus, whereupon Marius chimed in and asked for one for everyone.  Cassius hedged at that, but finally agreed to give permits to Leyna, Corvina, Severus, and Gaius.  Did they need someplace to stay?  They did, and so he gave them the address of a nice (but discrete) villa, which they could use for the duration of their time in Viridistan.  Was there anything else they needed?  Marius requested a permit for access into the Archives (where Imperial records were kept).  The Archives used to be the Mother House of the Order of St. Cavallius.  That afternoon, while researching at the Temple of Legis, Marius had come across references which suggested that the Mother House had a vault which could only be opened by a Council Blade.  The boy managed to get two blank permits allowing the bearer to enter the main sections of the Archives.  Cassius wouldn't authorize access to all sections unless Marius told him what he was researching.  The captain made people nervous however;  his questions were too personal, too prying.  And so they kept their permits and keys to their house, and ushered him out the door.

The third day of shopping entailed more run-ins with odd characters than actual purchases.  Severus did buy a pair of rods of message, which allow two people to send messages to each other.  Marius found some free food samples, things that looked like pale green cheetos.  Dah the Sobellian slave informed the illustrious master that these were "puff-bugs", delicacies shipped all the way from Dulsanius.  Puff-bugs were a special type of maggot that incorporated the flavor of the food they ate.  If they were fed, say, herbs and then deep-fried, they were quite delicious!  Marius let Dah have his maggot.

Meanwhile Leyna's shopping was rudely interrupted by a woman screaming in agony.  The sound echoed up from an alley;  the merchants near it simply looked uncomfortable, and hawked their goods more loudly to drown her out.  Leyna tossed coins to several urchins and promised a second coin to the first boy who returned with the city guard.  Then, whipping out her sword and shouting for the rest of the family, she charged to the rescue.  The screams came from an open doorway, from which the scent of burned flesh oozed.  Leyna burst in, terrifying a large, half-naked man.  Inside a young girl was chained up.  A gaunt, untidy man in a red hat stood nearby, carefully applying red-hot brands to the woman's arms and legs.

Leyna's sudden appearance alarmed him, but when she shouted at him to release the woman, he grew indignant.  He was a licensed carnifex, he told her.  A professional torturer.  This woman was a slave.  Her master believed she'd stolen some silverware and wanted her to confess.  Furious, Leyna explained to him in detail how morally and logically bankrupt he was.  This made no sense.  It was cruel and idiotic.  The carnifex simply grew sulky that she insulted his profession.  He refused to release the girl (though he did relent and agree to close the door, so that the neighbors weren't as bothered by the sounds and smell).  Gaius and Corvina arrived about then, having heard Leyna's shout.  They managed to calm their cousin down a little (at least to the point where they didn't think she was going to murder anyone).  Then Gaius trotted out to get Severus, who convinced Leyna to let him handle the matter.  Still enraged, Leyna left, muttering, "This city is so wrong.  In so many ways."  Severus then turned to the man and kicked him squarely in the groin, telling him that he was a foul and reprehensible person.  Back outside the guard had arrived;  Leyna told them it had been a miscommunication.  The guards recognized her from the Sword and the Spear, and cheerfully told her she owed them all a mug of ale that night.  A debt Leyna did indeed pay.

Once shopping resumed, Corvina found a beautiful amulet.  Its seller, an old mercenary, insisted it was just an amulet of natural armor +1, normally worth no more than 1,000 gp.  But the gems -- a large onyx with small rubies set along the edges -- were worth probably 2,500 gp.  Why would anybody use such lovely materials for such a mundane item, he wondered.  The chain was an odd black "metal", which Corvina believed was drow silk (spider silk that the dark elves enchant until it has the hardness of metal and the weight of cloth).  The rest of the party was intrigued, and they bought it.  Severus and Corvina then compared it to their own amulet of natural armor.  The auras were almost exactly the same... but the obsidian amulet had a faint shimmer at its edges, almost like a heat wave.  Closer examination revealed faint engravings on the sides, which said "Open" in Draconic.  When this word was spoken, the amulet split open to reveal a large black diamon.  Even more mystified about its purpose, Severus pocketed the amulet, intending to cast identify on it in the morning.

Tired from their long day, the band headed over to the villa Cassius had arranged for them.  It was everything the Praetorian had promised:  clean, neat, modest -- nothing to draw undue attention.  It came with servants and a cook, who showed the party the house's secret passages which would allow them to slip into the alley unseen.  She didn't show them the separate passages used to spy on several of the rooms.  But Severus found those on his own, and all was right with the world.  The party settled into the "unspyable" rooms and invited the senior paladins to stay with them, and to join them for dinner.

Tinnius, Darius, Lucellus, Regulus and Marshalis (Tinnius' former squire, who'd given up his room for Leyna and Corvina) arrived with their squires.  Tinnius' squire sported a faint bruise under one eye.  Balthasar, on the other hand, staggered in looking like he'd been run over by a herd of wild horses.  The two boys had gotten in a fight -- and clearly Balthasar had lost.  (Though Tinnius "evened" the score by caning his own squire thoroughly.)  It was stupid.  They were sorry.  They would never do it again.  They promised.  Both knights had ordered them not to accept any magical healing;  they could live with their bruises until they faded naturally.  Privately, Balthasar admitted that the fight had started when the other squire accused him of being disrespectful to Sir Tinnius.  "I told him it was Tinnius' fault," Balthasar admitted.  "I wouldn't have been disrespectful if he wasn't so ignorant about theology."  The squire gave a horrified gulp as everyone yelled, "Ahah, that explains it."  And then he promised he really, truly would try to be more polite.

Lucellus also filled them in on his meeting with the Empress (who, he said, seemed to be a pleasant if slightly senile woman).  It was very odd to give your report, he said, when there were three dozen cats in the room, wandering everywhere and trying to sharpen their claws on your trews.  The Empress was suitably horrified by Mores' fate and swore that something had to be done about the situation in Rostilla.  What, she didn't say.  But something.  Something... firm.  Something staunch.  She would bring this up at the next baronical council, in three days' time.

That night, Severus had an odd dream, of a man standing beside his bed.  He couldn't make himself turn to look at him, though, and he didn't think much of the incident.  Until, after breakfast, he cast identify on the black diamon (the "amulet of natural armor") and found that it was the heartstone of the liche "Arglwydd" (a Verch name, Dah informed them, meaning "Lordly One" -- the Verchmai equivalent of the Rostillan name "Regis").  Summoning all the paladins, the party immediately rushed off to the Temple of Askelius, where Regulus requested an emergency meeting with Pontifex Maximus Caelum.  With some nervousness, the priest agreed to banish the soul bound in the gem.  He took everyone down into the temple's basement and asked Lucellus to have Ancilla thwart any incoming spells.  Something tried to teleport in, several times, as Caelum prayed over the stone.  However Ancilla and the temple's protections prevented it, and Caelum was able to safely banish the liche's soul.  (Lucellus seemed vaguely disappointed;  clearly he was spoiling for a fight.)

Day four found the party making its biggest purchase:  a +3 flaming greatsword for Titus.  Marius lost most of his afternoon in a stall full of religious texts;  he and Balthasar sighed and pined over much of the inventory.  Severus secretly bought a pair of delicate snowflake earrings for his girlfriend, Catarina -- but flatly refused to tell anyone what he'd done.  Corvina, Finder of All Things Arcane, found an old scroll in a beautiful but illegible script.  The vendor didn't know what it was -- he only knew that the magic was weak.  Too weak to justify an identify.  So he let Corvina have it for 25 gp.  Turns out the script was lillendi -- the scroll was an ancient prayer for paladins, one none of the knight had ever heard of.  Called "Divine Sacrifice", it allowed a paladin to use his own life-force to greatly increase the damage he did.  The party shared this information with the other knights, of course.  Though they did worry that Lucellus might grow overly enthusiastic and spell himself to death...  Gaius found a vendor of rare meats, and he, Leyna, Marius, and Corvina sampled something called a "velvet".  Dah (Lord of Trivia) informed them that velvets were a fish harvested near Insula Mollita (the Soft Isles), a land of mages and necromancers far to the south.  Some people didn't like them (despite their oddly entranced scent) because they fed on corpses.  The party thought they tasted okay, but chose to purchase Altanian nose-pig and ostraka meat for their feast that night.

The fourth evening passed uneventfully (though Lucellus kept Regulus up most of the night, looking for ghouls in Viridistan's necropolis).  Day five, still clear and bright, brought one last mad burst of shopping -- and running around to see if the prices had dropped on any of the items they hadn't bought.  Corvina found a couple weapons with slight enchantments:  a short sword for Marius and a rapier for Severus, who gave her his magical dagger.  Leyna found some sets of magical armor, priced to move.  And Marius found a completely boring box.  The merchants, two depressed mercenaries, offered it to him, cheap.  It had a spell on it, they claimed, which made you overlook it -- and then forget you'd ever seen it.  Marius was a little skeptical... until he realized he couldn't recall what merchandise they were discussing.  The party decided this could be very useful for hiding notes and other valuables.  And with that, the Viridian fair ended.

Marius had done research on how to protect the paladins from the malign dreams that Theodosius was sending.  He didn't turn up anything promising, though protection from evil should theoretically work.  One night he watched Sir Regulus until he began muttering in his sleep, and then cast the protection spell.  Regulus awoke, startled.  The same thing happened the next night;  no matter how carefully Marius cast, Regulus was always jerked out of his sleep.

Thus began a long series of experiments and questions -- which I won't attempt to replicate.  But the results were, roughly, this.  1) Remove curse caused sharp pains in the liver (seat of the soul, in Rostillan religion) when cast on Sir Regulus and Sir Tinnius... but none of the other paladins.  2) Tinnius admitted that he'd been vexed by dreams for several months, dreams of the moral failings and shortcomings of his brother paladins.  These dreams ended about the same time that Regulus' dreams began, leading the party to speculate that Theodosius could only afflict one person at a time.  Marius also speculated, privately, that these dreams were what made Tinnius "Mr. Grumpy."  3) Ancilla said there was a shadow on all of the knights of the Order.  But not, apparently, on squires.  So it was clearly something that occurred when (or after) a squire took his vows and became a paladin.  4) Ancilla said that the shadow was lighter on Darius and Titus -- but it still existed.  This one baffled the party.  They tried to figure out what made Darius and Titus unique.  Their guess was that both were Rostillan nobles -- and both had family members doing proper sacrifices for them.  Privately they wondered if perhaps the shadow arose from the fact that neither Viridia nor Rostilla was doing proper sacrifices.  Though no one mentioned this to the paladins, being fearful of upsetting Tinnius.  5) When Marius cast remove curse on paladins, the shadow lightened.  When Regulus and Tinnius cast remove curse, nothing happened.  This disturbed the paladins greatly, as it implied that the Order was, as a whole, no longer pure.

One last encounter ended the fair.  Corvina ran into an Altanian hunter, Tem, who lived in the village of Noricus -- where she'd spent her years in hiding.  Tem said that there was something wrong with the Dead City of Hakarim (a great ruin to the south of Noricus, infamous for its undead).  Three weeks ago Dennek, Noricus' riganta (chief), disappeared while hunting.  Those that tried to follow him found tracks leading into Hakarim, and signs of an excavation:  a large hole had been dug into the ground.  After Dennek's disappearance, the undead became very bold and numerous, coming all the way to Noricus' palisades.  In high summer -- a very rare occurance.

Since it was going to take about a month for the paladins to assemble for council, the party offered to go to Noricus and investigate Hakarim.