Session XXII - Worthy of a Ruby? (2002-04-02)

The next day the main event was on its way. Cassandra had hurt herself practising, and could not participate in the jousting competition, so Jobric and Radagast had to contend themselves watching Landins, the Waymarch Knight who was wearing Jobric's enchanted armor, advance from the initial fights. The black knight, whose horse Radagast had borrowed to catch Maya and Thalgar, won against Tomaloc, and Tempus and well as Lord Bjoric won as well against their opponents.

In the next round Landis faced the black knight. The first ride by produced only splintered lances. On the second try Landis seemed to forget how to ride a horse and fell from the easy blow of the black knight. Tempus in turn lost to Bjoric. Bjorn (the captain of the guard) and one more knight advanced to the semifinals

Finally it was just the black knight and Bjoric in the finals. Eventually it was Bjoric who won the whole contest.

Jobric went on one of his drinking, or information gathering rounds as he liked to call them, and found some interesting information. It appeared that when Cordwellyn's mercenary army made their way to the sieged Cador, the orcs surrendered immediately. Bad tongues told it was not a surrender but the orcs were in league with Cordwellyn. Jobric also found that there had been an iceworm attack at St. Haven, and that a King's Justicar was supposed to have arrived in Dhunraven several weeks ago.

The coronation ceremony did not go as Alayn had planned. Theoden came with a box that did not contain the crown, but a red gem. The ruby was called the Heart of Courage, and Theoden explained that in centuries past it was used as a test to see if the ruler to be was suitable. He placed the gem on Alayn's chest, but the stone did not light as it should have. Theoden declared that he would not crown Alayn as the test had shown he was not suitable. Alayn was understandably mad, but Theoden made a hasty retreat before Alayn's anger got out of hand.

The party followed Theoden into the temple, and asked why he did what he did. Theoden explained that he did not approve of Alayn's recent actions, like torturing people to get confessions. He also said the party could help his cause by looking for another heir of the late Lord Khulven. He also said Tomaloc's father was Alayn's uncle. Theoden seemed to consider any one of Bjorn, Tomaloc or Bjoric to be a better ruler than Alayn. He was also suspicuous of the new magistrate, who had appeared so conveniently and nobody had seen him before. "Wolfrig the Burned," he called him which made Radagast more and more convinced that Eomric and Wolfrig were in fact the same man.

While discussing this, four black clothed men stormed into the temple in a rather obvious assasination attempt. Jobric, Landis and Radagast eventually got the upper hand, but a fifth man managed to steal the Heart of Courage. The men were wearing chain shirts under their clothing and armed with longswords and daggers, but they carried nothing else.

They had captured one man alive, and they took him to the town guards. That did not really turn out the way they expected: they ended up ad hoc trial as the guard leader on duty had been granted with power for swift trials in cases like this. It was rather obvious the prisoner was a dead man, and would face a lot of torture while the guards would try to question him.

Next day Jobric cast a divination to locate the stolen ruby, and went flying around the city. He located the ruby in the docks area, between the Fish Court and Crook Street. The party went to investigate. After deciding that it would either be one of the abandoned looking warehouses or one of the guarded ones, Radagast made himself invisible and went souting closer. To his disappointment the doors seemed to be locked and windows shuttered with iron bars. He did notice that one warehouse seemed to have some activity. It was inhabited by a rival thief guild, it appeared.

Jobric paid a street urchin to take a message to the torchbearers guild about a crtain rat infestation in the dock area, and suggested the party just walk to the door and demand to be let in. He reasoned they should just tell the truth that they had reason to believe the stolen ruby was in the warehouse. Landis argued strongly against it, but finally gave in. It turned out that was rather a stupid idea, as the thugs would not open the door and it looked like the place was well defended.

While Landis and Ragadast went to see Bardia, Jobric went to see the torchbearer's guildmaster. He learned the new guild had less than 100 members, and also that if the torchbearers were to help, it would require a hefty fee as the ruby just by itself was so valuable.

Bardia did not want to sacrifice his scouts on a mission like that either, but he suggested the party go and meet with Wolfrig, or ask Bjorn to send town guards to arrest the crooks. Bardia also confirmed that he'd rather see Alayn on the throne. According to him Alayn was still wearing the ring that seemed to protect him against possessions, or so Radagast hoped.

Since they did not have proof for a formal arrest, they decided to go and see Wolfrig. Wolfrig was living in Eomric's old tower, so they headed that way. The door to the tower opened for them and the voice of Wolfrig talked to them. He himself was not visible. Radagast explained the situation and asked if he could do something out it. Wolfrig wanted to see the area where thet tough the stone was located from a map. After that he said he would be back after a while and asked his quests to enjoy some wine and meal. Nobody dared eat, but luckly he was away for only half an hour.

Wolfrig said he had seen the stone, but it was not in a warehouse, although probably still near the docks. He described a room, with torches on the wall, with wet and muddy footprints leading in. He had also seen the woman who was responsible for Drik's death. He also said he had seen the flaming sword Radagast had lost. The final thing he had seen was a letter with a twisted serpent at the bottom, which was the symbol of the necromancer guild bodyguards. Then the woman had noticed he had been spied upon and Wolfrig was unable to learn more.

The party also got word from the town guards that their prisoner had died, mysteriously just when he was about to confess and tell about his masters.

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