Session XXIV - Manticore Hunt (2002-04-16)
As Radagast and Landis were again spending the evening in Radagast's quarters, there was a knock on the door. Radagast considered casting mage armor, shield and activating his flaming sword, but sent Landis to answer the door instead.
The man at the door was a friend of Radagast's, from his days in the wizard school in Capernaum. Gaius Julius was another half-renegade student, although he claimed he had done his experimenting with other arts and decided magic was the way of his future. Gaius also brought message from Radagast's parents, which explained that he could still return to the school of wizardry, and the usual parental worrying. That reminded Radagast that he intended to send the soulstone to his parents to take care of it, and write that he was doing fine in Durenheim.
As the trio was bringing each other up to speed, Radagast noticed a letter on the table that had apparently materialized out of thin air for nobody saw anyone bring it in. After a few dreadul moments he opened it. It was a letter from Eomric, in which he asked Radagast and his companions to retrieve Eomric's crystal ball, spellbooks and a copy of the Lineages of Glom, Burns and Stromgald and Respected Heraldries. There was a password to disable Eomric's magical traps for the following day, and instructions for bringing the items to the proprietor of the Chortling Manticore.
The party pondered about what to do for quite some time, until finally deciding that they could give it a try. Their decision was made easier when they noticed the lackeys were preparing Wolfrig's carriage for next day.
In the morning the nonchalant party went to the tower door. There was one guard posted there, who soon started complaining how his replacement should have been in by now. He asked if Radagast would mind keeping an eye on the door, and of course Radagast had nothing against that idea, although he mentioned that a guard duty was probably not even needed because of all the magical traps in the tower. As the guard left Radagast told him to take his time, Radagast was in no hurry...
The guard problem solved they quickly realized the door was locked. And nobody had any experience with locks, so Radagast had to use magic to unlock it. They quickly went inside, and closed the door. Radagast remembered from his earlier visit that Eomric's traps started from the staircase so they searched the ground room first. The Lineages were there, and they decided to pick them up on their way out.
With some protective spells activated, Radagast said aloud the password. Emoric's glyphs shimmered gold, then turned back. After just few steps they set off Wolfrig's trap, which was a fiery creature appearing out of nowhere and attacking them! It burned Gaius pretty badly, and he had to retreat to gulp some healing, while Landis finished the creature off, receiving e few scorch marks from splashing fire.
While their magic was still strong, they run to the next floor. In the center of the room appeared to be a crystal ball, and the walls were covered with bookcases. Radagast and Gaius made themselves invisible, and went looking for the spellbooks. They were not there. They decided to pick up the crystal ball on their way down.
The third floor was a lab. After a quick search which did not produce the spellbooks Radagast read some pages of the open notebooks lying around to determine if Wolfrig was doing what he should be doing. The most interesting found was that Wolfrig was experimenting with truth serum. Radagast chuckled as Wolfrig had noted down that Alayn's heroic feats were far less regarding the orc kidnap when he had had a little taste of truth. More worrying were his founds that Alayn was more resistant to his experiments as one would have guessed, and Cordwellyn seemed to be totally immune. Radagast pondred if Alayn's ring of protection had anything to do with it, or if it was something else. Wolfrig noted that he should try testing with bigger portions next time.
Ascending the next stairs they were suddenly faced with a fiery gate. A salamander emerged from it, and attacked them. It was quickly dispatched with.
The next level opened into a small room with two doors. The most important feature was a corner table with books. Radagast studied the books visually and noticed they were almost certainly spellbooks, and had the initial E engraved on them. Radagast quickly packed them into his backpack, feeling funny for a moment. "I should be prepared for these kinds of spells by now," Radagast cursed himself for his lack of preparation. Luckily he was able to resist the spell.
The party discussed if they should peek behind the doors. On one hand Eomric had requested only the three specific things which really were his, and they had now located all of them. On the other hand, now was probably the only change to explore Wolfrig's chambers since he would improve his defenses. And they were not intend on stealing anything, just having a look. So before opening the doors, Radagast cast Detect Magic. It was enough to convince him and the rest that it would be foolish trying to open the doors: they were laced with magic, strong auras of abjuration and necromancy. Necromancy was slightly surprising, but nevertheless, it appeared the doors were too well protected.
They made haste to the crystal ball, and Gaius tried to put it in his backack. As soon as he touched it, though, he got an irresistible urge to leave. Apparently another magical protection. Radagast fished a small sack from his backpack and showed how Landis could use it to handle the crystal ball without touching it.
Landis and Radagast met Gaius Julius on the ground floor, and told him to get the Lineages.
They listened at the door, and heard footsteps approaching far away. Radagast, who was still invisible, opened the door and took a peek. Nobody was in sight, so he quickly ushered the others out as well, closed the door and made himself visible.
There were just in time, as the replacement guard came behind the corner. The guard was unhappy about his assignenment, swearing it shouldn't have been his shift. When he noticed the burned heros he asked how they got burned. Radagast was quick to explain that he and Gaius were just testing their magic as they hadn't seen each other for a long time. It appeared the man bought their bluff, and Radagast sighed in relief as they left the scene.
To be on the safe side Radagast decided they'd better rent a room from the Green Dragon, and go see Eomric's middle man in the morning. They wanted to be prepared in case it was not Eomric, but some other agency. Although they could not figure out who could it be.
In the morning they wandered to the Chortling Manticore to have a chat with the proprietor. He seemed to be under some kind of spell. Radagast did not want to display the items in the open so he asked for a private room. They questioned the man but he was obviously unable to tell them anything. Figuring it would be safe they handed the items to the proprietor, who thanked them and disappeared through a trapdoor in the floor. After a few seconds Radagast suggested they should follow: if it really was Eomric they were dealing with he would have nothing to fear from them, but if it was not Eomric this was their best change to catch him.
They were too late. There was a small room, and the proprietor was alone, without the items. He did not seem to remember where they went, but he handed one small sack to each Radagast, Landis and Gaius Julius. Landis' sack contained 200 gold coins, Radagast had a scroll of suggestion, and Gaius a scroll with Cat's Grace and Melf's Acid Arrow scribed onto it.
Feeling better because of the gifts, the party wondered into town trying to figure out what to do next. They heard Wolfrig was furious about the theft, and made it clear that if Alayn could not protect his tower he sure wished the next ruler would be able to do so.
Radagast bought a small wooden box, and wrote a letter to his parents and placed the letter and soulstone in there. He then suggested they should go meet Tempus. They learned Tempus was about to leave with a caravan to Capernaum, so Radagast asked him to deliver his letter, which Tempus was happy to do for free. They had dinner with Tempus without any bad side effects (although Radagast pointed that out on several occasions to his companions). They heard Tempus mention a rumour that Alayn was considering marrying some lord's daughter so he could be in a better position for the throne when the council of lords would have their session to decide on the next ruler of Durenheim.
After a good an hearty dinner Radagast and the others decided they'd do a little manticore hunting since sitting idle was getting to them all. Landis was expert on manticores, having hunted them several times before, and Gaius had a knack for the wilderness so in a few days they were able to spot traces of manticore activity.
Before spotting a manticore they stumbled upon another kind of find. They almost fell with their horses into a hole that was well camouflaged with brances and leaves. The hole was filled with a dozen or so skeletons with burning red eyes, although they appeared to be unmoving. Radagast even threw a rock at one, but it still did not react. Radagast told the others to gather rocks so they could safely crush them without going into the hole. While they were doing this, Gaius spotted a manticore flying overhead, and promptly shot an arrow at it.
The manticore was not pleased, and shot a hail of needle sharp spikes fromk its tail at Gaius. Radagast and Gaius were casting protective spells and shooting arrows at the beast while Landis was trying to figure if he should shoot or mount his horse for a chance at lance charge. The manticore made the decision moot as it plummeted on top of Landis, trying to push him into the hole with the skeletons. Landis seemed to gain inhuman strength as he held his ground against the huge creature. Radagast switched to his flaming sword and flanked the beast, while Gaius sent a couple of volleys of arrows and magic at the beast. In the end they killed the creature quite easily, although things could have turned nasty if it had managed to drop Landis into the skeleton pit. Radagast collected the manticore spikes in hopes someone could make fine arrows out of them, and Landis hacked the head loose; they were going to bring that to town to show they had killed one and collect the handsome 500 gold coin bounty. Before leaving they crushed the skeletons with stones.
On their way back they came across a strange, foreboding part in the woods. The horses refused to go through the area of about 100 feet, and the air seemed chilly, and voices seemed to die quickly without echo. Radagast guessed it might be a place where someone had summoned a demon. Being wounded from their skirmish with the manticore, and lacking a man of the cloth, they decided to come and investigate it again with better preparations.
In the city they reported the destroyed undead cache, and collected the bounty for the manticore. They also learned that Landis' troops had arrived and he would have to report back to duty.
$50 discount!