Rishala stopped and half turned to his companion. Speaking in a normal voice, he replied, "I'm walking out the front door. Why should I need to climb out?"

"You're going to get caught!" Bilbus whispered loudly. Glancing back at his friends, he said, "Let's get out of here before the Mother starts hunting for us."

Bilbus scrambled out the window and jumped to the ground. As he stood, he caught a whiff of tabac burning. Bilbus turned to face Father Lahiff, who was leaning against the building, waiting, arms crossed.

"Need another light?" the Father asked. "I thought you would come out this way. I almost forgot: On your way through Kells, check in with Father Gillifin. Tell him I sent you. Have a good trip."

Bilbus walked towards the front of the orphanage. In front of the building were Rishala and Kasey.

Kasey looked puzzled. "Why were you walking between the buildings?"

"Never mind," Bilbus said. He glanced towards the sky, which was already turning dark. The sun was setting. "We need to hurry up and get to the armorer."

Bilbus led his friends through the streets, noting with dismay at how quickly the traffic was thinning as darkness settled in. Brallian had always been a lively city, day or night.

Bilbus found the armorer for whom he had been seeking. The man was just lowering the large wooden side walls of his forge room, trying to close his shop for the evening.

Bilbus walked up to the man. "Good evening, Master armorer. I am Lord Hogain. I need a suit of armor crafted for me. Price is no object."

"What sort of suit?"

"Leather with a breast plate. I can show you." Bilbus took one of the books he had taken from the Church library and flipped through it. He found the illustration he wanted: It was labeled "Foot man of the Sun King".

"I can fashion the breast plate. The leather armor looks fairly normal, other than the tooling on the arms. I can find someone to do that work. It will take some time..."

"I will be back here in fifteen days," Bilbus interrupted.

"I may have it ready by then. I will need a deposit."

"Do you take gems?" After the man nodded, Bilbus added, "I will pay for all of it up front." He tipped his head towards Sturm. "Also, get him some armor."

"Why?" Sturm growled.

"For a disguise," Bilbus said as if answering a stupid question.

"A new suit of armor is not really much of a disguise. People can still see my face."

Bilbus pointed past Sturm. "Not if you wear that helm, too." Bilbus started counting out gems.

Sturm looked at the helm. It was a crude pot helmet, perhaps the work of an apprentice. It had odd, asymmetrical bat-like wings sticking from the sides, and a too-narrow eyeslit. "No," Sturm decided.

Bilbus had finished picking out gems. "I want a receipt," he said.

The man nodded and found a sheet of paper. He took a narrow charcoal stick and carefully wrote a receipt on the paper, then gave it to Bilbus.

As the party left the armorer's shop, Bilbus said, "Now let's find out where Franz Stalgraf is. There's only one group of people who know the city well enough to tell us where to find him."

""Oh?" Eric asked.

"The guild."

"Would that be the guild that tried to kill you when you lived in Brallian, Bilbus?"

"Yes, Eric, that would," Bilbus said with a hint of irritation. "But we are going to go to a restaurant that is considered neutral territory, so we should be safe."

Bilbus took a deep breath. "Now, Kasey, we're going someplace where there are a lot of bad guys, but we can't draw weapons on them, because they would run away and escape. We need to talk to them to find the really bad guy."

"Okay," Kasey said, not convinced.

Bilbus led the party through Brallian towards a seedier region closer to the docks. At last, he approached a single-story building. The windows were dark and the door shut. The mountebank tried the door handle. The door did not move.

"They're closed?" Eric asked.

"This place never closes. The people who frequent this place work day and night." Bilbus tried the door handle again. Still, nothing.

"Maybe they went out of business."

Bilbus ignored the suggestion as he kneeled close to the door lock. In the darkness that had fallen, it was difficult to see anything, so Bilbus took out a lockpick and probed the lock, trying to find any traps while getting a feel for the lock mechanism. He took out another tool, then set about unlocking the door.

Bilbus nudged the door. It shifted a little, but did not give way.

"It's barred," he said as he drew his adamantine dagger. He put the dagger through the gap between the door and frame, just above the lock, and lifted. Holding the dagger against the door, Bilbus slowly pushed the door open. Once he could reach through the opening, he grabbed the bar and held it while he pushed the door the rest of the way open.

The party stepped cautiously into the restaurant. It was darker inside than it was outside -- the windows were opaque and no lanterns were lit on the interior. The dining room was empty.

Eric picked his way through the dining room to the kitchen. He disappeared into it for a few seconds, then came back. "The hearth is still warm. They must have closed for the night."

Kasey was wandering around the dining room. He found a bread roll and an ostensibly clean mug. He filled the mug with beer from a keg and started soaking the bread in the beer.

"Where are the bad guys?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

"Yeah, Bilbus," Eric echoed. "Where are the bad guys?"

Bilbus grabbed a bottle of whiskey. "Let's go to the Guild house and find out." He took a bar rag and twisted it tight. The makeshift wick he stuffed into the neck of the bottle of whiskey.

Kasey dropped a coin on the bar to pay for his bread and beer. Eric likewise dropped a coin before he left.

The party made its way through the seedy part of Brallian, following Bilbus as he remembered the way to the Thieves' Guild house. As they turned a dark corner, they heard a blood-curdling scream in the distance. The scream cut short abruptly.

Bilbus approached a building. Eric noticed that two of the upper story windows were open, and he saw the distinctive shapes of heavy crossbows trained on the party. Bilbus seemed unaware.

"Bilbus," the explorer said quietly, "there are crossbows pointed at us."

Bilbus ignored Eric. In the Thieves' sign language, he gestured, I am here to see Iceknife.

Behind him, Rishala raised his right hand in a fist, then extended his index finger. He flexed it and straightened it repeatedly, until he heard one of the crossbowmen on the second story cough a short laugh.

At the inn, Adria and Breanna had hot baths. While drying their hair and waiting for the men to arrive, they waited in Adria's room.

Adria decided to show Breanna how to throw small, easily concealed knives. Adria drew a chalk caricature of one of the Company of Unusual Headgear on the wall, then demonstrated her throwing technique. Breanna was soon pitching knives at the target.

The younger noblewoman watched her friend throw the knives for a while. Breanna showed promise.

Adria cleared her throat. "So Bree, I had a question I thought you might be able to answer. I don't have much knowledge in this area, since I was raised by my father. I was wondering..." The words didn't seem to want to come. Spit it out, Adria thought to herself. "I was wondering, as a healer... how does a woman tell if she's... pregnant?"

(For a more complete accounting of the evening, look here.)

The first few cautious flakes of snow fell from the sky as someone unlocked the door to the Guild house from inside. Bilbus counted locks turning and bars moving, then furrowed his eyebrows. "Three bars. That's bad. They've added one."

Bilbus stood at the door for a few seconds, then slowly pushed it in. It moved slowly -- except for the outer panel, it was solid iron. Once the door was open, Bilbus walked in with a cocky swagger. The inner room was dark, except for a single lensed lantern pointed at the door. Bilbus heard the two knights step in behind him. Rishala and Eric stayed outside.

"What do you want?" a voice near the lantern asked.

"We can help each other out. We can get rid of the problem that's been keeping everyone indoors."

"Who are you, then?"

Bilbus smirked. "I'm Bilbus the Great. Perhaps you've heard of me."

There was a pause. "Yeah. There's two Gold Harps for your head, and another for the rest of you. Iceknife will pay it personally."

Behind Bilbus, Kasey said, "Gee, Bilbus. Sturm is worth five."

Bilbus ignored the knight. "Go get Iceknife. He would want to hear what I have to say."

There was some shuffling behind the lantern After another moment, another voice spoke. "Bilbus, you have a lot of gall walking into the Guild house with the price on your head."

Flippantly, Bilbus asked, "Business been a little dead lately?"

Iceknife snarled, "What the Hells do you want?"

Undaunted, Bilbus continued. "We can come to an arrangement. We know the Guild keeps its ears open. This problem has got to be hurting business. You point us were they're at, and we will deal with them. You get business going again, and we get to take care of some unfinished business."

"Do you think we wouldn't take care of the problem if we knew where it was coming from?"

"You don't know?" Bilbus asked disbelievingly.

There was a silence.

Outside, Rishala looked down the roads. He had used a Heka weave that allowed him to see in the dark, and he was hoping to spot something. At last, he did.

There was a thing walking across the street at a crossing about five blocks away. Its legs were articulated wrong -- backwards -- and it had a brilliantly red skin. It walked slowly, its head scanning back and forth.

"Eric," Rishala said as he nudged the Azirian. "Do you see that?"

"What?" Eric asked as he strained to see in the darkness.

Rishala pointed as the thing disappeared down a side street. "One of the things Stalgraf summons just crossed the street, five blocks down."

"I'll tell Bilbus," Eric said. He stepped into the Guild house and stopped behind Bilbus. Quietly, he told Bilbus what Rishala had seen.

Bilbus nodded. Towards Iceknife, he said, "Well, it was nice talking to you. You can't help us out, after all."

Outside, the party quickly walked away from the Guild house. Five blocks down, Rishala pointed down the side street. "It went that way."

Bilbus looked down the darkened street. "Maybe we can make noises to draw it to us. You know, act like stupid, lost people?"

"That is an idea," Eric said. "Or, we can follow it back to Franz Stalgraf." He pointed at the dusting of snow on the ground. There were tracks in the snow, split hooves. They had partially melted the snow around them, leaving an easy trail to follow.

Bilbus looked at the trail. "Well, yeah. We could do that, too."

The party followed the trail of steps down the road. After several minutes, winding into an even worse part of town than the Thieves' Guild house occupied, they overtook the thing. From behind, it looked like a very red, emaciated human, almost six feet tall. Except that its legs moved like they were on backwards and it had hooves instead of feet. And it had sharp claws on its hands.

The road the followed was narrow, little more than eight paces wide. It wound around a building to the right, then turned sharply back left in front of a partially burned-out shop. Bilbus had the lead, stepping quietly in the snow. He rounded the front of the shop and stopped abruptly. He backpedaled into Kasey, who grabbed the hilt of Caladbolg and prepared to draw the weapon. The party backed up a few paces.

Bilbus turned to his companions. In a hushed voice, he said, "It's up ahead. I saw some glowing red eyes in the building around the corner, watching in this direction."

He looked along the front of the shop until he spotted the frame where there used to be a door. "The road curves around to the far side of this building. We can cut through it and follow that thing."

The mountebank crept into the shop. The center of the shop had scorch marks on both floor and ceiling, and there was smoke damage on the entire ceiling. A number of the tables had been smashed, and a few showed fire damage as well.

Bilbus led towards the back office of the building. Stairs led up to the former owner's home, and a second door led to a back storage room. The office had a window looking out across the street. Bilbus kneeled next to the window and pulled out a small mirror. He angled the mirror so he could look down the road to his left, towards the building with the glowing eyes. The mountebank watched for minutes, tilting the mirror to look at the entire face of the four-story structure. After a while, he walked back to his friends, who had gone into the back store room to look for the creature they were following.

"I saw more eyes on the upper floors -- there's a pair on the third story, and another pair on the fourth. They never blink. I wonder if they're illusory."

Eric considered the possibility. "Demons may not blink, either." There was a window in the store room. Eric pointed out it. "The thing we were following went down this alley and into the building on the left."

The party slipped out the back door of the shop, intending to move up to the building into which the demon had gone. As they approached the building -- a run-down apartment, as it turned out -- the party noticed more glowing eyes in a window near the door they approached.

The eyes moved. Eric readied his bow, waiting for the door to open. When it did, the creature they were following came out the door. Its face was nearly skeletal, with the glowing red eyes deep in the eye sockets and a cruel, sharp-toothed mouth. Eric calmly released the bowstring, and his arrow shot into the thing's head, through an eye socket. The fletching stuck from the front of its face, and the arrow clearly jutted from the back.

The thing did not even flinch.

Instead, it walked towards the party at its slow pace, unmindful of the arrow through its head.

"Hells!" Eric cursed.

The party quickly retreated back into the building. Sturm threw the door shut and readied Gretorixmar, while Kasey took up a position next to the door, Caladbolg gripped tightly with both hands. Bilbus ran into the office and drew his mirror, while Eric and Rishala passed him, heading into the main room of the shop.

Bilbus peered towards the building in which he had first spotted glowing eyes. None of them had moved.

After a minute, Bilbus slipped back into the store room with the two knights. At the window in the store room, Bilbus poked the mirror past the sill, looking for the demon. It was no longer in the street. Bilbus did see an odd-looking pair of glowing eyes in the window of that apartment once more -- one of the eyes looked partially obscured. Bilbus quickly checked the rest of the alleyway. It dead-ended behind the shop in which he was -- the alley turned away from the back of the shop, and it ended with the apartment that had the demon on the left, another apartment, boarded up, ahead, and two smaller buildings on the right.

"It went back," Bilbus said with surprise. "It's back in the window, guarding the building."

Sturm and Kasey both relaxed a little.

"This isn't very good security," Bilbus observed. He glanced across the alleyway at the building opposite the back of the shop, a scant seven feet away. "We can probably find a plank that will cover the distance between this building and that one. We can cross on the second story, to one of the windows up there." Bilbus pointed at the two windows on the second story of the building across the alley. "From there, we can get to the apartment building at the end of the block, without walking through Stalgraf's front door."

The two knights and the mountebank went back to the front of the shop, where Eric and Rishala waited. Bilbus told them about what he had observed of the demon's actions and about his plan for crossing the alley. The party set about looking for a suitable length of board that was neither fire damaged or rotted. After some time, they found a stout length of board from a broken table.

The party returned to the back office, and they climbed the stairs to the second story. There was a small vestibule at the top of the stairs, just large enough for two of them to stand. The vestibule had a window that overlooked the narrow alley behind the shop. The window faced a window in the other building.

Kasey slid the plank across the opening between the two buildings. Once the knight was out of the way, Bilbus crawled onto the plank. He pulled out his grapple and handed the hook to Kasey. "Have someone over here hold this, in case I slip. Once I'm across, I'll anchor it over there and we can use it to help balance as we cross."

Kasey took the grapple. Bilbus stood on the plank and quickly crossed to the window of the other building. The oilpaper was torn, allowing Bilbus to peek inside to make sure no one waited for him. He saw no motion, no glowing eyes, so he hopped in. He detached his rope from its anchor on his jacket so he could check the apartment without a rope trailing behind him.

The mountebank quickly swept through the small two-room apartment on the second story of the apartment. He peered out windows on the side of the building, looking for the glowing red eyes in the apartment opposite him. The demon with the arrow through its head still stood at its window, unmoving.

Bilbus returned to the plank. He grabbed the rope and wrapped it around his forearm a couple of times, then waved back at his companions. Kasey crawled out onto the plank, then stood up, holding the rope in one hand. He tried to run across the plank, but slipped halfway across. Bilbus cursed under his breath and braced himself for the jolt of the rope going taut.

Kasey fell onto the plank. The wood was not as strong as it appeared, and the plank shattered. Kasey fell towards the paving stones below. When the rope went taut, Bilbus felt it slip around his arm. The rope flew out of his hands, and Kasey swung down towards the building he had just exited. He hit the wall a foot above the ground, then fell to the ground.

Bilbus ran to the other window. The red-eyed demon no longer stood at the window. The door was opening.

"Kase! Here comes the demon!" the mountebank shouted. Bilbus leaned out the window to see Kasey picking himself up from the ground, shaking his head.

Bilbus drew the drow long sword, looked at the demon that was just stepping out of the apartment building, and jumped out the window. He brought his sword up to stab the thing as he landed, but Bilbus misjudged the distance. He landed just a pace short, on his feet.

The demon turned to face Bilbus, the arrow still in its head.

Frantically, Bilbus swung the adamantine sword. The black blade cut into the demon's midsection, leaving a darker red gouge in the red skin. The demon raised an arm to swipe at Bilbus with its nasty claws. With a shout, Kasey charged the thing and swung Caladbolg in a mighty arc. The ancient sword cut through the demon, leaving one arm hanging uselessly by a strand of flesh.

Bilbus stabbed with the drow blade, thrusting its fine tip into the body of the demon. It erupted into a sooty burst of flame and vanished. The arrow through its head fell to the ground noisily.

Kasey had a feral grimace on his face. He turned to face the door to the demon's apartment when it creaked once more. Another demon came through the door, walking towards Kasey at a slow pace. Kasey took a step towards it and swung once more. Caladbolg tore through the red-skinned abomination, turning it, too, into an evaporating cloud of soot.

"Any more guard dogs want to come out and play?" the Church Knight shouted.

Kasey walked towards the apartment at the end of the alleyway. Sword still in hand, he kicked at the door. It did not budge. "The door's blocked," he assessed.

Eric looked at the tracks in the snow. They all led to the apartment on the left side of the alley. "I suspect Stalgraf is in that building," he pointed towards the one with the barricaded door. "Maybe there's a passage between the two buildings, just to make it tougher for someone to get through to him."

Kasey took the lead as the party went into the apartment building from which the demons had come. After a quick, thorough check of the ground floor, Kasey led them up the stairs to the upper story. He saw two more of the demons at the top of the flight of stairs. With a shout, the tall knight raced up the stairs, dispatching one of the demons before they could react. As the second one turned to attack Kasey, Rishala released an arrow from his drow bow. The arrow shot into the demon, glowing like a full moon as it raced into the thing. The glow splashed onto the demon and faded quickly as Rishala fired a second arrow. The demon swiped at Kasey, but its claws were utterly ineffective against the magickal amulet Kasey wore.

On the second floor of the building, the party found a hole that had been torn in the wall. It led to the barricaded apartment building. After dispatching two more demons, the party went through the hole into the new building. They wound their way through the building, finding more isolated pockets of demons doing their mindless sentry duty.

The party rounded a corner to find stairs leading both up to the third story and down to the ground story. Bilbus stopped to light a tabac stick, unimpressed with the defenses of Stalgraf's lair.

"Which way?" Kasey asked.

"Up," Eric suggested.

Up the stairs he climbed. Three more of the beasts waited in the room at the top of the stairs. Kasey once more charged, dispatching one with a single blow by the time Rishala had loosed an arrow at a second. Kasey shifted around, ignoring the ineffective claws of the demons, to attack the third. With three more arrows, Rishala destroyed the second demon shortly after Kasey had slain the third.

The party found one last pair of sentries before a door. After quickly killing both of the demons, Kasey kicked the door open and charged through.

The room was large and nearly empty. Near the door were two more of the demons, waiting. Halfway across the room was Franz Stalgraf, standing in a circle of protection. On the far side was a horrific demon, one Bilbus had seen twice before. It was three paces tall, with a hideous visage that could cause nightmares. The first time he had seen it, it was with Franz Stalgraf in Londoun. The second time, it had flown in and attacked Sturm just outside Brallian. Eric had been struck insane by the sight of the demon.

Screaming, Bilbus dropped his sword and his tabac stick. He turned and fled.

Both knights charged the large demon, swords at ready. Rishala turned to one of the demonkin and loosed an arrow at five paces' distance. The glowing arrow pierced the demonkin's chest, but did not destroy it. Eric drew Fragarach and swung at the nearer demonkin, cutting it to the ground.

Stalgraf pointed a hand at Eric. A glowing bolt of energy leaped from his hand, striking Eric in the side. Instinctively, Eric turned and swung at Stalgraf, even though the sorcerer was nearly ten paces away. Eric felt the sword slow as if it were meeting resistance, and he saw Stalgraf stagger back a step, a look of surprise on his face.

The two knights reached the large demon and swung. Both hit, cutting deep gouges into the fleshy beast. It swung at Sturm, just missing the Sun Knight. Sturm swung at it again, and it erupted into flames. In a flash, the demon was gone.

Eric rushed Stalgraf. Arrows from Rishala's bow passed him, striking an invisible shield just in front of Stalgraf. The arrows fell to the ground. Eric swung Fragarach at the sorcerer. His first blow fell short, once more striking the invisible shield. Another of Rishala's arrows struck the shield, but the arrow stopped far closer to Stalgraf than the previous ones had done. Eric swung again, striking flesh this time. The blade cut deep into Stalgraf's side. The sorcerer's eyes flashed surprise before he collapsed to the ground.

Eric kneeled beside the body. A couple of quick touches confirmed that Stalgraf was not dead. He was grievously injured, and dying, but not dead yet.

"He's alive," Eric said.

"Not for long," Sturm said, raising his sword as he walked towards Stalgraf's motionless body.

"Wait!" Eric shouted. "We should keep him alive. He might still have information we can use."

"No," Rishala disagreed. "After what he's done to us?"

"He escaped last time because the Church underestimated him," Eric replied. "What if we question him, then turn him over to Father Lahiff, with an explanation of who Stalgraf is?"

"Something may go wrong again," Rishala retorted. "Better that we deal with him while we have control over him."

Eric sighed. "What if we at least question him, first? Rishala, he is not going to last much longer if we don't do something now."

Rishala paused for a moment, debating with himself. Finally, he kneeled next to the wounded man, mindful of the large pool of blood forming underneath Stalgraf. With a quick working of Heka, Rishala stabilized Stalgraf and mended the wound enough to keep Stalgraf from dying.

"There," Rishala said. "He'll keep, now."

A distant, maniacal scream echoed in from somewhere in the apartment building.

"Where the Hells is Bilbus?" Rishala suddenly asked.

Bilbus raced towards the stairs, no longer caring if his friends were behind him or not. That giant demon had done too much to them to face once again. If he could get out of the building, and away from Brallian, he would be safe again.

Bilbus stumbled down the stairs, skipping one or two steps at a time. On the second floor, Bilbus looked at the stairs to the ground floor. It was far closer than having to go clear back through the rest of the apartment building to the hole in the wall. He nearly tripped on his way down the stairs to the ground floor.

The door -- and escape -- was barricaded by an armoire, several chairs, and a bench. In front of the door were two of the demonkin. Both raised claws towards Bilbus, firing glowing darts of magickal energy. Both darts dissipated before touching Bilbus, their energies spent trying to pierce Bilbus's magickal protective necklace.

Bilbus ran forward, shouldering past the two demonkin, to grab a chair. He threw it across the room, his back to the demonkin, and reached for another. He felt a faint pressure on his back. One of the demonkin had raked at him with its sharp claws. The necklace absorbed the attack, but Bilbus still felt the pressure.

Bilbus turned to face the demonkin, the madman's grin on his face matching the rictus on each of the demonkin's face. Bilbus drew his adamantine dagger and slashed at one of them. The drow blade cut the demon, leaving a searing gouge on its side. It swiped at him again, doing no damage. Bilbus stabbed towards its throat, barely feeling the satisfaction that accompanied its sudden evaporation into foul smoke. The other demonkin pressed its attack ineffectively. Bilbus slashed at it with his dagger, and it, too, was soon a vanishing cloud of smoke.

Bilbus slammed his dagger back into its sheath, then turned to the furniture once more. He grabbed another chair and threw it aside.

Bilbus ignored the heavy footsteps that approached from behind. Even when Kasey leaned around Bilbus's side, the mountebank kept to task.

"Bilbus?"

Bilbus threw another chair aside.

"Bilbus, it's gone. The demons are gone. Sturm got the big one." Bilbus hesitated. "I got your sword."

Bilbus turned to face Kasey.

"Come on, Bilbus. Let's go back upstairs. It's over."

Bilbus took the sword from Kasey, then let the knight lead him back to the third story. Near the room where Stalgraf and Stalgraf's minions had been, Bilbus stopped. "I won't go back in there."

Kasey looked at Bilbus for a moment. "Okay. We'll be out in a minute. We just need to wrap Stalgraf up so we can question him, and we need to break those magic circles."

Bilbus looked around the room. It was dark, nearly pitch black, save for the light coming from Stalgraf's chamber. Bilbus spotted a dying ember on the ground. He kneeled next to it and picked up his dropped tabac stick. It had been partially crushed. Sighing to himself, Bilbus reached into his belt pouch for another one. There were no more. Bilbus sighed again, louder this time.

After a few minutes, his companions had finished. Rishala carried a lantern, providing some light. Kasey had Stalgraf thrown over a shoulder, and Eric had a large book tucked under an arm.

"Let's mop up," Bilbus said. "There were a few of them out there still."

Bilbus led his friends back into the alleyway. Bilbus walked up to the window where he had first spotted the red eyes, weapons sheathed, and looked inside.

"Bilbus, ye idiot!" Rishala barked.

"What? They can't hurt me. They tried." He pointed a thumb towards the window. "Besides, it ain't here."

Bilbus walked into the building. After several minutes, he came back out the door. "They're gone. Like they never were there. Maybe Stalgraf lost control of them, and they left."

The party left the alleyway, heading back to the inn.

They walked into the inn late in the night. Bilbus threw the door open, making room for Kasey, who still carried the unconscious and grievously wounded Stalgraf. The night innkeeper's eyes goggled when the tall knight walked through the door with a bloodied man. He rushed towards the front door, waving his arms and shouting a protest.

Rishala put a hand up to reassure the man. "We have prior unfinished business with this man."

Kasey added, "Church business." He glanced over his shoulder at Sturm. "Do you want to interrogate him now?"

"We may want to collect the reward first," Sturm replied.

"I don't think we will want to bring him before the king," Eric said.

"Take him to the smoking priest," Bilbus suggested. "He should be able to keep an eye on Stalgraf. Then, we go get the reward. If the king wants to see Stalgraf, we can come back for him. We should wake the girls."

Bilbus went upstairs to roust Breanna and Adria. He returned a number of minutes later with Breanna, who eyed Stalgraf suspiciously.

"Adria wants to sleep," Bilbus said. "Bree said she would go with us to keep an eye on Stalgraf."

"I have something that will keep him asleep," Breanna said. "Although he would be better dead."

Eric raised an eyebrow.

"Look what he did last time. He escaped, and killed those Church Knights, and made Eric crazy, and..." Her voice trailed off.

"He possessed all of you," Eric added.

Bilbus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Let's go find the smoking priest and leave Stalgraf with him. Bree, you can watch over him, too, to make sure he doesn't do anything. We will get the reward, come back, and question Stalgraf. Then we can make sure Stalgraf doesn't cause any more trouble."

The party took Stalgraf to the Church. After some quiet talking to the priest who was on duty, they found Father Lahiff's room in a nearby Church dormitory. Kasey rapped on the door.

After a few moments of shuffling on the other side of the door, Father Lahiff opened the door. He had a robe wrapped tightly around him, and his hair was disheveled.

"Why are you here at this ungodly hour?" the priest mumbled.

"All hours are godly, Father Lahiff," Kasey said.

The priest ignored the knight.

"This is Franz Stalgraf," Eric said. "He worked in Londoun importing goods. He was also the head of the Anlor Balsil Agralem in Londoun." Lahiff scrutinized the unconscious man on Kasey's shoulder. Eric continued, "We captured him a few months ago and turned him over to the Church in Londoun. They were shipping him to Kells for questioning, and he escaped. He is a sorcerer, and he summons demons. The knights escorting him were careless, and he managed to summon help and escape. He was responsible for the killings in town recently. We captured him again. We want to go to collect the reward, but we need him watched closely."

"I will watch him," Father Lahiff said, his eyes dark. "If you need, I will vouch for you to the king."

Kasey entered Father Lahiff's room and dropped Stalgraf on the ground. Breanna entered the room, then the rest of the party left for the King's palace.

The party returned to Father Lahiff's room an hour after leaving. Stalgraf was bound and gagged, with a blindfold over his eyes. Breanna sat on one side of the room, looking like a bound predator as she glared at Stalgraf with abject hatred. Father Lahiff sat closer to the prisoner, watching him intently.

"Any problems?" Lahiff asked after the party had shut the door.

"Nope," Bilbus said. "He wanted to get rid of us after waking him up at that hour. We told him you were good for it if we were lying, and Kasey swore as a Church Knight that we spoke the truth."

"Let's find out what Stalgraf knows," Sturm growled.

"Tell ya what, Sturm," Bilbus said. "We'll be down the hall in the sitting room. See what he knows. Then we can find somewhere to dispose of him."

Bilbus ushered his friends and Father Lahiff out of the room, leaving the Sun Knight alone with Franz Stalgraf.

Sturm joined his comrades fifteen minutes later in the sitting room. They had started a game of cards.

"He's unconscious again," Sturm said. "He says he was here in town hunting us. No one was directing him after us. He had about twenty demonkin under his control, but they will leave, if they haven't already, since he is no longer in position to control them. He has not had contact with his commander since we captured him. I asked him why his organization thought Hellenas was important -- there was a Portal there, after all. He did not know. He does not know when the invasion will begin, but he was told to have Londoun ready in the spring for orcs."

Bilbus set his cards down. "Well, I guess it's time to tie weights to him and toss him off of a pier -- it's a Brallian Guild tradition." He thought for a moment. "You know, the invasion plan is basically the same as last time. They are going to land in Brallian, then just head across. Instead of Camelough, they head to Londoun. Plus, they have orcs already in the Middle Ranges."

Eric yawned. "Regardless, let's take care of Stalgraf, then get some sleep."

Kasey went back for Stalgraf, then followed his companions out into the night.

6 Saille 2045

The following morning arrived far too quickly for the party. They quickly decided to stay in the inn for an additional day to rest and plan.

Eric spent the morning in the common room of the inn, empty, save for his companions. He was preparing a letter to his father, warning Janus Ithell of the dire events that were conspiring. In the letter, he warned his father that there could be as many as three armies near or in Armagh by the time planting season arrived -- hordes of orcs, and armies of Knights of the Church. And, if the Sun Knights could get their internal problems resolved, the Sun Knights could be battling near Armagh, as well.

After he had finished copying the letter -- so he could use two couriers, to increase the odds of the letter reaching Armagh -- Eric set his writing stylus down. "We need the Sun Knights to rally. If they are busy fighting one another, then there are only Church Knights to defend against orcs. And they may not be enough, if the Dark One's attack is anything like it was at the Fall of Camelough."

Sturm nodded. "We could assassinate the Lord High Commander," he said darkly.

"No," Eric said after a moment's consideration. "They may replace him with another just as bad."

"What if we discredit him?" Breanna suggested.

Bilbus chuckled. "Frame him as a Heka user. It wouldn't be hard."

Adria glanced at Bilbus. "What if we find out what is making him the way he is? There has to be some reason for him to hate Heka users so much."

Bilbus looked at Adria. "You mean to sneak into a citadel full of Inquisitors?" He grinned. "That may be easier than it looks."

Rishala offered, "We could convince them that the orcs use Heka."

Bilbus interjected, "They do use Heka!"

"Aye, but remind them that the orcs do."

Eric looked at the letter he had written. The ink was dry, so he folded the pages. "The rebels need a recognizable leader. They need someone they can rally behind."

Kasey stood and stretched. "This sounds suspiciously like politics. I'm going for a walk."

The Church Knight left.

8 Saille 2045

It was the evening of the following day when the party reached Kells. The sun was just dipping near the horizon, marking the end of a second peaceful day of riding.

Kasey led his friends to the Church Knights' castle, across the central city park from the cathedral with its giant spire. The Church Knight requested an audience with Father Gillifin, and, after a few minutes, the party was led to Father Gillifin's office. The Father had a small fire burning, fighting the chill of the day. He had a stack of papers on his desk, but he slid them to one side when the party entered.

Bilbus addressed the priest. "The tabac smoking priest..."

"Father Lahiff," Eric interrupted.

Bilbus scowled briefly at Eric. "...sent us here. He said to talk to you on our way to Erelhei Cinlu."

Father Gillifin nodded, then pulled a blank sheet of paper out of his desk. He dipped his stylus in a bottle of ink, then started writing. When he finished, he gave the paper to Bilbus.

"These are directions to a safehouse the Church has in Erelhei Cinlu. I'm sorry the directions are hard to follow, but I am assured that the city is very difficult to navigate."

Eric's mouth hung open. "There's a safehouse in Erelhei Cinlu?" Father Gillifin nodded. "The Church of Kells has a safehouse in a drow city? What? Do you also have an army in al-Rhayidh, too?"

"Yes," Father Gillifin replied. "We have an army in al-Rhayidh -- hopefully, Father Lahiff got permission first, this time. There's about a thousand knights, plus supporting priests. But the Dark One has too much control of his territories for us to maintain a base that close to his."

Bilbus smirked. "He's taking care of it."

Father Gillifin sighed quietly.

"Do you have a stronghold next to the Dark One's Palace?" Eric was still incredulous.

"No," Father Gillifin said. "That stronghold is under the Dark One's control." He studied his visitors. "I assume you will stay the night in Kells, and get underway in the morning for Arabel Cinlu?"

Bilbus nodded.

"Very well. The hour is getting late, and I do need to finish some papers. Good journey to Erelhei Cinlu, and be careful."

The party took their leave of his office.

Back to the previous chapter: Book III: Horses

An aside to Waiting, accounting for what the women in the party were doing while the men hunted Stalgraf

Continue to the next chapter: Escorts

Back to the Book IV Index.

Back to the Dark Mysteries Campaign Chapter Index.

Original Draft 10 February 2003

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