Chapter 04 - There is no honor among thieves, or demons

3-20-6050

A Night at the Barge Inn

• Close to evening the gang converges on the Barge Inn in the Sighing Docks to retrieve a trunk for the weasly money-lender Sentis Jorlsak. Raen has previously arranged for a private room on the second floor near the privy, and close to the owner of the trunk - an old man.
• With the old man eating dinner in the common room downstairs, Jerig sends his spider pet into the old man’s room - and locates the trunk. Tasher offers the old man, who looks more like a hobo then anything, the remainder of his pork dinner. The old man is rude and refuses it.
• While the spider is in the old man’s room a Shay man comes in and seems to spend time studying the trunk. He opens up the trunk and seems to empty it of it’s contents into a small sack.
• Jerig alerts Dag who heads downstairs to tell Raen and Cricket of the events. Jerig, not wanting the Shay to get away with the loot they were supposed to steal, confronts him in the hallway where he seemed to be on his way to the window over the canal. He convinces the stranger to release his spider (which he picked up and put in his sack), and tries to negotiate some sort of monetary exchange.
• Meanwhile, Raen has decided the best person to deal with the thief is the old man - he informs the old man someone has just robbed him - Old man, appearing quite angry now, pushes Raen aside and rushes upstairs. Upon seeing two seedy looking men in the hallway, one with a sack, he forstalls the asking of questions and proceeds with magical incantations. Jerig and the Stranger run toward the window. The green glow of the Essence begins to form around him, coalescing into a shimmering ball in his hands. With a loud holler, the green ball shoots from his hands, turning pure white and getting larger until it explodes into an ice cold blast. Jerig and the Stranger dive out the window, falling into the sewage filled canal below - luckily adjacent to the docks where Tasher is in his boat, caressing it softly.
• The old man rushes to the window, beginning the dreaded incantations again, collecting the green glowing Essence in his hands where it shoots from his hands, forming a single bolt of green glowing ice as it advances through the air to the canal, and the stranger, where it freezes the water it hits.
• Unfortunately for the normally suspicious old man, he never expected a threat from the kindly gentleman downstairs who informed him of the thieving stranger. He had little time to wonder as the ball of the morning star crushed his neck from behind.
• Our wise Nightwings now figure it is time for a hasty exit and flee into the night.

The Stranger and his Booty

• Tasher drags Jerig and the stranger into the boat while Raen makes his way down. The stranger turns out to be an odd but friendly fellow by the name of Tolnan. The trio go to tie him up but when Tolnan suggests it is not neccessary they go by his word.
• Raen now examines Jerig’s wounds, which are not only worse then they had thought - they are mortal. Jerig’s leg, frozen solid, is starting to thaw. The ever intelligent Healer Raen administers an herb of Lifekeeping (gotten from a previous herb smuggling job), as Jerig’s leg thaws into a bloody mess and he expires in the bottom of the boat.
• After some discussion with the Shay Tolnan, Tasher and Raen relieve him of the sack and let him go with his life.
• At Tasher’s apartment, they watch over Jerig’s body and examine the contents of the sack - a disc-shaped yellow gem, flat on the top and bottom about 3″ in diameter, a large multi-faceted red gemstone, nearly opaque, several scrolls in scroll cases, and a box with a quill.

3-21-6050

Life, Death, and Money

• The first order of business is to bring Jerig’s defeated body to a Healer. Raen brings them to Doreg Killian, a Laan who runs Healing and Surgery in Black Oak. A business man first and foremost, Doreg is competent healer, and for the tidy sum of 450 gold he revives Jerig, who must still spend some time recovering.
• Cricket brings the contents of the sack from the previous nights fiasco to Sentis. He takes red gemstone and lets the Nightwings keep the rest of the items.
• That night, back at HQ, the word among the other Nightwings is that Bat seems to have gone missing. He has not been seen in a couple days. Moth is concerned.
• Raen spends some time evaluating the spell scrolls that evening. Evidently somewhat lacking in his knowledge of magical runes, he accidentally triggers a couple of them, summing an Earth Wall and an Ice Wall in the middle of Nightwings HQ.

The Crystal Skull

• Tasher and Dag go to meet with Agonar. Agonar informs them he has business elsewhere and the crystal skull has him concerned. It should be taken to Veriak the Seer in the Old City - but it’s anti-essence properties mean that it cannot be easily hidden. Lisia was taking the skull the Veriak when she was ambushed by the mysterious assassins.
• The Nightwings go to Veriak’s shop - The Serpent’s Eye. Veriak, a blind Iylar, is sometimes seen around the Old City, often with his 20′ serpent draped around his body. Jerig disguises Veriak to look like himself and the Nightwings take him to House Tharal. Veriak analyzes the crystal skull and while he is not able to determine any of it’s powers he is certain of a few things: It is very old and it wishes malice upon people. Veriak insists the skull needs to be stored somewhere safe, suggesting the Loremaster Gireg Jaan - a man of Y’nar descent seen frequently around the Cold Barley Soup Kitchen.
• Agonar further informs the Nightwings they should lay low after the Barge Inn fiasco - it was a messy bit of business.
• The Nightwings head to the Cold Barley Soup Kitchen and have a conversation with Gireg. He accompanies Dag to House Tharal where the assumed Loremaster parts with the skull. On the way out of the house, Dag sees something swimming in the canal.

The word on the Street, and in the Canals

• Cricket meets up with Reg, a young Shay Gargoyle who knows of all the latest going-ons in Sel-kai. Cricket inquires about Raen’s missing brother, who may have been kidnapped and sold as a slave, and about Bat who has been missing.
• Reg knows that The Golden Hand often has it’s hand in kidnappings and sells them to House Dolnegan. He will find more details out about Slave trade routes, as well as Bat.
• Reg informs Cricket someone is looking for “a group of Nightwings led by one called Cricket” at the Temple of Shaal.
• At the Temple of Shaal they meet a young man by the name of Titus with obvious elven blood. Titus seems to be a serious man who was directed to them by Yorell - evidently they owe Shaal a favor and the time has come. Titus needs their help to hunt down monsters in the Canals who are responsible for recent murders. With Titus, the group poles around the city in the rain but find no creatures.
• Tasher picks up his new, larger, skiff, and retires The Blue Drake.

3-23-6050

Catching Up, and a Revelation

• Tasher picks up his new, larger, skiff, and retires The Blue Drake.
• Reg has found ot some interesting things. The slave trade routes leaving Sel-kai often go to the free city of Xooba, in Praeten - commonly known as a wretched hive of scum and villainy. He also has got some disturbing news about Bat. Some members of the Golden Hand have beeen about town bragging that the Nightwings have lost their leader and he won’t be heard from again.
• Dag does some research on the canal creatures. Every several years there seems to be reports of things swimming the water and corresponding murders.
• A trap is laid back at Nightwings HQ, amidst the mud and collapsed floor (from the Earth Wall and melting Ice Wall). With no other Nightwings about, Cricket and Company are surprised by Tolnan. On his left eye, like a large monacle, is the red gem that he had originally stolen, and was given to Sentis. Tolnan claims they are surrounded by several invisible men (which is later confirmed when one appears - a student of the Nine Sons School). He binds the Nightwings and they wait for Tolnan’s client, who wishes to have a chat with them.
• The client turns out to be Aldaran Elgata of, head of Elgata House, and of High Society. “You are the ones that broke into my house and killed my guards”. Aldaran is quite upset, and confused of how House Tharal is wrapped up in this - informing the Nightwings that Dag is none other then son of Hengiis Tharal. Tharal and Elgata are direct competitors in the timber trade, but with Elgata having had the upper hand for years. After hashing out the details, with Tolnan turning on his charm, they seem convinced that Deg and the Nightwings had been acting independently of Tharal and while this is a valuable piece of information, he will hold it tight and, for now, and avoid raising tensions between his house and Tharal. However, the Nightwings have 3 days to find out more information on the man who originally hired them, Deltar of Urgon. Who is this man Deltar, who does he work for, and why was he interested in Elgata’s ship manifests for a specific date?

Death on Two Legs

• While Cricket’s small group of Nightwings are in transit they spot something swimming in the canals. Tasher throws some daggers at it without much success.
• Just then a large clawed, webbed hand reaches into the boat and up climbs a dark-skinned humanoid with a sleek hairless body and large protruding and bulbess eyes. Tasher pokes it in the face with the boat pole. The creature, With a pair of small curved knives attacks and a battle ensues.
• As the creature attacks the crew all double over in intense pain and hear an echoing hollow laugh coming from land. A small child stands there, giggling clutching some sort of stuffed animal.
• A second creature climbs into the boat from the other side. As the child’s eyes and hands start glowing an eerie red Dag begins his own incantations. The familiar green glow of the Essence reaches out from his hands, surrounding his body. Just as Dag glows a pale green which starts to fade away the entire area goes pitch black. Tasher continues to pole, while the others take abuse from the man-demons, unable to see and defend themselves.
• After a few seconds the darkness is lifted. The crew blinks to see the man-demons diving into the water and Dag on shore, standing over the body of a very dead child. He picks up the corpse and the stuffed bear and returns to the boat. They head to the temple of Shaal.
• Just as Tasher resumes poling they see an large shape in the water advancing on the boat. Tasher poles to shore and they leap out. Out from the water leaps a giant creature that must be from the depths of hell itself. Towering over the tall Laan boys, the beast is humanoid but with large eyes guarded by a bony brow and inset with a few small sharp horns. With a mottled, light blue coloration, long, thin arms and a prehenshile tail the demon lifted two large swords. It’s tail lashes out and smashes the boat in two, taking the small child’s teddy bear. It then starts running after the Nightwings, who had started running in opposite directions as fast as they were able.
• The demon chases Tasher, smiting him down then heading toward Jerig who had taken to the rooftops. Jerig leaps over a canal with the demon on his tail. He hears a large popping sound, looks back and sees only a shimmering black that fades away.
• Raen doubles back to take care of Tasher and the group meet up at the Temple of Shaal. Titus is happy to hear the news and directs them to tell their story to Fargil at the temple of Eissa.
• Dag and Raen head to the temple of Eissa to hear the tale of The Boy - a recurring figure in Sel-kai whose arrival is celebrated by Moralis Sancitity. Fargil is troubled the the appearance of the large demon and it’s possession of the teddy bear. It was evidently summoned upon the death of the Boy and was able to remain here for only a short time until it was forced to return to The Pale from whence it came. It was unlikely to have taken the plush animal with it and is likely somewhere in the canals and difficult to find. “If you find the bear, or see any more of these demons, come see me immediately” were Fargil’s parting words.