Alain's Adventures: A Just Reward

[ewancummins]

Alain wakens to the rattling of the shutters caught in the chill November breeze. Sunlight falls on his face, glinting through frost glazed over the little triangular window of his rented garret.
Sounds drift up through the floorboards from the bakery below; soft voices, creaking door hinges, the crackle of wood burning in the big oven. A little heat comes through the floor, but Alain shivers under two thick blankets.

He rolls out of bed, stretching his sleepy legs. He stubs the big toe of his right foot on the coffer placed on the floor near the cot (it was under the cot when he fell asleep, unless maybe in the dark he didn't shove it far enough...)

The jarring bump against the lead-plated box brings to Alain's mind the words of his silken veiled patron, spoken last night from a shadowed alcove in a incense-scented cellar.

“For your first quest and test of worthiness, you are to travel west into the Boglands, to the verge of the Great Salt Swamp, with this coffer. There you must search for a magician named Peregrinus. He has in his possession an elf’s skull chased with silver, set with eyes of sapphire and fixed with teeth of white jade. Deliver the coffer to Pergrinus and retrieve the skull. Do not allow anyone but Peregrinus to open the coffer. Should complications arise-- deal with them.’’

[Lord Skybolt]

He gathers his gear together for the trip through the bog lands, for his deliver of the Coffer to the magician Peregrinus .

[ewancummins]

He gathers his gear together for the trip through the bog lands, for his deliver of the Coffer to the magician Peregrinus .

Alain leaves the bustling metropolis of Il Aluk, skirting the silent grounds of the vast necropolis that covers as much ground as that part of the city inhabited by living men, and rides out through the Western Gate as light snow begins to fall from the gray sky.


...

Two days later, riding or wading through the cold, murky bogs, Alain reaches the house of the magician Pereginus as the sun sinks low over the flooded forest of sickly trees that lies to the west.

No light shows in the narrow windows of the decrepit two story wooden house, which rises from the muck on a half dozen improbably thin stilts, and the door hangs ajar. A rope ladder attached to the front porch swings in the breeze like an empty noose.
A trace of white smoke curls from the chimney.

As Alain gets close, his horse shies away from the rickety looking building, snorting and rolling its eyes.

Dismounting to advance on foot, the mud sucking at his boots with every step, the adventurer approaches the ladder, looking up towards the open door. The door swings wide in a sudden gust of wind, giving Alain a glimpse of a manlike figure looming just beyond shadowy portal...
And then the wind slams the door shut.

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain knocks on the door .

[ewancummins]

Alain knocks on the door .

No answer, but the door swings inward on broken, squealing hinges.

The room beyond remains dark except for a few slivers of weak light that leak in from the setting sun. The manlike thing he had glimpsed earlier remains in place, hanging imp before the door, slumped over a long wooden pole or stake. As Alain's eyes adjust, he makes out the robed figure of an old man with a long gray beard, bald crown, and owlish features now twisted in death agony; this may be Peregrinus, judging from the description he was given.
A placard of some kind hangs about the dead man's neck on a piece of rawhide. Crude letters slant across the wooden board, but Alain needs more light in order to read them.

Looking quickly about the rest of the interior of the first floor/room, Alain notes smoldering embers in the open chamber of an iron pot-bellied stove attached to the chimney, a disheveled bed, and a toppled set of shelves with books and papers spilling onto the floor. Narrow stairs in the back of the room lead up to an open trap door.

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain creeps up the stairs to find out more information as stealthy as possible .

[ewancummins]

Alain creeps up the stairs to find out more information as stealthy as possible .

He hears dry, papery rustling and soft breathing coming from up top.

Creeping through the trap door at the top of the stairs, Alain discovers an auburn-haired, slim elf-maid, dressed incongruously in dirty rags, riffling through a bookcase.

She doesn't seem to have noticed him--yet.

The upper room appears to be a combination storeroom and library, with crates, sacks, and heaps of books and papers risings almost to touch the low ceiling. The only light here comes in from a small, dingy window.

[ewancummins]

The top step cracks under Alain's weight, making a dry gristly sound as the wood sags.
the elf-maid spins to face him, grabbing for a bloody knife set near her on the floor!

[ewancummins]

Alain blasts the woman with a crackling electrical arc from his finger tips, but she keeps coming at him, slashing with her dagger and shrieking like a damned soul!

He moves out of the staircase and towards a nearby stack of crates, readying a spell with one hand and tugging his Morningstar from his belt loop with the other.
The elf-maid chants something in a language unknown to Alain, but Alain swings his morning star and interrupts whatever she's doing.

As Alain falls back, the elf leaps at him, knocking over the one the crates, slashing wildly.
Alain dodges, bumping his head into the slanted ceiling of the attic. The spell fizzles as he bites his tongue and accidentally fouls up the incantation. Blood drips down his chin.

The elf-woman screams at him in some strange dialect of the Dwarven tongue.

"Necromancer! I be Rardi Silverhelm; and you are gonna die! "

[Lord Skybolt]

"What the Hell are you talking about . I'm no necromancer . Your the one attacking me with a poisoned blade woman !"Alain yells back at her in Dwarven

[ewancummins]

"What the Hell are you talking about . I'm no necromancer . Your the one attacking me with a poisoned blade woman !"Alain yells back at her in Dwarven

''DIIIEEEEEEE! You won't get me, Delthrin!"

[ewancummins]

Alain swings his morning star, pressing the attack, while with his offhand concealed behind his back he conjures a mystical battle orb.
Striking with the weapon and then suddenly unleashing the orb at close range, he badly injures the mad elf.

The woman suddenly spins away, lunging for the jeweled skull. She scoops it up from the floor and leaps for the open trap door!
Alain strikes at her, a hasty blow but it connects with the side of her head, knocking her out. She falls through the open trap door!
Reacting with lightning quickness, Alain drops his weapon and reaches both long-fingered hands out to rescue---


the skull.


The elf woman tumbles down into the stairs, busting the rickety wooden frame with her fall, and lands face-first on the ground floor with her ragged robes tangled about her neck and shoulders. Her shapely, smooth legs and pert little bare rump face up towards Alain as he crouches at the top of the broken staircase, looking down, holding his prize, the skull.

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain leaves the crazy women where she has fallen and searches* the area he is on the upper floor for anything of value and information . After doing so he will go to the dead mage down stairs and check to make sure he was killed by he assumes the dagger in the hopefully crazy and dead woman's hand . He will also search down stairs as well for anything as well of value . Also the will be keeping an eye on the woman to make sure she stays comatose, during his search .






*Take 20 on search Check.

[ewancummins]

Alain discovers a locked chest, a small store of dry goods and iron rations, a shelf of writing materials, a sheaf of dried reed-paper, and a heap of dirty clothing.

The sign hung round the dead man's neck bears a childish scrawl-

GodLess Nekromanzer

The elf-woman doesn't move.

By the time Alain has finished his methodical search of the house, she seems to have stopped breathing.

[Lord Skybolt]

Alain muttters under his breath:"Crazy woman good riddance" when he discovers she is not breathing . Alain proceeds to take all the quest items and any valuables as the wizards will not be needing them any more . He buries the wizard with respect and do honor a fellow User of Arcane . The woman he just throws out to where he knows some animals can get rid the corpse remains . Then after doing this bring back his Quest item .