Birthright Chapter Nine

[ewancummins]

Roelir 15th

All Haes buzzes with gossip about events at the Gorgon's Crown tavern:
A couple of drunkards stopped by last evening, looking for a nightcap and discovered that the front door was locked. Annoyed at getting no answer after knocking for several minutes, the two men smashed a window . Looking in, they beheld a scene of horrible butchery, bodies sprawled in unnatural positions, some missing limbs or with their faces eaten away! After the men finished retching, they ran to get the City Watch.



The news of the brutal killings, which took the life of the young orphan son of the previous tavern owner, overshadows the quiet return of certain heroes who had gone to the Free City of Endier.

Warden Roald and his companions have spent most of the last week chasing ghosts and shadows in the mercantile city-state. After wasting much silver on unreliable informants, using spells to no avail, and investigating several dead ends on the waterfront, the Tuor party has come up with no useful information about the woman-smuggling. They might get the impression that someone has been very thorough in clearing up the trail, moving or ending the operation.

In regards to the slaughter at the tavern, Captain Renn learns that...

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The Archprelate believes that the murders were done by some kind of monster or assassin working for Carilon Alam. That much his prayers and divinations have uncovered, but details remain murky.

The dwarf and his bear are gone, possibly off to the mountains, but no one has hard information on that count.

The woman rescued from the pleasure barge, Lora, is not among the dead and has not turned up in searches thus far...

Apart from the heinous murders, the other great topic of local conversation has been the exploits of Fhylie the Sword and her crusaders in northern Alamie. There's no easy way to verify all the stories, but court rumors and barroom tales speak of Fhylie winning several battles and affrays with the enemy, clearing Carilon's forces from the upper provinces.

[JMaytr]

Devlin-

The duke is barely through his breakfast of swine strips with peppercorns when he hears the news of the horror at the Gorgons Crown. He thinks at first that a tavern with the gall to style itself after Prince Rasaene's hated realm had probably earned the wrath from some godly agent. Then he recalls that the dwarf hero Torthur had mentioned he was going there, and Devlin had instructed guards to see he arrived. Had the dwarf gone mad and slain everyone? He had a bear with him, didn't he? Devlin cannot find the appetite to finish his breakfast.

"Sir Lotho!" Devllin calls to his Personal Guardsman. "Have a page sent to the Wistern Imperial temple. I am going to the Gorgon's crown tavern and I wish for a representative to meet me there."

[ewancummins]

Devlin-

The duke is barely through his breakfast of swine strips with peppercorns when he hears the news of the horror at the Gorgons Crown. He thinks at first that a tavern with the gall to style itself after Prince Rasaene's hated realm had probably earned the wrath from some godly agent. Then he recalls that the dwarf hero Torthur had mentioned he was going there, and Devlin had instructed guards to see he arrived. Had the dwarf gone mad and slain everyone? He had a bear with him, didn't he? Devlin cannot find the appetite to finish his breakfast.

"Sir Lotho!" Devllin calls to his Personal Guardsman. "Have a page sent to the Wistern Imperial temple. I am going to the Gorgon's crown tavern and I wish for a representative to meet me there."

The knight-guardsman bows.

''At once, Your Grace!''

He dispatches a page to carry Devlin's message.

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

WATCH HQ

Renn looks over the reports of the killings with rapt attention. What could have caused such mayhem? A pack of wargs, controlled by some of Carilon's thugs perhaps? And what was Alamie's role in this?

He'd have to start with the victims. Renn summons Sergeant Gilly and inquires as to the whereabouts of the bodies. He also summons Lud, the freebooter he'd hired and then recruited after the siege.

[ewancummins]

a bit later that morning, at the Gorgon's Crown tavern
DEVLIN


Devlin arrives to find the small, slightly run down tavern cordoned off by a squad of ten city guards. The men make way for their duke, of course.

One window is broken and the front door hangs ajar on busted hinges.

A sergeant of the Watch informs the duke-
''Your Grace, we busted in that door there, last night when we got the call for help from the drunks that broke that window. We thought to search for survivors. Sad to say, nobody was living still when we got in.''
The middle aged sergeant shakes his round, gray whiskered head. “It’s enough to put a fellow off his breakfast, it is.”


If Devlin steps inside the dim barroom, he finds a spectacle of death as bad or worse than the fields of battle he has seen in this short war; men, women, and children lay about the trashed room, some torn in pieces or bent into grotesque, unnatural postures. A child’s body hangs over the bar, a mass of clotted blood and raw flesh where the face ought to be but both blue eyes left horrifically whole.
A red robed priest of Haelyn walks among the dead, making signs of blessing. The slim young man looks up as the duke enters.
‘’Your Grace, I was sent to meet you here.”
The priest bows. He looks about the grisly scene.
“I can do little for them beyond pray for their souls.”

[ewancummins]

WATCH HQ

WATCH HQ

Renn looks over the reports of the killings with rapt attention. What could have caused such mayhem? A pack of wargs, controlled by some of Carilon's thugs perhaps? And what was Alamie's role in this?

He'd have to start with the victims. Renn summons Sergeant Gilly and inquires as to the whereabouts of the bodies. He also summons Lud, the freebooter he'd hired and then recruited after the siege.

Gilly informs his boss that the bodies remain on site.

"The Haleynite clergy wanted to examine them, my lord. His Holiness visited, said some prayers, didn't stay long. Looked angry when he left. They tell me the Duke was headed down to the bar himself, little while ago this morning. Seems he's taken a personal interest."

Lud, the big burly red-headed freebooter, comes soon after Renn sends for him.

The thuggish man enters the office, bows in a clumsy fashion that would get him laughed out of court, and sets his cudgel against the nearest wall.

"Got some work for me, Captain?"

[JMaytr]

Devlin-

The Duke makes a sign of respect towards the priest.

"Your Reverence," Devlin begins, "I have asked a member of the church to be here because I know that Good Haelyn above grants you the power of divination. This I know because the church has used it in the past to find my whereabouts when I was a boy and missing. Perhaps not you specifically, but a member of the church with the ability would be known to you."

Devlin surveys the scene, revulsion rising in him.

"I want to know what happened here, good gods above, guide us toward the truth so that we may see justice done."

[ewancummins]

Devlin-

The Duke makes a sign of respect towards the priest.

"Your Reverence," Devlin begins, "I have asked a member of the church to be here because I know that Good Haelyn above grants you the power of divination. This I know because the church has used it in the past to find my whereabouts when I was a boy and missing. Perhaps not you specifically, but a member of the church with the ability would be known to you."

Devlin surveys the scene, revulsion rising in him.

"I want to know what happened here, good gods above, guide us toward the truth so that we may see justice done."

''His Holiness has informed me that he suspects..."


The priest lowers his voice.
"He suspects that Duke Carilon was somehow involved; that much his divinations have suggested. But he doesn't yet know who or what carried out the deeds-- though he thinks some kind of beast attacked the tavern last night. That fits many of the wounds, but other wounds look like knife or axe cuts."

The priest looks around again, his already fair face blanching to bloodless pallor.

"The watchmen tell me that a notoriously drunken, violent dwarf who kept a bear stood to gain full control of this place if anything happened to the rightful owner, an orphan boy. His mother was killed in the dwarf's presence, some time back, I think. I don't know all the particulars, but it does sound suspicious.
Still, the dwarf couldn't have anything to do with Alamie, right?"

The priest motions to the dead child draped over the bar.

"I think that's the boy who holds the title deed. With his face flayed...or eaten...like that, I..."

The young priest turns away, holding a silk handkerchief to his mouth.

"I hope that we can bury them all soon, Your Grace."

[JMaytr]

Devlin-

The Duke nods.

"I agree with you. They should be buried soon so that they may roam in Haelyn's sweet scented fields. Take a look yourself at the dead. You have the healing art yes? Can you determine by your knowledge the...I don't know...size of the beast by its claws? By its teeth? What is your name, your Reverence? "

[ewancummins]

Devlin-

The Duke nods.

"I agree with you. They should be buried soon so that they may roam in Haelyn's sweet scented fields. Take a look yourself at the dead. You have the healing art yes? Can you determine by your knowledge the...I don't know...size of the beast by its claws? By its teeth? What is your name, your Reverence? "

"I'm called Waleran."

The priest looks out the broken window.

"The Archprelate has arranged for the services of an expert, a hunter of both criminals and wild beasts, who might be arriving here soon. I don't know much about the man, but he's supposed to be good at handling unusual affairs and strange crimes."

[JMaytr]

Devlin-

"An expert you say," Devlin gestures at the dead, "at sorting out the details of this sort of thing? What a brutal profession. I have a request for you your Reverence, I am in need of a personal healer, one that will remain in the castle Haes and see to my well being. I will need to sire a son soon and need reports to me about my health. Will you bring this request to the Arch-prelate?"

[ewancummins]

Devlin-

"An expert you say," Devlin gestures at the dead, "at sorting out the details of this sort of thing? What a brutal profession. I have a request for you your Reverence, I am in need of a personal healer, one that will remain in the castle Haes and see to my well being. I will need to sire a son soon and need reports to me about my health. Will you bring this request to the Arch-prelate?"

"Yes, of course, it would be my honor!"

[Varrus the Ethical]

OUTSIDE THE GORGON'S CROWN

Roald approaches the Gorgon's Crown at a brisk pace. When he sees it and the Crown, with its window broken and surrounded by guards, his pace slows.

He approaches one of the guards.

"I heard something happened here." He smiles cautiously. "Did Torthur get a little too excited during one of his wrestling matches?"

[ewancummins]

OUTSIDE THE GORGON'S CROWN

Roald approaches the Gorgon's Crown at a brisk pace. When he sees it and the Crown, with its window broken and surrounded by guards, his pace slows.

He approaches one of the guards.

"I heard something happened here." He smiles cautiously. "Did Torthur get a little too excited during one of his wrestling matches?"

The watchman scowls.


''I dunno, my lord. It's....bad."

[Varrus the Ethical]

His smile fades. He walks past the guard and open the tavern's door.

Entering, Roald is more surprised by the presence of the Duke than by the carnage. He was more experienced with carnage.

"Your Grace?" He quickly bows to the Duke. "I heard about what happened and I came to investigate. But I had no idea things were so...severe."