The Devil Inside

My companions:

• Vega Zyblev - human swashbuckler
• Rim Goblinreaver - dwarven fighter (& deputy guildmaster, fighter's guild)
• Org Azum - human cleric of Gond
• Eldarryth - half elf priest/enchanter
• Darwin - human ranger

HE LAST FEW days the weather had been foul and unseasonable, with rain and lightning. A gate guard had even got struck by lightning the night before!

We were variously summoned to see Godwin Secundus, head of the Spellcaster's Guild. A messenger from Procampur had died bringing a message here. A student of theirs called Darfel was on the loose with a magical book that enhanced spells, but also worked on their darkest desires. He wanted us to retireve the book, and preferably the student too, for which he would pay us 750gp each.

We went to the Temple Quarter guard post to find out the name of the guard who'd been hit the previous night, as it was possible there was a connection...his name was Donald. Wandering around we went into the temple of Tempus. The guards there were speculating on rumours that Talos had been in the city- there were various descriptions of different suspects but no real details or correlation between them. Back at the Lower Gate where it had happened we were told that Donald the guard was recuperating with his sister. There was an old tramp stationed under an archway nearby. Vega spoke to him: apparently a man (fitting Darfel's description) had been arguing with Donald when he got struck.

The Elk's Roost just happened to be the Inn nearest Lower Gate, so we decamped there. A guy some of the others recognise as Olaf was in there - tallish, human, in blue robes, greying hair, obviously a mage. They thought he might be here doing magical research (in Sarbreenar, obviously, not specifically the Inn) but he hadn't heard of this book when we asked him.

HEN A MAN who'd obviously been listening to us talking tapped Eldayrrth on the shoulder. He said he thought he might know the boarding house Darfel was staying at. He led us into an alley where surprise, surprise, there were four blokes at one end and another three coming in behind that were not trying to be nice to us...It didn't last long: all but one of them were dealt with very quickly, and the last one surrendered. He told us they'd been hired by Delane Moonshadow - the guy who'd led us to the ambush. Delane had an interesting bracelet andsome magical bandages on his body.

As we started taking our prisoner back to the authorities Donald's sister came looking for us, and took us to her house. Donald told us what happened to him: the man had come up when the messenger on horseback had arrived, and then lightning had struck them both (killing the messenger.) He thought he remembered the young man going to the Phantom Skald when he'd arrived a couple of days previously.

So we went to the Phantom Skald and discovered from the barman that someone called Darfel was indeed starying there. We were given the key to his room, and went in under a Silence spell, but he wasn't in there. Org had stayed outside, so met Darfel as he came up the stairs...Org managed to trip him up, and once Rim was aware there was something going on he attacked him. A faint blue mist seemed to come out of the book he was carrying and into Darfel's mouth, and he knocked Rim out! Then Darfel was somehow drawn physically into the book, leaving some bits and pieces behind him.

The Silence spell went down and Rim got up. He cast a Protection from Evil on himself, and was then able to pick up the book safely. We took it back to Godwin and him and the priests dealt with it okay, leaving us with some more beer money to spend!

1373DR   (Pointycon 2001)

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