The Best Deceptions

Right about the time Audric and I got to the grove, Rowan and Grumble arrived as well. Heading in, we set about finding who among us had had any success with their missions. Turns out all of us were pretty much unsuccessful. At least I managed to secure us a safe place to hide if need be.
As we stood around taking in the view of the grove, Audric poked me and began gesturing towards Grumble. Apparently he was leaving it to me to tell him about our thoughts on Glorwynn after all. I stammered through my explanation of why Glorwynn might not be who she appeared, barely able to meet Grumble's eyes. No one wants to hear that their beloved family member might be hiding something dark and dangerous. The others began to chime in with their misgivings as well, but he couldn't be swayed. I can't say I blame him.
The next order of business was to find out what kind of information we could get from that dead sorceress. Audric cautioned we would have to be very specific in our questioning and we tried, but mostly failed. Stupid dead people and their dead logic. All we got was a clue to possibly what race the Speaker in Dreams is, and we decided to take our knowledge to Kartharine. If anyone in town could make sense of things, it would be her.
Arriving at the Library, we discovered it to be more like a mausoleum. All of the students had gone, and Kartharine was nowhere to be found. Right before I was ready to give up, she appeared with a mug of something hot and ushered us into the library. We told her what we had gleaned from the charred corpse and she suggested that our Speaker in Dreams may be an Illithid. Something that lives underground and has a bad case of tentacle mouth, and likes to eat brains like the rest of us like steak.
Feeling only slightly more enlightened, we decided to visit Glorwynn along with Grumble, just in case. On our way, Nialia stoped suddenly, saying she could smell something following us. We all turned to see nothing, but Audric stared intently for a moment, and told us something was there as well, and it was hunting us. Everyone grabbed for their weapons as Audric cried out, stepping in front of me.
Grumble cried out as he was pulled back and bleeding gashes began to appear on him. Rowan and I ran up and took a side, as best we could tell, and tried to stab the invisible foe without hitting Grumble. Whatever it was bit my arm as I tried to swipe at it. Nialia managed to cast faerie fire on it, and a huge wild cat appeared before us. Rowan, Grumble and I managed to take it down, and we all rushed to flee the scene before trouble could befall us from the new town militia.
We arrived at the warehouse shortly after. Of course Grumble knocked as an afterthought as he barged through the door shouting greetings. The rest of us wandered in after, finding Glorwynn alone playing cards, the rest of the caravan nowhere to be seen. She greeted us and said it seemed her companions had either cut town while they could, or gone to console themselves with drinks.
As she packed up her cards, Grumble hesitantly mentioned our doubts about her. Glorwynn began to play dumb. Too dumb, actually. I know what I heard, and I heard her say House of Bel. As Grumble pressed her for a family secret only she and he would know, she stopped and spoke to Audric, who had been sneaking around behind her. She called him "shapeshifter" and my heart hit my feet. How could she know what he was? Audric froze as Glorwynn admitted she had been reading his mind, and asked if he wasn't frustrated that he couldn't seem to read hers. The others eyed Audric with shock as Glorwynn explained to them what Audric had told me the other night about shapeshifters and mindreading.
I began to panic inwardly as Glorwynn continued to attack Audric, calling him by all of his previous names, and "murderer" as well. She asked if he really thought our love would change him. Would I die by his hands, or would he leave me to rot somewhere? Stepping in front of Audric, tears filling my eyes I screamed "ENOUGH!" Glorwynn had the cruelest look in her eyes, and I glanced behind me to see Audric shaking, eyes wide.
At this point Rowan stepped up, echoing my command to stop. Glorwynn turned to her and sneered "Big words for someone who's daddy's not here to help." Then she turned to Grumble and told him she knew of his family, and not just what she had pulled from his head. "Poor Mordi," she laughed. "I bet you still think it's all your fault." At this, she turned into what I could only describe as an elf, though I have never seen one so evil in all my life. Rowan and Grumble grabbed for their weapons from the bag of holding, and the elf turned to Rowan once more and asked what we had in the bag. We all made a move to take her out, but she snapped her fingers and we all froze completely, barely even able to breathe.
Terrified, I stared at the elf. She told us she had wanted to see the creatures who had thwarted her brother's plans. Apparently, we hadn't managed to impress her. Thankfully, because this was Rhanna, of the House of Bel. She informed us she had read all our minds, except for Nialia's, strangely enough. She was no longer interested in us, but told us to leave the city and pray our paths never crossed again. Then, to the dismay of all of us, she reached into the bag of holding, pulled out the chest that held the book of Vile Darkness, and disappeared, taking the book with her.
The spell broke immediately, and we were able to move again. Grumble in his anger and despair began to smash everything around him, while the rest of us tried to figure out what to do next. When Grumble had finished his tirade, I crept up behind him and put my arms around him. He shrugged me off, and I stood there staring at his back for a moment in silence, wishing there was some way I could comfort him. Of course there was nothing I could do, so I turned and went to rejoin the group.
We left the warehouse and headed back to the library as fast as possible. Kartharine demanded we tell her everything, down to the last forgettable detail, as everything might be important. While disturbed by what we told her, she seemed to calm herself quickly. Being a loremaster, I'm sure she must know something we don't. Hopefully we told her something she would find useful. Even that thought didn't seem to make me feel better, though, as we walked towards the nearest inn for dinner before I headed out for some recon work at the temple of Pelor.
On our way there, the evil looking tall thing from the balcony earlier was walking towards us down the road, accompanied by profusely sweating guards. Even though I hid myself, as he passed it seemed he looked right at me with a chilling grin. I have no idea what that thing is, or what business it has here in Brindinsford, but it most certainly can't be part of the solution.
When we got to the inn, I ordered food, but just pushed it around on my plate. My appetite was long gone. I kept snatching quick sideways glances at Audric, who didn't seem to be feeling any better than I. I wanted to tell him things were going to be fine, and that I didn't believe a word of what Rhanna had said. I wanted to hold him close and drown out whatever was running through his head, but it wasn't the time or place. I have a job ahead of me that I can't fail. Something is going on in the temple of Pelor, and it is my job to find out what, so I have to focus. I have to do my best so no one worries about me too much. I just hope I'm up to the challenge. I don't think I could forgive myself if I was discovered and captured, or killed. Please, oh please could my terrible luck not follow me this once?

Long Lost

I once heard someone tell me that sometimes, the more you want something to happen, the less likely it is to occur. In our case, the more we want to sleep, the more things crawl from the woodwork and keep us from it.
We decided to walk back from the party, what with it being a nice night and all. On our way, a tall mysterious woman called out to us, blowing a kiss in the general direction of Audric and Grumble. I was just getting angry when it turned out to be a cold spell! I tried to dodge, and did a pretty good job considering how utterly smashed I probably was, what with all the drinking I'd done throughout the day. When I recovered, I took off after the woman, who was laughing in the most annoying manner. I thought I heard Audric behind me calling for me to stop, but it didn't matter. I just wanted to shut her up and teach her a lesson for antagonizing us.
As it turns out, it was an ambush. I should have guessed. At least we got out all right. Audric and I were able to take out the sharpshooters on the walls above the alley, and Grumble and Rowan made sure that mysterious lady would never bother us again.
After the fight, we managed to make it back to the inn for some sleep. Sort of. Audric wanted to visit the temple of Pelor to get a few things for us, so he took off. I went upstairs and face-planted into the bed. I was so looking forward to some rest. Instead, I had a nightmare. I was wandering through fog towards the ruins of Brindinsford. As I crossed the bridge, the only thing that stood before me was the town gate. It opened and a terrible sight met my eyes, along with an evil voice saying something about doom befalling the city. I awoke to Audric shaking me, looking concerned. I tried to tell him about my dream, but I couldn't really make sense of it I was still so groggy. Audric slipped into bed with me and told me he was unable to enter the temple. Apparently it was closed and the city guard turned him away. I didn't like the sound of that, but it was far too late to figure anything out. I pulled Audric closer to me and drifted back to sleep.
After what felt like only seconds later, I was jolted out of sleep by the sound of trumpets and shouting. When the noise didn't stop, Audric tumbled out of bed and threw open the shutters shouting out the window at the perpetrators of the noise. There was a town crier below, announcing that the baron was to make a speech today. We decided to attend and see what had to be said.
The area around the tower was packed with folks from town, and the weather seemed to have turned for the worse. The darkening clouds above seemed to foreshadow things to come as the baron stepped out onto the balcony. What he said came as a big surprise to all who heard it. Effective as of noon, the city would be closing its gates to the people inside and out, weapons banned, and the temple of Pelor was closed with all its priests under arrest. I was a little concerned for Audric looking like a cleric of Pelor but he didn't seem concerned, so I put it out of my mind.
As the baron left the balcony, a very tall and frightening figure made his way to the rail and looked out over the crowd. He must have been about 9 feet tall, skin and bones, and scary as anything in my most horrible dreams. He seemed to be enjoying the reaction the crowd was having to the news. He drank it all in for a moment, and then made his way back into the tower, the baron's bodyguards turning pale as he passed.
From behind us, we heard a woman speaking in dwarf. She seemed to be just as disappointed by the news as everyone else. Audric, Grumble and I turned to speak with her for a while, while the elves decided to make disparaging comments about the dwarven language. To my surprise, the dwarf woman turned and responded to Nialia in Common! Oh, dwarves and elves! So amusing! This mystery woman invited us back to our inn for drinks, and how could we resist?
We got back to the inn and talked with her for a while, until she said something that seemed to upset Grumble and he asked her to leave. She got up and walked for the door saying "See you around, Mordi." At this, Grumble froze. He stood up and called after her. "How do you know that name?" He demanded. The woman turned around and removed her hood. What met my eyes was the face of a beautiful dwarf woman who looked unmistakably like Grumble. I was speechless.
Sitting back down with the woman, Grumble told us her name was Glorwyn, and she was his sister. Then, the troubled past I had always wondered about came spilling from Grumble's lips. How he had failed in his duties on an important mission, how his sister had been killed, how he had been banished from his clan. It was so hard not to cry listening to such a sad story. I wanted to put my arms around him, but I figured it would only embarrass him in front of the elves.
Grumble began relating to her what we had all been up to, to the apparent dismay of Rowan and Nialia. Eventually, they sent Glorwyn away so they could discuss things without her, but I followed her off to a different table. Glorwyn told me some about Grumble before I had known him, and asked about how he was now. It was nice to hear about Grumble's past, since he never feels moved to tell me anything. Glorwyn seemed very friendly, though a little distant, but Grumble gets distant as well, so I didn't think much about it.
After a while, Audric came over and got me and after bidding farewell to Glorwyn, we all headed out on our own errands. Audric filled me in on our mission, which was to head to the Gold Tabard Trading Company and see if we couldn't use my Thieves' Guild connections to try and acquire cloaks of concealment, and maybe a place to lay low.
On our way, Audric asked what Glorwyn and I had been talking about. I told him "girl stuff," but as we walked on I felt something in the back of my mind waving its arms frantically and begging to be remembered. What was it about her? It was...something...she said? Something about... And then I remembered. She had said "Especially when you have the House of Bel after you." I stopped cold. Audric turned to see what was wrong, and I told him. I had never mentioned the House of Bell, nor had Grumble. We decided that whoever Glorwyn was, there was something wrong with her, at the very least, and someone had to tell Grumble. Neither of us wanted the job, so we rock-paper-scissors'd it and I won. Audric looked a little pale, so I promised him we could find some way to tell Grumble together.
Arriving at the Trading company, I discovered I wasn't very good at getting what I wanted from the woman up front. I didn't want to let too much on in case she wasn't in on certain things, but I was having trouble convincing her Arch would want to speak with me despite not having an appointment, or apparent good reason. Still, she went and got him anyhow, and I told him our troubles. Sadly, he wasn't sure he could come up with the cloaks we were looking for. At least he was able to give us the location and password to a place we could go to hide out so I didn't have to feel like the trip was a complete failure.
Feeling a little downcast, and nervously turning over ways to break the bad news about his sister to Grumble, Audric and I headed for the grove where Nialia had gone to ask Amrauthlen if we could stay. He had apparently said yes, and welcomed us to the grove as the gates swung open. Hopefully the grove will provide us all with a little peace and safety, if only for a while. It sure would be nice to not feel the constant press of evil for five minutes...