Mason's Rock

“Oh, no. There is no way I’m going.” said Yvala emphatically, holding up her hands. “It’s bad enough that you want me to go into Mason’s Rock where half of the city guard will be able to recognize my face. But traveling with five obvious outsiders is a sure-fire way to get myself caught and hung, which is something I’ve been trying rather hard to avoid.” I snorted incredulously as I crossed my arms across my chest. As if there’s a town on this continent she isn’t wanted in, I thought. “Well, as much as I’d love to leave you on the boat, we can’t.” I was going to continue but Markas silenced me with a glare. The paladin turned his attention to the rogue. “As our cleric was saying, we need you to come with us. Your knowledge of the town is the only way we can get in to find this Polyxena and get out again without losing our heads.”

Yvala looked unconvinced, so Kyri tried a slightly different approach. “It’ll be a challenge, but I’m sure we can succeed with your help.” Yvala dropped her hands to her side. “Well if the lot of you are that desperate, I’ll go. But we’re not going dressed like this.” Kyri inclined her head toward the rogue, “Of course. We will submit to any changes you see fit.” Yvala smiled and grabbed Vixi’s hand, pulling the warlock out of the room. “I’ll do you first as I need time to think about how to make the rest of them acceptable.” Kyri and Kalena filed out behind, waiting for their turn. Markas cornered me before I could slip out the doorway. “Despite your personal feelings toward our resident rogue, we need her to get in to House Hydra’s post here and get back out again. I know you don’t trust Yvala, and frankly she hasn’t gone out of her way gain our trust. But she hasn’t betrayed us yet and until she does, she can stay with us. And right now, we need her expertise. So, Tone It Down.” I was going to roll my eyes at Markas’s big brother speech, but thought better of it. “Fine. I’ll do what she wants. You can even supervise if you want.” He seemed satisfied by this and stepped aside. “Probably a good idea. I’ll fetch you when it’s your turn.” “Not like I want to get caught anymore than the rest of you.” I muttered as I passed him.

Which is why, two hours later, Markas was watching calmly as Yvala attempted to yank the hair from my scalp. Okay, she was actually twisting and braiding it into an approximation of her own piled locks, but it felt like the hairs would be pulled out at any minute. His presence was the only reason I was sitting through the whole thing quietly and not berating the rogue for the torturous procedure. When she had finished, Yvala selected a black dagger from an array of weaponry and threaded it in through the back to hold everything in place. As few swipes of a makeup brush and I was declared finished, my blue robes already having been exchanged for a blood red tunic and flowing black pants under the curseforged chain. “I hope you haven’t given me a hairstyle advertising my status as a whore.” I said under my breath. Yvala must have heard because she answered back. “No, it’s a mercenary’s style. But the dagger indicates that you’ve done assassin’s work, and only an idiot would sleep with a known assassin.” I ignored the comment and watched as she went to work on Markas.

Using cooking oil and soot, she blackened his bright armor. “Lucky this is already a little banged up.” With an added eye patch and a bit of mussing to his dark hair, he too was ready to go. I looked around at the rest of the group and had to agree that we looked a lot more dangerous than we had before Yvala started. Vixi retained her leather chestpiece but had swapped her leggings for a short skirt and a pair of heeled boots. A pair of daggers was visible on either thigh and her hair was done up in a similar fashion to mine. Kyri kept all of her armor and weapons, she already looked dangerous with her cutlass and longsword on either hip and the vicious longbow strapped across her back. In addition, Kalena would cast a spell to change the fletching of the arrows from green to dark blue right before we entered town. Kalena wore her fiery robe open and a short dress underneath. Her hair was twisted out at various angles and I could see beads glittering as she turned her head. Yvala had swapped out her own outfit for a pair of tight leather pants and deep red bodice. Under the bodice, the billowy sleeve of a purple tunic concealed a good deal of weaponry. After passing out dark cloaks to everyone, Yvala instructed us to keep the deep hoods up and we headed out of the cove and into Mason’s Rock.

The journey was fairly easy. Two hours had us overland and on the main road into town. It was late afternoon when we arrived at the city walls. Holding my breath, I waited for the guards to shout out and take us into custody. Instead, they barely ran an eye over our motley party. They’re probably told to pay more attention to who’s leaving than who is coming inside. Most of the windows and doors were partially open. Small groups of city dwellers stared out from the shops, inns and alleyways, eyeing the party with marked suspicion. I pulled the hood of the cloak lower over my face, squared my shoulders, and tried to add a bit more bravado to my step. Luckily, Yvala still knew the streets and denizens of Mason’s Rock well. A couple of bribes and a single stabbing later, we stood in front of the villa Princess Thanaphe was staying at.

A gated tunnel ran through the wall into an open courtyard and from the street we could see planter boxes and a three foot hedges. The whole place had an air of desertion about it. “Well maybe there’s someone inside,” Markas said. The gate swung open with a push, and we walked through the tunnel, looking about wearily and the roofs and doors surrounding the courtyard. A teenaged tiefling was sitting in the middle of the hedges wearing a split purple skirt and matching bodice, no doubt our Princess Polyxena Thanaphe. She had been watching a small whiney child tear the leaves of one of the hedges, but shushed it as we approached. “Hi. Hello. What are you doing here?” she asked us, voice straining with nervousness.

Kyri answered her question. “We’re looking for the heir to House Wyvern.” The girl smiled brightly. “Oh, that’s very interesting. Hold on a second.” She turned to the child and swatted at her. “Shut up you little brat.” “But I want candy.” It pleaded. “Eat something that wriggles in the ground. For two seconds, shut up.” Turning back to us she smiled again. “Now what was it you were looking for?” Kyri smiled back at the girl tightly. “The heir of House Wyvern. We were given information that they were in residence here.” The girl seemed to ponder this. “Well, I’m a princess.” “Oh” “I’m a princess. This one’s a shit,” she said pointing at the child, “but I’m a princess. Want to take me?” “Are you of House Wyvern?” asked Kyri, looking to the rest of the group for confirmation. “I have no idea, but I am more than willing to leave this place” said the girl, scoffing at the dilapidated building. She whirled around on the child as it started up its protests for candy again. “I am going to kill you, you little brat. Shut up.”

“Well who else is with you?” Kyri asked the girl that claimed to be royalty. “I don’t care. I just want to leave.” At this point Markas was looking a little fed up. “I’m going to go keep watch,” he said simply before moving back toward the door to the street. “Is anyone in the house?” “I don’t know. I know I have been saddled with this brat…Hey! Don’t put that…Fine put it in your mouth. See if I care.” She turned to yell at the child. “I think everyone is on vacation and I have this, who I don’t deserve.” “And who is this.” Kyri asked watching the scene between the tiefling youths with a questioning look. “And who is this? Your sibling? Your child?” “This is a brat. And no it’s not my brat. And it’s not my sibling. I’m not related to this, I would not be related to this. This is obnoxious and I don’t deserve obnoxious. I deserve nice things.” The girl said smugly. “I’m going to kill you,” she said to the child as it pulled the leaves of the bottom of a hedge.

Uncomfortable with the whole situation, I went over and picked up the child. I didn’t like this girl’s attitude and I certainly didn’t like the way she was treating the young child. She can’t be more than a year younger than me, but she’s so undisciplined. Did no one teach her manners? And everyone knows that children misbehave more when you yell at them, I thought. The girl looked down her nose at me. “I wouldn’t do that,” she said in a singsong voice, “It bites.” The child turned and looked at me brightly, deciding I was much more interesting than the princess who had been watching her. “Can we go steal things?” she asked. That was all it took to bring Yvala over to my side. Brilliant.

“By the time I was your age I was your age, I was picking pockets everyday in the town square.” The child bounced excitedly on my hip. “Oh can we do that. I want to do that.” Moodily, I muttered. “You could be sent to the monastery like I was.” The child wrinkled its nose. “That’s not fun. I want to go with her.” Across the courtyard, Kalena looked thoughtful for a moment. “I was being taught how to burn things.” “I already know how to burn things.” It said. Yvala beamed and got down to the kid’s eyelevel. “Now little girl, you don’t want to listen to such prudes. If you listen, I’ll teach you how to make money.” The teenager was looking a little annoyed that the attention had moved off of here. “I don’t care what you do with that. I don’t care if you sell it.” Yvala clapped. “I have just the place.” I turned to Yvala, as I set the child on the ground. “We’re not selling the child!” I said loudly.

Meanwhile, Kyri had dug the locket out of her pack and opened it. Blue light spilled from the locket and Aelerion appeared superimposed over the picture of the woman. “Oh good you found her! But I can’t manifest here. Can you take her to a shrine or a temple? There’s one about 50 miles northwest of here at the summit of Mt. Kalathon.” “Sounds like a good place to be. Shall we bring the other child with us?” Kyri asked. “What? No, just Polyxena.” Aelerion said as he faded.

“Heads up!” cried Markas. I looked up to see black clad figures climbing down the roofs. “Make sure we protect the Princess,” he added. “Wait, you have to rescue me properly!” Polyxena whined. “We need to go to my room and get my things.” The black clad figures on the roof fired first. Kalena, Yvala and Polyxena were hit by crossbow bolts. Kalena hit two and they exploded into clouds of dust. But unlike the vampires at Tiegel Manor, moldy cloth wrappings dropped to the ground. “Don’t breathe the dust! We’ve got mummies under those black suits! Mummy rot is hard to cure!” I cried. Looking up on the roof, I noticed that the mummy across the roof was holding a short bow. One of the ninjas swung at me and his blade sliced the unprotected flesh on my arm, but I ignored his hit, not wanting to bring a cloud of mummy dust down on Yvala and I. Instead, I called up my prayer of daunting light and released it on the mummy with the short bow. It screamed as it was seared by the column of white light. I drew the flameburst cross bow and passed it to Yvala. “Now would be a good time to fire at the guy on the roof.” I said. She nodded as she took the shot. It sailed through the sniper’s shoulder as it continued to writhe in the light of my prayer. Markas shifted toward Yvala and I and laid down a sacred circle to help protect us from the mummies’ attacks.

The mummies were not pleased with my tactics. The sniper’s arrow punched into my chest. The three remaining mummies jumped from the roof. One swung at Kalena, but she threw up a magic shield just in time. The other two brought scimitars down onto Yvala and me. Blood poured from our wounds, and I could feel my armor send a magical backlash at the ninja. Kalena called for Polyxena to move again and this time she did. Kalena unleased a wall of sound that caused two of the ninjas to explode, bathing the wizard in two doses of dust. Polyxena, seemingly not of her own volation, raised her arm and released a steam of green fire at a ninja.

The two ninjas who had been initially menacing Yvala and me, raised their scimitars for a simultaneous attack on me. One hit my legs and the other took a head shot and I blacked out. When I came to, a few moments later – probably thanks to the warlord tactics for healing Garn had taught Kyri before he left – Yvala was looking at me with concern. I sat up in time to watch Kyri fire at four of the mummies on the ground. One missed but the other three exploded in clouds of dust. Unfortunately, the elf took a flurry of attacks from the mummies closest to her as well as a lungful of mummy dust for her brave actions. Kalena fired rays of frost to immobilize one ninja and a cloud of daggers on another.

I stood painfully and started a powerful healing spell. Kord does bless the strong… A warm healing breeze wafted over me, Yvala, Markas and Polyxena. It also washed over the mummies around me, weakening their future attacks. I wove another healing prayer from the faith floating in the air to heal my wounds completely. Yvala pulled her flaming sword and sliced into one of the ninjas. Markas moved around the hedges to help us. The mummies struck again but this time I was able to keep the attacks from doing major damage. The princess unleashed a fire ball to the mummies attacking Yvala and me. One exploded, showering the two of us with both mummy dust and burning us in the backlash.

Since I had just been bathed in mummified dust, I wove together a prayer to turn the undead, a prayer I had been avoiding since I knew it would likely cause the mummies to turn to more dust. One did, and the others were seared by the hot wind of the spell. Polyxena raised her hand again and a giant spectral claw appeared in the air. It attempted to pull the ninja away but it evaded. Kyri’s arrows took out the one on the roof, and one on the ground. A final blow from Markas took out the last remaining mummy.

We grabbed Polyxena and quickly got out of town. Luckily, our bribes had been sufficient enough to guarantee our safety on the way out. We finally returned to the Southern Stream after three hours of leading Princess Polyxena Thanaphe through the woods. She whined the entire time about how hard walking was, why we didn’t get her things before we left, and how we should have protected her better during the battle. By the time she plopped down to sleep in Captain Raccan’s quarters I was ready to sell her to the contacts in Mason’s Rock Yvala had mentioned. Unfortunately, I could neither sell the picky princess nor go to sleep myself. I took Kyri, Kalena, Yvala and myself down to the cabin which served as the infirmary and spent the next 6 hours administering the potions, policies, pots of steam, and prayers that would cure mummy rot.