#51 - Bones and Bars

Journal of Clarion Tritone, Champion of Dol Arrah, Vassal of the Sovereign Host - Zarantyr 5th, 999 YK 

The gnoll—Mangra we later learned was his name—was still standing close by, but his demeanor had changed significantly since we had engaged him in battle. He no longer seemed cold and dispassionate. It would appear that my suspicion was true, that he had indeed been enchanted in some manner. Hurt, exhausted and faced with the prospect of our entire group’s opposition on him he bowed and pointed in the direction where Myrcose lay on the floor. “Bone!” he exclaimed, “Bone!”

I immediately made my way over to Myrcose in order to secure this aundairian traitor’s weapons, to learn if he had anything else in his possession that could pose a threat and to see if I could find what the gnoll was referring to. Amongst his clothes I found a spellpouch, two potions, three scrolls in a scroll case, a ring he wore on his middle finger, a rapier, coins, and a sheet of paper written in a language I did not understand. The writing was accompanied by excellent drawings of some of the adventurers in our present company. Not seeing Aleae anywhere, I handed the sheet to Cypher, who recognized the language as Goblin, and began to read:

WANTED: The human Magnus, the Tharashk half-blood Rendar, the black-skinned elf Xoma, the dwarf Doongul, the warforged Cypher. 1,000 gold pieces if alive, or 10,000 for all five. Half this amount if dead. Send location to Raza-Halb to Graywall through Speaking Stone, then wait to collect.

I continued my search amidst Myrcose’s clothes and found what appeared to be the jawbone of some sort of predatory canine. Perhaps a hyena’s. As I lifted the bone in my hand the gnoll eagerly and loudly snarled once again “Bone!” I asked the gnoll what needed to be done in order to free him from this spell. “Give me … bone!” he exclaimed. I gave him the bone and his demeanor changed even more, an immense sense of relief seemed to come upon him and he thanked me for freeing him. I don’t know why, but I was reminded of a strange story which I had heard eight months and fourteen days ago from a young wizard called Rettop. It involved a creature called a house elf and a sock.

Moments after Cypher was finishing up reading, I heard Aleae’s voice in my head. “Guards are coming! Will hide, we’ll meet up later.” Not exactly surprised by their arrival I informed everyone that the city guards were approaching. Magnus and the gnoll both raised their arms, obviously not preparing for a conversation. Cypher lifted the piece of paper he had just read and it looked as if he was preparing to burn it. Fortuitously Rendar stood right next to him and was able to stop Cypher from burning the sheet. It took a moment of Rendar’s explanation, but he was able to convince Cypher that this paper could be used in our favor, since it could help explain what had taken place here and that the hostilities were not our fault.

While there was some unease about the guards arrival amongst the group, we decided to fully cooperate with them. This fight had not been of our making. Except for trespassing on the property of whoever owned the warehouse—a transgression for which we had good reason, we had committed no crime, only acting in self-defense against this onslaught.

The Galethspyre guards arrived in great numbers, keenly pointing as many crossbows, at us and the sergeant commanded that we drop all our gear. Some did so faster than others, but we all eventually complied. I assured them that we had no intention of resisting but had every intention to cooperate and explain all that had happened, which was sure to exculpate us. The sergeant said, “Under the Galifar Code of Justice, you are all under arrest for crimes of assault, murder, destruction of property, and the misuse of magic. If you cooperate, you will be given a chance to address the charges and establish your  innocence. You would do well to be silent right now and answer only questions asked of you.”

The guards did not appear unreasonably hostile and simply appeared to follow protocol, which I could appreciate. Another sergeant arrived, using a pendant that could detect magic—it appeared that he was astounded by what he detected as he scanned the room and our equipment.

Without having our hands tied we were marched over to the garrison where further questioning was to take place. I found it difficult to contain my excitement about our recent battle and composed a soft victory melody on our path to the garrison.

After a short period in the garrisons waiting chamber, where we were offered to leave our armor if it should be more convenient, we were brought to our cells; quarters in which we would spend the next 24 bells. Our cells were located on both sides of a corridor. Stone walls were in between the cells on each side. The fronts were composed of bars with a door. To the back it offered a small barred window. It was not easy to talk amongst us, since we could each just see those who were in the cells ahead of us and had to speak extra loud in order for anyone to hear.

I spent the majority of my time in the cell silently, in prayers to Dol Arrah, in hopes that Aleae was well and that we would soon be able to continue our travels together. Many arguments ensued while we were in the cells. At first Magnus and Kard fought, mostly with Rendar and Cypher who they blamed to have dragged us all into what they called “this mess.” They questioned, “why had they had to run after the shifter girl?” This was only the first of a series of small quarrels amidst the cells.

Shortly after our arrival a human artificer accompanied by a warforged guard entered. The human carried a series of wands and seemed to spend a moment focused on detecting the presence of any magic. He informed us that the use of any and all magic was strictly forbidden and would result in immediate relocation to significantly less pleasant quarters underground. He added that, given the fact that we were under suspicion for misuse of magic, possibly being responsible for summoning the elemental that had, as we learned, killed a series of civilians in- and outside of the warehouse, it would be extremely unwise for any of us not to abide by this rule if we hoped to ever leave the prison.

The human opened my cell, entering with the warforged, and told me to hold still. He raised one of his wands and placed it upon my chest. A strong flash of energy erupted from the wand and I felt a series of strange sensations all throughout my corpus. After a moment the energy subsided and he took a step back expressing that he truly hoped that I was innocent, for he deemed me most unusual and would hate for me to rot in prison. He performed the same procedure on the other warforged. Cypher was somehow shocked by the wand in a most unusual and obviously unpleasant manner.

Shortly after this a lieutenant of the King’s Citadel arrived. When Galifar was united and not yet fractured into the Five Nations, the King’s Citadel was an intelligence agency for the entire kingdom. Now it serves only Breland.

Lieutenant Terek, as he introduced himself, held in his hands what appeared to be our case folder. I could make out our identification papers, which he held up as he made his round amidst our cells, checking them one by one. He also had the ransom note Myrcose had carried. He told us that he was quite certain that we were not to blame for the atrocities in and around the warehouse and that he was sure once the magistrate had reviewed all the evidence we would be free to go, but that the process could take at least a week. If we had any good reasons for the lieutenant to make a case that our release might be expedited we should provide those now and he would determine whether he would advocate on our behalf.

At first Kard tried to argue that a child’s life was at stake and that we would need to make sure she was safe. The lieutenant’s sympathies for “some stray”—as he referred to the shifter girl—were limited and he did not think this was any reason to expedite our case. Our argumentation, that our presence at the Carnival of Shadows dinner party was important seemed to amuse the lieutenant. As he informed us about a possible threat to the guests at the dinner—involving the Swords of Liberty, an anti-monarchy terrorist group—I assured him that we would be more than happy to assist in protecting the guests. He did not appear excited about my offer, still we continued to have an amicable conversation. A little while later he departed, informing us that he would consider whether he would expedite our case.

The next event amongst relatively quiet hours, which were only interrupted by guards bringing food to the heterotrophs, was the arrival of a doomsday preacher; a sad creature we had previously seen spreading his bizarre ideas from a pedestal in the city, who was now ushered into the cell next to Kard. It seemed that he was not going to stop sharing his “revelations” in the cell block. His returning, cyclic mantra was: "None shall see the 1,000th Year of the Kingdom—not as you are! The Dragon Below will rise before the year is through and devour the unfavored lands! The Lord of Eyes is her herald.”

I was very puzzled by his argument. The troubled human said there was absolutely nothing anyone would be able to do about that. Well, if that was the case then why did he need to tell anyone about this and more importantly why did he need to tell people not to resist her rise? If it was truly not going to make any difference whether people knew about it or not or whether they resisted or not, as he was trying to make us believe, then why did he care to tell anyone not to resist? He obviously had to think, that on some level, that it would make a difference whether one did or did not know about these coming events and whether one resisted.

I found myself strangely upset by this man’s idiocy and began arguing with him, trying to understand whether he was trying to advocate the rise of Khyber by asking people not to resist or trying to have them rise against Khyber through some kind of reverse suggestion. If he truly was all for the rise of Khyber and had his blessing, then Khyber was obviously extremely weak, since it would mean that she would not be able to withstand the combined force of the few sad souls that could possibly heed this man’s warnings and could be convinced not to resist as Khyber rose. The preacher got very angry at me and attacked the warforged race as soulless automatons, that had no place in any of this anyways. “Warforged will all be destroyed,” he insisted. “The Lord of Eyes craves only the living hearts and souls of Eberron's children!" Well, if there is any truth in his mad words I will be happy to resist the rise of Khyber with all my powers.

The symbol of Aureon,
Sovereign of Law and Lore

Later a barrister arrived to interrogate us further. A gnome of the House of Scribing, by the name of Arko d’ Sivis greeted us in the company of a priest of Aureon and a tall, ferocious looking female shifter lieutenant who was eying us impatiently. She was clad in a crimson uniform, clearly a member of the Redcloak Battalion, an elite Brelish that I have not heard much from since the war’s end.

The gnome asked us whether the gnoll was part of our group. We told him that he was not, but that he had been magically controlled by Myrcose and that it was our belief that he could therefore not be held responsible for his actions at the warehouse. Beyond that we did not know anything about him. The gnoll was removed from our cell block.

It was then that the priest began performing a ritual which I recognized as that needed to establish a Zone of Truth. I casually praised the priest’s skill and informed all present that it would be futile to attempt to lie while this spell was active. I felt like I needed to warn them, since I did not know how much some of them might have been inclined to bend the truth, which would not reflect well on all of us.

The gnome said that he would be making an argument on our behalf before the Magistrate and that it would be in our best interest to provide him with as much information as possible that could help establish our innocence and hasten our release. We explained truthfully what we knew about Myrcose and the unfortunate events that had taken place in the warehouse.

He said that all our accounts were consistent with the evidence except for the presence of another member in our group, possibly an eladrin who had not been apprehended. I vouched for Aleae and explained that she was not used to many of the procedures and institutions that seem common to us and was obviously startled by the arrival of the guards and had prefered to disappear before she could be apprehended. He did not seem exactly pleased, since the innocent rarely choose to flee. I suggested that they might be able to inquire with the Mistress of the Carnival who could possibly shed more light on Aleae’s behavior and reputation.

We were all asked to explain our current mission and the circumstances under which we had ended up in each other's company and in the warehouse, as well as give explanations for any of the items that could be found amongst our possessions. The gnome often made reference to the Korranberg Chronicles and the published stories about the others' involvement with events in both Zilargo and Droaam.

Rendar spoke of an amulet that had apparently fallen into their hands some time ago. He referred to it as “the Emperor’s Key.” The artifact appeared to be of great importance to the cultists who were at the heart of the events on the airship, which had been the beginning of the intersection of all of our paths. I am sure we will talk more about these matters soon. I am growing ever more curious to discover how much the adventurers might know about Reltran ir’Harran and Avashad.

I told the gnome about my travels with Aleae and my mission to find my friend Killian ir’Vanatar and discover what was behind the actions of Reltran ir’Harran. I also mentioned that I had items in my possession that belonged to Myrcose, for I did not know what crimes these could possibly be linked to.

The gnome was very interested in learning more about whoever was behind the wanted note for some of our group. Something was worrying him about this creature from Graywall who was calling himself Governor Trazzen.

When Cypher mentioned that they had the body of a certain General Darvashek in their possession, located at the House Orien enclave, the Redcloak shifter rushed towards Cypher’s cell, visibly agitated, demanding to hear who had killed the general. As Cypher told her that it had in fact been he himself, she first was in disbelief but then seemed deeply impressed as the priest assured her that Cypher could not have lied about this. Apparently the general was a highly wanted war criminal responsible for the deaths of countless innocents and as I heard to my great dismay, many Aundairian civilians. He was a wanted man, hunted by the Sentinel Marshals, Eberron’s most elite law enforcement force.

Before the gnome had arrived, Kard and Cypher had been arguing about a certain warforged called Claviger. Apparently both parties had had some kind of relationship to him, but Kard refused to reveal anything about what he knew. Now the gnome asked about this Claviger, but again not much was revealed.

Kard was giving the barrister a hard time in general, making it hard for him to make a good case on his behalf. He seemed entirely unwilling to share anything of possible importance and evaded most questions as best as he could.

In the end, the information we provided seemed to have been sufficient to convince the magistrate of our innocence. We were released on the morning of Zaranthyr the 6th—less than a day after first incarceration, so I deem that Dol Arrah’s blessing. As we exited the garrison Lieutenant Terek approached us and thanked us for our service. They had indeed been able to retrieve the body of General Darvashek and the Sentinel Marshals were on their way to retrieve the body the next day, wishing to personally thank Cypher and the group.

We made our way to the Carnival. Magnus was upset that he had missed his appointment with the Stormwalkers, the other barbarians from the Seren Islands the day before but hoped, that he might be able to find them today. The elves indeed had a message from the barbarians which was carved into a wooden tablet in what appeared similar to draconic script. Magnus translated the writing for us:

Follow the river north. Walk inland at the second jetty, if you dare to prove your honor—for the Bringers of Fire have shown none.