When we left our mercenary band, we had just finished an intense battle with a group of vampire spawn, cut short by the arrival of a powerful guard captain who eradicated two vampires we had struggled with and then demanded to know why we were in an apparently innocent man's home. Talna ended the session with the question "What do you know about bones?"
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"We're here on behalf of Father Lucian," Talna continues. As she speaks, eight more guards file up the stairs, their hands on their weapons. "He asked us to retrieve something important for him, and our search led us here, but when we started looking around we found those vampires instead.
The guard captain glares at us a moment, then turns and speaks to the guards in a low voice that we can't make out. "Alright, everybody is going to go downstairs, and we are going to get some answers," the captain declares, then seems to notice Azog for the first time. "Can't you stop getting into trouble?" the captain asks. "I came to help!" Azog protests, still holding Balasar against the wall. The captain shrugs, and descends the stairs, motioning for us to follow. The guards in the room tense, indicating that this is not a request.
"I don't take orders from you," Balasar says, as the captain disappears down the stairs. "Let's just get this over with," Elle says, as she climbs onto Sadun's shoulder. Sadun, calming down from her rage and looking a little confused not to see foes standing before her, follows Elle's directions and heads down after the captain. Azog, deciding things are under control, lets Balasar go and turns to follow as well.
"I'm not getting taken in by these flatfoots," Balasar protests. "We're not getting taken in, we just have to clear things up. Come on Balasar, let's go downstairs," Talna counters. As she turns to leave the room however, Balasar bolts. Talna cries out in surprise, making a desperate grab to stop the dragonborn escaping, but his superior footwork sees him easily avoid her. He continues past two surprised guards, dodging past their clumsy attempts to stop him. Running back into the bedroom where he killed the vampire and found the sack of bones, Balasar leaps from the open window.
Our DM was as surprised as the rest of us at this turn of events. "You manage to... escape?"
"You'd better get back in this house right now Balasar!" Talna shouts after him.
Downstairs, the guard captain has heard the commotion. One of the guards hurries down the stairs. "The red lizard made a break for it!" she exclaims. "Get after him! I want that dragon-man in custody yesterday!" The captain shouts. Several guards acknowledge the order and rush out into the street, whistles blowing. The captain motions to three of the remaining guards. "You three, interrogate these suspects one at a time. I want to know what happened here." And with that, the captain also departs the house. The remaining three guards (let's call them Gregory, Cecil and Cheryl for the sake of avoiding "Guard #1" shenanigans. Our party never asks anybody their name...) herd our group into a corner of the main room downstairs. Henrich is still tied to his chair nearby, glaring defiantly at us and protesting that we broke into his home and destroyed the place to anyone who is in earshot. Gregory motions for Azog to follow him. He leads the half-orc to the next room over for an individual interrogation where the rest of us can't hear, while Cheryl and Cecil keep an eye on the rest of us.
From the Journal of Sadun Dorgona: It is almost surprising to me how quickly I have come to consider Elle a good friend. We only met some two weeks prior in the midst of a mysterious haunted house. Elle is a funny little gnome, but endearing in her own way, and has fit in very well with our company. I sometimes forget she wasn't one of the original Grayflow River Mercenaries. It is amusing and somehow comforting the way she likes to ride on the shoulders of us dragonborn. Perhaps it reminds me of my younger siblings back on the Giant's Plains... I miss my family, but I am glad I can help bring this new family some measure of safety and security by my actions.
Azog's interrogation:
Gregory: Why did you come in this house?
Azog: I heard fighting, and saw those two vampires jump out at us. I wanted to help, so I broke my chains and ran in to hit vampires. The red dragon-man kicked me, so I pushed him into the big room. I just wanted to help.
Gregory: Ok, I think we're done here...
Gregory brings Azog back into our room, and this time pulls Sadun aside.
Sadun's interrogation:
Gregory: Why did you break into this man's house and tie him to a chair?
Sadun: My tale begins long ago. We are from a faraway land, and have been traveling long and hard, fighting many terrifying demons and tasked with... I see my story is boring you. Very well. We are here to retrieve something for Father Lucian.
Gregory: And what are you "retrieving"?
Sadun (shifting uncomfortably): Father Lucian doesn't want people to know they're missing. I don't know if I am at liberty to tell you...
Gregory: If your story cannot be verified this will not go well for you or your friends. What is missing?
Sadun: Well... I suppose you are representative of the authority of this city. Perhaps it is safe to tell you. We are looking for the Bones of Saint Andral, which Father Lucian found missing the other day. He doesn't want to cause a panic by letting people know they are missing though!
Gregory: Why is that important?
Sadun: Well, see Yeska was afraid, so Father Lucian told him about the power of the bones, but Millovaj was bullying Yeska, and got the bones secret from him, but Millovaj was being paid by that man Henrich, so we came here but then we found vampires upstairs instead.
Gregory: Hmm, I see. Next!
Vivi's interrogation:
Gregory: Why are you and your friends here?
Vivi: I'm not sure actually, I was distracted by studying my magic tomes, but I think it's something to do with bones?
Gregory: What about these bones?
Vivi: Well, they're magical bones. Well, not magical in the technical sense, like my magic, but more magical in the holy sense, like religious magic. So they're magical, but not technically magical, instead being colloquially magical. Really it's probably more a matter of the divine thaumaturgical properties of those blessed by the gods giving these bones a special protective field, an "aura", if you will, that drives off beings of a certain energy alignment away in some fashion, obviously I'm not sure as I've only heard rumors and not seen them in action nor have I had the chance to study and experiment with them but
Gregory (bored): Ok that's enough of that. Why did you break into this man's house?
Vivi: Well the bones should be here, right? And in our defense, we ARE adventurers. It's part of our job description to break into houses.
Gregory (sarcastically): Of course it is. NEXT!
Elle's interrogation:
Elle (preemptively as she enters the room, while eating): Bones. Magic. Helping. Holy.
Gregory (sighing in exasperation): I see your stories are the same at least. Why didn't Father Lucian tell the City Guard about these missing bones?
Elle (between bites): Because sshhh, secret.
Gregory: Next!
Talna's interrogation:
Talna (upon entering): I can cast Zone of Truth if it would help. It's a magical spell granted by my deity that forces all within it to tell the truth.
Gregory: Look, I don't trust you and I don't trust magic. I'm just doing my job. Why did you break into this man's house?
Talna: Well, we came here from Barovia escorting the lady Irena (who is very cute by the way). She needed to get here to be safe from... [here she lowers her voice] you know who.
Gregory: No, I don't. Who did this Irena need protection from?
Talna: Well, we don't like to say his name out loud, because he can hear you and might show up. We call him Voldemort, because it's like an alias, or a nickname, that let's us talk about him without naming him. But he's the ruler of this land? Maybe not popular around here?
Gregory: I have no idea who you're talking about. Look, why did you tie up Henrich in there?
Talna: We tied him up because he took the bones! Also really, did you see the vampires upstairs? Nobody with vampires in their house is a good person. I should know, I AM of the cloth myself.
Gregory: I see I'm not getting much more out of you. Next!
Gregory decides he's getting tired from our nonsense, and calls in Cecil to help with the next interrogation.
Jaro's interrogation:
Gregory: Why did you and your friends come here?
Jaro: We're on a quest given to us by the priest! We're here to look for the Bones because something about zombies, I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway, I gave the kid a knife because he was being bullied.
Cecil (shocked): You gave a child a knife??
Jaro: Yeah, is that weird? They gave me a knife when I was a child.
Cecil: What ARE you?
Gregory (to Cecil): Shut up. What child was being bullied?
Jaro: A kid named Yeska, he was being bullied by this older kid, who is the gravedigger up at the church, but when we talked to him he said he was paid by the coffin maker guy, so we came here. Anyway, we didn't have a chance to look for the bones because of the vampires, but they must be here!
Gregory: Very well, we'll look for these bones.
Gregory and Cecil lead Jaro back over to us. Gregory calls in a few of the guards posted outside the house, and they head upstairs. We hear them rummaging around for quite awhile while Cecil and Cheryl keep an eye on us. After a few minutes, they come back down. "We didn't find any bones." Gregory says. Henrich smirks at us. "But we're not done questioning people," Gregory continues. Gilligan looks up from the corner he is sitting in. "No, I'm not questioning a green child" Gregory says. (Gilligan's player was absent this session, but the goblin was technically here so I'm adding him into this scene) "I've had a long enough day as it is. But we need a statement from the victim."
The guards go over to where Henrich is still tied to a chair. "We need him to tell them the truth," Talna whispers. "Elle, distract those guards!"
Elle grins happily, and moves to get her drums out of her backpack as Jaro pulls out a pair of maracas. As they move, Cecil and Cheryl start to draw their weapons. "No no no!" Elle protests. "It's just drums! See?" Moving very slowly, she pulls out the drum, and the guards relax. "Oh, it's just a drum," Cecil agrees. "Oh shut up. It's been a long day," Cheryl replies.
During this commotion, Talna takes the opportunity to fidget the gestures of Zone of Truth and whisper the chant forcefully, centering the invisible magical zone on Henrich. The group holds their breath and watch (well, Elle and Jaro start their percussion duo). Those of us watching see the guards look shocked at something Henrich says, and Henrich covers his mouth. Talna pumps her fist in victory. Gregory immediately puts shackles on Henrich, and sends one of the guards from outside to find the guard captain.
We wait for another 15 or 20 minutes, listening to Elle and Jaro's rendition of some song they both seem to know with only a drum and maracas for accompaniment. Finally, the front door opens again, and Father Lucian steps into the coffin maker's house. He says something to the guards, then walks over to us. "What happened? Are you injured?" he asks us, "Please stop treating these people like common criminals!"
"Yeah we're hurt, Elle here was used as a bloody jukebox by a bunch of vampires, she kept getting knocked out, I got knocked out, it was a nightmare!" Talna grouses.
The guard captain comes back in shortly after Father Lucian. "It seems you were correct that Henrich stole church property. You lot are free to go, but you are NOT to leave this city until we have found the bones of the saint, and your accomplice is found."
Elle walks to the front door, steps onto the front stoop, and starts to shout for Balasar, when a flying insect flies into her open mouth and she starts choking instead. Talna steps out next to the coughing gnome and shouts out "Balasar! Get back here! We're not in trouble, but you'd better come here now or we might be!"
"Balasar won't come back here while the fuzz is still around," Vivi says. "You're probably right," Cecil the guard remarks.
Father Lucian asks if we would like to take our rest in the church. "You have helped me out when I worried I could turn to nobody," he says, "you are welcome to take shelter in the church tonight."
Before we leave, Jaro stands in front of Henrich's door. Waving his hands in an intricate gesture, he magically marks on the door a group of stick figures, a steepled building with a holy symbol over it, and an X. Satisfied that Balasar will know to come find us by that mark (so long as he sees it within an hour) Jaro turns to go. Sighing at our party generally, Talna pens a quick note and sticks it to the front door with one of her darts. The note reads:
Balasar. We are at the church.
You'd better come find us there as soon as you can.
Bring my dart with you or I'll hurt you.
And with that, the group follows Father Lucian back to the Cathedral of St. Andral. Making ourselves comfortable, we soon fall asleep.
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Meanwhile, Balasar has been circling the area, keeping his distance as the guards following him set up a search zone, with the most guards concentrating in the area around Henrich's house. He keeps an eye on the area, but is too far away to hear us shouting for him. After about half an hour of not finding him, the guard search diminishes, and soon only a few night patrols continue wandering the area. Balasar sneaks back to the house, muffling the coughs that occasionally threaten to erupt from his lungs in his cloak.
He approaches the door to Henrich's house when the guard on duty steps around the side of the house for a moment. He looks quizzically at Jaro's drawing, then takes Talna's note down and reads it.
"They spelled tavern wrong," Balasar concludes, and wanders away, searching for the nearest place serving strong alcohol. He soon comes upon the Bluewater Inn, and enters. A few late night customers briefly look up at him, but quickly return to their drinks. The bartender acknowledges Balasar with a nod.
"Which is your best booze, barkeep?" Balasar asks. The bartender stops polishing a glass long enough to point out a barrel. "The Red Dragon Crush is the most expensive wine we have here."
Balasar thinks for a moment, and then walks out of the bar. He walks around the side of the building, carefully judging the distances from the front door. When he's satisfied, he walks through the wall, grabs the barrel of wine in front of him, and pulls it through the wall with him as he phases back through it. Looking around him, he sees the road he is on is lined with trees and houses, and an open field lies a little ways away. Hoisting the barrel of wine up over his shoulder, Balasar turns to the closest residential house, and once more phases through the wall. Getting desperate for the alcohol in his arms, he looks around quickly. Spying stairs leading down into a basement, he moves quietly down. "I figure I'll be drunk by the time I have to leave," he thinks to himself. Settling onto the floor against one wall, he drinks greedily from the barrel until he passes out.
Several hours pass. Around 4 AM, Balasar finds himself awake. His bleary mind tries to catch up to events, and as he groggily sits up, he becomes away of a soft rumbling sound from upstairs. A door slowly creaks open somewhere in the house, followed by the sound of light footsteps padding across the floorboards. "They're coming down here!" he thinks frantically, and quickly presses himself to the side of the staircase, trying to get out of the sight lines from the stairs. However, in his haste he leaves the barrel in the middle of the floor...
Multiple pairs of footsteps now descend the staircase above Balasar's head. They pause halfway down. Seconds tick by with aching slowness. Then a voice says "I guess noone's here..." and footsteps start to ascend the stairs again. There is the sound of a slap, and a different voice rings out "The barrel is right there! Look again, but more closely this time!"
A man wearing a fur pelt over one shoulder comes all the way down the stairs. Turning, he sees Balasar pressing himself against the staircase. "He's here!" the man calls out.
"Ah hellsfire, what do you want?" Balasar asks angrily.
"I was drinking that. You stole the only Red Dragon in the bar!" The man exclaims, as a second man in a pelt runs down the stairs followed by two city guards.
Craning his neck, Balasar sees what may be the family of the house huddled at the top of the stairs. The family is quickly ushered away by two more guards, though one, a child, asks "why is that lizard in our basement?" as they are led away.
The two guards in front of Balasar step forward. "Come with us quietly," one says.
"Yeah, no." Balsar responds. "Why don't I share the booze? I didn't take it, I just found it, but I figure finder's keepers, right?"
"Come with us, and don't make a scene!" The other guard says, as they slowly the drunken dragonborn.
"No, seriously, I'm willing to share the rest of the booze!" Balasar protests. As he says this, two more guards descend the stairs, and the four guards rush him at once, grabbing him and pinning him to the ground. Balasar however, simply phases through the men grappling him. Giving up on the booze, he runs to the stairs, and with a big exhalation, breathes a cloud of smoke up the staircase in an attempt to disorient any further guards waiting for him. He dashes up the stairs, brushing past a coughing guard, but a second guard is able to get a grip on his arm as he rushes past. "I got him!" the guard shouts. Balasar turns and attempts to bite his assailant, but the booze and sudden activity throw his aim and he manages to miss. Three more guards, rushing up the stairs after him, jump on and drag Balasar to the floor in a heap. Using the last of his stamina for the night, Balasar once more phases through the guards on top of him. He runs to a wall and crashes through a window there, disappearing into the darkness once more.
From the Journal of Sadun Dorgona: I have never understood Balasar. He was with the Greyflow River Mercenaries long before I joined them. At first I thought it would be good to have another dragonborn to talk to; there are few enough of us in the Realms. But he has always had a more... self-centered approach to life than I was raised with. Perhaps it is inherent in his heritage as a Red Dragonborn, or perhaps it is some circumstance in his life, but he seems to value himself above all others. Nevertheless, he is a skilled warrior, and when he puts his mind to it a cunning tactician. And when it comes down to it, he is a part of this family I have chosen. And it is important to keep my family safe.
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As the cloud covered sky begins to brighten with the light of morning, the rest of the party in the church begins to wake up and prepare for the day. Looking around, we see no sign of Balasar. Talna, who has been awake for several hours longer than the rest of us communing with her god shakes her head. Balasar didn't return in the night.
Sadun walks out of the cathedral, looking for a city guard patrol. She soon finds one and waves the two guards to her.
"You're one of those troublemakers from yesterday?" Asks one of the guards.
"I feel like we saved more trouble than we caused friend. But tell me, has there been any news of our red companion?" Sadun responds.
"Oh, yes, that one. He was causing quite the stir last night. Stole an expensive barrel of wine and led us on a merry chase through the city!"
"Oh dear, stealing again. And Gilligan will be unhappy to hear he's drinking. Has he been apprehended?"
"No, unfortunately he gave us the slip. And if you want to keep him from getting into more trouble you'd best find him quick before Izzik gets ahold of him."
As the guards walk off into the morning, Sadun sighs heavily, and heads back into the church.
"I'm afraid Balasar has continued both to cause trouble and avoid the hands of the law while we rested," Sadun reports upon returning to the group.
"He's probably at a tavern, I'll go look for him," Elle says, and walks out. Jaro and Azog follow, intrigued by the sound of investigating a tavern.
"We'd best head the other way, we'll cover more ground," Talna says, and heads back towards the coffin maker's house with Sadun and Vivi in tow. Gilligan remains behind, to spend some time praying, and also in case Balasar happens to come back while we're looking for him.
Elle's group soon reaches a nearby tavern, identified by a freshly painted sign over the door as the Freewater Inn. Elle spots an unkindness of ravens sitting in the trees around the inn. She pulls out some food items and drops some in front of her, attempting to lure the ravens down for a chat. Behind her, Jaro tries to help, pulling out an old bird's nest and offering it to the ravens as well. Several ravens soon fly down to the free food (though they ignore the nest).
"Have you seen a red dragon man?" Elle asks.
One of the ravens cocks its head at her. "Dragon? No."
"Can you help me find the large dragon man?"
"No?"
Elle thinks a moment, and realizes the question is confusing the raven. "Have you seen a big red lizard man?"
"Yes!"
"Where?"
At this the question flies off, Elle running after without a word to the others. Azog and Jaro quickly follow, Jaro hurriedly stuffing the bird's nest back into his pack as he moves.
Meanwhile, Sadun, Vivi and Talna reach Henrich's house and find Talna's note missing. "He'd better have kept my dart," Talna says.
"You again?" comes a voice from behind us. A guard we had not noticed watching the house from the other side of the road approaches us.
"Yes, us again!" Sadun replies, beaming.
"Did you see Balasar?" Talna asks.
"The red one? He's causing quite a commotion. He stole some expensive wine last night."
"That brazen, beetle-headed lout!" Talna curses.
Cheryl the guard looks at Vivi and Sadun. "I hope you lot aren't like your friend."
"No, he is his own person," Sadun says.
"I don't like trouble," Vivi adds. "It takes away from reading time."
"No, these two dragonborn are different. Sadun's sweet and Vivi's pretty quiet. Balasar is definitely his own beast," Talna adds. But we're obviously not giving dragonborn a good name amongst the townsfolk here. The three companions walk away in the direction of a tavern, passing by Blinksey's toy shop on the way, and reach Bluewater Inn.
"This is the nearest tavern, I bet this is where he caused trouble last night," Talna remarks. "Vivi, could you look around for any trace of him?"
Vivi looks around for several minutes, carefully examining the tracks trampled into the dirt around the tavern, and picks out several footprints, some of them larger than the average human, and a few that are smaller. There are also a few hoof prints. Elle's group may have passed by here before us. We follow after in the direction the tracks lead us.
Elle, Jaro and Azog follow the raven across town, past another tavern, to a nearby house. The raven lands on the roof as the three adventurers approach. A member of the city guard stands watch outside the house, and nearby a large barrel sits on the ground, roped off with a sign hung on it that reads "Evidence". The trio take a few minutes to observe the scene, and as they wait, Talna arrives with Sadun and Vivi. Jaro approaches the guard.
"What happened here?"
"Your 'friend' happened here." The guard responds. Clearly word of our party of nonhumans has gotten around. "He stole that barrel of wine from the Bluewater Inn and tried to hide out in this poor family's basement."
"Did he kill anyone?" Jaro asks, eliciting a stare from the guard.
"How much was the barrel worth?" Talna cuts in, before the guard can process Jaro's question.
"It was the most expensive wine in the place, worth about 100 gold pieces."
"Oh he's so on his own on this one." Talna mutters.
"So where is he?" The guard asks.
"We're looking for him. How did you lose track of him?" Jaro responds.
"He's slimy."
Jaro turns to Sadun and Vivi and asks quietly "Are you guys slimy? Do you shed your skins?"
Sadun gives him a blank stare. "No?" But she self-consciously rubs her arm, checking to see if it's suddenly become covered in slime.
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Balasar wakes in a ditch on the edge of the city. He groggily remembers a chase through the streets, the guards several times almost catching up to him, but somehow he was able to slip by them every time, until eventually they gave up the chase. Muffling his coughs in his cloak, and wishing he had more wine, the dragonborn begins stumbling back towards the town center. He soon comes to a run down residential street. One house in particular stands out as particularly overgrown. The roof of the house sags in on itself, the walls are dilapidated, several windows broken and boarded over. Balasar almost seems to feel that the house hates what it has become. Curious but cautious, Balasar skirts around the outside of the house, when he hears a familiar voice in the back of his head: "Do you seek refuge?"
"Yes," Balasar responds without pause. He walks towards the front door of the house.
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As Jaro, Azog and the two dragonborn continue to talk to the guard, Elle pulls Talna aside.
"What's wrong with Balasar?" she asks quietly.
"Why do you ask?"
Elle frowns. She has been suspicious that Talna and Gilligan were hiding something about Balasar from the rest of the group, but has not been able to figure it out. Clearly Talna was not ready to spill the gossip yet.
"What did you and Gilligan do to him?" she tries again.
"We didn't do anything, this is how he's always been! I don't know what you're implying, I've known Balasar longer than you have."
"But you're hiding something from us! What aren't you and Gilligan telling us?" Elle pleads.
"Balasar is an asshole, I don't know what else to tell you."
"Ugh!" Elle gives up.
(Elle's player had realized they had a means of detecting the undead, which we know Balasar is as players. But when she ha the realization, Talna was away from the table, and the DM made Elle role-play the situation of trying to wheedle the information from Talna, as in game Talna and Gilligan are the only two to know that for sure, although Balasar obviously suspects his new nature. As aproustian pointed out to me after the session, this is a very interesting group where the characters are really bad at communicating, and the players are particularly unwilling to metagame the situation. This was particularly amusing as Talna could not remember WHY they were keeping it secret from us, and even texted Gilligan to ask if he remembered. He did not.)
From the journal of Sadun Dorgona: Talna has been with the Greflow River Mercenaries for a long time. I think she and Balasar were founding members. Talna seems to be largely in charge of determining what contracts we accept, and keeping our members alive and fighting. She has always been confident, and she shouts and curses a lot. But I know she cares about the wellbeing of our company. She is not exactly a people pleaser, so I would rather Gilligan be the face of our company, but I am glad she can be our strategic leader.
In front of the house, Jaro continued his questioning. "So what exactly happened that he was able to get away from you?"
"According to witnesses who were on the scene, he went through a wall. It was late though and they were probably drunk."
Azog, intrigued by this walking through walls possibility, suddenly charges directly into the wall of the house. He bounces back and stumbles to the ground. "Guess Azog can't do it," he concludes.
The guard looks momentarily confused, and then starts shouting at Azog. "I am fed up with your antics! That's it, you're going to Izzik. You were supposed to be executed yesterday anyway. Now you're breaking the peace!" Another guard emerges from the house at the commotion, and they tie Azog up, and one of them marches him away. (Azog spends the rest of the session in jail.)
"So, if this big half-orc can't walk through walls, how can a dragonborn do it?" Jaro ponders.
Talna and Elle return from their private conversation as Azog is lead away. "How much is the half-orcs bail?" Talna asks with a sigh.
"500 gold. I'm tired of you people," the guard replies.
"Well, we can't afford that. Come on people, let's leave these poor city workers alone." Talna leads the group back to the Bluewater Inn. Perhaps we can find some clues there as to what Balasar did.
However, as soon as Vivi and Sadun enter the tavern's main room, the barkeep starts shouting "No! I won't let their kind in here! Not after last night!" Not wanting to cause trouble, Sadun and Vivi back hurriedly out of the bar. Satisfied, the barkeep glowers at the rest of the group but returns to cleaning the bar area.
"So, how did the red one get out of here with that big barrel of wine?" Jaro asks.
"Look, I'm a professional. The guards don't believe me, but I do not drink on the job. But he walked through the wall! Just came in, grabbed the barrel, and took it straight through the wall! And I was stone sober too. Something unnatural about their kind."
Jaro thanks the barkeep for the information, then orders a drink to take to Vivi. The party meets the two dragonborn outside.
"Are you dragons ghosts?" Jaro asks.
Sadun gives him another blank look. "No."
"Because the barkeep in there said Balasar walked through the wall." Jaro continues, "But he's not a magician! I'M a magician, and I've never seen Balasar do any kind of magic."
"You don't know him, you've barely met him!" Talna protests.
"Is Balasar dead?" Jaro asks Talna.
"No, clearly not, he's walking around causing trouble," Talna says.
Vivi is quiet through this exchange, considering any possible way Balasar could have walked through a wall without using magical means as they sip their drink. "I have heard," they begin, "of supernatural beings that can walk through walls. Dragonborn are not those supernatural beings. So for Balasar to walk through a wall without magic, he must either be touched by supernatural powers, or possibly be one of the undead, as some varieties of undead can also walk through walls."
"Like a vampire?" asks Jaro, who has not had much experience with the undead beyond the vampires we fought the night before.
"I wouldn't be so specific, but maybe," Vivi says.
From the journal of Sadun Dorgona: I could not place them when we first met in this strange land, but I now remember meeting Vivi on the road before I joined the Greyflow River Mercenaries. They were traveling further than I was as I wandered from town to village looking for work, but they were easy to talk to, and a good companion on the road. I later ran into them while we worked for the Duchess in Daggerford, and we caught up briefly in between jobs. Vivi was studying in the magical libraries in Daggerford, and it was nice to know I had a friend outside the company there. I am surprised to find them also in this land of ghosts and terrible houses, but once more I am comforted by their distracted presence.
Elle, convinced now that Balasar is undead, casts a detection spell, sending her magical senses a mile out, looking for the feel of the undead. She gets the feeling of the undead in all directions, but a particularly strong sense comes to her from north of us. Elle immediately heads in that direction without a word, and the rest of the group has to scramble to catch up.
Turning onto a residential street, we see a number of rundown houses, including one that looks in particularly bad shape. And at the door, about to grab the door handle, is Balasar.
"Balasar! What in the nine hells are you doing?!" Talna shouts at him.
Balasar jumps at the shout, grabs the doorknob, and pulls hard. The locked door resists his attempt to enter however.
"Are you a ghost?" Jaro asks more kindly, as we approach.
"No," Balasar says, turning to face us.
"You walked through a wall!" Jaro exclaims.
"I don't know anything about that," Balasar denies.
Talna marches up to Balasar, grabs one of the horns on his head, and drags him away from the strange house. We regroup in the middle of the street.
"Look, I am not usually a proponent of subverting the authority of a town like this, but our group has to come first," Sadun says. "We should bring Balasar to the cathedral. Father Lucian may allow him to stay hidden there for awhile while we try to sort things out with the city."
Talna is nodding her agreement, when she notices a bag tied to Balasar's belt that hadn't been there the day before. "What is that?" she asks, grabbing it and exposing the bones inside. Talna looks angrily at Balasar and slaps him solidly across the cheek. "If we'd had these last night we could have avoided a lot of trouble! But yes, Sadun is right, we should get back to the church."
"We're going to be pretty noticeable, how do we do this?" Vivi asks.
"I can make Balasar look blue," Elle offers. "They're mostly looking for a red dragonborn."
At this point, Talna notices some people at one end of the street looking at us, but when she looks in their direction they leave.
After discarding several other plans involving decoys, we agree to sneak back to the church, with Elle maintaining a minor illusion on Balasar such that he looks to have blue scales like Vivi's. We reach the church quietly, and it seems as though few people took much notice of us. As we arrive at the church, Talna notices a man with a wolf pelt over his shoulder watching us, but he does not approach as we head into the church.
"Father Lucian! Does this church have a basement or a back room?" Talna asks as soon as we find the priest.
"Yes," the priest replies.
"Please take us there."
As soon as we enter an empty back room, Talna closes the door and shows Father Lucian the bones. He confirms they are the bones of the saint, but clarifies for some of us that the bones only protect the church, not the city as a whole.
"That makes sense, the magic is tied to consecrated ground," Jaro says in a moment of insight.
"Could our friend Balasar stay here awhile? I'm afraid he's a fugitive at the moment, but he did help us recover the bones," Talna explains.
Father Lucian turns to Balasar. "Are you looking to repent?" he asks.
"For what?" Balasar asks innocently.
Father Lucian sighs. "I must take the bones and perform a ritual to reinstate them in the crypt and restore the church's protected status."
"That sounds interesting, can I watch?" Talna asks. Balasar and Jaro also look interested.
"I don't see why not," Father Lucian says, and we follow the priest to a small room in the crypt behind the cathedral. Sadun posts herself as a lookout while the others crowd around the door to the small room, watching as Father Lucian places the bones on an altar and begins to pray over them. Elle climbs up to Balasar's shoulder for a better view. The priest finishes his prayers, and nothing seems to happen. Talna looks at Balasar expectantly, and is rewarded when the dragonborn is suddenly lifted bodily from his feet and hurled through the cathedral building, Elle clinging desperately to his armor's pauldron. The dragonborn collides with a table and then a ceiling lamp, and Elle is knocked to the ground. She quickly gains her feet and rushes after Balasar's form, casting Minor Illusion as she goes, but she is too late. Balasar lands outside the church grounds, in broad view of all the passersby, including two men in wolf pelts and several members of the city guard. Balasar recognizes the men in pelts as the hunters he had encountered last night.
"Oh, Balasar is undead," Talna says, with some satisfaction.
TO BE CONTINUED! At this point I expect a large jailbreak and/or permanent exile from Vloki in our future, but it's always possible we can talk our way out of this...
It’s amazing how much more sense the session makes when it’s all written out like this. Plus, I love Sadun’s journal entries!
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