Chapter 1: The Wreckage

[tibbius]

Pelias, Rus, and Galeschin each walked through the main square of Moontower in the pink light of dawn, examining the wreckage remaining from the previous night's catastrophe.

Here was the burnt-out hulk of the Silvered Branch, a reputable inn set to the torch in the madness that followed the disintegration of the sacred Tower of the Moon.

Here was the corpse of a Fauchardian courtier, hacked down with what looked like axe wounds that left gashes in finery and flesh alike.

Over there, scattered across the middle of the square near the circular stage used for pronouncements and executions - there were more bodies, crumpled as they had struck the ground after falling from the great height where the Tower once floated. Mostly small bodies, gnomes, clad in the white gowns of the Church. Dozens of them, who had thought themselves the best part of the hierarchy. A few larger figures, mostly humans who had served the priests, clad simply as servants. A few in finer garments. Nearly at the center, still bent backward over the edge of the stage, the crown still resting on the ground a foot below his head: Game Bryce, ex-king of Fauchard.

Amongst the bodies, of great interest to Pelias, many books and scrolls were strewn. Tattered, page-burst, spindles broken by impact, but still ... the entire library of the Tower, there to be seized by any enterprising wit.

Indeed, of the several dozen early risers who wandered cautiously about the square, two or three had paused to crouch and peruse some of the texts.

A few more had sacks, and were industriously gathering valuables that also had fallen from the sky and had been overlooked by looters in the unaccustomed dimness of torchlight.

The rest were merely curious, and perambulated in groups of two or three discussing what had passed the night.

Up on the stage, another corpse remained strapped to a frame, its skin hanging tattered from its back. Flies swarmed around it in the summer morning warmth.

At the eastern edge of the square, the sun peeked over the rooftops.

Why is each of you here? What does each of you do? Are you known to each other? How do you appear to each other?

[Xacha]

"Stars above, what a charnel-house!" Pelias covered his mouth with a sleeve, trying to block the reek of the recently deceased.

For days he'd been casting horoscopes for the foolish and desperate, and regardless of the question, they had all predicted imminent disaster. He'd finally gotten curious enough to cast the knucklebones himself, and they'd pointed him here.

His eye was caught by the books and scrolls. He'd left most of his library behind in Dharta, and he'd had the devil's own luck replacing them. But a wizard of his stature - or the stature he wanted people to think he had - could not be seen grubbing around the gore-soaked flagstones.

Placing a cloth across his nose, he walked slowly through the courtyard. With the tip of a gnarled staff, he gently turned over the corpse of a gnome. "Moon guide you, and the Sun light your way. Find your place with the stars ..." the ritual phrases of blessings for the dead rolled off his lips.

Slowly, gently, the foreign wizard made his way across the courtyard, putting rest to any spirits that might try to arise from the sudden dead. A proper thing, a fitting thing. And if he happened to pass a scroll or codex lying on the cobblestones, well ...

Pelias is of medium height, with steely-grey beard and olive skin. His linen robe, vine-twisted staff and rope sandals scream "wizard," to the point you'd think he was trying to fit the stereotype. Despite the look of age and wisdom, his face is surprisingly young.

[sirravd]

Galeschin, barbarian of the River Kingdoms, surveyed the wreckage grimly. He was tempted to join in with the looters––treasure, after all, was the whole reason why he had come to civilization in the first place––but he was inclined to superstition: while he had no love for the gods, he recognized that the Moon governed rogues and mercenaries such as himself, and he did not wish to bring divine anger upon his person. He could not, however, deny that he enjoyed seeing the smug, haughty gnomes come to ruin, and the destruction of books (what irritating devices they were).

Perhaps, thought Galeschin to himself, the resultant political chaos would provide an opportunity for someone like himself to seize a degree of power? It was an interesting thought. Some barbarians, he knew, had worked their way up to kingship, and Galeschin was certainly intelligent enough to do so too.

[Rex]

Rus

Rus moved through the wreckage with a grace that seemed out of place for such a big man. His shield slung on his back and his mighty axe in his hand, he watched others loot. He had been in the city as a bodyguard for a paranoid gnome priest, the only place he never went with him was his magic tower. To bad he was now part of the mess that lay before Rus, he had paid well. He wondered if his occasional drinking buddies, Pelias, and Galeschin were about here somewhere.

[tibbius]

There was motion at the east edge of the square, from the main street. A squad of a dozen armored Fauchardian infantry, marching four abreast. Their namesake fauchards held over their shoulders, their small round shields slung over their backs, their silvered helmets tilted back. They clearly were a part of the royal honor guard.

They marched directly to the stage, followed by a group of six servants, who carried a litter. They paid no heed to the other people in the square, who all withdrew silently from their path.

[Xacha]

Pelias continued his ministrations as the royal guard entered the courtyard. Normally he'd avoid them like the plague - no love for outlanders in that lot - but right now they were the most interesting thing going on.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimps of Galeschin and the son of Rufus. That changed the equation as well. They'd likely come to his aid if things got sticky, since he couldn't pay back the drinks he owed them if he were in the dungeons.

Pelias continued to play the role of pious wizard attending to the needs of the spirits, but he drifted towards the stage in the process. He kept his ear cocked, hoping that the guard would drop some hint of what had happened here.

[tibbius]

"Ska-wad ... haht!" barked one of the guardsmen as they came up to the foot of the stage. He uttered a few more abrupt phrases, and the twelve men formed three sides of a square with the fourth side at the edge of the stage where the king's body was draped. The litterbearers entered the square. From their respective vantage points, Galeschin, Pelias, and Rus could not see clearly what they did in there as a couple of minutes passed.

What do you do while the guards and servants are busy with the king?

Curiously, the other people in the square gathered casually toward the group at the edge of the stage.

[Rex]

Rus

Well most are focused on the royal guard Rus takes his time checking out what is going on around the edges of the area.

[Xacha]

Pelias

While everyone is distracted by the soldiers, Pelias is going to scan the ground for interesting texts.

[tibbius]

Ambling toward the stage, Pelias came into the area that had been directly beneath the Tower of the Moon. The pavement here was inlaid with astrological mosaics. Many books were scattered among the bodies of the gnome priests. Nearby, an elderly gnome's sharp teeth were bared and eyes rolled back in the death grimace, giving the ancient hierarch a feral appearance. Next the corpse's outstretched fingers rested an open book. Pausing over the deceased and making the appropriate gestures and murmuring the appropriate phrases to bring rest to the victim of a violent death, Pelias scanned the runes and diagrams of the open page. That portion of the grimoire related to transmutations of the body.

As he circumperambulated, Rus came across a group of four young men emerging from what might have been the kitchen doorway of the smoldering Silvered Branch. They held armfuls of silver tableware, scorched by last night's flames but still of value. Seeing Rus, they hastened away from the square toward the dockside district where the hovels were. Perhaps they intended to conceal their loot for later sale.

Galeschin felt his left hand twitch involuntarily, and with the tremor came cold prickles of sweat on his back. He knew what that meant. He needed a steadyberry. Cautiously, with a feeling of shame, he undid the clasp of his belt pouch and dipped two fingers into it. Among the clinking coins he felt a few remaining berries. Pulling one out, he slipped it into his mouth and crunched the seed and berry between his molars. Then with his tongue he tucked the crushed berry into the pouch between his cheek and gumline, feeling the tingle of the medicine dissolving into his blood. When he was younger, the berries truly had steadied his hands and mind beyond normal, enabling feats of dexterity. Now, each berry merely held back the tremors for a time.

Beside the stage, the squad leader called out a few more orders and they formed a full square, three at a side, around the litter and its bearers. The litter now hung heavy between the bearers, though it never had touched the ground, and the king's body no longer folded over the edge of the stage. The crown had been picked up and glinted from the king's chest on the litter. It seemed the squad would depart with the royal remains.

Then a diversion from what was expected. "Ska-wad - rest!" The leader detached from the square, and walked briskly toward Pelias. "Pahdon, suh. Ah yew one of the Touched? A skallah?" The leader's Stahlmen accent was thick in his Thran. I'll omit the accent from here on, but try to hear it...

[Rex]

Rus

Hearing the guards and seeing them approach Pelias, Rus moves towards him in case something happens with him.

[Xacha]

Pelias

Pelias stared at the body of the hierarch and the text at his hand. Intriguing. Perhaps this offered a clue as to what happened? Regardless, transmutation was an important field just now, and the text was valuable. If he could just discretely lean down ...

"Pahdon, suh ..."

Dammit.

"Ah yew one of the Touched?"

Pelias hid his wince. That accent went straight down his spine.

"I follow the paths of the Moon and the guidance of the Sun, yes. I have learned what the stars have to teach. What help can I be to you, on this day of tragedy?"

[tibbius]

"I wondered, suh, if you might know where is an embalmer here? Orders are to have the king readied for transport and burial."

[Xacha]

Pelias

Pelias stroked his beard and looked thoughtful. Truth was, he never put any thought into the matter of embalming. People who were dead rarely wanted their horoscopes cast, and were obviously out of the reach of the physician.

"Well, I am graced with a spell to stabilize the dead, but perhaps you want something more formal?"

Think, think, think. Surely one of his customers knew how to preserve a body. By pickling, if nothing else. Oh, wait ...

"There's a physician nearby, Alessio Conte, who performs embalming and the dressing of the dead. I can direct you to his practice ..."

Just last week, he'd read Alessio's fortune in the cards and told the superstitious fool that there would be a 'dramatic moment in his business.' Ha! Not often he got to fulfill his own predictions.

[sirravd]

Galeschin sat on the ground for a second as he felt the berry pass into his system. When the pain of deprivation was gone, he stood and moved toward Rus and Pelias.

[Rex]

Rus

As Rus gets nearer to Pelias, he waits so as not to intrude on the guardsman and to give Galeschin time to reach him as well.

[tibbius]

"I don't know the city well, suh. The side streets are confusing. Could you please bring us to the doctor?"

As he stands aside, Rex noticed that most of the other people originally in the square - about a dozen of them - had gathered into a tight group nearby. They whispered to each other and gestured toward the soldiers and the litter bearers. The litter bearers shuffled their feet and adjusted the weight of the king. The soldiers stood relaxed, their fauchards vertical with butts planted in the cracks between the paving stones.

As the sun got a little higher, twenty or thirty more people had entered the square singly or in small groups from the main streets. Most were humans who wore brightly colored linen tunics over short leggings and boots - Vertlanders. A few were gnomes wearing long bright gowns. A few others were humans dressed in wool of various natural colors - mostly beige and reddish brown - Fauchardians. They hung near the edges of the hundreds-yards-wide plaza, watching the soldiers.

Pelias did not see any among the newcomers who looked like competitors for the scattered tomes and scrips.

Galeschin thought he recognized a gnomish alchemist who sold steadyberries by the dozen. He had only a few left in his belt pouch. How many? He needs only one to three a day depending how stressful.

Rus saw a former employer, a tall Vertlander with a hawk nose who had hired him three weeks ago to guard a candle and soap shop that had been under the threat of protection by some Kylnnic characters. After a week the Kylns had drifted off to harass some other merchant.

[sirravd]

Only three. Galeschin decides to purchase berries from the alchemist, attempting to wheedle him down to the lowest possible price. That done, he will move toward the tight group of a dozen men, trying to be unobtrusive, eavesdropping as best he can.

[Xacha]

Pelias

Suppressing a sigh, Pelias gave a shallow bow. "It would be my honor to guide you."

Maybe if he made this quick, he could slip back in time to rifle through the scrolls. One way or another, though, this would probably start his reputation with the officials of Fauchard. And garner another favor from Alessio.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Galeschin and Rus standing about. Well, it would be good for them to owe him a favor as well. "One moment while I gather my two assistants. Unsavory types have started to congregate here, and I would feel better if their steel were nearby."

He makes a quick, 'come on' gesture towards the other two.

[Rex]

Rus

Seeing Pelias gesture Rus heads over to him. Keeping quite as he nears and waiting for Pelias to take the lead.