Subj : ZIOTH> Turn 43 To : ALL From : ELI FENTON Date : Thu Sep 13 2001 07:13 am Well, there haven't been any posts of this type in a while, so I figured I'd drop one in. :) Zioth used to be a FidoNet game. If you want to read the back turns, they're located at www.zioth.com/zioth/game1 If this turn gets cut off for length, you can find it there too. 8/12/01 THE COMING OF THE ZIOTH CHAPTER THREE: PART EIGHTEEN FOURTY-THIRD TURN OF THE GAME Four men entered Rosteral's house, apparently having been asked inside. Ardith, just ready to leave, sat back down and signaled the serving wench for a refill of all their drinks. "Let's just stay and watch a while," she murmured. Kay grinned, halfway out of her chair, and said, "yes. What's going on over there?" The party all stared intently out the window, to the point where the bartender came up behind them and looked as well. Soon, two or three serving wenches had joined him. Within a couple minutes, the four men came back out, carrying Rosteral's wife and apprentice. The crowd outside parted and they left for the temple. Two minutes later, the constable and the man who had stayed behind to guard the bodies come out, carrying Rosteral. They held him with great care, each with two arms under the broken man's body. When the constable was out of sight and the party had looked away from the window, the rest of the watchers lost interest and returned to what they had been doing. "Aye," Ardith breathed, just loud enough to be heard across the table. "Methinks it is time for us to put into action our plan. Kay and I to the Temple, Kree and Johannes, and of course Bork -- good dog -- to follow the constable. Kay and I will alert the Temple staff that an injured man, Rosteral, is to be expected, just in case the constable and his fellows do not plan to take him there for further healing. Which I fear may be the case. "I like none of this. Something smells rotten here." Ardith paid their fare out of her meager purse, then gave Bork a bread crumb repeating her "good dog." Then, leaving a tip, she started out the door, Kay close behind her. Once out of earshot of the others, Kay said, "Ardith, my sister, I am become rich on this quest of ours. Please let me help pay -- you always pick up the tab, but you always give away your fortune -- let me help." Not slackening her pace toward the Temple, Ardith replied, "I will never want, for the Church of Andritha will provide in need. I have given more than I have received, and will be remembered if an accounting is needed. Thank you, my friend, my sister. Should I be in need I will remember your offer. Should you be in need, remember me, and the Church as well. But for now, we must hurry, for we must get to the bottom of this strangeness. I cannot believe that what we discovered in the ruins, what transpired here, and the fate of the butcher are not related. Yet I have not yet a thread. Oh, look, the Temple. Prepare yourself to enter..." Just as Ardith was about to open the door herself, it swung open from the inside, nearly knocking Ardith and Kay over. Two apprentice healers rushed out and past the two women. One stopped and looked back, called to the other, and returned to the door. "Oh, priestess! Mother, I'm sorry. I --" The other interrupted. "We were just going --" "The Healer heard about something --" "He told us to hurry -- "I wasn't careful when I opened the door --" "I'm so sorry, priestess --" "I'm quite alright. No one got hurt," Ardith said, recovering her balance. "But, tell me, where's the fire? Where are you going in such a hurry? Perhaps we can help?" Ardith, suspicious of the Constable, wondered if that perhaps-worthy perhaps-gentleman had taken Rosteral to some location _other_ than the temple. "You haven't heard? No, of course not. There were screams coming from the edge of town. People think the master of the baths has been murdered." "Wait! By chance, or Andritha's bidding, we were there. Rosteral was grievously injured, his chest crushed. His apprentice Hirlay is dead, as is Rosteral's wife, I know not her name. The Constable was there and promised to bring the Bath Master here, to the Temple. "Andritha channeled her healing through me to give poor Rosteral a chance at further life, but he must get here, to the Temple, for further care." Their eyes widened at the mention of Ardith's healing, for although they had seen it themselves, they would never be able to accustom themselves to such power coming from a human being, even if it was through Andritha. Ardith continued. "The Constable should be arriving with his burden any moment. Save yourselves a run for no purpose -- unless ye distrust the Constable." "The constable? Has he done something wrong? I haven't seen much of him to --" "Nor I. We stay in when there's no emergency." "Or when the emergency's only civil." "No," Ardith smiled, "nothing wrong. Only his behavior at the scene seemed... strange." "Strange? How? No, it's not for us to ask. You should speak with the Healer. He'll need you anyway, when Rosteral gets here, priestess." Johannes turned to Kreemon. "Do *you* have any experience in shadowing people? *I* certainly don't, and if we're caught... I suspect that the constable will find something to charge us with. Interference with law enforcement, or some similar thing..." Kreemon smiled a thin smile. "I've done a little tracking, once or twice. We'd better go now, if we want to keep up, but we'll go the other way around the tavern so the crowd doesn't see us." Johannes stood, and followed Kreemon's lead. Fortunately, it did not seem that any of the others looking out the window had heard their short conversation. Bork seemed to know precisely what was going on, as he followed, quieter than Johannes had ever seen him, at a short distance. The constable was far enough away that Kreemon and Johannes could slip out of the tavern without being seen. Then, as Kreemon had suggested, they walked the long way around. "Stand up straight," Kreemon said with a smile. "You look like you're trying to follow someone." Johannes hadn't realized anything was wrong until Kreemon mentioned it, but he had to admit he was bent over a bit, and might have looked like he was creeping along. Kreemon walked at a normal pace, and with a natural air. Johannes tried to do the same. After a few seconds, Kreemon stopped and faced Johannes. "Didn't you ever have to blend into a crowd?" "No. Up until this point, I've never had a need to. In Duerstadt, I --" Kreemon continued walking. "Look, don't worry about it. Walk naturally. When we're around the tavern and we can see them again, we'll keep walking naturally, just they won't notice us, because we'll stay out of sight and hearing." Johannes, his attention focused on the group ten yards ahead, walked right for them, until he saw Kreemon waving him back. "No," Kreemon whispered. "We stay to the side, and walk around buildings, out of sight when we can. And could you be a little quieter?" Johannes didn't know how he could be any quieter than he had been, but as they continued, he tried, and he kept close behind Kreemon, no longer paying any more attention than necessary to the group ahead. The two men rounded a few more buildings, and Johannes was amazed how Kreemon was able to know where the constable was at all times, and exactly where to look for him when they came back into the line of sight. Johannes scuffed his foot against some sand, and kicked a small rock loudly into someone's house. Kreemon grabbed Johannes painfully by the arm and pulled him behind the house. Johannes tried to apologize, but Kreemon put his fingers to his lips. After a few seconds had passed, Kreemon peered around the house, ensuring that the constable and Rosteral were still on track. "Look," Kreemon whispered as softly as he could manage. "Maybe it would be better if I did this alone." Johannes nodded. "Reasonable enough. I'll meet you back at Ranes'." With that, he turned away, to make his way back to the inn. Bork followed his master around another corner, and out of sight. Johannes waited for what seemed an hour for Kreemon to return. Finally, the door opened, and Kreemon walked over and sat down next to Johannes. "Nothing," he said. "They just took him to the temple. They were slow about it, but that's what they did. I even waited outside the temple for a while, and walked around it a few times. Ten minutes after they went in, they came out without Rosteral." Kreemon signaled a barmaid. "My throat is parched!" When she was closer, he asked for a couple of ales. Seeing Johannes' declining nod, he said "just one then. I'll pick up the other one later," and smiled at the girl. When the barmaid had left, Kreemon continued. "After that, they just went back to their regular jobs. Or at least the constable did. I followed him back to his office next to the guardhouse. I don't know where the other guy went; if I'd had Korisca with me, I would have sent her after him. I wonder where she's got to, anyway?" Kreemon's ale arrived, and he took a long drink. Then he tried to talk too suddenly, and only ended up losing some of what was in his mouth to the mug. "Oh! And I noticed something interesting -- Rosteral had a big splinter of wood in his hand. I could see it from twenty feet. I think that hand was under his body in his house, so I couldn't tell whether it was new." Johannes frowned thoughtfully. "Just how large, precisely? I mean to say... if it were broken off from something in the room, should we be able to notice where it was broken off from? If so, I think a judicious search of the room would be in order. At this point, any evidence whatsoever might prove crucial." Johannes paused. "I actually would have found it surprising had the constable *not* brought Rosteral to the temple to seek medical attention... wait a moment... now that Rosteral has been delivered, I would say it is absolutely vital to guarantee his safety until he recovers sufficiently to tell us what he knows of the attack. And I don't like the idea of that splinter... too easy to introduce poison through what looks like an accidental wound..." Johannes half-stood, a worried look on his face. "Regardless of whether my concerns in the matter of the splinter are founded or not, our enemy is not going to let the matter of a living witness to one of his attacks rest quietly. We should leave a message with Ranes here for Ardith... it would probably be prudent for us to make all haste to the temple now." "I agree," Kreemon said, and left his ale half-finished on the table. After Ardith's first display before the Healer a week earlier, he had been reserved and polite. Soon, however, over the next few days, he began to notice his apprentices' reverence for the priestess, how they looked up when she entered the room; how they kept a respectful distance at all times and spoke as they'd speak to a rector; how a few of them seemed far too eager to win her over, as if that would make their apprenticeships any easier. Slowly, the Healer's attitude had begun to change. The old Healer displayed a particular lack of interest while Ardith told her story. He continued to walk around the room, directing apprentices here and there, to the point where Ardith wasn't sure he was listening at all. But when she stopped for any reason, she immediately had his full attention. He would stop what he was doing and look directly at her until she continued. At one point, he left the room altogether, and, several moments later, when Ardith stopped to wait for him to return, he called out "and that's it? You saw his wife's body, and thus the story ends!" Ardith described the scene in full detail, and told him how she used Andritha's healing gifts to aid Rosteral, and described the constable's behavior and theory concerning the deaths. She let him know what she thought of the constable's theory, but left out Johannes' and her own opinions regarding the constable's behavior. There was no denying that the Healer was rude, but he was far from being a fool, and Ardith wanted to use his experience and wisdom as fully as possible. She left the Healer to form his own judgments, hoping they might provide further insight into this one of many recent mysteries. Finally, Ardith finished and let the Healer respond. He stopped right in front of Ardith to begin, but soon was about again, pointing out apprentices' mistakes as he spoke. "The constable can be a strange person at times. And I take it you think there's some kind of witchcraft involved. And you, what do you have to do with this?" It took Kay a moment to realize he was talking to her. Until then, she had merely nodded in assent at appropriate times, in the automatic fashion of one lacking in understanding. "You've been hiding out around here a week, barely said a word, even when she throws her arms up and yells there's magic in the air. Are you completely mute, or do you just not think at all?" Kay was taken aback at the Healer's gruff manner, and, recovering, wondered why he was acting this way. "Your Grace," she ventured, with a glance at Ardith to see if she had used the right honorific, "it seemed to me not to be my place to interject the lowly thoughts of a poor archer in the conversation of learned Priests and Healers. But I was not nodding my head in the manner of a donkey about to bray, but rather in agreement with Ardith's words. I saw what she saw, and nodded to show I agreed. I am certain that others present at the scene will also agree. I may be a poor archer and fighter, sir, but I am not without wit, Andritha be praised." "Humph. How long has it been since there was magic in Dunweig?" The Healer was still looking at Kay, and she had no idea what the answer could be, or how it related to what she had said. Soon, she realized that the question hadn't been meant for her, as an apprentice, almost directly behind the Healer, started to answer. "Twenty --" "No, real magic, with real effects." "Two hundred eleven years, as Andritha measures time, but --" "Go on!" "But those are just legends, Healer." "You hear that? Two hundred years, and even then they were legends." Now the Healer was speaking directly to Ardith. He was moving slowly about the room, but he looked directly at her far more frequently than he had while she had told her story. "Even the youngest and least experienced apprentice knows that. Magic, sorcery, witchcraft. Never happened, or if it did, it was a long, long time ago. So don't you think there's the slightest chance that, despite the constable's personal peculiarities, he might have greater investigative skill than a few recently embarked travelers? I don't say his explanation made any drop of sense, but I say that, without an Investigator for Andritha present, he is the highest authority on civil law available, and he usually knows what he's doing. Leave the law to the lawmen. And leave the magic in stories for children!" Ardith noticed that all the apprentices, except those in the Healer's line of sight, which was constantly changing, had stopped their work and were watching the proceedings before them. "So what," the Healer continued, "is your informed opinion on this matter? What caused those mysterious deaths that a skilled lawman understood with such ease?" "I have no opinion in the matter of the butcher," Ardith began. "The fact that the body was icy cold is still without explanation. In the matter at the Bath house, the younger man's death, though obviously murder, was no mystery as its cause as he had a dagger hilt sticking out of his body. The woman, on the other hand, was cold as ice, just like the butcher. The master of baths' wound was so severe in nature that it could not have been caused by blows of fist or foot by any ordinary person. Perhaps a great beast may have done such damage, but there was no beast. Perhaps having been struck in the chest by a battering ram wielded by a platoon of soldiers, but where was the ram, never mind the platoon? "Had I not been there to heal him, Andritha be praised, the man would most certainly have died within minutes. Even so, he was still in grave condition when we left him in the Constable's care. "I offer no explanation, magical or otherwise, but I do not accept the Constable's glib reconstruction. And that the bodies of both the woman at the baths and of the butcher were ice cold when they had just recently been killed is curious at the least, if not bizarre." "The candelabra," Kay added. "Guessing from where it lay, the woman probably used it to defend herself. It was dented. Yet it could not have made such a wound as we saw on the bath master's chest, it was too light for that. Still it would have caused some injury to whomever it struck. There was no evidence of such injury on the younger man. Who did she hit?" "And the door," Ardith interjected. "The entrance door downstairs. It had been smashed to pieces, the doorknob ripped off. Someone, some ones or some thing of great strength did that, as well as nearly folding the bath master's chest in half. "No," Ardith said, shaking her head, "an agent other than one of the three upstairs did this deed, and, I think, killed all of them. Who or what, I cannot venture." About to mention the ruins, Kay began, "and then about the r..." Ardith gestured sharply, though out of sight of the Healer, and Kay took the hint and amended herself, "... about the relationship of the bodies. If the master had killed the apprentice after his having pummeled the master, well, the master must have been a superhuman to be able to do anything after his chest had been crushed." "Thank you, Kay." Ardith smiled. "I hadn't thought of that further flaw in the Constable's reconstruction. But you are right. After such a massive injury, no one could have wielded a dagger." The Healer stopped again, his face less than a foot from Ardith's, and looked directly at her. He stood in that position for a second, and then opened his mouth to speak. Clearly, his thoughts changed abruptly, as he closed his mouth and began to walk again. "We'll ask Rosteral ourselves, if you healed him as you said. I'll keep my thoughts for later." At that moment, the door burst open, and two apprentices rushed in, carrying Rosteral, laying on his side, on a stretcher. Ardith saw the constable, in the doorway, nod respectfully to the Healer and leave. Two other apprentices dragged a wooden table to the middle of the room, on which the stretcher was laid. Apparently, this was done with the Healer's instruction, but Ardith hadn't heard him say anything. It was difficult to get used to the way he controlled a room full of people with barely a movement or sound. Johannes nodded his head politely. "Greetings to you. My associate and I need to speak with the Healer of the temple on a matter of some import." "The Healer is occupied. If someone is injured, I can send an apprentice to help you." Johannes frowned slightly in thought. "It's not that, so much, as that we have concerns for the safety of one of his patients. You are aware of what has happened to Rosteral?" "Of course. He was hurried to the Healer just recently. What of him?" "I do not exaggerate when I say that I believe that the person responsible for his injury may attempt to kill him at some point. If you doubt my veracity, the priestess Ardith can vouch for me." The priest's eyes opened slightly wider. "You know the priestess? Well, I can assure you that the master of the baths is safe in the temple. Both the Healer _and_ the priestess are with him now." "I would you assume you are aware of the circumstances under which Rosteral was found? Given the circumstances of his attack, it is my opinion that it would be safest if he were under armed guard until he recovers sufficiently to testify about the circumstances of his attack." "I am not aware of the circumstances of his attack, but no one in Dunweig would dare force his way down to the healing chamber, even if he could find it, and if some madman were to try, there are apprentices who would protect the injured man with their lives." "He was found in a room with the corpses of Hirlay and his wife, both of whom were brutally slain. There is evidence that both Rosteral and his wife attempted to fight back against their assailant with no success. It is also our belief that this same attacker was the person who killed Moren. We are dealing with a dangerous man here, and one who is dangerously unbalanced. Nonetheless, there is also something we turned up during our investigation of Moren's death that we need to demonstrate to *someone* of authority or influence in this town, and, to tell the truth, our dealings with the constable in this matter have shown him unwilling to accept new evidence. Ardith has worked with the Healer before, you say? I would assume that you are aware of her, ah, *unusual* skills in that matter? She used those to save the life of Rosteral where we found him, with the constable in attendance, and he didn't even bat an eye. It was as if it had not even happened." "If everything you say is true, the circumstances were indeed strange, and quite disturbing, but what would you have me do? I can't very well bring visitors down to the Healer." "We need the temple to fully understand the potential danger that Rosteral is in, and we need the temple's help in our attempts to ascertain who the killer is, because if the killer is to be brought to justice, we *must* have the support of a trusted group of people here in Dunweig in order to verify our findings and bring our actions beyond simple vigilantism. I would prefer that the constable be sufficient to handle this matter, but... "Kreemon here befriended Moren before his death, and he enlisted Ardith, Ardith's friend Kay, and myself to try and determine Moren's murderer when he saw that the constable didn't even bother to head to the scene of that crime. I think that it is entirely likely that the murderer will repeat an attempt on Rosteral's life, as Rosteral is, at the moment, the only surviving witness to our knowledge of the murderer's attacks, and he must certainly fear potential exposure. If you are willing to offer what help you can in our investigations, there is something very unusual we turned up near Moren's shop that I believe you'd need to see. We'd need you and someone else, someone that you trust. If you need to, before you make any commitments, you can ask Ardith to verify my claims, as you obviously have no reason yet to trust two strangers to you, while Ardith is better known to you." For a few seconds, the priest merely stared back. Then Kreemon spoke up, smiling and suppressing a chuckle. "What my long-winded friend here is trying to say, is that we need your help to find out what happened to Rosteral. Our friend the priestess wants us to investigate, but we can't do it alone." Bork suddenly barked, making Johannes and the priest jump. The dog turned his tail and chased away a squirrel who had gotten too close. "So will you help us?" Kreemon asked. Keeping his eyes on Bork and one hand on the door, the priest replied, "if you are a friend of the priestess, I will ask the Healer what is to be done." He then stepped inside the temple and closed the door. The apprentices cleared the way as the Healer himself approached the man, and put a hand on his neck. Then he held his other hand in front of Rosteral's mouth. "Good as dead," he said. "Better for him if he were." He pushed two fingers down Rosteral's throat, and pulled them out again. A light, short-lived stream of blood followed. "Drowning." An apprentice brought a soft-tipped wooden rod, which the Healer pushed far down Rosteral's throat, pinching his neck to ensure it went the right way. Then he pulled out the rod, and pounded Rosteral once on the back. That caused Rosteral to cough, and a great deal of blood spilled out of his mouth. The Healer motioned Ardith over, and pointed to Rosteral's chest. Rosteral was no longer so far bent, but all the ribs Ardith had healed had broken again at odd angles, some pointing in and some out, and his chest was once again a dark blue. "Your account of Rosteral's form was highly exaggerated," the Healer said in a monotone, while probing the ribs delicately with his fingers to ascertain the damage. "And what's this?" He asked, turning over Rosteral's hand, wherein a long splinter of wood, about six inches from end to end, was deeply embedded. The splinter looked as if it had been there for at least an hour, and it was broken in places. The Healer waved a hand absently, and three apprentices approached, one with water and clean cloth, another with a small vial of some kind of oil, and a third with a jar of a thick salve. The three of them got to work, and the Healer took one step away. "He's breathing again, but not for long," the Healer said. "There's no room for air, with all the ribs broken. Even if you weren't perfectly accurate with your story, I've never seen anything like this." "I swear to you, upon my Sacred Oath to Andritha," Ardith began in heat, "that this man was healed... still in need of care and recovery, but his ribs were knit, his chest whole. It may be that the piece of wood in his hand escaped my attention, as his hand was under him at the scene. Yet, I find it difficult to believe that Andritha would have overlooked it when I called upon Her to heal this man, though _I_ certainly might have. "I ask you to bear with me in this, Healer, that I swear this man was nearer life than death when I last saw him. Something terrible has befallen him in the interim, and the Constable was in charge of his well-being." Kay, still incensed that the Healer had accused her of being witless, piped up. "Your Grace, I was witness, as were others, including the constable, to the healing of Andritha that Ardith called upon this man. It was as Ardith said. The poor man was hurt beyond anything I have seen since my cousin, Ivan, was trapped under a cart hauling heavy stones to build a house in my village. After Andritha's miracle, it seemed as though, with rest and salves, he would recover. Yet _this_ that we see, is worse than what we saw at the site of the... whatever happened at the bath house. "I know, in your eyes we are still strangers. In my village people were considered outsiders even they if lived there in harmony for ten or twenty years. But believe me... believe Ardith... there is something strange and sinister going on here, and I suspect the constable is not without... what is the word... complicity in this. "Your Grace, please do not dismiss Ardith's words. She is a true priestess. Before I met her I was without faith. Ardith showed me the truth of Andritha. "I have spoken too long in the presence of my betters. Forgive me." Kay bowed to the Healer, then to Ardith, then fell silent. Again, the Healer responded only to Ardith. "So now you accuse the Constable, a reliable enforcer for eleven years, of --" "Healer." The apprentice spoke quietly, so Ardith and Kay were unsure for a moment why the Healer stopped talking and walked quickly over the Rosteral. Rosteral was coughing violently, but with his broken chest, the coughs sounded more like weak gasps that, despite their meager strength, managed to shake his whole body. The Healer waved a hand, and an apprentice ran over from the other side of the room carrying two tiny tinted vials and a fine silk cloth. The Healer uncorked one vial, wet a corner of the cloth with its contents, and wiped the corner under Rosteral's nose, while an apprentice carefully cleaned all the previously applied salve off of his chest. The Healer then wet another corner in the other vial, and smeared the tiny dab of oily substance across the entire surface of Rosteral's chest. Rosteral's coughs soon lessened in severity. "He may as well die. If he lives, it will only be to suffer for a few more minutes." "If he were to die before he tells us what happened at the bath house, we may never know what evil stalks this fair town," Ardith scowled. "Healer, I may be asking too much of Andritha to ask for a second healing of this man, but I feel I must, for the good of the town. Whatever crushed him was more powerful than the strongest man I have ever heard of, never mind met." Ardith shouldered the Healer aside, politely of course, and placed her hands on the poor man's chest. "Andritha, forgive your humble servant..." *********************************************************************** It is four hours past noon on this cool eleventh day of Farinon, ninth moon of Halkak, two hundred and thirty-fifth day of the one thousand first year of the Zioth, in the town of Dunweig, the Barony of Huerten, the Kingdom of Rang. /--Next New/Full Moons--\ Upcoming Events | New Full | ----------------------- | Halkak: 10/1 9/14 | 10/16 First day of winter | Tirop: 9/20 9/28 | | Ot: 9/28 10/17 | Market days occur on every 2nd and 6th day | Ilsapeich: 10/8 11/6 | of the week. The next one is on the 13th. | Zabrigar: 12/8 10/4 | \-----------------------/ Notes ----- Boy did that take a while! This was the slowest turn yet, so let's see if we can hurry things up a bit from now on. :) Yes, for those of you who have been taking absurdly detailed notes, there's a slight time discrepancy on the order of half an hour, in the interests of getting the group back together faster. And to all those lurkers out there, I'd like to introduce Jesse Ableman, who will be playing the part of Korisca, and Mike VanHelder, who has taken control of Sahlman. Your Bill, Sir -------------- Kreemon: 1dy (ale) Ardith: 2dy (ale) Levels and Experience Totals ---------------------------- Ardith: 4 6800/13000 (Good dialogue) Johannes: 1675 (Good dialogue) Kay: 2 3975/4000 (Good dialogue) *********************************************************************** * Game Name Real Name Internet * *********************************************************************** * DM Eli Fenton dm@zioth.com * * Ardith/Kay Karl Schinke ardith@zioth.com,kay@zioth.com * * Korisca Jesse Ableman korisca@zioth.com * * Johannes Nathan Weismuller johannes@zioth.com * * Sahlman Mike VanHelder sahlman@zioth.com * * Ziedon Alex Corbin ziedon@zioth.com * *********************************************************************** * Zioth web page: http://www.zioth.com/zioth * *********************************************************************** --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5 # Origin: Try Our Web Based QWK: DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:18/140) * Origin: ConchGate (1:106/357.0) .