Garden/RipplesEpisodeOne
Episode One
...And So It Begins.
Dawn in the peaceful kingdom of Kamergan. All is quiet in the capital city, the militia carry out their weary patrols with the same dull enthusiasm that they always do. As the morning sunlight peaks over the horizon, one down-on-their luck patrol pass by the end of a dark alleyway, only to have the last hour of their patrol interrupted by a small projectile that hurtles out of the alley at them.
After disentangling themselves from the infant that had run from the darkness they pull themselves to their feet and set about their investigation. The child, a girl, turns out to be Sameena, the eight-year-old daughter of Feldorn, a museum archivist who lives nearby, so off the guards go to take the child home. The girl, who has yet to utter a single word, quakes with fear as she approaches her home and has to be left with a neighbour whilst the guards enter the house. There, they find the reason, the girls parents, and her younger brother, have been murdered during the night, and obviously by someone highly skilled in both stealth and extermination.
The guards take their findings to their superior, leaving the girl with the neighbour, and after successive investigations and reportings to superior officers, the matter finally arrives at the palace where the King and his advisors take matters into their own hands.
Grayvorn, a one-time mercenary turned fixer who nominally works for the court is put in charge of putting together an elite group who would be suitable for handling what apparently is not the straightforward matter that it appears to be.
The first to be enlisted is the courtier Arithon, a socialite with apparently few skills other than polite conversation. Nevertheless, Grayvorn sees something else in him, and puts him in charge of the investigation, giving him official papers, and pointing him in the direction of the murder scene, and suggesting asking the local Immaculate temple for assistance.
Arithon sets out, conducts a brief examination of the murder site, finding little above what the militia had already found in their numerous searches. Feldorn had been killed in his sleep, his wife had perhaps stirred at some noise that produced and so was also killed. The son, either having heard something, or just awaking in the night and wanting to see his parents had been killed entering the bedroom. The daughter obviously escaped by being asleep in bed. It was a highly professional job, clean kills, mostly the victims were unaware their assailants were even there. Only the wife's eyes, open in shock, show that there was any knowledge of what was happening. Throughout the house there was virtually no sign that anyone had been there, let alone giving clues about how the intruder, or intruders had gained entry. Except for one footprint in the garden, near the bedroom window. A booted foot, of average size and indeterminate sex had left a mark there. Arithon moves on.
Meanwhile, on the wrong side of town, Grayvorn strolls in to a bar, buys a jug of their best ale and sets it down in front of a sedentary drunk. After a brief conversation it becomes clear that the man, whom we shall call Jon from now on, shows little to no inclination to move under his own steam, so Grayvorn offers him more beer, and the chance of paying work, if Jon will spend a few hours accompanying him around the city. Jon accepts, and Grayvorn takes him straight to the neighbour's house where young Sameena is staying. Jon is shocked in to sobriety when Grayvorn tells him her story. Not only does he feel deeply for the little girl, but he is amazed at the way Grayvorn could pick the one thing that might make him stand up and take notice, and he was sure that no-one knew who he was or his history. Upon leaving the house, Jon accepts Grayvorn's offer of work, given some official papers, and is told to meet Arithon at an inn later that afternoon.
Arithon arrives at the museum, the place of work of Feldorn, who seemed to be the primary target. Here Arithon met the enigmatic Grayle. Another archivist at the library. After a brief questioning, it became apparent that Feldorn had recently come into the posession of some unusual books, and that these may have been the reason for his murder. Though why someone would want to kill the archivist in charge of ancient history for a book of over a thousand years in age could not be fathomed. After a brief search by Feldorn's assistant, one of the books is discovered to be missing, and the only remaining record of what it may have contained is inside the assitant's head. A decision is made immediately to take her to the Immaculate temple for protection, they can ask her more on the way there. Grayle decides to accompany Arithon on his mission, the boring museum work was beginning to dull his keen senses, and he needed a new challenge. Upon leaving the museum, Arithon is greeted by a messenger from Grayvorn, asking him to meet Jon at an inn later that afternoon. The package also contains official papers for Grayle, apparently Grayvorn had been intending to recruit him, also.
During the journey to the monastery, Arithon and Grayle learn from the assistant, Tara, that Feldorn had been studying one particular section of the book that had mentioned something called Teran'Gor, though neither of them had been able to figure out what that was. They leave Tara with the monks and Aziraphael, a young monk, joins them at the behest of the temple.
That afternoon, the two investigators and their new companion meet with Jon at the inn. There, they find not only Jon, but also a set of papers for Aziriphael, it seems their little group is complete, for now at least. After filling in the new members on the details and discoveries so far, they decide that they need to ask the one witness of the crime. The wife. After some initial consternation from Aziraphael due to it contravening the tenets of his faith, he agrees that it is a necessary course of action, and the group set off to find the local wise woman in order to speak with the dead wife.
While Aziraphael waits patiently outside, the rest of the group arrange a seance with the wise woman, she tells them to come back at sunset with a few essential componets and she will perform the ritual for them. They give her the fee and then go back to town until it is time to go back to her. At sunset the ritual begins, and a couple of hours later, the ghost of the dead woman is standing before them. They question her about the events surrounding her death, but she is unable to tell them much of use, most of what she says sound like the hysterical ramblings of one who died violently. Tales of huge dark monsters with glowing red eyes and claws as sharp as razors are quickly discounted, such a thing could not have left as little a trace as the assailants did. One thing is certain though, there were at least two assailants, one was stood by the door whilst another slit her throat. And she did see a symbol on the breastplate of her assailant. A black serpent, with glowing, coiled in a circle and swallowing its own tail. Grayle looks disturbed at that news, but stays silent. They thank her for her assistance, and wish her peace in the afterlife, then head back to town to sleep for the night.
That night, Grayle meets with his contact in the spy organisation known as Ouroboros and asks for him to find any information that he can about what is going on. Grayle is especially concerned about the symbol that was seen adorning the assassins as it is disturbingly similar to Ouroboros's own symobl, a green serpent with blue eyes, coiled in a circle and swallowing its own tail. The mysterious stranger agrees to get back to Grayle the next day with any information he can find.
The next day the investigators are awoken by messengers informing them that there was a break in at the monastery and an assassination attempt made against Tara. Fortunately, one of the three Dragon-Blooded Immaculates was able to aprehend the intruders and prevent the assassination. When they arrive at the monastery they are greeted with the disturbing news that upon death the intruders left no corpse, instead turning in to a cloud of black smoke. The also learn that another of the assassin's tried to break in to the temple library, and are given access to the library to help with their investigation.
With Tara's help they search the library, and find a book written in an Old Realm script that details Teran'Gor and in another section shows a picture of the black coiled serpent. Teran'Gor appears to be some sort of ancient city that used to stand in the area of Kamergan, though given the rough translation of the book it is impossible to say where. There is another picture that may be a map of sorts, that the investigators roughly match up to some local landscape where some ruins stand, and decide to investigate later. The coiled serpent appears to be for some organisation known as the Dark Dragon Brotherhood, again the translation is rough, but there is apparently some connection with demons.
The party set off for the ruins, leaving Tara with the monks once more, and arrive an hour or so before sunset. Deciding that it would be best to wait until morning to explore, the party set up camp, and set watches. During the early morning hours, whilst Jon is on guard, the party are set upon by four dark assassins, with glowing red eyes. The sounds of the scuffle alert the others, and after a harsh and bloody fight the party come out on top. Just. Jon is badly wounded and the others all have scars to show for their encounter. One of the assassins was taken alive, but as soon he awakes he crunches down on what the party assume must be a cyanide pill or something similar, croaks out the words 'The Dark Dragon Brotherhood is everywhere, you can not escape us fools!' and explodes into a cloud of black smoke, leaving only his signet ring bearing the mark of the Dark Dragon behind.
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