So on the airship ride to Seldermoor, we got to talking and realized we had no idea what we would do once we got there. I mean, its a city under siege, with two different armies converging on it. Obviously very dangerous, with probably more than a few manifests around way more powerful than us. But even disregarding that, we weren't sure what we could hope to accomplish there. We couldn't really affect the outcome, and with all those military and/or magical types wandering around, sneaking around and spying on Duchess Veris would be next to impossible. We considered going to Duchess Parnth with a proposal that she side with Veris against Duke Melfir, and once he was out of the way, she could count on Alestian aid in usurping Duchess Veris once the dust had settled. We didn't know what a Veris victory would be like, it could be worse than if Melfir won. But we did know that if he won he'd most likely start a campaign to invade. Sure, it would be better to face the enemy you know, but he was also the more immediate threat. We still weren't sure what Veris' endgame was yet, but we knew we had to stop Melfir. We were gambling that his defeat would buy us some time to figure her out and hopefully come up with a plan to stop her.
Of course, we had no authority to offer this, so we contacted Philip to ask him if this was a sound plan, and if he would take this to the other Electors.
He got back to us a little later, telling him there's no way he could swing that, particularly since Talpin was still an Elector with popular support, so its not like he could bring the whole situation up in front of the guy, especially if he was indeed in league with Veris. So he suggested we just head past Seldermoor and up to her home in Tusbel, and we decided to do that instead.
Meanwhile, Cassie and Grey wanted to jump these smugglers for their airship. I wondered if they meant they wanted me to take these guys out, but they came up with an elaborate plan to dump them and make them think the ship had crashed and we were killed. It worked, and we were soon sailing off for another week to reach Tusbel. Plus we had all that contraband in the hold. I pocketed a couple of bags of X in my pack, as I was thinking they could be quite useful for my purposes at some point in the future.
So, after an uneventful trip, we landed the ship, buried it, and after I wove sympathy to it so we could get back to it later, we headed into Tusbel. Like Dimmersdel, the gates had those gargoyles, but this time after we walked through, Trent managed to control the spirits within and prevent them from raising an alarm.
We spent a couple of days gathering intel on the city so when we figured out what we needed to do here, we would be prepared. Well, among other things. Since we were on that long boat ride to Seldermoor and then Tusbel, it was getting close to the one-month mark from when we left Dimmersdel. So I figured I'd take advantage of the fact that we were in a far-off land, and decided to take in the “sights” if you know what I mean.
I happened upon a public library, and ducked in to pour over maps and a couple of history books so if I had to make small talk, or worse, was questioned, I could come up with a more believable lie. I was there for an hour or so when I started to feel someone staring at me. Worried it might be a special investigator like back in Dimmersdel, I surreptitiously looked around. I noticed a couple of young girls sitting across the room from me quickly turn away, acting like they weren't just checking me out. I silently grinned to myself, marveling at my luck. I was going to try and scope out some cuties after I left there to gather some intel in the hopes of finding what we needed to do about this Talpin-Veris situation, but here they were, falling right into my lap. Or so I was hoping!
One of them had long, silky black hair and a gorgeous smile, her skin a slight tan. Her name was Mags, and I would later learn her maternal grandmother was a Hanarajan. Her friend, Lainey was a fresh faced cutie with pretty green eyes. She had her short brown hair done up in little pigtails held with light blue barrettes. I started looking over at them and I heard Lainey not too quietly tell Mags “Oh-em-Gee!”, though I'm guessing that was supposed to be under her breath. I decided to head over and they started getting giggly and nervous as I approached.
I introduced myself as “Bright Atwood” and they told me their names. As we talked and flirted, I weaved a tale of how my family temporarily relocated to the city from our modest farm several miles out because of the current troubles. I channeled a little bit of the Vrad, saying I would've joined the war effort myself, but my brother had already enlisted and my parents didn't want to risk both their sons in the military. I acted like I was a little disappointed about the situation, because all my friends had gone off and were at Seldermoor right now seeing all sorts of crazy action. But I tried showing a little bit of vulnerability by mentioning I was worried about them, particularly my older brother because I was always a better swordsman than him and it was frustrating that I couldn't be there to watch him and my friends backs.
While I prolly was coming off as a little cocky, the two girls were young and naive and seemed to lap it up. After learning that Mags' parents were out of town, seeing to some holdings that were damaged in some fighting and she had her house all to herself, I asked the girls if they wanted to get out of here and maybe she could show me her place. Once we were there, I convinced Mags to break into her dad's liquor cabinet. We had a few drinks, which is when I decided to pull out the X. I dared them to just try one, seeing how adventurous they could be. Using my powers of persuasion, I placed one of the blue pills on my tongue and got Lainey to take it as we kissed. She chased it down with a gulp from her wine glass, and then she put a pill on her tongue and she and Mags repeated the previous maneuver. So I was treated to the girls making out as Mags took her dose. I actually didn't take any because I wanted to be at my full faculties for what was to come, but they were too buzzed to notice.
We made our way up to Mags room, and after we took turns making out with each other, I decided to finally “seal the deal”, choosing Lainey. Once that was taken care of, we had our fun with Mags, and I took off.
After I met back up with the others, we finally formulated a plan. Swiftwind had done a fly-by of Duchess Veris' compound and the strangest thing, it appeared to be full of red-heads. Well, not exclusively, but a higher percentage than norm. It didn't seem like they were prisoners either. Trent checked out the magicks permeating the compound from afar, and could tell that the gates were guarded by those gargoyles, and the walls and grounds were warded against attempts to break through or burrow under. But it didn't seem like it was shocked or alarmed like the walls at Talpin's place, so we figured it should be no problem to time it and toss a grappling hook to the upper parapet and scale the outer wall under cover of darkness. We still had to be careful, as I foresaw that that priestess (who looked totally smokin in my visions) that the Duchess had allied with currently in the keep.
So, Cass dyed all our hair (save for Grey) red and she and Grey modified the armor we got from those Dragoons to match the design of Veris' soldiers. We timed it so we could quickly scale the wall before the next guard came by the upper level. We managed to get there and pull up the rope before another guard passed by, but at that point we acted like we just belonged there and he didn't bat an eye given our current look.
It took a while but we figured out the info we needed was in the Duchess' private library. After Cass enchanted a piece of paper to look like documents authorizing us to have access to that library, we easily got past the guards. (Referring to the priestess as the Duchess' “special lady friend” seemed to create some levity that kept the guards at ease) That big armored dude who was after the girls we had rescued all those weeks ago was up there, but thankfully he didn't see or recognize us.
I took me a few hours, but I found the books we needed, ledgers showing payments not only to Talpin, but a couple of other traitorous electors, Mangwar and Aladra. There had been these spirit-possessed armored statues guarding the entrance to the library, similar to the gargoyles, but they didn't seem to be affected by us. Trent suspected that they were there to prevent books from being taken out. Trent analyzed the books and discovered the enchantment that would alert the statues and suppressed it, and I destroyed the book's sympathy to the library so it could not be tracked.
That seemed to work, as we got past the guardians no problem. As we were leaving though, we saw that priestess (who was even hotter in real life and dressed quite scantily) talking to Mr. black armor guy, some other cutie, and a creepy shadowy person of indeterminate gender. Luckily, they didn't notice us. We quickly recovered our rope, rappelled back down the walls and fled the city via warp gate back to Liri's room. Needless to say, it was late and she was starting to get pissed that I kept warping people back through her door. I can't help it, its easiest to jump to places of great significance to me, and since I care a lot about her and I have a lot of fond memories of just hanging out with her in her room, it just happens to be one of those places. I didn't tell her that though, I just apologized and cleaned up the gate so they couldn't follow it back here. I'd never forgive myself if she got hurt because someone traced a gate to her. Thinking about it, we should've jumped to somewhere like Endelbar first, then warped to Alestia from somewhere else in that city. But too late now. I had to hope I cleaned things up enough to prevent a trace.
So, after we rested up, we met up with Philip and he said they were organizing a simultaneous arrest of the three traitors once they got the proper warrants and such. I saw Judge Falric for that. Now that things had died down in the city and we had no more long far-off trips coming up as far as I knew, I wanted an excuse to see his daughter. I've been wanting to hit that since we rescued her a couple of months ago, and I wanted to ask her out before something else came up. So while I was at his place, I asked if she wanted to do something sometime. She said sure, and I told Sina I'd figure out something more definite after I finished helping capture these spies.
But yeah, since Trent and I had been to Talpin's compound and faced his defenses, Philip asked if the four of us could lead the attack to take him. We told him sure, and Cassie set us up with a mind shield to help protect us from the charms of Talpin's two companions and we approached the gate. Since Trent and I knew first hand that the gate and walls were enchanted to shock and stun those who touched it, he managed to gain control of one of the fiery devils guarding the gate and ordered him to open it.
Once the devilish monster opened the gate, I charged in past him and attacked his non-controlled companion. With my impeccable timing, I reached him as he was readying his weapon, but since he didn't expect me to be on him so fast I easily got around his guard and delivered a wicked slash to the side. The others followed up with sword, fist, and arrow. I easily ducked his wild swing and tore open his exposed belly with my sword, felling the creature.
A few more of the fiends charged towards us, but we were ready. I side-stepped the one who went to engage me, carving down his chest with a downward chop and with a flick of the wrist came across his midsection with another gash. He was in really bad shape at the point, so it was no surprise that I was able to duck and weave around his attack, appearing behind him in an instant. My blade stabbed straight into his back, and I twisted it in the wound and pulled the blade straight up and cleaving through his chest and out the side of his neck, killing him.
At this point I heard a beautiful voice inside my head. Well, it was faintly in the background as I fought the diabolical guards, but it started to become louder and more persistent. I was moving to slash another devil that just broke out of Willow's grasp when the voice compelled me inside. I could tell it was one of Talpin's smoking hot companions, and she promised me I could stick it anywhere as images of their sweaty, nearly naked bodies flashed through my head.
It looked like the others had the rest of the guards taken care of, and the constabulary was waiting outside to charge and arrest Talpin, so it was a done deal. I didn't see the problem with going off with the two hotties to some private room for some fun as a reward for our good work. I headed towards the house in anticipation, my mind imagining what sorts of fun I could have with those two. I was near the door when I saw Grey appear out of nowhere, raining flaming fist and foot on one of the girls, and she disappeared into nothingness. Then I heard Cassie's voice in my head screaming at me to wake up. That broke me out of my trance.
Cassie and Grey shouted that Talpin was heading out the back, so I made my way back there, willing my saber away and back again, its keen edge replaced by a crackling aura that would merely stun those it hit. As I stalked after Talpin, I saw Trent release an arrow, which streaked through the house, hitting the other devil chick. She howled in pain before fading into nothingness.
At the back of the hose, Cassie had managed to tackle Talpin to the ground, and was struggling to pin him down. I swung down with my weapon and connected with his temple, knocking him out cold. It looked like he had the same killing magic Braith had on him that would immolate him alive once he was compromised. But luckily the others managed to dispel the evil magic and snuff the flames within him.