Embers in the Dust
A Black Eye and Withered Hand

Leaf dug through the eladrin’s pockets as he recounted the last minute’s events. In a haze of confusion, they bursted into the room and fought the four people inside. Trying out a new spell he had learned, Leaf managed to cast a spherical storm to appear in Scorched Ale and used it to send lightning strikes across the room as it hit various enemies. Though they tried their best to incapacitate them, but as the halfling shifted into its werewolf form, the satyr and dark elf threw spells around. The dark elf fell unconscious, but a shadow formed around their body, causing it to disappear completely. The satyr tried to take on the rest of the party, and failed quickly. The eladrin used necromancy to kill and bring back the satyr to an undead form, which he tried to use as a distraction as he concentrated on the spell he had been preparing.

Shadows bent towards the eladrin, as fire erupted from his hands. Whatever he was preparing was difficult to control, but he kept at it. It could have sent the entire tavern ablaze, had it not been for Sam’s well-timed attack, which Leaf had to admit, was a harder hit than he assumed it would have been, causing blood to trickle from the wound in his head as Sam panicked and tried shoving magical berries into his mouth to bring him back from death.

The eladrin had a pouch with coins in it, and a letter that was carefully folded and had been placed in his vest pocket. Rhokhishi was going around, failing to revive any of the others, as they had received wounds that were too heavy for their constitution. Leaf stood and read the letter out loud as she tried to revive the eladrin.

“If you manage to succeed, there’s a bigger payout for you. Meet me at Scorched Ale and we’ll talk more.”

He looked up at his friends, trying to deduce who could have sent the eladrin this letter, or if they were in the center of this attack.

“Are you able to save the eladrin,” Mr. Muffins asked Rhokhishi. “Before the blood-thirsty babysitter hits it again?”

“The eladrin attacked me. I only defended myself.” Sam interrupted, clearly panicked.

“Whatever makes you sleep at night. Anyways, let’s bring this one back up to interrogate.”

Leaf watched as the diamond shattered over the eladrin’s body. As the mineral touched its clothes and skin, he saw the wound close and stitch. Knowing there was little time, he and the twins gathered what they needed to prepare. Lyla grabbed a chair and set it in the middle of the room, while Myla pulled out one of her daggers and inspected it. Leaf placed his hand inside his arcane bag and thought of the rope he had put in there weeks ago, feeling it materialize in his hand as he pulled it out and started tying the wrists and ankles of the eladrin while Mr. Muffins gave a nod of approval of his work.

“Anyone need my dagger? It still has some poison on it.” Myla asked.

“I don’t think so, but how do we do this?” Leaf added.

“Let’s start easy. Keep the face of the eladrin away from the bodies, and turn him if we need to escalate. There’s an art to this.” Mr. Muffins answered.

“That sounds like a villainous plan.” Lyla piped up.

“We do what we have to. They attacked us, and most of ‘em are dead now. Best we can do is find out what they’re doin’ and stop it from happening again.”

Rhokhishi grabbed a pitcher of water from the bar and stood behind the eladrin. Turning it over, the water poured onto the unconscious body, which quickly woke him up. He gasped, then tried to stand, fighting back against his restraints. Quickly, the eladrin realized his predicament, seeing the party in front of him still alive, and calmed down, though keeping a look of anger on his face. Leaf walked up slowly, talking as he got within five feet of the eladrin.

“Would you like to make this easy on us, and tell us what’s going on, or are you going to make this difficult?”

The eladrin spoke out, but Leaf didn’t understand the words. He could tell it was elvish, but the dialect was different, older. Rhokhishi grabbed some of the back of the eladrin’s long hair and slowly pulled his head back to look up at her, trying not to hurt him but make a point.

“You need to start speaking to us in a way we understand. We don’t know what your-”

Not waiting for Rhokhishi to finish her sentence, the eladrin pushed upward and spit in her face. In a flash of movement, both Lyla and Myla were in front of the eladrin. Myla had her dagger up to his neck, pressing in against his skin, as Lyla raised a fist up and grabbed at his collar.

“You wanna try that again, motherfucker? Or do you want my wonderful sister to slice your neck open?”

“You killed my people, why do you think I’d help any of you?” The eladrin answered back in common, his voice still hinting that it was not his first language.

“Is the body in the safe one of yours?” Myla asked.

“No.”

“Not a high ground to start on then, huh? A body locked up where y’all are hiding out.?” Mr. Muffins pressed in.

“Rusk let us use this palace as a hideout. Was it him?”

“Changeling?”

“Yeah…”

“It looks like he’s been here a while. Are you saying you don’t know anything about it?” Myla questioned.

“I saw Rusk earlier today. If what you say is true, how could I have seen him?”

Leaf tried to ask more questions, realizing that those questions wouldn’t help them currently.

“Who told you to be here?”

“I don’t know. We received the letters by messenger service.”

Myla turned towards Leaf, who gave a nod. She turned back, then let go of him as he assumed she was pressing into his mind for thoughts. After a second, she opened her eyes and looked at him with a surprised look.

“Instead of hiding things about the Archmage and his book, you should be honest.

“We were supposed to just get the book. It was supposed to be an easy in and out job at the inn, but you all followed us here.”

“Who told you to get the book?” Mr. Muffins asked.

“I told you, I don’t know. They spoke to us by letter. We were told it was gonna be good money, and that more jobs would be available.”

“So, you’re just a bunch of thieves?”

“The Ravenglades, not all of us are magicians. But if you’re not a magic user in Berkton, you’re nothing.

“Especially with us looking around, why did you think this was okay?” Sam asked while pointing to the sigil of the drakewardens on her armor.

“You hadn’t caught any of us yet. Besides, you’re just like them, another part of the problem. You can say you know what it’s like, but you have a drake that you can use to control people. You’re just as bad as the rest of them.” The eladrin spoke through gritted teeth.

“I worked my ass off to get here.” Sam answered back.

“Not all of us are so lucky.”

Leaf knew that things weren’t always easy for casters in the city, as most jobs were hard to come by. Everything in the city used magic. You didn’t need people cleaning, repairing, or creating things. He imagined what it would be like if he was in that situation.

“What book were you trying to take?” Leaf asked, getting back to the point.

“The letter said that there was a book as part of a dragon’s hoard. It was leatherbound, old. The letters said it would be easy to tell apart from other books.”

Leaf walked forward and placed a hand on Myla’s shoulder. Without saying anything, he pointed with his other hand to his temple, signaling that he wanted to use her telepathy to talk. She nodded, and he could feel the static sound in the back of his mind, letting him know that they could hear his thoughts.

Cerrin is the only person I’ve talked to about Zidingris.

Who?

The person we met on our first day here. The Dean of Kirdoth.

I can’t imagine a person of his position havin’ loose lips.

But someone else could have been looking for it too, right? Lyla asked.

It’s possible. Someone else who knows about the Hounds, maybe? It’s just that the book was made by an old, powerful mage that isn’t known by many. It was made by Vecna. It’s rarely talked about… I’ve read about him once. He was able to cast incredible spells, and is usually used as a warning for what necromancy could do to a mage. He, and a former ally turned enemy, fought over the Sea of Falling Stars. The meteors that fell into the water there is the reason it was given its name. No one knows what happened to either of them, but his enemy’s spellbook was found, washed up on the shore weeks later.

“You guys are doing that thing again, where you just stare at each other.” Sam broke the silence.

Leaf nodded, turning away from Sam and back to the eladrin.

“You’ve given us a little bit, and it’s appreciated. Unless you want to be like your friends over there, I need more information.” He said as he pointed to the bodies off to the side of the room.

“I swear, that’s all the information I have.”

“What kind of money were you promised for this job?” Mr. Muffins asked.

“Two-thousand platinum.”

“That’s not enough money for what you could have done. You gotta see that someone doesn’t just throw money around like that.”

“I just wanted to help those who weren’t able to. We never meant for anyone to get hurt. It was supposed to be a quick heist, like the others we’ve done before…”

The eladrin let his head fall forward as he started to weep. Small tears fell from his face and fell onto his lap. Leaf took a step back, moving closer to Sam and Mr. Muffins.

“Now what?”

“I need to report this.” Sam answered.

“Before you go around doin’ all that, we need to make sure our story is straight. Last thing we need is a night in jail for defending ourselves.”

“Agr-”

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Leaf turned towards the sound of laughing. It was low, hoarse, and gravelly. The eladrin’s head rose up as his laughing continued, but something was wrong. His smile was wider than it should be, causing the corners to crack slightly and send blood flowing down his face. His left eye had turned completely black, like a starless void. As the attention from everyone was back at him, he stopped laughing.

“You’re in over your heads. You don’t want to play this game, do you?”

The eladrin stood up, the bindings falling to the floor as if magically removed. He took one shaky step forward, then seemed to correct it on his next step. Leaf realized that this wasn’t just the eladrin, he was being controlled by something terrifyingly powerful. To use another’s body while conscious was one thing, but to be able to cast spells through them?

Mr. Muffins held up his weapon and shot out, as Sam went to cast a spell. Myla took a step back, unsheathing two daggers and tossing them out at the eladrin. He waved his hand, dispelling the magic casted at him, but did nothing as the daggers landed in his chest. Though they were at least a few inches into him, he paid no mind to them. His left hand and forearm withered and decayed as Leaf watched him step forward again. Necrotic energy rushed up the eladrin’s body, through his veins. Sam used the distraction to cast again. A small mote of energy exploded forward, silencing all sound around them, stopping any verbal castings from happening. It did not matter though, as the eladrin spoke into their minds.

You don’t even understand the level you’re dealing with. Whether or not you give me the book does not matter. It was just easier now rather than later, down the River Styx. I have other books to retrieve.

As the eladrin took one more step forward, it seemed that the necrotic energy was taking too much of his body, and it caused him to wither and fall, crumpling into a small pile on the ground. Seeing no reason to hold it, Sam released her silencing spell.

“What the fuck?” Mr. Muffins exclaimed.

“Leaf, you’re not allowed to have books anymore. He said there were more… How many?”

“There are five total.”

“Does the whole hand and eye thing mean anything to you?” Mr. Muffins asked, a look of confused bewilderment on his face.

“No, but necrotic energy like this has to come from someone very powerful. Kirdoth is a necrotic dragon, Vecna maybe? I don’t know who else there is.”

As they stood and pondered quietly, Leaf jumped at the sound of a door being broken through. He turned his body to face another threat as a tabaxi wearing similar armor to Sam came through with a sapphire drake at his side.

“What the hell happened here?” The tabaxi shouted out.

Leaf stood in silence, not sure how to address the situation. Before he could think of an answer, the tabaxi looked over and saw Sam standing next to him.

“Sam, we just got the clearance to be here. What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story, Arc. I can explain later.”

“Explain? No, you can write the report for this. Until then, I need to take your friends in for questioning.”

“Wait, we can explain a lot of this.” Mr. Muffins tried to jump in.

Leaf wasn’t sure what to do, but was stopped mid-thought as another voice rang out through the tavern.

“I think it would be safe to say that they are all with me. You don’t have to take them in, Arc.”

Standing in the doorway, looking a bit overdressed for the occasion, was an older gnomish man that Leaf recognized. He recalled meeting the man before in Moonbright, on the Queen’s command. He tried to remember his name, but Mr. Muffins’ thought came through the telepathic bond between the party.

Humboldt!

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