DAY 337 (10th Alturiak)(February) cont ...
Invisible and flying, Fenrir flew down into the courtyard of the northern half of Castle Dread. Through a ruined wall he entered a room where he saw a scabby gnome telling a joke to a minotaur. He left them too it then flew to a sort of tunnel that lead to the stone bridge. Here he saw four men armed with crossbows.
He tried one of the doors in the courtyard. It seemed barred from the inside. He tried another and it was the same. The 'roof' of the castle was the collapsed upper stories and here he found a door which he opened with one of his magical 'Knock' stones.
He snuck downstairs and tried to get past some armed men, but as he'd found out at the Grand Manor, although he was invisible and off the ground he still made a small amount of noise as he went past. The men in this part of the castle were rogues and their heightened senses soon had them looking around the place suspiciously.
He left that part of the castle and went to another, where he found and killed a swordsman in a side room. He dragged the body outside, the door he'd come in led out of the castle entirely, and began to loot it. Somehow the minotaur had sensed him though (they have a good sense of smell so that was probably it) and it jumped down off the wall and surprised him.
Fenrir flew away. Once the coast was clear again he returned to his game of knocking on doors and seeing what happened. He was discovered again by the gnome and the minotaur. The gnome cast a Web spell at him in the courtyard but it had no effect. Fenrir blasted them both with his chained Eldritch Blast and then two more guards who had come to see what was going on.
The minotaur and the guards died, the gnome ran for it and hid in a half ruined building to the south. Fenrir hunted him down and killed him along with all the other guards he encountered, except for the last which he let live in return for information about the location of the Magpie.
'It's in the room of Lady Redblade!' he cried.
Fenrir had a fair idea where that was as he'd already seen a woman matching that description in the rooms where the rogues were.
He assaulted the rooms with all of his warlock power, killing all the rogues and the woman known as Lady Redblade. They fought back, but Fenrir was too powerful to be in any great danger. He found a treasure chest in the Lady's room, which contained the Magpie - a clay figurine about a foot tall in height. He also found and released three prisoners in a cell to the south.
He then left the castle and together with Veddic headed back to Spectre Island. The Magpie appeared to be a large clay statue, hollow, with a cork stopper in its base.
It had no magical aura but they were wary of it until Random uncorked it and shook out its contents. There were many pages of legal papers, land deeds, property deeds, letters and such. All for and about property in Cormyr.
Random read it for half an hour or so then said, 'This is about the Skalantur Scandal. Hmm, I suppose Dressdelle was in the Dragon Coast trying to get to these when the attack on House Bleth went wrong. I've a feeling if we give these to her, she'll no longer have any reason to be in Westgate.'
DAY 338 (11th Alturiak)(February)
Fenrir went to work at the Day Air Watch. Veddic stayed on the island and used a magical spell to copy all the 'Magpie Papers', which took a few hours. They were not exact copies, the spell could not recreate seals for example, but they were otherwise exact duplicates.
There was fog over the city today so Fenrir and Dressdelle did no flying. Fenrir returned to Spectre Island in the evening.
DAY 339 (12th Alturiak)(February)
In the morning, at work, Fenrir handed all the original Magpie Papers to Dressdelle.
She was initially surprised, 'Where did you get them?'
'Castle Dread,' replied Fenrir.
'I see,' mused Dressdelle. 'Cormyr had told me to hold on while another team went there,
but it looks like you got their first. Well, I've no more reason to hang around here.
Thanks, and goodbye!'
And with that she took off north, presumably to Cormyr to stir things up again. From what I have heard about the Skalantur Scandal the Papers may have been evidence that cleared many of the War Wizards of Cormyr of wrong-doing in the scandal.
It made no odds to Fenrir though, he'd done what he needed to do and he went to report Dressdelle leaving to Trepplemar. She took the news stoically and as he left she said, 'There's more to you than meets the eye.'
In the evening Fenrir returned to Spectre Island.
Among other things Random said:
'Well, old fruit, as you know I have a general policy of not telling you anything, since you are such a security risk, but I think I'll break that rule a little bit now. They need you to move back into the city. Find a decent building, that's secure and defensible, and set yourself up there. If we are going to get rid of Trepplemar and get you in charge of the magical arm of the watch you need to appear to be rich, a noble, and part of Westgate society.
So, take some of this cash, spend it like a noble. Buy a good horse, employ a bunch of servants, you get the idea. See if you can get a noble girlfriend. Turn on that Fenrir charm.
I've a plan to take out Fayder, after that is done, keep your eyes open for the Night Masks and the Fire Knives, they might well still think it's a good idea to take you out.
Very gently, from your new position of power, see what information you can gather on Trepplemar. See if you can find out something that can be used to lever her out of the watch. Take it slowly though, we don't want to jeopardise the progress that has already been made.'
It was decided that over the next few days Veddic, with the help of Random's contacts and Cavu's money would go about finding a suitable house in the city, while Fenrir continued in the watch.
A suitable place was found on Wizard's Cut, a street close to the noble ward.
Fenrir also arranged to buy a ring of Knock, through Random.
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