[Fenrir, Raz and Veddic had just rescued Reinward from the evil clutches of the Night King.]
DAY 499(14th Flamerule)(July) cont ...
At the mercenary hiring office, the heroes said goodbye for now to their hirelings (and giving them the password 'Haddock' for next time they met) and headed to the sewers and other tunnels under Westgate - this time in an attempt to throw off any scryes or other magic that may have been following them.
Once home the had a 'de-brief' and had Reinward draw them a map of what he had seen at the court of the Night King. Fenrir was interested to hear about Bwabazwards and thought it might be an idea to go and see the Night Parade (of whom Bwabazwards was a somewhat easy to misplace member).
So off they went, all 'as themselves' except for Reinward who borrowed a Hat of Disguise to the house on Snip Street where the Night Parade of Westgate lurked.
After being attacked by an enormous nightmare rat, killing 'Spike' for the second time and Reinward fleeing in terror due to the various magical effects that were present at the house they eventually were accepted in.
Besebelle, the leader of the Night Parade appeared to be pregnant, and Fenrir was the father!
'What will become of the baby?' he asked.
'We will turn it into a creature of nightmares,' she replied plainly.
On everything else she was fairly cagey and gave nothing away. She admitted that they were not friends with the Night Masks, but on how Bwabazwards came to be their prisoner she gave no answer other than that they currently had an 'understanding'.
While Reinward played with 'Spiderdog' (an eight legged canine horror or some sort), Fenrir got the wrong end of the stick as to how the Night Parade operated. He was trying to get them to join his 'side' when it came to the forthcoming coup, by offering them first dibs on any captured Carlos Company mercenaries they happened to get hold of.
Besebelle had no use for them though! The Night Parade do not feast on people the same way vampires do.
(One story I have heard is that the Night Parade are the descendants of ancient wizards that emigrated to the Plane of Nightmares long ago. It is only recently that they have returned.)
Once he understood this Fenrir got annoyed and started making threats.
'You bore me now,' she said with a wave of the hand.
A heavy sleep effect hit them and Reinward fell to the floor. Fenrir remained standing though and with a change of tack tried to smooth things over.
'What is it you actually want then?' he asked.
Besebelle thought for a moment then said;
'Two things. First, see what you can do to keep the Harpers from their constant hounding of us, and second, let Veyna here have a night alone with your young friend here.'
Veyna was a tall, black skinned lady, with four arms and sharp looking teeth. Fenrir's
"young friend" was of course Reinward.
Reinward was awoken and the question was put to him. He reluctantly agreed and stayed behind when all the others left and went home.
Fenrir, went to work for a few hours beforehand.
DAY 500(15th Flamerule)(july)
The next morning Reinward came to his senses wandering around in Dockward. The streets where still empty. He felt stiff and ill-used. Looking at his wrists he checked and saw that he had one less red ring there than before.
He was down to eight.
He considered getting a tattoo, to replace it as he had done last time, but it was a bit early for that sort of things so he went home instead. He then had a bath and went to bed.
A little later in the morning Fenrir went to a Westgate Council meeting at the Market Tower. Here the great and the good met once in a while to go over the running of the city.
It was headed by the Croamarkh, Dreydal Trant, and there were 16 seats at the table, Fenrir being one of them. Other notable personages included Ibana Trant , his daughter and Minister of the Treasury, Thistle Thavalar (Minister of Supplies), Palla the Light of the Mercenaries' Guild and Kargerth Cormariel who represented House Cormariel.
Kargerth Cormariel confronted Fenrir at the meeting, demanding that he explain his link to the villain known as 'Barry Shit-knees'. Fenrir stuck to the story that he was over in Teziir to the west.
'And do you still work for him?' asked Cormariel.
Fenrir was baffled, but after some more harsh words between the two he gradually remembered the time when he had been captured in Castle Cormariel and questioned by Tagreth Cormariel.
Now, you may remember that back when Fenrir first arrived in Westgate, about six months ago, in the winter time, he and his friends had more or less rescued Bwabazwards from the Fire Knives in Castle Cormariel. Fenrir had been captured though, and while being questioned and sort of tortured (it is quite hard to torture a warlock) he had summoned his 'guardian demon' Bnurgstickslackskin to get him out of his jam.
Just an average week for young Fenrir, but it had left a deep impression on everyone in Castle Cormariel!
What Kargerth was saying was all true of course, Fenrir had used this made up name as something to say, but it was well remembered by those that heard it.
However, Fenrir has a smooth tongue and soon turned everything around to make Kargerth sound like a liar. In the end the nobleman was so incensed with rage at being made a fool of before the rest of the council he challenged
Fenrir to a duel and the warlock cheerfully accepted.
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