[Fenrir and Reinward have been tasked with staging a coup in the city of Westgate to stop the evil vampire lord the Night King from doing the same. Just recently they have been drawing into an investigation into a strange death outside Nabulee’s bazaar. They now have a suspect - Mortimer Yorman.]
DAY 549 (3rd Eleint)(September) cont ...
With his memory back while he was within the protection circle from Reinward's crown, Nabulee wrote a note to himself to go to his vault to find an item that would restore his memory permanently via a Remove Curse spell or such like.
Meanwhile, Fenrir and Reinward had arrived at Mortimer Yorman's house. The old man met them in the atrium. It was as basic as they get. There were not any fancy fountains, sculptures, paintings, or other adornments that the wealthy people of Westgate normally had to impress their guests. Two simple wooden benches sat against opposite walls, and a large stone chimney was in the back of the room.
There was something off about Mortimer, but they couldn't put their finger on it.
'I've been at home all day! he protested. Fenrir detected no magic - most odd considering the old man was meant to be a wizard.
As Fenrir talked to him, Reinward searched the sparse room. As he approached the chimney he heard a muffled 'WoooooOOOOOooooo....'
How odd, thought Reinward as he lit his lantern and then shone it up the chimney. All he could see was what looked like a sort of lingering smoke about half-way up.
Curious, Fenrir came to look with his Devil Sight. He too could see a sort of smoke swirling around up there.
'If there is anything up there, I suggest you come down before I open fire,' he announced in the voice he used when in his role of Commander of the Watch.
When nothing happened he shot an Eldritch Blast up, and then it all kicked off. Five spectres came shooting out and when they attacked, so did Yorman. It didn't taken the heroes long to wipe them out though. The spectres were swept aside by Blasts and the so called wizard Yorman cast no spells, simply attacking with his fists.
After that, Reinward jammed the front door shut and the went to explore the rest of the house. They looked in the dining room, and the other rooms downstairs before moving up to the first floor.
Soon the found (the real!) Mortimer Yorman in his room. He had a Wraith Hound with him and they both attacked, but they were quickly wiped out by more Eldritch Blasts and some precisely thrown daggers.
Then, having hardly broken a sweat they went on to loot the rest of the house, including the Library, the Office and the Attic.
The Attic seems was a storage room and some sort of wizard’s laboratory. Multiple barrels, crates, and old furniture lay in the corner of the room. A well-equipped workshop occupied the rest of the attic.
A mortally wounded human that looked exactly like Nabulee lay on an operating table in the middle of the laboratory. He suddenly opened his eyes and stood up.
It was another one of Yorman's strange golems and it attacked them, but again, was quickly defeated.
With all that done, they returned to Nabulee's Bazaar. He was very happy that the situation had been resolved. Over a few glasses of wine Fenrir told him about the coup he was planning and Nabulee was happy to join it. He told them he would send a message to Mintassan the Magnificent to bring him onboard too.
Before leaving the area Fenrir had the Watch take control of Yorman's house.
Back at his office at the main Watch Barracks he was told of a commotion at the docks. A ship called 'The Silver Angel' had just arrived from Cormyr. It contained fifty paladins and ten clerics of Lathander, all armed to the teeth!
They were here for the coup of course, but no-one had told Tonian Hearth, the harbour master.
'We can't have all these armed men here!' she said to Fenrir when he arrived. 'Not with all the politics between Westgate and Cormyr right now, this could be a huge diplomatic incident!'
'Uhh, it's part of the on-going effort against corruption...' he tried.
As he tried to smooth things over Palla the White and a company of mercenaries arrived.
'What's all this?' she asked.
Fenrir was lucky, he had forgotten to tell anyone about all the foreign forces he had been inviting into the city, but he had reacted in time and was able to use his smooth tongue to sort it all out. It did take hours though and he had to throw around some more bribes.
When he and Reinward got back home in the evening he was told by Jasper that Urlyvl Athagdal was in the drawing room waiting for him.
Athagdal had a lot of questions about the disappearance of Dreydal Trant and even though Fenrir, as we know, possessed a huge amount of charm, his lies were not believed.
The facts were plain - he was the last person to see Trant alive and he was kidnapped by a warlock literally just an hour after that. Fenrir had no alibi, didn't deny he had been there, and could only shrug and say, 'it was some other person that flies around stuffing people into bags!'
Athagdal asked what his intentions were and Fenrir gave his by now well practised talk on "restoring the honour of the city" and "clearing out its corruption". Athagdal put down all these arguments, saying "the democratic process is what does that, not murders and kidnappings, the Gods know we had enough of that in the past."
Fenrir: I only want to improve the lives of everyone and prevent a wave of evil engulfing the city.
Athagdal: We all want that, we just differ on the method. I am far from the only one that thinks you are responsible for the disappearance of Trant.
Fenrir: I can't help that.
Fenrir had been pretending that he had an investigation into Trant's kidnapping in full swing and Athagdal asked for details on it. Fenrir waffled some nonsense about Athagdal also being a suspect.
At that point Athagdal grew angry. 'Preposterous!' he declared.
'You'll hear more on this!' he said as he left the house.
DAY 550 (4th Eleint)(September)
Fenrir was not rattled by Athagdal's threats. He had bigger problems and besides, more than anything else, he was looking for an off-ramp . Despite his charm and skills at lying and disseminating, he did not like politics and just wanted to get the coup done and then hand it all back over to Cavu.
Court life was nice as a distraction, an occasional party or dalliance, no more than that. He lacked the imagination, the cunning and the perseverance to be able to manage all the details required to live in a world of whispers, blackmail and gossip.
Frankly, it bored him. He most enjoyed being in some dungeon somewhere, blowing monsters to bits and stealing their treasure.
'The sooner this is done the better,' he told Reinward at breakfast. 'I just want to get out of Westgate now to be honest. I can't be bothered with all these Dragon Coast nobs getting into my business all the time.'
Reinward didn't really mind what happened as he was certainly as lost as Fenrir when it came to managing the finer points of a coup.
'As long as I get to keep me crown,' he remarked as he shovelled in his eggs and bacon.
Today they did the rounds, seeing Palla the White, the force of Lathander paladins and clerics, Mintassan the Magnificent, Gwendeth Thavalar and Jenner Fields.
Veddic told them:
'Jamella Dotrok informs me thus; We have a squad of 10 clerics of Kossuth, 10 paladins and 10 monks ready to go. Just say when and we'll teleport them in!'
Another guard was lost today. Shot in the street with a poisoned bolt.
Fenrir upped the wages of the others.
In the evening a mysterious letter was left at the door. It gave off a magical aura. Veddic cast Dispel Magic on it, but when the letter was opened it appeared that the message had been erased by the spell.
Reinward then went to give the guards a telling off.
Reinward: Hey! You just bring in any letter that arrives?
Guard: Yeah ...
Reinward: Not any more! Just let them pile up outside!
Guards: Ok ...
Today (they learned later) Raz was attacked near the Thavalar mansion.
A squad of Night Masks shouted at him, saying "The so called King!" and went for him with their daggers. He killed eight of them.
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