[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.]
DAY 551 (5th Eleint)(September)
Around three in the morning a small stone was thrown at Fenrir's bedroom window.
After going invisible, Fenrir twitched back his curtains. He saw a dark, cloaked figure in the street below.
Fenrir flew down behind the figure and said 'Hello,' and called his magical armour.
'Are you trying to get my attention?'
'I wish to talk to you, but first show yourself,' said the other mysterious man.
'You first,' said Fenrir.
'Very well,' said the figure who then pulled back their hood. 'I am Orlak 2, you may know me as the Night King... I'm just here to talk.'
Reinward was in one of the upstairs lavatories and hearing the voices looked out of the window.
The Night King said:
''
I watch you come and go. I have spies everywhere. I see where you go and who you talk to. I have a sense of what you are planning. Who you work for is a mystery but I can live with that. I'm offering you one last chance to walk away. My offer is this. You leave, I get the crown. You get one million in gold.
''
Reinward reacted to the vocalisation of "One million gold" and nearly choked on his own tongue. He banged the window shut, the banged it open again.
They both heard the noise from the house and turned to look. Fenrir shrugged.
The Night King went on:
If not, then I have all the night masks of the city hounding your every step and an army waiting in Blackrune for my word to attack.
Fenrir: A generous offer ... but you strike me as a man of measure, someone who makes plans that are not short term. You make long term plans.
Night King: You could say that.
Fenrir: I would be keen to avoid any trouble. Let me do what I need to do, then I'll leave.
Night King: What is it you need to do?
At this point Fenrir was fairly open about the scheme he was involved in to overthrow the government and replace it with Raz as king and Thistle Thavalar as queen.
Night King: I see. You will leave after that then? But obviously this Usurper king of yours will stay.
Fenrir tried his best to give the vampire a bit of the old flannel. Maybe it worked as the Night King then made another offer.
Night King: Very well. After you are "done", you give me the crown. Raz becomes a vampire and I give you, let's say - half a million.
Fenrir: We keep the crown for now.
Night King: I must insist that I have it. Unless I also make Reinward a vampire.
Fenrir: So... right. Um, if Reinward was a vampire, would he be under your control? Didn't you once drink his blood and it made you sick anyway?
Night King: That was when he carried the Blessing of Ilmater. Since he now has the Crown he has lost the blessing. And you need not worry, he will retain all of the sense that he already has.
Fenrir thought about it for a moment or two. Maybe Reinward wouldn't mind being a vampire, after all it made you more powerful. 'Let me think about it,' he said finally.
'I'll be back tomorrow night to hear your answer,' replied the Night King.
In the morning, Fenrir and Reinward had a big tasty breakfast then went to the Temple of Ilmater.
They talked privately to Sir Loric, as they were interested to know if he had any advice on avoiding the effects of a vampire bite.
He was puzzled, but wanted to help and fetched some holy texts to see if they offered any help.
Eventually he said:
'Well, there is nothing I know of, but in theory it might be possible to get a magic item that allows you to go through the process of vampirisation without becoming fully lost and evil. But I must advise most strongly, Chosen One, to not even consider it. It would be a grave mistake to try something so risky and it would surely be a sin before the eyes of Ilmater.'
They then decided to go talk to Gwendeth. They were being followed and tried various tricks to shake them off and while they thought they had been successful they were still paranoid about it and spent some more time than they maybe needed to on the streets of Westgate getting suspicious of everyone they saw. In the end they decided to go to the Thavalar mansion anyway.
They met Gwendeth and Fenrir asked if the wedding could be brought forward, ideally that very day!
'Thistle would have to consent,' said Gwendeth.
'Who gives a fuck?' asked Reinward.
Gwendeth looked daggers at Reinward then with ice in her voice said, 'well do as you will then, but it is hardly the best start to a marriage.'
Fenrir decided to give her some sense of the urgency required by telling her about his recent chat with the Night King. Remember though, that Gwendeth was an old lady, not a fellow adventurer, which may account for the fact that she had a panic attack and fainted.
After a good deal more faffing about getting the old biddy back on her feet, Thistle was brought in and persuaded to marry Raz as soon as possible.
'Marry me then!' she growled.
Fenrir went out to buy some rings, spending a whopping 10,000 gold on each one.
This left Reinward by himself for a while to bring his particular brand of chaos to the proceedings. He located the mansion's cleric - a man called Pyter Cheyeff, a Cleric of Tyr. He could not be rushed though.
'It cannot be sooner!' he cried. 'Their are pwoceedings! Ointments and unguents that must be pwepawed! Otherwise the mawwiage will be void. It is weally not wealistic to do it a moment sooner!'
'Oh really?' said Reinward. 'See this crown, chief? That means I'm the Chosen One. Get things moving pal.'
'Your crown means nothing to me as a Priest of Tyr!' cried Cheyeff.
'Oh yeah?' said Reinward, suddenly with a dagger in his hand. 'Just a totally random question here, but do you know how you would get Resurrected if you needed to be?'
Reinward waved the dagger in Cheyeff's face.
'You don't frighten me!' he squeaked before running away.
Reinward followed as the cleric ran down a corridor, his vestments flowing.
'Leave me alone, you wuffian!'
Reinward caught hold of the cleric at a bend in the corridor.
'Unhand me you, you wascal!'
There was a tussle and the elderly cleric fell to the cobblestones.
'Guards! Guards!' he cried out.
Some guards arrived promptly and they all then went to see Gwendeth in her chambers.
So when Fenrir returned with the rings there was a big shouting match going on between all the members of the wedding party. Still, even Fenrir's silver tongue could not make the 'ointments and unguents' arrive any sooner and Cheyeff would not be budged.
In the end they summoned Veddic, who flew in on his magic carpet.
'Crossbow wedding is it?' he asked with a smirk. 'The Church of Kossuth can provide an express service you require.'
The whole service only took two hours, in one of the mansion's halls. A brazier was dragged in to allow the 'Combing of the Flames' which was the only vital part of the ceremony, or so Veddic said.
With Raz and Thistle spliced, Fenrir decided now was the time to 'hit the button' on the coup and just do it.
Towards that end his next port of call was to visit Palla the White in her guardhouse.
'It's happening now!' he declared. 'Seize the Merchant Tower. We'll get the married couple there.'
Still rather confused about the whole 'doing a coup' lark he asked Palla for some advice. They talked and decided it would be best to surround the mansions, castles and estates of noble families that would balk at the coup. These people were:
Ibana Trant - 100 mercenaries to be deployed.
Urlyvl Athagdal - 50 men to keep close watch
House Bleth - 500 mercenaries to camp outside their castle
House Cormaeril - as above
Men to be stationed at:
House Ssemm
House Thorsar
House Urdo
House Vhammos
and the Merchant Tower
Palla said, 'So we march now! I will get things going with the army. You do your bit too! Don't leave me hanging.'
'Err, ok sure!' replied Fenrir.
Runners were also sent to:
House Malavhan
House Thavalar
The Lathander Temple
Mintassan the Magnificent
... to inform them that tonight was the night.
At six o'clock they went to the Watch house to start the curfew. The army would enforce it, but arrests would be passed on to the ward sergeants.
Then they went to the Merchant's Tower, which was already surrounded by a company of mercenaries. Palla was there.
'Slight problem,' she told them. 'Ibana Trant has barricaded herself in the top of the tower.'
Near the top there was indeed a barricaded door. A guard was at the door
who shrugged. 'She won't come out.'
They decided to co-ordinate. Fenrir would go back down and fly outside, while Reinward blinked through the door. It all worked except that as soon as she saw Reinward she leapt out of the window!
Fenrir was too far away to catch her, and she plummeted to the ground below and died instantly when she hit the cobbles.
There were screams from the crowd. The mercenaries held them back.
Once they got into the room they could see that there were still two serving girls in there.
'The nightmares caused it, the nightmares!' one of them cried.
Reinward looked at the girls. The one that was not crying seemed to have a knowing look on her face. He pointed her out and Fenrir cast his eyes over her. He Detected Evil about her and when she saw he was looking at her she smiled and winked at him.
'Right, take her away,' he said, but as she was dragged past. 'Hey what are you arresting me for?'
'I'll deal with you later.'
She leaned in and hissed at him, 'hey don't be like that. I'm Night Parade!'
Hearing that he motioned the guards away. 'False alarm, let her go!'
Downstairs it was all a bit of a chaotic mess, but Palla seemed to be dealing with it, so they decided to attend to the important matter of what could possibly be in the Westgate treasury. It was situated in a vault under the tower and with the key taken from Ibana's fresh corpse they were able to gain access.
Inside they found:
- Ledgers, with many debts, to tune of 50 million, mainly to the Iron Bank and nearby Kingdoms
- Ledger with may credit notes / IOUs etc - from noble houses, merchants, ship companies to tune of 5 million
- Chests of gold and treasure to the tune of 50,000 gold
- Various object d'art worth 50,000 gold
- 6 magic items
- lots of worthless junk
- many letters, notes, books, nothing of any worth
Palla had come down to check up on them.
'Don't be tempted to take anything,' she warned. 'This all belongs to the city.'
Reinward had a good look around in the vault and found a secret door. It lead to a narrow corridor with another door at the end. The far door was trapped as Reinward found out when he tried to go through it.
After he had been healed up by Veddic, Fenrir cast Knock and the door opened. Reinward gamely went forward again and poked the door with a stick, but in the end he got Fenrir to float through and find the disarm switch on the other side.
Once it was all safe they all went in to take a look. On a dais in the middle of the chamber was a dagger - a magical weapon famous in Westgate - known as the Shifter's Sorrow. Reinward didn't know what it was called, but it looked valuable. As he reached for it he heard Palla clear her throat behind him.
'Ah well,' he said. 'It can always wait.'
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