First window: The room is quite sparingly furnished, containing nothing more than a bed, a couple of charrs and a dressing-table with mirror. On the bed, Gwen Rehant sits bolt upright, fully dressed. She stares at one of the empty chairs and seems to be conducting a conversation: '. . . 1 remember when you first came to Vestfold and I introduced you to King Ewan Andahar. Who would have known then that you were to marry' him? . . . Such a sweet innocent young thing, you were . . . What's that? . . . You must stop worrying about Blackmoor, Desideria, I'm sure Calogrenant has evenything under control. . .'
Second window: Brangaine of Maus sits on the floor, carefully packing gold and jewellery' into a small iron-bound trunk. Obviously she is preparing for an urgenl journey ... or escape.
Third window: The room is dimly lit, and you strain to see the stark features of the Lady Igraine, which seem to be staring back at you.
The rogue freezes and then realizes that she is deep in meditation. She sits at a small table, upon which lie a board and counters. With her fingertips she gently moves the tokens across its surface. After a careful observation, the rogue notice that the board is a map of Blackmoor..
At this point the companions hidden in the backyard whistle like an owl: a guard is passing not too far and may spot the rogue soon, so he lowers down in the darkness, happy with what he saw insofar.
While they are returning to the servants' quarters, suddenly they hear the sound of grating metal nearby. Behind the characters is a small metal door which leads into one of the outbuildings of the palace. A key is turning in the lock. The characters find some niche where they can hide by the side of the door. The door is opened and they hear several voices. You One is that of Luthaur, the traitorous adventurer who embarrassed them in front of Brangaine of Maus: 'Put up quite a struggle, eh, lads?' he says' 'Yes, Luthaur, they don't call him Hector the Invincible for nothing - even with enough brew inside him to drop a dragon, he fought like a dozen men.' 'Don't worry, the other ones will be a lot easier.'
The characters decide to follow the voices, hoping to give them an unpleasant surprise.
The passage is very dark, and after a few yards you nearly tumble down a steep flight of stairs. After a tortuous descent the passage widens out and you see the warm glow of torchlight ahead. You make your way past a row of empty cells into a rough-hewn cavern, full of shadowed niches and alcoves. Your attention is drawn to the large metal grille set into the floor. At its centre is a trapdoor of thinner bars. A few feet from them, you make out a pair of hands gripping the grille tightly. Stepping closer, you see that a man is hanging from the grille, while below him a huge shape moves in the darkness, making foul sucking and gurgling noises.
The characters rush to open the trapdoor and save the man.
You cross to the barred trapdoor. It has a lock on it but, when you grasp the bars, you find it has been left unlocked. You lift it easily with both hands and reach through to see whether you can grasp the man's hand. Unfortunately he is too far away, so you call to him to edge closer. From his muscular build, you guess that this is Hector the Invincible, Lady Desideria's champion. He starts to make painful progress towards you, one hand at a time. Then yciu are aware of somebody behind you - just as they kick you violently in the back, sending you headlong into the gurgling darkness. None of the characters thought about watching his back.
You land painiully on the soft floor of the pit. To one side you can make out a single luminous eye regarding you from amid a bulky, shifting mass of mottled grey flesh. Beneath the eye is a gaping black maw, from which come ghastly sucking noises. It is a Quagrant, a horror bred by only the most loalhsome and warped sorcerers.
The characters hold back for a moment, trying to use Mema's blowpipe (hoping that magic will work).
As ihe Quagrant lumbers in your direction, the rogue draws Mema's blow-pipe from his pocket and points the slender lube al the creature, while it begins to suck at you, and yon struggle to keep your footing. As you blow hard down the tube, a cloud of fine powder billows forth and is instantly sucked into the creature's gaping mouth. With a convulsive shudder it collapses backwards, choking and wheezing aslhmaticaUy. The creature is not dead, but in clear difficulty.
The characters attack with their sacred weapons, but still suffer fairly heavy injuries to defeat the horrific Quagrant.
However, on the grille above the characters now stands the spindly jailer, cackling and dangling the keys from his fingers.
_________________ He's a real Nowhere man, sitting in his Nowhere land, making all his Nowhere plans for Nobody.
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