Marcus the Bumbling Buffoon

June 12, 2007

I had been carving for several days straight. I had dinner with Reece and Tabra a few days ago, but other than that, I had stayed around my house outside the north side of Arabel for quite a while. I had been meaning to take some of my carvings and toys down to a new contact who was interested in buying. He was down in Suzail and I wanted to wait until I had a good number to take with me before making the trip. I had finally run out of reasons to make the trip and started to get things in order to be gone a few days.

I went into town to load up on a few supplies and decided to ask Reece if he wanted to come with me. He was more than happy to have a reason to get on the road for a little while. It wasn't exactly going to be a big adventure, but it was somewhere other than Arabel.

I got my cart loaded and hitched up my pony. Reece and I got on the road and began a few days that were much more than we were prepared to tackle.

We got to Suzail and got a place at the Dragon's Claw inn. It was a decent place and Reece was looking forward to performing. I was hoping for a little anonymity. No such luck. Apparently, being one of the heroes of Cormyr doesn't allow you any anonymity. People recognized me quickly, and I had to deal with people who were much more happy to see me than I was them.

Reece managed to gain enough attention that I was able to head out and meet my contact to handle the transaction and make some coin. Things went well and I headed back on foot. I figured I would come pick up my cart after the merchant finished unloading it.

On the way back to the Claw however, I got the strangest vision when I saw a couple of humans walking down the street. The two of them were in an alley and started beating a couple of bums. Then the beatings progressed into total slaughter. She was shredding one of them and consuming the flesh. They had changed into a macabre copy of how I saw them now. I don't know what they were, but the image burned into my head frightened me. I couldn't let this happen. So, I, a three and a half foot tall halfling, decided to shadow and find a way to prevent this travesty from occurring.

I managed to follow them quite a distance through town and managed to realize that Reece and some other gangly looking scribe-like man had been following me. We were at the mouth of the alley which I had seen in the vision and there were the two bums, too. So, I did the one thing I could think of, I made a couple of city guard illusions to try to scare them away. They weren't impressed. As the battle became imminent, I summoned Mym and Kall. They are my muscle. They allow a three and a half foot tall halfling to be somewhat intimidating.

After that, everything kinda froze for me. Just as I was about to join in a battle to save these wretched bums, I got hit from behind with a small bottle of something which then pour right down the back of my tunic, sending a chill through my body which brought with it a sense of paralysis. My first thought was, "Oooo, that's cold." Very quickly thereafter I was concerned when the paralysis didn't go away. I heard from behind me something which conveyed a definate, "oops!"

I couldn't believe it! The buffoon with Reece just threw a paralyzing agent at me. I was left helpless for this battle. I slowly slumped to the ground. It's really hard to keep your balance when you have no ability to move your muscles. My eyes still worked and I was able to watch Reece throw some fire at the woman who didn't seem to be hurt too much from it. After the lions traded some blows with them, Reece pulled out a wand and from it came a green ray of light hitting the man solidly...and continuing. Through him, through the building behind him, through the building beyond that, and so on. I wasn't sure how far the disintegration ray went, but Reece apparently had put a lot of power into it.

The woman seemed a bit shocked at this development and teleported out.

Following that was the new individual, named Marcus, gave me the antidote and feeling came back slowly. Shortly thereafter the real city guards arrived and I finally found a use for being a hero of Cormyr. They weren't suspicious of us at all, all though they made it clear that the damage to the buildings would not be overlooked.

They told us that these murders had happened similarly around town and we may have just given them their first real clue to breaking the case.

After all the formalities were finished. All three of us went back to the Claw and sat down to talk about it. I may have been kind of hard on Marcus, but I was angry. He could have gotten me killed. If Reece hadn't pulled out that wand, the bad guys would have had given me a one-way ticket to the abyss. Hell, Marcus would just have to take a little heat for it for a while.

While sitting at the table I had another vision. I have to admit, this one scared the crap out of me.

The woman we fought was tough. I may not have described the whole battle, but believe me, she was tough. And in my vision, she was scared. She was cowering before another woman who was sitting on a throne on a raised dais. They appeared to be in some sort of below ground level temple. A little shabby, and probably to Shar. There was definite power in this woman on the throne. She told the eater-of-bums that she would not bestow her blessing upon her any more, and that her whole life was now dedicated to our deaths.

That spooked me. A lot.

I relayed the information to the other two and Marcus showed an interest in helping us. I managed to see the symbol of Ilmater on him, so I guessed he was alright, but he was still a clumsy oaf. We were going to need to find this hidden temple and stop this before anything happened.